What have I been working on

I haven't posted any cards this week because I have been working on a little project I am making for myself.  Have you ever checked out Kerri Bradford Studio?  If you like to use a Silhouette or use svg files, you will love her blog and store.  Kerri makes files that she sells and I found a really cute series of Painters Tray kits for all four seasons and several holidays.  They are called the This & That series and she sells the kits with all of the files and patterned papers you need to make THE cutest project.  All you have to do is print or cut them out and put it all together.  I would love to be so creative myself and come up with all of the little bits and pieces she thinks up, but I am a much better "copier" than creator and this project is exactly as she made hers.

The best idea she has is using magnets to hold the sections in place so you only need one painter tray and can switch out the sections if you want to make more than one season.  Now that I have the hang of it, I think I will give it a go coming up with my own tray for Fall.  I have a while to work on it and should be able to finish one by Sept or early October.  You should check out her store, she is super talented!

Serendipity Stamps Blog Challenge #12 - Victory Garden

It's time for another Serendipity Stamps Challenge Blog post...this week we are up to #12 and the theme is Victory Garden.  We were challenged to make a garden themed card without using a strictly floral image.  That is a tough one as Serendipity has so many beautiful flower stamps.  

I ended up choosing a Seed Packet stamp (Daisy Seed Packet) for my main image.  Lots of detail on this stamp and I actually tried coloring it in a variety of colors, but ended up using the first image I made with only brown ink and lots of tea dye stain on the edges.  I think it gives a much more rustic, vintage look to the stamp.  I layered it over some Spellbinder labels and used a couple of red rhinestones for the flower centers.  I have been making myself tie a lot of bows these days (to use up the tons of ribbon I have been hoarding) and added a pretty stick pin for just a little more sparkle.  

Why not play along with our Victory Garden challenge?  You can win $20 off your next Serendipity stamp order if you are the lucky random draw winner.  Just make a card using any of the Serendipity stamps or dies that remind you of the Victory Garden theme.  Here is a link for all the details!

Jeanne

Marybeth

Anya

Pauline

Jenny

Miriam

Daisy Seed Packet

Monday Mood Board #12

This is my first time playing along with the WPlus9 Monday Mood Board Challenge.  The inspiration photo is always so bright and cheerful with lots of different items for you to draw inspiration from.  Here is this week's picture.

May is a big birthday month in my family and I need several  birthday cards...in about an hour actually, so this challenge was a huge help to me.  I loved the primary colors, the chevrons, the candles and the overall happy vibe this board gave me.  

I just got this stamp set (A Pocketful, WPlus9) from my sweet friend Suzanne...it's one I have wanted for a long time.  I love the pocket and all of the cute elements you can add to it.  I decided my pocket would be full of birthday candles, all lit up ready to be blown out.  The candles are a die from Serendipity Stamps (Cupcake and Candle Die).  I cut the chevrons on my cameo and impressed the orange panel with the polka dot impression plate from PTI.  The top corner looked a little bare so I added the circle arrow, again cut on my cameo and the stamp is a very old stamp of mine, not even sure where I bought it.  

This was a fun challenge, one I am sure I will start to play along with more often.  You have two weeks now to make your Monday Mood Board card...lots of time to come up with something fabulous.

Saturday Fun with Friends

Happy Saturday...only two more weeks until I am off work for the Summer and I can not wait!  Rather than counting the minutes until I am off work, I am playing along with four of my crafty friends today making a card and matching envelope.  We are all using the Kreate-a-lope.  If you have never heard of this before, it is a plastic tool to help you make A2 envelopes with no scissors. The creator of Kreate-a-lope is having a campaign at Kickstarter to raise funds to make the Kreate-a-Lope available in new sizes.  For a donation of $10,  you receive one of the current Kreate-a-lope envelope makers.  Here's a link for you to read more about it.

While I was trying to decide what kind of card to make, I saw the current Case Study Challenge #141.  This is the third cute card by this month's muse, Maile Belles.  It is a bright and fun CAS card which I knew would be perfect for my inspiration.

I love the colors Maile used,  so bright and happy against the white card stock and the die cut script word layered over them.  Here is my card:

I impressed some white card stock with PTI's woodgrain impression plate, stamped and cut out a woodgrain chevron image from Waltzingmouse Stamps (Woodgrain) in the three colors that Maile used on her card.  I die cut my sentiment with Wonderful Words: Hello from PTI.  It seems to be a trend these days to not punch out all of the negative space, so I left mine in place.  It was tough for me to do it...it just didn't seem right to leave them there, but I did it.

