Happy holidays

A quick post for ya'll. I created these two cards for the Festive Friday challenge: include a tree element. I knew just the stamp I wanted to use too. PTI's 2011 Holiday Tags. I kept the card simple and followed a sketch from somewhere (and now can't remember where). I think I may just go back and add some faux stitching to give it a nice finish.

Grey Scale Shrooms

AI is over for my district now and that means my summer can officially begin. Besides hanging with my family this also means I have more time to craft. Something I was trying to do each night as way to wind down. Oh how I have been itching to craft more and yet when the time comes all I seem to do is push paper around. To coax my mojo back I started simple and pulled out Clear and Simple's set Fun Fungi and some cardstock that I had embossed and laying around (I believe it's PTI's Soft Stone).

Then I got stuck. And it sat. For a week. Should I add color. Just go mono. I ended up going simple and clear embossed the row of mushrooms onto light grey c/s and taped it down and then I took a die from PTI's Mat Stack collection and created the window. the mushroom and sentiment were stamped in DI's Iced Spruce. Once I was sure it was dry I carefully took my lightest warm tone copics and added some "color" to the image. I really like how those 'shrooms turned out too. This just may be a card for my sweet Grammy since she loves painting and stamping all things nature.

Woodgrain Thanks

Time to Flutterby with another Flutterby Challenge. This week is all about a sketch. Use the sketch below to created your own butterfly/fairy creation.

I loved the used of the circle but wanted to try something a little different and NOT stamp my butterflies in them. Instead I stamped a small sentiment in the bottom one instead of the side and used my M.S. butterfly punches. The woodgrain is a WMS stamp. loved how it covered the whole card base.

All boxed up

It's been awhile since I have played along with a Moxie Fab challenge, and now that I had some time I couldn't pass up this inspiration challenge.

Doesn't it look amazing! And that is coming from a girl who isn't over the moon with pink. I went very literal with this one too because it was just a great image. The whole thing is a sweet little gift set...just not sure for who. Let's first look at the card.

I really wanted the wood grain to shine so I limited my petits fours to only four. The flowers were created from a MS punch I have. I even water colored the petals to give the flowers a little more depth. To represent the silver server I silver embossed the sentiment onto one of the sweet little squares. Now for the gift.

For the gift set I created a little box to hold the wee little love cards. For the side panels I dry embossed the wood grain again. The top is created from silver c/s to mimic the silver serving piece. These flowers were created with a mix between the MS punch and Tim Holtz's flower die. Now the box was fun to put together and all, but it is the wee cards on the inside that really make it for me. I created five cards although this box could fit one, maybe two, more and it not squish anything.

The first two cards were make to mimic the larger card. The last three cards are to represent the petits four themselves. Overall, this project was super easy to create. I left the sentiments off so they could be used for any reason. They would be great as little girly lunch notes, love notes, and even as the little cards attached the gift bags.

Hello Sunshine

With summer comes sunshine and flip-flops and for my two boys LOTS of outdoors (although mommy is so NOT an outdoor person). That being said I do love my flip-flops and the sun isn't so bad either. I decided to play along with PTI's Make-It-Mondays (MIM) challenge this week using sunshine and flips-flops as my theme. Nichole gave several sketches we could choose from and I foudn that (that I tweaked just slightly):

With last month's release I had gotten several things and two of them were the flip-flop stamps (with dies) and the Farm & Barn set. I had already stamped and embossed the big sentiment onto vellum from another project and decided that this was the time to use it. I trimed the width of the card down to 3.75" so that I could have the vellum wrap around one side of the card and hang off of the other side. I knew I wanted some sunshine color behind the sentiment but didn't want the whole card that color so I got my thinking cap on. After several minutes went by (ok, I was watching PBS's Sherlock Homes - oh my gosh that is a great show - and got hooked) it came to me: wooden decks! These lovely decks are outside in the sunshine. Wouldn't that be great (yes, I am not the first to come up with the idea and that's ok) but how to impliment it when I still  want my yellow/orange color behind the sentiment. Did I mention that I was trying to achieve a card with as little layers as possible? Here's how I achieved the look: sticky notes and two scored lines. I scored where I wanted my sunshine color to be and then masked it off with thin sticky backed paper (think large sticky note). I sponged on Distress Ink's Old Paper and then used Frayed Burlap for the wooden beams (I am loving this background). Once that was dried I used sticky notes to mask the "deck" and sponged on Distress Ink's Mustered Seed and Spice Marmalade for my color behind the sentiment. What I really liked about this sponging technique is that the rised embossed lines stayed white so it worked as a great frame for the veleum sentiment banner. For the smaller sentiment undernead I just heat embossed it in white (the small sentiment is from TSG's Day & Night set). Once I got the background the rest came together quickly. The flip-flops were die cut out, stamped, and put together. The color of choice was DI's Festive Berries (again, I really need to get the newest seasonal colors). For the flower I swiped the pad on some scrap white c/s and then die cut the flowers out using small pearls for the center.

Sweet Little Fall Bird

Before I get to the card I would like to ask for some prayers. My youngest (19 months old boy) is getting tubes in and adnoids out tomorrow morning. I know it's a simple procedure but I would still appreciate the prayers. Thanks :)


I got a sweet little card for ya' too. It's a sweet little birdie card that I had lots of fun creating. The sentiment is from Creative Imaginations' Narratives stickers that I added to a little banner I made. The button is from PTI's collection and I tied it on with a little twine. I used Tim Holtz's woodgrain embossing folder to keep with a tree theme.

Challenges used:
OTWC:

Stampin' Celebration:

The Play Date Cafe:

Creative Card Crew: use punches (I used my nesties of course)
Lord Have Mercy: sketch
Digital Tuesday: I've been framed (frame your image)