Cherished (MME#27, PDCC #100)

Hello everyone!  Hope you all had a great summer and are having a super weekend so far!  Thanks for all the great supportive comments I've been getting.  I really appreciate them!  They really make my day. :)  I am really going to try and put this blog up higher on my priority list.  It's always the first thing to go when I'm busy or I don't feel well and I'm going to try and change that.  You all deserve better from me when you take the time to check in and especially when you are a follower, which I totally appreciate.  I always get super excited when I have a new follower so I need to do better for you, but I do appreciate your understanding about my health.  Now for the details about the card...

I used almost all products solely from My Mind's Eye.  The exceptions to this were: buttons from my stash, cardstock from PTI, and the scallop border punch from Fiskars.  I used MME Lime Twist and Lost and Found Two patterned paper collections.  The sticker was from the Stella and Rose collection.  I am in love with all three of these collections.  They happen to be my faves that MME has ever put out!  I think that Lost and Found Two is currently my fave.  It seems that I love each collection more and more, if that's possible?!

MME #27

My card is based on the sketch this week at the My Mind's Eye blog.  I followed the sketch to the letter this time.  If you decide to play along over at their blog the only rule is that your project needs to use 80% MME product.  This was easy for me because did I mention I have a lot of MME patterned paper?  This was a fun sketch that I really enjoyed.

The colors in my card are based on this week's color story at The Play Date Cafe.  I have trouble when there are more than three or four colors in a color story, so this one was really fun! :)  I have more ideas for this color story so don't be surprised if you see another card for the PDCC this week.  I hope you enjoyed my card for today!  Have a great rest of your weekend! 

Happy Crafting!
Rachael

Leafy Thank You (Moxie: Fabulous Felt Challenge, CAS FTL#155, PTI:MIM#31)

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, my health hasn't been doing very well.  If any of you have had a full historectomy and are willing to talk about it please email me.  I am in the process of considering one and doing some research.  I am only thirty five and have never had any children, so I am struggling with the emotional part of it as well.  Thanks for your support, as always.  Now for the card...

The sentiment stamp is from the retired collection of A Muse Artstamps.  The patterned paper is from the Lime Twist collection from MME, which is so adorable!  I love that collection!  The last 3 collections from MME have been so cute and I have been completely addicted!  The rest of the supplies for the card are all from PTI.  I made the felt flower for the Fabulous Felt Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.  The Turning a New Leaf stamp set from PTI is what I used to stamp the background for PTI's Make It Monday challenge on Nichole's blog.  The challenge was to create a background with non-background stamps.  How do you think I did? 

My card is based on this week's sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping.  Along with the sketch we were supposed to use a color panel from ColourQ because it is ColourQ's 100th sketch and they teamed up. 

This is the color panel I chose for my card to go along with the sketch.  I really love the colors in this panel and will probably use it again.  The neat thing about the ColourQ blog is that you can use the previous week's color panels to make projects and then link them back to the blog for fun.  The panels have so many color combos to choose from.  I hope you all have a great week!  Happy Crafting!!

Odds & Ends (PTI: MIM: freestyle copic coloring, Cosmo Cricket sketch)

Well hello there!  I know it's been a while.  I had a pretty bad migraine and then was having tons of problems with my internet.  My router actually broke and I had to get a new one and install it.  We only had our old one for a year so it was ridiculous that it broke!  I was really frustrated, but it's fixed now.  On with the details of the card...

For today's card I used the Friends 'til the End stamp set for the flower and the Autumn Abundance set for the sentiment, both from PTI.  I "freestyle" copic colored the flower for PTI's Make it Monday challenge on Nichole's blog.  The baker's twine is from MME.  All of the patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Odds & Ends mini deck.  That little pad is soo cute!  I'm in love with some of those patterns!  I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out.  The punched edge is a border punch from EK Success.

The colors of my card were inspired by the PTI blog hop photo above.  I used blue background patterned paper to represent the girl's blue dress.  The gerber daisy and the flower patterned paper represent the pink daisies in the suitcase.  I wanted to use red as a prominant color because red was the first color that popped out at me when I looked at the photo.  The green patterned paper behind the image and the green ink for the sentiment represent the green leaves and the green grass in the photo.  If you would like to play along in the blog hop you have until 9pm EST Aug. 25th and you can find all the info on Nichole's blog.   

