For Someone Very Special

My niece Taylor is turning 14 tomorrow. She has 5 year old triplets for siblings. She is the best babysitter in the whole world. She stays overnight and because we live on a farm we love that we don't have to drive her back to town when we get home! And she can handle my 2 with one arm tied behind her back. We LOVE her!

Did I mention she has a 94% average so far this year in Grade 9, her first year of High School? Are you kidding me? Could we have asked for a better Big Cousin for our girls?!?

I made her a bookmark. I am making one for all of my 3 tween/teen nieces and nephew. This is 2 down, 1 to go. See my previous post for a link on how to make a bookmark. I used Silver Fairy from Wee Stamps as my digi stamp. I used the trace and detach function on my Silhouette, flipped her horizontally, then used print and cut. The Silhouette did a fantastic job of cutting her out. I was afraid I would lose her bell or her tendrils of hair but I didn't. I colored her with a combination of glitter markers and regular markers. For her hair I used my EK Success pencil crayons and then highlighted it with a glitter marker. For the books and the snowflake border (both Silhouette images) I used the silver sketch pen to draw them instead of cutting them. I used the cut edge function to just cut around the outside of both images. I printed the sentiment out on my purple background paper. I distressed the paper edges and inked them with silver. Ran everything through my Xyron and assembled. Really pleased with the way it turned out, I hope T.T. is too!

My lessons learned: I borrowed my Mom's Ott Lite to take pictures after dark. It worked really, really well. I took several pictures of my project and had a hard time choosing which one to use. That never happens! Am putting an Ott Lite on my Christmas list!

I would like to share my bookmark at:

Digital Tuesday Challenge sparkle and shine,

Flutterby Wednesday's open with an Angel, butterfly or fairy,

Charisma Cardz snowflakes,

Crafty Purple Challenge for someone special,

Dream Valley Challenges sparkle,

Creative Challenges free for all.

This is Pretty Cute

Bugaboo Stamps challenge this week was a pocket challenge. When I saw this pop-up Santa in the Silhouette store I knew he would be perfect. I cut out all the pieces using my Silhouette and paper pieced him together. My daughter colored the Popsicle stick black for me. At The ABC challenge this week they chose D for Dazzle. I added Diamond Sparkles to his 'fur'. I added red Stickles to the berries. I used my ColorBox black ink to soot up the chimney, I just couldn't bring myself to soot up his suit though. If you look really closely you'll see some cookie crumbs around his mustache! Added some faux stitching around the chimney and bricks. Used doubled sided tape to attach the Popsicle stick to the back of Santa and Voila! A little time consuming cutting and assembling Santa's pieces, but overall very easy and cute, cute, cute.
My lessons learned: use paint to color a Popsicle stick, the marker just kept coming off on our hands once we got enough on it, and we had to put a lot on it. I loved having my daughter Kaylee (just turned 4) help me out with my crafting, made me feel less guilty for crafting while they were awake ;o) And they can play with him now that I'm done (as long as they don't touch the stick, ROFL).

I would also like to share my Santa at:

Fussy and Fancy Challenge anything but a card,

Dream Valley Challenges stitching



Remembrance Day

We just celebrated Remembrance Day here in Canada on November 11th. I have a hard time describing my feelings about Remembrance Day because it is such a solemn day/time for all Canadians. It's easier to describe my card. I created this card to be part of a Remembrance Day display. I was inspired by Sheri Gilson's centre step easel card. She provided a link {here} with instructions/templates. My digital poppies were a free image from Birds Cards. I paper pieced the poppies with red cardstock and colored the greens with my Zig markers. I used MME's So Sophie houndstooth cardstock for my mats. I created the headstones myself in my Silhouette program and cut them and the maple leaves and crosses out using it. On the actual overseas gravestones, the cross and maple leaf are etched into the stones, that's why I opted to keep mine all white. I placed the first row along the bottom border of my card and then used popdots to lift the front row off the page to give them some dimension. I used my Silhouette to cut out the tag, used black and white twine to attach it, and a pop dot to lift it off the page. I chose the "We Remember" sentiment because it just sounds so positive of all the Remembrance Day sentiments. I used Recollections decorative metal star brads for the sides. I wanted to give them a military medals kind of feel.
My lessons learned: a nice surprise was how once I got the headstone border on the front of the card it looked as if the poppies were growing right up behind them. I love the look. This card is such a great 'display' card and I will definitely use this technique again.

