Another Friday - Another Friends With Flair

Friday - the most glorious day of the work week.  It is also Friends With Flair on the Unity Blog.  I am trying to use my Unity Stamps each week - so why - am I using the same stamp that I used last week.  Well I stamped it three times - so be prepared - there will be another card coming.  Last week's card was the more traditional color range of brown, red and green.  Today we have green, pinkish and white.  I even used the same basic layout for both cards.

The green paper and pink paper are from the new Lawn Fawn Collection.  The plaid is from last year's collection from some company (I am too lazy to go look).  The image is pop dotted.

I am also going to enter it into the weekly challenge at Addicted to Stamps where the challenge is holiday.  Yesterday was Thanksgiving and today is Christmas.

So what color will next week's card be?

Have a good Friday and a good week end.

Give Thanks

It is time to start thinking about making some Thanksgiving cards.  I have had a piece of fabric floating around my crafting area for years because I liked the images.  I decided to use some of it for a fall card.

I used the sketch from the SRM monthly challenge for the layout of my card.

Unfortunately I did not have an SRM Doily.  I do have some doilies in my supplies so I dug one out.  Of course it was white, so I took a wet tea bag and rubbed across the top of the doily to give it a creamier color and dried it with my heat gun.  When I use fabric on a card, I use a light iron on adhesive on the back of the fabric and then attach it to card stock.  I then cut out my image.  By doing it this way, it gives your fabric some stability.  After it is cut out, I take a marker and go along the edge and color it.  This fabric was then matted with some brown card stock.  I embossed the gold with a embossing folder.  The SRM Sticker was added to a piece of matching card stock and matted in the same brown card stock.  I did add a strip of orangish paper to the top of the sketch to pick up the orange in the one leaf.  The dry embossing was highlighted with brown chalk.  When you use chalk instead of ink to distress or highlight, it seems, to me, that I have more control and get the look I want to achieve.

I am also going to share my card on the Addicted to Stamps Challenge blog.  Their weekly challenge is Holiday.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Fusion Challenge

The Fusion Challenge has a great sketch and wonderful colors in their inspiration photo.  I actually used both in my card.  The sketch is a variation of a favorite layout for me - I like to do the layers with them off angles from each other like this sketch.

I have been playing with my gelatos, gesso and dictionary pages.  The start of card for me was I had done something and I had swiped some paper across the leftover paint so it did not go to waste.  You come up with some of the best backgrounds for card making this way.  The flower is stamped on this piece of paper.  I then had to create some coordinating colors to go with the flower.  The colors are so bright and cheerful.  I had a little strip leftover for the sentiment so had to find a sentiment I could stamp on it.

The sentiment and flower are Hero Art stamps.  Hint - when stamping on the gelatos even my Versafine Ink does not dry that fast and I always end up smearing it.  Today I decided to clear emboss it and it works great plus your black has a sheen to it now.  I added a little dry embossing to the main layer.

I added some embellishments scattered around the card.  I struggle with that.  Hopefully I achieved the correct balance.  I took a few off.

Enjoy the remainder of your Sunday.  I took a short nap.

Sunday Creativity - Two Challenges Combined

Home from my 45th class reunion.  It was nice to see people again.  I graduated with a good group of people.  We even do reunions for special years.  We had one the year everyone turned 60 and are planning one for the year everyone turns 65.  The off year celebrations are a big potluck at someone's home.  Being an early riser, my drive home was accomplished with very little traffic and even though it takes two hours, I was home shortly after 8 a.m. this morning.  Time to get some things done.

I had laid out a card (started anyway) before I left home on Saturday.  I was able to combine the card with two challenges.

The first challenge is the weekly sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I just had to move my two strips down to accommodate my sentiment.  Here is the sketch.

The other challenge is a CAS monochromatic challenge from The Paper Players.

Here is my card.

The card is "shades of teal" - one of my favorite color combinations.  The snowman sticker is from Penny Black and the sentiment is from SRM Stickers.  I embossed the white and teal mat with a Cuddlebug snowflake embossing folder.  (shhhh - don't tell anyone - I am using more of my recycled white card stock from commencement programs).  I scattered a few pearls around the white areas to pick up more of the teal color.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Big Hugs

I have not done the Clean and Simple Stamping Challenge for such a long time.  I really like the design of the card.

