Soft Pencil Thursday!

Hello all! I can't believe it is Thursday again already! Do these weeks just fly by, or what? They do for me, busy busy! Well, it is Soft Pencil Digi day today and the image that we were asked to work with is called "Good Friend", and we were asked to make a friendship card. So, here it is:

I printed the image out two times, because I wanted to do a little layering. So, I colored all of the fist image with my Stampin Up markers, then I colored the snail and the bird again on the second image. I cut out the second bird and snail, and set aside. Next I cut out the entire first image with my Rectangular Spellbinder's Nestibilities, and matted it with some SU Taken with Teal card stock and a scalloped rectangular Nestibility. I used some Foam Dimensionals to pop it up a little bit on the mat. Then I layered my second bird and snail with some foam dimensionals and added a little blue glitter to the bird wing, just because I love glitter. Tee Hee. The card layout is this weeks card sketch over on Splitcoaststampers web site SC277. I used designer paper that I received as a gift from a 6x6 pack of DCWV Nursery Baby Boy. Good for more than just baby boy stuff, don't you think? The sentiment was printed out from Microsoft Word, and punched out and matted with my Stampin Up Oval punches. Of course I had to add some sticky gems in one corner just because I love those too!

Next month is the anniversary month for Soft Pencil Designs, so Elizabeth has asked me if I would stay on the Design team a while longer to help out with a big Blog Hop. We design team member are working on some projects to show off on May 6th! I heard a rumor that there will be some prizes given away, so tune into the Soft Pencil blog and here of course on May 6th for all the fun. Also, take a few minutes and go over to the soft Pencil blog and store, because Elizabeth has just released some more new images, some relating to mothers and mother's day! They are absolutely adorable.

In the meantime, while we are waiting for May 6th, I have some Mother's Day cards and others in the works using Stampin Up Stamps, Punches, Die-cuts, etc. I will be posting those between now and the Blog Hop day.

Until Next time.........Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Thursday and some Blog Awards!

Wow, I can't believe it is Thursday already! Time Flies. As you know, it is Soft Pencil Thursday for me plus I received two blogger awards! Yay! Believe it or not, these are my first blogger awards! The first one was from Elizabeth owner of Soft Pencil Designs, and the second was from fellow Soft Pencil DT member, Kerry. I can't thank you enough ladies, you made my whole week! So, on with the latest Digi image project from Soft Pencil.

This image is called, "Welcome to My Apple Home". Is that worm adorable or what? I decided that it would make a cute teacher thank you card for my daughter's teachers. We have been very blessed again this year that she has had such wonderful teachers, so I am getting a jump start on my thank you cards because summer break will be here before we know it.



I colored the image with my Stampin Up markers, mounted it on Real Red Card Stock, then again on some Stampin Up Designer Series Paper in Certainly Celery. The Border and corners were made with my Stampin Up border and corner punch, the tag sentiment was punched with SU oval punches and the sentiment is from the SU Stamp set Teeny Tiny Wishes. The Ribbon is from Making Memories, the rhinestone brad is from Stampin Up, and the sticky gems are from Michael's craft store. Oh yes, lets not forget the fiber that the tag hangs on, sorry I have no idea where it is from, it has been in my stash for years. Stay tuned to my blog, as I will be letting you know about a big blog hop that Soft Pencil Designs is having to celebrate it's anniversary!


This blogger award is from Elizabeth, owner of Soft Pencil Designs. Thanks Elizabeth you are so sweet.



This blogger award is from Kerry, fellow Soft Pencil DT member. Thanks to you too Kerry.

Now, I am supposed to pass these awards onto ten other ladies that have wonderful blogs, but I don't know that many bloggers so I will do the best that I can.

Donna (Butternut Sage Designs)

Cindy (Cindy's Inklings)

Lydia (Understand Blue)

Ann ( The Stampin Schach)

Jana (This Little Card of Mine)

Becca (Amazing Paper Grace)

Cat (Cat's Crafty Corner)

Now, if any of you ladies have already received these awards, please forgive me. I tried to make sure that you hadn't.

Until next time......... Blessings, Lisa

Stampin Up Announcement!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, here I am to announce some changes with Stampin Up. I want to ask each of you to look at this with an open mind. Remember some of those past years In- Colors that you absolutely loved, and wished that they had in markers? Well, you are going to get your wish with some of them, but not all of them. With this new addition of past colors, we will have to say goodbye to some other colors. Please read this entire post because I have an awesome deal to share with you.


Starting with the new catalog that unveils on July 1st Stampin Up will have four color collections of 10 colors each; instead of 4 color families of 12 colors each plus Neutrals. You can see them in the color chart below which if you click on, you should be able to download and print it out if you like. I was unable to upload the retiring color chart, sorry but I will type a list of them. If anyone needs me to email either of these charts to them, or the list on Microsoft Word, simply click on my email link, and send me an email requesting me to send it to you.

