Sunny & Whimsy

2S4Y

Finally, I'm back to the blogosphere!  Ten days of sinus headaches are not fun.  Today was such a gorgeous day with 70 degrees and sunshine.  So what better way to end it, but with a very bright and sunny card.  I know I may be under-performing now after my bouquet easel card.  I would like to thank everyone who left such wonderful comments.  I will strive not to disappoint and I hope that even the so-so inspires.

Tonight's card was inspired by a pinwheel I found in my wrapping paper.  I thought it would be really fun and whimsical addition to a card.  I found this tutorial online:  http://rubberstamping.about.com/od/projects/ss/Pinwheel.htm.  It's very simple and can be scaled down to smaller sizes. I was going to use a straw for the pinwheel handle, but it seemed too flimsy.  I had some unused kabob skewers, shortened one and wrapped in white ribbon.  The only thing I was really not happy with was how the sentiment turned out.  I wanted to stick with the color combo and black just seemed to stark.  Oh well.  Something that will be mulled over as I sleep tonight I'm sure.   Topping it off was The Play Date Cafe color challenge this week along with the 2Sketches4You sketch.

Stamps:  Circle graphs, Inkadinkadoo.  Sentiment, stash.
Paper:  Pollen, Bazzill; White cardstock.  DP from stash.
Ink:  Bright Yellow
Extras:  Yellow brad, yellow flower, yellow gingham ribbon, white ribbon, dark yellow decorative ribbon.



Sunny Thoughts to All!


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Birthday Bouquet-Easel Card

 

Photo Inspiration

Color Throwdown #81

  

 

  

This has to be my favorite card I have made!  I had so much fun putting it together and the easel card wound up being easier than I thought.  A special card for a very special birthday this year for my sis-in-law (brother's wife). The photo inspiration is the bouquet that I carried in their wedding almost 16 years ago.  It has made a beautiful flower arrangement in my guest room since then.  Trying a new technique is sometimes out of my comfort zone, but when my other sis-in-law, Twinklestamper, posted a tutorial on her blog for easel cards, I decided to try one.  I hope this becomes more than just a card and that my sis-in-law may enjoy keeping it up in her office.  ColorThrowdown #81 challenge this week had the perfect colors that matched the silk flowers and beaded leaves that I had found at a local fabric store in the wedding supplies aisle.  

Stamps:  Birthday sentiment.

Paper:  Olive and brown cardstock; DP- Ivory Floral by The Gift Line and Paper Adventures;  Pink DP -Anna Griffin, Inc.

Ink:  Coffee Bean

Extras:  Silk flowers, beaded leaves, doilie, pink ribbon, pink flower button, heart corner punch, scallop border punch, pink and olive gem stickies.

Good evening!

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Bunny Layers

  

  

  

Sweet Sunday Sketch #57

  

ColorQ #21

It was a very cold day today, the wind brought temps down in the 20s.  A far cry from 62 this past Sunday!  So, what's a gal to do when it's cold and dreary outside?.......Stamp!  As I said in my last post, I have a long list of projects so I'm on my second post for today.  ColorQ's challenge this week is very springy and festive i think.  It gave me a chance to use my Bella digital stamp from M&M Designz.  She is so adorable.  She reminds me of a stuffed bunny my oldest son received before he was born 18 years ago.  The eggs around her feet were my own touch. Along with the ColorQ challenge, I tried out the sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch.  A great way to use all of those colors. 

Stamp:  Bella from M&M Designz.

Paper:  DP from stash.

Ink: None, water color pencils.

Extras:  lime green and raspberry gem stickies, ribbon, egg punches.

Cheeri-O!

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Here's The Scoop -Happy Birthday!

 

  

Embellish Magazine

My Sketch World Sketchathon - Feb 8th Sketch

Well, I have to say, I have been busy this week churning out the cards. The next couple months are chocked full of family birthdays not to mention the holidays coming up.  I also volunteered to make two packs of greeting cards and several matted photos for a church auction to raise money for our youths' summer trips. 

I have two posts for today, two cards, four challenges.  This first one is another birthday card and as you can tell by the looks of it, it's not for my son.  It's for my teen niece whose birthday is in April.  I saw the color/birthday challenge over at Embellish Magazine and thought of her immediately.   I also have been stocking up on the sketches from My Sketch World Sketchathon and this is Sketch 8.  I had an icecream cone stamp that I was originally going to use, but it wound up being inspiration for these paper pieced ones instead.  I think they add more punch to the card than the stamp would have.  I do have a suggestion to put out there in the cardmaking/scrapbooking/papercrafting world......Someone make a TRIANGLE punch!  Why are there no triangle punches?  I used an old scrapbook stencil of a pennant to cut out the cones.  I guess I could have also used my star die cuts from Sizzix too.  Yet, I think we all need a triangle punch.