 The design of the card was inspired by the sketch this week at the Cosmo Cricket blog.  If you link your take on this sketch to the blog by Aug 27th you have a chance to be published in CARDS magazine.  You can read all the details by clicking on the link above. 

I hope you enjoyed my card.  I hope you're all having a great week!  Happy Crafting!

J'Dore Anniversary Card (PTI: MIM: decreasing apetures)

Hello everyone!  I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!  Summer has finally arrived here in Oregon!  We've had 3 straight weekends with 80 degreee weather, can you believe it?!  I thought I'd share a couple pics of my cute as a button niece, Caylee, since a few of you were asking....

This one is her sleeping on her momma's chest.  Isn't she just the cutest thing EVER?!  Maybe I'm a little biased, but I really don't think so. :)

This is one with her eyes open and she's even trying to smile for you.  It's at a weird angle cause I'm holding her cradled in my arms and my hubby is taking the pic above us.  She's got the perfect amount of hair and is so skinny and long.  She's super mellow and likes to smile A LOT!  The perfect baby in my opinion. :)

And here's one of the proud parents.  That's my little bro and his girlfriend.  They are doing pretty great for not knowing what do at all.  My brother wants to do everything, which I think is so cute.  He'll change his mind soon enough. :)  Hope you like the pics, now on to the card...

I made today's card for this week's challenge for PTI on Nichole's blog.  The challenge was to make a project using decreasing apetures, or windows, and add a glittered one for your last one if you so desired.  I wasn't feeling the glitter this time.  I needed an anniversary card for my in-laws so that's where this card is headed.  The patterned paper is from the new Lost and Found 2 paper pads from MME and I am in love!!  The flowers are Prima and aren't they beautiful?  I just love that color!  I used the tag trio and labels 9 Nestabilties dies.  I didn't have a heart die for the last window so I had to settle for a Marvy heart punch.  All other supplies are PTI:  limitless layers dies 1 3/4", cardstock, sweet blush ribbon, damask designs stamp set, and mixed messages stamp set.  Hope you all enjoy this card!  I gotta dash...Happy Crafting!

Bursting Blooms (Card Patterns #125, ColourQ #95)

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far, I am!  My niece was born yesterday!!  Caylee Leigh weighed 7lbs. 2 oz. and was 18 1/2 inches long.  She's super mellow and such a cutie pie! Caylee is my second niece, but the first grandchild for my mom and she's over the moon.  My brother and his girlfriend are the proud parents.  I'll show you pictures sometime soon, I promise.  Now for the card...

I used PTI's background basics: text style stamp for the background and an old A Muse Artstamps stamp, bursting blooms, for the main image.  I inked the blooms with A|S bermuda ink and then "rolled" the outside of the blooms with Clearsnap turquoise pigment ink.  The stems are inked with Clearsnap lime pastel chalk ink.  The ribbon is from American Crafts and the cardstock from PTI.  I had never tried to stamp an image right over a background before and I really liked the way this turned out.  I also had always wanted to try the "rolling" technique I explained before.  I think I used too  much turquoise ink on the right bloom because you can't really see the lighter bermuda ink in the middle.  Oh well, practice makes perfect.

My card is based on this week's sketch from Card Patterns.  I stayed pretty true to the sketch this week.  Instead of making scallops with cardstock and a punch I used the scalloped ribbon to represent the scallops.  I then tied the white satin ribbon below to represent the ribbon in the sketch.  I made my image panel larger than the sketch in order to accomodate the blooms and background text, but I think it still looks almost identical to the original sketch.

