5 Years Today!

My five year wedding anniversary is today and I wanted a special card for DH. I have been saving this image to use for an anniversary card. I love the peaceful feel - of taking a moment, that it's the little time spent together that's important. Can you tell we aren't "Grand Gesture" people?

While I love the image, I really struggled with this card. I had so much trouble balancing this image. I did not want to put a flower on the card. Hubbies should be able to display their cards with pride at work and don't need really girlie cards. However, I couldn't find anything that would balance my image. The flower is coloured with copics and I need to find a more swede or creamy colour. I also like the sentiment but would put it a touch lower if I was making this again. The image is coloured with a mixture of Copics and Prismacolours. I prefer the soft effects of the Prismas but wanted the Copics for the sky and skin. I like how blending them together work. I want to try layering them next.

I did start with the layout from Papertake Weekly but I admit I butchered, I mean, altered it, for my purposes.

Other Challenges this card meets:
Delightful Challenges - the great outdoors, 2 (sheets of) papers (used both sides of one) and 3 (layered) embellishments
Simon Says - Going Dotty
Cards for Men - one image, 2 (sheets of) papers (used both sides of one) and 3 (layered) embellishments
Crafty Catz Weekly - Summertime
Crafty Creations - Summer Lovin'
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Pile it On - Stretch That Plastic

Ribbon Roses

Funny how this is not the card I started with. Actually, I started with the ribbon rose. I had made 3 to do the Paper Sundaes challenge this week, which is to make your own flowers. I quite like how they turned out. I simply twisted organdy ribbon scraps in a circle on some score tape. Then I didn't know what to do with them. I found this stamp that hadn't seen some ink yet. Isn't she adorable? She's actually holding a rose bouquet but my roses unbalanced the card so I have her holding just one. The image is coloured with my copics. I'm getting better! Thanks Kristina for showing me the tip technique. Wow! It really does make a difference. The sketch is Martine's from Simon Says Stamp. I really like this one and will probably do it again.

The card is for my Mother's birthday which is tomorrow. Hopefully it isn't too cutsie for her. She's very practical. There is no sentiment inside. We have a running family joke to not put much writing inside because my grandfather will read each card out like a thespian performance in the middle of the restaurant. And people wonder why I sometimes forget to include cards with my gifts... I've had lots of training over the years!

Other Challenges this card meets:
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
Craftalicious - Birthdays
Crafty Creations - Happy or Sweet
Daring Cardmakers - Layer it Up (6 layers)
Fab 'n' Funky - Recycle & Reuse (ribbon scraps from a birthday gift)
Papertake Weekly - Cutie Patootie
Stamp Something - Something Flowery

Paper Sundaes Design Team Call

Paper Sundaes is hosting a design team call for two new members. If you're interested in applying, I've got the details below or you can go directly to their link here. I'm quite excited about this and am throwing in my hat.

I've chosen my three cards to feature different techniques.

My first card is an easel card using Red Hearts from Sweet Pea Stamps which came from Paper Jewels. I love these stamps. The image is heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then coloured with Prisma colours and baby oil. On her wings and locket I used Waterfall Stickles to give colour and depth. The entire image was then spritz with a clear shimmer that you can't really see in the photos but looks great in the sunlight. The paper is Basic Grey and the ribbon was from Walmart. I chose this card to feature my use of prisma colouring, and my ability to use layers, and DP to make an elaborate card.


My second card is a CAS (clean and simple card) featuring Studio G stamps in which the candy corn was paper pieced. The bats are a Martha Stewart punch. I thought it would be a great idea to show different styles. I also love to create CAS cards because they tend to lend themselves more towards masculine cards.


My third card was chosen because it uses a digital image. Knowing that some sponsors use digi images, I wanted to demonstrate that I am comfortable using my computer to craft. The image is from Dustin Pike. He often posts freebies on his site and they are just great fun - especially for little boys! The image is coloured with Copics with just a few stickles in the basic. Hey I had to be true to myself!

Hope you enjoy the cards. I'm loving seeing everyone's entry. Good luck to all entrants!

Paper Sundaes Design Team Call Details

Paper Sundaes are looking for two to three new DT members. Here are the details...
- DT members create a card for each Sunday
- DT members are responsible for posting their creations by noon on Saturday (day before) on our private blog
- DT members are allowed to combine their DT card with other challenges
- Challenge details can be provided a month in advance - allowing you to create your card on your schedule
- DT members must comment on half of the entries posted (DT is split into two groups and each group is assigned certain numbers)
- DT term is August 1st to October 31st

We are looking for someone who wants to have fun! We are not concerned about number of followers but will be looking at how often you post and the quality of your creations. You do not have to have previous DT experience.

