Saturday, June 29, 2013

Seize the Birthday #20

A sweet neighbor of mine turns 70 tomorrow.  I knew the style of card I wanted to do, but because that style is out of my comfort zone, I was struggling to get started....reminds me of every time I had to write a paper when I was in school. :) Anyway, I started to look through challenges to give me some direction, and when I saw the sketch at Seize the Birthday, I knew I could work with it.  It's a new-to-me challenge, so that made it even more fun. 
When I finished this card I just stared at it for several minutes....I was kind of amazed I put it together.  This color scheme and the floral print paper are two things I would never normally choose myself, but I think they suite my neighbor perfectly.  Actually when I was finished I wished I had made four of these cards.  My grandma, aunt, and mom (who adores pink) would all love it and the sentiment would be perfect for each of them as well.  It was fun to try something different.  Hope everyone had an enjoyable Saturday. :)

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Papertrey June Blog Hop Card 2 & Fusion Challenge #12

When I was thinking of ideas for PTI's June Blog Hop: A Touch of Gold, I knew I wanted to put gold glitter on Scor-tape, not only that, but I wanted 3 different widths.  I just wasn't sure if I wanted the lines horizontally or vertically.  Fast forward a day or two, and I saw the new fusion challenge.  I laughed right out loud when I saw the sketch.  That answered my question!
  
I was loving the way the card was turning out until I die cut the numbers.  It's exactly what I had planned to do, but once I did it, all I could think about was a football jersey (maybe because of the font or maybe because the school colors at the high school and the university I attended for my undergrad degree were this exact blue and gold).  Believe it or not, I had originally intended for this card to be feminine.  But once it looked like a jersey, I knew I had to change my idea, so I switched my color scheme up a bit and just embraced the masculinity.  And now I need to find a man turning 31 or a boy whose football number is 31 to give this card to.  Or maybe I'll give it to my dad this year and just add "+30" somewhere. :) The super positive about this card is that I re-discovered that Scor-tape is the way to go when you're using glitter (how did I ever forget?!). The coverage is awesome and the mess is minimal -- yay for the first and triple yay for the second. :) 
Supplies
Stamps: PTI (Happy Hexagons)
Ink: CTMH (Outdoor Denim)
Cardstock: PTI (Stamper's Select White). from my stash (navy blue, mint)
Other: Martha Stewart (Florentine Gold Glitter), PTI (Headline Alphabet Die, Headline Numbers Die), Scor-tape

PTI June Blog Hop & CFC106

 
Hello! :) As I was going through my supplies to find anything gold in my stash for PTI's June Blog Hop "A Touch of Gold", I randomly came across some PTI freebies that I printed out more than a year ago.  I decided that this one by Maile Belles would be perfect for adding a touch of gold to, so that's what I did.  It's a fairly simple card in design, but was slightly complicated to put together.  Glitter is just tricky.  I'll leave it at that.  Plus, I decided to use a tag because I had some gold ribbon that I thought would be perfect...well, at least I thought I had gold ribbon.  Turns out it was silver.  Ha!  So I improvised and painted some black floss gold, then dumped a bunch of gold glitter on it. I mixed my newly created gold floss in with some more black floss and that was that.  It ended up working just fine. 
In the end I thought the tag just needed something, so I pulled out PTI's Doily Details dies.  After I diecut the doily I ran it through my Xyron and glittered that up, too. To say that it hangs off the side a bit would be kind of an understatement, but I thought that would be perfect for CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: Over the Edge.  Well, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by! :) Hope you have a happy day!
 

Sunday, June 23, 2013

CASology #49, CFC106, Play Date Cafe #187

 I have a bunch of thank you cards to make, and since many of them are for gifts my son received for his birthday, I decided to just have fun with this card.  It was nice to not have to care if it was pretty or try to fit it to some one's personality/taste.  Though I love doing those things, it was fun to just be "free" on this one.  I don't think I have ever combined stamps from so many different companies and my handwriting even made it onto this one because I tried stamping "gift" three different times and nothing was working, so I just wrote it myself.  I figured why not since I already had such a mix of things going.  The sentiment is a combination of SU's Simple Birthday Thanks and TAWS' Alphabet Soup.
The little aquarium is my favorite part of the card.  The jar and sand are from PTI's Friendship Jar Summer Fillers, the grass is from PTI's Daydreamer set (with a little selective inking to make it fit), and the fish are from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Sea.  Both fish stamps actually face the same direction, so I used this technique to make a mirror image of the little fish, so he could face the other direction.  I started making this card using CASology Cue Card #49: Fish, chose my color scheme from The Play Date Cafe's Challenge #187, and finished my card with the washi tape and tag hanging just over the side for CAS-ual Friday's Over the Edge Challenge.  It's my first time playing along at CASology and The Play Date Cafe, so it was fun to branch out that way, too.  P.S. In real life, the washi tape and the "jade-ish color ink look almost exactly the same...unfortunately the ink looks more blue in the photos...yeah, that's what happens when I take photos at midnight.
 

