Polka Dot Parade

Hi there, crafting friends...

I was looking at my pack of Polka Dot Parade DSP and came up with this color combo of Real Red, Summer Starfruit, Wisteria Wonder and Island Indigo. Just plucked them out of the blue. No real rhyme or reason, really :)

I started with a Summer Starfruit card base, layered the 2 pieces of Real Red polka dot papers- one of them notched at both ends to make it look like banner, then placed the Wisteria Wonder doily and the sentiment piece.

I then tied the matching Summer Starfruit satin bow and looked around my desk and found a scrap of Pool Party Baker's Twine, which I stapled to the bottom corner just for fun.

This card is going to Paraguay... my dear friend Lia who lives there has a birthday coming up.

Miss you dear and hope you like it :)

Hugs,

Liza

Pumpkin Pie Thank You

Good morning, crafting friends...

I am taking the opportunity to combine 2 inspirations in one go (don't think I have done that before) so here goes:

the latest sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping:

and the latest color combo from Color Throwdown, love the cheerful feel of Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Lucky Limeade. 

Here is my take:

I am using the air ballon image from the Moving Forward stamp set, stamped in Pumpkin Pie ink. Then I cut up the strips of papers and adhered them crooked. I kinda like the lopsided look of it.

I felt it was a little empty after the Whisper Whiter Baker's Twine bow and the Lucky Limeade Designer Printed Brads were added to it. So my 8 year old son suggested I added some clouds (from the Up, Up and Away stamp set) and the little birdie that comes with the Moving Forward set :) and then we called it good and we went to bed :)

Thank you for taking a peek at what we came up with :)

Happy stamping,

Liza

You're Amazing

Hello there, crafting friends...

You're Amazing is one of the first stamp sets I got after I moved to India. The elephant image is a must-have for here, right? :)

This one is for my friend Karolina who is having a birthday in October and just recently moved back to the US.

On to the card now, I started with a Primrose Petals card base. I then, stamped the elephant image with Island Indigo ink, punched out with the 2 1/2" circle punch, backed with the scallop circle doily from the Perfect Pennant die (in Gumball Green card stock) and finished off with the In Color Dahlias in Summer Starfruit.

The sentiment is from Perfectly Penned stamp set and accented with a row of pearls. I spritzed Summer Starfruit marker on the card and tied a Baker's Twine bow to finish off.

Happy Birthday, Karolina - miss you. Thank you to you all for stopping by today.

Hugs,

Liza

Fun Flowers

 Happy Saturday, crafting friends...

This is the first time I am participating in Freshly Made Sketches and here is this week's sketch as my starting point .

Here is my take:

My color combo is Bashful Blue, Melon Mambo and Real Red. The Real Red flower is cut from felt using the Fun Flowers Bigz L die.

I have wanted to make use of vellum paper to be layers for a flower focal point so that's what I decided to do for this one. So, next comes 3 layers of vellum flowers. I really like the effect it makes, like it is fluttering in the wind.

The strip of scalloped trim border is from a piece of Melon Mambo card stock. And then a bow and sentiment finished it off.

I hope you enjoy your weekend. Thank you for peeking in today.

Hugs,

Liza

Sharin's Prayer Booklet

Hello there, crafting friends...

How are you doing this week? I hope your week is going well so far.

Today, I want to share a little treasure that my fellow crafter and friend Sha-rin made for me (and stayed up late for!!) just before I left Jakarta. I wrapped this in tissue paper, stuck it in our air shipment, and happy to report that it safely made it to our new home.

The inside pages have Bible verses and prayers for me as a mom to pray for my children.

Her color combo is Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip and a dose of peppermint green and sunshine yellow. Yummy!!

And here's the back page. It says: Limited Edition, 1 of 1 (*wink...)

Thank you so much, Sha-rin. Love you and miss you, too. And thank you to you all for stopping by and letting me share.

Hugs,

Liza

Thinking of you

Hello there, crafting friends...

Here is a quick Thinking of You card that I made because I want to have some "thinking of yous" in my stash :)

The image is from Moving Forward stamp set, stamped in Pacific Point ink - love that boat image which can be easily colored in, this one with the Daffodil Delight marker.

The background paper is from Polka Dot DSP and I added a "wave" cut up with the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL, a bow of Daffodil Delight 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon and a button tied with Baker's Twine.

Thanks for peeking.

Hope you week goes well.

Hugs,

Liza

Blossom Happy Birthday

Hi there, crafting friends...

I have seen creations lately using just the negative image of a punched out piece of card stock- so I just had to give it a try.

I set out one day with the Summer Smooches DSP and used that as my color combo of the day. Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade and Rich Razzleberry.

