Cure for the Winter Blues

It is late, so it's going to be quick. Tonight's card I am submitting for Moxie Fab's Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge. Fabulous inspiration photos and cards. I based my card off of these curtain panels by Anthropologie.

I have wanted to ink up my Guidlines II by PTI for quite a while. It is dear to my heart since it was the second stamp set I ever bought. I had hoped to use my stamped image for the entire front panel, but the CAS gal in me snuck in and I ended up trimming it. Now it actually appears like a single curtain panel. Funny how that happens.

Stay tuned to the blog, because Friday I make my debut at the guest designer over at CAS-ual Fridays. My tummy has butterflies...

Pages with Papertrey

Yesterday was so much fun with  PTI's February blog hop. Fabulous inspiration, I tell ya. I had a blast!

The blog hop means that the month is almost over. Yikes, already? Leigh over at to the full gave us our Pages with Papertrey challenge to create our own background paper at the beginning of the month. I have had my pictures with some paper on my larger craft table since the 7th. Yes, I am admitting that I tried to start my layout that long ago. I am actually pretty thankful that the busyness of Valentine's Day made me put this project on hold. You see, when I went to work on it again and moved some things around on my page, I discovered that my new Spring Moss premium dye ink actually changed colors!!! It was now Neon Green. Really!! I couldn't believe it!! I am so glad that I waited to work on this page since Neon Green doesn't quite work with my page ;)

So I broke out my old Spring Moss pigment ink and inked up my Houndstooth to create my patterned paper for my border strip. As dry as it is, I still managed to get some decent coverage. That strip started off much larger, but after adhering a sticker border from my kit and then not liking it, I trimmed it off. I am also glad that I waited to work on this page, because I was able to use my new Studio Calico cloud image which was a perfect addition to the page.

The papers are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit except the ivory. The orange is rather bright, but I managed to tone is down by adding some Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink all over it. I am happy with the results and will probably do this to the remaining orange papers from the kit. To help anchor the circle title, I added a portion of Tag sale #3. I stamped Library Ledger in Antique Linen and added some Grunge Me circles. Love that tiny little tag! I used PTI's alpha block die for the second half of the title.

The photos are of my son, Joshua, surrounded by the gifts given to us by my co-workers. My daughter helped me pile them up around him. Some of the clothes are propped up on boxes of diapers that we received. I wish I had a video to share of her carrying them over to her brother. I couldn't believe she actually carried those boxes! Joshua was not quite 3 months old at the time.

PTI February 2012 blog hop

It's that time of the month again. It's Papertrey Ink's February blog hop. This is such a fun time of the month to gain inspiration from many wonderful crafter's. The challenge this month is to create an interactive card.

I admit I struggled on this one. Since I started blogging, I have discovered that I tend to be a CAS gal. It's hard to create an interactive card and keep it CAS, especially when you leave the challenge to the last possible minute. Yes, I didn't start my card until this morning. I wanted to use this week's Make-it-Monday technique again, glittered buttons. Most of you that follow my blog know that I am a huge fan of glitter. The sentiment that I wanted to be interactive is meant to send someone cheer, so I wanted to use bright Spring colors. Although I have had issues with my new Spring Moss premium dye ink changing colors, I opted to use it on my card because it is simply one of my favorite colors.

So I based my card off of a previous design seen here. Thanks for stopping by!

smile

Happy Friday to everyone! Before I start off this post, I just wanted to give a shout out to my friend Joyce, over at Cards-by-the-Sea. She was one of the VIPs for last week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge for this card. I am SO happy for her!!! Way to go, Joyce!

As I mentioned before, this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge includes my absolute favorite colors! So, of course, I had to create another card. And given the CAS gal that I am, I teamed it up with this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge. 



To be honest, I am not too big on puns. I do not own any punny sentiments. So, once again, I enlisted the help of my hubby to me brainstorm. I told him that I have stamps that are flowers, hearts, butterflies, etc. He checks out one of his latest tweets and shows me a picture of this:

Can I ever take this guy seriously? So I tell him, "Clouds. How about clouds?" So we came up with this:



The pun was his idea. Thank you honey for your contribution! The only other bit of help I could enlist this morning was that of my 7 month old. Well, the only thing he could offer was a bit of spit up. Oh well. Thanks for being such a good baby this morning.

