Birthday Flowers

Woo hoo!  My second post for the day.  I love summer -- so much more time to craft!  How about you?  When is your best time for crafting?

My Stampin Up demonstrator is having her Hostess Appreciation Event next week.  We usually bring a card (or project) we made on our own to share.  This is for that.  

The products are from Stampin Up.  The flowers are from "Flower Shop" - white embossed on vellum, and then colored (on the back) with Stampin Up markers.  

I followed the sketch from Seize the Sketch and the colors from Color Throwdown

 

Thanks for looking!  Have a great day!

Live in Color

I had a "play date" with my friends this week.  We had a really fun day paper crafting.

I made this for no one in particular -- just to play -- and it was wonderful!!

The brushes are from PTI, the sentiment is from Reverse Confetti.  I used Distress inks and a "swish"-type stamp to watercolor.  You can't see it in the photo, but I added some Wink of Stella to add some sparkle.

I used the colors from Cosmic Strawberry which has these rainbow colors.  And this sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches

That's all I have for today.  Summer is speeding by too fast!  Hope you are enjoying  yours!

Maritime Birthday & PTI July Blog Hop

At One-Layer Simplicity the challenge is called "Wave the Flag".  Now it is always important to pay attention to details - something I did NOT do in this challenge.  The actual challenge is to use your country's flag for inspiration.  I saw Ardyth's post  and how she used the Japanese flag and Canadian flag for her awesome cards.  And an inspiration hit me!

I've been playing with some sea / maritime stamp sets.  And one of the sets has a string of maritime flags.  So I did some research to see what the flags mean.  Most of them mean some kind of distress.  Not what I was looking for.  So I looked on and found that some pennant flags represent numbers.  So the top flag represents "5" and the bottom flag represents "0" for my sister's 50th birthday!  

Editied to add: I used a stamp from CASual Fridays "WTF" set - to put the border of 50 * 50 - just to give a bit of meaning to the flags for most of us who don't know what they mean.  I like this better. 

Paper Trey Ink's July Blog Hop Challenge has this inspiration photo:

The pennants are actually "rays" from a PTI set called Hello Sunshine.  I just selectively inked them.  The sentiment is also from PTI.  The "rope" is from a Stampin Up set.  

Pennants seem to be back.  At Time Out Challenges we are to use this photo for inspiration  I think the pennants qualify :)

I am also including this in the Cardz 4 Guyz challenge which is "At the Beach".  While I am making this for my sister, I do think the colors will work for a guy.  And if you have a sailor in your family, this will really work for him (or her).  And you can do it with any set of numbers --  you'll just need to be creative.  

I am also linking this to Art Impressions (Ai) - Big Birthdays .   I need to look through my stash for one of their images - they are fabulous - and very funny sentiments that go with the images too!

Red Rubber Inspiration is "By the Sea" .

Addicted to Stamps challenge is to create a Clean and Simple (CAS) card.  

Brown Sugar  has a "Sea and Sand" challenge.

And lastly, I'll add this to Seize the Birthday "Stringing Along More Birthday Wishes" .  I didn't use real string, but there is a rope in the design.  

Well that is about all for now.  Thanks so much for looking.  I hope you are enjoying your summer!

Real Sucker

Now, I rarely make cards for my dear hubby for "just because" - and he is really one terrific guy -- sorry ladies, he's all mine!  And I am often attracted to sentimental/romantic/cutsie sets with him in mind.  This stamp set from Stampin Up is not one of those (I actually bought it to use for my grandnephew's card - but then didn't use it.  So I combined the images with a sentiment from a Darcie's set.  I think I will tuck this under his pillow or somewhere unexpected for him.

I really like the sketch at CASE this Sketch.
And the colors and inspiration picture at Color Q is awesome.

The octopus and school of fish stamps, and the pattern paper are from Stampin Up.  So is the ink -- which I then overstamped with Versamark and heat embossed with some clear sparkly embossing powder. 

I  don't know if you can see the smile and little dots on the octopus -- he is really cute IRL, but looks kinda creepy odd in the photo.  I tried several times to capture it, but didn't have any luck.  

 I'm putting this into a few other challenges:

1. Addicted to Stamps - Create a Clean and Simple Card.  This is about as CAS as I get.  :)

2. Clear it Out Challenge - is to Keep It Simple Silly (KISS) - this is simple -- and only has 2 layers: the white card stock, and small strip of pattern paper.  And since I had the stamp set, and never used it as intended, this will qualify as "clear it out". 

3. The Brown Sugar Challenge is "Sea and Sand" - definitely sea

4. Fantasy Stampers challenge is "Animal Magic" - octopus and fish are animals -- not the cute and cuddly kind, but definitely animals.