The colors for my card were inspired by this week's color story from ColourQ.  I really enjoyed this week's colors.  They are pretty and seem to go together really well.  They were also fairly easy to work with, which was really nice.  I felt like they made my ideas just flow, which doesn't always happen.  What do you think of the colors?  There is plenty of time for you to play if you like what you see.  I hope you liked my card.  Have a great rest of your week!  Happy Crafting! :)

Happy 50th! (ColourQ #92, CASFTL #148)

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!  I know it's been a little while since I've posted, we've been busy shopping for a mattress.  We could not seem to agree on one because I sleep on my side and my hubby is an all over sleeper, meaning he tosses and turns all night long.  We currently have a pillowtop and we both hate it.  Every mattress I liked he thought was too soft and hated and every one he liked I thought was too firm and I hated.  I found out that I couldn't get a spring mattress because I've been having hip issues, but he didn't like the feel of memory foam and I wasn't crazy about latex.  We had laid on about 30 mattresses and I was about to give up when we finally laid on one and both said at the same time, "I think I like this".  It was a miracle at this point.  Now the only thing in our way was the price.  It was almost double our budget!  We slept on it, not literally, and realized that there was no price too high to pay for a good night sleep so we took the plunge.  Our Simmons ComforPedic will be here in 4-6 weeks and we couldn't be more excited!  I just had to share what has been occupying my life for the past 2 weeks, and if you're still here we'll get on with the card....

I made this card for a friend of ours that's turning 50 today.  Happy birthday John!  The patterned paper is from the Lime Twist collection by My Mind's Eye.  I am in love with this collection!  It has become my go to patterned paper.  It's what I turn to first to choose paper.  I think I've said this before, but the last few collections by MME have been so great and have made me a true fan!  The bingo card is from Jenni Bowlin's calendar bingo cards.  I am loving them for bday cards!  The "happy" is from PTI's Inside & Out: Birthday set and the 50th is from A|S's birthday builder set.  I used a star and circle punch from Marvy Uchida as well as a circle die from Nestabilities to get the shapes on the card.  Everything but the sentiment circle is inked with A|S wheat pigment ink and the green ink is Clearsnap moss green.

My card was inspired by this week's sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping.  I chose to have the stars represent the circles on the top and bottom of the sentiment circle and decided to leave off the "line" that ran through and under all three circles.  This is the first time that I have drifted so far from the original sketch.  I still feel like it's represented and you can see what I've done without me having to explain it.  I wanted to try something different and I also wanted to make sure the recipient of this card would like it. 

The colors for my card came from this week's color story at ColourQ.  At first I thought these colors would be fairly easy, but they turned out to be harder than I thought, especially when I was trying to use them along with making a card for a 50th bday.  They seem more like kid bday colors to me.  Anyway, I figured it out and am happy with the results.  Now let's just hope John is. :)

If you're still with me I hope you enjoyed my card and are having a great weekend!  Happy Crafting!

Bee Thankful (ESS #135, CR84FN35, PTI: MIM)

I hope you all had  a great day today!  It was finally hot and sunny here in the Pacific Northwest.  I think we actually hit above 80 degrees!  It's ironic that it happened on the first day of summer.  Hopefully it's a sign of good things to come. :)

My card this evening is based on a several challenges.  The first is the PTI Make IT Monday Challenge on Nichole Heady's blog.  It begins every Monday morning and ends the next Monday morning.  This week's challenge was reverse masking.  I punched a scallop circle from my Eclipse art masking tape and temporarily adhered the negative (what was left over) to the circle I die cut with my Nestabilities circle die.  I used the small flower stamp from the Snail & Co. stamp set from A Muse Studio and stamped the flower all over within the mask.  When I lifted it up there was a "flower ball".  I had seen this technique with the "flower ball" before on Julie Ebersole's blog, but I couldn't find the specific post for you.  I used bermuda ink from A Muse Studio for my flower.  I drew the stem with a Copic marker.  The patterned paper is from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie paper pad.  The beautiful green ribbon is American Crafts.  The sentiment stamp is one I picked up a couple of years ago from the Stamp Convention and it's from Eccentric Images Rubberstamps.  I bought a couple other ones from them and they are super cute!  I had always wanted to try this "flower ball" technique when I saw it on Julie's blog and I'm really glad I got the chance.

The layout for my card was inspired by this week's sketch at Eat Sleep Stamp.  I pretty much followed the sketch almost to the letter.  I chose to use ribbon where the vertical line on the left is, but decided not to put my image circle over it.  Other than that my card looks like the sketch.  The colors for my card came from the color challenge this week at CR84FN.  The color board is just below.  These three colors were very easy to work with and the first thing I thought of was a flower or something summery.  It could be because the sun is shining outside my window and I have the a/c on for the first time all year. :)  I hope you all enjoy this card.  Once again I tried something new and I really like the results.  Happy Crafting!