Party Penguins

 Hello, everyone!  Here is a mid-challenge reminder for our sketch challenge over on the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  You still have almost 2 weeks to play along with us.  We have two sponsors and the image I used today came from Hetty Clare.  Here is the sketch:

And here is my card:  (I turned the sketch on its side)

I used these super cute little penguins.  They are kind of dressed for winter with their scarves and Santa hats, but I thought the balloons looked like birthday, so I colored everything up with bright, happy colors and changed those hats into party hats!  I used a fishtail banner die and a little out of the box cutting to get a fun effect with the balloons floating out of the top of the banner.  I trimmed the sides of the die cut to create a tag shape and added an eyelet, ribbon and twine to finish it off.  To add to the party feel I die cut some balloons and stars and sprinkled them around the card.  And, of course, the stripes in the background add to the celebration.  The penguins look like they are up to some mischief, so the rest of the sentiment inside the card says "let the shenanigans begin"

Remember, you still have almost 2 weeks to play.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:

Stamps: Hetty Clare "Penguinsparty" digi (I could not find it in her shop, it may be retired, but she has other fun penguin images in there); CAS-ual Fridays "Shenanigans"

Dies: MFT balloons and "Blueprints 13" fishtail banner; stars are from a Stamps of Life star flip set

Challenges:

Pattie's Creations #210--anything goes

Cutie Pie Challenge #185--birthdays AND/OR bears 

Aud Sentiments #305--Tag It! AND/OR thank you

Penny's Challenge #555--anything goes

Di's Digi Designs--3 of anything (I have 3 penguins and 3 die cut balloons)

Sweet Stampin'--tags

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #214--anything goes

Double D--birthday balloons

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog #262--anything goes

Fa la la llama

 Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: Inspired by a song or book

Here is my card for your inspiration:

I was inspired by the Christmas Carol "Deck the Halls", you know the part where it says Fa la la la la la la la la?  Well, I have Fa La La La Llama!  This little llama is super adorable!  I stamped and die cut him, the present, and the tails of the scarf separately and then adhered them together with some liquid glue.  I also die cut several blank pieces and layered them together under the colored pieces to give some dimension.  I stamped the sentiment directly onto the patterned paper (this has become my new "thing" lately) and finished everything off with a sprinkling of gold die cut stars.

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: Neat & Tangled "Fa la llama"

Dies: Neat & Tangled "Fa la llama"; Verve stars; Stamps of Life stars from a star flip die set

Challenges:

Pattie's Creations #210--anything goes

Die Cut Divas--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Moving Along With the Times #158--Christmas

613 Avenue Create--anything goes

Crafting Happiness #146--anything goes

Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers #37--sketch

Penny's Challenge #555--anything goes

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #214--anything goes

Try Stampin' on Tuesday #625--use old stamps AND/OR the sketch (I chose to use old stamps.  Neat and Tangled has been out of business for at least 3 years and I bought this stamp set before then)

C.R.A.F.T. #691--Christmas/humorous Christmas 

Love

My in-laws celebrated there 47th wedding anniversary this week!!  This is the card I made for them:

Even though it wasn't quite fall on their anniversary, I went with a fall-themed card; it's close enough!  The card base is embossed with acorns (so cute!!).  I won the base as part of a prize several years ago, so I don't know what the name of the embossing folder is, but it is really cute!  Then I chose some fall patterned papers from a fall themed paper pack (all the patterned pieces were cut from scraps) to create the center panel and to stamp the hearts on.  I then fussy cut the hearts out and added them to the sentiment panel.  This was quite quick and easy as the base was already made, the sketch wasn't fussy and I didn't have to color anything!  I finished everything off with some small orange and yellow rhinestones.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verve "Text Objects" sentiment and hearts

Challenges:

Cards Galore #114--anything goes

Try Stampin' on Tuesday #624--sketch with the optional twist: all things fall

 

ART Impressions #360--fall into fall

Snippets Playground #463--anything goes with snippets (all my patterned papers were cut from scraps and the hearts were stamped on little square scraps.  Even the sentiment panel was cut from an off cut)

As You Like It--favorite harvest colors and why?  (My favorite harvest color is orange, the color of pumpkins and gorgeous leaves!)

Cupcake Inspirations #578--plaid (one of my little scraps is a nice fall plaid)

Creative Inspirations--sentimental

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #247--signs of fall (acorns, pears, the fall colors)

Incy Wincy Designs--the colors of autumn AND/OR not a square or rectangle

Unicorn Challenge #91--layer it up

Thinking of you

 Hello, everyone!  It's time for a new challenge from the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  The theme is: a sketch!

  I am using an image from one of our fabulous sponsors: Hetty Clare.

 Here is my card:

Quick and easy as I was out of time (as always!).  I printed out the image and die cut it with the tag die before coloring it.  I punched out some yellow daisies and layered them together and added some orange rhinestone centers.  A little bit of yellow ribbon from my stash, a stamped sentiment and it was ready to go!