5. At Red Rubber Designs the challenge is "By the Sea"

That's about all for now -- I'm going to enjoy my morning cup of coffee on the patio.  See you soon.

Celebrate

These are probably not my preferred colors to create with, but I needed a birthday card for my younger son.   I think he'll like it - he isn't so young anymore -- one more year before his big 3-0! 

I really like this sketch at CAS(E) the Sketch - and had to play with it again.  

I happily stumbled across Sarah Hurley 365 challenge -- which is to "Celebrate" their 4th birthday. CONGRATULATIONS!

Two other blogs have color challenges that are very similar, and are the colors I used:

The Shabby Tea Room = Fun in the Sun; and 

Craft your Passion = Citrus/Tropical colors  Think zesty orange,lemon and lime for your cards/projects :)  You could even go totally tropical by adding in some splashes of hot pink and turquoise!

I used several stamp sets on this -- PTI scribbled circles, and bits and pieces of other sets from various manufacturers.  The "celebrate" is a new Tim Holtz embossing set of words.  I inked it before I ran it through my Big Shot.  The splatters were made by putting some ink onto my craft sheet, spritzing with water, and then using a paint brush to splatter.  Fun!!

That's all for now.  Thanks for looking and your comments are always appreciated!

Feel Better Soon

A good friend recently had surgery - this is for her.

When I saw the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch , I just knew I had to create something (I'm also working on another card with this sketch) 

Recently I was at retirement party (not mine), and the table cloth was pink with this white and brown florally scroll -- I tried to capture it with my cell phone, but of course it looked better with a glass of wine.  And this has been on my mind that I need to do something like this for a card.  

So I looked through my stash and found a stencil (I don't know the brand) and played around for a while until I came up with the color arrangement I liked.  There were several failed attempts -- aqua backgrounds, too many layers, yada yada . 

I used the colors from  Just Add Ink : 

First I stenciled with a pigment white ink - and let that dry -- then I used Disress ink (I forget which color -- I tried several) I outlined some parts of the image with brown Spica pen, added some bling and done. 

The pieces are actually "inlaid".  So the part I cut out of the middle, I used on the inside of the card:

The sentiment is from Paper Trey Ink.  

I am also putting this into The Curtain Call Challenge where they are celebrating their first anniversary with some amazing sponsors!  The colors on their inspiration photo are very similar to the colors on my card:

Thanks again for looking!  I hope you are having a good day. 

Happy Birthday Bash

I need to make cards for several birthdays.  But a special one in Card-Making Blog-land goes to Darnell.  If you haven't been to her blog, you must visit.  You will quickly be taken in by her wit and style.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARNELL!!   You can celebrate her birthday, and add your own creation at Maskerade hosted by Ardyth.  Another terrific blog with lots of great cards!

I used the sketch (with some tweaking) from Mojo Monday - I used circles instead and rotated it 90 degrees.

Over at Curtain Call there is a great inspiration called Birthday Bash:  I think my circles and colors qualify. 

Moxie Fab challenge is to use die cut words -- the "Happy" is from Paper Trey Ink.

Seize the Birthday has a "stars and stripes" challenge, but this is going in for "Anything Goes" 

The stamp set I used is a very old one -- probably one of the first sets I ever bought - and never used.  Made by Junkitz.  So this is a NBUS set (see Darnell's post HERE which explains NBUS.)

I die cut and inlaid all the circles - so that it is flat for mailing.  The "birthday" is embossed in black (duh!), added some sequins and done! 

Thanks so much for looking! 

Welcome Baby

Another card for my niece's shower.  The theme for the nursery is nautical with colors in the blues and greens.  

This is a one-layer card - with a boat similar to the ones that will be in Caleb's new room.  

The water was made with the "flames" template from The Crafter's Workshop, and the sun was another template also from TCWS.  Both were inked with assorted distress inks.  The boat is an Inkadinkadoo stamp set, and the sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink. 

I am putting this in several challenges: 

1. The Card Concept - where the challenge is to make a baby card -- I guess this style fits best into Clean and Graphic -- 

 

2. Cardz 4 Guyz - the theme is Welcome Baby BOY -- this site is great, if you have a lot of boys (and men) to create for -- lots of inspiration!

3. Artistic Stamper - the challenge is By the Seaside

4. At Cards in Envy blog the challenge is Fun in the Sun -- 

5. and at Crafty Sentiments - you are to use no designer paper

Here is a photo of Caleb -- he is now 8 weeks old, and finally reached 3 pounds.  He is still about 5-6 weeks from his actual due date (which is the beginning of August) He is still having oxygen concerns, but we continue to be optimistic about his progress.  Please keep him in your prayers.  

Thanks so much for looking!  Have a great 4th of July weekend.