Forest Friends

I needed a super quick card for my cousin's son.  He's turning four and he wanted a "Forest Friends" theme for his party.  Why do I never plan my cards in advance?  I make them but so rarely remember to sign and give them if I am organized in advance.  I wasn't sure what I had in my stash that would work but after much frantic searching, I found this image I had never used from Mark's Finest Papers.  I struggled with the colouring because the image is in no way atomically correct and so I struggled with how to translate the shading from the images I looked up.  I used MFT's sketch 448.  It thankfully hides the smudges at the top of the card as well as gives it some visual interest.  Bonus was that it allowed me to continue to work on my scrap pile.  All the sentiments came from Stampin' Up!  And yes, I had to run back for it but he did get his card.

Hooray for your Birthday!

I had a rude awakening in June.  A friend asked me to cut out 500 1-inch by 2-inch music notes to make a collage for a retiring music teacher.  I said I would happily do it using my scraps.  The idea was that each note was to be decorated by a student or staff member in the school to represent our school community.  I figured I would probably have to use all my light coloured scraps to make it work, but not a problem.  When I had finished, I was no where close to using up my white scraps.  I had only managed to use enough to be able to put all my white scraps back in the folder that I had intended  for them without any needing to spill out onto my desk.  It's time to get back into crafting and more importantly, it's time to use up some stash!

I was trying to follow MFT Sketch 443 but I can't follow a pattern to save my life.  This card was a bit of a fluke.  I had decided to cut the purple DP and not worry about it if was straight but for the first time ever, it worked on my first try.  I then actually had to make something from it.  The yellow base was from my scrap pile as I am still trying to winnow down my scrap pile.  The die cut made it scream for a shaker card and they are very popular in my family so I pulled out some old sequins.  It's funny how eventually all our stash becomes usable.

Bubblegum Ice-Cream

Day 4 of recreating cards from the new Stampin' Up catalogue.  In case you haven't been following along, I'm not a demo and not affiliated in any way.  I simply couldn't afford to go shopping and decided to play along with what I have.

I liked a lot of the cards on page 42 so expect me to play with some of them later.  This one is based on the ice cream version on the middle of the page.  I thought it was adorable and remembered I had this ice-cream cone that I'd never used from an old Sale-A-Bration set, Honeycomb Happiness.  This was awesome because I had also forgotten I had a balloon stamp and you will be seeing it in a few days.

Now my ice-cream cone image is slightly bigger so I ended up changing the layout a bit to fit a standard A4 card rather than the square card shone.  I changed out the DP to some dollarstore stuff I had in my drawer.  Surprise, I had no twine so added more rhinestones.  It was great to use up some of the pink ones I've had floating around for what must be close to 10 years.  The sentiment also came from the same set.

All in all, I like my version better!

Orange You Glad It's Your Birthday

Here is Day 2 of my challenge to recreate items from the new Stampin' Up catalogue using items I have in my craft room.  This card is based on the lovely blue tag at the bottom left corner of the cover  of the catalogue.  I don't usually use tags so I changed mine to card.  I had to completely change the colour scheme because I am not a ribbon person.  This orange ribbon was the only thin ribbon I could find at the time.  I know I have some pink and white somewhere but I couldn't find it for the life of me.  It doesn't really matter since my brother's favourite colour is orange so he'll be happy to receive this later in the year,  I swapped out the punch and sentiment from the Darling Label Punch Box and used retired Stampin' Up's Love Labels with the coordinating punch in Tangerine Twist.  It was mounted on coordinating cardstock.  I didn't have any orange pearls so I coloured some rhinestones with a Copic.  Don't ask me why but the men in my family feel that rhinestones are masculine but pearls are not.  They like sparkles on their card.  The paper is a cheap dollar store DP mounted on Gina K.'s luxury white.  I quite like how this turned out.  Jury is still out whether I need more ribbon. However, if you want a quick project to make lots of tags, it's great and could be used as a quick gift if made into a set.  I still really like the labels but I can hold out for now.

Gasp! You're How Old?

Today's challenge at MFP's Speedy Fox and Friends is to make a card with a candle or to decorate a candle.  This is my second attempt.  I tried to make a candle holder but learned that you need to remove masks while the paint is still wet.  Oops.

