Mojo Monday 182

I guess I've been in a purple mood this week or maybe it's just because I've been using the same paper pack from Hot Off The Press. Instead of leaving the paper as is, this time I dressed it up a bit: on the striped background, I stamped a linear floral flourish stamp and in the corners of the green layer, I stamped a corner floral flourish stamp (both are from Inkadinkado). The image on the white circle is from Verve's Accent Notes and the "thanks" stamp is also from Verve (a free stamp I received with one of my orders). I used the Mojo Monday 182 sketch and after seeing someone (perhaps Julee Tillman) use twine on their card, I went with two colors of embroidery floss toped with a Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

Acrylic smashing success

Today's card uses the Sweet Stop sketch challenge 99, the JUGS challenge 75 to use the acrylic smash technique, and the Flourishes Cut Above the Rest challenge (use die cuts or border punches or something that "cuts" an edge). My papers are all from the Hot Off the Press Paper pack I have been using all week (check out previous posts to see other designs) which I distressed on the edges and inked with brown ink, and I stamped the damask pattern from PTI's Damask Designs on the layer under the focal image. I used the acrylic smash technique under my focal image (also from Damask Designs) with silver acrylic paint. I am going to have to try this technique again with more color; not sure I achieved the "desired" result this time. My border punch is EK success and the metal fleur de lis are from spellbinders as is the label one shape of my focal image. The thank you stamp is from PTI's Through the Trees.

A round of thanks

Hi, I have several cards to upload but only time for this one tonight. I'm combining the Waltzingmouse 38 sketch challenge (round card), Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 109 challenge to use butterflies, and Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday challenge to partially emboss something. The papers are all from a pack from Hot Off the Press (I've had it for years), the sentiment is from PTI's "Through the Trees", Martha Stewart butterflies, and Labels 5 nestie with cuttlebug dots embossing folder.

Thank You

Tonight's card uses the sketch from Mojo Monday 181, the Timeless Challenge 108 (Flourishes) to use stitching (real or faux), and the Our Daily Bread Designs 52 challenge to use leather or pearls. I was going to wait until tomorrow (or later) to post this card until I realized that tomorrow is Monday and the Mojo Monday challenge would already be past. Yikes! The paper all comes from a coordinated pack from Hot Off The Press, the focal stamp and the flowers (stamped and then cut out and layered together) are from Inkadinkado and the "thank you" stamp is from SU! I also used classic oval large and scalloped oval large nesties and the upper crest border punch from fiskars. My stitching is real and done by hand (way too much work to pull the sewing machine out!). Enjoy!

The beauty of green

My last card of the day is this green beauty using the waltzingmouse sketch and the Timeless Tuesday challenge from Flourishes to make a St. Patrick's Day card or a card using green. I don't have any St. Patrick's stamps, so I went with green. This is the first Timeless Tuesday challenge for me as I just discovered it after going over to check out the new releases. I'm so excited to have found something that matches PTI's ocean tides card stock (card base and ribbon). I love the color, but have not been very successful in finding another color that I like to use with it. But I think this darker green was perfect. My layered focal from front to back is standard ovals (large I think) stamped with a plain jane from Verve, labels one, two scalloped tags and the Fleur de lis pendant all from spellbinders. I scored around it using my scor-pal to add a little something extra.

Celebrating you

This sentiment (from Verve) has to be one of the most versatile stamps I own. It can be used for just about any occasion; I used it this time for a birthday greeting. The sketch is JUGS #74 and the color scheme is from Our Daily Bread Designs challenge to use any 2 of the colors yellow, pink, blue, or ivory. As you can see, I chose yellow and pink. The flower is stamp is from Inkadinkado, scallop punch and striped paper are SU! (way retired by now, I'm sure. I've had it for years) and the butterfly is Martha Stewart.

Flower Power

I am soooooooo in love with this flower!! It comes from one of the downloadable (free) tags created by the designers of Papertrey Ink for their 4th anniversary festivities last month. As soon as I saw it, I knew it had to be cut apart and layered, and it so does!!! I ended up printing it four times, coloring and cutting out three layers of flower and layering them all together with pop dots. The sketch is Sweet Stop sketch #98 and the color combo: soft mint/white/porcelain pink is from Clearly Inspired Challenge #23 on the clearly i stamp blog sponsored by Clear Dollar Stamps. The sentiment is also from Papertrey Ink (Damask Designs), and the base of the card is stamped with a hibiscus from Inkadinkado and a swirl from I don't know who. I also used labels 5 nesties and a Martha Stewart border punch.

