I have another card for the Simon Says Birthday Challenge. April is a big month for birthdays and although I made a few before we left for Oregon, I still have three or four more to go. Here's a second masculine one for another brother-in-law.
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream (PTI); Patterned Paper: Studio Calico 6X6 February card kit;Stamp: 2012 Birthday Tags (PTI);Twine: Pure Poppy (PTI)
My brother-in-law has a big birthday coming up, and I decided to see if I could get his card made in time to post it for two challenges: Simon Says "Birthday" Challenge, and the current CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. I'm just under the wire for the second one.
Here's my card. I used papers from the April Simon Says card kit, the Typewriter dies from Memory Box, Tremendous Tags by Papertrey Ink, and an inside sentiment (no photo) that says, ". . . years ago on what otherwise might have been an ordinary day, THE WORLD GOT YOU!" from Papertrey's Big Birthday Wishes set.
I have another card for the Simon Says challenge which I'll be posting later today.
When this week's CASE Study challenge appeared in my blog reader this week, I knew I had the perfect card for it. I made a few cards before we left for our trip to post while we were away, and this is one of them. Here's the inspiration piece:
Here's my card. It's amazing to me how many of the elements are the same: bike, sunshine, clouds, and even the striped paper. I cut this from a chevron pattern much like the inspiration piece.
As soon as I saw the Memory Box die of the bicycle, I knew I wanted it. It's taken me awhile to put it to use, however. The patterned papers are from a Studio Calico kit, and the chipboard clouds are also Studio Calico. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's set by the same name: Enjoy the Ride. The Pure Poppy cardstock and button are also from Papertrey Ink.
Thanks to Cassandra, I woke up this morning to find out I'd been named the Colour Queen for last week's challenge. That was a nice surprise! Today I'm back with another ColourQ Challenge as well as the latest challenge for CAS-ual Friday: use color blocks. The two challenges went together perfectly.
I've been wanting to try die cutting a word from strips of cardstock for awhile. I've seen it popping up all over the card design blogs. It wasn't as easy as it looks. Next time I think I'd do it a bit differently, but I do like the effect.
I needed to get a thank you note in the mail before we leave. One of my friends goes to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concerts with another friend. Louise couldn't go last Thursday and offered me her ticket. It was a fabulous concert, and I wanted to send her a gift certificate and note since she wouldn't let me pay for the ticket.
I started by cutting strips of New Leaf, Simply Chartruese, Smoky Shadow, and True Black. I adhered them to a piece of copy paper, and then die cut the "thanks" from a Memory Box die. Next time, I'd apply a lot more adhesive to the copy paper before I did the die cutting. Getting it apart and onto the card took longer than it should have. The card is one I purchased from Impress a long time ago–Saavy, I think. Then I added a few gems since I liked the gem in the ColourQ inspiration piece.
Very windy and snowy here right now. Enough already!
I got a card made yesterday just in time for the latest Retro Sketch Challenge. It also fits the current Simon Says Challenge for "A Bit 'O Green."
The sketch is so similar to several cards I've made in the past, and the card comes together so quickly. I didn't set a timer, but it probably would make the 10 minute challenges I see around the web.
Here's my take on it. Once again I reached for the new Papertrey Ink set, Stylish Sentiments: Birthday. This is clearly going to be a favorite set.
I started with a piece of Rustic Cream cardstock (PTI) and added three strips from the Very Vintage Double Dots paper pad by BoBunny I picked up in Buffalo last month. The pads were tucked into a revolving rack at the back of the store, and I'm so glad I found them. A little ink distressing on the edges, and it was done.
Since LOAD is finally completed, I've been busy making the cards I'll need to send while we're in Oregon visiting Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.
Two that I made yesterday fit the current CASual Friday challenge which is to create your own wallpaper or background. It's not something I find particularly easy to do, but the new Simon Says Card Kit has a stamp set that is made for this kind of stamping. I ended up using some images from Papertrey Ink's Floral Frenzy as well.
Even though it's a bit busy for my taste, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. The second card also meets the current ColorQ challenge.
Both cards use sentiments from the Papertrey Ink Stylish Sentiments: Birthday set. This one is a bit more involved, so I added some Studio Calico enamel dots which helped focus on the flowers. I missed the one on the top right corner, but it now has an enamel dot as well. It's too dark to take another photo now!
We had a nice weekend with Matt. He only made it as far as Chicago tonight. Missed his flight by a few minutes because the plane sat on the runway after landing for nearly half an hour. He gets to spend the night in the airport, and will miss another day of work. He's not too pleased, but you're at the mercy of the airlines. I guess there's a possibility tomorrow morning's flight might be delayed due to weather. Fortunately, this is the first time it's happened to him, so I'm hoping it won't discourage other weekends at home.
