Hello

 Happy Thursday!  The weekend is thisclose to being here.  YEAH!!!

We had some rain this week so evening sports were canceled and I was able to sneak in some stamping.  Hoping this long holiday weekend I'll be able to get some time in doing some more as well so I'll have lots to share.

I grabbed a color and sketch challenge and made a quick set of 4 cards.  I love it when then the creation comes together so easily.  This week's Color Throwdown was not a color combo I'd reach for so it was working outside the box for me on this one, but like how it turned out.  I kept it very simple with the new Freshly Made Sketches for this week as well.

I used a set that is new to me from Papertrey Ink called Wonderful Words: Hello. I've used it a few times already-loving the die with the sentiments.  I grabbed some strips of cardstock and next time I use this sketch I think I'd throw in a patterned paper strip or maybe emboss them to add some texture.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a safe holiday weekend!

Card details:

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink-Wonderful Words: Hello & Die

Inks:  Gina K. Designs amalgam ink obsidian, Distress Oxide Pickled Raspberry

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up Basic Black, Calypso Coral, Rich Razzleberry, Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz & Rustic White

Eucalyptus Card Set

 

This weekend was a struggle trying to create cards-I couldn't seem to get in a groove, but I managed to create a few CAS ones.

My first was a small set of cards using the Layered Eucalyptus set from Gina K. and Timeless Tropical set from Stampin' Up! for the sentiment.

I utilized the FMS479 sketch which I rotated to fit my image.

Card details:

Stamp Sets:  Layered Eucalyptus from Gina K. Stamps, Timeless Tropical from Stampin' Up!

Cardstock: Basic Black, Teresa Collins Far & Away,  PTI Rustic White, Burgundy unknown

Inks: Simon Says Stamp

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

BC404: Cheers to You

Today's blogger's challenge theme is "Cheers to You".  This was a card I created with good friends in mind-so cheers to those that are always there for us and are amazing!

I really enjoyed using this layout which is from Retro Sketches #149 although once I decided to use my sentiment as the focal point I was at a loss with all that space in the bottom right side so added in some washi tape.  I used a Design Seeds color combination for this adding in the touch of green.

I am also entering this into the Seize the Birthday Challenge this week which is Anything Goes.

Hope you like it and join us for Blogger's Challenge this week.

*************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Simple Sunflower by Papertrey Ink, Birthday Messages from Simon Says Stamp

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Teresa Collins Far & Away

Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Summer Sun, Wild Wasabi

Embellishments: Stampin' Up pearls, washi tape

Thankful for

Another set of cards utilizing some of my patterned paper stash and the Operation Write Home sketch #186.  I've really tried to keep my cards minimal as I'm hoping to give them as gifts.

This uses the Kaiser Craft Peachy Keen papers.

********************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Birthday Messages by Simon Says Stamp!, Building Blocks by Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: Whisper White, Kaiser Craft Peachy Keen, Chocolate Chip

Inks: Chocolate Chip

Embellishments: twine

29 Again?

I love this paper!  The leaves have a wonderful felt feeling to them and of course this is one of my favorite colors.

I know you all will be tired of all my 6 x 6 paper posts, but I'm so happy to be putting them to use-now to just remember to send the cards out or put together some little gifts for the holidays.

Keeping in theme, using another Operation Write Home Sketch #173.  I made the circle flowers out of some of the patterned paper scraps I had.

Enjoy the cards!

*****************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Birthday Sampler and P.S. Chit Chat from Paper Smooches, Circle Scribbles by Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Kaiser Craft Peachy Keen

Inks: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze

Embellishments: circle punches, pearl jewels

Life is a Story.

On my quest to use up some of my 6 x 6 here is another pair of cards I created using the Operation Write Home sketch #148 from 2012.

I find these sketches to be some of my favorites as we I love that they have the measurements along with the sketch.

I've done a pretty good job the last few weekends at creating a mass of cards, this weekend I managed to create 16 cards, sometimes I make 4 of the same cards and sometimes only 2-but I am using up my 6 x 6 paper pads.

Hope you enjoy the variety of cards and have a wonderful Monday!

*********************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Building Blocks by Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black

Embellishments: Circle punch, twine

Fly Away Birthdays!

The past 2 weeks I've been working at making some cards for my stash and for gifts using up some of my 6 x 6 card stock pads-I have a lot of them and need to start using more of them.

So with 2 pads of paper in mind I went to work one day cutting out several dozens of pieces to assemble cards and whenever I've had free time I've been sitting down to stamp/assemble about 4 of them at a time.

For these 2 cards I used the My Mind's Eye Kraft Funday Happy Days paper pack and the Operation Write Home sketch #211.  In retrospect I wish I would have used a bolder color for my circle but wanted it to stand out against then number background.

I die cut my butterfly twice, one with patterned paper and once with vellum.  I then wrapped the body with some twine and tied it off creating some antennae.

This card also ties into the Diva Dare for Day 3 that Charmaine is hosting to use vellum.

