Another sympathy card

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas time with family. I am currently at home with my 2 sons while my DH is visiting his grandmother in Mexico. Since I HATE going into our bedroom when he's not home, I put on a movie, lit a scented wax candle, and made some cards!

Although it's a sympathy card, which I do not enjoy making, I figured maybe it wouldn't be so dreary if I combined it with a few challenges. First up was the Lawnscaping Challenge. It's all about texture for this challenge and I knew I'd be embossing one way or another! :)

The second challenge comes via Young Crafters Unite. Their challenge was to use dies on a card. I love dies!

Here's my card:

I started out by using my cuttlebug embossing folder (flourish, I believe) and embossed white cardstock. I cut it in 3 strips and adhered that to the black cardstock. I then stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts and matted it on black cardstock. I believe the flower is from Inkadinkado and I wanted a pop of color so I used a cranberry pigment ink from the $1 bins. I cut it out using a spellbinders label. For a little bling, I added a gem in the center of the flower and the card is done! I love how it turned out, too. It's simple yet elegant.

Will be back tomorrow with a Mojo Monday card. Hope everyone is having a good start to the week...Wow--last week of 2011!

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

CPS 239 and Lawnscaping 19 Challenge

Hi everyone!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday! I'm actually home alone--which means I get to play in my room! :) My men are off at our church's apple festival and, since I'm recuperating from a pneumonia bout, I'm home resting (and playing a bit, too!).

There's a couple of challenges I had hoped to sink my inky fingers into. The first was a sketch challenge from CPS. Here's the great sketch!

The other challenge had been posted for a bit but I'd been too sick to play along..til today! :) Lawnscaping's challenge was to do some layering/dimension elements on your card. Here's the official pic of the challenge.

The sketch lends itself to some dimension so it was great to incorporate both into my card. Here it is:

I started out with kraft-colored cardstock that I inked up using vintage photo distress ink. I then used 2 strips of KI Memories pattern paper that I cut using an old Creative Memories wave cutter. I punched out 2 circles--one in white and one in teal. The white circle I decided to use the script Cuttlebug embossing folder and add some dimension to the circle. The card kindda reminds me of going to the beach and the script seemed to remind me of writing in the sand. I changed the color of the circle, though, and used shabby shutters distress ink to have it give some more color to the card. When I started assembling the card, I kept thinking the brown background needed something. So, I took my "happy" definition stamp from Hero Arts and stamped it in vintage photo. Just wanted a subtle pattern in the background. I adhered the strips of pattern paper and the circles. But it was missing something...so I grabbed some pearls and that made me happy! :) I used a spellbinders label for the sentiment die cut and then stamped Happy Birthday in vintage photo ink.

LOVED the sketch! Hope you can play along!
Pat

MOJO 207, WMC 69, and Lawnscaping Challenge #18

Hi everyone!

We are having a quiet, rainy Sunday here at home...and we're loving it! The hubby is working on his photography blog and the kids are playing with Legos and I got to enjoy some playtime in my room!

Where to even begin with all the challenges?! Well, like I said, it had been a busy week so I knew the MOJO challenge, found here, would have to wait til Sunday. Then, I saw the Lawnscaping challenge, found here, and I knew I'd want to try to combine those. Their challenge was to use text on a card somehow. I LOVE using text--like those "happy" or "thank you" definition stamps from Hero Arts--LOVE THOSE! So, I thought I'd go that route somehow. This morning, though, I saw the Wee Memories challenge, found here, and wondered, "Is there any way to combine all three?". Their challenge was to use pattern paper. And I had just won tons of it from my local scrapbooking store. Is it possible to combine these 3 great challenges? Well, there is! Or, at least, I tried! :)

Here's the sketch I had to work off of for MOJO Monday:

And here's my card.

I started out by going through my 6x6 stack called "Once Upon a Time". Like I said, I won this stack so I thought it'd be neat to try to use some of these "new-to-me" papers. One great thing about paper stacks is that the papers coordinate. So, I picked these 4 papers and basically followed the sketch. My "text" for Lawnscaping was the text paper which looks like a fairy tale story about a princess. I inked up the edges with vintage photo distress ink to add a bit more dimension to it. Then, I punched out a butterfly with my Martha Stewart punch and added some purple gems to bring in the purple background again. I added a braided paper punch to the sentiment and I was done!

Honestly, I don't do many different pattern paper combo cards. I always found them a bit intimidating. I always thought, "there's no way I can combine so many different patterns on a card AND make them look decent". But, using the coordinating paper stack definitely made things easier and the card was fun to build!

