All Torn Up!

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Good morning!  I just wanted to pop in this morning with another Thanksgiving card {I cannot believe Thanksgiving is NEXT week!!!  Seriously, where has the time gone?!?}…  We have spent every Thanksgiving of my life with my grandmother on my dad's side of the family and it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving if we didn't make our annual pilgrimage to a tiny town out in West Texas for the holiday…

This year, though, some of my favorite relatives, who normally make the trip from Nebraska every November, aren't going to be able to come down…  And I am bummed!  Seriously bummed.

So what is a card-maker to do in this situation??  You got it...

And I've got just a couple of days left to get them in the mail on time!  :)

I really am in love with this sentiment stamp…  Perfect for family members that will be so missed at our Thanksgiving celebration this year…

I had a couple of challenges in mind with this card…  The current color combo at ColourQ is one of my favorites and I love the "So Torn" theme at Cas-ual Fridays this week!  :)

Thanks for stopping by…  Are you busy planning for next week's festivities?  What will you be doing?  Hosting?  Traveling??  Whatever your plans, please know I am sending virtual Thanksgiving blessings to you and yours from here!  :) 

Hip to be Square!

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Hello, my friends!  Hope your week is going swimmingly -- literally, if it's as hot where you are as it is here…  whew!  C'mon Autumn!  :)

I just wanted to pop in to share a card I created for a friend who just had had a surgery and is facing a rather long recovery -- thought she could use a dose of sunshine right now!  :) 

These papers are from SEI's "Mimosa" line -- I thought they were appropriate for the color challenge over at The Play Date Cafe this week.  I used the sketch from RetroSketches and modified it to be a square card because Cas-ual Fridays demanded it!  :)

Anyway, I hope you like it…  Thank you for stopping by!  Here's hoping you're wrapping up your summer with friends and family and making the most of these last weeks before school starts up again!  :)  Be well!

Banner-ific!!

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TGIF!  Happy Top o' the Weekend to you!  :)

Just a quick post to share a card I created based on another of the Hero Arts sketches for this month and using the color o' the week from CAS-ual Fridays -- PINK!

I wanted it to be colorful and girly (I know -- shocker!!! :) and I wanted needed to use up some scraps of random papers!  (I am the world's worst about throwing paper bits away -- I seriously need some guidelines here -- like, hoard ONLY if the paper is THIS size or bigger....  any and all suggestions are welcome!  :)

Anyway, here's the sketch my card is based on...

And before you go....  It's officially summer, so I thought I'd share a fun video of Emmitt with you!  Crazy mutt would willingly give his own life for watermelon and avocados  :)

Have a fantastic weekend!!!  I know I plan to!!  :)

Thank You "Clearly"

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Seriously, have you seen the color palette over at The Play Date Cafe this week?? Simply gahhh-geous!  :)  How could I not play along??  And I had the perfect set of stamps I was dying to ink up just for the occasion!  :)

Just so we're "clear," (ha!) I have used acetate again on this card to create a window to house my sentiment.  So fun, but I didn't have the right color Staz-On ink, so had to stamp and heat emboss my sentiment on the "inside" of my card...  I like it anyway!  :)  Hope you do, too!  Thanks for stopping by!

But before you go, thought I would share some sage advice my mom passed on to me and my sisters, just for fun!  :)  You know, moms always know best!  

Thanks, Mom!  :)  Haha!

Color Me Happy!

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Hello and Happy Monday!  I'm here today with a card that is, quite frankly, a bit of a stretch for me -- just something completely different than my usual -- and that, my friends, is the fun of it!  :)

I was inspired by two challenges this week -- the sketch over at RetroSketches and the challenge to use acetate (or vellum) on a card at CAS-ual Fridays.  I love the card by N@ Ali that was the inspiration for the sketch at RetroSketches and was drawn to not only the way she layered her shapes and embellishments, but also the COLORS (!) she incorporated.

I knew I wanted to be as bold with my color choices as she had been with hers -- and what better way than with alcohol inks??  Enter the acetate.  Perfect.  :)

Here's my take on both challenges:

I love the chunks of color and the Maya Road wood veneer butterflies (I colored them with alcohol inks and then coated with Diamond Stickles for shimmer!) are the perfect accents!  Super fun and very different, no??  Hope you like it!  :)

Thanks for stopping by -- here's hoping your week "promises" to be a colorful one!  :)

(can't help the cheesy -- rainbows are promises, after all!  :)

They Say It's Your Birthday!

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We are smack in the middle of birthday week in my family -- three birthdays and one anniversary in seven days!  Next up is my grandfather -- he will turn 89 (!) this week!  In his honor, I made what has to be the hardest. of. all. cards. to me...  the masculine card!  Girl-cards (for girl-recipients, anyway) are a cinch -- I mean, we crafters are stocked to the gills with flowers and colors and ribbons and bling!  But boy- (or, er, excuse me.... man-cards) throw me for a loop every time!