I haven't given up on card making while doing LOAD. In fact, I'll have quite a few to share next month, but I wanted to get this one up for this week's CASE challenge. Here's the card to case:
I liked the diagonal lines on this card, and needed a thank you note for a friend. Here's my take on it:
I started with a ready-made card by Memory Box, and cut strips of paper from the papers provided in Simon Says Card kit for January. The sentiment comes from a Hero Arts stamp set, "Everyday Sayings," and the little stars are from A Muse.
Hope your week is off to a good start! I'm anxiously watching the weather as Matt is headed home this weekend from Denver. He's been off work for two days because of the snow there, and it's headed our way again. He turns 30 on Thursday, so I'm hoping he gets here for a birthday celebration!
I got Matt's birthday card made yesterday and it meets two challenges. Since he doesn't read my blog, it's safe to post it early. I used the latest CAS(e) This Sketch as well as the most recent CAS-ual Friday challenge which is to use black and white plus one. You won't be surprised that it's black, white, and red—one of my favorite color combinations. I liked the sketch as it was, so I didn't vary it at all.
I think this is the last of a set of cards I bought from Impress years ago. I added a banner from Boxy Banners (PTI) and the numbers (Memory Box Typewriter die), and stitched it down. The sentiment is from PTI's Birthday: Inside and Out. How is it possible that my youngest is going to be thirty years old?
Last week I used basically the same supplies to make my friend a thank you card.
The only addition here is a very old Making Memories brad.
Yesterday I had the great honor of being featured at Sian's From High in the Sky. If you don't know her blog, hop over for great stories and wonderful scrapbooking. Sian is an absolute genius at putting embellishments together!
I created one layout for her post about the birds we spied while in Florida. Since I haven't shared it here, I'll include it now.
I made an envelope to hold the journaling as well as the birding checklist from the wildlife refuge where we recorded the birds we spotted.
The scrapbooking is chugging right along—one layout a day! Saturday will be my first challenge as I have to be a Church Leadership Development Day nearly all day, and we may be going out with friends at night. Hopefully something will come to me quickly.
Day Four's prompt was to scrap a goal. I've already scrapped my intentions for 2013. On the same morning I received the prompt I also got an email from Rebecca Cooper from Simple As That that included a template for her monthly photo recaps. Right then, I decided how I'd share my Capture Your 365 photos this year. I'll be using one of Rebecca's templates (she has four) and I'll choose some of my favorites as well as the photos that represent significant happenings. My journaling will stay in my art journal which I started here. So, finally, here's a look at January's favorites:
Most of the photos are from our trip to Florida last month, but I included one of a frosty window in Rochester (such a contrast) and the photo of my OLW-"DO" for 2013.
Day Five's prompt was Scrap Your Honey. That was easy. I found a photo from our cruise to Alaska two years ago when we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary. Should have scrapped that one a long time ago.
I had the perfect stamps as embellishments. The camera is from Shutterbug Special (PTI), and the title "We Just Click" is from the one stamp set I picked up last weekend in Buffalo by My Favorite Things.
Day Six was to scrap a photo you've put off scrapping. The photos for my last month recap layout for 2012 has been laying on my table since early January. It's good to have it done.
The tag pulls out with a summary of the month's activities:
As always, December was a busy month. We started the season by getting our tree up and lighting the first Advent Candle for the chapel worship service.
I spent more time than usual with a camera in my hand since I took the Twelve Days of Christmas class with Cheryl Johnson. It got me out of the house and I took some more creative photos of our decorations this year.
The best part about the holiday is always family, and this year Matt was home for five fabulous days. We saw lots of him, and got some great time with Betsy and Skylar as well. The whole family was here for Christmas dinner–18 strong this year. It was filled with laughter and great fun.
We had more snow this month than we did in all of 2011, but it didn’t interfere with our social life. We saw “Lincoln” with Mary & Jim and had dinner afterwards, entertained the bridge group, had Bill & Anne for lunch after the church Advent music service, & had Karen, Mike, and Nancy for dinner. I had meals with Nancy (and a trip to MAG & Image City), with Jane at the Gate House Cafe, with Marie in Honeoye Falls, with Barb & Ev at the new Brewery cafe, with Sue at Biaggio’s, and with Karen & Deb at Veneto’s. Matt & I had lunch at T.R.A.T.A. No wonder I have trouble losing that last 5 pounds! We ended the year at a lovely New Year’s Eve gathering at Dan and Jeannie’s.
I made 16 cards (not counting the 75 hand-made cards I mailed for Christmas), nine bookmarks, & completed my seventh Christmas Journal. That was all the scrapbooking I could manage! Although I did read, it appears I didn’t finish any books this month.
