Hello Friend - Z Fold Card for TGIFC126

Happy Friday!!  Do you have plans this weekend?

I'm going to a community yard sale today, 3 tball games tomorrow and church Sunday.

(And hopefully in between some of that, I will get a nap or two!)

If you have time this weekend, why don't you join us over at TGIF Challenges?  We have a fun technique this week - a "Z" fold card.

I had yet to make one of these cards, but I have been wanting to try it out for awhile now.  A little time consuming (depending on all the layering), but I love the result.  I used the sketch made by my friend Natalie Lapakko.  You can find it here.

This particular pattern is a square card, but there are other tutorials and patterns for different sizes.  I used some Naturally Eclectic Designer Series Paper (DSP) for the 2 larger panels.  I used the Hello Friend stamp set for the rest of the card.

I wasn't quite sure if stamping coordinating flowers would be too busy or not, but I think it worked out fine in the end.

I also thought there wasn't enough room to write anything on the inside strip, so I put a piece of Whisper White Cardstock on the back of the card.

What do you think?  I hope you enjoyed this card.  I would love to see your creation for this week's challenge.  If you need more ideas, visit TGIF Challenges and see the rest of the design team's creations or browse online.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Holly

TGIF Challenges Turns TWO! Let's Celebrate!

We are celebrating a birthday over at TGIF Challenges today!  We are TWO years old already as a challenge site.  I remember playing along with the first challenge - it was a color challenge and I submitted two different cards.  But what is really neat is that Stampin' Up! had both of my cards featured on their homepage!  I may not have won the challenge over at TGIF, but the highlight from SU was huge for me! Fast forward two years and here I am as a design team member.

So much fun!

So since we are celebrating a birthday, we have a fitting challenge theme this week!  Click on the image below to go to our homepage to see the rest of the design team's creations and join the fun this week!

For this challenge I decided to make a birthday card.  It's a little stretch from the "party" theme - but a birthday is a reason to party - so it fits!

This card was actually cased almost to the T from the new catalog.  I won the Special Celebrations stamp set at OnStage earlier this month.  It's a wonderful stamp set with sentiments for both the front and inside of the card.

The flowers are from the Blooms & Wishes stamp set.  If you've followed me for awhile, you may remember that I'm not much of a floral stamp set fan, but this set is my favorite floral set.

I added some Brights Enamel Shapes - both Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay.

When I made a second card, I decided to add a little bling instead.  (I was also short on the Bermuda Bay enamel shapes!)  I actually like both looks.  

A little shabby and chic - which one do you like best?

I hope that you like the cards I shared with you today.  Please head on over to TGIF Challenges and check out all of the fabulous creations the team made!  You won't be disappointed!

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Holly

Easy Peasy Polka Dots - TGIFC104!

Happy Friday and welcome to another TGIF Challenge week for me!  I post every other week with the team but I hope you save the site and check in every Friday.  We'd love to see you play along too - you can click on the image below to head on over to the TGIF blog and see all of this week's inspiration from the team.

For today's card I kept it simple.

Very simple.

This is one of the new sets from the catalog called Wood Works.  I took one of the background stamps and used it for my "polka dot" theme.  Quick and easy.  The thank you also comes from the set.  I quite literally took 2 minutes to make this card.  This would be a great one to make in all of the new in colors!

There you have it!  I didn't think I could do a simple card - but I did.  Yay me! haha

Please join us this week and play along!

Have a blessed weekend,

Holly

Moon Baby Boy - TGIFC99 Last Call!

Happy Wednesday to you!  We are almost through the week which means you don't have too much time left to play along with this week's challenge over at TGIF! This week at TGIF Challenges we are challenging our followers to play along with the "baby theme" - there's not many cards cuter than baby cards!  I'm also playing along with the baby challenge at The Paper Players this week!

Almost makes me want another baby...

Almost...

The Moon Baby stamp set form Stampin' Up! is so adorable - one of my favorite baby sets ever.  The images are great for watercoloring - like I did here with Aqua Painters and Shimmery White Cardstock.  You can also use the new Watercolor Pencils with these images.

