Have Faith in God; Card

Howdy.  I'm still struggling with this new updated photo program.  I'm not too big on change.  Well, that's not completely true.  I'm not too big on change I don't understand.  I really can't embrace change that I don't understand, or can't rally behind the application.

Anyways, I made a card for a few challenges.  

I stopped by Mojo Monday to get a sketch.  That way I have a starting point.  I needed to look at the 'elements' in the sketch to start my brain storming.

The half circle is perfect for a doily or a large blossom.  The rectangle piece is perfect for a sentiment.

Now, I need a color combo and possibly a little more inspiration.  So, I stopped by {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge to see both the colors and inspiration.  Love their new challenge.

I love this pale minty green color they used for the gems.  And the creamy vanilla color of the frosting is perfect to pair with all things vintage.  {smile}
I also stopped by Word Art Wednesday to see what they had for a sentiment.  And super happy I did.

and here is what I created:

Recipe:  I used kraft card stock from Paper Trey Ink.  Love their heavy weight card stock; very sturdy, and easy to use in die cuts.  I used a light weight card stock from CTMH (not sure of the color, I only had a scrap left).  I layered two different, but beautiful pattern papers.  The minty floral pattern paper is from Cosmo Cricket.  It's probably 5/+ years retired.  But I just love the minty pale vintage color.  And the off white floral pattern reminds me of vintage wall paper.  The blue and white text paper is from LemonCraft, their Forget Me Not collection.  (LemonCraft, is an eastern European paper company.)  

I simply adhered these two pattern papers together, and added a single border stitch with my sewing machine.  I think it helps add a vintage, home spun look to the card.

I had a 4" burlap doily from Maya Road, left over from a project last year, so I cut it in half and adhered it to the front of the card.  I used hot glue to adhere the mint lace blossom from Prima, their Coffee Break collection, to the center of thee burlap doily.  

I used some minty blue-green seam binding (Aquarelle) to make a double bow.  I added a 'gem' brad to the center.  The gem brad is from Paper Studio Spare Parts line.  

I printed the sentiment onto whisper white card stock by Stampin' Up! and matted it to a scrap piece of CTMH card stock.  Viola!  I'm super happy with how it came out.  Just wish I could add some text to the photo.  :/

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you have been inspired the play along with any/all of these challenges.  {smile}

Bunco One

Whew.  I'm at the end of my big reveal!  I hope you have been inspired and found something creative.  This last prize, number one, is certainly more 'farmland' than you can imagine!
So, let me start with the gift tag.   I used retired pattern papers from Cosmo Cricket and Stampin' Up!.  Both pattern papers embrace farm cooking!  I used the same layout as the previous cards.

the prize:

Ok.  barn red.  chicken wire.  altered clothes pins.  and a retro pattern.  I purchased the simple frame from a big box store.  Painted it literally bard red.  I used sand paper to distress the frame.  I sealed the distress with a clear coat.  I used my husbands staple gun to adhere the chicken wire to the inside of the frame.  I cut the pattern paper to fit inside the frame.  To decorate the clothes pins, I painted them white.  Then adhered a small strip of the pattern paper to the top of the clothes pin.  I stamped a few inspiring words at the front of the clothes pin.  I hot glued a paper blossom and vintage crochet trim bow over the middle section of the pin.  I also added a small wooden button below the bow.  I felt it gave a more 'finished' look.  

This beauty can be hung on the wall, or stand on a counter.  I wanted the recipient of this prize to have choices {smile}.  Choices are good!

Thank you for stopping by and having a look around!  Hope you get a chance to create something today!

Cowboys

Happy Saturday to you!  I'm pretty excited writing this post.  I am joining some wonderful friends for this weekends Stamp Retreat, here in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I have to admit, that this is my first one ever!  But, I think I'm more excited about spending the weekend with girl friends and paper crafting together.

As this weekend get a jump start with creativity, Liliana I. is our hostess over @ Our Creative Corner. Liliana, has a clever little challenge for us; create a card/project with a country/western look.  I want to see some plaid, such as in a ribbon or designer paper.  Also, use the picture to inspire you.