Sidenote:  In the end, though I'm happy with the result, I'm not really sure it's him...  My grandfather, or "Nana" as we call him -- (story in this post) -- is a super-special man with a fantastic sense of humor and more than a little bit of cantankerousness (which I adore about him!!  :)  I really struggled to distill all that into this card.  In the end, I decided to keep it simple, sticking to clean lines and colors and opting to hand-write the "Happy Birthday" sentiment....    Here it is:

I die-cut the chevrons using My Favorite Things Die-Namics' "Chevron Stripes"and papers from Basic Grey's "Wander" line.

I am also playing along with CAS-ual Fridays' challenge this week to make a masculine card using patterned paper.  Masculine?  check.  Patterned Paper?  double check!  :)


Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend -- blessings to you and yours!  :)

Birds of a Feather

Pin It Hi!  Just a quick post today to share a cute little set of note cards I made for my sister for Mother's Day...  I shared in my last post this new love I have for the "Tweet Talk" set by Papertrey Ink and today's post will prove my love is real!  :)

I seriously can't get enough of this chubby little bird!  She just makes my heart sing!  :)  

My sister, who is (after my own mom) the best mother I know, always likes to do nice things for other people and I knew she would love this little set of notecards.  And I especially love that she can personalize her own cards with the mix-n-match sentiments!

And just for fun, I made these matching {giant} paperclips so she can keep all her *schtuff* organized (and pretty!  :)

Fun, right???  I hope all you moms (and sisters of moms and daughters of moms!) had a fantastic Mother's Day!  I hope your loved ones let you know how you special you are -- and how loved!  :)

This will be my second entry into this week's challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays!  :)

Supplies:

• Papers - Memory Box "Brioche" and Neenah "Solar White" Cardstock
• Stamps - Papertrey Ink - "Tweet Talk"
• Inks - Memento "Tuxedo Black" and Copic Markers
• Dies - Sizzix "Floral Botanical Set"
• Paperclips - found at PickYourPlum.com
• Diamond Stickles, gems, ribbon, adhesives

So Tweet!

Pin It Hello and happy weekend!  Hope yours is off to a great start!

I just got the cutest stamp set from Papertrey Ink called Tweet Talk and I'm happy to say -- I'm in love!   Seriously.  Had to ink it up -- and fast!  So I decided I'd play in my first-ever ColourQ challenge....  I saw the colors for this week's challenge and, more importantly, this card by Arielle and knew I would want to throw my hat card in the ring!  (And how perfect that this week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is "Feathered Friends!")  :)

Here's my take:

Isn't that chubby little bird the cutest thing you ever saw?!?

  

I knew from the start what I wanted my sentiment to be -- problem was, I didn't have the stamps for it.... so -- I cut up a couple I do have...  I cut the "be" off a "just because" stamp and the "you" off a "thank you" stamp and then used a set of Hero Arts alphabet stamps for the "fabulous..."  Anyway, I got what I wanted in the end and I'm pretty darn pleased with the result!  :)

And a peek at the challenges this card was inspired by:

Hope you like it!  Thanks for stopping by!  Let me know what you think!  :)

And Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there -- hope y'all have a great day filled with love and laughter (and breakfast in bed!)!  :)

Supplies:

• Stamps:  Papertrey Ink "Tweet Talk," Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings" & "Playful Flower Letters"
• Inks:  Memento "Rich Cocoa," Tim Holtz Distress Ink "Vintage Photo," and Copic Markers
• Papers:  K&Co. "Wild Saffron," Neenah "Solar White," Core'dinations "Distress"
• Diamond Stickles, ribbon, brads, adhesives

CAS Challenge(d)? :)

Pin It Hello!  I am popping in to say Happy Birthday to the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge Blog (being a newbie to this whole blogging / challenges / online crafting world, I thought they'd been around for years...) celebrating it's first birthday!!  Woo-hoo!

What better way to celebrate than with a Birthday Challenge??  (And who doesn't need a steady supply of birthday cards on-hand, anyway??)

A few disclaimers before I show you the goods:

• I love and try to embrace the whole "Clean and Simple" thing, but am discovering it's not my natural "go-to" style.  (Someone asked me to "label" my style a couple of weeks ago and the best I could come up with is -- wait for it --  "Less is... not enough!"  Haha!
• As a scrapper-turned-card-maker, I have found myself more and more retuning to my own hand-writing for sentiments lately, rather than stamps.  So the sentiment you are about to see is my own writing, and in the interest of making my cards more personal, I embrace the flaws and inconsistencies!  (Although I have to say, I got quite a kick out of my mom telling me she loved my "font!")

