365 Cards - Super Sketchy Sunday

It is Day 92 over at 365 Cards, and it is Super Sketchy Sunday. Here is the inspiration sketch for today:

And here is my take on the sketch:

I embossed the yellow background using a Sizzix Embossing plate. The turtle image is a digital stamp from Pink Petticoat, and I have been playing with it for a few days - just trying different colors to see what I like. I settled on this very bright palette. I used Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 to manipulate and color the image.

These photos are some close-ups of some of the elements on the card. The "Congrats" sentiment is from the Doodletype Cricut cartridge. I cut the scalloped circles using Nestabilities.

Thanks for Looking!

Card Pattern 16

This is the sketch for Card Patterns this week:

I looked at the sketch earlier today. Later a friend asked me to make a sympathy card, so I tried to remember the sketch for the card. Here is my take:


I actually made 2 cards that were almost identical except for the colors. I posted the other one here for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite challenge this week.

I used Nestabilities to cut out the sentiment, and the Martha Stewart Doily border punch at the top and bottom.

Thanks for Looking!

Raspberry Suite Week 7

I decided to participate in the Raspberry Suite Challenge this week. Here is the color pallete for this challenge:

This seems like an odd combination to me, but a friend needed a sympathy card, and I thought these colors might be a nice cheery touch for that type of card. Here is my take:

Ironically I recently purchased the raspberry / pink ribbon that had the celery stitching.

I used the Nestabilities to cut out the sentiment. The Martha Stewart Doily border punch was used for the edging at the top and bottom.

I am still working on bows with buttons and getting them to sit straight - grrrr.

Thanks for Looking!

Multiple Gift Card Holder

Well - I don't have any challenges to post today. But a friend of mine asked about making a gift card holder that could hold 4 gift cards.

I have my scrap room all put away, because it doubles as a guest room, and my Mom is coming to spend the next week with us. But I decided to try to make something for him.

This little holder was really simple to make, and required minimal tools.

I used the Marthat Stewart butterfly punch with some tiny gems for an added detail on the first page.

The second page is just some patterned paper.

I cut the pocket for the third page with a V, just so that it would be a little different.

For the last page I used a cut from the Cricut Wild Card cartridge, the Martha Stewart Doily edge punch and some gems.

For the front cover. I used Nestabilities to cut the ovals, and I embossed the Thank You sentiment with a Cuttlebug Folder, and then inked it slightly. I made a decorative band to put around the card to keep it closed, and I used Prima Flowers for an added detail.

365 Cards - Day 81

The challenge at 365 Cards today is to use 5 squares. Here is my take:

I made a card very similar to this a few months ago, and I really liked the color combination.

The craft paper is embossed with the Cuttlebug Swirls folder. I also embossed the small black squares with that folder.

Thanks for looking!

2 Sketches For You #26 / 365 Cards - Day 80

It is Day 80 at 365 Cards and the theme for the day is plaid. There is also a new sketch over at 2 Sketches 4 You:

Well I decided to combine these 2 challenges. Here is my submission:

I used a digital stamp from Pink
Petticoat. I actually stumbled upon this site from Jeannie - she had used an image from Pink Petticoat on a recent card, and I thought it was so cute. So I am blaming her for what may become my new addiction - digital stamps! Thanks Jeannie!

I colored the image using the airbrush option on Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. But when I was done, my son suggested I add eye shadow, so I did that by hand. I used Nestabilities to cut out the image.

Thanks for Looking!

Card Patterns #15

Well I found a new challenge site - Card Patterns. Here is sketch #15 from Card Patterns:

Here is my take on this sketch:

I decided to try something new for this challenge - I used digital stamps from My Graphico. I put them together and recolored them using Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. I must say - this program is not for the weak of heart! It is really taking me some time to make it do what I want. But I needed to find a new program as Picture It is not compatible with Vista - grrrr!

I also used a Fiskars edge punch and the Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

Thanks for Looking!

365 Cards Day 78 / Raspberry Suite Week 6

I was able to combine 2 challenges again - I used the colors from the Raspberry Suite Color Challenge, Week 6:

And I used the sketch from 365 Cards, Day 78:

This is what I came up with:

This card didn't turn out quite the way I'd pictured in my head, but my son helped me with it, so we had fun talking and working on it together. He was measuring paper and punching holes while I was stamping and chalking. Maybe we will feel more inspired tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!

