Baby Girl Card

If you read my earlier post, you know that I don't scrapbook. I also don't make baby cards. I just never have had the need for one for some reason - until now. A few weeks ago, I posted some samples of baby announcements that I am making for a friend at work and his wife who are expecting a baby girl next month. As luck would have it, two of my favorite challenge blogs have baby themes this week, so what better time to get a card made for them too. By the way, they chose an announcement style and I am working on those now. I will post one of the final versions soon.
I am submitting this card for the following challenges:
Cute Card Thursday - New Beginnings
Stampin' for the Weekend - Babies
Stamp Something - Animal Somethings

The image I chose for this card is In a Nutshell by Penny Black. I wanted to use an image that I don't see very often. I wasn't sure if this little hedgie was supposed to be a baby or not, but it looks like a baby image to me so that's what I went with. The sentiment is from a vellum sheet that I have had since my son was a baby. I think I bought it for those scrapbooks I never got around to. It has several baby quotes and sentiments on it.

I also tried something for the first time on this card - hand-stitching. If you saw my post a few days ago, you know my sewing machine and I don't get along, but I do like the look of stitching on cards, so I decided to try using some embroidery floss and stitching by hand. It was a bit time-consuming, but I really like the way it turned out. I used a zig zag stitch around the outside of the card and a straight stitch around the image and sentiment.

Supplies
Image: In a Nutshell (Penny Black); preprinted vellum sentiment
Paper: Pink and green cardstock (Bazzill); DP - Baby Girl Flowers (Heidi Grace Designs)
Tools: Square, scalloped square, rectangle, scalloped rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
Embellishments: Ribbon, flowers, button, pearls, pink floss
Techniques: Prismacolor pencil blended with mineral spirits; hand-stitching
Finished card size: A7 (5" x 7")

Kindergarten Scrapbook

I am not a scrapbooker. I tried for awhile, but I think I just didn't have the patience and found those big pages a little bit overwhelming. However, I do enjoy doing theme scrapbook projects on a smaller scale from time to time. My son started Kindergarten this year, and I wanted some way to document his first year of school. This is what I came up with. There aren't any pages yet. I kind of ran out of steam. That image took me just about forever to color.


I'm also submitting this project for three different challenges:
Simon Says Challenge - Back to School
Friday Sketchers - Sketch shown below
Pile it On - Round + multiple challenges - there are circular shapes in two of the papers, the circle at the bottom right, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and round brads

The album is a plain chipboard album that I covered and embellished. I chose the House Mouse image Teacher's Pet for the back to school theme. I received the image in a swap, and unfortunately, it's not the most neatly stamped image, but it's the only one I had. I distressed the papers to help tie everything together. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. I rubbed some white artist pastel over the chalkboard to give it a chalky appearance. I'm not sure that shows up very well in the photo. I covered the chipboard letter with paper and added the brads and the star button. The button was actually white. I used my alcohol inks to change the color. I also used the alcohol inks on the brads to make them the right shade of green as I didn't have any the right color. The words were printed on the computer, torn out and distressed.

Supplies

Stamp: House Mouse - Teacher's Pet (Stampabilities)

Ink: Old Paper and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks (Ranger); Lettuce Alcohol Ink (Ranger)

Paper: K&Co.

Tools: Circle and Labels 1 Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Embellishments: Ribbon (Bo Bunny); Notebook paper tag (K&Co. Tag Pad); chipboard letter (Making Memories); metal photo corners (Oriental Trading); button, twine, brads

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits; distressing

Happy Little Piggy

Hello all! I created this card for two challenges this week - Penny Black Saturday Challenge and Scrap and Paper Corner's PaperCrafts forum challenge.

The theme for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge is stitching. I remember now why I never do stitching on my cards. UGH! Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, but I am not at all happy with that part. Now that being said, I do enjoy embroidery and cross stitch and I think I would enjoy trying hand-stitching on my cards one day. If I had planned ahead, I would have done that. But alas, I never plan ahead (drives my husband crazy :) I also think I might have liked it better if I had used a zig-zag stitch instead of a straight one. But just to show you how sewing machine challenged I am, I could not get my zig to zag. I turned every dial on that machine in every direction and it wouldn't work. :( And of course, I can't seem to find the instruction manual.