I have to admit, when I saw this inspiration photo, I first thought of Thanksgiving.  So, I wanted to inspire you in a direction that might not be so obvious.  Here is what I created:

I just loved the orange in the plaid table cloth.  So, I looked through my scraps box, and found some wonderfully appropriate pattern paper from Cosmo Cricket.   I just love this pattern paper.  The pattern paper I selected for my card front, has the same 'orange' on a blue-ish woodgrain patter paper.  How pretty.  So, I collected two other papers from the same collection.  I added a cream and brown pattern paper and a blue-ish plaid pattern paper.

I thought the cowboy pattern paper fit this challenge beautifully, so I used it as my focal panel.  I cut a star shape from some left over burlap.  I stapled the folded brown plaid ribbon and burlap star to the cowboy panel.  I added a linen thread tied wooden button to the top right corner.  I thought that this card needed something else.  So, I added two staples to help give the card some visual interest, but not distracting.  I also added 3 copper brads to the lower right corner.  I thought the copper helped brighten the 'oranges' in the various pattern papers.

I hope you have been inspired, and decide to play along with us @ Our Creative Corner.  

Best Friends

There are a few great things happening today! First, I'm the hostess again this week over @ Our Creative Corner.  Second, it's my birthday!  And third, my family is sharing a meal with me this evening!  When I say family, I mean it, in every sence of the word: my folks, my husband, my daughter and her family (including two of my grandchildren), my husband's mother, and my son-in-law's mother.  

But, first things first.  I am hosting again this week @ Our Creative Corner.  The challenge that I have for you this week, is to create a paper craft item (a card, scrapbook layout, 3-D item, an altered item) for a Best Friend.  It can be for a Birthday, Thank You, or any other occasion.  The only requirement I have for this week, is to include a flower.  But it can be a hand-made flower, or an embellishment, or a floral stamp.  Sounds pretty broad, but that is so you can make a papercraft item that is special to your Best Friend.

Here is my card:

Now, for some words about my card.  I love some specific paper craft companies.  But, I probably own products from almost every paper craft company out there.  So, I am a big fan of using what you have.  You loved the product enough to spend your hard earn cash on it.  Use it!  

To create this card, I used paper from Stampin' Up!, Webster's Pages, Cosmo Cricket, and Echo Park.  I stamped a script text from Hero Arts onto the center panel, to give it some 'weight' on the lower third of the cardstock, since the top portion of the card is pretty busy.  The reason I mentioned the different paper companies, is to show you that even though the greens and blues aren't a perfect color match, they are from the same color families and look great together!

The bird is actually a glitter rub-on.  The stamped sentiment, 'best FRIENDS to the end' is a collaboration of two different stamp sets from two different companies:  Stampin' Up! and Paper Trey Ink. 

The 'ribbon' is seam binding from Stampin' Up!  I made the multi-loop bow by hand and used a CTMH rhinestone brad to hold the bow together.

I used a 'lace' hand-held punch to create the decorative strip at the top of the main panel.  I punched this delicate piece out of text pattern paper.  This was to mimic the text script at the lower third of the same panel, and to introduce a soft beige color of the flowers that encircle the medallion.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule, to stop by and view my Best Friend card.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  I'll have a piece of birthday cake for us all  :)

Late Birthday Wishes

While surfing the web over the weekend, I found alot of inspiration from some of the folks that I follow.  And I wanted to try an interesting color combo.  I found this decorators photo on Little Princess Cards blog. The colors are pink, yellow, and black.  I know, this color combo sounds far fetched.  But, I was determined to see if I could get it to work.  So, I rummaged threw my scrap stash.  I located some pink and yellow ribbons.  And set out to work.  I needed a bit more direction, so I went to a sketch challenge blog @ Simple Desire to scrap.  This challenge blog is in Russian, so you will need to translate the blog if you are interested in reading it.  (This blog has a translate button at the top of the page.)

