Just Peachy

It just so happens that I was eating a peach when I got the details for today's challenge at 365 Cards.  The actual challenge is to make peach the dominant color, but I figured that nothing goes better with peach than peaches!

I used chalks to color the fruit, then used an eraser to add highlights back in.  The sentiment is computer generated.  This one is a really simple layout, but I like the details of the peach.

I hope you all are having a fantastic summer! Thanks for stopping by :-)

Makeover!

Hey there, friends.  I tried to spruce this blog up for fall with a new background and some fall-ish colors.  Whaddya think?

I've got a new card for you today for 365 Cards' challenge.  Day 235 is a Pick 3: Three patterns, three colors and three embellishments.  Our sponsor for this week is Catherine Pooler.  <-- Click to check out her website full of fun ideas and awesome Stampin' Up products :-)  Here's what I came up with for the challenge:

Your turn!  Go take a peek at the other fabulous creations from this week and then jump in a try a challenge or two... or seven :-)

HA!! I did it! (Part One)

At the risk of driving all of you completely bonkers, I've been playing catch up with the challenges at 365 Cards and not posting them as I go... So I have SIX cards sitting here, waiting to be revealed.  Sheesh.  I think I'm gonna split this up into two posts to make it easier.  SO, here's the first few...

Day 96, Color Scheme

Green, Pink, Purple, Yellow and Orange

I had a really hard time getting started with this one.  It's not my favorite, but the cupcake turned out kind of cute.

Day 97, Supersize It

Card dimensions = 8.5" x 5.5"

The reason I chose this sentiment is because I can't think of why you would need a gigantic card like this unless there were gonna be a whole bunch of people writing in it. Lol. But this is coming from a girl to like to keep things short and sweet. I know a couple people who could probably fill this whole thing up in no time ;-)

Day 98, Super Sketchy Sunday

Click the link to see the sketch!

This one is a little bit out of my usual style, I think.  But I really like how it turned out.  The green and gold color scheme is kind of neat.  It looks more sparkly in person :-)

Thanks for taking a look! If you wanna go straight to part two, CLICK HERE.

All Sorts of Bloggy Goodness

Hey there everyone!  Just wanted to make a quick post and encourage you all to check out the Memorial Day blog hop going on at Operation Write Home "Stars & Stamps".  There are something like 150 participants with awesome cards, tips, ideas and BLOG CANDY! :-)  I'm not in the hop, but I think these gals have a great thing going here and I'm planning on making it a summer project to get some cards sent in.  So go check it out,

STARTING HERE.

And just for the heck of it, here's a card that I made a while ago and never posted:

Check back on Monday for a new challenge from Scrap It With a Song and some good sappy stuff in honor of Memorial Day :-)

Should I Cry Or Dance For Joy?

Well, today has been a little bittersweet for me.  It was the last day of aftercare at the preschool where I work.  I'm looking forward to an awesome summer break, but I sure am going to miss those little boogers :-)

Yesterday they called all of the kids together and they gave us a card (signed by all of the kids) and a gift.  It was super sweet.  Then one of the teachers (who happens to be my aunt) asked them, "Now, what is the most special gift you can give to Miss Hannah and Miss Julie?"

Halie:  "A puppy!"

No.

Shaili:  "A kitten?!"

Uh, no.

Kadyn: "A SNAKE!"

Definitely no.  Correct answer:  A hug.  And say "thank you."  But it sure was funny. Haha.

Here are a couple of cards that I made for a few of the teachers that we see everyday:

On the insides, I used these super-cute stamps by Inkadinkadoo:

I think these are funny anyway, but when you work with little kids you realize-- Yeah, they really do say stuff like that!

More Cards, Less Blah-Blah-Blah

Okay, friends.  I've only got about 15 minutes to make this post, but if I don't do it now I'll ended up posting an entire week's worth of challenges on Saturday, and that would be ridiculous (not that it isn't already). I'm gonna have to skimp on the commentary for this one, but enjoy the pictures, okay?




Sunday, Day 42-Super Sketchy Sunday

The rest of this week's challenges are "White Space" challenges and they are whoopin' my butt!  The challenge is to keep your all of your embellishments and whatnot inside the designated space and everything else is left "blank".


Monday, Day 43
I'm sad to say we've been needing a few of these lately.  But I think it turned out pretty and hopefully it will be a blessing to someone going through a rough time. :-)

Tuesday, Day 44
This one is also for this week's Tuesday Trigger: Lovely as a Rose challenge @ Moxie Fab World.  I got my inspiration from the colors in the photos, but also from Samantha's project with the paper flowers.

Wednesday, Day 45
When I saw this challenge, it just reminded me of butterfly wings.  I did turn the sketch sideways for this one.  And I probably cheated just a leeeetle bit with the stamp and the black matting. Hehe. Nobody's perfect :-)

Thursday, Day 46
I love this paper! I found it on clearance too, which makes it 10% prettier. Haha.  I also used it on the Sunday sketch.

YAY! All done-- and a few minutes to spare! Lol.  Thanks for coming by to look at my cards :-)

Whoa! Catch-up Time!

