Happy Birthday Charlie! (DD#32)

Well, I'm a little late in posting this, but Happy Birthday Charlie!!  This was the card I made for our little pal's birthday!  She's a very girlie girl and loves everything pink and princesses!  I knew she would just love the pink rhinestones....what little girl wouldn't??   I actually fell asleep on the couch early on the night I had scheduled to make her birthday card and got up frantic in the morning to try to whip something out.  I used an old sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches and the color challenge from Dynamic Duos .  Let me tell you, when you need to make a card quickly, using challenges is the way to go!  They practically make themselves. haha  Thanks for stopping by!

Greetings of the Season- TSOT95 and PPA148

Hi there!  Tonight I'm posting the card I made using the sketch from  Try Stamping on Tuesday Challenge #95 and the color challenge from Pals Paper Arts .  For this card, I used the Lovely as a Tree stamp set and the stampin-off technique.  I've always loved the way that technique looked but never actually tried it.  This stamp set seems like it was meant for this technique.  After I stamped, I spritzed the trees with my shimmer paint/alcohol mix to make it shine!  I haven't yet figured out how to make the spritzer show up in pictures.   Seems like the chaos of the holidays is in full swing, so squeezing in time to stamp becomes less and less likely.  I feel like I'm missing something during the busy weekends....and realize that what I'm missing is my craft room!  Anyone else feel like that?

Bright and Shiny--FTL218 and CQC165

Here's a fun little holiday card I made while crafting with my friend Jen a couple of nights ago.  Jen is super-duper crafty, check out her blog Midnight Martha .  This girl can do it all--cooking, all kinds of crafts, makeup, hair--you name it!  She's so talented, not to mention hilarious and all around awesome!  I was having difficulty getting the "cord" to look right and she just swooped in and free-handed it.  Now, I definitely can't take credit for the idea of making a string of lights, I've seen them all over blog-land.  I used the layout from Clean & Simple FTL218 and the color combo from ColourQ #165.    The "lights" are cut using the Holiday Ornament Framelits, then I just used a black marker and a white gel pen to turn them into lights!  Quick and easy!

Another Challenge Combo--DD#31 and FMS63

Here's another challenge combo card I made.  I combined the color challenge from Dynamic Duos and the sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches .  I actually sort of thought of this as an inspiration challenge too, and here's why:  I make myself lists with all the challenges I want to participate in throughout the week.  Next to this sketch, I wrote "Fresh" to remind myself which blog it belongs to, so while thinking of what to create "fresh" was in my head...hence, the apple.  The apple was created using the heart punch then I covered it in Crystal Effects to make it shine!  All the elements (other than the base) were created from scraps!  LOVE THAT!  The base is the retired confetti white.  Man, that stuff is awesome!  I love the weight of it and it really adds that extra something to a simple card.  I wish I had appreciated this stuff more before it retired.  I haven't used the natural white cardstock from Stampin Up yet, have you?  I wonder if it is similar?  I think this card will go to the director at my son's school.  She's such a sweetheart!  It's so wonderful to be able to drop off your kid with someone that is so nice and cheerful!

Glitter ornaments--HSS146

This card was MESSY!!  Holy moly!  There was is glitter everywhere.  It was really fun to make. I made this card for the Hand Stamped Sentiments inspiration challenge #146.  I actually used the Jumbo Sticky Rounds from the Stampin Up Holiday catalog.  I used 3 of them for this card.  I started with the blue ornament.  I stuck one sticky round in the corner then I punched another using the boho blossom punch "star/flower" shape.  I stuck those pieces right on top of the sticky round but I didn't remove the red backing.  Then I covered the sticky round with my blue glitter (non-su), tapped that off then removed the red backing from the stars and dumped some purple glitter on it.  Then I just used the same concept on the gold ornament.  However, for the gold ornament I just used strips of sticky strip to create the stripes.  For the ornament toppers, I cut 2 of the tops using the ornament framelits from brushed silver paper.  The hangers are just some 1/8" black taffeta and a bow.  Turned out pretty cute!  And so much fun! 

