Penguin Halloween Card

Hooray for Friday! Halloween is a little over six weeks away which gives me plenty of time to make my Halloween cards. If I make two a week that will give me the right amount to send to family and friends. Most of them are one of a kind designs, but sometimes I'll make two if I get rushed. Here is my first Penguin Halloween Card. Isn't this the cutest Halloween stamp? It's called Penguin Spook Nite by Whimsy Stamps. Copic markers were used to color the image and then it was fussy cut. The background panel was made with distress inks and watered down white acrylic paint for the splatter. A piece of chevron paper from the Not Too Spooky paper pad by Pink & Main was used to help pull the colors together. Two punched bats were added for detail and that's it. So glad you stopped by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Challenges entered:

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies: Use a Critter
• 4 Crafty Chicks: Alcohol Inks Twist
• Crafty Creations: Anything Goes
• Crafting with Friends: Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday: Dies and Punches!

Fun Pot Holders

This past Christmas I made pot holders as gifts for family. After Christmas I posted some photos to Facebook and one of my friends from high school asked if I would make her a couple. I had her share a picture of her favorite kitchen decor items to give me an idea on color and patterns she likes. Having a picture made it easy to select fabrics that would coordinate with her kitchen. These two fun pot holders are the finished product. I hope she loves them!

In the mailing package I included a card to thank her for letting me make her pot holders. Almost all the supplies on the card are retired by Stampin' Up! with the exception of the bitty butterfly from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set.

This Just for You Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Making Memories: Lots of Layers
• Scrapper's Delight: Anything Goes
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends: Anything Goes

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

Hello My Friend Card

Hello my friends! I've been enjoying a few weeks with minimal computer usage, so I haven't been blogging. However, I have been crafting and will share some of my recent creations soon. Today is the start of a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown and the theme is Say it with Words. Our sponsor is Winnie & Walter and they generously provided a spending allowance for the design team to select our merchandise. It was really hard to pick but keeping the theme in mind, I got the Hello Cutaway & The Big, the bold, and the Happy stamp set. We would love for you to join us! Click HERE for all the challenge details and design team inspiration. You have until mid-day Monday, February 20th to link your creation. I hope to see your link in the gallery!

It was difficult to get a good photo of this card! There really is a lot of shimmer and shine. The background was made using mixed media paper along with glimmer mists in Lime Light and Sunlight by Tattered Angels. I had some problems with the Sunlight spray bottle getting clogged but I like the splotchy look it created. Once everything was dry I added a strip of Wild Wasabi chevron paper by Stampin' Up! and matted the panel to black cardstock. The hello was die cut using a Big Shot and adhered flat to the card. My Friend was stamped onto white cardstock and punched for the banner detail. The last addition was three gold sequins and that's it!

This Hello My Friend Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Make My Monday: Shimmer and Shine
• Ooh La La Creations: Die Cuts

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

Embossed Circles Card

In my craft room the heat gun is not getting the love it used to, so I decided to break out the embossing powder and turn that heat gun on high. All the supplies on this card are retired by Stampin' Up!. It's easy to forget about the older supplies but every once in awhile I try to bring out my favorites. For this Embossed Circles Card the Lacy & Lovely stamp set was used for the circles and the sentiment is from Fabulous Four. Since my sewing machine was close by I added stitching around the edge using brown thread. The colors on this card are Tempting Turquoise and Early Espresso. For the finishing touch a large button was stitched on using Whisper White twine and that's it. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This Embossed Circles Card was inspired by the following challenges:

• The Paper Players: Circles
• Simon Says Stamp: Stamp It
• The Crafter's Cafe: Use Two Patterned Papers

Indigo Flower Wishes Card

Happy Thursday! This afternoon I decided to use the sketch at Try Stampin' on Tuesday to make a card. I had good intentions to use their optional theme of Blue and White, but after searching my paper stash I ended up using Island Indigo and Very Vanilla. I really liked how the papers from the Something for all Seasons paper pad by Authentique looked with the sketch. The stamp set is one of my favorites by Stampin' Up called Butterfly Basics and all stamps used are from the same set. The colors include: Island Indigo, Tip Top Taupe, So Saffron and Very Vanilla. The sending Wishes Your Way sentiment is nice for many different occasions and I had to add the butterfly with pearls for detail. Well, that about sums it up. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This Indigo Flower Wishes Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Try Stampin' on Tuesday: Sketch  
• Fab 'n' Funky: Two or More Designer Papers
• The Crafty Addicts: Anything Goes/With Flowers
• Crafty Girls Creations: Anything Goes

