Please help if you can!

One of my blogging friends, Pat Adam, aka the Rubber Maid (love that!), works very hard for a wonderful cause called Cards 4 Kids:

This organization provides cards for all holidays to the children in the pediatric unit at the Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. Last year Pat's goal was to collect 1,000 Valentine's Day cards for the kids to share with each other. As a perfect example of how fantastic the stamping community is, when the final tally was made, Pat had collected 5,682 cards from stampers all over the world. Simply amazing.

And this year, she's at it again, so if you're a stamper and can make a few quick cards for the kids, please head over to Pat's blog to check out the details. She needs to have the cards by February 8th.

My Krafty Kat stamping group used our most recent kit of papers and embellishments to make some cards for the kids and here are the ones I made. They are all 3.5" square, except the last one, which I had to make 3.75" square to accommodate the journaling card.

I just received my Papertrey Ink Tiny Treats: Valentine set last week and used it for a couple of these cards - too cute!

The heart and the flower on this card are from a set of dimensional stickers from Creative Imaginations.

For this one, I just used a 1" punch for the square and stamped the border using PTI's Vintage Labels set.
The patterned papers and journaling blocks are from Cosmo Cricket's Hey Sugar collection and BoBunny's Back to Basics line (polka dots).

The cupcake was stamped on an Inchie and distressed using PTI's tea dye duo inks. Stickles were added to the heart.
These are quick, fun little cards to make, so if you have your Valentine's supplies out, how about whipping up a few extra cards for the kids? Please help Pat out with this wonderful project!

Thanks for looking!

FS154 Valentine Nurse

This week's Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast Stampers was my fellow Belli Challenge girl, Anne Harmon. I've never played along in the FS challenge before, but since Anne has been so good to me, I wanted to give it a shot and honor her. I selected this card from her gallery and used the same stamp and the same overall layout, but I changed the background paper from stripes to polka dots, changed the color scheme and changed the ribbon color. I also changed it from a get well card to a Valentine's Day card.

One of the things I like best about Anne is her wonderful, slightly wicked, sense of humor, as evidenced by this Valentine's Day card she posted this week. So, in keeping with her slightly naughty Valentine's Day sentiment, I added one of my own for this card. I've always thought this little nurse had a mischievous look in her eye!

The polka dot paper is from BoBunny, the journaling card is from Cosmo Cricket's Hey Sugar collection and the nurse stamp is from Crafty Secrets Feeling Yucky set. I paper pieced all of the nurse's outfit except her socks. That was a bit tedious, but it helps to qualify this card for this week's Ways to Use it Challenge, which is Cut It Out!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend! Thanks for looking!

CPS150 Sweet birthday wishes

TGIF! Hope you have had a good week - I'm looking forward to the weekend! Sunday is Krafty Kat day - always something to look forward to!!

On Monday I posted a card using this same stamp for this week's sketch challenge at Card Positioning Systems. The sponsor for the challenge is October Afternoon, so I decided to do a second version using their 8x8 pad of Cherry Hill papers. This is also a good example of the different looks you can achieve with the same stamps. Everything is pretty self explanatory, the stamps, buttons, twine and ribbon are from Papertrey Ink, the patterned papers are from October Afternoon and the card stock is from Stampin' UP .

To make my paper flower, I used the two smallest Spellbinders Blossom dies with the text paper from the Cherry Hill collection and crumpled them up, then aged them and the rest of the paper panels with Papertrey Ink's tea dye duo inks. That's about it!

Thanks for looking! Enjoy your weekend!

Belli Challenge #83 - Hearts

It's time for another Belli Challenge! This week's challenge is to use hearts. Please be sure to head over to the Belli blog to check out what the other designers have done and to see who our new design team members are! This week we also have a guest designer and I think it's apropos that she is the guest for our hearts challenge - not only is she a talented card maker, she is also the recipient of a heart transplant!

For my card, I started with a base of Bazzill textured white card stock and some scraps of BasicGrey's Eskimo Kisses Woodland paper. I cut the hearts out of the patterned paper using a paper punch, alternating the direction of it as I punched so my hearts would lean in different directions since the punch is not symmetrical. I used the leftover strip of paper on the inside, along with a couple of extra hearts.

I scored a few lines above the script stamp, which is from the Glitz Clear Distress set, and one line below it. The sentiments on the front and inside are from Memory Box.

This is a quick and simple card and a great way to use up those scraps. Plus it's a fun way to use your leftover Christmas paper for Valentine's Day!

Sweet Birthday Wishes

I made this birthday card using this week's sketch over at Card Positioning Systems.

I picked up this paper from Graphic 45's Domestic Goddess collection specifically to use with this stamp from Papertrey Ink's Everyday Button Bits set. I created my sentiment by combining parts of two different sentiment stamps from the set. I colored the stamps directly with Stampin UP! markers (Old Olive and Real Red).

The accents on the right side of the main image were cut from a scrap of the patterned paper using a 3/4" square punch and popped up using foam tape. I replaced the two square elements on the left side of the focal image in the sketch with a bow made from Papertrey Ink Ripe Avocado satin ribbon.

