Neglected Stuff Challenge is a new challenge for me. The premise is to use stuff laying around in your craft space that need some love again. 

There comes a time when you have to stop creating and spend some time cleaning. That is what I have been doing. I found some cards from a Memories and More card pack from SU. The label is long gone so I don't know the name of the set.

I love blues and this image just spoke Mother's Day to me. The background DSP is also SU. I made a banner of the sentiment by adding a foam square in the center and glue dots on the ends 

Mother's Day

I am furiously making Mother's Day cards for Send A Smile 4 Kids . This month their challenge is to use a sketch. So I pulled up this from Sketch Saturday        

My card is made with bits from my stash.

The sentiment is popped up with foam squares. The butterfly is on one of those jiggly things--I forgot what they are called. I think the kids will have fun with it.

Let's Craft and Create challenge is add flowers.

Paper Funday Challenges. anything with the letter B

Mother's Day

 In order for special cards to get to the kids on time, we have to be thinking ahead to the next occasion at Send A Smile 4 Kids So, I am working on some Mother's Day cards that the kids will select for their Mothers.

This one, I am linking up to Cardz 4 Galz  where the challenge is stripes.

The pattern in the Perennial Lavender  paper from SU represents the stripes. The circle bouquet is from a pad by Recolletions. The sentiment is  also SU.  I added a bow to the top and then 3 purple gems for accernts.

Toys for Guyz

 My husband aways call tools his toys. I'm sure you've heard the expression "the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys."  He certainly has fun playing with his toys.

 So I think my card will be good for the challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz Fun and Games.

I used a Kraft base, die cut a 2 1/2" square and then embossed it with a wood E/F. The papers are all scraps of a retired DSP collection. The tools (toys) are all stickers I found in my stash.

Here is how the card opens.

I don't know if this fold has a certain designation or not. I was inspired by Brian King. at stampwithbrian.com You can see his gorgeous floral card here. He gives the measurement and instructions for the card. Maybe we can call it the king fold. 

Flowers and Butterflies

I am so ready for flowers and butterflies. Mother Nature just doesn't want to let go of the cold, drizzly weather . At least I think we are past snow.

I pulled out some patterns from a Recollections paper pad. In spite of Mother Nature, we will have butterflies.

The card base is Mossy Meadow by SU. The background paper is covered with leaves.. The center banner is cropped form a butterfly page. Behind the banner is a strip of vanilla. Then a circle of a green printed vellum. On top is a butterfly from Simple Stories ephemera pack. The butterfly is secured with glue dots in the center and small bit of foam tape to elevate the wings. I finished off with 3 irridescent gems around the butterfly.

The design is by Freshly Make Sketches

Also entering at Hand Stamped Sentiments with this mood board, although I used more greens, I did use the butterfly.

Sloth

 

Cardz 4 Guyz new challenge is S is for ________

S is for Sloth.

Sloths can move 5-25 ft per minute. Mostly they just hang upside down on a tree branch.  We saw sloths in the jungle in Costa Rica. I stood there and watched for 15 minutes and I don't think they moved  even one inch. 

So my "hang in there" is the appropriate sentiment.

The fern e/f is unlabeled. I swiped a green ink over them. The sloth, branch, and sentiment are also unlabeled.  Everything was fussy cut. I glued the feet to the ranch and put foam squares to pop up the body. I fussy cut around the sentiment, brushed green ink around the edges and popped it up on foam squares also.

Also entering this at Send a Smile 4 Kids where the challenge is Animal Cards for Kids.

Vintage Butterflies

 It has been a while since I have posted anything. This has been my month for medical appoints--lab work, family practice doc, heart testing, visit to cardiologist. Even took my car for a check up. And then there is all the stuff involved in filing taxes. 

I have made a few cards but not blogged any. 

I am playing along at Doubole Trouble Paper Crafting. They always have a fun challenge.

Thing 1:  Trouble Maker

says, "Did you know that March is National Craft Month? And to keep things interesting, also in March, is a special day set aside for 'Make Your Own Holiday Card'. 

"So let's get crafting... grab your scissors or break out your paper trimmer and dies, and get creative with the supplies in your stash. Go "Make Your Own Holiday Card" and use your creativity to inspire us with your own Custom 3-2-1 Recipe. Then tell us what items you picked from your stash for the ingredients in the quantities of 3 and 2. The quantity of 1 can be anything else from your stash.  

I went back to check their blog and see it says make a Holiday Card. So okay, let's call this one a Summer Holiday card to celebrate the butterflies return.

The butterfly E/F is unlabeled. The 3 butterflies are from an Ephemera Pack by Simple Stories. The 2 strips of lace were white so I used Tim Holtz Tea Die ink to antique them. I also used the ink to shade around the edge of the card. One  label is a die cut from SU as well as the sentiment. For some added interest, I put it on at a tilt..NOT! I actually got the stamp a little bit off straight so I put the label at a tilt thinking you won't notice. Was that a good save?  To represent the 3 little flowers, I added black Nuvo drops.

Thing 2 is use the sketch from Try Stampin On Tuesday

Thing 3 is to also upload the post to Try Stqampin' on Tuesday

Since this week is embossing on the I.D.E.A. creative plan  by Darnell I will add it to her blog as well.

And just because thy are fun to look at here are the photos on Double Trouble Paper Crafting

                          

Ferns

Let us take a hike through the forest in early spring and enjoy all the new undergrowth of ferns with  papers from Stampin' UP! Otterly Adorable DSP.

The blue watery paper is from the same set. The sentiment and leaves and ferns  are retired from SU. You have to search in the leafy design to see I have added some iridescent gems

Linking this up with Just Us Girls die week and birthday cards.

Also linking to djkardkreations because die cuts are week 2 of Darnell's I.D.E.A.inspiration

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