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

Birthday Fishes

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

Here is my card for your inspiration:

I created a fun box card for my niece, who is turning 11 this week!    I had a lot of fun deciding what underwater creatures I was going to use to create the little scene.

We've got a crab on land waving hello, two dolphins playing in the waves, a narwal swimming along, and a cute little fish playing among the coral and seaweed.

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 "Friends with Fins" dolphins, tiny underwater fish, and narwal; Your Next Stamp "Sea Creatures" fish and crab and "Sea Creatures Sentiments"

Dies: MFT "Outside the Box" box elements, "Ocean Motion" waves and "Under the Sea" sand hill, rocks, coral and seaweed

Stencil: Taylored Expressions "Set the Scene: Clouds"

Challenges:

Cards Galore--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #209--anything goes

Cutie Pie Challenge--Stamps AND/OR stars

Die Cut Divas--pop up creations (this pops up when you take it out of the envelope--I hope that counts)

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Creatalicious #246--anything goes with the optional twist: maritime

Craft Rocket #106--animals

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

Crafty Gals Corner #246--summer fun

{Pin}spirational Challenge #304--birthday + animals

Shopping Our Stash #503--hot, hot, hot

Creative Creases #64--anything goes with a fun fold

A Gem of a challenge--anything goes

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

Krafty Chicks #678--all occasions

Class of 2023

Yes, I am still working on graduation cards!  This one is for a young man from our church who actually graduated back in the spring, but he was away working at a camp all summer so his family waited until he came home to have his party.  A couple month ago, I watched this tutorial by Jennifer McQuire and fell in LOVE!  I thought the money idea was just too brilliant.  So, I made a card that was very similar to Jennifer's (I have yet to post it--it will be coming soon!) for a different graduation and for this card, I gave it my own little twist!  Right now, it looks like any normal graduation card:

But, the fun part is that you can insert money (if you are gifting money--and what grad doesn't love money as a gift!?) and it becomes part of the design!!  So fun!!  And it totally had me wondering "How did she DO that?".  I'm pretty sure the recipient will be wondering that, too.  Until . . .

When you open it up, there is a little pocket to hold the money, and it is quite easy to just pull right out. I added some acetate to the back of the front panel to make it so the money won't catch on any edges. I just love it!

 It was a little time consuming, because I had to die cut the numbers through so many layers: the card base, the background paper, the kraft mat and the patterned paper layer.  But it was worth it.

Supplies:

Dies: MFT "Iconic Grad"; Papertrey Ink "Wonderful Words: Congrats" and "By the Numbers"; Verve star cluster

Challenges:

Incy Wincy Designs--sentiment AND/OR dies only OR the birds and the bees (I used sentiment AND die cuts only)

Crafting Happiness #145--anything goes

Penny's Challenge #553--anything goes

Creative Knockouts #501--anything goes

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

Tuesday Morning Sketches #721--sketch

Krafty Chicks #678--all occasions

Remembering

Hello, everyone!  It's time for a new challenge from the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  The theme is: No Line Coloring (of course, you are always welcome to play along using the Anything Goes option).  I am using an image from one of our fabulous sponsors: Sheepski Designs.

 Here is my card:

I think I have only ever attempted No-Line Coloring once before and I was not really a fan of how it turned out.  BUT, I think this image turned out quite lovely, if I do say so myself!  My stems need a little work, but the poppies themselves are gorgeous!!  (Most of that goes to the artist, Andrea, as the image itself is just stunning!)  I wanted a bold background that matched the colors in the image, so I created my own using a poppy layering stamp set from Hero Arts.  Even though most of it is covered up, I think it makes the perfect background.  I used some oldie but goodie embellishments: a bit of dark green mulberry paper to mat my image panel, a small piece of red ribbon that was just the right size AND finishes up the roll, and some tiny rhinestone gems.  The image is definitely the star of the show and I didn't want the embellishments to take away from its beauty.  I added a "thinking of you sentiment' so it can be used for a variety of occasions.

