Gift Bag

It is really hot and humid here in Southern Indiana so I am staying inside the AC house and playing in my craft room. I have been wanting to try decorating gift bags. I used the challenge from CAS-ual Fridays of using Kraft and Script.
So here is a break from my usual response with a card to try a gift bag:

I found this DP at Hobby Lobby this week. It says "Kraft and Script" on the back. Now how appropriate it that?  The bag is also from Hobby Lobby--12/pk for $5.99--pretty inexpensive gift bag. I dusted the entire bag with white ink and stamped on a few snowflakes. Then punched out a star and glued off center at top.
Here is the back showing the tag. I repeated the white sponging and snowflakes on the back of the bag. I used a tag punch, repeated the sponging of white and snowflakes and added another red star off center. All tied up with red ribbon and twine.

 

Get Well

My poor grandson, Owen, has to have ear tubes and adenoidectomy next week. He is in Texas so I can't be there but of course will be sending a care package. Here is the card I am including.

He likes soccer, so I used the hexagon IP from SU on the white card base. I think it looks like an all white soccer ball. The bear is from Precious Remembrance  baby set. The bandaid, ice bag on his head and sentiment are from Lawn Fawn. For the thermometer, I did freehand cutout, made black stripes, and colored the tip with silver gel pen. I tied strips of gauze around an ear and his neck. Since Owen will probably want lots of ice cream, I cut out 2 ice cream cones from some SU DP to anchor the sentiment.
I am entering this at Simon Says blog challenge of "Anything Goes"
 

Halloween

I have said I was finished with Halloween cards. But I have several scraps of Halloween paper left over and this great sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches was just calling their name.
So here goes another Halloween card.

The DPs are all from SU. Punch out a gold circle for a full moon, punch out 3 little bats and glue them down, put it on a white square and stamp the sentiment from Inkadinkadoo. Repeat 3 bats on the gold strip. The black banner has the spiders already printed on it.
Right now I feel like bats are flying around my craft room. I have had a pesky little gnat flying around all day. It follows me from computer to craft space. I can't seem to catch it.
Here is the sketch I followed.

airplanes

I'm pretty sure that all little boys love airplanes--and some never outgrow that love. So this could be for a little boy or even that big boy who still loves airplanes.

The paper is from Echo Park Paper Co. I cut the airplane motif into strips. The red stripe is the reverse side of the DP. Sentiment is ? from an old set of stamps done in SU Tempting Turquoise. Then it is punched out with cloud punch and sponged around edges with SU Pool Party. I used the negative from the punch out to sponge a Pool Party cloud in the sky.
I followed this sketch from The Paper Players


And I loved the sketch so much, I did a take 2. The piggy is cut from a fabric scrap.

 

10 min. Dash

I thought I try my hand at the 10 min. dash challenge at Pretty Pink Posh. The challenge is to make a card in under 10 minutes. Sometimes that is not so easy but they allow you to agonize over design and accumulate supplies before starting the timer. This weeks color suggestion is:

Rose, light orange, cornflower blue.
I spotted this scrap of DP that had all of those colors in it--how lucky is that? Then it was a matter of pulling out the solid colors and deciding on a stamp. This one from Hampton Art Stamps was just the right height for the design. I colored it with water color markers. The sentiment is from SU. The bling is glitter stickers I found at Michael's.



Of course this is easy if you pick the right sketch. This one is from Nicole at Pals Paper Arts.

Here is my time.

Girl Power

2 on Tuesday again. Today I combined the using scraps challenge from Tuesday Throwdown with this sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

I have enough scraps to make tons of cards so that part only involved choosing some that coordinate.

Not even any stamping on this card. I realized the "Girl's Rule" scrap could be cut so that became the sentiment. The flower is from a large geranium that I took apart and use just the little blossoms, here 2 of them fastened with a black brad to repeat the black dots and 3 black pearls. Even the ribbon was a scrap from my shoebox of scrap ribbons. 
 

Halloween MoJo

What a great sketch this week from MoJo Monday

 

White card base, then a layer of black. The corners are SU DP--upper one last year, lower one, this year. The Trick or Treat is cut from SU DP also and centered on a purple punched with SU label punch. Witch and Skeleton are both from Michael's. I love that skeleton, stamped in Archival white, dancing across the card. The not so scary witch is stamped in black and colored with colored pencils. Isn't she too cute to be scary?  I sponged some orange and violet inks around the circle edge. 3 strips of scrap ribbon for the banners at top and a green button tied with scrapper's floss at the bottom.  Came together much quicker than I thought possible.

Here is the MoJo sketch:



halloween in 1 Layer

Planning a little ahead but I am making Halloween cards for my grandchildren. Since I don't see them much, I send little treat packages occasionally. So this is a clean and simple1 layer card as challenged by ThePaper Players

I scanned this instead of photographing, hoping you could see more details. The house is a $1.00 stamp I got for half price after Halloween last year--what a bargain. I colored it with colored pencils in purple, neon green, orange, and yellow. The witch has pumpkins, skeletons, and stars swirling in her skirt. I did some highlights there with orange and gold star gel pens. The witch and sentiment are Inkadinkadoo Halloween collection. The edges are sponged with orange and purple inks to soften a little. I did use an additional layer of orange paper inside. The sentiment is done via computer and then stamped with spiders and web.

 

scrabble messages

This may be a stretch for clean and simple--there is no white space but it is simple. Only 3 elements: black cardstock, scrabble paper (I made a color copy of the board), and scrabble tiles.

One of my friends is a yard sale queen. I had mentioned once about wanting to try putting scrabble tiles on a card. So she found an old game at a yard sale.

