Exciting news!

Hi, everyone.  I don't have a card to share today.  My girls are spending several days with Grammie this week, so I am getting in some much needed cleaning!  BUT  I do have something exciting to share (exciting to me at least):  I have been asked to join the design team at the Christmas Stamping All Year Long (CSAYL) challenge blog!!!!  I'm so honored to be joining the other ladies on the team.  Make sure you check out the blog today and join in this week's challenge.  I will be sharing projects starting next week.  Have an awesome weekend.

You're out of this world

 I don't have to make many cards for boys, so I had yet to ink up this set from Papertrey Ink (Boy Basics: Rocket).  So glad I finally broke it out.  The young man I made this for is going to turn 12 next week, so it couldn't be too little boyish.  Nice and simple with a little bit of fun added with the popped-up rocket and the countdown sequence.

Challenges:
Skipping Stones Design #133--sketch
Cutie Pie Challenges #16--one for the boys

Supplies:
cardstock: SU! Night of Navy
ribbon: SU! real red
Stamps: PTI " Boy Basics: Rocket" (coordinating die set used, too)
corner rounder

Sparkly Christmas

I'm still plugging away at my Christmas card stash; I think I'm about halfway finished.  I didn't have a specific card I needed, so decided to go with the Christmas card.  It's a good default as I need so many.  I "HAD" to use the Viva La Verve June week 3 sketch and with the orange, lime, and purple color combo from Tuesday Alchemy in mind this card feels a little retro to me.  Not your usual Christmas colors, but I think it works.  The ornament is a fun little embellishment.  I started by stamping it (stamp from Verve's Ornamental Christmas) on a piece of white paper, cut it out (the stamp actually has some swirls and flourishes around the ornament, but I didn't want them for this), colored the ornament topper (doe it have a name?) with a silver marker then masked it off and sprayed the rest with adhesive and sprinkled glitter all over it.  After I attached it with foam tape, I added the three little, tiny rhinestones from Taylored Expressions for a little jeweled look.

Challenges:
Viva La Verve June week 3--sketch
Tuesday Alchemy #19--orange, lime, plum
Crimbo Crackers #18--anything goes (as long as it is holiday related)
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge #78--let's get inky
52 {Christmas} card throwdown #6--sparkle glitter
The squirrel and the fox #20--make it sparkle

Supplies:
Stamps: Verve "Ornamental Christmas" (ornament and sentiment)
Paper: striped paper from Jo at  http://trimgym.blogspot.co.uk/ (I added orange glitter to the tan stripes to make them fit the color challenge and the glitter challenge)
Embellishments: rhinestones from Taylored Expressions

Bordered sentiment

 Papertrey Ink always has really fun and interesting challenges in their Make it Monday series.  This week it was to create bordered sentiments using a maksing technique.  It is really so cool.  Can you believe this is acutally a one layer card?!  All done on 1/2 sheet of white cardstock.  Of course, while figuring out what to do with the challenge (allthough I already had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do) I had to pull out one of my most used sets "Guide Lines 2" from PTI.  It is so awesome for creating backgrounds and patterned paper looks.  I acutally used 4 stamps from the set to create the pattern.  You can see it a little better in the picture below and you can also (sort of) see the glitter glue I added to the centers of some of the elements and the glitter pen I used one some of the black elements.

Challenges:
Make it Monday#71--Bordered Sentiments
Delightful Challenges--anything goes
Our Daily Bread Designs #112--3 or more stamps (I used 5--4 elements from the Guide Lines 2 set and one sentiment)

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI "Guide Lines 2"; Rubbernecker stamps "Garden Phrases Set"
Ink: PTI Ocean Tides; black
Additional items: black marker (borders), two clear rhinestones; glitter pen, glitter glue

awesome new technique

 So, I learned a new technique this week on the Papertrey Ink blog for their Make It Monday challenge: Puffed fabric accents.  You will have to check out the video because they explain it so much better than I could, but in short you use a die to create negative space, back the "hole" with fabric and add fun foam as padding, kind of like a quilt.  It is really hard to see in a straight on picture, so the photo below shows what it looks like looking directly down the fold of the card.  See how puffed out the hearts are?  I definitely wanted to try this technique, but hmmm . . . for what.  Then I knew I wanted to use these heart dies that I have yet to show some love.  And so, this Father's Day card for my husband is the result.

 My photography skills not being the greatest, it is a little hard to see the fabric color.  It is a brown and turquoise print which is what I drew the colors of the card from.

 This picture is a close up to show the fabric and the piercing--it makes it look a little more quilt-like.  If you look at the flourish, I also randomly pierced around that.  That corner just needed a little something else.

Here's the inside of the card.  I had a mess up on my first try with the heart die, so I had to make a second one and used the negative space from the first try as a stencil for the little heart behind the sentiment. A happy mistake.

