Mother's Day retro card

Hi all!

With Mother's Day right around the corner, I had some time last night to work on the card I'll be giving my mom this weekend. I chose to play along with the sketch from the wonderful retro sketches site and also the Ribbon Carousel blog that challenged us to make a card for a particular celebration. So here's my card and the sketch.

This Mother's Day will be a special one because I'll have my parents in town. That also meant I didn't have to worry about the card being too bulky to mail! I kept the sketch "as is" because it worked well for what I had in mind. I just tweaked the sentiment a bit to make it a banner and added an image. The paper is from My Mind's Eye and the die is from Simon Says Stamp!. The butterfly was colored in using inktense pencils and then I misted it with some Glitter Mist. The sentiment is from a set that I found in the dollar bin--love it when that happens! I added a few pearls and the card was done.

Hope everyone has a lovely Mother's Day,
Pat

A Mother's Day card

Hi again!

Here to share another card I made tonight for Mother's Day. If you head over to V's Sweet Ideas, you'll see this is the latest challenge over there and with Mother's Day right around the corner--it's a perfect time to play along! Also, there's a color challenge at Inkspirational AND A Blog Named Hero challenged us to use glitter, bling, etc on our card. That's right--three challenges in one! :) You'll find my card and the challenge badges below:

Let me begin by saying that, for those that have been seeing my cards these past couple of weeks, yes, I am using a lot of embossed cards right now. I took my cuttlebug on vacation with me and embossed tons of cardstock so that I could come back and finish the cards any way I wanted. And I still have a lot of embossed cardstock so don't be surprised if you keep seeing different variations for the next few months! :) Although, truth be told, it's a great way to get some prep work done beforehand.

Now, for this particular card I used shaded lilac distress ink and added some dusty concord to the edges of the sentiment, too. The color is a very soft purple color. I wanted to use a darker purple for the butterfly and used a Martha Stewart punch for the butterfly and added some bling to it. I also added some gems to the center of the flowers and also used my glitter pen on the smaller flowers. It's hard to see in the picture but you can see it a bit on the flowers towards the top of the card. Looks really nice in life real. I also wanted the butterfly to appear as if it was on a fence so I used the Hero Arts Lattice stamp and placed that behind the butterfly. I added some ribbon, the sentiment, some stitching and we were done.

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

A runway-inspired baby card

Hi friends!

I'm so excited to share a card I made late last night with you. It's for the Runway Inspired site and it challenged us to be inspired by a photo and make a baby card. Here's the photo and my card:

I had been looking for a baby stamp set for a long time! And last week I stopped by Michaels and they had just put this Inkadinkadoo stamp set on clearance...$3.99 and no sales tax! I was thrilled! I was dying to use it so when I saw the challenge for the week, I jumped at it! I wanted to use my swiss dots embossing folder to mirror the dots the little girl had on her dress. And the grey/black she's wearing is on the card base and the insert behind the main image. I added a ribbon that says "it's a girl" and used the stamps from the "welcome baby" set. I colored in the cute little dog with my intense pencils. They didn't have a really light pink so I just kept watering down the color I had and it worked! I added a few gems and the card was done. Such a fun card!

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Watercolor fun with a sketch

Hi friends!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. We've been busy here with end-of-the year activities and testing. So looking forward to a break from homeschooling. For now, I squeezed in some time for crafting on Sunday and am sharing the card I made for 2 challenges. The first is retro sketches. I LOVE their site! And the 2nd challenge is for Moxie Fab World and we were to have fun with watercolors. So, here's my card and the sketch.

There are times I tweak the sketch a bit but this time, I left it "as is". I started out with my main image which is from the dollar bin from a local craft store. I stamped it using Staz On ink on watercolor paper. Using my inktense watercolor pencils, I colored them in and also added a light blue background (hard to see in the picture). I used dimensional tape to mount it and think the presents look so cute--perfect for a child's b-day! The background paper is from My Mind's Eye and the sentiment is from Hampton Arts. I added some ribbon behind the main image, faux stitching and some gems to the centers of the bows and the card was done!

There's still time to play in both challenges so I hope you play along! Have a great rest of the week and thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Fun with Watercolors and a sketch

Hi again!

I hope everyone had a good day! I was able to enjoy a day to myself today as my husband took our sons to his work place for "Take your son to work" day. Although I had tons of errands to run in the morning, I had some time to craft later in the day.

The card I worked on incorporated two challenges. The first is the Moxie Fab World challenge that asked us to use watercolors in some way. The second is from the retro sketches site that gave a great sketch this week. Here's the sketch and my card.
Isn't this sketch adorable! I had so many different ideas for it! I'll be using it again, for sure! :) I wanted to use an adorable house made out of wood that I bought today at Michaels (Recollections brand). I used scraps of paper that I've had FOREVER and added some white stitching on the seam of the green and blue cardstock. To color the wood, I used my inktense watercolor pencils. I LOVE how they worked on wood! I used the bark color on the bottom part of the house and then used apple green and mustard on the roof. It's so nice to be able to mix colors with the pencils. I adhered the house using glossy accents so that I was assured it wouldn't fall off. I wanted to ground the image a bit, though, so I took my peeled paint distress marker and added some grass around the house with my water brush. The sentiment is from the dollar bin from a local craft store. Finally, a ribbon to go across the main panel and the card was done. Love how it turned out! So happy with my inktense pencils...totally worth the investment! (Granted, I had a 50% off coupon so the investment was even better!)

Have a wonderful weekend!
Pat

Color time!

Hi friends!

It's been a busy week but I'm here to share a card that I worked on over several days and finally completed this morning. I'm entering it in two different challenges. The first is Simon Says Stamp and Show where the challenge is to use color on your cards. And lastly, Simon Says Stamp's blog that has an "anything goes" challenge. LOVE those! :) Here's the sketch and my card:




I used the Cuttlebug Embossing Plus folder called Perfect Perennials and then inked the embossed areas using Salty Ocean distress ink. Love that vibrant blue color! I also added a few gems to the centers of the flowers to give them a bit more dimension. Then, I took some strips of cardstock and inked those with the salty ocean color also. The butterfly is from Stampin' Up and I used my inktense watercolor pencils to color in the wings. I then added some glossy accents to those and love the look of it! I then realized I had forgotten to color in the butterfly's body so I used my vintage photo distress marker and used it as a watercolor to color in the body. I free handed the antennae and the swirly flight pattern. Then, I added some orange stickles next to one strip of the blue paper and added some dots of orange around the butterfly. I really like that color combination and the pop of orange was perfect! For the sentiment, I inked up some white cardstock with the same distress ink and then heat set it. After it was dry, I used versamark for the greeting and then embossed it. That way, the whole card has colors that match. The card took me several days to complete but mostly because of lack of time--not b/c it's too complicated...

Hope you all can play along and thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Runway Inspired!

Hi all!

I've been gone for a bit--enjoying a wonderful vacation with my family--but I'm back home and took the day to craft. I saw the latest challenge at the Runway Inspired site. If you know me, you know I LOVE the classic look of black and white. LOVE it! So, I knew I'd be playing along for this CAS challenge. Here's the photo inspiration and my card:

If you need to make a quick yet elegant card, this is the way to do it! I used Hero Arts Classic Fabric Design stamp and stamped it in black. Then, I scored 3 lines (which I know are hard to see on the picture) and then added the sentiment which is also from Hero Arts. Mounted the panel on a black cardstock base and the card was finished...may have finished it within 10 minutes! I love the bold, classic look of it, though.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!
Pat