Happy Birthday-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

 

This month Deb and I decided our inspiration would be something I think every card maker or scrapbooker can relate to; left over scraps of paper! We all have some small (or large) stash of left over papers that are not quite sure what do with, right? I was watching YouTube this past weekend and saw a video by Cardz TV with Mary. I was inspired by her fun card technique using scrap patterned papers to create a fun quilt-like card. I save all of my 6x6 patterned paper pads in quart-sized plastic bags. I broke out my Bo Bunny Early Bird paper pad, selected 4 of the patterned papers and created this fun card using Mary's technique. The quilted effect was created using a beautiful embossing folder from Cuttlebug in the textile pattern. The sentiment is from Verve Stamps Poppy Birthday stamp set, the sentiment was created using Stampin' Up punches, and the blue cardstock is from Hobby Lobby. I popped the focal quilt pattern and the sentiment up off of the card using thin foam tape. I finished the card off with some beautiful sparkling onyx black gems from Simon Says Stamp.  I love this fun technique and can see myself creating entire sets of these to give as gifts. 

My coffee this month is a dark French roast with some vanilla bean creamer served in a mug from my regular tableware collection. Now, be sure to stop by Deb's blog and see how she was inspired this month!

With Deepest Sympathy

Hello and happy Monday! It's been snowing here but unfortunately not sticking. I did manage to get a 5 mile run in this morning but spent the rest of the day holed up in the house eating Chinese food, watching Netflix, and making a few cards. This card was created for the latest Sunday Stamps weekly card challenge. To create my card I started by layering some Stampin' Up's basic black cardstock onto my white A2 card base. I then embossed a piece of white cardstock using a Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder.  I added some sheer black ribbon that I picked up at Hobby Lobby onto the right side of the panel and then adhered the whole thing down to the card. I cut down a piece of black and white polka cardstock from Basic Grey's Little Black Dress 6x6 paper pad and made three fish tail banners out of them. I layered them toward the bottom of the card following the sketch. I then stamped the floral image from Unity Stamp Company onto some white cardstock using Memento London fog ink and die cut it using a double stitched circle die from Gina Marie Designs. I matted that circle panel onto some more basic black cardstock that I die cut using a Spellbinders die. I stamped the sentiment from the Altenew Birch Land stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink. To finish this card I added some 6mm black sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

Merry Little Christmas

I just picked up the fabulous Essentials By Ellen Christmas Scribbles stamp set on a Facebook destash and knew as soon as I saw the newest Just Us Girls photo challenge that I would have to use it! I wanted to keep the card pretty clean and simple, which is a difficult task for me. I like layers and lots of embellishments, but this stamp set made it easy. I started by layering some cherry cobbler cardstock from Stampin' UP onto my white card base. Using my mini-Misti stamping tool I stamped the branches, pinecone, snowflakes, and two ornaments from the stamp set onto some Copic-friendly white cardstock. Using the inspiration photo I colored the images trying to stay close to the color palette. I then die cut the colored piece of cardstock down using a Gina Marie Designs stitched rectangle die and mounted it onto the card using some 3M foam tape. I took another strip of the same red cardstock and heat embossed the sentiment from the same stamp set using Recollections snow white detail embossing powder. I ran that strip of paper through my Cuttlebug using the same rectangle die so the edges would match the panel and mounted it directly onto the panel. To finish the card I added some clear Wink of Stella to all of the stamped elements. I only wish I could have captured all of the wonderful shine it added! I think this would be a fun card to mass produce. I hope you like it.

Just Your Style

Today's card was created for my beautiful daughter Megan's birthday. She loves all things glittery and feminine but is also the biggest tomboy I know. I just knew she would love this very feminine and glittery card for her birthday. I started with some smokey grey cardstock from Stampin' UP and layered on some striped yellow and ivory patterned paper from the American Crafts Welcome Spring 6x6 paper pad. I cut down a small panel of white cardstock and embossed it using a daisy Sizzex embossing folder and my Cuttlebug. I stamped Stamping Bella's Uptown Girl Posh Has A Present stamp onto some white Copic-friendly paper and colored her in to match the patterned papers. I fussy cut her out and mounted her to the card using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I then stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set and cut it out and mounted it to the card using the same dimensionals. For the finishing touch I added some yellow Stickles for some added shimmer and shine. I will be entering this card into The Paper Players challenge. 

