OWH Sketch #245

Greetings!  Hope you're enjoying this time of year - it's been quite rainy here in South Carolina and that makes the days dreary, so I'm trying to liven things up with craft time.  I used the latest sketch from OWH -  - #245 - for a quick card using scraps:

 

The stamps is from Cardz TV - Going in Circles.  I jazzed up the tag with gold embossing.  Hmmm--it looks plain here in the picture but I promise in real life it's got more interest!  Ha!

 

I'm looking forward to the Jan 1 OWH bloghop - best of 2014.  I'm going to start picking out some of my favorites tonight.  I love the inspiration from everyone that hops along and I'll bookmark the ones I want to CASE in the future.

 

See ya'll soon!

ODBD Dec 2014 challenge

Hello friends!  I wanted to add my card to the monthly Our Daily Bread Designs challenge for OWH  .  I love using primary colors on cards, so it was easy for me to create a card that met the criteria and what better way than using crayons?  The sentiment is a digital one from Birdie Brown with Doodlebug papers:

 

I was delighted to see that I won a Doodle Pantry coupon from our last sketch challenge!  Yippee!  I do love their designs and will have no problem using that coupon up.  Thanks Doodle Pantry!

 

Santa gifted me a new laptop and I've been busy getting it set up and it's now ready to go, so I'll be able to get back into more crafty fun!  I've had a great holiday and am reluctant to go back to work tomorrow, so I'm going to get some cards done tonight.  I wish I could stay home next week too!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

OWH Sketch #244

Happy Christmas Eve!  I'm fortunate to have this day off from work and I finished up some wrapping, chores and fit in time to make some cards.  The latest sketch from OWH is #244 which I changed a bit to fit my Doodlepantry image from the Spring Critters collection.  It's been a while since I made a card, so using a digital image is an easy way to get back into that crafty mode.  And who can resist their cute images?

I was so motivated that I made three cards using Doodlepantry images.  Here's the first, following sketch #244:

The paper is BoBunny Double Dots, along with a scrap behind that cute little chick.

My next two cards use images from the Silly Critters collection:

I traced and cut the images using my Silhouette and it's so fast to get a card done that way.  I hope I can make more cards during the holidays - I miss it so much!

I hope you have a lovely holiday and thanks for stopping by.

OWH Red Friday Bloghop

Operation Write Home is hosting a Red Friday bloghop and since I had a bit of extra time, I joined in.  Laura Bassen's card over at Doublestick Heaven below inspired me to pull out my Distress Inks and play.  Here's her card and my four (!) cards that I made:

I didn't have the stencil she used, so I made my own.  I cut a heart with my Silhouette and then overlaid another stencil on top.  My first card used the Tim Holtz Doily stencil:

Card #2 used the Tim Holtz Dot Fade stencil:

Card #3 used the Tim Holtz Stripes stencil:

Card #4 used a stencil I made on my Silhouette:

Other details:

Sentiment is from the Silhouette store: #6818

Distress Inks: Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick

I'm also adding one of these cards to this month's ODBD challenge at OWH, which is Hearts.  

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can find some time to create today!

Sketch-n-Scrap for November

Hello! I've been working on a few scrapbook pages and used the November sketch from Sketch n Scrap for a layout on my visit to Singer Castle:

 I used the blue and white gable ceilings as my color inspiration for the page.  The page title was cut on my Silhouette and I used a cameo shape above the word "Servant's".  It always amazes me that my Silhouette can cut something so small!

I added a bit of lace to the right edge and matted it on a gray and white striped background.  The sketch is a great one for a layout using 3 pictures:

There's still time to enter a layout for their November challenge!  

Thanks for stopping by.

OWH October ODBD challenge

I'm so glad that Sandy Allnock from Operation Write Home reminded us that there's still time to get our entries in for the October Our Daily Bread challenge.  This month, we were challenged to make snowflake non-Christmas cards.  My father has a birthday in January, so I made him a snowflake easel birthday card, using a file from Bird's cards (here):

The card base is Bazzill paper and the snowflake is from the DCWV glitzy paper.  Even though this card is intended for a man, I still think you can use glitz!

I'm hoping that we can get up to 50 entries for this month so ODBD will pay to ship two boxes of cards to our soldiers!

Thanks for stopping by!

World Card making day celebration for OWH

Happy WCMD!  Although the need for cards for Operation Write Home  has dwindled, we still have our celebrations to enjoy and today is one of them.  We've been challenged to make Love cards and since I just snagged the Simon Says Stamp Furry Friends stamp, I used it to make my card:

The two cats resemble my fur babies - one is gray and the other is a calico.  I created the background with shaving cream and ink - so fun!  Here's a tutorial - Shaving cream - if you're interested.

I can't wait to hop through the blogs and see all the creativity!  Thanks for stopping by! 

Live colorfully!

I'm finding time to join in a few card challenges and today's card is for a challenge that's new to me - Cards in envy.  Their challenge is to use twine on an A2 card, which I haven't done in a while.  I went back to the Spirelli tutorial from OWH (here) and with the latest OWH sketch, I created this card:

The stamp is from Hero Arts Glow Girl; papers are by BoBunny.  

