Cyber Monday Sale!!

Hi everyone! Getting back into the normal work and life routine after a nice long holiday weekend is never fun, but I've got something to make your Monday a little better!

Hope Stamps Eternal is having a Cyber Monday sale - EVERYTHING in the store is 30% off!! Now is the perfect time to stock up on supplies for your holiday cards - check out all the Christmas items from Cuttlebug, Basic Grey, Inkadinkado and more! This is also a great chance to cross some craft-loving family and friends off your gift list - there's sure to be lots of goodies for any stamper or scrapbooker in your life!

Don't miss out on this one day sale - shop now!

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #35

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can't believe it, but the season for leaves and pumpkins and all things fall is over and now it's time to think winter and Christmas! I LOVE this week's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal. There are SO many products in the HSE store that work for this challenge, so my creative juices were immediately flowing.

As soon as I saw the little snowman perched atop those gorgeous cupcakes, I knew I wanted to use one of the adorable stamps from the Keep Cozy set by The Greeting Farm. I love this little guy and think he's a perfect match for the one in the photo. I colored him with Copics, using the hat and scarf for my color inspiration, and then accented his hat, scarf, and mittens with Stardust Stickles. My frosty image was punched out with a Marvy scallop punch and then matted on a larger scalloped oval. I added a white pearl sticker from Memory Box to each of the scallops, using a Sakura Quickie Glue Pen, to mimic the pearl ornaments and embellishments in the photo.

The patterned paper is a gorgeous sheet from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly collection. The color scheme and swirling snowflakes are absolutely perfect for this week's challenge! The sentiment, one of four included in the Keep Cozy set, was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, as was my image. That ink is still by far my favorite ink to use when coloring with Copics!

Across the top of the paper I used some ribbon from the Art Blanche Arctic Ribbon Pack. Again, the color is just perfect for this project and adds some nice detail to the card. Both the large snowflake embellishment at the top and the small one by the sentiment are from the Jolee's by You Snowflake collection - the big one is pre-glittered and both come with the gemstones already adhered to the center. Such pretty, yet simple, embellishments!

To adhere the snowman panel, I used the 1mm adhesive dots by Zva Creative and then, because I wanted it to pop up a little higher, I used a 2mm adhesive dot for the large snowflake. I love the different depths and sizes offered in those packs! I used the Sakura Quickie Glue Pen again to adhere the smaller snowflake at the bottom.

I'm so excited to have my first holiday card done for this year! In years past, I've been so efficient with my Christmas cards, and sometimes have even had them done by Thanksgiving, but clearly things have changed. I have a feeling I'll still be finishing my cards right up until Christmas Eve!

I hope you'll participate in this week's challenge and get yourself in the holiday spirit. If you play along, make sure you add a direct link to your creation to Rachel's post by 9pm MST next Saturday in order to be considered for the Top 5 collage next Sunday.

Now it's time to go and visit the other Sweeties for loads of inspiration!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Teresa

Supplies
Stamps: Keep Cozy set by The Greeting Farm
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly collection, PTI white and Aqua Mist
Other: Memory Box white pearl stickers, Stardust Stickles, Sakura Quickie Glue Pen, Art Blanche Arctic Ribbon Pack, Jolee's by You Snowflake collection, 1mm adhesive dots by Zva Creative, 2mm adhesive dot

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #34

Hello and welcome to Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #34 from Hope Stamps Eternal!

For my card today I chose to sort of pull from the colors in the inspiration photo. I swear my colors in real life are a little closer - I could not get a good photo today for the life of me!

I wanted to use one of the Blooms-a-Bella flowers from Bella Blvd. They're such a great focal point and make for a quick and easy card- gotta love that! It's tricky to tell because of the lighting, but both the green paper and the red paper it's matted on are from the Imaginisce Polar Expressions Collection. I love when paper packs like that have patterns that are specifically for Christmas, but also include reverse sides that are more neutral patterns. It really extends your stamping buck when you have that kind of flexibility.

The designer papers are matted on a brown 4.25" square base (yes, it's brown, not purple!) The sentiment is from Sentiments by The Greeting Farm, and the finishing touch on the card is the lines of Memory Box white pearl stickers.
If you would like to play along, make sure you add a direct link to your creation to Rachel's post by 9pm MST next Saturday in order to be considered for the Top 5 collage next Sunday.

Now it's time to go and visit the other Sweeties for loads of inspiration!

Bonnie (out this week)
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Teresa

Supplies
Stamps: Sentiments by The Greeting Farm
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate
Paper: Imaginisce Polar Expressions Collection, PTI Dark Chocolate
Other: Blooms-a-Bella flowers from Bella Blvd, Memory Box white pearl stickers

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #33

Happy Sunday! Can you believe that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away?? Where has this year gone?? I think this week's cupcake inspiration photo is perfect for this time of year - it just screams fall and yumminess!