Happy Birthday

Today's card was created for The Male Room Young Ones challenge. The challenge is to create a card for a male baby or little boy. I don't know anyone pregnant right now with a little boy so I decided to focus on little boy birthdays since I have nephews with birthdays coming up soon. I began with a simple card base and layered on some black cardstock from Hobby Lobby. I cut down a piece of evergreen cardstock from Recollections and embossed it using a Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder and adhered the panel onto my card. I stamped four of the adorable critters from the Close To My Heart In The Wild stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink and cut the images down to simple squares. I layered them onto black cardstock squares cut slightly larger and adhered them onto to my card using some 3M foam tape. I cut a fishtail banner using a Jillian Vance die and some more black cardstock and adhered that to the card using foam tape. I used my Stampin' UP Word Window punch and some white cardstock from Staples and stamped the birthday sentiment from Sweet Stamp Shop's Just The Basics stamp set and adhered that to the fishtail banner. Using the same evergreen cardstock I die cut a few of the buttons from the My Favorite Things button die set. I tied a bow using some black and white baker's twine from We R Memory Keepers and adhered the button the card with some more foam tape. This is such a fun and simple card to make taking less than 10 minutes to put together from start to finish. I hope you like it!

I Chews You

My second card today was created for the Addicted To Stamps And More anything goes challenge. I have been on something of a zombie kick lately. Not sure if it's Halloween coming up or if I'm finally getting some new Walking Dead episodes but I own three separate zombie stamp sets and I've been using them a lot lately. This stamp set is from Sugar Pea Designs and is beyond adorable. I chose to make a sweet Anniversary card out of this one. It could really be used for Valentine's Day, wedding card, etc. I inked my zombies up using Memento tuxedo black ink onto some 110 lb white cardstock and colored them in using Copic markers. I used a pierced edge circle die from MFT to cut the circle out and adhered it to my piece of patterned paper from the We R Memory Keepers Antique Chic 6x6 paper pad. I ran it through my Cuttlebug using a Paper Smooches stitched line die to add the lines around the panel and then adhered that to some Stampin' UP black cardstock and adhered the whole thing onto my cardbase. I stamped the sentiment from the same Sugar Pea Design stamp set and used a stitched fishtail die to cut out the sentiment. A few black hearts using a Paper Smooches die completes the card. Love how it turned out and I hope you do too!

Baby

I have several stamp sets by Taylored Expressions but have never joined one of their challenges. Not sure why but today I decided to give it a go! This week's challenge is a Sketch and Tic Tac Toe. I followed the sketch pretty closely and opted for the center line, top to bottom...sequins, twin, and embossing. I started with plain white card base and added a layer of pretty patterned paper from the Studio Calico Story Time 6x6 paper pad. I embossed a piece of plain white cardstock using the Spots & Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I die cut a few nesting circles using the same paper pad and a smaller circle die from Nestibilities and a larger pierced edge one from My Favorite Things. I stamped the adorable onesie from the Taylored Expressions Onesie Twosie stamp set and fussy cut it out and the trim in an alternating paper just for some additional interest. I edged the images with a Memento tuxedo black dual tip marker to make it look clean around the edges. I popped it up using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals and adhered that onto the card base over the embossed panel. I die cut an oval from the same paper pad using a My Favorite Things pierced edge die and stamped the congrats sentiment from the same stamp set. I die cut the banners using the same papers and the County Fair dies from The Cat's Pajamas , stamped the word baby using the stamps from the same stamp set, popped them up using foam dimensionals, and created some bows using some white cross stitch thread. Once everything was adhered to the card base I added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and some pink Stickles in the center of the sequins, over the banner sentiment, and in all of the circles on the embossed panel. I hope you like it! 

You're Beyond Cool

My first card today was created for a friend who has thyroid cancer and will be receiving radiation therapy this week. She quoted the lyrics from Radioactive by Imagine Dragons and I had to giggle at that. I decided to make her a card to brighten her week while she's in isolation. I started with some pink cardstock from the Color Crush Ki 6x6 paper pad from Hampton Arts and embossed it using the Spots & Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I took some cute retro circle washi tape from Recollections and edged the card with it and a small strip of black cardstock from Stampin' UP. I die cut the sunglass frames from the Paper Smooches Incognito stamp and die set using the same pink cardstock and then cut the lenses from the same black cardstock. I used some black Wink of Stella glitter pen on the lenses to add some cool shimmer to them and then glued them into place using some Tombow Mono adhesive. I stamped the "you're" and "cool" from the same Paper Smooches stamp set and then added the word "beyond" using Lawn Fawn's Claire's ABC's alpha stamp set. The black triangles are from The Cat's Pajamas County Fair die set and were mounted up using foam dimensionals from Stampin' UP. A few scattered rhinestones from The Paper Studio and some dashed lines around the focal panel complete this card I created for my fellow crafty friend. The interior of the card reads "You're radioactive!" I'm sure she will get a kick out of it!