Here I used the little baby on the moon.  I cut the star out and attached it closer.  It does hang from the moon a little longer but it wasn't ideal to fussy cut the string :)

I added the moon using Stampin' Dimensionals to give the card a little more detail.  I also did the same with some clouds that I cut using the Up & Away Framelits Dies.  The moon and sentiment are on a large circle cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies - the inside says "do you know how loved you are?" - so sweet!

The Lucky Stars Textured Impressions Embossing Folder gives it one final detail.

I hope you can join us this week!  You can submit you card by 10pm CST tomorrow (Thursday).

Be sure to be back on Friday for our 100th challenge!!

Blessings,

Holly

A Succulent Pop & Twist Birthday for TGIFC96

Happy Friday everyone!  It's a beautiful, sunny (and COLD) day here in Minnesota.  I hope you're ready to play along with a new challenge at TGIF Challenges.  We had over 20 entries last week and they were all great to see!  This week we are honoring the lovely Bibi Cameron - she has recently left her job as a SU! demonstrator, but she is still worthy of admiration - she truly is gifted!

Bibi is one of the BEST at watercoloring flowers - or making floral cards in general.  Make sure to check out her website for inspiration!

Yesterday we celebrated my beautiful mother-in-law Linda.  She turned 60 so I knew I wanted to make a very special card.  I decided to (finally) try a Pop & Twist card.  I've seen so maybe over the past year but have yet to try one.  Linda likes fun folds and techniques so I needed to make it for her.

 

I focused mainly on the Oh So Succulent Photopolymer Bundle except for the front of the card's sentiment which is from the Milestone Moments.  The "sixtieth" fits perfectly in the banner framelit from the Large Number Framelits Dies.

The Succulent Garden DSP and Succulent Garden 3/8" Ribbon Combo Pack finish off the front.

If you are not familiar with the Pop & Twist card, here is the video I watched.  It was a lot less complicated than it looks!

I altered the sentiment a little since the front of the card had "happy birthday" on the front too.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  Please take a moment to play along this week at TGIF Challenges!

Blessings,

Holly

Make a Wish - TGIFC94

Happy Friday!  Welcome back to another TGIF Challenge!  This week we have a sketch challenge which seem to be everyone's favorite to play along with, so hopefully this is one that inspires you to play along!

I actually had this card made 2 weeks ago because I did the wrong challenge!  I made this card for my sweet nephew Luke who just turned 18 last Friday.  He's the boy "man" who made me an aunt for the first time. :)

I decided to flip the sketch on its side.

I love this Urban Underground DSP - it's a great pack of designer paper for masculine cards.  Both pieces are from this pack.  

The "make a wish" sentiment is from the Window Shopping stamp set.

I hope that you join us this week at TGIF Challenges!  We love to see your creations :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Holly

TGIFC92 - Designer Spotlight Jeanna Bohanon

I'm a little late to the party over at TGIF Challenges.  I completely looked at the wrong challenge!  (At least my card for #94 is complete!)

We are featuring the lovely Jeanna Bohanon from Stamp Time Somewhere.  Jeanna is such a sweet soul and I'm pretty bummed out I didn't know her when I lived in Las Vegas!  I'd be so happy to stamp with her in person!  

Here is the card I made for the challenge.  I started by taking three of the colors from the new Watercolor Pencils pack and scribbling on Shimmery White Cardstock.  I then took and Aqua Painter to blend the colors.  I added a diecut hot air balloon from the Up & Away Thinlit Dies that I cut from some Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper.  

I added some of my favorite accessories - Enamel Shapes - to finish the card off.

I hope you like it!

Make sure to head on over to TGIF Challenges to see the rest of the design team's creations and play along yourself!

Now I'm off to stamp some more!  It's been awhile and I have some catching up to do :)

Have a great weekend!

-Holly

Wintry Blues for TGIFC86

I'm not quite to the point where I'm feeling blue about all of the snow and cold weather, but if you ask me this weekend I might change my mind.  We are supposed to get 5" of snow this afternoon and Saturday's overnight low is -24 with a windchill of -40... I think we will be streaming our church service live in our pjs!

So to go along with today's forecast, the new challenge over at TGIF Challenges is "Let It Snow".  

So appropriate :)  Be sure to click here to see the rest of the design team's creations and play along!

