Card Patterns #112

Happy Friday!  We own a cat and yet I owned no cat stamps!  So when I saw this SU Touch of Kindness set, with this sweet little cat, I knew it was another reason to get it!  I love that it has some cute little sentiments, too!  I just wish my Pumpkin had a “smile” on her face like this!

I used the sketch from Card Patterns:

I just made mine square!  Thanks for looking today!

• Stamps:  Touch of Kindness
• Paper:  WW, Shimmery White, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron Patterns, Jolly Holiday & Play Date DP
• Ink:  Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive
• Acc:  Blender Pen, Modern Label Punch, Scallop Trim Border, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border and 1/16” punches, Taffeta Ribbon

Christmas SR69 & PPA91

For my weekly Christmas card, I used the Stampin Royalty sketch today along with the challenge from Pals Paper Arts, which was buttons. Here’s the sketch:

I totally spaced out on seeing the panel behind the Top Note image….hope the challenge police don’t kick me out! Anyway, this card didn’t translate to paper the way I had envisioned, but I kept at it as I had already invested the time:

I hadn’t done any vintage for a while, and these Newsprint papers were neglected, so I thought they would look good with this silhouette Christmas set, Welcome Christmas. I pulled some little buttons from my stash for the button theme.

It has been very warm & humid for this time of the year, and we’re supposed to get severe storms later today. My heart goes out to those across the country who were affected by the tornadoes—some scary stuff! Anyway, despite the breeze and fans, sometimes when one wakes up from one’s nap, one is still a bit sweaty:

Stay safe, everyone!

• Stamps: Welcome Christmas, Tiny Tags
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Naturals Ivory, Basic Black, Newsprint DP
• Ink: Crumb Cake, Stazon
• Acc: TopNote die, Sponge Daubers, Spritzer, Oval & Oval Scallop Punches, Buttons & Thread, Crimper, Perfect Polka Dot EF, SAMJ

Randomness

My desk is littered with bits & pieces of stamped items, pieces of unfiled cardstock, ribbon snippets….it was driving me crazy.  I begin something, then see something else I want to do and the elements get tossed aside.  I finally just put one of them together; no challenge, nothing specific, just a card:

My Copic coloring isn’t even done that well….I was basically just playing around with this image.  And my friend Lesley made me get this Tim Holtz brick embossing folder, so I thought I’d use it on a stray piece of Soft Sky laying around.  It’s hard to see here, but I rubbed some craft white ink on top…it is really a cool EF, I can see me using this one a lot! A simple sentiment, some little knotty ribbons and I have a nice generic card for my stash.  TFL!

Daddy is introducing Cassidy to the fine art of mowing at an early age!!  Don’t worry, he’s standing right beside her…..and it’s not running!!!

ColourQ 82

Happy Tuesday!  Arielle’s ColourQ colors today are sweet, sweet, sweet:

I once had a teacher in college tell me I must have a very warm personality because all of my fashion illustrations were blues & greens---to offset that warmth, I guess!  It is no secret I love blues, and green is just a natural go-with color!  I just received a sweet little set coming out in the Summer Mini called Touch of Kindness, and these colors just seemed to fit this image to a “T”!

I did some watercoloring with reinkers and an aquapainter on the main image; colored the highlighted letters in the sentiment with an Always Artichoke marker after inking the whole thing first in Baja Breeze, and then made my background by stamping a couple images from Funky Four in craft white ink on Kiwi Kiss and Pear Pizzazz panels.  I even added a little gel pen glimmer on the water drops!  Cute!   And here’s the inside:

Be sure to splash on over to the CQC blog so you can see what the other designers created, as well as share you own creation!  Can’t wait!

• Stamps:  Funky Four, Touch of Kindness
• Paper:  Text Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Always Artichoke, Pear Pizzazz, Shimmery White
• Ink:  Stazon, Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Always Artichoke, Pear Pizzazz, Craft White
• Acc:  Square Scallop Duo Die, Seam Binding, AA Marker, 3/4” Circle & Boho Blossoms Punch, Paper Piercer, White Gel Pen, Dimensionals, Gelly Roll Pen, White Baker’s Twine, Aquapainter 

