In My Prayers

I made this card for the challenge over at Stampin' Sisters in Christ. It was such a great idea, and as I was reading, this phrase from Daisy Trio #1 immediately came to mind. I ended up pairing it with the heart flowers (Autumn Leaves Stampology) and some Cosmo Cricket paper. I added the little doodles to the flowers to pick up the detail in the paper, and then tied on a fluffy bow and threw on some pearls to jazz it up a bit more. (Click on the card to enlarge it and see the details) And it's already in the mailbox, ready to encourage a friend that I know is going through a tough time.

I'll be back tomorrow with a fun new challenge that we're kicking off with smARTworks. See you then!!

Coffee Encouragement

Today's card is based on the sketch over at Card Patterns. Definitely a fun layout, and I thought it went well with the Mug Trio set. The mug was done with versamagic wheat, versamagic pink petunia, and then brilliance pearlescent orchid as the last layer - had to end with some shimmer! ;) I created the "coffee" with a colored pencil, and then went over it with glossy accents. The papers are BasicGrey Sugared, and I think the ruffled brown ribbon is May Arts. I promise this is cuter IRL than it looks here; I took a ton of pics, but just couldn't capture the richness of the pinks. Anyway, I'm already planning to package up some coffee and biscotti and pass this along to a friend for a little pick-me-up!

Flight of Fancy

Don't you just love it when a card comes together just as you've imagined it?! It seldom works like that for me - I start out in one direction, but then I end up in a totally different place (not that it's a bad thing, but still...)

Anyway, I wanted to play along with a couple challenges this week, namely the sketch over at Mojo Monday, and the "Shaby Chic" theme over at Daring Cardmakers. I wanted to use the Cloud Dancer set, and I was also thinking that the focal diamond would be a great way to incorporate a bookmark (always fun to have a giftie built right into the card!). I started by creating the bookmark* then stamped the darling fairy, colored her, and accented the wings with a glitter pen. I mounted the bookmark to the other square by gluing only the bottom of white square (roughly the size of the bookmark) to the patterned piece, and then slipping the bookmark over it.

The papers are all from the BasicGrey Wisteria pad, and the lace was something I've had in my stash for years (I remember using this to accent a mop doll I made for my Mom back in junior high!) I strayed a bit from the Mojo sketch by only using the lace as opposed to scalloped layers, but I didn't want to detract from the main panel. A few flowers and pearls, and it was done!

One other comment - after this was all completed, I managed to smear a tiny bit of ink onto the bookmark. I wasn't about to start over, but I didn't want to glue anything onto it, either (wanted to keep it flat for use in a book). I covered the smudge with a white gel pen, and then proceeded to do a bit of tiny swirly doodling all over the background around the girl. I then did the exact same thing with a pale colored pencil just to break up the white a bit more. What started as a mistake ended up being a design element!

*I know there are a couple different ways to make these - I simply started with a square piece of cardstock, then found the center on one side and brought the two edges together to create a folded point (so it sort of looked like a little house at that point), and then trimmed off the excess. Thanks to Sandy, our local stamping librarian, for reminding me about these!

Simple Recipe Card

When I first started stamping, one of the things that really drew me to it was the way that I could "jazz up" simple everyday items. And that's exactly what I did today!

I went to a little gathering last week and took this pumpkin dip to share; I've now been asked for the recipe, and after writing it out, it looked awfully sparse. Stamps to the rescue! I grabbed this swirly image from Little Bits #2 and added a simple border. Much better!

And if you're looking for a quick, tasty treat to share, then I definitely recommend this pumpkin dip!

Birthday Time

It's my Dad's birthday this week, and of course I couldn't send him a store-bought card!! I decided I wanted to go with a time theme, so I pulled out the Time Flies and Gifts sets. I had a scrap of this faux mother-of-pearl paper that I'd made quite some time ago (click here for a tutorial), and with the beige ink on it, I thought it worked pretty well for a masculine card. I layered it up with blue (his favorite color), did some light shading around the clock, and added a couple brads for good measure. Of course I know I can't begin to compete with the pictures his grandkids drew, but I think he'll like it :)

Shine!

I made this card to send to our niece, who is a freshman in college, just to let her know that she's in our thoughts and prayers. She's a loooooong way from home, and doing great, but there are always bumps along the way...

Card is pretty straightforward: images are from Unity, and the paper is BasicGrey Wisteria. The lamp is paper pieced, and I accented the "danglies" with a stardust pen. Rounded the corners, tied on some ribbon, and popped it into the mailbox!

Piggy Dreams

For this cookie challenge, each of us was given the set Piggy Dreams to work with. After playing around with it a bit, I decided that rather than going for a standard card, I was going to go for an altered clipboard. A friend had given me this small board with the alpha paper already adhered, and I'd been "saving" it for just the right project. I used papers from the BasicGrey porcelain line for the project because I liked the way the pink tones worked with the little piggy. I started by stamping the pig onto some soft pink, then trimmed it out. Added some shimmer to the wings for good measure. Next was the sentiment, and then another print for the base. I also added a couple buttons just for balance.

As I was making this clipboard, I was thinking of all the different ways it could be used - I think it would be great to use as a "message station" with a pad of post-it notes and a pen tied onto the clip, hanging on the inside of a cabinet door. Or perhaps a place to store business cards, or mailing labels and stamps, or... Well, you get the idea! It's small size makes it portable so it would work well for kids, too.

Pop on over to the smARTsite to see check out what the other cookies made, and enter at In the Works for a chance to win a set for yourself!

"Bee" is for Baby

A pregnancy card on Friday and a baby card on Monday... how's that for fast?! Sorry, but my sense of humor can be a bit odd at times :)

Seriously, though, this card is for a different friend who just had a darling baby boy. No traditional baby stuff for her, though - she's not the bootie, bottle, etc. type - so I grabbed this cute bee (TAC) and came up with this little number. I stamped the bee, did a bit of piercing, then wrote the sentiment (inside says, "to say congrats and wish you all the best!"). I used an orange card base, and used 2 large circle punches to do the fun background. I do love how it turned out, and will definitely be using that technique again. After I had it all assembled, I decided it needed just a little something, so I coated the wings with new Rock Candy distress stickles - love the shimmer of this stuff (without obscuring colors or being overly sparkley!)

Have a great Monday, and I'll be back tomorrow to share the latest round from the smART Cookie challenge!

Bun in the Oven

I made this little 4 1/4" square card for some friends that we just learned will be welcoming another little bundle of joy. The silhouette and sentiment are both from Studio G (one of those little $1 impulse buys!), and the paper is Jenni Bowlin. Fun, quick, and sure to make the expectant mommy smile!

Everything Beautiful

There was another great sketch at the Mojo Blog this week, and once again I made a "scrappy" card. The verse is from Unity Stamps and the paper is all from the BasicGrey Lemonade line. I did add a few pearls (Kaisercraft) just to give the main panel a bit of dimension, but aside from that, all I did was stamp, cut, and paste.








I really loved this sketch, and I decided to make a second card, but took it in a very different direction: no printed papers, and a fall palette. I pulled out the Botanicals "Cookie" Plate from smARTworks and stamped the leafy image repeatedly with sepia Versafine and champagne Versamark Dazzle inks (which frankly isn't all that "dazzling" but the subtle shimmer works well here). I stamped the small sprig image onto the dark green panel along the bottom also using the champagne ink. For the three strips, I rounded the upper edges and then laid them flush with the lower panel. The brown strip looked a bit too stark, but a Martha Stewart edge punch took care of that.

So there you have it - 1 sketch, 2 completely different cards! :)