Heartfelt Wishes

My dear friend Susan is hosting a sketch challenge this week on the Paper Crafts forum at the Creating Keepsakes Web site. I decided to use one of my favorite Whiff of Joy images - Melinda Blowing Hearts. I plan to give it to my aunt. She is going through a really tough time right now and needs a little extra love and support.

Paper Crafts message board was the first community I found when I started this great hobby almost four years ago now. Susan and I became friends when I joined a swap of hers on there and I think we always will be. She probably doesn't even know how much she has taught me about stamping, card making and just life. In addition to being a wonderful friend, Susan is a very talented stamper and card maker. You should take a few minutes to check out her blog.

Unfortunately, PCMB has undergone some changes over the past year or so and a lot of the great friends that I made on there have left and the board is pretty quiet. There are still a few of us hanging on though. Hopefully we'll be able to build up the membership again. It really is a nice little group and I enjoy their friendship.

Thanks for checking out my card. And than you Susan for a fun sketch! I'll be using this one again for sure.

Supplies
Stamps: Melinda Blowing Hearts (Whiff of Joy); Sentiment (Hero Arts)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); Yellow Citrus and Pink Pastel Chalk Ink (Colorbox)
Paper: Cardstock (DCWV): DP - Two Scoops (Basic Grey)
Embellishments: ribbon (unknown); flowers (Prima); flower gem (Making Memories); flower punch (EK Success); circle punch (Creative Memories); Scallop circle punch (Hobby Lobby)
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid
Finished Card Size: A7 (5" x 7")

Mice Cream Celebration Joy Fold Card

I've been wanting to make one of these joy fold cards for awhile, and finally had some time to try it out. You can find the instructions for this card here on the Splitcoaststampers Web site. It's a really fun and easy card to do and makes a standard A2 size card a little more interesting.

The photo below shows what the card looks like open. I didn't do a lot of embellishing with this card. I was just trying out the style. I think I may use this for a swap I am in also. Since I have to make multiples, I don't want to get too time-consuming with it. The outside sentiment is attached with dimensional adhesive to allow the corner of the small card to tuck under it and keep it closed.

Supplies

Stamps: Mice Cream Celebration (House Mouse - Stampabilities); Celebrate (Studio G); inside sentiment (My Sentiments Exactly)

Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)

Paper: All cardstock and DP - Spring Stack (DCWV)

Embellishments: circle punch (Creative Memories); Scallop circle punch (Hobby Lobby); Spots and Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Techniques: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid; joy fold card

Finished Card Size: A2 (4 1/2" x 5 1/2")

A Little Elfin Magic

Hi all! It was a busy, busy week. Busy at work. Busy at home. Celebrated my 45th birthday on Thursday with family and friends. On Friday we went out of town for a quick overnight get away and got back really, really late last night. Today, I am just playing in my craft room. I came up with this card for this week's Just Magnolia challenge, which is pink and green. I also realized after I finished the card, that it fits this week's Sketch Saturday challenge, so I'm going to post it for that one too.
For this card, I chose an Alva image. I love the little Magnolia elves, Alva and Alf. I hope that they will come up with some additional designs for them, as their aren't very many yet. I don't actually own this stamp. My friend Susan gave it to me, along with the mushroom for Alva to sit on. I had the image colored earlier in the week and had planned to use it for a different card, but that didn't work out. So I just lucked out that the Just Magnolia challenge was to use pink and green, and I was that much farther ahead with it.

Above is this week's Sketch Saturday sketch. I really wasn't trying to follow this sketch. I was actually going for a different layout, which I ended up rotating to fit the image better. When I looked at the Sketch Saturday sketch, I realized that my card fit the sketch - pretty closely anyway.

I made my own flowers with punches and scraps of the DP I used on the card. I used my Spellbinders butterfly die to make the butterfly. I added some little gems to the centers of the flowers and the butterfly's body. I also ran the big pink flower through my Big Kick with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder to give it a little more interest.

Thanks for stopping by. If you like the Magnolia stamps at all I highly recommend checking out the Just Magnolia challenge blog. Even if you don't do the challenges, the cards that are posted by the DT and those participating in the challenge are amazing.

Supplies

Stamps: Sitting Alva, Big Mushroom (Magnolia)

Paper: Green cardstock (unknown); Pink cardstock (DCWV); DP - Two Scoops (Basic Grey)

Embellishments: Classic and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders); flower punches (EK Success); Butterfly die (Spellbinders); Scalloped border punch (Fiskars); ribbon (Target); Gems (Making Memories); Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Finished Card Size: 5" x 7"

Sleeping with Strawberries

Time for a another little mousie and some mojo! This card is doing double challenge duty for this week's House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge and the Mojo Monday sketch challenge.


