Grateful for You

Today's card come from the inspiring EBTKS sketch challenge and pictures I took of the fresh flowers I have in my house.  I must say the one thing I've been enjoying about trying to sell the house is the weekly flower arrangements.  A month later and I've gotten a little smarter and started buying potted plants like Orchids and Cyclamen.  

During our last girls craft night I was telling Maureen of how I was inspired to recreate these roses with paper.  I needed something lighter than cardstock but stronger than tissue, then she showed me her little collection of crepe paper that she so graciously shared with me =)  And here are the results.  I went out of my comfort zone for this card as I don't do a lot of distressing and soft colours.  Would it qualify for shabby chic? I know the ledger paper has become popular or as usual it just going out of style once I think to use it.  It came from the Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend collection.  The fabric brad is from the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses collection.  I'd have to say that my favourite little detail about this card is the light green flourish I paired with the sentiment.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you were encouraged to find inspiration in something around your house.  Happy Crafting

Elements

Paper: Very Vanilla, Boyfriend dp (Cosmo Cricket), Old Olive dp (SU!), crepe paper

Ink: Soft Suede, Old Olive

Accessories: Sizzix flower die, brad (Basic Grey)

Stamps: Delightful Dahlia (PTI), Signature Greetings (PTI), Blessings (Verve)

A Little Bit of...

PTI in my life, A little bit of PCD by my side,

A little bit of paper's all I need, A little bit of Beauty's all I see.

With all the sunny weather we've been having around here it put me in mind of Lou Bega's Mambo number 5.  I remember the summer that was popular, shortly after my grad, does that age me?

Anyhow, here's my entry for the current Play Date Cafe colour challenge.  Not only did I love the colours but Practicing Creativity Designs is sponsoring the challenge and up for grabs is the latest set Barefoot Summer.  I'm already creating scenes in my head with that set.

For this creation I used PCD For the Love of Dots set for the background stamping.  I also used my new PTI anniversary set and On my Couch Dies.  I don't have the label die for the anniversary label stamp but it fits nicely into the petite oval nestabilities.  

Anyhow I have to run, I'll add more info as soon as I have the time.  I've got a couple of viewings for our house so I should be cleaning my floors.  Have a fantastic week everyone!

CAS-tastic Buttons!

Who doesn't love them?  And who doesn't have them?  I seem to have collected them over the months and I'd have to say my favourite colour is the shiny Pure Poppy ones from PTI.  It's been a while since I've worked with red and oh how I've missed it!

The current CAS-tastic challenge is to use buttons and what better way to make a Clean and Simple card than a one-layer.  I don't know about you but I find one-layer cards to be very challenging.  They aren't hard it's just that whenever you mess up you have to start all over again...and I've determined that I'm really not a great stamper.  I know I'm being fussy but I definitely need to get gridded acrylic blocs.

Not much to say about my cards, except maybe that I really like them.  I realize the yellow buttoned card isn't a true one-layer card but I got tired of putting the paper in the scrap pile =)  Oh and my good news note for today is having my card featured on the WPlus9 Colour challenge.  Between my recent nods on CAS-tastic and WPlus9 I'm on top of the world!  Thanks so much ladies for your encouragement.

Hope you have a very fantastic weekend and that the weather is beautiful!

Birthday Wishes Elements

Paper: White cs (PTI)

Ink: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Accessories: Pure Poppy buttons (PTI)

Stamps: Round & Round (PTI)

Live Laugh Love Elements

Paper: White cs (PTI), Kraft

Ink: Always Artichoke, Soft Suede

Accessories: Lemon Tart buttons (PTI), yellow brads (MM), large corner rounder

Stamps:  Round & Round (PTI)

Bring Your Own Sunshine

Sometimes it's as easy as smiling when you don't feel like it.  Do you ever find that smiling is the one physical act of happiness that can actually convince the rest of your body that you are happy?  It doesn't always have to be your brain telling you that you're happy and allowed to smile.  This verve sentiment reminds me of that.  Even as I was rushing the kids out the door and out to school I thought of this quote and added my smile.  My husband always says "Smile, it makes people wonder what your up to" my reply is  usually "It's easy for you to do because you're almost always contemplating world domination" and other things that men spend the majority of their time thinking about...or so I'm told. 

Anyhow, I've digressed almost too much and will now tell you about my card.  My inspiration came from this Card Pattern's sketch, the current Embellish colours, and some new PTI goodies that I ordered back in April before having bought our new house.  My 'supplier' of all that is PTI dropped them off last night and it was nice having some new materials to work with including the new anniversary set.  That was a nice surprise since I wasn't planning on having a new stamp set for quite some time.  Thanks for supporting my habit Maureen =) I'm hoping to sell the house soon so I can treat myself to a few goodies, starting with Courtney's new set at Practicing Creativity Designs.  The tree in that set is one of my favourites.