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: Sheepski Designs "Poppies" digi; Verve "Take Note" sentiment; Hero Arts Layering Poppy set that seems to be no longer in stock

Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics 2" rectangle

Challenges:

Word Art Wednesday #608--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Cards Galore--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #209--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

Sheepski Designs #77--your favorite things (stamps, die cuts, ribbon and jewels!!)

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

Crafting Happiness #145--anything goes

Triple B--anything goes with birds, butterflies AND/OR blooms

Di's Digi Designs--load on the flowers

A Gem of a Challenges--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #211--anything goes

Creative Fingers #260--anything goes

Cat Shenanigans

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

Here is my card for your inspiration:

This card is for my nephew.  He just turned 10.  He and his brother and sister have a ton of stuffed animal cats and they love their cats!!  I thought it would be fun to make him an interactive card featuring cut little kitties!!  I tried to color up my cats to resemble some of his cats, but calicos are HARD to color and I didn't have one of his available to copy.  I'm sure he will get the point anyway.  I created this card following THIS tutorial.  Obviously, my card is very similar, but I added a few more details to flesh out my scene a little bit more.

When you pull the pull tab, the little guy on the robo vacuum slides on over to the other to say hello (or maybe "happy birthday!"  It's so fun!  I finished off the inside with another kitty from the same set and a fun combination of sentiments that refers to the shenanigans those kitties are getting into.  (I highly doubt my nephew will know what shenanigans are, but I liked the sentiment!)

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 "Cat-astrophe" cats; Lawn Fawn "Pull Here"; CAS-ual Fridays inside sentiments

Dies: MFT "Launch Party" pull tab and slider element and ; Lawn Fawn "Gift Card Holder slots" part of the slider mechanism; 

Taylored Expressions stencil "Set the Scene: Clouds"

Challenges:

Double Trouble #144--Woody (I used Thing #1's challenge: use woodgrain--on my wood floor)

Paper Shelter Summer Challenge--anything goes

Penny's Challenge #552--anything goes

Cards Galore--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #209--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--anything goes

We Love Stamping--masculine

Creatalicious #246--anything goes with the optional twist: different card technique (mine uses a slider mechanism for movement)

Craft Rocket #106--animals

{Pin}spirational #304--birthday + animals

Crafting Happiness #145--anything goes

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #211--anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday--Happy Birthday

Use Your Stuff #490--recycled, upcycles (the element that makes the slider mechanism slide is a strip of flexible plastic cut from packaging from a stamp set.  And I used a little bit of more rigid acetate, also recycled from stamp packaging, to attach the speech bubble to the moving kitty)

Little cutie

Happy August 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:

July is one of our very busy family birthday months.  We have 5 birthdays and 1 anniversary!  As I was looking through my stash of never before used stamps, I came across this sweet little elephant and knew I HAD to use her!  The card is pretty straight forward except, I took a little strip of paper leftover from the background paper and stamped the bow from the image on it.  Then I fussy cut it out and paper pieced it onto the bow on the image on my card.  It is such a great way to added pattern and interest and it makes her even more cute!  The flowers were die cut and I added some color with my markers, then added some blue gems in the centers.

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 "

Dies: MFT "Blueprints 12" flowers

Challenges:

Pattie's Creations #208--anything goes

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #257--sketch (I was too late, the linky had already expired)

NBUS--never before used schtuff (this is the first outing for the little elephant!)

Creative Fingers #259--anything goes

Di's Digi Stamps--animals acting like humans

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

The Paper Shelter--summer challenge, anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes

As You Like It--Favorite: ginghams or florals (my favorite would be florals.  I'm not much of a gingham person but I do think florals are good for almost any feminine card.  Big flowers, little flowers, die cut flowers, stamped . . . it's all good to me!)

Krafty Chicks #674--all occasions

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)