I would like to share my card at:

Divas by Design use metal,
For Fun Challenges honoring Vets,
Simon Says Stamp photo inspiration, field of poppies,
Cute Card Thursday red for Remembrance,
Totally Stampalicious 3D,
The Stamping Boutique home of the brave,
Stamp and Create easel or centre step card.

I Love Gus...and I Know Several

I made this birthday card using Gus from Bugaboo Stamps for their anything goes challenge. Gus and Margaret are my faves, I think because they remind me of so many people I know, lol! I used 2 different patterned papers, the asphalt and the road signs paper, both from the photo stack 2. I used my Silhouette to print and cut Gus. I paper pieced the truck and used my shiny mirror paper for the bumpers and horn for the Pixie Dust Studio Challenge (paper piecing). I colored Gus and used Glossy Accents on his glasses. I used silver brads as hubcaps for the Meljens challenge (to use brads) and  Divas by Design Challenge (to use metal).  I cut several cloud shapes from grey cardstock using my Silhouette to use as exhaust and then ran them through the printer for my sentiments. Popped them and the truck off the page with pop dots. As you may have guessed this is for our friend Vern's birthday on Nov. 7th, which also happens to be election day here in Saskatchewan. Coincidence -- well, yeah. I should probably add that he was a mechanic for years and is now a shop/mechanics teacher at one of the high schools in town. He has several vehicles and it is completely possible that he would "trade" for another!
My lessons learned: do NOT ask your husband to hold your card for you before the Glossy Accents have completely hardened. He not only got his fingerprint on one of Gus' lenses but squished the other one flat. I did manage to fix them, but I was pretty steamed, I think because it was as much my fault as his (maybe more), lol!

I would like to share my card at:
Stamps R Us masculine,
The Poodles Parlour lets hear it for the boys,
For Fun Challenges a special birthday,
Aud Sentiments make us laugh,
Fab'n'Funky Challenges planes, trains and automobiles,
The Paper Variety laughter is the best medicine.

Cute Little Notecards

I participated in a cardswap on Scrapbook Steals and received a really unique style card from Kristy M. It was a 4"x4" piece of cardstock with a 2 1/2" x 7" (but folded in half to 3 1/2") piece of cardstock as the card. I followed the sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday and made my card 3" x 7" on a 4"x4" piece of cardstock. I thought that allowed me a little more room to play with my images. Totally Stampalicious asked for a set of at least 3 notecards. For all 3 cards I used Colorbok red sorbet pearlescent paper as my 4"x4" cardstock. I added a quilted fall patterned paper as my background. I used green, orange, and yellow patterned paper for my 'cards' because the insides were white and that would let me add my sentiments/messages. I added two strips of fall ribbon behind each image. I inked the edges of my circles using amber ColorBox ink.
My ladybug image was a facebook freebie from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs.

My tree was from the Designed2Delight progressive challenge. I 'quilted' the hearts on the tree to match my 'quilted' background. I added a Silhouette heart bench image (cut with my Silhouette). I used my pine needles distress ink to add some grass.

My harvest raggedy was a GSD file from My Scrap Chick that I cut out with my Silhouette and paper pieced together.

I added a BoBunny button tied with yellow twinery twine to each card with a popdot. The button acts like a little doorknob to open the 'card' part of the card. Here's a picture of one of them open.

And here's a picture of all 3 together.

My lessons learned: I wish I had outlined my pieces of my scarecrow so that they stood out more but it was tricky working with such small pieces. I think I will only use full card sizes for those paper piecings in the future.  I think if I was to make notecards again I would choose 3 images from the same stamp company. I just felt these were a little too different from each other. Of course I'm probably not giving the same person all 3 cards so it doesn't really matter if the images are different. I like that I left the fronts without a sentiment so that I can use them as all occasion giftcards. Well, Fall all occasion giftcards ;o)

