FTTC159 - Happy Birthday!

This is a birthday card I made for one of the men in my family and it fits this week's Timeless Tuesday Challenge (FTTC159) over at Flourishes, which is to use at least 3 colors from the inspiration photo.  I used the rust, kraft, black and yellow.

I used the Mix-n-Mugs set and paper pieced the mug using some of the Canvas Corp. background paper.  The seam between my patterned papers was covered with some measuring tape twill.

I ran the mat panel through a wood grain embossing folder and brushed some brown ink across it to resemble a piece of wood.  The tools were colored using Copic markers and a silver paint pen.  I affixed the sentiment panel using some screw conchos and a washer made from silver paper.

Thanks for stopping by!

Babies are Heaven Sent

Happy Friday!  Today I have a baby card that a friend asked me to make for a baby girl whose room is green and purple.  Not very traditional colors for a baby, but it's a combination I like!  I used Kaisercraft's Lilac Avenue 6x6 pad for the patterned papers and the border strips.  The focal image is from Flourishes Rock-a-Bye set, the Babies are Heaven Sent sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Bitty Baby Blessings sets and the Welcome, Valeria was created using a JustRite Stampers alphabet set - perfect for creating custom sentiments like this.

The image was stamped directly on the patterned paper and colored using Copic markers, as was the twine for my bow.  The blanket was paper pieced.  The layout is from this week's Sweet Sunday sketch #104 and the card also qualifies for this week's Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #105, which is to use three patterned papers.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Ship

Happy Friday! This is a birthday card I made for Tim's brother, whose birthday was last Friday.   He's a nautical guy, so these two Flourishes sets (A Guiding Light and Antique Map) fit the bill perfectly.  My layout is from this month's Sketch for you to Try. 

I stamped the Antique Map image for the background panel on the front, and on the inside.  The compass rose paper is from Graphic 45.  My sailor's knot was tied based on Barbara Anders' tutorial.  The sentiment is from Flourishes' Tag Lines set, and I added a trio of black rhinestones below it.  Not too bad for a masculine card, eh?

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!

Wedding Wishes

Today we are going to Tim's nephew's wedding, so obviously I needed to make a card!  I knew I wanted to use this cake from Flourishes' Let them Eat Cake set.  It's supposed to be a birthday set, but to me this cake looks more like a wedding cake.  I paired it with Stampin' Up's Bella Bleu papers, which I thought went well with the flourishes in the cake image, and that set my color scheme. 

The cake layers were stamped with a combination of Versamark and Stampin' Up Blue Bayou, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  The sentiment, stand and banner (from an old Fiskars clear set called Romance) were all stamped using Versamark and then heat embossed using Powder Keg Metallic Marble embossing powder.  The background for the sentiment tag was airbrushed.

I cut the image out and mounted the bottom layer using a double layer of foam tape, then mounted the middle layer with a single layer of foam tape and the top layer was mounted using Stampin' Up dimensionals, which are thinner than the foam tape.  You can see the dimension in the photo to the right.

I finally tried the scrunched up ribbon technique that seems to be showing up all over blog land.  I placed a strip of ScorTape down on the my patterned paper and then started scrunching the ivory satin ribbon and adhering it to the tape.  I had run the ribbon through the ends of the sentiment panel before I started.  Finally, I added some flat back pearls.

For the inside, I kept it pretty simple and just stamped the heart, from the Fiskars Romance set, and the sentiment, from Papertrey Ink ETA: Flourishes' Tag Lines set, and heat embossed with the Metallic Marble powder. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Father's Day!

Greetings!  Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there! 

This card was made using Flourishes Guiding Light set.  I stamped all of the images using Sepia Archival Ink and then sponged all the papers using Old Paper and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.   I added a trio of copper pearls in the upper right corner to balance it out.  The layout is based on Taylored Expressions' TESC112 sketch. 

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Silver Anniversary!

Monday was our 25th anniversary and this is the card, envelope and gift ensemble I made for Tim.  There is silver everywhere!  The background of the card is silver Stardreams stationery that was dry embossed using a Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder.  I tied the sheer silver ribbon around it and then added a layer of the black and silver striped paper that had been cut with an EK Success embossing Bracket border punch on both long edges.  I stamped the two hearts from Flourishes' Fanciful Flourishes set with Versamark, embossed them with silver embossing powder and then cut them out and adhered them with foam tape.