Hope you can play along--these were great challenges!

Lawnscaping Challenge #17 and Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 133

Hello again!

There's nothing more fun than a day of creating cards! Having the day off from laundry and cooking and cleaning...and knowing that I can still play a bit tomorrow, too! Yay! And tonight I lucked out w/a great sketch and my favorite technique in 2 challenges. The card was fun and simple to make! Quick and easy are definitely my style!

So, here are the details to the different challenges: SSSC had a sketch to work off of and you can click here to play and here's the sketch.

Over on the Lawnscaping website, the challenge was to do a card using the embossing technique--dry or heat. You can play along here and here's the details to that challenge.

So, without further ado, here's the card I created for both of these challenges.

I knew I wanted to use a snowman and I knew the cuttlebug embossing folder w/snowflakes would be a perfect combo for it. I quickly embossed the blue cardstock and then sponged some white pigment ink over the whole card. I wanted it to look like it was a bit snowy in the back so I wasn't too particular over how the sponging looked. Then, I stamped my Stampin' Up Snowman in black soot distress ink and punched him out. I then colored in the image w/my glaze pens--including the eyes and the arms. I had a friend lend me a small snowflake punch a few months ago and I punched some extras. Using those extras, I created the border for the card. The top 3 snowflakes also have some diamond stickles on them--just hard to see in the pic. Using the orange glaze pen, I added some dots along the border of the circle punch and then mounted the image w/dimensional adhesive. Using an EK Success border punch, I punched out a strip of cardstock for the handwritten sentiment and used the black glaze pen for "Merry Christmas" and the card was done! EASY!!!! :)

Come play along...Embossing is so much fun and the sketch is great, too!

Happy Labor Day!

Lawnscaping Challenge #16

Hi all!

Well, I got to enjoy a bit of down time since we're down to one car for a few days. Not sure if I'm hoping my hubby's car will get fixed soon or not! :)

The latest challenge over on the lawnscaping website is to create a one-layer card. When I started stamping, the very generous Jennifer McGuire found out I was new to the hobby and was kind enough to send me some stamps. I hadn't used this one yet and figured it was time! :)

First, I used some Broken China Distress ink to ink the sky. Then, I took Pine Needles distress ink and used that for the grass. I took the Hero Arts Butterfly Garden stamp and stamped it along the bottom of the card twice in black ink. I colored in the flowers and butterflies using Glaze Pens. Then I added the sentiment on some cardstock that I notched to look like a banner and then used my Tim Holtz piercing ruler to add the faux stitching along the edges of the card. Only details that isn't "one layer" are the clouds. They just didn't show up well when I stamped them on the cardstock so I did stamp those on a separate paper and cut them out and adhered them. Final step was just to adhere the card to the craft-colored base and the card was finished! Definitely a simple card--thought maybe more for young girls since it's kindda cutesy but I enjoyed the challenged! :)

If you want to play along, you can participate here.

Thanks for stopping by!

MOJO 202 and Lawnscaping Challenge!

OK,

I know I've posted quite a bit these last 2 days but we're off to vacation for awhile and not sure when I'll get a chance to post again...SO, might as well play a bit before we leave! :)

Every Monday is the new MOJO sketch and this week's was a fun one! You can find the sketch here:

But I also loved the challenge on Lawnscaping so I thought I'd use the same card for that challenge, too. It's all about distressing on that challenge and you can find the details here:

So, here's my card:

I started out w/some bright orange cardstock that was a bit too bright for the patterned paper. So, I took some vintage photo distress ink and inked it up to tone it down some. Then, using a scrap from DCWV's Stack 6, I laid the main panel down. Then I took my white pen and added faux stitching all around the card. Then, I took my small Fiskars (I think?) butterfly punch and punched out 3 tiny butterflies in a nice maroon color. Decided to add a bit of bling to them w/some light green jewels and then added a few more jewels on the to border of the main panel. Then, I used one of my labels from Sizzix to rest the main butterfly on. I cut it out w/my cuttlebug and used a light blue gelato to watercolor the label. I wanted it a bit darker, though, so I used some Chipped Saphire Distress Ink and inked up the edges of the label. Then, I grabbed my favorite Martha Stewart butterfly punch and adhered that butterfly to the label. I added some antennae to the butterfly w/a black glaze pen and then some pearls to make it stand out even more. The "Happy Birthday" sentiment was from the dollar bin at the Craft Warehouse store. And it was done...I was surprised at how quickly I dreamed it up! :)

Now off to get ready for the vacation...packing...ugh!

Hope everyone's having a great day and thanks for stopping by!