Gifts of Love....

Holidays mean cards and, for me, there is nothing more special than a handmade card.

This year I made 3 Valentine cards:

one for my son,

one for my daughter,

and one for my sweet husband.

I can't take credit for the last two designs. I saw similar designs on Pinterest and decided they were too cute not to duplicate them. The idea for my daughter's card was originally posted on a website called moneysavingexpert.com all the way back in 2006. The pin that inspired my hubby's card was actually a wedding card posted on indulgy.com. I love the look of the tulle on top of the patterned paper.

Smile!

Wow! It has been a long time since I was able to get in my scrap room and create anything. Life has been keeping me hopping. My mother has been very ill for the last month and spent time in both a hospital and a nursing home before finally getting home this week. With all of that and school starting, I have been so busy that I haven't had time to do anything just for fun.

This afternoon I found myself with several minutes of actual free time. I almost didn't know what to do!

I sat down and my computer and actually took time to cruise through some of my favorite challenge websites and, before I knew it, I was cutting paper and making cards. It felt SO good!

I owe a big THANK YOU to the gals over at CAS(E) this sketch for providing the inspiration for this card. I loved sketch #91. It was so simple and versatile.

I decided to use the sketch as a way to use some of my many stamps.

I started by using a chevron stamp to create the banner on the left hand side. You can't really tell in this photo, but I actually used 4 different shade of yellow/orange inks to create a subtle ombre effect as the chevron or arrow moves down the card.

Then I stamped a sun using another shade of orange ink and added a few subtle embellishments using yellow stitching, a button, and an orange glitter pen. I decided that I wanted the circles to be a bit more free-form and fun, so after I punched the circles I used my scissors to handcut the edges before inking them.

I stamped a greeting and embellished that with 2 tiny brads. Then I matted the whole thing on a piece of subtle orange stripe cardstock from my stash.

The final card is sure to bring a bright smile to the face of the recipient.

I Wanna Scrap!

Welcome to Scrappin' Peeps summer camp hop. It you didn't arrive from Mandi's blog, be sure to go back and check it out.  

The Peeps have a week full of fun planned for all of us. We have all fallen behind in our scrapping and paper crafting and thought we would take advantage of this week of summer to get a bit caught up.
The theme for our blog hop is water. Water is a BIG part of summer and summer fun: cool glasses of ice water after a day in the sun, a cool dip in a pool, and wading through puddles after a summer rain. Water is also becoming a big part of scrapping and crafting.  At first glance, that statement may sound a bit odd. After all, water and paper usually DON'T mix, do they?

One of the big trends in cardmaking has been the introduction of watercolor and watercolor techniques. You see it everywhere. Well, if you are like me you can experiment with watercolor, but the results are often less than impressive.

Recently, however, I discovered a wonderful alternative!

I purchased THESE pencils after a recommendation from a friend:

They are NOT watercolor pencils. They are actually INK pencils. The resulting color is much more intense than the look you achieve with watercolor pencils. I have also found that it is MUCH easier to shade.

After my purchase, the first thing I did was go to YouTube to see if I could find a good tutorial on using them. I found THIS one by AnnaBelle Stamps

Great ideas huh?

Now, let me share with you 2 cards that I created using these pencils.

My first card was this beautiful Santa image. It is from a Recollections stamp set called "Country Santa".

After stamping and coloring I heat embossed the beard and added some chunky glitter to the fur parts of the coat. I layered the image with cardstock and a frame cut using a Spellbinders die.

My second attempt with these pencils was this snowman card. It was created using the Stampin' Up stamp set called "Snow Much Fun".

Don't you love the shading on the snowman's body, hat, and boots?

I have discovered only one problem with these pencils. I love the look SO MUCH that I need a bigger set with more colors! A quick search on Amazon revealed to me that there is a set of 24 and a set of 72 available.  I am already saving up to make one of  those sets my next splurge.

Your next stop for the crop hop is Robyn's blog. If you got lost on the way here is the complete list.

