Featured Guest for Newton's Nook

 

This week Newton's Nook is featuring all of the Inky Paws design team on their blog!  The week will be full of inspiration using products from Newton's Nook. I am excited to share my creation today  using products from Newton's Nook. Make sure you check out the NN Blog each day to see what my fellow DT has to share.

The loss of a pet is so hard and making a pet sympathy card can be so difficult. The trick is to keep it simple.  For my card today, I die cut a heart from the heart frames die set. I then stenciled a rainbow of stripes using the "Retro Sun and Palm" stencil set. (This is favorite of mine for the stripes, which I use in a variety of ways) I die cut a scalloped panel using the "Frames and Flag" set. To add some needed texture I embossed the panel using the "Tumbling Hearts" stencil. This is great way to get double duty from your stencils. I didn't have a specific pet sympathy sentiment, so I added a sentiment "Thinking of you" from the Floral Roundabout set. You don't need specific sentiments. You can always find something in your stash that will work. I die cut my cat and have him/her crossing the rainbow bridge. Newton's Nook also has dog silhouettes dies.

The inside of my card uses a sentiment from "Heartfelt Roses" and the paw prints are from the "Catitude" set.

Be sure to check out the Newton's  Nook blog for more Inky Paws inspiration! Also, don't forget to visit Newton's Nook to see all the products I used today and you will find even more to inspire you. Let me know what are your "go to" NN products!

 

Never enough

 

Cupcake Inspirations has a fabulous sponsor this challenge:

Joy Clair Designs is a small, family-run business and every order means so much to us, so thank you for supporting us! We pour our heart into each order, and you can be totally sure that you are receiving the best quality products and the best customer service. Each order is packed with love and with our personal touch! In our store you can find exclusive designs for clear stamps, digital stamps, stand-alone die cuts, stencils, and many crafter supplies.

To know more about us you can visit www.joyclair.com

Prize: 3 digital images of winners choice

Be sure to follow the Rules above to be eligible to win

 

That's right, Cupcake Inspirations has a sponsor and prizes this challenge. The challenge this week is 

a color challenge. 

My last post described yet another birthday card. They are fun to make and we can never have enough. But what card is the one you never have on stash until you need it and often it's the last thing you want to do. A sympathy card. the tulip digi from our sponsor was perfect for a sympathy card.

You have two weeks to play along at Cupcake Inspirations. Be sure to check out images from our sponsor.

the hardest cards......

 

Sympathy cards, aren't they the hardest cards to make? A card just doesn't seem like enough when someone suffers a loss of a love one. But you know what they do make a difference. I know they made me feel better when my brother died last year. (It's hard to believe that it is just about a year since my oldest brother Bill passed from esophageal cancer.)

Today, we start a new challenge at Cupcake Inspirations. Its a sophisticated color challenge.

Doesn't adding gold make everything classy?

Today's card features a the daisy stencil from Simon Says Stamp. Perfect for a quick and easy card. You can just as easily swap the the sympathy sentiment for a get well of thank you or birthday. So versatile.

 

You have two weeks to play along at Cupcake Inspirations for our classic color challenge.

Sympathy for the world

 

Happy April! I usually come up with a good fool's joke, but no one really feels like joking now. I think we all just want the world to return to normal. But what will our new normal look like? I am a hugger, I shake hands to determine someone's merit during a job interview. Will I be able to return to that? Or will we always maintain a certain distance socially as well as emotionally?

When I made this card, the world hadn't gone topsy-turvey. Posting it now is like sending a sympathy card for all of us. We all have suffered some kind of loss with this madness. A loss as even as simple as not being able to hug some one in need.

Today is a new challenge at The Rainbow Card Challenge. The color this month is tiffany. That lovely soothing blue-green, aqua type color. It s a peaceful color, perfect for a sympathy card.

My very clean and simple card uses the "mum flower frame" from Simon Says Stamp. I added the banner sentiment and a few Neuvo Drops and this card was complete.

I hope this month's music inspiration has you chuckling like I was. There are really no songs with "tiffany" in the title, but I did come across this one. It's all about Tiffany!

You have all month to play along with our tiffany color challenge at The Rainbow Card Challenge.

with sympathy

Sympathy cards are the hardest cards to make. But they mean so much to person who receives them. I know all the cards I received when my brother died really touched my heart.