My card only has a stamped sentiment on it.  I used my Silhouette to cut the circle designs from white or cream paper and I then colored then with Copics.  The background paper is a patterned paper with a little design in it.  I glued the big heart circles onto the card front and then I dry embossed it with an embossing folder.  I always feel that when I do that my die cuts are very glued to the card front.  Since this card will be for Operation Write Home, it needs to travel lots of miles and I want to make sure everything stays stuck.  I stamped the sentiment on the same patterned paper as the background.  It is pop dotted on the card front along with a few more circles.  The one circle looks like an olive to me.  I am really happy with how it turned out.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Watercolor, Hero Arts, and Seize the Sketch

I have had this piece of background paper I made in the online watercolor class sitting on my table.  I have been trying to use it but nothing ever came together.  Finally we have a card.  The background is made by wetting a piece of watercolor paper and I add a light wash of color.  I then put a stencil over the top and then brush more watercolor over the openings in the stencil.  It never turns out the same.  This is one of my favorite color combos of distress ink.  I decided to use a piece of the background paper in the sketch from Seize the Sketch.

I had watercolored the flower awhile back.  It was colored with distress inks also.  This is a new Hero Arts stamp set for me with a coordinating die set.  Yes I do have other embossing folders besides this one but I love the subtle effects of this embossing folder.  The pearls came from my supplies which I must start using.  I died the crochet thread with distress ink so it would match the card perfectly.

I hope you enjoy my take on the sketch.  It is a sketch with great possibilities.  Now I need to do some work for work.  I need to put in a few hours today to finish up a project.  Everyone enjoy their Sunday.

Washi Tape Hello

When I saw this sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch I immediately thought of washi tape.  What do you think of when you see this sketch?

I did two version of the card.  The first card the washi tape was lined up on the right side.  On the second card I offset all the tape more like the sketch.  I guess when you work with sketches you can do just about anything  as long as it looks like the sketch.  I added some dry embossing with my Cuddlebug.  I am always afraid washi tape will come unstuck so I usually emboss it.  I figure it is stuck forever to that cardstock now.

The first card I am also entering in the current challenge on Stars and Stamps Operation Write Home card blog.  Our Daily Bread Designs sponsors a monthly challenge.  The will pay the shipping for a maximum of two boxes of cards to our Heroes.  The cardmakers just have to make 50 cards for that to happen.  I don't think we have not gotten two boxes shipped each month.  The challenge this month is to use a die cut.  The Hello on the top card was cut with my Silhouette.

Well Happy Tuesday to you.

New Technique

Last week I was out looking at a challenge site and was looking at some of the entries - now I don't even know where I was or whose card it was - they had a link to a video - I went at watched it.  I had all the supplies so I decided to try it.

You take an embossing folder and you ink the front panel.  You spritz the paint with water and then place paper on top and just rub it.  I tried it two different times.  You can see I got two different looks.

The stamps on this card are from Unity Stamps.

On the second card I probably could have gotten another rubbing off the paint.  The bottom card was sent to a TV broadcaster who I have watched every morning for probably 10 - 15 years.  He is retiring and I wanted to thank him for starting my mornings.  The TV and big sentiment are from Lawn Fawn.

It was a fun technique to try and I will try it again.

Yeah it is Friday and I am home two days this week end.

Valentine Day and Tuesday Morning Sketches

Another Valentine Day card to share.  It is going off to two very special people.  Mom's favorite color is purple.  I wonder if Londyn likes purple as well as Mom.

The design of the card is based on the sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches.  I stayed very true to the sketch except for adding a sentiment.  The image, from Whipper Snapper Stamps, came with its own sentiment.  This is a favorite stamp to use for my Operation Write Home cards.  It is not really a valentine stamp, well in my opinion, and I guess for me that is what counts.  Here is the sketch.

The paper is from Die Cuts With a View.  It is their Spring Mix.  They are beautiful colors to create with during this very long winter.

I am also entering it into the challenge Addicted to CAS where the code word is Love.

Now, I want to get this in the mail, but I put glossy accents on the hearts, so I need to let them dry.  Luckily the post office in Janesville is open later than our local post office.  I have a book and coloring book for Londyn to send along with the card.  I have not been out shopping with this lovely winter so I guess I will have to wait to buy a new outfit for Londyn.  That will go in her Easter package.

Thanks for stopping by.

I Love my Cuddlebug

I cut the purple designs with my Silhouette.  I then glued them to the white cardstock.  I then embossed the layer in the Cuddlebug.  It basically melts the design into the cardstock.

I am recycling purple and white cardstock from the covers of commencement folders.

More cards for my Operation Write Home box.

Feminine Version of Monday's Cards

On Monday I made some little boy cards using this same stamp.  Today's cards are for one of our Heroes to send home to the girls in their lives.  Who doesn't love a weiner dog card?

I had the pink frames already cut on the design table.  I found the American Crafts paper with the same colors as the pink.

Nothing too exciting here - I made a total of 4 cards with my frames.  The circle on the one frame - is to cover up a tear in the frame.  Thank goodness for layers.

