Freedom

 This is my second card as a Guest Designer for Word Art Wednesday.  The unofficial theme for the challenge is "Independence Day", though it is always anything goes with an uplifting sentiment.  So, this is what I made:

The paper I used is actually from a Christmas paper pack, but I really love the stars and the distressed feel to it.  I added a strip of striped paper to bring in the blues and finished it off with some dotted red ribbon that was in my bits and pieces stash.  I added some stamped stars to the main sentiment panel, and some star brads to the smaller sentiment panel.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps: Word Art from Word Art Wednesday; unknown Americana stamp set

Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics: A"

Challenges:

Cards Galore #100--anything goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper

Creative Moments #235--red, white and blue

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Sheepski Designs #63--checks or stripes

Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2--sketch

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #232--anything goes

Love To Scrap Challenge Blog #155--anything goes

Crafting Happiness #124--anything goes

Inkspirational Challenge #267--use a digital element

Creative Fingers #233--anything goes

Crafty Catz #600--anything goes with the optional twist: adda sentiment

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #184--anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday--something beginning with "s" (I have stars, stripes, sentiments)

Favorite Bookworm

  Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: Magical Creatures

And our fabulous sponsor is:

Oddball Art

Here is my card for your inspiration:

I've had this sweet image from Oddball Art for quite a while and finally pulled it out to color it up.  It has a sentiment that goes along with it, but I wanted to use a different one, so I masked out the sentiment when I printed it out.  I cut the panel with a stitched die and colored the image with my spectrum noir markers.  I die cut the banner and stamped the sentiment on it.  For a little fun and sparkle, I added gold glitter pen to the fairy's wings and some glossy accents to her eyeglasses.  You can see it in the photo below:

This card will be for my middle child.  She is a serious bookworm and I think she will love it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Oddball Art "Image 297"; MFT "Our Story" sentiment

Dies: STAMPlorations "Stitched Rectangle"

Challenges:

Cards Galore Challenge #100--anything goes

Pattie's Creations Challenge #195--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Craft Rocket #93--girls

Crafting Happiness #124--anything goes

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #183--anything goes

Inkspirational Challenge #267--use a digital element

Penny's Challenge #523--anything goes

As You Like It--Your Favorite: Blond or Brunette (mine is definitely brunette.  I am a brunette and of course that means I color most images with brown hair!  Also, with limited marker colors, I had much better luck coloring darker hair rather than blond hair)

Creative Fingers #233--anything goes

Try Stampin' on Tuesday #560--sketch with the optional twist: stitching

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--add a sentiment

Little Red Wagon #658--Digi Do (add a digital element)

Krafty Chicks #616--CAS

As a Father . . .

 Good morning!  Today I have the honor of being a guest designer for the Word Art Wednesday challenge.  I was given this beautiful verse to work with, and here is what I came up with:

I picked some very masculine papers and they all happened to be scraps, which makes it even better in my book!  The log paper is perfect for the men in my family as we have wood stoves and the men spend a lot of time cutting and splitting wood for the winter.

Supplies:

Dies: Spellbinders "Filigree Delights"

Challenges:

Creative Fingers #232--anything goes

Snippets Playground #429--anything goes with snippets (all of my patterned papers were scraps)

Use Your Stuff #449--anything goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper

Dies R Us #194--Dad's Day/Masculine

Creative Inspirations--masculine

Paper Funday #42--anything goes with the optional twist: masculine

Moving Along with the Times #143--masculine/Father's Day

Double Trouble #113--Let's Go Masculine (Thing #1: masculine; Thing #3: plaid and/or stripes; Thing #2: link up with Try Stampin' on Tuesday)

Try Stampin' on Tuesday #559--sketch

Classic

  Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: For the Guys/Father's Day Tic Tac Toe Board

And our fabulous sponsor is:

Lawn Fawn

Here is my card for your inspiration:

I chose the middle row of the tic tac toe board: vehicle, ticket, green.  I created my own background using an antique card stamp.  To add a bit of fun, I used a diamond plate embossing folder and then swiped over the raised parts with a pale gray ink pad.  You can see the texture in the photo below:

I die cut the ticket three times out of white card stock and adhered them all together for some added dimension.  Both sentiments are from the same stamp set as the card image.  I added a few green enamel dots to finish everything off.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Marks Finest Papers "Classic Cars"

Dies: Spellbinders "Here's the Ticket"; MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle

Challenges:

Penny's #522--anything goes

Double D--white with one other color only

Creative Fingers #232--anything goes

YNS #185--sketch

Use Your Stuff #449--anything goes

Double Trouble #112--Something, Anything, Everything (Thing #1: anything goes; Thing #3: repeat your stamped image; Thing #2: enter with any previous partner--I entered with Dies R Us, Crafting Happiness, and Use Your Stuff)

Cards Galore #100--anything goes

Dies R Us #194--Dad's Day/Masculine (Spellbinders and MFT dies)

