Frogs

 In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I am using a fun Old Irish Toast.

The background check paper is from SU! To add texture, I used a checked Darius embossing folder on it. The sentiment has a black mat. 2 frogs are from Poppy Stamps. I found a green button in my stash and tied it with twine and attached with a large glue dot.

I've used the sketch from  Sketch Saturday with the option of including a button.

Also sharing with Can You Handle The Pressure  with the theme of lucky or St. Patricks

And Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge to use animals. I think the kids will get a chuckle about frogs in underpants 

Masculine Birthday

 A gentlemen in my church is having a 96th birthday next week. He is in assisted living. We are doing a card shower for him. This is my card. The picture reminds me of Melvin sitting in his chair reading the newspaper.

The background is Timeless Plaid from SU. The darker checks is the backside of the blue plaid.  The man is a Google clip art. The sentiment is an old unlabeled one. I punched out 3 cirlcles from copper metallic paper.

Inside I did a computer sentiment and added a strip of the brown check and 2 more copper circles.

I am submitting this to Cardz 4 Guyz challenge to use this sketch

Bright Birthday

 Spring has arrived in my craft room. This is the second day in a row I have made a spring floral birthday card. Don't we all love flowers and embellishments?

I am playing with Cardz 4 Galz challenge #244: Embellishments. Thanks to them for picking my card as the spotlight winner in the last challenge.

Today's card:

I used a yellow floral vellum from the Floral Delight Suite as the background.. I attached the vellum to a piece of white card stock so it would show better on the Daffodil Delight card base. Strips of green stripe across the bottom and top give me a place to anchor the vellum to the white card stock. The flower is a Memory Box die. I cut a green one and then a yellow one and paper pieced the yellow on top. I shaded the flowers to make them stand out. I put mini dimensionals behind the two larger flowers and glued the stems in place  The sentiment is an old one rom SU! I backed it with a strip of yellow print and the green stripe.

I finished it off with 3 iridescent gems above the middle flower. They don't show up much in the photo but IRL the really glisten.

Floral Birthday

Making a birthday card to celebrate Time Out Challenges 11th birthday. This challenge is to CASE the designer Donna Mikasa of Three Umbrellas Blog. Go check out her blog, she is super creative.

Here is her creation to CASE

I am using Stampin' Up!'s DSPs Floral Delight and Serene Love. One of the Serene Love papers has large flowers all over it. I have fussy cut them to use as accents. The center flower is popped up on foam squares.

The sentiment is an old one from SU.

Inside I did a computer message and accented with 2 more flowers.

And oh there will be a prize. More motivation to play along.

Study in Blues

 Today I am playing with a sketch from Sketch Saturday

The blue gingham is a vellum in the Delightful Wishes bundle. The dots and flowers are from the Serene Love online exclusive offer. One page of this paper has bunches of the big flowers. I fussy cut them. The small accent lower right is in blue glitter paper. The sentiment is also SU, stamped and fussy cut.

Inside, I have a computer made sentiment and a large single flower from the DSP

While I had these papers out, I made another card with 2 sets of the cut out flowers. This sentiment is an old one from SU! 

Oceans of Fun

 What can you do when the temperature is 10 degrees and there is snow and ice on the ground? Well, there is probably a lot of housework that could be done but I chose to stay in the craft room and make 4 fun fold cards for Send A Smile 4 Kids. This is called a joy fold. Don't ask me why--maybe someone named Joy first used it. Or it brings joy to the recipient. 

All the papers are new from Stampin' UP! called Friends of the Ocean. I love all the bright colors. I did not get the coordinating stamp set so I made foilage from bits and pieces of older sets and also fussy cut some of the fish from the patterned paper. The sentiment I did on the computer and popped it up on foam tape.

i know the kids are going to love these fun bright cards. I am glad to bring a little joy into an other wise difficult situation.

Cracked Eggs

 I am using the sketch from Sketch Saturday for some Easter cards for Send A Smle 4 Kids. 

All of them use a digi by  From My Heart. The papers are all from Stampin' Up!,

For the girls

I colored the images with Stampin' blends. Punched out 3 flowers and attached them with glue dots.

On this one I replaced flowers with feathers.

For the boys.

The DSP reminds me of piles of colored eggs. I decided to leave the chickens white and shaded them with a gray pencil. I covered the butterfly on the top with a feather. 

This one is a book fold card.

I'm not sure about the image but  I know boys will like the sentiment.

Easter for a Guy

 I have 2 teenage grandsons. It is so hard to do Easter cards for them. They are too old for all the cute bunnies and pastel colors of regular Easter cards. 

I think this one will do it.

I used a DSP from SU's Timeless Plaid for the background mat. The truck image, balloon sentiment. and road streaks are all  old stamps from SU. Maybe enlarge the photo to see that is is a pile of Easter eggs in the truck bed. I used a balloon punch to punch out the sentiment and 2 other balloons and then used a blending brush and inks to color them. A fine tip marker was used to make the balloon strings.

This is for Cardz 4 Guyz  #365 Clean and Simple.

Sweet Bunny

 I love cute little bunnies---except for the one who lives in my yard and goes around eating my tulips.

But the ones on cards--yes.

The image is upcycled from a thank you card I received last year. I winked the flowers and butterflies for some shine  and added pearl accents. The green polka dots was in my stash. I left off a sentiment as I am going to use it for a note card.

This is for  Cardz 4 Galz #242--Polka Dots

Snow Crocus

 Can You Handle The Pressure challenge is anything goes with a twist of snow and must use an embossing folder.

Well, I tell you I am done with snow! We had a 12 inch snow 2 weeks ago and it has been bitter cold so it will not melt. UGH! Snow is pretty at first but after this long it is pretty much a dreary slushy gray.  Even the snowmen the neighborhood children built are drooping. Today is warm enough to do some seriously melting. YAY!  Enough whining--I am sure some of you have it worse.