The theme for the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge is "spring". It was hard to pick an image for this one because I have so many that can be used for the theme. It finally came down to this one and Gruffies Digging Up Dirt. I finally decided on this one because I wanted to use the pink and red color combo and I thought it went well with that. I have my little Gruffies all colored though, so I may use them on another card sometime soon.

The sketch for this week's Mojo Monday challenge is shown above. I don't think they have ever had a sketch for this challenge that I didn't like. I stuck pretty close to the sketch, except for putting the sentiment in the embellishment part in the upper left corner instead of across the scallop piece. I also see now that my scallop trim piece doesn't go all the way across - oopsie. I guess I wasn't paying very good attention there. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies

Stamps: Sleeping with Strawberries (House Mouse - Stampabilities); How Sweet (Studio G)

Paper: All cardstock and DP - Spring Stacks (DCWV)

Embellishments: Ribbon (Target); Circle punch (Creative Memories); Scallop Circle punch (Hobby Lobby); Scallop border punches (Fiskars)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Finished Card Size: 6" x 6"

Flower Pot Card

I've been wanting to make one of these cute little flower pot cards for awhile now. The instructions for creating the card are located here.

I decided to make this one for this week's challenge on the Paper Crafts forum on Creating Keepsakes. The challenge this week was to create a card with some type of movement. I think this qualifies since you pull the little card out of the pot to see the sentiment. The sentiment says "If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever." I printed it on the computer.

I wanted to use stamped flower images for my flowers rather than punched flowers. I decided to try these wild roses. These are actually digital stamps, which I downloaded from Mel Stampz. This is one awesome blog. In addition to a few digital images that she has for free, she also has tons of tutorials, templates and other goodies. I highly recommend you check it out.

You might notice that my flowers have no leaves. I tried, but they just weren't working for me here. I decided it looked better without leaves.

I found the digital stamps really fun and easy to use. I was concerned that the ink would run when I colored them, but it didn't. I used Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid. You would not be able to use any type of waterbased coloring though as that would cause the ink to run. I'm looking forward to finding additonal digital stamps to work with as well. They are very inexpensive and can be rotated, resized, etc., which makes them very versatile.

Thanks for checking out my card. It was fun and easy to put together. I think I'll make more sometime.

Supplies

Stamps: Wild Roses digital stamps (Mel Stampz); sentiment is computer generated

Paper: kraft cardstock (unknown); white cardstock (Georgia Pacific)

Embellishments: ribbon (unknown); D'Vine Swirls embossing folder (Cuttlebug); scallop border punch (Fiskars)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Sweetheart Tilda - Just Magnolia Challenge #1

It had to happen, and I'm so glad it did! There is a brand new challenge blog called "Just Magnolia" for all of us Tilda (and Edwin, and Alva the Elf) lovers! This is my card for their very first challenge - a sketch - which I have posted below.

I think my design stayed pretty true to the sketch, but I did make a couple minor adjustments. I turned my rectangle vertical because Tilda seemed to fit better that way. Since there was room, and I need to fill a little space inside it, I stamped my sentiment in there instead of separately. I put a flower embellie where the sentiment was indicated in the sketch. Since I don't yet have any of the accessory stamps for Tilda to sit on, I sat her on the edge of the rectangle so it didn't look like she was just floating around on the card.

My cards are usually pretty clean without a lot of extra "stuff", but every once in awhile I like to have a little more going on. I also put a lot more patterns in this one than I usually do. I used papers from my new DCWV Spring Stack so they all went together nicely. There are always a few papers in those stacks that I'm not quite sure how to use. Such was the case with the piece I used for the vertical strip. It has stripes made of a variety of patterns so they look almost like strips of ribbon. I thought it worked well for this piece, and I'm glad I was able to use a paper I might not otherwise have ever used.

I have to say that I like how this turned out. It was fun to just play around. Thanks for stopping by. If you like Magnolias, I highly recommend checking out the Just Magnolia challenge blog. There are some great cards by the DT and those who are participating in the challenges.

Supplies

Stamps: Sweetheart Tilda (Magnolia); Hello Friend (Hero Arts)

Paper: Yellow and blue cardstock - Spring Cardstock Stack (DCWV); DP - Spring Stack (DCWV)

Embellishments: Classic rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Scalloped Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Butterfly Die (Spellbinders); Paper Flowers - Chole's Closet (Making Memories); ribbon, buttons

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Finished Card Size: 6" x 6"

Do You Believe in Fairies?

