Sparkly Crystal Bracelet: Sex and the City-Style

Happy Friday, everyone!  And what a gorgeous day it is! 

The project that I have to share today was inspired by the gorgeous ladies of Sex and the City! 

I was just floored by the colors that they are wearing in this issue of Entertainment Weekly.  And I literally started designing this bracelet in my head as soon as I saw this photo of them.  I mean, just look at those colors!  Icy, silvery blues – GORGEOUS! 

And to make it all more timely, this week’s challenge at Friends Having Fun is all about Sex and the City!  And of course, the movie has just opened, too — all sorts of SATC-related excitement happening now.  (And yes, I have heard that the movie reviews are not good, and I do not care at all.  The first SATC movie is one of my fave movies ever.  So, I’m still in.)

So here is my bracelet, inspired by those icy blue and silvery shades.  Here’s a look at the entire bracelet – click to enlarge!

And a closer look at the front of the bracelet – again, click to see this larger.  Lots of Swarovski crystals went into this one – white Swarovski pearls, a crystal in a color called Silver Shade, and also Aquamarine crystals.  The colors reminded me SO much of the dresses that the women wore on the EW cover.

Here is a closer look at the dangle piece of the bracelet that hangs from a little charm loop on the side.  I love the way this swings!  The “love” charm just felt totally appropriate for Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha.  After all, that is what it’s all about!

Oops – almost forgot!  For a laugh, I took the “Which Sex and the City Character Are You” quiz that was linked on Friends Having Fun.  Here’s my result – sounds about right, I think. 

I hope that everyone has a great long weekend!  Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

Love Warms Every Nest – FHF Sketch Challenge

Hello, everyone!  This week I played along with the latest Friends Having Fun sketch challenge.  As always, the lovely Dani came up with a great sketch to work with.

Want to see what I came up with?  This card gave me the chance to finally break out a stamp set I’ve had for a while and had been dying to use – an Elisabeth Bell set from Whiff of Joy.  Elisabeth Bell is AMAZINGLY talented – I just love her artwork so much.   It is so graceful and elegant.

I had to change up the sketch a bit to make it all fit on my card, including adding that heart-shaped sentiment piece.   Coloring this sweet girl’s image was so much fun, as was using the cheerful orange shades.  I used designer paper from K&Co. (my fave line) and Papertrey Ink’s melon berry cardstock (also a fave of mine). 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink White and Melon Berry cardstock; K&Co. designer paper

Stamps:  Elisabeth Bell for Whiff of Joy Stamps; Crafty Secrets (sentiment)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Papertrey Ink Melon Berry

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: Sizzix embossing folder, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label die and heart die; Kaiser pearls, Papertrey Ink Melon Berry ribbon; dimensionals; Prismacolor pencils w/gamsol; Sakura Gelly Roll in Clear Star; corner rounder

Friends Having Fun Color Challenge for May

Hey everyone!  Happy Monday!   Here is the second color challenge of the Kaleidoscope Krew for Friends Having Fun!   Here are the colors that Krew leader Alison has chosen for this month’s challenge.

In addition, this month’s challenge is being sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps!  Be sure to go and check them out!  We appreciate their generosity in providing the Kaleidoscope Krew design team with images to use for our projects.  And speaking of the Krew – follow the links below to go and check out those projects!

Alison ~ Alyssa ~ Alex ~ Julie (you are here!) ~ Laura

And here is my project – I made a journal for today’s challenge and I have included lots of photos!  Here is the front cover, featuring Bugaboo Stamp’s Floral Tag 1 digital stamp, which is available for purchase here.  I colored the Floral Tag stamp with Copics and added in another stamp – the sentiment “Follow Your Bliss” from Cornish Heritage Farms.  The butterfly in the corner is from Prima, and I also added in a vintage die cut from Cuttlebug. 

Here is a close-up of the butterfly —

And a closer view of the Bugaboo stamp and the sentiment —

And the inside front cover —

And here is the back cover of the journal.

Thanks so much for visiting today!  See you again soon.

What I Used:

Paper:  K & Co.; Stampin’ Up! Ruby Red and Barely Banana cardstock; Papertrey Ink white cardstock

Stamps:  Bugaboo Stamps (floral frame); Cornish Heritage Farm (sentiment)

Ink:  Versafine Vintage Sepia

Accessories:  Prima Butterfly; Cuttlebug:  Vintage Corner die, Spellbinders Nestabilities Fancy Label die & Petite Circle die; Copic Markers.  Zutter Bind-it-All supplies:  8×8 chipboard covers, 1 inch vintage silver o-wires, and corner rounder; Copic Markers

Friends Having Fun Sketch Challenge Debut!

Happy Monday to you!  Hope you all had a lovely weekend! 

Today is the debut of the sketch challenge at at Friends Having Fun – whoohoo!  Who doesn’t love a good sketch?  The sketch team, called the Sketch Sorority Sisters, is led by the loveliest crafter you could ever meet, Dani (and I say this on good authority since I was lucky enough to meet Dani in person!).  So are you having fun yet?  Go over and check out the Friends Having Fun site and play along with us.  But no pressure – that is what this site is all about.

