Sending Warm Thoughts

Today's card was created for both the current Color Q and the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenges. It's been a while since I made a card and I was determined to get creative and break out of my funk. I don't know about you guys out there in the crafting blogosphere but I have about had my fill of summer. I'm not a fan of the heat anyway now that I've hit hot flash age but this has been a pretty hot summer so far. So, I wanted something to remind me that fall will be coming soon. I started with some plain white cardstock and inked around the edges using Memento dandelion ink. I cut a piece of cardstock 1/4" smaller and embossed it using a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder and mounted it straight onto my inked panel. I liked the look of the debossed side better some I actually flipped it over and used the "wrong" side. I inked up the Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Trees stamp set using Gina K ink in warm cocoa for the trunk and Memento inks in lilac posies, love letter, tangelo, and dandelion for the leaves. I stamped the hillside under the tree using Rubberneck's French Script background stamp and then inked the memento dandelion ink directly onto the paper. I cut it down using a stitched edge die from Paper Smooches and then adhered it straight onto the paper under the tree. Once adhered I die cut a circle panel using an MFT pierced edge die. I stamped the sentiment from the same Hero Arts stamp set and added ink directly to the paper using the same Memento ink. I lightly inked the edges of the circle panel and the sentiment strip using Tim Holtz distress ink in tea dye and then popped them up off of the card using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals for some added interest and dimension. I hope you like it!

Sending Smiles

Today's card was created for the current Less Is More card challenge. This week the challenge is REPETITION.  I love this  because the possibilities are endless! I have a fun stamp set that I won as blog candy a few years ago from Technique Tuesday and I hadn't inked it up in a while. I thought long and hard about what image I could repeat over an over and it occurred to me that the fun little smiley faces from their stamp set Sending Smiles would be a perfect image to repeat. I started by taking a plain piece of Copic friendly cardstock and drawing some diagonal lines very lightly with a pencil. I stamped the smiley face along those lines and then I had the brilliant idea to mask each of those images off using some masking paper and stamping the linen background from MFT in the background. When I say that was a brilliant idea what I mean is not so much. I had to stamp, fussy cut, and adhere about 20 of those little faces. To say that it was time consuming is an understatement so I will most likely not be mass producing this card anytime soon. But it turned out okay. I then stamped one of the sentiments from the same stamp set onto more white cardstock and cut a fishtail banner and adhered it straight onto the panel and then the whole thing was adhered straight to my white card base. I will be donating this card to the Live Love Cards campaign. If you are not familiar with this awesome charity for card makers you should definitely check it out! Anyway, I hope you like my card!

Hello Sweet Friend

Today's card was created for the latest Freshly Made Sketches sketch challenge. I started by layering some basic grey cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my white card base and then adding some pretty patterned papers from the We R Memory Keepers Simply Spring 6x6 paper pad on top. I stamped one of the sweet chickadees from the Technique Tuesday Chickadees stamp set onto some Copic friendly cardstock and the sentiment from the same stamp set next to it. I die cut the panel using Gina Marie Designs dies in a wonky stitched border and colored the images in using Copic markers. I mounted the panel onto some more of the same grey cardstock and popped it up off of the card using some 3M foam tape for some added interest and dimension. I little clear Wink of Stella glitter pen added to the little pink chickadee finished this card off nicely! I hope you like it!

There's Always Time For Tea

Today's card was created as a thank you for some blog candy I received during the Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop from fellow coffee loving cardmaker Danielle Vincent. You can find find her and all of her crafty goodness over at her blog here. Danielle sent me the wonderful new Stampin' UP Nice Cuppa stamp set and I couldn't resist inking it up immediately and sending her a wonderful thank you card for her generous act of kindness! For my card I started by stamping the stacked tea cups onto some white cardstock using Gina K ink in red hot and die cutting them with some fun new Gina Marie Designs dies I just got in this week. Love those wonky stitched lines around the border! I then took my Crop-A-Dile and punched a hole at the top of the mugs and onto the little tea bag tag that I stamped separately and fussy cut out. I attached some inexpensive white rickrack I picked up at Hobby Lobby to both ends to make it look like a tea bag string. I layered some cherry cobbler cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my card base and then a pretty floral piece of patterned paper from the Crate Paper Paper Heart Collection 6x6 paper pad on top. I popped the focal panel up off of the card with some 3M foam tape for added dimension. I hope you like it!  

