Card 4 of the 4 Card Blitz!

Sketch number four ended up being my personal favorite card. I have been using more scrap paper lately and these pink scraps were from my Grandma's birthday invitations, so they are extra special to me. I bought the stamp set from friend T. The pearls I had purchased to accent a page about our visit to Pearl Harbour and the beautiful necklace my now husband bought me. Cinderella is my all time favorite movie! I added pearls to the pillow, Stickles to the shoes, and distressed around the edges. My strip of print paper through the middle has been embossed for some texture. Oh and I dressed up my background paper with some Perfect Pearl Mists.

I am so very sad that Taylored Expressions is ending their sketch challenge series, I have so adored it!

Sketch 2 of my 4 card blitz!

For the second sketch I used my beloved Basic Gray PB & J papers. I am in love with these papers! I happened to have just the right color ribbon & flower to match. I am not sure who the lucky recipient is of this card, but I sure think it is cute.

Four Card Blitz

I was checking my e-mail when I came across one from Taylored Expressions. I was sad to read this week is their last TE Sketch Challenge.  In order to go out like a bang, they provided four sketches! Of course I had to give all four sketches a shot! Below is sketch one and the next three posts each focus on a new sketch!

For the first sketch I distressed all of the pages of the card with coordinating Tom Holtz Distress ink. I added Stickles to my stamped butterflies, rounded all of the corners, and just had fun playing with a brown, orange, green, blue color scheme. Reminded me of nature and camping...very fitting for Memorial Day weekend.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Okay, so it's actually not raining out! We did have rain this week, but a couple different things prompted me to play with a new stamp set.  One of those things was the CAS-ual Fridays challenge that requested a person use a die cut or punch.  The second was that I have a brand new stamp set that has a learning curve to it.  I have the Just Rite stamp system.  When I bought it at the store, I was told you could use some Nesties to cut an oval, then stamp right in your oval.  Well, that is a tight fit! So, it takes some practice.  I bought the My Rainbow Set because it makes me think of my mom. She likes rainbows so much, that the colors of the rainbow were her wedding colors back in the 70's.  I have attempted to use this set once before, but the finished product wasn't pretty, so set it aside. Today, I cut out 12 ovals and have two beautiful stamped ovals to show you! Next time, I may cut my ovals just a tad larger so I have more grace room.  Once I got the stamped images cut, I was able to back them up with more ovals and sticky foam, some ribbon, and a bigger die.  I ran the bigger die through my Big Shot to emboss it.  On the dance in the rain one I used glossy accents to make my rain drops look wet. This all turned out so nice, I can't wait to show my mom!

The Birthday Tri-fold-a

Okay, hope you love seeing birthday cards! This week the challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is Birthday Bash...make a birthday card.  I was also checking around and found the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays promoting embossing! Fortunately, I needed to make a birthday card for my dear Father-in-law who has a birthday in 8 days! One of my on-going issues with cards is to make more cards that are masculine. I am great at ribbons, glitter, bows, and all things feminine.  I had also been itching to make a tri-fold card.  When I looked in my paper stash, I immediately saw lots of black and white.  I decided to accent with red.  The paper I used is all from my scrap bucket or DCWV.  The buttons are from a random assortment I keep on hand sorted by color. I used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Folder to emboss my white card stock.  I used my Cricut to cut out the red panels.  The cartridge I chose was Just Because Cards.  I used stamps from Stampin' Up! Birthday Whimsy on the red panels. Finally, I used yellow Stickles on my candle and some rhinestones on my birthday gift...all birthday wrap has some short of shine, doesn't it? I have a picture pre-fold and post-fold for you viewing pleasure. :-)

Sympathy Card - January

I always find sympathy cards to be the most challenging.  I also rarely make cards with black cardstock.  The paper used to stamp on is a paper I created.  I started by using a flexible plastic mat and colored all over it with water color pens.  Next I spritzed the mat with water.  I pressed some watercolor paper down.  The almost tie dye look transferred to the paper.  Once it had dried I used black Staz On to stamp my images.

Swinging through time - January

A few months ago I attended a scrapbooking show.  One of the vendors had some cute retro acrylic stamp sets.  I had been debating how to use them and was delighted when I finished a card with them.  I used Black Staz On to stamp the image and Stampin Up Watercolor Wonder Crayons to add some light color.  I topped off the roses on the swing with some red Stickles.  I think it turned out pretty well!