365 Cards--Day #305 Divide & Conquer

Wow--so glad to actually get some time today to participate in a challenge!!  No party to host, dinner to attend, errands to run, people to visit--just hanging out at home all day with my boys!

Today's challenge at 365 Cards is to Divide and Conquer.  We are to divide the card into quadrants - there should be 4 equal parts and each quadrant should contain one of the following:

1 stamped sentiment

1 punched out item

1 floral embellishment

1 rhinestone

So here's my card:

I got a package of Paper Crush journaling stickers in my stocking from my MIL and thought they'd work great for the 4 quadrants. The stamped sentiment is from Studio G. It's a EK Success leaf punch from K&Company paper.  I can't remember the flower company; brad is Making Memories. Rhinestones are from Michaels.  Bazzil cardstock; Colorbox Dark Brown ink.

Thanks 4 your time!  Going to work on some magazine call submissions!!  Wish me luck!

365 Cards -- Day #304 Sounds Great

WELCOME 365 Cards participants!!  I'm so delighted and honoured that Pam selected my idea for Day #304.  I was excited about this card inspiration challenge, and I can't wait to see what the rest of you come up with!

I'm a fan of the T.V. show Glee, and when I picked up the soundtrack about a month ago, the cover left me with some card-making inspiration.  Here's the CD cover:

A bit tacky, I know, I know; I mean, come-on, yellow and red?!?!  Nevertheless, it left me inspired.  However, to be completely honest, I'm not 100% satisfied with the following card I created.  I wanted to make another, but with the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, I never got around to it.  Hopefully, I'll have time today to create another.

I used my Cricut--George Cartridge to cut out "Thanks" with the red shadow cut-out (although I really like how the red shadow stands out in the "glee" letters).  I want to try it with a "hello" sentiment so there is more shadow showing.  The yellow paper is actually repurposed from an envelope I got in the mail--closest I had to that yellow. 

The coloured backgrounds behind the actors' photos on the soundtrack inspired the different coloured flowers --which are from a Scrapbooking tote package I got last Christmas--can't remember the manufacturer (sorry).  Brads are Making Memories.  I stamped the stems and inked the yellow edges with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain.  I also added the faux stitching with a white gel pen--although I won't have to faux stitch for long--Santa brought me a sewing maching for Christmas!!

Any way--simple card to make!  I'm planning to go through all my CDs and DVD covers for further inspiration!

Thanks 4 your time!

EBTKS Sketch Challenge #2--Scrapbook Layout

Okay, so I told you yesterday I'd also being doing a scrapbook layout for the EBTKS Sketch Challenge #2 . . . and I finished it already!!  I really liked that sketch, I guess ;)

So here's a reminder of what the sketch looks like:

Here's my layout:

I'm in a rush--so I'll post my supplies list later.  I was pumped about using my new Cricut Storybook cartridge--finally came in the mail this week!!

Thanks 4 your time!

EBTKS Sketch Challenge #2

I was so bummed when I never got around to finishing my card for the last EBTKS challenge--my idea was to colour the toothpick into a pencil and adhere it next to the end of the sentiment, which I would've hand written "Just a note"--oh well, perhaps I'll get to it after the holidays.

So I jumped on EBTKS's Sketch Challenge--be sure to participate--it's a great blog (don't worry ladies, I've already got your logo on my sidebar!).  Here's the sketch:

Here's the card I made (sorry about the photo--we're planning on investing in a good camera during the Boxing Day sales!):

Now here's what makes this card even more appropriate for all you EBTKS fans--that charcoal coloured tag is repurposed--it was the price tag from the new GUESS purse my sister just got me for my birthday!  When I snipped it off--I knew I couldn't toss it. [click on the imgae to enlarge] I'm always looking at how to reuse things into my papercrafting ;)

The damask stamp is from TPC Studio--I've been using it repeatedly!!  Added some tiny pink rhinestones to the centres.  I used my large corner punch to create the scallop edge.  Sentiment is from Heidi Grace.  What I loved about the B&W colour scheme is that you could switch out that pink for any other colour--I just used some scrap pink PP and found ribbon that matched.

I'm liking this sketch--so I've already started my scrapbook layout for my baby boy's visit with Santa . . . Stay Tuned!!!

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Days #289 & 290

Okay, super excited today because I won a prize over on the Moxie Fab blog for leaving a comment last week--woot-woot!!  Can't wait to find out what it is!!!