Sugar Skull Happy Birthday

Today's card was created for the latest The Male Room challenge. The challenge is to make flowers masculine. I don't make a lot of masculine cards so this one really was a challenge for me, but I came up with the perfect stamp set for this. I used The Sweet Stamp Shop Dia De Los Muertos, which has the most awesome Sugar Skull included in the set as well as a beautiful rose. I figured the skull paired with the rose, if colored in masculine colors, would read as masculine. I also decided since I had my supplies out to create a feminine version of this card too because why not, right? I started by cutting a piece of Copic-friendly cardstock down to 1/4" smaller than my card base and coloring each of them in coordinating Copic colors to the card. I adhered that down to the card and then stamped the skulls and the rose all over the card to create something of a background pattern. I colored each of the panels in using Copic markers and added a few white dot details using my Uni-ball Signo white get pen. I stamped the banner from the same stamp set and the sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Happy Everything stamp set and adhered those down to the card using 3M foam tape for added dimension and interest. I hope you like them!

Hello

I have been in something of a creative funk lately and am so glad that I have gotten my mojo back because this will make my third card created today! I created this one for the latest CASology challenge. Unfortunately the challenge closed before I could link it but I still wanted to share it. I started by layering a piece of diagonal striped paper from the Heidi Grace Sunshowers 6x6 paper pad onto my white card base. I then stamped all four of the adorable little chickadees and the sentiment from the Technique Tuesday Chickadees stamp set onto some Copic-friendly cardstock and then die cut the entire panel using a Gina Marie Designs stitched rectangle die. I colored the images in using Copic markers and then popped the panel up off of the card using some 3M foam tape for some added dimension. I love how clean and simple this card is and hope you like it too!

Flip Flops

My second card today was created for the latest Just Us Girls challenge. This week's challenge is a word challenge and the word is summer. Nothing screams summer more to me than flip flops. So, I broke out my Fresh Squeezed Stamps Beechy Keen stamp set and stamped the flip flops into a rainbow pattern onto my card panel. I colored each of the pairs in rainbow colors using my Copic markers. I went over each one using my clear Wink of Stella glitter pen for some pretty shine and shimmer and added a small clear rhinestone from Recollections to each one. I stamped the sentiment below and added a small flourish from The Cat's Pajama's Simply Stacked Sentiments stamp set and added a small rhinestone to it as well. I adhered a small diagonal striped patterned paper from the Simple Stories Urban Traveler 6x6 paper pad to the bottom and rounded the corners using my We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper. I just love how pretty this turned out and I hope you like it too!

What's Shakin'?

Today's card was created for the latest Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge. The challenge was to create a clean and simple card without a lot of layers. I'm not exactly noted for my CAS style so this was a tough challenge for me. I really wanted something where the sentiment was as much the star as the focal image. I started with a clean, white card base and die cut the sentiment using cherry cobbler cardstock from Stampin' UP and the lower case alpha dies from MFT. I adhered them onto the lower left corner of my card using Zig 2 way glue. I stamped the monkey from CTM's In The Wild stamp set onto some crumb cake cardstock from Stampin' UP using Gina K's charcoal brown ink. I fussy cut the image and separated the fingers from the hand so I could adhere them to the branch. I adhered the monkey flat to the card and then die cut the branch using an MFT die and chocolate chip cardstock from Stampin' UP and green cardstock from Hobby Lobby. I popped all of the branch elements up off of the card using foam dimensionals and adhered the monkey's fingers directly onto the branch. I hope you like it!