Kitty Thank You Card

Thanks for stopping by today! I have a quick post to share this Kitty Thank You Card I made for one of our neighbors who gave us a donation to the Rescued Kitten Medical Fund. For the story click HERE. The Really... Kitty? stamp is from Unity Stamps and I used a Catch the Bug Sketch for the layout. To select the colors I used the challenge at Color Throwdown to use: Red, Gray and Black. It's a simple card but I'm happy with how it turned out. Wishing you a wonderful day!

Challenges entered: Color Throwdown (Colors), Crafty Creations (Anything Goes), Word Art Wednesday (Anything Goes), Crafty Gals Corner (Anything Goes) and Cute Card Thursday (Anything Goes). 

Best Birds Giveaway

It might be a couple of days late but Happy December! This time of year I know our schedules get crazy but I hope you still find time to craft and unwind. In the spirit of the giving season and to show my appreciation for my loyal followers I'm having a giveaway for a new Best Birds stamp set by Stampin' Up!. This stamp set is one of my favorites and I want to share this favorite with one lucky winner. To win you need to be a follower of my blog and link your blog to this post with the linky tool at the bottom of this post, that's it. The winner will be announced on Saturday, December 17th, 2016.

The month of December includes many birthdays and my hubby's mother is one of them. I made this birthday card for her using the Best Birds Stamp Set, the sketch from Just Add Ink and colors from Color Throwdown. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Funny Cat Card

Anyone who has been around cats know they LOVE boxes! In our house you can't put out just one box or you'll have a battle for who gets to claim it. Most of the time it's the clever cat who wins. It doesn't even matter if the box is small. In the cat's mind there is no such thing as a box that is "too small," they will find a way to fit. One thing is for sure, cats can be very entertaining.

Today is day 3 of The Cat Lovers Blog Hop and I definitely wanted to play along. The stamp and sentiment on this card is called The Love of a Cat by Jessica Lynn Original. To create this card I used the colors from this weeks challenge at Color Throwdown. I had to search through lots of paper pads to find the right mix of colors and patterns but I finally found three that worked. The final touch was adding some twine and three sequins. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Best Birds Birthday Card

Happy Saturday! With nothing on the agenda for the weekend, the hubby and I are taking it easy today. My one goal was to make a card using primary colors for challenges at SU-Only and Color Throwdown. Last night I searched through the current Stampin' Up! catalog to find some inspiration and decided I would use the Best Birds for the challenge. The design is from a card I cased on page 52 of the Stampin' Up! catalog. All images and sentiment came from the Best Birds stamp set and I used the coordinating Birds & Blooms Thinlit Dies. Watercolor paper was used for the images and background. After heat embossing the background with clear embossing powder I used Aqua Painters and the Dapper Denim ink pad for color. The bird was watercolored with three shades of yellow: Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry and Delightful Dijon. Real Red was used for the flowers, Wild Wasabi for the leaves and Crumb Cake for the branch. To anchor the focal area a 1.25" of Dapper Denim cardstock was embossed with the Petal Burst embossing folder and Craft ink applied for highlights. That's pretty much it!

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

This Best Birds Birthday Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Red, Yellow, Green & Blue (CTD408)
• SU-Only: Primary Colors
• Cut It Up!: Watercolor

You are in My Thoughts Card

Hello! I hope you're having a wonderful weekend. The sun is nice and bright this morning and the birds are chirping. It looks like it's going to be a lovely day. Before my day gets busy I wanted to share this You are in My Thoughts Card. It was made for the following challenges:

• Sketch Saturday: Sketch #415
• Color Throwdown: Color, ctd395
• Just Us Girls: Birds, #346 
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends: Anything Goes

The Color Throwdown challenge is to use Kraft, Green and Cream. It's a really calming color scheme and I thought it was perfect for a Thinking of You type card. It seems I can never have enough of these, they work well for many life situations. For this card I used the layout at Sketch Saturday and the keyword "Birds" from Just Us Girls. The green patterned paper is one of my favorites by October Afternoon and it was paired with a woodgrain pattern by Crate Paper. For the image I searched through all my options and found a bird from the Moon Lake stamp set by Stampin' Up! that I had never used. It was stamped using Timber Brown Staz On ink and colored with a blender pen and ink pads. The You are in My Thought sentiment is from Impression Obsession. To add a little more detail I used a scalloped stitched die by My Favorite Things and some linen thread by Stampin' Up! That's it! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Mother's Day Card with Flowers

