Make your own happiness

I just love this sentiment (from Hero Arts) - and I literally did just that when creating this card. I had fallen in love with the colors in Pink Paislee's Queen Bee line and had ordered the 6x6 pad several months ago; I dusted off my circle punches and just started playing. I cut some random curves to use on the card front, then just glued everything down and trimmed edges as necessary. Quick and rather cute, if I do say so myself ;)

"Bee" is for Baby

A pregnancy card on Friday and a baby card on Monday... how's that for fast?! Sorry, but my sense of humor can be a bit odd at times :)

Seriously, though, this card is for a different friend who just had a darling baby boy. No traditional baby stuff for her, though - she's not the bootie, bottle, etc. type - so I grabbed this cute bee (TAC) and came up with this little number. I stamped the bee, did a bit of piercing, then wrote the sentiment (inside says, "to say congrats and wish you all the best!"). I used an orange card base, and used 2 large circle punches to do the fun background. I do love how it turned out, and will definitely be using that technique again. After I had it all assembled, I decided it needed just a little something, so I coated the wings with new Rock Candy distress stickles - love the shimmer of this stuff (without obscuring colors or being overly sparkley!)

Have a great Monday, and I'll be back tomorrow to share the latest round from the smART Cookie challenge!

Always Joyful

I do love the "Buttoned Up" set - that girl is just so doggone adorable! I also love Memory Box paper, and dug out the winterberry line for this card. I stamped the little sweetie onto kraft cardstock and then cut it into a circle with my coluzzle. The swirly edge had a definite line, so I added a few more swirls with the help of my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig. The dress is paper pieced, and I added a bit of rosiness to her cheeks with a prismacolor pencil as well as a tiny prima flower in her hair. I also pulled out oval coluzzle for the verse panel, and accented the card with a bit of taffeta ribbon.

Well, I'm off again - see you tomorrow for the sketchy tea party! :)

Tea Party in the Round

Well, Dina is our hostess this time around, and she challenged us to make circle cards. I'd only made 1 circle card in the past, and remembered having a hard time with the layout... and this time was about the same :) I ended up going with this collage - I like that there are some straight lines with the eye image and sentiment. There are a several stamp sets here: Worries (sentiment), Bits of Time #1 and #2 (key, clock), Love Eyes, and Kings (crown - stamped in silver brilliance ink - the photo just happened to capture the reflection) The card base is bazzill bling, and I cut it with a coluzzle (and yes, it fits in a standard notecard envelope). The tulip is because my 3 YO thought I needed a "pretty flower" and plucked it before I could form the word, "No!" so I figured I might as well use it :)

This second card is from my first attempt at a circle card, but the panel just looked too plain and I couldn't decide what to do with it... Mojo sketch to the rescue! It has sort of an Indian vibe to it with that background paper, and the sponging around the flower is brilliance copper ink so there's a bit of metallic shine. I stamped the flower (Daisy Trio #2) with mostly palette inks: 1st (solid) layer with raw sienna; 2nd with L'Amour red and giverny green, with some red versamagic in the center; 3rd with boudoir blush, veridian leaf and sepia versafine in the center. The little palette cubes seem to work well to ink up these images, but even the larger versafine pad worked fine by just "dabbing" ink on with the corner. I overstamped the sentiment (Wonderful/Marvelous) with black versafine, then completed the card with papers from the BasicGrey boxer collection.

Want to see what the other smART cookies have created? Then check out In the Works, Mama Dini's Stamperia, Dee's Studio & Sweet Somethings!

Circle Card

I'd been wanting to play with a round card for quite awhile, and the this week's bonus sketch on SCS was just the nudge I needed. I started out with this great BasicGrey paper - the design has rounded elements in it, so I thought it would work well. After playing with a number of different elements, I settled on using the chipboard frame (Cherry Arte). I stamped the words (Limited Edition Art Warehouse stamps - Danelle Johnson) and then circle punched them. I accented the frame with a bit of brown ric rac just to add a bit of texture, and then then finally added a bit of chocolate chip cardstock to the spine (embossed with the fiskars leather texture plate). The circular shape definitely took more effort than a standard card, but hopefully my hubby will appreciate it!!