The Open Sea

I hope everyone had a nice Easter!  We had a lovely day; a lovely weekend, actually, and I didn’t stamp a single thing!  And  it’s too nice today to stay inside!  I stamped a quick card this morning for two SCS challenges, the CAS116 challenge, which is the Artist’s Rule (to use three elements on your card); and the TLC322 challenge, which is called Stampin’ in the Die.  Since I wanted my card to be SU-only, I didn’t use a die, but a couple of circle punches.  Here’s my card:

The directions for the technique are at SCS, so I’ll just tell you how I did mine.  I punched a hole in a piece of cardboard using a 1 3/8” circle punch.  I laid that over my cardstock, inked up the Woodgrain stamp with Sahara Sand ink and stamped the cardstock right over the hole.  I removed the cardboard, stamped the anchor image and punched it out with the 1 3/4” circle punch.  That left a border around my stamped image that looked a little blah, so I took the cardboard circle punchout, laid it on top of my stamped image to block it, and sponged around the edges.  You can see the effect here:

I added some baker’s twine, wrapping it around my Nautical Expedition panel three times (another “three”!) and adhered it to my Crumb Cake cardstock.  To give the panel some stability so that the baker’s twine would not buckle my DP, I mounted it first on a piece of thin chipboard from a package of SU DP, then wrapped the twine around.  Worked like a charm!  Thanks for visiting today too!

Here are a couple pix from Easter.  This is my dear friend Elsie and her granddaughter Lila, who is just a few months younger than Cassidy:

The little ones really were enthralled with each other:

And then, later, at my DD’s for dinner, sitting on Grampy’s lap:

Just look at those toes!!!  Have a happy!

Paper Players Sketch Challenge 44

Happy Easter to everyone!  What a wonderful day to celebrate the Risen Saviour and the gift He has given us!!!  I have one more Easter card to share with you for today’s Paper Players challenge.  This week, Lesley came up with a super sketch:

Since I had been using these lovely Elegant Soiree papers last week, they were still on my desk, and I thought they would make a really pretty card combined with the Easter Blossoms set:

and the inside:

I hope you’ll skip on over to the Paper Players blog to participate in this sketch challenge!  You can see the creations made by the other designers as well while you’re there!  And who knows, your project may be chosen as a CutAbove or a Headliner next week!  Thanks for visiting!

• Stamps:  Easter Blossoms, Punch Potpourri, God’s Blessings, Teeny Tiny Wishes
• Paper:  VV, Soft Suede, Elegant Soiree DP
• Ink: Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
• Acc:  Top Note Die, Pinked Hearts Scallop Punch, Itty Bitty Punch Pack Flower Punch, Boho Blossom Punch, Pearls, SAMJ

Note where her left hand is!!!!

Happy Easter!

Orange Birthday

Today has been a lazy day—no babysitting for me, so I have sort of frittered it away doing some baking, laundry, cleaning and a little stamping!  Today’s SCS challenge is to use orange…and I love orange, so I thought I would make a monochromatic card using a gradient set of colors:

I also used several different sets on this card!!!  Waltzingmouse, MTME and Sweet & Sassy all got some love!  If you have questions about them, let me know!  I used Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie, Only Orange and Apricot Appeal for my cardstock colors, and ran them through the Big Shot after adhering them to a piece of Big Shot Adhesive sheet.  I used the Nesties Label One die for my focus and the rock & roll technique for my butterflies.  My SIL’s birthday is coming up, so this will be for her!  Thanks for visiting today!

We tried giving Cassidy these little “puffs” of something—I forget what they are called—but they get quite sticky on her hot little hands…..so funny!

I think she must be saying to herself, “This is just too much work!!!” 

Butterfly Birthday

I actually squeaked in a little more stamping time today, and I wanted to do a birthday card using the JUGS colors before the deadline—they were really a challenge, and I felt like I needed to step out of the box a bit!  Here is the palette:

and the Sweet Sunday sketch #113:

and here’s my card:

I used the new Strength & Hope stamp along with a couple images from Tiny Tags; it’s all pretty straight-forward and it went together pretty quickly!

Thanks for visiting today! 

• Stamps:  Strength & Hope, Tiny Tags
• Paper:  Crumb Cake, Cameo Coral, Basic Black, WW, Text WW, Tempting Turquoise Patterns DP
• Ink: Crumb Cake, Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise
• Acc:  Decorative Label Punch, Nesties, Perfect Polka Dot EF, Glimmer Brads, Taffeta Ribbon, DD Glitter, Dimensionals