12 Kits of Occasions: June with Marybeth

It's the last day of the month and time for our June edition of the 12 Kits of Occasions.  Marybeth of Marybeth's Time for Paper is our hostess and our theme this month is "Here Comes the Bride",  all about weddings and anniversaries.   It's always good to keep a few of those cards handy and with Marybeth's kit...I am prepared for quite awhile!

Here's a picture of the kit we had to work with this month.

Photo Courtesy of Kara

I took the kit with me on vacation and had lots of crafty time with it.  I made 5 cards and have quite a bit left over for when I need a quick wedding or anniversary card.

Want to see more from the 12 Kits of Occasions group?  Head on over to the 12 Kits of Occasions blog so you can hop around to see what the rest of the team has done with Marybeth's May kit.

All the supplies are listed on the 12 Kits of Occasions blog under the tab Monthly Kit Supplies 2014 here.

We have a guest designer joining us this month.. Lindsay from Occasional Crafting.  Be sure you stop by her blog to see her beautiful cards.  

Thank you Marybeth for a great kit!

Joyce

Renee

Tracey

Sharron

Marybeth

Jeanne

Kim

Kara

Kelly

Jessica

Sweet Booties

This month's Papertrey Ink release was such fun for me.  There were all kinds of very cute "baby" themed stamps and dies and I bought just about all of them!  I can not wait to find out the gender of my little grandbaby, but until I do...I made a test set of booties for someone who is having a baby girl this September.  They turned out so cute...and were so easy and fun to make!

Here's the little gift set I made with the Bootie dies.  Adorable, right?  The felt cut out so nice and clean...the stitching was relaxing and different color combinations just flooded me with ideas.  I made a matching little headband to go along with the booties too.  

I can't tell you how many times I have taken these out and just stared at them, daydreaming what they would look like on our own sweet baby!

Fusion #8: Celebrate

I've been so excited to share this card with you today...welcome to Fusion Card Challenge #8.  Isn't that a beautiful inspirational photo?  I guess I am a Spring/Summer kind of person because I LOVE these colors!  

This week I used both the sketch and the photo for my inspiration.  That is what is so great about the Fusion Card Challenge...you can use either the sketch, the photo or mix them together like I did and create Fusion!  

I loved the colors...that should be obvious, but I also loved the tiny touch of gold around the edge of the chair, the pretty pink silk bows and the overall happy theme of the photo.   I used Papertrey Ink's Shape Up Series: Cupcake Die for the focal point of my card.  I cut the top part of the cupcake down a bit so that the scale would be right for an A2 card base.  I traced the base of the cupcake and cut it out by hand since I wanted to run it through the crimper without the score marks.  The crimper "shrinks" everything, so the larger base now fits the smaller size top of the cupcake.  Does that make sense? Before I crimped it, I added a thin strip of gold tape and after crimping, it almost looks like gold stitching.  The gold sentiment was the perfect size for the cupcake base...where else was I going to fit a sentiment on this card?  LOL.  Last thought...tell me why digging through mounds of buttons to find the exact right shade and size is so much fun?  My husband came into the room while I was searching through stacks of buttons and couldn't believe how many I have!

So what do you see in the photo...or will it be the sketch this week?  The Fusion Card Challenge runs for two weeks and just in case you still  need a little more convincing to play along, the Fusion Design Team have created some beautiful cards to tempt you to get busy making something fabulous!

 Sadly for our Fusion team, Geri Freeman has had to leave our little group where she will be greatly missed, but on a happier note, we are very fortunate that Jeanne Jachna of A Kept Life will be joining us and sharing her beautifully "Fused" cards with us every two weeks.  

Betty J

Dannielle Robeson

Deepti

Jeanne Jachna

Julia Aston

Katie Brooks

Kelly Griglione

Kimberly Wiener

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan

Michelle Folland

Michelle Lupton

Sindu

Stephanie Severin

Fusion Card Challenge #5

I hope you have been playing along with the new Fusion Card Challenge...we have had so many players and a ton of beautiful cards submitted based on either our sketches or inspiration photos.  If you haven't heard about us...all you have to do is make a card based on either:

The Sketch

The Inspiration Photo

or

Combine them both to create "Fusion"

For Fusion Card Challenge #5, we have another great sketch and photo for you to use:

This week I decided to use just the sketch.  I was drawn to the big circle image and the gentle curve along the bottom.  My first thought was a snow bank, but ended up making some rolling hills instead.  I cut my hills by hand and used a silhouette cut file for the barn and windmill.  I ran the barn layer through a crimper to give it a little more texture.  I hope you can see that the big sun image (also a silhouette cut file) is meant to replace the large circle in the sketch.  I cut it from card stock, laid it over my card base and used the negative space to sponge on harvest gold ink.  The cute farm animals and sentiment are from Papertrey Ink's On the Farm Stamp and Die sets.  

