2013 March » » Page 2

sketchy inkspirational bunny

Mar 182013

I didn’t think I was going to have time to make something with this week’s Freshly Made Sketches layout, but I managed to pull a card together this morning and share it here. I’ve also been eyeing the Inkspirational inspiration photo challenge because I had what I felt was the perfect image for it. I’ve tweaked the sketch layout by turning it on its side and then flipping it horizontally, and I stretched the image panel a bit taller. I tried fiddling with the photo editing but wasn’t able to get the card base and mats to show up as purple rather than black. Oh well.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Springtime Babies (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery Prints designer paper (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); Certainly Celery satin ribbon (SU); flower (Prima Marketing); dew drop (Robin’s Nest)

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - March theme challenge

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Mar 162013

Saturday means it’s time for another 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenge! This week we have a fun theme – Christmas animals. You can join in by making a Christmas card with an animal (or two or more!) on it, and linking it to the 52{C}CT website by 1:00 pm Eastern time Friday, March 22. Check out the challenge site for all the details.

I will give you advance notice right now that my card definitely leans toward cheeky humor rather than seasonal reverence. I haven’t been sleeping well this week, and the constant state of tiredness has skewed my sense of humor. So when I was looking through my stamps and narrowing down my options for today’s card, this humorous bear image seemed perfect. In the fall when this card is donated to Operation Write Home, maybe one of our heroes stationed overseas will appreciate its quirkiness. I decided to use the current Cards in Envy sketch challenge for the layout, tweaking it a bit to suit the image and sentiment. The designer paper I picked for the background reminds me of a woolen sweater, and I thought that fit in with the bear’s scarf. The bear, speech balloon and banner are all fussy cut, and the bear is adhered to the card with dimensional adhesive.

I don’t usually put sentiments inside the cards I make for OWH, but I felt a need to include one on this card to give it more of a Christmasy feel. I also turned a few leftovers from the card front into a decorative embellishment.

So, there you have it. Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you’ll join us and play along with 52{C}CT this week!

Supplies:
Stamps: Beary Christmas (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps); Bannerific, A Birdie Told Me (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); Riding Hood Red (Stampin’ Up); papers from Nordic Holiday 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); dimensionals (SU)

'ABC' Challenges Guest Designer!

5 Responses »

Mar 152013

I am excited and honored to announce that because my card was chosen as the weekly winner a couple weeks ago at ‘ABC’ Challenges, I was asked to be the guest designer for this week’s challenge! Thank you, Patty and the rest of the ‘ABC’ Design Team, for this opportunity!

If you came here looking for my weekly Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge post, please click here: Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge #96, and new release!

The current ‘ABC’ Challenge is called “In the Air” and it’s all about things you can find in the sky – clouds, birds, airplanes, whatever you might see when you look up outdoors. I tossed around several different ideas before choosing to showcase a hummingbird on my card. The only hummingbirds we see here in the eastern United States are the ruby-throated ones, and I think they are fascinating. It’s only been in the last couple of years that we’ve seen them here in our neighborhood, so last summer my family was finally able to use the feeder that my sister and her husband gave my husband and me for Christmas soon after we got married. We enjoyed watching the little birds zooming around and fighting each other for feeding rights. I’m looking forward to putting the feeder out again when it’s closer to summertime.

Anyway, back to the card. I made it thinking I’d include it in my next shipment of cards to Operation Write Home. I went back a few months and used OWH Stars and Stamps sketch #138 for the layout, but turned it on its side. I decided to keep a simple ivory and black color scheme to show off the details in the image (and, I confess, I don’t know if my coloring skills would do justice to this gorgeous image). I used Sandy Allnock’s ribbon brad trick to embellish the card.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you’ll come back again, and that you have a fun-filled weekend!

Supplies for this card:
Digital Images: Hummingbird with Scripture, Mother’s Day Sentiments (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: printer ink
Other: ribbon (Offray); crystal brad (Recollections); Victoria embossing folder (ProvoCraft)

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge #96, and new release!

