A Buzzing Celebration

Here is my last card for last week's challenges over at TSG. I had so much fun stretching my TSG stamps into being used for birthdays. The fifth challenge at TSG was to use three embellies on our birthday card. I loved my sky scene so much that I used it again on this card, and of course I just had to use those sweet little bees from Bee Happy. I couldn't find a sentiment that I like thought I used my computer to create one. The inside says "so we decided to come a celebrate too. Happy Birthday!" The orange is some pattern paper I had laying around. The flowers were sprayed with Perfect Pearl mist: Perfect Pearl to mimic the shine/glitter of the bees wings. The pearl just fit nicely into the flower and made for a nice touch on the card. I am excited to have been able to play along (the three embellies: Flowers, Pearl, Bling: perfect pearl and glitter). The sketch is from Sketch Saturday.

And the birthday party continues

While coming up with this card I discoverd a background that I LOVE. TSG's fourth challenge was all about banners. Retro sketches has this great sketch this week that I wanted to use and I thought it would work well with my idea. I created a picture frame and then was stuck. While looking at my TSG stamp I noticed three cute little clouds from the Day and Night set and thought what a cute sky they would make. The next decision was should I create this sky on the frame or the whole card. Since I was in a tine crunch (really should be getting back to my grading) I went with the sky on the frame. I used the same technique I did on the pink/turquoise card. I coated the clouds with glossy accent and after it dried I sponged Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Salty Ocean over it to make my blue sky. I loved this look so much that you will see it again on another card, maybe two. To add some banners I used a PTI set and stamped them directly onto the card base. My birthday sentiment fit perfectly along the bottom of the frame opening, just under the banners. I wrapped my frame with some white thread and then popped it up to add a little deminsion.

I see pink...

lots of pink. Pink is not my go to color but the inspiration photo for the third TSG challenge had lots of it mixed with a turquoise color. I decided to go out of my comfort zone here and try a color combo that I don't think I have done before (at least not this mouch of the colors). The background was created with the hearts from the TSG Day and Night stamp set. To keep the bigger hearts heart I coated each one with glossy accent. Love how the polka dots in the hearts mimic the ploka dots in the picture. Once dry I sponged worn pink over the whole c/s. To create the sentiment (words from a PTI set) I used Peacock Feathers for the sentiment and leaves from the Bee Happy set (also used the color to coat the card base and teal strip). The flowers came from Day and Night and I used Picked Raspberry and Festive Berries. Picked Raspberry was also used to color the bright pink mat while Festive Berries was used to color the flower. To have the bling to match I used a copic to color it. With all of the layers I used, I thought this card would also work well with the Allsorts layers challenge. The sketch is from Tuesday morning sketches.

Summer birthdays

I have a summer birthday and growing up that was rough sometimes. No birthday surprises during school. Friends on summer vacations and not able to party. So hot outside that indoor is the way to go. However, I could celebrate my birthday while on vacation (would love to spend one year celebrating at Disney World in Paris, but that is a rather large dream).

Why am I talking about summer birthdays as summer is winding down and I am in my second week of school? There She Goes stamps is celebrating this birthday this month and have lots of fun challenges going on. They posted a chalenge everyday last week and they close on the 14th. I wasn't able to play along until now. While grading 145 essays, descriptive paragraphs, and a checklist I found time to complete all 5 of the challenges. Tonight I am posting the first one, and the TSG challenge #1 was to create a birthday card incorporating numbers in it. Now I only have one set of numbers that aren't super tiny and my poor wiped little brain just couldn't figure out something clever to do with them so I tooke the easy way out: I create a background with them. I used Frayed Burlap ink to stamp my number onto some kraft c/s. Since this is TSG's birthday month I wanted to make sure to add their stamps to my card too. I only have four sets so far (hope to fix that in the next month or two...maybe with a big winning gc, lol) so I had to really strech for my idea. The stamp set I used was Get Your Thong On. The HB sentiment is from PTI. I really like the monochromatic look of the card (which I did for the City Crafter's challenge) and the lined image not colored went well with the JUGS line art image challenge.

WMS Birthday Blog Hop

It's that time of the month when WMS does their Blog Hopping Party. This month's theme is birthday and since I had WMS's Frame It set out I decided to use it for the party. The sketch is from Mojo Monday  and I was inspired for the colors from the Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge this week. I really do like yellow with grey. One thing I learned while working on this card is that I shouldn't create when I am tired (that and check to make sure my glitter pens work).

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 8

I am slowly getting caught up on my SYS classes. Today was the last lesson so I am hoping I can get the last few cards done this weekend. Lesson 8 was all about labels. I love labels and use them to frame sentiments to images but I rarely see them as anything more than labels. After watching the videos today and seeing the samples I started to look at the labels a little differently. I used the same stamp set that was used for the lesson: Indadinkado's Maison Frames. Also, since I know some birthdays coming up I decided to play along with CASology's Happy challenge and Moxie Fab's Stamp it: Happy Birthday challenge.

Left card: I stayed fairly literal with this card and also very CAS. The only layer of the card is the white one that everything is stamped on just so I could get the thread through. I first stamped the label in brown and then masked it off in order to stamp my pink flower. The sentiment is also in brown. I then went back with a blender pen to lightly color in the flower for depth. To make it look like the thread is under the label I put a small slit on either side and then threaded it through.

