Freshly Made Sketches Card, A Wreath and Growing Plants

Happy Sunday everyone!! I hope you all had a FABULOUS weekend!! I am popping in with a card I created for this weeks Freshly Made Sketches #402.

I used The Ton's Fresh Cut Sunflower stamp set for my flowers and Carta Bella's Let Love Bloom for the sentiment.

The sketch I used as my inspiration is below.

I chose to use polka dot paper scraps for the paper strip at the top. On my card the strip is split because of a mistake in cutting the paper.

I used Altenew ink pads for the yellow and green of the flower and My Favorite Things ink for the brown on the flower.

I added some Glossy Accents on the flowers for interest, as well as some yellow jewels.

I am also going to enter this card in the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge: Tristan's All About Occasions, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Stamp It, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Bling It On. The colors were inspired by Sunday Stamps Autumn Whispers Challenge, which is a photo.

 

 

I actually didn't have too much time in my craft room this weekend. Instead, I spent some time shopping at Hobby Lobby with my sister. I spent WAY TOO MUCH MONEY!! I did buy some flowers and leaves to make a wreath for my front door.

I need to get a few more leaves but I can always pull this off the door and fix it.

I also need to make a better hanger for the top. I just wanted to get this created and on the door to go with the mums I planted today. I still need to get pumpkins and then I will post my little vignette.

I also wanted to post some of my before and after photos of some of my plants. My plants do not always grow but this year some of them really grew well.

This is my Morning Glory. It was literally two separate, stringy plants when I planted them and I didn't even think they would grow. I didn't have a photo of that but this is what it looked like in July.

This is what my plant looked like yesterday!! I am just starting to get a bunch of flowers.

Now for my big pot that I planted with Geraniums, a purple flower I don't know the name of, and Petunias. Below is what it looked like when I first planted it.

It grew OUT OF CONTROL and I trashed it today to put in mums. The Petunias and the purple flowers just grew and grew. Was easy to maintain but man did it get big!!

Well, that is all from me tonight. I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by. I hope you all have a FABULOUS week!!

CASE this Sketch Guest Designer #339

Happy Thursday!! I hope your week is going well. Happy for Friday!!

Today I am on the blog with a post for CASE this Sketch #339. I won one of the challenges and as my prize, I get to be a guest designer over on the CASE this Sketch Blog this week!! I am so excited!! I would LOVE to design for this site any day!!!

To celebrate, I chose to create a card to use for a type of celebration.

I used scraps for the layered frames, an Ink Blot Shop sentiment and a Clearly Besotted stamp that was colored in with Copic Markers.

Below is the sketch that I used for this card:

I basically stuck to the sketch, with the exception of making the square into a circle. The heart element would be the margarita.

As per usual, I left it a day and came back and added a few things before I felt it was finished. I used a Memory Box stencil with some Twisted Citron Distress Ink to create some green polka dots behind the stamped piece.

I also covered the cherry with Glossy Accents and used a Nuvo Glimmer Pen on the umbrella in the drink.

I had SO MUCH FUN playing with this sketch and I thank Chrissy Larson and the whole design team for letting me play along today!!!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Have a FABULOUS day!!!

Twofer Guest Designer for Challenge #20-Critters

Hello everyone!! I hope you are all having a FABULOUS day!!

Today I am a the guest designer for this months Twofer Card Challenge.

This month the challenge is "critters."

I created a birthday card and a Christmas card for my cards. I used a mouse from Hello Bluebirds "Field Mice" as my repeat critter. The mouse on the left is the same mouse but colored in a different color for each card.

Here are the rules for the challenge:

CARD DETAILS

For the birthday card I used Distress Ink in Twisted Citron for the grass and Tumbled Glass for the sky.

All the small details, like the butterfly, hats, flowers and the cupcake are small stamps from different stamp sets that I combed through to make my scene.

The grass was a stencil I created using an MFT die that I had. I used a craft knife to cut into it in two places to tuck the feet of the mice under it.

The finishing touches are using Glossy Accents on the balloon and hats, and Stickles glitter glue in a variety of colors.

For my second card I created a Christmas card.

I layered different patterned papers from Basic Grey and Prima. I added some snowflakes that were "extras" from a previous project that I tucked behind a pre-made Prima tag.

The "Merry" sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp that was another "extra" in my stash, that was already colored in. I used Antique Linen Distress Ink on all the white accents because the background paper was not a true white.

All the little mouse accents, from the cheese "present" to the hat and scarf are from Lawn Fawn.

I have to admit that this IS NOT my favorite card. The mice are a bit too close together on the tag but I had to do it this way because of the size of the tag. It is also busier then I usually make my cards. All in all, it was fun to create but not my usual style.

That is all from me today. I thank you so much for taking the time to stop by. Have a wonderful day!!

My First Christmas Card of the Year for Freshly Made Sketches #401 and Happy Little Stampers Challenges

Happy Monday!! I hope you all are having a great start to the week.