I enjoyed making this one.  I always love making shaker cards.  This one has an aperture window in it to see the sentiment that's on the inside.  I used the Birthday Mini set.  It says, "Gasp! You're how old?"  I then used Happy Birthday underneath.  The window was made with a piece of a photo protector sleeve and some birthday Minion confetti.  I'm addicted to the confetti at the dollar store near my mother's place.  Look for some Minion cards later!

Patio Lanterns

You know you're Canadian when the first thought that pops through your mind upon seeing a card like this is the song "Patio Lanterns" by Kim Mitchell.  I don't even like the song but that's where the mind went.

Don't you just love the little lanterns.  DH bought me these mini dies for my birthday.  I love how they turned out.  They are perfect for this week's Speedy Fox and Friends challenge to use baker's twine.  I used the sentiment from MFP's Animal Birthday's set.  This week's card was inspired by the layout on Happy Little Stampers. I just love the little bunting layout.  I keep meaning to make some for birthdays but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Fox on the Run

I'm short little boy cards.  I'm always short little boy cards.  I am quite excited about the party animals  set for this reason.  The challenge this week on Speedy Fox and Friends is to mask some stripes and sponge some colour.  I chose to create a gingham pattern.  The blue and yellow didn't blend as well as I'd hoped but I like the overall effect.

Happy Birthday, Captain!

I should be writing report cards but my eyes are going blurry from staring at the screen so of course blogging is going to make it better.  This was so much fun.  I sponged white pigment ink onto some Taken with Teal and then offset my mask and sponged Taken with Teal overtop to give it the verigation in colour.  The sentiment is MFP's Pirates set and I used some cork for the deserted island. I really wish I had a palm tree for it.  The treasure chest is a piece of confetti left over from one of DS's previous birthday parties.  I was originally going to make a shaker card with it but I was distracted.  I just love this pirate chickie.  Isn't she sweet?

Mojo Monday is opening a spot for a designer and I want to throw my hat in the ring.   Cross your fingers for me...

Challenges this Card Meets:
Mojo Monday Sketch #400
Addicted to Stamps - Summer Colours
Glitter N Sparkle - Anything Goes
That Craft Place - Anything Goes
A Gem of a Challenge - Something Blue (the ocean)
My Time to Craft - Male
Crafts for Eternity - Birthday
Fussy and Fancy - Fun in the Sun
Kitty Bee Designs - For the Boys
Simply Create Too - Masculine
Simply Papercrafts for All Occasions - Anything Goes

Let the Little Fairy in You Fly!

DS was invited to a birthday party.  I was told that the birthday girl likes Tinkerbell.  I didn't have any Tinkerbell images but I decided to run with the fairy theme.  I bought several Magic Fairy books and pulled out all my fairy stamps.  I let him pick.  I thought my cute Paper Makeup images would be perfect but he liked the older looking fairies from Sweet Pea Stamps better.  We finally settled on this one, "Masked Fairy in Green" as the most appropriate.  I unfortunately had a Wink Stella accident right at the very end, requiring lots of blotting and needing me to cut out the image.  She was then mounted on some old Creative Memories DP.  I fussed endlessly on how to embellish the card and finally when I was ready to give up, the purple butterflies actually fell onto the card.  I had bought them two years ago for DS's Hundred Day display and am reusing them.  Who knew that purple butterflies could be the perfect embellishment.  Anyways, he's thrilled with the card, even if it isn't Tinkerbell.  He's now asked if he can colour some of the fairies again.  He's been talking about how he enjoyed colouring with Mommy's special pens outside with Mommy last year.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Freshly Made Sketches
AAA Cards - Birthday (Made for a birthday, even if it doesn't say so on the card.)
Crafting When We Can - One for the Kids (8 year old B-Day)
Fashionable Stamping - Old Favourites (Love all my Sweet Pea stamps but haven't used in 2 years)
Corrosive Challenge - Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Crafty Calendar - Things with Wings
Fantasy Stampers - Girl Power
Send a Smile for Kids - Anything Goes
Loves Rubber Stamps - Add a Sentiment
Sentimental Sundays - Funny or Cute Sentiment

Inching Towards a Birthday

My aunt is a quilter and she swears that if you don't like the fabric, you haven't cut it small enough yet.  This card is a testament to her thinking.  I made an inchie background put put them on the diagonal at 45 degrees.  I used up scraps from 3 very ciciddllic papers.  The smokie one seems to tone down the other two quite well.  I used the pearls which in real life match the bird's wings to cover the fact that not all the corners are perfect.  I think this would be fun to do for a baby card.  The bird is a sneak peak for this month.  I love this sweet new set.

