Elegant With Sympathy (PDCC #83, CAS FTL #141, PTI Make It Monday)

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend so far!  The sun is just starting to come out here after a day of rain.  Here's hoping tomorrow is a day full of sun, fun, and much crafting! :) 

Today's card is a sympathy card per this week's Make It Monday challenge over on Nichole Heady's blog from PTI.  The sentiment stamp is from the PTI Mixed Messages stamp set.  I love this stamp set!  Its sentiments are perfectly worded and wonderful when you need something smaller in size.  They have the same set sized a little bigger in Mega Mixed Messages.  I love PTI stamps!  Their sentiments are always perfectly worded and are in the cutest fonts and their images are just as adorable!  I am a complete addict!  I just started using their other products too.  The black cardstock on this card is from PTI.  Their cardstock is thick and wonderful to use and your card will stand up easily. 

The patterned paper is from October Afternoon's Cherry Hill paper pad collection.  October Afternoon has to be one of my favorite manufacturers!  They make the cutest papers in the world!  I actually can't wait for their next collection to come out.   I get so excited when I get the email that their latest collection has come out that I rush to my computer and order the paper pad and embellishments to go with it.  The problem is that then I have to wait for them to arrive in my mailbox.  What are you gonna do?  The ribbon flower is from Jolee's.  I used a Fiskar's scalloped border punch on the striped paper and tied a sheer black ribbon from my craft supply around it.  The colors for the card were inspired by this week's color story from The Play Date Cafe.  The layout for the card was inspired by this week's sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping.  I hope you enjoy this card.  If you need ideas for making sympathy cards, again, check out this week's Make It Monday challenge on Nichole Heady's blog.  Have a great rest of your week!  Happy Crafting!

CAS FTL #141

Cute as a Button!

Originally I was making this card for last week's sketch challenge over at Eat Sleep Stamp, but I didn't make it in time to enter.  I thought I'd show you anyway since I put in the effort and it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. :)  The sentiment is from the Button Boutique set and the onesie is from the Bitty Baby Blessings set from PTI.  I am really growing to absolutely love their stamps and most of their other products as well.  I think I'm becoming an addict.  Shhh, don't tell my hubby. 

The polka dot patterned paper is My Mind's Eye's newest collection Lime Twist.  It's from the Fly a Kite paper pad.  I have all four paper pads and they are so adorable!  I love them so much that I think I might go out and buy a second helping of some of the pads.  For a long time I didn't care for their paper, but lately they just make the cutest collections.  And this one even came with a ton of matching twine, which I bought of course.

The sky gingham patterned paper, cardstock, tiny star stamp, bermuda buttons, and bermuda pigment ink are from A Muse (both A Muse Artstamps and A Muse Studio).  I used Momento rich cocoa dye ink for the first part of the sentiment and the A Muse Studio bermuda ink for the word button.  I really love how crisp Momento's ink turns out on paper and it smells really good to boot!  I also think highlighting one word in a sentiment is a cute way to set it off, especially if you have different fonts in your sentiment.  Lastly, I wanted to leave the onesie white so I outlined it with my BG10 Copic marker to make the white look whiter and to make leaving it white look deliberate.  I think outlining images is a nice way to highlight them and call attention to them without you hardly noticing.  I hope you all enjoy the card I have for you today and have a great rest of your day!  Happy Crafting!

p.s. Last year I won Paper Crafts Stamping Royalty 2010 and recently they asked to do a follow up article on their blog, a "where are they now?" kind of thing.  It came out yesterday and if you want to read it you can find it here.

Rolled Tissue Paper Flower (Moxie Fab: Tissue Paper Magic Challenge in The Moxie Fab World)

Hello again!  Sorry I've been away.  It seems that when I'm super busy or not feeling well that it's my blog that suffers, and in turn you.  So I apologize.  I will be super busy again for the next week, but plan to be busy blogging again after that.  I do have a card for you today though.

This was my first attempt at making a tissue paper flower.  I tried it in honor of the Tissue Paper Magic Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.  I will tell you that you need super strong adhesive when attempting to make one of these.  I used Cosmo Cricket's gruber adhesive made for making these kinds of flowers and it was not strong enough, so I had to add extra adhesive.  I'm sure it would be fine for fabric, but the tissue actually gets a little heavy when it's wound like that. 

The cardstock is from A Muse Studio and the stamp is an old one from A Muse Artstamps.  The patterned paper is from the Lemonade paper pad from Basic Grey.  I drew the frame with a black pigment ink pen from Copic.  The pearl is from Making Memories.  The card is super simple and took me no time at all to make, and I'm a person who takes hours to make one card, but I think it came out really nice.  What do you think?  Again, thanks for sticking with me through the lean posting times.  I promise I'll be back very soon. :)  Oh, and Happy belated Mother's Day to all you Moms out there!!  I hope you had a great one!  Happy Crafting!