Funny story (sort of): while I was in the middle of making this card, someone came to our front door.  So, I ran downstairs to answer the door.  While talking to our visitor, my four year old runs up and says, "Mommy, you gotta come upstairs now...fast".  Ok, gotta go.  Run into my craft room and this is what I found:

 

See the four little EMPTY jars of glitter....and my two-year olds feet in the background?  Well, needless to say, the canister on my vacuum is very glittery and shiny now!  Four jars of beautiful glitter down the tubes.  UGGGHHH   Lesson learned!

Cookies for Santa--MOJO269

Who doesn't love cookies??  I mean really!!  This card came to me during an episode of "Mommy Brain".  No that's not the most recent reality show on TLC or Lifetime!  You know, it's when you are thinking of the fifteen things you need to do/should be doing/would rather be doing.....all at the same time.  So, I really wanted to make a card to post for MOJO Monday Sketch challenge #269 and I was in the begining stages of planning our 2nd annual Cookies for Santa party!  I was also wondering how we are going to be able leave a glass of milk and some cookies out (even for the relatively short time it takes us to transition our kids to bed) considering we have a crazy "teenage" kitten who is into EVERYTHING.   So....take all those thoughts, now swirl them around (moms: I know you know exactly what I mean) and you can all see exactly how I came to this card!  Anyone else have a hard time photographing vellum??  Anyone have any hints?  Anyway, I hope you like it! It was pretty fun to make.

Clean and Simple Snowman! (DD#29 and BlackTie #10)

Here's a clean and simple card I made for the Dynamic Duos color challenge #29 and the Black Tie Friday challenge #10.  The color challenge was for black and marina mist and the Black Tie challenge was to use a cut out.  I saw the idea for a snowman cutout on pinterest and since the "dessert" challenge option on Dynamic Duos was for a snowman, I thought I would give it a shot.  I was just sort of "wingin' it" with my circle punches.  Then I used my square punch for the hat and just some free-hand snipping with my paper snips for the brim of the hat.  I am really happy with how the card turned out, although it does look a bit like Mr. Frosty is leaning to the side!  Or maybe I should say "Mrs. Frosty" since after all, she does have those fabulous marina mist flowers with rhinestones instead of buttons!  And what frosty lady doesn't need a little bling??  I used my white gel pen to just doodle around the edges.   Thanks for checking in today!

Happy Birthday Mom! (MOJO267)

Very, very special card today!  Today is my mom's birthday!  We are off for a fun day of shopping and just hanging out!  I'm so excited!  It's pretty rare that we get to go out, just the two of us!  I love this Patio Party DSP!  So festive and fun!  I made a scaled-down version of the paper bow that Stampin Up has a tutorial for.  Those bows are pretty fun to make and super simple!  I used the layout from Mojo Monday #267 .  Thanks for stopping by today, have a fabulous day!

Gobble, Gobble!--CCMC227

Gobble, Gobble!  Can you even believe that Thanksgiving is in one week!?!?  Where has this year gone?  Seriously, time is flying by!  Here's a little shaped easel card I made using the Floral Framelits.  I think it would be super cute to make a bunch of these and use them as place cards for your thanksgiving table!  Just write the name in pretty handwriting right there on the base of the easel!  So cute!  This little card is off to my bestie's mom, she LOVES Thanksgiving!  I'm submitting this card over at Create with Connie and Mary for their special sketch challenge--Shaped cards.  Thanks for stopping by today!  Happy Holidays!

Christmas Cheer

Today's card is one that I will be sharing with a group of 50 seniors (I'm told they range in age from 60-94!) in my neighborhood!  Our neighborhood association sponsors a monthly luncheon for our senior residents.  As a special treat for them, a couple of my friends (fellow demonstrators) and I have volunteered to help them make a Christmas card.  I am so grateful to my friends for donating their time and supplies to help me with this event.  This is the design we decided on for the card.  Very simple and cheerful!  We have prepped everything, even stamped the sentiment and tied the bow, so all the seniors will have to do is adhere everything.  Tried to keep it simple!  Hopefully they will enjoy being a little crafty!  I cased the basic layout for this card from a card I saw from Amanda Mertz .  I used Stampin' Up's retired confetti white card stock.  Love that stuff, it's so strong--great for a card base.  I am also going to submit this card for a the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge #144--Snowflakes and the SUO Challenge #58 – A Clean and Simple Holiday Card .  Have a fabulous day!  Thanks for stopping by!

