Special Friend

You always want special friends to have a very special birthday card that you made. And a sense of humor!

And of course, you get to an age where birthday numbers aren't brought up.
This one is done all in shades of pink. The background behind the lace is a DCWV pack. The flowers are from a geranium that I pulled apart--makes lots of single blossoms. They are centered with rhinestones. The sentiment I found on Quote Garden and did on the computer.
And then you get to the inside--more reference to aging and remembering--or not!!

The butterfly is the same DP as background punched out with SU punch and black scraper's floss for antennae.
This is for a sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

Sympathy

I have a sympathy card to share today. I think it is so hard to get the balance between somber and uplifting. I like this DP I found at hobby lobby. I think it strikes that balance. The pearls, ribbon, sentiment, and banner die are from SU. I used dimensionals on the banner.

I followed the sketch from CAS(e) This Sketch

Farewell to Friends

Good friends are selling their home and moving to a retirement center near their children. We will miss them a lot but am happy they can make this move. So I made this card to wish them happiness in their new home.

The house is from The Angel Company, colored with colored pencils. The papers are from SU. Happiness is from SU's Loving Thoughts.
I used this weeks sketch from The Paper Players
 

Duct Tape

My second post today. I am trying to catch up on challenges. My Google has been down and having trouble with Internet Explorer too.
This is a super simple CAS card. A quick one for the men in your life who need a get well card. I've used this sentiment before and the recipients really like it.

That is real duct tape and real band-aids on there. I used to add smiley faces on band-aids when I started IVs so thought that appropriate here. The sentiment is done on computer.
Have you seen all the cool new designs on duct tape? I'm thinking I'll get some for kids cards.
This is for Freshly Made Sketches sketch of the week

Flyig Witch

When I saw this inspiration photo from Papercraft Star I knew I had the perfect stamp for it.
 

The witch is  from Inkadindadoo and the house is a $1.00 stamp from Michael's.

I colored the house with colored pencils and added some sparkles to the witch with star gel pens.

Bag and Tag

I think I watch too much NCIS. Something about "bag and tag" just sounds ominous.  But these are fun decorated gift bags with cute tags to match. It is for the latest challenge at CAS-ual Fridays

 
Sound better the way they say it! I have been making several of these for a craft bazaar in November. I'm glad CAS-ual Fridays chose this theme so I can share them with you.
I actually have 2 to share

Santa is from SU last year. I covered the lower part with "brick" paper sponged with white and bordered with Snow Marker that is a paint, let dry, and heat emboss to puff it up. I used a  snowflake from CAS-ual Friday stamps in white StazOn. The tag stamp is also from Cas-ual Friday stamped is vertical rows. I stamped another circle around the snowflake to make more of an O.

My other bag is a snowflake from SU punched out with the blossom punch. It has glitter glue to make it sparkle. Sentiment is from the same Cas-ual Friday stamp set. Love how they make the Os into snowflakes.

The tag has a snowman cut from some wrapping paper.

Dove of Peace

I have used SUs Calm Christmas Dove and sentiment for my card today for Freshly Made Sketches

The cardstock and DP are also SU from the Holiday book. I stamped the dove on the back of the SU silver paper (also from the holiday book) and then cut it out. The picture doesn't look silver--it was either this dark one or one with too much flash reflection.I stamped the olive branch on the back of the green and cut it out and glued on with the dove. I masked off all put the Peace of the sentiment and stamped it on the dove with StazOn black. On the inside, I used the sentiment from the set on a strip of white cardstock to mimic the front and then repeated the green and red banners.

Here is the sketch

Nativity Snowmen

Since I still have the adorable snowman nativity stamps from The Angel Company on my desk, I decided to do one more using the Tuesday Morning Sketches

The blues seem to be the color choice for this set. Here I used an aqua and turquoise accented with gold metallic vellum.

So now I have a whole set and a coordinating gift bag.

These are just a few of the set of 10. I am thinking what a great thanks and appreciation gift for the minister's family. 

Mojo Snowman

It is Monday. Time to get your mojo going for the week. And the best place to start is a sketch from Mojo Monday

I started with the snowman image cut from a card I received last year. The DP and the blue banners are from a Martha Stewart Christmas mat pad.The glitter banners are SU. A red candy cane ribbon from Michael's adds whimsey. It doesn't show well but I added some clear glitter glue to the snow to make it sparkle.
Here is Mojo Monday sketch



Angel Choir

This is the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

I helped an elderly lady clean out some closets a couple of years ago. She gave me a very old hymnal that otherwise would have been thrown away. Always on the hunt for inspiration, I am thinking these pages would be great as backgrounds on cards. So I am saving $ on DP and recycling at the same time. Is it sacrilege to tear pages from a hymnal?  Hope not! Using Christmas Carol pages, I made a set of 4 "angel choir" cards. This one for the sketch challenge.