That's about it! Thanks for looking! Enjoy your week and be sure to check back on Wednesday for another Belli Challenge!

Make each day your masterpiece

Happy Saturday! This is a card I made for my brother-in-law's 60th birthday, which was this past week. He is an avid fisherman and I bought this stamp to make his birthday card last year but never got around to it, so I finally pulled it out and stamped it on some of Ranger's Sticky-Back Canvas. I painted it with reinkers and a waterbrush and cut it out with a Nestabilities Labels Three die. I adhered some twine on top of the stamped image for the fishing line and also wrapped it around my patterned paper. I used that paper because it has fish all over it, but you'd never know now that it's all covered up!

I cut out the fish using a QuicKutz fish die and tried to color it to look like a rainbow trout! An artist I am not...but I thought it was funny nonetheless. The stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms and the patterned paper is from Hot off the Press Paper Pizazz.

Thanks for looking! Enjoy your weekend!

Thanks so much!

Greetings from Hotlanta, where it's a whopping 16 degrees and we have lots of ice. We only got about a half inch of snow, but the ice is the problem. There was a 29 car pileup near the airport this morning. We are hunkered down at home and not planning to get out in it today.

Here's a quick shot looking up our driveway. I know it's not much compared to the rest of the country, but it's pretty unusual for us. There are several patches of black ice on it, so no driving out for us.

Anyway, about the card! This is another one I made using the Caardvarks sketch from last week. It is also another qualifier for the Crazy 4 Challenges Polka Dot challenge and also for Sharon's Stamp Simply SSNOTIME120 challenge to use something new.

The image is from PTI's Everyday Button Bits set (I can't get enough of that set!!), and the sentiment is from their Mega Mixed Messages set. The patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket Hey Sugar and BoBunny's Back to Basics collection. I used my new Martha Stewart Floral Vine border punch on a scrap of vellum and added a few rhinestones to the centers of its flowers and to the wood flourish.

That's about it! Thanks for looking, have a great weekend and stay warm!

Thank Ewe So Much!

Happy Thursday! Hope you are staying warm - it's 24 degrees here in not-so-Hotlanta. They are calling for snow this afternoon, which is a pretty rare occurrence here.

I made this card for Card Positioning Systems' CPS148 sketch challenge, which is sponsored by Gina K. Designs. The sheep and the sentiment are from Gina K.'s Down on the Farm set. They are paired with October Afternoon's Farm Fresh, Farm Yard paper - a match made in Heaven if you ask me! The sheep is stamped on an Inchie+ square (1 1/2 inches square), then I filled it in with some Liquid Applique. The doodles on the Inchie+ were done using a green Spica pen.

The striped ribbon is from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love collection and the orange ribbon is from Martha Stewart. Pretty simple, but fun and I like the bright colors right about now!

Thanks for looking! Stay warm!

Belli Challenge #82 - Glitter!

Welcome to another Creative Belli Challenge Wednesday! Today's challenge is to use glitter or rhinestones - anything shiny and blingy! - on your project! Please be sure to check out all the great projects from the rest of the design team over on the Belli Blog.

Once again, I've got this one covered!! I used a new toy, the bird Nestabilities dies, to cut the two birds out of Grungepaper. I painted them with Making Memories Manila paint and then topped that with a coat of Shimmerz Angel Wings for my first layer of sparkle. When they were dry, I painted a layer of glue on the smaller one and covered it with some Martha Stewart Snow Glitter. I dabbed the larger bird with my Versamark pad and covered it with Powder Keg's Glue Powder. I heated it and then sprinkled on some Powder Keg White Pearl embossing powder and heated again to set it.

The background paper is SEI Love Birds and the stamps for the sentiment and the polka dots are from Papertrey Ink. The twill is from Stampin UP! and the crochet trim is from Hobby Lobby. The rhinestone brads are from American Crafts and the rhinestone hearts are from Amuse.

This card covers several challenges (so many of our Belli Challenge participants combine multiple challenges for their entries - it's rubbing off on me!!):

Caardvarks - sketch

Crazy 4 Challenges - use polka dots

Sharon's Stamp Simply Challenge (SSNOTIME120) - use something new (the bird Nestabilities and heart shaped rhinestones)

Thanks for looking, and if you decide to play along, be sure that if you post to SCS or PCP or any other online gallery, add your link to Mr. Linky over on today's Belli blog post and use keyword CBC82 so we can find it.

Thanks so much!

Now that the holidays are over, 'tis the season for Thank You cards!

I made this one using the SK121909 sketch over at Paper Craft Planet. The patterned paper is from Scribble Scrabble's Lullaby of Birdland collection. I love the bright colors in it. The peacock stamp is from Alpha Stamps' Eastern Doodles and I thought it paired nicely with the paper.

The image was colored with Copic markers and the sentiment tag was cut out using a Spellbinder's Fancy Tags die, then sponged with Adirondack Salmon dye ink. The faux stitching was added using a Spica pen.

Please check back on Wednesday for another Belli Challenge! Thanks for looking!