Kari/Heppster is hosting this week's challenge on the PaperCrafts forum at Scrap and Paper Corner. Her challenge was to use an image of a barnyard animal, at least one embellishment and a sentiment. For my image I chose Pinky Joy by Penny Black. I adore piggies and this is one of my favorite stamps. For embellishing I used a ribbon and photo corners, which I ran through my big Kick with my D'Vine Swirls embossing folder. One final note - I was able to make this card all from scraps.

Supplies
Stamps: Pinky Joy (Penny Black); sentiment (Hero Arts)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); Rouge Chalk Ink (Colorbox)
Paper: light pink cardstock (unknown); dark pink cardstock (Club Scrap); DP - Bohemia (My Mind's Eye) and Blush (Basic Grey) - all scraps from my stash
Tools: 1 1/2" square punch and 1 1/2" circle punch (Creative Memories); classic square and scalloped square Nestabilities (Spellbinders); 1 7/8" scalloped circle punch (Paper Studio); photo corner die (Quikutz); D'Vine Swirls embossing folder (Cuttlebug) sewing machine
Embellishments: ribbon
Techniques: Prismacolor pencil blended with mineral spirits; sewing
Finished card size: A7 (5" x 7")

Baking Tilda for Three Challenges

This sweet little Tilda is for three different challenges:

Just Magnolia - sketch by Rach (shown below). I moved the circle on the bottom left to the top left to suit my preferences and used a flower for the circle on the bottom right. For the circle on the left, I used my new Victorian Cuttlebug embossing folder. I really like some of the new designs that are out now. I added glitter to Tilda's wings and cookies.

Stampin' for the Weekend - pink and gray color challenge. This was tougher than I thought it would be. I have virtually no DP that is pink and gray. I do have pink and I have a limited amount of gray, so I put them together. The mats in the photo might look black, but they are actually dark gray.

Stamp Something - birthday somethings. I added the little Happy Birthday tag to fit this challenge.

Supplies

Stamps: Baking Tilda (Magnolia); Happy Birthday (My Sentiments Exactly)

Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)

Paper: Pink cardstock (DCWV); gray cardstock (unknown); gray polka dot DP (Paper Pizazz); dark pink DP (Kay & Co.)

Tools: Rectangle, scalloped rectangle, circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Victorian embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Tiny Tags die (Cuttlebug)

Embellishments: Small flower (Prima); larger flower - silk from my stash; jewelry spacer, pearl, rhinestone brad, glitter

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Finished card size: 6" square

Couple of Gruffies

These are the last two cards I needed to complete for the House Mouse Merry Go Round swap I am hosting. Participants could send any House Mouse, Happy Hoppers or Gruffies image. Each of the other participants made a card with the image, the the cards were returned to the person who originally sent the image in.


The image on this firs card was sent by Barbara and is called Bear of an Appetite. I also used the sketch that Barbara is challenging us with on the Scrap and Paper Corner PaperCrafts message board. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. The papers are all from My Mind's Eye. I added buttons/twine and brads for embellishments.


The image above, Bearied in Paperwork, was sent by Traci. This was definitely the most difficult image for me to work with in the whole swap, but I am pretty pleased with how the card turned out. Again, the image was colored with Prismas. The sentiment "Are we having fun yet?" was printed on the computer. I cut it out with my Nesties and used the Labels 1 Nestie as the mat. I added a spiral clip with some ribbon. The papers are all from a Kay and Co. scrap pack that I got ages ago and has just been sitting in my closet. I don't know why. There are some cool papers in there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Just Magnolia and Sketch Saturday Challenges

Time for one more quick post before the weekend comes to an end. This card is for this week's Just Magnolia Challenge using the Sketch Saturday Challenge sketch.


The theme for Just Magnolia is Friendship and I chose Tilda with Bee as the image. I colored her with Prismacolor pencils/mineral spirits and popped her on top the oval for dimension. I replaced the bee's antennae with little wires and added Stickles to his wings.

The Sketch Saturday sketch is shown above and I think I followed it pretty much to the letter. I used a bit of a different color scheme for me. All the papers are from Deja Views Fresh Print Blue Raspberry Paper and Punch Out Tablet, which I got free at Archiver's last weekend. Gotta love a freebie :). The tag where I stamped the sentiment and the Delight tag in the top flower are also from the tablet. It was kind of cool to be able to easily coordinate everything.