So, what is going to inspire you this week?  Will it be the sketch...or the photo...or a combination of both?  Either way, you have plenty of time to play along.  This challenge ends on Tues. March 11th at noon PST.  I can't wait to see what you create!
For more inspiration...check out what the rest of the Fusion Design Team have made for you:

Betty J

Dannielle Robeson

Deepti

Geri Freeman

Julia Aston

Katie Brooks

Kelly Griglione

Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan

Michelle Folland

Michelle Lupton

Sindu

Stephanie Severin

CASology #80: Purple

I wanted to play along with this week's CASolgy #80 challenge which has a fun and colorful cue word...purple.  

So what is CAS, purple and since I am running late on time...quick to make while on my lunch break? How about some sparkly sequin grapes?

I stamped one of the Papertrey Ink Fruit Fusion: Grape images and filled in the individual grapes with a few different colors of purple sequins.  I cut a postage stamp frame, popped it up with dimensional foam, added a mini twine bow and stamped the sentiment, ate lunch and still managed to get back to work before my lunch hour was up.  You can't get much faster than that!  

Fusion Card Challenge #3: Hearts and Lace

It's time for Fusion Card Challenge #3 and this one has been my very favorite so far.  By now I am sure you have heard that the Fusion Card Challenge is open for business again and is even better than before!  Here are the rules:

How to play:
1. Play with just the sketch challenge.
2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.
3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.
4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.
5. Please read the other considerations on the Our Rules Page before playing along.

Ready to see this week's sketch and inspirational photo?

This week I decided to use only the inspirational photo for my card.  I was immediately drawn to the cute heart pattern and knew I had the perfect stamp set I could use to re-create that pattern...Papertrey Ink Background Basics: Hearts.  Those little red hearts are such fun to stamp and I used the stamped paper to create a cute sweater-shaped card (Papertrey Ink Shape Up Sweater Die ). While I was making the sweater, I was wishing my daughter was little again as I would have loved to dress her up in this sweater  with a pair of cute red leggings.  You remember those days...when you could dress your kids in anything you wanted that was "cute", at least to you?  I can't remember the last time I was able to buy something for Carly that she would "actually" wear!  

I added some lace trim around the collar, cuffs and hemline and added a row of pearls to bling up the red trim.  The cute cupid die cut is from Impression Obsession (Cupids).

So what do you think?  Will it be the sketch, the inspirational photo or a combination of them both for you this week?  There is lots of time to think about it, make your card and get it posted before the challenge ends on Tues. Feb 11th at noon PST.  That's right...two weeks to play with the winners being announced right before the next challenge is posted.  Speaking of winners...have you seen the winners from Challenge #3?  Here's a link...I am hoping you will see your own card in the winner's gallery!

Betty J

Dannielle Robeson

Deepti

Geri Freeman

Julia Aston

Katie Brooks

Kelly Griglione

Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan

Michelle Folland

Michelle Lupton

Sindu

Stephanie Severin

Card Concept Challenge #1: Colours

There's a new challenge blog that's caught my eye and I wanted to get in on the inaugural challenge...The Card Concept.  It has the neatest idea behind it.  The Design Team represents 6 different style themes and the challenge for players is to use the bi-weekly theme to make a card in one of those "styles".  What are the styles you ask?

Clean & Simple

Clean & Layered

Clean & Graphic

Freestyle Collage

Shabby Chic

Classy & Elegant

This is a challenge that is "just right" for every style of crafter.  Sounds fun, don't you think?  Here's the inspiration photo for Challenge #1:

Such a beautiful color combination to work with for the first challenge.