Chevron Cup Coffee Card

There are already over 180 card entries at the Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and it's only day 2. This Chevron Cup Coffee Card is my second entry. I've used a stamp set by Your Next Stamp called Coffee Break. It was one of the stamps sets I found during the last hop that made my list. The layout is from Tuesday Morning Sketches #356 and all patterned paper are from the Sunshowers collection by Heidi Grace Designs. Instead of coloring the image I decided to paper piece it to add the chevron to the cup. The image was stamped three times, once on the white backround cardstock, second onto the chevron paper and third onto Crumb Cake cardstock. I did use Copic markers to color the nose and ear. The polka dot area was stamped using the Kinda Eclectic stamp set and Lost Lagoon ink by Stampin' Up! Three rhinestone flower stickers by Jolee's were added for the final touch. That's it!

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

Baby Doll Blanket

Happy Friday! A couple of weeks ago my friend asked me to make her daughter a baby doll blanket and it turned out really cute. Then I decided to make one or two for my Etsy shop. This doll blanket has fun bright hearts and is reversible with the coordinating chevron pattern. I would have never thought about making a doll blanket had my friend not asked, but now I know what I'm making my younger nieces for Christmas this year.

Then I decided to made a set of burp cloths using this fabric. The front side is flannel and the back is terry cloth. They make a great baby shower gift.

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

Giraffe and Lion Flannel Blanket

Good day crafty friends! I've still been sewing and this Giraffe and Lion Flannel Blanket is my latest project. It's reversible with gray chevron on the opposite side. The finished size is 30" x 35" which is considered a stroller blanket. You can find it listed HERE in my Etsy shop. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Lucky to be Irish Card

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I have a quick post to share this Lucky to be Irish Card. There is a portion of my families DNA that comes from Irish descent. It's more prominent on my dad's side of the family. Because of our heritage I usually make my immediate family St. Patrick's Day cards, however this year was crazy and this was the only card I made. So, it will be next year before this card gets mailed.

Most of the supplies on this card have been in my stash for several years. Cardstock colors are Garden Green by Stampin' Up! and Sour Apple by Bazzill.  All patterned paper on this card along with the green brads are from The Paper Studio. I've used the very first stamp set I bought for this holiday and it's by Studio G. The stitched circle die is from My Favorite Things the shamrocks were colored with Copic markers.

I started this blog in March 2012 and a St. Patrick's Day card was my third post. This morning I went through the first couple of months of my old posts and it was fun to see the difference in my cards. Here is a link to my first St. Patrick's Day card. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This card is entered into the following challenges:

• Crafty Gals Corner: Show me the Green!
• City Crafter: Make It Green
• Shopping Our Stash: Oh Me Lucky Charms!
• Try Stampin' on Tuesdays: Sketch or St. Patrick's Day

Chevron Watercolor Card

Happy Tuesday! It's time for another challenge at Tuesday Throwdown and this week the challenge is to Watercolor. Our sponsor is Freckled Fawn and they generously provided the darling silver puffy heart sticker used on my Chevron Watercolor Card.

To create the watercolored panel I used a chevron stencil by Clear Scraps along with my Aqua Painters. Using watercolor paper, I first die cut the stitched panel with Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles. Then I added ink colors by Stampin' Up! which include: Blushing Bride, Rose Red and Cherry Cobbler. You can't really see it in the photo but I added clear Wink of Stella to the larger rows of chevron to give it a little sparkle. The sentiment is from TPC Studios and was heat embossed with Blushing Bride emboss powder. To add a little more interest a strip of Rose Red cardstock was embossed using the Decorative Dots embossing folder and the watercolor panel was adhered using stampin' dimensionals. That's it!

We would love for you to join us this week! You have until mid-day on Monday 10/19/2015 to play along. Click here to check out the wonderful inspiration from the design team. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This Chevron Watercolor Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp: Wonderful Watercolor
• Crafty Boots: Use Pink
• Ooh La La Creations: Pretty in Pink
• Where The HeART is: Anything Goes/Use Stencils

Watercolor Wings Card

There is nothing like inking up a new stamp set, especially one with beautiful butterflies!!! Every card I've seen using the Watercolor Wings stamp set added to my excitement about this set. There are so many different color combinations to play with and my Watercolor Wings Card is using colors from this weeks ColourQ #296 challenge. Colours include: Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Soft Sky, Daffodil Delight and Whisper White. The layout comes from this weeks sketch challenge at Sunday Stamps. Once I had everything stamped I decided the Soft Sky chevron paper looked too clean. I decided to use the Dot Fade stencil by Tim Holtz with Daffodil Delight ink and play along in the stenciling challenge at Tuesday Throwdown. The final addition was the twine and three silver sequins. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Watercolor Wings Card Supplies:

• Paper: Whisper White and Night of Navy cardstock. Retired Soft Sky designer series paper.
• Stamps: Watercolor Wings and Watercolor Wash.
• Inks: Stampin' pads in Daffodil Delight, Soft Sky, Night of Navy and Marina Mist along with Memento Black.
• Other Stuff: Big Shot, Bold Butterfly Framelits Dies, Dot Fade stencil by Tim Holtz, sponge dauber, silver sequins, twine from The Twinery and stampin' dimensionals.

Casual Masculine Card

It's time for another challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz. This week the theme is to create and masculine CAS card. For me, clean and simple is more challenging because I love layers and patterned paper!!! So, for my Casual Masculine Card I focused on the sentiment. It was one I purchased recently and it's by Momenta. My brother recently obtained a new job and his journey from college graduation to this new position was no straight line. I added the arrow to symbolize "it's all up from here." To add subtle detail, I cut the white cardstock with Deckle scissors by Fiskars. The final addition was adhering the chevron patterned paper. That's it!


Click here to see more inspiration from the design team at Cardz 4 Guyz. We hope you will join us! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day.

Geometrical Hooray Card

Hello! It's getting late but I took an early evening nap and then felt like making a card. I found three challenges to combine to create this Geometrical Hooray Card. The challenges are:

• SU-Only: Cards for Teens
• Just Add Ink: Sketch
• Colour Me: Colour

This was one time when I wish I had a Stamp-a-ma-jig!!! It would have helped line up the triangles more evenly, so it's going on the wish list. I made this card for my teenage niece who recently had a nice accomplishment. I wanted to use only one stamp set to keep things simple. The Hooray sentiment was the inspiration to use the Geometrical set. I masked a portion of the sentiment off and then heat embossed the Hooray using Tempting Turquoise embossing powder. The rest is pretty self explanatory. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day/night!

WOOHOO! Card

This card is different for me but it makes sense if you know who and what it's for. It's for my oldest niece who is starting her senior year in a few days and her school mascot is a dragon. I wanted to make her something special in case she decides to make a scrapbook. The WOOHOO! sentiment is very fitting for the start of her senior year don't ya think? I really hope she likes it! The layout came from this weeks sketch at Mojo Monday and it worked perfectly for what I already had in mind.  The patterned papers are from my Stampin' Up! stash and the WOOHOO! sentiment is from The Paper Studio. I heat embossed the sentiment using white embossing powder and added some fun circles with a silver brad anchoring the center. Now, this is one card that I wish I could see her face when she gets it in the mail. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day/night!

My WOOHOO! Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Mojo Monday: Sketch
• Come and Get It: Back to School
• Crafting From The Heart: Anything Goes

Vivid Vases for The Paper Players

Howdy and Happy Sunday! Are you ready for another challenge at The Paper Players? I hope you will join us this week for a Color Challenge hosted by Nance. One of the reasons I love color challenges is it pushes me to use colors that I normally wouldn't put together. I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about these colors when I first saw them. I really love the photo inspiration and the colors look great together but I wasn't sure where to start.  The first thing I decided on was the layout. Then the question was what to use for my focal image? I'm pretty sure I looked at every stamp set I have and finally decided the Vivid Vases stamp would look best. I used StazOn Jet Black to stamp the image onto Very Vanilla cardstock and used Copic markers in Cool Gray and Blendabilities markers in Calypso Coral to color the vases. The flowers were colored with a blender pen and classic ink pads.  For the patterned paper I dug through my stash to find this Chevron design by lilybeedesign. The Chevron pattern is vanilla instead of white and  that's exactly what I wanted. Then I decided to add the butterfly. Using the lightest color of Calypso Coral Blendabilities marker I colored an area on Very Vanilla cardstock. Then using the Papillon Potpourri stamp set and Calypso Coral classic ink pad I stamped the butterfly which was then punched using the Elegant Butterfly punch. To jazz up the butterfly I add three small basic pearls. Looking at the card I decided it needed three more gemstones up top and so I added larger ones by The Paper Studio. In the end I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Now, you should definitely check out the wonderful creations from The Paper Players design team! I'm always amazed at the creative things everyone else comes up with and I can't wait to see what you will do with the colors. The challenge is open until Noon (PST) on Friday, August 15th. Thanks for stopping by and have a marvelous day!