This Was A HARD Challenge

I absolutely LOVE Bugaboo Stamps and they are sponsoring the challenge at For Fun Challenges this week. Well the challenge was to create a Halloween card without using black, orange or purple. I thought this sounded like a great challenge, until I tried to do it, lol! I used a free image from Sassy Studio Designs who are also hosting a Halloween challenge this week. I used some wonderful metallic green embossed paper for the background and some grey with foil embossed silver skulls paper for the border for the embossing challenge at Charisma Cardz. I printed my sentiment, a freebie from Whimsie Doodles, on grey paper (in navy blue, no black remember) to enter at Sentimental Sundays Halloween (with a sentiment) Challenge. I used some blue sparkle thickers as 'brads'. I used pop dots to float my witch in front of the moon.
My lessons learned: I used watercolor paper for my image. Because I color with markers, I had hoped it would hold the color better. It was the opposite. It did not take the color well at all. It left white spots where it didn't take the color well and splotches where it took it too well. Will not try that again! This was a really good 'challenge' but the image I chose sure made it tricky (hehehe). Happy Halloween!

I would also like to share my card at:

I Brake for Challenges Halloween,

Divas By Design (is that not the best name?!?) something spooky,

Sweet Stampin' (also being sponsored by Bugaboo this week, woohoo!) Halloween,

Crafting for all Seasons Halloween



There Are No Words

Lori Boyd over at The Pink Elephant Challenge Blog posted that they were accepting donations for Katie Renz. She has stage 4 gastric cancer and 3 boys. You can read Katie's blog here, her husband Kevin has been updating it. When I made a donation, Lori sent me the digital stamp she created for Katie of her 3 boys called 'We Love You Mommy'. I made a card and will send it to them. With Christmas coming I just wanted to help. I really can't say anymore because there are no words for a family going through what they are. I will just share my card and hope that helps in some small way.
I  know that in Bellingham, Washington where they are from there is a lot of rain. So I decided an umbrella with Katie's name on it, above the boys, would be very appropriate. I added Daddy and the boys names on the heart, printed it off on red cardstock, and then added glossy accents to it. I used my Silhouette for the umbrella and border behind the boys. Colored the boys with a combination of Zig markers and EK Success pencil crayons. The sentiment reads, "Mommys are like umbrellas" and inside it reads, "always above us, protecting us, sheltering us". These were my own words and I hope they will be a comfort.

I would like to share my card at:

CAS-ual Fridays just add color

Southern Girls Challenge stripes and polka dots

Make It Monday linky party

This One Felt Like Work

I'm sure we've all had those days where you see it in your head but it is sooo much work to put it on paper?!? That was this card for me. I think I just over-thought it and it ended up feeling like work. I wanted to use my Designed2Delight free image and I wanted to include apples for Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge. I had this great pumpkin cart Silhouette image that I had been wanting to use so I downloaded a print and cut apple basket and decided to combine them with a little bale image I had to make my harvest scene. I printed the pumpkins on 2 different colored orange papers and cut them out. The Silhouette cut out the wagon pieces. I tried to print and cut the apple basket but it didn't work. To be fair that is the first time that feature didn't work but I had made the image smaller too. I used the Silhouette to cut out each apple and the apple leaves and arranged them in the basket. (That was some small gluing let me tell you). I tried to get the Silhouette to cut out my bale but because it was not a Silhouette image I couldn't get that to work either. (I won't tell you how long I played around with it until I gave up and cut it out myself). I used 3/4" strips of patterned paper to make my background. I used my Sew Easy to pierce the holes for my hand stitching. That didn't work either. That was also the first time I'd tried using it.
My lessons learned: I think I'll save the fine paper pieced scenes for my scrapbook pages and not for cards. And the Sew Easy is not.

I would like to share my card at:
Stamps R Us nature's gifts,
Delightful Challenges colors of fall,
Charisma Cardz in stitches,
My Sheri Crafts pumpkins,
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge you choose,
City Crafter Challenge harvest festival.

Getting in the Halloween Spirit

This was a picture my husband took of the girls and I last Halloween at the end of our lane. My Dad does a display every year using his own pumpkins which he also carves himself and corn stalks from the garden. We had a little snow. It's always harder for us to pick costumes because we have to be able to fit some layers underneath! Kaylee was a pilot, Abby was a zebra, and I was a nurse. I carved the girls' pumpkins. Kaylee wanted a spooky one and Abby's had two bottom teeth, just like her!

