Pink and White Card

Hi, everyone! Back again to share another card with you. This is one I never got around to sharing, but I made it a few months ago for a neighbor who celebrated her 80th birthday.

She’s not a big fan of bright and bold or super cute stuff so I tried to make something a little more inspired by her decor style in terms of colors and style.

The fancy papers (the vellum, the shiny stuff, the papers the circle was cut from) are all from a Your Paper Insider paper kit. Their kits are a mystery kit of sorts where you get a surprise assortment of papers each time. The kit I got had these in it.

The leafy stem was cut with a Simon Hurley Spellbinders die, while the embossing in the background was done with a Sunny Studio embossing folder. While I was recovering, I made a ton of backgrounds and embossed a ton of paper panels to work with on future projects. This is one of them. I couldn’t really sit for a long time at my desk but I could keep my hands busy making backgrounds and paper panels to use on future projects. It was a good way to keep the brain and hands active.

The sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp set.

Anyway, that’s about it. Nothing really fancy about this card. But I know my neighbor really liked it and was happy to be thought of on her birthday. That was the best. And I sure hope when I’m 80 that I’ll be as kind and active as her.

Be back again soon!

Birthday Strawberries Card

Hi, everyone! Back again. I’m happy to report more creating has happened and I’m back to share another card. Today’s project to share? A birthday card!

This one actually started when I made the background panel. Once again, I used the DIY Stencil I made for this post over on the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L blog for another card. I had so much fun using that I couldn’t stop. I applied a light shade of green to the panel with it and then did some masking several times to add more layers of green. I have to admit this… right here… right now: I made the panel and it set on my desk for two weeks. I didn’t know what to do with it. Yep.

Then, one day, I made some strawberries with this cute stencil and die combo from Waffle Flower. Might say a light bulb went off and this card came to life!

I added some scraps of patterned papers from Sunny Studio that were leftover from other projects to the top and bottom. I also added a Waffle Flower birthday sentiment to the card

As always, I had to finish the design with a little something small in the form of a few sequins. They are a bit like sprinkles on cupcakes to me.

Alright! Be back again later. Thank you for taking the time to visit. See you again soon.

Happy Birthday Floral Card

Hi, everyone! Today brings a new handmade card to share with you!

This card was inspired by the past. I’ve been concerned lately hearing how the crafting world is changing with some long time scrapbook and stamping companies changing their models and/or closing. I’ve been playing with paper for so long that I remember a time where there were not a lot of companies. There were not a ton of stores. Utah and Arizona were the real Mecca for being able to walk into a scrapbook store. If you did not live there, you talked about it and the opportunity to go see all those stores…. and companies. During that time, there were not endless release parties of new products. That happened with the trade shows, which were only a couple times a year. Techniques were really a big deal and also people using different things (like things from the hardware store).

While I do not think all the manufacturers are going away, it’s interesting to think about life before the industry really became so big and crazy… and to think about how we used to create cards and scrapbook pages and the techniques we tried. So this card is because of that.

And it is because of this. Yes, this. This roll of aluminum tape (for heat vents) that my construction experienced, super handy boyfriend picked up recently. It’s something you can find at the hardware store… in the heating/vent section. There are smaller sizes and it’s not that expensive.

I told him, “Gimme.” Wink! And I took a few chunks of it, determined to make some cards. So here we are.

I cut down one of the chunks and ran it through an embossing folder from Erin Lee Creative. Since the tape had some writing on it (and was blank on other parts), I used some alcohol ink from Ranger to added a little color to it. I just tried to use colors that covered it up.

The background on the card was created with another Erin Lee Creative embossing folder. If you haven’t checked out her embossing folders, I recommend you do. They emboss beautifully.

The sentiment is from an older slimline sentiment set from Simon Say Stamp. (Sidenote: This card is not a Slimline card. It’s an A2 sized card.)

Anyway, I think it turned pretty great. And it was fun to revisit the crafting past.

Thanks for stopping by. See you again soon.

Rainbow Stencil Cards

Hi, everyone! Just popping on by with a little bit of color to share with you today! Got a couple card I made with a DIY Stencil I created for a post over on the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L blog!

I won’t give away too many secrets about the stencil, other than I didn’t use acetate or stencil material to make it. I used a product 3L makes and was super excited it worked well for this when I tried the technique out. Go see the post to see exactly what. (There’s a more advanced card over there, too!)