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays  is using aqua, orange, and green on a card. Okay, this may be a stretch for the color part of the challenge as well but there is 1 orange square, 1 green square, and the background is aqua which didn't photograph well.

The inside of this card says U4Me, Me4U, 4ever. My DH and I love to play scrabble so I will probably use this for anniversary card.

Here are some others I have done today as well. For this first one, I looked up some texting terms to see how I could use up some of the letters left over. The translations is at the bottom:  from the bottom of my heart.

 

 

Birthdays

I am working on my stash of birthday cards today. When you make one, while you have the DP out you might as well go ahead and use more of it.
This is the one I started with to enter in the sketch challenge at Pals Ppaper Arts 

Then I went on to do 3 more. 

I used the cupcake paper from SU--I think it is now discontinued. The cupcake stamp is an old one I have had for years but is still a favorite. I used it because it has the cherry on top like in the DP. Some of the cupcakes I paper pieced, the one on the left is colored with water color pens. The small cupcakes on the diagonal greeting are in the Keep Calm set. Hard to see in the photos but the frosting has blue glitter glue and the cherries are coated with Crystal Effects.
Here is the sketch for the first card.














 

Vellum

I haven't done much work with Vellum but seeing the challenge of using specialty papers from Latenight Stampers gave me the opportunity to pull out the Vellum and create something.

I used the Love and Sympathy set. Stamped the Iris in white on the back of the vellum and the sentiment in black on the front. Next time I might try the image in Versamark and use white embossing power on it.  I used a heat gun on the inks to be sure they were thoroughly dry before flipping the vellum over. I tacked the vellum to a scrap of brown with brads. I have not found a truly clear glue that will not show thru vellum. Anybody know of one? Then a shear ribbon and bow. And taped down to Certainly Celery card base.
I like to decorate the inside also. I think it just gives a little special touch. So I did a message on the computer and then stamped the same iris in certainly celery after stamping off once to soften the color a little.

 

Sunflowers

Today I have a cheery sunflower thank you card.

I stamped flowers from Inkadinkadoo onto white cardstock, colored them with watercolor pens, and then punched them out. They are on white burlap over aqua cardstock. The thanks is from The Angel Co. and punched with tag punch from SU. This was all inspired form this picture from Papercraft Star


and this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

Baby Boy

This is not my "two for one" but "one for two". I am entering this is the challenges at Tuesday Throwdown Pastel Rainbows with this sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

My cute baby boy card features polka dots from Bo-Bunny and blue shoes sticker from NRN Designs. The sentiment is SU with a green gem to make the third feature from the sketch.

The inside message is backed with a coordinating blue mat and stamped with bare feet from Studio G in a pastel blue.

 

Sympathy

I do a craft fair and sale in the fall so today I have been working on Sympathy cards.
This one is on Kraft cardstock. A scrap of green and ivory. "Weed" stamps done in SU Certainly Celery. Sentiment is SU Loving Thoughts.

I followed the CAS sketch from CAS(e) This Sketch

 

Color Q Triangles

I am sharing a card with lots of triangles for Simon Says  Wednesday challenge in the colors from Colour Q

I used different IPs on the grey background and the 3 triangle banners, This added much needed texture.

The light blue circle stood out a bit too much so I sponged it with some darker blue. Then it seemed the orange needed repeating so an orange triangle flag on a toothpick did the trick. This really reminds me of the University of Illinois colors. My son is an alumni so I may save this for his birthday. 

Dog's life

I have 2 tasks for today--make a greeting card to enclose in package for my grandsons and enter challenge from Tuesday Morning Sketches So it is great I can do both at the same time.

I just purchased these stamps from Papertrix in Nashville, IN. knowing my grandsons would love the images. I stamped them all on scraps of white cardstock, colored with colored pencils, cut them out. The dog and hydrant are on one stamp but I wanted the dog riding in the wagon.  I masked off and stamped the paw prints on the bottoms, then added a strip of grass looking paper. Then glued on the wagon, dog, and hydrant. The boys will love this one.
Here is the sketch:

Sympathy

I find it a challenge to balance somber and pretty for sympathy cards. I like them to be able to bring a little brightness to a very somber occasion. This one I think balances well. The yellow paper is a bit cheerful but is balanced by the grey which is the reverse side of the yellow paper.

I used an ivory base. The DPs are SU. The sentiment is on a Nesties Label. The background flowers are from SU Summer Silhouettes and the sentiment from SU Love and Sympathy. I think decorating a little on the inside shows extra care so I used the Summer Silhouettes over the sentiment on the inside.

This is following the sketch from Mojo Monday


 

dream

For Case This Sketch

Wow, did all that red background blind you? I wanted a contrast for the white card--that sure did it.
I used the Send Me Soaring set from SU. Stamped the clouds background and feathered on a little Color Box sky blue with a q-tip. Stamped the kites in different colors, cut them out and attached twine strings and popped them up over the clouds. The "dream" is from studio G, attached with Scor-tape.
Here is the sketch"

Spooky

I was cleaning out my scrap paper file yesterday to see if I had any Christmas paper. I found a card front with a Halloween theme so decided to make that for Simon Says anything goes challenge. Then I noticed A Blog Named Hero theme is recycle. I try to recycle when possible and of course use scraps of DP when possible.

The DP is last years from SU. The tree and owl are cut from the old greeting card. I punched out a yellow circle for the full moon and punched out small bats to glue on the moon and greeting. The sentiment is done via computer and die cut with Nesties die. It has a little of the purple ink sponged around the edge. And of course owls have to have "google eyes"