Card Swap Star Challenge

The challenge this week at Card Maker is to make a card with a lot of stars on it. I am not a big fan of red white and blue together so I was trying to stay away from making a patriotic card so I started with pink, added some green and black and ended up with this. The stars are cut at 2 inches from my Celebrations cartridge on my Cricut.

Beach Bear

I made this card for the Tuesday Papertake Challenge and the Digital Tuesday Challenge. The Papertake Challenge is a sketch challenge and the Digital Tuesday Challenge was to create a summer card with a digital stamp.


This image is a digital stamp called Beach Bear by Dustin Pike. I colored him with my Copics and mounted him on digital paper- a freebie from Stamp TV in the Jersey Shore packet (Penny Candy). I then made a beach blanket out of another digital paper freebie from Stamp TV called Summer Fabrics (Gauze). I cut the edges with scissors to make it look like a fringed beach blanket. The cream colored background paper was run through my Cuttlebug Spots and Dots embossing folder.

Two Challenges in One

Today I made my first attempt at combining two challenges. This card is a combination of the Pink Elephant challenge and the Sketch and Stash Challenge. The challenge at the Pink Elephant was to make a card with your favorite color combination. The challenge at Sketch and Stash was to use the sketch and make a card that involved animals. My new item for the Sketch and Stash is my digital stamp.

I used one of Dustin Pike's digital stamps. I colored it with my Copics. I just got a few Copics over the weekend so I need a lot more practice with coloring and shading. I also need a lot more Copics. :)
I used brown, green and blue cardstock which I really like so that met the requirement for the Pink Elephant challenge. I used my Paper Pups cartridge to make the bones that say "yum".

Wednesday Color Throwdown

I made this card for the Wednesday Color Throwdown challenge. We were to use the colors baja breeze, kraft and pink pirouette. I don't have SU paper so I tried to find colors I did have that were close to these ones. Hopefully, I wasn't too far off.

I used another one of Dustin Pike's digital stamps. I love this monkey. I think he's called Cheeky Monkey, but I'm not sure. He was another freebie from Dustin. I colored him with my SU watercolor pencils and blended them with the blending pens. I think "smile" is an appropriate sentiment for this card.

Sweet Sketch Wednesday

I made this card for the Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenge. Each Wednesday they have a new sketch to follow for their challenge. I think I was supposed to use the colors of dark pink, light pink, cream and green. Then again, I'm not sure if that is for next week's challenge. Either way, this was fun and I think I'm starting to like sketches!

The flower die cuts on the squares are from the tin of goodies I got from Gaye at Card Maker. Thanks Gaye!

First Digital Stamp

The Digital Tuesday Challenge this week is to make a card using a digital stamp and to use your scrap papers when making it. I've never used a digital stamp before, mostly because I don't see a lot of them that I really LOVE. I finally found Dustin Pike who makes the cutest bears, dinosaurs and dragons and lots of other creatures. I love his stuff. Dustin offers a free download every Wednesday and I got this "thank you" bear from his May 15th post. It wasn't a Wednesday, he posted the freebie to thank his blog visitors. It took me a few tries to get the hang of how to download it, open the zip file and adjust the sizes in Word but now that I know, the next one will be much easier. I colored this guy with my SU watercolor pencils and layered him on scraps of green, purple and blue. I used more scraps for the card background.

Stamp TV PotLuck Challenge

I did this challenge over at Stamp TV. The challenge was to create a card using the colors of mint chocolate chip ice cream. We didn't have to make an ice cream themed card, but that seems to be what most people did and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use my Doodlecharms ice cream cones.

Stamp TV Sketch Challenge

Another sketch! I don't know what has gotten into me! This is a sketch challenge at StampTV. This was a real challenge for me because we were supposed to use four different patterned papers. That is WAAAY out of my comfort zone but I put together this patriotic 4th of July card using all the patterned paper that I had for the 4th of July and my newish Patriotic Pair stamp set. It's not my favorite-just not crazy about all the patterned paper.