For my card, I used a sheet of Waffles paper from the Basic Grey Nook and Pantry collection. Check out that line of paper - talk about yumminess!! I then stacked three of the flowers from the Imaginisce First Class paper flowers collection. I just love the mix of shapes and sizes and colors included in that package! The embellishment was held together with Diamond Glaze and finished off with a Zva Creative clear crystal dot in the center. Emerging from under the flower embellishment is a Zva Creative crystal flourish. Once I adhered it, I realized the bling gets a little lost in the pattern of the paper, but if the light catches it right, it looks fabulous in person! The sentiment is from the Bella Blvd Plastino stamp collection.

If you would like to play along, make sure you add a direct link to your creation to Rachel's post by 9pm MST next Saturday in order to be considered for the Top 5 collage next Sunday.

Before I send you off to check out the rest of the Sweeties, I wanted to mention a few things. First, if you haven't yet, hurry up and enter to win Rachel's blog sweets - you have until 10pm MST tonight! Second, be sure to check out all the NEW stuff in the Hope Stamps Eternal store! TONS of amazing goodies from The Greeting Farm, Basic Grey, Cuttlebug, Inkadinkado and more!! And finally, if you love Martha Stewart (who doesn't??) go and scoop up some fabulous punches - all Martha Stewart items are 40% off!!

Ok, now go and visit the Sweeties!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen (out this week)
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Teresa

Supplies
Stamps: Bella Blvd Plastino stamp collection
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate
Paper: Waffles paper from the Basic Grey Nook and Pantry collection, PTI Pure Poppy
Other: Imaginisce First Class paper flowers, Diamond Glaze, Zva Creative clear crystal dot, Zva Creative crystal flourish

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #31

Welcome to the 31st Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal!

These cupcakes are so pretty and spring-like, right? Well leave it to me to make a winter card out of it! The inspiration I took from this week's photo are the colors - the red, pale aqua, yellow, and green. I thought the Jolly by Golly paper from Cosmo Cricket pulled variations of those colors in really nicely, so that's what I used on my card today.

When trying to decide what stamp to use, I noticed the striped scarf on one of the Anyas in the Rain, Snow, Shine set from The Greeting Farm and thought it would be fun to use my Copics to color her scarf to match the paper. I like it! Sort of a faux paper piecing in a way. Anya's trim (earmuff band, buttons, etc.) are touched up with a clear Sakura Stardust pen for some nice sparkle, and to add some extra bling, I added a clear Zva Creative crystal dot to the center of my snowflake embellishment (created with two sizes of snowflake punches).

For the final touch, the edge of the cake plate in the photo made me think of dew drops, so I added a bunch of those to the border of my card using a Sakura Quickie glue pen.

If you'd like to play along, add a direct link to your project to the Mr. Linky widget on Rachel's post. The top 5 entries linked up by 9pm MST next Saturday night will be featured in next Sunday's collage.

Ok, now it's just about time to go and visit the other Sweeties, but I first wanted to mention that this is Tammy's last week with the HSE design team. She has been a great addition to our team and will be missed! But every cloud has a silver lining, so I'd like to give a big welcome to Teresa Kline, who will be taking Tammy's place as a Sweetie for the next couple of months. Check her out!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Tammy

Supplies
Stamps: Rain, Snow, Shine set from The Greeting Farm
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
Paper: Jolly by Golly from Cosmo Cricket, PTI Aqua Mist, white, and Pure Poppy
Other: clear Sakura Stardust pen, clear Zva Creative crystal dot, dew drops, Sakura Quickie glue pen

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #30

Happy Sunday and welcome to the latest Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal! I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

My card this week is modeled fairly loosely after the cupcake photo - I mainly drew from the bright colors for my inspiration. I just love the colors in the Bella Blvd Plastino collection, so I wanted to really spotlight a few of those papers. The striped paper, the paper I used to punch the scalloped circle, and the main image are all from Plastino papers. I needed no stamping for that main image - cool, huh? I just used a Marvy mega circle punch and it was the perfect fit for one of the flower clusters on the patterned paper. I added some Stardust Stickles to the center of the flowers for a touch of bling on my super easy focal point! The entire main image is raised up with foam adhesive dots. Oh, and the ribbon wrapped around the large panel is May Arts sheer polka dot ribbon. You can never go wrong with polka dots, right?

I'm a little bummed about the background. When I made the card a few nights ago, I stamped the 'happy day' sentiment from The Greeting Farm set Sentiments repeatedly across the card base to create a fun little background. However, when I finally had a little bit of natural light to take a photo a few days later, the sentiments had faded so they were barely visible. I stamped the sentiment again just before I took the photo, but now it looks a little jumbled with the faint trace of the stamping I had previously done behind it. :-(

If you'd like to play along, add a direct link to your project to the Mr. Linky widget on Rachel's post. The top 5 entries linked up by 9pm MST next Saturday night will be featured in next Sunday's collage.

Ok, now it's time to go and visit the other Sweeties!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Tammy

Supplies
Stamps: Sentiments by The Greeting Farm
Ink: PTI Lemon Tart
Paper: Bella Blvd Plastino Collection, PTI Lemon Tart
Other: Stardust Stickles, adhesive dots, May Arts red sheer polka dot ribbon

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #29

Happy Sunday and welcome to this week's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge! These little witches are so sweet perched on top of those yummy looking cupcakes!

