Grunge

I see lots of cards with different grunge aspects but have had trouble getting it just right. I finally found a stamp set that makes it so easy, Stamplorations. click on the name to take you directly to the stamp set.

Starting with a Kraft cardstock base, I stamped several of the grunge elements in StazOn black. Then added a B/W stripe from SU. I used a SU punch on the top of the tag and covered the hole with a Tim Holtz sticker. The miss you is from SU's Crazy About You set which has a lot of individual words so you can make your own sentiment. And in case you would miss the message, I stamped some chevron arrows (also from the grunge set) to emphasize it. Then tied it all up with 2 different twines. 

I used the sketch from  Freshly Made Sketches 

and am also posting to The Kraft Journal challenge to use ribbon or twine.

Painted Petals

I am so loving the new Painted Petals stamp set from SU.

I used a Nesties label die to make a picture frame. The blossoms inside the frame are done with Melon Mambo stamped off once. I made stems with SU's Certainly Celery marker. The lower pattern is from Summer Silhouettes. The sentiment is from Kaiser Kraft and punched out with word window punch from SU. The banners are from my scrap file with 2 little candy dots at the top. Inside, I repeated that pattern above the computer made sentiment.

I used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

Also submitting to Tuesday Throwdown challenge theme of  "Get Well"

60 years--WOW!

Dear friends of ours are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary soon. That calls for a very special card. I Googled 60th anniversary and found it to be the diamond one. So I pulled out the glitz.

I matted the white cardstock with glitter swirls cardstock from Michael's. Then on the upper third, I added some vellum with embossed silver hearts from SU. The plain glitzy paper is also from SU, I think they called it Dazzling Diamonds. Nestibilities label dies, SU window and label punches, SU and D.O.T.S sentiment stamps. And then some "diamond" stones for even more glitz.
I used the sketch from The Paper Players

Daydreaming of Spring

It is a gloomy, rainy, cool day here in southern Indiana, a great day for crafting and bringing a little sunshine to Newton's Nook sketch challenge

I used the Newton's Day Dreams stamps and some bright colors all wrapped in a pink/white twine.

Mother's Day

Here I am casing another card from my SU demo Lee Conrey. She is just so talented.
For the Just Us Girls photo inspiration,


I love all the luscious spring colors.

I cut three 1 1/2" squares in white then stamped them with a floral stamp from SU's Blooming with Kindness.
I used Melon Mambo, Wisteria Wonder, and Hello Honey. I sprayed the flower square with iridescent glitter dust to give them some sparkel. I'm sorry that doesn't show up because it really is a cool effect. The sentiment is also from SU and stamped in Lucky Limeade.  When I did the sentiment on the computer, it came out a little too far down on the page leaving too much white at the top so I filled that in with another of the flower in Melon Mambo.

Here is Lee's beautiful card

Window Card

I haven't tried window cards too much but my neighbor gave me some so I have been playing around with different ideas.This one is very CAS

The flower stamp set is Painted Petals from SU. The inks are Certainly Celery and Wisteria Wonder both from SU. I stamped off once to make softer colors. I stamped the inside stems first. Since the stamps are photopolymer it was easy to overlap the stems and do the ones on the front. Then I stamped the flowers. The front sentiment is SU and the inside is one I found at a yard sale without a label. The ribbon is from my scrap stash, I think it is also from SU.

I turned the sketch from Case This Sketch upside down.

Sandcastles

Doesn't get any better than sitting on a beach looking at the ocean and watching children build sandcastles. Perfect set up for daydreaming. That is what I thought of when I saw the Just Us Girls challenge

I used a Kraft cardstock base and Memo Book sheet punched with notebook border punch from SU. On the notebook paper, I lightly stamped background script, a compass, and an anchor in Tim Holtz tea dye ink. The sandcastle is stamped with Hello Honey from SU. I colored in a little water with an aqua colored pencil. The stamped Dream in SU's Tempting Turquoise. The banner is "anchored" with a gold metallic punch out anchor.

Now just wish I lived closer to the beach!

Creating DP

After watching this video by Brian King, I wanted to try my own stamping off designer paper. Because of these picture challenges at TheCard Concept and colourQ
   
I decided to go with the blacks and grays to create my DP on the clean and layed card. The gray geometric of the ottoman inspired the use of SU stamps from Delicate Doilies and Mixed Bunch. The Birthday Wishes also from SU is stamped in Real Red and backed with another oval in red. A few red sequins add sparkle.
To brighten up the inside, I added a little more Real Red. The sentiment is from my computer file.

The sketch I used is from Freshly Made Sketches

Scrap Crazy

My card today is a great way to use up some of those mounds of scraps--you know you all have them!!

I am entering it for the Kraft Journal take your pick challenge. I chose blue (mine is aqua), twine, embossed.

Kraft Cardstock base.

Embossing folders:  Darice diagonal lines and SU stars.

Inks: SU Baked Brown Sugar, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise.

Stamps: SU's Crazy About You and Gorgeous Grunge.

Twine secured with Spare Parts button brad and a glue dot.

I totally cased this card from my SU Demo Lee Conrey. I love all her bright colors and patterns.

Bag It!

Well, DUH! I am a little embarrassed but I gave out some wrong info on yesterday's blog about the new Treat Bag thinlet die from SU. While playing around with it more today, I discovered that one piece of the set was the other half of the back and you don't need to cut them on opposite sides of double sided paper.So actually shame on SU for not giving more implicit instructions.
Here is today's try at making a "treat bag" card for a teenage boy's birthday.

 The DP is called Sweater Weather, from SU last year. The guitar colored with pencils is a digi that I forgot to label and the sentiment has lost its label so I can't credit that either. So sorry to those 2 companies.
The tag inside has a message from Hero Arts.

I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration.

Super Star

I am making some cards for Send A Smile 4 Kids, a group of bloggers who collect and send cheer cards to hospitalized kids. Check out their info here. If you enjoy contributing to charity, this is a great cause. As a retired nurse, I know just being in the hospital, and perhaps having a debilitating illness is pretty rough for kids and their parents. Anything we can do to bring cheer to them is so appreciated.
My card is a loose interpretation of Tuesday Morning Sketches. I changed shapes and moved the horizontal strip to the top.

 

Warning:  if you have purchased the treat bag framelits from SU.When using double sided paper, flip the paper over to make the second piece. I ended up with different designs for a part of the back. So I salvaged the front and made a little tag holder for the front of a card. The die cut set also has the banner, large star, and the row of stars that I used across the top. The 2 smaller stars are punches. The DP is Echo Park Paper Co. The super star is from Stampabilities. The tag sentiment is an old one, probably Inkadinkadoo.

Easter for Boys

When it comes time to make Easter cards for my grandsons, ages 8 & 9, I don't want anything too childish or flowery. Their big interest right now is the video game Minecraft so I wanted to do images with that in mind. I know there are sheep and pigs in that game so here is one that I came up with.

The cute lamb is from Newton's Nook Farmyard Friends. The eggs are Inkadinkadoo and colored with pencils. I used a Tim Holtz stencil to get that "pixelated" effect that is part of the game. I'm pretty sure he will be impressed. The inside says "Happy Easter to Ewe"
I  saw this picture on Curtain Call Challenge blog and used the sheep as inspiration.

Here is the other one. The inside on this says "Hammy Easter to You" The pig is also from Newton's Nook.