Remaining cards for the Card Set

After a lot of searching through my stamps, and testing at least 12 different ones, I chose Hero Arts 'Three Flowers' CG128. I used the largest of the three flowers and paper-pieced them, just like the butterflies. Since the flower is bigger than the butterfly, I had to change the Spellbinders die I used. For 2 of the butterfly cards, I used the Reverse Wonky Rectangles, but for the larger flower, I used Labels 17 (my first die). It allowed for more room around the flower.

I also didn't have enough room to mat the flower, like the butterfly cards, so I had to find some other way. I must have spent an hour (or more) trying different ways to incorporate a mat before I decided to take a break. During my break I watched a video from the Hero Arts blog by Julie Ebersole.  I found inspiration in that video and went back to my work table to try it out. I made a larger strip of patterned paper than her card, but I really wanted some of that pretty paper to be visible. I did a sample first before trying it for real - I tend to make too many mistakes otherwise. :)
So, here are the remaining cards for the gift set I'm making. (All I need to do is make a box for them all.)

The paper is MME Miss Caroline Howdy Doody 6x6.

Have a great weekend!

Card Set - Thank you

It seems I've been making a lot of Thank You cards lately. I know I should be making my dad's Father's Day card, but I'm not sure what to make him (he doesn't have any hobbies).  So I have been focusing on end-of-the-school-year gifts.

This is just half of the card set that I am making. I haven't decided what the other 4 cards should be yet. I would like them to use a different stamp, but I'm not sure which one. I've been experimenting with several different options and have not found one that I'm satisfied with. I originally had planned to make the Thank You cards with Hero Arts 'Newspaper Tulips', but none of the stores near me, or even the one I order from online have it. Simon Says Stamp carries it, but I wouldn't be able to get it before school ends. :(  So I used Hero Arts 'Artists Butterfly' stamp instead. I love this stamp and it looks great paper-pieced!

The fabulous paper is from My Mind's Eye, and the sentiment is Hero Arts Impression Obsession (sorry, just realized I posted the wrong company name)- which I picked that up at a more local store, Scribes' Nook. They told me they could order the Newspaper Tulips, but it would take a little time to come in.

I am entering several challenges, but not with all the cards. I just wanted to use one post for this to make it easier to set the whole (partial) set.

I am entering the last card  in Cas-ual Friday's #56 Sweet Spot. If you look closely, you will see the pretty pink polka dot paper around the edge. This is such pretty paper, I felt bad covering most of it up.

The inspiration for these cards came from CASE Study's challenge #94, with Joy Taylor as the muse. Here is Joy's beautiful card:

So I am entering my  first two cards for this challenge (as one entry though).

I am also entering my card (the first one) in DYSU challenge # 75 - paper piecing.

The last challenge I am entering the first card in is:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

If anyone has a suggestion for a stamp that would work well for the remaining cards (matching with the Artists Butterfly though), please let me know!

Have a great day!

Thank you...

My youngest has just finished taking a course in Japanese (high school). She wrote the final exam last week. As a 'thank you' for the wonderful teacher, she wanted to give her a gift card. Of course I wanted to put it in a handmade card for her. So I had my daughter write the thank you in Japanese, print it out, and then I die cut it. Originally, she wanted to use the longer, more formal thank you, but we were running short on time and she wasn't sure of the spacing. I added the gems to help with some of the extra white space from the short sentiment. The images are Hero Arts.

At first, I struggled with what kind of card to make. Then, while looking through Lawn Fawn's Intro to "Make Lemonade", I found my inspiration - Latisha's amazing card!

I was originally planning to enter my card in a few challenges, but I decided that since the design wasn't my own, that I shouldn't enter it. But I still wanted to share it.

Have a great day!

Let's Celebrate...

I'm taking this wonderful online class called, Fold It, Pop It, Flip It, Zip It!, with Julie Ebersole. I just love all the great interactive card ideas and the videos are so easy to follow. I have tried a couple of them so far, but my favourite is the Shadow Box lesson. 

I used this sketch from Card Patterns as my guide, and turned the sketch sideways (which worked perfectly for this type of card. )

I layered the images from Lawn Fawn to add dimension. I didn't like the sides so plain and white, so I stamped 'bundle of joy' on them in Hero Arts Soft Pool. The cloud background is also from Hero Arts.