It may be back to winter temps today here in the Triangle, but I'm in the mood for icecream, either chocolate raspberry or Moosetracks!

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Jammin Bro!

 

  

Here's my interpretation of this week's Get Sketchy Challenge #26.  The digital stamp is from The Greeting Farm.  I think he made a great choice.  I was playing around with ideas for this and a way to use my new Nestabilities, the peony.  On their own, they remind me of ink blots.  Freud would be so proud!  hahaha  

Ever begin a card not fully knowing what you want to do and then everything just starts falling in place?  Well, when I cut the red blot (peony) it looked so blah, so I used a mosaic emboss folder on it.  Once I placed it behind the image, I had visions of a grungy, graffiti riddled brick wall.  Not sure what Freud would say about that.  From there the card took on a life of its own. And here it is!

Happy Hump Day!  

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Flower Power

 

  

  

 

I just can't stop trying out those bright and colorful challenges.  Another one, this time for Color Dare  #56 and CPS Challenge #155.  This is my first card for Color Dare and I believe I missed the deadline, but I will submit it anyway.  It's always nice to have new visitors to the blog!  I had that big beautiful aqua blue flower so I knew it would be the inspiration for this card.  I plucked off the yellow center and added the raspberry button instead.

Happy Lent!

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Eggstra Cheery

 

  

  

SPCC

PPA30-KISS (Keep it Simple, Sweetie)

 

I am so loving playing around with all of these bright and cheery colors lately!  SPCC had another springy color combo this week and after winning last week, I decided I had to try again.  However, all of these colorful challenges is revealing that I am a bit DP challenged at the moment as far as springy and cheery patterns go.  Yet, I just pulled out my cardstock and embellished!  And, thus, I kept it simple in line with PPA's KISS challenge this week as well.

And, if you notice, I figured out my problem with adding links to the challenge images.  It's a tad bit complicated as I have to go back and forth from Mozilla to Opera.  I guess whatever works for now. 

Have a Cheery Monday!

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Spring Chick

 

 

ColourQ #20  

Today was a gorgeous, sunny and warm day, in the 60s!  It definitely got me in the mood for spring.  My 'spring chick' was inspired by hopes of urging spring to come soon and by the beautiful colors from the color challenge at ColourQ this week.  Love those bright colors!

Again, I must apologize that I'm working on a less than optimal computer and so I cannot link the pictures up to its owner's blog. So, for now, a word link will have to suffice along with the image.

Stamps:  Spring.

Paper:  DP and cardstock from stash.

Ink:  Versamark with turquoise embossing powder.

Extras:  Turquoise flower buttons, red embroidery thread, chick die, red and white rickrack ribbon, yellow gingham ribbon.

Cheers to Sunny Days!  

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Celebrate 18

  

  

A very special card today.  My first born turns 18 on Friday!  Much to my dismay, he is no longer a little boy and even more to my dismay, all he wants for his birthday is a tattoo!  Thankfully, nothing big or horrifying, just a small soccer ball.  And, at least he agreed to have his dad go with him and to a very reputable place that looks more like a spa than a tattoo parlor and is owned by a female RN .  He did agreed to those terms,(mostly because we are paying for half of it), but truly he is a very good son and he deserves a very special card.

With that in mind, Kaboodle was sponsoring a challenge this week to use spots and stripes, which I thought would make a nice teen boy card.  Yet, again there are very few masculine stamps, digital or otherwise, out there for an 18 yr old boy. I did stumble upon one place that had  almost a dozen digital stamps for young men, Bird's Cards.  Her drawings are fairly simple and I've used two of them now.  I did however, on this one, add a clipart soccer ball where she had drawn a plain ball.  I also liked the CPS sketch and had planned on making this card before the deadline yesterday, but I spent the day at the soccer park instead. Yet, I decided to go ahead and still use the sketch since I had my idea all planned around it, so a shout out to CPS for Sketch #154.

Stamps:  Football player, Bird's Cards. Candle and balloon stamp.

Paper:  DP- Champ (polka dot), Lil' Man (striped) from American Crafts.  Buckskin Brown suede - The Paper Co., Peacock Blue textured DP. White and brown cardstock.

Ink:  StazOn Timber Brown

Extras:  Silver brads.

  Happy Sunday! 