Right Card: I was really inspired by Kristina Werner's cupcake card. My problem was that I don't own a big cupcake like hers. Then I started looking at the Maison Frame stamps and saw a cupcake frosting. The idea of turning one of the stamps into a cupcake would get out of my head so I set about to create it. I just knew I could find an image in my stamp collection that would make a perfect cupcake bottom but no such luck. Then I decided to try something that I don't like to do often: draw. So I drew the bottom half of the cupcake just so I could use that one stamp for the frosting. To soften all of the edges I did the blender pen coloring thing (boy does that take some practice). I really like how it turned out. To have my cupcake be the focal point I embossed a layer of white c/s with the sunbeams IP from PTI and then created a pink birthday banner to tuck right behind the image. Since this card was inspired by Kristina I decided to take it all the way and add white stitch lines to the banner.

Happy Birthday PTI

And to my sweet boy who is turning 6. While putting this card together I discovered that I am in need of some birthday images and sentiments. I used a Mat Stack 4 image for the frame (and the die to cut it out from the top layer) and the sentiment is from the Signature Greetings. The cupcake and word is from a stamp stash I have. Not much else to say but thanks to those who are sticking around with me :)

Simple Kid Birthday

We have a birthday party tomorrow and I had to create a quick card. I used WMS's Half Pint Heros for both the image and sentiment. I colored the car in red because what little boy (or big for that matter) doesn't like a flashy red sports card. Then to raise it a notch I went over the car in a red glitter pen. The red was also inspired by this piece at Etsy. I really liked how the red popped off the screen at me and wanted to achieve the same thing here. The bakcground was created by sponging Weather Wood and Broken China distress ink over white cardstock and then flicking water over it for the worn effect. The banner was punced out by using a PTI banner die. I wish I had do the little street dashes leading up to the sentiment but the black was too stark and I don't have a grey or blue pen/marker so blank it is.

Sorry for the bad photo as I had already tied it to the gift before I remembered I still needed to take a picture.

Challenges used:
Lily Pad: sketch
Allsorts Challenge: birthday
Craft Catz: anything goes
Etsy challenge: be inspired from this store (my inspiration)

Verve Hopping

I got some time tonight to create a quick birthday card and thought I would create it for the Verve Blog Hop that's going on right now. I used the large Whimsy tree as well as the smaller tree and clouds from the Up, Up, & Away set. The sentiment is from PTI's Little Bitty Birds. I stamped the images in Distress Inks (faded jeans, walnut stain, and peeled paint) onto watercolor paper. Once stamped I then took a small brush dipped in water and did my version of watercoloring. I also watercolored the two edge panels in the background. I am also using this card for the birthday challenge over at A Delightful Wast of Time. A quick and easy card I was able to pull off in under an hour.

Calling all Superheroes

My oldest is turning 5 on Tuesday and he wanted a superhero party. I found this super cute superhero from Mo's Digital Pencil and the invite just went from there. I kept the colors rather generic for a superhero (red and blue) and gave this little fellow brown hair to match my DS. The great thing about digital images it that I can make the part I want to use as big as I need it. The sketch is from Clean & Simple's latest and I printed out the sentiment on the computer. The blue under the image was embossed with PTI's canvas plate and then sponged with Distress Ink's Faded Jeans to give it some contrast from the c/s base. I also popped it up using some dots. My DS was so excited to see these when they were done. I also used Scrappily Ever After's Tuesday challenge to use two of something (in this case two colors).

Bind-it-all card? Oh Yeah!

I really like how this card turned out as it was so out of my norm. I took two cupholders from Starbucks and covered them in paper from Your Memories Here. Once covered I sanded the edges to give them a cleaned up distressed look (weird, I know). I then punched the holes in them to bind them. I however wasn't paying attention to where I was punching and punched on the wrong side on one, so I improved the mistake by dressing it up with ribbon to make a pretty bow on the back-side. I added some red sticky tape inside each cupholder along the bottom so that a giftcard could be tucked inside to make the card a cute little gift package too. The inside will have some white c/s added so that a message can be written to the person getting the card/gift. I then punched out the happy birthday message that can be found on one side of some double-sided paper called All Kinds of Happy found at YMH and mounted it on a big white flower (after I added streaks of pink to it). I found some random chipboard number and letter to make the "to you" part of the message. I painted them with some pink and pearl paint. Binding the two pieces together came next and I used a 1/2" Owire (Bind-it-all supplies can be found at YMH) since it I was making a card and didn't and didn't need anything bigger. After I was done with all of that it started looking like a cupcake to me. With that in mind I set out to make the card a cupcake one (as a bonus it will hide the giftcard that was peeking out of the second holder). I cut some white cardstock so that it would fit inside and resemble the top of a cupcake. Then I took the same ribbon I made the bow from and thought it would make for some nice frosting. I covered the top with red sticky tape and then just laid the ribbon down while playing with it trying to ruffle it and fall into a shape I liked. This was so much fun to make and I can't wait until I find the perfect person to get this.