Thursday, June 20, 2013

TAWS BE Inspired Challenge #30

Hi!  This has to be a really short post today.  I'd all but finished a post last night, but it mysteriously disappeared. Ugh.  I made this card for the current TAWS Challenge.  When I received my new TAWS sets (Thanks Arielle and Ali!), one of the tree tops in "Trees Company" looked so much like an ice cream cone that at the very last minute I decided to make a card for the challenge...my dishes will forgive me later.  All the stamped images (even the texture on the cone...that's the nest in the set) were from images in "Trees Company", with the exception of the cherry stem and the sentiment, which I made with "Alphabet Soup".  I needed one more graduation card, and I figured "sweet success" was fitting for both the occasion and the ice cream theme. :) Oh, and I followed the same technique that the incredible Maile Belles used in this card to cut/score around the image (only I didn't impress it with a die first).  I've been wanting to try this out for a while, and I'm so glad I finally did.  I love the result.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

CFC104: Banners & Flags

Here to share a card I made for this week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays to use banners and flags.  I made it with my husband in mind, though I did use two of my favorite colors.  This card is a bit overdue.  While I was out of town visiting my family in April, my husband did tons of projects around the house, two of the biggest being painting our entire kitchen and painting our bathroom and installing beadboard.  Both look awesome, and I know they were a ton of work, so I wanted to make something to thank him...with the emphasis being on the "fabulous" because he is.  This is another sentiment from  "All About You" by The Alley Way Stamps.  I know, I've used it a ton lately along with this paper from My Mind's Eye.  However, it's kind of nice to make a few things using the same supplies...it keeps things cleaner around here, which I like.

MIM #119 & CQC192

I made this card several days ago and totally forgot to post it.  Oops!  As soon as I saw this week's Make it Monday to create a flagged border I knew I wanted to participate.  I've always loved when Dawn does this on her cards and this was the perfect excuse to finally try it myself.  And when I saw this week's ColourQ Challenge  I completely fell in love, so I had to use them, too.  It's funny because it wasn't until I started typing this that I realized that these colors are prominent both in my home and my wardrobe.  It's no wonder I was drawn to them. :) Oh, and I promise when I picked out the papers on my card they really did match the colors in the challenge...not sure why they don't look like that now, especially the green, which is looking more yellow.  Regardless, I'm still glad with how it all turned out.  I love when challenges encourage me to do something I probably wouldn't have done on my own.  Thanks for stopping by. :)
Supplies
Stamps: PTI (Movers & Shakers Sentiments)
Paper: DCWV (Citrus Stack), MME (Breeze, Merry), PTI (soft stone, stamper's select white), SU (soft sky), Recollections (Mosaic Memories)
Ink: SU (baja breeze)
Other: PTI (Fillable Frames #4 die, Tag Sale #5 die), SU (scallop border punch) 


Thursday, June 6, 2013

TAWS Be Inspired #29

After making several cards and tossing them, I decided I needed some direction.  Sometimes I save the icons of current challenges on my desktop, and when I saw the TAWS Be Inspired Challenge #29 photo I wanted to give it another go.  I sort of love/hate glitter, but aside from the colors, the sprinkles are what caught my eye the most in the photo, so I broke down and got the glitter out.  I love what it adds to the card, but all the flecks of glitter I keep brushing off of everything remind me of why I don't use it often.  Regardless of the glitter mess, this card screams summer to me and that makes me happy.  I can't get enough of the sun these days.  I love this sentiment, too.  So happy.  Hope you enjoy your day. :)
Supplies
Stamps: TAWS (All About You)
Ink: SU (Brilliant Blue)
Paper: DCWV (Citrus Stack), Making Memories (Red Wagon Polka Dot), PTI (Stamper's Select White)
Other: CTMH (hemp), Michaels (button, glitter), PTI (Fabulous Frames Dies, Seeing Stars Dies, Linen & Canvas Impression Plate)

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

CTS#30 Take 2

I made one more card for (CAS)E This Sketch #30.  It's a graduation card for one of my neighbor's. The colors aren't as happy as I normally like to do, but they are the colors of the university the recipient will be attending, so there was a purpose.  And again, this is a little more liberal interpretation of the sketch.  I would have gone more literal in interpretation, but did you look at the DT's cards?  It doesn't get any better than that, and each time I tried, I realized I really was just wanting to CASE one of their cards, not create my own based on the sketch.  Hopefully I'm not so far off that you can't recognize the sketch, though. :) I really just flipped the sketch horizontally.  The road is the broad strip down the middle and the signs represent the little flags in the sketch.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps: My Cute Stamps (Eek! A Monster!), PTI (Enjoy the Ride, Heart-2-Heart #7, Mat Stack 3 Collection)
Ink: Memento (tuxedo black), PTI (kraft), SU (real red)
Cardstock: PTI (soft stone, stamper's select white, true black)
Other: PTI (Enjoy the Ride die), gray colored pencil

(CAS)E This Sketch #30

Hi!  Just popping in to show a quick, simple card I made for CTS#30
 
Okay, stay with me for a second.  Does this look like the sketch at first glance?  Not exactly, but I scribbled the sketch down, worked on something else, and when I came back to it, the sketch was upside down and my scribbled flags looked more like cat's heads than flags.  I also saw a scrap from some scallops I had cut a couple days ago and it looked liked waves.  So I decided to stick with animals popping up instead of flags hanging down.  And this card is going to a little niece who loves water and starts swim lessons this week, so I figured it was only fitting.
Supplies
Stamps: Lawn Fawn (Critters in the Sea)
Ink: Memento (Tuxedo Black), SU (yoyo yellow)
Paper: Making Memories (honeydew, mango, and waterslide polka dot), PTI (aqua mist)
Other: PTI (large scallop die), embroidery floss, craft foam (I used this to make a little rectangular stamp to highlight the word "hello")