BRRR!! --Mojo266

Brrr!! It's cold today!  I haven't been able to warm up all day.  Maybe that's what inspired me to make this chilly snowman card! haha  This is the card I made for the MOJO Monday sketch challenge #266.  This card was so much fun to make!  I just kept adding little bits here and there.  There's so many fun little elements, especially the Vintage Faceted Button that looks like a big chunk of ice sitting on that snowflake or the Basic pearls that I colored with a sharpie to look like bits of coal for the eyes and mouth! It's one of those cards that I can't wait to give to someone!  Hope you like it!

Challenge Combo--Give Thanks, Elegant Autumn, Clean and Simple

Happy Friday!!  Being a stay at home mom, usually Friday is not unlike any other day, but today it feels awesome.  No explanation for why, but I'm just gonna go with it!  Here's what I came up with when I combined a few challenges!  The theme comes from both The Paper Players Theme challenge #120 "Give Thanks" and from SUO #57 "Elegant Autumn". And the layout comes from Clean & Simple Stamping FTL215.  I watched a tutorial for the pine cone on YouTube from Valitas Fresh Folds.  I don't have the punches that she used so I used the bird builder punch.  I also used the Early Espresso Core-dinations paper and roughed up the edges a bit for dimension.  In retrospect, I probably should've used Cajun Craze or More Mustard instead of Bravo Burgundy for the little strip behind the sentiment to make it more "Autumn" than "Winter".  I had fun making this and I kinda fell in love with Tombow multipurpose glue while making the pine cone.  That stuff is great!  It's totally forgiving (lets you move stuff around a bit) but also dries quickly and holds really well!!

 Have a great weekend!

Black Tie Friday #8

This card gave me trouble....it just took me FOREVER to figure out what I wanted to do.  I used the Black Tie Friday challenge #8 .  I knew right off the bat I wanted to do something with purple....the rest took me all week to decide on.  Using their challenge grid I decided on purple, flowers and metal (there's mini brads in the center of the black flowers...hard to tell in the pic).  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out though and I know exactly who it's going to! 

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Simple Happy Birthday--PPA146 and CCMC225

I love this layout.  So versatile!!  I used the layout from the challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary  and the color combo comes from the Pals Paper Arts Challenge this week.  Riding Hood Red is another one of the colors that I don't LOVE.  I rarely use it, probably because I'm so partial to Cherry Cobbler.  But I have to admit this card made me like it a little more.  I've said it before, but one of the reasons I am enjoying doing challenges is that it forces me to turn to colors and layouts that I don't normally use.  Thanks for looking!

Snow Festival Tags

Happy Election day everyone!  Regardless of your political views please get out there and vote today!!

That said.....making that extra stop today to do our civic duty may cut into your crafting time.  This card is quick and easy.  The Snow Festival Designer Printed Tags are great for more than just gift tags!  Stamp your favorite sentiment and stick them on a card front and voila--fabulous card to send out.  Also, the back of these tags are printed with beautiful designs so they would be great for layering.  Lastly, they are only $3.95 for 25 tags....that's a steal!  The layout for this card came from the Fab Friday Challenge #05.   Have a fantastic day!

 

 

Ho-Ho-Ho

Hello everyone! Today I'm sharing one of the projects I will be demonstrating at an upcoming workshop!  The customers requested holiday themed 3-d projects.  I think this fits the bill! The petite purse die is so quick and easy, and really versatile throughout the year!  I used the button brads from the vintage trinkets, the 1/8' black ribbon, and a little glimmer paper!  The glimmer "buckle" is cut using the crop-a-dile for the dot in the center and the teeny postage stamp punch from the Little Labels punch pack.  I used snail to hold it together on this one, but I think sticky strip and glue dots will work better at the workshop.  I think this would be really cute filled with some candy or how about a little cashed rolled up inside!!  I was even thinking it would be cute to hang these on the Christmas tree for favors for my Christmas Eve guests.  Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Niki!

