365 Cards--Day #269 Tied Up in Knots

Today's 365 Cards Challenge is called "Tied Up in Knots".  I wanted to try something without ribbon, since I tend to have knotted ribbon on many of my cards.  While shopping today I found some Braiding Cord from Elmer's (yep--the glue company)--it was in the kid-type craft section at Wal-Mart, and I thought I had to try some knotting with it.
   I'm still on a Christmas card kick, and I'm also on a "simple" card kick too (see yesterday's post).  The card I created today is nothing new--everyone has seen the simple triangle paper Christmas tree.  To meet the challenge, however, I added some of the cord to mimic garland and added knots as I wrapped it around--a bit tricky, but I just played around with it a bit. 
   The sparkly PP for the tree is from My Mind's Eye Sweet Dreams Holiday Avenue pack and the sentiment is Studio G

Thanks 4 your time!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #19

Every since I found Dawn's (and all the other PTI girls') blog, I've fallen in love with PTI; unfortunately, being on Maternity leave cuts my budget--especially when I have to factor International shipping rates to Canada.   I've put PTI on my Christmas wish list--we'll see if my Santa Baby (aka hubby) listens.

Needless to say, I don't have any of the PTI cardstock, so I sifted through my scrap stash to find suitable substitutes--afterall, I got into cardmaking to use up my ever growing pile of scraps.

Here's Dawn's great colour challenge:

Here's my card:

The brown cardstock with the light aqua stripes is from My Mind's Eye; the scalloped edge is lavendar, but it's hard to tell in the photo.  I cut the flower from my Cricut using the George cartridge; the leaves are also the ends of hearts cut from the same cartridge.  The sentiment is from Heidi Grace stamped with Colorbox Dark Brown.

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Day #268 Try a Technique

Okay, so I'm such a boob.  I started following 365 Cards in October, and thought the weekly challenges started on Monday, since Pam posted her Top Trio and Weekly All Stars on Mondays (I kinda wondered how she posted results so quickly).  Any-who, I patted myself on the back yesterday for getting all of last weeks challenges done, but I guess I was one day off.  Oh well . . . now I already have 2 done for this week!

I got today's challenge done really quickly--I took advantage of the fact my two little boys decided to sleep in--heaven!!  It was a super easy card to make.  The challenge was to make some "thumbprint art".  I used the top of my thumb to make these hollies--some areas got darker, I think because I printed onto textured paper, so it gives a shaded/dimensional look to them.  I also used my thumb to distress the leaves.  I left the card rather simple.  It's a small, blank Martha Stewart notecard that has embossed edges--perfect to attach to a gift bag with some ribbon.

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Days #266 & 267

Wow--I never thought I would get all of the challenges done for this week, but I did!!  The weekends are always busy around here, and I can only ever get papercrafting done when my two boys are in bed--so I thought I would never get yesterday's and today's card challenges done in time, but here I am.  Keep in mind, it's almost 10 pm as I type this and my battery is charging so I can take a photo, so the lighting will be pretty dismal--I apologize.

Day 266 Challenge - Color Me with This asked us to colour an image with anything but markers. I used pencil crayons, and I have to admit it's my first time using this technique.  I just got into stamping, so I don't have many stamps with large enough images to colour in.  Any way, I coloured the little flowers and then added some rhinestones for some sparkle.  Definitely need to practice--I don't think I've coloured since I was in school ;P   I also tried to take a risk with the colour combo--I've never tried red, purple and brown together.

Day 267 Challenge - Super Sketchy Sunday--wow was this a challenging sketch!

I had no idea what to do, but was inspired by DT Sophie's card.  I rotated the sketch into a portrait, and didn't take the sketch literally.  It was a tad tedious (esp. the cording around the stockings) to make, but I was excited to see the final product once I had the idea in mind; I'm fairly pleased with the results.  I might mount it onto a darker coloured card.  What do you think?

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Day#261 Card Recipe

So I'm a few days late on Monday's challenge, but I finally got it done.  I have no idea why it took me so long; once I got started, it took me 10 minutes.  The challenge was a recipe which asked for:

• 4x4 Card
• Red Background
• Snowflakes (pattern, embellishments, any #, and any variety)
• 1 ribbon
  
• stamped sentiment
  

So here's my card:

Supplies:

Paper: White notecard, DCWV; red pp, My Mind's Eye "Sweet Dreams Holiday Avenue" pack; black, Recollections   Stamp: Snowflake and sentiment are both Studio G mini stamp sets--different packs   Other: Gold embossing powder, Hampton Art; Ribbon, Wrights; background paper, Cosmo Criket

I couldn't, for the life of me, get that bow to go straight--c'est la vie! 
Here in Canada, Thanksgiving was last month--so I'm getting full into Christmas now--even have the carols going and I'm going to start decorating tomorrow!!  I love Christmas!!!

Thanks 4 your time!

365 Cards--Day #265 Simply Put

Wow this was a quicky to make--great challenge for a busy Friday!  Today's challenge was to use "One piece of patterned paper, One embellishment, and One sentiment - that's it!"  I bent the rules a tad by making my embellisment--a bejeweled diecut.

Sorry, my stamped sentiment didn't turn out so well.

Supplies:

Paper: Teal notecard, DCWV Winter set; PP ?? sorry--can't remember   Stamp: Studio G Mini Holiday set    Ink: Cranberry, Colorbox; brown marker, Cricut    Other: rhinestones, Dollar store

Thanks for your time!