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: Hetty Clare "Pony Flower" digi; Verve "Take Note" sentiment

Dies: Paper Trey Ink "Tag Sale #8"

Martha Stewart flower punch

Challenges:

Word Art Wednesday #612--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Penny's Challenge #554--anything goes

Di's Digi Designs--die cuts AND/OR punches

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Cards Galore #115--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #210--anything goes

Unicorn Challenge #91--layer it up

Die Cut Divas--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Sheepski Designs #78--make it feminine

613 Avenue Create--anything goes

Aud Sentiment #305--Tag It! And/Or Thank you (I have a tag)

Crafting Happiness #146--anything goes

Creative Fingers #261--anything goes

2023 Grad

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

Here is my card for your inspiration:

Now, I know, I know!  This isn't really "Back to School" themed, it's more "Done with School" themed!  But it is school related, so it is a bit outside the box, but I think it works.  I'm a homeschooling mom, so my kids don't go "back" to school and we don't have any teachers (except myself, and that would be kind of silly) to make cards for.  So, I went with a gradation card.  I based it off a this tutorial by Jennifer McGuire because I LOVED her card as soon as I saw it.  I HAD to know how she got the money as part of the card.  It turns out it is actually rather simple, but it looks amazing!  If you want to see another I made using the same technique but different layout, click here.  It took a bit of playing around with laying out the numbers, but once I got it how I wanted it and created a template it would have been very quick and easy to make a lot at one time.

In my opinion, the money behind the die cut number windows is the most fun part of the design.  But when you remove the money, the card still looks great.  You can see that in the photo below:

For this card, I actually used a patterned paper to back the windows so it would still be interesting when the money was removed.

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:

Dies: MFT "Iconic Grad" cap and sentiment; PaperTrey Ink "By the Numbers"

Challenges: 

Word Art Wednesday #612--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Penny's Challenge #554--anything goes

Cards Galore #115--anything goes

Unicorn Challenge #91--layer it up

Die Cut Divas--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

613 Avenue Create--anything goes

Crafting Happiness #146--anything goes

Lil' Red Wagon #721--square or rectangle (I almost always make an A2 sized rectangular card.  Why?  Because you can cut two card bases out of on sheet of 8x10 card stock.)

Snippets Playground #462--anything goes with snippets.  (All my pieces for the graduation cap, sentiment, and little star embellishments were die cut from scraps.)

Elephant birthday

 Happy September 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:

Isn't this little elephant so sweet?!!  I decided to give him a little pair of denim paper pieced overalls as I am not very good at denim coloring and I had the perfect paper!  I used the same paper on the top panel of the card and mixed in a jute pattern to go with my twine bow and some brick patterned paper at the bottom to help give an edgy, modern look. I also stamped the elephant onto gray cardstock to cut down the coloring on his head/body as well.  I added a little shading to both elephant and overalls with a darker marker and called it done! I heat embossed the sentiment with black embossing powder so it would stand out and finished everything off with some gray enamel dots.  Just before I was getting ready to take the picture, I felt like it needed "something".  So, I went and stamped the clusters of little stars and I think it added so much!

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: Tracey Hey elephant stamp set; My Favorite Things "Adorable Elephants" sentiment; Verve "To the Moon" stars

Dies: PaperTrey Ink "Tag Sale #8" tag

Challenges:

Cutie Pie Challenge--stamps and/or stars (got 'em both!)

Atlantic Heart Sketch Challenge #540--sketch

Double Trouble Challenge #146--SomeThing, AnyThing, EveryThing (Thing #1--anything goes, Thing #3--play along with any partner: Atlantic Hearts Sketch)

Shopping Our Stash #504--welcome to the jungle

Inskspirational Challenge #297--Clothing/Closet

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes

The Paper Shelter #565--add a sentiment

Art Impressions--feeling blue

Creative Knockouts #502--anything goes

Krafty Chicks #679--anything goes

My Grace

 Last month, I needed to send cards to two friends who were coming up on the anniversary of the loss of a loved one.  I wanted something simple as I was going away and needed to be able to finish them up without a lot of supplies.

I stamped the flowers and then stamped the three part sentiment.  It's fun that it comes in parts because you can use different colors of ink like I did here.  I intended to color the flowers on both cards blue to match the blue ink in the sentiment.  But my coral colored markers caught my eye and I had to use them for the second card.  I didn't even use any embellishments, so nice and CAS.

Supplies:

Stamps: MFT "Flowers in Bloom"; Papertrey Ink "Inspired Words: Grace"

Challenges:

Card #1:

Creative Knockouts #501--anything goes

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #212--anything goes

Krafty Chicks #678--anything goes

Card #2:

Crafter's Cafe #300--the colours of the garden

Unicorn Challenge #298--CAS

Paper Funday #56--anything goes with the optional twist: great outdoors

Beautiful Blossoms #7--anything goes with the optional twist: bright summer colors

Triple B--birds, butterflies, blooms

Make My Monday #207--three images of anything (three flowers)

Shopping Our Stash #503--hot, hot, hot (the second card uses hot colors)

Word Art Wednesday #610--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Penny's Challenge #553--anything goes