I'm also entering this card at the Die Cuttin Diva's challenge - Anything Goes

I cut the scallop circles on my Silhouette.

Thanks for stopping by!

Purrfection

I was thrilled to win the August challenge at Words 2 Scrap By and was invited to be a guest designer for the October challenge.  The words to inspire us this month are: The road to my heart is paved with paw prints.  I've got two cats who have printed their paws on my heart!  Both were strays that we adopted and now couldn't live without.

For my card, I had to use a cat stamp (I've got quite a few!) This kitten is from the Chubby Chums set by Paper Smooches:

The papers and ribbon are from my stash.  There are many animals that could inspire a card for this challenge and I hope that you'll join us this month!

I'm entering this card into the Cardz TV challenge: Polka dots and stripes

Thanks for stopping by!

Muse Challenge #86

Talk about procrastination!  I waited until today to enter the latest Muse challenge - #86!  The card for this week is this beauty by Anita Bowden - 

The sketch inspired me, as well as the lovely blue and green colors.  Like Anita, I started with a round focal point, which is teal vellum embossed with the Hero Arts Classic Fabric stamp.  I used my circle dies to cut a circle frame around the vellum:

Like Anita, I cut the word "Happy" from a coordinating color and embossed the word "birthday" directly on my white panel in Peacock Feathers and clear embossing powder.  

The most difficult part was placing the "Happy" down because I had to add foam tape behind portions of the letters to keep everything even on top.  I'm happy with the end result, though, and I'll use this as a birthday card for my mother in November.

Thanks for the inspiration, Anita!  And thanks to everyone who stops by and leaves me a comment - I appreciate it very much!

Sep ODBD challenge for OWH

I just realized that September is almost done and I haven't made a card for the monthly ODBD challenge (here)!  I made the background angled piece with embossing paste and Distress Inks and kept it simple with a small stamp by Hero Arts:

I had a masculine look in mind for this card and I hope that's what it looks like.  After my card, we're only 4 more entries away from 50 cards.  I sure hope we can get to that number so ODBD will donate shipping for 2 boxes!  Thank you ODBD!

And thanks for stopping by!

Halloween candy box

With cooler temperatures in the South, it's made me want to pull out my fall decorations. I made a fall deco mesh wreath for my mantel and wanted to add a candy box.  I found a popcorn box in the Silhouette store as a starting point and used the cute Halloween set  from Miss Kate's Cuttables to decorate each side of the box.

I punched holes in the corners and added a bit of ribbons for some more fun too.  Here's each side of the box:

Now all that's left to do is fill my box up with candy!  I think it will look great on my mantel for the holidays!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hello card for cutting edge challenge

One of my blogging doldrums is a slow laptop.  I've asked Santa for a new one because mine just slogs along and makes it impossible to multi task, especially if my Silhouette software is up and running.  I know, whine, whine, whine.  Because of my slow laptop, it's taken me several days to enter a new-to-me challenge blog - The Cutting Edge.  There's a great design team and lots if inspiration, so I wanted to play along in the latest challenge (#9) with this card as inspiration:

I was inspired by the bright colors against the gray background.  I've had a piece of velvet gray paper on my desk for a while and used it as the background for my card here:

I stamped and embossed the flowers and used my Silhouette to cut the background leaves.  I made the Hello sentiment with my sketch pens, which I love.  It's so easy to pop out the blade, insert the pens and sketch away!

I did want to embellish a bit more, but stopped myself to keep it clean and simple.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another baby card!

I've got more baby cards to make and needed another girl one, so I used a baby dress card from the Silhouette store (#57689) for this card:

I embossed the white band and collar band with the Swiss dots folder and added Stickles to the bow.  The paper is from my stash.  I love giving shaped cards because you don't find those in stores.

I'm entering this card into the Just Us Girls challenge - Not an A2 card.

Happy Labor Day to you!

It's a girl! - baby card

It must have been a cold January winter because I know quite a few people who are giving birth soon!  I'm going to make a few baby cards for the parents and one is for a coworker who's adding a third girl to his family in a few short weeks.  Since several people will sign the card, I made it as a 5x7 card, using the "It's a Girl" file from Miss Kate Cuttables

 I substituted hearts from my Martha Stewart punch for the stars and went kinda crazy with the Stickles!  

I'm entering this card in the following challenge (just barely getting it in!);

PDE Linky #17 - Metal Dies or Punches

Now I've got to make a few more!  Thanks for stopping by.

Live in the moment

Life can get busy and sometimes it feels like I'm just living moment to moment.  I squeezed in a bit of crafting time today to create a card using embossing paste and Distress Inks.  I've watched a few tutorials on this and decided to give it a go because this week's challenge at Muse is this lovely card:

Bobby encouraged us to try stenciling with paste and I love the multiple colors she used.  For my card, I used a Tim Holtz stencil:

I inked multiple Distress Inks over the embossing paste - Wild Honey, Salty Ocean, Stormy Sky and Walnut Stain.  Like Bobby, I set my sentiment to the side.  While I had my embossing paste and stencils out, I made a few more backgrounds for future cards as well. While my desk is messy, it's fun to keep experimenting, right?