The three hearts on the front of the envelope were cut out of two different silver papers using a Martha Stewart Eyelet Heart Punch and then mounted on another strip of the black and silver striped paper.

I also covered the box containing his gift in some coordinating papers and added a couple more the silver hearts to the top of the box and tied it with some more of the sheer ribbon. 

We had a wonderful anniversary celebration - thank you for all of the nice 'happy anniversary' wishes we received!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Easter!

Just a quick post to wish you all a Happy Easter!  I made this card for the JUGS27 sketch challenge and it also qualifies for this week's OCC challenge, which is to use buttons.  These days almost all of my cards qualify for that challenge! 

The cute little chick in the egg is from Penny Black and the sentiment is from Flourishes.  The patterned paper is from Three Bugs in a Rug.  Hope you're enjoying your weekend and having a Happy Easter! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Belli Challenge #88 - Color Spray

Happy Wednesday! It's time for another Belli Challenge! This week's challenge is to use color spray - Glimmer Mist, a home made mixture using Perfect Pearls, Walnut Ink sprays, or even airbrushing with your Copic markers - whatever you desire! We also have a sponsor this week - The Stamping Boutique, who provided us with several digital images to use.  My card features an image called First Dance.

My card base is plain brown textured card stock that I covered with a Glimmer Screen template and sprayed with gold PK Glitz Ritzy Ditzy Glitz spray.  It has a LOT of shimmer to it, but I was unsuccessful in my attempts to capture that in a photograph.  My mat layer is black textured card stock with a scalloped border, which I also sprayed with gold spray. 

The image was colored with Copic markers and I used a nubby old washcloth dampened with Colorless Blender and dabbed on their clothes to give them some texture.  I used a black Spica marker to color the music notes and a clear one on the ribbon on her bonnet.  The sentiment is from Flourishes Tag Lines set and while it was still in the die, I sprayed it with the Ritzy Ditzy spray, too.  I wish you could see all the sparkle!

Please be sure to check out what the other Belli Girls have done with their Color Spray and Stamping Boutique images!  If you would like to play along, please leave a link to your project on today's Creative Belli Blog post, or use CBC88 for your keyword if you upload to Splitcoast Stampers or Paper Craft Planet.

The Stamping Boutique is having a sale until April 20, 2010. Use coupon code, "candy" for a 35% off discount!  Not bad!

 
Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Wreath

Happy Monday! Hope you had a nice weekend!

This is a card I made last week for two challenges - Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Sketch Challenge (FTTC58) and Color Throwdown's color challenge (CTD84) to use Taken with Teal, Black, Soft Sky and Tangerine Tango.

The wreath, bow and sentiment stamps are all from Flourishes (Seasonal Wreaths and Tag Lines).  The patterned papers are from BoBunny's Kitchen Spice collection.  The wreath was colored with Copic markers (YR00, YR02, YR04, BG0000, BG01 and BG05) and sponged with Versamagic Sea Breeze ink. 

The bow was stamped using Taken with Teal ink, cut out and adhered to the wreath with an American Crafts jeweled brad.  The flowers were white flowers  from Petaloo that I colored with the same Copic Markers.  The corners looked a little bare, so I added some paper piercing.

That's about it! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Belli Challenge #80 - Flourishes

It's time for another Belli Challenge! This week's challenge is flourishes. I've got this one covered! My patterned paper has flourishes, my chipboard piece is a flourish AND it's stamped with flourishes, my stamped image has flourishes AND my sentiment not only has flourishes, but it's from Flourishes' Flourished Words set! I used Mercy's MTSC50 sketch from last week as my starting point. The patterned papers are Stampin' UP!'s Razzle Dazzle collection and the flower stamp is from the set of the same name. The card stock is all SU's current In Colors.

I colored my stamp with the In Colors markers in Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Crushed Curry, plus Old Olive for the stems, and then I went over my flowers with a clear Spica marker and added yellow rhinestones to the center of each one. I used a Fiskars border punch to punch the edge of the Melon Mambo cardstock and then used the little flower pieces up in the right corner, with pink rhinestones added to the centers of both the positive and negative flowers.

BIG news - we are looking for a few new members to add to the Belli Challenge design team! If you're interested in applying, please check out yesterday's post over on the Belli blog. Submissions for the design team are due by January 3, 2010 - we hope you'll apply!

