Sweet Sixteen

I have the sweetest husband.  Let me explain:  I make cards for the fun of it -- it's a hobby, pure and simple.  It makes me happy.  Making cards relieves stress - and most of my family appreciate them . . . at least I think they do :)

So that being said -- back to the sweet husband. . .  After I made this card, I realized the balloons and the car were waaayyyy out of proportion.  My darling hubby took one look at it, and said, "It's supposed to be that way.  It's a cartoon."  I love that man!

This is for niece #5 's sixteenth birthday.  She will be taking her road test soon.

I used the same technique as the Engagement Card card I made for my son.  You'll recognize the hill and cloud.  The car is from PaperTrey ink.  I am not sure where the sentiment stamp is from.  

I used the colors from Color Me Scrappy.  I hope you can see that the paper I used for the hillside does indeed have lines in it, as per the challenge.

I used the sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch , with a few liberties.

That's it for today.  I am thrilled to have gotten some crafting in -- it's been a while.  I hope you are enjoying the end of summer.

Congratulations on your Engagement

My son is asking his lady to marry him.  I hope she says, "Yes!"  She has a small collection of snails -- not real ones - garden ornaments mostly.  She and my son also have a fist bump, that turns into a snail of sorts.
This is for them.

I recently took an online card class, Stretch your Stamps 2.  The teachers of this class offer amazing ways to really use the products you already have (at least I have -- as I am a bit obsessive about collecting products)  :)

One of the techniques is using your sentiment stamps with a stencil.  I used that technique here.  Now, I don't have a stencil of a hill or clouds.  But I do have cloud dies, so I used one to cut a cloud out a piece of hard plastic packaging.  And I free hand cut the hill out of the same material.  Then I use these as my mask; to stamp the sentiment and sponge around the cut-outs to give more definition to the shape.

The hearts stencil is from Heidi Swapp.  The snails are from Outlines stamps; a company that is now, sadly, out of business.  The sentiment is from a Paper Trey Ink set.

I watercolored the snails with distress inks, then used Wink of Stella for some sparkle.  I used crystal effects on top of both shells to give them a smooth shell-like feel.  I think you can see it in this close-up.

I am putting this into the following challenges:

1. Less is More - the theme is "Animal"

2. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Anything Goes"

3. Color Throwdown 

4. Clear it out Challenge - Anything Goes, Just use your Stash.  Since the snail stamps are quite old, I think this qualifies! I didn't buy anything extra for this card (I do have a lot of "stash".  

5. Try it on Tuesday - Use your Stash!  I also found the heart-shaped crystal floating around . . . and only one!  Perfect!

6. Crazy Challenge - Cute Little Animals.  Don't you just love the eyelashes on the girl snail.  I drew them on, they are not on the stamp.

7. All Sorts Challenge - use Masking and/or Stenciling.  In addition to the hand-made stencils, I also masked the snails, so they would be place better on the hills.

Thanks so much for looking and taking your time to leave a comment.  I love reading them.

Have a great day!

Thank You Bandaids

The back story for this card:
You may recall that I have a grand-nephew, Caleb, who was born very prematurely on May 7. He was actually considered a "micro-preemie" as he was only 1 1/2 pounds.  He is doing well, and just reached 5 pounds today.  His due date was yesterday.  He is still on oxygen, and not completely on bottle feedings yet, but getting there.  He is in an open crib.  We hope he will be able to go home by the end of August.

Caleb is still getting blood transfusions on occasion.  I made several of these cards, which will go to the people (friends and family) that have donated blood for him.

Now for the card:
When I create a card, I like to look for a sketch and a color challenge.

The colors from Cosmic Strawberry are a bright summery palette.  And I've wondered for days what I could make with all these yummy colors.    Collette makes amazing beautiful (and colorful) cards.  And she makes other things as well.  A beautiful doll for her Mom.

As it happens, another blog I follow, One Layer Simplicity, has a color challenge hosted by Susan Rahalia.  Actually several color selections.  One is very similar to Collette's :

I based my card on the sketch from Seize the Sketch .  I rotated it 90 degrees, and swapped the placements of the images and the sentiment. 

I'll also place this card into the Paper Pretties Challenge - THANK YOU . 

And I am "taking" an online card class: Stretch Your Stamps 2 - one segment is coloring lined images.  They have lots of new techniques.  

supplies: images: Paper Smooches; sentiment: Paper Trey Ink; coloring: watercolor using distress inks.  

Here is a photo of Caleb from last week.  It is so nice to hold a "baby-sized" baby.  He looks so sweet.  He's actually been giving the nurses a "hard time", being very fussy.  We've been taking turns going to the hospital to hold him.  Babies grow best while sleeping.  And he sleeps better while being held.  So we hold him, and comfort him.  And he gets better and bigger!

Thanks so much for looking and reading about Caleb.  I hope you are enjoying the summer!  

I do appreciate that you've taken the time to read this, and I love your comments.  

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.