A playful card

Hi again,

I wanted to share a card I made late last night. I won a stamp set from The Alley Way and I've been dying to use it. I chose to play along with a sketch from retro sketches and also use some arrows on the card for the Simon Says Stamp challenge. So, here is the sketch and my card: I love this cute little card...it's just so playful! I used the horse from the stamp set I won from The Alley Way and then stamped him in Versafine brown ink and colored him in with my inktense pencils. The sentiment is also from the same set. The background paper is from My Mind's Eye and I die cut some arrows so that the eye would be led to the sentiment. I then punched out 3 hearts and the card was done. It would be a cute card for a young, married couple or maybe a very happily married older couple! ;)

Have a great weekend, everyone! And thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Tuesday Trigger Notion Card

Hi friends!

I know, it's been a long time since I've posted. It's been a long time since I've crafted, too, but I did get some time tonight and I wanted to share a card with you. The fun Moxie Fab site posted a Tuesday Trigger last week that caught my eye. I LOVE using ribbons and buttons and twine on my cards and the challenge was to use notions. So, here's the inspiration photo and my card: I used a beautiful new stamp set called "Beautiful Hymns" from The Craft's Meow. The repeated pattern is actually a small stamp that I stamped using Versamark ink and then heat embossed. And the sentiment has the lyrics of the hymn Amazing Grace. I'm currently loving the gray and soft pink color combo and the ribbon was perfect for this card!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!
Pat

A Pinspired Birthday card

Hi friends! I hope everyone is having a good week. Mine has been interesting, to say the very least. Tonight I'm sharing a card that will be given to a little girl on her birthday. When I saw the latest photo inspiration card on the Pinspired Challenges site, I knew this would be a perfect time to make the card. Here's their photo and my card:

When I looked at the inspiration picture, I could see some cupcakes. So, I chose this yummy cupcake from Hero Arts and then some cute paper from DCWV's Glitter Sweet Matstack and layered it on some brown cardstock. The cupcake was colored in using inktense watercolor pencils--LOVE those pencils! I wanted the cupcake to be nice and glittery so I used some stickles on the frosting and added some glitter to one of the hearts on the cupcakes with a glitter pen. I added the sentiment and some faux white stitching and the card was done! :)

On a personal note, I'm not sure how much I'll be posting in the next few weeks/months. I'll try to post at least once a week but other areas of my life are needing a lot more focus.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!
Pat

Messy fingers!

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! My Sunday was so incredibly quiet--I LOVED it! And I spent most of the day playing in my craft room. By the time the day was done, I had fingers covered in ink and I was a happy girl! :) And speaking of inky and messy fingers, the challenge for this week at Simon Says & Show was to make something that was messy. I went ahead and made 3 cards because I'll be using them as a set so, without further ado, here are my cards.

There's no words to describe how happy using reverse image stamps makes me! I LOVE having to cut up small strips of sponges (I cut up the felt pads that normally go on the distressing tool) and then inking up the images. I love seeing the contrast of colors and playing with different combinations. This time I went for similar colors--light and dark pinks, blues, and purples. Not sure which one is my favorite but since I've never done the blue combination before, that one may win out. After layering the color, I then add some water with a watercolor brush and that helps to blend the colors a bit more. To color the branches, I used my distress marker and it was super easy to add the color. LOVE using distress stuff this way!

Thank you so much for stopping by--and hope you guys get a chance to get messy, too!
Pat

A card for 2 grieving boys...

Hi everyone,

One of the things I enjoy most about cardmaking is that you can be creative and share a card with loved ones. Most of the cards are for happy occasions like a birthday or an anniversary or even a graduation. But there are also sympathy cards that mark the passing of a loved one. Those cards are hard...you try to make them beautiful because you want to honor the memory of someone who was beautiful to a family...but they're still difficult to make.

