Category Archives: cards

Berry Sweet Birthday

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I’ve been trying not to order stamp sets the day (or month) that they are released. I have a habit of getting caught up in the hoopla. However, the Strawberry Patch set could not be ignored for long. Last week when I put in an order, I added the set to my cart. I got my box yesterday!

I used Copics to color the image and may not do that all the time as it is time consuming to go around all the little seeds, but I do love how it turned out. I think I did pretty good on shading the strawberries, but one day I really want to learn how to do leaves!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Sweet Birthday Wishes
Stamps: Strawberry Patch, Strawberry Patch Sentiments (PTI);
Colors: White, Spring Rain (PTI); Black (Memento);
Other: Markers: y15, yg11, yg13, yg17, r22, r24, r27, r29, r59 (Copic); Polka Dot embossing folder (SU);

FYI – Earthy Teapot

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It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI29. This challenge is sponsored by Fresh Brewed Designs.

This inspiration photo is very interesting. I love the subdued feel and earthy tones. The thing that kept catching my eye was the waterfall. It steered me to my image selection.

I picked this adorable teapot from Fresh Brewed Designs. The cute little scene was perfect for the earthy tones – and the waterfall made me think of pouring water.

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 each month; each challenge is open for two weeks. The first challenge of each month has a sponsor – and prize! To play, create a card based on the current challenge photo – however the inspiration hits you! Make sure you tell us in your blog post how you were inspired!

happy birthday
Stamps: Ladybug Teapot (Fresh Brewed Designs); sentiment from Hats Off (Lawn Fawn);
Colors: Kraft, Lemon, Dark Chocolate, Canyon Clay, White (PTI);
Other: Markers (Copic); Wood grain Impression plate (PTI);

Birthday Butterfly

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This is another recently acquired stamp set. I’ve been too intimidated to give it a try (there are so many awesome cards out there already).

I sorta started with Papertrey’s Make-it-Monday inspiration, but quickly left that color palette because I wanted more of a soft feel.

To color the butterfly, I started with a second generation of Melon Berry (I am looking forward to Sweet Blush ink this month!!). Then I added Copic markers (the ones designated by PTI as Melon Berry). I do like how it turned out.

The flourish panel is done by stamping the flourish on an A2 sized panel then trimming down (partly with my cutter, partly by hand). I didn’t want to pop that panel as I felt it was too much, so instead I placed my tape in the center of the panel leaving the edges the ability to float just a bit. I do like how that looks in real life.

My final touch was a Copic-colored rhinestone – it seemed to make the butterfly more cohesive by bridging the darker bits of the wings.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
All supplies Papertrey Inkunless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Beautiful Butterflies, Fancy Flourishes;
Colors: Lemon, White, Spring Moss, Melon Berry, (Smokey Shadow or Chocolate for the sentiment – can’t believe I don’t remember!);
Other: Butterfly die (PTI); Markers (Copic); hinestone (Kaiser);

Whimsical Wishes

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A month or so ago I posted about a random-file picker that I was using to help me chose stamp sets. Well, apparently I have a lot of stamps that I don’t like because lately I have been uninspired by the program’s choices! So instead, I’ve sorted my image files by date and I am choosing to work with sets I’ve recently added to my collection.

I got lucky and won this Forest Whimsy stamp for playing along in the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge! I love this gnome and was so happy when he arrived here!

This card is very simple – because I didn’t use ANY challenge (can you believe it??). Not bad for doing it “all by myself” 🙂

I definitely had fun coloring! My kiddo is learning shading in art this month and so has shown much interest in my coloring projects. I’ve promised them Copic lessons (mostly because that means I’ll learn a bit too – I’ve been winging it).

Thanks for taking a peek!

Whimsical Wishes
Stamps: Forest Whimsy (PaperSmooches);
Colors: Spring Rain, White, Chartreuse (PTI); Going Grey (SU); Black (Memento);
Other: Markers (Copic); Grass die (MFT); Twine;

Color Crush Inspiration

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Through Pinterest, I have found a few color combo sites. One of these sites is Photo Card Boutique who publishes Color Crush Palettes. They posted this palette yesterday. I loved the photo as well as the colors!

It was just the push I needed to try a technique I’d been thinking about.

I’m sure those who use Copics all the time already know that they dry on vellum, but I wasn’t sure – and I really wanted to try coloring vellum with the markers. I was so happy about how easy it really was. To add some interest to my circles, I spritzed them with rubbing alcohol. This gave the circles a great texture (very much like salted watercoloring).

