Happy News Card

Hello and happy Saturday! This afternoon my hubby is out running errands, so I'm playing in my craft room. Even though I have the house to myself a lot... I'll always take extra time to play, especially when it's hot outside.

This Happy News Card features my favorite new stamp set called Abstract Impressions in the new Stampin' Up! annual catalog. I used it earlier this week and ever since I've been wanting to use it with the new purple colors: Gorgeous Grape and Highland Heather. The greens are also both new colors and include: Call Me Clover and Granny Apple Green. The layout was cased from an example card in the annual catalog on page 5. I don't have the punch shown in the example, so I added some banners and matted my focal area for extra color. To add some stamping to the banners the Timeless Textures stamp set was used and a little white twine bow finishes it off.  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Challenges entered:

• Crafty Catz: Anything Goes
• CCEE Stampers: Blooming Flowers
• Southern Girls: Anything Goes
• Watercooler Wednesday: All About Occasions

Masculine Congratulations Card

Happy Friday! It's hard to believe June has already arrived, although it's felt like June for the last couple of weeks here in Oklahoma. It seems we skipped Spring and went straight to Summer. Not my favorite time of year, but I'll suffer through it. Fall will always be my favorite!

Today starts a new challenge at Simply Create Too and the theme is For A Male. The challenge runs until June 29, 2018, so you have plenty of time to play along. Click HERE for all the challenge details and design team inspiration. I hope to see your card in the gallery!

This Masculine Congratulations Card was made for my brother because he recently obtained a new job. The brown die cut had been sitting on my desk for awhile (Glass Effects die by Spellbinders). It was almost used for another project and then I went with different colors. To cover up some blemishes, I painted the cardstock with Rich Espresso Metallic paint. The light blue background was created with watercolor paper and spray inks. It turned out okay but I wish the colors contrasted more. The congratulations is a die cut from Impression Obsession and I also painted it with the metallic paint. To finish the card three glitter stickers by Jolee's were added and that's it. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Graduation Card with Flowers

Before making this Graduation Card with Flowers I did a quick image search to see other handmade graduation cards. I was surprised how few had flowers. The recipient is the daughter of one of my cousins, so I wanted the card to be youthful and pretty. Of course there had to be some element of graduation, so I used the cute graduation owl by Gerda Steiner Designs. The owl was colored with Copic markers, fussy cut and then adhered to the white stitched circle die cut. A little punched branch and stamped flower add some detail along with the congratulations die cut by Impression Obsession and three sequins for sparkle. The floral paper is retired by Stampin' Up! and the yellow is by Recollections. That's it! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This Graduation Card with Flowers is entered into the following challenges:

• Alphabet Challenge: F for Feathered Friends
• Brown Sugar: Use Sequins
• Try it on Tuesday: Feathered Friends
• Crafting by Designs: Anything Goes

Cute Car Congrats Card

Hello and happy Saturday! This last week went by really quickly and now it's time for another weekly challenge at Catch The Bug. It's a recipe challenge to use - 1 image, 2 buttons and 3 colors. Easy peasy! We would love for you join the challenge and share your creation. You can find all the challenge details and design team inspiration HERE.

When pondering how to use the buttons on my creation I decided to use the new Attitude Car image by Bugaboo to add the buttons over the tires. The layout is nothing too creative but it works. I thought this Cute Car Congrats Card would be perfect for a young lady I know who just got her drivers license. The plaid paper is by Recollections and yellow rhinestone flowers are by Jolee's. That about sums it up. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see your card in the gallery at Catch The Bug.

New Home Congrats Card

Good day! I'm happy to announce I've joined the Simply Create Too Design Team and today is the beginning of a new challenge. Our theme is New Beginnings and since I'm a Realtor I made a New Home Congrats Card. Other possible themes include New Baby, Weddings, etc. We would love for you to join this challenge! You have until January 27th to link your creations and all the challenge details and design team inspiration can be found HERE. I hope to see your card in the gallery!

