Simple hearts

I hope everyone is having a good start to their week. I have been busy with work so I haven't had too much time to craft. I managed to find a little time to create another card for this week's CAS-ual Fridays sketch challenge.

I kept my card super simple. I die cut some red hearts and chose not to stamp or emboss them. Instead, I chose one heart to be white and die cut several layers of chipboard. I then glittered it up with my all time favorite glitter, Martha Stewart coarse glitter. I absolutely LOVE this stuff and I think I use it on almost everything. You can often times even find this glitter on my children. I added my sentiment on my double ended banners die. I love using this to help smaller sentiments stand out. Thanks for looking!

Butterfly thank-you

Happy weekend to everybody! Mine started a day early since I was fortunate to have yesterday off from work. I spent some time in my craft room making some Valentine goodies. I'll have those to share on the blog soon. To take a red and pink break, I whipped up a card last night for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge .

Plum...Pear...Moldy Cheese

I combined the color challenge with this week's CAS-ual Fridays sketch challenge by Laura.

I want to give a shout out to the Girl Fridays for selecting my card as the winner for last week's challenge. This was my very first win and I am still in shock. There were so many beautiful entries, I know it was a hard decision.

For this week's card I heat embossed the butterfly images with white embossing powder and popped them up with foam adhesive. The green butterfly was die cut from scrap paper that was already impressed with my Linen/canvas impression plate. I wanted to it be slightly different from the other butterfly beauties. I finished it off with my sentiment and  a little bling. Thanks for looking!

PTI January Blog hop

It's that time of the month again. Papertrey Ink is having their monthly blog hop. It is always so much fun to see everyone's creations. We were challenged to pick our favorite project from 2011 and create a card that was inspired by our chosen project. We could carry over the color scheme, the layout or the stamp sets used. I chose this card that I created for Make-it-Monday: create a card/project background using a non-background stamp.

I decided to keep to the design of the card and use similar colors. The first card used Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chartreuse, Aqua Mist and Hawaiian Shores ink while the second card used Pure Poppy,  Spring Moss, Aqua Mist and Raspberry Fizz. The sentiment is from Heart Prints and the focal image is from 2010 Love Tags. There are so many fabulous images in this set, it was so hard to choose which one to use for the challenge. You will be seeing this stamp set on the blog again for sure.

In making this card, I really did play around a bit trying to change up the color for the card base, the color of the cardstock and the color of the focal image. When it was all said and done, what looked best to me ended up being very similar to my first card. What can I say? I tried.

Play Date Cafe #115

I hope everybody's Monday wasn't too crazy. I managed to make this card rather quickly to submit for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.  I tried my best to come close to the colors. I was inspired by Michelle's card.

Slate...Moss...Bark...Burlap
  

I do not have any slate ink or paper (sniff, sniff ). My smokey shadow paper was just too dark in my opinion. I used Ripe Avacado and Dark Chocolate for the Moss and Bark. I kept my card base in Rustic Cream and used my Antique Linen distress ink for the background. Thanks for looking!

Black and white thank-you

Hope your weekend was fabulous! I have another card to share with you for this week's CAS-ual Fridays.

 I inked up my Background Basics: Chevron. I read today on the PTI forums some suggestions regarding black ink. I picked up some Versafine Onyx Black today. Love it!!

Pages with Papertrey sketch #5

Happy Sunday morning to you all! Today I have 2 layouts to share with you. Leigh designed this month's sketch herself. She is a pretty awesome! When you have some time, browse around her blog for lots of scrapbooking inspiration. Here is the sketch:

Believe it or not (insert gasp), I kept to the sketch entirely! I feel like I always change it up a bit, but the photos I had in mind to use worked perfectly.

All of the papers are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit except the green ticket which is Papertrey Ink. I used my Ali Edwards stamp set My Favorite Memories stamped in Dark Chocolate for some of the journaling as well as my own handwriting. Buttons and twine are PTI along with the remaining stamped journaling and chevrons. Here are some close ups:

I also have the opposite page to share. I used my new PTI Block Alphabet die for the title along with the rub ons from the kit. I love, love, love this die and you will definitely be seeing more of this on my cards and layouts. Thanks for looking!

Black and white affair

Hello dear blog friends! I hope you had a fabulous week. I've been busy in my craftroom all week working on some layouts to share. I will have those to post soon, promise. I have been anxiously awaiting my PTI package which arrived at my doorstep yesterday. As soon as I saw this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge, I knew exactly what to do.

I inked up my new Background Basics: Houndstooth! Love this stamp set!!! I am not too thrilled with my True Black ink coverage, but I hope to be getting the new premium dye ink soon. I love this challenge to create with only black and white, so I hope to have some more things to share. Stayed tuned to the blog. Thanks for looking!



An ocean, really?

I have another card for this week's CAS-ual Fridays.

When I first started to play along, I intended to make a card for my cousin's 55th birthday. It is a Hawaiian theme party and wouldn't you know it, I do not own a single beach themed stamp. The images from my Create a Critter cartridge, hmmm, a little too juvenile, don't ya think? So how do I create a masculine, Hawaiian card? Well, it is a bit of a stretch, but here goes:

I created blue scallops out of tissue paper to mimic the ocean. I chose kraft to represent the sand. Finally, a yellow button to represent the sun. TFL!

CAS-ual Fridays #35

I have another card to share for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge: scallops.

I created an Easter card with two layers of scallops. If you look closely you will see a glitter strip along the bottom of the center panel. I also used my Linen/Canvas impression plate on my card base. I usually spritz it with water for a deeper impression, but didn't want to warp it. It's a little difficult to see in the photo, but it's there. Promise. I finished it off with a flower and bling.

