You Have My Heart

Howdy! and welcome to my little piece of blog-land.  Here is where I craft, bake, sew, and share.  I love creating pretty things.  Umm, that sounded a bit odd.  Who wants to create ugly things?  Anyways, I love pink, seam binding, roses, pearls, crystals, distressed wood, and everything shabby chic!  I also love all things country! Barns, tractors, farm animals, aprons, and wooden screen doors.  What can I say, I am girl-y girl at heart and soul!  And that is where I find my inspiration, and put my soul into my creations.  Regardless, if its baking from scratch, or paper crafting.  {smile}

I visited a personal favorite challenge blog last week, and completely fell in love with their inspiration board: Scrap Therapy.  What I love about this challenge site, is their openness to just create!  Sometimes that have mandatory elements, and sometimes that want you to be inspired.  Either way, their boards are gorgeous! The design team is incredibly creative and talented.

from this Inspirational Board, I loved the pink & white color scheme.  The roses, and the tenderness.  

I also stopped by a new-to-me, challenge site:  Viva la Vista.  This challenge site, has some cleaver challenges, and the design team deserves a second look!  Their current challenge is to use a heart(s).

I also stumbled upon another new-to-me challenge site: Candy Floss.  This refreshing challenge site, has a super talented design team, and a beautiful inspiration boards.  Their current challenge is to give a gift: Gifts for beloved.  How sweet, and tender.

Now that I have some inspiration, a required element, and a theme, I set out to get some direction.  So, I stopped by one of my all-time favorite challenge sites: Mojo Monday.  They always have user-friendly sketches.  And this weeks, fits the bill perfectly!

and here is my card:

Recipe:  My card measures 4 3/4" x 4 3/4".  The card base is kraft card stock.  

I used a soft sky card stock for my matt.  I just love how this soft, sweet shade of blue matched the blue in the floral pattern paper.  The pink gingham and the floral pattern paper are the same paper.  The pink gingham is the reverse side.  This pattern paper is from My Mind's Eye.  It's several years old.  I only have one whole sheet left.  I matted the floral pattern paper onto the same soft sky card stock.  

For my circle piece, I used a 4" white paper doily.  I just love this soft, delicate, vintage doily.

Instead of adding two squares to my card front, I simply added a rectangle and tied seam binding around the middle, creating two 'pieces'.  {smile}  I tied a double bow to add a little more softness.

For the heart shape piece, I added a fabric heart ornament.  The pale floral print is a discontinued Rachel Ashwell cotton fabric.  I backed my heart ornament with sweet blush felt.  I machine stitched the two fabrics together, along with the pale pink ribbon.  The pale pink paper blossom is adhered to the middle of the heart with hot glue. 

For my small green 'round' element, I created a paper blossom with another doily, and button.  I wanted my card to still be 'pretty' if the ornament was removed, so I added a swirl of pearls.  My sentiment is simple: love.  And it is done with a charm.

Thank you for looking!  I hope you have been inspired to play along with any or all of these challenge sites.  

Missing Mint

Howdy.  I hope your weekend was wonderful!  Productive!  Creative! and on track with your new year resolution.  Mine was.  {smile}

I am still loving my planner, and keeping my projects/tasks/chores organized.   I have also added my budget and menu, to my tasks.  It feels good to have those two chores organized.  {smile}

So, with my mind not on those items, I had some free time today to craft a little.  Gotta love that!

For starters, I stopped by Shabby Chic .  They have a color theme board.  The color theme is mint and their requirement is to craft in a shabby chic style.  And who doesn't love mint!  It is such a sweet, and refreshing color.  Mint pairs nicely with almost everything!

To help give me some direction, I stopped by a new-to-me challenge As You See It.  They have a sketch, as their current challenge.   I love working with sketches.  And this one is a good sketch.  easy to work with, and I did flip the sketch.

I stopped by my favorite challenge site:  Cupcake Inspiration.  This challenge site, always have some creative themes/inspirations.  Their current challenge is to use plaid.  Yep, plaid.  I just love their cupcake!  But, I wanted something a little more spring.  But those cupcakes look yummy!

And finally, I stopped by Brown Sugar Challenge.  Their current challenge is Anything Goes.  But please stop by to see what this creative design team has created!

All of these challenge sites, have very talented, creative folks on their design teams.  They will inspire you!

and here is what I created:

Recipe:  The card meausres 4 1/4" x 6 1/4".  The card base is made with a no name Kraft card stock.