Several years back I bought this house stamp by Unity Stamps from a local scrapbook store. It coordinates with a collection of paper by Bella BLVD which I also bought at the time. The paper I've used is from the THANKful collection from 2012 and it's paired with Early Espresso cardstock by Stampin' Up!. I like blues and browns together and by keeping the background subtle the image really pops. The layout for this card is simple and the image was colored with Copic markers. Three sequins accent the die cut congrats sentiment by Impression Obsession and some twine finished it off. That's it! I'm so glad you stopped by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

This New Home Congrats Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Unicorn Challenge: January Blues
• Crafting With An Attitude: Anything Goes

Faux Patina Congratulations Card

Happy Thursday! It's been raining at my house most of today which made for a good excuse to stay inside. There were two challenges on my mind when I decided to get a little inky and create a card using the Faux Patina technique. I combined the colour challenge at Colour Me! to use Bermuda Bay, Marina Mist and Neutral with the No Patterned Paper challenge at Tuesday Throwdown. If you want to check out a tutorial on the Faux Patina technique, click here. It's a fun technique and changing the colors and embossing folders used makes a big difference. For additional Faux Patina inspiration click here.


Since I had the heat gun out, I decided to heat emboss the Congratulations sentiment from the Sassy Salutations stamp set by Stampin' Up! The champagne embossing powder is by Recollections. All other supplies are by Stampin' Up!. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Close up detail

Tip: If you get too much embossing powder on your panel, use a dry paint brush to remove the excess. 

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.

Graduation Day Card

Hello again! It's time for a new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz. This week the theme is Make Your Mark and I've made this Graduation Day Card to share with you (click here for challenge guidelines). Next week many local schools will hold their High School Graduations and I know one very special individual that will cross the stage. Hooray!

Most of the supplies on this card have been in my stash for ages with the exception of the stamps. The stamp set is called Diploma Day and it's new by Close to My Heart. I did have enough Congratulations paper left to see it's by DCWV and the red net ribbon was purchased by the yard. I didn't use many embellishments on this card, just kept it simple.

We would love for you to join us this week. The design team created some wonderful masculine inspiration, click here to view. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

This Graduation Day Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Craftin Desert Diva's: Graduation
• 613 Avenue Create: Anything Goes w/ optional Let's Celebrate

Gold Polka Dot Congrats Card

Greetings fellow card enthusiasts! I'm glad you've popped by my card blog. Today is the start of another challenge at The Paper Players. This week Sandy is our hostess and she has is challenging us to make a clean and simple creation using Silver or Gold. I decided to use gold with black accents to create a Congrats Card for one of my cousins who is getting married soon.

To keep my card simple I did very little layering. To add the polka dots, I used sponge daubers and randomly applied VersaMark ink and then heat embossed with gold emboss powder. Then I stamped the Mixed Bunch flower and heat embossed. I added black glimmer tape across the front and secured the flower with a black glimmer brad. The final step was to add the Congrats sentiment from the Hey You stamp set. Pretty easy! Since I used heat embossing on my card, I'm linking it to the Allsorts Embossing Challenge.

We would love for you to join us this week. The design team has created some sparkly fun inspiration to jump start your creativity. To check out their designs click here. To play along you have until NOON (PST) on Friday, October 24th to link up your creation. I hope to see your card in the gallery and enjoy the rest of your day!

Floral Congrats Card

This week I found out my neighbor is getting married at the end of this month. That meant I needed to make him a card quickly. To create this Floral Congrats Card I used the color challenge at Create with Connie & Mary for my inspiration. Color challenges are my favorite but I must admit that I find a three color challenge VERY challenging. The colors are:

• Coastal Cabana
• Hello Honey
• Baked Brown Sugar

To start I selected my patterned paper from the Moonlight paper stack and then used my Big Shot with the Top Note Die. At this point I sat at my desk for at least thirty minutes trying to figure out my layout. Finally, I walked away. When I came back I rotated my card and things started to come together. I was really happy I ordered the new Hey You sentiment stamp set (134519), it worked perfectly for this card. The flowers were stamped using Baked Brown Sugar ink onto Coastal Cabana cardstock using the Flower Shop stamp set and then punched using the Pansy Punch. The final step was creating the flower centers using the Bordering Blooms stamp set, the retired itty bitty scallop circle punch and of course a pearl in the center. Although I struggled with this card I think it turned out nicely. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

My Floral Congrats Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Create with Connie & Mary: Color
• Little Red Wagon: Wedding/Anniversary
• Crafty Girls: Anything Goes 

Casual Congrats! Card

Happy Monday afternoon! I hope you're having a wonderful day. It's been nice and sunny here in Oklahoma today. I would like to say that I stayed outside and enjoyed it, but no. I had a dentist appointment this morning and then went to work for two hours and then stayed in my craft room. The card I made is for one of my clients. I recently wrote a contract for her to buy her first home. I'm really excited for her and I hope she will like this Casual Congrats! Card.

