Birthday Wishes

 It's Saturday!!  That means it's time for another challenge from Di's Digi Designs.

The challenge this time is: Flowers Everywhere
And here is my card for your inspiration:

My oldest daughter is turning 15 next week.  How did that happen??!!  We just got her a little Rottweiler puppy about 3 weeks ago, so I personalized this image to look like the two of them.  The girl in the image actually has a really beautiful long braid in her hair, but my daughter and I (and another daughter) just had our hair cut and donated it to Locks of Love.  So, I cut off most of the image's braid and it left a cute little ponytail just like my daughter.  I had a lot of fun creating this scene with a lot of die cuts!  I had an extra tulip flower left over so I placed it at the puppy's feet, sort of like he may have pulled it off a stem.  Our little guy is super sweet, but he's a puppy, so he is into biting/chewing everything.  I could definitely see him pulling a flower head off!

The sentiment inside reads "Once in a while, someone very special comes along and makes the world a little more wonderful.  happy birthday!"

I hope you will get a chance to play along with us; I can't wait to see what you create.  And make sure you hop over to the Di's Digital Designs blog to see what the rest of the team has made for this challenge.

Supplies: 

Stams: Di's Digi Stamps "Izzy" digi image; MFT "Essential Sentiments" happy birthday; Mama Elephant "Inside Birthday Sentiments" inside sentiment

Dies: MFT "Blueprints 25" stitched rectangle and stitched banner, "Blueprints 13" pinked circle; Sweet n' Sassy Stamps grass border; Frantic Stampers, Inc. "Floral Confetti" and "Tall Stems"

Stencil: Taylored Expressions "Set the Scene: Clouds"

Challenges:

Cut It Up challenge #221--just for kids (she's reaching the upper edge of being a kid)

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog #204--anything goes

Cute Card Thursday #678--spring fever

MFT Sketch #533--sketch

Double D--skies

Crafty Sentiments--anything goes

Penny's Challenges #492--anything goes

Cardz TV #136--anything goes

Aud Sentiments #270--show us the sentiment on the inside

As You Like It--favorite way to cut your image (I love fussy cutting!  One of the benefits is being able to alter your image like I did here.  I cut off part of the little girl's braid to make her resemble my daughter more.  I also added the butterfly to the opposite side of the little girl; now it looks like it is fluttering above the flowers)

Crafty Friends #150--happy birthday 

Sheepski Designs #48--girls, girls, girls

2 Crafty Critter Crazies #48--anything goes

CRAFT Rocket #79--use dies and/or spring

Paper Funday #27--anything goes with the optional twist: use the color green (lots of green grass)

Saying "hi"

 Happy Wednesday!!  It's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps Built and this week is right on trend: Slimline Card! And here is the card I created for your inspiration:

The slimline shape was perfect for creating my scene!  It really gives room for those hot air balloons to soar!  I started by stamping, coloring and fussy cutting all three balloons and the sentiment banner.  I laid them on the card to see where I wanted to place them and to get an idea for how tall my "city" should be.  I didn't want to have blank, weird windows, so I lightly traced around the die cut buildings so I could color in the space behind the windows with a dark gray.  I also used the tracing to decide where my sunrise should be.  For years there was a Hot Air Balloon festival at a local university right down the street from us.  The best time of day for the balloons to go up was in the early morning or early evening as long as it wasn't too windy.  We attended for several years (as vendors so we were there allllllll day) and only saw them go up in the evening once or twice, but I know they took off most mornings.  Anyway, after that, I stenciled my cloud background and adhered all the pieces in place (before adhering the banner, I used a fine point black pen to draw the ropes attaching it to the balloon basket).  Most of the hot air balloons were really colorful, so I chose some bright, masculine colors for my balloons as I figure this will probably be a masculine birthday card.
Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the House blog to see the rest of the DT's creations and then get inky and play along with us.  And if you need any of the stamps I used, check out my 10% off your ENTIRE order coupon code over in my left sidebar.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Soaring by to say hi", "Hot Air Balloon" and "Hot Air Balloon Cluster" (I did not use the smallest balloon in that set)