Please be sure to visit the other Belli girls' blogs and see what they have done this week (links to their blogs are over on the left sidebar)! Also be sure to see what our guest designer, my fellow Krafty Kat, Jenny Gropp, has created for this week's challenge.

To play along with us, create a card or project using flourishes, share your link with us using Mr Linky on today's Belli blog post. If you post to SCS or PCP or any other online gallery please use keyword CBC80 so we can find it.

Thanks for looking! Enjoy the rest of your week!

A Holiday Card

Happy Friday! Hope you've had a good week! I'm slowly but surely acknowledging that it's time to start making Christmas cards....Every year I resist until I have to scramble at the last minute...

I made this card last week when I received some new Cuttlebug folders in the mail. I love this Victoria folder and couldn't wait to make something with it. I ran the olive green paper through my Wizard in the folder and then took my Papertrey Ink Fresh Snow ink pad and ran it over the raised portions to make the background panel.

The main stamped image is from Flourishes' Birds and Vine set and was stamped in green and embossed with clear embossing powder then cut out with a Labels Four Nestabilities die. I colored the edge of the panel with a red foil pen then added the white dots to mimic the Papertrey Ink Scarlet Jewel Swiss Dot satin ribbon. I added some red Stickles to make berries on the vine.

The sentiment is from Repeat Impressions and was stamped with Scarlet Jewel ink and cut out using a Double Ended Tags die. The button and twine are from Papertrey Ink.

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

Belli Challenge # 70 - Metal tags

This week's Creative Belli Challenge is to use metal tags. I stewed over what to do for this challenge - I have a Memory Makers tag maker, but I've not had very good luck with it, so I wanted to do something else. Then I remembered all the Grungeboard I have and forget to use! I pulled out an oval tag to use for my sentiment and painted it with a Copper Paint Dauber from Ranger. I added a couple of copper brads to finish off the tag.

For my main image, I pulled out my brand new Strawberries set from Flourishes and inked up the basket of berries and then colored my berries with Copic markers. They were topped off with some shimmer from a couple of Spica pens.

The papers are from the Provocraft Pathways Romance Pad and the ribbon is from Michael's. The card layout is based on the Mojo Monday sketch from July 13th. I turned the sketch on its side to accommodate my image.

I hope you'll play along with us this week! Create your card with a metal tag and share it with us. If you upload your card to SCS or to PCP, please use keyword CBC70. Don't forget to add your link using our Mr. Linky widget on today's post over on the Creative Belli blog.

Please be sure to check out what the other Belli Design team members have done for this challenge:

Anne Harada
Anne Harmon
Ceal Pritchett
Chris Dickinson
Danielle Marcus
Danita Hollander
Debbie Daniels
Fern Riley
Holly Brown
Joan Ervin

Hope you're having a great week!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Inspiration Challenge

Last Tuesday the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge was an inspiration challenge. The challenge was to search through the posters from Kimberly Poloson on the Allposters.com web site and select one to use as your inspiration for a card. Only problem? I missed the whole 'Kimberly Poloson' part of the challenge, so I went to Allposters.com and just started looking through ALL the posters....there are a LOT of them! LOL! I had decided that I wanted to use the tulip from the Thank You set, so I narrowed my search to posters with tulips, and found this one that I knew would be perfect to go with this patterned paper- Memories of Sienna II. Off I went and made this first card.

Later, when I went to post the card for the challenge, I discovered the whole 'Kimberly Poloson' thing....so I started over! Back to Allposters.com to search again. This time I found this poster - Bel Bouquet I - that I thought would be great using the Sweet Peas set. So off I went to make this second card!



For the first card, the patterned paper is from Frances Meyer, the card stock is Papertrey Ink Kraft and Rustic White, and Prismatics Island Mist. Stamps are all from Flourishes (Birds and vine, and Thank you, and Ornamental Elements). The tulips were colored with Copic markers, cut out and popped up with foam tape. The flower images from Birds and Vines were stamped in the upper left and bottom left corners of the patterned paper and the main flourish from Ornamental Elements was stamped on the rustic white card stock behind the tulips. The ribbon is May Arts taupe silk from Sharon's Ribbon Store.