Benefits:
- Have fun with a crazy group of girls
- Occasionaly freebies
- Exposure for your blog
- Motivation to make time for yourself weekly

If you are interested, please post about our DT call on your blog and feature three of your favorite creations including at least two cards. DT call closes Friday, July 23rd at 11:59pm.

Glittery Christmas

I just had to play along with the Creative Inspirations Challenge this week. It just made me laugh. The challenge is to use the oldest thing in your stash and I'm a complete hoarder. This PSX image is so old, there is no name on the wood. I got it in elementary school (so I was under the age of 11) and I am now in my mid 3os so conservatively the stamp used is at least 20 years old, probably closer to 25. I wonder if they will give a prize for the oldest stash item. Perhaps I could grab that!

The image is stamped on Night of Navy in Versamark and then heat embossed with white embossing powder. I then covered the whole image with a large panel of score tape and covered it with clear glitter. (I loved that part!) The navy panel was then mounted on my white card base. I then took a white panel and used my Creative Memories oval cutter to cut out the oval shape and finally ran the panel through my Big Shot with my Swiss Dots folder.

I think I would have prefered to have used a sentiment in one corner instead of the snowflakes but I don't have any small Christmas sentiments. Grrr! How can one have so many stamps and still not have what they need?

Additional Challenges this Card Meets:
Everybody Art - Blue and White
Cute Card Thursday - Get a Head Start on Christmas
Christmas Stamping All Year Long - Bling it Up
2 Sister Challenge Blog - Christmas in July
Fab N Funky - Christmas in July
Oh-LaLa Creations - Christmas in July
Magical Crafts - Christmas in July

Baby Mine

The image is a Bildmalarna Baby image that I really enjoyed playing with my copics for this card but you can see that I'm limited in colours. Normally I wouldn't dream of a green giraffe; I tend to be very literal but it was the only colour I had enough markers to shade in. As it was, the bear is coloured with SU markers.

The outside edges of my image panel was outlined with stickles. I love glitter! The DP is stamping up and the lace was part of my grab bag but I know it came from one of the local fabric stores. I don't normally use lace but I love how it balanced this card. The challenge this month at Paper Jewels is fancy border so I'm going to use the lace to enter. Don't you love it when you just create and it fits?

It's a good thing I'm starting to swap some of my boy cards for girls - I seem to have a lot of trouble using pink. Maybe I'd be more successful making generic baby cards. Let me know if you are getting bored of them. I seem to do more baby cards than birthday cards these days.

Repaid in Diapers

I was given these diaper punches as part of an image swap. I loved the teddy bears, the bottles, the hearts, the carriages, the ducks but wasn't sure what to do with the diapers. They aren't usually something that you celebrate when you get a new baby. I then saw this sentiment on Splitcoaststampers and put in the back of my mind that it would make a good card but didn't put 2 and 2 together for months! Now my cousin is having his first baby and I wanted a card that would appeal to him as a new daddy. Hope this works! I would have preferred not to have flowers as the background but it is the only folder I have from Crafts-Too which I love because it is large enough to use as a one layer on standard cards.

Yes, I used "spelt" instead of "spelled." Both are considered correct. "Spelt" is the English (British) form which I chose because DH is English and being Canadian myself, I choose to keep the traditional spelling. "Spelled" is the American form of the word. I know it seems picky but given the fact that the card is going to a teacher, the devil is in the details.

If anyone knows who I can credit the sentiment to, please leave me a comment. I haven't been able to find the card in which to link.

Snowy Night

I got the idea for this card from Susan Raiha aka LateBlossom. Actually I get A LOT of ideas from her. She creates such wonderful CAS cards. If you haven't checked out her blog, you really should. I spent some time reviewing her blog to find my inspiration, got totally distracted and never did find the card I wanted to show that I cased. She created a card using a large coffee cup stamp and stamped only half of it to the left of her card. I loved it.

For this card, I used Snowflakes, a retired SU set that is my go to Christmas set. The sentiment is SU's Peaceful Wishes, also retired. Both the snowflake and the sentiment are embossed in white. I then added glitter to the snowflake which is why you are getting a halo effect in the picture. I don't have Susan's comfort level with white space (or blue space) as the case may be so I used my cuttlebug die and punched stars with my big shot out of the bottom of a left over chinese takeout trey. I was so impressed when DH didn't even shake his head when I went rooting through the recycling for one to play with.