The inspiration for this card came from "The Magic of Kits" article in the new Stampin' Success magazine. Stampin' Up! has a new kit available called Happenings Simply Created Card Kit (133329). It includes pieces for making 15 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" cards. My card wasn't made with the supplies from the kit but I did base the layout from one of the featured designs. I used patterned paper from the Sweet Sorbet sale-a-bration collection. It's free until March 31st with a fifty dollar purchase. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

My Casual Congrats! Card is entered into the following challenges:

• The Paper Players: Clean and Simple with Star(s)
• Make It Monday: Anything Goes

Masculine Congrats Card

Good afternoon! I have a quick post to share a card I made for my brother. He got a new job and I wanted to help celebrate by making him this Masculine Congrats Card. To create this card I used this weeks Freshly Made Sketch. I kept the design clean and simple. The star was cut using my Cricut machine and the basic gray neutral series dsp and chevron embossing folder are by Stampin' Up!. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Cheer Girl Congrats Card

Thank goodness for Friday! This week has been busy for me and I had a couple of unexpected things pop up over the week, but it's all good. Last weekend my youngest niece was in a cheer hip hop dance competition and they won first place. She was very excited and had a lot of fun. Since I live a couple of hours away and can't give her a hug, I decided to make her a card. This Cheer Girl Congrats Card was made using the Cheer Girl digital image by Meljen's Designs. Her team colors are purple and that's where the color scheme comes from. I colored the image with my Copic markers and while doing so I really wished I had a light purple color for highlighting purposes, but I didn't, so I made do with what I have. The light purple background paper is a recycled envelope from a birthday card I received last year. For a little sparkle I sprayed the entire card with ice glimmer mist, it doesn't show up in the picture but is a nice finishing touch. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend.

My Cheer Girl Congrats Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Meljen's Design: Recycle
• Daring Cardmakers: Child's Play
• Crafty Boots: Recycle
• Sparkle N Sprinkle: Use a Digital Image
• Make It Monday: Anything Goes

Fleur-de-lis Congratulations Card

Hello! Hopefully you enjoyed your weekend. I have a quick post to share my latest card. This Fleur-de-lis Congratulations Card was made using this weeks sketch at Sketchy Friday. I really LOVE the layout! I didn't have any digital stamps to accommodate the small image windows, so I used a traditional rubber stamp. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Fleur-de-lis Congratulations Card Supplies:

• Paper: Early Espresso, Pool Party, and Very Vanilla card stock by Stampin' Up! and Reunion collection patterned papers by MME.
• Stamps: Fleur-de-lis stamp by Recollections and Itty Bitty Banners stamp set by Stampin' Up!
• Inks: Classic stampin' pad in Early Espresso.
• Other Stuff: Fiskars deckle scissors, Postage Stamp punch, Bitty Banners Framelits, Soft Suede 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Basic Pearls, and stampin' dimensionals all by Stampin' Up!.

My card is entered into the following challenges:

1. Sketchy Friday: Sketch
2. Robyn's Fetish: Use Ribbon or Twine
3. Make It Monday: Anything Goes

Curly Swirly Congratulations Card

When I saw the colours for the ColourQ challenge this week my jaw dropped. It was a good jaw drop, one in awe. Awe... I love those colours to be exact. Luckily my cardstock stash was stocked with three of the four colours. I decided to do a little colour blocking with heat embossing details. Since I love the new Curly Cute stamp set by Stampin' Up! I came up with this Curly Swirly Congratulations Card.