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Stylish Birthday

 

  Get Sketchy #25 

I've had a lucky week as far as card making goes.  First, a Top Five at Get Sketchy last week and then I won the challenge over at SPCC!  I knew I stayed up all night for a reason!  haha  I wish my all nighter had been that enjoyable.  As it turned out, my laptop died and I was desparately trying to revive it.  So I'm still sharing our old desktop that is driving me crazy.  I must apologize for the picture links on my last few posts not working.  It is a glitch in the computer and Firefox and Explorer don't work well on it.  And then, Blogger doesn't operate well in Opera!  I just hate it when things don't work like they should.  Hopefully, if I can get my laptop restored this weekend, I'll have my 'computing' groove back.

Now, on to my card.  This card is for this week's Get Sketchy Challenge #25 and the Color Chef Challenge #39.  I loved the color combo of cream, kraft and black.  It makes anything look so elegant!  I must confess I had a little trouble with this card.  I really thought it was going to be quick and snappy, but it turned out to be a tad surgical!  The decorative designs are rub-ons.  I've used rub-ons before.  I used to love them as a child.  I was being very meticulous and careful and still a tiny part somehow turned missing.  So, I got my trusty black pen out and performed some card surgery.  It's also good that the rub ons came with all that bling, I could use one as a bandaid.  I tried to keep the rest of the card clean and sleek after all that bling was applied.

Stamps: Celebrate sentiment.

Paper:  Kraft, Cream and Black cardstock

Ink:  Staz On Black

Extras:  Black ribbon and clear gem stickies.  

Hope your night is filled with Bling!

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I Love You

SPCC #34

Sketch Saturday #90

Happy Post-Valentine's Day!  I was sooo busy yesterday that I didn't get around to posting or anything on the computer.  I have a few more Valentines to post so hopefully everyone isn't all 'loved' out!  Besides, any day is a day for love, right?  I combined challenges again as I was just not in a major creative mood.  

Stamps:  Morty the Moose from Sewn Together at Digital-Inkco.  He is just too cute!  Other:  Valentine sentiment.

Paper:  From stash.

Extras:  Rope string, brads.  I used the Spellbinders Labels Nestabilities for the back layer of the turquoise frame around Morty.  Then I placed a scalloped oval frame on top of that with Morty as an oval picture to give it more dimension.

Love & Hugs!

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Tic-Tac-Love

 

  

Embellish Magazine Color Challenge with Ribbon

 

Get Sketchy #24

 Happy  Thursday!  Here I am with another post this week.  I cannot believe I've actually completed some projects on time and even early!  However, it could just be the calm before the storm that is probably going to erupt later this week.  My laptop died last night and it looks like there's no reviving it.  So I am having to get used to our desktop again.  Funny how you get so used to a certain computer that when you have to switch it makes you feel all discombobulated.  And at least it has happened when we are about to purchase a laptop for my son as an 18th birthday/graduation gift, which means I won't have to learn to share for too long!  hahaha  

So on to business.  Hugs and kisses to Embellish Magazine for a really great color challenge and to Get Sketchy for Sketch #24, a cute and inspiring sketch this week!  They both helped me bring together my idea of XXs and OOs (hugs and kisses) and tic tac toe.  The idea began with the XO stamp I got, which I used to stamp the background of some light pink cardstock.  I continued that on the tic tac toe board.  Originally I was going to put Xs in the blank spaces of the tic tac toe board, but it just looked too crowded and stamping them looked too cheesy.  So I stuck with hearts, placing decorative circle stickers on three for 'three in a row'.

Stamps:  XO by Craftsmart; 'hugs & kisses' by Inkadinkadoo

Paper:  Carob, Artisan pool; light pink, teal, and brown cardstock, and DP from stash.

Ink:  Timber Brown by Stazon, pink by Ink It Up!

Extras: Sizzix heart die; scallop heart punch, circle stickers gems, flower, heart brad, teal patterned material (center heart), teal ribbon, XO ribbon, brown ribbon, light pink ribbon.

This was another fun card to make with all of the embellishments and ribbon.  I love ribbon so when any challenge adds ribbon as one of the requirements, you can be rest assured that I'll be using as much of it as I can!  

XXX OOO

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One of a Kind

 

  

 Tonight is a birthday card for The Play Date Cafe challenge this week.  I haven't participated in one of their challenges yet, only because I just haven't had the time, until now.  I love the color combos they come up with for their challenges and this one is a nice one for a masculine card.   I did something very simple.

Stamps:  Birthday Sentiment

Paper:  A chocolate brown, Bazziill's Navajo, Basketball textured paper from The Paper Company, and royal blue.

Ink:  StazOn Timber Brown

Extras:  Blue and turquoise brads, brown biased tape for the ribbon. 

Smiles!  ♥♥

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