For my card I followed a sketch at Crafty Sentiments. I found the most awesome ribbon and cut the 'moon' out of cardstock using my Silhouette. I used a free image from Whimsie Doodles and colored her using my Zig markers and EK Success pencil crayons. I used the trace and detach feature on my Silhouette to trace the image (this is the first time this actually worked for me), then printed it, then cut it with my Silhouette. It worked pretty well. Used some pop dots to lift her off the page a bit, I think it helped to make her hair and cape look like they are really blowing in the breeze.

My lesson learned: it was very hard for me not to put a sentiment on this card, but I really think it didn't need it. You can tell it's for Halloween and we're going to write Happy Halloween inside so I left it without one. Still it felt strange not putting one on it.

I would like to share my card at:

Simon Says Stamp Challenge Halloween,
MelJen's Designs use ribbon,
Sassy Studio Designs use black, orange, purple and green,
Card Makin' Mamas Halloween
Designed2Delight Halloween



For My Brother

My brother Rob's birthday is Oct. 8th and it frequently falls on Thanksgiving weekend. He lives in Alberta but he always makes sure to come home for Thanksgiving. I think he secretly loves the double celebration, and the food, who can blame him right? He has his hunting and fishing guiding course and is an amazing photographer so this outdoor card was made for him. The fisherman is a Silhouette image and I used a one pennant from a pennant banner to make the happy birthday sentiment. For the background I was inspired by the photo at For Your Inspiration. The way the reds, oranges, yellows and blues all flow so seamlessly together is just beautiful. I used my Tim Holtz distress inks in broken china for the water, a little walnut stain for the ground, and pine needles for the trees. I used my Color Box stamps for the sunset and sky.
My lessons learned: this time I created my card on a piece of white cardstock 1/2" smaller than my actual card and attached it to the card when I was finished. I know a lot of card makers do this because it allows them to attach ribbon and brads without changing the inside of the card but for me it took all the stress out of making a mistake. I was able to experiment with my inks and not worry that I would be wasting a card if I didn't like the look. Luckily I really like the look. I think I created a really peaceful scene. Most fisherman will tell you fishing is only partly about catching fish and partly about being out on the water. My brother liked it too.

I would like to share my card at:

Sentimental Sundays anything goes (plus a sentiment),

Pollycraft Monday Challenge boys, boys, boys,

Make It Monday linky party

Southern Girls Challenge slugs and snails and puppydog's tails

The Stamping Boutique someone special (just don't tell my brother that, you know cause he's my brother, hehe)

Hope

I followed this sketch at Some Odd Girl.

First I cut my shaped card using my Silhouette. Then I used my gold Silhouette sketch pen to draw the circle and used my copper sketch pen to draw the Hero Arts tall scroll tree. I used a small scallop border and Segoe Script font for "Hope" and cut them out using my Silhouette as well. I took the Hope Butterfly from Designed2Delight, made it much smaller and printed it on pink vellum. I had the idea to make the butterflies look like leaves on the tree. I colored the ribbon on the butterflies pink, so it stood out a bit then attached them to my tree. I added some pink bling with my iRock and a pink square insert inside the card just to set off the shape of the card better.

My Grandma is a breast cancer survivor and will turn 97 on Oct. 12. She still lives in her own apartment and does the "seniors" visiting for the Church. She is a remarkable woman and so I appreciate all the awareness challenges and think it is especially appropriate that October is breast cancer awareness month! Here is my Grandma with my Abby and myself at Easter this year.

I would also like to share my card at:

Digistamps4Joy think pink challenge,

Simon Says sparkle and bling challenge,

The Secret Crafter anything goes as long as it sparkles challenge,

Sassy Studio Designs lots of pink,

My Sheri Crafts think pink,

The Stamping Boutique think pink monthly challenge.