My card today is inspired by the new challenge at CAS on Friday. It is a color challenge.

 


These are Stampin' Up! colors, but when you do not have them, use colors that are as close as you can! 

There is something so soothing about these colors that make it perfect for a sympathy card. This card cab easily replicated with any flower/leaf stamps you might have in your stash. If you don't have a bird die, a butterfly would work just as well.

*Please Don't forget to make your card  CAS!*

If you do not make it clean and simple or we do not see the challenge theme in your entry, them you will not be considered for a prize or a Top 3 spot. Please read the rules carefully.

Our winner will be our guest designer for the next challenge at CAS on Friday!

the hardest card to make

We never run out of ideas and we are so happy when we are creating  birthday, baby or wedding cards. It is much more difficult when we have to sit down and make a sympathy card, especially for someone we care deeply about. 

I never have a stash of sympathy cards, because it is cathartic to sit down and make a special card to help with someone's loss. I will give you a tip though, keep it simple with soft soothing colors.

My older brother's wife's dad just passed. He was well into into his 90's and lived life to the fullest. He was a happy guy with a great smile and laugh.

My card design was based on this sketch at  As you see it, another new challenge site I discovered.

today. 

I used the stamp set "turning a new leaf" from PTI. This is an oldie but goodie and is perfect for CAS card.

The saying and die cut is from Simon Says Stamp. I don't usually do anything fancy inside my cards, but it just felt right to carry the branch to the inside also. If you are wondering about the ombre, I don't have enough space to collect the HA ombre inks, but used my Marvy blending blox. Compared with the HA inks, I think they work just as well and I have every color.

Please check out this great sketch challenge at As You See It.

Happy Little Stampers: CASE this Designer- Joyce

 

Hi folks! Today at Happy Little Stampers we are CASEing the wildly talented Joyce. She created this simply stunning card. I have to admit, I have never really done this technique before. You see it everywhere.

I had to mess a few up until I caught on to what to do. I probably didn't even do it the right way. I stamped my Penny Black image and then I cut out a section which I colored in. I pieced it back together and there ya have it. 

I used flowers. It just seems to look better to me with flowers.  My first card I did with the cut out in the center. The cut out was to big and I felt you couldn't appreciate the uncolored section.

 

My next card was the same with a smaller circle cut out. Better, but still not quite right.

My last card I did the cut out off the paper and like Goldilocks, this one was just right.

What do you think?

I made all my cards sympathy cards cause I usually need them in a hurry and don't always have time to make one.

Let's see how you CASE Joyce's card this month over at Happy Little Stamper's CASE the Designer!

 

The Male Room Challenge # 23

The challenge at The Male Room this week is "remembrance or sympathy". Sympathy cards, wow they are difficult in the best of times, but when you need it for a guy, well you have just ratcheted up the degree of difficulty. I wanted to avoid flowers so I went rummaging through my stamps and came across this old HA stamp. Some how I even have two!

 

I stamped it in a dark blue ink and white embossed the sentiment. What is hard to see in the photo is that I punched out many small holes to create a star field and layered glitter paper behind it, to give it a shimmer and depth to the night sky.

With the dark blue ink against the white cardstock, this card just feels peaceful and soothing to the spirit.

A very good male friend's mother just passed away unexpectedly and I was happy that this card was made and was perfect for him.

I hope you will join us at the Male Room this week.

With Sympathy

Sympathy cards are always hard to create. I have found the more simple the better. The father of one of my husband's friends recently died. Using several challenges as inspiration I came up with this card. The idea of not using your common white, cream, black or kraft paper as the basis of the card was the challenge at Less is More was perfect for this sympathy card. Over at Just Us Girls we were asked to just use a white medium as the focus. Using my fav Paper Smooches set Reflections, I stamped the flowers in white and added a saying from an unknown StampinUp set. To create some interest i added a few white pearls. This card feels so soothing to me and I hope it will to the wife.

I also went all out and did the inside of the card. The challenge at My Time to Craft was the inside of a card. Normally this is something I never do, so this was a challenge. I thought creating the negative of the outside of the card would work perfectly. What do you think?

Don't you just love when all the stars align and come up with a great idea! I can see me trying this idea with our colored card basis and stamps.