6 Responses »

Mar 152013

Hello! Happy Friday! Today is especially exciting because Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps is introducing several new digital images! There are four beautiful flowers and two sets of sentiments. The rest of the design team and I are showcasing different ones this week, so please check out everyone’s blogs so you can see all the loveliness! And just in case you need an additional reason to visit the design team’s blogs – one of us is a “mystery blogger”. One of the people who comments on her blog will be chosen at random to receive the entire new digital release! It’s so much of a mystery that even we team members don’t know yet who it is – so be sure to visit them all!

Since it’s Friday, we also have a new Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge. This week we’re asking you to create a Z-fold card using a digital image as your focal point. Although we especially enjoy seeing what our challenge participants make with Sweet ‘n Sassy digital images, you can use a digi from any stamp company. Some excellent instructions for making a Z-fold card can be found by clicking here: Beate Johns’ Z-fold tutorial

The design team received the new images a few days ago so we could have some lead time for making our cards for today’s post. When I first saw them, I immediately thought of this week’s OWH Stars and Stamps sketch. So I tweaked the measurements given in the Z-fold tutorial to make it work for a portrait-oriented A2 card, and I turned the sketch on its side to allow me to combine the two challenges. Since there were four floral images and I had only 3 blocks on the sketch, I had to choose which flower not to use. So I decided to use the three that made me think most of Spring. The daffodil and tulip were easy picks, and then I figured I’d go with the lily because of Easter lilies – although I ended up coloring mine pink instead of leaving it white. I had to resize the images down somewhat so I could fit all three of them on that panel of the card. But that’s one of the fun things about digital images – being able to manipulate them to fit the needs of your card.

Here’s the best photo I could get showing off the Z-fold:

This one shows off the sketch better. The card kept wanting to pop open for me, so please excuse my finger holding it shut:

Here’s the sketch:

So now it’s time for you to check out what the rest of the design team has done with the other new images, and then make your own Z-fold card to share with us! Link your artwork over at the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge website before midnight eastern time Thursday, March 21. We’d love to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a fabulous weekend!

Supplies:
Digital Images: Lily Block, Daffodil Block, Tulip Block (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); So Saffron, Tea Party designer paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: printer ink
Other: markers (Copic); Sweet Shop ribbon, ribbon slide, dimensionals (SU)

dynamic blocks of color for dad

3 Responses »

Mar 142013

Time slipped up on me this week, and I realized this morning that I hadn’t made anything yet for this week’s Dynamic Duos challenge. Since I’ve played in all of them thus far, I didn’t want to slip up now. So I came up with a quick little CAS card for it. I also am getting in on this week’s CAS-ual Fridays challenge just in the nick of time. The CAS-ual Fridays challenge is to use blocks of color. Since no particular color is specified, I think I’m OK with combining that challenge with the Dynamic Duos.

I made this card in mind to go in with the other Father’s Day cards I’m working on for Operation Write Home, but I suppose the sentiment is generic enough that it would work just as well as a birthday card, too. The pewter buttons are actually brads. I received them as part of a secret sister gift at least 5 years ago and stashed them away. I found them a few days ago and decided it was time to put them to use.

I concede this isn’t one of my bestest cards, but for getting it together in a hurry, it’s not too bad.

Thanks for stopping by today! It’s almost Friday, so hang in there – the weekend is almost here! 🙂

Supplies:
Stamps: Masculine Messages (Gina K. Designs)
Cardstock: Kraft, Naturals Ivory, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade (SU)
Other: square punch (EK Success); scoring board (Martha Stewart Crafts); brads (Hot Off the Press)

tulips for Mother's Day

5 Responses »

Mar 132013

I’m still working on some Mother’s Day cards for Operation Write Home, and here’s one I came up with using the colors from the current CAS – Colours and Sketches challenge. I think these are lovely colors for a springtime card. I’ve also been trying to complete some of the OWH Stars and Stamps sketches that I’ve missed. This card uses sketch #135, which is a great one for clean and simple cards with a few layers. Although the embroidery floss in the button looks almost black in the photo, it’s a good color match to the Rich Razzleberry ink. I just can’t leave buttonholes naked! LOL

My own tulips are not this tall and pretty yet; only about 2″ of foliage is peeking up from the ground. So I am looking forward to seeing them grow and bloom over the next month.