I punched out the Crumb Cake card stock with the Blossom punch, ran it through the Big Shot to emboss it with Perfect Polka Dot Embossing Folders and then mounted it up with Stampin' Dimensionals on the colorful paper panel behind it.

The center of the flower is actually a paper button from the Buttons #5 Sizzlits which I had recently got. How cute is that now I can make buttons with any colors I want!

Then I made a little tag for the sentiment with Rich Razzleberry ink and when the tag felt a little empty, I stamped off that little flower (from the Create a Cupcake stamp set) to fill it up.

That's it!

Happy stamping to you,

Liza

Admit One

Hi there, crafting friends...

I have been wanting to use this yellow ticket stubs that my friend Sharin gave to me before I left Jakarta, so I put them out in plain sight - waiting for a chance to put this to action.

The chance came when a neighbor came to visit :) A little bit of Woodgrain Embossing Folder, a scrap piece of the colorful leaves from the Orchard Harvest DSP, Sharin's ticket stub (woo hoo!! Thanks, Sharin!) and a sentiment.

The Pool Party Baker's Twine just had to be there to finish it off.

Thank you so much for peeking. Hope your week is going well.

Hugs,

Liza

Perfectly Preserved Thanks

Hello there, crafting friends...

I am an admirer of the talented Mary Fish and follow her blog and really love her style, but this is the first time I have actually tried to create a card with the sketch at the Pals Paper Arts. If you have never been there, go ahead and check it out. Inspirations abound :)

So this sketch is from PPA143 and I have simply layered 2 different patterns from the Orchard Harvest DSP.

My card base is Raspberry Ripple and I added a bow of the same color.

The flowers and stem are from a stamp set called Perfectly Preserved in the current Holiday Catalog, punched out with the 2 3/8" scallop circle punch and finished off with a large pearl and rhinestones.

Thank you for peeking and happy creating to you,

Liza

Orchard Harvest DSP (again)

Hi there, crafting friends...

I hope you have a relaxing weekend. Ours is a long weekend with the kids off from school, I guess this marks half way of the semester here. The weather has cooled down somewhat, not the relenting heat and humidity as when we first arrived so that's nice.

I wanted to find a couple more ways to showcase the Orchard Harvest DSP and I really like the idea of having a few of the patterns lined up next to each other, cut up as banners. Each banner width is 1.5" and I varied the length. So that was my jumping point, then I just finished the card with a colorful leaves background, a length of geometric paper, tied up with Pool Party Baker's Twine, more buttons from the Naturals Designer Buttons pack and simple sentiment.

My card base for this one is Cajun Craze. Very fall appropriate.

My next card is an Island Indigo card base paired with another colorful striped pattern from the same DSP pack. Love this happy stripey pattern :) Then I just slapped on the stamped tag.

I had stamped that shipping tag with the canning jar from the Perfectly Preserved stamp set from the Holiday Mini catalog. Oo... it came out so cute, it made me so happy! I need to create some more with the set!!

I must have caught the Summer Starfruit bug, because I just *had* to finish the card with the Summer Starfruit bow :)

Enjoy... and thanks for peeking.

Liza

Orchard Harvest DSP

Hi there, crafting friends... Happy Friday!!

I have been looking for a way to showcase the Orchard Harvest DSP (in the current Holiday Mini catalog) when I saw this sketch posted this morning. Yay! Thank you, Natasha, this was a great jumping point for today's card.

This is my first time playing along in FTL since arriving in India with the craft room still *not* organized.. (sigh... I will get there. The upstairs part of the house does not come together as fast as I want it to, not sure how long it will take me at the rate I am going).

But, on to my card: the card base is Sahara Sand. The ribbon is the new In Color Summer Starfruit satin ribbon. The sentiment is from a stamp set called You Are Amazing (in the annual Catalog), cut up with the Apothecary Accents Framelits and popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

The buttons are from Naturals Designer Buttons, tied with Linen Thread and popped up with Dimensionals (cut to shape).

Enjoy! I am off to play with the kids, they are off from school today.

Happy stamping,

Liza

Gently Falling

Hello there, crafting friends...

Though the weather is gentler and the breeze can be felt, it is not fall weather yet here :) But I did pull out the Gently Falling stamp set, which is a 2 step stamping set.

I basically stamped all the outer images with Chocolate Chip ink first, then filled in the inside images with the color combo of More Mustard, Soft Sky and Crumb Cake. Mmm... sounds delicious :)

Next, I finished off with the sentiment (from the stamp set Trust God, which is a new sentiment set in the Annual Catalog), Soft Sky Baker's Twine, rounded the corners and spritzed some More Mustard marker with my Color Spritzer Tool and call it done.

