Use it Tuesday #51 - Dies, Punches or Cut-outs

Hi folks!

This week I get to play along as a guest over at Use it Tuesday for another fantastic challenge to help us  all dig into our hoarded stash of crafting supplies. This week's challenge is to use dies, punches or cut-outs on our creations!

If you frequent my blog on a regular basis, you KNOW I love my die cuts and punches. Most of the cards I make use at least one or the other, sometimes both. And, more often than out, I also cut-out my images or use a pre-cut die image as an embellishment (I've been loving the wooden die cut embellishments which have been popular of late).

For this card, I went all out and actually used all three elements of the challenge.

I've used my Spellbinders Petite Circles Dies, the Pennant Trim Die from Verve Stamps, a corner rounder punch for the sentiment panel AND I stamped the little cupcake image on a couple of different pieces of patterned paper before cutting them out and layering them together.

I absolutely adore this paper pad from Studio Calico and have to confess to hoarding it in my stash until I can get back to my LLS and hopefully pick up another one (or two) of these paper pads. I think this may be only the second (or third) card I've made with these papers. Anyone else do that? Buy supplies and then not use them because they are so pretty? Yes, you say? Well, come on then and join in with this week's challenge over at Use it Tuesday! You'll be glad you did!

card details:

• finished size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches, kraft card stock base. CTMH Cocoa card stock for mats
• patterned paper: Studio Calico "Classic Calico"
• stamps: Verve "Big Wish", "With Love" (cupcake is stamped on two pieces of patterned paper, cut out, layered and popped up with foam dimensionals. Parts of the cupcake coloured with Copic markers E79 and E51) 
• dies: Spellbinders Petite Circles, Verve Pennant Trim Die
• corner rounder punch
• butcher's twine which I coloured to match my Cocoa cardstock using my Copic E79 marker. Frugal Sheena tip: buy regular butcher's twine for your kitchen and colour it to coordinate with your projects with your markers!
• layout: Viva La Verve March Week 2

additional challenges for this card:

• One Crazy Stamper March Challenge: Anything Goes
• 365 Cards: Day 63: You take the cake (I just HAD to use this sweet little cupcake)
• Pile It On #10: Oh Yummy! (mmmm....cupcakes......)
• Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #206: To Die For

Thanks for stopping by! 

Use it Tuesday #21 - For the Holidays

Hi folks,

As you can see by my left side banner, I was recently selected as a winner on the "Use it Tuesday" challenge blog and asked if I would like to play along with the today's posted challenge - For the holidays.

Well OF COURSE I wanted to play along! I'm still making Christmas cards and have come to realize that my stash of Christmas themed supplies is, well, growing rather diminishing. I must confess, when I set about to make this card, I found that I still have Christmas papers in my stash that I bought at LEAST four seasons ago - maybe even five!

Anyways, here's the card I made with a gorgeous collection of papers named "Mistletoe" from Close To My Heart. These are a little more recent - from 2010! I know, I know. I remember loving these papers so much that I had to buy the Level 2 paper pack, the matching Creative Basics set AND the workshop on the go kit. So.....ummmm, yeah, I have a LOT of these papers still in my stash.  I think I need to learn that just ONE paper pack goes a long way - never mind THREE!!!

Do you recognize Elf Oliver? Uh, huh. This is another of the images that I coloured up a while back except that I switched up his  hair colour for one of our other nephews. I have one more left to go! See, I'm even using up my stash of pre-coloured images!

Now, if you are like me and your stash is growing rather than shrinking, I would encourage you to play along with the Use it Tuesday Challenges. They are on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month and are a great way to tackle your stash!

card details:

• finished size: 6x6 inches on CTMH Chocolate card stock base
• patterned papers: CTMH Mistletoe (2010),
• stamped image: Elf Oliver from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps (Christmas 2010 release). Coloured with Copic Markers.
• stamped sentiment: Verve "Ornamental Christmas" (my first time cracking open this stamp set. It's new to me - bought it a few months back - but looking at the code on it I think it might have been released in 2008).
• layout: Sketch Saturday #185

additional challenges for this card:

• Heart 2 Heart Challenges: Virtual Holiday Card Exchange
• Paper Sundaes #99: Anything Christmas
• Cute Card Thursday #194: Anything Goes 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are all having a wonderful day!