My card kind of took on a mind of its own as I was making it, and I don't know that I'm really pleased with the final result, but you win some and you lose some, right?!

My main inspiration came mainly from the colors, though the overcast weather we've been having didn't exactly allow me to get the best photo of my card to showcase the colors I used! The top panel is black cardstock embossed with the Perfectly Paisley cuttlebug folder. I then outlined the embossed shapes with a Sakura Stardust pen to really make them pop. The kraft panel on the bottom was stamped with a greeting from the Greeting Farm set called Sentiments, embellished with a Zva Creative crystal flourish, and punched along the bottom with a Martha Stewart Scallop Dot edge punch. Finally, to finish off the card, I added a strip of brown cardstock along where the black and kraft panels meet and covered that with a strip of sheer white polka dot May Arts ribbon.

If you'd like to play along, add a direct link to your project to the Mr. Linky widget on Rachel's post. The top 5 entries linked up by next Saturday night will be featured in next Sunday's collage.

Ok, now it's time to go and visit the other Sweeties!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Tammy

Supplies
Stamps: Sentiments by The Greeting Farm
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate
Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate, True Black, Kraft
Other: Scallop Dot Edger punch from Martha Stewart, Perfectly Paisley cuttlebug folder, Sakura Stardust pen, Zva Creative crystal flourish, sheer white polka dot May Arts ribbon

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #28

Happy Sunday! It's time for another Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal!

I am out of town this weekend and so did not get a chance to participate in the challenge, but I wanted to make sure I put the inspiration photo up in case you want to play along! Aren't these cupcakes pretty?!?

If you do, be sure to add a direct link to your project to the Mr. Linky widget on Rachel's post. The top 5 entries will be featured in next Sunday's collage.

Ok, now it's time to go and visit the other Sweeties for some fabulous inspiration!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Tammy

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #27

Good morning! Believe it or not, it's October, so that means Halloween is just around the corner! Isn't today's cupcake inspiration photo a lot of fun?

I chose to focus on the pumpkins and used the Pumpkin Harvest cuttlebug folder on some Imaginisce Bestitched paper, showing the debossed side instead of the embossing. I kept the rest of the top of the card plain to really show off that cuttlebug folder.

The two strips of patterned paper are both from the Basic Grey Eerie paper pack. I just love how all the different papers from that collection mix and match so well together!

The sentiment is from Scary Words, one of the Inkadinkado mini clear sets. I traced over the sentiment with a black spica pen to give it some fun sparkle.

If you'd like to play along, add a direct link to your project to the Mr. Linky widget on Rachel's post. The top 5 entries will be featured in next Sunday's collage.

Now before I send you off to check out the other HSE Sweeties' creations, I want to extend a warm welcome to the latest Guest Sweetie, Ida from Faith Artistry. Be sure to visit her fabulous blog to see her interpretation of this week's challenge.

Ok, now it's time to go and visit the other Sweeties!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Tammy

Supplies
Stamps: Scary Words from Imaginisce
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, black spica glitter pen
Paper: Imaginisce Bestitched, Basic Grey Eerie, PTI white, Plum Pudding, Ripe Avocado
Other: Pumpkin Harvest cuttlebug folder, paper piercing tool, foam adhesive dots (for popping up the sentiment panel)

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #26

Hello and welcome to the 26th Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal! Before I get into this week's challenge, I want to remind you about the HSE Halloween Blog Hop - if you have not yet checked out the Sweeties' blogs to comment for a chance to win blog candy and to collect the "hidden" promo code letters, check out my post here.

Now, onto today's business! This is the first CIC we've had since fall officially started, and I think the cupcakes this week are perfect for fall - just look at those gorgeous colors! The colors are what I drew my inspiration from today.

I used one of the Anyas (stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink) from the Rain Snow Shine set by The Greeting Farm. This set is no longer available, but check out the new Dressy Anya set - so cute, and so much fun to color! I can't wait to buy that one myself! I used my Copics to color Anya in and to give her some cute striped knee socks! The umbrella is paper pieced using the Bestitched paper from Imaginisce.

The punch along the side is the Scallop Dot Edger punch from Martha Stewart. I coated Anya's buttons with Stardust Stickles and then the whole main image panel is popped up with foam adhesive dots.

I stamped the background with PTI's Polka Dot Basics to match the polka dotted umbrella and added a Zva Creative pearl swirl flourish along the bottom left corner. To finish off the card, I punched an oval out of the card front, and then stamped "My Friend" from the Greeting Farm set Sentiments on a white panel layered on the inside of the card.

If you'd like to play along, add a direct link to your project to the Mr. Linky widget on Rachel's post. The top 5 entries linked up by next Saturday night will be featured in next Sunday's collage.

Ok, now it's time to go and visit the other Sweeties!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Tammy

Supplies
Stamps: Rain Snow Shine and Sentiments sets by The Greeting Farm
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, PTI Ripe Avocado, Copic markers
Paper: Bestitched paper from Imaginisce, PTI's Ripe Avocado, Melon Berry, and white
Other: Scallop Dot Edger punch from Martha Stewart, Stardust Stickles, adhesive dots, Zva Creative pearl swirl flourish