I went with a “thinking of you” theme because the circles (I call them bubbles in my head) are the perfect muted, sedate color palette.

The Color Crush Palette photo helped me with the layout of the card as well. And I chose to embossed the card base with the wood grain because of the photo.

Thanks for taking a peek!

thinking of you
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Up, Up & Away;
Colors: Fine Linen, Kraft, Smokey Shadow, White, Vellum;
Other: Wood grain Impression Plate (PTI); YG11, B34, B37, BG99, BV08 Markers (Copics); Circle dies (Spellbinders); Brads;

Birthday Cameo

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I created this card for the Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge (wmsc94).

This isn’t my normal style, but I was very inspired by the design team!

I hand cut-out the frame. I embossed the cameo with vanilla powder onto Melon cardstock then mounted it behind the frame.

The tag die has a hole in the top, so I used that to thread my ribbon through. I tied the ribbon in a double bow for extra fluffiness.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Cameo Creations, Frame It (WMS);
Colors: Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Melon Berry (PTI);
Other: Pattern Paper (My Mind’s Eye); Vanilla embossing powder, Vanilla seam binding (SU); Tag #5 die (PTI);

Toucan Rainbow

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My colorful toucan is brought to you by this wonderful fruit cornucopia from the latest Paper Smooches Sparks challenge.

I loved all the color – and fruity goodness. And in a long, convoluted train of thought, I got to Toucan Sam!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: My Peeps, Gently Seasoned, Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches);
Colors: White, Kraft (PTI); Old Olive, Turquoise (SU); Black (Memento);
Other: Tropical DSP (SU); Markers (Copic);

FYI – Light Glare

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It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI28.

This photo is so cool. The colors are not what you’d think and the play of the light is interesting. What first caught my eye was the light glare – and I just thought lots of circles.

While this is my normal CAS style, it is also my attempt at the graphic style. The circles are done with lots of Spellbinder circle dies. I actually ran the dies through the machine layered together (not sure if you’re supposed to or not, but I wanted them as close to perfect as I could get). I chose my colors from the photo. Then I found a sentiment with the right font.

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 each month; each challenge is open for two weeks. The first challenge of each month has a sponsor – and prize! To play, create a card based on the current challenge photo – however the inspiration hits you! Make sure you tell us in your blog post how you were inspired!

Hello
Stamps: Fillable Frames #1 (PTI);
Colors: Crumb, Suede, Mustard, Eggplant (SU); Harvest Gold, Canyon Clay (PTI);
Other: Circle dies (Spellbinders);

Thankful Petals

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OK, this is my last post for today 🙂 Again, I used my random-file program which came up with Petal Prints. I love that old set. I wanted to do some soft colors, but I thought I’d use craft ink on Kraft paper. The Pale Plum is a bit hard to see (in real life anyway, the camera seemed to pick up the color better), so next time I’ll chose a different color.

The layout is loosely based on the CAS challenge at Splitcoase – which is a sketch this week (cas166).

The Label die left too much blank space around the image, so I ended up hand cutting it out – as well as the center to create the frame.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thanks
Stamps: Say it Loud, Very Vintage – Labels 4 (Waltzing Mouse; Petal Prints (SU);
Colors: Sage craft, Pale Plum craft, Kraft (SU); Dark Chocolate (PTI);
Other: Guidelines pattern paper (PTI);

Absolutely Fabulous

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I recently found a sketch challenge at 2Peas. This card is based on a recent challenge (Saturday Sketch with Kimber). I simplified the sketch by not doing as many layers.

To get started, I skimmed my pinterest board and found this awesome fabric to use as my starting inspiration (image source).

I knew right away I wanted to do a yellow card base. Then I chose to use Peonies for my flower (I love what I’ve seen with it, but hadn’t had the nerve to pick it up myself). And finally I chose leaves that I thought would compliment the flower.

To color the flower – and get slightly darker spots, or shadows – I used a double inking or double impression. First I lightly inked and stamped with Hibiscus. Then I inked just a portion of the stamp with more Hibiscus and used my finger to tap off the obvious ink pad lines. I stamped that right over the first impression.

For the “flag” shown in the sketch, I chose to trim my card base so that one of the leaves was hanging off.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Absolutely Fabulous
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Pretty Peonies, Harvest Berries, Mega Mixed Messages;
Colors: Lemon Yellow, New Leaf, Hibiscus Burst, Blueberry Sky, White;
Other: Enchanted Evening twine; scissors!