Friday, November 30, 2012

A Splash of Red Retro card

Hi everyone!

Is everyone as happy as I am that today's Friday?! I'm giddy with excitement! :) I'm hoping to have time to craft on Sat. evening and Sunday and that always makes me happy.

Today I'm sharing a card I'm entering in 2 different challenges. The first is the Play Date Cafe site that has my FAVORITE color combo--black and white with a bit of red. And the other is the retro sketches site. I love getting ideas from sketches and I really liked this one.

Here are the badges and my card:
I started out with black cardstock that I then stamped with polka dots and heat embossed white. Then, I used my script embossing folder and embossed that strip of red cardstock and inked just the embossed portion with white ink. I added some ribbon and made the bow using a technique I just learned from StampTV where the bow looks like it's wrapped around the entire card but it's not! I used a Sizzix die for the label and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp! apothecary labels--isn't the sentiment great?! I added some red gems on the label and it was done! I really like how it turned out...but, again, this is my favorite color combo!

Have a wonderful weekend! And thanks so much for stopping by!
Pat

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

A Hearty Christmas

Hi everyone!

Well, tonight was my night to craft and I had a few challenges I wanted to enter! First off was a challenge from Simon Says Stamp & Show and their challenge was to make a card/project with a heart on it. The Young Crafters Unite site has a Happy Holidays challenge so my card worked with that, too. And finally, the Simon Says Stamp! site had an "Anything Goes" challenge.

Here's the challenge badge and my card:
I started out by punching out tons of hearts out of the My Mind's Eye Merry Little Christmas pack. I cut out a strip of white cardstock and used an old Creative Memories wave cutter to make a snow drift. I then embossed it and added some stickles. I cut out a strip of brown cardstock for the trunk of the tree. I used an old dollar stamp from Michael's for the sentiment that I wanted to use as a base for the tree. Then I just layered all the hearts to form the Christmas tree. Again, this was one of those times when the idea hit me right away when I saw the challenge for using a heart. I added some snowflakes and then some gems for the ornaments and the card was done!

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great Thursday!
Pat

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Color Sketch Thanks card

Hi friends!

Although it was a busy Sunday, I decided to carve out some time to make a card tonight. I wanted to thank my best friend who, while I was visiting NY, came with her baby to visit me. She drove a long way to see me and I am so grateful she made the trip. The card is also extra special to me because two days after I saw her, NY got hit with Superstorm Sandy and my best friend was without power for 8 days. There aren't enough words to describe how worried I was about her and her family. And I'm beyond grateful to God for sparing her family and her home from any damage.

I gathered my color inspiration from the current challenge at the CR84FN site. The colors really got my attention and, for some reason, I envisioned the card very easily. Also, because it was a "thank you" card, I am entering it into the latest challenge on the Simon Says Stamp & Show site, too. AND, because it's for my best friend, Tricia, I am also posting it on the Cute Card Thursday site that wanted us to make a challenge for "Girls Only".

Here is the color badge from CR84FN and my card:
I decided to make another gatefold card. Now that I know how to make them, I LOVE making them! I masked off a portion of the card using some post-its and stamped the Hero Arts Large Fabric stamp in a beautiful eggplant ink. I then heat embossed it and it looks so elegant! I then added some black cardstock to soften the division between the embossed and gray cardstock and added some gems along the top of the black strip. I used a Marvy scallop punch in cream and then layered a white circle with the sentiment also inked in the same eggplant color and heat embossed the sentiment, too. As a final touch, I added gems under the sentiment to just repeat the gem pattern a bit more. It was not a difficult card to make but I love the look of it!

Hope you all had a great Sunday and thanks so much for stopping by!
Pat

Saturday, November 24, 2012

A sketchy Christmas card

Hi friends!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend--especially with Thanksgiving that just passed. I have so much to be thankful for. God has granted me so many blessings.

Every Saturday, the Unscripted Sketches site posts a new sketch and, when I saw the latest sketch this evening, I knew I wanted to join in. It was one of those "I know exactly what I'm going to do!" kindda moments. And I had also just seen the latest challenge from the Young Crafters Unite site and thought the card would work perfectly with that challenge, too.