Just a note

This is the inspiration photo for this week's Off the Wall Craftiness challenge. Isn't it gorgeous?? Now that I look at it again, i realize the green is a lot more minty than teal, so my color match isn't so great. : ( Anyway, I am using the second week of March Viva La Verve sketch for this card and managed to use something old from my stash (the teal-ish mulberry paper--it really does not look this blue IRL) and the sentiment oval that has been sitting on my desk for months--love it when that happens. The sentiment is from Verve (Accent notes, I think) and the background paper was stamped with an American Crafts flower strip and a flourish from Inkadinkado. I used Standard Circles Large, Classic Scalloped Circles Large and Labels 5 nesties.

First Ever Blog Hop!

Today, I am participating in my first ever blog hop (I have hopped around before, but never been part of one)--it is Verve's Fan Hop and you have until Sunday to join, too. I am using the Mojo Monday 180 sketch and as it is the first week of the month, the added challenge was to make either a round or square card. I love a challenge, so I chose to make a circle card. : ) I used spellbinders classic scalloped circles (the largest die) for the base, classic circles large (also the largest) for the first layer and one of the smaller circles from the set for the focal image; Martha Stewart scalloped border punch and butterfly ; Verve's "Accent Notes" for the focal and "Celebrating You" for the sentiment. Have fun hopping.

Celebrate!

I used the Waltzingmouse sketch challenge for the week to create an invitation for my (almost 5) daughter's birthday this month. It coordinates with the birthday card I made for her (see this post). It is a mismatch of everything. The adorable little animals are from Verve's "To the Moon", the "celebrate" is from PTI's Damask Designs and the swirls are from Inkadinkado. Paper is all from DCWV.

Envelope box

Finally, a way to enclose all those cards that are just to bulky to put in a regular envelope! The Just Us Girls challenge for this week was to make an envelope gift box to match a card. My card was made using the Our Daily Bread Designs sketch challenge and the Off the Wall Craftiness color challenge of dark purple, white, and lavender. (see the inspiration photo above) Check out the flowers! Are they not gorgeous??? I have been challenging myself to use some of those products that I have had FOREVER and kind of forget about because they are not the IN thing to use. Well, I made these out of mulberry paper. (Remember that stuff!?) I made the card first and created the flowers using basically a cake flower making technique--forming each indivdual petal using a scallop punch and rolling them together and finishing off the bottom with floral tape. Now, they came out much better, but were a lot of work, so for the envelope I used a scalloped circle die (spellbinders), folded them in quarters and kind of scrunched them all up. They came out pretty cool, too, and were WAY easier. I also used a diamond folds template from Hot Off The Press to make the dark purple bands. I think both products might be making more regular appearances.

The card sentiment is a plain jane from Verve and I think could be used for so many occasions. For the envelope box, I just inked up the word "faith". Both use classic ovals and labels 5 nesties and both were topped off with a Martha Stewart butterfly punch out. My daughter (almost 5) says I must have made this for someone special since it is so pretty. So cute!

Praying for you

Have you ever considered using your dies to cut foam for a card? I never did until this week's Make it Monday challenge over at the Papertrey Ink blog. And now I think I might be addicted!! Lucky for my daughter, she only had very small pieces that were already cut in animal shapes. Otherwise I might have cut a lot more!! It was really fun. So, since the shapes were only about an inch in diameter I had to use small dies. The little fleur de lis from the fleur de lis pendant set from spellbiners fit perfectly. I die cut 8 and sponged them with a little creamy caramel ink (SU!) to take away the starkness of the white. Extra bonus for these little shapes, they already had adhesive on the back and all I had to do was peel it off to adhere them to the card. The focal image was made using a metal embossing template that I embossed and then inked with the same caramel ink. The cardstock is ocean tides from PTI and the damask stamp and sentiment are from Damask Designs by PTI. The layout for the card is from the Sweet Stop challenge for this week.

Sew Inspired

The title of this post is definitely pun intended! I made this card for the Clearly Inspired Challenge #22 from the clearlyistamp blog (associated with Clear Dollar Stamps). And it's all about sewing. : ) Mom mother has a little pincushion just like this and seeing it brings back fond memories. It is a digital image from Clear Dollar Stamps which is part of a package put together to raise money for one of their team members, Katie, who is battling cancer. Check out the blog to see the whole story. The sentiment also came with the image. Since the theme is sewing, I made a "quilt" background using Guide Lines 2 by PTI then added faux stitching with black pen around the squares and the sentiment tag. I added some fun dimension to the end of the pins using dimensional fabric paint. It is reallya cool effect.