The later part of the sentiment was computer generated. The die cut circle represents the sun peeking through the clouds. I kept it white to keep with the PDCC colors, and I actually like it best as white. Thanks for looking!

For a dear friend

Today I have a card to share for a dear friend of mine. Although I have been under the weather since Tuesday, nothing compares to what she has endured. My friend, Gina, was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. You can read more about her story here. She is currently in Texas participating in a clinical trial. I made her this card to send her way. These colors are some of my favorites. I am submitting it for 2 challenges: Play Date Cafe and Make-it-Mondays: glittered buttons. I love you, Gina! Keep on fighting, girl!!!!

Baby Blue...Orangesicle...Basil

 

Mini album

Hi friends! I hope everyone is doing well. I have spent the last 2 days in bed or on the couch, unable to keep anything down. So now that my stomach agrees with my chicken broth, I decided I would post pictures of the entire album I had made for my sister for 2 Christmas seasons ago. You will have to excuse the picture quality. It was the first time I tried photographing an album, so there are bits not if focus. My goal was to keep the album simple. We know how hectic the holidays can be.

The album was made using PTI's Mini Scrapbook Series: Tabs die. I die cut cereal boxes and then adhered the cardstock to them using Glossy Accents. Most pages were completed first and then adhered to the cereal box. I wanted the album to have some sturdiness to it. My sister had taken these photos, so it was rather tricky to have her email them to me without giving away what her present was going to be. Thanks for looking!

Hello and Happy Birthday

Today I have a card to share for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge: create a card using ribbon.

When I saw the beautiful projects by the Girl Fridays, I was overwhelmed. WOW! They did a fabulous job using ribbon in so many ways. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with ribbon for my card. Last year, for Christmas, I made my sister a mini album capturing the first few days with her daughter in China and at home. I used a ribbon flower technique that I had seen on Laurie's blog here. Excuse the poor image since the actual flower is out of focus.

So, today's card uses the same technique. I am pretty sure that saddle stitch ribbon is my favorite since there is no wrong or right side. My card also uses the colors from this weeks' Play Date Cafe challenge: Color Splash.

I inked up my new Studio Calico Stamp that I won from this week's challenge. Love the font! Thanks for looking!

*edited*

In my **aha** moment when I uploaded my image to CAS-ual Fridays, I realized my entry is supposed to be a party card. So I went back to my craftroom to create a party card. Here is my new entry:

ColourQ birthday

Hello friends! Hope you all had a pretty good week. I only had to work 4 days this week, but at almost 40 hours, that made me pretty exhausted in the evening hours, so that explains why the blog has been a little quiet. Last night, I mustered up a little energy to make a card for this week's ColourQ challenge. My daughter has a birthday party to go to tomorrow for a friend in her class. I thought these colors were perfect for a little girl.

You may be wondering where the white is in this card since it apprears very vanilla. Well, I stamped my flower on stamper's select white. It's a little hard to tell since I added a rhinstone, but it's there, promise. Thanks for looking!

Happy Valentines Day!

*Warning: this post is pic heavy*

This weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time with family. My sister and her hubby had a very special Valentine's date planned which meant that I got to spend some precious time with my niece, Madeline (almost 4) and nephew, Caleb (just turned 7). So while mommy and daddy were out, I brought some of my craft goodies into the kitchen to let the kiddos make some Valentines for mom and dad. It was the first time that my niece and nephew ever stamped. My daughter, Leah (4 1/2), however, has stamped many times with me before. So, after a quick little teaching, I let them go at it. I limited the stamp sets to 2 and the ink pads to 4. They used my heart and circle punches and I even let them turn the crank on my cuttlebug to add a few last minute accents. They added coloring and writing where their little hearts led them. It was so much fun to see the joy on all of their faces. We had such a blast!

 (Left to right: Madeline, Caleb and Leah)

 Madeline showing off her work

Caleb hard at work

Leah hard at work

I was also able to finally take pictures of the goodies that my daughter helped make to hand out to her classmates. I stamped the ladybug image from 2010 Love Tags and she colored them in with colored pencils. She was an excellent helper stuffing all of the bags full of candy while I stapled them closed and added the ladybug to the topper.

