The Shabby Tea Room & Inspired By

This is my first time playing with the Shabby Tea Room gals... using a sketch by the lovely Lesley Croghan.  I've used Laurel's Inspired By photo as my inspiration:

I tipped the sketch up on it's end:

And Laurel's pretty inspiration pic:

Patterned papers are Fiddlesticks, by My Mind's Eye; Cardstock is Slate, Cotton Candy & Colonial White, CTMH; Slate organdy ribbon, & rosette ribbon CTMH;  Stamp set is Gracious Greetings, CTMH; Inks are Slate & Whisper, CTMH; Spellbinders Labels 14 die;

 

 

Dynamic Duos #39

It's time for some softer colours at Dynamic Duos, where we're featuring Pink Pirouette & Pool Party this week.  I needed a baby card for one of my son's favourite teachers, so this colour combo was perfectly timed!

We would love to have you join us over at the Dynamic Duos blog, where you can see all kinds of fabulous inspiration from the rest of the design team, or you'll find them linked on my sidebar.  If you don't have the exact colours, just use something similar. (You'll notice that my cardstock is a little more blue, as I just didn't have anything as minty as Pool Party).

Patterned paper is Chantilly; Cardstock is Baby Pink, Heavenly Blue & Colonial White; Stamp set is Gracious Greetings; Ink is Grey Wool; Bitty Pearls, Rosette ribbon & Grosgrain ribbon - all supplies are CTMH; Taylored Expressions Medium scallop die.

 

A Wedding Card

I had a friend request a wedding card this week... so here is the first of two that I've come up with.  Since this one has pretty specific colours - which may not be for everyone... the other one looks distinctly more bridal.  Anyhow, here's my first effort:

Patterned papers are Everafter, Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Colonial White, CTMH; Ivory Organdy ribbon, CTMH; Stamp set is Gracious Greetings, CTMH; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento and Creme Brulee, CTMH; Spellbinders and Cuttlebug dies. Opaque pearls, CTMH.

A couple of Pemberly cards

This is definitely my favourite paper pack of the moment... I loved the long rectangular wedding card that I made a few weeks back, so I've made a 4" square card using the same design.  I also really love the large floral that comes in this pack, so I've made a 5 1/2" square card and kept it pretty simple:

Patterned papers are Pemberly; Cardstock is Kraft, Outdoor Denim & Colonial White; Stamp sets are Gracious Greetings, Card Word Puzzle; Kraft Color-Ready Borders; Ivory Organdy Ribbon; Bouquet Assortment resin flower - all CTMH; Inks are Outdoor Denim, CTMH and Grey, Memento; Copic Markers; Spellbinders Die.

Using up the old stuff!

With the CTMH Fall/Winter catalogue debuting August 1st...  I decided to use up a bit of older product while I anxiously await my shipment of brand new goodies :o)  This was a friend request, that I wanted to do in a soft & pretty colour combo:

Patterned papers are Life Delights and Wings; Cardstock is Chocolate, Lilac Mist & Colonial White; Stamp sets are Gracious Greetings and The Works alphabet; Ink is Blush; Opaque pearls - all CTMH; Spellbinder's Die.

A Vibrant 50th Birthday

I have a friend who loved a card that I made a few months back... and asked me to make something similar in vibrant colours for a friend who was turning 50.  I reoriented it to be a sideways card due to the large sentiment, and made it about as vibrant as is humanly possible:

All product is CTMH: Cardstock is Hydrangea, Watermelon & Ocean (all retired), Black, Pear & White Daisy; Ink is Pear; Stamp set is Gracious Greetings.  Opaque pearls.  Nestabilities die. 

Colour Challenge on Heart2Heart

We have an interesting colour combo of Creme Brulee, Gypsy & Black as this week's Heart2Heart challenge! 

A few of us on the design team found this a bit difficult - but the end results by everyone are incredible!  So be sure to check out all the inspiration ideas over at the blog, along with the creation by this week's guest designer, Angie Parchey.  Angie is also one of our prize sponsors for the month of March, along with Lori Brown.  I knew right away that I was going to do something floral for this week's card, so I made a few paper roses, and then realized that our Just Blooms paper flowers came in Creme Brulee, too!  After playing with my little grouping of flowers, I added a few punched ones, and then needed to somehow add some leaves and vines to round it out... but green isn't part of the challenge, and black leaves seemed a little gruesome!  So I came up with the idea to stitch a few wispy tendrils in black thread.  I sketched them out first, and then traced them with the sewing machine.  Voila!

Here's a closeup of the flowers:

and one of my little wisps:

Remember that your project (doesn't have to be a card!) should be mostly CTMH, and if you don't have the exact colours - use something close.  All supplies are CTMH: Stamp set is Gracious Greetings; Inks are Black, Creme Brulee & Gypsy; Cardstock is Black, White Daisy, Creme Brulee & Gypsy; Licorice & White Opaque Pearls.  Punches are Marvy & Martha Stewart.

Play Date Cafe Challenge #61

A Belated Merry Christmas to all of you... I haven't been able to post in about a week since I caught a cough/cold/sinus type thing a few days before Christmas, so was glad to be feeling well enough today to find some play time!  The current Play Date Cafe Challenge has an interesting colour combo that I used to make a thank-you card that I need to send.  Here is our inspiration:

Patterned paper is Vineyard Berry Fleur de Lis; Cardstock is Vineyard Berry, Moonstruck & Bamboo; Ink is Vineyard Berry; Stamp set is Gracious Greetings; - all CTMH; Spellbinders dies; Bling - Michaels. 

A Guy Card

Making cards for the men in our lives is just that little bit harder than 'girl' cards... so when I come up with something that works - I'm a happy stamper.  My girlfriend requested a card for her husband's birthday later this month, so I pulled out some Basic Grey papers that had been sitting around for a while.  I'd bought these papers for scrapbooking, and had never considered them for cards before??  I'm pretty pleased with the result, and with the extra distressing I did around the edges.

Patterned paper is Basic Grey, everything else is CTMH: Cardstock is Cocoa; Stamp set is Gracious Greetings; Ink is Cocoa; Natural Hemp; Basic Buttons

More teacher cards

Two more teacher cards... I really am having a blast doing girly designs, and I haven't had a chance to use this stamp set much, so I'm glad to do so.  For the first one, I smudged a little hollyhock chalk over the stamped image to give it a bit of a halo effect.  The second is a simple design, but the paper is so pretty, that it didn't need much!  All of the cards in the set are 6 1/2" x 5":

Patterned paper is Basic Grey, Urban Prairie collection; All other supplies are CTMH: Stamp set is Be Yourself; Cardstock is Black and White Daisy; Inks are Baby Pink, Hollyhock & Black; Martha Stewart punch.

Prima Flowers; Martha Stewart punch; Patterned papers are Basic Grey, Urban Prairie collection; Stamp set is Gracious Greetings, Brad and ribbon are Connection Club from CTMH.