Hello and happy Thursday! This morning I created this Mother's Day Card with Flowers to play along in the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Colors
• Crafty Gals Corner: Die Cuts or Punches
• Aud Sentiments: Anything Goes

Most of the supplies on this card have been retired and in my stash for at least couple of years, maybe more, with the exception of the new Happy Mother's Day die cut by Impression Obsession. It's a lot of fun to buy new supplies but I have many favorites that I still love to use. The flowers on this card are from the retired Secret Garden stamp set by Stampin' Up! and they were stamped with Daffodil Delight and Crushed Curry inks. My go to leaf die is the retired little leaves Sizzlits die and I've used retired designer series paper in Night of Navy. The oval stitched die is from Avery Elle and that's about it. I want to thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

Scalloped Thanks Card

Hello! I hope you're having a lovely day and thanks for stopping by my blog. Today I'm sharing a quick post for a casual card I made using a die cut called Thanks Scallop Border from Simon Says Stamp. The colors selected came from this weeks challenge at Color Throwdown (CTD386) and I've inlaid the word thanks to play along at Addicted to CAS. Using a piece of scrap black patterned paper on the bottom of the card helps to pull your eye to the focal area. I would also like to enter this card into the anything goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp. Enjoy the rest of your day! 

Be Thankful Card

Happy Sunday! I hope you're having a lovely day. This past week was spent finishing up my Thanksgiving cards. Now that they've been mailed I can play along with a couple of weekly challenges. This Be Thankful Card was made for the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Color (ctd369)
• Simon Says Stamp: Thanks/Thanksgiving
• Jo's Scrap Shack: Gratitude
• Brown Sugar: Anything Goes 

The color challenge includes: rusty orange, warm burgundy and pear-like green. For the green I used Pear Pizzazz and the warm burgundy is a piece or Core'dinations sandable cardstock. I cut a negative space into the burgundy cardstock, embossed it with the square lattice embossing folder by Stampin' Up! and then added a pear border inside. The image is from the Hello Fall Simon Says Stamp exclusive stamp set by Newton's Nook. I colored the images with Copic markers. A little twine was wrapped around the card for detail. The leaf bag was paper pieced using a recycled kraft shopping bag and adhered with dimensionals. That about sums it up!

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

Color Throwdown #368 Guest Star Stamper

A happy hello to you! I'm glad you've stopped by my blog today where I'm sharing a card as a Guest Star Stamper for Color Throwdown Challenge #368. You may already know that color challenges are one of my favorite types of challenges. They push me to be more adventurous with color. Besides color challenges I also enjoy sketch challenges, so I used the Sweet Sunday sketch to create this card.

At first glance of the challenge colors one might think Christmas, but I decided to go with a Thank You card. I was inspired by the circles on the tablecloth and searched through my patterned paper for the Basic Gray background paper from the retired Twitterpated dsp by Stampin' Up!. For the stamping on the focal circle I used the Thankful Accents stamp set by Verve Stamps along with Old Olive and Basic Gray stampin' pads. The white panel was embossed with the decorative dots embossing folder and matted to Old Olive cardstock. The red and pink patterned papers were both in my scrap bin and for detail I added some charcoal twine from The Twinery. That's it! The finished size of this card is 5.25" square.

Challenge Color Palette: 

For all the challenge details click over to Color Throwdown. If you upload to a public gallery, please use the keyword CTD368, and please use #ctd368 and #colorthrowdown on social media sites! (Submissions close Monday at 6:00 p.m. EST).

Visit the Design Team:
Barbara Anders    
Broni Holcombe 
Joan Ervin 
Jodi Collins 
Lori Tecler 
Tammy Hershberger 
Vickie Zimmer 
Wanda Cullen 
Karolyn Loncon – November Guest Designer

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Blooming Birthday Card

Good day my crafty friends! I have a quick post to share this Blooming Birthday Card made for the Color Throwdown (CTD353) Challenge. It's amazing that they picked my favorite colors: Purple, Green and Yellow. I love these colors together! The design team did a fabulous job with their inspiration and I'm completely in love with Tammy Hershberger's Card, click here to visit her blog. You can definitely tell my design was inspired by her card.

