ColourQ #255

Hello, hello!  I hope you all are having a great week!  Today I am playing along with a challenge I recently stumbled upon.  It is a color challenge called ColorQ.

Here is the color pallet:

And here is the card I made:

I didn't have the Rich Razzleberry color, but the color I used (Memories Dye Ink in Port Red) was very similar...until I got it wet and it turned a more pinkish color.  Oh well, I tried!  I cut the tag with my Silhouette and then used a mask over it when I added the color.  Once I was done, I sprayed the tag with water to allow the colors to move a bit.  When it was dry, I heat embossed it using Versamark and silver embossing powder.  I added the grommet and seam binding, which I had dyed with the Port Red, then added the silver sequins for a finishing touch.  I think it turned out pretty.  Seam binding has a way of making things pretty all by itself.  :)

That is all for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

Fusion Card Challenge

Hello!  My girls have been at a day camp all week, so I am getting some serious card making done!  Today I am back with a card that I created for this week's Fusion Card Challenge. 

Here is the GORGEOUS picture and the sketch for the week:

Isn't that a beautiful picture?  I tried to do it some kind of justice with the card I made:

I wanted this card to be pretty, so I added the white sequins and the dyed seam binding to finish it off.  I love how it turned out!  Doesn't seam binding just make everything pretty?  :)

While I am here, I wanted to share another card I made for some friends of ours who just bought a new house.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the stamp-edged background, house and heart.  The stamps are all from Avery Elle.  It's a simple card, but sometimes those are the best kind.  I hope our friends like it.

That's all for today!  Until next time...

World Card Making Day 2013

Happy (day after) World Card Making Day!  I was able to squeeze in some crafty time yesterday to make a couple cards that I wanted to share with you.  Coincidentally, yesterday was also my husband's birthday, so I decided to put an end to my procrastination to make him a birthday card.  And because I love using my Pinterest pins for inspiration, here is a card I pinned from Kristina Werner that I used as my starting point:

And here is the card I made:

I used My Mind's Eye's Cut & Paste Adorbs collection for this masculine card.  I LOVE how the inspiration card used wood grain cardstock.  I happened to have a sheet lying around that I was too nervous to mess up use, so I took the plunge and used it for the base of my card.  I also used a wood grain patterned paper from the Adorbs 6x6 paper pad to complement it.  

I stamped the banner and sentiment on the coordinating ombre paper with Versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder.  It really makes the sentiment pop off the paper.  A few extra coordinating touches and this card was done!  I love quick and easy cards!

The second card I made is for this week's 10 Minute Craft Dash challenge.  Here is the color scheme:

And here is the card I made:

I used my Silhouette to create a custom patterned paper and I am so thrilled with the outcome!  I used a silver sketch pen to sketch out the spider webs then used the blade to have it and the little bat cut out for me.  I LOVE when an idea in my head comes out the way I planned.  :) 

I stamped the speech bubble with Versamark and covered it with silver embossing powder to go with the silvery shimmer of the spider webs.  I threw on a few other challenge-coordinating accents as well as a silver glitter enamel dot and this was done.  I have to say for as complicated as this card was, I did it FAST!  I had 1 minute and 42.351 seconds left when I finished.  :) 

I hope you all had a wonderfully crafty day yesterday and are enjoying your weekend.  I will be back soon with some fall-inspired cards.

Until next time...

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there!  I hope you all are having a blessed day with your families!  I wanted to show off what I was up until 11:15pm last night making made for my mom and my MIL. :)

Here are the cards I made:

I stamped these flower stamps in grey ink and then used colored pencils to color them in.  I even tried something new (to me) - shading!!  I am in no way, shape or form an artist so this was pretty big for me.  :)  Once I was done coloring in the images, I used mineral spirits and a paper pencil to blend them in.  This smooths out the lines and evens up the color. 

Here is what I made for my MIL:

Other than putting pictures in a big album for her, I've never really made anything for my MIL before.  I wanted to take the picture I took of her and her kids at Mother's Day last year and make it into a nice framed piece.  I took a piece of 8x8 chipboard and sprayed it with adhesive.  Then I placed a piece of burlap over it.  I just layered everything else on top and this is how it turned out.  I'm proud of it, so I hope she liked it!  (I was home with a sickie today, so I didn't get to see her reaction.)