I'm feeling particularly chatty today so please forgive the long post.  Hope you are having a fabulous Thursday and if I don't chat soon have a wonderful weekend.

Elements

Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Raspberry Tart dsp (SU!)

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Crushed Curry, Cameo Coral

Accessories: Rick rack die (PTI), 1" circle punch, linen thread, lemon tart buttons (PTI), brown ruffle ribbon (SU! Flirty collection), foam tape

Stamps: Feel the Sun (Verve), Round & Round (PTI)

Nothing But Happiness

Wow hey?  My second post for this week!!!  Yesterday we had another house viewing so I was feeling a bit hopeful and found a little time last night to get this card started.  I went to bed early so I didn't finish  but I did this morning.  The house is clean, I've sent out a couple job applications and it's raining cats and dogs outside so I figured I deserved a bit of play time.

This card was made using the current Sketch Girl challenge along with the latest Embellish magazine colours.  I don't use a lot of Coral but this colour combo was enticing.  The Embellish also gave me a chance to brake out my favourite Labels 1 nestibilities and Top Note die.  I embellished with some cotton floss, unique Papertrey buttons and polka dots.  This was one of those cards where I had no idea what I was doing until it was done.  I just went with the flow and let inspiration be my guide.  I'm very happy with the results and hope you enjoy it as well.

Thanks so much for popping by.  I hope you have a fabulous day.  Happy Crafting.

Elements

Paper: Kraft, Cameo Coral, Early Espresso, Whisper White, SU! dsp

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versamark

Accessories:  Labels 1 Nesties, Top Note die (SU!), DMC floss in brown and yellow, Lemon Tart Buttons (PTI), foam tape

Stamps:  Polkadot Basic Background I (PTI), Blessings (Verve)

Simple Gifts

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

It will be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bed we shall not be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

~Joseph Bracket 1848~

Simple was what came to mind when trying to create this card for the current CAS-tastic challenge which is to make the sentiment your focal point.  The simple theme also brought me to one of my favourite songs I listen to with my kids.  Do you have Jewel's Lullaby album?  It's on my top ten simply for her renditions of  "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Forever and a Day".  My ipod is set to this music when trying to find some tranquility in a noisy house.  While this song was originally written in a Shaker community it has made it's way into the hymnals of contemporary Christian denominations.  And apparently even Weezer has included their rendition in two of their albums.  How's that for popular even 162 years after it was written?

Anyhow, back to the simple theme, I used one border punch, one label die, one stamp, and some canvas letter stickers.  Oh and I added a few clear buttons painted with nail polish  for the latest EBTKS challenge.  If you're not someone that uses buttons very often nail polish is a great thing to use because it covers any colour so that the embellishment can better match your project. No need to collect a million buttons in various colours (like I have) and save yourself some money with something you may already have laying around your house. The label die was made using the woodgrain packaging from the Making Memories canvas stickers so I even managed to recycle.

Thank you friends for leaving all your kind words even though I haven't been hangin' around blogland lately.  I've been really busy getting my resume together looking for a part-time job and I'm also in the process of registering back at school to finish up that Bachelor's degree.  So with all the stress of trying to sell the house, job hunting, school, and home I just haven't had the time for inspiration.  When I do find some down time I've usually got my nose in a book. Right now I'm rediscovering the works of Farley Mowat in "The Dog that Wouldn't be".  It's light, humorous and enjoyable.

Elements

Paper: Kraft, Groovy Guava

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Stamps:  For the Love of Dots (PCD)

Dear Friend

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying a fabulous new week ahead.  We are quite busy around here.  My daughter was sick this weekend, the deal fell through on our house, and the kids had their piano recital.  This week we will busy once again showing the house (at least we hope so) and getting my daughter ready for her dance concert which takes up 4 days of the week between practices and rehearsals and the actual shows.  Hopefully this time around she'll actually stay up on the stage.  When she was three she became known as the little run away crab.  She's a couple years older now so that should help.

Anyhow, here's a couple of cards that I made for the Paper Crafts Go-to-sketch Challenge #3 using the Embellish colours.  I also have another attempt at that fall-to-layout sketch I did in my last post.  I used the same colours but no butterfly.  For all three pieces I used acrylic paint and my pattern tracing wheel as shown on the Paper Crafts Connection blog.  Pretty neat hey?  And it is so much fun.  For the green painting I even got to mix paint together (3 parts dark green with 1 part yellow).  And the black was so fun because it showed up so well on the craft that I did two cards with it!

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a peak and/or leaving me some love =)  I do hope you have a very wonderful week and if I don't respond to your lovely comments or I've missed some of your latest and greatest creations I'm very sorry and hope to catch up when things settle down around here.

Here are some close up shots and if you have any questions about the materials used feel free to ask and I will try to get back to you asap.