I have a busy week with MD appointments and getting my hair colored, (thank goodness!!) as well as making myself go to the gym. Hate exercise BUT it is essential to my physical and mental stability. I just hate making time for it. Would rather be doing so many other things.

Popping in with two cards I created for some challenges. The first card I created using Freshly Made Sketches #401 and Happy Little Stampers Challenge: Anything Goes With Dies.

Here is the sketch that I used for my jumping off point.

I used some of the die cuts that I had cut out this weekend to make this card. I have to say that I had A LOT OF FUN making this.

The green leaves are the new "Eucalyptus Leaves" die from Simon Says Stamp that I blended Mowed Lawn and Evergreen Bough Distress Ink on. I then topped it with some clear Nuvo Shimmer Pen.

I layered this over Memory Box's "Jovial Wreath" die that I had shaded in using Vintage Photo and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink. My paper is from an old 6" by 6" Basic Grey paper pad. (So miss this company!) The little gold gems are from Studio Katia.

The sentiment is from the archives. I believe it is Making Memories? Could be something else but it is more than ten years old. I popped it up over the wreath and leaves with foam adhesive. I LOVE how this card came out!!

For my second card, it is another quick thank you. I used the sketch from AAA Card Challenge #148, which was a card sketch.

I decided to use the Simon Says Stamp "Explore Nature" stamp and Die set instead of using animal images.

I stamped the leaves with Ranger Archival Black ink and then used small cube inks and did a faux watercolor technique on the leaves.

I used scraps of paper to put above and below the leaf border. As you can see, the ink did seep out of the edge of the orange and red leaves. I didn't mind that it did this. It looks like part of the design. The sentiment is from Hello Bluebird.

I used Blushing Red Nuvo Crystal Drops as an embellishment.

Well, that is all from me today. I have some special posts coming up for the rest of the week, so tune back in tomorrow. I thank you for stopping by. Have a fabulous day!!

A Card for AAA Card Challenge and a Few Photos

Hey Peeps!! This is my second post for today. I have had a great weekend and am awful chatty today so I apologize ahead of time. I should probably have picked up a phone to one of my friends to talk but instead I just rambled on to all of you!!

I had a bit of mojo today so I decided to run with it. I used the sketch from this weeks AAA Card Challenge #148 as my jumping off point and the photo from the Paper Craft Crew Challenge #349 for my card.

Here is the sketch from the AAA Card Challenge that I used and the Butterflies and Blooms Challenge #349 from the Paper Craft Crew.

Since I had my design inspiration set, I picked what type of occasion to make by thinking about what I needed at the moment. I had two thank you cards that needed to be made so this was the theme of the card.

I am going to admit something here. I usually send out store bought thank you's I buy at TJ Maxx. Yup, I am lazy like that!! I always need one and they are not my favorite cards to make so buying them is just easier.

Anyways....I used the My Favorite Things "Beautiful Butterflies" stamp set with "Golden Sunset" and "Pocketful of Sunshine" ink cubes from Altenew for my butterflies.

I then masked off a border with Post It tape and blended the lightest color orange ink above and below the butterflies.

I added a skinny piece of orange pattern paper above and below the blending, as well as a popped up sentiment strip to complete the card. Oh, and the sentiment strip? A mistake as well. I had originally stamped it right on the card but even with a MISTI, it was crooked!! I had to cover up this mistake with that darn strip.

In other news, I was busy cleaning this weekend. My dog was mad at me for leaving him yesterday when I went to the gym and peed on the floor. I took the opportunity to wash my kitchen and downstairs bathroom floor on my hands and knees. It was a feat!!

My kitchen is long and has a lot of tile. I scrubbed it with a scrub brush, mopped it, THEN rinsed it and dried it with an old towel. It took me about two and one half hours when all was said and done.

Before you think I am crazy, I don't do this often. When I was younger and at home, I would wash the floor like this once a month. Now it gets done when I am in the mood. I do wash it (or more like Chris does!) but with a Swiffer Wet Jet after we have vacuumed the dirt up sometimes twice a week. It does not get as clean as when you do this, though.

In other news, Charlotte FINALLY decorated her walls on her side of the dorm room. It was looking like a prison when she FaceTimed me, so I am glad that she put in a bit of effort!!

Notice the Micky Mouse Ears to the left on the command hooks. Thought she was going to use those in her bathroom but she put them to an alternate use!!

Last night I couldn't sleep so stayed up binging on Netflix and die cutting until 3:00 a.m.

Am I the only crazy person that does this? I sometimes die cut different dies in white all at once so when I am making a card, I just pull them out, color them up (or leave them white) and voila, instant gratification. Some I put on Press'n Seal wrap to keep pieces together.

I wish I could say I slept late today but woke up coughing from allergies at 6:00 in the morning. I did go back to sleep for a bit but was up by 8:30 because went for a walk with a friend at 9. Glad this happened on a weekend and not a workday!!

Anyway, that is enough from me today. I thank you for taking the time to stop by and read this long post or just skim, as the case may be. Have a FABULOUS night!!