This is what I made for my mom:

My mom goes by Mimi and I'm sad to say that there is not a lot of Mimi-personalized things out there.  I thought I'd take some vinyl that I just got and make her a frame of her own.  I used my Silhouette to cut out the sentiment.  It was super easy and fast to make.  My kind of project!  

That is all for now! Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday afternoon!

Until next time...

Occasions...

Happy Friday!  I've been promising new stuff for a while now so I figured it was high time I got my rear in gear and show off some of what I have been working on lately.  It seems like I have had to make a lot of occasion cards lately, for specific birthdays, weddings, etc.

This first card was made for a friend of mine who just celebrated the big 4-0.  She looks amazing and not a day over 30, so I wanted her to know that she makes 40 look amazing.  Here's what I came up with:

    
I thought the card turned out fun and sassy, just like my friend.  I printed the sentiment on a piece of kraft paper, then used my Silhouette to cut out the 40.  Added some washi tape and it was done!  Super fun and easy!

The next card I made is for a wedding that we are going to later this month.  My husband's cousin is getting married and I've been around long enough to remember when she was in her teens.  To be a bit floored that she is now old enough to get married (I'm not old, right?!?), is an understatement.  Here is what I made for her:

 
I decided to go simple with this card.  I used the potty people stamp from Amy Tangerine's Hey There set and then punched a red heart to put over the heart image.  Then I used Lawn Fawn's Sally's ABC's to write the sentiment.  I added red burlap twine and a red button and that's it!  Another fast and easy card.

I made this last card for my Dad, who recently celebrated turning 67 years young.  My Dad is the greatest, and I don't just say that because I'm his daughter.  :)  Here is the card I made for him:

Excuse the crappy picture.  It was snowing (?!?) the day I took it.

I used some My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose papers and some My Thoughts Exactly stamps.  It's been a while since I expressed my love for Pinterest, so I thought I would show you the inspiration for this card:

Sometimes I am lost without inspiration, so Pinterest definitely pulls me out of my creative rut when all I'm seeing is an empty thought bubble above my head.  Especially on days like May 3rd...when it was SNOWING for Pete's sake!  I still can't get over that one.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed taking a look at my cards today!  I'll be back with more soon!

Until next time...

Too Cute To Spook...

Today I am featured over at Authentique's blog, so be sure to head over and check out my post! I created a layout using Authentique's Glowing collection, Glue Arts amazing adhesive products and some cute pictures of my hubby, daughters and nephew from Halloween last year.

I just happened to use a sketch created by the amazingly talented Van Nguyen, who was a guest sketcher over at Scrapbooksteals recently, as a spring board for this layout, so here is the sketch:


And here is the layout I created:


I think this is probably my all time favorite Halloween layout that I've ever done. It's not overly spooky, doesn't have bright colors (like the greens, purples, etc you usually see in Halloween lines) and is fairly simple. But I love it.

As I noted on my Authentique post, The circle was a labor of love. The patterned paper I used originally looked like this:


Because I didn't want this layout to have too many bold colors to distract from the colors in the pictures, I chose to cut out a bunch of the diamonds, using only the cream, black and mildly decorated lighter pieces. It was a bear to put together, but I am so happy with the way it turned out!

This was also the first time I tried bunching up ribbon and using sewing pins as decoration. (See my Authentique post for more detailed photos.)

Hope I was able to inspire in some way!! Until next time...

Authentique Sketch Challenge

Hello everyone! Today over on the Authentique blog, October's sketch challenge has been posted! Since I created a layout for September's challenge, I decided to tackle the card sketch this month.

Here is the sketch:


And here is the card I created:


When I saw this month's card sketch, I knew it would work perfectly for a card I needed to make for one of our nephew's upcoming 3rd birthday. I used papers from the Endless line, a part of Authentique's new Free Bird Series. This line is filled with gorgeous oranges, teals, dark blues and browns. PERFECT for a card for a little boy!


