Feminine Sympathy Card

Last week I made a sympathy card using this same layout and stamps but I really wanted to see what it would look like in different colors. You can click HERE to see the first card. Don't be surprised if you see yellow butterflies on the next attempt.

For this Feminine Sympathy Card I dug out some long retired patterned paper by Stampin' Up! called Twitterpated. Colors include: Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, Island Indigo and Basic Gray. The butterflies are from the Watercolor Wings stamp set with coordinating Butterflies Thinlits and the sentiment and label die are both by Verve Stamps. The embossing folder is retired and I added some zig zag stitching with my sewing maching. Dimensionals were used to pop up the sentiment and butterflies. That's it! Thanks for stopping by my blog and enjoy the rest of your day.

Challenges entered:

• Just Us Girls: Something Old and/or Something New
• Sweet Stampin': Sympathy or Thinking of You
• Glitter 'N' Sparkle: Things with Wings
• Ooh La La Creations: Anything Goes
• Use Your Stuff: Free Week

Give You Strength Card

It's been awhile since I've made a sympathy card but this week a church friend, from my high school days, lost her husband. Although I haven't seen her in a very long time I want to send her a card. This Give You Strength Card was inspired by and example on Verve Stamps website for their Forever in Our Hearts stamp set, click here. The butterflies are from my favorite stamp set by Stampin' Up! called Watercolor Wings and they were stamped using Peekaboo Peach and Cajun Craze classic stampin' pads. The patterned paper is by Quick Quotes and the Fancy Fan embossing folder is retired by Stampin' Up! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Challenges entered:

• Inky Chicks: Sentiment Instead of Image
• Shopping Our Stash: Butterflies, Bees & Bugs
• Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

Happy Together Toucans Card

When the mail arrived today I was thrilled to see my Newton's Nook order!!! Last week when they revealed their new July release I couldn't wait to order the Toucan Party stamp set and coordinating dies. So I immediately went into the house and got inky with my new goodies. This Happy Together Toucans Card was made for the following challenges:

• Newton's Inky Paws: Tropical
• Creative Knockouts: Sew It Up 
• Through The Purple Haze: Anything with Wings

The finished size of the card is 5.25" square. I started by using the Newton's Nook Tropical Leaves Stencil and a piece of retired Pistachio Pudding cardstock by Stampin' Up!. The ink colors include both distress inks and Stampin' Up! classic ink pads in several shades of green. Copic markers were used to color the Toucans, leaves and flower and then the images were die cut. I decided to cut a heart into the middle of the stenciled paper and then added a piece of tumbled glass inked cardstock. A piece of Garden Green cardstock was used as a mat and then I stitched around the edges. Then I dug through the scrap bin to find the right piece of woodgrain paper for a little ledge for the toucan image to sit on. The Be Happy Together sentiment was stamped using Memento black ink and three blue sequins were added for sparkle. That's it! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

For more Toucan inspiration visit the Newton's Nook Toucan Party Stamp Set reveal!

You're Just Lovely Card

When the new Stampin' Up! catalog launched I wasn't sure what I wanted to buy first. It would be nice just to buy everything on my list at once, but I do want to stay married (or at least today I do). So, I place smaller orders here and there throughout the year. My last order included the Oh So Eclectic bundle and Naturally Eclectic dsp. The colors in the dsp really won me over and I like the versatility of the thinlit die set. This You're Just Lovely Card is my first attempt using the set and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. The card is a little larger 4.50" x 6.25" (A6 size). Ink colors include: Emerald Envy, Lemon Lime Twist, Peach Peakaboo, Berry Burst and Night of Navy. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!


Challenges entered include: SU-Only (New Fun from Stampin' Up!), Mod Squad (Layered Florals) and Word Art Wednesday (Anything Goes). 

Merry Christmas Card

The Christmas in July challenges have started and I like making Christmas cards when it's super hot outside. Since I tend to procrastinate on my holiday cards I found the July challenges really helpful.

This Merry Christmas Card features a retired quirky bird by Bugaboo Digi Stamps and some fun patterned papers. The polka dot red paper has glitter dots but it doesn't show up well in the photo. Both the plaid and candy cane papers are by The Paper Studio and I used a Merry Christmas sentiment from a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set. Three green sequins add some extra sparkle and that's it for this Christmas card.

