A Splashy Play Date card

Hi all!

I'm here to share a card I made for the latest Play Date Cafe challenge. I love challenges that use black + white and then a splash of another color--and this week's challenge is a splash of green. If you knew me well, you'd know that green isn't one of "favorite" colors...So, I thought I'd give this one a go.

Here's the challenge badge and my card:

I LOVE this butterfly! I heat embossed it and then used my inktense watercolor pencils to color it in. I started out using a teal green color (or so the pencil is called) but then realized it was a bit too blue. So, after the color dried, I went back and added an apple green and I do love the color of the butterfly now. I drew in the antennae and also the swirly trail. The sentiment is from Hampton Arts and I chose to add a few green gems there, too. It's a smaller card--4 x 4--so the butterfly could stick out a bit on the side and it wouldn't matter.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Pat

CAS card for class

Hi all!

I have a quick share today. I'm currently taking the online card class called Clean and Simple 2. It was kind of belated Christmas gift from my husband and I'm loving it so far! The challenge today was to make a card based on some of their tips for making cards look great and they share some sketches. Here's my card:

The music stamp is from Impression Obsession and it's one of my favorites! I then cut out a portion of a circle and that's where I placed my Hero Arts heart that's heat embossed. The sentiment is from a dollar bin from my local craft store and I added some brown dash lines around the banner. I added a few gems on the heart and around the circle and the card was done.

There's always time to join the class--and it's a ton of fun! Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Be Mine Card

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had a chance to get creative this weekend! I have a very busy week ahead and knew tonight was probably the only night I'd have to have some fun. So, I chose to use the latest sketch from the sweetest thing site. Every couple of weeks they share a new sketch and I immediately fell in love with the current one. Without further ado, here's the sketch and my card:

Isn't this little bear adorable? I love him! I chose to make a Valentine's Day card. I used the XO stamp set from Hero Arts (LOVE this set!) to make my own pattern paper and then inked the sides with distress ink and added strips of red. I embossed the center red panel and then inked the Stampin' Up bear with Colorbox pigment ink so that I could heat emboss him. I used my inktense watercolor pencils to color him in--so much fun!--and then decided to add another heart from the Hero Arts set. The sentiment is from the dollar bin from a local craft store. The card was fun to make--a bit time consuming b/c I chose to make my own background paper--but still a lot of fun!

Have a great week and if I don't check in this week, I'll see you all next week! Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

A CAS-ual Card

Hi friends,

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I had a wonderful day...I got to watch my son participate in a Bible competition and his team took first place! Now we get to move on to the next level in a month and compete against more teams. Sure, the competition is fun but knowing that he's hiding God's word in his heart is a much bigger prize!

Tonight I wanted a share a quick card I made for the CAS-ual Fridays site. This cute card would be great for mass production! It was easy and you could play around with the colors and sentiment, too. Our challenge was to use markers. I thought of a million different ways to do that...here's what I came up with.

What a quick card to make--yet so much fun! I had never tried this technique before but was dying to give it a go. I took my distress inks (dusty concord and shaded lilac) and inked my acrylic block. After it was well inked, I spritzed it with some water and then stamped my block right on my paper. I LOVED the watercolor look it gave me! Then, I used the Delicate Branches stamp set from Inkadinkado and stamped the image using my distress marker to color in the image in black soot. Yes, the image isn't as crisp as if I would've used the ink pad but the rest of the card also has that watercolor look so I think it works! I did, however, use my ink pad for the sentiment (Hampton Arts). I thought it looked just a little too plain for me so I added a few little gems on the outside left border and the card was done! Like I said, this could easily work for mass production...and I love the different combinations you could do with the colors right on the acrylic block!

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

How Thoughtful of You

Hi friends!

I was able to enjoy an evening of crafting--granted, my 8 year old was with me and interrupting me every 2 minutes--but I still had fun! :)

I wanted to play along with 2 different challenges. The first is from the Simon Says Stamp & Show site. They wanted us to make "something that we're known for"...In other words, whatever technique or embellishment really marks your style, that's what they wanted us to do this week. I immediately knew what I'd be doing...THEN, I see the latest color challenge from the Color Throwdown site and I knew exactly how I'd be doing my card! I was so excited to play tonight!