Here are the challenge badges and my card:
My first step was to turn the sketch upside down. For some reason, I immediately saw Christmas trees and a cloud-like shape. All papers are from My Mind's Eye "My Little Christmas" pack. I cut out the trees and then added little gems to the tops of them. I wrapped some red, green and white twine around the base, too. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and then I punched out a snowflake. I added some faux stitching and the card was basically done. What you can't really see in the picture is that I stamped some snowflakes along the front of the card, too, in soft white. Up close it's a nice touch of dimension.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you get a chance to do something crafty this weekend, too! :)
Pat

Monday, November 19, 2012

Play Date Cafe Baby card

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone is having a good Monday so far! I took the weekend to try a few new techniques and last night I played around with my Martha Stewart Scoring Board. I finally used it! I have had many friends having babies and a baby card was needed. So, I made a gate-fold card to play along with The Play Date Cafe color challenge and with the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge which asked us to craft a card for a child.

Here's the photo inspiration and then my card.
I started out with a gray card base and scored it for the gate-folds. Then, I used light pink and soft green pattern papers from The Luxury Stack and made the front panels. I used the Apothecary Label from Simon Says Stamp! as the center of the card. I cut it out in gray paper and then again in white cardstock. I trimmed the white apothecary label so that it would nest inside in the gray label. Then, I stamped the baby hands using a soft pink Colorbox ink. I actually stamped it on some scratch paper and then stamped it lightly again on the actual card so that the look was even softer. The sentiment was then stamped in black.
This is what the card looks like when you open it. I added some white cardstock on the inside so that it looks a bit more finished. I added some pink ribbon and then adhered only the left side of the label so that you can easily open the card.

The card was really not that hard to make. I think I spent more time looking for the stamps than actually making the card! :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Perfect Pearl Christmas

Hi again,

Yes, this is my 2nd post. This time, I tried the perfect pearl technique on a dark-colored cardstock. I could still see the residue so I'm not sure I like it but wanted to share how it turned out. (To see my previous attempt with perfect pearls on white cardstock, click here).

The CR84FN Color Challenge site was, again, my inspiration. If you get a chance to play along, there's still a few days left!

Here's the inspiration photo and my card.
So, here's the gold perfect pearl powder on purple cardstock. I ran the cardstock thru an embossing folder and then inked the panel with perfect medium using my brayer. Although the gold stands out much better than on my previous post, I can also see a lot more residue on this card than on the other one. Sigh. Then I worked on the main panel which I stamped a music note background with Versamark and clear embossed it. I cut out the tree and tied some gold twine around the base of the tree and the card was done. The sentiment is on the inside.

After making 2 different cards, still not sure using the perfect medium is the way I like to use perfect pearls. I think my preference is to still use it as a watercolor medium. What about you guys? How do you guys use perfect pearls the most?

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Perfect Pearl Thank you

Hi everyone!

Have you guys ever had a technique that you were determined to master? That was me this weekend! And, for the record, still not sure I mastered it. For years now, I've had perfect pearl powders. I LOVE them! But, I've always used them as a watercolor paint more than using them with the embossing medium. Why? I hated the residue they leave behind. So, this weekend, I was determined to try again!

I chose the color scheme from the CR84FN Color Challenge site for my card. And, I had a "thank you" card that I needed to make so I joined the challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog, too.

Here's the inspiration photo and my card.
Let me start out by saying that I'm so sad that you can't see JUST HOW SHINY this card is in real life! :( I tried several angles to get the shine from the flowers but it just didn't work out. I used a stamping technique called "three time stamping" (I think) and you can see videos of the technique on youtube. You basically have 3 different panels in different sizes and you stamp on all 3 panels overlapping the stamp. I used Perfect Medium, which is the embossing ink that comes with the Perfect Pearls pack. I then spread gold powder over the embossed areas and wiped off the excess. It really does look amazing in real life! The white cardstock worked well in not showing the residue from the Perfect Pearls. I also stamped a small flower in purple just to break up some of the white space. After the white panels were stamped, then I layered them on the purple cardstock. I wrapped some tan twine and added a purple button and the card was almost done. After adding a few gems--it was done!

Hope you guys can play along with these challenges. And thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

An inkless card!

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great week! Mine has been busy! Every week I think, "this will be a nice, slow week." So far, I have yet to have one of those weeks!

If you guys haven't checked out the latest challenge at the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog, you are missing quite the challenge! What's the challenge? Make a card without using INK! The only exception was embossing ink--and I'm thankful for that! You could use paint and distress markers--but not ink!