Here's a look at my matching envelope:

Just a few of the same woodgrain chevrons stamped on the outside...but on the inside, I added the great big woodgrain stamp.

It is so nice to have an envelope ready to go when I need it.

So, let's take a look at what my other four friends made with their Kreate-a-lope.  Here's a link to Kelly, Julia and Renee's blogs.  I am sure they have come up with something spectacular!

Kelly Schirmer

Julia Aston

Renee Lynch

Suzanne Dahlberg

10 Minute Craft Dash # 18 and CASology #44 - Bloom

I decided to play along with the 10 Minute Craft Dash #18 for the first time today.  The colors are lavender, green and yellow (my card is a bit more orange, but I was using YR copics)  I normally take days to make a card, starting and stopping, making and remaking each piece, so this was a fun challenge for me.  I also wanted to make a card for CASology #44 where this week's cue word is Bloom.  I just hung a beautiful hanging basket I received from my son on Mother's Day and it seemed like the perfect time to play along with such a happy, cheerful cue as Bloom.  Everyone loves flowers, even someone with a brown thumb like me.  I have a new stamp I have never used before, Serendipity Stamps Butterfly Garden.  It totally reminds me of the word bloom.

Butterfly Garden is super easy to color, requires very little shading (my type of coloring) and is perfect for a CAS card.  I just added the Serendipity sentiment (Thanks so much, large) and wrapped a simple twine bow around it.  This one will be very easy to mail, practically one layer.  This card was so easy and quick to make...final time was 9 minutes 30 seconds. (I had all the markers out and twine ready to go which made things go much quicker) Whew.  Fastest card I have ever made!

Butterfly Garden

Everyday Words, large

SSCB#11 - Masculine Card

I can't believe we are on Challenge #11 already!  This week Serendipity Stamps's challenge is going to be a fun one...masculine cards.  I know I normally dread making them, no bows, no flowers, no glitter, but it is still possible to make a nice card for men or boys just by using a few stamps, die cuts and the right choice of card stock color.  Here is my card:

Kraft really is the most perfect color.  It can be paired with almost any combination and depending on the accent colors, make a card perfect for a either a man or woman.  Today I used some cute stamps from Serendipity that are perfect for any male, young or old.  What male doesn't love sports, all kinds, especially with all the cable sports available on television.  There is a game on just about every minute of the day.  This card uses Serendipity Baseball, Football, Basketball and Soccer Ball to make a fun border for my masculine card.  I cut a kraft star background with my Silhouette and adhered it with spray glue to the card base.  Then after stamping and embossing the basketball, just layered it over the background.  I think that basketball looks so real with the polkadot embossing.  Since all of these sports rely on referees, I decided to add a "referee" sentiment banner.  I cut the banner shape and added slivers of black cardstock to frame my sentiment (We Make A Great Team).  I think it looks a little like a referee uniform, don't you think?

Do you have a man in your life that deserves a nice card...remember Father's Day is coming up very soon.  If so, why not make a card and enter the Serendipity Stamps Blog Challenge #11 and make a masculine card using at least one Serendipity stamp or die.  You have a chance to win a $20 certificate towards your next Serendipity order.   For a little more inspiration, here is a list of the other Serendipity Design Team members who also made masculine cards today.

Jeanne

Marybeth

Anya

Pauline

Jenny

Miriam

Soccer Ball

Basketball

Baseball

Bike and Tandem Set

Football

Happy Birthday Joyce Blog Hop

Happy Birthday to my sweet friend Joyce Mehrberg!  I know you aren't surprised.  You HAD to know that after all the blog hops you have organized that we would be doing one for you too and a great big thank you to Kim for arranging the details.  There was no shortage of willing participants for your blog either, just take a look at the link list at the bottom of my post.
I will keep this short, I am sure you will want to see what everyone has made for you!

Joyce loves ice cream and this one is a triple scoop using three types of PTI patterned paper pack designs.  I stitched around Tag Sale #3 with floss and stamped it with Fillable Frames #5 in three different colors.  I added some Lil Inker Balloons and a cute celebrate arrow I cut with my silhouette. The raspberry fizz layer is embossed with a Darice Chevron embossing folder.   I even tied a shiny bow!

Joyce, I hope you have a fabulous day on Cinco de Mayo and make sure to blow out the candles and make a great big wish for the coming year!