I thought it would be cute to highlight our nephew's upcoming age on the numbered paper with a couple shapes I cut out with my Silhouette (on "b" sides of Endless papers). I also accented the area with a cute little star, cut out of another paper from the Endless line.


I thought I'd grunge up the banner, to make it a little more like our rough and tumble nephew. I think it turned out pretty cute. :)

Be sure to check out the Authentique blog and play along with this month's challenge! You have until Wednesday, October 12th to link your projects to the blog post. {Rules are on the blog post.}

Have fun!!

Supplies:

Authentique:
Patterned Paper: Free Bird Series- Endless

Other:
Ribbon - My Mind's Eye: Fine and Dandy
Tools - Paper distresser: Tim Holtz for Tonic Studios

A past project...

I was just looking through some of my past posts and I realized I forgot to post an altered piece that I created way back in May! I turned a double frame into a cute quote piece for my daughter's teacher on the last day of school. It was the first time I'd ever altered something and I was THRILLED with the way it turned out!

Here's the finished product:



I think it turned out really cute and Ms. Joy cried when my daughter gave it to her. :) I think I'm going to stock up on frames like this to use as end-of-the-year gifts for future teachers. Or just to make something cute for myself. :)

ScrapbookSteals Crop Challenges

Scrapbooksteals recently had an online crop/chat and with each one they do, they issue challenges to be completed for prizes. Here are the challenges and my entries:

Challenge #1: Mid Week Mojo #48

Here's the sketch:



And here is my layout:



This layout contains one of my new favorite things...kraft paper! I seriously never used it before this week and since I created this layout, I've used it two more times. Can't get enough! I'd been looking for a cute way to scrap these two pictures and this sketch fit the bill. So cute!

Challenge #2: Number Recipe (1 die cut, 3 colors of spray mist, 5 patterned papers, 7 brads and 9 buttons)

Here's what I created:



This seriously has to be one of my favorite layouts ever. Not just because I'm thrilled with how it turned out, but I also LOVE all of the papers used. First and foremost, kraft. :) Then I used some papers from MME Stella and Rose's Hazel line and MME 29th Street Market. They're all right up my aqua, brown and pink color-scheme-of-the-moment alley.

Because they're hard to see, I'll tell you that for the three mists, I used these Glimmer Mist "flavors," Route 66, Granite and Vintage Pink. I didn't want to alter the colors of my papers very much, so I basically used "clear" colors plus some light pink. I'm happy with the effect.

Challenge #3: Summer Fun

For this challenge, a project had to be created using this picture as inspiration:



This is what I created:



I thought the color scheme of the card was very lemon-limey, which seems very summery to me.

Challenge #4: Gender Swap

For this challenge we were to create a layout using opposite gender collections/papers. For instance, if I was scrapping my girls, I'd use more masculine papers. If I was scrapping my nephews, I'd use more feminine papers. Unfortunately I did not have time to complete this challenge, but I plan on doing this in the future!

Challenge #5: Bonus Sketch!

This challenge was to create a layout using the following sketch, which was done by Melissa Dehne...



I combined challenges 2 and 5, so here is the layout again...



I flipped the sketch on it's side in order to use a horizontal picture. It turned out so cute (if I do say so myself). :)

I love being "challenged" so I can't wait for the next crop!

For a mother and a teacher...

Recently, I went to a baby shower for the sister of one of my good friends. (Side note: I gave most of my baby stuff to my friend's sister and had anxiety about it for a good WEEK. As far as my husband and I are concerned, we are DONE having kids...but what if...?)

Anyway, she had a baby shower a couple weekends ago and I made a cute little card for her. Here it is:



I know I use this baby bib image from my Silhouette often, but it's SO easy to make a different card every time with it. I kept this one simple and sweet. Now if only I could learn how to stamp so the things I DO stamp don't look so wonky. Looking at it now, it seems a little plain and I wish I had done some stitching or edging of some sort around the bib, but it's cute none-the-less.

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. I had NO idea what to do for my daughter's teacher and room aide. That is, I had no idea until I saw this blog from The Twinery.