Thanks for stopping by today!

All supplies for this card are from Stampin’ Up unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Spring Garden, Messages for Mom
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Certainly Celery
Other: Pretty in Pink button; embroidery floss (DMC); D’Vine Swirls embossing folder (ProvoCraft)

some people... ;)

1 Response »

Mar 122013

Today’s card has a story behind it. Please bear with me as I share it.

Back in early February when I needed to make a card for the OWH Cards with Critters blog skip, I was having a hard time deciding which of my Lawn Fawn animal stamps to use. I asked my friends on Facebook to help me pick one. My sister asked why I couldn’t use more than one. Because I was hoping to keep the card as simple and quick as possible, I hadn’t really planned to use more than one. But I did end up using three, LOL. When NetworkedBlogs published that blog post on my Facebook page, my sister saw the card and commented, “There’s my multi-animal birthday card!” Then a few weeks later when she saw my first washi tape card, she said she’d be happy if that one showed up in her mailbox even though it didn’t have animals on it.

So late last week, I decided to combine elements from both of those cards into one birthday card for my sister. I kept the same basic layout from the animal card, but used washi tape instead of designer paper for the background stripes. I chose to shorten the stripes so that the image panel would hide the ends, so I wouldn’t have to fuss about how evenly I cut the tape. Because I am a perfectionist, I was having a hard enough time getting the two lines of tape matched up so the little circles were in a straight line across. I did rearrange the animals a little bit, and used a different quote/thought balloon for the happy birthday sentiment. I tried keeping the overall color scheme close to black and white, but I wanted the party hats to be colorful. I chose green and a golden yellow for two reasons – because they reminded me of spring and daffodils, and because they are our alma mater high school’s colors.

And here is the finished product:

My sister’s birthday is today, and I hope she has a fabulous day and a wonderful year! And may she always remember… no matter how old she gets, I’ll still be younger! 😀

Supplies:
Stamps: Critters in the ‘Burbs, A Birdie Told Me, Hats Off to You (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); washi tape (We R Memory Keepers)

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - March color challenge

11 Responses »

Mar 092013

Happy Saturday! The weekend is here, and it’s time for another 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenge! This week my fellow team member Louise has a color challenge for us – black, white, and metallic gold. I ended up making two cards for this challenge. I wasn’t thrilled with the first one, so I made the second one… and then after making the second one, I liked the first one better! Go figure. 🙂

So here’s the first card. My sweet sons’ Christmas present for me was a gift certificate to Oozak, and some of the things I bought with it are Memory Box dies. I love snowflakes, so I couldn’t resist the die I used for this card. I thought gold would be a fun, unexpected color for a snowflake, and I do like the way it turned out. I ran the gold cardstock through my Xyron machine before I cut the snowflake, thinking that would be the easiest way to add adhesive to the snowflake. However, it seemed like the die had a hard time going through the backing on the adhesive. That was discouraging. I tried adding shims and finally got it to cut all the way through. I used Stars and Stamps sketch #41 for the layout, substituting the snowflake for one of the rectangular panels. As I was editing the photo of this card, I had the thought that I should have used textured black cardstock for some additional but subtle visual interest. Oh well.

I actually thought of gold bells before I thought about using the snowflake die, but I was having a hard time figuring out just how I would carry out that thought. I’d already shared one bell card with similar colors just a few months ago, and I didn’t want to copy it. When I saw this week’s Freshly Made Sketches layout, I thought it might work with another bell stamp I own. I didn’t want the black panel to be just plain, and one of my swirly embossing folders coordinated really well with the bell image. But I didn’t want the deep texture that the embossing folders give. So I embossed the panel, took the cardstock out of the folder, reassembled the “sandwich” with the cardstock out of the folder, and ran it through my Big Kick again. That actually worked to smooth out the texture more than I bargained for, and it was really hard to get the embossing to show in the photo, so I had to do more tweaking than usual with my photo editing software. I made one small change to the layout, moving the sentiment to a place where it would be more visible.

So there they are – two cards for this week’s 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, and two more for my growing stash of cards for Operation Write Home. What kind of Christmas card will you create with black, white and gold? Please be sure to share it at the 52{C}CT site by Friday, March 15.

