Sunday, September 30, 2012

Wedding Card

Love & Marriage Challenge card for Less is More
To create this card, I started by hand cutting the two hands. I then used a stylus to create the lines to look like individual fingers and to add more detail.  The cardstock I used was tan so I used a bit of  white and tan chalk to add some highlights.  I cut the sleeve of the man's tuxedo from black and white cardstock and used a Tonic Studio punch to create the sleeve of the wedding gown, adding a few gems to give it some bling.  I hand cut  the layer behind the hands and  used a Fiskars Flourish Template to emboss it.  I added a second layer behind the embossed layer and adhered these layers to a white Studio G card base. This card was inspired by the Love & Marriage challenge at Less is More.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Count on You

This is actually a thank you card...inside, it says...I can always count on you! Thanks so much!  The numerated tags are recycled tags that were once key tags. I  added the ribbon, mounted them on black cardstock and then trimmed around them.  I am submitting this card for the wild card challenge over at Just us Girls.  The challenge is to use numbers on our cards.



Rainbow Note

I created this card for the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  I started by cutting a musical note by hand from heavy tag board, then wrapped it with this colorful rainbow ribbon (I don't know the source).  I added the strips of white, yellow and blue cardstock and wrote the sentiment with a Bic Mark-It. I finished by adding the dotted edge.



Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

Friday, September 28, 2012

Field of Flax

CAS-UAL FRIDAYS has a very interesting challenge this week.  The idea is to be inspired by our own blog header.  Since my header is a photo of the meadow full of flax that is behind my house, I decided to "build a fence" and add bunches of flax.  I created the fence by cutting Core'dinations chocolate cardstock into uneven strips, added detail with Crayola colored pencils and then punched flowers from blue scrap paper with a McGill corner punch. I decided to make the flowers bluer than the flowers on my header because in real life the flax here have such a beautifully intense blue color. After adding grass and stems with a green colored pencil to a piece of light green cardstock , I adhered the flowers and fence. To finish I used a Sakura white gel pen to add the sentiment. 

Googly Eyed Critter


I'm trying to show you the accordion folding on the sentiment...it doesn't photograph well but looks great in real life.

There is a super fun challenge over at Creative Time for Me hosted by Tracy from http://tracyscricutcorner.blogspot.com/. The challenge is to used googly eyes.  Love it! I didn't have to think about this card much. An idea started to brew right away. I started by folding a piece of red cardstock then used my scissors to cut out this little critter. To give it a polka dot look, I  randomly punched holes, attached yellow cardstock to the back and then added the googly eyes. I played around with 3 eyes, but didn't like it as much as with just two. Then I cut my version of arms from yellow cardstock and added some detail with a red colored pencil.  I mounted the critter on DCWV Spring Fling. I also used a Martha Stewart punch to add the border on the green cardstock. For the sentiment, I used a white marker and wrote Happy Halloween on black cardstock then fussy cut around it. To add some dimension, I accordion folded the sentiment and adhered it between the two hands. I used a black card base, but inside I added a second piece of the green cardstcok with the same circle punched border. 

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Fall Maple Tree

Inspiration for this card came from Tracy Wegener at Paper Crafter's Library. Tracy's card had a monochromatic base with four squares.  I loved it and thought I would give it a whirl.  I used scrap pieces of paper so I don't know the sources, but the leaves were punched with an EK Success Maple leaf punch.  I added details with ink (Anna Griffin) and Crayola Colored Pencils.  I  hand cut the tree from a piece of scrap paper that was dark brown and added "bark"/texture with a colored pencil.  Making the handmade tree was my favorite part of this creative process.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Sewing Craze!

I admit it, I'm on a sewing craze right now. This card like many other projects that I have recently created has sewing on it.  I started by using the diamond stitch on my sewing machine.  I sewed a strip of diamonds with green thread onto a light green cardstock.  Then I pulled the stitching away from the cardstock, which left me we a string of stitched diamonds.  I separated them into sets of two an adhered them into the flower shape.  I then punched a 1/2" circle and wrapped it in the same green thread to use as the center of the flower.  To add a little more dimension, I punched small circles from a scrap piece of olive green cardstock and adhered the small circles around the center of the flower.  Using my sewing machine once again.  I choose another patterned stitch and sewed the three strips.  I adhered the three strips to the striped paper and inked around a piece of light green cardstock and wrote many thanks with a marker.  To add a bit more interest, I cut wire and wrapped it into the spirals and tucked the ends behind the sentiment panel.  The overall card design was inspired by the current sketch challenge # 114 over at The Paper Players.
Supplies:  
Light green cardstock (unknown source....it was given to me)
Designer paper: Fancy Pants Saint Nick
Sewing Machine: Janome
Adhesives: Elmer's Glue Dots, Scotch Advanced Tape Glider
Green wire:  (no name on product)
Thread: Coats & Clark All Purpose green