I tore the page to fit the Kraft card base, sponged it with Tim Holtz tea dye ink. A little lace and ribbon from my stash. Punched scallop circle from SU gold metallic paper. Angel stamp from Stampabilities, wings colored with clear star gel pen, and eyes and mouth with fine line marker.

Here are the other 3

Maybe a great gift for music teacher?



Dragonfly

I am cranking out the cards and challenges today. This is my second.

For this one, I used this picture from Papercraft Star


Isn't that a gorgeous picture. I want to visit there. I used SU's Pear Pizzaz with a wood grain IP as the base. The dotted DPs are Bo Bunny. I love dragonflies and I noticed that dragonfly in the window right away. Mine is Stampabilities. I stamped it on the back of Vellum in both a vivid blue and violet. Putting the image on the back gives it a softer look. Be sure the ink is dry before flipping the vellum over. Then on the front, I stamped the sentiment from PTI. Two blue sparkly stickers anchor the corners and helps hide the tape under the vellum. Tie it all up with a pretty gingham ribbon and you're good to go.

Wise Snowmen

I am taking the using a rubber or clear stamp challenge from Simon Says a step farther and used only stamps--no DP at all on this card.

I pulled out this old set of Snowmen Nativity from The Angel Company. These images are so cute. I stamped the snowmen on scrap paper, cut around them and used that as a mask to sponge some Color Box sky blue ink around. Then with the Stamp-a-ma-jig I stamped the image in the center. The star is stamped in the sky blue and then traced over with a silver star gel pen. I colored the image with colored pencils and gel pens. Then a little blue glitter glue at the base to make sparkly snow.
I used other images from the set here and here. One more to go. I'll have to figure out something for the shepherds.
 

Snowman Nativity

I think this snowman nativity set from The Angel Company is so cute.

I used the angel on a card yesterday. You can view that here. The DP is from Paper Studio.  I cut a Stampabilities Label die in white for the image and then in navy for a shadow effect. The sentiment is stamped on vellum. The glitter paper star is a punch. It was too big to use the whole star so I just positioned what looked good and trimmed off the rest.
I used this sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches turned upside down.

Decorated Gift Bag

I am really liking these gift bag/card combos. They will really make under the tree area look special. You can see another example here.

Several years ago, The Angel Company had this adorable snowman nativity stamp set. I still use it a lot. Silver embossing on the star makes it shine. The circle DP is from The Paper Company, The card hangs from a slot in the bag that is covered with the same DP. The die for the card hanger is designed and marketed by Laurie at Soapbox Creations. Add a coordinating color bow and you have a wrapping worthy of that gift you so carefully selected.
Here is a close up of just the card so you can see the glitter

 I used this week's sketch from Mojo Monday for the card.


 

Glitzy Chickies

If you have been around blogland this week, I guess you know this is


So there are lots of challenges out there today. I want to get several Christmas cards done today. Here is the first

The DPs are from an old DCWV Christmas stack. Image is Denami design colored with colored pencils and glitzed up with some glitter glue.

Their challenge is this tic tac toe grid

 

 

I used the center horizontal center row: green, glitter, polka dots. I used this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches



So, if I'm going to get several cards done, guess I better get off the computer and get to work.

Gift Bag

I made this yesterday and then tuned in to Simon Says blog to discover they were "going dotty" for this week's challenge.

 

Now how lucky is that--project already done. This concept of hanging a card on the gift bag really lets you embellish a card and not have flatten it by stuffing it into an envelope. You will probably see a lot of these under my tree this year.

This beautiful metallic gold and white polka dot DP is from a Christmas Stack a few years ago. I guess I was saving this paper for this very occasion. The tree stamp is a very old Inkadinkadoo but is so pretty when done in VersaMark and gold embossing. I popped on a few red gems for bling. The gold bows are both from ribbon stash. The sentiment is from SU's More Merry Messages from last year. The only thing new here is the bag itself.

The card hangs from a decorative slot in the bag.

This was designed, created, and sold by Laurie at Soapbox Creations. She may still have them available if you want to check it out.
And not one to waste anything, I used the cutout from the slot to decorate the inside of the card.

We spend a lot of time selecting just the right gift so we should make the packaging special too.



 



 

"Fleece" Navidad

A little play on words for my Spanish speaking friends using the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

Kraft card base, DPs from SU, Martha Stewart edge punch, Stampabilities lamb, Hero Arts swirls, computer generated sentiment, and clip art Santa Hat. I used a few colored pencils to add some definitions and grounding to the lamb.
Here is the sketch