Every image is on a different layer. I doubled-up my dimensional foam dots under the stork to elevate him in front of the background tree, but leave him behind the foreground tree. The banner has only one layer of dimensional foam dots behind it.

I am also entering my card in this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes!

Have a great day and weekend!

Shaker card attempt...

At the beginning of May, the Lawn Fawn Blog posted a video by the very talented Yainea. She showed how to make a beautiful shaker card. It was a great video; I just wish I had taken some notes before I attempted my card. I guess I waited a little too long before making it and forgot a few important details.
First the card, then some of the issues:

I wanted to use white foam, but the only white foam I had was thin. I thought, 'no problem, I'm using glitter so it won't matter.' Well, that was my first mistake. -sigh- I should have used the thicker foam. The clear plastic I had was from a report cover. It would have been fine, except for the static - all the glitter stuck to it (even after I wiped it with an anti-static cloth). I also did my glueing in the wrong order. I adhered (with the wrong glue even!) the clear plastic to the foam ring and then glued it to the card. I should have re-watched the video.
I had a lot of issues with: glue, glitter falling everywhere, etc... I won't go into all that, though.

In the end, I changed to small beads. Again, this would have worked fine if I used the thicker foam like the video told me to. I then glued it to the wrong side of the card base. I was ready to cry at this point. So my daughter suggested to cut the card and adhere it to a new one - since I had used scor-tape and couldn't get it off the base. Now my card is front-heavy.

I would have started all over again, but I don't have enough of this gingham paper from MME. I choose this paper for my sister (the card is for her birthday). I'm not sure if I'm going to give it to her or just make a new, plain card. I still have a little time to decide.

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

CardPatterns sketch 164 -

Moxie Fab World : Card Creations Week : The Gingham Challenge

I am also entering the Hero Arts monthly challenge - but through Flickr.

Have a great Friday!

Thank You

My youngest recently participated in some music competitions and we wanted to give a special gift to the wonderful piano accompanist.

 I love this bunny stamp from Penny Black. And I also love using this sheer ribbon - it let's the pp show through and has a nice shimmer.



I am entering my card in the following challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks: Favourite Embellishment (sheer ribbon)

Papertake Weekly: Anything Goes

Have a great weekend!

Mother's Day card

On Tuesday, my mom called me at 7:20 am and was very stressed. My sister was supposed to pick her and my dad up at 7:00 am and drive them to the hospital for her surgery (minor). So I talked to her until my sister showed up (after 7:30). I was a little nervous now about her surgery, because she was feeling so stressed, that I decided to focus on her and make a Mother's Day card. By the time she called to tell me she was home and doing well, I had finished the card.

For the background, I embossed (clear) the HA's stamp Lotus pattern and used distress inks to watercolour it. I stamped the same inks on some neenah cardstock , misted them with a bit of glimmer mist and with black ink, stamped the HA's butterfly. I cut them out with the matching die. I used the butterfly dies to cut the windows in the card. The sentiment/label is all Hero Arts. The twine is from Doodle Twine.

I know Mother's Day isn't until May 13th, but it felt good making the card for her, and it helped me keep from worrying too much.

I was inspired by three challenges:

Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger

 (watercolour butterflies - and this is a 2-week challenge, so lots of time to enter!)

The PlayDate Cafe's challenge colours



and A Blog Named Hero Challenge #2(windows)

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

Paper Sundaes - Anything Goes

I'm so glad it is Friday! Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

For my parents... and a thank you

I know I'm late with this (missed a couple challenges, too), but it has been busier than usual around here. ( I forgot to take a picture of the card and tag before we left for my parents, so I had to take them with my ipod - not the greatest, but...)

On Easter Monday, we went to visit my parents to celebrate Easter and my dad's birthday. They were expecting a hand-made card for Easter so I had to make the time to get it done. I pulled out my only real Easter stamps - from Penny Black - and started stamping.

I stamped part of the image twice (I wanted the hedgie to be pulling two easter eggs) and then again so I could paper-piece the eggs. I coloured the rest with Copics. The first time I assembled my card, I adhered the picture to the wrong side of the card base. I had already stamped the sentiment inside, but somehow stuck the picture on the backside of the card!! Luckily I had used foam adhesive and it came off with minimal damage to the picture. I just had to get a new card base and re-stamp the sentiment. I was more careful the second time. :)

I didn't have enough time to make a full card for my dad, so I opted for a tag. His presents were a Tim Horton's gift card (we put it in a small TH's coffee cup with a winning roll-up-the rim free coffee) and a McDonald's gift card (in a small chicken mc nugget container ).  Had to try something different, since I usual make the card holders. I wish I took a picture of the presents outside of the gift bags.

