Happy Easter

Yesterday while hubby was working and kids were keeping themselves entertained I decided to sit down to create some cards and finish binge-watching Northern Rescue on Netfix.

I always love creating a few cards at a time, either with the same layout/design or using the same pack of patterned paper.  As I was digging through my sketches I came across these sketches from Julee Tilman and decided to give it a whirl and have to say it's a few of my favorite cards I've made in a while and I kept them embellishment free which was hard to do for me.

I grabbed a few pieces of patterned paper from My Minds Eye Now & Then and some kraft and pink pirouette paper to compliment it.  I started off by cutting all my paper pieces and die cutting my shapes.  Broke out the new stamps that I just got from Butterfly Reflections-Avery Elle's Easter Chicks.

I apologize for my horrible picture taking abilities these days-it's pure laziness in not wanting to take out on all the photo equipment.

Hope you enjoy a little happiness today!

Special Day

With all our sports being called off for the weekend I'm getting some time in my stamp room.  Although I sat all last night creating a few special fold cards, I decided to branch off and do a challenge.  I'm usually behind in participating in them but wanted to play with this sketch this week.

This is from the Freshly Made Sketches and I used some patterned paper scraps I had laying around along.  I have been continuing with some pretty clean and simple cards but always love how they turn out.

Hope you enjoy this special card for a special person for their special day!

The World is Lucky

I came across this card that Debbie Olson designed and absolutely adored her layout and use of stamps.  I knew as soon as I saw it I wanted to recreate it, but I cheated on mine and used patterned paper instead.  I changed it up with a pop of garnet color with the flower for a more feminine look.  I wish I had the patience to sew on my card but was being super lazy.

I hope you like my take on the design and thanks for stopping by.

Stamps:  Papertrey Inks Harvest Berries

Paper:  My Minds Eye Lost & Found

Dies: My Favorite Things Botanical Beauty

Back in the Groove

Well hello, my friends who may still be following my lonely little blog.  I know it's been a while since I've posted here, but I think I've finally got my groove back.

I've been on a creating frenzy over the last 2 months or so, trying to use up some of my 30+ packs of 6 x 6 patterned paper.  I came across this fantastic blog called The Best Things in life are pink and tried my hand at one of them which I have been posting on Instagram.  I had fun and found it forced me to use paper I've had sitting around and I loved the cards that I made with them.

For this first card, I tried my hand at the Freshly Made Sketches 419, I love sketches as my starting point and go back to FMS ones all the time.  I added some 3D Crystal Lacquer on the fish although it was hard to capture on this card.

I used the Authentique Fresh patterned paper and Memory Box Fish Tales Shadow on both of my cards.  For my second card, I went back to a favorite sketch blog-MojoMonday 529 although I screwed up my measurements a bit on this one, I still like the outcome.  I also used the 3D Crystal Lacquer to make the fish bubbles.

Those who have followed me over the years know I'm pretty clean & simple style.  Sometimes I don't even use embellishments, but I'm happy with that and crafting is a stress reliever that I'm finding my way back into and loving it.

So be patient, I may not blog a lot still but I am going to make an effort to share more of what I make no matter how old the sets I use are.  I know my blog needs a major overhaul so if anyone knows someone that does this, please send me their info-I may need to get it updated soon.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

SDC283: Anything but a card

Ohhh, this week over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge we were given a difficult challenge for me-Anything BUT a card.  I don't know why I always find that challenge a doozy, and this week was no exception.

I had some ideas in mind but then I decided at the last minute to change it up.  I always love to decorate things that I can display.  I had some large wooden paperclips that I hadn't used and wanted something to display my new family photo.

I grabbed a few of my all time favorite stamps and went to work.  First, I created a background strip for the paperclip using the Honeycomb Background 8116.  I stamped the Big Bee 3008 twice, once on white cardstock which I colored with my copic markers and then again on some vellum cardstock which I cut out to create some iridescent bee wings.

I then stamped the Medium Bee 3000 and cut it out to adhere to the top as if he were flying right off my paperclip.  There was a little open space so decided a sentiment of some kind was in order.  Since there wasn't a ton of space, I created something using my Typewriter alpha 10018.

Hope you have enjoyed my creations each week as much as I enjoyed being a guest designer for Stampotique Designer's Challenge.   Jump on over and join us by thinking outside the box and creating Anything but a card.

SDC282: Only Blue, week 2

Anyone who has followed my blog knows I'm a fan of clean and simple cards.  This week was crazy and I didn't find the time to be as creative as I would've liked to, but all in all I love the way this card turned out.

Come join us this week at Stampotique Designer's Challenge for your chance to win a gift certificate.  All you have to do is use all blue.

For my card, I layered 3 different colors of blue for my base and stamped my Majestic Tree 10034 image in the same color as my base.  I added the Wishing you love and laughter 8994 sentiment in a darker blue and embellished with a few pearls.

SDC282: Only Blue

Wow!  Two weeks in a row I've gotten some stamping accomplished.  Thank you to all of you that stopped by my blog or commented on Facebook, I appreciate the visits and missed my stamping friends!

This week over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge we are going ALL BLUE.  Create using only blue colors this week.  For my card I pulled out one of my new stamps, Communitree 6225.  If you haven't ever looked at the samples that go with the stamps, I encourage you to do so-those creating them have blown me away!  I paired Communitree with the Happy Bird-day sentiment 8962.

I have to say this was probably one of the easiest ones for me as I love the color blue and tend to use this frequently with my cards.  Do you tend to use some of the same colors each time you create or do you go outside your comfort zone and spin the wheel of color sometimes?

Hope you will join us this week and show us your creations!