Here is the color inspiration and my card.

I LOVE my card! I love doing the embossing resist technique and then coloring in the reverse image with distress inks! LOVE it! I used a Fiskars stamp to do the writing in the background. I stamped that with dusty concord distress ink. Then, I stamped the Hero Arts Large Blossom Cling with Versamark ink and heat embossed it. Then, the fun began! I used Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord for the flowers and Shabby Shutters and Mowed Lawn (I think that's the name of it) distress ink for the leaves. I also used my Peeled Paint distress marker to color in the branches/vines. I wanted to blend the colors a bit more so I used my detail watercolor brush and just dipped it into a bit of water and the look was done! The sentiment is also from Hero Arts.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you all get to play along...it's so much fun!
Pat

Hang in there card

Hi all!

I've recently swapped my craft room and have been enjoying the new space immensely! So, tonight I went to play again. I chose to try the sketch from the Retro Sketches site. Here's the sketch and my card:

I have a lot of friends going through tough times right now...and the stories just get sadder and sadder. So, I wanted to make a card that would just make a friend smile and tell her that it'll get better--just hang in there...The bird cage is from the dollar bin at a local craft store. And the papers are from My Mind's Eye, I believe. I hand cut the branch myself and then embossed it w/a texture plate and then inked it with distress ink. The sentiment and bird are also from the dollar bin...love it when I can use stamps from the dollar bin!

Thanks so much for stopping by...have a great day!
Pat

A Window Bday Card

Hi everyone!

I had a few minutes to craft and I wanted to make a special birthday card for my son who will be turning 11 in just a few days...As many times as I've told him to stop growing and getting older, he's NOT listening! :) So, I thought I'd make a card celebrating his double digit birthday.

I chose to play along with a few challenges. First up, the Moxie Fab site wanted us to create a card with a window. Fun! Then, the CAS-ual Fridays site had us doing a long and short card (long on one side and short on the other). Also, I just learned of a new site called Inkspirational challenges. They had an inspiration picture for us to draw from. Below is the challenge badge and my card.

Truth be told, I started out as a scrapbooker many, many years ago. Therefore, a lot of stamps were purchased planning how they'd be used on a scrapbook page. This number stamp was one of those purchases. But I realized today that I could use it on this card. I think it was from Michael's $1 bin, too! First off, I used a die to make the "11". Then, I used my distress inks to stamp the numbers. The "11" that I cut out was then inked so that you can see it peeking in from the front of the card. My son loves red and blue so I'm hoping he likes this card. The card is sized 3 x 5.5. And I really liked this size card...it was fun to work with a different size!

There's still plenty of time to play long...I hope you check out both challenges b/c they were a lot of fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Pat

A Golden Mojo card

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the absence all last week...let's just say, some weeks are better than others and last week was not my favorite!

But I am here sharing a card that I'm trying to squeak in and play with the Mojo Monday site. I love working with sketches and this was a sketch that I immediately knew what technique I'd use. Also, because I'm using an old Hero Arts stamp that I haven't used in a while, I'm also entering this card in the A Blog Named Hero site.

Here are the challenge badges and my card:

First off, I did leave the sketch almost completely as is...The only change I did to it was substitute the circle for a different shape. But I liked the sketch so much that I just worked with it as-is. I used the Hero Arts Lattice Stamp--one of my favorites--but one that I hadn't looked at in awhile. Then, I took out my gelatos--also something I haven't used or looked at in a LONG while and thought of using the stamp in a new way. I added some black on the side w/some embossing (hard to see in the picture) and some ribbons. Then, I used a Simon Says Stamp! apothecary label with the sentiment. Easy card--but I love the look of the metallic gelatos!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!
Pat

An itty-bitty card

Hi everyone!