I kept my cards pretty clean & simple, very little embellishments-will be sharing a lot of them over the next few weeks, think I made roughly 40 of them using 2 pads of paper (and not even the whole pad).

***************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Treasured Words by Verve Stamps

Cardstock: My Mind's Eye Kraft Funday Happy Days, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, vellum cardstock

Inks: Night of Navy

Embellishments: twine, die from Papertrey Ink, spellbinders circle dies

Birthday Sunflowers

I've been trying to get back into my creative mode and this past weekend was pretty successful.  I stamped and worked a little on my Project Life album.

I thought I'd be tired of sunflowers after doing the wedding invitations and then the wedding itself, but no-it's the first one I pulled out to work with when I was stamping.  Of course I went straight for my sketches as well :-)

For this card I used the current Retro Sketches challenge.

Hope to see you all around here more frequently!

****************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Simply Sunflower from Papertrey Ink and Poppy Birthday from Verve Stamps

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Confetti White, The Pier by Crate Paper

Inks: So Saffron, Close to Cocoa and Wild Wasabi, Archival

Embellishments: Notebook punch, Memory Box jewel stickers

Wedding Invites

Well, the wedding is over and I'm writing this up before we attended but I'm going to say we had a blast :-)

I've been quite quiet on the blog for many reasons.  First of all my full time job change last year has me on the go a lot more and when I'm home I rarely am hanging out in my office anymore (which is also my stamp studio).  I need to change that as I'm missing my crafting a bit.

The other reason is I was creating 100+ wedding invitations for my brother-in-law and new sister-in-law.  They are having a rustic wedding and we went through a few trial ones before settling on a final...and can you believe I didn't have one for myself?

It's sunflower themed and the first pic is what our final one was, with the ribbon being colored a bit better.  It was a long tedious process with lots of tweaking along the way.  It may be the first and last time I do invitations like this (who am I kidding, I'm sure I'll be doing something similar for graduation in a few years).

The final invitation and reply card above.

The beginning of die cutting and stamping 100+ sunflowers.

Assembly line set up going on.

Sewing the ribbon on-my Janome got a work out.

Stacks of 20 to keep count of how many I did...and you see I even distressed all 4 sides-thank God for my little handy Zutter tool!

Creation of invites complete and now addressing invites and labeling.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the creation of the invitations!

Patterned Paper Trio

I feel like a bit of a dingy as I had pre-set some of my blog posts, but failed to add in my creations.  I appreciate all of you who stopped by to let me know there was nothing there-so this post will encompass all of those in one.

These sets of cards I created for a friend for some raffle baskets she's doing.

Card details:

Stamps: Birthday Messages from Simon Says Stamp and Harvest Berries from PaperTrey Ink

Cardstock: Basic Black, Rustic White, Fancy Pants Memories Captured

Inks: Archival Jet Black, watercolor paints

Embellishments: Sakura Clear Glitter pen, stapler, Flag-It die set from Verve Stamps

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #210

Card details:

Stamps: Chit Chat from Paper Smooches and Blessing from Verve Stamps

Cardstock: Fancy Pants Memories Captured, Basic Black, Rustic White

Inks: Archival Ink Jet Black, So Saffron, Pear Pizzaz

Embellishments: Aquapainter

A Random Thursday sketch challenge.

Card details:

Stamps: Everyday Greetings from Mama Elephant and Poppy Birthday from Verve Stamps

Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Rustic White, Fancy Pants Memories Captured

Embellishments: My Mind's Eye Find Your Wings & Fly Up & Away Enamel Dots

Happy Birthday!

Another set using up my patterned paper stash.

Card details:
Stamps: Birthday Messages from Simon Says Stamp and Harvest Berries from PaperTrey Ink
Cardstock: Basic Black, Rustic White, Fancy Pants Memories Captured
Inks: Archival Jet Black, watercolor paints
Embellishments: Sakura Clear Glitter pen, stapler, Flag-It die set from Verve Stamps

Sending you Smiles

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog-I have been swamped at work and haven't even gotten a chance to get through my normal blog hopping.

A few weekends ago I created some cards for a friend who is doing the 3Day.  She's my wonderful neighbor Deena who is walking in her 12th 3Day event.  12 of them people!  Not only does she walk, she also works the events.

This year she's walking in Seattle and working the one in Atlanta.  She's putting together some baskets for a raffle and I offered to make her some sets of cards to include in the baskets.

This is one of the cards I created for one of the baskets, I'll be sharing quite a few with you over the next few weeks.

If you are so inclined to donate, Deena's 3Day page can be found here-even a little will help her to meet her goal of raising $2300.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Monday!

**********************************************

Sunday Sketch from Studio Calico

Card details:

Stamps: Simple Sunflower from PaperTrey Ink

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Rustic White, Fancy Pants Memories Captured

Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa, So Saffron, Pear Pizzaz

Embellishments: Circle punch

Follow your dreams

I've been creating some pretty CAS cards with my patterned papers and was working my way down the Building Blocks Sketch Challenge since I had gotten some new PTI sets.