I finished off the card with some Prima flowers and gem brads. The finished card size is 6" square.

Bonjour

This is my entry for this week's Stampin' for the Weekend and Penny Black Saturday challenges.

The theme for Stampin' for the Weekend is Days Gone By. I used to do a lot of vintage style cards, but haven't done any for quite awhile, so I enjoyed this challenge. To get the vintage look, I used the faux linen technique on the script background. I stamped the background on glossy cardstock, then sanded in more or less straight lines both horizontally and vertically. To make the scratches pop so that it looks like linen, I used a sponge brayer to apply Antique Linen Distress Ink over the whole thing. I also inked the edges of my image and sentiment with the same Distress Ink. For the flowers, I inked the edges of the cream color flowers. For the center of the large flower, I used a jewelry spacer and pearl. The center of the smaller flower is a "stud" that is supposed to be used to make designs on clothing. There are little prongs on the back to go through the fabric and an indentation on the front for a rhinestone to be placed. I got several packages of these on clearance super cheap and I thought the design was pretty. I just flattened the little prongs and added a pearl on this one. Finally, I completed the vintage look with a sheer ribbon and little hat pin, which I made myself.

In addition to using at least one Penny Black stamp, the requirement for this week's Penny Black Saturday is a color challenge - blue, tan and cream. The Eiffel Tower image and the little flower with the sentiment are from the Penny Black "Thinking of You" clear set. I realized that I must really love the Eiffel Tower because I have four Eiffel Tower stamps. LOL! They are all different sizes and styles so that's okay. I stamped everything in blue pigment ink then embossed with clear EP. I popped the tower image and sentiment with foam squares.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I hope to see you again soon!

Supplies

Stamps: Eiffel Tower, small flower (Penny Black); Bonjour (Stamabilities)

Ink: Blue pigment ink (Colorbox); Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink (Ranger)

Paper: Cream cardstock, glossy cardstock (unknown); Blue pattern cardstock (Club Scrap)

Tools: Square, scalloped square, oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders); clear embossing powder (Ranger)

Embellishments: flowers (Prima); jewelry spacers, pearls, handmade hat pin, ribbon

Techniques: Heat embossing, distressing, faux linen

Finished Card Size: 5" x 6 1/2"

Cupcake Box - Simon Says and Whiff of Joy Challenges

I found this cute little cupcake box template a few days ago through Mel Stampz blog. Mel has an awesome blog with lots of tutorials, templates and generally cool info. Some information comes from her and some are links that she gives to other Web sites and blogs. She has a whole page of links for cup cakes - cards, recipes, boxes, etc. This template I got from Sharon's blog, which was linked on that page. It looks like a miniature Chinese take out container and is perfect for one cupcake or muffin. There's even a little insert that goes inside to hold the cupcake in place.

I made the little box for this week's Simon Says Challenge - Anything BUT a Card. Since I used Henry Celebrating Mouse and it's pink and brown - it also qualifies for the Whiff of Joy challenge. As usual, things did not go as planned. I think I have a hard time visualizing how big things really are. I intended to put Henry on the side of the box, then tie the ribbon on top with a little tag that said Happy Birthday, but Henry is way too big to fit right on the side of the box, so he got made into a tag and tied on top. I used a pattern cardstock for this box, but you can also use plain and stamp on it or embellish as you like. I was just trying to keep it easy for myself and I have tons of pattern cardstock that I got in a giant pack at Costco.

This was such a fun and easy little box to make. I think I might use these at Christmas time for little goody boxes for my coworkers. Unless I find something else that catches my fancy before then - which is very likely. :) I think it would also be really cute to put a muffin inside and give it with a mug and some coffee or tea as a breakfast package. So many ideas, so little time. :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Supplies
Stamp: Henry Celebrating Mouse (Whiff of Joy)
Paper: Pink and white polka dot pattern cardstock (Costco); brown and white are scraps
Tools and embellishments: Circle and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders); cup cake box template (Sharon Rivera - Artful Avocations); ribbon
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Life's More Amusing Than We Thought

Just a quick post here. This card is for this week's challenge on the CK PaperCrafts forum. The challenge is being hosted by Sue/weedsgalore, and she challenged us to make a long card using an African animal/safari image. This gave me a chance to dig out some of my Club Scrap stamps that I haven't used for awhile.