The first matt is pool party card stock.  I matted the floral pattern paper with aqua mist card stock.  The mint & aqua plaid is actually a holiday pattern paper by My Mind's Eye.  Once these two pattern papers were adhered to the card front, I ran them thru my sewing machine to add a double border stitch, all the way around. I added a strip of mint lace, to cover the seam where the two pattern papers meet.  I machine stitched some aqua seam binding to the center of the lace.  I wrapped silver bakers twine around the middle.  I tied the seam binding into a double bow.  I also tied a simple bow with silver bakers twine. I added a trio of paper blossoms distressed with tea stain ink, and white acrylic paint.  They are adhered to the card front with my hot glue gun.  For the sentiment, I used a new-to-me stamp set by AlteNew: Label Love.  I stamped the sentiment in basic black classic ink,  and stamped on kraft card stock.  I used my scissors to cut out the sentiment piece, and adhered it to the card front with foam squares.  The final touch were these rain drops in mint.

Well, I hope you have a chance to play along with some (or all) of these challenge sites!

Provence-Style Rose

Howdy!  Hope this post finds you well, and enjoying your weekend.  Me, busy as a bee.  But, what's new.  I always wait patiently for the summer, because I tell myself, 'life will slow down, and I can catch my breathe.'  And we all know that is so far from the truth.  No one's life 'slows down' during the summer.  Actually, it is quite opposite.  We are all in a rush to get in some vacation time, and attend as many cook outs as possible.  {smile}

I did however, take some time for myself this morning to create a card for a challenge or two.  (ok, 3) So, here we go!  I stopped by the creative challenge site: Crazy 4 Challenges.  Their current challenge is a sketch.  Awesome!

I turned the sketch 90 degrees to the left

My next stop, was the beautiful challenge site:  Scrap Magic.  They always have great inspiration boards.  Their current challenge is to craft in Provence Style.  {I'm going to try it}

And last, I stopped by the Brown Sugar Challenge site.  Their current challenge is - Anything Goes.

here is what I crafted:

Recipe:  I used kraft card stock for the base of the card.  I love the rustic look of this paper.  I used two different pattern papers, and both are years old.  (sorry, I'm trying to use what I have on hand.)

The main panel is a Valentine's day theme paper from My Minds Eye.  It has that weathered look to it.  The blossoms are done in a faint reddish purple color.  I used the edge of my scissors to distress the edges.  I then swiped some white canvas ink over the edges.  And finally, I added some machine stitching.  

The grayish polka dot pattern paper is from a Christmas collection.  (my scrap piece no longer had the manufacture name on it.  If I had to guess, I'd say another My Minds Eye pattern paper.  I matted that piece with a scrap piece of kraft card stock.  A little more machine stitching.

The cotton-rhinestone piece is actually from Prima.  And probably 6/+ years old.  I still have 5 of these left, in a cream, a brown, and this beautiful rose color.  [I know this sounds like I'm a hoarder, but, really just a collector.]  I painted a wooden button with white acrylic paint, and dunked it into a tub of glitter.  Once the paint was dry, I took a small piece of sand paper to the button, to rough it up a bit.  I tied the button to the card front with kraft twine, from Paper Trey Ink.  I tied a double bow between the card and button.

I added a scrap piece of cotton trim just above the cotton-rhinestone piece.  I felt that the card needed another layer of fabric.  

My sentiment piece is hand-stamped and machine cut.  I used a coordinating stamp and die set from Amuse Studios for that piece.  [Vintage Labels is the die & stamp set]  I stamped the outline, and sentiment with basic grey classic ink, by Stampin' Up!  The Hand Scripted sentiment stamp set comes with various words to mix and match.  The card stock I used for the sentiment piece, is actually the back side of the weathered blossom pattern paper I used for the main panel.  The grey streaking is a distressed look for the paper.

I added a white resin piece from Melissa Frances.  I thought the basket of blossoms was a perfect fit for this card.  I used a retired Pale Plum marker, by Stampin' Up! to color two blossoms and the bow. I thought this color of purple matched the cards overall look perfectly!  And finally, I added a trio of pearl halves.  {smile}

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope that I have inspired you to create something beautiful or simply to play along in any or all of these challenge sites!

Dreamy Mint Card

I know that I have been absent lately.  Life has gotten crazy.  I went to Phoenix last week, and was gone the whole week.  I had a blast, did some junking, shopping, swimming, and spending some really great quality time with my oldest granddaughter.  These moments are precious, and don't happen often.  So, I was totally present, and we had a blast!

So, now that I am home, and back into the groove of working, and unpacked, I wanted to create something.  So, I headed to a couple of  my favorite challenge sites, and created something beautiful! {smile}

I started with a great sketch @ Mojo Monday Challenge.  And I love this current sketch.  Very user friendly, and easy to work with regardless of the pattern paper you select.

