Just a Quick Post

Hey friends!! Just a quick post to upload my card for The Color Throwdown Challenge #746.

It was to use the colors below. 

I used Pink Fresh Studio's Intricate Stitched Ovals, Arch Florals, Around the Shape Arches and Pretty Frames 2 for my card.

I colored my flowers in with Copic Markers. I did make a boo boo on the right hand side of the card and had to add some more sequins that I didn't plan on. I love how it came out. 

That is all from me today. Thanks for stopping by!!

Nora

Some Challenge Cards

Happy Sunday everyone!! 

This week has been so BEAUTIFUL, not like a normal New England August at all. It makes me smile!! I have not been able to enjoy much of it, though, as I have been shopping to get Charlotte back to college. She has her first apartment (on her parents dime 😬) and she needs quite a few things to fill it. I have been on the prowl to find her another set of dishes, a stock pot and I did finally find her new bedding. 

I have been able to make some cards, though, for some challenges. This first card is for this weeks *Color Throwdown Challenge #354. It was to use the colors gray, brown and white. 

Below is the badge for this weeks ctd654 challenge.

I am not going to lie, I always have difficulty doing color challenges. I am also NOT a neutral person. I decided to go through my scrap drawer which contains my neutral colors, get out some of the pattern paper and cut it into strips. I then made a few backgrounds.

I die cut this background twice, one to create the striped rectangle for this card, and to make a frame for my next card, with my Lawn Fawn *Stitched Rectangles. I adhered it to a *Kraft background using *foam adhesive. 

I used the Tim Holtz *Wildflower Stems 2 to die cut some leaves from *Neenah Solar White Cardstock. I adhered the leaves over the striped rectangle.

I then adhered the sentiment that was stamped and die cut using the Thinking of You Sentiment Suite from The Greetery. I LOVE how this card came out and intend to use this as a Sympathy card. I will add a nice sentiment inside for the recipient.

For my second card, I used the remainder of my striped paper as a frame for my card.

I decided to create a shaker card, using an ocean theme. I shaded the inside using *Salty Ocean Distress Ink.

I added a kraft paper net that was die cut using a Tutti Fruitti die and some shells from the Hero Arts *Fancy Sea Shells die set. Can I tell you how I LOVE these dies? I get no money from saying this but I adore them!!

The last thing I adhered was a sentiment from my stash. I am not sure who the company is that created it. I intend for this to be yet another retirement card and will add a nice sentiment inside for whoever I send it to.

I am entering this card into the Just Add Ink Challenge #566-Just Add a Frame. 

The last card I created just because. I used a Stamp Market Paper Hug die (retired) with The Greetery's Alpha Buds Floral Detail stamps and dies. 

The sentiment is one from my stash and I am not sure who created it. 

I shaded in the white rectangle using *Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink and used a piece of yellow pattern paper underneath.

I love how all my cards came out. I have been having so much fun in my craft room creating things again and using my supplies!!

I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by today. I hope you have a GREAT night!!!!

Valentine's Eve

 Happy Saturday!!! I am just popping in with two more cars that I created for some challenges. They are Valentine themed, which cracks me up since we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day in my home!!! My birthday is on February 15th so we just roll it into one.

I created my first card for my daughter, though I should have made it for my husband!! He LOVES Pandas!!!

This card was inspired by this weeks Global Design Projects Sketch #278 and this weeks colors on The Color Throwdown #629 badge. 

Instead of ombre stripes like on the sketch, I used a Heart Border die from Mama Elephant. I chose to die cut it from the colors on the Color Throwdown badge.

The panda was dug out from my stash of colored in images. It is from the Lovely Pandas by Gerda Steiner.

The sentiment strips were from Taylored Expressions Mini Strips Valentine. I tucked some die cut hearts around the little bear that were die cut from a retired CAS-Fridays die.

My second card I had fun creating using Pretty Pink Posh's Layered Heart Stencil and a die cut sentiment using SSS's Big Valentine's Day die.  

I used the new Kitsch Flamingo Distress Ink along with Candied Apple and Spun Sugar.

The sentiment is three layers of red cardstock that I covered with Christmas Red Stickles to give it some sparkle and shine.  

I am entering this card into some challenges too. I am entering this into Watercooler Wednesdays WWC 308, The Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #152 and The Card Concept #148. The WWC308 was to create a card for an occasion and the colors were inspired by The Cupcake Inspiration and The Card Concept.

That is all from me today. I have one more card I created for Valentine's Day but I had to fix a boo boo and need to let it dry. I will post it maybe tomorrow.

Have a FABULOUS night!!

Freshly Made Sketches, Color Throwdown and Cards for Challenges

Hello everyone. Just popping in with some cards for some challenges.

My first card was inspired by the Color Throwdown #599.

It is kind of an unconventional birthday card in that I had to add a heart on the beer bottle to get the pink color in!! Here is the color badge that inspired this card:

I used Waffle Flower Crafts Home Brew Combo set for the beer and the bottle, The Greetery's Pinwheel Party Stencils and Dies, Honey Bee Stamps Confetti Background Stencil, and a sentiment from Simon Says Stamps Birthday Palooza.

If any of these products looks familiar, they were extras that were on my desk from my card making activities from last weekend!!!

Don't you love when you have extras to use for a card? I am liking how this came out and it took no time because I had it all on my desk!!