Anyway, I just used the stencil to make each rainbow panel with a bunch of ink. I applied a light layer of ink. Then I masked off each opening half way and added more ink to get the two-toned effect you see. It’s fun… and super easy!

The sentiment is from an older Cathy Zielske stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. I thought the sayings were super fun.

Anyway, I finished the cards off with a few sequins. And… gosh. That’s it.

I’ll be back again later. Thanks for stopping by.

Life is Better Card

Hi, everyone! Back again with another card to share with you. Made a few more color blocked backgrounds when I made this recent card. So, of course, I used one to make today’s card. Wink!

Created that background with a lot of masking and lot of inking. It sounds all super hard but it only took a couple minutes, and I made several backgrounds like it since I had the supplies out on my desk. The beauty of backgrounds like it are no single one is alike.

The die was cut with a Simon Hurley die from Spellbinders. I cut it a few times and stacked the die-cuts up to make the leaf. I added a hearty layer of Stickles on top, just to give it a bit of razzle dazzle.

The sentiments were stamped with stamps from Pretty Pink Posh and Simon Says Stamp. Finished the card off with a few sequins to add a little bit more razzle dazzle.

That’s it for me. Short and sweet today. I’ll be back later, gators.

Fusion – Fruit Challenge

Hi, everyone!

Just swinging by with another card inspired by a challenge. Today’s card was inspired by the latest Fusion Card Challenge, Fusion – Fruit!

This was a fun card to make! A good challenge too! The Fusion Card Challenge features a sketch and a photo. You can draw inspiration from the sketch or the photo… or both. It’s really up to you.

For my card, I drew a little inspiration from both the sketch and the photo. I used the sketch as the basis for my design. I did rotate it, making it vertical rather than horizontal. The photo inspiration was there, although I guess one could argue was a bit weak, but I did purposely use critters with watermelon (from the Sealiously Sweet stamp set from Sunny Studio) because of the photo.

To make the little fussy cut critters stand out, I sponged a little black ink underneath them. I also added a few stamped hearts (stamped with a heart from the Beach Babies set) and white dots.

The rest of the card features a dry embossed background (created with a folder from Sunny Studio), as well as a few patterned paper scraps and a sentiment strip (stamped with the Fabulous Flamingos set, which really is fabulous, in my personal opinion)!

So that’s what I have for you. A big thanks to the Fusion Card Challenge crew for the challenge. It was a really nice way to get to my creative juices flowing today. Thanks, guys!

Be back again later, gators.

 

Lawn Fawnatics Challenge 82

Hi, friends!

Just sliding in under the deadline for the latest Lawn Fawnatics Challenge (no. 82).

My friend, Ashley, and I vowed to each other to attempt the challenges way more often as we both dig Lawn Fawn and each have a hefty stash of LF goods. So, in full disclosure mode, let me confess that this card is not my best.

The good thing about challenges is trying something out of your creative comfort zone. The bad thing? Sometimes, you try too hard to make it work and find yourself just going with it. So, yeah, that’s the story of today’s card and this challenge card.

Let’s start with what went wrong for me. It was the color combo. I found myself stressing way too much on the color scheme of the challenge and spent way too much time, trying to create the perfect background with Lawn Fawn’s Cloudy stencil.

And things kinda fell about from there as I messed up my inking (this is actually the third background I did, friends) and then got fixated on trying to cover it up. Way more  fixated on trying to cover it up than the  actual cute birthday scene with the Hay There critters.

So rather than talk about it falling apart and not coming together perfectly, let’s just say I trudged on, trying to make the best of it and ended up with this card. Not the best for me, but not the worst. Just not what I really planned on. And that really is how it goes sometimes.

Onto the next challenge. 😉

Thanks for stopping by, friends. I’ll be back again later.

Toaster, Toast and Cute Barn Animals

Hi, friends!

Back with another card to share. Today’s card is a bit unusual but it was sure fun to put together.

There was a food-inspired card challenge over with Lawn Fawnatics recently. In ended a few weeks ago, but I still wanted to give it a go and make something with my Lawn Fawn food-themed stamp sets so I did. This is what I came up with.

It’s kind of a breakfast scene of sorts. I started out with the toast, butter and toaster from the Let’s Toast set.

Then I felt like it just needed some cute critters added to it. And I had a few critters left over from last time I played with the Hay There set so I pulled them out and added them to the scene.

It’s totally a goofy card but it’s kind of fun … and kinda made me giggle as I made it. Hope it does for you too!