Card Swap Weekly Challenge

I made this card for this week's challenge at CardMaker. It's a sketch challenge which I normally don't do. I'm not sure why but I just can't seem to get my head around the sketches.

I made this one with my Doodlecharms cartridge. I cut out the flowers at 2", 1.75" and 1.5" and then I crinkled them up. I added them to the card with small pop dots. I cut out the stem and the leaves from textured cardstock. I'm not sure you can see the "hello" stamped in light green in the lower left corner of the yellow cardstock and there are also little white paint dots all around the yellow cardstock.

Bubbly Scrumptious Challenge

I've entered my cupcake card in the Bubbly Scrumptious June Challenge which is to make something featuring cupcakes. I love this stamp and the cupcake theme fit perfectly with the challenge.

Something Different Challenge

I made this tag for the Something Different challenge this week. The theme of the challenges for June is "tags" and the topic this week is "home". So here is my tag with a home theme.


I used my Cricut Christmas Cheer Cartridge to cut this house out in brown at 3.5". Then I cut the same size shadow in red. The "memories" stamp is a clear stamp I got on clearance at Joanne's.

I'M HOSTING A SWAP

I'm hosting my first swap over at Cardmaker. It's a "sentiment swap". A bunch of us were talking about how we needed some new swaps and this swap came up a couple of times. We're only swapping stamped sentiments...not completed cards. I think it's a great way to get some new sentiments without having to buy new stamps. Works great for someone like me who doesn't have a lot of stamps so when I stamp "Happy Birthday" it really is always the same stamp. :)

Hopefully I'll get a lot of participants. It crosses the timeframe of the Christmas in July crop, but hopefully, since it's just sentiments, people feel like it's manageable. We'll see.

PIZZA BOX

I found this great tutorial by Jen del Muro for these cute little pizza boxes. I think it will be a fun gift box for Father's Day. I'm going to put little pieces of candy in it for John...he likes Laffy Taffy and I think a bunch of those will fit perfectly in here. I can think of lots of other uses for this box so it will definitely be something I make more of in the future. I am totally "bow challenged" so the bow looks a little catty-wompus, but it was really the best I could do!


There are still spots left in PAY IT FORWARD so scroll down to that post and leave a comment so I can send you a surprise!

ANNIVERSARY CARD-TAKE 2

Okay, I've decided I don't like my Anniversary card. It's just not knocking my socks off so I've redone it.
This "stair step card" was inspired by this card from Lynn in St. Louis over at SCS. For directions on how to fold this card, click here.


I think this one is a lot more fun than my original one. I know it looks really busy in the picture because when you set it down to take the picture, the accordion stretches out and makes it look like the card is exploding out all over! But when you see it in person, it's not quite as crazy looking. I hope my husband likes it.
The base is textured black cardstock, folded like an accordion. On the front fold is a heart sticker and the stamp "I Love You". On the second fold is a heart cut from my Doodlecharms cartridge at 3", 2.75" and 2.5". Also "you and me" in white and "celebrate" in blue. Both cut at .75" from Don Juan and Celebrations, respectively. The 1 and the 8 are cut from DJ on the under pressure setting and are cut at 3.25", 3", and 2.75". On the back fold, to the left of the 18, there is a little pocket. I'm going to write a note and put it in there since there is no room for sentiments on the card!

Thanks for looking and thanks to Lynn for the inspiration!

Don't forget to play PAY IT FORWARD!

Pay it Forward

Okay, I copied this word for word from Jeanette's Blog so thank you Jeanette for the awesome idea and the future gift!

Do you remember the movie "Pay It Forward" with Kevin Spacey? The story is repaying a kindness to you by passing a kindness on to someone else. I think that is a very nice idea. That is why I signed up to be part of this version of "Pay It Forward" on Jeanette's Blog

Now I am going to receive a very special, made just for me, gift from Jeanette. I want to pass along a very special, made just for YOU gift, to the first FIVE people leaving a comment on this post. Doesn't that sound like fun?
I'd really like to send a special gift to you. Please sign up to "Pay It Forward".

