Spring Forward

My stash of thank you cards is very low so I thought I'd make up a couple.  I used Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge 474 for the layout.  The DP is from My Mind's Eye.  The image is Stampin' Up's A Flower for All Seasons (retired) and is another one from my pre-stamped images.  The sentiment is Gina K's Fanciful Tags (retired).  If I was to remake this card, I'd place the sentiment a bit higher but I do like the soft look of the gingham and colours.

Challenges this Card Meets:

All Sorts Challenge - Use those Dies

Send a Smile for Kids - Pastel Colours

Susy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - Spring Flowers

A Creative Romance - Spring Flowers

Alphabet Challenge - D for Diecuts

Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Crafty Hands - Shabby Chic

Sister Act - Make a Card

Stampin For the Weekend - Spring Colours

Card Makin Mamas - Photo Inspiration - I was inspired by the tulips.

Your Next Stamp Challenge - Photo Inspiration - Tulips
Pile It On - Floral Fantasy

Flowers... Just Because

I was inspired by a challenge a couple of weeks ago and didn't get this made in time but I'm glad that I kept going with the idea.  It's a pocket card using Melon Mambo as a base.  The paper was a gift so I don't know about it.  I used Very Vanilla for the card and stamped it with Gina K's Fanciful Tags (retired).  The flowers were being thrown away by a local shop that had used them in a display window.  Waste not, want not.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Glitter and Sparkle - Anything Goes

Loves Rubber Stamps - Anything Goes

V's Sweet Ideas - Anything Goes

A Grade A Teacher

This card is a complete 180 from the baby card I was going to make.  I had done the scrap panel background with hexagons and went to my pre-stamped / coloured image pile for something appropriate and this image popped out at me.  I had coloured it back when I was designing for For Fun Challenges but had never used it.  I thought it was perfect as a end-of-year thank you card to my DS's kindergarten teacher.  She has been amazing and this image is perfect for a K grad card.  The sentiment is Gina K's Fanciful Tags (retired).  The apple embellishment was sitting on my dining room table to make easy thank you's for my students.  I honestly can't tell you the image, it's been over a year.  If you know, I will happily update my post to give credit.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Speedy TV's Inspiration Challenge - Jean Patchwork Quilt
Craft Room Challenges - Use Your Scraps
That Craft Place - Punches (hexagons for the background) and Dies (the apple and I used my star to create the pennant tag for the sentiment)
The Crafty Bloggers Network - Bingo (Diagonal for diecut and punch, stamps digital and rubber and a tag)

Royal Baby

My cousin had a baby girl this week and there is no doubt in my mind that she will be a true princess.  Her daddy is ga-ga over babies, especially little girls.  When he was 16, he would make my mother wait so he could kiss my baby sister goodbye; go hang being cool.  He's an amazing dad.  Anyways, I just know she is going to have Daddy wrapped around her little finger.  I wanted a card that was going to reflect her royal status in the household.  The card will actually be given by my brother - remember his request?

The onsie stamp is a Studio G that I couldn't pass up because it makes baby cards so easily.  The crown image is from England, Stamposaurus, part of a Keep Calm set that I love but have not used.  Isn't that sad?  I had my mother-in-law ship it to me.  The sentiment is from Gina K.

Challenges this Card Meets:
CASology - Royal
Creatalicious - For a Girl
Glitter N Sparkle - Bright Funky Colours
Shopping Our Stash - Use a tool you haven't used before - The Spellbinder die I used.

Somewhere in my Broken Heart

If you follow my blog, you'll know that I keep and use a lot of my scraps, even small ones.  The pile is getting too big again so I'm playing with the bits.  I'm experimenting with a crazy quilt idea and I can't decide if I love it or hate it.  From a distance it does look cool but not so much up close.  I can't make up my mind.  Feel free to let me know what you think.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Speedy TV's Inspiration Challenge - Patchwork quilt
Oldie but a Goodie  - Inspired by a Song (Somewhere in My Broken Heart by Bryan White)
Papertake Weekly - Paper piecing

Christmas Oven Mitts

My dear supportive husband strikes again.  I was showing him my card, telling him how much I loved it and he joked that he can't understand why I like the oven mitts so much.  When I looked outraged, he even pointed out that the stamped pattern on them looked like the one on our oven mitts.  But hey, they were very cute and at least we'd always be able to find them hung on the tree like that.  What a guy.  Despite my husband, I love this card.  I always love red and white together and this is a wonderfully simple card.  The mitts are my Spellbinder's die.  I then stamped them with my basketweave background from Mark's Finest Papers and distressed the edges with TH's Fired Brick.  I'm pretty sure the pine boughs are from Marianne's Designs.  The sentiment is from Gina K's sadly retired Fanciful Tags set.  I got even with DH putting on the pointsetta. He'd gone to read and I pulled out my hammer and old grommet set and made sure I was very loud punching the whole for the brad.  I could do this since dear kiddies are at Grandma's.  I think he knew what I was doing because he winked at me.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Christmas Stamping All Year Long - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Extra Monthly Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes
Tutorial Time on Speedy TV - Twisted Easel Card
Speedy TV's Simple Salutations - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Santa's Little Helper

