Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge

Happy Saturday!  Today I am playing along with this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge.  Here is the inspirational photo:

And here is the card I created:

I was inspired, quite literally, by the washi-decorated jars holding paint brushes.  I started by stamping two paint brushes and watercoloring them in with the same color ink I stamped them in.  Then I stamped the mason jar on some vellum, put some washi tape across it, then cut it all out as one piece.  I added some pink and natural burlap twine to finish the jar off.  I love the simplicity of this card.  I'll save it for one of my artsy friends.  :)

That is all for today!  I'll be back tomorrow with another card that I recently made.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

Mama Elephant and Me Challenge

Happy half-way point!  Today I am back with a card that I created for the Mama Elephant and Me Challenge blog.  This is a new one for me, so I'm excited to be playing along! 

Here is the inspiration photo:

And here is my card:

This card was a challenge for me, but I am happy with the way it turned out.  I am kind of loving the sequins here.  I didn't have any fun, orange sequins, so I took a small flower stamp, stamped it with orange ink, then covered it with a clear sequin.  That works just as well, if you ask me!

Here is a close up of the sequins:

That is all for today!  I'll be back tomorrow to share more.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

Ribbon Carousel Challenge #91

 Hello everyone!  I am so excited to be designing for the Ribbon Carousel Challenge again!  For those of you who had not heard, the challenge went on a bit of a hiatus for a couple months, but now we're back and ready to play! 

This month's theme is Party Time!  This can be ANYTHING celebratory.  Graduation, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Pedicure Friday...you get the idea.  :)  Here is the card I created this month:

Ok, I know I said this in a recent post, but shaker cards just might be my new favorite thing!  They are so fun to make and just make me so happy to play with.  I can only imagine how fun they would be to receive, too!

These Allison Kreft Recorded papers were just perfect for this card and I love all of the fun colors of sequins that I used in the shaker card.  Sure, some of them are stuck at the top and side, but I think that just adds to the fun of the card.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you'll play along and I can't wait to see what you all create!  Until next time...

Adding Color to My Day!

What is the weather like where you are today?  It is snowing here with a high of 0 (as in ZERO) right now.  I had to do something to keep my fingers from freezing, so I decided to make a card for a sweet friend of mine.  I started searching the challenge sites and decided to play along with CAS-ology's challenge this week.  The theme:  Paint. 

I am loving the trend of watercoloring on cards, so I decided to take a stab at it.  Here is what I made:

I used Paper Smooches I Heart Art stamp set for this one.  I cut a piece of watercolor paper to fit on the easel and then brushed it with some watercolors.  I love how it turned out!  After stamping the sentiment, I cut out the easel and glued the tiny masterpiece on, then I glued it to my card.  I would have left it at that, but I decided to add more watercolor fun by adding some pennants at the top.  I wrapped them with white burlap twine and boom.  There you have it.  A pretty, simple card for an amazing lady.

I am going to be linking this up with this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge as well.  The theme:  Anything Goes!   

Thanks for stopping by this fine day!  Hope the rest of your Sunday is fab!  Until next time...

Fusion Card Challenge: Fusion #2

After dealing with my two girlies who have had the flu for a few days, I decided to get my craft on this weekend.  I came across the Fusion Card Challenge and decided to play along this time around.

Here is the sketch/photo inspiration:

And here is the card I made:

Yellow isn't one of my favorite colors, so it was different for me to work with for this challenge.  I am so happy with the way the card turned out, though.  I used my gray ink pad and a water pen to do the shading on the jar and used four different Paper Smooches sets.  For the jar and flowers, I used Crystal Clear; I used part of the "Love" sentiment from Warm Hearts and the heart from Word Salad to make the word "Love"; I used the happy anniversary sentiment and letters from the deepest sympathy stamp from Good Gab to create the rest of the sentiment.  I learned of a stamp masking technique from a Paper Smooches video Savannah O'Gwynn put together.  Stamp masking is NO JOKE.  I started over four times before I finally got this to look the way I wanted it.  It's tedious but man is it cool to be able to create your own sentiment from bits and pieces of a bunch of other stamps!

I will also be linking this up to this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge: Anything Goes.  Because, why not, right?

Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time...

Ribbon Carousel Challenge #89

Hello, hello!  I'm glad to be back today with my very first official post as a member of the Ribbon Carousel Challenge crew! 

I decided to make a get well card because I seem to make a ton of love-themed and birthday cards.  Plus, I wanted another excuse to pull out my Paper Smooches Healthy Vibes stamp set.  :)  Here is my card:

 
To make this card super authentic, I used the corner of a tissue to fill the tissue box.  I have used tissue paper for this in the past as well.  

Be sure to play along with us!  The winner will receive 10 wooden spools filled with your choice of seam binding, baker's twine or May Arts ribbon.  Awesome prize, right?  So link up for your chance to win! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time...

Happy 2014 Friends!

With the new year comes a new resolution:  KEEP THIS BLOG UPDATED!  While I haven't posted very much, I HAVE been making things and even photographing them.  I just haven't been sitting down to show you all what I have been working on.  That's a bummer and I am going to work on it.  Promise.

