Birthday Wishes @ Creative Sketches

Hello,  fellow paper crafters!  And welcome to my blog.  I am on the design team for a challenge site called Creative Sketches.  They host a different challenge each week.  And this week's challenge is a sketch challenge.

Here is the sketch:

We would love for you to play along with us!  You don't have to use any particular paper crafting supplies or specific paper company.  We urge you to use what you have.  These economic times are already difficult.  So, use what you have on hand.  Mix and match.  Be creative.  Let your inner artist take charge.  Use this time to escape and create something beautiful and uniquely YOU!

Here is my card:

I used Stampin' Up! products for this card.  The card base is chocolate chip.  (I know, it looks like Bravo Burgundy, but it's not.)  The pink layer is Pink Pirouette card stock.  I stamped onto Very Vanilla card stock and did a thin matt of Crumb Cake card stock.  I stamped the flower in Basic Brown. classic ink I used both blender pen and chalks to color this pretty image.  I added some white dots and colored the flower center white with a white gel pen.  I stamped the sentiment in Soft Suede classic ink.  I stamped the scratched background in Sahara Sand classic ink.  I had a scrap piece of off white felted wool, so I used the beautiful butterfly embosslit and cut out a small butterfly.  I added a faux half-pearl as its body and adhered the butterfly to the card front with a glue dot.  

I'm pretty sure this card would not need more than a general postage stamp.  The card itself is pretty flat, with just a tiny bump created by the butterfly.

Thank you for looking, and I hope you carve out an hour or so, and join us in this weeks challenge!

Fruit stand in Our Creative Corner

It's Saturday! Yahoo! so, you know what that means! It's time for another creative and inspirational challenge from Our Creative Corner.  Our hostess this week is Kristin from Lily Beth Boutique.  She has this fabulous inspirational board full of photos from fruit stands.

Here:

I found this wonderful free download of these two cute children eating cherries.  But look at this little girl.  She is hanging a cherry from her ear.  Did you ever do that as a child?  I did!  We use to pretend they were our fancy earrings.  How funny, huh?  So, naturally when I saw this old photo I just had to use it!

Here is my card:

Believe it or not, this card only uses four different pattern papers.  The larger pattern paper was used in my granddaughters birthday party invites from when she celebrated her 3rd birthday!  Yeah, that was 2 years ago, and I only had this scrap left, so I'm not sure who made it.  The muted pattern paper is a scrap from some Valentine's Day cards I made earlier this year.  The text paper is First Edition DSP.  I used a die cut to create the spiral notebook sheet.   I stamped a few letters onto the writing paper in Pure Poppy classic ink.  I adhered the free download to the card with some foam tape.  I added a few buttons tied with linen thread.  I also added a layered circle embellishment to help continue the circle shape and glitter.  I had a scrap piece of crochet trim that really had to go onto this card.  I had a single paper flower that really matched the shades of red that has some glitter on its petal edges.

Leave me a comment, and let me know what you think, and share a shopping secret: where do you purchase your fruits & vegetables?  Me, I prefer to make those purchases at the Farmer's Market on Eubank & Snow Heights in Albuquerque, NM.

Stop by the challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team have created.  They have made some absolutely wonderful cards!  Different styles, and some very talented artist!  Play along with us and upload your card to be eligible for our Top Talent Award!

thinking Sketch Frenzy

Happy Friday!  It's time for another sketch from Sketch Frenzy Friday!  This sketch is pretty user-friendly.  I flipped it and then mirrored the image, so the sentiment is no longer at the lower left corner, it is now at the upper right corner.  

I used all Stampin' Up! supplies for this challenge.  And I have to say, I really like this card :)

This sketch is brought to us by Tina Taves.  I love a great sketch and Tina has really made this challenge a pleasure to be a part of.   For your next stop on our blog tour, please stop by Tammy B. blog.

