Skylar will turn three years old on Sunday. They're planning a party at home, and I'm sure to be back with photos then. I wanted to post her card today since the challenge for patterned paper at Virginia's View ends tonight.

The card also fits this week's Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Tag It!

This is another card made with the Simon Says August Card Kit. I just loved the patterned paper, and started with that. It's been a bit cool for ice cream recently, but it's supposed to warm up again. Hopefully it will be a nice day for the party on Sunday. 

The images on the tag were colored with Copic markers and I combined stamps from two sets to create the sentiment. The ice cream cone has glitter added to it and I popped up the cherry with some dimensional tape.

The inside of the card took way longer that the card itself. It took three stamp sets as well as some partial stamping to create the greeting I wanted. I'd get almost done, and the last stamp wouldn't be clear. I think I did it four or five times until I finally decided it was good enough.

It's hard to believe that both my grandchildren will be three years old by the end of the year. Where does the time go?

The cupcake card making continued for the better part of a morning, and here are two more. The first one is based on the current Retrosketch challenge.

And it's another entry to Virginia's View Patterned Paper challenge.

On our way to Canada last weekend, we made a quick stop in Buffalo so I could run into Buffalo Stamps & Stuff to pick up some stamp cleaner that I can't seem to find anywhere else. I actually didn't come out of there with too much extra, but I did pick up an Avery Elle stamp set "Cupcakes." The store has a monthly coupon that I was able to apply to the stamp set. The sentiment is from Lockhart which I've owned for years.

The cardstock is Bazzil, and the patterned papers are from "The Good Life" by Fancy Pants (the cupcake liner) and "Mother Goose" by Graphic 45 (the stars). I used clear Stickles to add the glitter to the cupcake which shows up a lot better in a photograph than the Gelly Roll Stardust pen (which I love in real life!) I colored the cherry with a Copic marker and bumped it out with a bit of dimensional tape.

The last cupcake card started with a stamp from Mama Elephant's "Carnival Toppers." This time I stamped the cupcake liner on some vellum and colored it on the back with a Copic marker.  Once again the Gelly Roll glitter pen looks "dirty" in the photo.

I love this sentiment from the Mama Elephant "Carnival Toppers." It was the sentiments in this set that prompted the purchase and started this cupcake card craze. 

The card is a ready-made one by Memory Box, and it turns out to be an odd shade of pink. I finally found a Copic that matched it after trying a couple others that didn't work so well. I added two strips of Little B Washi tape to the top and bottom of the card. 

I think that's it for cupcakes. Now I'm hungry for one. I should head out to Deb's. She makes the most beautiful cupcakes ever!

I recently purchased a couple new stamp sets that featured cupcakes. Once I got going on the cards, I ended up pulling out some old cupcake and sentiment stamps and dies as well. The first two cards for today are for the current CAS-ology Challenge: Three.

And I'm also linking the first one to Virginia's View new challenge: Patterned Paper.

This card combines an old stamp colored with Copic markers by Lockhart with a new sentiment from Mama Elephant's "Carnival Toppers." The patterned papers are both from the "Color Wash" line by Pink Paislee. In several photos, the Gelly Roll Stardust Glitter pen shows up as a dirty gray. Not so in real life as you can see in the close up.

The next card is my favorite. I purchased the Savvy "Cupcake Set" nearly a year ago, and have yet to pull it out. It took me awhile to find the coordinating die, "Cake Plates," but there's really no excuse for waiting so long. I'm quite sure it won't be a year before I pull them out again.

I die cut the plate from a piece of Paper Source gold cardstock, and the cupcake papers from a sheet of orange vellum. I have no idea where I picked that up! The cupcakes and cherries were die cut from scraps in my scrap pile. I added some Dark Chocolate Ink to the top of the three cupcakes. The sentiment is an old one from Lockhart stamps that I bought at the same time I purchased the three cupcakes stamp for the first card.

I love those cupcake paper dies! Hope you're having a cupcake kind of day!

It's Stamptember at Simon Says Stamps, where they celebrate stamping all month long, starting with a huge release of new stamps, dies, and stencils. As part of that celebration, the Wednesday Challenge is "Stamping." There's nothing but stamping on this card—rather unusual, actually—which makes it a great one layer card for mailing.