One thing that should help me get back into the posting game is this little tidbit...I've been chosen to be on the Ribbon Carousel Challenge Blog Design Team!  I am so super excited about working with such an amazingly talented group of women!  I can't wait to get started! 

I will be back in a few days with my first post, so for now I will leave you with this cute card I made. 

I love the cards I've been seeing with objects inside of the mason jars, so I thought I would take a stab at it.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  (And it certainly can't hurt that I used all of my favorite color combos.  :) )

I'll be back soon to share more, friends!  Hope your 2014 is off to a great start!  Until next time...

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge

Happy Friday night everyone!  I played along with this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge and I wanted to share what I made.  Here is the sketch for this week:

And here is the card I made:

I enjoyed throwing this card together and I love how it kind of looks like the mittens are hanging around the pennant. 

That's all for now!  This is a quick post, eh?  :)  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I'll be back soon with more cards that I've been making. 

Until next time...

Kiwi Lane Blog Hop!

Happy Friday, everyone!  Today I am excited to be participating in the November Kiwi Lane Blog Hop!  I have always enjoyed these hops as a follower because I love seeing all the amazing things that can be made using Kiwi Lane's designer templates.  Now I get to show you what I made with mine! 

Make sure to leave a comment at the end of this post because one random winner chosen from one of the participating blogs (including the Kiwi Lane blog), will be given a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane Shop!!  The winner will be announced on the Kiwi Lane blog on Thursday, November 7th.  Here is the blog lineup in case you get lost or this is the first you're hearing of the hop:

Kiwi Lane

** Cristine Redmond ** You Are Here!

Joy Nielsen

Van Nguyen

Minousha Bari

Lissa Mitchell

Arin Flynn

Kerri Smith

Christine Meyer

Christina Steel

Now that all of the technical stuff is out of the way, let's get this project reveal started!  I was given the Nature template set to work with: 

Being that fall is in full swing in my neighborhood, I was immediately drawn to the two leaf templates in this set.  I thought it would be fun to put together a wreath for my front door. 

Here are the supplies I used:
- wreath (mine was a straw wreath)
- burlap (can be ribbon or fabric cut into strips)
- Kiwi Lane Nature set
- Patterned Paper
- additional embellishments as needed
- glue gun
- a bone folder if it has a rounded edge and a straight edge, or a spoon & knife
- mouse pad or other soft surface

Here is the wreath that I created:

First I wrapped the wreath using burlap ribbon with a frayed edge to give the wreath a bit of visual interest.  Then I used the templates to cut out leaves from various papers from Authentique's Gathering collection.  I wanted to make these leaves look like more than just paper, so I flipped my leaves over to the side I wasn't going to be showing and used the rounded side of my bone folder in a circular motion to make the edges of the leaves curl up.  Then I flipped the leaves over and used the straight edge of my bone folder to create lines to look like the veins in the leaves.  Sounds complicated, but it was super quick and easy and gave the leaves so much more dimension (it's hard to see from the pictures).   

I used some lighter colored burlap fabric to make the rosettes, using my glue gun to keep them together and then to adhere them to the wreath.  What is the saying?  "I craft, therefore I have no fingerprints."  Yeah, that was me last weekend.  :)

I added a couple extra leaves and another rosette to the top of the wreath to balance out the heaviness of the other side.

I am SO HAPPY with the way this wreath turned out! As a self-proclaimed "novice," I've always wanted to make a pretty wreath but have always thought it would be too hard.  This came together so quickly and easily and I am so proud to have it hanging on my front door now.

Thank you so much for hopping by!  Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane Gift Shop!!  Now hop on over to Joy Nielson's blog to see the amazing project she created!

Until next time,

We R Memory Keepers Bewitched

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I am so thrilled to be guest designing over at the We R Memory Keepers blog today!  I was lucky to be chosen to work with their new Bewitched collection.  Head over to their blog to see one of the projects I created.  Because they were super generous and sent me a lot of goodies to play with, I thought I would share the rest of the fun stuff I made. 

First up, the layouts:

And here are a few cards I made with the scraps:

Thank you for stopping by today!  Until next time...

Happy Fall Y'all!

I don't know about you, but I love fall.  The crispness of the air, the smells of leaves and fireplaces burning and the pretty colors that go with it are all wonderful.  Growing up in Arizona, fall came when the temperatures hit 80 degrees.  Fall is quite different now that I live in Kansas.  :)

In September, Sweet Stamp Shop released a great fall themed stamp set called Fall Gratitude and I wanted to share a couple cards that I made with it. 

First up is this card:

I used stamping markers to color in different areas of this great feather stamp and created a scheme that I am in love with.  I added the simple sentiment, some seam binding and burlap twine and this simple card is now in my top 5 favorite cards.

Here is another card I have made with this set:

I stamped the circlular stamps on watercolor paper and then smeared them a bit with my water brush.  I used a coordinating ink refill to dye some seam binding, then tied it on with a piece of dark brown burlap twine.  I love this wood grain patterned paper from Basic Grey's Life of the Party collection.  This card reminds me of fall in the mountains of Colorado.  Nothing beats the gorgeous colors of the Aspen's when they are changing colors.

That is all for now!  I'll be back soon with more!

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...