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Masculine Hello Card

The sketch from Artful Delight inspired this card.  I am trying to create more masculine cards and hopefully, this one works.  Here's the sketch that inspired the card:
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I stamped the fern image on white cardstock and added detail with colored pencils and ink then fussy cut around it.  The smaller ferns were punched  from brown and white cardstock.  The large fern is matted on woodgrain dp and this is adhered to a panel that I dry embossed.  I added detail and the sentiment with a gel pen and marker.

Supplies:  
Fern stamp (can't find a company name on it.), Crayola colored pencils, Fiskars Texture plate, EK Success circle punch, Mark It: gray, Sakura white gel pen, Studio G pigment ink, Punch Bunch fern punch (small ferns),Core'dinations Pure Chocolate Cardstock, DCWV Cardstock, Green Stack, White card base 

Amazing

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
This is a layout for the sketch challenge at Artful Delight/Delighful Inspiration.  I loved the sketch and haven't done a layout in a while so I thought I'd give it a try.  I followed the design closely. The background paper and vertical banners were created from MME Antique Dots collection.  The photo and three edges of the layout have a border that I created on my sewing machine with green thread and black cardstock.  The handcut title is also from black cardstock.  The additional circles were punched with EK Success punches.



Let it Snow!

Dashing through the snow is the challenge at Jingle Belles.  Since we haven't had much snow in the past few years where I live, my card is a wish for snow.  To begin I embossed snowflakes on white cardstock, punched the three snowmen from designer paper, matted them with dark blue cardstock and adhered them to the embossed background.  The card looked a little flat so I added the punched snowflakes using dimensional adhesives.  I wrote the sentiment with a marker and then inked around the outer edges of the banner as well as the white embossed cardstock.  The real challenge for me was taking a photo.  I have a hard time trying to take a decent photo with cards that have this much white.

Supplies Embossing plate: Fiskars snowflake, Snowflake punch: Emagination Crafts Inc., Square punch: EK Success whale, Marker: Impress Dual Marker ultramarine, 3D adhesive: EK Success 3D Dots, Other adhesive: Scotch Advanced Tape Glider, Pigment Ink: Studio G, Designer Paper: Oriental Trading Winter , /Dk blue cardstock (sorry, I don't know the source),

Friday, September 21, 2012

White on White

The challenge at CASology for this week is WHITE so I created this white door with a white floral wreath using scrap pieces of white cardstock and an EK Success floral punch.  I added a touch of color to the center of each flower with Bic orange and yellow markers.  I adhered the flowers to a white cardstock ring and wrapped it with ric rack.  The door panels are raised with dimensional adhesive and  I finished the card by adding a silver brad for  a door knob.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Pumpkin Thank You

Sophia Landry at Paper Crafters Library created the most inspiring Sweet Pea card this week. The card she created (at right) has a pea pod that looks just so incredibly realistic! Take a look. Don't you agree?

For my card I chose to use pumpkins instead of peas. I began by drawing the pumpkins and leaves, fussy cutting around them and adding detail and highlights with pigment ink and colored pencils.   Then I cut a vine shape from the same paper as the leaves and inked it as well.  Using decorative scissors, I cut the brown mat and then lightly sanded over the embossing. I adhered my pumpkins, leaves and vines to it.  I used dimensional adhesive behind the bottom right hand pumpkin.  I really liked the pattern in the designer paper but the diamond shapes were more yellow than orange.  To make them a bit more orange I used an orange colored pencil to color over each of them.  I wrapped embroidery floss around the patterned paper, added a bow and the thank you and adhered this panel to the orange mat.  I used a brown card base and finished by adding the white dotted border.