So I have two days of 365 challenges to post today.  I whipped up two cards last night for yesterday's challenge Day #289 Musical Monday: "base your card on a song".  So . . . while listening to some Christmas tunes and skimming through the newspaper flyers and junkmail, I found two junkmail ads that were begging to be repurposed into cards and they each reminded me of a Christmas song.  Since I still hadn't made cards for my parents, I thought I'd repurpose these ads into cards.

The first one is for my mom; the image from an ad to a local florist/nursery reminded me of "The Holly and the Ivy".  I just generated the sentiment on Word and printed it onto vellum.  Glitter cardstock is from My Mind's Eye.

The second one is for my dad; the silvery image from a ReMax ad reminded me of "Silver Bells".  The letters are stickers from an old set I had, but they were too light in colour, so I inked them up with Colorbox Blue Lagoon and then embossed them to add a bit of sparkle. I'm still deciding if I'm going to add a holiday sentiment somewhere.

Day #290 is Tuesday's Trio--we had to use the following 3 items somewhere on our card: Chipboard, Blossom and Button.  I've been really loving Damask prints, and love creating patterned paper with the new TPC Studio set I got, so I stamped that onto the bottom of the card, and then added the Chipboard-Blossom-Button flower.  [Sorry--my flash setting was driving me nuts today]

Gotta run--baby is starting to stir from his nap!  Thanks 4 your time!!

365 Cards--Day #287 Stampin' Saturday

I've come to discover that many of us 365 participants don't always like to follow the rules completely--teehee Today--I'm going to be one of those rule breakers, but I don't think it's a huge offence  ;) 
   Day 287's challenge is the following:
 "Every aspect of the card must be stamped - no patterned paper (although you don't have to create a       fancy stamped background), and you must have a stamped sentiment. No other embellishments unless        you stamp those, too - like a DIY sort of thing."

So . . . my creation does use just stamping (including sentiment), but I didn't quite create a "card"; well, I could argue that they're sort of like mini cards . . . the kind you attach to a gift (aka--gift tags).  I made this set of 10 last night  for one of my son's preschool teachers.  I'm about to go make another 10 for his other teacher (I may try a different style).  They're cut into a tag shape, but you could easily tranfer the designs onto small 2"x2" folded gift cards.  Also, I did add the cord for the tag ties, but I couldn't really stamp them--the cord was already brown; any distressing wouldn't show up.

Supplies:
Stamps: Fiskars Kimberly Poloson and TPC Studio.  The sentiments are Studio G.  Ink: Colorbox Olive and Cranberry; Distress Ink, Walnut Stain  Other:  Tags cuts with Cricut George cartridge; Elmers braiding cord

Thanks 4 your time!

Moxie Fab All Creatures Great & Small Challenge

Okay--at first I wasn't even going to do this challenge, as I don't own any stamps or paper with animals, but when I was at Michaels yesterday I just happened to find these irresistible foam stickers of animals.  I bought a lady bug set and monkey set, so I ended up making 2 cards for this challenge!

I made the first one for my BFF--it features a small creature indeed--

Don't you just love that lady bug? I think she's darling!  I added the holly leaves to suggest she doubles as a holly berry!  The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is Studio G, and I hand wrote the "Lovely Lady".

I made the second card for our little boy--

Okay--isin't that monkey so fun?  I can't wait to make other cards with the other stickers that came with the set.  The leaf is also from that set. I paper pieced the little Santa hat out of scraps to give that cute monkey a festive look! The hanging monkey was also just asking to hold onto something--so why not the sentiment? I used the same "Merry Christmas" Studio G sentiment and hand wrote the rest--I recalled a Word font called Monkey Chunks as my inspiration.  The glittery cream paper is My Mind's Eye and the cranberry base is Recollections.

Thanks 4 your time!  I had a lot of fun with this challenge!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #20

Well, Dawn has challenged us with another great colour combo over on her blog. That girl has such an eye for colour!!  I love everything she does!

  Now, I had to scrounge for some rust colour and improvised as best I could.

Supplies:

Paper: Bazzill Quicksand; Recollections Cream; Light Aqua scallop edge is a scrap from a snowflake paper from K&Company;  Brown scallop edge was a scrap piece of brown card stock that I darkened with Distress Ink   Stamps: Heidi Grace Sentiment; Fiskars Kimberly Poloson Flourishes  Ink:  Colorbox Burnt Sienna; Distress Ink Walnut  Other:  EK Success scallop punch; embossed the chipboard button with Hampton Art Copper ("rust" looking) EP; Elmers braiding cord; repurposed ribbon.