It was SO easy to print and cut out these note cards! I don't have any pretty twine (yet!!) so I used some hemp twine and made a cute tag. Took me all of about 15 minutes to do these two stacks. LOVE IT!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

My best friend's daughter turns one soon so I made her a birthday card. I recently purchased a Sizzix embossing machine (so I'll be embossing EVERYTHING!) and decided to give it a whirl for this card. I also used some shapes from my Silhouette. Here's the final product:



Yes, this card is kind of fancy for a one-year old. But if you knew this one-year old, you'd understand. :) She's pretty stylin' for her age.

I love how this turned out! I used embroidery floss to jazz up the background paper (as if the paisley-printed, embossed background paper needed anymore jazzing up). The "Happy Birthday" banner is on 3D foam tape to make it stand out a bit from the rest of the busy card. I also used what little of the MME Penny Lane papers that I have left. It's cute, if I do say so myself. :)

I'm in disbelief!

I can't believe my baby girl turns TWO a week from today. Seems like just yesterday my little Brutus came speeding into our lives. She was a week early, came out in three pushes after 4 hours of labor, started walking at 9.5 months and hasn't slowed down yet! (Much to mommy's dismay.) Brutus has added a whole new level of chaos to our lives on ALL levels (her big sister was the calm, centered child...B is COMPLETELY opposite - hence the nickname). But I wouldn't trade any of the years she's shaved off my life due to frequent heart-attack moments for ANYTHING! :)

Anyway, this is the birthday card I made for my sweet girl. I am in LOVE with it!!



I created my own "twine" by taking apart two strands of embroidery floss, getting them damp, twisting them together, then leaving to dry. Next time, I might just keep the two strands whole before twisting them together because I like the thicker look better, but this isn't bad for a first try! The Imaginisce Enchanted collection works so well for anything girly related. I cut out the cake and candles using my Silhouette. Let me tell you...next time I will cut out BIGGER images because working with those tiny, delicate candles was definitely a challenge. Lesson learned! I sprayed the top layer of cake with Cadillac Pink Glimmer Mist. I think everything goes so well together...even the blue ribbon with pink polka dots!

I had fun making this card and I hope she enjoys looking at it when she gets older.

A baby and a Princess walk into a club...

Just kidding. :) I've been busy and bored the past couple of weeks. That sounds like an oxymoron, but it's true. I've been busy around the house and I've been bored because I haven't been able to create anything. Let's all pause and do a resounding *wah waaaah* a la Debbie Downer. :)

Our newest nephew arrived March 16th, only 6 short days late. :) He is beautiful and VERY healthy. (He weighed in at 9 lbs, 8 oz and was 21 inches long!) I managed to cut and assemble this card in probably 10 minutes flat. The fuzzy picture proves it as I made the card and took a picture pretty much as we were getting ready to head out the door to meet him! It turned out really cute!



When I saw the Imaginisce Enchanted kit being offered on Scrapbooksteals.com, I knew I had the PERFECT picture to go with it. Is it sad that I purchased a WHOLE kit just to scrap ONE picture?! Not in my eyes. Plus, the amount of stuff that came with the kit (papers, stamps, stickers, borders, die cuts, ribbon...Oh My!), was totally worth it!!

Here is they layout I created with this kit:



I cut the castle and clouds out of a sheet of paper that came with the kit and I created the little mini-Maddie princess with a stamp. I love that I was able to create and color the stamp to match her unique strawberry blonde hair and blue and black princess outfit. (PS: Call me crazy, but I LOVE the outfit she wore. A Cinderella dress with a white shirt, black leggings and black Converse shoes. She was a "hip" version of a princess.) :) I used regular colored pencils to color in the stamp. I'm in no way ready to make the Copic investment...yet! The ribbon at the top of the layout is attached to a picture of the card that the birthday princess used as her thank you card...it had a picture of all of the little girls who went to the party (all in princess dresses) and Sleeping Beauty, who showed up to be the entertainment at the party! Definitely a memory my daughter will never forget!

I'm itching to create a layout with last week's MWM sketch, so hopefully I'll be back soon! Until then...