Monday, March 25, 2024

Lantern Bear

 Hello, everyone!  Here is a mid-challenge reminder for our "Flora or Fauna" challenge over on the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  You still have almost 2 weeks to play along with us.  Our fabulous sponsor is Polkadoodles.  Here is my card:

As you can see, I chose both Fauna and Flora for this card.  I used the adorable "Lantern Bear" image from Polkadoodles and dressed him up with some gorgeous patterned papers and ephemera from Not 2 Shabby.  (Both were part of a prize I won last month.)  I printed the bear image rather large so I used the "Out of the Box" die cutting technique letting bits of the image hang outside the circle I die cut.  It's such a fun touch and it makes the image take up less room over all.  I finished everything off with a small sentiment and some red pearls.

Remember, you still have almost 2 weeks to play.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: Polkadoodles" Lantern Bear" digi; Papertrey Ink "Just Sentiments: Be Merry"
Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A"

Challenges:
Sparkles #158--plaid or tartan (I have a pink/tan plaid layer just under the image panel)
Die Cut Divas--anything goes
Cheerful Sketches--sketch (I used my poinsettias as the square corner elements)













Sheepski Designs #84--anything goes
Creative Inspirations--anything goes
Paper Funday--anything goes with the optional twist: the DIES have it
613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: diamond or pearl
Peace on Earth #60--anything goes with the optional twist mood board













NBUS #60--never before used schtuff (papers and ephemera just received last week)
MFT Christmas--anything Christmas goes
Shopping Our Stash #517--round and round
Word Art Wednesday #640--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Penny's Challenge #567--anything goes
A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes


Friday, March 22, 2024

300th Challenge!!

 Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: "Happy Birthday" as we are celebrating our 300th challenge!!  That is quite the milestone!

Here is my card for your inspiration:
I almost always start my cards with a sketch--it just gives me direction (and I guess it is taking the easy way out because I don't have to do the thinking!)  Sometimes a sketch really catches my eye and I just HAVE to try it out.  This is one of those sketches; it's so interesting and fun!
This is going to be for my father's birthday, so I went with some beautiful sea inspired papers from Stampin' Up (I have no idea what they are called as I won them last year some time).  It was a bit challenging to create those wonky panels, but it was totally worth it; I love how it turned out!  I started with a very pale gray cardstock for my card base and used an Ocean Tides cardstock (from Papertrey Ink) to frame the sentiment.  The dark blue papers have a beautiful shimmer and shine in their patterns, almost like a foil.  You can see it better in the photo below:
I die cut the gray cardstock with a stitched rectangle and then adhered my wonky panels and die cut it all again using the same die so the stitching would border the entire panel.  After adding the sentiment, I finished is off with some chrome rhinestones for a little bit of sparkle.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:
Stamps: MFT "Essential Sentiments"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 25" stitched rectangle and "Blueprints 13" stitched banner

Challenges:
Unicorn Challenge #96--for the boys/men
Die Cut Divas--anything goes
Creative Inspirations--anything goes
Paper Funday Challenge--anything goes with the optional twist: the DIES have it
613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: diamond or pearls (I chose diamonds)
Incy Wincy Designs--birthday AND/OR funny/humorous
Creative Fingers #273--anything goes












Monday, March 11, 2024

Spring poppies

 Hello, everyone!  It's time for a new challenge from the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  The theme is: Flora or Fauna.  I am using an image from our fabulous sponsor: Polkadoodles and I chose to use both flora and fauna.

 Here is my card:
Now, I know that these flowers are poppies, and in the Northeast, at least, poppies are not spring flowers.  But I colored them up in a light pink, and we can pretend they are a spring flower.  The little fox is wearing his spring scarf, because it can still be chilly here in the spring.  This image is really large and I wanted to show off some of the patterned paper, so I die some out of the box die cutting, allowing the flowers to stand tall but keeping the image panel much smaller.  All the papers where from a paper pack I have had for AGES and it was sitting on my desk since my daughter had just given it back to me.  Last week I decided to have a little fun and try to use some of the stuff that was on my desk before putting them away.  I added a little bit of die cut grass to the bottom of the image and some silver stickles to the centers of the flowers for some sparkle.  I finished it all off with a die cut "Hello" that I die cut twice and layered together, and then added some light pink pearls.
You have all month to play along.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: Polkadoodles "Poppy Flowers--Autumn Fox" digi
Dies: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps grass border die; MFT smartphone die "hello" and "Blueprints 12" square (I used it for the outside the box technique and then trimmed the square down further with my trimmer)

Challenges:
Fab n Funky Challenge #590--favorite colors (pink and green are not my favorite colors, but for some reason, they are my favorite colors to use when making cards.  I think it's because they go so well together in nature.)
Penny's Challenge #566--anything goes
Cards Galore #121--anything goes
Sheepski Designs #84--anything goes













613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: diamonds or pearls
Beautiful Blossoms--anything goes













Triple B Challenge--anything goes with birds, butterflies, or blooms









The Paper Shelter #586--in the garden
Craft Rocket #112--for the girls
Paper Funday #63--anything goes with the optional twist: the DIES have it