About a week or so ago, a news story was reported about a young mom who had traveled to Turkey alone on her "dream trip". Her name was Sarai Sierra. She was a photographer from NY--the state where I was raised--and she was a mother of two young boys. Her boys are aged 11 and 9. Mine are 11 and 8. I saw the picture of her all over facebook and on the news and felt bad that, at the time, she was missing. Little did I know that my brother went to school with her uncle. In fact, I have a lot of friends who know this girl's uncle. Her uncle studied theology with my brother. Like I said, I felt sad that she was missing...but when the news came out that she'd been found murdered, my heart broke for her family--and especially for her little boys. I truly can't imagine how hard it must be to tell your children that their parent is gone.

So, tonight I'm sharing the card I'm sending to the kids. I have an address for the uncle who has promised to pass on the card. If you are interested in making a card also, just let me know and I can provide the address.

Like I said, how do you even begin to make a card like this?! I figured I'd focus on the kids and just make a cutesy card that opens up and reads "sending caring thoughts your way". It's just my small way of letting these kids know they're being thought of and prayed for.

Let's all hug our kids a bit tighter tonight,
Pat

A one-layer card

Hi again!

I was able to sneak off into my room and play again this evening. I'm submitting this card in the lastest Lawnscaping challenge and also into the Clean and Simple 2 online card class gallery. The technique used on the card was my "homework" for today...sure beats the homework I was stuck with in school! :) It also happens to coincide with the challenge theme for the Hero Arts blog. Here's the inspiration photo for Lawnscaping's challenge and my card:

This card was fun! I first cut out a mask for the heart using post-it notes. Then, I stamped the sentiment in versamark ink and heat embossed it in white. (The "love" is from the XO stamp set from Hero Arts.) Then, I used my distress ink (barn door) to color in the heart. When you lift off the mask, it's like magic! :) I added a few more hearts that came from the XO stamp set again and I was done. Not bad for making my own mask for the first time...and really easy to mass produce if needed...

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Pat

Falling for You

Hi again,

Well, I chose to watch the Superbowl but got a chance to play once the kids were in bed. I really liked the sketch from unscripted sketches this week and I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it! Love it when that happens!!! Plus, the V's Sweet Ideas blog also wanted us to show them our "love" cards so my card worked for that challenge, too. Here's the sketch and my card:

One of the styles that I find the most difficult is the clean and simple style. I tend to love very elaborate-looking cards (though not time-consuming). And leaving tons of white space is hard for me! So, when the challenge in the online card class was to keep the card clean and simple and embrace the white space, I knew it would be hard. When I saw this sketch, though, I immediately knew I could use my arrow die and make a straight line towards the heart. With the white cardstock on the inside, the arrows really stand out nicely on the card, too. It still looked a bit too plain for me, though, so I added 3 scored lines to divide the card a bit and accentuate the arrows more. I then added the sentiment and chose 3 words with 3 pearls underneath--in the hopes that it would help repeat the pattern and make the card look cohesive. I did add glossy accents to the heart to dress that up a bit but then the card was done. I rounded the corners and fought the impulse of adding more stuff to it... You'd think not having so many elements on a card would make it easier--but it's the opposite for me! It makes me second guess everything! Oh well...overall, I'm happy with it. It's clean and simple and cute! :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!
Pat

XO!

Hi all,

Not sure how many of you are watching the Superbowl today but I'm typing this as we gear up for the game. We have friends over and pizza should be arriving shortly...What remains to be seen if I'll stay the whole game or if I'll disappear and go play in my craft room! :)

I've been taking the online card class called "Clean and Simple 2" and I am playing around with a new technique on this card. I decided to play along with 3 different challenges for this card, too. First, the sketch from retro sketches. Then, I used the color inspiration from ColourQ. Lastly, the CAS-ual Fridays site wanted us to use letter dies on our cards so I'm playing there, too. Here are the badges and my card.

When I started this card, all I knew is that I wanted to incorporate a new technique...In the online class, Jennifer McGuire taught us how to do some gradient stamping and that's what I did here. Although I only used 3 colors, b/c of the way the image was inked it appears like there are more colors. The pattern was then cut out and put on the dark cardstock with white lines to outline the panel. I used my letter dies to cut out the x's and o's and used the Hugs and Kisses sentiment from Hero Arts. I then added some bling to the x's and sentiment and the card was done! :) The card took some practice with different inks but I like how it turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Pat