Oldie Moldie Monday

Oldie Moldie Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.  The stamp is a dollar stamp and this is another stamp that I have gotten lots of use out.  My return on investment is off the walls on this tool.  The paper is a 6 x 6 pad from Bo Bunny.  I don't know how old it is.

Come back tomorrow to see a feminine version of this stamp.

The cards are for my next Operation Write Home box.  Lots of little kids with parents who are deployed.  They love to get cards.  We all love to get cards in the mail.

SRM Stickers, Silhouette and Unscripted Sketches Unite

Disclaimer - the pinks match much better in real than in this photo.  OK - back to my regular scheduled post for today.

Yesterday I had a fun day just playing with paper - decompressing from work - rough part of the year for me so anytime I can decompress helps lots.  

This card is based on the weekly sketch from Unscripted Sketches.  I changed the orientation of the rectangle and sentiment from the sketch as you can see.

I cut the white flower with my Silhouette, adhered it to the pink background.  I added the sticker and the pink background to the white accent mat and ran everything through the Cuddlebug to emboss it.  I always like the way your cutout seems to just melt into your paper.  I cut out a flower from another set of stickers after I had adhered it to a piece of paper and then pop dotted it on the center of the die cut.   I decided I needed a little ribbon on it to bring in some of the black in the sticker.

Everyone enjoy your Sunday - I am going to go into work for awhile - it is quiet and I can accomplish so much during this time.  

Oldie Moldie Monday

This is a card made from recycled paper.  I used covers from commencement programs.  Since I have started collecting the unused or discarded programs, we have gone through the colors of grey, purple and now they are white.  Yeah - it was really hard to make that many purple cards.

This is a retirement card for a professor at our university.  I thought it was very appropriate to use the commencement program covers for her card.  The cardbase is a program cut to size.  I cut purple to use as a mat, cut the border and then cut 2 different sizes of shaped Spellbinders for the flower.  I wet the flower layers and then crinkled them up - they have such a nice shape now.  Luckily I am not mailing this card - it will be hand delivered.  The sentiment is from SRM Stickers.

Come back tomorrow to see another retirement card - where I got artsy fartsy.

CAS-ual Friday Challenge - Long and Short

Here is the long and short of this post.  My card is based on the challenge at CAS-ual Friday to make a card that is not your typical A2 card - but to make it long and short.  My card is 3 x 5.  I actually have been making some of my personal cards different sizes lately - shake your creativity up a little.

The stamp is a Hero Arts set that has stamps and coordinating dies.  The bee is from the same set.  I like the sentiment - because yes - I made this card - just me, thinking of you.  I will send the card the card to my mom - I have a couple more on the drawing board that I will send to some very dear older ladies - add a little bright note to their long winters.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Creative Ways to Use Tags

Yes - how do you use the good old basic manila office tag in your creative endeavors.  My friend Ivanka and I are taking a free online class Creative JumpStart coordinated by Nat Kalbach and one of the videos is using tags.  Since both of us are basically card makers - we adapted what we learned to make cards.  We decided we would challenge each other to make something with our tags - and post today.

Of course I did not have any office tags to use that you can buy in packages.  But I did have some old recycled manila file folders - so I found a file on my Silhouette and cut myself a bunch of tags.  Most of them I left the hole out.  So in that respect I did cheat a little but it is the same basic material as a tag you would purchase.

Here is my first card - I painted the tag with acrylic paint.  After the paint was dry, I cut myself a stencil with a circle design on it with my Silhouette.  I just rubbed ink over the dots onto the tag.  I then used the tag as the focal point for a very simple masculine card.  The patterned paper is from Authentique.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

My second card is a birthday card for my daughter.  I imagine she is going to wonder what artistic endeavor her mother was up to because this is not my traditional type of card.  The tag was painted with green acrylic paint - the same as the one above.  I then used a die cut (the stripes and dabbed some blue paint on - well a little blue paint strayed so then I added more blue paint.  After it was dried - I then came in and did some stamping with Gesso - the big circles were stamped with a bottle cap I dipped in the gesso.  The white dots were done with the end of a pen dipped in the gesso.  The green background in also a piece of manila folder painted with the green paint and then I had to add more circles to coordinate with the tag.  The sentiment is stamped on more painted folder.  I like that sentiment for a birthday card - I will be a little late with the card. I added some dyed seam binding to make the card a little feminine.  Hopefully she likes it.