Mini Chipboard Album - Cuttlebug Challenges Be Inspired #31

The Be Inspired challenge this week at Cuttlebug challenges is to make a 3D project. So I took this opportunity to make a mini chipboard album for my daughter. We recently took a weekend trip to Chicago to celebrate my Mom's birthday, and this album contains all of the pictures from that trip. All of the pages are orange because that is my daughter's favorite color.

I started out with bare 12x12 chipboard sheets. I cut the chipboard into 3 x 4 pieces. Then I covered all of the pages with cardstock - some plain and some embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. I rounded the corners and sanded and inked the edges. I used my photo program to put 4 photos on a 4x6 sheet, so each photo would be 2x3 and fit on a page. This was a great tip I found at Clever Someday here.

The letters on the front cover came from the Makin' the Grade cartridge - I welded them together with Design Studio. The city landscape cut is from Plantin Schoolbook.

Here are the interior pages:

I embossed every other page with a different folder. On these page I used the swiss dots folder, and I sanded the dots and then added some random color to some of the dots.


I cut "Girls Weekend" with the Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge

I mounted the picture of the white tulips on a piece of cardstock that had been embossed with the Cuttlebug Bloom Dots folder.

I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the fancy borders on these pages.




I cut some swirl accents to put in the corners from the Home Accents cartridge. Of course, the deep dish pizza from Giordanos had to get it's own page. They just don't have good deep dish pizza like this in Pittsburgh!

The Life is Good sentiment is from the Graphically Speaking cartridge.

I used the Bind-it-All to put the book together - I really needed a bigger binding, but this will have to do. Then I added some ribbon to the binding.

Finally, I got a little white lunchbox from Pat Catans for $1, and I painted and stamped it and added some ribbon and a flower embellishment:

The book barely fits inside:

Kelsie will love this little book and the lunchbox!

Thanks for looking!

365 Cards - Day 75

The theme on Day 75 at 365 Cards is coffee. Here is my card:

The coffee cup came from the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge. The sentiment was a $1 stamp from Pat Catans.

365 Cards - Day 76

The challenge at 365 Cards today is called "4 Corners" and the objective is to use embellishments only in the 4 corners of the card. So, here is my submission:

I found this lizard stamp in the $1 bin at Pat Catan's and thought it was so cute. But I really didn't know what to do with it. Then I found this cute little joke. I used Nestabilities to cut the scalloped circles, and I embossed the purple circles with a Cuttlebug folder.

For the bottom left corner, I counted the little knot as my embellishment... Is that allowed?

Here is the inside of the card:

Cuttlebug Spot Challenge #30

The challenge this week over at the Cuttlebug Spot is called "Look Through Our Window", and the challenge is to use a frame in your project. I found some cute cuts on the Wild Card cartridge earlier this week, and I thought I would give this one a try. Here is my submission:

I thought these little birds were so cute, I was just waiting for a project to use them on - this one was perfect! This card is supposed to look like you are looking out a window at 2 birds in a tree. The flowers at the bottom of the frame are like flowers from a flower box.

The birds were cut from the Wild Card cartridge and then embossed with the Cuttlebug swirls folder.

The branches were also from the Wild Card cartridge and embossed with Swiss Dots.

I made the frame using Design Studio and basic shapes from the George cartridge - it is embossed with the Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes folder - I also sanded the raised areas on the frame to give it a more worn look.

I cut the flowers from the Walk in My Garden cartridge. I adhered some of them to the card, and some of them to the frame for some dimension.

I used a very simple sentiment which was embossed using a Cuttlebug folder, and I sanded the letters slightly to make them stand out more.

I thought this would be a nice card to send to a friend I haven't talked to in awhile.

Thanks for Looking!

Bitten by the Bug / 2 Sketches 4 You / 365 Cards

Well I was able to combine 3 challenges again today. The challenge over at Bitten by the Bug is to use the smiley face or frown face from the Wild Card cartridge. The challenge at 365 Cards - Day 73 is to use a circle, scallop and bling, and the challenge over at 2 Sketches 4 You is to use Kazan's Sketch #26, which is shown here:

I thought about these challenges off and on today trying to think of what I could do. This is what I came up with:

All of the scalloped frames (the large one, and the ones around the smiley faces) are from Mini Monograms. Of course, the smiley faces are from Wild Card. The "smile" sentiment is from Walk in My Garden. I inked all of the edges with similar colored ink. The color combination is kind of weird, but it is growing on me.