So, here's my card.
I used Hero Arts Dots and Flowers stamp with Versamark and embossed it in white. Then, I used my blue and pearl perfect pearl powders and did an embossed resist.You can see the shine on the card and it really does look lovely! I'd forgotten just how amazing those perfect pearl powders look! The Christmas trees were also heat embossed but with silver embossing powder and then I added some red stickles to them. The final touch was white ribbon. The sentiment is on the inside and it's also from Hero Arts. It says, "wishing you a warm and wonderful Christmas".

Hope you guys choose to play along! It required some work--and I ended up with very "pearlized" fingers--but I love the look of the card!

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Monday, November 12, 2012

A MOJO Christmas card

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone had a great Veteran's Day! We had an easy day of school, which the kids were thankful for, and we had some friends over to play a bit, too.

Although it's been a while since I've played with Mojo Monday, it is one of the best sites for sketches! I LOVE it! I may not play every week but I do check it out every week! The design team on that site is one of the best, too! And with Christmas coming soon, I knew this sketch would be great for a Christmas card.

Here's the sketch and my card:
What a fun Christmas card! I LOVED this sketch! I used papers from DCWV's the Ultimate scrapbook kit in a stack: Christmas. I cut out my own tree and trunk for the card. I was so happy to finally use this ribbon--it was from the dollar bin at Michael's and I've had it for YEARS! Yay! Love using stuff that's been waiting around...The sentiment is from a Hero Arts Christmas set that I bought a year or so ago. I added some gems on the tree and some silver to the ornament on the sentiment and I was done!

If you get a chance to play along, I'm sure you'll have a great time with this sketch, too!

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Get well soon

Hi everyone!

I have a friend that isn't feeling great right now and I thought it'd be nice for him to receive a card...it's always nice to know you've been missed!

I used the sketch from the Unscripted sketches site. If you haven't checked out this site, it's a great one! There's a new sketch every Saturday and I try to play along as often as I can.

Here's the sketch and my card:
The striped paper is from "the paper stack" from DCWV. The tan strip I stamped repeatedly with the sentiment "get well soon". The sentiment is from Hampton Art. The band-aid and sentiment is a rubber stamp that I got from the dollar bin at Michael's (love it!). I didn't add a bow to the ribbon b/c it is a masculine card. But even the ribbon was a find at the dollar store and I've had it for YEARS!!! Unlike the small amounts of ribbon that come in scrapbooking/cardmaking kits, the ribbon you can find at the dollar store is like a big ball of yarn--only ribbon! :)

Hoping my friend feels better soon! And hoping you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Pat

Saturday, November 10, 2012

A retro Christmas card

Hi everyone!

The joy of having a quiet evening to craft...I hope you guys get to enjoy some time doing some crafting, too.

I wanted to play along with the latest sketch at the retro sketches site. It's one of the sites I love checking out every Saturday evening. As soon as I saw the sketch, I immediately pictured a Christmas card!

Here's the sketch and my card.
Christmas is just a few weeks away and I knew I had to get busy crafting some cards! I used DCWV's Ultimate scrapbook kit in a Stack: Christmas. I used my snowflake punch and added some green gems and some red and green baker's twine. I added some white stitching and the card was done. Easy yet cute card. I followed the sketch and really like how it turned out.

Hope you guys can play along, too! Have a wonderful, crafty Sunday!
Pat

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Cute Card Challenge

Hi everyone!

Yes, I'm still crafting...and it feels great! :)

The Cute Card Thursday site challenged us this week with a sketch. As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew it was perfect for a Christmas card. I also knew that it would provide the perfect opportunity to dust off my stickles! I hadn't used those in a while! And that happens to be the current challenge at the Lawnscaping site. Here's the sketch and my card:
I left the sketch pretty much as is and only changed slightly the shape of the sentiment label. All papers were from DCWV's Ultimate Scrapbook Kit in a stack. The cute little penguin is from the dollar bin from Michael's. I embossed the penguin and then used a gelly roll pen to color in his hat. I added polka dots to his scarf and then some stickles. (I'd forgotten how much fun stickles are!) I surrounded him with snowflakes which I stamped using s 2nd and 3rd generation stamping technique. I colored in his beak and feet with a distress marker and added some faux stitching. Don't know who manufactured the sentiment b/c I'm borrowing the set from a friend. I embossed the sentiment, too.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you get a chance to do some crafting, too!
Pat

A color throwdown sketchy card

Hi everyone!