There a few rules tho (not hard ones).
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make but I hope you will.
2- What I create will be just for you. I’ll be lurking around your blog to see what you might like
3- this will run until the end of July.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be and neither do I so it'll be a big surprise to both of us!

The catch? Oh yeah. There's a catch.... You must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.
So the first five people who post, and are willing to pass it along, will get a handmade gift in the mail from me.
Once you receive the gift, please be sure to post a pic on your blog.
Let the gifting begin.

ATC Calendar Swap

I finished my ATCs for the CardSwap ATC Calendar swap. Twelve players each chose a month and we made an ATC size calendar for that month and decorated it with something that represents the month we chose. I chose April and here is my ATC Calendar:



The ATC is 2.5" by 3.5". The striped background paper is cut slightly smaller than the ATC. I cut out an Easter Egg from my Cricut Doodlecharms Cartridge and decorated it with paint dots. Stamped the bunny on pink paper with brown ink and cut around the stamp and glued him on the Easter Egg. Used green construction paper and cut a 1/4 inch wide strip and cut little strips in it to look like grass. I got the calendar template here. This swap isn't due until August 15th, I don't think I can wait that long to see what everyone else did!!

A Challenge

This card is for a challenge at Card Swap this week. The challenge is to make a card using a punch and one sentiment stamp. The punch should somehow coordinate with the sentiment. This is definitely a challenge for me because I have so few stamps to begin with...finding a sentiment that can coordinate with a punch was tricky. I should also add that I don't technically HAVE any punches so I used my Cricut. The hearts were cut with the Doodlecharms Cartridge at 1.75, 1.5 and 1.25. I used a corner punch/embosser for the corners of the brown paper that I got from my friend Jeanette. Thank you Jeanette!! Don't look too closely at the corners...I definitely need more practice with that!



I started making this card around 3:30 am. I woke up from the crazy storms we're having and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up to make this card. Hopefully I'll still like it later in the day!

Learning New Things

I'm pretty pleased with myself. :) Today I learned how to post the list of blogs that I follow. I also learned how to make a word a link. Like in the post below this one..the word "here" is a link to a tutorial. I've been curious for awhile about how people do that and now I know. Amazing what you can figure out when you click the "help" button!

Father's Day

This is a card I made for my husband for Father's Day. Again trying to use masculine colors (or at least not pink!). This is a gatefold card that I modified a bit to have a band around it. Click here for a great tutorial on gatefold cards by Beate Johns. I have found that my gatefold cards don't stay closed so I did the band to make sure it would.

Anniversary Card

Today I made a card for my husband for our Anniversary which is coming up on the 22nd. I like the paper a lot so I was trying to leave a lot of it visible. I was also trying not to make it too girly..therefore the brown and green colors. The heart brad is from my tin of goodies I received from Gaye! Thanks Gaye!

Archiver's

On my trip to Archivers, I found a very cute Stampendous clear stamp set called Patriotic Pair. I made this card with it:

I colored the guy with my SU water color pencils and blended it with my blending pens. The set also has a Statue of Liberty, "Happy 4th of July", some stars and fireworks. I'll make more of these cards, maybe "mass produce" them for Cards for Heroes.

I also found some cute paper, brads, buttons and ribbon. Nothing overly inspiring and I did NOT do any scrapbooking today! Maybe tomorrow.

Cards

This is a card I made for a swap at CardSwap. We had to make 6 cards shaped like anything we chose. I chose this dog. I cut out a 5 inch dog from my Cricut Paper Pups cartridge and made the card from there.


This is a card I made for my friend Chris' birthday.This isn't the actual card I made, she has that! But I tried to recreate it because I liked it a lot. This is a $1 Studio G stamp from Michaels. I colored it with my SU watercolor pencils and blended it with the blending pens.

