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