Off to read today's prompt. We're anticipating another big winter storm tomorrow. I'm hoping it doesn't interfere with our church conference on Saturday. Every year we seem to have significant snow, but we've never had to cancel. This year one of the speakers is coming from Albany and staying with us. I hope he has safe travels.
It's early, but I have a busy morning with Bible study followed preparing the study packets for our Church Leadership Development Day on Saturday. I'm just in under the wire for this since the link closes at noon.
Here's the sketch:
And like yesterday's card, I followed it very closely. Another valentine, as well. I love this die and stamp set from Simon Says which arrived just yesterday afternoon. It was perfect for this.
Cardstock: Vintage Cream (PTI) & Bazzill Prismatic Red; patterned paper "Love You" (MME); dies: You (Simon Says), Countdown Banners (PTI) & Spellbinders Nested Hearts; sentiment: "You" (Simon Says)
I neglected to take photos of the draw for Pass the Book, but the winner is Alexa. I have your address so I'll get it in the mail in the next day or two. Hope you enjoy it!
This is the second week when the Retro Sketch was perfect for a valentine. This time I followed the sketch totally, and I love the love of the punched hearts with the patterned paper behind them.
Cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Fancy Pants "The Good Life" and BoBunny "Bold & Bright Double Dots"; heart punch; Double-ended banner (PTI); sentiment: Savvy stamps
Alexa wondered if I made more than one valentine. I think there are seven or eight on the list this year. I have three done now.
Today's the day of the January Blog Hop at Papertrey Ink. I loved the inspiration photo and knew right away what I wanted to do.
It turned out pretty much the way I hoped but it took three tries. I embossed the flowers with white embossing powder and colored them with a variety of Smooch paints. They have a luminous quality that I've always liked. It took multiple coats to cover the black with the kind of color I wanted.
Here's the card:
I started with True Black cardstock, and embossed the "Stitches and Swirls" with white embossing powder. The sentiment is from Birthday Basics Sentiments. After coloring the flowers and leaves with Smooch, I mounted the focus piece on a card made from Pure Poppy. I added pearls from Queen and Co. to the centers of three small flowers.
Then Fancy Folk Art arrived in the mail, and I had to try another technique I saw on Cristina's blog during the release. I die cut the focal image from True Black cardstock, colored the main design with Copic markers on X-Press Blend cardstock, and mounted it behind the black card.
I like this one even better. The sentiment is also from Fancy Folk Art. You can find more inspiration here.
I had two challenges in mind as I sat down to create two birthday cards for upcoming birthdays. The first card uses both the challenge to create a long and short (tall) card at CAS-ual Friday as well as the CAS(e) This Sketch challenge. It turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than I anticipated, so the second card is just for CAS(e) This Sketch.
The current challenge at Simon Says is to use washi tape on a card. While I was making cards yesterday, I pulled out a little tin of Washi tape I'm using in my History Project notebook, and made a quick thank you note to send to my mother-in-law's friends who were so kind to us when we were visiting Florida last week.
Most of my Washi tape has arrived in kits and I'm not sure who the manufacturers are for these. The cute little wood veneer arrow is from Studio Calico. I colored it with Brilliance Rocket Red ink by Bri. The sentiment is a very old one from A Muse that I embossed in white. I may well be back with more Washi cards before the week is out. I still have two more birthday cards to make that must be in the mail by Monday.
When I first saw Retro Sketch 46 I didn't think it would be a particularly easy sketch to work with, but I was wrong. I needed a retirement card for a party tomorrow as well as a thank you note and a birthday card. I pulled out a new 6X6 pack of patterned paper by Fancy Pants and some black card stock I picked up at Archiver's while we were on our trip and got to work. Here's the sketch:
And here are my three cards based on it:
Cardstock: Bazzill Prismatic; patterned paper: Paper Loft; dies: Labels 12 (Spellbinders), Holiday Shapes (Simon Says; sentiment: Framed Out #1 (PTI)
Cardstock: Bazzill Prismatic; Patterned Paper: The Good Life paper pack (Fancy Pants); sentiment: Silhouette file; vellum (PTI); two-inch square punch
Cardstock: Bazzill Prismatic; Patterned Paper: The Good Life paper pack (Fancy Pants); die: Labels 12 (Spellbinders), Holiday Shapes (Simon Says); Sentiment: "Framed Out #1 (PTI)
It was 82° when we left Florida Wednesday night. Today it was 17° when I met some friends to breakfast. A rude awakening! I'll be back tomorrow with another challenge. I'm slowly making my way around to read everyone's blogs and catch up on Storytelling Sunday.