Thinking of You - FMS #28 Challenge

This weekend I had the opportunity to make a card for a good friend and boss who suffered a great loss.  These cards are always difficult for me to make, I always want to put my personal sympathy into the card to let them know I care... So without further ado, here is my card:

 Of course I had to use my cricut to help decorate, and one of the techniques was using a "fake" embossing look.  I used the Paper Lace cricut cartridge to cut the same cream shapes to match the background of the card, so it was a subtle look. What do you think?

Supplies Used:
Patterned paper (K & Company); Card stock (Recollections); Die cuts (Cricut cartridges: Paper Lace; Elegant Edges, Damask Decor); adhesive gems (Recollections); Stamps & Ink (Studio G).

Happy Birthday - PDCC 123

Uggghhh! For being March I am NOT please with our weather! Rain, snow, and hail, with the smallest bits of sunshine. It is not optimal... hopefully it goes away soon and begins to cooperate with my need to start a garden and get my fingers in the soil!

I made this card for the Play Date Cafe Challenge 123. One of the reasons I love the color challenge's is because they push me to use colors that I normally don't use of pair together. I am always amazed at the end product and how fun it looks, not something I quite expect at time.  So this challenge had tangerine, teal, jeans, and electric green! This one probably is my biggest stretch to date on a color scheme, way too bright and definately not together, but I pulled it together, what do you think?

First I took this beautiful tangerine patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket and then layered the jeans card stock with the decorative border over it, then adding the electric green sentiments and teal embellishments for the top pop of color.  It is quite appealing, isn't it?

Supplies used:
Patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket); card stock (DCWV); Border punch (Martha Stewart Crafts); Stamp & ink (Studio G); Flowers (Recollections, K & Company); Adhesive gems (Recollections); Brads (Making Memories); Die Cut (Elegant Edges Cricut Cartridge)



Happy Birthday - The Play Date Cafe #122

Happy Wednesday!   I was going to post this yesterday for the challenge deadline, but it just did not work out. This week has been long, and I think it is the hour time change for Day Light Savings. It gets me every time. Who would have thought one hour was so essential to us?  Well, here is my card, which once I  completed I was very pleased with the way it turned out!

The Play Date Cafe had challenge #122 to use the colors, charcoal, ash, and butter together to make a card. I normally would not pair these together, but seeing their inspiration cards and this picture below inspired me.  I decided to craft a birthday card for our project manager with this color combo.  What do you think?

Supplies used:

Card & envelope (Recollections); colored card stock and glitter paper (DCWV); Die cuts (Paper Lace and Paper Lace 2 cricut cartridges); Glitter pen (Gel Writers); Ribbon (Offray); Ink (Studio G)

Freshly Made Sketches #25 - Hi

What a weekend! March really crept up on me. I cannot believe this week we will already hit half of March, considering Friday I still was in denial that we were in March! Oh well, I am sure I will catch up with everything sooner or later!

I made this card for Freshly Made Sketches #25 Challenge. It took me awhile to play with the pieces to make this sketch work.... for some reason it did not want to come together as easily as I wanted. And it wasn't the color scheme, it was more the sizes of all of the pieces. For instance, I cut out the back ornamental piece in three different sizes before settling on this one! I guess it is all about portions! What do you think?

Supplies used:
Patterned paper (Colorbok); Card stock (Recollections); Stamp & Ink (Studio G); Ribbon (Offray); Sticker (Colorbok); Die Cuts (Ornamental Iron 2 Cricut Cartridge); Chalk ink (Studio G);

Mojo Monday 231 - You're My Sweetheart

I am having a case of Spring Fever! It is sunny and rainy, and I have a HUGE list of things I want to do. So much to do, so little time. And the weather is really not cooperating on my schedule either! So since it was rainy this weekend, I scratched working in the garden and riding my bike to craft. Here is one of the cards I crafted:

I made this card for the Mojo Monday 231 Challenge.  I was so excited for this one, as I just purchased a couple of new Cricut Cartridges and had the perfect one to make the half circle shape on the top!  And I think it turned out very lovely! I tried something I never have before on this one as well... I used blue, brown, and black as the colors... not a normal color combination for me, but it worked out nicely. What do you think?

Supplies used:

Kraft, black, and blue paper (Recollections); Ribbon (Offray); Adhesive gems (small - Recollections, large - Darice); Stamp & ink (Studio G); Die Cuts (Ornamental Iron 2 and Damask Decor Cricut Cartridges);

Flower Card

Often times I only get around to posting the challenges I submit to anymore... where has all the time in the day gone... oh yeah... to creating :)

When I am not elbow deep into one of my projects or submitting to a challenge, I love cruising around blogs or reading old craft magazines for inspiration to try something.  This last weekend I decided to try my hand at a card without a sentiment, with stamped images. This picture does no justice to how absolutely beautiful it is in person. Even my husband who normally doesn't oh and aw thought it was pretty spectacular!

The technique I tried on this card was stamping the image twice. Once on the craft which I colored with watercolor pencils for a soft look, and once again on white card stock which I colored with glitter pens and then cut with scissors and layered on top of the kraft images. It really made the flowers pop! I then layered it over a kraft card with a gold stamped texture background. What do you think?

Supplies:

Kraft (Recollections); Stamps (vintage - unknown); Ink (Studio G); Watercolor pencils (Artists Loft); Gel pens (Gel Writers); Die Cut (Cricut - Paper Lace 2); Twine (Baker's Twine); Adhesive pearls (Recollections).

Make A Wish - PDCC#120

Getting back into the swing of things, I started exploring more with my Cricut.  Here I tested out their Flower Shoppe Project cartridge, and I won't lie, it took my awhile to get to where the flowers looked like flowers!  I watched a great tutorial on how to use the machine and assemble the flowers that made it seem quite simple, but it still took quite a bit of practice!  The tutorial did help and gave me lots of cool tricks, but whew!  So here is my shot with the flowers:  

 I made this card for the Play Date Cafe Challenge #120, using light blue, orangsicle, and basil colors together.  What do you think of the flower arrangement? I used an assortment, I was seeing how many I could make once I got the hang of it.

Supplies used:
Flowers (Flower Shoppe - Project - Cricut Cartridge); cardstock (Recollections; Colorbok); patterned paper (Colorbok); stamp & ink (Studio G); adhesive pearls (Recollections);