One Final Mother's Day Card

I'm finishing up some final preparations for Mother's Day tomorrow.  After I get this posted, I need to go wrap some gifts and write out some cards.  I based this (what I hope is my final Mother's Day card for this year) on The Shabby Tea Room's inspiration photo:

We also needed to use the colors in the photo, and a rose.  I was really inspired by the pitcher, I wanted to include something like that in my card.  I decided to use a doily that I spritzed with gold glimmer mist and then stamped a flourish stamp in Hollyhock.  I also was inspired by the blue magazines, so I used a pretty blue patterned paper that also picked up on the touches of brown.  The green seam binding is my nod at the green in the foliage, so I opted to tuck my rose in the bow. 

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch for the blue print for my card:

Also, this week at the Ribbon Carousel, the challenge is "Word to Your Mother".

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  Colonial White - Close to My Heart (CTMH)
Paper:  Linen Closet Stack - DCWV
Inks:  Chocolate, Hollyhock - CTMH
Stampsets:  Say it in Style - CTMH, Bliss - Stampin' Up!
Bling Assortment - CTMH
Pink Pin - Prima Flowers
Gold Glimmer Mist - Tattered Angels
Flowers - Wild Orchid Crafts
Chipboard Banner - Jenni Bowlin
Doily - Royal Lace
Vintage Seam Binding

The Sweetest Gift

A friend of mine from high school is having a baby girl in the next few weeks.  I wanted to create her a special card, when I saw this weeks sketch at Mojo Monday, I knew it was perfect for a baby's card.  I did have to stretch the sketch out, my card is 3 1/2 x 8 inches. 

This week at The Play Date Cafe, the color challenge is White, Flamingo Pink, and Bright Orange.  I just love that color combo, it's one that I don't use, but wanted to play with.  This was my time.  I had the perfect papers from Little Yellow Bicycle that I combined with some white cardstock and orange Bazzil Bling cardstock.

The Ribbon Carousel's challenge this week is "Color-a-licious".  I was originally going to make paper rosette's for behind the letters, but started thinking about it and thought that some bright pink lace would be perfect for a baby girl's card.  So I cut 6" pieces of the lace and ran a basting stitch along the bottom and gathered and tied the ends to create lace rosette's. 

Other challenges I would like to enter this in:
Lili's Little Fairies - Diamonds and Pearls
Crafts 4 Eternity - Something New
Stampin' For the Weekend - Sparkle and Shine
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes
Pile it On - Sparkle and Shine
Paper Pretties - Card for Girl


Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  White - Close to My Heart (CTMH), Orange - Bazzil Bling
Paper - Little Yellow Bicycle
Ink - Cotton Candy - CTMH
Stampsets:  Baby Love, Chocolate Alphabet Small - CTMH
Circle Punch - Creative Memories
Pink Lace - American Crafts
Pink Sparkles - CTMH

Psalm 18:2

This week at The Shabby Tea Room, the challenge is "Homegrown Flowers".  At my favorite local scrapbooking store (which for me is a 40 minute drive), they had a tutorial board about how to make coffee filter flowers, I've had the instructions in my things to try pile for a while.  So, since we needed to make our own flowers, I decided to give it a whirl.  After I cut out two circles from the coffee filters, I spritzed them with three different colors of glimmer mist.  Then I did a basting stitch along the bottom, gathered them, and tied a knot, so I had four ruffled circles.  Then I glued the two smaller circles into the two larger circles.  After that I applied Rock Candy Crackle paint (the directions said liberally), after that dried, I added stickles around the edges.  Once the flowers were dry, I added jeweled brads for the flower center.  Once I started putting my board together, I did have to add some of my favorite roses from Wild Orchid Crafts, but the two larger flowers are coffee filter flowers.

I used this weeks Word Art Wednesday verse.  I love to surround myself with inspirational things while I'm in my craft room, so I decided to make something that I could display in there with this verse.  I highlighted some of the key words with some soft pink chalk.

This week at The Ribbon Carousel, it's "Spring is in the Air".  For some reason the flowers aren't as pink in the photo as they are in person.  However, I used a lot of spring colors like buttercup and sky in my canvas.  I mixed re-inker with pearl finish white paint to create my own colors and painted the green chipboard in the corner, and the main color of the canvas sky blue.  Underneath the sky blue, I brushed some darker blue and brown just for some depth.  My Bow-Easy made it easy to create the double bow from some satin ribbon. 