Dies: MFT "Our Town" 

Stencil: Taylored Expressions "Set the Scene: Clouds"

Challenges:

Crafts Galore #85--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #180--anything goes

Die Cut Divas--slimline

Dare 2B Artzy--anything goes

Crafty Creations #419--anything goes

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog #203--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #153--anything goes

Creative Moments #210--anything goes

As You Like It--Favorite way to cut your image (I am definitely a fussy cutter!  I would never be able to line my stamp and/or die up exactly right to get the outlines perfect like you can with scissors.  But if I want a border, I can cut a perfect one with my scissors as well, much more versatile than with dies)

Cardz TV #136--anything goes

Pink Gem Challenge--anything goes

Crafty Sentiments--anything goes

Happy Hello

 Happy Monday!!  It's my turn to share my Pick of the Week for The House That Stamps Built.  I am continuing my Inspired by Pinterest series.  This is the card I chose to be inspired by (it was created by Theresa of Crafting the Web):

I've been in love with this card for a long time and, today, I decided to recreate it for myself.  I started by die cutting my main panel.  The die cuts a gorgeous frame and leaves a large negative piece that I inlaid back into the frame after I had inked it with some distress ink.

The color I ended up with was actually a happy accident!  I was inking blending with Old Paper Distress Oxide, but some red ink from my scrap paper mixed in with it and created this beautiful dusty peachy color.

I didn't have a large sized die to mat my panel like Theresa did, so I cut a plain square, inked the edges up with the same inks (including the extra red!), and embossed it with a script embossing folder.

To make the embossing pop even more, I swiped the Old Paper ink directly from the inkpad onto the raised portions.

I layered everything together onto a white card base and added my tulips image ("Vase of Tulips").  After I colored the image, I used my ink blending brush to blend the same "Old Paper" oxide ink over top to help soften the colors and bring it more in line with the rest of the card:

Rather than add a sentiment strip, I chose to stamp my sentiment ("Happy Hello") directly onto the focal panel and I finished the whole thing off with some clear drops.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope this inspires you to look at your supplies and see how you can use them to recreate projects that inspire you.

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Vase of Tulips" and "Happy Hello"

Dies: Spellbinders 

Challenges:

Unicorn Challenge #63--make it feminine

Pattie's Creations #180--anything goes

Love To Craft Challenge Blog #56--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--feminine

Craft Rocket #79--use dies and/or spring (I used dies and spring as tulips are beautiful spring flowers)

Dare 2B Artzy--anything goes

Moving Along with the Times #128--spring is coming

Penny's Challenges #491--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #153--anything goes

Crafty Sentiments--anything goes

Creative Moment's #210--anything goes

CRAFT #590--feminine

As You Like It--favorite way to cut out your image (if I am leaving my image on a panel, I prefer to use a die, but if I am cutting the image out then I definitely prefer fussy cutting.  For one, I don't like to spend money on things--like coordinating dies--that I can do myself.  It saves the money to use on fun things like more stamps!  Also, fussy cutting is relaxing and allows to you leave a border or not depending on the image and the look you are going for.)

Box of flowers

 Happy Wednesday!!  It's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps Built and this week it is a fun one: Fun Fold.

 And here is the card I created for your inspiration:

I decided to create a box card filled with flowers for my best friend's birthday.  The actual construction of a box card is really easy and then filling it with whatever you choose is the fun part!  I used this tutorial, but I'm sure there are many out there on the internet.  My thought was to do a card in black and white with pops of red.  But as I was looking for papers, I found these really fun colorful papers that also had those colors in them.  It created a card that is more "fun".  I stamped a LOT of flowers, leaves and stems, colored them and fussy cut them out, then I created a bouquet and adhered them all in place.