Challenges:
Make it Monday (Papertrey Ink)--puffed fabric accent
Delightful Challenges--for the Boys
C.R.A.F.T. challenge #159--Father's Day
DYSU #76--Boys/Men

Supplies:
Dies: Sweet 'n Sassy heart dies; Verve Charming Oval dies
Stamps: SU! All Year Cheer II  (inside sentiment), Papertrey Ink Damask Designs (front sentiment), Clear Dollar Stamps Elegant Flourishes

Inspired by the sea

 Is it just me, or does it seem like paper you love is used up so quickly and paper you don't really like takes forever to use?  And I don't just mean 'cause you don't use it;  you try to use it and there's just always more.  When I started card making, I thought it a brilliant idea to buy those gigantic 12x12 DCWV paper packs that go on sale for 50% off every once in a while at the craft stores.  Ha, NOT a brilliant idea at all!!!  The papers, while gorgeous (ok some of them are not even that) are just not really card making material and have three sheets of each print.  All that to say, that I finally used (a small portion of two sheets) some of it on this card.  I can't even tell you how long I've had this stuff.  But the {Pin}spiration challenge this week was a gorgeous picture of seashells.  And since we live within 15 minutes of the ocean, this paper finally had a use on this Father's Day card for my Father-in-law.  It's a really beautiful seashore picture which I cut up for my different panels to get a little glimpse of each part of the image.

 The little tag pulls out (as you can see) and I stamped the sentiment on the reverse side which is also where I will write the greeting.  I thought it could be used as a bookmark.  Whether he will use it that way or not, who knows.

Challenges:
Stampin' Sisters in Christ #143--image/no sentiment on the front of your card
Skipping Stones Design #132--sketch
{Pin}spiration #11--seashell photo inspiration
Fab'n' Funky #125--Father's Day

Supplies:
Paper: DCWV
Stamps: SU!: sentiment and simply shells stampin' around wheel; random seashell rubber stamp
Embellishments: twine, large eyelet

World's Best

Father's Day is this Sunday (as if you didn't know) and I have three fathers in my life to celebrate (my dad, father-in-law and wonderful husband--father to my three little girls).  This card is for my dad.  He lives 4 hours away from me, so I had to make his first in order to be able to get it into the mail.  It's pretty simple, 'cause that's what I do best.  His favorite color is brown so that's why the monochromatic color scheme.

Challenges:
Viva La Verve June week 1--sketch
Timeless Tuesday #173--Father's Day (you get two entries if you use Flourishes stamps, which I did)
Tuesday Alchemy #18--Anything Goes

Supplies:
Paper: DCWV
Stamps: Flourishes: Fronds and Ferns, Verve: World's Greatest
Dies: Spellbinders: classic circles, large and scalloped circles, large
Embellishments: Eyelets (remember them?) and twine

2012

It's that time of year again: graduation party time!  I don't think we will have many to attend this year, but we do have one to go to tomorrow.  I so wanted to add some sparkle to this card (even attempted, actually), but it's for a guy and at this age, they do NOT like sparkle. : )  So, I refrained.
Challenges:
Stampin' Sister in Christ #142--use elements of heaven (I used stars)
Stampin' Sisterhood #18--inspiration photo (I chose the graduation theme)
C.R.A.F.T. challenge #158--card for a male
Phindy's Place #169--Father's Day or masculine card

Supplies:
Paper and chipboard numbers are from a pack I got on clearance years ago.
Stamps: SU! Sprinkled Expressions (star and sentiment); Clear Dollar Stamps (cap)
Dies: Spellbinders classic circles, large.

55 years ago . . .

 Tomorrow is my Father-in-law's birthday, so I had to make the dreaded "man" card. : )  Actually, they really aren't so bad; not as easy as a girly card, but still fun.  The Last But Not Least #4 challenge this month is to create a card with (gasp) NO stamping!!  Not even one little sentiment.  That was a bit challenging for a birthday card, but I have this fabulous die set from PTI (by the numbers)--that I love--that coordinates with the Big Birthday Wishes stamp set (also by PTI) that I used on the inside to create the birthday wish.  I hope that is still within the spirit of the challenge.  Plus, the happy birthday paper sort of gets the point across.  See those gear shaped things in the corners?  Aluminum tape!!  (Coolest stuff ever if you want metal accents that are super inexpensive).  I use chipboard suns from Maya Road's "How's the Weather" mini chipboard package and covered them with aluminum tape.  They look like gears (I thought) which is perfect 'cause my FIL is a tool salesman and used to be a mechanic.

Here's the sentiment for the inside.

Challenges:
Last But Not Least #4--no stamping
C.R.A.F.T. #157--background text
Skipping Stones Design #131--sketch
{PIN}-spirational Challenges #10--photo inspiration (I went with the blue/green color scheme and stripes)
Creative Inspirations #166--card for male
Fab 'N Funky Challenges--go green

Supplies:
Paper: DCWV; PTI's ripe avocado cardstock
Ribbon: PTI's ripe avocado and 1/8" yellow ribbon from Offray
Dies: PTI's By the Numbers
Stamps: PTI's Big Birthday Wishes