To create this Blooming Birthday Card I started with watercolor paper and used Purple Twilight Adirondack Alcohol Ink by Tim Holtz. For the lighter purple I diluted several drops of ink into a small portion of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and used a paint brush over the top of a Happy Patterns Decorative Masks by Stampin' Up!. The mask is part of an assortment of four patterns. Then I used the ink full strength to brush on the darker shade. I wasn't going for perfection and I wanted a messy watercolored look, so the running was fine with me. Then the flower from the Flower Patch stamp set was stamped twice, once using Crushed Curry and once with Daffodil Delight. I fussy cut the center of the Daffodil Delight flower and adhered it to the center of the Crushed Curry flower to give it a little more interest. ( I may have to break down and get bifocal glasses this year. The fussy cutting and small details are getting harder to see! Ugh!!!) The leaves were die cut using Gumball Green cardstock and the sentiment was stamped using Gumball Green ink. The final touches were the silver brad in the middle of the flower and the three silver sequins for some sparkle. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

*All supplies by Stampin' Up! unless noted.

Panda Flower Birthday Card

Happy Monday! This weekend I didn't do much crafting. I spent time with the hubby and we enjoyed just relaxing around the house. However, the Color Throwdown Challenge (CTD352) was still on my mind this morning so I sat down and created this Panda Flower Birthday Card.

The layout comes from this weeks Sketch Saturday Challenge. All papers for this card are from Stampin' Up! The bow is recycled from a cat toy that ended up not being safe for our kitty crew and the panda and sentiment stamps are by Crafter's Companion. The image was colored with Copic Markers and below the image panel are three bitty punched flowers accented with candy dots in the center. I really like these colors together and the sketch was just what I needed to get motivated. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

My Panda Flower Birthday Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Color
• Sketch Saturday: Sketch
• Wags 'n Whiskers: Recycle
• Stampin Sensations: Feature a Creature
• Make My Monday: Flowers   

My furry helper found a comfortable spot to take it easy under my craft desk. 

Congratulations Card

On Thursday I bought a new stencil and couldn't wait to ink it up. It's called Crakle by Tim Holtz. I've used it on this Congratulations Card to create my background paper. The colors used are from the Color Throwdown challenge (ctd349). I love the pop of orange flowers in their inspiration photo and so I decided to use flowers on my card. The Congratulations sentiment was chosen to play along with "Just Us Girls" in honor of their 300th challenge.

Using the stencil, I inked a piece of Whisper White cardstock using Crumb Cake and Lost Lagoon stampin' pads with sponge daubers. The inked panel was then adhered to a piece of Lost Lagoon and then layered on top of Tangelo Twist cardstock. The sentiment is from the Sassy Salutations stamp set and was stamped using Soft Suede ink. I layered the sentiment strip onto a piece of Soft Suede. Using the Flower Shop stamp set and Tangelo Twist ink the flowers were stamped onto Tangelo Twist cardstock and punched using the Pansy Punch. For the center of the flowers three Itty Bitty Scallops were punched and adhered. Then I added sequins to the centers for a little sparkle.

I was a little afraid about mixing the flowers with the stenciled crackled background. So, I asked the hubby what he thought? He said it makes the flowers look like they are growing out of a stone path in a garden. That worked for me! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back soon.

Definitely Dahlia Card

There was a time when large stamps intimidated me! I didn't know what to do with them. When I looked at designs using large stamps, I always loved how they looked and eventually I just went for it. Now I love stamping off to one side and using part of a large image. The new Definitely Dahlia stamp by Stampin' Up! is quite large at a little over 4 inches. The colors for this Definitely Dahlia Card are from the Color Throwdown challenge. I stamped the image in Strawberry Slush and added some leaves from the Birthday Blossoms set using Lucky Limeade. From the Kinda Eclectic stamp set the butterfly was stamped in Crumb Cake. To add some detail I used the large scallop die with Basic Gray cardstock and added some Basic Gray twine. The patterned paper is from the retired Fresh Prints paper stack and the last detail was the addition of three little pearls on the butterfly. Thanks for stopping by!

