Curtain Call and Muse #53

Luckily I have been getting some cards made for challenges this week but once I get these posted, I need to get my valentines finished and in the mail.  In addition to my 7 grandchildren, 1 great grandson, my daughter and 2 daughters by another mother, I have 10 homebound people from the church that I'm sending valentines to.  Many are done because I have been making them over the last two weeks for challenges but I still have a few to finish and then address and mail.

Today's cards are not valentines.  This first one is for Curtain Call

I bet there has been a run on hot chocolate with the weather we have been having.

I've been having a little trouble with boo boos on my cards lately so it was fun to actually make a card that called for a mess.  And I didn't mess the mess.  Go figure.  I made the cocoa rings with an NBUS stencil from Tim Holtz and Walnut Distress Ink.  The cup is cut from A Child's World and the tag and sentiment are from My Craft Spot.  Can you read it?  It says "Chocolate helps" and I totally agree.  In fact our bell choir director gave each of us a giant candy bar when we played this morning for worship.  I think he thinks it will help us play better.  (wink wink)

My second card is for Muse.  I just HAD to play this one because the inspiration from Vicki Dutcher is just my style.  Here is her card.

And here is mine.

I love mixing papers and layering.  The scalloped circle is from Elegant Edges, the star is a die from PTI and the papers are from my scraps.  Well, not the background.  That's something I picked up when the local craft store closed down but I don't know who it's by. The sentiment is from PTI's Birthday Bash.

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

FM #118

The sketch at Freshly Made was so simple this week that I just had to use it.  I have a bunch of male birthdays coming up next month so I made a card to send to one of them.

The paper is from Little Sport by Fancy Pants, one of those 12 x 12 pads that I'll never use up.  The label is cut with Elegant Edges and stamped with a sentiment from Hero Arts.  So easy I think I'll make a few more using different papers.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

F and FM

Yay!  The Fusion challenge is back.  It is such an interesting concept and if you haven't tried it, you should.  This is their photo for this week's challenge.

Like it says, you have the option of using the photo for inspiration, or use the sketch, or make a Fusion, using the photo to make the sketch.  I hate to say it but I was a naughty girl.  When I saw the photo, it reminded me of the sketch challenge at Freshly Made.

I hope that's okay because here is the card I came up with.

The red piece (I didn't have the right orange red) replicates the headboard and was cut from Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge. The quatrefoil pieces were made by inking up my embossing folder with HA Charcoal and running it through the Cuttlebug.  The sentiment from PTI's Inside Out Well Wishes is in Charcoal also.

I've also been naughty ordering supplies online.  Today I got my package from A Cherry on Top, thirteen (yes I said 13) 6 x 6 paper pads.  Four are Christmas pads so I can be ready to do the weekly Christmas card challenges.  Three are Valentine papers to make cards for that holiday and the other six are a variety of things that appealed to me.  I have started my wish list on a couple of other sites and as soon as I'm sure I've thought of everything, I'll place the order.  I don't know if this is fun or madness.  Or maybe a little bit of both. ;)

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of blogland.  Here's to a new year filled with lots of crafting goodies and inspiration galore.

CASE Study #159

Here is this week's challenge photo from CASE Study.

I took my inspiration from the medallion background and the polka dot looking flag.

The background paper is from a 6 x 6 pack from Basic Grey's Paper Cottage placed on a black card base. The flag is stamped with PTI's Polka Dot Basics in Fresh Snow.  The medallion was cut from Elegant Edges and stamped inside with a sentiment from Big Birthday Bash.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  I hope you have some BIG planned for today.

Happy 95th and CS #156

Yesterday was Mom's 95th birthday.  She has been wanting to go to Red Lobster for the past couple of months so we went there last night to celebrate.

She doesn't usually eat much but she did a good job on that lobster and Dad (97) ate like he hadn't seen food in a week.  With care givers generally fixing their meals, I guess they miss really good food.

Today's card is for CASE Study.

I liked the layered shape on the Case Study card.  I cut four layers from Elegant Edges using print paper from Crate Paper's Farmhouse pad.  I added twine and a tiny tag and sentiment from My Craft Spot.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  I hope you have a wonderful day.

PTI Blog Hop

This is my second post today but I got an email reminding me of the Papertrey Ink June Blog Hop  

and I wanted to quickly make a card.  That's right.  I said quickly make.  For all the struggling I've been doing lately with my card making, this one just fell into place.  The inspiration for the card is

and here's my gold encrusted card.

I started with a black A2 card base.  Then I cut a piece of white paper a quarter inch smaller and heat embossed around the edges with gold embossing powder.  The word "young" was printed on the computer on paper that was sized to 3.75" by 5".   The "forever" is cut using PTI's Wonderful Words die out of gold from DCWV Christmas Glitter card stack.  It is mounted on a cut from Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge and popped up on foam tape.  I wish the photo showed the glitter better but it's shiny IRL.

Thanks for stopping by.  Come back again.

Fusion #11

This week's Fusion was an easy one to fuse.

I love the plaid ties.  My Dad used to have some that looked like this, or even wilder.