I sat down to make a batch of these for a new dear friend of mine :) What a joy to be able to do this.

Happy stamping to you, too...

Liza

Adorning Accents Edgelits

Hi there, crafting friends...

I realized that I have not shared these cards with you, so here they are...

I made a home made patterned paper with this wheat and flower stamp set and for some reason, I reach out to Daffodil Delight a lot lately. I am just liking that it goes with either subdued colors or bold colors and it feels bright and happy.

I cut out the edge with the Adorning Accents Edgelits and sponged the edges with Soft Suede ink, then finished off with a simple Rich Razzleberry bow.

Here is a pretty and girlie combo of Calypso Coral and Lucky Limeade, a bow and a button :)

I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Liza

Hip-hip-hooray

Hi there, crafting friends...

This was a card that I made for my nephew Nathan's 7th birthday back in May.

I had accumulated quite a stash of these DSP Stack scraps in a basket on my desk, so I started working on making various sized banners with these. Hannah helped me decide which colors should go on Nathan's card :)

To finish off, I punched out these mini banners with the Petite Pennants Builder punch, Whisper White Baker's twine bows and his initial. Lastly, I rounded the bottom corners with the 3/16" corner rounder punch.

Thank you for stopping by today...

Liza

Delicate Doilies Thank You

Happy Saturday, crafting friends...

I am going to my first bridal shower here today :) This is what I made for the bride-to-be, a stack of thank you cards in the wedding colors - Island Indigo and Rich Razzleberry. I added Bashful Blue and Wisteria Wonder to the color mix.

I started with a Naturals Ivory card stock, pulled out the Delicate Doilies stamp set and started working on the batch.

To finish off, I added the Bashful Blue bow, the sentiment and Basic Pearls, and a spray of Bashful Blue marker with the Stampin' Spritz tool :)

Off I go for today...

Happy creating to you,

Liza

Ribbon Alert

Hello there, crafting friends...

Just want to mention this September specials :) just in case you have not heard of it. Yippee for new In Color ribbons!

Happy creating,

Liza

Delicate Doilies Trio

Happy Monday, crafting friends...

I hope your weekend was restful, as was ours. We pretty much just rested and recovered from the previous week's business (phew..) Enjoying some family time at home and of course, making some headway in the craft room :)

I created a trio of cards- all using the same theme. The stamp set is the largest image from Delicate Doilies, stamped with Soft Suede ink on a piece of shipping tag (picked up at an office supply store). On all 3 tags, I added a piece of Daffodil Delight polka dot DSP from the Polka Dot Parade DSP.

Then I chose my card base, Calypso Coral (which is one of the In Colors 2011-2013 collection), added a background of patterned paper from the Storytime DSP and added bits and pieces to finish off the cards.

 

I stuck a tiny paper daisy and a rhinestone in the middle of each doily stamped image.

I apologize for the photo quality- this was taken with my cell phone - until I figured out how to set up a photo stage and the DSLR! :)

I wish you a blessed week ahead!

Liza

Moving Forward (2)

Good morning, crafting friends...

I have another super simple sample of a different sample of another stamp in the Moving Forward set, which I thought is nice for a boy and a girl. This particular one will be my for my son's classmate's birthday party this weekend! So yay! I got that one already prepared :)

The background patterned paper is a new DSP in the annual catalog called Storytime. Since I have 2 kids in elementary school, this is perfect!

The ribbon is a new one in the Holiday Catalog called 7/8" Cotton Ribbon, which you can alter and personalize by stamping on it! Cool! I did just that by stamping the swirl on the ribbon, to also convey movement of the hot air balloon.

Lastly, of course, a large pearl is a nice touch.

Aha.. I have another photo to share. I have not explored much of this new home of mine, but last week I went out with a group of ladies and had lunch in this vegetarian restaurant. This is a picture of my first Indian thali. A thali is a tray with a sampler of the different things in it and the dome in the middle is called a dosa, a type of crunchy bread (reminds me of a krupuk in Indonesia). And the drink of choice in a hot afternoon is lime soda juice. It is supposed to be hidrating.

Okay... signing off now and happy stamping to you,

Liza

Moving Forward

Good morning, crafting friends... (India time) haha... maybe night time where you are :)

Coffee in hand, I have a card to share- that I made while visiting my stamping mentor Lorraine's stamping room in Washington, DC. We had a fun evening meeting her and her stamping friends. I called Lorraine my stamping mentor because she had graciously and generously showed me different techniques, shared her precious stash and hunted the different markets in Beijing (where I first met her, because our families both lived there at one time).

