You Make Life Sweet

My second card today is for the Just Us Girls Word Week #309 card challenge. The challenge was to use apples or an apple on your card. I knew immediately that the perfect stamp set for this would be my Fresh Squeezed Stamps The Sweet Life. It has the most adorable stitched apple stamp and a basket to match. I stamped my apples out using some adorable patterned papers from the Crate Paper Paper Heart 6x6 paper pad. The colors are beautiful and it seemed like the perfect match for the stamps. Once all of the apples were stamped I fussy cut them out and edged them with my Memento tuxedo black dual edged marker to make them look perfectly die cut. I took my Copic R24 marker and went around the outer stitched edge of each of the apples to darken them up and make the inside patterned paper look lighter. I stamped the basket on some of the same patterned papers and fussy cut the basket's edge from some contrasting paper for added interest. I colored the heart in with the same Copic marker. I added my patterned paper panels to the card base and then glued the apples down using some Tombo Mono liquid glue. I chose to pop the basket and one of the apples up using Stampin' UP foam dimensionals and then stamped the stems and leaves from the stamp set and colored them in using Copic markers. I stamped the sentiment with an extra leaf, which I colored, and then added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to complete my card. I hope you like it!

You're Invited

Today's card was created for the Freshly Made Sketches #202 card challenge. I started with a pretty sunflower yellow cardstock from Hobby Lobby and layered a piece of white cardstock over it that I had embossed using a Darice woodgrain embossing folder. I took a piece of crumbcake cardstock from Stampin' UP and stamped the linen background stamp from MFT using the same colored ink. I die cut a fishtail banner using a die from Jillian Vance Designs. I die cut some leaves from the sunflower cardstock and some adorable fall patterned paper from the Doodlebug Happy Harvest 6x6 paper collection using an EK Success leaf punch. I layered it up with some paper buttons from MFT dies and then topped it off with some brown bakers twine from Pretty Pink Posh. Using a piece of wood grain paper from the same Doodlebug paper pad I die cut a smaller fishtail banner and heat embossed the sentiment in white using some Recollections detail powder. Love how nicely it turned out. Perfect for a fall dinner party!

Don We Now Our Ugly Sweaters

Today's card was created for the Merry Monday Christmas challenge #170. The challenge was to use holly and I knew I had to crack out my Simon Says Stamp Ugly Sweater stamp set. It has the most adorable holly leaf cluster in it. I started with a base of leaf green cardstock from the Ki bright cardstock 6x6 paper pack and then layered on some red cardstock from the same paper pack. I added a panel of holly leaf patterned paper from the American Crafts Noel 6x6 patterned paper pack and a small strip of the striped paper from the same pack for contrast. I stamped the sweater onto some 110 lb white card stock using Memento tuxedo black ink and then stamped the holly leaf cluster all over the sweater to create a nice background and colored it in using Copic markers. I then stamped the wreath image and colored it separately. I fussy cut both images out and popped them up with Stamping Up foam dimensionals. I then stamped the hanger image from Simon Says Stamps Like Your Style stamp set, fussy cut it out and positioned it under the sweater to make it look like it was hanging on a sweater. I stamped the sentiment using My Favorite Things Sweater Weather stamp set with Versafine onyx black ink and then heat embossed it using some American Crafts Zing clear embossing powder to give it some extra shine. I stamped, colored, and fussy cut four more of the holly leaf clusters and adhered them around the sentiment for some additional interest. Love the way this card turned out!

Follow Your Heart

For my second card today I created a jar card for the Retro Sketches #179 sketch. I have had the American Crafts Neapolitan 12x12 paper pack for a few years now and cut up all of the adorable little mason jars on the single sheets of paper to create cards just like this from time to time. So, when I saw this challenge I knew I had to break that paper pack out. I love the watercolored look of this jar and wanted to combine some of that pretty pink with some black, white, and kraft. I used the border pieces from the tops of the 12x12 papers (you know, the stuff you typically pitch) to create the borders along the side of the card and the banner and strip in the lower portion of the card. I did no stamping on this card at all. The sentiment banner on the jar is from the front of an American Crafts paper pad that just jumped out to me so I clipped it out and mounted it onto the jar. I punched a few butterflies using a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and added a few small pearls on the butterflies for some added interest. I wrapped some dark kraft twine from Pretty Pink Posh to the lid of the jar and added a few  sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and the Ton. I matted the whole thing on an inexpensive white cupcake doily I got at the craft store in the bakery aisle and then topped it off with a kraft doily from Maya Road. Love how beautifully and simply it all came together. 

Not Everyone Gets To Be A Princess

Today's card was created for the CTS #138 sketch challenge over at Case This Sketch. I started off with a white card base and layered a piece of Stampin' UP black card stock over it. Then I zendoodled a loose outline around a white piece of 110 lb using my Memento tuxedo black dual tip marker. I stenciled the polka dot background using the Tim Holtz bubble stencil with some Fresh Ink pigment ink in Grapefruit. Then I splattered on some black soot Distress Spray Stain using my acrylic block and a water brush. Love the grungy look it gives. I printed the princess sentiment on my computer in a word document using the Matisse ITC font and printed it out onto some white card stock. I mounted it onto a black border and taped it onto the card. I then inked up Miss Snotty head image and the body from Karin, both from Stampotique, and colored them using Copic markers. I fussy cut the images and mounted them onto the card using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I finished the card off by adding some a few gemstones from The Paper Studio, some clear Wink of Stella to her dress and bow, and then some black and crystal clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. 