I found a pack of patterned paper (MME Lost & Found Madison Avenue) that I have had for the longest time...every single piece was the right color for this challenge.  I used the Papertrey Ink Coverplate Hexagon die, cut it with 5 different pieces of patterned paper and just started mixing and matching the different papers to come up with a random pattern.  I cut a Lil Inker On the Diagonal die in pink patterned paper and wrapped some chevron twill ribbon around it and tied a nice poofy bow.  The sentiment tag is tied on with twine and stamped with one of Papertrey Ink's Fillable Frame stamps.

I am having a tough time making a final decision about what style this is.  Normally, most of my cards are Clean and Layered, but this one has the bow and stickpin so I am guessing it is a combination of Clean and Layered and Classy and Elegant.  I guess the experts over at the Card Concept will have to make the final determination!  

Four of a Kind: January with Joyce

**I have two posts today...my Fusion Card Challenge card should be at the top of my blog roll**

Even though Christmas is over and it is nearly 80 degrees where I live, it is technically still Winter and do I have some fun Winter cards for you today!  It's time for our quarterly Four of a Kind blog hop with Joyce (this month's hostess), Kim, Renee and me.  In early December, Joyce sent us a fabulous kit...jam packed with all kinds of patterned papers, die cuts and embellishments all prepared to help us make some Winter/Christmas cards in time to photograph and then mail out for the 2013 Christmas season.  I only got two cards done before Christmas, but they are long gone now and only these photographs left in their place.  Here's the great kit Joyce sent us:

I was very excited to see that Joyce sent us stamped images from Papertrey Ink's Two Feet Deep.  It was a set I really wish I had gotten and could not wait to use it.  I also loved the patterned papers from Carta Bella Winter Fun collection.  The blue, kraft and cranberry colors looked so beautiful together.  Here are my cards:

This one is my favorite...loved those skis and the Snow diecuts.  I got to use a lot of patterned paper on this too!

Isn't that the cutest sled?  My very favorite image from the Two Feet Deep Stamp set.  I also loved the loopy border die Joyce sent us too.

You might think I did a lot of stamping on this card, but you would be WRONG!  The patterned paper already had the cute silhouettes, polka dot trees and swirls.  I just crimped the tag and added the other embellishments. 

I got to use that cute sled again as well as some of the pretty patterned paper and a large Lil Inker snowflake.

This last card was so fun to make...kind of an organized mess when you think of all the kit pieces that went into it.  I did learn that I should NEVER make my own snow shoes...they are very hard to lace!  I also added a very cute bow to the bottom of the snow shoes.  The die is from Mama Elephant and was a gift from Joyce, so I had to add it to the mix.  

This was lots of fun this month...I can hardly wait to see what Joyce, Kim and Renee have made with their kits.  Here's a link to their blogs so you can take a peek at their great cards!  Thank you Joyce once again for a really fun kit!

Joyce

Kim

Renee

Happy Birthday Jeanne!

Today we are getting together to wish our dear friend Jeanne Jachna of A Kept Life a very happy birthday.  Jeanne is truly one of the nicest people I know and not only makes beautiful cards, but is such a generous and supportive friend.  I can not count how many times my husband has gone out to get the mail and returned with a little package of goodies from Jeanne.  Ribbon, twine, patterned paper, stamps and fabulous cards, all sent for no other reason than she thought I would like them.  Best friend...ever!  A special thank you to Joyce Mehrberg of Cards by the Sea for once again organizing this little party.

First I will show you my card for Jeanne and then give a very brief explanation as to why I made this particular card for Jeanne.

See those cheery colors...I bet if you look back at Jeanne's blog you would find pink, orange, yellow and green over and over on her cards.  I know she also loves purple, but when I think of Jeanne...these are the colors I remember.  The leaves?  Not exactly Fall colors, but once again, there is a reason behind why I chose them.  I loaned Jeanne the Leaf Print stamps and dies from PTI and when I did, she warned me that she was very "tough" on dies.  I laughed that off and got the package in the mail to her.  A few weeks later Jeanne wrote me to say my stamps were on their way back to me, but the dies...didn't make it.  Apparently they were mangled and bent from Jeanne's less than gentle touch with her die cutting machine and replacement dies were being ordered.  We have laughed about that more than once lately, and I knew I had to use my newly replaced dies on Jeanne's card.  

The sentiment on my card is from Lil Inkers, Snarky Sentiments and is my very favorite from that set.  So true, don't you think?  