Hope you will join us for this week's inchie challenge on MFP's Speedy Fox and Friends.

Challenges this card meets:
Sister Act - Anything Goes
The Stamping Boutique - Punches
DRS Design - Birds and Bees
Seize the Birthday - Anything birthday

Butterfly Birthday

I was so grateful for the excuse to make a card this week.  I'm in report card crunch and can't think straight any more.  I can't wait until I get them done and can have some significant crafting time to myself.

This week's challenge on MFP's Speedy Fox and Friend's challenge is to make a birthday card with butterflies.  I had fun playing with Splitcoaststampers Card Sketch challenge #533.  The images are from Oriental Joy and Lots of Words and the butterflies were stamped twice to allow the wings to fold up a bit for some dimension.  The sentiment is from Huge Blooms.  The ribbon was purchased when I was planning cards for my sister's wedding shower but it didn't make the final cut.  I love how it looks like part of a lattice fence here.

Challenges This Card Meets:

Seeing Stars

I went a little outside my usual comfort zone, both with the colours and my layout.  This week's MFP's Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge is to use at least 4 layers and to stagger them.  At one point on this card I have 7.  Not a record but not bad...

I decided to case the latest Mojo Monday sketch as my inspiration for this week.  I had to study it carefully for my inspiration but decided I wanted to go with the star theme.  I used my star stamp from MFP's Calendar set to make the background in Apricot Appeal,  Marina Mist and Pacific Point. The sentiment is from MFP's Great Flowers set.  The ribbon is also Apricot Appeal.  I then used both my star Nesties and my punch from Creative Memories.  The star embellishments are recycled from DS's Hundred Day poster.  He was so proud to be able to take in 100 rhinestones that year.  We did it as a Christmas tree and each bauble had 10 rhinestones.  I have too many supplies (Head hung in shame.)

Cosmic Colours Challenge

Challenges This Card Meets:
Mojo Monday - Sketch 388
Cosmic Colours Challenge - see picture
Bloggers Challenge - Birthday
Polka Doodles - Birthday
Aud Sentiments - Use a Two Word Sentiment
Cute Card Thursday - Celebrate
The House that Stamps Built - Die cuts, Punches and Stamping (Yes to all three!)
Stampotique Designers - Stars

Wish Upon a Birthday Star

The challenge for this week on MFP's Speedy Fox and Friends challenge is to make a rainbow.  I'll be honest, I goofed.  I read use every colour of the rainbow.  I finally decided to use all the colours in a shaker card.  I'm so low on birthday cards at the moment and I'm going to need quite a few for the next few months.  The sentiment is from MFP's Great Flowers.  The confetti comes from a CM border bunch.    I ended up covering my pink, green and orange paper with double-sided tape to add the glitter.  The card is quite large at 5.5 * 5.5 but so festive.

Challenges this Card Meets:
MFP's Speedy Fox and Friends -Make a Rainbow.
Paper Creator Crafts - Anything Goes
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - No Circles
Send A Smile for Kids - Birthday
Moving Along with the Times - Dies and Punches (I used both)
Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Teddy Bears' Picnic

This is such a fun challenge this week.  The theme on MFP's Simple Salutations is bears.  This was a challenge for me, I don't have any bear stamps.  At first it was difficult - my bear kept looking more like a monkey than a bear but perseverance makes perfect.  The sentiment was from MFP's Lots of Words.

What A Doll!

This week's topic on MFP's Simple Salutations is to use Paper Dolls.  I was always more of a tomboy and never played with paper dolls before. I used the Frances Doll and the Frances Bundle Up sets.  After playing with the doll for a bit, I started to get into it.  I took the boots from the winter outfit and cut them thinner to look like dress boots.  I made my own pencil skirt design by following the doll's hip lines.  The blouse is from the tennis outfit.  It just goes to show how much flexibility there is in the sets to make it your own.

For the sentiment, I love how this turned out.  I used the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Great Flowers set and then added Beautiful! from the Huge Blooms set.  You wouldn't know that it's two separate sentiments.  The papers are from My Mind's Eye.

