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 Easter Eggs (Card Patterns #111, Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Crepe Bouquet, CQC #81, PTI: Make It Monday #11)

I went with an Easter card this time since we're so close to Easter.  I love this stamp set by Waltzingmouse Stamps!  It's got so many Easter stamp options and others for spring and Mother's Day.  The background patterned paper is a new paper pad that I broke out from Melissa Frances called 5th Avenue.  It's not generally my style, but I bought it for the times when I want something soft or when I want to try the shabby chic thing.  The yellow polka dot patterned paper is by PTI from their 2008 Bitty Dot Basics paper pad.  I just love that paper pad and pretty much anything from that company! 

Speaking of Papertrey Ink, they have a Make it Monday challenge every week over on Nichole's blog and this week's challenge was to use your dies to emboss paper but not in the usual way.  You can see in my photo that I used one of the Nestabilities large square dies and embossed a square into my patterned paper to frame my card.  There is a video of exactly what to do every week for the challenge on the blog, which is very helpful, and sometimes I even learn a few new tricks.  I also stamped my image on cardstock that was die cut and embossed with the scalloped circle Nestabilities.

The layout was inspired by this week's challenge over at Card Patterns.  I used the buttons, by Buttons Galore, to represent the three dots in the sketch.  I tried to use the cardstock, patterned paper, and the embossed frame to represent the inner line in the sketch with the rounded corners.  I hope I did the sketch justice. 

Tuesday Trigger: Crepe Bouquet

The colors in the card were inspired by this week's Tuesday Trigger: Crepe Bouquet and this week's ColourQ Challenge.  The white dress was the background for the flowers in the Trigger story and white is the background for my image, as well as the basket the eggs are in.  The pink jumped out at me and it's my favorite color right now, so I had to use it.  In Cath's explanation she mentioned Easter, so that's the direction I went in rather than a card full of flowers.  The picture is just a little blurry so I chose a patterned paper that reminded me of that, plus I also wanted something soft that would easily work in the color scheme.  I was really glad that the colors for the Trigger and CQC were so close so I could blend the challenges together, but at first it was difficult to think of something to do.  I hope you like the card, and that you have a wonderful Easter weekend!  I'm trying some new layouts for posting to spice it up, let me know what you think.  Have a great rest of your week!  Happy Crafting!

Porch Play Mother's Day (Card Patterns #110, Moxie Fab: Tuesday Trigger Porch Play)

Tonight's card is inspired by this week's Tuesday Trigger: Porch Play and this week's sketch from Card Patterns.  I was inspired by the Trigger in many ways.  The yellow paint on the house was the reason for the yellow card base, the red oval beaded Nestabilities die was for the red frame on the mirror, the rocking chair stamp that I left white is for the white rocking chair, the blue in the patterned paper is for the pillows, and the red flowers in the patterned paper are for the red daisies on the dresser.  The rocking chair stamp is from A Muse Artstamps and the sentiment stamp is from A Muse Studio.  The spinach polka dot satin ribbon is from American Crafts and I love it!  The scallop border punch is from Fiskars.  The super cute patterned paper is from The Thrift Shop paper pad from October Afternoon.  It's one of my favorite collections of patterned paper.  October Afternoon is absolutely one of my favorite manufacturers of paper and fun matching embellishments.  They make the cutest collections ever!!  I like how this card turned out and it gave me a head start on my Mom's Day cards also. :)  I hope you like it too!  Have a great rest of your week!  Happy Crafting!

Tuesday Trigger: Porch Play

Lullaby Bassinet (Card Patterns #99)

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Those of you in the eastern part of the U.S., I hope the weather wasn't too bad for you.  Here in the west it's actually been pretty mild, kind of weird for January. 