Here is this week’s sketch – a very pretty one!

And here’s my card – a very straight-forward interpretation of the sketch.  I loved using this one and will definitely keep this one in my arsenal to use at another time. 

This card is all about the designer paper I used (by Teresa Collins); the strip on the side is one of the edges from the 12×12” sheet.  I just had to find a way to use that beautiful border!  Since the paper was so prominent, I did not do my usual embossing – I actually only embossed the black label with a Cuttlebug folder.  This designer paper just happened to be a perfect match for one of my all-time favorite (and discontinued) Stampin’ Up! colors, Baja Breeze.  And they just announced that they are bringing that color back, which is great news.  I won’t have to feel tense every time I use the color now! 

Be sure to visit Friends Having Fun to see what the Sketch Sorority Sisters have in store for this week.  Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

What I Used:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white and black cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Baja Breeze cardstock, Teresa Collins designer paper

Stamp:  Anna Griffin

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Baja Breeze and Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories:  Cuttlebug:  Diamond embossing folder, Spellbinders Nestabilities labels 9 & petite circle die; Michaels brads; dimensionals

The Very First Friends Having Fun Color Challenge!

Hello everyone!  Today is the day that Friends Having Fun debuts its challenges! 

The very first challenge is today’s Color Challenge brought to you by the Kaleidoscope Krew.  And I’m writing today as a member of the “Krew,” which is the Design Team for the color challenges and is led by the lovely and talented Alison.  

The first Monday of every month, the Kaleidoscope Krew will bring you a Color Challenge.  Your mission is to then create a project using those colors!   As Alison says, anything goes!  You can make a card, scrapbook page, jewelry, altered item…anything you want!  And here is the first set of colors for this week’s challenge – get all the challenge details here and play along with us!

And here is my project for the challenge — another beaded bookmark.   I was totally going for a paper project until Alison encouraged me to stick with the beading for this challenge.  I wish I got photos that really showed the color of this heart-shaped crystal!  It’s very golden – you can see that only a tiny bit in this photo, but much more in person.  Something I’m learning lately – it’s very tricky to photograph crystals!  Light flashes everywhere, which is what you want crystals to do…but getting the right pics is proving to be tough!  So I have just this one pic to post of this bookmark, but I hope it gives you a good look at it.

So, please go and check out the members of the Design Team, the Kaleidoscope Krew, to see what they have in store for today!

Alison ~ Alex ~ Alyssa ~ Julie (you are here!) ~ Laura

Friends Having Fun and Some Little Cards

Have you heard the news about Friends Having Fun yet? It’s a brand-new challenge blog that is just about to debut!  And this one will be a little different – fun is the first priority for this site!  Challenges will be weekly, and will rotated among four teams – see below for the challenge themes and the team leaders:

Alison – Color Challenge (week 1)

Dani – Sketch Challenge (week 2)

Sarabeth – Recipe Challenge (week 3)

Erica – Pop Culture Challenge (week 4)

In addition, each team is looking for 3-4 friends (design team members) who would like to have fun!  All the details can be found here and the deadline for submission is this Friday, March 12th.  Details are still being worked out for the debut of the challenges, which is now tentatively scheduled for late March.  I will be sure to update here! 

Now, feel like seeing some little cards?  There are times when I seriously love making smaller-scale cards like the three pictured below.  They come together quickly and the size forces me to really keep them simple.  

This first one is my fave of the bunch – I absolutely loved using that sentiment stamp (by Verve Stamps) and that designer paper (by Pink Paislee).  Putting them together just made me happy!   I think I need to use that stamp again really soon – as a matter of fact, an idea is coming to me as I type this….hmmm….

The Twilighty card below went to the winners of blog candy prizes from the recent Twilight Tuesday Farewell Blog Hop.  It was a bit bittersweet making this final Twilight-themed project, but I HAD to use that sentiment from Beth’s StampInsanity Stamps set (called Otherworldly Loves).  Although I may very well make more Twilight-themed projects in the future, this definitely felt a bit poignant since I was officially done with my Twilight Tuesday duties when I mailed out the blog candy prizes and these cards.  I hope that the prize winners liked them!

And this last card also resulted from that Twilight-card-making session – exactly the same as the card above with a different sentiment and die cut shapes in the center. 

Thanks so much for visiting – see you again soon!

What I Used:

Anything is Possible Card:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Ruby Red cardstock, Pink Paislee designer paper

Stamps:  Verve Stamps

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Ruby Red

Accessories:  Stampin’ Up! ticket corner punch, Kaiser red pearls, dimensionals

Twilighter and Thank You Cards:

Paper: Papertrey Ink vintage cream and black cardstock, Stampin’ Up! Riding Hood Red cardstock; K & Co. designer paper

Stamps:  StampInsanity Stamps Otherworldly Loves set (“Twilighter”); Verve Stamps (“thank you”)

Ink:  Stampin’ Up! Riding Hood Red

Accessories:  Spellbinders Nestabilities labels dies, dimensionals, K&Co adhesive jewels