BOO!

Today's card was created for the Anything Goes challenge over at that Paper Smooches blog. I started with a white card base and cut and embossed a piece of basic black cardstock from Stampin' UP using the adorable Spots N Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I cut a few pieces of patterned paper from the American Crafts Haunted 6x6 paper pack and layered them up over the black cardstock. I used the same patterned paper to stamp and fussy cut my little monster from the PS Falling For You stamp set and lined the edges with a tuxedo black Memento dual tipped marker to make it look as if it had been perfectly die cut. I used my Signo white uni-ball marker to fill in the eyes and horns on the monster to add a bit of contrast. I then stamped the bat from the stamp set using some VersaMark sticky ink and heat embossed him on black cardstock using some white detail embossing powder and then fussy cut him out as well. I heat embossed the BOO! sentiment from the My Sentiments Exactly Innies & Outies Halloween stamp set. and trimmed it out to create a small sentiment strip that ran across the entire card. I added a few white dashed lines using my gel marker and added a few orange and black sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to top it all off. Thanks for looking! 

Whale You Be Mine?

Well, work and family have gotten the better of me and it's been a while since I had a chance to participate in a challenge or post an entry here on my blog. I won a gift certificate to the Ellen Hutson store this week and got some fun new dies and stamps in and felt the need to play. So without further ado, my first card today is for the CTD355 challenge over at the Color Throwdown blog and the Casology Cue Card aquatic challenge. I started by doing a smooshing technique onto some Canson watercolor paper using 3 different colors of distress inks. I cut the panel down and die cut it into strips using the Lawn Fawn rolling hills dies to create my waves. I used the same dies to cut some opaque vellum and then layered them together over a medium gray panel of cardstock onto a white card base. Using the stamps and dies from the Lawn Fawn Whale You Be Mine set I created my adorable little whales and them mounted them between the panels so they were facing one another. I stamped my sentiment using some Snow pigment ink and then heat embossed it using white detail embossing powder and then added some white dashed lines around the card and the waves to add a bit more visual interest. I think this card is too cute and will have to give it to my little granddaughter for Valentine's Day! 

Hip To Be Square!

I created two cards today for the Paper Players Theme Challenge. The challenge was to create a square card. Now, I will admit that I'm a penny pincher so I don't typically do square cards because the postage is higher to mail square envelopes but I thought it might be fun to create just a few to hand deliver to friends and family. For my first card I used the adorable stamp set Stoked from the new The Cat's Pajamas release. I layered this adorable image up onto some canary yellow and ocean blue cardstock and then stamped my images onto some of the leftover yellow to create both a cute little fishtail banner and a sentiment strip. I topped it off with some die cut buttons and some yellow twine. I love how adorable this little guy is with his lei and his surf shorts! 

For my second card I wanted to something a bit more gender neutral so I started with some red cardstock and embossed a piece of white using the same embossing folder that I used on the first card. I then cut a few pieces of patterned paper from a Doodlebug 6x6 pad and cut them longways down the center to create some pinwheel pieces. I rounded the corners using my We R Memory Keepers corner chomper and then mounted them using foam tape and arranged them onto the cardstock. I added a cute little red star button and some white twine and a few red sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. I decided to skip adding a sentiment on the front panel and thought I would save that for the inside of the card. Hope you like them both!

Season's Greetings

My second card today was created for the Merry Monday Christmas card challenge #167 over at the Merry Monday blog. The challenge is to create a Christmas card using the inspiration photo either for a theme, color combo, or sketch. I chose to go with hearts so I broke out my WPlus9 Pretty Patches Christmas set with matching dies. I die cut three trees and hearts using the coordinating dies and then stamped them using some Memento northern pine for for the trees, VersaMagic gingerbread for the trunks, and Gina K cranberry tart for the patchwork hearts. I created my card base using some kraft cardstock I picked up at Hobby Lobby and die a side folding card. I layered on some 110lb white cardstock from Staples and stamped the same tree trunk in Gina K charcoal brown at the top to create a sort of checkerboard effect. I added a piece of beautiful plaid paper from the Carta Bella Warm & Cozy 6x6 paper collection and added a small strip of the same kraft cardstock to ground it all. I glued the hearts to the center of the trees and then popped them up onto Stampin' UP foam dimensionals to really make them pop off of the card. I cut a cute banner from an MFT banner collection and stamped the greeting from the same WPlus9 stamp set in cranberry tart and then popped it up onto foam dimensionals as well.  I rounded the corners using my We R Memory Keepers corner chomper using the 1/8" side for a slightly rounded look. I hope you like it!

Have a Magical Day

Today's card was created for the new MFT Challege and Cas-ology Cue Card challenge. I stamped the adorable Fairy Girl from the MFT Pure Innocence line and colored her and the little mushroom using Copic markers. I fussy cut them out and popped them up on Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I die cut the sun from TCP's County Fair die cuts and the cloud from a Lawn Fawn die. I die cut the circle from MFT's pierced circle dies and created a sky background using some Pebbles chalk. I used my Wink of Stella clear glitter pen to add some pretty shimmer to the sun, her wand, wings, and the hearts and pom poms on the little girl as well as the spots on the mushroom. I mounted everything onto some adorable patterned papers from the Heidi Grace Sunshowers 6x6 paper line. I added a few clear rhinestones and some yellow enamel dots from Paper Studios and then stamped the greeting from the same Pure Innocence stamp set.