12 Kits of Occasions - It's a Guy Thing

Good morning!  You may have noticed it has been extra quiet around here lately.  My mom had a pretty bad fall and broke her knee a few weeks ago, so I've been helping take care of her. We also had a family trip planned, and unfortunately with my mom's unexpected injury, I wasn't able to use this month's kit before we had to leave town.  Michele (whom I just love) put together a fun and fabulous kit for the men and boys in our lives. Make sure you head over to The 12 Kits of Occasions Blog to see how my fabulous teammates have used this awesome kit.

Where Creativity Meets C9 Sneak Peek

Hello, friends!  It's been a week...but one to make you grateful because things could be so much worse.  On a really happy note, I've just posted a card on the Where Creativity Meets C9 blog with a new-to-me set that I'm loving.  I'd love if you'd check it out. ;)

Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge #10

Good morning!  It's time for another Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge.  Yay! I look forward to these challenges every month, but I have to admit that this particular one really highlighted the "challenge" part for me.  Our theme for Challenge #10 is Layered. 

If you've been around here for any length of time, you'll know my comfort zone is clean and simple...un-layered if you will, as one layer or nearly one layer cards are my favorite.  Luckily we try to keep things pretty open for these challenges, so I encourage you to think out of the box!  Some of my teammates layered stamping images, some did more mixed-media layering, and me...I layered flowers.  I explored many other layered ideas, but when it came down to it, I knew I had to choose something that still reflected "me". 

This card has lots more layers of dimension than mine typically have.  And guess what?  I kinda love it.  With the flowers popping out it feels like I am sending a bouquet and that makes me so happy. To make it, I stamped a bunch of floral images from Concord & 9th's Wildflower Stamp Set in lots of different colors, fussy cut them out, and then just played with colors and arrangement popping them up at varying heights with dimensional adhesive.  I love the colors I settled on: Raspberry Fizz (PTI), Blueprint (Distress Ink), Lucky (SSS), and Mint Melody (SU!).  In attempt to create more layers, I die cut frames and card bases in a few different colors and mixed and matched until I found a combination I liked. My sentiment is from the new Globe Greetings. (LOOOVE this set!)  I finished my card off with a few enamel dots and teeny tiny black pearls to help balance out the black sentiment and add a few more "layers".

I made a fun discovery, too, while stamping.  I wanted larger leaves for my flowers, so I turned one of the flowers in the Wildflower Stamp Set into leaves.  I've done this before, but this time, I figured out how to give it veins, which makes it even better! 

There is an image that I assumed was to make berry sprigs, but it happens to be the perfect size to fit inside the flower petals.  I wouldn't put it past the geniuses behind Concord and 9th (Greg and Angie) to have had this in mind already, but it was pretty exciting to me when I made this happy discovery. :) 

  

When I started this card I wasn't exactly sure who it was going to, and when I chose the sentiment I was filled with such gratitude thinking of the many, many people in my life who indeed tdo make the word (my world especially) a better place.  I love that cardmaking so often turns my thoughts to gratitude!

Thanks so much for joining me today!  Whether it is in your comfort zone or not, I sure hope you will join us for Where Creativity Meets C9's Challenge #10.  My teammates have done a fabulous job with their cards and are definitely worth checking out.  Have a happy day, my friends! 

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A Friend...

Hello!  My friend (and super talented cardmaker) Michele is the guest designer for Time Out Challenge #84, so I just had to make time to play along. An added bonus was that the theme of the challenge is "flowers and friends make life a garden" and I just purchased The Stamp Market's Watercolor Bouquet Stamps and was eager to use them.  And let me just tell you, I am absolutely in LOVE with this set.  I only had a few minutes to make this card, and it came together so quickly with these beautiful stamps.  I used a sentiment from Papertrey's Choose Joy set, another favorite of mine.  I thought it was pretty perfect for the challenge, too.  

I'm happily linking this up to the Simon Says: Anything Goes Challenge as well.  

We had a beautifully rainy day, which means my garden is happy, and therefore I am happy, too.  I hope you week is off to a great start! :) 

Celebrate Card Set

Hello!  I hope you've been having a wonderful weekend.  It's been beautiful here, and although I've spent lots of time outside, I did carve out a little time over the last few days to create a coordinating card pair for Papertrey's Make It Monday #286 and the Simon Says: Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge.

My sister is a teacher and she and her two daughters will be celebrating the last day of school in a couple weeks, so I used them as my inspiration, choosing colors and stamps I knew they'd love.  PTI's Irresistibly Ikat is a stamp set I have admired for years, but somehow always got passed up for something newer.  A few weeks ago I saw it for sale at a killer price and snatched it right up.  And I'm so glad I did!  I paired that with "celebrate" from PTI's Good Times die set and Wet Paint III for my card set. 

For my first card I stamped a background using just one stamp from PTI's Irresistibly Ikat Set.  I didn't want to cover it up much, so I die cut one of PTI's Stitched Circles Dies in vellum to ground my sentiment.

My second card is even simpler.  I used several stamps in the Irresistibly Ikat set and created a medallion of sorts using the same inks as before.  This sentiment comes from PTI's Wet Paint III as well.  This card came together really quickly, and I love that although they coordinate, each card is very different.  So here is my official entry for PTI's Coordinating Card Pair Challenge:

However, as I was cleaning up my stamped practice sheet and scraps, I realized I could probably make another card, so I did. This was the bonus card I made. .

And here they are together.  :)

I loved playing along with these challenges.  It's always fun to get lots of good use out of your supplies. Thanks for stopping by today!  

Tag You're It June Guest Designer

Good morning!  I'm thrilled to be able to share that I get to be the Featured Artist this month for the Tag You're It Challenge.  Sometimes (especially when I'm in a rut) a card canvas feels so huge, but a tag...a tag is doable and enjoyable. :) I was all geared up to do a fun masculine tag for Father's Day, but then the idea for this tag popped into my head, and I just couldn't shake it.  So I put away all the supplies I had out and completely switched gears.

And I was SO excited about how it turned out!  Here's a little about how I made it: I blended Simon Says Stamp Audrey Blue ink on a square paper.  Then I die cut the frame from PTI's Don't Forget to Write kit three times to add some dimension.  I pieced together two cuts from PTI's Garden Gild Cover plate to create the white floral layer and sandwiched it between two of the frames. Finally, I cut two layers of Simon Says Stamp's Painted Enjoy die in brush gold cardstock for the sentiment.

I do hope my tag inspires you to play along this month.  I'm so excited to see what the Tag You're It Designers created with it and look forward to seeing what you make, too!  Make sure to head to the Tag You're It Challenge Blog to see their tags and to join the fun. :)