Creative Inspirations--masculine

Paper Funday #42--anything goes with the optional twist: masculine

Moving Along with the Times #143--masculine/Father's Day

Crafty Friends #156--men and/or boys

Love To Scrap Challenge Blog #155--anything goes

Crafting Happiness #124--anything goes

Krafty Chicks #614--stamp act

Hello, gorgeous

  Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: Out In the Country

And our fabulous sponsor is:

STAMPlorations

Here is my card for your inspiration:

As I was looking through my STAMPlorations products to see what I wanted to use, I realized that I have quite a number of their products, most of them unused.  This row of butterflies stamp was one of those items and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to use it!!  At first it might seem like this doesn't fit the "Out in the Country" theme, but you definitely see a lot more butterflies out in the country than you do in more urban areas.  I started by die cutting the stitched panel out of white card stock and stamping my image with black ink.  Then I took some small ink cubes in a range of purples and created an ombre, water color look.  I started with the lightest ink, smooshed it onto a small clear stamping block and spritzed with some water.  Then I smooshed the block onto the stamped panel mostly over the first butterfly.  I did the same steps with the remaining three shades of purple.  I stamped "hello" with black ink and then came the magic.  I die cut the word "gorgeous" directly out of the center of my stamped image.  Then I die cut the same word out of three more layers of white card stock and one out of a dark purple (which you really don't end up seeing, but it was worth a try to bring in a little more color).  I adhered them all together and then glued it back into the negative space in my stamped panel.  Unfortunately, I lost the pieces from the loops of the "g's" so the look isn't exactly what it should be.  But it still turned out really cool.  I finished the card off with several small purple pearls to add some interest.  You can see the dimension of the word "gorgeous" better in the photo below.

I had originally thought to do rainbow colors on the butterflies, but I really like how it looks with the monochromatic color scheme.  I may have to give the rainbow a try another time to see how it turns out.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:

Stamps: STAMPlorations "Butterfly Row" and "Wreaths and Flowers"

Dies: STAMPlorations "Stitched Rectangles" and "gorgeous"

Challenges:

Cards Galore Challenges #99--anything goes

Love To Craft Challenge Blog #68--anything goes

Through the Purple Haze #192--CAS

Unicorn Challenge #76--pearls/bling

Die Cut Divas--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Sheepski Designs #67--for the girlz

We Love Stamping--for a lady (or girl)

Love To Scrap Challenge Blog #41--anything goes

NBUS #28--never before used schtuff (Butterfly Row had yet to come out of it's packaging--so sad)

Crafting Happiness #63--anything goes

Incy Wincy Designs--die cut or punch

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #544--anything goes with an uplifting sentiment

Creative Fingers Challenge #231--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #182--anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday--texture (with the pearls, raised up die cut word and the die cut stitching)

Try Stampin' on Tuesday #556--die cuts AND/OR sketch

Penny's Challenge #521--anything goes

Double D--monochromatic

Krafty Chicks #612--CAS

15 masculine cards

 This is a long post with a lot of pictures, so hang on!  Last quarter, I finally got a change to play along with Kendra's card challenge--You take 6 sheets of 6x6 paper and follow Kendra's cutting templates and card sketches to create 15 fabulous cards.    Do you see the 5 little tiny scraps of paper in the top right?  That's all that is left of the 6 sheets after making the cards!!  This is the second time I have gotten a chance to play along.  I decided to make some masculine cards as I always need them in my stash.  Some of them (with the yellow dotted paper) could work equally well for a female, but for the most part they are pretty masculine.  I used stars as my embellishment of choice to tie the cards together even more.  Most of them are designed to be birthday cards, though I used some sentiments that could be used for other occasions as well.

Card #1:

I added some die cut stars, some grossgrain ribbon and a couple enamel dots.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Be Blessed"

Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A"; Verve star dies

Challenges:

Cards Galore #99--anything goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #231--anything goes

Card #2:

Only die cut stars to embellish this one.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Be Blessed" and "To the Moon" trio of stars

Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"; Verve stars; Stamps of Life star

Challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #182--anything goes

Card #3:

I added die cut strs and a star border.  Some of the stars are left overs from the border die cut.  This is probably my least favorite card of the bunch.  It needs just a little something and I'm not sure what it is.

Supplies:

Stamps: PaperTrey Ink "Just Sentiments: Birthday"

Dies: Verve "Scalloped Trim Trio" border die and stars; Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"

Challenges:

Love to Craft Challenge Blog #68--anything goes

Snippets Playground #428--anything goes with snippets (all of my die cuts were cut from scraps)

Card #4:

Stars, more grossgrain ribbon and 3 more of the enamel dots.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Be Blessed"

Dies: Verve stars

Challenges:

Die Cut Divas--anything goes

Penny's Challenge #521--anything goes

Card #5:

I think this is my favorite of the bunch.  I just LOVE that striped paper!!  The kraft banner on the left was supposed to be a place to use a different patterned paper but I thought it was the perfect place to stamp the birthday sentiment.