I also received the most wonderful invitation to Link Up For Pink linking party, do go check them out, it's amazing what they are doing for awareness!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's that time of year again where we get together with family to eat ourselves ridiculously full and thank God for all our blessings! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It is also a long week-end, which means my husband is home for an extra day, which means extra craft time for me, wooohoo!
Bugaboo Stamps has a Halloween Anything But a Card challenge this week.  At Crafty Purple Frog they asked for lots of layers and Delightful Challenges asked for us to make it dimensional. I had the award ribbon pinwheel Silhouette image that I really wanted to give a try. The picture looks so beautiful (famous last words). I thought it would look really sharp in Halloween colors. Meljen's Designs, The Pink Elephant, and the Fussy and Fancy Challenge all asked for Halloween.
I cut the strips, which have perforated marks for the fan folds (very helpful) using my Silhouette. I wanted 4 layers of color and the image only comes with two so I adjusted the widths down a 1/4" on each of the two it came with. I used black, orange, purple and lime green. Then I printed and cut the images onto a white circle, colored them in. Next came assembly. This was the part that made these the first and last award pinwheels I have made (at least for quite awhile...until I forget...probably later this month). You fold the strips of paper like a fan and tape the ends together. It is supposed to lay flat. Instead they like to pop up. And again, what adhesive do you use on a pinwheel? I ended up using a combination of double sided tape and a glue gun. Also the layering, trying to fit all those little folds together is a trick in itself. The final step was to add my circle with the image and a lollipop stick.
You may notice a few less Reece's Pieces as the pictures go on.
My lessons learned: my battle to find an adhesive that is safe for scrapbooking and yet still "adheres" things together is fast becoming right up there with my battle against dandelions. They all sort of work and yet none of them really work. Arrgh. And I do like the way they turned out :o)

Summer Kids Carnival

So I'm a little late getting my thank-you card off to the Co-op for having a Kid's Carnival, but better late than never, right?!? I used a MelJen's Designs thank-you bear, colored him with a combination of my Zig markers and EK Success pencil crayons. The challenge this week at Sentimental Sundays was to add sewing or stitching. I stitched some of the stitches on the image with red embroidery floss. I distressed the circle and inked the edges with orange. The challenge at Totally Stampalicious was to add embossing. I scored/embossed the green background paper and added some flower brads. I made a pinwheel from EP Country Drive paper with butterflys and ladybugs for the challenge at Flutterby Wednesdays. I printed the Kid's Club image on white cardstock, roughed up the edges, inked with red and used pop dots to lift it off the page a bit. Kaylee colored a picture on the inside, that's her driving above. I'm going to include the picture with the card.
Just a little pause here to insert a happy dance, I won the random draw for Flutterby Wednesdays Challenge #173. I won a prize from The Greeting Farm. Pretty darn excited I must say.
Lessons learned: finding your scoring blade for your cutter is much better than trying to use your dry emboss stylus and your cutter, that just rips the paper.

I'm also entering at Bugaboo Stamps Challenge anything goes. Thanks for looking!

Something New

First, a picture of the sunset last Friday night from my front porch. I found out later my Dad, who lives a 1/4 mile away, also went out and took pictures that night. Beautiful!

I've never made a bookmark before, so when Pollycraft's Monday Challenge was for tags and bookmarks, I was really curious. Maria from the DT shared this tutorial on bookmarks. I was inspired by Sheri G. at The Pink Elephant Challenge to CASE one of their cards. Bugaboo Stamps Challenge was to use pink, green, and black. Sentimental Sundays asked us to step out of our comfort zone. And of course Flutterby Wednesday's love anything with wings!

I used a half of a card to make the bookmark as it was the heavier cardstock. Then I printed and colored my free reading fairy image from Elizabeth O. Dulemba's coloring pages. Perfect for a bookmark don't you think? I used my Zig markers and EK Success pencil crayons to color her. Carefully cut out around her leaving small white border, which I'm glad I did because it helps her to stand out on the dark background. I made a triangle on my Silhouette and used my 'newspaper grunge' fill pattern to fill it. But I had to print it in black and white because my color cartridge was broken, so I distressed the edges of my papers and used my Antique Linen distress inks to yellow both the top and bottom papers. I made the small letters again in the Silhouette Studio and printed them. I just used a light pink pencil crayon to shade them. I cut the border from my Silhouette. And placed a dark pink distressed triangle over the back fold. I have 2 nieces in high school so the colors will be perfect for either one of them. I see myself making another one in the near future, because I'm sure they'd both like one. Thanks for looking!

My lessons learned: Bookmarks should be kept as 1 dimensional as possible so as not to risk damaging the spine of the book. Wouldn't have thought of that (I think reading the book does that most of the time but who's to say).

