Blinged Out!

Challenges for Snow Card: fresh brewed designs #11, Christmas in July, Cute Card Thursday #121, Head Start on Christmas , Christmas Stampin' #57, Bling it up! and The Pink Elephant #76, BROWN color challenge

Challenge for this card: DRS Designs Sketch Challenge and Charisma Cardz #28 PINK color challenge

Challenge for this card: CARDS blog

Bling is the operative word today. Gems and glitter- 2 accessories a girl should not live without!! The Let it Snow card is probably my favorite Chrismtas card that I have designed to date! I love the browns and blues together, and the pop of orange... yummy! The snowflakes are MS snowflake punch, bobunny papers, the snowman stamp I won from a challenge site, watercolor pencils and gems are miscellaneous.

The Confident card came together this morning. I woke up to absolutely no electricity. Called PECO and was told that power would be restored at 8:20 am (of course it is 6:20am by my watch...) so, is PECO doing scheduled outages during this horrible heat wave the east coast is having? So somewhat in a dark and foggy lit room, I was able to use the remaining pieces of the Sabrina MM line and "button" as well as Kaiser bling rhinestones. It is also my second entry in the Charisma Color challenge of PINK.

The last card incorporates PINWHEELS, per the Cards Blog challenge this week. This was a card I designed for a workshop where the guests made handmade flowers for their projects. This seemed easy at the time, but actually took some nimble fingers and patience! Paper is Bobunny, stamp sentiment was gifted to me from my sister, MS leaf punch. Glitter and buttons finish off the card.

Stay cool!

Pretty in PInk

Remember John Hughes, all of his teen angst movies? Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink....the brat pack. Oh, how I miss those movies. Funny to look back upon them now and see how young the actors were and how lame the story lines are. But in the 80's, so appropriate for our generation.

I created this card in part for my oldest daughter- aged 13. The lovely teen years. Can I fast forward 5 years??? She loves to shop and is caught in between the "junior" styled clothes and the clothes that I will approve of. Not childish, but "appropriate". And if any of you are going through this, they don't mean the same thing. Boy friend shorts? Are you for real- the line from the limbo comes to mind "how low can you go".... So I have been trying to show her how to dress smartly, trendy, classy and she will end up being fabulous. The image has the same styled top that she is wearing today, with a ribbed tank under it. Still in keeping with fashion, but hiding things I am not ready for the world (code for boys) to see.

2 Sketches 4 you #56
Charisma Cardz: PINK
Just for Fun challenges: use an image and color in
Colour Q: #41, dark pink, light pink, gray, black and white

supplies: Flair clear sticker sentiment, Hannah Stamps "vogue", CTMH glitter, watercolor pencils, lace doily, Making Memories Sabrina paper line.

Vintage

Challenges: Mojo Monday sketch #147, Party Time Tuesdays #7: anything goes birthday card, Crazy Challenges "it's hip to be square", and The Play Date Cafe: #37 Provencial Theme, and CAS-tastic #12 SIMPLE (stamped image, inked edges, lace doily)

Challenges: Unscripted Sketches #63, Just Scraps "Create a Wedding Card", Stamping Sisters in Christ #47 "what brings you peace or rest?"


I have gotten into the vintage look lately. Love the papers- creams, blacks, pinks, greens and blues all together in muted designs....yummy! For me, though, finding the right embellishments was always tricky. I was able to find some old stash: prima flowers, ribbons, and pearls that I was finally able to put to use. If you were to see my table, you would be amazed that I could actually find anything! All items were set out- separate piles of goodies to sort through for each card.... add in punches, scissors, glitter and glue, buttons, 3d foam tape, stamps and doilies, more paper (see the emerging pic in your head...?) Total chaos on the table. A cluttered table leads to a cluttered mind.

Onto the cards...
The butterfly wish card was such a fun card to make! The scrunched ribbon is American Crafts that was found in the clearance aisle of Michael's. Found doilies too, which seem to be the in/out new/past fad that I finally decided to try. The papers are Websters, Lullaby Lane. Don'tcha love the vintage?

The Cherish card evokes feelings of love for me. The romantic colors, flowers, butterflies with glitter....Simple elegance. In keeping with the feeling of love, God loves me. It is a constant reminder daily that even when I fail here on earth, my heavenly Father cherishes me, gives me this beautiful gift of Encouragement to which I use heartily here (making and sending the homemade cards) and that as long as I believe in Him and follow his ways- my hiccups along the road can be turned to good for His purposes.

I am ending my entry with this thought as I have been going through some growing pains. My daily walk has suffered, my mind/table are cluttered with too much mediocre stuff, and our family's faith/relationships have been put upon the shelf lately. Time to get back to what really matters in this life. Tonight I will go to bed with the last thought that I am loved and that I am cherished.

