I moosed up!

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

Here is my card for your inspiration:

I have several birthdays this month in my family and as I was looking through some of my never before used stamp sets, I came across this adorable moose and a fun sentiment that goes with him, which you will see in a minute.  I guess I was feeling interactive this week because I made several cards which are not just your usual layout.  This one is a fun slider card as you can see in the photo below:

As you pull the pull tab, the panel with the moose slowly rises and reveals the hidden sentiment: "I Moosed Up . . . Happy Belated birthday"  I didn't forget this birthday, we just usually combine the celebration with the recipient's sister's birthday as they are both in July.  But, I know the young man will get a kick out of both the interactive element and the sentiment.

To finish off the card, I added a button and a bit of twine and on the inside, I added another belated birthday type greeting, another moose and two thin strips of paper that were actually left over from the front of the card.  A fun little touch without a lot of effort!

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: MFT "Anything But Basic Birthday Wishes" inside sentiment

Dies: MFT "Slider Surprise"; Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"

Challenges:

Pattie's Creations #208--anything goes

Die Cut Divas--birthday

Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 #258--sketch

NBUS--never before used schtuff--first time I've used this moose stamp set

Creative Fingers #259--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #210--anything goes

Penny's Challenge #551--anything goes

Creative Creases #62--fun fold (I hope my slider fold counts)

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

The Paper Shelter--summer break anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes

Lil' Red Wagon #715--boys will be boys (masculine)

Krafty Chicks #674--all occasions

Strong Anchor

My husband and I are celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary at the end of this month!  He is my strong anchor, for sure!

I found these beautiful nautical papers from SU! that I won as a prize a couple months ago, and thought they were perfect for my anchor theme (and we live 15 minutes from the ocean, so fitting there as well).

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Strong Anchor" sentiment and anchor

Dies: Verve "Strong Anchor"; Sweet n' Sassy small hearts

Challenges:

Sheepski Designs #76--celebrations

613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: nautical

Tuesday Morning Sketches #716--sketch

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #210--anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #605--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Penny's Challenge #551--anything goes

Little Red Wagon--Brr . . . it's cold over here (use cold colors)

Look who's 40!

I hate to admit this, but my younger brother is turning 40 this year!!  40 is a big milestone, so, of course, I had to create a fun celebration in card form.  I used bright colors, balloons, slightly cheeky sentiment . . . and a fun, unexpected element: a look through window.

I die cut a circle through each of the layers on the front of the card (that was fun!) so that the "40" looks like it is on the front, but it is really on the inside for the card.

When you open it up, you can see the "40" again, but also a second greeting.  This isn't the exact greeting I had planned on using, but the other one was too large and it showed through to the front a little when the card was closed.

 Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Big Birthday Wishes" (this is one of the very first stamp sets I ever bought from PTI and that was at least 12 years ago.  It is still one of my go to stamp sets to use for birthdays!)

Dies: Papertrey Ink "By the Numbers"; Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"; MFT balloons; Verve "Pennant"

Challenges:

Through the Purple Haze #206--anything goes

Die Cut Divas--birthday

Sheepski Designs #76--celebrations

{Pin}spirational Challenge #303--birthday AND summer vibes (I used very summery colors, plus I have stripes just like the tablecloth in the photo)

Creative Fingers Challenge #259--anything goes

Sketch Saturday #730--sketch

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #210--anything goes

Make My Monday #204--an aperture card

Retro Rubber #211--tic tac toes (I used the bottom left to top right diagonal: ribbon/twine, patterned paper, and pens/pencils--I used a white gel pen to add highlights on the balloons--my stamp set is approximately 12 years old)

Up in the sky

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

Here is my card for your inspiration:

I thought outside the box on this one and interpreted the theme differently from the way my teammates did.  My oldest daughter is graduating from High School and we threw her a big party a couple week ends ago.  A lot of people came to help celebrate and now she needs to write "thank you" cards to all those who gave her gifts.  (I've not been good about requiring my children to do this for birthdays and such, but I thought this was a bigger deal and involved more than just family--so it needed to be done).  So, I envisioned stamping several graduation caps as if they had been thrown up in the air in celebration and were now falling down through the sky.  They are all at different angles, flipping and falling all over themselves.  I used my Misti and created a little template for my self of where I wanted each cap to be stamped.  Then, I placed the stamp in the first position and stamped all 20 cards, before moving on to the next position, and the next, and  . . . well, you get the point.  I wanted to use a die cut sentiment (seeing as how we are a die cutting challenge) but knew it was going to be very tedious to die cut each letter and then try to adhere them one by one in a semi-straight line with correct spacing and all that.  So, I created a template for placing the letters as well.  I took a piece of card stock cut to an A2 size and carefully lined up the letters (in a straight line) with the spacing I wanted and then die cut them.  Then I used my cutting mat which has grid lines to make sure everything got on nice and straight (because I accidently cut my "template" word at a very slight angle.  I wanted to be able to create a "hinge" for the template so I could easily place a stamped card front on the mat, flip the template into place and not have to worry about placing it correctly each time.  So, I drew little pink notches on the grid lines that formed the corners of where I would place my card base.  I circled them with white in the photo below.  Then I laid the template over top of the card base and taped it in place using some washi tape.  You can also see that on the bottom (or actually top) right corner in the photo below:

                                                 

So, here is a card base in place with the template flipped over it ready to go.  I decided the easiest way to add glue was to place it on the card base within the cut out letters rather than putting the glue on the back of the die cut letters and probably dropping them and getting glue everywhere!