Friday night I left for a weekend retreat with the student ministry at my church. We had an awesome time and even though it was super cloudy, we never had any rain that kept us from any of our activities. One of the events of the weekend was for each group to choreograph a song for a lip-sync competition. My group of 7th grade girls did a FANTASTIC job. The video of their routine is at the end of this post--it's pretty awesome :-)

Aaaannnd because I was gone all weekend, I got behind on the 365 Cards challenges. But, I'm all caught up!! Here are all my entries for Friday through today:

Friday, Day 12 "Circle Frenzy"
Include 20 or more circles from at least two sources.
Some of the circles are from the patterned paper, some are punch and some are hand drawn.




















Saturday, Day 13 "A Whole New Dimension"
Take an image and... raise some portion of it off the page to give it dimension.
The two flowers are raised off of the image.



















Sunday, Day 14 "Super Sketchy Sunday"
Click on link to see sketch.




















Monday, Day 15 "Ad-Inspired"
Click on link to see ad.
















Tuesday, Day 16 "Opposites Attract"
Feature a pair of opposite images on your card - sun/moon, sun/rain, boy/girl, etc.



















If you made it all the way to the end of this post, bless your heart. Lol. Thanks so much for checking out my blog :-) And now, if you have yet a few more minutes to spare, check out the lip-sync my girls did this weekend... If you go to the actual YouTube page, you can see it a lot better!

I Like Saturdays :-)

Hooray for the weekend :-) Today has been exactly what a Saturday should be. Didn't have to be anywhere or do anything in particular-- just hung out at my craft table.

This first card is for yesterday's challenge at 365 Cards. We're scraplifting Sophie's style which Pam described as "clean and simple." I can do that! Haha. For my take on Sophie's card, I used her layout. I LOVE kraft paper! I almost never use it because I never have any around, but I made an impromptu trip to Archiver's last night and finally remembered to pick some up! Anyway, here's my card:


This next one is for Day 364, and we're scraplifting Vicky's style! "Soft colors and clean lines" were the themes for this challenge. I loved how Vicky created her own background for her card with stamps and ribbon. I paper pieced the background papers for my card. I also popped the flower up for some dimension.


Now I'm off to do the only thing on my schedule for today-- Babysit Hang out with my cousins :-)

**Almost forgot! A few of you asked about the dress card from Thursday's post-- The skirt is just pleated paper. I folded the paper and then trimmed it, but I was playing around with it again this afternoon and it's easier if you start with a half-circle piece of paper. A lot less paper gets wasted! I cut the bodice freehand, then finished it off with a piece of ribbon around the waist.**

Big Thank You

Hello, fellow craftomaniacs :-) Tonight was fun... got to hang out with some friends from church at good ol' Applebees, then headed downtown to hear a friend play. It was pretty fantastic. He's fun to watch... you should check him out.

Today's card is for the Day 361 challenge at 365 Cards. Our inspiration for the day is Kristie. I always love her work. Clean lines and simple elegance. I tried to keep this "modern" looking with the patterned paper. I liked the framed sentiment on Kristie's original card, so I scraplifted that for my project. After the fact, I think I would've liked the "Thanks" to be a little smaller, but it works.

As always, thanks for looking! I love reading your comments :-)

Workin' On My Scavenging Skills!

Okay, so... Today the challenge at 365 Cards was to use a toile pattern on our project. Of all the things in scrap-land, this is one thing I just don't have! I thought about printing a pattern off the internet, but our printer doesn't always cooperate. I poked around in my fabric stash, but I pretty much knew there wasn't anything like that in there. I did find a dress of my sister's that would've worked perfectly, but I have a feeling that she wouldn't have been happy to find a chunk of it missing next time she put it on. :-)

Next, I went through two boxes of wrapping paper and a box of gift bags ('cause that worked yesterday. lol) hoping that maybe, just maybe there was something in there. No such luck. So finally I found what looked like a stash of old "emergency" cards for several miscellaneous occasions. ONE card had this pretty floral toile pattern, so I said to myself, "I can work with that!" I felt a little bad about cutting up a perfectly good card, but it was reeeeally boring and we never would've used it anyway. lol.

So anywho, here's what I came up with:

Boom de clap de clap

I've got that ridiculous song stuck in my head and it won't get out. I don't even KNOW the whole thing. Lol.

I've two new cards to show ya today. The first is for the recipe challenge at 365 Cards. This challenge seemed WAY easier than it turned out to be! This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I started, but I like the end result. My biggest challenge is usually finding patterned paper that matches-- in colors that I like. These papers are from DCWV. The roses are based off of a tutorial I found.

There IS glitter on here. The photo doesn't quite do it justice, though. Haha... You can see it on the bottom edge of the green. Both the glitter and the embossing powder are from CTMH.

I found a new challenge blog yesterday, ABC Challenge. They're just starting another round, so I thought I'd jump in. This week is "A" for "Anything goes with the added option of animals." For this card I made one of my paper-pieced puppies :-) I love making these. Maybe one of these days I'll put together some kind of tutorial thing.


