Happy, Happy, Happy

Cute little characters from SU's Cheerful Critters for a fun card for kids.

I stamped, colored, and cut out the 3 critters. Made a large circle to cover the bottom of the critters and added faux stitching to anchor the circle.
Using the sketch from CASE(E) This Sketch

Butterfly Dreams

I recently purchased some hope, dream, believe word dies from Hobby Lobby. They are by Little Yellow Bicycle. When I saw the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches I thought I would try the words in place of banners.

I used Kraft cardstock and stamped a flight of butterflies across with Versamark Ink and an old Inkadinkadoo stamp. Then with some masking, I restamped the butterflies on a white oval, then backed it with a black border oval. I die cut the words and backed them with black to create some shadow. The SU butterfly is stamped in Daffodil Delight, punched out, and sponged on the edge with more Daffodil Delight. I glued on a rhinestone and attached it with a glue dot.
Here is the inspiration sketch

The challenge at The Kraft Journal is words of inspiration so I am linking up there too.

Cooling Off

It is a scorcher 90 and humid here today. Do you think using snowflakes for Christmas in July at Send a Smile 4 Kids will help cool me off?

I used scraps for this. Ran a blue scrap through Big Shot with Cuttlebug snowflake impression folder then lightly sponged white over the impressions. The snowman face is from Inkadinkadoo stamped with Color Box Royal Blue and then I colored in some areas with purple and green pencils. The cord is Bamboo cord. Sentiment is SU stamped with the Royal Blue. A deminsional at the center of the banner secures the cord in place.
I like the sketch from The Paper Players that I used yesterday. So this is yesterday's two-fer that I didn't have time to complete until today.
Here is their sketch

Now, I think it might be time for a tall cold lemonade and cookies. That definitely will cool me off.

Paper Players

I often use tags on my cards. So this sketch challenge at The Paper Players is just the inspiration I needed to get going today.

I just received the Bold Blossoms die from  Ellen Hutson and it looks really great with the watercolor DP from SU.

This paper set is one of my favorite designs and colors. I'm glad I bought a pack of this before SU discontinued it. So now I hoard it for special occasions so it will last longer!! I added a little strip of blue to separate the designs, so they would each have an emphasis. The tag is cut from water color paper and punched with the SU tag topper punch then colored with Mossy Meadow and tied with yellow/white twine. The flowers are die cut in white and sponged with Daffodil Delight, making them softer than if I had cut them from DD paper.. The leaves are die cut from scrap green. The sentiment is SU and stamped with Mossy Meadow.

Guitar

My contact for Send As Smile 4 Kids is wanting some cards for boys. I think this will be ideal for a teen

I did you and rock on the computer. The guitar is a b/w clip art image printed on white cardstock, colored with pencils and cut out then glued to the card base. I finished off with 3 square glue on brads to kind of repeat the image of string adjusters on the guitar.
It is my interpretation of the sketch from Pals Paper Arts

Banner Circle Frame

I am having a lot of fun with MFT cool penguins. The DP with waves is from SU. I punched out circles on the 2 banners then stamped the penguin in the opening. Colored with pencils. 

For The Paper Players challenge of CAS featuring frames

I also had red polka dots and wood grain imprinted paper left over from a SU card kit at the top of my scrap pile. So I grabbed that and did another card with this layout. One more Christmas card done!

Santa and Gifts

Tuesday Throwdown Christmas in July challenge has finally motivated me to break out the Christmas stamps and start on holiday cards. A strip of Burlap Ribbon that I forgot to put on a card yesterday was still on my desk so that was the starting point for this card.

Ingredients: Kraft cardstock, SU designer paper and stamps, colored pencils, and puffy snow.
And a sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

Sail Away

I love Tim Holtz stamps for masculine cards. The compass and globe are from a travel group with the script from Inkadinkadoo.

