Hugs & Smiles & Happy Birthday!

Hi Friends! I hope you are having a fantastic weekend! We've had some rain the past couple of days, so we're enjoying some cooler weather, which is nice. What's even nicer is time spent crafting! Here's my latest creation.

This card was fun to make because I had no preconceived vision of what I wanted it to look like. I just knew I needed to follow a sketch, use certain colors and polka dots, and have it end up as a birthday card in order to be able to enter this in a few challenges. The pretty sentiment is a Verve stamp, and the two floral spray stamps are from Flourishes. The panel behind the sentiment layer and ribbon was originally going to be a piece of acetate until I found out that the inks I have won't dry on acetate. So, I ended up stamping on vellum instead and gluing that onto a piece of dp with a subtle design on it. It was really pretty, but, turns out, between the sentiment layer, flowers, and bow, you can't even see the design. I know it's there, though, and it's still pretty, even if no one else can see it. :)

Lately, I've noticed that a lot of people are using lots of different flowers in clusters on their cards. It's always so pretty, I decided to give it a try, too. It took lots of fiddling with them to get an arrangement I liked, but I think it was worth it. I definitely need to stock up on a variety of flowers!

I used another stamp from the same Flourishes Summer Blossom stamp set for the inside, but I stamped it in  green and colored it with much lighter colors. 

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great week! School starts here tomorrow, so I'm going to try to get my before and after craft room photos edited this week so I can post them! It is sooo nice to be a little more organized now!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Viva la Verve August 2012 Week 1: VLVAug2012
Flourishes Birthday Wishes Challenge: FLLCAug12
Do You Stack Up #83: Polka Dots
Sugar Creek Hollow #23: Something old (mulberry roses & pearls), something new (stamps)
Fat Pages and Cards with Attitude #19: Anything Goes
Poodles Parlour: Anything Goes
Simply Create Too #19: Anything Goes
Moving Along with the Times #157: Summer
Simon Says...Kristina's Inspiration Photo: Kitty
Whimsy Stamps #49: Summer Fun

~Hugs!

 

Stamps: Kind Words, Bloom & Grow (Verve); Summer Blossoms, Tag Lines (Flourishes)
Paper: Stash; vellum
Ink: Memento; Copics; Colorbox; Distress Ink
Dies: Std Circles Lg, Antique Frame & Accents, Fleur de Lis Squares (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Ribbon (Joann); flowers & leaf; leaf pins (Maya Road); Stickles; pearls
Size: 5" sq.

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Kaleidoscope Father's Day

Hi Friends! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! I have a quick Father's Day card to share with you today. Flourishes is having a Gimme Ten (minute)! challenge, and even though I usually take hours to make a card, I thought I'd give it a try. And, I used this week's Play Date Cafe Color Challenge for my color palette:

I mentioned, in my last post, that I wanted to take a photo of my home library and try to come up with my own personal designer paper. I had already made almost a dozen versions of the photo, using different effects to make the photo more abstract. But, my library is mostly dark cherry wood, and most of the books in the photo I wanted to use are leather-bound in rich reds, browns, and blacks--no where near copasetic for the color challenge--so I used my photo program to make a few more changes.

I used the tiled and kaleidoscope version of the photo, and simply adjusted the colors until they fit the color challenge. Easy peasy! Now, thinking about the design of this card took a long time, but finally putting it together was a snap. I printed the kaleidoscope design to the size I needed, cut it out, punched the corners, inked the edges a little, then heat embossed the sentiment. Then, I glued everything together. Metal accents are glued to each corner.

Finally, I added Stickles to the design. Even close up, you can't tell that this design was originally a photo of a library. I love the kaleidoscope effect feature in my photo program!

On the inside, I thought about adding some kind of sentiment, but decided to just stamp a light motif as a background. I'll add a personal sentiment before I give it to my husband.

And, that's it--quick and easy! Well, quick, after I figured out what I wanted to do. ;)

I'll be entering this card in the following challenges:

Flourishes Gimme Ten Challenge (FLLCJun12)

The Play Date Cafe PDCC135: Aquamarine, Poolside, Clay

One Stop Craft Challenge #186: Father's Day

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #189: Father's Day

Sugar Creek Hollow Challenge #15: Make Your Own Designer Paper

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope the rest of your weekend is fabulous!

~Hugs!

 

Stamps: A Guiding Light (Flourishes); Motif (Inkadinkadoo)
Paper: My Library in Kaleidoscope Digi Paper (Personal)
Ink: Distress Ink; Clear embossing ink
Accessories: Morocco Lace Edger (EK Success); white embossing powder; metal accents (K&Co); Stickles; Distress Stickles; sewing thread
Size: A2 (5.5" x 4.25")

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