I cut the shape from Elegant Edges out of a variety of papers in my stash.  This is a  masculine card to me so I stamped a very basic sentiment from PTI in Jenni Bowlin's Brown Sugar.  See I did learn something from my His & Hers online class ;)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Retro #67 and CASology #48

Two challenges - one card

Retro sketches set the image and CASology the theme.

The results:

The yellow center is embossed with a numbers collage folder and shadowed by a cut from Elegant Edges.  The banner paper is from We R Memory Keepers and the sentiment stamp, done in Memento Rich Cocoa, is from Papertrey Ink.  I tried to color my pearls but the brown  marker came out coppery.  I tried a darker brown calligraphy pen but the ink didn't stick.  It colored them a little which is what you see at the top of the banner.

Thanks for stopping by.  .

Circles and Wheels

This song is running through my head.

Like a circle in a spiral   

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever spinning reel

Like a snowball down a mountain

Or a carnival balloon

Like a carousel that is turning

Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping

Past the minutes of it's face

And the world is like an apple

Whirling silently in space

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind !

and it kind of explains my card for two challenges, Addicted to CAS and CASology.

The minute I saw the cue word wheels, I thought of my embossing folder that has wheels/gears/cogs.  It's called Clockworks but I covered the only part that actually looks like a clock with a silver circle cut from Elegant Edges.  I topped that with a computer generated sentiment punched with an EKSuccess 2" punch.  The embossed layer and the circle are popped up on foam tape.  You can't get any CAS (er) than this. 

Now that the song is running through your head, I hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

Fusion #9

I've fused paper and fabric.  I've even lit a fuse or two.  But fusing images is a little more difficult so I chickened out and just went with Lesley's challenge this week at Fusion.

I like Jackie's sketch and may use it another time but the red umbrella just spoke to me.  That and the shaped card.

Now that I look at it, I'm not sure I like the shape that I picked  from Elegant Edges, but it did fit the curve of the umbrella cut from B is for Boy. The light blue background needed something so I ran my Picket Fence Distress Stain over it a few time to give it that cloudy look. The sentiment from PTI is stamped in HA Pale Tomato onto a tag cut from an EKSuccess punch that I trimmed. It looks rather pink in the photo but actually matches the umbrella IRL.

I'm glad you came to visit.  Have a nice day and come back again.

FMS #82

Sometimes I love doing sketch challenges and sometimes I tear my hair out trying to come up with something.  Fortunately this week's Freshly Made sketch was an easy one.

I needed a sympathy card and this is what I did.  You can tell by the bad photo that sunshine has been rare around here.

Once I picked the sentiment from My Pink Stamper, I knew I could add a little heart for the embellishment.  The top note is cut from Elegant Edges.  The papers are from a couple of different DPS.  I think I will make a few more of these with other papers.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope your day is all you want it to be.

Umbrellas 123

Rain, rain, go away.  It's raining here for the third day and more is forecast.  No wonder a number of blog challenges are using umbrellas for their theme.  I have to keep saying "April showers bring May flowers."  I can't wait to see those little buds peeking up from the soggy soil.

I already made an umbrella for an earlier challenge so I had to come up with something different.  This umbrella is a replica of my own real life umbrella.

Using George and Basic Shapes, I welded a circle with a square, copied it to make two to weld together and made a rounded card that will fit an A2 envelope.  The umbrella is from B is for Boy (minus the little duck on top).  The sentiment is from the computer and cut using Elegant Edges.  The background is a Core-dinations whitewashed pale blue paper that was embossed with the Swiss Dots folder and then sanded to let the darker core show through.

I am entering this in Little Scrap Pieces "April Showers"
Bitten by the Bug "April Showers" and
Friday Mash-up - "Singing in the Rain" an umbrella, a double z fold card, or mash it up and do both.

ETA:  Friday Mash-up changed their deadline time to 6:00 pm Wednesday from noon on Thursday so I was too late.

Seize the Birthday 12

I'm loving the Seize the Birthday sketch challenges.  Who doesn't need more birthday cards?

The paper is from a new 6 x 6 pack I got last week called Paper Cottage from Basic Grey.  It looked like a good choice for a feminine birthday card to me.  The sentiment was printed on the computer and then cut from Elegant Edges along with the shadow.  From the same page, I welded two border pieces to a rectangle to make the red strip and cut the end of the banner shape by hand after tracing the edge of the topnote shape.  I think I'll use this sketch again to make more cards.  Wait!  I'll have to use it to make a masculine card for next week's challenge.  It's great that you get to use the sketch twice like that.  I'd better start looking over my paper.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Sew Thankful

I had time to sneak in a card with all I had to do yesterday.  So many of the challenge blogs are continuing the thankful theme and I had this paper I bought last summer and never used. 

The topnotes were cut from Elegant Edges.  The faux buttons are dies from PTI, the top two popped up.  They are actually the same purple in the print but don't show up that way on film.  This was so easy I think I may make a few more.  Luckily I saved the sizes on Design Studio.

The challenges:
My Craft Spot - Showing Gratitude
Celebrate the Occasion - Thanks
Die Cutting Divas - Thank You

This may not qualify for DCD because I didn't use an embellishment.  I thought you just had to use and mention what you are thankful for in the cardmaking world and I would say Design Studio.