I do! This is my brand new Fairy Charlotte stamp from Whiff of Joy. Isn't she the sweetest thing? I got the perfect opportunity to use her for this week's Cute Card Thursday and the current Sketch and Stash Challenge. I will say, as much as I love her, I'm not sure how often she'll get inked up. Charlotte is one heck of a hard image to stamp for some reason.

The Cute Card Thursday challenge this week is Floral Fantasy. The only requirement is to use one or more flowers on your card. In addition to the flower in the image, I also made a little flower embellishment by stacking some Primas and putting a flower gem in the center. I guess I also went with the "fantasy" part with Charlotte the Fairy, but that wasn't required - just a little bonus. :)

The Sketch and Stash challenge runs for two weeks at a time and is a two-part challenge. The first part is the sketch, which you are allowed to rotate, resize, etc. They also always allow you to put your sentiments and embellishments anywhere you like, which is something I really like about their sketches.

The second part of the Sketch and Stash challenge is to use at least one new item from your stash. You can also use something that has been neglected (i.e. you have had for awhile but never or rarely used). My card has lots of new stuff. The image stamp and the sentiment stamp, the Primas and flower gem, all the DP and the Label Nestabilities that I used to cut the image and mat are all new. The only things not new are the green cardstock, the ribbon and the Prismas I used to color.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you again soon!

Supplies
Stamps: Fairy Charlotte (Whiff of Joy); Believe (Studio G)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper: Green cardstock (unknown); DP - Two Scoops (Basic Grey)
Embellishments: ribbon (unknown); Label Nestabilities (Spellbinders); flowers (Prima); flower gem (Making Memories)
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid
Finished Card Size: 6" x 6"

Happy Wishes - House Mouse and Friends Challenge #33

This week's House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge was to use multiple images. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do, since I don't have any of those cute little individual stamps that you can add in with the larger images - yet. :) I decided to meet the challenge by using two different Happy Hoppers that I think go together nicely - Fancy Pants and Relaxing Bubbles.

The layout might look somewhat familiar. It's sort of based on last week's Mojo Monday sketch - but not exactly the same. This card started out as 4 1/2 x 6 inches, but that wasn't big enough for both images, so I had to switch to 6x6. I also chose a new color combo for me - light turquoise and red.

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Hopper Fancy Pants and Relaxing Bubbles (House Mouse - Stampabilities)
Paper: All cardstock and DP Die Cuts with a View
Embellishments: Classic and scalloped square Nestabilities (Spellbinders); border punches (Fiskars); circle punches (Creative Memories); scalloped circle punch (Hobby Lobby); flowers (Prima); blue gems (unknown)
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid
Finished card size: 6" x 6"

Happy Birthday Sarah! - Mojo Monday Sketch #82

Here is my card for this week's Mojo Monday sketch. This was a super simple sketch to do, but once again, very versatile. I just love the Mojo sketches. The sketch is at the bottom of this post. I pretty much followed it to the letter this time.

I'm going to give this card to my cousin Sarah who has a birthday coming up next week. Her birthday is two days before mine and she'll be 14. There is quite an age difference (I'm going to be 45). My aunt adopted Sarah from China when she was just about my age. She's a great kid - very smart, beautiful and talented. When she was younger, she won many awards in gymnastics, and she is one of only four freshmen who will be on the varsity cheerleading squad next year. I'm very proud of her.

I chose another of my favorite House Mouse images for this card. I think Mudpie looks so cute passed out on top. I know how he feels. :) I made the little cupcake embellishment with my brand new Martha Stewart cupcake punch. I added Stickles to the top of the cupcake and candles in the image and on the top of the punched cupcake. I'm not sure how well they show up in my picture. The little cherry on top of the punched cupcake is tiny Jolee's embellishment.

Supplies

Stamp: Birthday Cupcake (House Mouse - Stampabilities)

Paper: Pink cardstock (DCWV); green cardstock (Bazzill); DP - Spring Stack (DCWV)

Embellishments: Ribbon (unknown); cupcake punch (Martha Stewart); scalloped border punch (Fiskars); circle punch (Creative Memories); scallop circle punch (Hobby Lobby); cherry (Jolee's); glitter glue (Stickles)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Finished size: 5" x 7"

Penny Black Saturday Challenge 44 - 3x3 Notecard Box

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week is to create a gift - a box, bag, tin, candle, etc. I had pretty much decided not to do the challenge this week because I'm totally stuck when it comes to ideas for these things - and I didn't really have anyone in mind to make a gift for. But I was perusing the tutorials on Splitcoaststampers earlier today and came across one for a cute little box to hold 3x3 notecards. It looked easy enough so I decided to give it a shot. I think I will make some cards for a variety of occasions and give it to my mom for Mother's Day. She can use them to put in gifts that she gives or just to give someone for a pick-me-up.