Did you guys catch all the fun challenges that the Moxie Fab website posted last week? It was a great week with tons of ideas on using different techniques and different things around the house.

Today's card features a challenge where we had to make a card no bigger than 3x3 inches. For some reason, I pictured this a bit bigger than what it really is. It really is itty-bitty! :)

Here's my card:

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I figured I'd start making some "love" cards. I made this itty bitty card using a red card base and then embossing the front panel. I then found an old frame that had music notes and a small window. I added black behind the window of the frame so that I could die cut a heart. To make the heart stand out a bit, I added some glossy accents. The sentiment is on the inside and it says "you make my heart sing".

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

A Moxie, B-day, Retro card

Hi again!

Yes, 2 posts in one night! There's tons of laundry to fold but I figured I'm always going to have laundry so I might as well play tonight! Besides, there's just so many great challenges out there right now that it sparked my creative gene! :)

For this card, I chose to play along with one of the many Moxie Fab site challenges going on. This challenge was to create my own background paper. (This required a lot of stamping on my part!) Then, the challenge at the Lawnscaping site was to make a b-day/party card and I always need those! Last, but certainly not least, the retro sketches site had a fun sketch that I used to incorporate all the challenges.

Here's the challenge badges and my card:

This card took a lot of time just b/c of the background! I used three different Color Box inks to stamp the word "sweetie" all over the card base. Kind of monotonous but I was in the mood to do it. The cake image is from Martha Stewart and I stamped it in the same color as one of the rows. I die cut a heart and inked it in another one of the colors from the background and then mounted everything with dimensional adhesive. I added the pearls at the end b/c I felt like it still needed something (ever have that feeling?) and I'm glad I added them. Just a nice touch to the cake stand.

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

A splash of color CAS card

Hi friends!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far! We've been busy on here getting back into the routine of homeschooling. So thankful we have a long weekend coming up!

I want to share a card I made tonight for a couple of different challenges. The first challenge is from the CAS-ual Fridays that asked us to make a thank you card. I was drawn to the challenge, not just b/c I have a ton of thank you cards I need to make, but also b/c I really want to improve the CAS style of cardmaking. The second challenge was from the Simon Says Stamp! blog. Their challenge is one of my favorites--make a black and white card with a splash of color. LOVE those!!!

Without further ado, here's the challenge badge and my card:

This is quite the stretch for me! I'm used to filling up the white space so this was new. But I did love the results! I masked off everything but the circle and sponged the circle with spiced marmalade distress ink. Then, I used my scoring board to frame out the panel. I used a dollar stamp for the shrub/branch image and then stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts. Quick card--and different for me...

Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of the week!
Pat

A Moxie New Challenge card

Hi friends!

Sorry for the long absence! My family and I were in Mexico and we just got back on Friday. Although I did do a lot of watercoloring, I wasn't able to make cards down there. And yes, I missed crafting and blogging A LOT!

Tonight, though, I want to share a card I made for two different challenges. The first is for the A Blog Named Hero site. Their challenge was to try something new either by using a new craft/stamp item or using a new technique. The second challenge is from the Moxie Fab World site. The challenge there was to use 10 embellishments on your card. (There's a new issue out from Paper Crafts called 75 Creative Card Challenges and this is one of the challenges in the issue) :)

Here is the challenge badge and my card.

So, what's new on this card? The wood heart. I've seen many crafters using wood accents but have never tried it. When I saw the challenge, I knew it was time! I inked it using my distress ink (barn door and fired brick) and love how it turned out. Also new, I have been seeing many crafters use the "negatives" of their die cuts. With Valentine's Day coming up, I knew that using my die cut alphabet in a new way and using the negatives as opposed to the actual letters would be something new for me. The black panel was also embossed--but instead of using the embossed area, I chose to use the de-embossed portion just to make it a little different, too. As for the embellishments, I knew that I wanted to add some red accents to the card. I had some nice ribbon that I was really tempted to add but then I thought I'd add the gems as opposed to the ribbon. Thankfully, I had plenty of little red gems.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week!
Pat