I am hoping Jeanne has a great birthday...I will be thinking of her today and so will a whole bunch of other blog friends.  Here is a link to the other people attending Jeanne's birthday party:

Joyce

Christina 

Darnell

Jill

Kara

Kim

Marybeth

Tracey

VickiePlease stop in and wish Jeanne a very happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Tracey!

Happy Birthday Tracey!  Today is all about celebrating one of the sweetest people I know, Tracey McNeeley of In My Creative Opinion. You probably had an inkling that your friends were planning to celebrate your special day with lots and lots of Happy Birthday cards, but I am pretty sure you will be surprised by the "number" of people who wanted to participate.  So many that Joyce of Cards by the Sea, our official birthday blog hop planner had to install a linky tool on her blog as the list would be way to long for everyone to copy and paste.  Thank you Joyce for spreading the word and organizing the hop.

For your special day Tracey, I tried to channel you.  You are the expert in CAS cards and although I am sure this card is no where close to being as good as yours, here is my attempt at a true, CAS card...practically.  Only one tiny little layer and a little bit of glitter, but pretty close to CAS.  I used PTI Quilled Elegance stamp set and colored the images with copics.  To see all of Tracey's cards or to share a birthday card for Tracey yourself, just hop over to Joyce's blog and enjoy some birthday inspiration.

Here's hoping you have a fabulous birthday Tracey and enjoy your blog hop!

Happy Birthday Sharron

Credit

Surprise!  I hope we have surprised you today...Sharron, you are such a sweet friend who has made countless cards for your blog friends, but today...we are honoring you!  Joyce of Cards by the Sea has organized a blog hop to celebrate your birthday and we all have gotten busy making you cards to celebrate your special day.  There is a long list of participants, so I will get right to my card for you.

I used some patterned papers by Simple Stories...Snap in greys and yellows.  The sentiment stamped on  Lil' Inker stitched square is from Stylish Sentiments Birthday by PTI.  That great banner die...from Verve and I also used my silhouette to cut out the hot air balloon with all the layers popped up with dimensional foam.  Thank you Joyce for organizing this hop for Sharron...you have become our go-to gal for birthday hops!  Sharron, here's hoping you have a fabulous day celebrating with family and friends on your birthday!

Who else has made a card for Sharron?  Just follow the links and enjoy looking at all the birthday love Sharron's friends have come up with.

Joyce 

Cathy (That's me)

Christina

Darnell

Jeanne

Jill

Kara

Kelly S.

Kim

Marybeth

Renee

Suzanne

Tracey 

CAS-UAL Fridays #106 and CASology #50

 

I haven't played along with CAS-UAL Fridays in a long time, so today I spent some time with their challenge #106. The theme is Over the Edge...now what can I hang off the edge of my card? Flowers? No. Leaves? No. How about some cute butterflies? That sounds like an idea to me. My sister is having a birthday on Sunday and she loves not only butterflies, but the color purple, so those are the elements I decided to use. As I brought out the butterfly stamps, I remembered that this week's CASology #50 challenge cue word is "Free" and for some reason the butterflies seemed to fit this cue word, so lucky me...one card for two challenges.

I die cut some PTI Beautiful Butterflies and stamped the cut out portion with WM Woodgrain. I think Woodgrain looks good on everything, even butterflies! The sentiment is also from Beautiful Butterflies and I used a Cuttlebug Sheet Music embossing folder. The butterflies are scored alongside their bodies and added with scor-tape. I don't have a lot of embellishments here with me, but I did have some pearls, so I lined up a few for the butterfly bodies and think they add a little elegant touch to the butterflies. So what do you think you can hang over the edge of a card? Something that also reminds you of the word "free"? If so, get hopping and make a card for this weeks CAS-Ual Fridays and Casology #50...this was a fun one!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Make it Monday #119 "Flagged Banners"

I honestly can't remember the last time I played along with Make It Monday, but this week's card was so darn cute, I had to make one for myself.  Nothing is more cheery than banners flying in the breeze...well, maybe balloons are, but today, I made a banner card using a whole bunch of dies in all sizes.

My card is very much like the one in the MIM video done by Dawn McVey.  The patterned papers are MME, In Bloom and I added a Think Big Favorite sentiment.  The lower half of the card is stamped with a distressed stripe stamp from Impression Obsession.  It was fun to make a card without having to think too much about each and every element.