The first photo shows the box with the lid slightly ajar - so you can see it really is a box. :) This box was really very easy to make. The tutorial I used can be found here. It's made from just a few pieces of cardstock and designer paper, then embellished. If you try the tutorial, pay close attention to the pictures because there were a couple of places in the text directions that didn't really make sense. If you go by the pictures though, you'll be fine.

The photo below is another view of the top of the box. I chose to use the Country Lady Hedgehog image to decorate the box. I thought she was appropriate since she has the little letter in her hand (paw?).

The final photo shows the side of the box so you can see how I trimmed it. I didn't like the DP by itself. It just didn't look finished. I added the daisy trim around it which helped finish it off a little better. I have had that trim for just about ever. It's one of those things I keep pulling out, then decide it doesn't look right so I put it back. Finally it looked right. :) My mom will love this too because she loves daisies. The tutorial instructs you to use a corner rounder punch to create the scallped border on the bottom of the box. I think surely this tutorial was written before all the great border punches came out. I can't imagine trying to create a scalloped edge with a corner rounder. I used by scalloped border punch and it was super easy.

I'm not sure I'm totally thrilled with how my little box turned out, but it's the first time I have made one. I always find one or two things the first time I try something that I will do different next time. It would be very easy to adjust the size of the box for different projects, and of course you don't have to use this one for the 3x3 cards. It can be used for candy or other gifts, as well. At least I did try something a little different and I'm happy I did.

Supplies

Stamp: Country Lady (Penny Black)

Paper: All cardstock and paper - Die Cuts with a View

Embellishments: Classic and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities; pink and white organza ribbon; daisy trim (Making Memories); flower (Prima); scalloped border punch (Fiskars)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Happy Easter!

Well, it turns out I just couldn't stay away from my craft room after all. Everybody else is watching a movie I've already seen, so I decided to do a card for this week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge. I just don't feel right if I don't do my Mojo Monday card. I already had this image colored, so it didn't take long to put it together.

The sketch for this week is below. I really like the random look of this one. I went a little brighter than my usual style with this one. The paper is from this year's DCWV Spring Stack. I made the mistake of going to JoAnn last week and I just can't say no to those stacks when they are on sale.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Supplies

Stamps: Mudpie Holds Jellybeans (House Mouse - Stampabilities); sentiment is computer generated

Paper: white cardstock (Georgia Pacific); other cardstock (scraps); DP - Spring Stack (DCWV)

Embellishments: Ribbon; brads; Nestabilities; flowers; Stickles (on jellybeans); button

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Finished card size: 5" x 7"

Life is Soooo Sweet!

I made this card for this week's House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge - Something Sweet. I also knocked out another challenge by using the sketch from this week's Sketch Saturday challenge.
I haven't participated in the last couple of House Mouse and Friends challenges. The mousie mojo just wasn't there for some reason. But as soon as I saw the theme for this week's challenge I knew I had to use my new Gruffies "Beary Full of Truffles" stamp. I don't think there's any such thing as an ugly Gruffie, but this is one of my two very favorite images. My other is the "All Warm and Furry" where he's drinking the tea. Too cute for words!

The Sketch Saturday sketch for this week is posted below. For once, I followed the sketch pretty much just like it was presented. The image fit it just right.

Thanks for checking out my card. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment to let me know you were here. This may be the last card I post this week. My parents are coming for Easter weekend and I may not get to the craft room until they leave. You never know though - I may have one of those nights where I have trouble sleeping and find a challenge I can't resist. :)

Supplies and Info

Stamps: Gruffies - Beary Full of Truffles (House Mouse Designs - Stampabilities); How Sweet (Studio G)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper: All papers are scraps from my stash

Embellishments: Brads (Making Memories); flower (unknown); ribbon (unknown); scalloped border punch; circle punches

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Card Size: 6x6 square

Magnolia vs Stampavie - Week 21 Sketch Challenge

This week I decided to try the Magnolia vs Stampavie challenge. This is my first time to do this challenge. For this challenge you must use a Magnolia or Stampavie stamp (Sarah Kay or Rachelle Anne Miller). I am just starting to get into some of these and just purchsed my first Sarah Kay stamps last week. I chose to use "Margaux is Painting." I just think she's the cutest little thing.

