It's Monday, but we're not showcasing Merry Monday Christmas cards! We're hosting a Surprise Birthday Hop for our fellow papercrafting friend and Merry Monday Design Team member, LeAnne Pugliese! Happy Birthday, LeAnne! I hope you have the most fabulous birthday ever! If you're following our hop, you've arrived from Katie Melhaus's Sweet n Spiffy blog and I'm glad you're here! LeAnne loves blue and flowers, so I created a simple card using lots of blue and flowers stamped to create a background! I enhanced the centers of a few of the flowers with adhesive rhinestones to add a little sparkle... Continue reading

Our first Color Challenge (PPA206) of June is posted at Pals Paper Arts! I hope you'll join us this week and create a card using this fun color trio! I used Baked Brown Sugar as my neutral to feature Pacific Point and So Saffron. They really stand out against Baked Brown Sugar, especially with the addition of Whisper White. This clean and simple birthday card could be altered for any occasion, by simply swapping out the sentiment. The added strip of designer series paper across the bottom of the card anchors the overall design and provides an extra pop of... Continue reading

I think you'll find this week's Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge very inspiring! Take a look at the great inspiration photo below, then get out your supplies and join us this week! It's never too early to get started on your holiday cards! My card is graphic, clean and simple, and I hope you like it as much as I do! It's easy to make a bold statement with repeated stamping of your sentiment in different colors. It adds instant visual impact to your card and it's a great way to add a balance of color to your overall design!... Continue reading

We have another fun challenge for you at Merry Monday this week! Here's our inspiration photo and the challenge details to get you started! I chose candy as my Christmas inspired food to create a clean and simple card with lots of impact! I used different colors to stamp the peppermint image and snipped each one out with Paper Snips. You could save even more time by using a circle punch to crop them out, but I didn't want any space around each candy. Coordinating candy dots were added to the center of each and dimensionals were used to adhere... Continue reading

Get out your stamps, card stock and patterned paper and join us for the Sketch Challenge (PPA204) at Pals Paper Arts this week! I've designed a simple sketch that gives you a great space for stamped images, as well as the perfect space for showcasing a bit of designer paper! Remember, with a sketch, nothing is set in stone! Work it however you'd like! I can't wait to see what you create! All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted: Stamps: Simply Celebrate, Zoo Babies Paper: Melon Mambo, Whisper White card stock; Polka Dot Parade DSP Ink: Melon Mambo, Pumpkin... Continue reading

You'll see lots of stars this week at Merry Monday! I hope you'll join us for the challenge and get a jump start on making your Christmas cards! You'll feel great when December rolls around and you have a nice stack of handmade cards, ready to send out! Here's the inspiration photo and details for this week's challenge: My clean and simple card came together quickly with a few punches, some twine and colored rhinestones. I used a non-traditional color palette, but anchored it with lots of red to give it a holiday feel. I really like the finished result... Continue reading

We have our first Color Challenge (PPA202) for May at Pals Paper Arts and we're hoping you'll join us and play along! I love this bright, fun color palette! It worked great for a clean and simple graduation card, featuring my favorite star image from the Simply Stars set (sad it's retiring). You could make this card work for almost any occasion by just changing out the sentiment. It would make a cute baby card for a mother expecting a baby boy or a great masculine birthday card! Please let me know what you think by leaving me a comment... Continue reading

It's time for a new challenge at Merry Monday and I hope you'll play along with us this week! Here's our inspiration photo and challenge details to get you started! I have no gingerbread stamps in my stash, but found a cute gingerbread girl on a piece of designer paper in my collection of Christmas papers. The gumdrops and pink peppermint were cut from the same paper as the gingerbread girl and everything was popped up with dimensionals to add more visual interest. I added a touch of sparkle to the gingerbread girl's cheeks and stamped the sentiment in bright... Continue reading

We're celebrating at Pals Paper Arts this week with our 200th challenge! In honor of this momentous occasion, we're offering participants a chance to win each of the featured cards created by the PPA Resident Artists (20 cards in all)! Visit the PPA blog to see the wonderful cards the Resident Artists created and get all the details on the giveaway and how to play along! To commemorate our 200th challenge, each Resident Artist chose a Stampin' Up! color to create a monochromatic card, using the featured sketch I designed for the challenge. I love bright, bold colors, so Crushed... Continue reading

It's time for another challenge at Merry Monday! I hope you'll join us this week and get a jump start on making your Christmas cards! Here's the inspiration photo and details for the challenge: I used slate, kraft and white to create my clean and simple card, featuring a rhinestone embellished stamped tree and a simple, seasonal sentiment. I had a rhinestone flower in my stash that reminded me of a star. I think it makes the perfect tree topper! I hope you like the finished card as much as I do! Please let me know what you think by... Continue reading

I hope you'll join us this week at Merry Monday and get started on your Christmas cards! If you play along with us each week, you'll have a nice stack of cards ready to mail out in December! Here's the inspiration photo and details for this week's challenge: I have no snowman stamps in my stash, so I decided to create one from card stock and patterned paper. I think he turned out so cute! I hope you like him as much as I do! Please let me know what you think and leave a comment below! All supplies are... Continue reading

We have a new Color Challenge (PPA198) at Pals Paper Arts this week! I hope you'll join me and the other Resident Artists from Team 1 and create a card or project for this challenge! We're using the color palette of Summer Starfruit, Pool Party and Old Olive. I created a clean and simple card by stamping circles at random, using the three challenge colors. I wanted to keep the overall look modern and fresh, so I left open space on the sentiment panel and added a rounded corner to complement the circles. It took no time at all to... Continue reading