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  Colonial White, Buttercup - Close to My Heart (CTMH)
Verse from Word Art Wednesday
Reinkers:  Sky, Sweet Leaf - CTMH
Paint:  Pearl Finish, Spice Brown, Cape Cod Blue - Delta Creative
Lace - Hero Arts
Antique White Ribbon - Offray
Pearl Flourishes - Zva Creative
Spring Soft Chalks and Rhinestone Brads - CTMH
Cricut Art Philosophy - CTMH
Platinum Stickles, Rock Candy Distress Paint - Ranger
Suede, Vintage Pink, Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mists - Tattered Angels
Regal Glimmer Chips - Tattered Angels
Roses - Wild Orchid Crafts
8x8 Canvas Panel - Art Alternatives

Easter Pennant

This week, the theme at the 2 Sisters Challenge Blog is Spring is in the Air, we needed to use anything that reminded us of spring.  For me, one of the big marks of spring is Easter, so I wanted to create something to decorate my home for Easter.  This banner is really small, I used the Banners Dimensional Elements from Close to My Heart as the base.  The patterned paper was cut out using the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge that's complementary to the Banners Dimensional Elements.  The banner is about 14 inches from the tip to tip of the Divine Twine, each pennant is about 2 inches tall.

Speaking of Divine Twine, this week at The Ribbon Carousel, the challenge is Anything Goes with Party Time Tuesday.  

Here's a close up of the first two pennants, I stamped "Happy" first.  On another sheet of cardstock, I stamped the Easter Basket, colored it with watercolor pencils, and cut it out.  I decided to use the handle to frame "Happy".   Since I didn't have a lot of space to work with on each pennant, I decided to go make rosette's to frame some of the letters.  Each rosette I cut one strip of paper 1/2 inch by 6 inches and then just accordion folded them (free hand because they are so small), glued the ends together, and made the rosette. 

I stamped some cute little Easter eggs on cardstock, colored them, cut them out, covered them with glitter, and used foam tape to adhere them.

Sorry about this last close up, it's pretty bad.  In my defense, I took the initial picture of my banner during the day, and when I sat down to type up my blog post, the picture didn't show the detail.  So I took some close up pictures, this one didn't work out so well.

Supplies Used:
Paper:  Lucy - Close to My Heart (CTMH)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Stampsets:  Card Word Puzzle, Sensational Season - CTMH
Banners Dimensional Elements, Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge - CTMH
Prisma Glitter and Watercolor Pencils - CTMH
Cotton Candy Divine Twine
Keepsake Felt Alphabet - CTMH
Circle Punch - Creative Memories

Mojo Monday #233

I created this card using the Mojo Monday sketch #233.  I used a brand new stampset from the Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration called Elementary Elegance.  I inked the frame with Crystal Blue and ran the brush tip of my Rich Razzleberry marker around the edge of the stamp before I stamped it.  Here's the sketch:

This week at The Ribbon Carousel it's Baking with the Twinery.  So we needed to use baker's twine, one of my favorite ways is to wrap it twice and tie it in a bow on a button, like I've done. 

I also used the colors - Raspberry, Harbor, and Honey Mustard - from this weeks The Play Date Cafe.  I used some patterned paper from My Minds Eye for the Raspberry.  Close to My Heart's Crystal Blue for Harbor and Stampin' Up!'s Crushed Curry for the Honey Mustard.

Supplies Used:
Paper - My Mind's Eye
Cardstock:  Crystal Blue, Colonial White - Close to My Heart (CTMH), Crushed Curry - Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Crystal Blue - CTMH
Marker:  Rich Razzleberry - Stampin' Up!
Stampset:  Elementary Elegance - Stampin' Up!
Diamond Stickles - Ranger
Divine Twine
Double Ruffle Ribbon - Morex Corp.
Button - Bling Assortment - CTMH

Ribbon Carousel Challenge #44

As soon as I saw the sketch for this weeks challenge at The Ribbon Carousel, I knew I was going to do something for a guy.  It just so happens that I need a birthday card for the son of a good friend.  I just love this cheery paper.  I added some gold stickles to the candles for flames.