My second card I was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #441-FMS441-and Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge-Anything Goes.

 

Again, I used stuff from my stash that was already stamped.

I doctored up the stamping on both the birds and the leaves with some Copic markers.

The birds and sentiment are Papertrey Ink's Brushed Birds stamps and dies.

The leaf is Altnew's Leaf Canopy stamp and die set.

This is actually my favorite card that I created this weekend!! I just love these bird stamps!!!

In other news....
Not been a great weekend here in our household. My poor dog is really sick and I am thinking we are going to have to put him down either tomorrow or Tuesday. His heart is not doing well and the additional meds we got from the vet this past Thursday are not working. I have spent most of the day taking all my time snuggling with him.

That is all from me today. I will be back tomorrow with two more cards I created for some challenges. I thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Have a great night.

With Deepest Sympathy

Just popping in with a card I created yesterday for two challenges.

I was inspired by two challenges for this card-Freshly Made Sketches #433 and this weeks The Color Throwdown #591.

I knew I wanted to do these two challenges in tandem so I dug through my supplies and pulled out this butterfly from PaperTrey Ink's A Bit More Butterfly Blooms stamp set. I had gotten this set AGES ago and had yet to ink it up. I decided this was the perfect card to ink it up for.

I heat embossed the butterfly and colored it in with Zig markers. I pulled these out to try something a little different. I haven't been doing a ton of coloring lately and when I do, it is always with Copic. I am not great with these but they were fun to use. 

Even the ink smooshing I did with the purple marker that I colored in the tiny dots in the wings. Mixed with water it turned out a bit more pink than I had wanted. However, I decided that it looked good with the butterfly so I kept it.

The sentiment is also from a PaperTrey Ink stamp set-Words of Comfort. This particular sentiment stamp is the one I use over and over.

Well, that is all from me today. I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Have a FABULOUS day!!

Even More Challenges!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you are all staying healthy at that those of you that celebrate Easter had a nice holiday yesterday. Warning-there are a lot of photos in this post!!

It is rainy here in CT with winds gusts of more than 60 miles per hour. Just praying that our power does not go out!! I usually try to go for a walk but since the weather was not cooperating, today I actually went down and did the elliptical machine. We have had this since my 41st birthday? Not sure but I hardly ever use it. It is harder to pedal than the ones at the gym so I would rather use those! I also did some weights. Hopefully I will be pleasantly sore tomorrow.

Today I am getting some cards for some challenges that I am getting in under the gun. I have "vacation" from school this week so I have time to blog them at the last minute.

The first card I created for Freshly Made Sketches #430.

I used WPlus9 "Fresh Cut Florals", Simon Says Stamp "Thanks and Encouragement Word Mix," and my new Altenew "Fine Frames Diamonds" die set.

The florals were from a pile on my desk that has been there forever. It has been fun challenging myself to do this. I always stamp "extras" when I am doing a project and have SO MANY to choose from!!

I have also been trying to stamp sentiments to have on hand and I had fun looking through them to pull for this card.

The challenges I am entering this card into are:

Freshly Made Sketches #430

Happy Little Stampers: Anything Goes With Dies (I was inspired by the pink flowers)

Inspired by Challenges #119: Spring is Here (I used Frame Dies)

NBUS Challenge (I used my Altenew Frames for the first time)

 

For  my second card, I started out being inspired by two challenges. The first was the Color Throwdown Challenge #588. I usually have a difficult time doing color challenges but I paired it with this weeks CASE this Sketch Challenge #367 for a simple card design. 

I started off my card by using Distress Ink to paint my four lines on a piece of watercolor paper.

I rarely do this kind of technique because I am LAZY and hate to wait for things to dry!! Yes, I could use a heat gun but don't like the way the paper warps when I do that. When the stripes were dry, I die cut the image with an MFT Blueprints 13 die.

The branch is from Paper Smooches and I die cut that from watercolor paper, using Twisted Citron Distress Ink to give it some color.

The sentiment from Altenew's free "Best Sentiments" set that has been sitting in my NBUS pile of things to use. I think I will be inking this stamp up a few times to have in my stash.

The next card I was inspired by the Flower Challenge #43: Spring/Autumn,  Inkspirational Challenge #210: Spring, and the Time Out Challenges #159-Quote Inspiration.

I made this card to go in a set for my Aunt's birthday this week.

This card was SO FUN to make!! I stenciled the background and then splattered with a couple colors of Distress Mist.

The large flower and large leaves were stamped using some Altenew dye ink combinations. The smaller flowers I colored with Copic markers. All are from Aletenew's "Beautiful Day" stamp set. This is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE stamp sets.

The frame is from Pink Fresh Studio. I cut it in half and used it on another card that I will post later this week. 

I know this card would not be everyone's cup of tea with the background but I LOVED how it came out!!!

On another note, since we couldn't spend Easter with our family we did a Zoom call instead.

My father had a few difficulties at first but it was fun to do. I have been doing virtual happy hour with some of my girlfriends on Saturdays and this has kept me SANE!! Also figured I would post a photo of my pup. He is declining even with all his meds he is on.

He has been refraining from snuggling as of late. I think it is because it is hard to get comfortable on the couch.

That is all from me today. I hope I didn't bore you all!! I thank you for taking the time to stop by. Stay safe and healthy. I think of all of you wonderful cardmakers that I call my friends and love you to pieces!!!