It's time for a new challenge at Merry Monday! This week, we're asking you to use mistletoe on your card. I hope you'll join us for the challenge and get a jump start on your Christmas cards! Be sure to check out what the rest of the Merry Monday Design Team did with this challenge. You're going to love their beautiful creations! All supplies are Stampin' Up!, unless otherwise noted: Stamps: Peaceful Season Paper: Always Artichoke, Real Red, Whisper White card stock Ink: Watermark (Versamark) Tools: 1/4" Circle Punch, 3/16" Corner Punch, Sizzlits Little Leaves Die, Big Shot, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Paper... Continue reading

We have a color challenge for you this week at Merry Monday! I hope you'll join us and get a jump start on making your Christmas cards! Here's our inspiration photo and details: I hope you like my clean and simple card! Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Be sure to visit the Merry Monday blog and see what the rest of the Merry Monday Design Team did with this challenge! I know you'll be inspired! All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted: Stamps: Peaceful Season, More Merry Messages Paper: Smoky Slate, Real... Continue reading

We have a new Sketch Challenge (PPA196) at Pals Paper Arts this week. I've designed a really simple sketch for you that allows you to show off some great patterned paper! It's also simple enough to be dressed up of down, in whatever way you want. I hope you like my card as much as I have enjoyed making it to share with you! Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you think! I always enjoy hearing from you! All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted: Stamps: Geometrical Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, So... Continue reading

It's Monday and that means it's time for a new challenge at Merry Monday! I'm the host for this week's challenge and I hope you'll join us and get a jump start on making your Christmas cards! Here's the inspiration photo and details for this week's challenge: My card was inspired by the wood floors, different shades of greenery and touches of gold in the inspiration photo. I hope you like the finished results as much as I do! All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted: Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Garden Green, Very Vanilla card stock; Gold Glitter... Continue reading

It's time for a new challenge this week at Merry Monday! I hope you'll get out your supplies and join us for the challenge! Here's the inspiration photo and challenge details to get you started: When I think of country charm, a quilt always comes to mind, so I was inspired to create the look of a red and white quilt on my card. It came together so very easily with the use of a star punch, some card stock and a bit of glue. I wanted to keep the overall look clean and graphic, so I added a single... Continue reading

It's time for a new challenge at Merry Monday! I hope you'll join me and the rest of the Merry Monday design team this week! Here's the inspiration photo and details for this week's challenge: I created a clean and simple card featuring snowflakes punched from silver foil card stock. I love how they look against the Coastal Cabana background! The sentiment was stamped in silver metallic ink, then heat embossed to add a little extra shine. As a finishing touch, adhesive rhinestones were added to the center of each snowflake. I hope you like the final result as much... Continue reading

There's a new Sketch Challenge (PPA192) at Pals Paper Arts this week! I hope you'll consider joining us and play along! When you start out with a sketch, the hardest part is done for you! All you need to do is choose a color scheme, your card stock, papers and embellishments! I used Stampin' Up!'s Geometrical set and Kaleidoscope DSP to create my card! I really love the bold, graphic style of this stamp set and the bright, vivid colors of the papers in the DSP pack. They're both just perfect for making a "just because" card to brighten someone's... Continue reading

It's Monday and that means we have a new challenge for you this week at Merry Monday! I hope you'll play along with us this week. Here's the inspiration photo and details for this week's challenge: I created a clean and simple card featuring holly from the retired Peaceful Season set from Stampin' Up! The holly image was stamped a few times in metallic gold on white card stock and gold adhesive rhinestones were added over the berries. The sentiment was stamped in metallic gold, then heat embossed. A strip of gold glitter paper was added at the bottom of... Continue reading

It's time for a new challenge at Merry Monday! I hope you'll join us this week and play along! Here are the details and an inspiration photo to get you started! My card this week features reindeer, who I'm sure would be Santa's favorite animal! I've had this stamp for quite some time and never inked it up before, so it was time to put it to use. I love the silhouette image of the sleigh and reindeer and it seemed most appropriate to stamp it in red. For the background, I used a patterned print in red, aqua and... Continue reading

We have a new Color Challenge (PPA190) for you this week at Pals Paper Arts, hosted by the PPA Resident Artists of Team 1! Here's the beautiful color palette we're working with! My clean and simple card features a stamped and punched flower from the Flower Shop set. I love the rhinestone embellished flower against the textured woodgrain background! The pinks are such a great contrast against the gray! A flower needs some greenery, so I added some altered die-cut leaves. To finish things off, a double banner was made from card stock and designer paper to feature the stamped... Continue reading

All the stockings are hung this week at Merry Monday! Get a jump on your Christmas cards and join us for this fun challenge! Here's our inspiration photo to get you started! For my card, I wanted to create the illusion of a mantle on which to hang my stockings. I cut a border strip of colorful Christmas lights from a piece of designer paper and adhered it to a strip of scored card stock. I attached red and white Baker's twine underneath that and adhered the stockings and Santa's hat with dimensionals. The stockings and hat were cut from... Continue reading

I'm sharing a card with you today that I created for a swap I participated in, as one of Mary Fish's Stampin' Pretty Pals. Mary hosted an informal get together for her group in Houston earlier this month before Leadership officially began. I didn't attend Leadership, but since I live only 40 minutes from Houston, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to drive in and see some of the Pals that gathered! I'm a native Texan and many of the Pals attending the dinner and swap were from many different states, so I thought this fun card would be perfect... Continue reading

It's time for another Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge! Here are the details and the inspiration photo for this week's challenge to help you get started: I'm still stuck on stars and decided to use the Simply Stars stamp set to create the ornaments for my card. I stamped and embossed them, snipped them out, added some sparkly Baker's twine, then popped them up on dimensionals. A wide band of gold glimmer paper and an embossed sentiment add visual balance to the overall layout. Super simple yet very elegant! I hope you like the final results as much as I... Continue reading