Ok, enough of that!  Here's my card:

Pretty darn simple (for me!  Ha!) and (almost) a one-layer card.  I die cut the bows using this set from Memory Box, first in colored cardstock, then into my card face.  I inset the colored bows in the negative space on the card front and then drew in the presents by hand.  A bit of copic-coloring and a few dots of Rock Candy Stickles and voila!  

Thanks for stopping by!  I appreciate you visiting and would love to hear from you!  Tell me this: what name would you give to describe your crafting style???  :)

And the Songbirds Keep Singing!

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Ok, so I am super-excited about this post!  You know when you're making something and everything just seems to "click" as you're making it??  When the colors seem to go just perfectly together and you have just enough adhesive or ribbon or trim to do what you want to do (and all the world is singing together in perfect harmony??  lol!)  Well, that's how this card came together for me -- and trust me, that does not happen all that often!

For this card, I'm using the inspiration from this week's challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays: April Showers Bring May Flowers and the super-cute sketch from Retro Sketches.  I'm a sucker for flowers of all shapes and sizes on cards, so these really called to me!

Anyway, here's my take -- Ta-da!!!

I used my favorite new background stamp from Hero Arts -- "Lattice Background" -- love the look of it heat embossed on kraft cardstock!  The bird and flowers are by Darcie Heater (Darcie's Stamps) which are two of my all-time favorite sets!  

I think that little "songbird" is as cute as he can be, perched on his little twine branch!  (Or barbed wire, as my mom thought it was!!  ugghh!!)

Anyway, I hope you like it -- Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Supplies:

• Dies:  Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
• Stamps:  Hero Arts Lattice Background and Darcie's Garden Wishes and Le Fleurs
• Inks:  Distress Inks and Copic Markers
• Papers: Kraft Cardstock and Neenah "Solar White" Cardstock
• Embossing powder, gems, twine, and adhesives

Happy Place

Pin It Happy Wednesday!  I just wanted to share a quick card I made for this week's challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays.  The challenge this week was to use colors on opposite ends of the color wheel...  Interesting!

My natural tendency was to go toward the blue and orange (especially when you could really go turquoise/tangerine which is kinda hot!  :)  -- but then I laid eyes on this super-cute stamp set from Paper Smooches (called "Get Outta Town" -- how cute is that?!) and just knew where I had to go!  So, purple and yellow it is!  (Sounds like a really bad band uniform, huh?)

(Note:  contrary to what this card would have you believe, I am NOT a big drinker -- however, I have been known to sip a fruity adult beverage from time to time!  :)

Additionally:  (BIG News!!)  I am submitting this card for the Paper Smooches Design Team Call.  I was inspired by the following inspiration photo and used it as a sketch:

The frames reminded me of my favorite embossing folder (!) and I loved the pop of yellow in the bottom right...  (But man, I wish my parties could look this fancy!)

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you like it -- would love to hear from you!  Hoping you find your Happy Place tonite!  :)

You're a Good Egg!

Pin It Happy Wednesday!  Ok, so I know Easter has passed (hope you had a great one, btw!), but I wanted to share a quick card I made for this week's challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays -- "Let the Hunt Begin."  The challenge was to create a card featuring something you'd find in an Easter basket....  So here's mine!

I had fun with this card and it came together much faster than my cards usually do!  :)  I cut the grass with Martha Stewart's Fringe Scissors, stamped and heat embossed the eggs and chick, colored them with Distress markers, and then spritzed the heck out of them with Perfect Pearls mist.  Next I massaged the back sides of each egg with my dry emboss stylus to give them their rounded, "egg-y" shape and then, finally, more fussy-cutting than I almost ever undertake!

Anyway, I hope you like it...  It has fun, spring colors that make me happy!  Thanks for visiting -- would love to hear from you!  :)

Just for Fun -- Name that Tune!

Pin It Ok, so when I saw the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays this week, my heart leapt!  A card inspired by a song?  For real??  I knew I had to play along, but what to do??  I have a verifiable smorgasbord of musical genres on my playlist...  almost none of which lend themselves to a greeting card!!

Including the song I eventually chose!!  Haha!

That's right craft fans, I created a card I can't see myself giving to anyone -- at least not anyone I would hope to keep as a friend!!  :)

I just had to go with what I loved -- and I love, Love, LOVE Christina Perri's "Jar of Hearts."  This song gets me everytime.  No, it's not a happy song -- it's actually kinda dark....  soooo... I had to try to put a more, ummm... colorful spin on it to make it me!  And I am thrilled with the results! (Even if it is a card that will just sit on a shelf and never be gifted....!)  

And here's the song (for the one or two people on the planet who may not know it!  :)

At any rate, I loved this challenge...  Hopefully, CAS-ual Fridays will do this challenge again sometime and maybe, just maybe, I'll choose Christina's much happier "A Thousand Years" as my inspiration!!  :)

Thanks for stopping by -- I'd love to hear your thoughts!