Girlfriends stick together

The last Freshly Made Sketch had me so stumped that I was determined to tackle this week's Freshly Made Sketches.  When I read that Tui wanted to showcase some larger stamps I knew exactly which stamp set I wanted to watercolor.  I had this little cutie (Inky Antics: Girlfriends) just waiting to be loved up with some ink and watercoloring!  Here's the sketch...

And here's my take...

These ladies were so fun to watercolor...felt like a kid again...only using some grown up Distress Markers and fancy water pen!  Made the flower trim using a Martha Stewart punch and alternated different sized pearls to the centers.  I absolutely LOVE the sentiment and hope this card gives someone a good laugh!

Here's the closeup...

Now I really have to go to bed with 2 long days of work ahead of me...g'night!

Playing with sequins!

I totally enjoy my Wednesdays off.  It gives me time to catch up on all the things I procrastinated on over the weekend.  Ran a bunch of errands this morning and squeezed in a lunch date with the hubby.  Got home and did the homework and dinner thing.  Then it was off to play and make a card for Pinspired Challenge using this...

I used the colors for pinspiration and loved the pattern of triangles at the bottom.  I needed a bold, encouraging sentiment so went with Cas-ual Fridays Stamps from the Breath and Only You stamp sets.  Here's my take on it...

Going with the sequins trend I added those in to mimic the bold green splashes seen in the inspiration piece.

And a closeup...

Wishing everyone a great rest of the week...looking forward to the weekend already!

Speechless

I've been so blessed with so many supportive bloggers and can't thank everyone enough for commenting on my posts!  So this card is dedicated to all those that take the time to show their support and give words of encouragement.  It means so much to me and "no words can express" as my card below will tell you...

I used the colors in The Play Date Cafe for inspiration

and am also entering this in CAS-ual Fridays to add silver into your design.  Just heat embossed Lawn Fawn's A Birdie Told Me speech bubbles in silver and the dots from Sweet Christmas to show the "no words can express" sentiment.

Below are the supplies used.

HAPPY TUESDAY!

I (heart) RAINBOWS!

With St. Patty's Day right around the corner, I thought I'd get in the spirit, but also wanted versatility...in case I needed a card to place Happy Birthday inside or Best Wishes.  I think it could also work for a congrats card as well.  I followed this weeks CAS(E) this Sketch

I used this opportunity to jump on the sequins bandwagon...hehe.  I've been seeing a lot of sequin use and thought it perfect for exactly what I needed it to be.  I found that glue dots work perfect to secure sequins on to cardstock.  The cute little pot is actually a witch's cauldron from Inky Antics Halloween Frog stamp set.  I just heat embossed in gold on black carstock and fussy cut snipping off the little stands that were on the bottom to make it look more like a pot.  Check it out below.

And the surprise...

Just pull on the pot o' gold and SURPRISE...a gift card!  Love when cards have surprises!

So I pulled this off by placing strips of cardstock on foam tape which allows the gift card to slide in and out so easily.  Just placed a glue dot on the corner of the GC and stuck the pot of gold on.  Again kept the sentiment versatile and will add the occasion celebrated on the inside of the card.

That's it for this weekend...unfortunately not a very productive weekend, but looking forward to Wednesday (my next day off)!  Hope everyone has a great week and HAPPY MONDAY!

To post or not to post...

Wondering if anyone out there posts their work even if they feel it didn't turn out "challenge worthy?"  I have been staring at this weeks Freshly Made Sketch

I thought up sooo many ideas, but for some reason had the darndest time getting it on a card.  Ugh!  I thought of doing a purse card, then a layered card, then thought turning the label into a thought bubble.  Try as I might, it was not working out...I knew I wanted that cute little penguin from Kitty Bee Designs and needed a birthday card.  This is how it turned out.

I really liked my card base, cause I worked so darn hard on it...lol.  Those stripes are hand made with love using my craft knife.  Again probably not challenge worthy, but decided to give it a try anyway!  My hope is that another blogger will get a tidbit of inspiration and create something worthier.

Hugs to You

I love to give cards to my patients, especially when they are discouraged and trying to get through their treatments.  I used Runway Inspired Challenge #30 Erdem to help design one.

I was inspired by the colors and patterns and loved that yellow dress!  I used the Hero Arts Envelope Liner to get the stripey/plaid look and die cut the center to create the navy blue window.  Wanted a window of some sort since the models were standing next to one.  Then white heat embossed the sentiment.  Added some roses made from strips of pink and blue cardstock.  Wanted to use ribbon, but didn't have the right shade.  I think they turned out pretty good!

