Celebrate

 I get a lot of "freebies" in the mail from various charities with greeting cards, calendars, note pads. Asking for donations of course but I seldom donate. Personally I think they spend a lot of money sending out this stuff. They should use that money for their cause. But I do like using parts of the free cards to make my own greetings. This is one of those examples.

I die cut the image from the front of one of the free cards. Picked up the green from the hat for the  layers and behind the celebrate which is a 2 step die from Stampin' Up!, The circles are deckle die cuts from SU. I chose the swirly E/F from Cuttlebug thinking it looks like party streamers.

I am entering this at Can You Handle the Pressure challenge to use an embossing folder with the option of Birthday.

"Wheelie" Special

 The new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz is "No Ball Sports"

The bicycle is a stamp from Creative Expressions. I stamped it on white cardstock. You can barely see it , I colored the bicycle frame with a star gel pen to look like a shiny red bike. Then I  fussy cut it and popped it up with foam strips. The stripe paper is from my stash. I did my own sentiment on the computer. I will be sending this to Send A Smile 4 Kids. I know some little boy will love it.

And a second one: Not a ball but the shoe you wear to play ball. The shoe die and sentiment are by My Favorite Things.

Sending Hugs

 Welcome to a new sketch for Tuesday Morning Sketches. We are still revisiting the design team favorites from last year. This week's pick is by Melissa. You will want to be sure to check out Melissa's new card. It  is beautiful.

 

I used some pretty papers from last year Stampin' Up! DSP.

The scallops are a Fiskar punch. Ribbon from the stash. Ginko spray in white by SU. I think the ginko leaves mimic the paper pattern. Sentiment is an old one from the stash. 

Inside is a computer sentiment quote from Winnie the Pooh.

I added an accent with another ginko leaves from the same set. 

Here is my original card

Hop on over to Tuesday Morning Sketches to check out the design team inspiration. I hope you will have time this week to create and share with us.

Valentines

My favorite sketch from last year for Tuesday Morning Sketches  is featured this week.

Since Christmas I have been working on Valentine's for Send A Smile 4 Kids. If you are not familiar with that blog, it is a group of women who collect cards and redistributes them to children's hospitals. If you have more cards than you will need, they are a great organization to donate to. Go check them out.

In keeping with the annual and ongoing resolution to clean out the scrap heap, I have made 20 valentine's without cutting into any new patterned papers. Yay me!

I used a Cuttlebug heart E/F on the bright pink. Stampin' Up!'s new Bubble Gum card stock is the base. Love that color--it is a pure pink. The double hearts are from a die by Casual Fridays. The sentiment is SU! And of course the heart prints are from the scraps.

Here is my original card.

Wild Ferns

You could say the inspiration for my card today is the book Where the Wild Ferns Grow

 But actually it is inspired by this sketch at Sketch Saturday

This is a great one to use those scraps. My papers are all from Artfully Composed DSP retired from SU.

The sentiment is one in the collection of hellos.

It is so cold here in southern Indian that I haven't been out of the house for 2 days--and tomorrow doesn't look much better. I would love to be where these wild ferns grow.

On Safari

 It is a great day to just stay inside and craft.

And that come with a wind chill of 12.

So let's go on safari where it is sunny and warm.

I have actually been keeping this year's resolution to use up some of the paper in my stash. But today I decided to break out some new paper--"Like an Animal" from Stampin' UP!. 

Cardz 4 Galz new challenge is # 216 Safari. Perfect time to break out this new paper.

The giraffe and sentiment are from Whimsey Stamps.

 I bought my granddaughter a new book so also made a bookmark for her.

Surgery

 I have a friend who just had a total knee replacement. This is the card I made for her

I usually use this sentiment and the duct tape for masculine cards but I wanted to see if I could do a feminine version. I think it worked very well with the pink patterned paper.  I did the sentiment on the computer and die cut it with a label die. The background paper was first embossed with a rough feeling E/F. It is hard to detect in the picture but you can feel the texture. Then I tore the paper into 3 strips. I anchored them with 3 strips of real duct tape. I attached the sentiment with a bandaid cut in half. The bear is an old one from my stash. I stamped, colored and secured it to the front. I cut a narrow strip of surgical gauze and tied it in a knot and secured it to the bear's "knee" with a glue dot. 

The layout is this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

New Stuff

 Cardz 4 Guyz new challenge is Use Something New from your Stash. 

I have been making a real dent in my stash of patterned paper the past 2 weeks so I am ready for something new. I actually haven't bought anything new lately. The only thing new I could find new was a wreath stamp, a Christmas gift from my granddaughter. I thought I could try making it into a masculine looking wreath.

 I stamped the wreath and colored it with Stampin' Blends with Mossy Meadow and Cherry Cobbler. For the masculine element, I wrapped the wreath with twine and added a twine bow anchored with a gold brad. I hung the wreath on a "brick" embossed Cherry Cobbler paper, rubbed with white ink. The merry christmas is a die cut from Stampin' Up! The whole image is on an Evening Evergreen card base.

As this is a new stamp, I will also share the card with My NBUS

And this is a record for me--my first Christmas Card for the next season.

This week's featured previous sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

I have a fun card that I will be sending to Send a Smile 4 Kids

I don't remember where I saw this sentiment but I thought it so fun. I used a variety of circle stamps for the design.

I hope you will find time this week to play along with our sketch and share it to the blog.

Ferns

I have been making real progress on using up some retired SU papers. I have made ten cards this week with the fern patterned papers. Does that justify buying new paper?

The papers are all different sides of the fern papers. The retired Botanical Blooms stamp and die set are perfect for the accents. The sentiment is from my stash.

Inside is a Winnie the Pooh quote that I typed up on the computer.

Here are a couple more from this suite of paper.

I am entering this at Let's Craft and Create Challenge Anything Goes with twist of Penny for Your Thoughts--use a sentiment.