Happy Bird-day

I've got some exciting news to share and I hope you don't mind. I made the top 5 at CAS-tastic challenge blog for this card.  My friend who gave me that PCD set should be very proud that her gift inspired a project that turned to gold :)  Not surprising though because every time she's called a winner it has reached the top.  I keep hoping she'll forsee me winning the lottery or even better, selling my house. 

Anyhow the first card I want to share with you is this card I made for the Viva la Verve challenge based on this sketch and craft room picture for inspiration.  I threw in the bird to meet the requirements for the current Off The Wall Challenge.  This weeks sponsor is Eyelet Outlet who is giving away $30 worth of brads you should pop over and see the cute owl brads Kim used for her sample...so cute!

I decided to dip into the remnants of my Twitterpatted stash. It's been a while since I used it and I will be very sad when it's all gone. Very simple card and nothing fancy. I really like that blue in the craft room picture and then the stripes of the paper reminded me of all the colours of paper on the shelves and the magazine rack.  Bright, cheerful, and organized just the way I want my new craft room to be.

Steps:

1) Cut 6.5" x 3.25" card out of cs

2) Trim cs to fit face of card and adhere

3) Trim cs and punch border; adhere to card

4) Stamp sentiment

5) Trim cloud paper and adhere

6) Trim animal print paper and mat to cs; adhere to card

7) Rub bird on to white paper; punch with 1 3/8" circle punch

8) Punch scallop circle and attach circle with bird; adhere to card with foam tape.

Elements:

Paper: Whisper White, Ridinghood Red, Bermuda Bay, Twitterpatted (Imaginisce)

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop circle punch, scallop border punch, rub-on (Imaginisce)

Stamps: Picture This (SU!)

Couch Potato

Isn't that what you wish you could be sometimes?  I know some days my husband comes home exhausted from a stressful day and the first thing he would love to do is lay down on the couch and channel surf.  He doesn't actually watch tv because for some reason he finds it comforting to flick through the channels. Anyhow when he comes home the tv stays off (most of the time) and instead he visits with the kids and helps me with finishing dinner.  This card is kind of like a permission slip to relax after a long day of work. I plan on leaving this for him on friday since I'll be gone with the kids for the weekend and he'll have all the time in the world to watch tv and putter around the house.  I wonder if he'll ever take the kids away for the weekend?  Probably not but I've promised my mother that I would take the kids to her place for a visit.

This card was created using the Sweet Shop Sketch #56 and the Wplus9 colour challenge.  I also got a chance to ink up the big dots in my new Practicing Creativity set.  I found making getting all those dots in different colours a challenge and that one was my fourth try.  I really should go to Courtney's blog and watch the tutorial.  I could have probable saved myself a bunch of time (and paper).

Anyhow, I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope to be able to share a couple more cards towards the end of it.  I managed to finish 5 cards this weekend!  I love it when I'm inspired!

Steps:  

1) cut square card out of cs

2) Trim yellow square cs and mat on dark blue cs

3) Trim white cs; stamp dots; clear emboss yellow dots; adhere to yellow cs

4) Stamp sentiment; attache ribbon; adhere panel to card

5) Punch 1 3/4" yellow circle and mat to 1 7/8" circle; adhere to card with foam tape

6) Stamp couch on white cs and cut; adhere to circle

Elements:

Paper: Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Barely Banana, So Saffron dp, Whisper White

Ink: Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, So Saffron craft ink

Accessories: Bashful Blue stripe ribbon, clear embossing powder, 1 3/4" circle punch, circle scissor

Stamps: For the love of Dots (PCD), On my Couch (PTI)

Irish Blessings

This last week marked 6 months since the passing of my husband's cousin.  Un-fortunately the passing of time isn't making things any easier for my husband's aunt.  She says it's only making it harder.  Maybe because this is the longest she's ever gone without seeing her son.  This verse from the new Verve Blessings set came to mind as I think it would be something that her son would have wished for his parents.

"May the road rise up to meet you, May the wind always be at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand."

Coincidentally, I ended up watching Leap Year while creating this card for the current CardPatterns and Embellish challenges.  I must have been feeling my Irish roots on Saturday night.  The rich country side of Ireland was an inspiration in itself.  IMO the movie was cute but nothing amazing.  The verse panel is applied with foam tape for added dimension. I tried something new for the ribbon treatment and it wasn't on purpose. I just happened to run out of ribbon and decided it didn't look half bad the way it was.  What do you think?