I heat embossed the sentiment on black card stock, cut fishtail ends and adhered it to the front flap along with some extra flowers that didn't fit into the bouquet.  On the back, I stamped a birthday sentiment; this is also the place I will write a little note.

There are a lot of flowers and they stick up all over the place, but the card does fold flat(ish) and will fit in an envelope just a little bit bigger than an A2 sized envelope.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the House blog to see the rest of the DT's creations and then get inky and play along with us.  And if you need any of the stamps I used, check out my 10% off your ENTIRE order coupon code over in my left sidebar.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Pattie's Flower Outline", "Daisy Outline, Large", "Daisy Outline Small", "Leaf Outline Large", "Stem Outline", "Happy Birthday" and "Happy Moments"

Challenges:

Alphabet Challenge--X is for Xtra folds

Cardz TV #135--anything goes

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

Scor-pal Challenge #79--anything goes with optional twist: St. Patty's or Easter (I did not use the optional twist)

Unicorn Challenge #63--make it feminine

Cards Galore #85--anything goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper

Love To Craft Challenge Blog #56--anything goes

Crafty Calendar--feminine

Dare 2B Artzy--anything goes

Penny's Challenge #491--anything goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #203--anything goes

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #398--anything goes with snippets (I always save all my white card scraps and use them for times such as this when I am going to stamp and fussy cut images--you don't need a very large snippet for flowers like these.  So, all of the parts of the stamped images were cut from little white snippets.)

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #153--anything goes

Crafting Happiness #87--flowers

Birthday Boy

 It's Saturday!!  That means it's time for another challenge from Di's Digi Designs.

The challenge this time is: All About B's (use anything that begins with B)
And here is my card for your inspiration:

I made this for my youngest nephew who is turning 4 next month!  I think the bright colors and patterns are perfect for a young boy's birthday.  The color combo was actually inspired by the turquoise die cut star.  I had a bunch of them left over from some baby shower decorations and was looking for a way to use them.  One down, a bunch to go!  So, I had one pad of paper that had some turquoise prints (which I didn't end up using) and others that coordinated with them.  The turquoise ribbon (vertical strip) and the copper star were also left overs from the shower.  I thought some black accents would help the colors pop, so I added a black die cut "4" and some black pearls (I finally finished up the pack of them which I have had for a looooong time).  On the inside I added several different sentiments and stamped them in colors that match the papers on the front.  I also added another of the turquoise stars and a last remaining copper glitter star to the inside.

I hope you will get a chance to play along with us; I can't wait to see what you create.  And make sure you hop over to the Di's Digital Designs blog to see what the rest of the team has made for this challenge.

Supplies: 

Stams: Di's Digi Stamps "Party Boy Bear" digi; CAS-ual Fridays "Woot! Woot!" sentiment on front and "Shenanigans" inside sentiments

Dies:Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"; Stamps of Life star flip card die; Verve stars (glittery copper stars); PaperTrey Ink numbers border die (#4)

Challenges:

Time Out Challenge #182--7th birthday celebration

Cardz TV #135--anything goes

Pink Gem Challenge Blog--anything goes

Make My Monday #143--masculine birthday

Crafts Galore Challenge #85--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #180--anything goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper

Cheerful Sketches--sketch

2 Crafty Critter Crazies #48--anything goes

Craft Rocket Challenge #79--use dies and/or spring

Crafty Creations #419--anything goes

Crafty Friends #150--happy birthday

Crafty Sentiments--anything goes

The Paper Shelter #459--for the boys

Penny's Challenge #491--anything goes

C.R.A.F.T. #589--anything goes

Cute Thursday #676--anything goes

Crafty Catz #541--anything goes with the optional twist: dies/punches

Tulips galore

 Happy Wednesday!!  It's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps.  This week is a Designer's Choice Challenge and Shirley has chosen: Going Green.  You can make anything you want as long as you use the color green.