Just to make it clear, here is a list of the color collections:
Brights, Neutrals, Regals, and Subtles. In-colors both old and current plus some brand new colors, and some current core colors make up these collections.

Here is a list of the Retiring Colors: Almost Amethyst, Apricot Appeal, Ballet Blue, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, Bordering Blue, Brilliant Blue, Brocade Blue, Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Gable Green, Glorious Green, Going Gray, Green Galore, Handsome Hunter, Lavender Lace, Lovely Lilac, Mellow Moss, Only Orange, Orchid Opulence, Pale Plum, Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Really Rust, Ruby Red, Sage Shadow, Summer Sun, Taken with Teal, Yoyo Yellow.

The Five Completely Brand New Core Colors: Daffodil Delight (yellow), Early Espresso (deep brown), Cajun Craze (rusty orange), Cherry Cobbler (red), Marina Mist (light blue with a hint of gray).

Brights Collection: Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Real Red.

Regals Collection: Elegant Eggplant, Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Always Artichoke, Garden Green, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Riding Hood Red, Cherry Cobbler, Bravo Burgundy.

Subtles Collection: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, So Saffron.

Neutrals Collection: River Rock, Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake (formerly Kraft), Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Basic Gray, Basic Black.

As for future In-colors, there will be five new In-Colors and they will be available for two years! Starting next year, there will be a total of 10 In-Colors with five rotating out and five rotating in every year.

Please keep the following in mind:

1. If the color is retiring, every item coordinating with it in the catalog will be retiring as well! I suggest that you go through your catalog, and mark all of the accessories that are in retiring colors, such as Brads, Ribbon, Designer paper, etc......This way, you can make a list of what you feel that you want to order extra of if it is one of your favorite colors.

2. With these new and returning in-colors to the core color collections there will be some new items to look forward to that coordinate with those colors, such as Markers, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Designer Paper, etc... Remember those old in-colors that you loved and wanted a marker for....well, as I said above, if they are on this new list, there will now be a marker for them starting July 1st, 2010! Yay! I am so excited about that part. I can't wait to see the new Designer paper too! Urgh, don't you just hate waiting?!

Now for my special deal to share with you! Just to make this transition as painless as possible, I am going to offer my discount of 20% off of ALL retiring colors and their coordinating accessories! Yes, you read that correctly! The only thing is that you have to email your order to me, because this is a sale offered by me, not Stampin Up. If you feel more comfortable paying via paypal, I can do that! You will have to email your order to me, I will figure up your total, email an invoice to you via paypal, and a detailed one via email, then you can pay on paypal. Once I receive payment, I will place the order and have it shipped directly to you if you so desired. If you order by yourself on the Stampin Up website and name me as your demonstrator, they will give you a 10% discount. Your choice! Now, to sweeten the pot even more, I will offer the same deal on all new colors and accessories to all who order retiring products once the new catalog opens up on July 1st, 2010!

Please understand again that I am offering this sale, not Stampin Up; and it is only on Retiring colors not stamp sets! I will post a retiring stamp set list as soon as it is made available to me. If you have any questions, please email me. As a reminder there is a link to my email address on my sidebar.

So, get your list together, check it twice, and send me an email! I hope this helps ease the pain of any colors that you will be missing. Remember too that we have until the end of June to get them.

Next time, I will be showing you a card to inspire you to get stamping.

Until then.........Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Thursday!!!!!!

Hello! It is Soft Pencil Thursday! This week we were asked to use an image called "Girl on a Cupcake", use shades of pink, and pearls. No problem, I love to use pearls. I thought that maybe a birthday card for a girl child would be a good use for this image. I also used an embellishment that I haven't used in forever.....seed beads. I smeared some Stampin Up Crystal Effects on the cupcake, then sprinkled on some beads, then set aside to dry.

The ovals were cut with my Spellbinder's Nestibilities, The sentiment was cut with my Stampin Up Modern Label punch, backed with a large oval punch. The card base is Kraft, the ovals are Melon Mambo, and the Designer paper is from Stampin Up's Sale-a-bration promotion that just ended. It was in a 6x6 pad called "Welcome Neighbor". The pearls are from the usual place......Michael's Craft Store. Oh, and everything except the DSP is popped up a bit with some foam dimensionals. I think that covers everything. If you have any questions feel free to click the email link on my sidebar or leave a comment.

I have some big news to tell you next time that came from Stampin Up. Something really exciting is going on with the new catalog set to release July 1st.

Soft Pencil Thursday Easter Card!