Supplies for the snowflake card:
Stamps: Sincere Salutations (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Brushed Gold (SU)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Bianca die (Memory Box)

Supplies for the bells card:
Stamps: A Greeting for All Reasons (Stampin’ Up); Holiday Lane (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Brushed Gold (SU)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Gold (ColorBox)
Other: D’Vine Swirls embossing folder (ProvoCraft)

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge #95

10 Responses »

Mar 082013

Happy Friday! It’s time for a new Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge! This week our challenge is to Go Green. Create a project using the color green, and/or repurpose or recycle something on your project. Be sure to use a digital image for your main focal point! You don’t have to use a Sweet ‘n Sassy digital image, but we do enjoy seeing our participants use them (and you get the chance for extra perks if you do – see the Digi Challenge site for more details!). Link your card at the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge site by midnight eastern time Thursday, March 14.

I’ll admit it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do for this challenge. I do like to recycle things when I can, but nothing was really striking my fancy for the challenge. Then yesterday afternoon I walked by my dresser and this ticket seemed to call out to me. I’ve had it sitting there for a while; it’s from our high school’s football team’s playoff game. But I figured I could work it into a card. And it was green. Since football season is still quite a way off, but baseball is getting into swing (sorry, pun actually not intended for once!), I decided to use the Baseball Rhubarb image and give Rhubarb a green uniform. I used Microsoft Word to create the sentiment, and notched the ends of the strip to form the banner shape.

This is going in my box of cards for Operation Write Home, and I think it’s neutral enough that one of our military personnel could send it home to either a boy or a girl. The colors tie in with this week’s Inkspirational challenge. This week’s theme at ‘ABC’ Challenges is “Anything Goes” – so that means this card can be entered there, too.

I hope you’ll join in this week’s Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Digital Image: Baseball Rhubarb (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Wild Wasabi (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: printer ink
Other: markers (Copic); Spots and Dots embossing folder (ProvoCraft); ticket from football game

dynamically inkspirational daffodils

7 Responses »

Mar 052013

It’s that time of year when I start looking forward to the flowers blooming again. (Although depending on which weather forecast you prefer, my area is in for either lots of rain, or up to 16 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow!) This week’s Dynamic Duos color challenge made me think of daffodils – I guess partly because one of the colors has the word “daffodil” in its name. My own daffodils have about 5 inches of foliage sprouting up from the ground. Since that isn’t enough to enjoy, I decided to create some flowers with my stamps today. I used the Inkspirational challenge #9 sketch for the layout of this card.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Three Daffodils (Hero Arts); Filigree, Three Little Words (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Garden Green (SU); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Garden Green (SU); Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); half pearls (KaiserCraft)

fresh flowers

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Mar 042013

OK, I’ll admit it – large blank panels on card sketches tend to intimidate me. I am never sure how to fill up the space. So that’s why it took me a while to figure out what to do with Freshly Made Sketch #75. I finally decided I’d use this large floral stamp and make a spring-y card to add to the box I’ll be sending to Operation Write Home at the end of the month. I did take the liberty of turning the sketch on its side.

Supplies:
Stamps: Flower Field (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps); Thank You Note (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue (SU)
Other: markers (Copic); Certainly Celery satin ribbon (SU)

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - March sketch challenge

7 Responses »

Mar 022013

Hello! Today I can finally share some exciting news that I’ve been having to keep to myself for the last week. I’ve been selected to join the Design Team at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown! I’m looking forward to spreading a little Christmas cheer all year round with my fellow team members, as well as building up a stock of Christmas and winter cards to send to Operation Write Home in the fall.

