Make it Monday #276

Hi everyone! Just a quick post for a challenge...

Happy Monday... if that's possible! :) One of things that I do look forward to at the start of each week is PTI's Make it Monday. This week's was fun and introduced me to a technique that I never would have dreamed up: colored pencils on kraft paper. At first when I watched the MIM #276 video from Melissa, I thought, "Aren't the pencils going to fade out on the paper?" But they don't - yay! It's actually a really nice way to make the colors pop against the brown tones of the paper.

So here's my take on this week's challenge:

I really LOVE the "What the Doodle" series from PTI and thought the feather would be a good way to incorporate a Papertrey product into the card. The details on this feather image are so beautifully designed, and it's great for coloring! Hope you like the final design, and have a great week!

Freshly Made Sketches #274

Hi all! Hope you had a good weekend. I'm back today, participating in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge #274. I've had to take a break from cardmaking for some life things going on lately, but I'm thrilled to be back at the craft table and joining in today!

You know how some sketches come easy and some take FOREVER to create? Something about this design just "clicked" with me. I'm meeting some friends next weekend to make birthday cards together, so I knew this sketch would be perfect!

After a trip to Hobby Lobby yesterday, the card come together for me pretty quickly today!

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I was a little indecisive with a few decisions about this card, so I made two designs to see which I liked better - and I don't have a clear favorite! The orange and mint blue card bases play off the cupcake paper really well. Just got lucky with finding coordinating colors at Hobby Lobby this weekend! I also wanted to experiment with having the small flags line up and be different sizes. I like them both! I'll show my fellow cardmaking friends both designs next weekend to see what they think. Do you have a favorite? I'd love to hear your take on it!

Have a great week, and thanks for dropping by! :)

Simon Says: One Layer

The more I've been making cards, the more layers I tend to add to my cards. So it was a good challenge this week with Simon Says: One Layer for the weekly Wednesday post!

I needed a quick thank note for a recent gift, so this challenge came at the right time.

Stamping directly on the card, here's my final product:

I really love when a sentiment plays off of the images or scene on a card. :) And who doesn't like getting a bunch of flowers?

Since I have gotten a score board, it's showing up A LOT on my cards. It's such a simple and subtle way to frame a scene or add some dimension. The scoring on this card is a little difficult to see, especially on the left-hand side, but I think adds a lot to this note.

 Look forward to next week's Wednesday Challenge - it's one of my favorite weekly posts!

Materials

Paper: White card and envelope (Hobby Lobby)

Stamps: Flower and sentiment set (personal gift)

Ink: Range dye inks (Lemon Twist), Stampin' Up (Mossy Meadow & Cajun Craze), Versafine (Black Onyx)

Other: Washi tape (Stampin' Up), black marker (Recollections), blending tool, gold gel pen, score board

Freshly Made Sketches #220

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm playing along today with Freshly Made Sketches, sketch #220. A friend introduced me to this blog, and it's quickly become one of my go-to sites for inspiration. I think coming up with a layout and design is one of the hardest parts of cardmaking, so I love that this site provides different ideas. Here's this week's sketch:

I thought about this for a few days before diving in. I thought about snowflakes, balloons, and flowers for the top left corner. And then I remembered some new craft goodies (paper, die cuts, stamps, and inks) I received as a gift, and I wanted to incorporate those into this project. Here's the final card - more details below.

It's a little bit different than the sketch, but I think it still works with the focus in the top left corner and sentiment to the right.

I really LOVED that leaf paper (one of my new goodies!), so that was my starting point for this design. It's so clean and simple, and gives a few different colors to use with green, yellow, and red. I decided to use them all with the flower die-cuts and leaves.

The flower dies are unique because they help add some dimension to the card. Part of the petals actually lift up, giving some added interest. I think it's really neat that the flower isn't completely flat on the card, but comes up off the card. Here's a better view where you can see the petals lifted up off the card a bit...

I think anyone who receives a card with these flowers just couldn't help but touch the petals! The flowers are the focus point, and then it comes with a little more fun with petals coming off the card. So fun!

I really wanted the focus to be the leaf paper and the die cuts, so I left the rest of the card simple with the black paper, white ink, and sentiment that isn't too big or distracting. The small pearls and sequins are also good, subtle embellishments.

This was a fun sketch to try, and there will be more Freshly Made Sketches posts to come!

Materials

Paper - white card, black card stock, green paper (Hobby Lobby); yellow envelope (Paper Source); leaf background paper, red paper, yellow paper (Stampin' Up)

Dies - Botanical Builder framelits dies (Stampin' Up)

Stamps - Beautiful Butterflies (Papertrey Ink)

Embellishments - clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), small pearls (Hobby Lobby)

Simon Says: Ombre #ssswchallenge

Hi all! Hope you enjoyed the long weekend! With Monday off, I was able to spend some time on this week's entry for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. This week's theme was ombre, a design showing up all over the place... so why not cards, too? :)

I went a little girly with the design for this week, using pinks and purples and polka dots, along with one little heart. I also thought it would be fun to include additional ways other than stamping to incorporate the ombre - hence, the washi tape and baker's twine.