My snow card shows those early colorful crocuses that can pop up through the snow. I am ready for that .

I used a snowfall E/F from SU. on the background. I found the picture on Google clip art, copied it and sized it to 4"x 3". I found some glitter purple ribbon in my stash to border the image. The sentiments on the front and inside are both from SU.

I had printed out 2 different sizes of the image. The crocus inside is fussy cut from the left over one.

Also entering at Cardz 4 Galz #242, Anything but square.

BRING YOUR SUNGLASSES

 When I saw the challenge at TIME OUT Challenges inspired by your favorite thing to do in January, I didn't even have to think about it. I live in southern Indiana. We had 12 inches of snow and ice last week and then below freezing temperatures so the snow is still on the ground. My favorite January activity is most certainly going somewhere sunny and warm. 

I found the sun print and yellow gingham in the scrap box. Bright enough to remind me of warm climate. The sunglasses and the sentiment are from SU. I coated the lenses with glossy accents and popped them  up with foam squares.

Inside I did a sentiment on the computer and added glasses, a die from Impressions Obsessions.

Glitter eggs

 This is one for the kids at Send A Smile 4 Kids. Especially little girls will like the glitter and sparkle.

I don't have an egg die so I used an oval. I used a glitter green, a shimmery pink, and an orange that I covered with Stickles glitter glue.  I usually use the wavy pattern E/F for water but using it vertically and rubbing with green reminds me of grass. The bunny is a die cut sent to me by a blogger friend Cheryl. I tried sitting it directly on the green egg but it didn't show well so I added a blue oval behind it. The sentiment is Stampin" UP!

Entering a few challenges.

Shopping Our Stash: Glitter me happy

The Paper Players: 

And I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

Favorite Peeps

 I've hit all the spring colors on this card--yellow, pink, blue, green, lavender. 

The chick is from SU's Easter Friends. I stamped them with Hello Honey and then colored in the white areas with Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie on the beak and feet. The sentiment, an old unlabeled one,  is in Balmy Blue. If you will notice, the "middle child (the favorite peep) is popped up on foam squares. BTW, I am a middle child! hee hee

I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday

Duck

I know I am rushing the season but I am so totally over this winter snowy weather. I have been out of the house only 3 times this past week. Today is finally sunny so maybe we will get a little snow melt.

I pulled out my box of Easter supplies and have been making spring, colorful cards.

The duck is a retired SU stamp set called Easter friends. The 3 gingham strips are from the scrap box. I think gingham is so spring looking. The background is a wavy E/F from SU. To make it look like water I rubbed a blue ink pad over it. The little duck is running through the grass to find a pond of water. The sentiment is also SU. 

I used the sketch from Frehly Made Sketches 

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge has a twist of using.s 3-D folder. The waves are raised so I think it might qualify.

Love

I like making Valentines. I remember getting out the construction paper, doilies, and paste and making them as a kid. Maybe that was the beginning of my card making. I am encouraging my granddaughter by putting together some valentine card kits for her to make for her school class.

I did ombre inking on white card stock. I used all my reds and pinks from Cherry Cobbler to Bubble Bath pink. Then i used a heart stencil and Cherry Cobbler ink to make the hearts. The lace trim was in my accumulated supply of laces. I punched the focal hearts from Melon Mambo and Cherry Cobbler. The sentiment is an old SU one.

Entering this at Group of Seven Cardmakers--use ombre in design.

And Cardz 4 Galz--use a stencil. I'll put this in the gift shop thinking it perfect for a guy to buy for his girl.

 

Fun Guy Card

My feature card today is a fun birthday for a guy.

Inside:

The plaid  is from the scrap box. The dog and hydrant are a Great Impressions stamp. I colored and fussy cut them and glued them above the sentiment. I'm not sure about the sentiment. I have it in a computer file but really don't remember how that came to be. The metallic strip is actually copper picking up one of the thin stripes in the plaid.

I am entering the tic tac toe challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz using the diagonal animal, blue, and plaid.

I've used the sketch from Try a Sketch on Tuesday

And then Double Trouble Challenge having met the requirements of choice of colors, layers, and a warm & cuddly image. and also used the sketch at Try A Sketch on Tuesday,

Sweet Bunny

My sweet blogger friend Cheryl of Paper Panacea sent me a bunch of the cutest die cut bunnies and stools. Here is one of the cards I made with them.

The card base is Highland Heather from SU. The background paper is SU's Perennial Lavender. The frame is Sizzix from the back side of the print paper. I used a light pink color on the ears and shaded the bunny with a gray pencil. The sentiment was suggested by Cheryl, typed on computer and anchored with 2 purple gems.

Inside I used one of my favorite sentiments for cheer cards.

I'll be sharing this with Let's Craft and Create challenge of anything goes + cheers to you.

Sympathy

Sadly I have recently sent several sympathy cards so I need to replenish my stash.

Subtle and quiet colors are what I usually use for sympathy cards.

I used paper from 49 and Market, the Moonlight Garden collection. I cut a section of one of the 12x12 papers and added a die cut rectangle from a coordinating page. I masked off the lower edge and stamped some flowers and glued the frame around them. The SU sentiment is stamped on a scrap the frame paper and then fussy cut around. I punched a butterfly from the same paper as the frame. 

I found several challenges for this card.

Just Us Girls:  challenge 756, Die Cuts

Paper Fun Day Challenge:  Anything goes with a twist of monochrome

Time Our Challenges: Challenge #279 with twist of new beginings. I know a sympathy card seems strange for new beginnings but flowers and butterflies symbol the beginning of a new spring season. 

Freshly Made Sketches I used a landscape orientation and used the frame of flowers as the focal point.