Colorful Easter Card

This bright and Colorful Easter Card was made for my teenage niece. Monkeys are not the traditional Easter animal, however I love the fun image called Changito Chick by Stampendous! I colored the image with my Copic markers and used patterned paper from The Paper Studio. The Happy Easter sentiment is from the dollar bin from several years ago. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

My Colorful Easter Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Cards in Envy: A2 Easter Card
• Make My Monday: Easter Card
• My Craft Spot: Happy Easter
• Artistic Inspirations: Easter Animal/Anything Goes
• Crafting from the Heart: Anything Goes/Easter

Won't You Be Mine?

This morning I was able to snag a little crafting time before my afternoon shift at work. You may recall that I am NOT at all fast when it comes to making cards!!! Therefore, I decided to participate in Meljen's Designs Time's Up! challenge. I set the timer for 30 minutes and made this Valentine's Card for my niece. I'm pretty sure the clean desk helped with this challenge because I didn't have to dig for anything. The layout comes from this weeks Tuesday Morning Sketch challenge. The sketch was simple and only having 30 minutes to make a card made this sketch perfect. I didn't have time for layering so I added a little stitching for detail. To participate at Shopping Our Stash this week I used all supplies that have been in my stash for over a year. I'd say this Won't You Be Mine Card is a Cutie, wouldn't you? In that case I'm entering it in the Cutie Pie challenge to make a Valentine Card. Since I made it for my niece I might as well enter the challenge at My Craft Spot where the challenge is Valentine's for Kids. Well, that's about it. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day/night!!!

Simple Purple Valentine's Card

This week my friend Jessi created several cards using the color purple. Seeing all her posts (click here for my favorite) really inspired me to created this Simple Purple Valentine's Card. Purple is one of my favorite colors but for some reason it doesn't show up in my card creations very often. For this card I used the chevron heart stamp by Hero Arts. I stamped the heart onto a top note die cut and heat embossed it with two shades of purple. I used Zing! purple metallic and Stampendous! PEARLustre in Amethyst. I love the color intensity of a heat embossed image. Don't you? The purple patterned paper is DCWV, the XOXO sentiment is by Stampablities and the final touch are three small rhinestones by Recollections. This card came together quickly and was super easy to make. If you don't have heat embossing tools, simply stamping the image will work. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will visit again soon!

My Simple Purple Valentine's Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Sweet Stampin': Love/Valentine's
• Addicted to Stamps: Hearts
• Come and Get It: Clean and Simple
• 2 Sisters: Embossing
• Totally Papercrafts: Clean and Simple
• Challenges and Candies: Monochromatic
• Make It Monday: Anything Goes

Heart detail

Chevron Heart Card

Happy Sunday! I hope you are having a wonderful day. It is super windy today which has made for a great day to stay inside and make a few cards. I hope you've decided to make some cards for the Cards from the Heart Card Drive. If you need more information you can see my post below or click the link provided. To create this Chevron Heart Card I used the sketch from the challenge at Your Next Stamp. The Chevron Heart stamp is by Hero Arts. I used the rock and roll technique with classic stampin' pads in Real Red and Cherry Cobbler and then I fussy cut the image. I added some stitching detail, glitter tape, and to add a little pizzazz I used the Dot Flourishes stamp by Inkadinkado. The checkered patterned paper is from American Crafts and the polka dots are from the retired neutrals dsp by Stampin' Up!. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day.

My Chevron Heart Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Your Next Stamp: Sketch/Photo Inspiration 
• DL.ART Thankful Thursday: Hearts
• Pattie's Creations: Stitching Faux or Real
• The Crafter's Cafe: Anything Goes
• Sister Act: Anything Goes
• Pile It On: Holidays/Celebrations

Pumpkin Panda Halloween Card

Good evening! Today I was in the mood to make something cute! On my list of cute animals is the Panda and this Doodle Pantry image is definitely a cutie. The layout for this Pumpkin Panda Halloween Card comes from this weeks sketch at The Sweet Stop. The patterned papers are by American Crafts and the Happy Halloween sentiment is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (128748 wood, 127802 clear) by Stampin' Up!. The final touches were some black and white twine and three gemstones. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week.

My Pumpkin Panda Halloween Card is entered into the following challenges:

• The Sweet Stop: Sketch
• Pumpkin Spice: Pumpkins
• 2 Sisters: Anything Goes
• Digi Haven: Halloween
• Crafty Catz: Halloween
• Doodle Pantry: Any Digi Goes