Steps

1) Cut card out of CS

2) Trim CS 3 3/4" x 5 1/4"; stamp sentiment; tie ribbon around; attach 1" circles to the border; and attach to card

3) Stamp verse; trim and mat to cs; attach with foam tape

4) attach rhinestones

Elements:

Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Bermuda Bay, Dusty Durango, Whisper White

Ink: Bermuda Bay,  Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, green rhinestones, 1" circle punch 

Stamps: Blessings (Verve)

Thanks Teacher

Hi Everyone!  We are having our first relaxing day in a couple of weeks so I thought I would share a card I made for my daughters teachers using one of Mercy's Tuesday Sketch.   It's hard to believe that school will be over in just a month or so.  I really am looking forward to the summer.  It will be nice not to have to drive the kids to school and activities and in August we will be living within a 5 minute walk of the water park and come September I'll be able to walk both my Son and Daughter to school.  I'm so excited!!! 

Don't you just love the bold and fun colours of the Boyfriend collection by Cosmo Cricket?  It's one of my faves but I don't use it quite as much as I should.  I'm always waiting for the perfect inspiration to use it.  The great thing about not buying anything right now is getting the chance to use up the stuff I do have....I do however miss having some of the newer stuff that looks like it would be so much fun to play with.  But then I remind myself that the manufacturers are always going to be coming out with even more wonderful stuff and that the collections I really like right now might be on sale when I get around to buying them.  It makes my supplies a little dated but I'm not doing this to be published so it doesn't really matter does it?  When I post my cards I like to think I've inspired my blog friends to create with something they've already got stashed away.

How often do you buy supplies?  Do you buy the whole collection or do you just buy the pieces that you really love?  Taking a look at my inventory I'm going to buy only bits and pieces otherwise it just gets hoarded.

Steps: 

1) Cut card out of white cardstock (CS)

2) Trim base colour CS to 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"; adhere to card

3) Trim designer paper in three equal strips and adhere to CS.

4) Trim blue cs; punch ticket corners; add faux stitching with marker and adhere to card

5) Cut circle; stamp sentiment and stars; adhere to card with foam tape

6) Punch small star and adhere to sentiment panel.

Elements

Paper: Whisper White, More Mustard, Blue Bayou, The Boyfriend dp (Cosmo Cricket)

Ink: Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Old Olive

Accessories:  Ticket Corner punch, circle scissors, small star punch, black marker

Stamps: Best Teacher (Imaginisce), Starstruck (SU!)

Celebrate Friendship

Happy Friday friends!  It's finally here, although I had a really wonderful week.  A couple of days ago I surprisingly received For the Love of Dots in the mail and had to contact Courtney from Practicing Creativity Designs to make sure there wasn't a mistake because I know I didn't order that set.  Not that I didn't want it but I can't be buying anymore supplies right now while things are so up in the air with the house move etc. (you never know what kind of expenses you're going to have).

Well it turns out that one of my most supportive blog friends (who wishes to remain anonymous) wanted to show a small gesture of thanks and congrats.  Little did she know it was a HUGE gesture, so huge in fact that I had to restrain myself from shedding happy tears....my husband would have been worried that stamps could really make me that happy.  Practicing Creativity happens to be my big IT thing right now and I love their versatility.  Apparently my fabulous friend likes what I create with them too, so last night I had a bit of time to play and hope to bring some inspiration her way.  It amazes me so much that this virtual world of blog land could put me in contact with such a wonderful group of ladies...not because of the tangible gifts that we receive but because of the encouragement and support system that we find in one another!  What a blessing and I am so grateful!

So these cards are to Celebrate Friendship.  The first card covers a couple of challenges.  The Embellish dimension challenge and the CAS-Tastic challenge: to use circles. I used the current fall-to-layout sketch and foam tape to adhere the stripe of circles.  The buttons add even more dimension. I don't know how CAS-tastic it is considering it has a few layers but it does use a lot of white space and straight lines.  

The second card (at the very bottom of this post) was the first card I created using the same layout but in a circle. It was meant more as a warm up to get use to the colours and stamps.  I thought I would included it as well since it's not a bad card, it's just nothing special.  A good masculine birthday card maybe?