All the stamps are from the Serengeti kit. The paper is also from Club Scrap, but I don't think it's from the same kit. I think it's just a random sheet that I got at the retreat I went to a couple years ago.

The small squares are punched from a larger background stamp. I love this quote too "Life's more amusing than we thought." I think zebras are pretty amusing animals. I have also used this quote with flamingo images. I think they are amusing too.

That's a about it. Thanks for stopping by!

Birth Announcements

My friend at work Evan and his wife Cindy are expecting their first baby next month. I offered to make some handmade birth announcements as my gift. This is a first for me. These are the samples that I gave them, but they haven't chosen one yet. I am very happy with the way they turned out. I would love to have your comments on them too. By the way - I have no idea who the baby in the photo is. It's just a picture I found on a stock photo site. She is pretty cute though. I printed all the text on these on my computer.

This A2 size announcements has two side, and this is the front. I made the flower from white cardstock and vellum punched with my daisy punches. I put the white pieces through the Big Kick with my Swiss Dots folder, then I inked the edges with Pastel Pink Chalk Ink and put a pearl in the center. The squares are cut with my Nesties and the edges of the top part are border punched. I cut two slots with my ribbon slot punch and tied the ribbon through them before I attached the top piece to the card. I did this to make the ribbon more secure than just sticking in on with a glue dot. The quote says "A new baby is like the beginning of all things - wonder, hope a dream of possibilities." One note, the center scallop border piece is actually dark brown. It looks black in the photo.

This is the back of the announcement. I didn't plan my printing very well, so the text ended up a little closer to the photo than I wanted. I'll correct that if they choose this design. I used a corner slot punch to insert the photo into the mat and put it on a scalloped rectangle cut with my nesties.

The announcement above is 5x7 and only one-sided. I printed the text on pink paper, then stamped on the side with swirl stamps. I punched more daisies from cardstock and vellum and placed them randomly on the swirls. I used tiny pink rhinestones for the centers. I made another bigger daisy for the corner of the photo. The quote on this one says "It is not a slight thing when those who are so fresh from God love us." That's by Charles Dickens and is one of my favorite quotes of all time. I'm a quote freak by the way. :)

The last sample is a long 8 1/2 x 4 option. I realized after I had it printed and almost put together than I should have moved the photo and info up or down and added another quote or sentiment to this one as well. If they choose this option, I would do that on the finished cards. I decorated this one simply with some DP and a scalloped edge. I stamped the little footprints (are those cute or what?) and cut them out with my nesties along with the scalloped circle mat and added a ribbon.

Ho, Ho, Ho - Stampin' for the Weekend #10

I just got this uber-cool Magnolia Santa stamp from my friend Jenny and couldn't wait to ink him up. I fell in love with this image when I saw a card made with it on one of the challenge blogs awhile back and had to have him. I was having a hard time finding it here in states. I was just about to give up and order directly from Magnolia in Sweden, when he showed up in my mailbox. Thank you, thank you Jenny. You are awesome!

I am submitting this card for this week's Stampin' for the Weekend challenge. The challenge is a sketch, which I have posted below. I did take a few liberties with the sketch. First, Santa Baby was too big to fit on a rectangular mat and still see the circle, so I just cut him out and popped him right on the circle with dimensionals. I also didn't tilt him because I didn't want him to look like he was drunk or something. I also put my sentiment in the upper right instead of the lower left. I thought it balanced the overall card a little better. I think the overall look of the sketch is still evident, so I hope it will be acceptable.

Supplies

Stamps: Santa (Magnolia); Believe (Rubber Stampede)

Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); Warm Red Chalk Ink (Colorbox); Tim Holtz Peeled Paint Distress Ink (Ranger)

Paper: Tan cardstock (DCWV); DP - Fruitcake (Basic Grey) and vintage red from my stash (I've had it so long I can't begin to remember who made it)
Tools: Circle, scalloped circle, oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Retro flower punches (EK Success)

Embellishments: buttons, twine

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Finished card size: 6" square

Tilda with Lilacs

I started out making this card only for this week's Just Magnolia challenge, but when I looked through the other challenge blogs I follow, I found it also fits the Simon Says Challenge and the Stamp Something challenge. So it ended up being a three-fer. :)

This week's Just Magnolia challenge is a sketch, which I have posted below. For the image I chose Tilda with Lilacs. I wanted to try my hand at coloring Tilda's hair red like my friend Susan did in a card she made earlier this week. I think mine turned out a bit more orange than I wanted, but still not bad. I may have used too much of one of colors. I'm not sure. I made the flowers in the corner with the Flower Creations 3 Spellbinders die. I've had this die for awhile, but this is the first time I've used it. The leave are made with two different Martha Stewart punches.