The sentiment was actually created by pairing together words from both stamp sets. I thought it was pretty neat that they had words that worked so well together. That doesn’t always happen with stamps.

For the coloring everything on this card, I used markers. I borrowed a little inspiration too from Kathy Racoosin and pulled my pencils to do a little shading to the toast and toaster. I feel like it really made a difference. Thanks for the inspiration to play and try things, Kathy!

Alright! That’s it for me. I’ll be back again later with another card.

By the way, I’ve got a post over on the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L blog that you might want to check out. It’s a super easy tutorial on how to make tiny skinny cards. They are a great way to use up your patterned paper scraps, plus they are a ton of fun to make.

I hope you’ll check it out!

See you again soon, friends!

Sealiously Awesome Card

Hi, friends!

I guess I’m on a bit of a seal kick as I’ve got another seal card to share with you today. Meet today’s card.

I once again used one of the seals from the Sealiously Sweet stamp set from Sunny Studio. I colored this guy in with markers and then added a layer of clear glaze to the float and glasses. I think it just adds a little something.

I created the plaid panel with cardstock and the Buffalo Plaid embossing folder (also from Sunny Studio). I kinda just wanted to give a hint of water so I took an cosmetic sponge (old school, I know) sponged some blue ink onto the panel. It’s subtle but it does the trick!

The sentiment is also from the Sealiously Sweet stamp set. Let’s be frank. It’s a hot mess underneath. I used a combination of adhesives (Double-Sided Tape and Permanent Dots) to anchor the seal and sentiment together and then add the thread. For kicks, I present you with Exhibit A.

To anchor it on the panel, I had some leftover pieces of 3D Foam Creative Sheets on my desk from other projects I’ve been working on. I cut up a piece and slapped it on the back of the sentiment and seal. I present to you Exhibit B.

Yep. They aren’t going anywhere. Wink.

Oh, by the way, those tiny strips of cardstock. Little trick. I just cut strips of cardstock and then used my markers to try to match the colors I used on the seal’s inflatable.

That’s it for today. I’ll be back later! See you again soon, friends. Thank you for visiting my blog!

Paper Smooches Blog Hop

Hi, guys!

Paper Smooches turned NINE in February! Time flies! Seems like just yesterday that Kim launched her company! A big happy birthday to Paper Smooches and continued good vibes for Kim!

The anniversary means it’s time to share the NEW Paper Smooches’  FEBRUARY 2020 release with you! (Hot diggity dog!)

There is ONE new stamp set, TWO new dies, and ONE new ephemera die-cut pack! Yay! The new products are now available to purchase here.

To add extra fun to our blog hop…there is a prize!  The prize – a $50 gift code to use at the PS online store.

Here are the details:

• TWO winners will be chosen at RANDOM from any of the blogs below
• Leave a comment on any of the blogs listed  (you do not need to comment on all blogs to qualify but it will increase your chances of winning)
• Deadline: You have until midnight Central time on February 8th to leave a comment. 
• Please check the Paper Smooches blog on February 9th to see if you are one of the TWO lucky winners.  

Paper Smooches blog

Design Team:

Teri Anderson

Karin Akesdotter

Savannah O’ Gwynn

Alice Huang

Jill Hawkins

Michele Boyer

Here are some ways to increase your chances of winning:

• Tell us that you Facebooked about our blog hop.  If you don’t already like the PS FB page, please do https://www.facebook.com/PaperSmooches
• Tell us that you Tweeted about our hop (follow PS on Twitter – https://twitter.com/papersmooches)
• Share our blog hop on Instagram @papersmooches
• Tell us that you posted on your blog about our blog hop

Enough blog hop talk. Let’s get to the card!

Created this guy with the brand new Happy Hellos stamp set and Happy Hello Icons dies. I also added some hearts cut with the Tiny Hearts dies. (By the way, did you take Kathy’s Coloring Road Trip class on Online Card Classes? I applied some of her tips from to color in the bees. Boy, I sure love the end result! Thanks for tips, Kathy!)

Created the background paper myself with the ink and the Buffalo Check Stencil. I have made so many background papers with it. It’s so darn fun!

Alright! That’s all I have for you! I’ll be back again later, gators! Thanks, as always, for hopping with us… and for stopping by my blog-a-roo!

PS! Don’t forget that Paper Smooches wants to see your work! Did you know that Paper Smooches offers up a fun challenge each month?  Keep an eye on the PS blog for details.