Mandi mjskraze.blogspot.com/
Stella myscrapbliss.blogspot.com/
Robyn cozienookhomestead.wordpress.com/
Christine terrapincreekdesignstudio.blogspot.com/

Challenge Accepted!

I love challenges! They really inspire me to put my creative juices into action and try something new.

Early in July, my buddies over at Scrappin Mojo posted their monthly challenges. One of the gals, Mary, decided to try something different. Instead of giving us a sketch to create a card, tag, or layout, she asked us to create our own sketch and then use it to create a finished piece.

All month long I have been racking my brain trying to come up with something a little different. I kept envisioning stacked circles of different colors, each one cut in half and stacked with varied colors on top of one another.

After weeks of experimentation I finally came up with the following sketch: (Please ignore the wavy lines. I was trying to use the Paint program to create my semi-circle from a complete circle and I'm just not great with digital art- LOL!)

The neat thing about this sketch is that I had to actually cut 4 circles: 2 of the larger size and 2 of the smaller size. When I cut them in half I had enough pieces to create 2 complete elements for the center of my card, so I was able to easily create 2 cards instead of just one.

Here's my finished card...... OOPS..... cards....

I would love to see what you create using this original sketch. If it inspires you, please leave a comment, photo, or link to your finished project.

Determination....

My goal for this summer is to finish my son's senior album. I suppose that it is about time.... after all, he will be a college junior in the fall... LOL!

I am having a lot of trouble with the pages because he selected the 8 1/2 X 11 album size. He thought it would fit into bookshelves better.

Anyway, I have been scrapping 12 X 12 pages for years now and I love that size because it allows for so much more embellishment and detail.

I am down to the last few pages in the album and I find myself getting a bit uninspired.

My son also selected the colors and basic "style" that he wanted. He really likes the more earthy colors and the grungy type of look. (Believe it or not, he really likes Tim Holtz style.)

One of the things that I have done on every layout is use distress ink and/or glimmer mist to add that distressed or grunge look. On this particular page I used 2 different colors of glimmer mist. I also did some stamping.

See those little dots around the embellishment in the lower left and upper right corners? Those are actually tiny little flat beads that I painted with nail polish. I really wanted some enamel dots, but I have been trying to live up to my personal oath of not purchasing things if I already have something in my stash that will work. So.... instead of purchasing enamel dots I stuck these beads on a sheet of wax paper, painted them with nail polish, and allowed them to dry before pulling them up and adding them to the layout. Pretty good, don't you think? I am amazed at what a little determination can do.

Happy Anniversary....

Tomorrow is my 21st wedding anniversary.   It is hard to believe that I have been married to my sweet hubby that long. It hasn't all been easy, but he has always been there as my strength, support, and listening ear.

I took some time this morning to create a special card just for my hubby. It started with this great sketch from Case This Sketch.

I like to layer my cards so I used 6 different layers of paper. I added some inking, embossing, stamping, and sewing. I used one of my favorite Stampin' Up stamp sets, Wonderful Favorites. I love it because it is so versatile!

This was my first time ever making a 6X6 card, but I really like that size! I think I will definitely be making more of them.

Can You Believe It?

I didn't post on this blog for over a year and now I have posted two days in a row! What can I say? I got hooked on challenges this week. That might just be the ticket to getting me back into the papercrafting world.

I started with the challenges over at Scrappin' Mojo. Those gals can always inspire me. Then I came across this sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.

I really liked the diagonal stripe across the card, so I started digging through my stash. I came across a chipboard cherry embellishment that I knew would be perfect for the Mojo Tutti Fruity Challenge. That helped me decide that I wanted a vintage type of look for my card.

I ended up using a piece of "Core Impressions" paper that I had been saving for a long time. I sanded it a bit to reveal the inner core through the embossed polka dots, added some lace, buttons, vintage print papers, inking, and sewing. I REALLY like the end result!

I have bookmarked the Freshly Made website and you will also find a link in the sidebar. I will definitely be keeping an eye on their sketches each week. They are GREAT inspiration for someone like me who needs to start using some of that mountain of craft stash that I have been keeping for years!