The theme for Simon Says Challenge this week is buttons and bows. I only have one button, but I do have two bows. The Stamp Something challenge is charms, which I added in the lower left corner tied to the ribbon.

Supplies

Stamp: Tilda with Lilacs (Magnolia)

Paper: Cardstock (Bazzill); DP (My Mind's Eye)

Tools: Rectangle and scalloped rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); Flower Creations 3 die (Spellbinder); scalloped border punch (Fiskars); rose leaf punch and frond punch (Martha Stewart)

Embellishments: ribbon, pearls, button, green bead cord, charms (all from my stash)

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Finished card size: 6" square

Pure Joy - A Card for Mojo Monday Plus Three More Challenges

Here is my card for this week's Mojo Monday challenge. It also qualifies for three other challenges: Pile it On, Digital Tuesday and A Spoonful of Sugar.

The Mojo Monday sketch is shown below. I chose to use a narrower ribbon on the side and added some flowers in that space. Otherwise, it's pretty close.

I just found the Pile It On challenge a few weeks ago and this is my first time to participate. This challenge has it's own theme, and in addition you must combine it with at least one other challenge. Perfect for me. You know how I love to combine my challenges. :) The theme this week is to use at least three flowers. I used four - and combined it with three other challenges as already mentioned. I made the flowers with my Retro Flower and tiny daisy punches. I added rhinestone flowers to the centers.

The theme for A Spoonful of Sugar this week is Floral Fantasy. There are flowers in the image and the background paper, in addition to the punched flowers I added.

Finally, the theme for Digital Tuesday is "bling". I got pleny o' bling goin' on - stickles on the girl's headband and butterfly, glitter on her skirt, rhinestones in the centers of the flowers in the image, rhinestones on the butterfly's body and flower shaped rhinestones in the punched flowers. The image is another from my favorite digital illustrator Maurie at Mo's Digital Pencil. This image is called Soakin' Up the Joy and is available as a freebie on Mo's blog. I just love this image. She looks so happy!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Supplies

Image: Soakin' Up the Joy (Mo's Digital Pencil)

Paper: Purple cardstock (unknown); DP (flowers) - Rob and Bob Studio (Provocraft); all other papers from my stash and unknown

Tools: Square and circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); Retro flower punch (EK Success); daisy punch (Fiskars)

Embellishments: rhinestones, Stickles, glitter, ribbon

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Finished card size: A7 (5" x 7")

Cowboy Birthday Card

Here's something a little different for me. I made this card for my stepdad's birthday. I also used the sketch that I created for this week's challenge on the CK/PaperCrafts forum.

The image is from Stampabilities and I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $1.43. Can't beat that deal. The sentiment is from My Sentiments Exactly. I stamped both with Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink then cut them out with my nestabilities. I added a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink as well. The papers are scraps from my stash. I finished it off with some jute rick-rack and fancy brads - also from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by!

Keeping Cool - Cupcake Craft Challenge #51

This card is for this week's Cupcake Craft Challenge - Beach Theme. It is also another of the cards I completed for the House Mouse and Friends Merry Go Round Swap I am hosting.

This House Mouse image is called Keeping Cool and was sent for the Merry Go Round swap by Chris/BeachBum - appropriate isn't it? :) I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. I sponged the sky with blue ink and added Stickles to the ice cube, shell and here and there on the sand. The sentiment is a $1 stamp from Michael's that I bought a few years ago. It's one of my favorite sentiment stamps - I use it a lot. I added some bling to it to spruce it up a little. I embellished the card with white and green ribbon and a lime slice charm. I added Stickles to that to spruce it up a little too. The cardstock I used is Bazzill, and the orange polka dot paper is Kay and Co. The other papers are scraps from my stash.

The finished card size is 6" square. I used the sketch from last week's House Mouse and Friends challenge, which I didn't have a chance to participate in.

Thanks for stopping by!