This Definitely Dahlia Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Color
• The Crafter's Cafe: Anything Goes
• Inky Chicks: Butterflies

Quilt Inspired Feel Better Card

Good evening! It's getting late but once I got started I couldn't stop until my card was done. This Quilt Inspired Feel Better Card was made using the colors and photo inspiration from the Color Throwdown Challenge. I went with a literal interpretation from the quilt photo inspiration. The Stampin' Up! colors I used are:

• Basic Gray
• Lucky Limeade
• Pool Party
• Pacific Point

This was the first time I've used bleach on cardstock. Mainly because I don't buy bleach, but the non-chlorine version didn't fade my cardstock at all.  So, in the pursuit of creativity I made a late night trip to the grocery store. I would love it if you would let me know what you think of the bleached effect?

The focal design for this card was a technique I learned a couple of years ago. However, I haven't used it since and had to dissect my original to figure out how it was made. Here are the directions I followed: Cut two cardstock pieces 2 5/8" square (these will be your matting pieces), cut two patterned paper pieces 2 1/2" square, cut the patterned pieces into square quarters 1 1/4" x 1 1/4". Ink the edges of your pieces and apply adhesive to the backs. Arrange pieces as shown, making sure they will fit onto the backing cardstock squares. To finish the center I used a Martha Stewart punch and a Basic Gray glitter brad.

The Feel Better sentiment from the Sassy Salutations set was heat embossed. Then I added stitching on the border of my card for a little more quilt inspired detail. That's it! Thanks for stopping by.

My card is entered into the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Color
• Penny's Paper-Crafty: Stitching, Real or Faux
• Our Daily Bread: Stitch It!

Fun Colors Thank You Card

Hello! I started a new job on Monday and I'm super tired, so this post will be really quick. Since I haven't worked full-time in over five years, I had forgotten what it's like to have very little time at home during the week. Tonight after dinner I went to my craft room and made this Fun Colors Thank You Card. The colors are from this weeks challenge at Color Throwdown. One thing I love about color challenges is they push me to use color combinations that otherwise I would never think of. The colors are:

• Coastal Cabana*
• Crisp Cantaloupe*
• Strawberry Slush*
• Rich Razzleberry

Three of these colors are part of the 2013-2015 In Colors* by Stampin' Up! The Coastal Cabana is one of my new favorites and I must say I love it paired with the Rich Razzleberry. The layout for my card comes from the sketch at this weeks Paper Players challenge. I had a hard time deciding what stamp set to use in the circle so I went with the Lacy & Lovely stamp set. I was just too tired to think of anything different. The Coastal Cabana background patterned paper is from the Eastern Elegance dsp and the Rich Razzleberry patterned paper is from the retired Summer Smooches dsp. Well, that's it for me! Have a terrific night or day and thanks for stopping by!

My Fun Colors Thank You Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Color
• The Paper Players: Sketch
• Divas by Design: Anything Goes

All supplies by Stampin' Up!.

Fall Thank You Card

Happy Friday! Today, I'm feeling thankful for some much needed rain we received. I used that thankful feeling as inspiration for this Fall Thank You Card. I used the colors from the Color Throwdown challenge and used the less is more approach to create the design. Thanks for stopping by my blog and have a great day!

Fall Thank You Card Supplies: Chocolate chip card stock, Brown Diamonds patterned paper by Paper Pizazz, Old Olive card stock, Cherry Cobbler card stock, yellow and burnt orange card stock from my scrap stash, linen textured card stock by Core'dinations, Cricut machine for circles, sentiment stamp by TPC Studios, VersaMark stamp pad, Zing! embossing powder in Chestnut, classic stampin' pad in Chocolate Chip, leaf punch by Creative Memories, striped scrap ribbon, and stampin' dimensionals.
 

Hexagon & Twine Note Card

There are so many great card challenges online that it's really hard to pick which ones to participate in.  Tonight I combined the Color Throwdown challenge and the Moxie Fab World hooked on hexagons challenge.  I started by using my Cricut machine to cut out the hexagon shapes and the fancy hexagon shadows featured on the Winter Wonderland cartridge.  Then I knew I wanted to use twine and the design just evolved from there.  This card has that modern feel that reminds me of the contemporary card I made back in May.  


Hexagon & Twine Note Card Supplies:

• Paper: Very vanilla, chocolate, tempting turquoise, pumpkin pie, and pink cardstock by Stampin' Up!, and green polka dot patterned paper by Paper Pizazz.
• Stamps: TPC Studios greetings set, ST93416.
• Inks: ColorBox chalk ink in chestnut roan.
• Other Stuff: Cricut machine, Winter Wonderland Cricut cartridge, brown doodle twine, and stampin' dimensionals.