Curly Swirly Congratulations Card Supplies:

• Paper: Midnight muse, gumball green, and summer starfruit cardstock by Stampin' Up! and white cardstock.
• Stamps: Swirls background stamp by Hampton Art (ditto collection, PS0657), lacy & lovely stamp set (122887) and curly cute sentiment stamp set (120510) by Stampin' Up!
• Inks & Colouring: Stampendous! pearlustre embossing powder in translucent pearl and classic stampin' pads in midnight muse (126860) and summer starfruit (126991) by Stampin' Up!.
• Other Stuff: Fiskars edge punch, celery coloured ribbon by The Paper Studio, circle punch, scalloped punches, gemstone, and stampin' dimensionals.

Floral Congratulations Card

The color green is one of my favorite colors.  My paper stash includes many different shades of green.  There is olive green, emerald green, dusty green, leaf green, bright green, and I could go on.... but you get the picture.  So, where was the mint green when I needed it?  Well, evidently the law of creativity states that what you need you never have.  This weeks color challenge at The Play Date Cafe includes: mint, soft yellow, coral, and tulip.  The colors together are very soft and pretty and I was determined to find something that worked.  I ended up using a patterned paper from Emma's Shoppe Collection from Crate Paper.  The design for this floral congratulations card is from this weeks sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches designed by Jen Mitchell.  Creating with circles is always fun and this card was no exception.

Floral Congratulations Card Supplies:

• Paper: White cardstock, patterned paper by K & Company (Sweet Nectar designer mat pad, 30-657083), soft yellow cardstock, and patterned paper by Crate Paper (Emma's Shoppe Collection, ES868).
• Stamps: Congratulations sentiment stamp by Stampin' Up! (Curly Cute stamp set, 120510).
• Ink: VersaMark watermark stamp pad and Zing! embossing powder in white.
• Other Stuff: Doily flower sticker by Martha Stewart Crafts (41-00158), fancy scroll Glitter on a Roll by Recollections (181164), and stampin' dimensionals.

{Congratulations} Card

The Moxie Fab challenge today is to create a Congratulations card with stamping being the main focus.   So, I used three wonderful colours and my new Lacy and Lovely stamp set by Stampin' Up!  I stamped the image repeatedly on white cardstock and then embossed it with the swiss dots embossing folder by Cuttlebug.

{Congratulations} Card Supplies:  Pool party, lucky limeade, rich razzleberry, and white cardstock by Stampin' Up!, classic Stampin' pads in the same colours, Fiskars upper crest edge punch, Lacy & Lovely stamp set by Stampin' Up!, Swiss Dots embossing folder by Cuttlebug,  Texture Boutique by Sizzix, congratulations sentiment stamp by Hampton Art, glitter brads, and dimensionals.

Congratulations Card

There is only one day left to enter the Moxie Fab World Damask & Brocade Challenge.  This congratulations card was made with the Moxie Fab and CAS-ual Fridays bling challenge in mind.  One of my favorite colours in aqua and when paired with black it makes a very classy combination. 

Congratulation Card Directions: 

1. Make card from black cardstock, or use ready made card.  Finished size: 6.25" x 4.5".
2. Trim aqua cardstock slightly smaller than card and adhere.
3. Trim glitter damask paper by Recollections (178562), and off white cardstock; use VersaMark stamp pad to stamp image (97633, floral flourishes by Inkadinkado) and heat emboss with Zing! black glitter finish embossing powder.
4. Stamp sentiment (CL414, classic messages by Hero Arts) with ColorBox blue lagoon chalk ink by Clearsnap. 
5. Punch hole for layered paper flowers, tape the two pieces together, wrap and secure ribbon (Offray, #103676 from Michaels), attach layered paper flowers with brad, and adhere to card. 

 

Quick & Easy Graduation Card

If your looking for ideas for a handmade graduation card this design might help.  This quick & easy graduation card design is very simple and if you omit the embossing on this card and just stamp the graduation cap image you wouldn't need any special tools.

Quick & Easy Graduation Card Supplies:  White cardstock, congratulations patterned paper by The Paper Studio (item #779249), silver cardstock, VersaMark watermark stamp pad, graduation cap rubber stamp by Stampabilities (item #D1176), Zing! black embossing powder, embossing heat tool by The Paper Studio, ColorBox chalk ink pad in charcoal, black and clear rhinestones, and foam tape.

All supplies for this card were purchased from Hobby Lobby.