Anyway, on to the fun stuff..the card for today!  Today's card is based on the sketch below from Card Patterns.  I just flipped it upside down.  If I'm being totally honest, I made this card for a submission request and it was rejected and it happened to fit this sketch challenge.  I just added the ribbon.  I know I could have kept that to myself, but I felt like I was being dishonest and so I came clean. :)  I used purple on this card because we weren't allowed to use pink or blue at all and I still wanted it to be feminine.  Also, I don't use purple very often and I wanted to use some of my purple supplies.  I think it came out fairly cute, but I guess the judges didn't think so.  I must say, I do like it better with the addition of the ribbon.  It softens it a bit and adds just the right touch.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!  Happy Crafting!

stamps: bassinet, tiny yawns(A Muse Artstamps)
ink: black dye ink (A Muse Artstamps)
cardstock: white (A Muse Artstamps), kraft, plum pudding (PTI)
patterned paper: 2008 bitty dot basics (PTI)
fibers: white satin ribbon (American Crafts)
dies: Nestabilities standard circles large, lacey circles (Spellbinders)
punch: apron lace border punch (Fiskars)

My Cup of Tea (Card Patterns #98)

Thanks everyone for your kind words and wonderful welcome back!  I'm really excited to be making cards again.  The card I have for you today is based on the sketch below from Card Patterns.  The chipboard is from October Afternoon's Modern Homemaker collection.  I love that collection!  Actually, truth be told, I love all of their collections. :)  The sentiment stamp, from A Muse, is perfect for this card.  I like how this card turned out and I hope you do too!  Happy Crafting!

stamp: A Muse
cardstock: white-A Muse Artstamps, kraft-PTI
patterned paper: Fly a Kite, Modern Homemaker-October Afternoon
chipboard: Modern Homemaker-October Afternoon
punches: circle, scallop circle-Marvy Uchida, corner rounder-EK Success

You're Sweet Ice Cream Girl (Embellish Magazine, Card Patterns #86, CPS #189, ESS #105)

Today's card is based on the challenge at Embellish Magazine, the sketches at Eat Sleep Stamp, Card Positioning Systems, and Card Patterns.  I made the card from patterned paper and then cut rectangles of gingham paper and adhered them to the card.  I stamped the image on cardstock, colored it with my Copics, stamped the sentiment, trimmed it, and adhered it to the card with pop dots.  I adhered the brad and felt flower with an adhesive dot.  I adhered the ribbon with adhesive and then tied the ends with string.  It's a technique I've seen many times, but I've never actually tried it until today.  I think it's very cute.  I love how this card turned out and I absolutely love the color combination! :)  I hope you can find some creative time this weekend.  Happy crafting!

all paper, stamps, ink: A Muse Artstamps
markers: Copic
ribbon and felt flower: American Crafts
brad: Queen and Co

Card Patterns #82

I have another card for you today.  I think this is probably a record for consecutive posts for me. :)  This card is based on the sketch below from Card Patterns. You still have time to play along until Friday. I decided to make a Halloween card since I haven't made one yet and the holiday is fast approaching.  I really like Halloween stamps and I tend to buy a few, so last year I made the decision that I needed to send out Halloween cards to in order to validate my purchase.  I think it's working out, well at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Back to the card...I chose the pumkin basket stamp by A Muse and filled it with "candy", which is actually twinkle stickers, and then colored it with my trusty Copic markers.  I used the Lacey Circle die from Nestabilities to make the circle and then cut it in half.  I adhered the green polka dot patterned paper on the left side of the card and at the seam adhered some American Crafts black and white polka dot satin ribbon, which I am in love with. I have a ton of American Crafts ribbon and this one is one of my faves!  This sketch was a little difficult for me, I'm not going to lie, but I like how the card turned out in the end.  I never would have put these things together on my own, but that's what I like about doing challenges and sketches.  It makes me think and do things I wouldn't normally do.  I challenge you to do a sketch or a challenge, you just may be surprised with the outcome.  Happy crafting!

all paper, stamps, twinkle stickers, ink: A Muse Artstamps
markers: Copic
die: Spellbinders
ribbon: American Crafts