I love these sketches as they are easy and allow me to combine different elements.  I used sketch #3 for my card.  

This card I kept very clean, no embellishments.

**********************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Building Blocks by Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: Whisper White, Cut & Paste "Flair" by My Mind's Eye

Inks: Basic Gray, Marina Mist

Happy Birthday Sunflower

This card just brightens me up and makes me think of warmer weather.

I've needed to create some birthday cards for my stash, but this card went in the mail almost immediately after I made it for a stamping friend.

Again, some new stamps I had added to my stash that I never got around to using.  Finally had some time to play with them and loving both sets.

Hope you are having a great start to the week!

***************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Simple Sunflower from Papertrey Ink and Poppy Birthday from Verve Stamps

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Cool Carribean

Inks: Cool Carribean, So Saffron and Chocolate Chip

BC360: Think Spring

Today over at Blogger's Challenge our theme is "Think Spring".

I love flowers, and so my stash of stamps is full of floral stamps and this always reminds me of the spring and the blooms we begin to see.

I used the Tuesday Morning Sketch for this card.

This is a new set to my stash from Papertrey Ink called Harvest Berries.  I love the look of these and can see myself using this a lot...oh wait, I did use it for my LAST blogger's challenge :-)

Hope you enjoy the weekend and find some time to join us at Blogger's Challenge.

****************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Harvest Berries from Papertrey Ink and Poppy Birthday from Verve Stamps

Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz, Glitz Unchartered Waters

Inks: Night of Navy, Pink Passion

Berry Happy

I don't know about other blogger's but I tend to save ideas I have come across that I like.

This card was CASE'd off one I saw from Susan Raihala from 2012.  I loved the simplicity of it but the added WOW of the embossing and pearls.  Again, I went with a new favorite (how I went so long without this set I'm not sure)-Harvest Berries.

While I changed mine up just a tad, here is her original card I liked.  Thanks for the inspiration Susan.

******************************

Card details:

Stamps: Harvest Berries and Text Style Builder Blocks by Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: Whisper White and Eggplant Envy

Inks: Versamark, Eggplant Envy

Embellishments: Whisper White Embossing powder, Want2scrap Lavendar pearls

BC359: Birthday

Today over at Blogger's Challenge, our challenge "Mom" gave us the subject of birthday...I wonder why????

Oh, yeah, it's her birthday is tomorrow!  So join us in wishing Lisa a Happy Birthday and showing off those birthday creations for her.  I've had the privilege of calling Lisa my friend for years now and over them, we've discovered more and more we have in common...if only she lived closer (or I closer to her).

Hoping this card may have arrived in the mail to her by the time this goes live.  I've been horrid about sending friends birthday cards-I'm trying to build up my stash so I won't have to worry about creating for ever birthday that comes up.

I used the Operation Write Home sketch for this card, eliminating one of the flags to make the sentiment work.

Love the design of this card, but I especially love this sentiment.  Considering the first memory of Lisa & I was at a scrapper's retreat where everyone was fighting over some Eclair Cake, the sentiment seemed appropriate.

Lisa-Hope you have a fabulous birthday my friend!

***********************************************

Card details:

Stamps: Harvest Berries and Building Blocks from Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: Calypso Coral, Basic Black, Rustic White

Inks: Calypso Coral, Archival Ink Jet Black

Embellishments: Flag It die set from Verve Stamps

Embrace Happiness

This weekend my studio only saw me once, and it wasn't for very long...just enough to squeak out a few cards which was perfect for me.

I haven't played along at the Play Date Cafe in a long time so wanted to create as I loved the current color combination.

I began by created my background paper by spraying it with IMAGINE Crafts® Fireworks!™ Craft Spray in New Sprout and Bamboo Leaves.

I thought the  Bursting Blooms from AMuse stamps would look great with this color combination and I was not disappointed.  

Hope you had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend and that your week is fabulous.

*******************************************

Card details:

Stamps:  Bursting Blooms from AMuse stamps, Mega Mixed Messages from PaperTrey Ink

Cardstock: Summer Sun, Night of Navy, Green Galore, Whisper White

Inks: IMAGINE Crafts® Fireworks!™ Craft Spray in New Sprout and Bamboo Leaves, Golden Tiara and Green Galore

Embellishments: Bo Bunny jewels

Happy Anniversary Sequins

When I was at CKC Manchester last weekend I picked up some new papers and then went on a mission to find some sequins.  I picked some up at the local Michael's and couldn't wait to come home and create with my new goodies.

I don't love how my little sequins pocket turned out, but it was my first one so I hope that I've learned what I need to do differently next time.

I haven't played in the Retro Sketches in awhile, but wanted to play along this week.  As I searched my stash I realized I only have 2 anniversary sentiment stamps.  One was too large, and this one I think is too small.  

Hope you are having a great week and thanks for stopping by to visit!

***********************************

Card details:

Stamps: Mini Messages from Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Glitz Love you Madly patterned paper, vellum

Inks: Perfect Little Black Dress

Embellishments: ribbon unknown (from stash), sequins from Michaels