Supplies Used:
Paper:  Bugaboo Party - Creative Imaginations, Blue Petite Pinstripes - Paper Fever
Cardstock:  Sky, Sweet Leaf, Taffy - Close to My Heart (CTMH)
Inks:  Sky, Sweetleaf - CTMH, Memento Tuxedo Black
Stampset - CTMH
Sweetleaf Ribbon, Button - CTMH
Gold Stickles - Ranger
Divine Twine

Shabby Tag

This week at The Shabby Tea Room, the challenge was colorful confections.  We needed to use aqua, pink, green, and a tag.  I opted to make a tag as my project:

This week at the Ribbon Carousel, the challenge is called "Cause we FELT like it".  I happen to have some felt die cuts from Close to My Heart, so I pulled them out last night and found this cute bird.  I thought it would be cute (and a good use of space) to punch the wing from some paper and stamp the sentiment on it.  This morning before I snapped pictures, I was looking at my tag, and decided it needed something more.  So, I added some hand stitching on the tail of the bird and the flower.

Supplies used:
Cardstock:  Blush - Close to My Heart (CTMH)
Paper:  Linen Closet - DCWV
Ink:  Cocoa
Stamps:  Sweet Expressions - Whipper Snapper
Mocha opaques, Heartfelt Whimsy, Embroidery Thread - CTMH
Lattice Rectangle - Spellbinders
Button Latte, Bird Punch - Stampin' Up!
Cotton Candy Divine Twine
Lace - Multicraft Imports
Vintage Seam Binding - from my stash
Cherry Blossom - Wild Orchid Crafts

Shabby Mojo

Good morning, it's snowing here in Minnesota.  I almost didn't make it down to the farm this morning to feed calves.  I had my choice of driving on my side of the road with 3 foot drifts or on the wrong side of the road that the wind had blown open.  The one mile to the farm seemed like 10 this morning, but I made it and the babies are fed.  Anyhow, I stayed up late last night because I was obsessed with finishing this card, my poor hubby had to do 3 or 4 proofs for me. 

I used this weeks Mojo Monday sketch. 

I combined it with this weeks challenge at The Shabby Tea Room - "Shabby Shutters".  The challenge was to used navy blue and neutral colors along with a distressed element.  Here's the inspiration photo:

Since the challenge was "Shabby Shutters", I thought it would be a good time to pull out the My Creations A-door-ables from Close to My Heart.  I've had them for a few years (blush) and haven't used them.  My thought was to create a window out of two of them and include a message on the inside.  They come in white, so I stamped a bird with Versamark and embossed it with clear embossing powder, one for each "window".  I distressed them using the emboss resist technique with Bamboo ink, and went around the edges with walnut stain distress ink.  I used my edge distresser on the framing panels.  For the background, I embossed a piece of Outdoor Denim cardstock and used my sanding block to distress it to show the white core.  I made a crumpled flower for the corner, I painted on some Rock Candy Distress Crackle paint to the petals for some more shabbiness and shine.   I ended up creating a twine background using twine, a small piece of round cardstock and lots and lots of glue dots.  I also included a vintage button that I bought at an antique store on my birthday last summer. 

Here's the inside of one "window":

The inside of the other "window":

Also, at the Ribbon Carousel challenge it's Anything Goes this week.  For that challenge, we need to include some sort of ribbon or twine, I've used 3 different kinds of ribbon or twine.

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  Bamboo, Outdoor Denim, Desert Sand, Colonial White - Close to My Heart (CTMH)
Paper (for flower):  Caprice - CTMH
Ink:  Bamboo, Outdoor Denim - CTMH, Walnut Stain Distress Ink - Ranger, Versamark
Stampsets:  Childhood Portrait - CTMH, Butterfly Wishes - The Greeting Farm
Scallop Velvet Ribbon - American Crafts
Ruffle Ribbon - Morex
Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint - Ranger
Mocha Opaques and Clear Detail Embossing Powder- CTMH
Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Button Latte - Stampin' Up!
Scallop Circle (for flower) - Lifestyle Crafts
Brown Twine - pre-cut from local store
Vintage Button - Antique Store in Stillwater, MN

Fun is Good

Here is my card using the Viva la Verve February week 3 sketch.  For some reason, I struggled with this sketch, I started it over a week ago and ended up walking away from it.  Last night I decided that it was past time to finish it.  I ended up starting from scratch, and I love how it turned out.  I used the picture from the Ribbon Carousel Challenge as inspiration for both my colors and the movement in the paper.  The theme this week was colors and swirls.

I opted to fussy cut a flower out of a larger piece of paper and thought a rosette with a button would add the final touch. 

