Category Archives: cards

To My Core

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I love playing the Paper Smooches Sparks challenges! This week’s trend watch challenge was “Food Fresh” (see it here).

I chose to use the apple image from Falling for You. My hubby will be on a business trip soon, so this will get tucked into his suitcase.

When creating this card, I loved the lines of the shopping cart (on the image that was used to introduce the challenge) – they reminded me of the little heart image in the same set. The lines also made me think to use the Picnic Plaid impression plate on the background.

I paper pieced the apple – and chose a cream colored natural-fiber paper for the core. I carried over that same paper for the sentiment die cut (because why can’t I use white and cream together??). I love that the naturals paper has fibers that remind me of a real apple (no apple core is a stark flat color).

I love this card so much, I’m going to enter it into the Paper Smooches guest designer search!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Love You to My Core
Stamps: Falling for You (Paper Smooches);
Colors: White, Rustic Cream, Poppy (PTI); Black (Memento);
Other: Chartreuse Pattern Paper (PTI); Polka Dot Greetings die (MFT); Picnic Plaid impression plate (PTI); brown marker (Copic);

FYI – Celebration of Blue

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It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI33.

This photo makes me smile – I think it is the beautiful sky and green grass. What catches my eye first are the tall, narrow trees. I definitely wanted those represented in my card.

Since the trees were my first requirement, I started there. I searched for a composition that utilized vertical strips. I ended up using a sketch I found at 2Peas (saturday sketch).

Next I looked for a label/frame that reminded me of the building in the inspiration photo. I tried many things, but finally settled on the Celebrations set from Papertrey.

My final touches were to emboss the background with stripes and add ribbon and buttons.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Debbie
Debby
Michelle
Rochelle
Rudlis
Sara
Steph
Sylvia
Vicki

I hope you join us at For Your Inspiration!

A Little About the Challenge: The For Your Inspiration challenge is posted the first and third Thursday of every month; each challenge is open for two weeks. To play, use the photo to inspire you and create a card – very simple! Make sure you tell us in your blog post how you were inspired!

Celebrate
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Celebrations;
Colors: Blueberry Sky, Kraft, White;
Other: New Leaf ribbon & buttons, Simple Stripes impression plate, Celebrations die; Minuet Pattern Paper (Memory Box);

Independence Day

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With all the recent fires here in Colorado, we did some donating to help support the fire companies involved. I, of course, couldn’t just send a check – I needed a card.

I came up with this quick and easy design. And liked it so much I made extras.

The extras will be used by my kids to send to our troops. Today we’ll be thinking of all those things we can do because of our freedoms.

FYI – these card will be getting to the troops via Operation Write Home.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thank You for Your Service
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Military Stars, Military Hero;
Colors: Enchanted Evening, White, Pure Poppy;
Other: Limitless Layers Circle die, Star die;

You’ve Been Wonderful

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I had this stamped label in my scrap pile. I decided to use it. I thought it would fit with the current Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge (wmsc104).

The label was stamped with Blueberry Sky – not a color that I have in pattern paper…so it was a bit challenging to create the card base. Thankfully, after I dug into my pattern paper stash, I found this old check pattern that perfectly matched! Then I pulled out some other patterns that I thought would work as well – layered them up and stitched them down.

I think the final product is quite cute.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks
Stamps: Vintage Labels 18, Say it Loud (Waltzing Mouse Stamps);
Colors: Blueberry Sky, White, Black (PTI);
Other: Pattern Paper (blue/white – unknown, possibly CTMH; Melon & Moss – PTI); Moss ribbon (PTI); Labels 18 die (Spellbinders);

Beloved Pet

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Unfortunately I needed another pet sympathy card. This time I pulled out the With Sympathy set from Papertrey Ink.

Once I figured out my layout, I decided to stamp on pattern paper (which is the current Make-it-Monday challenge mim73).

The flower images are from the With Sympathy set, but I die cut using the smallest die in the Lovely Layers set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Heartfelt Sympathy
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: With Sympathy, With Sympathy – Loss of Pet;
Colors: Fine Linen, Dark Chocolate, White, Aqua Mist;
Other: Fine Linen Pattern Paper, Aqua Mist Ribbon, Lovely Layers die;

So Sorry

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By a stroke of luck I was able to step in as a guest designer for the Clean And Simple (CAS) challenge on Splitcoast. This week’s challenge (cas177) is a color challenge: Navy, Olive, and White.