For the second card, the card stock is Papertrey Ink's Rustic Cream and Stampin' UP!'s Bravo Burgundy. I used a variety of stamps on this one - the backgrounds are Linen from Stampin UP! and Le London Script from Stampendous. The flowers are from Flourishes Sweet Peas set and were colored with Copic markers. The sentiment is from Flourishes' Flourished Words set. The ribbon is May Arts ivory silk that I colored with Antique Linen Distress Ink to match the card. The copper pearls are from Kaisercraft.

Hope you had a nice weekend! Please be sure to check back tomorrow for a chance to win some blog candy!

Orchid Sympathy

Last week I needed a sympathy card for a good friend whose father passed away. I love this orchid from Gina K. Designs' Botanical Dreams set and think it's perfect for sympathy cards. It's a lot of fun to color and so versatile.

The orchid was colored with Copic markers to match the Memory Box Poppyfinch papers (sorry, I bought mine from Ellen Hutson but she seems to be out of it at the moment so I can't link to it), then I matted it with some teal card stock. Both layers were cut out and embossed using Long Rectangle Nestabilities die.

The sentiment is from Flourishes Flourished Words set and was cut out and embossed using a Square Nestabilities die and layered with foam tape on pink card stock that was cut out using a Labels One Nestabilities die. I layered two of the Poppyfinch papers on the teal card stock and wrapped some Martha Stewart ribbon around it, than adhered both stamped panels on top. I added some pink rhinestones to the corners of each panel and some blue pearls to the center of the flower on the patterned paper. The card base is 5 1/2" square textured olive card stock.

To the left of the card in the photo above, is the envelope, which I stamped and colored to match the card.

For the inside of the card, I added a layer of the striped paper I used on the front, matted with the teal card stock. I stamped and colored another orchid, then cut it out and adhered it on top of the striped panel. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's With Sympathy set and was matted on pink card stock. Both were cut and embossed using the long rectangles Nestabilities dies. That's about it!

Yesterday I learned that I won the Belli Challenge that I had created this card for, so that was some fun news! I'll be the guest designer over there in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

Hope you're having a good week! Thanks for looking!

It's a triple!

I really enjoy playing along with some of the challenges out there, but I have to admit that if I try to combine too many of them with one card, I get a bit overwhelmed. Plus, there are so many out there, it's hard to keep all the challenges straight. At any rate, I was able to combine THREE challenges in one card, so I'm feeling pretty good about it!

I started with the color challenge over at Creative Belli Blog - Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery and Cameo Coral. Then there was the FTTC15 Timeless Tuesday challenge over at Flourishes - make a birthday card. So I sat down with my new Sweet Pea set and the three colors of paper and tried to find some patterned paper to use and I found the perfect piece - Lavish from Fancy Pants' Aged Florals line. Once I colored the image, I had all the components, but how to put it together? Then along came Taylor's Friday Cupcake Challenge, which was the perfect sketch for all my elements. Once all of that was out of the way, everything came together pretty quickly, although I had to fudge on the sketch a little with the placement of my flower to make it balance out.

The sentiment is from Flourishes Flourished Word Set and was cut out using a Spellbinder's Ribbon Tag Trio die. While I had it, the butterfly and my Sweet Pea image in their respective dies, I airbrushed them first with a pale yellow Copic marker and then with a pale yellow-red marker around the edges. I matted my floral image on a scalloped circle of Cameo Coral, then a circle of Apricot Appeal and then a Certainly Celery Labels Three layer.

For my scalloped edge layer, I decided to use my new Martha Stewart Cornice border punch. But a single layer of it seemed too boring, so I used it to cut a layer of each of the three colors of card stock and then stacked them on top of each other. It was still missing something, and then I spied my jar of Sweet Pea Flower Soft - how appropriate! So, I ran a layer of glue along the Cornice border and added some Flower Soft.

For the final touches, I pulled out my Martha Stewart frond punch and punched a couple of fronds out of Certainly Celery, and layered them under my flower and added a button with some Scrapper's Floss tied in a bow. A couple of Dew Drops in the corners of my Labels Three mat and a few of Taylor's Tiny Twinkles for the butterfly's body and you're done!

Sorry for being so long-winded - thanks for hanging in there with me! Have a great weekend!

Happy Spring!