Darnell

Jeanne

Joyce (Leave Joyce a little birthday hello)

Kara

Kim

Marybeth

Renee 

Tracey

Sharron

Case Challenge #139-My Hero

***Please scroll down to the previous post which has the complete description of my Case Study Challenge cards...I could not link two challenge cards from the same blog post***

Here's the direct link:

Case Study Challenge #139, Card Two

Yee-Haw, It's Your Day Case Study DT Challenge

*This is my second post today, for the Serendipity Stamps Summer Release post, please scroll down*

It's good to try new things...right?  Today I have a card to share that I made for the Case Study Design Team Challenge.  Week after week the Case Study Design Team draw inspiration from a guest "Muse", letting their imaginations run wild and always creating something fabulous for those of us who enjoy playing along.  Who wouldn't want to be a part of that team?  I know I would and my card today is my "audition".

For this challenge we were to choose a personal Muse, anyone from the crafting world whose work we admire.  For me, I admire far more crafters than I can name so I flipped through my Pinterest gallery and came upon a card that has always been one of my favorites.  Here it is:

Card by Stephanie Wincott

This beauty was created by a super talented designer, Stephanie Wincott of Clearly Besotted.  I loved those beautiful pleats and decided that the pleats would be the inspiration for my own card.  I wanted to  use pleats in a different way than I have ever done before and I also knew I wanted to use my favorite stamp set of all time...Waltzingmouse Back in the Saddle.  I love making western themed cards with this set.  Enough talk, here's my card:

I made a pleated belly band for a gate fold card.  Before I give you the details of my card, here's a closeup of those pleats.

I stamped a subway style pattern using at least 7 different stamps from Back in the Saddle for my background and made a simple belly band from kraft card stock and stamped the tiny star image along the top.  I folded some patterned paper pleats and used scor tape to add them to the belly band.  Some denim ribbon was wrapped around it to hide the gathers and I tied not only a denim bow, but a jute twine bow embellished with My Favorite Things Country Charms to dangle from it.  I embossed the galloping horse rider in navy and added it for a little more interest.

The inside of my card is stamped with the beautiful Woodgrain background from Waltzingmouse Woodgrain.  Wow, is that a huge stamp!  Sentiments from Back in the Saddle are framed within a new image from Waltzingmouse My Kind of Guy.  I had to add those cute cowboy boots for no other reason than I love them!  A few denim stars finish off my card.

I would like to thank Stephanie for the original inspiration...I have cased more than a few of her cards in the past.  I would also like to thank the creative Case Study Challenge team for considering me for their Design Team.  Yee Haw!

Serendipity Stamps Summer Stamp Release Blog Hop

Today is the second blog hop featuring the new Summer Stamps and Dies from Serendipity Stamps.  You have already seen the beautiful new Pear Die and Stamp set...if not, here is a link so you can catch up!  They are gorgeous.  Today the Design Team is showcasing several new Summer stamps, all artwork of MoonCookie Gallery by Natalie Seaton.  Wait until you see these cute stamps!  You should have arrived here by way of Anya, but if not, the blog hop order is listed at the bottom of my post.  Each Design Team member was assigned a particular stamp to feature, so make sure you check them all out.  There is also a great prize available to one lucky person who leaves a comment on all of our blogs.  You could win a complete set of all the stamps featured today!  You have until Sunday, May 5th to leave your comment and the winner will be revealed on the Serendipity blog on Monday, May 6th.

The stamp set I am lucky enough to introduce is called Sun Garden, and believe me, it is every bit as pretty as it's title.

The new stamps in this line would all be beautiful colored with copics or other coloring mediums, and I am sure you will see quite a few examples of that as you follow along the blog hop.  I, on the other hand, rarely color and am showing you how pretty this stamp can be all by itself.  I embossed it with clear embossing powder and the design is so crisp and detailed.  I added a few pearls, a cute border and a poofy bow and stick pin and this card was done in no time flat!  The sentiment is also from Serendipity (Hello) and is just the touch for such a cheerful image.

My second example of Sun Garden is a tag.  I have had a cute tag pinned for a while now (Tag by Martha) and as soon as I saw this new stamp, I knew I had found the right image to use with a similar tag.

This time I stamped the Sun Garden image onto kraft with white embossing powder and used a Qtip to shade a few of the petals with white pigment ink.  I also added a little lace, some pearls and a cute white bow.  Woudn't this look pretty tied onto a gift bag?

Are you ready to see the rest of the new stamps?  You can jump ahead to Marybeth's blog now or else start at the beginning, either way, you are going to love the new Summer stamps.  Don't forget to leave your comment, you could win a complete set of all the stamps featured today.  What a great prize!

Miriam

Jenny

Anya

Cathy (That's me)

Marybeth

Pauline

Jeanne

Sun Garden

Hello