365 Cards--Day #264 Keep it to Yourself

Today's challenge over at 365 Cards is to "design a congratulatory card that uses decorations on the outside of the card to help convey the message on the inside of the card".  Therefore, we could not use a sentiment on the front of the card. 
  So . . . who to congratulate ??? . . . well, the idea came to me while watching my son Owen at his swimming lessons today.  Next week will be his last class, and he'll be graduating from the "Starfish" level. During today's class he jumped off the springboard for the first time--the whole time I watched him I was thinking, "You can do it! You can do it!"  I was so nervous but excited for my little boy. So when he did eventually inch his way down to the end of the board and jumped right in, I thought, "Yay!  My little star!!"
I took some of the colours from our local pool as inspiration for the colours in the card I created.  I printed the inside sentiment from Word--"Congratulations" Candara font "You're a Star!" Curlz font.

I sort of regret inking the edges, but I guess it still works.

Supplies:

Paper: White notecard, Halcraft; red, Recollections; rest was all scraps    Ink: Cranberry, Blue Lagoon, Olive Pastel and Dark Brown, all Colorbox    Stamp: Star, Studio G Mini Holiday "No Peeking" set   Ribbon: Silver Elastic Cording, Westrim Crafts; brown ribbon is repurposed

Thanks for your time!

 

365 Cards--Day #263 Ad Inspired

Today's challenge over at the 365 Cards blog was Ad Inspired.  Here's the ad:

The wall painting and paisley pillow in the image reminded me of a little flower border stamp I have from Stampology.  Lately, I've been obsessed with creating patterned paper by repeating borders; so I tried it here--I guess it's sort of my "stripes"  The circle gems are evoked by the repeated circle type pattern on the bed spread.

Supplies:

Paper: White notecard, Halcraft; blue strip, Fancy Pants    Stamps: Floral border stamp, Stampology; "Thank you", See-Ds Phrases Collection   Ink:  Dragonfly Black and Blue Lagoon, Colorbox    Other:  blue gems, ChatterBox; ribbon is repurposed

Thanks for your time!

365 Cards--Day #262 Color Scheme Challenge

I haven't done a  365 Cards Challenge in a while; I've been busy working on some Christmas gift projects.  But I got inspired by this colour scheme challenge today:

I'm so focused on Holiday cards right now, so I created one with these not-so-traditional Christmas colours.  The Offray ribbon in "Sherry" has become one of my favs--really rich, warm colour. (I really need a new camera though; these photos don't do it justice)

Supplies:

Paper:  Black notecard, DCWV; Plum cardstock, Bazzil; blue and gray from my paper scraps   Stamps: "Merry Christmas", Recollections; ornament, Studio G    Ink:  Dragonfly Black and Heliotrope; Colorbox   Other: "Sherry" colour ribbon, Offray; Liquid Pearls, Ranger; clear embossing powder, Stamp-n-Stuff; foam adhesive; chain from my junk drawer

Thanks for stopping by!

EBTKS First Sketch Challenge

I came across the Everything But The Kitchen Sink blog while reading Winter Sims' blog (super talented paper crafter!).  I missed out on a challenge they had several weeks ago that had you use part of magazine ad/flyer in your card--I do that all the time, so I was disappointed to miss it.  Any-who, this is their first "sketch" challenge, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Here's the sketch:

Here's my card:

I had all of these small scraps of Christmas themed paper from a project I was working on last week (Christmas tree chipboard album); they were still sitting on my desk, so I thought I'd save them from the recycle bin and use them for this challenge; after all, the paper was already coordinated from the pack.

Supplies:
Paper: Bazzill cardstock in "Quicksand"; K&Company Peppermint Twist Mat Pad; My Mind's Eye "Sweet Dreams Holiday Avenue" pack (red paper for ornament).  Stamp: "Merry Christmas", Recollections.   Ink: Distress Ink Walnut Stain   Ribbon: Silver Elastic Cording, Westrim Crafts


Thanks for stopping by!

ABC Scrapbook Album

I created an ABC Scrapbook album for my niece Brooke.  Each page highlights a letter of the alphabet while highlighting her first 8 years of life.  She loved the gift.  Now I have to start working on one for her brother!!Here are some of my favourite pages: Cover, "G"rand-daughter", "S"chool Days, "T"rick or Treat, and  e"X"traordinary beauty . . .

Owen Layouts

The following are some of my favourite layouts I designed for my 3 year old son Owen's album.  I do a bit of digital scrapbooking--for journaling and for creating many of my titles with TextArt--gives you a lot of freedom!

Christmas Gift Tags

Kristina Werner started her "Holiday Card Series" over at her blog this week.  She's posting a video each day for 25 days!!  Yippee.  Today she posted these ubber cute gift tags, so I had to make some--the little one is napping, and my 3 year old is playing (it's great having my crafting corner right next to his play area).  So, these are the few I just whipped up.  I'm watching my niece and nephew on Friday, since they have the day off school, and these are going to be great for craft time--perhaps some teacher gifts! I'm also going to make a bunch of them for all my cousins--my aunt has an annual Holiday get-together with all of her nieces in early December; these will make perfect little gifts for all of them.

The great thing about these little tags is that you can use your scraps to embellish!

Supplies:

Tags: Cricut Cartridge "George and Basic Shapes"  set at 4"    Paper: Kraft cardstock, Recollections; scraps

Stamps: "Merry Merry" stamp set from Recollections    Ink: Colorbox in Dark Brown and Cranberry; Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick; Gold Stickles    Ribbon: Celebrate It in red