The blue polka dot is Lorraine's patterned paper stash that I had used. Thank you, Lorraine!

The stamp set is a new one in the 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! catalog (go to the very last page, back cover) called Moving Forward. It is the Ronald McDonald's stamp set, meaning that every set that is purchased, $3 will go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. I usually buy the Ronald McDonald's stamp set every year, as soon as it is being introduced. I just thought, why not, right?

I had added two blings on the bike tires (Rhinestones Basic Jewels. I travel with these when we were in transition between homes! Ha...)

I wish you a nice day today.

Happy stamping,

Liza

Goodbye... and Hello...

Hi there, crafting friends... 

Four months have gone by!! The weeks are just flying by. In May 2012, our family packed the house (apartment, actually) to move to our next home in New Delhi, India. 

We departed Jakarta in June 2012 :( I will miss you all- my crafting friends and miss Indonesia, and the food and all the lovely people that I have met in our 3 years there. Those 3 years went by in a blink. That was a picture of my favorite room in the Jakarta home, all packed away!

After a summer vacation in the US, visiting family, friends and Disneyland- we arrived in India at the end of July.

A couple weeks later, our shipment from Jakarta was delivered to our new house and here is the truck :) I had to take a photo of that colorful truck, no?

We are still settling down, very slowly. Still organizing the house and unpacking boxes and hopefully not too long in the future, I will get my current craft room organized. I picked up a couple of pretty stuffs while in the US so I am looking forward to putting them to good use :)

I have not been crafting in weeks except for the here and there and a couple of occasions visiting friends' homes.

But here is a photo of a small gift for my new neighbor here:

Please know that I miss you all and I look forward to getting back to some creating.

Hugs,

Liza

Pretty macaroons

Hi there, crafting friends...

Happy Friday and an appropriate time to share about these pretty macaroons :) No, I did not make these myself. My friend Sesil brought these one afternoon when she came over for a stamping play date!! I quickly snapped these away before we ate them! These are from a shop in Plaza Indonesia. How fancy, isn't it? They taste wonderful, too.

And while I was at it, I snapped a photo of this book made from On Board Journal (now on the retiring accesories list- so if you want to stock up on these, you can until stock is depleted or May 31). For those of you who follow this blog have seen that I have made several of these in different versions that I have posted on different occasions.

This particular one is made using a stack of the flowers from Blossom Builders that were from the Spring Mini and added our initial on it. It was meant to be a guest book that friends can jot down their thoughts. I also made another one as a gift to my friend, Suzanne with their last name stamped on it :)

Enjoy your weekend!!

Liza

Mother's Day mini accordion album

Hello there, crafting friends...

How has your week been? I hope you have some stamping time :) - I have not :( - but I did get a lovely card from my neighbor and friend, Ana - it came with a plate of home made cup cakes one evening. Thank you so much, Ana. Ana blogs about her expat life here (www.stumbleabroad.wordpress.com) Her stories of Jakarta and recommendations of places in Indonesia are excellent and she has that "eye" on this country that I would not normally "see" :) So, enjoy!!

Last Saturday, I was given the opportunity to lead a craft session during a women's conference. This was something that I had never done before, so naturally I was nervous. But really, in the end, I was grateful and blessed to have the opportunity and to see the smiles and the happy faces when people put ink to paper!

We made this mini accordion album that the ladies could finish in an hour and made a pretty little gift.

That was the front of the album closed and tied with a bow.

This is how it opens. It can stand on a shelf or mantel. The blank page is for a photo, so it will make a nice display.

A mini envelope and a note tucked in. Really love this idea.

The stamp set and the paper is from the Summer Smooches line that will be available on June 1 with the new annual catalog (which I can't wait to see!)

Thank you for peeking, crafting friends...

Happy stamping to you,

Liza

Berry Blossoms DSP

Hi there, crafting friends...

I am just playing around with the Berry Blossoms DSP and these are what I made. Aren't these cute happy papers? If you like it, it is currently on the retiring list of the annual catalog. Perfect for spring and summer projects.

I used the Scallop Envelope die cut as the focal point and tucked in a fun note inside it, like this...

Of course, you can customize the sentiment into whatever occasion you need it for :)

Here is another Mother's Day card. My sentiment is from a stamp set called Family Reunion.

Have a good week to you,

Liza

Bright Blossoms Mother's Day

Happy Saturday, crafting friends...

I am sharing a couple of Mother's Day cards that I had made with the Bright Blossoms stamp set. Simple, fun and colorful.

The patterned paper is the matching DSP Summer Smooches, which will be available on June 1 with the new annual catalog.

Thanks for peeking and enjoy your weekend. It is busy in our household today!

Hugs,

Liza