I've had one last bit of travel theme paper in my stash for a long time. It was just the thing for this card. The globe to the left is cut from the paper. The center piece is the reverse side of the globe design.. The strip of clocks were on the paper too. The sailboat is from IdesignStamps. I slightly colored some aqua for ocean. Both stars are punches- gold foil and a bit of the stash paper. The inks are Baked Brown Sugar from SU. I like how it goes with Kraft cardstock. I am definitely going to have to go on a search for more of this paper.
And major senior moment--I meant to put the strip of burlap (that was laying right there on my desk) across the center like on this sketch from Mojo Monday

Laser-cut CASE

I was checking out my blog list this morning and found a gorgeous card that I absolutely fell in love with on  Megan's blog I Teach Stamping so I am totally casing it.

On water color paper, I did a background with Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, and an orange. I cut an oval on white cardstock and then cut 2 butterflies with SU's Butterflly Thinlits Dies from white cardstock. Running a thin line of glue on the back of the oval I positioned the butterflies, touching at one point so they look like one laser cut. I attached the background and then taped it to a turquoise cardstock base. The sentiment is also from SU done in the Tempting Turquoise.
Entering this in the challenge at Case This Sketch. I moved the sentiment down to the bottom to not obscure any of the butterfly image.

I also got inspiration from color week at Just Us Girls

And here is Megan's beautiful creation.Do check out her blog for some beautiful inspiration.

Cool Penguin

Quick post for 2 challenges. The images and sentiment here are My Favorite Things. Scrap DP that looks like water.

Tuesday Morning Sketches


and Send A Smile 4 Kids using bright colors for kids.

Card Kits

I buy card kits when they are on sale. It is a time saver to have pre-cut papers, design layouts, etc. However, I don't always want all the same design card so I will do other designs with the components of the kit. This is such a card

This was a kit from SU that I purchased after Christmas last year. There were 5 of each design in the kit. I changed it up so it would work for the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches

All the parts were in the kit except the solid red strip, the punched green trees and the tiny punched gold stars. The word christmas is from a retired SU set.
I am also submitting to Crafty Calendar Challenge and Sweet Stampin Challenge who are having Christmas in July.

"shell"-a-brate

I love puns so when I found this term somewhere in blog land I knew exactly how I would use it. I can't find it again to give credit. If it is yours please let me know and I'll give you a shout out.

The background is a stencil from MFT. It is called giraffe but I have used it for a penquin pool (here) and now for a turtle shell. I used SU inks, baked brown sugar, mossy meadow, lucky limeade, and certainly celery. The turtle and gifts are also SU. Stamped, colored, and cut out. To give some separation from the sentiment, I added a narrow strip of Kraft cardstock.
I am sending this to Send A Smile 4 Kids and entering it in their animal challenge. Since it will probably go to an older child who will get the pun, I added googly eyes on the turtle.

Summer Flowers

There is a challenge of using no patterned paper at Tuesday Throwdown so I am taking color inspiration from flowers blooming in my yard. And using this sketch from Ttuesday Morning Sketches
         
And they both fit right into the "summer" challenge from The Kraft Journal, and the "great outdoors" challenge at The Paper Players

Since I am not using DP, I added some texture and interest with a Cuttlebug impression folder on the yellow.  And then added 2 strips of a green scrap. The pink frame is a Spellbinder's label with an oval SU impression folder to frame the punched out oval. The flowers are from SU's Summer Silhouettes". The thank you?--I don't have a label for it.
There, I feel like I have accomplished a lot today. I did four challenges!  Ha,Ha! I am just procrastinating a lot of other stuff. At least I don't have to water the flowers. God is doing a really good job of keeping the flowers watered this summer.

Star Congratulations

Happy Independence Day! In honor of that and for challenges at The Kraft Journal (Red, White, Blue) and at Just Us Girls (Congratulations)

If you squint and look close, you can see the stars embossed on the Kraft cardstock. Then I used a Sizzix star die to cut the stars. The congrats banner is from Stampendous and stamped in SU's Real Red. I popped the center with deminsionals and anchored the ends with glue dots. I had a bunch of the negative star cuts left so put some on the inside.

This will go in my stash to save for next year graduations. Our local high school colors are red, white, and blue with Stars as the team name.
I was having crafter's withdrawl. This is the first card I've made in about 2 weeks. I have been busy prepping crafts for VBS. The theme is "Talk to the Animals"  These are the adorable animals I made on colored cardboard cups for story time.