Little by little, I'm finding time to create the cards I liked from the Online Card Class: Celebrate. This one uses a design from Kristina Werner, but has a different different look and feel. Kristina used colored cardstock with a monochrome pattern using stamps. Mine is a white card, and I used the stencils from the class for the pattern. Her sentiment was many colored, and I limited mine to the pink and orange I used for the stencil. She had an additional sentiment. I added some clear pink drops from Pinkfresh Studio. 

The sentiment is attached to the card front with a wobbler. When you touch the sentiment it vibrates back and forth. It's fun, and I tried to capture a video of it, but I needed at least four hands to get it right! Definitely not my forte. Like the pattern, the sentiment was also stenciled as was the "stitched" corners which are from a brand new stencil by Krsitina Werner and Concord & 9th, Finishing Touches. Once I saw her use it during one of the classes, I ordered one myself. I think it will get a lot of use–there are three large stencils with a variety of patterns. 

This is off to Word Power (where I should have also sent my earlier card!) and to AAA Birthday: No Stamping. Everything here was stenciled. It's also off to NBUS. Even though I did used the sentiment die cut earlier, I've never used the stencils for the sentiment or the patterns. 

I have another card to share from the Online Card Class Celebrate! This was a Laura Bassen design which I love, but I have to admit, it didn't come together quickly. First off, it took me forever to find the colors of cardstock I wanted. It ended up that I used cardstock from Concord & 9th, Paper Source, Papertrey Ink, and Gina K. Then I struggled with the wavy dies which required multiple die cuts. But I do love the way it came out.

Kristina did a wonderful job designing the waves from the Sparkle Wave dies. Each one is numbered so you know the order in which to assemble them. My problem was that I misread the 2 and the 5 which looked similar, and I had to recut them more than once to get the color order I wanted. Then although it looks very straight forward, putting the waves together was another issue. I'm pretty sure the next time I create one of these cards it will go much faster. 

You can see here that the card front is cut away. That worked wonderfully, and it's a fun element. The sentiment was stamped and die cut from the Celebrate stamp set, and layered four times for dimension. 

There are stars and a variety of other shaped dies in the Sparkle Wave Die set, but these stars were already in a little triangle dish on my desk, left-over from this graduation card.  This card is off to Inkspirational where the challenge is Celebrate (perfect!) as well as NBUS.

Yesterday I had the whole day without any commitments. The sun was shining, and I did take some time to finally sit on the patio with some iced tea. Good thing, the temperature has dropped today, and cooler temperatures and more rain are forecast for the weekend. Tracy's been busy planting in the gardens and the yard in between showers for the last week. He finally got outside for a round of golf with Matt and a friend. I had time to play in the craft room, and in addition to working on some design team projects, I pulled out two new purchases from The Greetery's April release.

I'm in love with these products: The Best Bouquet Detail Die, the Sweetest Frame stamp and die as well as the Stitched Scallops. The Stitched Scallops are from an earlier release. I borrowed them from a friend last month and used them on so many different cards, I knew I needed them in my collection. The card design is a CASE of one Betsy Veldman showed during the release. I changed the colors and the placement of the sentiment. I love the yellow and blue flowers! The frame was stamped and embossed in gold, then die cut with the inner frame die. I layered dimensional tape around the edges of the frame and layered it around the floral panel. The flowers and leaves were die cut from colored cardstock scraps with some ink blending. The sentiment is from Spellbinders: Curved Everyday Sentiments which were hot foiled and die cut.

I can't wait to have more time to play with these florals. They were so easy to put together and make quite a statement. 

This card is off to Seize the Birthday for the Use a Frame Challenge.

Last week I participated in the new Online Card Class, Celebrate. There was a class kit designed by Kristina Werner and Concord & 9th which I received as a birthday gift. Our schedules have been busier than usual, so I still have a lot of cards I want to make. The first cards here are examples of four I created with the same design. Kristina had a brilliant idea for creating a "road map" of the design so it was easy to create multiples. My birthday card stash needed some updating and these were perfect.

The candles and sentiment are both from the Celebrate stamp set. The class cards were stamped on lightly colored cardstock, but I wanted a white background, so I die cut the panel with Gina K's Master Layout #1 and layered it on a brighter card base. The sentiment was embossed in gold, die cut with the matching die and popped up for a bit of dimension.

The next two cards use the same candle stamps, but the candles are die cut and then arranged on the card. I made two cards, using different colors for the background as well as for the candles. 

Both of the background panels were dry embossed using one of the stencils from the Celebrate series of products. Laura Bassen taught this class. I don't think I've ever tried to emboss with a stencil, but it worked great and it's a technique I'll use again. It's a bit easier to see in this close-up.

The sentiment is one of three in the Birthday Script Dies. I die cut it in metallic gold and the shadow in vellum. 

I'm sending these over to Seize the Birthday. The main challenge is to use a frame. I'll be back with one for that tomorrow. These are for the Anything Goes category.

Crafting has really been a last minute affair since we've been home. We've been so busy, it almost feels like I'm working again. Thanks to friend who gifted me a couple of her sunflowers from Spellbinders, I was able to get a card in the mail for a friend who had a knee replacement on Monday.

The card design is thanks for the many videos I've watched in the last few months from Jill Foster for Penny Black. I love this All in One Hexagon frame. I die cut an extra of the interior frames for a little dimension, and added some light ink blending behind the sunflowers.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Just Sentiments: Thinking of You.

This seems perfect for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Bright and Cheerful. I'll send it to A Cut Above as well.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope it's sunny where you are. We're in the midst of a cool, gray and wet weather pattern that appears to be hanging on for awhile.

We’ve been home for week now, and I’m just beginning to feel like I have some control over all the things that need to be done, and all the crafting I want to do. I made time in last week’s insanely busy schedule to pull out my new Greetery Yay! product suite. We attended a party Saturday night to celebrate Betsy’s niece’s graduation with a masters in school counseling from the Simon School at the University of Rochester . The U of R colors are blue and yellow so that took care of any color decisions.

After seeing Lea Lawson’s card during the recent release from The Greetery, I used clear embossing ink on the third stencil layer. It’s is a technique I’m sure to use again. Each of the elements work so well together—as they typically do from The Greetery.

After stenciling the background, I die cut Yay! in gold metallic and layered it for dimension. The sub-sentiment was stamped in the same Pinkfresh Studio blue as the background, die cut and added with dimensional tape. I die cut a few extra stars and added three to finish the card. The card panel was added to the bright blue card base with more dimensional tape.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your week is off to a good start.

The card is going to the Stencil Fun Challenge where anything goes (not using the optional prompt: bouquets).