The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn.

**Thank you to all those who visited my blog during the Lawnscaping blog hop, and for all those wonderful comments on my card! I truly appreciate it.**



Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Lawnscaping Blog Hop - Spring

Welcome to the third Lawnscaping Blog Hop ! So glad you’re here! You should have come to me by way of the fabulous Vera Yates. This month's theme is all about Spring! The hop runs from Friday, April 6th - Sunday, April 8th! Now sit back and relax and be prepared to be inspired. We have lots of designers on this hop so we want to make sure you have time to see them all! You have the whole weekend to hop along.... Make sure to comment on all of the blogs because there are LOTS of prizes to be won! All the details can be found on the Lawnscaping home page.

Warm weather came a little early for us this year (actually, we had summer temperatures in March!) and the trees and plants started to spring to life many weeks before they were supposed to. But now we are having our normal cooler nights and grey days. So my card "Welcome Spring" was inspired by the more dreary days we've had lately (outside of card) with the hope for less grey and more colours soon (inside of card).

I have to apologize for the poor photos. If tomorrow is sunny, I will try to re-take them.

Next on the blog hop is the talented Heather. If you've gotten off track, don't worry! Head on back to Lawnscaping  to see the complete list of the hop participants and prize information!
 
  Edit: I forgot to mention that the window on the front of my card is covered with vellum and sprayed with a glitter mist (unfortunately you can't see that in the photo). I used the vellum so you could see a hint of colour from the inside when the card is closed. The inspiration for the card came from Isha, here.

Challenges Entered:
Lawnscaping Challenge #31 - Coloring (Copics, of course!)
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Use your favorite tool challenge (my Cuttlebug!)
4 Crafty Chicks - Flowers
 
Supplies:
Lawn Fawn Stamp sets: Gnome Sweet Gnome, Blissful Botanicals, Sally's ABCs
Hero Arts Lotus Background Stamp

Spellbinders Dies - Labels 4 (used with my awesome Cuttlebug)
Copics
Martha Stewart punches - grass edge punch
Bo-Bunny Country Garden Jewels

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend (and a Happy Easter).

Pocket Cards

Charisma Cardz Challenge theme for this week is Pocket cards. There is always a need for pocket cards in my family as more often than not, we give gift cards. It is really hard to buy for most of my family, but if we know where they like to shop, then a gift card makes perfect sense.

For this card I used Bo Bunny's Timepiece collection 6x6 pad. The pocket die is from MFT and the sentiment is Penny Black. The star is die cut (Sizzix) from a scrap of a Starbuck's sleeve (from my niece)  leftover from making Christmas gift card holders. I used the Tim Holtz paper distresser on the striped paper and then distressed the edges with TH Walnut Stain distress ink.

I am also entering my card in the Moxie Fab World - 'The don't throw it away' challenge (for the scrap of Starbuck's sleeve).

Bundle of Joy...

The current  Lawnscaping Challenge is an Inspired By challenge. I was inspired by the wonderfully talented Cathy Fong -  her Valentine's day card, found here, is soooo cute!

For my card, I used Lawn Fawn's Plus One stamp set. The top sentiment is from a Stamping Bella stamp (Little BIRDIE Jane by Jane Davenport ) that I recently bought. The card was a request from my brother, so he told me roughly what he wanted the front to say. For the inside of the card, he wanted me to show the stork leaving without the bundle and show the bundle opened up. So I created a pop-up to represent the open bundle. (sorry no picture of the inside)

So go check out the Lawnscaping Challenge blog - you have until March 28th to enter!

Lawnscaping Challenge #29 Get Better Soon

Here is my second card for the Lawnscaping Challenge - Sketch (you can find a picture of the sketch on my previous post.)

 I used the Lawn Fawn set 'on the mend' for this card. The tissue box is paper-pieced and adhered with dimensional foam. The turtle on the inside, as well as the bugs on the front, are coloured with copics.

Have a great night!

Lawnscaping Challenge #29 Smile

I am going to just barely get my cards in for the Lawnscaping Challenge - which ends tonight. This week's challenge was to use this sketch:

This card uses Blissful Botanicals. I coloured the flowers and leaves with Copics. I cut out the flowers and adhered them with dimensional foam. The heart on the sentiment comes from Plus One.



