Baby Boy

How lucky am I?  I planned this card layout last night when I couldn't sleep--about 2 am actually. That seems to be when I do most of my card layouts. Today I get up and check the Tuesday Throwdown challenge. They have a recipe challenge to use 1 image, 2 die cuts, 3 buttons. So I just had to put it all together and here it is:

Image: Inkadinkadoo colored with colored pencils

Die cuts: scallop punch, circle, scalloped banners from SU

Letters: an old alphabet set stamped with Tim Holtz Distress Ink denim

Buttons: from stash

Background DP: We R Memory Keepers discontinued at Michaels 25cents a sheet.



Base: white cardstock

Wedding

I am catching 2 challenges today. One on a blog by Hero Arts of "white out" and the other by Paper Craft Star of "anything goes. I needed a wedding card so the white out challenge was great for that.

This took awhile to get the picture right. All white does not scan well and I made 3 tries at a picture before this one. There really is not a dark smudge on the card but that showed up in every picture. So guess I have to settle.
I used a white card base with TimHoltz lace IP. The doily is cut out with Cricut and then clear glitter applied. The bride and groom stamp by Stampendous stamped on white cardstock with Classic Black from SU. I then cut them out and pasted to the doily. The white lace strip is from Recollections. Love that it already has sticky tape on back. The Mr. & Mrs is SU's tiny tags stamped with Cherry Cobbler and punched out with their tag punch. It is tied into one of the spaces on the lace. For another little pop of color, I colored the bouquet with red water color marker. Not a quick and simple card but I love the look.

Mojo Monday sketch 261

I needed some incentive and inspiration today so I turned to Mojo Monday sketch challenge. Have you ever started out with one idea and ended up with a totally different creation? I needed a sympathy card and wanted to use this special DP. I received this from my neighbor for helping her get started with card making. Well, when I pulled out solids that seemed to go with the DP, it just didn't look like a sympathy card so I sat and looked at all my sentiment stamps and decided on Happpy Anniversary. I like the font. So now I have an anniversary card all ready for when I need one.

 

Ivory card base

Colors from Jeweled Cardstock Stack

DP as I said from my neighbor

Sentiment from TAC with Tim Holtz Denim Distress Ink.

Ivory and green double layer ribbons.

Since it will be for a man as well as woman, I opted for no bow and used 5 blue rhinestones.

 

Fall colors

The Playdate Cafe  has a wonderful color challenge of wine, pumpkin, and moss, What great fall colors. I chose a Thanksgiving card.

The frame is cut with Nesties 6 on the Big Shot. I have been into making my own background DPs so I took a small piece of ivory and stamped a small leave in red, orange, bronze, and yellow. The larger leaf is Stampabilities. I stamped it first in brown then sponged on the smae colors as the background, thn cut out and glued  to the background. The red/white twine is Tim Holtz. The sentiment is computer generated and then punched with windows punch from SU. I backed it with the same color of the frame.

Here is the color inspiration photo from The Playdate Cafe:

 



Fall Inspiration

The clean and simple challenge at cas-ual fridays and Tuesday Throwdown this week is fall inspiration. My card is not only fall inspiration but it turned out sort of like my lawn was this summer with our severe drought. I think fall colors always give the solemn look needed for sympathy cards.

Card base: ivory
Background: DP from SU
Image: grid from Penny Black, Flower ?, both stamped with Tim Holtz Distress tea dye.
Sentiment: studio G
Raffia ribbon. Guess that raffia is a little crooked. We'll just pretend that was on purpose for some special effect! HaHa!!

Stars

Paper Craft Star challenge for this week is "stars". I was shopping in Nashville, IN yesterday at Papertrix. It is the most awesome stamping store. They have everything. Anyway, I found this adorable hippo with a star and just had to get it and use it for this challenge. Of course the sentiment is so cute too. I hope you can read it. It says "Where's that fairy godmother when you need her?"
I have been looking for some humorous ideas for birthdays. I think this sure fits.

The hippo is Mostly Animals and the sentiment  is TooMuchFun Rubberstamps.

The DP is from Nana's kids paper pack. I added pink rickrack and a bright yellow bow to accent. You cant tell from this pic but I used a star gel pen to dot the eyes and it makes them sparkle. Hope the recepient thinks this is as funny as I do.

 

Hero Arts Tag

A Blog Named Hero published by Hero Arts has a challenge of using tags on a card. I like the look of tags and use them quite a bit.

My neighbor, who is a quilter, gave me some fabric scraps she had left over. I think she must have more fabric than I have paper--if that is even possible!! HaHa!!. Anyway I have been experimenting with using fabric instead of DP. I glued this piece on Kraft cardstock. The blue seam binding from SU picks up the blue tone on a flower in the fabric. The red netting is new in the SU Holiday Catalog. I cut a strip and bunched it up and secured it with glue dots before putting on the seam binding. The sentiment is PTI stamped with Tim Holtz tea dye ink. I anchored that with a button tied with embroidery floss--another thing I have an abundance of left over from my counted cross stitch days before I got bifocals! This is all mounted on an ivory card.

 

Black & White

The challenge at CAS-ualfridays is black and white  with a splash of color of choice. I just about always go with red when I think of black and white. I learned this really cool technique with rubberbands, acrylic block, and stamp ink. I tried it and am loving it so much I stamped several pieces while I had the messy rubber bands. So I am totally casing Brian's idea. See it here. Brian always has cool techniques and tips on his blog.

 I used the rubber band technique with black SU ink. The red flower is from a package I picked up at Michael's dollar rack. It is secured with a black brad. I scrunched up the flower for some depth but that doesn't show very well. I'm thinking maybe I'll go back and use some shimmer spray or glitter glue to perk up that flower a little. 



 

Paper Craft Star Girly Card

This week's challenge at Paper Craft Star is "girly" cards. As I have 2 granddaughters age 5 & 8, I have some experience in "girly" things so really enjoyed this challenge.
The front:

The inside:

 

The card base is white. DPs are The Paper Studio for the words & My Mind's Eye for the stripe. The girl stamp and the pink daisy strip are from the dollar bin at Michael's. Love those bargains!! What would a girly card be without bling? There are pink rhinestones at the center of each daisy and I used a pink star gel pen to trace over the word girl. The Happy Birthday and the inside sentiment are SU. On the inside, I anchored each corner with a daisy cut from the strip. I think every girl--young or older would like a "spoil yourself" day. I know I am certainly ready for a spa day!!

 



 

Retro Sketch 25

This is Retrosketches challenge for this week:



And here is my take on it:

This is on a whitecardstock base. The pink is a scrap from the cuts my granddaughters made with all of my pink and purple papers. The background circles are a cheapie from Michael's stamped with SU Cherry Cobbler. The Celebrate sentiment is SU. The adorable piggy is from some quilting fabric scraps my neighbor gave me. I cut it with my Creative Memories shape cutters. The ribbon is from my stash. I did an inside sentiment of "Happy Birthday. Go Hog Wild."