This card has a nice Spring feel to it, which is quite apropos considering how beautiful it is in Atlanta right now, with the dogwoods and azaleas blooming. This is my favorite season, and Atlanta is a great place to experience it!

This card was made using five different stamps from Repeat Impressions. The three panel section was made by stamping the LOCKEbility image once on white paper and once on patterned paper. I stamped and colored the butterfly, bird, dragonfly and flowering vine images on the white paper and then cut the centers of each of the three sections out of the patterned paper and layered it on top of the white paper with the colored images. All the images were colored with Copic markers. The patterned papers are from Imaginisce. I mounted the main image with foam tape and popped the right and left sides so they were a bit higher than the center to make it look like a bay window.

The three squares of patterned paper were cut out with a square punch and then I used a circle punch to cut the circular images from the Spring Fling paper. I finished it off with some beautiful silk ribbon from Flourishes.

Hope you're having a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

Another Happy Birthday

Today is our friend Chuck's birthday, so I found myself in need of a masculine birthday card for him. Chuck is a retired Marine and comes across as being pretty gruff, when in reality he's a big ol' teddy bear (sorry to blow your cover, Chuck!).

So, whaddya think - will he like it?? Don't worry, this isn't the card I made for him ;-) This is one I made a few weeks back using some pretty Italian paper and a new stamp set I had just received from Flourishes. There's really not much to it. I stamped the tulip several times on Cryogen white paper using Memento Bamboo Leaves ink and colored it with Copic markers. I cut parts of the bloom out and layered them on top of the main image with some foam tape. I then painted over the bloom with some Shimmerz paint to give it a little sparkle, and added a trio of small yellow rhinestones in the upper right corner. I cut the main image using a long rectangle Nestability die and then used a Perfect Layers ruler to cut the green mat to fit inside the yellow mat, which was cut using a scalloped long rectangle die.

The sentiment was also stamped on Cryogen white paper with Memento Bamboo Leaves ink and then cut using a double ended ribbon tag die. Thread some ribbon through the tag, adhere it to the back side of the Italian paper, mount the panel on the card base and you're done!

This second photo is of the inside of the card. I layered a leftover strip of the Italian paper on a green mat and then adhered the tulip, which I had stamped, colored and cut out. The tulip was mounted with a piece of foam under the bloom to add a little dimension, but not too much bulk.

A simple, but pretty birthday card that will go to a female and NOT to Chuck ;-) But don't worry, I have a fun card for him that I'll share next week!

Hope you've had a good week and thanks for looking! Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Easter Basket

I made this card to play along with this weekend's Cupcake Challenge over at Taylored Expressions. The basket of flowers, Happy Easter sentiment and chicks are from Flourishes' Signs of Spring set. I colored the images with Copic markers and added a little Sweet Pea Flower Soft to the hyacinths in the basket. I stamped the two chicks separately, cut them out and popped them up with some foam squares.

The image was cut out using my Labels Two Nestabilities and I used my Stampin' UP! Really Rust marker to add some dots around the edge of the main panel. The flower is from Stampin' UP! and was airbrushed with a Copic marker to match the mat color. I topped it with an orange button, tied with some Scrapper's Floss. All the papers are from Basic Grey's Marrakesh 6x6 paper pad.

Here's a close-up of the Flower Soft. It's pretty neat stuff and adds some nice texture and interest to flower images.

That's about it for this card. Hope you had a nice weekend and that your week is getting off to a good start!

Thanks for stopping by!

WSC73 - Happy Easter

This card was made using Beate's weekend sketch challenge, hosted this week by Cambria Turnbow.

I received this Signs of Spring set from Flourishes last week and thought it would be perfect for this sketch and combined with this patterned paper from Dream Street Papers Heartsong collection. The card stock is all from Prism - the Teal Pack and the Desert Coral Pack.

I stamped the two little chicks and the daffodil on Cryogen White paper, then colored them with Copic markers to match the colors in the patterned paper, and then added a little shimmer by coloring over each image with a Copic Lemon Spica glitter pen. Each image was punched out using a 1" punch, then matted on a scalloped square. The top edges of the white and teal mats were cut with a Fiskars Lace border punch.

The Happy Easter sentiment was also stamped on Cryogen White paper and cut out using a Circle Nestability, as was its mat. I added three Dew Drops from the The Robin's Nest, Water collection. I think that about covers it!

Thanks for looking, hope you have a great week!