Forgive me for my poor lighting.  It's after 11pm and I just got back from Christmas shopping.  Santa only works when 3 little kids are in bed, right?

For the background, I embossed the snowflake from the Stitched with Cheer stamp set onto watercolor paper.  Then I used two different coloring techniques - Pool Party with my Aqua Painter and Bermuda Bay in the Spritzer.

I added some silver splatter by mixing Tombow Glue and water with my Aqua Painter, adding some Silver Emboss Powder and heat setting it with the Heat Tool.

For the sentiment, I used my Pool Party and Bermuda Bay Stampin' Write Markers.  The sentiment is from Wonder of Christmas.

I hope you enjoyed this card!  If you're in for a snowy weekend, stay warm!

Blessings,

Holly

Stitched With Cheer Alternative for TGIFC84

Well hello there December!  Where did you come from?

Anyone else feel that way?

Our older two boys have been asking almost everyday for a week now when it will be December 1st.. You think that I would've seen it coming!

Let the countdown begin to Christmas Day!  We have a very fitting color combo for you at TGIF Challenges this week, but don't let it keep you from thinking outside the box!

I wanted to highlight this fun stitched star from the Stitched with Cheer Kit.  This kit is now on sale for $14(USD) and you get supplies to make 18 cards with envelopes!  What a steal!  These cards a detailed and are so fun to make - definitely worth spending $14 on.  You just need the matching stamp set! :)

Here is the original use of the star on one of the pre-printed card bases:

I decided to take the star and add it to a completely different card.

I made the watercolor background on Shimmery White CS. I first wet the cardstock (you can use a Spritzer or use an Aqua Painter) and then immediately stamped the "smear" image from Perpetual Birthday in Old Olive ink.  I used my Heat Tool to die the cardstock and then added some splatter using my Aqua Painter and the splatter stamp from Timeless Textures in Early Espresso ink.

I added the sentiment and holly leaves from the Stitched with Cheer stamp set.  I also added a few Old Olive Enamel Dots from the Halloween Haunts Enamel Dots pack.  (On sale for $2.20!)

The envelopes that come in the Stitched with Cheer Kit have coordinating envelope liners to match each card.  I absolutely love that extra detail!

I hope that you join us this week at TGIF Challenges!  I know that life is busy around the holidays, but take a moment to stamp - you'll be happy you did!

Be sure to check out the rest of the team's designs on the main challenge page.

You can also check out the amazing end of year clearance sale going on now!

Blessings!

-Holly 

*Must use hostess code P7M6WKNQ to receive the gift*

**Do not use a hostess code with an order over $150 - I will still send a gift, but YOU will receive the hostess rewards!**

In Everything Give Thanks - TGIFC82

Well here we are less than a week until Thanksgiving and the "fall" feeling will soon be replaced with Christmas music, holiday decorations and shopping.  Oh yeah and that white cold stuff falling out of the sky!  Today we are supposed to have our first snow fall here in Minnesota.  They're actually calling for 3-5" of snow!  So much for easing into it with some flurries. 

So to celebrate the beautiful season of Autumn one last time - we have a fall theme at TGIF Challenges this week!  Or leaves, or brown/yellow/orange.  Whatever you get out of this challenge, go for it!

We were so happy to see 20 challengers this past week! What a great turnout! :)

I had this idea in my mind to make a cornucopia with a new stamp set... I just couldn't get the ice cream cone to look right.  I was way overthinking things - but thought it'd look cute with the pumpkins and gourds.  I decided to just use this bunch of pumpkins and gourds from the Basket of Wishes stamp set and nix the cornucopia idea...

If you don't know by now, Banner Blessings is a very special set to me.  I was fortunate enough to create this stamp set for Stampin' Up! to produce.  It was a very awesome and rewarding opportunity!

I fussy cut the banner from the stamped image and covered the bottom of the pumpkins.  I actually drew in the bottoms of the pumpkins and gourds with my Project Life Journaling Pen and colored the images with my Blender Pens.

I used the Moroccan DSP for the edges of the card and finished the card off with some Delightful Dijon 5/8" Mini Striped Ribbon, Gold Metalic Thread and the Metallic Enamel Shapes.

I hope that you join us this week!  We love to see your work!

Have a blessed weekend!

-Holly