A Little Bit of Everything

Because this card isn't for anyone yet, I took alot of chances that I wouldn't normally take. I really want to win some Bugaboo Stamps (I love them) and the Hero Arts September Challenge (they have pretty awesome prizes....and lots of entries for them, lol). Bugaboo Stamps asked for a scene and Hero Arts asked for Autumn, fall colors, and/or a window card. The mouse, mushroom (Hero Arts Silhouette shape), leaves and scallop are all seperate images. I tucked the little mouse under the mushroom and 'rained' some leaves down from above. I colored the images using the Silhouette fill color window and then printed them right onto the inside of my card. I then cut the scallop from the front of the card using the Silhouette. I picked 2 busy fall patterned papers and cut them to the size of the front of the card. Cut them in half, joined the 2 halves on my cutting mat and cut the scallop out of the patterned paper using my Silhouette. I don't usually use patterned papers but since the image was inside the card I wanted to really jazz up the front. Then I edited the scallop by deleting points until it was a half scallop. I was going to use this for my sentiment when I thought hmmm, looks like a cloud, so I printed my really cool sentiment onto my cloud and used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China around the edges. I used my ever trusy Bounty Paper Towel applicator to give it that nice swirly look. Then I found a big yellow button to represent the sun and used my Lemondrop Twinery Twine to attach it. I have been sooo intimadated about using my Twinery Twine (probably because it's so expensive), but I think I did well. I popped the cloud off the page and cut out 3 extra leaves for under the cloud. I used my Glossy Accents on the 3 leaves outside the card and on the 3 leaves and Mousie's nose inside the card. I pop dotted the 3 leaves on the front of the card. I LOVE that the little image is inside the card where the writing will be and yet it certainly doesn't feel as if anything is missing from the front!
My lessons learned: Sunlight is the very best way to take a picture. I feel sorry for actors and actresses that have to see their faces on the big screen in HD. By the time I'm done cropping out the cookie monster Q-tip holder from the bathroom counter (because that is the room with the most light) you can see every little wart and blemish on my poor card. I also learned it is best to do the most complicated image with your Glossy Accents first (in this case the Maple Leaf) because my hand was shaking by the time I went to do the last one (in this case the Maple Leaf). I will try retaking my photos tomorrow, in the sun.

Because so many card challenges this week have a fall theme, I would like to enter my card at:
Penny's Paper-Crafty Fall Challenge they have some great prize sponsers this week
Delightful Challenges by Louby Loo Happy Fall Y'All Challenge I love the 'cute' images and they have sooo many,
Crafting for All Seasons Fall Colors Challenge one of their sponsers this week carries Meljens Designs (love),
Crafty Purple Frog Fall Into Fall Challenge I have a mermaid crazy little girl right now and they have the most beautiful mermaid designs

In Sympathy

My brother-in-law's Mom passed away so I wanted to make this card for them. She was 67 and while she was sick, it was very sudden. How do you send and say everything you want to a grieving family in a card? I don't know, but for me the answer is to make one. At least I can send a little piece of homemade, handmade care (I hope). My SIL and BIL and niece and nephew all love my scrapbooks (course they're featured fairly prominently in them) so even though I've just started card making I thought they might like one.
I used a free digital image that I got from May Brit's blog. It was an image she created in memory of the victims in Norway and thought it made a beautiful image for a sympathy card. I printed it directly onto the card and then used my Coluzzle circle cutter and swivel knife to cut a partial circle around the image. I then used a craft knife to cut around the inside of the circle and image inside it. I colored the image using my EK Success Memory Pencils (pencil crayons). Blue was her favorite color, so I made the candle blue. She was also very allergic to flowers but pink was another of her favorite colors, so I made the roses pink. I used double sided tape to adhere the pearl ribbon and the lace. I punched 3 pink butterfliens and 1 blue from cardstock. She had 3 girls and 1 boy (my BIL). I also punched 4 butterflies from a shiny vellum I had and put that right on top of the cardstock to mute it a bit and add some softness. I used embroidery floss to sew them onto the lace. I handwrote the sentiments.
My lesson learned: I still don't know a good adhesive for ribbon and now lace. I tried the AC permanenent adhesive roller and that didn't work. The double sided tape works but only for awhile. The search continues....

I have shared this card at Pollycraft's, Flutterby's, and at Sugar Creek Hollow (if anyone knows how to best adhere lacy embellishments it should be someone there!).

