Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the United States. We've already started celebrating. Last night, Matt, Betsy, and the girls were here for dinner, and we celebrated Mother's Day as well as my upcoming birthday since we'll be on the road on my birthday. The older girls are experienced in helping blow out candles on a cake.

After church tomorrow, we'll be celebrating Mother's Day with Tracy's family at a brunch. I have all the mothers covered with cards as well as a card for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. (I won't be sharing that card until later in the month since I made two of them, and the other anniversary isn't until the end of the month.) Of the five Mother's Day cards I made, this is my favorite, and I'm posting it a day early to enter it in three different challenges:

CASology

Inspired By . . . 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: For a Special Lady

After all that introduction, here's the card:

When the Simon Says May Card Kit arrived, I knew I wanted to get it stamped right away. These beautiful flowers from the stamp set, "Delicate Flowers" were screaming to be colored. I decided on coloring with Copic markers this time, but they'd be beautiful in watercolors as well. There are no dies for these, so I fussy cut them which proved to be a bit of a challenge since I've been suffering from Trigger Thumb for several weeks. Two days ago, I had a cortisone shot in my thumb (painful!), and hopefully that will take care of the problem. There seems to be some improvement, but my hand is so bruised and sore from the injection, it's hard to tell. 

I layered the flowers on a "Shape Shifters Oval #2" (Papertrey Ink) and stamped the sentiment from "Fillable Frame #4" (PTI) in black ink. Then I mounted it on a True Black card.

As a final touch, I added some white dots to the stamens with a white gel pen. 

It's not often that I'm under pressure to get a birthday card made. I keep a calendar of upcoming birthdays and try to be sure the card is made well ahead of time. Tonight, however, I discovered that the young lady I tutor twice a week will have her birthday while I'm in Wisconsin. Tomorrow will be our last meeting before her birthday. Fortunately for me, I have a stash of prestamped and die cut images that I've saved. I thought butterflies were a safe bet for a sixth grader, and I had a stash of pretty butterflies from Papertrey Ink's "Butterfly Folks" set as well as a sentiment stamped and die cut with "Penned Elegance." The sentiment had been stamped with the same ink as one of the butterflies. How lucky was that?

I found a piece of glittery, textured cardstock in the same teal color for the card. I recently purchased some wonderful patterned paper from The Stamp Market, and used one of the papers from the "Color Crush" set to layer on the card before adhering my butterflies and sentiment.

I added some glitter to the butterflies with a Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen, and three enamel dots to finish it off.

I'm linking this up to the Simon Says 10th birthday party, and to the new AAA Birthday Challenge where "Anything Goes."

Popping in with two cards made with the same design and materials for the Seize the Birthday Challenge (no topping this time), the Simon Says 10th Birthday Party, and Addicted to CAS Challenge: Contrast.

Pinkfresh Studio has become one of my favorite companies in the last year, and I'm particularly fond of their stand-alone dies. These card use two of those: "Dainty Blossoms," and "Noteworthy Frames." (You'll see these again this weekend!)

I thought the gold and silver flowers provided nice contrast against the Smoky Shadow cardstock which I layered on a card made from Simon Say's Fog cardstock. 

The cards are identical except for a variety of the die cuts. The sentiment which fits perfectly on the "Noteworthy Frame" is from Papertrey Ink's "Inside Out: Birthday" set.

I love the partial cut dies that the frames make, and I've found quite a few sentiments in my collection that work well with them.

I needed a birthday card for my niece's upcoming birthday, and thought the current challenge at AAA Cards was a great place to start. Here's the challenge:

And here's the sketch:

I decided to go with both the sketch and the optional twist to make a shaker card.

This was a relatively quick card to create. I started with a square of white cardstock, and die cut the Impress candles in the middle. The sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Wishes Come True "was stamped below the candles in black ink.  After adding some acetate behind the candles, I created the space for the shaker by adding two layers of dimensional tape around the outside of the square. 