A circle of thanks

I have another thank-you card for the staff that took care of my son during his surgery yesterday. It plays along with this week's ColourQ challenge. He is doing very well. He slept his usual 12 hours requiring no pain medicine. I am so thankful. Any adult that would've had the same surgery would be laid up for a few days. He is smiling, laughing, kicking and very happy.

I love these bright colors and the circles. I CASED this card by Debby Huges. She is so talented and I love her style.

Here is  another view to show the dimension. I used lots of foam tape. Love that stuff!

A special thank-you...

...to my mother-in-law. My son, who turned 6 months old today, had his very first surgery. My mother-in-law came to our house in the wee hours of the morning to stay with our daughter and make sure that she got off to school okay. Joshua is recovering very well and I am thankful for the wonderful care that he received.

Today's card I made while my son napped in his crib. It will given to my mother-in-law for being so helpful to us today, as she always goes above and beyond. It plays along with this week's CAS-ual Fridays, create a project with scallops and this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge. If he continues to do well, I hope to have a few more cards to share this weekend.

Burgundy...Gold...Plum

The story of us...

...that's the title of this layout. It's another addition to my son's baby album. I opted to use the same photos and elements as well as journaling as my daughter's page since "our story" remains the same. The main photo has a transparency overlay with the eyelet border which gave the photo a weird sheen for photographing the layout.

All elements are from Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit. The buttons are Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist. The smaller photo titles I used my favorite Small Typewriter Alphabet from Stampendous stamped in Dark Chocolate. The journaling pen is from American Crafts precision.

You make my heart sing!

Happy Monday to everyone! Today's card that I have to share is another one for this week's CAS-ual Fridays.

The challenge is to use chipboard on our project. I made another chipboard heart from my PTI heart die. I stamped the background with Background Basics: Music Sheet. I finished off the heart with a little bling.

Pages with Papertrey #5

I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend. As I had mentioned in my previous posts, our weekend was jam packed with 2 birthday parties. I think my hubs and I had as much fun as Leah did skating and playing at the gym. Thanks to the mommies for inviting us!

Despite our weekend of partying, I did manage to find some time in my craftroom Friday night and Sunday morning to create a 2 page layout for my son's baby album. The first page plays along with Pages with Papertrey #5, a color challenge.

Leigh wanted us to create a layout using these colors. I wasn't quite sure how I could make one of Joshua's pages entirely out of these 3 colors since I am using the Sweet Baby kit by Becky Higgins. I asked her if other colors could be incorporated and she graciously replied, "Yes." So the light bulb went on when I was deciding which pages I might work on for the challenge. My son's ultrasound pictures are black in white! Done!

All of the elements are from the kit except a few things. The buttons, twine and felt are from PTI. I also used Just the Ticket stamped in Dark Chocolate to show the date of the ultrasound. Yes, it was on Valentine's Day last year! I did blur out his biological mother's info for her privacy. I really did try to use my Harvest Gold paper and felt, but as the page came together, I ended up using the papers from the kit and Vintage Cream felt. Please try to look past the crooked felt in the bottom corner. Despite adhering it down with double sided tape before stitching it in place, it still moved!

The opposing page includes some pictures of our family of three. I will journal about our last outings and such. The reason why I included a photo of Leah with princess Belle, is because she loved to talk and tell everybody that she was going to have a baby brother. It was super sweet to see her excitement. And she is still excited to this day. Thanks for looking!

love you

I hope you are having a fabulous weekend. Today's card takes part in several challenges.

The first is for Make-it-Monday. I chose to do glitter strips with score tape.  I never did participate since this was pre-blog days. I added it to some color blocks that are in this week's ColourQ Challenge.

I finished off my card with some chipboard hearts that I made using old cereal boxes that I learned from another Make-it-Monday that I had a blast participating in. This week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge is to create a project using chipboard.

My hearts were die cut using Heart Prints. I glued together 4 layers using Glossy Accents. I covered the smaller one in glue and added Martha Stewart coarse glitter. Thanks for looking!

Misty, misty

Hello blog friends!

I tried my hand at Make-it-Monday #15: Make your own spray mist. I have really wanted to try this for some time. Well, actually I would rather buy some mists, but making my own was rather simple. I decided that I would mist up the wrapping paper that I used for the birthday presents for the parties we will attend this weekend. I put a few good drops of Hawaiin Shores reinker into my Ranger mister and added a little bit of water. I am satisfied with how it turned out, however, I do prefer a more saturated look. I will definitely try this again with my acrylic paints to see the difference.

Here is a close up.

A wormy birthday

My daughter has been invited to two birthday parties this weekend. I whipped up two identical cards and tags for these little boys. I tell ya, if you don't have this Create a Critter cartridge in your arsenal, you should seriously consider buying it. I have loved making cards for all of her friends. I've made some others here, here, here, and here. Love 'em!!! They all have the basic design as if the critter was sitting on the ground, but slightly different. I used a Make-it-Monday technique of ribbon pleating that I had participated in previously and had so much fun with it.

So, if you happen to be a mommy of one of these boys and a follower of my blog, I am sorry that the surprise may be ruined before the big day. Hope you like them as much as I do.

Another one...

Today's card is another one for this week's  Make-it-Monday. I created another sympathy card at the request of my sister for the same family that I made yesterday's card. I don't usually share too much personal stuff here on the blog since it is mainly for crafts. But I am asking you to join me in prayer for this family. Frank Sanders is an amazing man who was diagnosed almost a year ago with pancreatic cancer. He just published an autobiography From Silver to Gold to share how God has worked in his life.  My family has been truly blessed by him.