Here is the original inspiration photo:

 Here is the sketch:

  

And here is my card:

When I first saw this color combo, my first thought was, 'are you kidding?'.  But I really like it!  Like I said this card is made from scraps.  I believe the large yellow polka dot paper is a Cosmo Cricket paper.  The pink script is from Sceinic Route, the hounds tooth pattern paper is from Authentique, the cream text paper is from Stampin' Up!, as well as the yellow small polka dot paper and the glitter paper.  The pink flourish paper I have no idea.  The yellow ribbon is from Stampin' Up! and the pink small polka dot ribbon is from Paper Trey Ink.  The ribbon slide is from Paper Studio.  The stamps (Birthday Wishes, and friends) are from Stampin' Up!  So is the die to cut the cardstock scallop circle.  The flower comes from Kaiser.  The card base is Crumb Cake, from Stampin' Up!.  

Thank you for looking! and I hope this new year is off to a great start for you! 

Sewing Magnetic Board + Card

I am selling some of my hand-made cards at the Craft Fair @ Tramway Community Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday November 12th & 13th. However, I wanted to make a few different paper-craft items to sell also. I had a wonderful time making a magnetic message board for a Stampin' Up! class, and really loved the one I made for my granddaughter. So, I decided to make a few for the craft fair. This one is an original, one-of-a-kind. I made the card out of the scraps of paper I had. I thought, that if someone buys this one for a 'gift', they might want a card to go with it. The pattern paper I used is from Cosmo Cricket. The solid cardstock is Stampin' Up!. The buttons at the bottom of the board are magnets.

To be eligible to sell your wares, you must pass a voting committee, and your items must be hand-made. So, I am selling individual and boxed hand-made greeting cards, a few ribbon book marks, a few metal book marks, some natural stone coasters, a few magnetic message boards, and a few different altered photo trays. I will also have some home-made pumpkin-cranberry bread, and a few jars of blueberry spoon fruit. If I knew how to sew, I'd probably have a few sewn items, too. So, if you're in the area, stop-by, shop, and don't forget to say 'hi'.

A little bird told me...

I made this card for a challenge. For this challenge, you need to make 3 cards using stamps from a specific company and mail them in. Their people will select the winners. But, you also receive 3 cards in return of the same level of expertise you send in! I thought "how cool is that?" My first card entry is my granddaughter's birthday invitation (without the printed inside). This is my second card entry. As with card #1, this card (#2) has alot going on (for a detailed list of products, please contact me privately). I stamped the bird scene on Stampin' Up! watercolor paper, and used Stampin' Up! watercolor crayons to 'paint' the image. The 'school paper' paper seemed to be lacking something, so I 2nd generation stamped the bird cages on it. The words, 'a little bird told me...' is from a generic $1 bin stamp. The flowers are my own creation. I saw this bunch of silk flowers at one of those big craft stores in the clearance bin. I took the flowers apart, added some paper flowers and some rhinestone brads. I edged all the card stock with a sponge and some antique ink, just to soften the edges.

Thanks for looking. If you follow, my daughter did like the sample baby shower invite. However, she isn't wild about the teddy bear. So, we are changing it. She has requested a lion. I will post those soon. I want to save tomorrow's post for the father's day card I am making my husband. Take care. If you have a moment, post a comment.

sympathy

This has been a rough month. I know too many people who have lost a loved one this month. All of which are sudden losses. When I originally made this card for my dear friend Kathy, I could not image having to mass produce this card. :(

I used a simple floral yellow patterned cardstock from Cosmo Cricket. The paper is two-sided. One side is the main pattern paper on the card. The other side is matted with Soft Suede card stock from Stampin' Up! I used a leaf die and my Big Shot to cut out the leaves in Barely Banana card Stock and a textured Going Grey card stock, all from Stampin' Up! The sympathy stamp is a loose stamp I had in my stash. I stamped 'with deepest sympathy' in Going Grey, on whisper white card stock, matted that onto Barely Banana card stock, and then matted it again on Going Grey textured card stock. All these papers are from Stampin' Up! The ribbon is a dark grey from a 'big-box' craft store.

My heart goes out to these many families. These are sudden losses, and no one could prepare for their devastation.