For My MUCH Younger Friend

My friend Vicky was born exactly 3 weeks after I was. She plays that up, alot. This card is for her. I printed the black and white sunflower image out right on the card itself and then cut out the background to make a window card. I then used my parchment colored ink from ColorBox to ink the petals and then went over them with amber from ColorBox to highlight them. I love the way the ink muted the black lines and gave the sunflowers a vintage feel. I used Tim Holtz walnut distress stain to do the seeds. I then created the sentiment in Silhouette and printed it right onto the card as well. I'm most proud of the butterflies. I printed my image again and cut out the leaves of the sunflowers to make the butterfly wings. I used the same 2 ColorBox colors, but reversed them. I put the amber on first and then highlighted with parchment. I used my iRock to set the black metal glam rocks. I cut the frame out using my Silhouette. I'm going to enter this in a few weekly challenges too.
Flutter By Wednesday's open challenge (as long as you use fairies, angels or butterflies).
Sugar Creek Hollow's sunny sunflower challenge
Sentimental Sunday's autumn challenge (that includes a sentiment).
My lesson learned: the distress ink really does stain your fingers for a long time. And I really have to figure out a better way to take pictures when I can't use natural sunlight.
Now to keep Vicky from looking at my blog for the next 2 weeks.....

Football Card

I made this as a thank-you to friends that came to my birthday party. Saskatchewan is pretty fanatical about football and they are no exception. I found the vintage football player digital image at Create with TLC. I colored him in with my EK Success Memory Pencils and then used Versafine Majestic Blue on the sky and ColorBox Fresh Green on the grass. I printed the Friends digi from a free digi stamp I got at Netty's Cards. I printed it on brown cardstock, cut it out and used a brown safety pin to attach it to the card. I'm going to enter it at Challenge #75 at MelJen's Designs. My lesson learned: I applied the inks using a piece of paper towel and it gave it a really nice texture!

For My Teacher Friend

I made this as a thank-you for my birthday gift for a friend that is a teacher. Alot of my friends are teachers because the Husband is one and I worked in schools as an Educational Assistant before the kids. Every week Bugaboo Stamps releases a free digital stamp and 'Margaret' as a teacher was this week's release. Their weekly challenge was an anything goes challenge, so I thought I'd enter my card. Here is their link: Catch The Bug Challenge Blog
My friend has a great sense of humor, so I added the quote "If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I'll promise not to believe everything he says happens at home." She also has an eclectic fashion sense so I used my Zig markers to color her outfit with every color I could. I added the text in my Silhouette program and it allows you to wrap it around the circle shape. Then I just had to print and cut. Created the thank-you tag from a frame shape that I added a 3/4" ellipse on each side and then cut out the ellipses as well as the frame. I purposely added a 5/8" ribbon in a pattern and color that didn't match anything else, again because of her sense of style.
My lesson learned: that it is very hard to attach a circle where the writing will be on the edge to a piece of paper and run through a printer. I used my Zig 2 way glue and a very tiny piece of removable tape, but it took quite a few tries. Will have to work out a better plan next time.

Alot of Firsts Here

Well I just celebrated a birthday so I thought I would like to make some thank-you cards. I also just discovered digital stamps. I found a great site Free Digital Stamps which lists all the free digital stamps offered by different people each day. From there I found Meljen's Designs. She has some of the most beautiful, FREE designs I have seen. She really doesn't distinguish between what she offers in her store and what she gives away free each week and I really admire that. Her weekly blog challenge was to use only cardstock on your card and no patterned paper. I cut out a circle on white cardstock using my Silhouette then printed a sized down Happy Fall image on my printer. Taped the circle on top of my printed image and ran it through my printer again. That's how I got the image on my circle. Then I taped orange cardstock over the pumpkin and printed again, red over the leaf and printed again, and brown over the stem and printed again. I then cut out each piece. I wasn't able to color the image using Paint, so I chose to paper piece it instead. I also cut out the scalloped circle out of beige cardstock. Here's where I did something really new....I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Walnut Stain on the scallop and Pine Needles on the circle. I also have an ink blending tool, which happens to come with 2 starter blending foams, which works out perfectly since I only have 2 inks (so far). After rubbing the stain on the scallop I sprayed it with water and dried it with my hairdryer. I used quite a bit of water and it ran, which I think gives it a great 'stained' look. For the green on the circle I used less water because I didn't want my printer ink to run (and it didn't). I then glued each cut out piece of cardstock on to the image. I felt it needed something so I added the little punched oak leaves down the sides (which means I can also enter my card in Cute Card Thursday's challenge Cute Card Thursday I love them). I ran the cardstock through my xyron then punched the leaves out of the already adhesive backed paper, that way I didn't have to try to glue each little leaf.