Apple Wishes

We had a craft show at our church today and I say "show" instead of "sale" because I'm not sure many items were sold.  I wasn't selling, just working at the luncheon, and there wasn't much traffic.  There are not a lot of new items to be made.  The one new item is those boa style scarves and a LOT of people had them at their booth.  With that much competition, I'm not sure many got sold.

Today's card is for Celebrate the Occasion - An Apple a Day.   I made an apple card before and decided to look for a different apple.  I found this one on Plantin Schoolbook.

The card is from Elegant Edges, book layer, welded and flipped to make the base in white.  I cut another section 1/4" smaller from colored cardstock and made a green apple because I wanted a Granny Smith.  I sanded it down, inked the edges and the stem and leaf.  The tag, sentiment and red and white twine are all from My Craft Spot.  I think this is so simple yet cute.

Birthday Blessings

Yesterday was my husband's daughter-in-law's birthday and I wanted to make a special card just for her.  I thought the challenge at Die Cutting Divas - Fall Colors would be great for an October birthday.  Then I saw the sketch at Freshly Made and combined the two.

 



The top note is from Elegant Edges.  I printed the sentiment with the computer, cut it out, then cut the next two layers progressively larger.  The strip of green is embossed with the herringbone folder (and by coicidence came out looking exactly like the leaves in the background paper.)  A piece of jute and the card is complete.

I saw a post about making your own envelopes on The Paper Boutique where Linda was reviewing the new MS Mini Scoringboard.  I've seen this before using the regular scoreboard but had forgotten about it.  I decided to give it a try.

I have a stack of paper that hasn't worked well on my Cricut and thought it would be perfect to use as envelopes.  This one was brown on one side and rusty cream on the other, perfect for my card.  And very easy to make.  I think I'll be doing more of these to use up that paper.

BCA

I have a friend who is half way through her radiation treatments for breast cancer and is doing well, praise the Lord.  The card I made for Breast Cancer Awareness month, to enter into two challenges, is one that could be used for other occasions in a different color but in this one is pink.

The top note is cut in three layers, each 1/2" larger than the next, from Elegant Edges.  All the printed paper is from the My Mind's Eye "Lost and Found" collection.  Wrapped with pink ribbon, inked with Tattered Rose and popped up on foam, this card reads "No matter what you're going through...
(inside) God is watching over you."

I'm entering this into Fantabulous Cricut's "Get 'em squished" challenge (use pink) and Celebration the Occasion's BCA challenge.

Hogs and Kisses

Last spring I bought a lot of paper from a scrapbook shop in Ohio near my granddaughter.  She told me it recently closed (insert sad face).  I haven't used much of that paper because I don't have a store near me that has all those wonderful two-sided and unique prints and I'm always afraid I'll run out.  I did used two of those papers for today's card. 

The challenge this week at Bitten By the Bug2 is "Farm Animal".  I saw lots of cow cards people had entered but I wanted something different and found this cute pig on Just Because Cards.  Once I found the right color pink for him, I knew this paper from Jillibean Soup would be the perfect background.  The frame is cut from Elegant Edges, matted with the same dark brown as the card base and popped up on foam.  I popped the pig, too.  For the sentiment, I printed Hogs and Kisses on kraft cardstock and cut it with my Tiny Tags dies from My Craft Spot.

I'm also entering him in the Die Cuttin' Diva's Anything Goes challenge.

Summer Colors

Red is my favorite color.  I don't usually mix it with orange and yellow but I don't know why not.  Those colors remind me of a beautiful sunset.  They are also the colors for the Die Cuttin' Divas challenge this week.  I combined the colors with this sketch from Freshly Made.

I had a piece of paper from K and Company that had the colors in it and it was screaming "use me!" 

The card base is yellow.  The print has what looks like dahlias on it so I took a similar image from Elegant Edges and cut the loopy part in yellow, the background in red, added another circle of the print in the center and popped it up on dimesionals.  The bottom section is a coordinating orange with the sentiment stamped in red.  I thought I was done until I looked again and noticed the three little dots on the sketch.  Out came some yellow rhinestones to finish it off. 

I had some trouble photographing this card.  I took one in natural light and the color was WAY off.  I took another one in my paper light box and it looked very yellowy.  I changed the bulb in my lamp to one of the new compact fluorescents and this is what I got.  It still doesn't look very bright although the color is pretty close.  Any suggestions?

A Toast

I just realized yesterday that I haven't labeled my cards since the new blogger made it's appearance.  Ugh.  Now I'll have to go back through them and do it but I think it will be rather easy.  Now if I just remember to do it from now on.  ^_*

Today's card is for the challenge at My Sheri Crafts - Wedding/Anniversary, black and white with a pop of color. 

I combined three cartridges for this card.  The glasses are cut in vellum from Stretch Your Imagination., the background from Elegant Edges and the sentiment tag (my pop of color in purple) from Fabulous Finds.  I used twine purchased from My Craft Spot to attach the sentiment.  I have someone special in mind for this card.