Have you ever had one of those days when you work so hard that you feel like the LEAST you can do for yourself is spend some time crafting? That was me today! I was sprinting about like crazy! By the time the evening arrived, I thought, "I need some crafting time. I DESERVE some crafting time!"

So, here I am! Sharing the first card of the night...hopefully, not the last! :)

I decided to join in on the latest Color Throwdown challenge. The colors really intrigued me. And then, I wanted to try my hand at a sketch from a new site that I found called CAS(E) this Sketch!

Here are the challenge badges and my card:
I started out with a black card back and used the Hero Arts Classic Fabric Design stamp and stamped it using my distress inks (Shabby Shutter and Chipped Sapphire). The sentiment is from Hampton Art and I added some buttons and ribbon and the CAS card was done. I really like the simplicity of the design/sketch and that it still has an elegant feel to it.

Hope you guys can join in on the fun and thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A thank you card

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone has enjoyed a good week so far. Mine has been busy but, somehow, I lucked out with quiet time at home and decided I should make a card!

I wanted to participate in the latest challenge from the Stampin' Sisters in Christ site. Although I haven't been able to participate here often, I do check out their challenges every week! And this week, they had one that was perfect for me. The challenge was to create a card depicting thankfulness or prayer. I love making these types of cards. Knowing that someone that has been generous with me will receive a handmade card makes me happy. :)

Here's my card:
I started out with a gray card base and used papers from DCWV's Lemon Flower Stack--LOVED the papers! I used the apothecary label from Simon Says Stamp! and a thank you message from that set, too. The sentiment was heat embossed and I love that it matches so well with the colors on the center paper. I added some faux stitching and a few pearls--card was done!

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. And, if you have time and pray, join me in praying for those that are still struggling to recover from the hurricane in the NY, NJ, and other areas and now the storm that has brought snow, too.

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Post #3!

What can I say? I'm on a roll--guessing that afternoon nap really helped! :)

I've been trying to catch up on all the different challenges out there in blogland and the latest challenges caught my eye. The first is being hosted by CAS-ual Fridays. A clean and simple card for a boy/man. Many of us know that's not the easiest thing to do b/c we love our flowers and butterflies! The second challenge was to incorporate some die cuts or punches on the card and that's over at A Blog Named Hero. So, without further ado, here's the challenge badges and my CAS card using a couple of punches.
I can almost imagine the joy on my own boys' faces if they were to discover an old in a tree! That's why I chose this stamp for my card. I stamped the image, cut it out, used a texture plate to give the bark some dimension, and then inked it with distress ink. Then, using a grass punch, I punched an old paint chip and used that for my grass and also punched some leaves in that deep maroon red that is showing up so lovely here in the Northwest during the fall. (Unfortunately, I don't know who the manufacturer is for the stamp b/c I'm borrowing it from a friend. If anyone knows, please let me know so I can update that info here. Thanks!) I finished off the card with a cute sentiment and the card was done!

Thanks for stopping by--again!
Pat

Retrosketch bday card

Well, I guess I'm making up for lost time! :) I spent most of Sunday crafting and I'm here to share a card I made using the latest sketch from the retrosketch site. I really enjoyed this sketch so I hope you can find some time to play along this week!

Here's the sketch and my card:
Again, all papers are from DCWV's Mat Stack collection. I actually used a tool that I hadn't used in a VERY long time with the floral pattern paper--an edging scissor! I haven't used one of those in ages but I didn't have a die cut that had the shape I wanted so I reverted back to a trusty friend! ;) For some added details--what's better than a few gems and some ribbon! :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Back after a long blogging break!

Hi all!

So sorry for the absence...Life was crazy here with a quick trip to the East Coast (right before the Superstorm hit) and getting back into a normal routine proved to be a bit harder than anticipated.

But, today I'm back with an anniversary card that uses a sketch from the sweetest thing website. Sundays are always a day I look forward to and I love seeing the new sketch that comes out every Sunday at this site! And, there's a new "anything goes" challenge at V's Sweet Ideas blog, too. So I'll be entering the card there, too.

Here's the sketch and the card:
One of the reasons I decided to try this sketch is b/c I'm not a huge fan of circles. I don't know why...but I'm just not usually a big fan of them. So, when I saw the sketch this morning, it was double the challenge! All papers were from DCWV's Mat Stacks. The sentiment is on the inside and it simply states "Happy Anniversary" in a similar font as the paper with text on the front of the card.

Plenty of time to join in on either challenge!

Have a great week!
Pat