Hello. Yes, "Soft Pencil Thursday" is back here on "Inspired by Purple", at least for the month of April anyways. I will continue to use their designs and post them however even after my month as guest designer of the month is over. The image that we were requested to use this week is an Easter image that is soooooooooooo cute called "Painting Eggs w/ Michu & Ratiny". Michu has some oh so cute bunny ears on, and Ratiny seems to have fallen into a cracked egg. The challenge was open to whatever we wanted to make, so I challenged myself to get out an embellishment that I haven't used in quite a long time, ribbon. So, here is what I came up with:

Is that the cutest image, or what? I water colored it with some Stampin Up ink refills and a blender pen, cut it out with a rectangular Nestibility, and mounted it on a scalloped rectangle nestibility. I popped up each layer with a thin foam dimensional, and also popped up our two characters as well. The bunny border was made with a Martha Stewart Bunny border punch. The sentiment was typed out in Microsoft Word and printed, punched out with my SU Word Window Punch, and mounted on a piece of CS punched out with my SU Modern Label Punch. Some faux pink pearls from Michael's, and some Bazzil 1/4" ribbon to finish it off.

Yes, I am still working on my blog sidebar, and my Zibbet store is open, however no cards are listed in it for sale yet. I will post something on here to let you all know when it is officially open for business.

Until next time..............Blessings, Lisa

A "Just Rite" Easter card

About a year or so ago, I won a set of "Just Rite Stamps" as blog candy from Becca Feeken. Here blog can be found here and on my side bar. I forget the name of the set, but it is still for sale in their shop and it has something for every American holiday we have. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother's day, Father's day, Valentine's Day, Birthday, Easter, etc... So, I decided to give the Easter stamp a try. I followed the card sketch from Splitcoast Stampers from last week or the week before. I am short on time, so please forgive me for not knowing exactly which sketch. I was excited about the sketch when I first saw it, but then when I made a card with it, I was no longer happy. Maybe I am just too critical of my own work. But never the less, here it is:

I used some "Die Cuts With A View" card stock (the green and white pearlescent textured), and the cute floral piece. The rest of the card stock is Stampin Up. Maybe it is the card stock, I am just not as happy with card stock if it is not Stampin Up, maybe because the colors don't coordinate as well together. Stampin Up's card stock is made to coordinate together and with it's designer patterned paper. I do however completely adore that stamp image, and had a blast coloring that cute little chickie. I hope you like it, even if I am not completely happy with it.

Anyhoo, please continue to excuse my blog dust, one of my buttons still isn't working if you click on it, and they don't appear to be the same size. It is a work in progress, two very busy ladies are working on them.

Come back and visit me tomorrow, for "Soft Pencil Thursday"! I am making something with the absolute cutest Easter digi image on the planet!

Until next time............ Blessings, Lisa

Inspirational Easter Card

Hello. I wanted to show you today an Easter card that I made that is more about the "reason for the season" as the saying goes. I used a stamp set from Stampin Up called "Abundant Hope". Here is a photo of the entire stamp set, it has a beautiful image of Daffodils, two sayings, and a fancy swirl image.

For the front of the card, I stamped the image on Watercolor paper, and colored it with Stampin Up ink refills dropped into the lid of the ink pad and I used a blender pen. The Designer paper is from a retired Simply Scrappin set, and the border was punched with SU's new Scalloped border punch. I cut out the image with an oval Spellbinder's Nestibility and mounted it onto Yoyo Yellow card stock cut out with a scalloped Oval Nestibility. The Sticky gems are from Michael's Craft Store, and the image is popped up a bit with some foam dimensionals from Stampin Up. The other card stock used is SU Garden Green, and Whisper White.

I decided to show you the inside of the card because I stamped the longer sentiment on the inside with the fancy swirl on the top and under the sentiment. Love that Swirl!

Now, this week is my first week back on the DT team over at Soft Pencil Designs, so among other things this week, I will be having "Soft Pencil Thursday" again for the month of April. I love working with Soft Pencil Designs, they are so adorable. I have another Easter card to show you tomorrow, with an oh so cute image that was a gift to me from a friend. I am still working on my blog remodeling, so keep excusing my dust.

So, until next time.............Blessings, Lisa

Please Excuse my Dust....

because my blog is undergoing some changes. I am trying to perk it up a little, make some changes because quite frankly and I can't believe that I am saying this, but I am so tired of looking at that lavender background! Yes, you read that correctly, I am actually tired of looking at that background. Plus, a friend of mine is helping me create some awesome sidebar buttons. So, please be patient if the new stuff doesn't work correctly right away, I am working on it. Busy, busy, busy, plus I have been doing some much needed Spring cleaning and going through our "stuff" to get ready for a yard sale. But, while you are waiting to see some interesting Easter creations, chew on this masculine card for a bit:

I saw something similar to this somewhere......................oh I forget, sorry whoever you are. I had been wondering if the negative pieces to this SU/Sizzix Sizzlet die cut (Little Leaves) would look cute on a card anyways, so I put my own twist into it, and Voila. The negative piece is popped up just a bit with some foam dimensionals. Here is a list of supplies:

Card stock: SU ~ Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Creamy Caramel

Punches: SU ~ 3/16" Corner Rounder Punch, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch
Accessories: Sticky gems from Michael's

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hello! I am back! Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone even if you aren't Irish. I am a wee bit Irish, and my husband is approximately 75% Irish, so we decorate for this occasion around our house and I make shamrock shaped cookies. Beyond that.....no matter what ethnic background you carry in your genes, be proud of it, celebrate it, and don't let anyone tell you there is something wrong with it! I have a handful of different ethnic genes, and I like each and every one of them. Beyond the Irish genes, I am also part English, Czech, Swiss, and Italian (Venice). I guess you could say that I am a very European combination kind of girl. What brave ancestors I must have had to leave their homelands to come to America! I am very fascinated with every ones ethnic backgrounds, so if you feel like it, drop me a line and tell me your ethnic background(s), and if you are visiting me from another country, tell me a little bit about your homeland as I will probably never get to travel abroad in my lifetime.

Ok, on with the reason for this blog, paper crafting! I have three cards to share with you today! Yep, three! Elizabeth, the owner of my favorite digi company, Soft Pencil Designs, was sweet enough to grant my wish and ideas for a couple of St. Patrick's Day images and send them to me, so I made a couple of cards with them, and I also made a card with some Stampin Up supplies. So, Is the first one:

So, is this image cute or what? Michu the kitty is very excited as you can see to have found that big pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow (can you blame him?), and I think Ratiny is just happy to have found a mouse Girlfriend. Look at her cute little bow on her head, which I couldn't help myself but to color it purple. The Daisy DSP is from Provo Craft, ands the rest of the card stock is from Stampin Up. The sentiment is also from Stampin Up from their "Teeny Tiny Words" stamp set. The border at the bottom was made with the daisy border punch from Martha Stewart. Of course I couldn't resist embellishing it with some Sticky gems from Michael's craft store. The two shamrocks up in the right hand corner were made with a shamrock paper punch from EK Success. I colored the image with Stampin Up markers, and some Smooch shimmer paint.

The next image above is Michu and Ratiny dressed up as Leprechauns! Oh my gosh when I saw this one, I squealed with delight out loud, literally! It is is absolutely priceless! I used a sketch similar to one that I used on a previous post, except that I mounted the image on a scalloped square instead of a scalloped circle (scroll down and see the card with the Soft Pencil Mermaid on it). I made the scalloped square with my Sizzix/Stampin Up BigZ scalloped square die-cut, love that die-cut! The DSP was leftover from last year and it is from Provo Craft, I couldn't help myself again and added some Gold fake Pearls to embellish the scallops. The image was colored with a combination of Stampin Up's markers and their Watercolor wonder crayons and blender pens.

This last card above used the negative or left over piece from cutting out the scallop square, and I popped it up with some foam dimensionals. The shamrock was made by cutting out 3 hearts from Stampin Ups Sizzix Embosslit called Scalloped Heart of Hearts. I hand cut the stem. I am in a bit of a rush, so I didn't post the colors that I used. However, if you want to know what they are, just leave me a comment letting me know, and I can add them tomorrow. Thanks for visiting.

Until Next Time..................Blessings, Lisa

Farewell to Soft Pencil Designs

Ah, my time as a Soft Pencil Design Team member has come to an end. I will miss it more than I have words to say! However, they have asked me to come back and be a guest designer for the month of April, so of course I said yes! Plus, the owner of Soft Pencil Designs, Elizabeth is working on some St. Patrick's Day digi images that I suggested! I can't wait to see how they turned out! She should be posting them to her blog and store any day now. I am a wee bit Irish, and my husband is approximately 75% Irish, so St. Patrick's Day is important in our house.

Ok, on with a card. I decided to post a cute little child's birthday card that I made with "Ratiny" from the Soft Pencil Animals collection. Ratiny is so stinkin cute, I just had to create with him.

I hope you like it:

Yes, I love Ratiny so much that I had to put him on the card 3 times. I cut him out using some Circle Nestibilities from Spellbinders, and then I mounted him on Melon Mambo card stock that I punched with my Stampin Up Scallop Circle Punch. The card base is Certainly Celery, the designer paper is Retired Stampin Up. I printed the sentiment out from Microsoft Word, punched it out with my Stampin Up Modern Label Punch, and also layered it on a Modern Label punch that I cut in half and adhered behind the sentiment. The final piece under the sentiment was made using the SU Large Oval punch, and of course I rounded the corners of the card base with my SU 3/16" Corner Rounder punch.

Until next time............ Blessings, Lisa