Freshly Made Sketches #738

Cecile usually has simple yet interesting sketches at Freshly Made Sketches but this week's took a while for me to wrap my head around.

I used Garden Party from Spellbinder's Just Add Cake kit. It comes with the shaker domes so I had to make a shaker card, cutting the large flower from yellow and using a variety of bits in it,   Distress Mustard Seed was spread down the center before adding the flowers.  I thought the stems could represent the lines in the sketch.  I hope the team thinks so too.  This will have to be hand delivered and I know just the person.  

Thanks for dropping by and spending a bit of your day with me. 

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Time Out #306 - Pick Two

It's time for a Pick Two Challenge at Time Out.

You can pick any two or more of the words to make your card. I picked red, pink, heart and aperture.

The gumball machine is from Concord and 9th, a set called I Chews You.  I turned it into a shaker using the die that comes with the set and plenty of foam tape.  I'm not going to explain how this goes together except to tell you it was stamped separately in Altenew Heartbeat ink, die cut and placed on a panel partially embossed with the SB Cross My Heart folder so I had room for the sentiment. The circle and heart dies are part of the set and they were cut from red and pink scraps.  I also added some Sugar Jelly Hearts from Trinity. 

Now it's your turn to pick two and make a card.  You could win a $25 store credit from our sponsor Lawn Fawn.

I'm also sending my card to Color Hues for their red and pink challenge.

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Eclipse and Birthday Party

Hey there.  I'm so glad you dropped by.  

Centerville Ohio was right in the path of the eclipse and my son and his family came down from Michigan to see it close up and we made a party of it.  The weather was great so we ate lunch outside and played corn hole and wiffle ball in between peeking at the sun through our glasses.

What an incredible experience!  I couldn't believe how cold it got during the total eclipse.  And the 360 degree 'sunset' was beautiful. 

It also happened to be the day after my great grandson's 11th birthday so we celebrated him with gift giving.  This kid is a Lego nut so his gifts from us consisted of several sets.  This is the card I made for him.

I used a polka dot die from MFT to cut little circles that I glued to paper strips to make Legos and then put them into a shaker rectangle also from MFT.  The sentiment was computer generated.  This is the inside.

I made an envelope with at PTI die and stuck a $20 bill in it.  He was almost as excited with it as he was with the giraffe he'd been asking for and the big airplane that he put together right away.  That's why he's not in the photo above. ;)

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Time Out #253

This is the last challenge of the year for Time Out and they want to see your Sparkly cards.

I can't wait to see all the Sparkle in the gallery,  Will your card be one of them?  The winner of the challenge will get $25 store credit to Picket Fence Studio. 

I cut the Snowflake Circle die from silver glitter cardstock and turned that into a shaker card with sparkly snowflakes from Pretty Pink Posh.  The sentiment is from PTI.

Be sure to check out the Design Team cards.  They have lots of inspiration for you.

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52 Christmas Card Throwdown - 11.23

52 Christmas Card Throwdown was really a challenge this week.  I don't do a lot of scenes and have few critters but I did have one stamp set that worked for their 'Snowman and Deer' theme.

Both images are from Your Next Stamp's Snowglobe set but they were too big to both fit in that globe so I made my own using WaffleFlower Nested Domes.  The background was inked with Speckled Egg DI and the figures colored with PolyChromos pencils.  The snowflakes are from PPP.

Thanks for dropping by.

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Just Us Girls #635 - Word Week

Lisa E is our host for Word Week at Just Us Girls and this is her word. 

This should be a colorful gallery.  I've seen a number of cards made with the 'new' die cut paintbrush and they are so cute.  Alas I do not have that die so I went with an oldie.

My paintbrushes are part of the PTI jar series and were colored with Altenew artist markers.  I decided to make it into a shaker using the two part die.  The jar is cut from a piece of gel print panel, layered three or four times with acetate between the first two.  I had a bunch of leftover squares from a grid die and thought they looked like paint chips so colored them with markers to put in the shaker.  Glossy accents was added to the 'paint'.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Now it's your turn.  We'd love to see your rendition of a paintbrush on a card.  For inspiration check out what the Design Team and our guest designer have made. 

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Freshly Made Sketches #511

Linda's sketch was an easy one and just the inspiration I needed to make an edge to edge shaker.  Here's my card for Freshly Made Sketches.

I finally got some of that beautiful eucalyptus paper that I've been seeing all over blogland and it made the perfect background for my shaker.  Some ancient sequins and a heat embossed sentiment from MFT finished it off.  

I'm so glad you dropped by.  Please leave a comment to let me know you were here.

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Twofer Challenge #38

Things are really looking yummy over at the Twofer Challenge.  As Marie Antoinette said "Let them eat cake!"  or in this case make a cake.  Or cupcake.  You choose.

I chose cupcake because that's the best stamp/die set I have that could be finagled to make two different designs.  It's the Layered Cupcake set from Altenew.

Here's the rundown individually.

I stamped the cupcake and added a flower from The Greetery over the icing.  For display, I put it in the nested dome from Waffle Flower. The background is from Catherine Pooler, embossed instead of cut and the tag and sentiment are from My Craft Spot (oob).