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Just Sentiments: Birthday"

Dies: Verve stars

Challenges:

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Cupcake Challenge #544--stripes

Card #6:

I also love this one with the striped paper!  This is the only one where I didn't stamp the sentiment on white card stock.  I heat embossed it with white powder onto navy card stock for a fun touch.

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "I'm So Glad . . ."

Dies: Verve stars

Challenges:

Love To Scrap Challenge Blog #155--anything goes

Try Stampin' on Tuesday #556--die cuts AND/OR sketch

Card #7:

Hmmm . . . I also love this one!!  I was able to use the enamel dots on this one.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Better Together"

Dies: Verve stars; Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"

Challenges:

Dies R Us #192--anything goes with dies Dies R Us sells (I used Spellbinders)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--layer it up

Card #8:

This is a very interesting one with all the narrow strips.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Be Blessed" and "To the Moon" star trio

Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A"; Verve stars; Stamps of Life large star

Challenges:

Crafting Happiness #123--anything goes

Card #9:

I felt this one could be a little more feminine, but could work for either one.  I used one of the enamel dots and some yellow ones to coordinate with the paper.

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "I'm so glad . . ."

Dies: Verve stars

Challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs--die cut or punch

Card #10:

This one is fun!  I dry embossed the background with a diagonal stiped embossing folder.  The sentiment was stamped and die cut and then finished it off on the small strip below.

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Perfect Pairs: Commodities"

Dies: Papertrey Ink "Perfect Pairs: Commodities"; Verve stars

Darice embossing folder

Challenges:

Craft Rocket #92--birthday

Simon Says Stamp Monday--add texture (with the embossing folder)

Card #11:

For this one I added some more grossgrain ribbon and then I added glossy accents to the stars to give them a bit of something.  You can see it in the second photo.

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "I'm so glad . . ."

Dies: Verve stars; Stamps of Life large star

Challenges:

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Card #12:

Another one of my favorites.

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Just Sentiments: Birthday"

Dies: Verve stars; Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"

Challenges:

Moving Along With the Times #142--birthday

Card #13:

This one is so fun with all the banners.  This one finished off the sheet of enamel dots.  Stash busting at its finest!

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Better Together"

Dies: Verve stars

Challenges:

Sweet Stampers #68--birthday

Card #14:

I added some die cut stars around the top of the sentiment circle for a fun embellishment.  I also added some tiny stars along the bottom of the circle since I was now out of the matching enamel dots.  Three strips of the grossgrain ribbon finished it off.

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Just Sentiments: Birthday"

Dies: Verve stars; Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"

Challenges:

Creative Knockouts #452--anything goes

Card #15:

I had a TON of tiny stars left over from the border die cuts, so I used a bunch of them to accent the sentiment panel.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Jeremiah 33:7" plain jane

Dies: Verve "Scalloped Trim Trio" border die and stars

Challenges:

Word Art Wednesday #544--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Crafty Catz #595--anything goes with the optional twist: masculine

Mother's Day

I'm a little late in posting this, but this is the Mother's Day card I made for my mother-in-law.  Here favorite color is purple, and what pairs better with purple than green?  So I started with that color combo and went from there.  I started by stamping these gorgeous flowers from Altenew's "Beautiful Days" set.  The layering stamps are fabulous and quite easy to line up (thought I did have a bit of trouble lining up the outline stamp) and I used a coordinated group of purple inks from Altenew so they match perfectly!  Then I pulled out my "Guide Lines" stamp set from Papertrey Ink and created the background using the same purples as the flowers and adding some green for contrast.  I finished it off with a sentiment from Verve and added a smattering of purple pearls.  I stamped the outline of the flower image in purple on the envelope.  You can see it in the photo below.

For the inside, I added a "Mother's Day" sentiment and stamped the flower outline image again with one of the lighter purple inks.  And there it is, ready to go!

Supplies:

Stamps: Altenew "Beautiful Days"; Papertrey Ink "Guide Lines" and "Tucked In: Mother"; Verve "Love Deepens"

Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle and banner die

Challenges:

Cupcake Inspirations #543--Mother's Day/Someone Special (feminine)

 

Try Stampin' On Tuesday #554--sketch with the optional twist: floral

Love To Craft Challenge Blog #68--anything goes

Dies R Us #192--anything goes with dies DRU sells (I used MFT dies)

Unicorn Challenge #76--pearls/bling

Sheepski Designs #62--for the girlz

We Love Stamping--for a lady (or girl)

Creatalicious #234--anything goes with the optional twist: Mother's Day

Word Art Wednesday #543--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Penny's Challenge #521--anything goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #230--anything goes

YNS #183--flower power

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #181--anything goes

Paper Funday #41--anything goes with the optional twist: family (mother-in-law)

Dare 2B Artzy--flowers

613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: mother, may, I

Crafting Happiness #123--anything goes

Incy Wincy--die cut or punch