As I was perusing my stamp index, the new feather set by StampinUp caught my eye – and I thought worked well with the color challenge. My theme was chosen because I needed a card for a friend who recently lost an elderly dog.

I’m not sure peacock feather really says bereavement, but I do think the “feel” of this card works.

When inking the sentiment, I knew the “y” would hang down and you wouldn’t be able to read the rest (and I didn’t want to change the layout or color placement). So I stamped the second part of the sentiment first and masked it off. Then I stamped the So Sorry in full strength and removed the mask. Next, I reinked the So Sorry (actually just the “ry” at the end), but stamped off – and used a stamp positioner to stamp the sentiment again. Finally, I went back over the line between dark and light with a blender pen to help smooth it to a better gradient.

And one final note. The pattern paper I chose has a distinct pattern to it. I trimmed a bit to use on the card, but when I positioned it, the pattern felt to happy. I turned the paper in the opposite direction (hiding more of the “distinct pattern”) and it looked more random and didn’t detract from the card. I will definitely try turning patterns around if things don’t feel right again – just to see…you never know!

Thanks for stopping by!

So Sorry
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Fine Feathers, So Sorry;
Colors: Naturals White, Midnight Muse, Old Olive;
Other: Comfort Cafe DSP;

Tiered Patterns

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I’m squeezing in a card just before the deadline for the Paper Smooches Sparks Picture Perfect challenge.

When I saw the picture, I was drawn to the tiered platter and all the different patterns. I used those as my inspiration for my card.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Party Posse, Friendly Flowers, Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches); Background: Houndstooth (PTI);
Colors: Hibiscus, Hawaiian Shores, White (PTI); Black (Memento);
Other: Markers (Copic); red stickles;

Like Totally Awesome

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My brother’s birthday is tomorrow. I’m hoping he sees the humor in receiving a neon 80s card – at least the sentiment is right up his alley.

I had fun creating this card. Well, if you don’t count having it 90% done and then dropping an inked stamp on it and having to start all over again *sigh*. I’ve always been partial to neon colors (maybe from too much Rainbow Brite as a kid, lol).

The card is one layer (yay!) and the sentiments are cut-out and popped-up (that doesn’t count as a layer to me). I honestly have no idea why I did my placement in the bottom corner, but I like it – centering would have ruined it….just wish I knew why!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Hope Your Day is Kick Ass
Stamps: So 80s (Wplus9);
Colors: White (PTI); Black (Memento); Only Orange, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise (SU);

Sweet Wishes

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I created this card for the Clean & Simple Fall-to-Layout (ftl196).

I really love the strawberry set and wanted to use it again. Thankfully I think it worked great with this layout. I did add a couple borders to help spiffy it up.

To create the banner, I stamped my sentiment, then used my trimmer to trim most of the top away; I used scissors to trim around the flourishes of the sentiment that went above the top.

I purposefully stamped the strawberries so that I could pop one of them up over the sentiment strip.

As a finishing touch, I used the corner chomper to round the bottom two corners (I used the 1/2″ punch). I don’t use that tool very often, but I do love it because I can cut the front and back at the same time.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Sweet Birthday Wishes
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Strawberry Patch, Strawberry Patch Sentiments;
Colors: Blueberry, White, New Leaf, Poppy, Kraft, Dark Chocolate;
Other: Strawberry Patch dies, Heart border die, Filigree Border die; Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers);

Pocketful of Wishes

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Today I played along with the Colour Q challenge (CQC 143) – I love the bright happy colors.

I recently purchased this pocket set and wanted to use it. The layout for this just came to me. I like how the pocket and half & half die point to the sentiment.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Pocketful of Birthday Wishes
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Back Pocket Basics;
Colors: White, Lemon, Enchanted Evening; Basic Grey (SU);
Other: Back Pocket dies, Half & Half dies, Poppy ribbon, Canvas/Linen Impression Plate; Markers (Copic);