The green polka dot ribbon is from my stash.  A few years ago at a Creating Keepsakes convention in Minneapolis, I entered a card in their contest.  Some weeks went by and I never heard anything, so I assumed that I hadn't placed with it.  One day, I came home from work, and there was a box sitting in front of our door.  When I opened it, this ribbon was wrapped around the 1st Place prize for the card contest.  I was over the moon excited!  The box was full of fun paper crafting books, magazines, cardstock, and some tools.  I saved the ribbon, and I thought the rich green color would be perfect on this card.

Supplies Used:
Paper:  Berry Sweet - K & Company
Cardstock:  Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Whisper White - Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Stampset:  Beautiful You - Verve
Markers:  Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo - Stampin' Up!
White Embroidery Floss, Green Button - Close to My Heart
Circles and Scalloped Circles - Spellbinders
Ribbon - Unknown

What's Black and White and Pink All Over?

My card using the sketch from the Ribbon Carousel Challenge and the color challenge from The Play Date Cafe.  I did a card with a very similar (different shade pink) color scheme around Valentine's Day, I love the papers from BoBunny, so I was excited to use them again.

Here's the sketch:

When I saw the challenge for The Play Date Cafe, I couldn't resist combining the two.  Here's the inspiration photo:

Supplies Used:
Paper:  Enchanted Collection - BoBunny, Watermelon Cardstock - Close to My Heart (CTMH), Whisper White - Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Stampset:  Beautiful You - Verve
Flower Ribbon - Maya Rd.
Pink Lace - Multicraft Imports
Pink Sparkles, Flutter Paper Shapes - CTMH
Oval and Scallop Oval - Spellbinders

Prayers

It's Friday, and besides being sheet washing day in our home (one of the few scheduled things that I've been able to stick with), it's also time for a new Viva la Verve sketch challenge at Split Coast Stampers.  Here's this weeks great new sketch:

At the Ribbon Carousel Challenge, it's Anything Goes this week, so I opted to combine them.

I used a Level 2 paper pack - Caprice - from Close to My Heart that was new when I started as a consultant, it's long since been retired.  

I was trying out ribbon to go with the paper, and I came across this satin ribbon.  I wanted to pleat it, and opted to pleat it while I was sewing it on.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Notes of Prayer - Verve
Paper:  Caprice - Close to My Heart (CTMH)
Ink:  Chocolate - CTMH
Satin Ribbon - Michaels
Mocha Opaques - CTMH

Paper Pieced Butterfly

I loved The Ribbon Carousel's challenge this week - to use the paper piecing technique.   I used the sketch from Viva la Verve February week 1 as a starting point for my card.

I ended up rotating the sketch because I really wanted to use this sweet stamp - Buttfly Kisses from Pure Innocence for My Favorite Things.  Since I have two little girls (ages 5 and 2), whom are currently running around in dresses playing princess, I just had to have this cute stamp.  It hadn't seen any ink yet, so I figured today was the day.  I originally was going to paper piece the wings with a glitter cardstock, but when I stamped her, I realized that I also had some white glitter cardstock that reminded me of tights from my childhood.  So, her tights, wings, leotard, and shoes are all paper pieced. 

Supplies used:
Daydream Paper - Close to My Heart (CTMH)
Glitter cardstock - DCWV
Stamp:  Butterfly Kisses - My Favorite Things
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, StazOn
Corner Punch, Bling Assortment, Sparkles - CTMH
Divine Twine
Copic Markers:  E37, E00, E02, W0, V17
Embosslit:  Beautiful Wings - Stampin' Up!
Labels 8 Nestibilities - Spellbinders

Untraditional Valentine

This card was a stretch for me.  I used the Viva la Verve's January week 4 sketch, which I saw a ton of possibilities in, but the challenge was to do a clean and simple (CAS) card.  I've never done a card that I would consider CAS, so this was a first for me.  I also combined it with The Ribbon Carousel's RCC37 Non-Traditional Colors with Suzanne.  This too was a challenge for me, I originally was going to to a card with yellow and gray, but I couldn't find the grayish silver pleated ribbon in my stash.  It was driving me insane, but while I was looking, I stumbled upon the plum colored pleated ribbon (which I love).  Here's the sketch:

I hope I didn't make to to simple.  At the last minute, I added the tone on tone flourish in the upper left corner.  That helped.  As my brother would say, it's kind of like mold, it grows on you after a while (meaning the card). 

Supplies used:
Stamps:  Hearthrob - Close to My Heart
Cardstock:  Sunkiss Yellow, white daisy - CTMH
Ink:  Sunkiss Yellow, Pansy Purple - CTMH
Ribbon: May Arts