(As Sophia was creating those peas, it looked like so much fun.  So, I still want to try my hand at creating some "realistic" looking peas...but that will have to be for another project.  )

Supplies:
Card base: Coredinations chocolate cardstock
Patterned paper:  Crate Paper, Praire Farmer's Market
Mats: DCWV The Spring Fling (orange), Core'dinations Impressions (brown)
Adhesive: Scotch ATG, Scrapbook Adhesives (dimensional)
Embroidery floss (green)
Gel Pen: Sakura  white
Colored pencils: Crayola Orange
Pigment Ink: Page Craft (amber)
Leaf and vine paper (scraps from my stash)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Christmas Tree Banner

This card began with a scrap piece of green cardstock and  a tree punch from All Night Media.  I cut the strip of cardstock into three equal parts and used the punch to create the trees.  Using scissors, I cut one end of the strip to create a banner shape and then used my sewing machine's snowflake stitch to "hang" the banner from the top of the card. I wrote the sentiment with a marker on white cardstock and cut it into a banner shape. I matted the sentiment with green cardstock.  I was inspired to create this card after seeing the latest challenge at The Paper Players.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Rainbow flowers







Rainbow colored flowers all in a row...that's the first thing that went through my mind when I saw the challenge over at Just Us Girls.  I headed to my stash of scrap paper and found small scraps that fit into my EK Success floral punch.  I punched one flower of each color and lined them up vertically based on the order of colors that appear in a rainbow.  Although my personal goal for this card was to keep it simple, I added a bit more detail with my sewing machine and black thread.  I didn't include a sentiment because I really want to send this card and want to match it to the occasion.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying your day.  It is a beautiful fall day here!




Monday, September 10, 2012

Be You

Inspiration for this card came from Andrea Walford at Paper Crafter's Library.  She created an incredibly beautiful card with a fall theme.   I also went with a fall theme and stamped my fern onto white cardstock, adding detail with colored pencils.  I included similar ribbon accents and used an embossed kraft paper at the base rather than a striped paper.  However, if I were to do this design again, I would go ahead and use patterned paper on the bottom and a cream background for my stamped image. The white is just too stark.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

For the Music Man...Viola Congrats

This card was created with my musically talented son in mind and was inspired by the sketch at Clean and Simple Stamping.  I created the musical background paper as a word document by cutting and pasting a musical image and then printing it onto three different shades of cardstock.  I used a computer generated image to print a viola shape and cut it out of the background paper. I used an Xacto knife to cut the "F" holes then matted the viola onto black cardstock.  I drew the bow and cut it out from cardstock, coloring it with colored pencils and attaching it with dimensional adhesive.  I matted the strip with the viola onto a piece of vanilla cardstock and used a Kraft card base.  I finished the card by adding the sentiment with a marker. I thought about adding the viola strings, but in the end decided to leave the image as it is for a cleaner look.


Supplies:
Cardstock:  Core'dinations:  Pure Chocolate, Vanilla Cream &  Krafty
Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives: Crafty Foam Tape

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Drag'n my feet...

082012SundayPicnicYou'reOneOfAKindThere is a wonderful change over at Paper Crafter's Library. On Monday's Tracy Wegener usually finds a card on someone's blog and does a makeover, sharing the parts of the card that inspired her to create her own card. This step will no longer be a part of the challenge.  Instead, Tracy will inspire us and challenge us by creating her own card! This is a fabulous change! Tracy's cards are always so beautiful and inspiring. For example, this week Tracy created the card on the right. Isn't it just beautiful!  Her card was the inspiration for the card that I created with  My Mind's Eye FunDay paper, an EK Success dragon punch, black cardstock and ribbon. On the outside of the card I used the computer to print Drag'n my feet and on the inside I finished the sentiment with:  and missed your birthday! Happy Belated Birthday!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Falling for you...


"Leaves are Falling" is the challenge over atThe Paper Players. I decided to use maple leaves and a recycle a piece of window screen.  I began by chalking over the screen onto white cardstock.  Using my Ek Success maple leaf punch, I punched a series of maple leaves from colored cardstock scraps.  To add dimension to them, I chalked around the edges and added colored pencil vein lines.  I adhered them randomly with Scotch Quick Dry adhesive and matted this onto a piece of black cardstock.  I wrote the sentiment with a white Sakura Gel pen on black cardstock and added a white mat and bow.  Inside the card I finished the sentiment and added a few chalked leaves for detail.


Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Fiskars Submission

The Fiskars contest is accepting votes.  Click here for more details about this project and to learn how you can place a much appreciated vote.