And here is the card I created:

Green makes me think of spring so I chose my favorite "Vase of Tulips" image.  A firm believer in if one is good, two must be better, and three must be even better.  So, I stamped the image three times, colored them (at that point I kind of wished I had picked a different image!) and cropped each of them a little bit differently to give a more interesting look.  Then I framed them with a fun die cut panel.  Pink and green used to be one of my favorite card color combinations and I've kind of forgotten about it until recently.  I stamped my sentiment and heat embossed it with white embossing powder on black card stock as a pop of contrast.  To help tie it in, I added some tiny black pearls.  The black really keeps it from being too "sweet".

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure you head on over to The House blog to see what the rest of the Design Team has done with this photo.  And if you "need" any of the stamps I used, check out my 10% off your entire order coupon code over in my lift sidebar.

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Vase of Tulips" and "Happy Birthday"

Dies: Kat Scrappiness "Distressed Edge Nesting Slimline Dies" Spellbinders "Ornate Squares"

Challenges:

MFT Slimline--birthday wishes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #152--anything goes

Creative Moments #209--anything goes

Cute Card Thursday #675--feminine

Time Out Challenge #182--7th birthday celebration

Krafty Chicks #548--all occasions

Atlantic Hearts #410--sketch

Use Your Stuff #417--tartan or plaid/checks

Double Trouble #78--Wearin' o' the green (Thing #1: bring on the green; Thing #3: plaid; Thing #2: enter with Use Your Stuff Challenge--I did all three)

Crafting Happiness #86--anything goes with the optional twist: green

Die Cut divas--slimline card

Crafty Friends #150--happy birthday

Cuttlebug Mania--today our favorite color is green

Crafty Sentiments--anything goes

Otterly Good

 A new month has arrived and that means a new challenge from the Love To Scrap Challenge Blog.  This month's challenge is Anything Goes.

And here is the card I created:

Oh, my goodness, these otters are just so adorable!!!  I love this MFT set!  One of the young ladies at our church just celebrated her birthday and she LOVES otters, so this was made just for her.  It's super cute as is.  I CASEd this card, which I have fallen in love with:

As you can see, I turned mine into a slimline card and used an oval as the focal point as it fit the slimline shape better.  I also turned my sentiment strip into a banner so it would help span the width of the card better and I added some subtle stamping on the base of the card to keep it from being too empty.  There is a lot of space to fill on a slimline!!  So, anyway, I wanted to add a little fun to the card and wanted to have a little fish jumping up out of the water.  I pulled out my Launch Party die set and watched a fabulous tutorial.  After a lot of trial and error, mostly error, I did get it to work.  I had to change a lot of things (after I had already done them!), but persistence paid off, and as you pull the pull tab a little goldfish pops up to say hi.  Here he comes:

This is a very strong and acrobatic fish, mind you.  It is quite the leap, but eventually he does end up right where I intended--between the two otters.

For a little extra fun, I added some gold sparkle pen to the little fishie's scales, but it's hard to see in this photo.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Head on over to the LTSCB blog to see what the rest of the team has created and to get the full details of the challenge.  Then get inky and play along with us; I can't wait to see what you create.

Supplies:

Stamps: MFT "BB Otterly Love You" and "BB Friends with Fins" small school of fish

Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Ovals, large"; MFT "Launch Party"

Challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies #48--anything goes

Crafty Friends #150--happy birthday

Word Art Wednesday #480--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

MFT Slimline Challenge--birthday wishes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #152--anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes

Creative Moments #209--anything goes

MFT #530--sketch

As You Like It--favorite reason to send a card (I send a TON of birthday cards!!  I make them for family and friends, including everyone at our church.  It's always nice to be remembered on your birthday.)

Time Out Challenge #182--7th birthday celebration (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!)

Krafty Chicks #548--all occasions (birthday)

Cardz TV #135--anything goes

A Gem of A Challenge--anything goes