I'm also entering this card into this week's AAA challenge - 

AAA Cards - Stencil style

where this image is our inspiration:

Thanks for stopping by!

Treasured Memories scrapbook layout

Hello friends!  One of my favorite places to get cut files is from Miss Kate Cuttables.  Their designs are creative and fun and I especially love that there's a daily freebie!  When I read about their guest design member call, I thought I'd give it a try with a scrapbook layout.

The last time I visited the home I grew up in, I took pictures of my bedroom.  I thought it would be fun for my children to see how it looked and a good memory for me. I used elements from the "Treasured Memories" and "Family Memories" MKC files for my pages:

 

I spent quite a while matching papers to the bedspread my mother has on the beds and found a 2001 floral Anna Griffin paper still in my stash (talk about using up old paper!).  Here's my two page layout:

The top border is from the Family Memories MKC and the dress form is from the Silhouette store. I gave myself a small 3x3 journaling block on the left page and double-matted the photos 

 I added a vellum piece behind the dress form to give it some contrast against the background.

There's also a few pearls on the waist of the dress form and I added some swirls behind the pictures.

This is one of those layouts that I worked on all weekend, little by little.  I'd cut something out, come back a few hours later, cut something else, etc.  Although scrapbooking your old bedroom isn't the most exciting subject, it's part of my past and I wanted to remember it - a treasured memory for sure!

I'm entering this into the guest design call for the Miss Kate Cuttables blog, which you can read about here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Daisy Girl Scout Kaper Chart

I'm getting ready for a year of Daisy Girl Scouts and wanted to make a fun Kaper Chart.  Kapers are chores that the girls do in every meeting.  After browsing through ideas on Pinterest (I could waste hours doing that), I found this picture as inspiration:

I don't know who created this chart, so I can't give them credit (if someone knows, please tell me).  My version is here:

The following items came from the Silhouette online store:

flowerpots - #42246

grass - #1075

bee - #61644

The butterfly is from A Little Hut

I made the kaper labels by using my Silhouette sketch pen, which was the first time I used it and I love them!  After writing the words "Craft", "Song", etc, I cut the ovals with the Silhouette.

I created the words "Kaper Chart" with the Curlz font and created a green shadow behind the letters.

I used fun foam to cut the flowers by hand and added a brad in the middle.  The flowers have pieces of magnet behind them so I can move them around the board.  I'm going to write each girl's name on a flower.   Actually, each item has magnets behind it so I can move everything around.  

I just learned that more girls will be joining my troop, so I'm going to have to make at least 2 more flowers.  That's a good problem to have!

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

August Silhouette challenge blog - Challenge #16

Die Cuttin Diva's - Pinterest inspired

Craft My Life - Anything goes - no cards

This was a lot of fun to make and I hope the girls will enjoy using it this year!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love ya to the stars

Happy hot Sunday to ya!  It's not only hot here in the deep South, but it's also very humid.  We're expected to hit 100 degrees on Wednesday!  Ouch!  I can't complain, though, because we've really had a mild summer -I  knew those hot days would come to visit us sometime!

I'm officially an empty-nester now that my son moved in to his college dorm this weekend.  Yeah!  I found time to make cards and catch up on some challenges.

My first card is inspired by Kristina Werner's galaxy card.  It was fun to play with acrylic paints and Distress Inks to create a sky for the Lawn Fawn sentiment:

I'm entering this card into the August Words 2 Scrap By challenge - From darkness to light

My next two cards are for Operation Write Home challenges.  I used Penny Black Critters stamps and colored them with Distress Inks.

My thank you card is for the Mid-month throwdown challenge - Gratitude

My final card is for the latest sketch challenge - #236:

Those little critters are so adorable!  I couldn't pass this stamp set by when I bought it at Absolutely Everything in Massachusetts.  There's other images too that I can't wait to color.

Well now I'm off to work on making a Kaper Chart for my Daisy Girl Scout troop.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sending warm thoughts

This week is just zipping by because I'm busy getting my son ready for college.  I promised to not get all misty when I see him off this weekend, but I'm excited for this next big step in his life.  

I've been in a bit of a creative slump and decided I would just CASE ideas until my own returned, starting with the weekly Muse challenge card, provided by Therese Calvird:

All of that pink scared me, but I pushed myself to copy her colors and style using the SSS Everything Flowers set.  I stamped Colorbox Frost White as the bottom layer of each flower and then used Hero Arts black for the black circles.  Here's my version:

I masked the flowers to stamp the leaves, which I haven't done in a while and found it was loads of fun!  The sentiment is from Impression Obsession - Anytime Sentiments.  Now that I'm finished, I love the vibrant colors!  I hope you get a chance to play over at Muse too!

My next two cards are part of the Stretch your stamps 2 class homework.  I used the Avery Elle rounded diamond set to make graphic backgrounds.  I did a lot of stamping and experimenting to create these two cards:

The ribbon was the inspiration for my stamped colors.  I'm enjoying this class so much, even though I'm waaay behind.  I do come back later to the class lessons and make cards, so it's all good.

Thanks for stopping by!