How many cards could a cardmaker make.....

if a cardmaker could make cards? 13. Yes, that is how many I made on a rainy weekend. I was bound a determined to use up a mat stack from DCWV that I purchased sometime last year. Used the stash of flowers, brads, twine and.... some stampable linen that I purchased from CTMH about 3 years ago. Love this stuff- makes its own statement and when you pull on the threads, you can make it look like a well worn garment label.


This card was made using the sketch over at Clean and Simple Stamping #98. Though my card is clean, simple it is not. I had to add the flowers, twine, leaves and brads to finish off my card.


This card is inspired by the sketch challenge at Get Sketchy #46. The base of the card is just a patterned piece of paper from the stack, added the scraps to make the top sentiment focal piece. Chocolate grosgrain and LOTS of gems finish off this card.


Hoot loves u? I have seen so many lovely banner cards I wanted to try my own. This used the sketch from Christmas Card challenges #31, Charisma Cardz #27 Watch the birdie, and 365 cards day #131 banners, and Paper sundaes #26, lots of layers.


And finally this card is for a dear friend of mine. Haven't seen her since school let out- between the 2 of us, our 6 kids keeps us running around to camps and the pool. Not much of a mommy social life during the summer! The bird stamp is from the dollar section of Mike's! What a bargain! Used the sketch at Inspirational Card Sketches #73, Charisma CArdz watch the birdie, and Stamp Challenges recipe: 1 image, 1 Designer paper and 1 ribbon (twine).

monochromatic blues

Have you ever worked on an acetate card? This was my first try and I love how it turned out! I will do these more in the future for workshops- great technique idea!

I decided to enter the CARDS blog challenge again, monochromatic in all blues. I thought that the acetate would work perfectly with a Snowflake design, add to the cold frozen image. The stamp is from CTMH and used MS glitter to add pizazz. Blue rhinestone to finish it off. Also used lots of scraps for this card. The only part that becomes tedious is making sure to hide the glue strips, using lots of larger cardstock pieces inside the card (one to write a sentiment on and the other to finish off the front.

Also for the challenges:
Paper Sundaes#25: white plus one color
AudSentimentsChallenge: #6 no sentiment
Christmas Stamping: #56, free challenge

More Christmas in July

Yes, I have officially cleaned off my table and put away all of the Christmas papers! Whew! Finished making the workshop samples and am looking forward to making some "vintage" cards. Have to say that my mojo took a beating this week. With this heat wave of 100+ temps, making cool cards took more of an effort. But, here are some cards that I designed for some blog challenges:



This card is for CARDS blog, to make a monochromatic project, as well as for TreeHouse Stamps blog (mono). I also took the sketch over at STamping411.blog. I decided to make a blush/wine colored card- a combo that I adore for winter. My sister gave me this stamp from TAC and the idea for this card. It is one for the workshop, I think the girls will LOVE! Used the technique of paper piecing for the scarf and hat (took patience cutting pieces this small!!!) Misc papers, bobunny word paper, misc button, twine, glitter, markers and CTMH HO HO HO set for Merry Christmas.

This card uses the sketch at CPS, sketch #174. The only change I made was to move the circle embellishment to the other side of the card. For some reason, the more I looked at the sentiment on the bottom left- it just made the right side off kilter. Moving it made more sense and complete. This is also another card for the workshop. Papers are CTMH and Cosmo Cricket.

And this card, came from the Get Sketchy challenge, #45. I am one of those people that haven't gotten on board with the coloring in. I prefer sentiment stamps. I guess less thinking about coloring matching and quite frankly- there are some PHENOM copic masters out there and I just don't want to compete! Those of you that do, I bow down to the floor to you. Wow, that just takes some serious patience to master the coloring and shading! Cosmo Cricket papers, ctmh stamp set, juniper ribbon- ctmh, MS snowflake punch, markers to color.

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a lovely "cool" day!

Christmas In July

"Oh the weather outside is frightful...." Today, the temps in PA are to be 100', very hot, humid, and hazy. What a great day to spend inside crafting winter themed cards! Actually, I am doing a workshop in a few weeks with "Christmas" being the theme. So, with a table full of winter papers, I couldn't resist doing a fun mitten card! In making this I was able to meet a few challenges:

Color Throwdown: #99 Cream, Chocolate and turquoise (with a bit of green and red too!)
a lot a rubber stamps: #38 Inside and Out ...decorate the inside of your card too!
the pink elephant: #74 3 layers, 2 die cuts and ribbon
stamp for the weekend: #42 christmas in july
corrosive challenges by janet: christmas in july
crazy challenges: make it in an hour
stamping sisters in christ: #46 to red and/or blue
just scraps: #14 make it a double...to use at least 2 of something and use what is on your table
one stitch at a time: #20 use ribbon, lace or a bow (used ric rac and waxy flax)
crazy 4 challenges: use 2 or more ribbons