Then I could just pick up the black die cut letters and place them into the negative space on the template.  It worked really well for a while and then I think the template got a bit of glue on it and it got harder and harder to keep the letters in place while peeling the template back.  But it was still MUCH easier than placing each letter individually!

Once all the letters were placed, I peeled back the template (leaving it attached to the grid mat with washi tape.  Then I could just place the next card base within the pink corners and repeat the process.  It was still a little bit tedious, but I think it was much easier and faster than it would have been without the template.

                                          

To finish it up, I adhered a gold die cut "you" beneath the die cut letters and sprinkled a few gold stars around the graduation caps for a bit of interest.

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: Repeat Impressions graduation cap

Dies: Papertrey Ink "Bookprint lower case alphabet"; Simon Says Stamp "you"; Sizzix/Stephanie Barnard "Framelets Flipits--stars"

Challenges:

Cards Galore #113--anything goes

Through the Purple Haze #206--anything goes

Unicorn Challenge #89--no patterned paper

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Crafting Happiness #144--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #209--anything goes

Penny's Challenge #550--anything goes

Fab 'n Funky #377--monochrome with a POP (I hope my gold counts as a pop of color)

Shine on

Hello, everyone!  It's time for a new challenge from the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  The theme is: Let It Shine.  I am using an image from one of our fabulous sponsors: Becky's Place.

 Here is my card:

When you want to create a quick and easy card with a digi image, one idea is to print the image large enough to take up the whole card.  As always seems to be the case, I was in a hurry, so that's what I did; printed it this beauty out nice and big and allowed it to "shine".  For a fun touch, I added real twine to the image.  I glued it right on top of the twine part of the image.  Then I added a real button over the button in the image.  It adds a lot of texture and dimension and kept me from having o color them!  For the flame, I sponged on some yellow ink until it gave a nice glow.  I die cut "Shine" and several tiny stars out of gold paper. I adhered the "Shine" and stamped the sentiment, then added the little stars as embellishments.

You have all month to play along.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:

Stamps: Becky's Place "String Candle" from the "Tied Up With String" bundle; PaperTrey Ink "Sparkle and Shine: Christmas"

Dies: Papertrey Ink "Sparkle and Shine"; MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle; Stamps of Life star flip card set

Challenges: 

Sparkles #150--include gold (gold die cuts)

Cards Galore #113--anything goes

Through the Purple Haze #206--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #208--anything goes

Unicorn Challenge #89--no patterned paper

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Craft Rockets #105--Christmas in July

Aud Sentiments #30--stencils AND/OR Christmas in July

Peace On Earth--anything goes with the optional mood board

Crafting Happiness #144--anything goes

Christmas Bingo Challenge--3+ blocks from one column (I used the first column: digi, button, free)

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #209--anything goes

Double Trouble #142--Christmas in July (#1: Christmas, #3: stars AND/OR stripes and #2: play along with Jingle Belle's challenge)

Jingle Belle's--stars and stripes forever

Inkspirational Challenge #293--Christmas in July

Word Art Wednesday #603--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Penny's Challenge #550--anything goes

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Sweet Baby Boy

 Happy July 1st!!  It's time for a new challenge on the Critter Crazy Challenge blog!  As always, it is a month long challenge: Anything Goes as long as you feature a creature.  Here is my card for your inspiration:

A close family member just had a little baby boy!!  We are going to be going to a baby shower for her this week and this is the card I created.  I love the little elephant stamp but it has been quite a while since I used it.  I LOVE him stamped on patterned paper and when I saw this blue dotted paper sitting on my desk from some previous projects, I knew I HAD to use it!!  I stamped the image, added some shading with some blue/green markers and fussy cut him out.  I die cut the matching paper and a coordinating piece with a stitched rectangle die so they would be the same width and then trimmed them to fit the card lengthwise.  I die cut a banner die and the word "congrats", along with some blue hearts.  I stamped the sentiment directly onto the patterned paper--I think this give such a fun look.  Here is a freebie tip for you: my card stock didn't match my patterned papers exactly, so I took one of the markers I used to shade the little elephant and used it to color around the edges of the card stock and a strip of scrap card stock so I could die cut the hearts.  Now it matches perfectly!

Thanks for stopping by!  Hop on over to the Critter Crazy blog and check out the details and the rest of the projects from the Design Team.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Emory" elephant and "To the Moon" sentiment

Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle, "Blueprints 12" banner, "Tag Builder #5" hearts; Papertrey Ink congrats

Challenges:

Cards Galore #113--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Sheepski Designs #76--celebrations

Crafting Happiness #144--anything goes

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Use Your Stuff #487--hearts

Fab 'n Funky #576--four-legged friends

As You Like It--Favorite: plain or patterned paper (while I do like to use just plain cardstock, sometimes, I think my favorite is definitely patterned paper.  I love how using just the right color and pattern can tie the whole card together--matching your image and theme.  Plus, I love all the different patterns and the interest they give.  I have a whole stash of patterned papers that I will never be able to use up!)