Celebration Buttons

Steps:

1) make card from card stock

2) trim white panel and mat to CS

3) stamp circles; trim and mat to CS; adhere to card with foam tape

4) stamp top line circle and sentiment on white panel

5) Adhere buttons

Elements:

Paper: Spring Moss (PTI), Ocean Tides (PTI), Chocolate chip, Whisper White

Ink: Dusty Durango, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Buttons in Spring Moss and Tara cotta tile (PTI), brown buttons (BG), foam tape

Stamps: For the Love of Dots (PCD)

Celebrate in Circles

Paper: Spring moss (PTI), Dusty Durango, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink: Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Circle Coluzzle tool

Stamps: For the Love of Dots (PCD)

Sketch Girl Flower Power

Hey everyone!  Here's what I came up with for the latest Sketch Girl challenge.  I hope you don't mind but the card took a life of it's own and I had modify the sketch a little bit.

First I picked out the fabulously colourful pattern paper then decided to accent with the canvas sticker letters that Jessica sent me a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't want to do plain squares and my sewing machine was packed away so I came up with the rounded corners. I then remembered those mod flowers I've seen on other blogs in recent months. Not really very original is it? but those cheerful papers really make it pop. I decided to put the sentiment circle right in the middle to make that flower.  A sketch really is just a starting point isn't it? A place to gather inspiration? And the end result is your take on that inspiration.

For greater details I also added the pattern tracer texture around the card base another fantastic gift from Jessica.  It's an inexpensive tool but adds such nice texture without overdoing it.  Those canvas stickers also do a fantastic job of adding texture.  

With this post I also wanted to let you know about Ann's Blog candy giveaway: A $25 gift certificate to PAPERTREY INC.!! Yes PTI!  All you have to do is leave her a comment letting her know what your plans are for this summer....oh and you might want to look over her fabulous work.  I call her the Queen of CAS (Clean and Simple).  Her designs are so simple you often think "why didn't I think of that?" but she knows exactly how to put wonderful in her cards with only 3 letters W-O-W!

Steps:

1) Make 5.25" card of cardstock (CS)

2) Cut four 2.25" squares of CS; round two opposing corners

3) Cut four 2" squares of pattern paper; round two opposing corners; adhere to CS squares

4) Adhere squares to card to form petals

5) Punch 1 3/4"circle; cut 2" circle with coluzzle; adhere circles

6) Punch 1/4 circles and adhere around circle

7) Adhere letters to circle; adhere to card

8) Use pattern tracer to frame flower.

Elements:

Paper: Razzleberry Lemonade dp (SU!), Kraft, Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Raspberry Fizz (PTI)

Accessories: Canvas letter stickers (Making Memories), Pattern tracer, 1 3/4" circle punch, 1/4" circle punch, large corner rounder punch, coluzzle circle tool.

Everything But The Kitchen Sink ~ Envelopes

The challenge this time over EBTKS was to use envelopes.  My idea isn't at all original as I picked up the idea over at Splitcoast.  The instructions to make this very handy gift bag are really super easy and fast. I used the Snowburst stamp set as confetti and I got a chance to ink up my new Verve Blessings set which I bought with the Verve Gift Certificate I won during their last release contests.  Unfortunately the only envelope I had had writing on the back (small blessings that it was the back) but this was only a test to see how simple it could be.  

Sorry the picture isn't the greatest.  I was in a hurry this morning before I cleaned off the front deck and got the remainder of our garbage and clutter out of our house before we list for sale. I thought this challenge was the perfect opportunity to share with you my favourite room in my lovely home.  It just happens to be the Kitchen.  

I love my kitchen...it has served me well and I actually don't even enjoy cooking.  It's big with lots of counter space and storage, a view of the back yard and the view of the city in the front.  I can visit with our friends while I'm busy cooking or cleaning.  As the kids have been growing up I have been able to watch them in the living room while I am busy in the kitchen.  Even as I write this I am sitting at the island while they watch Sleeping Beauty.  You're probably wondering why we would think about selling if we love our house so much but it comes right down to space.  Despite a huge kitchen our house isn't big enough to house THREE future teenagers and I want us to feel comfortable enough that they can bring their friends over as well.  If we had just stuck to the plan of only 2 kids we wouldn't have a need to move but God blessed us with bigger and better plans.

Anyhow, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY and have a wonderful sunday!

Steps:

1) Follow instructions from Splitcoast for the Bag-A-Lope

Elements:

Paper: White envelope, Whisper white

Ink: Bermuda Bay, Rose Red, Versamark, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Black embossing powder (SU!), Scallop dot border punch (MS), dollar bin ribbon

Stamps: Snowburst (SU!), Blessings (Verve)