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Day #284 DIY

Been off the 365 challenges the last few days--Holiday "busy"ness!  But tomorrow is my hubby's birthday (it's mine too actually--yes we share the same birthday), and I had to make him a card.  I figured, I may as well link it to a challenge.  Day 284 Challenge is a DIY--"Design your own sketch and create a card based on that sketch."

So here is my sketch--rough one indeed:

And here's my card:

The large flourish stamp I used and embossed was from a new stamp set I picked at a Liquidation store for only $1.88 (can you believe that?!).  It's Kimberly Poloson Flourishes set by FISKARS.  Sentiment is a sticker from an old set I had.  Here's a closer look:

I'm not completely thrilled with the results--sort of rushed to make it today; kiddos kept me rather busy.  I do love the stamp set though, and can't wait to play with it some more.

Thanks 4 your time!

DCRU Challenge -- Let's See a Gift

Just saw this challenge over at the Die Cuts R Us blog--they want to see a Handmade gift, and I just happen to be finishing a gift for my wonderful aunt.  She started a Christmas tradition many years ago with her 5 nieces (she has two boys, so she cherishes her relationship with us girls).  Every year in early December, she does something special with us--out to see a play, crafts at her place, weekend at a Niagara-on-the-Lake, dinner and a play, a Murder Myster dinner--every year it's different!!  Then once we started having our own children, she started something for them too-- annual candy train making, bowling, and last year we spent the weekend in Toronto and braved the cold of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade!! 

Any way, next weekend we're all going out to an outdoor old-fashioned Christmas event (whatever that means--it's a surprise for all of us).  She goes out of her way every year.  We've thanked her many times, but this year I wanted to thank her with something HANDMADE.  So, I made a chipboard Christmas Tree album with pictures and thank-you messages from each of her great-nieces and nephews.  Hopefully, she'll hang this on her tree; although, my sister (who works with her at her Spa) thinks she'll keep it at her work station as a brag book to show of all of her cute nieces and nephews to her clients.

Sorry--these photos aren't that great . . .

The little red-head in the following shot is my Owen looking at the Candy train he made last year--have no idea where his message went (I tried the Vellum adhesive by GlueDots--have to say, not completely impressed)

I used a K&Company mini Christmas Pack for all the co-ordinating paper, and the chipboard album was a cheapie $1.50 one from Michaels--how great is that!  I tried to make each page different--some of the pages are missing messages because I'm still waiting on the kids' responses.

Well, thanks 4 your time!  I think I'm just making the deadline on this challenge!! Phew!

365 Cards--Day #280 Kind of Like a Candy Cane

Quick post today--hoping to get the Christmas tree up this morning . . .

I took today's challenge at 365 Cards Kind of Like a Candy Cane more literally--I actually have candy canes on my card rather than just using red and white stripes.  Pretty simple card to make.

Cardstock is Recollections, Candy Cane diecuts are from K&Company, sheer ribbon is Wrights, and I hand wrote the sentiment.

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Day #278 A Little Wordy

   I was so happy to see today's 365 Cards' challenge--"Cover the background of your card with words"!  Why?  Because I just bought a large Stampin' Up background stamp--Dictionary definition of "love".  The best part was that I bought it for only $5 off Kijiji--someone's was clearing out her stash--yay for me!

   Any way, I figured this was a great background for a Christmas card for my hubby.  I'm not 100% crazy about it--sort of wish I hadn't included the flower petals (honestly, I was trying to cover a mistake), but seeing as how my husband always seems impressed with anything I create, I'm sure it'll be fine.  

 The PP is My Minds's Eye--fittingly called "Everyday 'Love' Heart Imprints".  I inked the edges of the PP with Colorbox Cranberry. I created the sentiment using text boxes in Word with the following fonts: Courier New (which mimics the stamp's font), Castellar and Pristina. 

   I cut out the heart free hand, covered it in glue and then sprinkled Martha Stewart yellow gold glitter--another great deal--70% off at Michaels after Halloween--crazy--they sell the exact same stuff now at full price but with Christmas packaging.  How silly!  I'm all about getting great deals!!  Added some glitter to the flowers too.  Set the sentiment and heart with foam dimensional adhesive.  Here's a closer look:

Well, thanks 4 your time!  Off to decorate the gingerbread house with my kids!  Yum--candy!!