Friday, March 8, 2024

Winter doesn't last

  Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: Use Spring Colors

Here is my card for your inspiration:
I was looking through my many digital images, hoping to find a crocus to use for this challenge, when I came across this beautiful parrot tulip image from Fred She Said.  I never found a crocus (don't even know if I have one of them as a digi), but the tulip does the job just as well!  The yellow paper was part of a paper pack that was sitting on my desk waiting to be put away and it became the color inspiration for the card.  I die cut the paper with a stitched rectangle die and then ran it through in an embossing folder to give some beautiful texture.  I remembered that I had some ribbons that had originally come with the paper pack as part of a card making kit many, many, many years ago, so I pulled them out and found this matching yellow ribbon.  I did a fun "out of the box" die cutting technique which allows the leaf of the image to pop outside the die cut rectangle.  I finished it off with an encouraging sentiment and some clear dew drops.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Fred She Said "Parrot Tulip" digi; Verve "Beautiful You" sentiment
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle and Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A" rectangle
Cuttlebug embossing folder

Challenges:
Penny's Challenge #566--anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday--bright & cheerful
Cards Galore #121--anything goes
Sheepski Designs #84--anything goes
Die Cut Divas--anything goes













Paper Shelter #586--in the garden
Double D--first signs of spring



Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Shine on us

The last year or two, I have saved some commercial Christmas cards that we have received from other people because they are just too pretty to throw away.  From time to time, I get a chance to use pieces of those cards to create other cards.  It's so easy and fun that it seems like cheatin!  But I guess it is really no different than using a pre-printed image or topper.  Anyway, I was cleaning up my crafting area and thought it might be fun to just randomly use some of the things that were on my desk rather than putting them away.  I started with this blue card base; it was already cut to size I just had to score it.  Then I went looking for a blue themed Christmas card from my stash and I found this one.  The picture is so large that at first I wasn't sure I would be able to add a sentiment without covering up a big portion of the image.  Then I came upon the genius idea of heat embossing the sentiment directly onto the image.  I first die the the part of the image I really wanted with a stitched rectangle die.  Then I heat embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder and it turn out sooooo beautiful!!  I wasn't sure how it would emboss on the shiny surface, but it is perfect!
I really wanted to be able to reuse the sentiment as well, so I added it to the inside along with the rest of the tree from the front of the card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Verve "Beyond Measure"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle

Challenges:
Paper Funday #62--anything goes with the optional twist of no patterned paper
Creative Knockouts #515--die cuts/punches/stencils
Krafty Chicks #704--all occasions
Creative Fingers #272--anything goes

So glad

 I lead a women's small group at our church and this semester we are incorporating some "social events" into our schedule.  We meet on Thursday mornings and two weeks ago, Thursday was the day after Valentine's Day.  So, we had a little Valentine's Day party with treats and a few games and I asked each woman to bring a little Valentine's Day card for each of the other women in the group.  This is the card I created to give to everyone.  They are little--4 1/4 x 4 1/4 (mostly so I could cut a 12x12 piece of paper into 9 pieces--I needed 7 cards though I made an extra to give away to a friend) so I created coordinating envelopes to hold them.  Making envelopes is a great way to use up some of that 12x12 patterned paper that you never use!

I die cut the cream hearts and then used the leftover outlines in my mini MISTI to hold them in place so I could stamp the sentiment without having to reposition it every time.  Then I did the same thing with the little banner.  Everything seemed a little plain so I added the stamped pink hearts onto the cream heart.  Inside I wrote each of them a note telling them why I was glad they are part of our group.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps "The Future"; Repeat Impressions "I'm so . . ."; Verve "To the Moon" trio of hearts
Dies: MFT "Stitched Heart STAX" and "Blueprints 12" stitched banner

Challenges:
Unicorn Challenge #94--dots AND/OR stripes
Crafty Calendar--add a heart
613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: love letters (sentiment as the focal)
Aud Sentiments #310--used dies AND/OR love/anniversary/wedding
Double D--use patterned paper
Krafty Chicks #704--all occasions
Creative Fingers #272--anything goes
Alphabet Challenge--X is for x-tra hearts

Monday, February 26, 2024

Blue Skies

Hello, everyone!  Here is a mid-challenge reminder for our "CAS" challenge over on the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  You still have almost 2 weeks to play along with us.  We have two sponsors and the image I used today came from Mirtillamente.  Here is my card:


I kept this one nice and CAS: die cut the image panel with a stitched die, colored up my image, stamped the sentiment and adhered it to the card base before adding some clear dewdrops to mimic rain.

Remember, you still have almost 2 weeks to play.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: Mirtillamente "Phoebe Rain" digi; Verve "Blue Skies" sentiment
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle

Challenges:
Cards Galore--anything goes
Sheepski Designs #83--anything goes
Paper Funday #62--anything goes with the optional twist: no patterned paper
Shopping Our Stash #515--put your best face forward (use a human face)
Word Art Wednesday #636--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Penny's Challenge #565--anything goes
Krafty Chicks #704--all occasions
Creative Fingers #272--anything goes