Here's a closeup

And the inspiration photo

So trendy!  I only wish I had fashion sense like this...hehe!

Just Golden

I am loving Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger! It spoke elegance and beauty and was definitely a challenge for me because I do not do either...hehehe.  My style is definitely more on the whimsy side, but I felt the need to figure it out. 

I loved the hint of sparkle and neutral colors and knew vellum had to be incorporated in my card as well as hints of gold and silver.  Here's my take...

I had this beautiful Egyptian Gold Embossing Powder by Judi Kins to stamp out the Hero Arts Flower on vellum and fussy cut.  Then took some jewelry wire and shaped them for that touch of whimsy.  Added some metal rhinestones and the sentiment popped up on more vellum.  The card base is this beautiful gold Wausau Paper in their Royal Metallics collection.  The background paper is  from Lawn Fawn's Fa La La Collection.

Here's another view trying to capture the subtle sheen of the gold...

And a closeup...

Happy Hump Day!

Merry-Go-Round!

Ugh...It's always hard going back to work after a 3 day weekend, but before my long weekend is over I wanted to enter this week's Lawnscaping Challenge : Stamp a Scene!  I was inspired by a post on using Lawn Fawn dies in different ways and love Lawn Fawn's Admit One stamp set.  Using these as my inspiration I came up with this...

Can ya tell it's a Merry Go Round?  I hope so!  This is probably the longest I've ever spent on a card trying to get the ideas of a Merry Go Round and turning it into a 3-Dish card.  So how did I make this?  Here we go...

The "canopy" of the merry go round is from the stamp set A Birdie Told Me and cut using the new Lawn Cuts matching dies!  Can you believe it?  It made the perfect canopy top!  I then took some random critters and paper pieced them because I have yet to perfect my coloring skills.  There's something about paper piecing that thrills me when it all comes together.  I rolled up some paper to make the poles for the critters to be on and to make the floor of the ride used an embossing folder for texture. 

I took another picture to try to capture the dimension of the card.  So that's it for me...hoping everyone has a great week!

Black and White

I'm having a grand ol' time this weekend getting stampy and inky.  My daughter is at a sleep over and my son begged his papa to take him outside...could this be real?!? The craft room to myself?  The challenge for this week's CAS-ual Fridays is black and white + one color.  Of course I had to go with yellow!  So here it is...

I have been dying to use the Tim Holtz mini film strip die (no pun intended, hehe) and finally put it to use with some Lawn Fawn letters and punched out stars with metal rhinestones colored with copics to carry out the theme.  Loved the simplicity of it and will save this for my daughter's next play/musical coming up this summer. 

There's a few more hours in the day to play...gotta make the most of it!

Here's the Scoop

This Valentine's Day my hubby got thee most amazing gift a paper crafter could ever receive!  I'm not into spending excessive amounts on flowers/roses...but this...I LOVE!!!!

I was completely amazed by his creation as he got a dozen Lawn Fawn stamps and dies to form them into a bouquet!!!  I've never been so surprised and ecstatic and wanted to quit work, lock myself up in my craft room and stay there forever playing and getting inky!

I got to work right away as the new Pinspired Challenge was out using this pin...

I took the colors and loved that subtle, background vertical stripe and came up with this...

  

I paper pieced Lawn Fawn's Here's the Scoop stamps, layered them up with a cherry on top.  I wanted that subtle vertical stripe so took cream cardstock and scored away.

Here's a closeup to catch the glossy accents on the cherry...

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

 

Enjoy

Wanted to make a card that could be given to anyone celebrating anything and used CAS(E) this Sketch to follow along.

This was kinda a tough one for me!  I loved how simple...it seemed...but couldn't put it together for that wow factor and trying to make a card that would fit anyone regardless of age or gender.  I finally cracked down and came up with this...

I wanted to go for the jeans look and found this pretty cool paper in my stash that reminded me of jeans.  Used my e-clips to cut out the pocket shape and stamped the threading using Lawn Fawn's Let it Snow and Delicata ink in gold.  I was inspired by my hubby's jeans pocket with a little tag and used that to incorporate my sentiment.  I just didn't feel it was enough so cut out these cute little glasses and stamped with Hero Arts envelope liner to give it more texture.  I kept debating to add in the glasses or not...went back and forth...then in the end decided to keep it...although it's not glued and just hanging in the pocket...just in case I change my mind again...hehe

Have a great weekend!

Sending Hugs

Work has been kinda crazy and I've let a few days go by without doing any crafting which makes me feel blah...but Freshly Made Sketches has this challenge this week...