I found this cute little Changito Santa on the floor today.  I think he fell out of my image box when DS was playing.  I decided to use it to complete one of my first of four Christmas Card Challenges for May which is to use the Sketch Layout #161 from Splitcoast Stampers.  Don't panic.  I'm not really that far ahead.  I've been skipping around and filling out challenges depending on what inspires me.

The snowflake used the liner from a Christmas Card.  My sentiments are from Gina K.  Next time I think I'll choose one with a larger font.  This one is getting lost on the large band.  My DP is more from my Echo Park pad.  I may actually get that used up this year.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Loves Rubber Stamps - Uses Dies or Punches (Snowflake Die)
Stamping with the Dragon - Anything Goes
Victorine Stamps - Sparkle and Shine - The gold paper is highly reflective and definitely shines.

T'was the Night Before Christmas

I'm still using up old tags from my stash.  Somehow I keep finding more.  This truly is a stash card.  The tag is over 2 years old.  The Christmas Tree DP is at least 4 years old.  Everything was made from scraps that I actually just found on my table.  This is why I hate having to clean up my craft area.  The "finds" tend to be my greatest source of inspiration.  What does that say about the way I think?

The layout is from Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge #407.  If you haven't checked them out, their sketch gallery is a fantastic resource for card layouts when your mojo has left you and all they ask is that you credit the source.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Mark's Finest Papers - Recycle a Christmas Card.  (I used a tag, hope this counts.)

Christmas Card Challenge - Week #6

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Santa's Gone into Hiding

Crafty Hazelnut's Extra Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

A Walk in the Woods

The image is not really blurry, it actually looks fabulous in real life.  The tree is embossed in white and then covered in a dryer sheet and glitter to give it a soft sparkly look.  It took a while because the dryer sheet was cut cut by the Nestie when I ran it through my machine so I then had to take scissors to cut the image out and my exact knife to cut out the scallops.  The sentiment is my Gina K set.  I've had it for over a year and I just realized last night that the sentiment frames are made to match one of my Spellbinder dies.  Duh...

The sketch came from a previous Sketch Saturday layout.  The challenge was to use an old sketch, which I did but then missed the deadline.  Oh well.  That's one more card in my Christmas card stash.  Yeah me!

Challenges this Card Meets:
Mark's Finest Papers Christmas Card Challenge
Christmas Card Challenge - Week 5
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Santa has gone into hiding
Crafty Hazelnut's Extra Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Stamping with the Dragon - Anything Goes
That Craft Place - Christmas
Crafty Blogger's Network - Anything goes
Victorine Originals - Non-Traditional Christmas Colours

Deck the Halls

I am in a Christmas mood.  I think it's because I take my tree down so early, the 27th this year.  Making cards seems to keep the Christmas feeling going and gives me an excuse to keep listening to carols.  This is part of my challenge to myself to use up supplies.  The DP on this card is at least a year old, probably two.  I used my heirloom ornaments die for decoration and then stamped Mark's Finest Papers crackle background stamp on it.  The bow is from Stamping Up's Tree Trimming set and the Sentiment is from Gina K.

Holly, Jolly Christmas

This card was super easy.  The image is part of a wheel from Stampin' Up that I cut into a 2 inch square and then rounded the corners.  I think I used Wild Wasabi Green.  The background is a scrap of Real Red which I ended up making a bit smaller with my square nesties.  The sentiment is Gina K.'s fanciful tags.  This is a great set, all the sentiments are the perfect size for cards or small embellishments and the font is so pretty.   I accidentally stamped the sentiment off center so I cut about half an inch off  the left hand side to make it even so it's closer to a 4.25 * 5 inch card.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
Christmas Card Challenge 2013 Week 5
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

The Little Mermaid

I was playing around with my new text stamp from Waltzing Mouse.  The background looks so much better in real life.  The green text is more visible and seems to tone down the yellow  so that it matches the sun.  The mermaid image was coloured with a mixture of copics and prismacolour pencils.  I don't have a large collection of either especially a year ago so I was playing.  I do love how it created a more realistic blend on her hair and softened the background.  The colouring is not the best since I've improved a lot in that time. It's neat to see how I've gotten better with more practice.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Speedy TV's Simple Salutations - Mermaid