Challenges entered:

• Catch The Bug: Make It Sparkle
• Christmas Card: Christmas Anything Goes
• Come and Get It: 2 or More Designer Papers
• Simon Says Stamp: Use Plaid
• Dragonfly Journeys: Christmas in July

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Tic Tac Toe at Tuesday Throwdown

Hello and happy Tuesday! I know I've said this before... but it's amazing how fast two weeks goes by!!! This week is Team B's turn to inspire you to play along with our Tuesday Throwdown challenge and it's one of my favorites... Tic Tac Toe. Our sponsor this week is Sparkle N Sprinkle and I'm using an image they provided called Brighten the Holidays Penguins. It came with a colored version and that's what I used for this Cheery Penguin Christmas Card. We would love for you to play along with us this week! Click HERE for all the wonderful design team inspiration and challenge details. You have until mid-day on Monday, July 24th to link your creation. I hope to see your creation in the Gallery!

The Tic Tac Toe choices used to create this card include: Christmas, Silver and Ribbon or Twine. Since the image was Christmas that box was easy, so I decided to get a little messy for the sliver requirement. I used silver texture paste by Heidi Swapp with a diagonal striped stencil. The texture paste was applied on top of a red piece of Bazzill dot textured cardstock. At first I wasn't sure but I like the dot design and the picture doesn't do the the card justice, it looks pretty cool in person. Once the panel was dried I matted it to a piece of Cucumber Crush cardstock by Stampin' Up! and then wrapped green twine from The Twinery before adhering it to the white card base. The image was adhered with dimensionals and I adhered the sentiment flat to the card. That's it! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

Making My First Quilt

It's not a secret that I love patterned paper but I also love fabric. Earlier in the year I was looking at the fabric store and I found this delightful green floral. At the time I didn't buy it because I didn't know what I would do with it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. So now... I'm Making My First Quilt and not a small quilt, a king size quilt for our bed. I decided to make a big block quilt to showcase the pretty green floral. It's a simple design of alternating coordinating fabrics with a big square of the floral fabric. The green was impossible to match but I have six other fabrics that I'm working with. My sewing space isn't large, so it's going to be interesting as I get more pieces finished. Well, that's it! If you don't see many cards from me this month just know I'm busy Making My First Quilt. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

  

Pretty Kitty meets Petal Garden

Hello! The summer heat is getting stronger and that means I stay indoors and craft! This time of year I run all my errands after dark. Going to the grocery store at 10 p.m. is perfect if you like to shop almost by yourself and I do! My hubby and I dream about moving to a cooler climate but for now... we are in sunny Oklahoma.

When I think of summertime I think of the pretty flowers and outdoor animals. So, I made this Pretty Kitty meets Petal Garden Card to combine both. This is the third card in my Pretty Kitty meets series. You can check out Pretty Kitty meets Playful Palette and Pretty Kitty meets Gorgeous Grunge. Don't be surprised that the layouts are all the same, the only thing that changes are the patterned paper and background stamp set. I love seeing the same card is different colors. You don't have to reinvent new layouts all the time, if you find something that works use it.

This Pretty Kitty meets Petal Garden Card is entered into the following challenges:

• SU-Only!: Summer Fun!
• Paper Craft Crew: New to You (Petal Garden dsp)
• Stamping Sensations: Anything with Flowers

Stampin' Up! supplies include:

• Paper: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Calypso Coral and Sweet Sugarplum cardstock along with Garden Petal dsp.
• Stamps: Pretty Kitty, Timeless Textures and Papillon Potpourri (retired).
• Inks: Memento black and Classic Stampin' pads in Sahara Sand, Old Olive, Calypso Coral, Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Peekaboo Peach and Soft Sky.
• Other Stuff: Blender Pen, bitty butterfly punch (retired), old olive twine (retired), basic pearls and stampin' dimensionals. 

The past couple of months I've been watching a cute baby cottontail in my backyard. It loves to eat petunias and I found some at half price that I planted for it. My hubby planted the pot in the photo with some petunias that were dying but it hasn't stopped little Bun Bun from eating them. The sweet little bunny has also decided it likes to eat the leaves off my perennials, but they will grow back. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Happy Cake Day Card

Mmmm... CAKE!!! Although cats don't need sugar, Newton certainly looks interested in this yummy purple birthday cake. My cats would probably do the same thing if given the chance. This Happy Cake Day Card was created with the following challenges in mind: Newton's Inky Paws (color challenge), Watercooler Wednesday (Judy's All About Birthdays) and Come and Get It (Make Your Own Background).