CASology #46: Furry

Happy Saturday to all, I am starting my first day of Summer vacation and it is a hot one here in CA.  No June gloom here, but then it is always a happy day when I get to play along with a fun card challenge with some new stamps...new to me, that is.  I just bought PTI's Sweet Baby set from my very generous friend Kim (Cupcakes, Cards & Kim) who was very nice to split up some stamps and dies she had for sale.  I have always loved the Sweet Baby set, but only had the dies to work with and now I have them all! This week's cue word for CASology #46 is Furry.

I immediately knew I wanted to use the sweet lion as my image and his "furriness" is his mane cut from brown felt.  I also stamped a striped pattern using Waltzingmouse Cabin Plaid and also another plaid stripe from Offbeat Backgrounds.  The base of the card is impressed with the linen and canvas impression plate from PTI, one of my most used impression plates.  I love the subtle texture it adds to a CAS card.  You still have one more day to play along with  CASology this week, the challenge ends on Sunday, so start digging through your stash and find something furry to stamp!

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

CASology Week 40 - Word

I made a quick card today for CASology #40 with this week's cue card being "word".  I am hoping my card is considered CAS, even though it has a lot of stamping on it.

A lot of birthday words but only one stamp.  Impression Obsession's Cover a Card Birthday Words stamp is so easy to line up and makes it every easy to say Happy Birthday in a whole bunch of different ways.  I also used Heart 2 Heart #4 from Papertrey Ink on this one, love that cute little phone.  I have a little bit of impressing and jute ribbon on this one too.  I guess I didn't read the cue card right, when I made this I thought it was "words", so guess I better pay closer attention next week!

CASology #39 - Travel

Another great cue this week from CASology #39...Travel.  Although I don't have any trips planned in the near future, I sure wish I had a nice trip to look forward to.  Something far away, far enough away that I need to travel by plane and maybe even cross the ocean.  I may need to settle on "sending" a card to someone across an ocean far away and arrives there by plane.  Here's my card:

Papertrey Ink's World Map stamp is huge!  To make a CAS card with lots of white space I had to make  a pretty big card, it's 5 x 7".  In addition, I used a sentiment from Everyday Photo Finishers and cut a small airplane using my silhouette.  Very quick and easy.  Here's hoping that one day I get to to do more than just wish I could take that plane trip across the ocean.

Happy Anniversary #33!

Last weekend my husband and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary.  Knowing that he likes simple cards...not too much mushy stuff, I made a CAS card for him.

I used Waltzingmouse stamps Woodgrain in Navy stamped on Blueberry Sky cardstock and Big Birthday Wishes for the "years ago" sentiment.  The inside is a mixture of stamps from PTI Love and Marriage.  I told him I had a card for him, but still needed to write on the inside of it.  He said, "Shy, I know who it's from".  Told you we were not the mushy type!

Ribbon Reel #46 and Mojo Monday #279

Ribbon Reel #46

It seems like everyone has the flu these days...thank goodness it has already run it's course at our house, but I do want to send a few Get Well cards to some family members who are just now feeling poorly.  My absolute favorite stamp set for a Get Well card is PTI's On My Couch.  I love the typewriter font on the sentiments and the adorable couch and love seat look so cute when they are paper pieced.  Today's card design is based on Mojo Monday Challenge #279 and the colors for the Ribbon Reel Challenge #46 Spring Roses.  Together I was able to create a pretty card with a cute design and very pretty colors.

Mojo Monday #279

I love how pretty that rose cake looks, and what a coincidence that I just bought the exact same cake plate to use at my daughter-in-law's bridal shower this coming Saturday.

Here's my card:

Ribbon Reel Challenge #46 is to use pink and yellow and to use either roses, twine or ribbon on the card.  I used some rose floral paper (Crate Paper, Little Bo Peep Collection) and also made a throw pillow using twine as well as wrapped some additional twine around the focal point.  That cute little cat die is from Impression Obsession and is called Sitting Cat.  Who doesn't love sitting on a comfy couch with your sweet cat there to make you feel all better?  I am hoping everyone is healthy and well at your house, and if not, "hoping you're fully Re-covered soon!"