This week's challenge is a sketch, which is posted below. For the bottom element, I used a scalloped border punch with holes and put eyelets in each hole to thread my ribbon through. I used a swirl stamp to create the element on the left side, which kind of picks up on the swirls in the DP. I also added some primas.

If you have been following my photography saga as I continue to take better pictures of my cards, I still do not have a lightbox made, but I did purchase a small Ott light. I think this helped a lot.

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out the other great cards on the Magnolia vs. Stampavie challenge blog.

Supplies and Info

Stamps: Margaux is Painting (Sarah Kay); Swirl (Autumn Leaves)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Rouge Chalk Ink (Colorbox)

Paper: blue cardstock (unknown); yellow and pink cardstock (scraps); DP - Two Scoops (Basic Grey)

Embellishments: ribbon, eyelets and brads (unknown); flowers (Prima)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Card size: 6 x 6 square

Two Unexpected Challenges

I say this card is for two unexpected challenges because I really did not plan to do any crafting this evening. I had trouble sleeping last night and have been awake since about 3:00 a.m. - after only about three hours of sleep. I had to work all day, so I'm pretty beat. My plan was to come home, put on my sweats and just veg for the evening. But when I checked my favorite challenges I just had to do two of them - Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge and SCS Limited Supplies Challenge. I don't do these every week (only so much time after all), but liked both of them and was able to combine them in one card. It also helped that I already had this image colored. I had planned to use it on a card a couple of weeks ago and changed my mind.


The SCS Limited Supplies challenge this week is "easy as 1-2-3" - one color of cardstock, two designer papers and three embellishments. I almost messed up because I started to mat my little squares with pink and then remembered I was only supposed to use one color - oops. See - told ya I was tired. I caught myself in time though. I wasn't sure if the three embellishments meant three different types or three total, so I went with three total - two buttons and a ribbon.

The Taylored Expressions sketch is below. I love this sketch. It's simple, but versatile. I am sure I'll be using it again. Even when I don't participate in the challenges, I like to check out Taylor's sketches. She's got some great ones and I have used several.

Thanks for stopping by. I think I'm going to take my tired self to bed. Hope you come back again soon!

Supplies

Stamp: Sweet Treat for Two (House Mouse - Stampabilities)

Cardstock: yellow (DCWV); DP - Two Scoops (Basic Grey)

Embellishments: buttons, ribbon, classic and scallop circle Nestabilities

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

1-2-3 Challenges in One

Well, it may be just 2 1/2 challenges. :-) I'll get to that in a bit. This is for this week's Cupcake Craft challenge, Simon Says Stamp Challenge and Cute Card Thursday challenge. I apologize in advance for my photography. I still need to put that light box together. :)

The Cupcake Craft challenge this week is a sketch and this is the one where I'm not quite sure my card fits right. The sketch is below. The image is a bit too big and my circle is a bit too small so I kind of rearranged a bit. I'm submitting anyway because I was trying and I think it's close.

This week is the first Simon Says Stamp Challenge. The theme for their first challenge is yellow and green. I will tell you right off the bat that this is my most dreaded color combination. I usually go out of my way to avoid it. So I thought that was a good reason to give it a shot. I'm not sure why I'm afraid of this combination. I think it's because of the bedroom I had when I was about 10. This was 1974 and it was very bright yellow and very bright green. So every time I put these two colors together that's what I see. For this card, I tried to keep the tones a little softer and the image helped bring them together for me too.

The final challenge for this card is today's Cute Card Thursday Challenge. The challenge this week is to use citrus colors. As soon as I saw the challenge I knew what image I had to use.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again soon!

Supplies

Stamp: Citrus Puckers (House Mouse - Stampabilities)

Paper: All paper and cardstock DCWV

Embellishments: ribbon (unknown); brads (Making Memories); classic and scallop circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #80

Here is my card for this week's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge. I just got this cute Whiff of Joy Henry stamp. Isn't he cute?

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out all the other great cards on Mojo Monday this week too.

Supplies
Stamps: Henry Celebrating Mouse (Whiff of Joy); sentiment (Studio G)
Ink: Onxy Black (VersaFine)
Paper: cardstock (unknown); DP - The Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby)
Embellishments: Bloom Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug); ribbon (unknown); paper flowers (unknown); circle punch (Creative Memories); scallop circle punch (The Paper Studio - Hobby Lobby)
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with turpenoid