It totally brightened my day because it reminded me of a rainbow!  I absolutely love rainbows and when I was younger if you asked me my favorite color I always said rainbow.  Here's my take on this happy sketch.

Used circle dies with a rainbow of pattern paper from American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray collection.  Cut out some clouds using my e-clips and sentiment from Lawn Fawn's On the Mend.

And a close-up

As Maya Angelou says, "Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."  I hope this brings smiles to your day!

Tuning In

My e-clips machine has been getting a workout...hehehe.  I love the ease of the e-cal most especially when my hubby wants to create pieces for me.  He has a knack for drawing with the computer...I'm soooo lucky!  I used CAS(E) this Sketch to bring his pieces together

and used the theme from CAS-ual Fridays : CFC 89 Love Song to bring you this card...

 

Simply cut a bunch of rectangles and placed them to make piano keys.  My hubby truly is THE KEY!  He designed the cute heart with the key hole.  I'm sooooooo lucky!  I think I said that earlier...going all mushy this Valentine's season...hehehe. Have a great weekend!!!

Check this out for another fun card using e-cal!

Game On!

My hubby and I are very competitive, especially when it comes to board games.  All in the name of fun...of course...hehehe (insert evil laugh here)! So for this week's Freshly Made Sketches

This is what I came up with...

  

All of this made by my precious Sizzix e-clips machine and the e-cal software...sooo fun!  Looking forward to the weekend...TGIF!

Trifold Love Card

Here is this week's Tuesday Trigger

I wanted to go several different directions with this photo, but what stood out the most to me was the colors and textures.  This is my (hubby and I's) take below...

I noticed the wooden chair and the splitting of the wood on the seat so embossed some light blue cardstock with a woodgrain pattern and cut them in strips, then radomly put them back together...kind of how the seat of the chair was.  Then embossed the heart in a diagonal, added some flowers with pearls and the Sizzix die cut word LOVE.  I wanted a gate card so half of the heart is on foam tape to keep the card closed.

I sprayed the die cut word with Sheer Shimmer Spritz in Sparkle to give it a little sheen as the curtains in the background appeared.  The last pic taken below is with better lighting!

And since this also follows CAS-ual Fridays Challenge for the week, this card will also be entered!

Love Embraced

On to more challenges!  This is so addicting my hubby is sketching ideas down for me to create some fun cards.  I've been wanting to try Runway Inspired Challenge, but have been quite intimidated since I do not have any sense of fashion myself...hehehe.  Here's the inspiration photo:

I am also going to enter this card to CAS-ual Fridays: CFC 88 Love Letters
Here is my interpretation below:

 I loved that hot pink pop of color and adored her strappy sandals! I used the suitcase colors to inspire the card base and front.  Took some hemp twine and braided away to create the "strappy" look and used Lawn Fawn's Claire's ABCs to create the sentiment.

And for a closer look...

Finally a card I'm quite proud of!  Happy Hump Day!!

XOXO

So the next Lawnscaping Challenge is a Valentine one to be inspired by this photo...

Here's my take on it...

I was inspired by the guest designer Lalo ...she did a gorgeous paper pieced card with some fancy sewing and I adored it!  I loved the idea of the heart with the background pattern.  I used my e-clips to cut out the heart and used the backside as a template to stamp the x's and o's (from LFs Sophie's Sentiments) in the shape of a heart.  Then mounted with foam tape.  This was after I stamped the "I heart you" (from Say Cheese) and masked it with a smaller heart.  I love that little frog prince (from Critter's Ever After) and used the thought bubbles from A Birdie Told Me that was heat embossed in white.  To finish it off used some LF Peppermint Twine!

Here's a close-up...

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

Water Coloring

I have been meaning to send a thank you card to my Colorado Sister's parent's for sending some amazing homemade chocolates all the way to Hawaii.  My Colorado Mom sends them every year for Christmas and I've been procrastinating.  I didn't know where to begin in designing a thank you card for her so when I came upon The Play Date Cafe through reading other bloggers' posts I thought this was perfect inspiration...

The color combination was beautiful and I thought the only way I could get it close was to watercolor!  I used a bunch of Tim Holtz Distress Markers (a very nice Christmas gift from the hubby) and some water and a brush and went at it.

This is my first post watercoloring (don't judge me too harshly...hehehe) and it was sooo much fun!  I will definitely have to do this more often.  I simply stamped and heat embossed the Hero Arts Hand Drawn Flower and painted away.  I needed bling so placed a few canary-ish rhinestones near the sentiment and on the bow. 

Thank You for stopping by!

(I didn't want the blog to be too long, but if there are any questions on how this was specifically done I would definitely get back to ya!)