My last card is entirely different than the other two (can you see I have had so much fun doing this) - sometimes you just need to do some different things with your creativity.  The tag and the heart are cut with the Silhouette from the manila folder material.  I then got out my Tattered Angels glimmer mist which never gets used and sprayed my elements.  Of course, the color of the card - was based on my limited supply of glimmer mists.  Luckily I had a pink and brown - a wonderful color combination for creating.  I also misted a doily I had in my supplies - the background script paper is a piece that was laying on the floor that worked wonderful into the design.  I dug into my bag of cream/white trims - found the tea dyed lace, the torn strips of muslin which is tea dyed and that cream color trim.  In the bag was also that little piece of pearls.  I ran the tag through the Cuddlebug.  I added twine to a large cream colored button I had.  The muslin bow was tied with the twine.   I added part of a Love sticker from SRM Stickers.  

The card is for the weekly challenge from The Paper Players to make a "love is in the air" card.  This valentine will go to my Mom - pink is her favorite color.  

I hope you enjoyed my creating with tags - try something new - that is what Ivanka and I are trying to do.  Her word for 2013 is "different" and this type of creating is very "different" for me - hop over to her blog and check her creations out.  

Is It Spring Yet?

I know - it is too early - to start thinking Spring should be around the corner.  The next best thing - well kinda - but not really - is to make cards with spring like colors.  I needed a Thank You card - so I went to check out the challenges around "blog world".  CAS-ual Friday has one for Thank You cards and this card is based on the weekly sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

Since I had the butterfly punches out and those spring colors - and it is now time to work on spring cards for Operation Write Home - I made another card.  The monthly challenge on Stars and Stamps - for Our Daily Bread Designs - is to use dry embossing on your card.  Our Daily Bread Designs will pay for shipping for up to two boxes of cards to our Heroes.  This means we need to post a minimum of 50 cards for the month of January.  We are well on our way to reaching that goal.  I had to add some bling to my card - I wonder if I overdid it - maybe I should take the bling out in the loops.  I may still still do that.

Enjoy your day - still thinking about going to work - the roads did look a little icy earlier so that is why I did not race out of the house this morning to do it - I wonder if I will go.

Oldie Moldie Monday Returns

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies - this time I actually just worked out of my scrap bag.  Inside the bag was this partial sheet of bright pastels bargello design.  I thought - no I knew - it would make great spring cards for Operation Write Home.  All the other paper were pieces from inside the bag also - luckily there were some that were big enough for card fronts.

I used an assortment of stamps.  The duck and bottom bunny are from Studio G - $1 stamps - I do believe I got my money out of these stamps.  The "lots of hugs sentiment" stamp is also Studio G.  The tall bunny is a Whipper Snapper and Snoopy is from Stampabilities.  I made so many boy cards yesterday - I wanted to make a general girl card - and that is where Snoopy comes in - everyone loves Snoopy.  I also used the Cuddlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder on several of the cards.  It dresses up plain cardstock.

I now have 11 cards in my next Operation Write Home box.  Not too bad.

Everyone enjoy your New Year's Eve - be safe.  I have a retirement party this afternoon so I need to get to the grocery store and get some supplies for what I need to make.

Card Positoning Systems, Operation Write Home meet Oldie Moldie Monday

My first card for Oldie Moldie Monday (I really am getting sick of this paper - but it has made some great cards - so I will keep using it up) - was for a challenge on the Penny Black blog to do mini cards - this card is 3 3/4 x 2 3/4 - I think.  The white is embossed with a cuddlebug embossing folder and the sentiment is embossed with white Hero Arts embossing powder (fine detail).  The stamp is from Penny Black - you will see the entire stamp on a card below.

Here is the full version of the Penny Black stamp.  Isn't he just the cutest little snowman.  I found another version of him - that one is holding some presents.  The sentiment is also from Penny Black.

This card is based on the sketch from Card Positioning Systems.  I am also going to enter it in CAS-UAL Friday where the challenge is to use embossing - all three cards would qualify for that challenge.  On this card - I used an SRM Sticker for the sentiment.  Here is the sketch from CPS - I just moved the circle element up so I could add a sentiment below.  The penguin is from Whipper Snapper Designs.

The last two cards will go into my next Operation Write Home box.  These two cards will bring smiles to many people.  I sure hope they like purple and bright pink.  Pop over - we are having a month long birthday celebration - lots of fun.

Gee maybe next Monday - I could make another card out of this paper.  I made three of the mini cards for holiday cards - so I do need to line them but that won't take too much paper.

Enjoy your Monday.

Oldie Moldie Monday

Oldie Moldie Monday - time to show some love to some old paper or supplies.  This paper manufacturer is no longer in business.  I love the color purple with snowmen.  The card base and matting are recycled card stock - repurposed fronts and backs of programs.  The white background is embossed with a folder from Cuddlebug.

The card design is based on the weekly sketch at Retro Sketches.

The stamp is by Inkadinkado.  The sentiment is attached to cardstock colored with Copics to match the scarf on the snowman.  The sentiment is by SRM Stickers.  If you wish to see another card using this same stamp - pop over to Flicker.