This was a pretty simple card to put together. I used just two stamp sets - one for the ombre polka dot look (stamped three times from top to bottom) and another for the sentiment, envelope, and heart. This could easily be mass-produced with the sentiment changed for different occasions with any number of sentiments on the front.

I really lucked out with having different shades of purples and pinks in inks, tape, and twine. I liked having the solid pink stripe across the middle to "ground" the sentiment. That pink polka dot washi tape was a perfect way to incorporate another row of color without stamping - it might look like it's stamped, buuuut it's not! :)

Thanks to SSS for another fun week of inspiration, and many thanks to you for dropping by!

Materials

White card & envelope (Hobby Lobby)
Washi tape (Hobby Lobby)
Baker's twine (Hobby Lobby)
Stamps - Sending Happy Thoughts (Simon Says Stamp), Good Times (Papertrey Ink)
Inks - Ranger die inks (grape soda, wild orchid, pink gumball, black tie)

Simon Says: Party! #ssswchallenge

To begin... Thanks to everyone for all of the views on my first post! I am just so excited to be sharing more of my cards through this blogs, and the early traffic has been so great to see!

Today, I'm participating in the Simon Says: Party! Wednesday Challenge. I loved the party theme because there were so many possibilities. I have several January birthdays coming up for family and friends, so I let that be my inspiration. Here's the final product...

I knew I wanted to use the word "party" in my design, so I used one of the stamps from an old Card Kit from Studio Calico (these kits have since been discontinued). I stamped it in Caribbean Coast Ranger Dye Ink. I fussy-cut the circle out and set it aside.

Directly stamping on the card on a diagonal, I used the cute party hats stamp from PTI Caution: Another Year Older. I also used the Caribbean Coast ink for this stamp. I then used pink, yellow, green, and purple markers to randomly color in some of the stripes from the hats. I will admit that this took a bit of time, but I really like the fun and festive look.

I then used a tape runner to attach the pale yellow graphic paper to the card. I pulled out washi tapes in similar green and pink colors as the hats and taped them to the yellow paper. I stamped a line and then, the "party" circle was adhered to the card using some small pop-up blocks. I wanted this to look like a balloon - what do you think? Mission accomplished? Lastly, I also added a few fun turquoise sequins from the December SSS Card Kit "Gifts of Love." (Sidenote: I have to say - I LOVE these Jillybean Soup Sticky Sequins. The kit included red and turquoise. They are so quick and easy to use with the adhesive on the back, and they stick right where you put them! No need to wait a few minutes for wet glue to dry. I would take a sheet of these in so many different colors!!)

There's a lot going on for this card, but I think it's okay for a birthday celebration. The colors really bring it all together, and this was a fun way to participate in the challenge!

Thanks for the inspiration, SSS! Look forward to future Wednesday challenges!!

New Year, New Blog!

Happy 2016 :) I've decided to expand my stamping projects with a blog! I hope this will help me connect with more fellow stampers and also be a better place to share my cards. Welcome! Be sure to check back often for updates.

I started stamping and cardmaking after an invitation to a card class from a friend who owned a bookstore and offered the classes at her shop. Sad to say, the store has since closed (I'm still mourning!), but we continue our cardmaking discussions and time together. I am so glad to have a local friend to share this hobby with, along with so many design teams, bloggers, and social media pages that I find inspiration from!

So... for a first project to share with you all, I am participating in Papertrey Ink's weekly Make It Monday #235. I used markers instead of OMS or colored pencils to add additional color to the stamped images, but I think this still worked for the challenge!

This was a simple card to do! I actually loved the technique so much that I made several other cards so I'll have some ready for gift sets when needed.

I started with a white card and scored some lines on the bottom 2/3 of the card. They're hard to see in the photo, but they add some added texture and interest. Next, I drew large blobs of the purple and blue colors with markers. I used PTI stamp set "Make It Market Mini Kit: Garden Gild" for the flowers and leaves, along with PTI stamp set "Scripted" for the text. I also used Ranger inks blue ribbon, grape soda, and black tie. I stamped the flowers on top of the large color blobs and then fussy-cut them out. I stamped the text and leaves on the card first, then glued the flowers on top. I added a few small white gems for embellishments. That's it! The card took less than 10 minutes. So simple!

I think you could change the sentiment and colors to fit many different occasions, seasons, holidays, etc. It's so good to have such a versatile technique to have for any reason!

Has anyone else participated in this week's Make it Monday? I'd love to see your project!

Thanks for checking out my first cardmaking blog post - stay tuned for more updates to come!