Strange Fruit

Welcome back!  It's back to school week for the kids and myself.  I made a set of these for DS's teacher.  She's a real recycle buff and got a kick out of the use of scraps to make her cards.  I layered many strips of green on double-sided tape and then ran it through my Big Shot with my apple Nesties.  I know, only a teacher would have the apple set!  The sentiment is from Gina K's Fanciful Tags.  I hand drew the frame.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Friends of Speedy TV - Back to School
Challenge Up Your Life - Patchwork
Charisma Cards - Seeing Double
City Crafter - Monochromatic
My Time to Craft - Black, White and One Other Colour (Green)
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Back to School

Country Cottage

I'm back.  I first have to apologize for being away so long.  I actually have been busy crafting but not making cards.  I signed up for a scrapbooking challenge to complete 100 pages in 100 days.  I have 47 pages completed, which finished off one album for me.  YEAH!  I'm still behind since I should be at around 80 by now but  I have the next 14 pages spread out on my table.  I just need to journal and add the embellishment.  The hard thinking and planning part is done.  I won't be posting them however since my pages tend to be more like photo journals than traditional scrapbooking.  

I was burning out though and needed a break.  I just saw a friend who'd pulled out her Thomas Kincaid images and I was inspired.  The image was stamped on vellum with brown Momento.  I then turned the image over and coloured on the wrong side.  The image was then mounted right side up on card stock.  The brown matting for the image was done by tracing and hand cutting around my Nestie.  I really wish they would come up with smaller frames so I wouldn't have to do that.

The sentiment is from Gina K's fanciful tags set.  I stamped it on Very Vanilla and then hand cut it to fit  an old epoxy sticker.  The epoxy had pulled away from the "metal" base so I pulled it right off and cleaned up the residue.  It was too nice to throw away so I thought it was the perfect embellishment for this card.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Tutorial Time Challenges on Speedy TV - Stamping and Colouring on Vellum

Totally Papercrafts - Frame It

Falling In Love

Here's a card that was a happy accident. I used my smallest scalloped heart Nestie, thinking I'd do a grid pattern and they slide to the side of the card stock when I brushed the card by accident. I liked the idea of the cascading hearts and then rearranged them a bit more artistically. What a great way to used up some of my never ending raspberry Brazzil paper. The sentiment is from Gina K's Fanciful Tags set. It seems to be my go to set for sentiments these days. The base is Gina K's luxury white. It will make a nice card for DH.

Challenges This Card Meets:

Cards For Men - Anything Goes

Challenge Up Your Life - No Patterned Paper

Fab and Funky - Monochromatic

One Stop Craft - Bold and Bright

Papertake Weekly - Use Die Cuts

Truly Scrumptious - Use Pink

Simply Thanks

I was lucky enough to win some Smooch from Susan, aka LateBlossom, and wanted to send a thank you note for enabling me. I loved the gold so much, I ran out and bought red, green and blue for Christmas cards.

If you follow Susan's blog, you know that she is the queen of CAS and one-layer cards. I wanted something that hopefully she would like. I found it really intimidating actually since I love following her blog, before I realized that anyone would prefer a thank you card to nothing at all!

The base is Gina K's luxury white and the sentiment is from her Fancifal Tags set. The image is from Flourishes Mix and Match Mugs set. I masked the mug to add the flowers. I really need to use this set more often. I really do like it. The image was then coloured with Copics.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Challenge Up Your Life - no patterned paper

Charisma Cardz - Negative (or white) space

Do You Stack Up - Thank You

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Just a couple more of my buggy thank you cards. The top one was looking a bit silly floating in the middle of the frame so I free hand drew in some cobwebs for him to stand on. Again they are coloured with copics. The heart and the body of the spider are covered with Diamond Glaze to give them a bit of dimension and interest. Sentiments by Gina K.

Challenges these Cards Meets:

Less is More - Single Layer and use a Frame

Saturday Challenge - Going Buggy

Moving Along with the Times - Inspired by Song (Itsy Bitsy Spider)

Delightful Sketches - Anything Goes

Buggy Summer

Summer is coming and I need a bunch of simple notecards for my year end. I just love how these turned out. The images are from Stampin' Up's Cute as A Bug (retired) and Lady Bug Picnic (retired). I bought both of these probably five years ago just for this purpose and am embarrassed to say this is the first time I've gotten around to my end of year cards with them.

The cards are made on Gina K.'s luxury white cardstock and the images were coloured with copics. I'm so impressed that the colour didn't bleed through. I just love how these turned out! Then sentiment is also from Gina K.'s tag set. The frame was hand drawn with a ruler and a 0.2 Copic fineliner. I will so have to use this technique again.

You'll see the next two in the set Thursday. Have a great day!

Challenges these cards meet:

Less is More - Single Layer and use a Frame

Saturday Challenge - Going Buggy