I stamped the cupcake and then didn't know what to do with it to make a different design.  Aha!  How about shaker card?  I know the cupcake is still in the middle but the surroundings are different. ;)  The sprinkles are from a tag die set from MFT and the little pieces are some I saved from a die that cuts little holes all over.  Now that I see them I wish I'd done more like that instead of the bigger ones.  

For some added fun, Darnell said we could include our favorite cake recipe.  When my kids were young they didn't really like frosting so I came across this cake that solved the problem.

Chocolate Pudding Cake

Cook one small box of chocolate pudding according to package directions.  

Mix in one box of chocolate cake mix, stirring well.  

Pour into 9 x 13 pan and sprinkle with one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips 

    and 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (optional). 

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  

It's moist and delicious as is but you could add whipped topping if you like.  EZPZ.

Just Us Girls #539 - Word Week

It's a new month and a new challenge at Just Us Girls.  I sure hope Maria's choice of words is prophetic.

I had a bunch of different ideas laid out on my desk and finally decided to make this.

A shaker card with help from MFT.  I used their stencil to make rays, then cut the circle with their die and glued in a shaker pouch.  I inked a background with the same Distress Ink as the rays and glued it over the pouch after adding sequins and seed beads.  The sentiment is from STAMPlorations.

I want to welcome Mudgha from Craftomania123 as our guest designer this month.  She and the Design Team can't wait to see what sunshine you show on your card.  Let's light up the blog.

Twofer #23

It's Happy Blogaversary time for the Twofer Challenge.  It's been two years since Darnell had the wonderful idea of having us make two cards using the same prompt but for two different occasions with two different layouts.  For challenge #23 the prompt is

How appropriate for this time of year when we're all busy making valentines.  But that's only one occasion.  What else can you do?  For me it was an anniversary card.

I hate to tell you all I went through to make this card presentable and that was before the aggravating time trying to photograph both cards.  Let's just say I'm glad I have some hair left.  I knew I wanted to use my new pearl vellum and cut it with a die from The Stamp Market. Then came the problem of gluing them down.  I finally put it onto white cardstock with Stick-It and then cut them out.  You can't see the texture in the background and can barely see that the sentiment from CB was heat embossed in silver.  For all the trouble it caused me it looks rather nice IRL.  And then there is the valentine.

I actually had this idea first and thought of the other card while making this one.  Don't get me wrong.  I still had troubles with this one too.  Glue is not my friend. 😜 The little hearts in the shakers are from a card Darnell sent me ages ago and she was kind enough to include all those little pieces.  I colored them with Zigs and add a few seed beads to keep them moving.  The sentiment is an oldie from My Craft Spot (nlib).  Here they are side by side.

The photos don't do them justice but it's the 4th time I tried, finally resorting to my iPhone.  They'll have to do. 

Thanks for dropping by.  I love it when you do.

Addicted to Stamps and More #318

The holiday challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More is a good way to begin or add to your Christmas card stash.  That's what I did.  Add to I mean.

When I was at My Favorite Things for the KathyRac road trip in September, they gave us the new Christmas kit.  I made my shaker card from it, using my own glitter paper for the letters.  One mistake.  I should have curved the ornament topper to fit the shaker form but I couldn't remove it once I noticed how bad it looked.  Live and learn.

I hope to see your holiday card in the gallery.

Happy Little Stampers Christmas - August

I don't often use sequins on my cards but I thought Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge was the perfect time to make a shaker card.

Using a shaker pouch from MFT made this card easy.  I added a foil die cut branch from TH, an ornament hanger from CF and a sentiment from HLS. 

The Design Team has some wonderful cards to inspire you and there's a $20 voucher to the HLS store for the winner.  We hope you'll join us this month.

CAS-ual Fridays #183

It's been a while since I've played at CAS-ual Fridays and I don't know why.  I think they slipped through the cracks even though some of my first stamps were from them.  I'm back on track now and have a card for their current challenge - Shaker Cards.

I used CF's bell die, filled it with red sequins and decorated it with TH greens and a bow from SPD.  The sentiment is from PB.  This may be the easiest shaker I've ever made although I now need to go get some more of the thicker fun foam.

Thanks to my friend Carol, I have learned more about my new photo editing program iPiccy.  There are still a few kinks to work out but things are looking up.

Thanks for dropping by.  I love it when you do.

Addicted to Stamps and More #245

What sparks your imagination when you see this photo?  Why not make a card and enter it into the Addicted to Stamps and More gallery.  For more inspiration you can check out the blog to see the Design Team cards including mine.  Wait.  You can see mine here.

I decided to make a shaker card, using a sentiment from EE.  The one on the acetate is embossed in black sparkle and the other is embossed in white.

So put your sparkle on and make a card for us.  We'd love to see it.

Just Us Girls #360

It's Trend Week and Lisa wants us to use sequins on our cards for Just Us Girls.  About the only time I use sequins is for a shaker card and that's what I did.

MFT provided the TV and sentiment while the paper and sequins came from my stash.

Why don't you make a card using sequins and enter it in the gallery?  You don't have to make a shaker.  Any use of sequins will do.  You may be chosen Chic of the Week and have a chance to be a guest designer like this month's guest Kathy Schweinfurth.  For more inspiration check out Kathy and the rest of the Design Team at Just Us Girls.