Since it’s the first Saturday of the month, 52{C}CT has a sketch challenge this week. I changed it up a tiny bit by stretching it from a square to a rectangle. This sketch is pretty unique because of the triangular shapes. I decided to let some designer paper do most of the work for me. I just now realized (literally, JUST now as I’m typing) that since I added a bow where the two “lines” on the sentiment panel join, I should have turned the sketch upside down so that the bow would be at the top, which would make the sentiment panel resemble a present. UGH. Doesn’t it annoy you when you get a bright idea just a little too late? Sigh. Anyway, I still do like the card as it is:

Whether you prefer to keep your cards for your own personal use or donate them to a charity of your choice, I hope you’ll consider participating in the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenges! A new challenge is presented every Saturday morning. Link your work at the 52{C}CT site each week by 1:00 pm Eastern time on Friday afternoons. Be sure to visit the other Design Team members’ blogs, too, and give them a little commenting love.

Supplies for today’s card:
Stamp: More Merry Messages (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Riding Hood Red (SU); designer paper from “Very Merry Christmas” 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Echo Park)
Ink: Riding Hood Red (SU)
Other: pearls (Queen & Co.); embroidery floss (DMC)

big felt snowflake

6 Responses »

Mar 012013

This past week’s challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown is to use felt on a Christmas card. I’ve had some felt snowflake stickers for a while, so I knew I wanted to use at least one of them on my card for this challenge. However, I was having a hard time figuring out papers and colors and layouts that I liked. Finally I decided to go the KISS route (Keep It Simple, Stamper) and settled on this design with only one patterned paper. The layout is this week’s OWH Stars & Stamps sketch. I felt like the center of the snowflake needed some sort of embellishment, so I added a fancy silver doodad with a crystal brad. Since that all ended up being fairly thick by the Operation Write Home guidelines, I’ll probably use this as an AnyHero card next winter, so it will go only one way through the postal system. I like that the colors are a nod to the patriotic red, white, and blue, but are not quite the usual. There is a little bit of glitter on the snowflakes (they came that way), so I’ll keep watch on this to make sure it doesn’t flake off. It seemed pretty secure while I was creating the card, though.

Amazingly (to me), there is no stamping on this card! The papers I chose didn’t really lend themselves to adding a sentiment. I need to remember more often than I do that sometimes cards are just fine without words on the front.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Going Gray, Night of Navy (Stampin’ Up); designer paper from “Very Merry Christmas” 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Echo Park)
Other: Filigree brad (SU); crystal brads (Recollections); felt snowflake sticker (Creatology)

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge #94

7 Responses »

Mar 012013

Hello! Happy Friday! Can you believe it’s March already? Time sure does fly when you’re having fun, and I’ve been having fun with a lot of cardmaking challenges lately. Since it’s Friday, that means it’s time for a new Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge! Are you ready for it?

This week’s challenge is All Things Girly. Make a card suitable to give a girl of any age from 1 to 101! Just be sure you use at least one digital image for the focal point of your card. You’re not required to use a Sweet ‘n Sassy digital image, but we do love seeing our challenge participants use them.

Since Spring is trying to get here, I’ve chosen an image suitable for the season. Spring makes me think of pastel colors, so I picked some from the designer paper. The sentiment is from a Sweet ‘n Sassy clear stamp set called “Christmas Tags”, but it includes several sentiments that can be used year round, such as this “thank you”. I thought the script font went well with the feminine theme. The sketch used for the layout comes from this week’s ‘ABC’ Challenges.

So, now it’s your turn to show us what kind of girly creation you can make! Link your project at the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge site by midnight eastern time Thursday, March 7. Remember that for every project you submit throughout March, you will get one entry to be eligible for winning 3 digital images of your choice from the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps store! If you use a Sweet ‘n Sassy digital image, you’ll get two entries! Be sure to play along every week, and to go visit the rest of the design teams’ blogs for more inspiration. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Digital Image: Butterfly & Flower (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Sentiment Stamp: Christmas Tags (SNSS)
Cardstock: Almost Amethyst (SU); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); designer papers from Kioshi 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: printer ink; Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: standard circle Nestabilities die (Spellbinders); markers (Copic)

Newer Entries

sketchy inkspirational bunny

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - March theme challenge

'ABC' Challenges Guest Designer!

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge #96, and new release!

dynamic blocks of color for dad

tulips for Mother's Day

some people... ;)

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - March color challenge

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge #95

dynamically inkspirational daffodils

fresh flowers

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - March sketch challenge

big felt snowflake

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge #94

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Really great links

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