My lessons learned: put a paper towel under your paper before spraying with water, the ink runs right through. Sometimes when drying my paper, the paper would curl up, so I flipped it over and applied heat to the backside of the paper and that seemed to flatten it out. Kind of worked like an iron. It was kind of scary fun trying all this new stuff. Thanks for looking!

Cute Card Thursday

I found a neat site Cute Card Thursday that posts a card challenge every Thursday. The best part is that the winner is chosen using random.org, perfect for new cardmakers such as myself. This week was a sketch challenge. Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I used my Silhouette to cut out the shapes. Distressed the flowers a little and used a popdot under the 'diamond' gemstone to give it a bit more dimension. Will have to save this for the right couple though, one with a sense of humor, but I just love this image and thought it was a perfect fit for an engagement card!

Hero Arts Challenge

I saw an August contest on the Hero Arts blog here and since they have shapes in the Silhouette store, I thought I might give it a try. Here are the rules:

August Challenge: Create a NEW stamped card, scrapbook page, or other project based on any of the following…

Cards for Kids - Any card you create for a child!

Creatures - Butterflies, owls, foxes, deer…you name it! All creatures great and small.

Making a Scene - Be sure to check out Shari Carroll’s August technique article for one idea!

Please use at least one Hero Arts stamp or Hero Arts digital element on each of your projects.

I decided to make a birthday card for Archie, he just turned two a couple of weeks ago and we are all getting together with them tomorrow. I chose the card, sunburst, maple leaf and rocket Silhouette shapes.

I turned the card, put the text on it and printed it. Then I cut out the card. I made the starburst a little larger than the cutout on the card, cut it out and glued it on. Then I offset the rocket and cut that out of red. I cut the rocket itself out of this cool mirror paper I have and then used crimped white cardstock for the accents on the wings and face. I also cut out a small maple leaf. I used my irock heat setter to set the black rhinestones. I used pop dots to lift the rocket off the page. The 2 is a Thicker. I really love how it turned out. My lesson learned: it is extremely difficult to take a picture of shiny metal paper. Almost all the pictures reflected something in the shiny paper and not the paper itself. I finally got one that (almost) worked by setting the card on an angle on a stand in the sunshine.

Ball Tournament

I made this hat for my ladies slo-pitch ball tournament this weekend. My first game is at 10pm tonight (I know, pretty crazy, but we play under the lights). Tomorrow at 1pm and 7:15pm. I used iron on heat transfer and then used my irock to attach a few rhinestones on the crowns. My lesson learned: it is extremely difficult to iron on heat transfer on a surface that is not flat. I ended up using a combination of the end of the ironing board and an oven mitt.

Twister!

I love how this turned out! And I didn't have to download anything! I used the square, circle, and exclamation point (without the point) as the spinner. I colored in each of the circles using the fill color window on my Silhouette. I just made half a circle and the used the mirror image button to make the other half. I added the text and then I sent it to my printer. I just cut out the square myself. I could have used the print and cut function, but it was a square, figured it was just as easy to cut it out myself. I added a brad to the spinner and used pop dots to attach it to my board, since I didn't actually need it to spin. I used Frances Meyer hands and feet stickers for the hands and feet and voila! My square is 6" x 6" and the circles are 1" circles. It's for a layout of my nieces playing......you guessed it, Twister!

MWM #36

For a person who doesn't use sketches I have now used 2 in a week but I really loved the graffiti design on this one. It is the Mid-Week Madness #36 sketch from Scrapbook Steals. I believe they are on #53. I have such a hard time with the whole mixing of papers and patterns but I like the way the page turned out. I am a chronological scrapbooker and I am trying really hard to stay ahead of today's date so that I don't fall another whole year behind ;o) My lesson learned: 32 feet of adhesive tape only sounds like alot. It actually doesn't go very far at all. I guess moderation is the key.