The background was created using the challenge colors and a burplap stencil by Tim Holtz. Ink colors include: Peekaboo Peach and Melon Mambo by Stampin' Up! and Dusty Concord distress ink by Tim Holtz. It was matted to a piece of black cardstock with zig zag die cut edges. The cake image is from the Newton Loves Cake stamp set by Newton's Nook and it was colored with Copic markers. Warm Gray tones were used to color Newton and Blue Violet colors for the cake. After the image was colored I fussy cut it and adhered it to the cross stitched die cut oval by My Favorite Things. To break up the background a little, I added some black patterned paper and then decided to add an embossed strip of Peekaboo Peach. The Happy Cake Day sentiment was punched with a 1-3/8" circle and matted to a 1-1/2" circle. A few sequins for some sparkle and that's it! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Inky Paws Challenge Colors:

Handmade Wedding Card

Happy Friday! Today is the start of a new monthly challenge at Simply Create Too and the theme is Wedding. This is the first Handmade Wedding Card I've ever made! I've made several anniversary cards but until now I didn't have a reason to make a Wedding Card. I hope you will join the challenge this month! Click here for the design team inspiration and challenge details.

This Wedding Card was made for a cousin who is getting married in October. I obtained her wedding colors and based my color selections from the image I received. Almost all the supplies on the card are by Stampin' Up!. Current supplies include: Peekaboo Peach and Whisper White cardstock, flowers die cut from random scraps, Big Shot, Bloomin' Heart Thinlit, Marriage sentiment from Flourishing Phrases stamp set, Berry Burst Stampin' Pad, Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush and Basic Pearls. The embossing folder is retired. For some extra sparkle I used white fine glitter by Martha Stewart and added it to the heart area. It doesn't show up in the photo but it adds a nice detail in person. That's it!

This card is linked to the following challenges:

• Moving Along With The Times: Wedding, Anniversary or Engagement
• Everybody-Art-Challenge: Lace or Pearls
• Watercooler Wednesday: Fiona's Feminine Anything Goes

Inspiration photo:

What's Up? Cat Chat Card

Hello! When the Tim Holtz Cat Chat stamp set came out I wasn't sure how I felt about the "funky" cats, but they finally won me over. I bought the Sizzix set from Michaels and this card is a slightly modified recreation of the example on the back of the package. The reason I decided to "case" the example was the inked embossed background. I wanted to try my hand at recreating it. I used distress inks in the following colors: Scattered Straw, Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean with a little Peeled Paint which I quickly decided was a bad idea. The cats were colored with Copic markers and then die cut with the coordinating framelits. The background cardstock is Pear Pizzazz by Stampin' Up! and I used the stamp off method with Pear Pizzazz ink for the small stamped images. Black cardstock was used to frame the entire embossed panel and some black twine for detail, since the cats are playing with yarn it seemed like the perfect addition. Finally the What's Up? sentiment was stamped and I used scissors to cut the banner ends. That's it for this handmade card! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This What's Up? Cat Chat Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Sunny Day Crafting: A is for Animals
• The Crazy Challenge: Animals
• Craft Rocket: Anything Goes
• Show Us Your Pussies: Furrything Goes

Monsters and Ghouls Card

Halloween may still be a few months away but the theme challenge this week at Tuesday Throwdown is Monster Mash. It definitely doesn't have to be a Halloween creation but it's one of my favorite holidays to make cards. Our sponsor this week is Sasayaki Glitter and the owner Naz Smith has several fun monster images to choose from. My Monsters and Ghouls Card features the Halloween Monster Family image and it was colored using Copic markers. The design team has some wonderful inspiration to share with you, click here for the design team inspiration and challenge details. I hope to see your monster creation in the gallery this week!

Bonus Days Promotion

Stampin' Up! Bonus Days are back! For every $50 USD/$60 CAD you spend July 1–31 (before shipping and tax), you’ll get a $5 USD/$6 CAD Bonus Days coupon that you can use August 1–31. There is no limit to how many coupons you can earn, so shop all month! 

*An email address is required to receive Bonus Days coupon codes and certain restrictions may apply.