Here's my simply stamped card.

The floral focal point was done with the stamp set included in the Simon Says June Card Kit. I love all the little pieces that come together to create a pretty bouquet of sorts. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Live, Love, Life" set. I used some of my favorite colors—orange, yellow, and green—thinking they are nice fall colors as well. Not really ready to admit Fall is in the air, but it is. 

Have a great weekend!

One of my very good friends is an avid (and very fast) reader. She easily averages more books a week than I do in a month, so the September Simon Says Card Kit was a perfect match for her birthday card. It's all about books and reading.

Here's my first take with this stamp set.

The patterned papers are all from October Afternoon's "Public Library" line. I stamped a shelf for the books and plant, and found a perfect sentiment in Papertrey Ink's "All Booked Up" set.  I love the inside sentiment from "All Booked Up" as well.

Virginia's View has a new challenge up for this month using patterned paper. It's a perfect challenge for getting to some of those beautiful patterned papers in kits and my 6X6 paper pad collection.

I'm also in under the wire for Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

I'm in just under the wire for this sketch challenge. It's one of my favorites, but it's been awhile since I played along. Yesterday after finishing a birthday card for Skylar (she'll be three next month!), I started to organize my Simon Says Card Kits. I challenged myself to make a card for each kit as I went through it, and ended up with several cards. This one fits the new sketch at CAS(e) This Sketch.

We're going to be traveling the first part of October, so instead of just looking ahead one month to see what cards I'll need, I'm looking ahead two months. I need a total of 13 cards, but just one of them is an anniversary. So now I'm set for that.

The two patterned papers and the cardstock came from the June Simon Says Card Kit.  The gold paper I backed the hearts with is from the last sheet of a paper I purchased at the first independent stamp store in Rochester. It's been closed at least 15 years now. I'd love to know where to find more. The banner die and "Banner Sentiments" stamp are from Papertrey Ink. Those Banner Sentiments are sure to get a lot of use. The sequins are from a multi-colored pack from Michael's. I keep pulling out the gold and silver ones, and pretty soon I may need to buy a pack of just gold and silver.

I never made it to the gym yesterday, so as soon as this is linked up, I'm off before I can find excuses today!

We had such a busy weekend, it wasn't until this morning that I had time to create a couple of cards for this month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. We were away last month, and since this is one of my favorite blog hops I didn't want to miss it two months in a row. Here's the inspiration piece:

I'm a big fan of polka dots and have seen some really nice cards and planners for 2015 using gold polka dots so that's where I started.

I randomly stamped two sizes of polka dots from "Polka Dot Basics," and layered it on a sheet of metallic gold paper, and then onto a True Black card base. The die cut is from the Wonderful Words set, and I selectively stamped and embossed a part of the Happy Birthday sentiment from Alt&New's "Label Love."

For the second card, I used just one of the polka dot stamps, and a die cut from the new-to-me "Wet Paint Cuts."

This time I matted the polka dots onto True Black cardstock and then onto a Hawaiian Shores card. I'm guessing I'll find quite a bit of inspiration from the other entries this month, so I'm off to check them out.

Days 7 and 8 of the Online Card Class focused on using graphic stamps. I have just a few sets, and was most interested in these lessons since I'm never quite sure what to do with them. Debby Hughes is a wonderful designer and I started with her random stamping video. 

I got out another unused stamp set by Alt&New called "Sohcahtoa." It's a mix of triangles and some great sentiments. Perfect for this technique and for two challenges:  Moxie Fab's Trendy Triangles, and Addicted to CAS:  Geometric.

Grey and yellow have been a trendy combination for awhile. I purchased a gray and yellow scarf in April that I just love, so thought it would be a good combination for the card.

I used two shades of Simon Says cardstock:  Fog and Slate. I stamped on a piece of Neenah Solar White. The sentiment is also from Alt&New called "Label Love." I finished it off with a few enamel dots from My Minds Eye. I need to replenish my enamel dot collection soon. I keep using the same colors over and over.

Hoping to be back later with another card to post in the galleries for the Online Card Class before they close tomorrow, but the list of other projects is pretty long.