My last stop was @ Crazy 4 Challenges, to check out their current theme: use springtime flowers.  

and here is what I crafted:

First, let me give the disclaimer: this is NOT a square card.  I don't do square cards.  I know, how crazy.  But, I just don't. {frown}

The card base and the journalling card are matted with my favorite kraft card stock - Paper Studio.  I love the color.  But the weight isn't as heavy as I love, so I always add card stock to the inside of the card.  

I wanted something mint, something girl-y, something pretty, and I found a sheet of this beautiful mint and gold foil polka dot pattern paper from My Mind's Eye, from their On Trend collection.

I added a peach-pink pattern paper for the belly band.  This pattern paper is from Authentique, the Grace collection.

I added some machine stitching.  I did a double border stitch.  Nothing fancy, just super sweet.

I used a journalling card from the Coffee Break collection by Prima.  I did my hand-stamping to the journal card before I adhered it to the card front.  I used the Loving Thoughts stamp set by Stampin' Up!  I also used basic black classic ink, by Stampin' Up!  I adhered the journalling card to the front of this card with foam tape.

I wrapped some pale pink seam binding around the card front and tied a multi-loop bow.  To add some sparkle, I tied some thin gold tinsel around the bow and tied a simple bow.  I adhered a pale blue/aqua mist paper blossom to the top of the bow.

And finally, I added a black cork coffee cup to the upper right corner.  

Well, thank you for looking.  This card is actually for a very special girl friend.  We are spending a whole day crafting next weekend! and I got her a little gift. {smile}  I hope she loves it!

Bee - lieve, Card

Howdy!  Welcome! have a look around, and sit a spell.  {smile}  I had a great visit with a wonderful girl friend today.  She always makes me laugh, and we have a great time together.  Anyways, a mutual friend of ours, is having kinda a difficult time these days.  So, I set out in my craft room, to make her a sweet card!  I just want her to know that we care about her, and that she can always call.

I stopped by Mojo Monday to play along with their sketch challenge.  You see, its the first Monday of the month, so it's a contest/prize week.  So, here is this week's challenge sketch:

It was a lot of fun working with this weeks sketch, so don't be surprised if I submit more than one card for this challenge {smile}.  Here is what I created:

Recipe:  I used baked brown sugar card stock by Stampin' Up! for the card base.  Love their heavy weight card stock.  Very sturdy and beautiful colors.

The pattern paper is Just Saying, by My Minds Eye.  I just love the bright vibrant colors.   The gold accents really add a bit of sparkle. (smile).

I matted the largest pattern paper and the smallest pattern paper with the bright melon orange peel solid card stock.  The gold star pattern paper is matted onto a scrap piece of matching cardstock.  

I added a circle embellishment from this pattern paper coordinating embellishment.  It's a floral circle that has a sentiment inside. 'believe in yourself'.  I think the sentiment is perfect for our friend.  {smile}  I added a white resin crown from Melissa Frances.  I think it adds a little fanciness.  I wrapped apiece of sage green ribbon from Inspired Stamping, and tied it in a simple bow.  I added a piece of elastic trim just under the ribbon.  I love the gold arrows on the cream.  

I thought that there was something missing just below the bow.  So, I looked through my stash for some gold embellishments, and look what I found!  a gold bee.  I thought it looked great with the crown and 'believe'.  Queen Bee, and Bee-lieve in yourself.  Doesn't it look good?  I also added a trio of sequins.  A pair of small gold sequins and a large pale pink sequins.  The sequins are from Studio Calico.

Well, I need to go, so I can get this card addressed and ready to be mailed.  Take care.  and if you get a chance to play along with this weeks sketch challenge, good luck on the contest. {smile}

Vintage Valentine

St. Valentine's Day, is my favorite holiday. I love everything about it! I'm a romantic, what can I say? I wanted to make a 'pretty' card to celebrate this event, and this is what I came up with. I used products from everyone, so if you have a questions about a specific product, please post in comments, and I will get that information to you. I wanted a card, that looked and felt 'romantic', vintage, unique. The main image on my card, is actually a label. And yes, its from the most romantic city in the world: Paris, France! I added little touches to give this card some punch. I threaded some beads onto my corsage pin, and tucked it in the flower, and added a half-pearl to the flower center. I adhered some glass glitter on a heart shape to give the card some sparkle. I tied a key onto a button with some linen thread, for a rustic look. I added some crochet trim to a scrap piece of pattern paper, that I used an eyelet border punch on, to help soften the card. All pieces were sponged with a light tan ink, to give everything a distressed look.

Thank you for looking! Let me know what's your favorite holiday.