 Now for my next post....

Make a Wish

I just love the paper from MME. The 6x6 pad Lost and Found 2 Sunshine is just filled with beautiful patterns. (It is a favourite of mine.)

(see below for better picture)

I am entering my card in the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes
Totally Papercrafts Friday Challenges - My Favorite Things
Paper Sundaes Challenge #111 - Feminine Flair

Here is a better picture...we finally had some sunshine! :)

Have a great day!

Tuesday Trigger - Believe in Your Dreams Tag

This week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World is:

My first thought when looking at this picture was to make a tag. I searched through my paper pads until I found the right background paper (BasicGrey 6x6 Oxford ).  I stamped and gold embossed along the top and bottom to tie in with the gold trim on the plate (Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden Collection stamp set).  I felt the background was  a little too plain, so I stamped Penny Black Letter Background on the tag. I used Memento Rich Cocoa and stamped it first on a scrap piece of paper so the image wouldn't be too strong.The butterflies are from Hero Arts /Sizzix - Butterflies #3.  I used Copics to colour my butterflies (BG10,15; E95,97). I stamped the HA sentiment in Rich Cocoa and clear embossed it.  I was having a problem with the ink drying too fast before putting the embossing powder on, so I used the Versamark pad first, then inked it up with the Rich Cocoa. It didn't dry as fast and the clear embossing powder stuck really well (not sure if that is good for my ink pad, though?) The sheer ribbon was coloured with E95 to match the butterflies. I added a few pearls and gems to give it a little sparkle. The edges have been distressed with Tim Holtz distress inks Antique Linen and Walnut Stain.

I am also entering my tag in:

 Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes.

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week 144 - Spread your Wings

Have a great day!



My Last Birthday Card for Tonight....

Okay, this is it for tonight. I haven't had a whole lot of time on my computer lately. I have been letting other family members use it to play Minecraft. This is why I have a lot of posts for tonight. I wanted to post some during last week, but I never had my computer for long enough. :)

This last card was made for my sister. I used another one of my new LOTV stamps. The bunny is soooo cute! The paper is actually from some of my Christmas paper, but I liked the colours (suits my sister).

I know the photo isn't the greatest. It was late at night and the best light was from my range.

I am entering this in Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge - Anything Goes.

Well, that's it for me tonight. Have a good evening.

Another Birthday Card

The next card I made was for my sister-in-law. She likes cats, so I thought I would use my cute Penny Black stamp.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Allsorts Challenge Blog - Free and Easy February
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes!

One of several Birthday Cards

On the weekend, my family celebrated 4 birthdays. I was busy making cards last week. I will make a separate post for each card so I can enter them in a few challenges.
My first card is for my niece. A while back I won a copy of Card Ideas for Paper Crafters. While looking for inspiration I found a beautiful card (can't remember the page right now, sorry.) I altered it slightly - added a second butterfly.

I am entering this in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge  Blog - Free and Easy February

Lily Pad Challenges - Simon Says Stamp Presents a Patterned Paper Challenge

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

Paper Sundaes Challenge #107 - Sundae Bar (cream, blue, distressing)

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes

Have a good night!

LOTV Adorable Stamp

The other week, I won a fabulous prize at The Ribbon Girl .  I received some beautiful ribbons, lace, buttons and flowers, as well as a gift certificate for Lili of the Valley.  I purchased some adorable stamps. I was so excited when all my prizes came in on the same day!

I bought three stamps with the gift certificate. I love the elephant one and had to make a card with it right away.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - Love is in the Air
Allsorts  Challenge Blog: Week 141 - Free and Easy February
DYSU #58 - Love
Lily Pad Cards - Simon Says Stamp Presents a Patterned Paper Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Love is in the Air
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes
PaperPlay Challenges - Love Letters

Animal Birthday

The Simon Says Stamp Challenge is currently Animal Antics. I needed to make a masculine birthday card, so I used Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Forest stamp set. I was inspired by Gingerbread-Gal's card here (it is the 6th card down.) I liked her design and background, but I wanted to add a few more images to the scene. I paper-pieced everything on the card. I find it easier than masking images.

Sorry about the dull colours - it was another overcast day. -sigh-

I am also entering this in Do You Stack Up Challenge #57 - Anything Goes