Then I poured in a generous amount of "Cotton Candy" glitter by Martha Stewart. It's a wonderful mix of tiny stars and sequins in pinks, golds, and teals. I found a lovely metallic envelope that had been included in one of the Simon Says Card Kits that matched some of the glitter.

It's a very CAS design, and one I think would work for many recipients.

We'll be celebrating Mother's Day in May with a buffet luncheon. I want to have a card for each of the mothers present, so I'm working a bit ahead. When I saw this week's sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch and the beautiful combination of colors for the Color Throwdown Challenge, I got to work. 

I hadn't used the Simon Says "Sketched Flowers" set in awhile, and I thought the large floral bouquet would work well diagonally across the bottom of the card for the sketch.

Then I chose some Copic markers to go along with the Color Throwdown challenge. It's such a great combination. I kept the rest of the card quite simple, just adding a sentiment created with two additional stamp sets: Simon Says "Happy and Smile," and Mama Elephant's "Happy Everything." 

If not for the layer mat (Dark Indigo) on the Blueberry Sky card and the embossed part of the sentiment, it would have been a one layer card. It's not often I manage to create a card without any die cuts! 

I gave some thought to adding a few embellishments, but chose to keep it clean and simple. I'm also linking the card to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

It snowed here again today, so these cheerful flowers are a reminder that the snow is just a temporary aberration!

On Monday, I posted a card for my grand-nephew, Finn. His little sister, Rowan, has a birthday the day after his! The new Time Out Challenge: Playful seemed perfect for creating a card for her with My Favorite Things, " Fly With Me."

It's one of my favorite sets for creating cards for little ones. On previous cards, I had to fussy cut all those cute little flying elephants, but during a sale, I picked up the dies for them, and it was so. much. easier. 

I also had previously colored one of the Mama Elephant "Cloudy Day Cover" die, so all I needed to do was color the elephants and their balloons with Copic markers.

All three elephants are adhered to the cover die with dimensional tape. The sentiment is also from "Fly With Me." 

I love that there's an optional bow to add to one of the elephants, making the card more feminine.

I haven't spent much time at the crafting table this week, but I did get a few cards made for upcoming birthday for some little ones. In May, both my grand-nephews have birthdays. (And both are named Finn! One on my side of the family, and one on Tracy's.) I made identical cards for them.

I love the Simon Says "Picture Book Love Bear" die. It takes several runs through the die cutting machine. In this case the body in kraft cardstock, and scraps for the tummy and nose, the inside of the ears, the eyes and nose, and the little red heart. I started by running the Reverse Confetti "Stitched Rays" cover through the die cutting machine in Bright Buttercup. Then I die cut a circle from that. After sponging some Altenew "Sea Glass" ink on the white card underneath, I assembled the little bear just below the circle on the white card.

Then I used two Spellbinder circle dies to cut a frame from Aqua Mist cardstock to frame him. The sentiment from MFT "Birthday Bears" was white embossed on black cardstock, and added to the front of the card. I think it makes for a bright and cheery card! I'm posting this to the Seize the Birthday Challenge: Anything Goes just under the wire.

I love this inspiration photo for the current Card Concept Challenge:

Rather than poppies, I have some lovely peonies to offer. 

Once again, the lovely image from Papertrey Ink was watercolored with the Altenew 36 pan watercolor set.

The sentiment is from my favorite, "Penned Elegance" by Papertrey Ink, stamped and die cut. One of the challenges for the Card Concept is to identify the style of the card. I'd put this one in the Clean and Simple category, or perhaps, the Clean and Graphic one. You can see the definitions of the different styles here.

I used the wet on wet technique when watercoloring this image and love how the colors blended together on their own. 

This card also fits well with the CAS on Friday challenge: Spring.

It's a dark and rainy Palm Sunday here, but there's hope in the future for some beautiful peonies in the yard.