Challenges this card meets:

Cards for Men - Christmas in July

Fussy and Fancy - Christmas in July

One Stop Craft - Monochromatic

Simon Says - Photo Inspiration

Silent Night

I had bought this Snowy Village cuttlebug folder months ago and had never used it. I hope you can see it clearly. The white embossing is hard to photograph. I loved the idea of making quick and easy Christmas cards with it and then realized that I had enough Christmas Cards for two years! I default to Christmas cards when I'm feeling a bit anxious though. There's something about (the idea of) snow that is relaxing. At least if you don't have to drive in it. I was a bit frustrated because the village nestie doesn't really fit a standard 4.25*5.5 card so I was really happy when I realized that the snow border anchors the diecut perfectly.

I may just have to make some gift sets with this layout afterall.

Challenges this card meets:

Cards for Men - Christmas in July

Creative Card Crew - To Die For

Fussy and Fancy - Christmas in July

One Stop Craft - Monochromatic

Daffodil Dreams

Truly Scrumptious and the Creative Card Crew are having open Design Team calls. Candidates are asked to submit 2 of their favourite projects. Please click on the links if you want more details.

I had just finished these cards for my Grab Bag Swap and wanted to share them. They are the cards I have been most happy with recently. Kristina and Michelle always do such a wonderful job that I really make an effort to come up with something unique for them.

This first card is a criss-cross card. The base is made from Certainly Celery with patterned paper, images and ribbon that I received from my swap. Sorry, I don't know who makes them. There is a great tutorial for making these cards on Splitcoaststampers that I used that you can find here. The image was coloured with a mix of Copics and SU markers. I love the little dragonfly on the tab. I found him lonely, in the back of one of my craft drawers and he just called to me.

My second card is a gate fold card using the same paper and image. One thing I just love about this challenge is how to use the same materials to make very different projects. I distressed the edges of my image panel with Certainly Celery to make it stand out more. The butterfly is the new Creative Memories butterfly punch. The bling and the flower also came from my bag of goodies for the swap. I used the same Nestie and butterfly punches on the inside to keep continuity. The sentiment is from SU. If you know the set, please let me know.

Challenges the Criss Cross Card meets:

Creative Card Crew - To Die For

Creative Card Crew - Favourite Project DT Call

The Pink Elephant - 3 layers, 2 diecuts 1 ribbon on the criss cross card

Delightful Challenges - Summer colours

Stamp Something - One DP (used both sides), one image, one ribbon for the criss cross card

Masculine Christmas

There are always a few every year - the single men who still get Christmas cards. I was so impressed last year when I hosted a Christmas swap when I received two very masculine Christmas cards that I decided to try the same. Then it turned out to be this week's Cards for Men challenge.

The card has a very vanilla base and sentiment block. The DP is a two sided piece that I cut into blocks. The sentiment is from SU's All Year Cheer. Love that set!

Challenges this Card Meets:

Cards for Men - Christmas in July

Creative Card Crew - To Die For

Fussy and Fancy - Christmas in July

Pile It On - Favourite things (Christmas and for crafting - my Big Shot!)

Hockey Night in Canada

This is actually a bookmark, not a card that I made for my father. He keeps complaining that we all deliberately loose his place in his book. So I made him a bookmark with two magnets on the inside to grip the page so that the bookmark won't fall out if it book is moved.

The image is Zac from Paperworks Co. I just love this image. He's coloured in Copics and SU markers. Notice the little logo on his jersey. For a simple card, that took me hours to get it right. Dad is a major fan so I studying the logo and uniforms in great detail to be as accurate as possible.

Challenges this card meets:

Craftalicious - Cute

Creative Card Crew - To Die For (the oval circles)

Creative Inspirations - On the Move (players are definitely moving)

Cupcake Craft - World Cup Sports

Simon Says - Photo Inspiration (Colour Blue and Ice skating for the ice in the drink)

Delightful Challenges - Summer Colours

Pretty Woman

Doesn't this remind you of the red dress in Pretty Woman. I loved that movie but it was definitely upstaged by Runaway Bride.

This card was made for the Princess. She's the only person I know that can pull off a dress like this with panache. Wish that I could!

The card uses Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White and some DP scraps that I desperately wish I could get more of. The dress is in fact paper pieced. The red rhinestones were to try to balance the card. Somehow it didn't seem finished without them. Earrings perhaps?

I'm debating whether to add a sentiment or to leave as is. What do you think?

Challenges this card meets:

Daring Cardmakers - Rubies for July (Yeah! My birthday month!)

Clearly Delightful - Bling

Creative Inspirations - Paper Piecing

Pile it On - Favourite things (favourite movie inspirations, given to favourite Princess, uses pearls and the colour red)

Everybody Art - Birthday