Canada's Birthday

Today's Simple Salutations Challenge on MFP's is to create a card using the colours of your country.  We celebrated Canada Day yesterday with a fantastic parade and then had friends over for a barbecue so the kids could run wild.  It was hot so everyone got wet and a good time was had by all.

Mrs. Noofy's Card

For my patriotic card, I have to confess, I was completely inspired by Mrs. Noofy's card on Splitcoaststampers.  She's kindly agreed to be a guest designer today.   I changed the image, sentiment and embossing folder.

 I hope all my Canadian friends had a wonderful Canada Day and best wishes to my American friends since the 4th is so close.

Papers:  Real Red, Gina K's Luxury White
Stamps:  Camellia by MFPs for the image, Great Flowers by MFPs for the sentiment
Embossing Folder:  Daisies by Crafts-Too
Spellbinders: Lacey Circle Nestabilities

Our Pet, Rex

I'm hosting a challenge on Splitcoaststamper's Virtual Stamp Night.  The challenge is to create a card and story about a truly fantastical summer vacation.  Here's my story...

My DS loves dinosaurs so for our summer vacation we took him to Drumheller, Alberta to search for dinosaur fossils. Well, unbeknownst to me, he found a dinosaur egg fossil and slipped it into his pocket. (You aren't supposed to take them but he's young and is fascinated with all kinds of rocks.) He carried his new favourite rock in his pocket all summer long. On the Labour Day long weekend, we were in Oosoyoos, B.C. (Canada's only micro-desert area) and while the kids were at the beach with daddy, I thought it was the perfect time to do some laundry. I pulled his rock from his jean's pocket to wash the jeans and low and behold, the rock started to crack. Out popped a Tyrannosaurus, who now thinks I'm his mommy. I can't begin to tell you how much this is costing me in chuck cuts and you don't want to know what cleaning up after him is like! Our new "pet" won't be staying long but the boys are having fun playing fetch with "Rex" for now.


The card follows this week's Mojo Monday sketch.  The DP is from my Costco set from DH.  The dino is drawn by Dustin Pike and the stamp itself was released by Paper Makeup.  The birthday medallion is from Stampendous.

This was so much fun!

It Ain't Easy Being Green

This week's MFP's Sketch with a Twist is to make a masculine card.  I was quite  excited to be able to play with month's new release, Tree Frogs, so I couldn't resist making this birthday card.  I did computer generate the sentiment.  I saved it because it's one I know will get used a lot with this set.  The really cool thing was researching tree frogs to see all the variety of colours - so much fun.  I'm sure you will see purple, blue and yellow frogs later...

Challenges this Card Meets:
Shopping Our Stash - Using cardstock I bought 2 years ago when LSS went out of business.  I was inspired by "It Ain't Easy Being Green"  sung by Kermit the Frog.
Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes
Artistic Impressions - No Designer Paper
Craft it Up - Puns
Created with Love - Critters
Incy Wincy - Birthdays
Through the Purple Haze - Masculine
Addicted to Stamps - Inspired by a Song.   I was inspired by "It Ain't Easy Being Green"  sung by Kermit the Frog.

Birthday Bouquet

Today's Sketch with a Twist is to make a card with flowers as the theme.  I was playing with the sketch when I found one of these silk flowers on my table and was inspired.  They are recycled from a window display that was going to be thrown out.  The sentiment is  from Fabulous Blooms from Mark's Finest Papers, which will be coming out in May.  Shhh, it's a sneak peak.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Sweet Stamps - Photo Inspiration of Flowers
Use Your Stuff - Flowers

Peek-A-Boo

DS spend a lovely afternoon with me last summer colouring some of my pre-inked images that were so nicely given to me when I was pregnant and couldn't stamp.  (Please note that DS is now in school and I still have two shoeboxes of pre-stamped images.)  I decided that he worked so hard that I should make his efforts into a card.  Everything on the card came from my scrap pile, including the base.  The brown panel was run through my wood grain embossing folder.  The layout came from Splitcoaststampers Sketch challenge 377.

Challenges this Card Meets:

Open-Minded Crafting - Animal Antics

Alphabet Challenge - D for Die-cuts

Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

Crafting When We Can - For a Child
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge - Anything Goes for April
Feeling Crafty Challenge - Anything for a Child
One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes
The Crafting Cafe - One for the Boys
Copic Marker Europe - Birthday