Ocean Waves

I made this card a while back to enter an original art contest by Cochlear America to display in their national headquarters. IT IS A WINNER. The story behind the card is being able to hear the sounds of the ocean waves. As I lost my hearing that is one sound that was lost. It was such an aha! moment after receiving a Cochlear implant to realize the waves coming to shore made a sound.

Inside

I used the wavy die from Stampin" Up! Swirly Bird Set. Some are cut with card stock paper and others with various colors of vellum. The sun and sailboat are from the same set. The palm tree and beachball are My Favorite Things. I did another palm tree inside.
Just Us Girls challenge so fits this card.

Also linking to Tuesday Throwdown favorite color challenge. Mine of course is blue.
And I see all the colors on my card in the photo inspiration by TIME OUT Challenges

Easter Chick

Playing today in Pixie's Crafty Workshop with snippets from my massive pile. Di has a really cute Easter chick card for inspiration. And I am certainly playing to win those cute chicks and dies from Clearly Besotted.

The patterned paper is from Hobby Lobby. I picked up the lavender color with a snippet of Highland Heather. For the egg, I die cut a white oval and cut it in two. with some fancy scissors. I stamped on some splotches with a Gorgeous Grunge stamp. A couple of vellum scraps in yellow and green are snipped with "grass" scissors. The chick is from the new Welcome Easter set by SU. I colored it with SU blend pens and fussy cut it.The sentiment is an old unlabeled one stamped on a scrap and then die cut with a label punch from SU.
A fun Easter card to send to Send A Smile 4 Kids

Waterfront Scene

Looking over my stash, I realized all the Thinking of You cards I have are all flowery and girly. I need a card for a man so had to create one.

Sorry for the fingers in the picture but the Kraft card base is so heavy that it doesn't lay flat.
The scene is from Stampin" Up! Waterfront stamp set. The sentiment no longer has a label. The burlap strip adds texture and interest.
The sketch is Freshly Made Sketches

Easter Eggs

I have a theme going here. Lots of Easter eggs over the past few days. If I think it hard enough, will spring come?

This time a bunch of colorful eggs fussy cut from a piece of patterned paper. One egg is popped up with foam tape for dimension.  I sponged some "grass" for in the background. The sentiment is from Unity Stamps.
The sketch is from CAS(E) this sketch

Another done for my stack to send to Send A Smile 4 Kids

Bunny Egg

I know chicks usually break out of eggs but by way of Easter magic, my egg has a floppy eared bunny,

The bunny and sentiment are from Unity Stamp Co.The DP is a scrap left over from last year. I think I may have purchased it at Hobby Lobby.  For the egg, I die cut a large oval then cut it in two with pinking shears. I stamped some grunge splotches over the egg. The "grass" is a strip of green vellum snipped with grass shears. Strips of vellum in blue and yellow pick up colors from the eggs in the background.
I used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

Also submitting to Send A Smile 4 Kids Easter/Spring cards.

Early Easter

In response to more cold gloomy days, I made an Easter Card. I know it is only mid-February but I am so ready for sunny spring days.

The stripe papers are from a Ms. Sparkle & Co. paper pack. The bunny from a NBUS set from SU, Welcome Easter. I stamped the bunny and fussy cut it so I could put him trying to climb out of the Easter egg. I made the egg by die cutting an oval and then cut it in half with pinking shears. The grass was made with SU shears. The sentiment is from Unity Co. Tied it all together with some twine and accented with tiny pearls.

I used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

Embossed Tulips

"The weather outside if frightful"..No wrong season. That is a Christmas song but sure applies to southern Indiana recently--snow, sleet, rain, wind. We have had it all. Frankly I am tired of gloomy days so I pulled out my spring flowers and made a few cards.
This one is for Di's snippets challenge at Pixie's Crafty Workshop

I stamped and colored a bunch of the tulip blooms and then cut them with my Scan N Cut to have on hand.
The cardstock is Powder Pink from SU. I embossed it with tulip border EF from Darice. The sentiment is also SU. I picked out a pink tulip blossom and attached it with some hand cut snippets for stem and leaves. A pretty pink ribbon ties it all together.
Here is a close up of the borders

I am playing the snippets challenge for a prize

Di has a gorgeous card using this Lil Inker die cut. Go check it out.

Happy Cows

Having fun featuring these cute cows form SU Over the Moon set.

The cow print is from the scrap stash. I added a strip of red glitter paper for some sparkle. The labels dies are from Spellbinders. I stamped the cow and colored it with Stampin" Blends. The sentiment too is a stamp, trimmed and backed with black. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what the cow is dreaming. After 3 rainy, gloomy days, personally I am dreaming of warmth and sun.
I was inspired by the sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches

Also entering at Tuesday Throwdown where the theme challenge is "Layered Die Cuts"

Here is another cow card from the same set

Love those bright red rain boots. They just make me smile? Could sure use those around here lately.

For the Gamers

 My Favorite Things has the coolest dies and stamps for the video gamers in your life. See it here. It is out of stock right now but you can get on a notification list.

This is for a 15 year old boy. I know he is going to be so impressed I could make this. The card base is Lemon Lime Twist from SU. The black zig-zag is washi tape. The gamer die comes in 2 sizes (this is the smaller one) plus dies to cut out all the control buttons. I cut the buttons in all the primary colors so I would have a variety to put on the controller. And now I have a bunch left over for the next time I use this theme.
Entering in the sketch challenge at Tuesday Morning Sketches

Hearts

I thought I was done with Valentine supplies and stamps but had to get them back out for a chance to play in  Darnell's Twofer Card Challenge. Congratulations Darnell on your 2 year blogaversary. Always fun playing in your challenge.

I chose heart dies rather than stamps.

The first one is to honor all those poor animals and people who are being relocated during the devastating Australia fires. Prayers for their safety. My cutie Koala an unlabled stamp and the hugs is from Hero Arts. The koala stamp actually looks like this:

I stamped it on a scrap of white, colored it and fussy cut just the koala. Then stamped the hugs on a stitched square die cut from white and glued the koala at the top of hugs. The heart balloon is an SU die. I used clear glitter glue on the heart for a little sparkle. The red/white cord is from the accumulated scraps of twine and ribbon box.
The twofer, as suggested by Darnell that hearts can be used for wedding cards

I love the elegance of black and white cards for weddings. I used a black card base then an SU embossing folder for the background stars on the white mat.  No label on the Mr & Mrs. stamped on a scrap white strip.  I added punched borders of black with a Fiskar punch. Then used the same die to cut 2 white glitter paper hearts for accents.
Hope you all get a chance to play along.

Pixie's Crafty Workshop Snippets challenge is back. So entering there. Playing for the prize too of those beautiful Christmas ornaments