A Free Morning

Today, a very rare thing is happening. My husband and all of my children are occupied for the entire morning. Weird. So that leaves me with a whole lot of free time which of course leads to the question: "What should I do?" Well, staying home and cleaning and doing laundry didn't sound like the best option so after I get my haircut, I'm going to Archiver's. I've only been there once or twice but only for short periods of time, always with other people so I've never actually taken my time and looked around and gotten inspired! That's really what I'm hoping for, inspiration. Maybe I'll find something there that will spur me on to get going on my scrapbook pages. Or maybe I'll be completely overwhelmed and my brain will shut down. ha ha

An Award!

Today I received an award from my friend Tracy over at Cardmakers! Thanks Tracy. It's pretty exciting...it's my first award. So, the thing is with the award I have to tell you ten things about myself and then pass the award on to 7 other people. That will be a challenge since I'm not sure I know 7 other people with blogs! Anyway, about me:
1. I work almost full-time as an accountant.
2. I have been married for 18 years
3. I have a daughter and two sons
4. My favorite color is purple
5. I like giraffes
6. My favorite candy is Butterfinger
7. I love coffee but can only drink decaf!
8. I love paper crafting
9. I once did a triathlon and I've run 3 half-marathons
10. I don't have any pets.

I'm passing this award on to Teresa http://stampinwithteresa.blogspot.com/
and Jeanette B http://www.beanettejurke.blogspot.com/
and Lora http://www.lorasoneworld.blogspot.com/
and Mel http://melsbasketofblessings.blogspot.com/

Sorry I can't send it to seven people!!

Decorated Tin

This is a gorgeous decorated tin I received from Gaye over at Cardswap. It was stuffed full of the most wonderful embellishments including butterfly, Halloween and flower die cuts...A LOT of them, buttons, brads, ribbon. It was just wonderful. Thank you Gaye!

Scrapbooking

I'm caught up with my kids' scrapbooks to the extent that I pretty much just update them once a year. It's about time for me to do it so last weekend I printed out pictures and bought the appropriate paper (during the Hobby Lobby paper sale!) so I'm ready to go. Problem is, I just don't quite feel like doing it. Hmm...maybe that will change this weekend. I mean, I've gotten the hard part out of the way so just the fun part is left. Hopefully I'll get some inspiration or motivation to do it!

Okay, I'm excited. I changed the blog background/layout by checking out Teresa's blog and seeing that she used http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/. AWESOME! It took some trial and error but I'm pretty happy with the results. Then I changed the color of the text on the page so it looked better with the new colors. THEN I was able to post the blinkie for the upcoming crop at http://www.cardmakermagazine.com/cardswap/index.php! Woo hoo! There is still so much to learn but it's fun.

I'm posting some older creations, just to have a record of some of my favorite things. Here are some threezies I did for a prior swap at Cardmaker CardSwap.

So much to Learn!

Wow, there really is a lot to learn to make a blog. I've been checking out some other people's blogs and I really like their colors and other elements they have on their pages. How do they do all that?

I'm hosting this week's challenge over at http://www.cardmakermagazine.com/cardswap/index.php. This is a Never Ending Card. It's called that because you can fold it four different ways for four different views. Fun and easy to make but tough to embellish. There's just a lot to do since there are so many views. Not getting many takers on the challenge! It's definitely not a quick one, but a fun end result. This card is for Kyle's 15th birthday which is just under three weeks away. I'm not posting the other three views since they take up so much room!

These are two of my favorite cards I made for a challenge at Card Swap. The challenge was to use a paint chip in the card. The stripes in the backgrounds of each card are the paint chips.

I FINALLY DID IT!

I finally jumped in and created a blog. I never felt the need for one before but I think that it might be a good place to keep track of my projects and creations. It will be fun to look back and see what I've done and see if I've improved over time!!