You can also see the Valentine box that we made last year to help collect the goodies that she receives from her classmates. It is a shoebox covered with kraft paper. I had her leave her hand prints on the top and used my Alphalicious cartridge for her name. We have a tradition and make a Valentine's Day album every year. I buy a few things from the Target dollar spot to help make them. When she turned 2 1/2, I got her involved with making her own artwork and scrapbook embellishments. So last year, we made an abundance and I added them to her box for school. I love the fact that we get to reuse this project this year. I realize that her hand prints are from last year, but we love the box. The only input I had on decorating the box was the placement of the Cricut cut outs and the tulle stitched heart. The rest was up to her.

Thanks for looking. Hope your day is fabulous and filled with love!

Valentine's Day banner

Hi friends! Today I have my Valentine's Day banner to share with you. I actually started making it over 2 weeks ago, but never had the chance to quite finish it. If you have ever tried to photograph a banner, you'd understand that it isn't as easy as it looks and there has to be a ton of natural light. The picture ledge where I hang my banners is near my foyer, but if there isn't enough light, there is no chance of taking a picture.

I tried to make my banner a little less feminine for the sake of my hubby. I incorporated some black but I still had to add glitter, of course.

Thanks for looking!

A bag of chocolates

Hope everyone has been enjoying their weekend. I've been able to spend a little time in my craftroom which has been nice. Trying to finish up some of my Valentine goodies. Today I have a little gift wrap to share with you. As tradition holds it, my hubby and I only give each other a card and chocolate. So I filled up this bag with some of his favorite, Dove chocolates. I designed a topper which you may seem familiar to you from this post. I used a bunch of left over scraps from various challenges. Love that!

love bug

Before I start this post, I wanted to give a big shout out to the Girl Fridays for selecting my card as last week's winner: On the Red Carpet. I am thrilled to be the guest designer for March! Wow, I can hardly believe it!

So, this afternoon I whipped up this card for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge: Love ya to pieces.

The challenge is to create a card using paper piecing. This was my very first time using this technique. I do not have many outlined images so I didn't have a lot to choose from. I decided that I would use this cute little lady bug from 2010 Love Tags. It is the same image that I stamped for my daughter to make her Valentine's to hand out to her classmates. We just finished assembling those this morning, so I will have those to share with you soon. I decided that since she loves this little bug, this card will go to her on Valentine's Day morning.

 

When I checked out today's Anniversary festivites over at Papertrey Ink, the challenge is to create a project using hearts.  I realize that my little bug does not have any pink or red hearts, but she still qualifies with those tiny hand cut hearts. Thanks for looking!

1st Birthday

Hi friends! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I have another card to share today for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge: create a movie inspired project.

Friends of ours have invited us to their son's first birthday. I decided to create a card inspired by the movie Bambi.

I cut out my little fawn using my Cindy Loo cartridge. Create a Critter has a similar image too, but I haven't used my Cindy Loo cartridge in a while, so I gave it some love. For my sentiment, I inked up Tag its #2 in Lemon Tart . I needed something to help me create the sun.  Even though I received that ink pad bone dry, I never did toss it. I finished it off with some twine to help give my card that "forest" feel. Thanks for looking!

Three Amigos

"My little buttercup....." Yes, that's right. This week over at CAS-ual Fridays, the challenge is to make a card inspired by a movie. Well, my husband is the movie guru, and when I told him about this challenge, he must've named 15 movies flat: Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Back to the Future... I told him, "Honey, I don't have any snakes, spaceships or time travel stamps." I decided to flip through my Graphically Speaking cartridge and wouldn't you know it, 3 Amigos is a cut out phrase *insert happy dance*. So he pulled out the DVD. After a few minutes, I decided that I would create my card based on the clothing that the 3 Amigos wore.

For my card, I created some ruffled layers out of tissue paper using my Boy Basics: Circles die. I did this to mimic their white "blouses". The pure poppy saddle stitch ribbon represents their cumberbun and "tie". I die cut the sentiment in black, attached it with foam adhesive and finished it off with some bling to represent the rest of their attire.



ColourQ redo

So, have you ever created a card that you just weren't quite happy with? Well, I decided to sit down and try this week's ColourQ Challenge over again. Here is the beautiful colorful inspiration photo:

This  was my first card, and here is my second card for the challenge. I created it based on this sketch that a bunch of my blog friends used during their Clean & Simple cardmaking class.

*Insert big sigh of relief* Sometimes we just have to start all over again. I am much more pleased with this card. Thanks for bearing with me.