Here's the card I made for my dear friend and upline, Niki, for her birthday!  Her birthday was on Halloween, but don't worry I wasn't that late getting the card to her!  I saw her the day after Halloween and gave it to her then.   Being that her birthday is on Halloween I figured she always gets Halloween themed cards, so I decided to make a regular card instead!  I hope she liked it! 

Have a fabulous weekend!

Traditional Touches--RetroSketch #35

Happy Friday everyone!!  Here's a quick card I was able to make while my boys were building a fort.  Amazing how a fitted sheet and some large cardboard blocks can keep them busy for so long!  It's so cute to listen to the conversations they have about how to build it!  They are best of friends!  For this card I used the sketch challenge from RetroSketches .  I used Raspberry Ripple ink and covered the whole top layer with glitter using Versamark and dazzling details!  I thought monochromatic would make it "Wow", but I think it could've used some color variety.  Oh well!  Next time!  Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Last Halloween card for the year!--Dynamic Duo and Paper Players

I swear this is my last Halloween card for the year.  I used the color challenge from Dynamic Duo and the layout challenge from The Paper Players .  The colors are More Mustard and So Saffron.  I used the DSP from the color family paper stacks.  For some reason, a lot of the colors in those packs don't look as light as I expect them too.  That worked out well for this card though, cause I was able to use More Mustard as more of an orange-ish color for the candy corn.  I was able to use up a bunch of scraps on this one.  I LOVE THAT!  Means I don't have to file them away.  Anything that gets me out of cleaning up is a good thing in my book! 

 

I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!

 

 

Happy Halloween

 

Happy Halloween!!  I'm a huge fan of this fun holiday!  And it is so much more fun to see it through the eyes of my kids!  Here's the project my husband and I worked on all day on Saturday.  Jack insisted on being a "homemade" robot this year.  We had a great time putting this together.  Most of the stuff was from around the house.  The colorful "buttons" on the front actually light up!!  There's a battery pack on the inside of the box!  Also, we stripped the reflectors off of a couple old bikes too.  So here's a costume that will be safe as he walks around in the dark trick or treating!!

 

 

 

The helmet is (obviously) a mesh colander that we embellished with some jumbo brads to look like buttons.  I had some wire from a wreath project from last Christmas and just attached a bike reflector with some hot glue.  Check out the picture of the helmet close-up.  Laying on the floor behind Jack is a little Woody from Toy Story (Joey)!  The whole thing turned out pretty cute, I think!  And he got a ton of compliments at his parade at school!  I think that made him even more excited!

 

Stay tuned for a new card tomorrow.  Today is my dear friend and upline's birthday!  Happy Birthday Niki!! (Must be such a fun birthday to have!!)  I will see her tomorrow, so after that I can post her card.

Get Well

Today I have a card that I was making for a sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches .  Unfortunately, I didn't finish in time to submit it but I thought I would share it anyway.  Thankfully I don't have anyone to give this to at the moment!!  But, I figured a "Get Well" card is a good thing to have on hand so it's available to send out right away.  And maybe, having it ready will mean that I won't need it!  That's usually how my luck goes!  

I have to say, my favorite part of this card is almost unnoticeable in this picture. (Someone needs some serious photography lessons....just sayin'.)  If you look closely you can barely see that I used my baja breeze marker to draw a line just inside the edge of the die cut that the sentiment is on.  To make the line perfectly straight, I added the line before I removed the die cut from the paper using the fine tip of the marker.  Also, look closely...there's a bit of piercing on the base of the card using the Festive piercing template.  You can earn that piercing template free through tomorrow!  Click on the "Free Stuff" flyer on the top right of my blog to find out how. (Or just email me!)

Have a great day!

Shhhhh!--FTL213 + CCMC224

Special, special card today!!  This one is in the mail and on it's way to my dear friend.  My lips are zipped on who though!  I whipped this one up super quickly using the sketch challenge at Clean & Simple and the color challenge from Create with Connie and Mary .  The colors were perfect for "gender neutral" since my friend is very early in her pregnancy.
Hard to tell in the picture, but I paper pieced the cute little maternity dress.  The stamp is one I found in the dollar bin at my local craft store.  I couldn't resist and knew it would come in handy!  I'll tell you.....challenges are perfect for the "I need a card now" situations!  All the decision making is done for you!  Come play along!