Thanks for looking! I love reading your comments :-)

I Ain't Clowning...

...but my mom is. Lol. No, seriously.

Anyway, she asked me to make some clown-themed cards. It took me a while to figure out how to make a "cute" clown and not a "gives-children-nightmares" clown. These guys aren't too creepy...


I haven't quite decided how the finished card is going to look, but I wanted to show you what I had so far. I used a CM circle cutter to make the little curvy pieces for the hat brim and mouth, then rounded off the edges. The "hair" is pieced together with three 1" flower punches. Tiny little stars for eyes, then to finish it off, a red circle for a nose. A flat red nose would've been fine, but I filled them in with Diamond Glaze for a little extra pop and shine.

Keepin' it Simple

It's already 2:15am, but guess what! I managed to do a whole week's worth of challenges from 365 Cards! Woot.

For these three cards I kind of went back to my clean-and-simple look. This first card is for Day 138 where the challenge was to use a quote. From the mind of an 8 yr old... Haha. I love this stamp :-) I paper-pieced the cake together.


Next we have a card for Day 139's Paper Piecing challenge. This was fun... I hadn't really used this technique before.


And finally, for Day 140- Paint! I like using paint on cards. For this one I splattered the paper, then painted the flowers on top.

Happiness is...

paper, ribbon and glue. For sure.

Today I had some time to kill before going to a BBQ, so I got a couple of challenges done.

This first card is for Color Throwdown #43. I don't use SU supplies, but the colors are the closest I have to Lavender Lace, Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant :-)



My second card is for this week's Use It! Challenge. For this project we were supposed to use:

1. Square card base (check!)
2. Theme: Summer (sort of check. lol. I've got the bright pink and orange for summer colors, but I didn't really have any "summer" sentiment stamps)
3. Embellishments: Flower(s), ribbon, pin(s) and twine (check, check, check, check!)
4. Tools: Punches (check!)

New cards!

So... It's been a few days since I've posted anything, so yesterday I did some catch up work and made some new cards to list on Etsy. Here's what I did:

<-- These cards are very similar to one of the sympathy cards I made last week. I still love the little floaty petals :-)

The second design is also one that I've used before on a different project. I like to call this my "moon man" card. Hehe.


And that's all there is to say about that. If you LOVE these, they're both for sale in my Etsy shop. Check it out!

Black & White Butterflies

Hmmm... what to say? It's been a long, but peaceful day. The rain has been coming down off and on-- thankfully it let up any time we needed to be outdoors ;-) We keep getting little teasers of spring, but it doesn't stick around very long (the high for today was 79 degrees and it's on it's way down to 25 degrees!).

Christina and I spent a little time outside taking down Christmas lights (probably a little overdue) and cleaning out the gutters... well, she cleaned out the gutters. Haha.

I did get a chance to make a new set of cards today! I'm usually more into paper piecing than stamping, but I wanted to try out some new butterfly stamps that mom picked up. Perfect for spring!!

I also wanted to try yet another card challenge. This time it's OCC's "Add a Doodle" challenge. My "doodle" is from a set of clear stamps by Rhonna Farrer-- it's one of my favorite sets. The butterfly stamp and the greeting are both from Inkadinkadoo. Hope you like it!

Second Batch

As promised, here I am posting at some ridiculous hour in the morning. I have to work in the morning, so I really should be sleeping. Oh well.

I finished up the thank you cards. (Finally!) There are some more ladybugs and flowers-- can't go wrong with those, right? Nothing too crazy going on with these cards, so I'll just get right to the pictures:

Many, Many Thanks

I guess it's a sign of a blessed person when one has an occasion to write 27 thank you notes. My mom asked me, this morning, to make some thank you cards for her. So that's what I've been working on for the last several hours. Thirteen down, fourteen to go.

First, I experimented with kraft paper again. I really like the ink-on-paper look. Then I tried a variation on a theme.


Next, I made several cards with pieces from a set of paper by Amy Butler. I LOVE this paper. It has such a cool texture. It feels more like fabric than paper.


The last one I made (so far) was the lady bug. I love making ladybugs. They're just so easy to make, and they're SUPER cute. Haha. I'll probably make some more cards tonight. Hopefully I'll get to post those either during the wee hours of the morning, or tomorrow afternoon. Check back for those!

Musical Thank You Card

Gina Marie told me she needed "help" coming up with a thank you card for one of the gentlemen on the band at church. Guy cards are always a little challenging. This is what we came up with:


A quick copy of some complicated Mussorgsky sheet music and "Voila!" a lovely patterned paper for the background. Gina is a big fan of inked edges, so you'll see evidence of that. We matted the "Thank You" stamp with dark red and black. You can go wrong with that color combination-- it's so elegant looking.

It was looking a little boring, though, so we added a strip of red and two silver brads. The circles around the brads were punched from "inking practice" on some scrap paper. It's not exactly my usual style, but I like the finished product. A successful collaboration between me and Gina Marie is always something to be happy about. Haha!