You Make My Heart Melt--2 Challenges

So this is my first time submitting a card for two challenges.  While blog hopping  this morning, I noticed a Mojo Monday sketch (I always check that blog, but have never tried them), that I thought would work with my idea for today's 365 Cards Day #278 challenge "You Can't Miss It"--which is "Take an image, and don't add color to the image, except for one element, which should be glittered. The rest of the image should be a solid color (any color is fine). The idea is that the glittered portion of the image really pops!"


Here's the Mojo Monday sketch:

Here's my card:

I embossed the heart on my snowman (copyright free image I found on Google again) with some dark pink powder from Hampton Art.  I also typed up my sentiment in Word with Segoe font.  The glittery PP is My Mind's Eye--I've used it on two other cards this week, so I still had scraps on my desk.  I used my Cricut to cut the scallop border around the snowman (Calligraphy cartridge).

Here's a close up--hard to take a photo that really shows the heart "pop"

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Days #276 & #277

Day #276 You're an Angel challenge asked us to use an angel and/or the word angel.  Now, I don't have a stamp of either, nor did I have any angelic-type paper (although, now that I think of it, I do have some Christmas wrap with angels I could've used--oh well, I'm already posting; maybe I'll post a second card later).  Just found a copyright free image from Google that I coloured in with pencil crayons.  This is only the second time I've tried a card using coloured pencil--never with such a large image.  Normally, not my thing, but I'll try anything for a challenge.  My two boys and I are red-heads, so I decided to make the angel one too.  The tiny "O Holy Night" sentiment is a stamp from Studio G.  I also added some purple rhinestones on the angel`s gown for a little sparkle.

Day #277 Just a Fraction challenge asked us to use only part of an image.  I had tried this before, but never submitted it for a challenge.  This large snowflake flourish is from Inkadinkado.  I stamped it so that it would go off the edge of the white cardstock, then used silver embossing powder.  Added some bling to compliment the sparkle of the embossing.  I did some of these in different colours for a set--which you can check out on one of my earlier postings HERE (last pic in the posting, so scroll down)

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Day #274 & #275

Wow!  I was so excited about my card getting selected for the Top Trio yesterday on the 365 Cards blog!!  I only started participating in the challenges a couple of weeks ago, so that news had me walking with a bit more of a spring in my step all day yesterday.  Thanks 365!!

I was so busy all last week, so I missed a bunch of challenges, but I want to try to get all of this week's done (now that all my Christmas shopping is done, it might actually happen) . . . any way, here are my cards for Sunday and Monday's challenges . . .

Day #274 Super Sketchy Sunday
Here's the sketch:

Michaels had Clear Stamps set 40% off this week!!! So I picked up a cute Christmas Glamour set from TPC Studio.  I had to stop myself from buying more ;)  This set also has some great damask prints and flourishes on it that I can use all year long, so it was well worth it.  Here`s my card which uses the damask type print and a sentiment from that set (the sentiment is on one line, but I did some masking to split the sentiment so as to fit on my centre block:

Day #275 -- 'Tis the Season

  The challenge was simply to use lots of Red and Green on your card.  Now, I don't know about "lots"; I'm more of a clean and simple style card maker, so I have 2 cards for this challenge.

  For Card #1 I used the same stamp set I mentioned above.  I heat embossed the ornaments with cream embossing powder (BTW-there is another ornament in this set that I didn't use--too long my card).  The PP is from My Mind's Eye Sweet Dreams Holiday Avenue pack (I used the same PP in the card above). Sure, there isin't alot of green--only the ribbon (Wrights), but when I tried mounting the cream cardstock onto some green, I didn't like it.  I also thought of adding some greed rhinestones to the ornaments, but they didn't look right either.

Card #2 also uses a lot more red than green.  I made this a while ago (I think I also posted it here on my blog with a some Christmas card sets I made--but never submitted it to a challenge).  Super easy card to make.  Recollections paper for the card, and some cute K&Company glittered die cuts.  I stamped "sweet" and distressed the card edges with white ink, and used a white gel pen to hand write the rest of the sentiment.

Well . . . off to get dinner "prep"ed; hope to have some time this evening to tackle yesterday's and today's challenges.

Thanks 4 your time!