I used three different stamp sets, but that was only because I wanted a pretty, feminine font for the sentiment.  I used Creative Elements for the flower and the sentiment tag.  I used Best Friends Forever for the leaves.  The card base is Crumb Cake.  The largest matt is Calypso Coral.  I stamped on the First Edition DSP to help create a background that tied the floral arrangement to the card.  I just love the crochet trim, but it seemed a bit 'light' and that it didn't look grounded to the card, so I layered a scrap piece Crumb Cake taffeta ribbon under the crochet trim.  I tied a random SU! button onto the ribbon with some linen thread.  I made a bow with the long length of thread I originally cut.  I did the 'rock n roll' technique on my flower.  I stamped the whole flower in Calypso Coral classic ink and then rolled the edges in Crumb Cake classic ink.  I actually stamped the flower three times, and layered the different cut-outs with foam tape.  I added some faux half-pearl jewels to keep that pretty, feminine look.  And I finished the card with a few spritz of my home-made shimmer mist!

Simply Beautiful SK

I'm super late at posting this, and I apologize for that.  Work has been a bear, and I haven't been home all week.  My husband and I finally got to see each other last night, so we went out to dinner.  Dinner was very nice and we got to actually talk to each other.  How wonderful.  

The wonderfully talented ladies over at Sketch Frenzy Friday, have a very user friendly sketch challenge. Jennifer brought us this sketch, and the beautiful part is that you can basically use anything you have on hand, and it will be wonderful!  You can easily stamp on the middle piece if you are needing to ink up a special stamp set, or just use pattern paper!

Here is the sketch:

Here is my card:

See what I mean?  I used two scrap pieces of DSP and a few scrap pieces of solid cardstock, and Viola!  I stamped a simple and pretty fond sentiment, added a few half faux pearls and look how pretty!  The only trick here is to use a light pattern paper as your larger piece, so when you stamp right on the DSP, you can actually read it.  If your larger pattern paper is either dark or too busy, the words get lost.  And when you put the busier/vibrant pattern paper as your smaller piece, it helps showcase the colors/design.

I hope that you can play along with us, and who knows, you may be our next winner!

Silent Butterfly #126

First, let me apologize for posting soo late.  For those of you who know me, know this is not like me.  I haven't been home every night this week, and work keeps piling up.  So, I'm super sorry for this delay. 

Now, it's Saturday, and so that means that it's time for our challenge @ Our Creative Corner!  This weeks challenge is brought to us by Kristin, and she always has the funnest challenges! and this week, it  was just that for me.  From our inspiration photo you see a sea of flowers.  The challenge, don't use flowers!  WOW!  I needed alittle help with this one, so I headed over to Card Patterns and found this wonderful layout to help me with my card.  So, I used a fancy chipboard frame, some pretty ribbon, a few rhinestones, and a butterfly!  

Here is our inspiration board:

 Here is my layout challenge:

 Here is what I came up with:

I played with the greens and whites from the inspiration board.  Every time I focused on the pinks and yellows, I kept gravitating to floral.  And I just couldn't not use some kind of flower or floral print.  Sorry.  I don't know if its artist block, working too much, or anxiety for a dead line.  Either way, I couldn't get it to work.  I found some pretty pattern paper. The chipboard frame was in my stash. That beautiful ribbon is from Stampin' Up!, and so is the solid cardstock, butterfly die, rhinestones, glitter, and inks.

Thank you for looking.  Please visit the rest of the cards from the design team, and play along with us, on this creative, and fun challenge!

Surprise Birthday

Howdy!  Glad that you could stop by today and see what I've been crafting!  A girlfriend had asked me to make her some Birthday invites for another friend, but it's a surprise party!  How fun!  I think those parties are generally the best!  You get to make it all fancy and special, and the recipient  gets to bask in the special efforts, surrounded by her friends!

here is the invite:

I used four different pattern papers from three different companies.  Once I figured out what I wanted to do, finding the perfect pattern paper wasn't soo hard.  Just a few minutes to hunt and peck!  I have to admit, I just love the scallop trim piece from the Tasteful Trim die by Stampin' Up!  I think it helps give any project a little feminine touch, without being over whelming.  I sprayed the whole card with some 'home-made' shimmer mist.  I used the champagne shimmer paint by Stampin' Up!, a drop or two of Sahara Sand re-inker and rubbing alcohol.  The champagne paint has gold mica flakes, so it gives a soft golden shimmer.   The 'shh' was stamped each letter at a time.   I 'painted' the 'flame' from the candle with white craft ink and then added some dazzling diamond glitter by Stampin' Up!