Little Bit of Layering

I'm sharing a few more cards with you tonight which feature a little bit more layering than I am used to doing.

First card is inspired by the soft and subtle colors from the Colour Me challenge and the fun sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. These colors screamed baby to me so I made a card for my new niece coming in February. This card took WAY LONGER than I thought it would because of the skewed patterned paper on the sketch. A bit of paper went to waste trying to make this card. But I've been seeing this card design alot around blogland and have been dying to make a card like this. Boy did I wish I had bought those Papertrey Tipped Top dies when they first came out! They would have sped things up for sure! I love the little bit of yellow peeking out and was glad to use this pretty Minds Eye paper from my stash.

Next card is using this week's challenge sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch. I found this rain themed paper when I found the pink paper I used in the first card and thought it would be a nice compliment to my little used Scattered Showers dies. They are hard to use because I don't have the matching stamps (thanks to a flake on the PTI forum who I paid for them but who never sent them to me!). I searched my stash high and low looking for a good sentiment and found one with sunshine. In hindsight, not sure if they really matches well but think it would still work, no? Paper is from My Mind's Eye, sentiment is Hero Arts.

Last creation is a wine bottle tag I made inspired by the Fusion Challenge this week. The sketch involved quite a bit more layering than I am used to. My plan is to use this tag on a bottle of wine I'm giving my friend who will be finishing her first 5k in a few months.

Thanks again for taking a peek and for all your wonderful and generous comments. Makes me smile every time!

Colour Inspiration

Hello!

First, I wanted to extend a BIG welcome to my new friends reading my blog that came over from Simple Scrapper and Start Fresh. I don't have a lot of scrapbooking related posts around here yet but I've got plans to scrapbook more this year and document my jump back into that here on my blog. In the meantime, I hope you can find inspiration here and enjoy looking at some of my other creative creations.

What inspires my cards the most is COLOR so I'm sharing three cards and a tag that started with color as my jumping off point.

First card is a simple card using a typewriter stamp set from Jillibean Soup. I've never used it before but thought it worked perfectly with the Curtain Call Inspiration challenge and this week's ColourQ challenge.

I stamped the typewriter in PTI's Smokey Shadow ink and have pretty colored hearts floating out of the top to symbolize the love letter being written. I embossed a stitched frame to add some interest to this white and simple card.

Next card is one I made for one of my daughters and uses a very soft color palette from the Colour Me challenge. Shining star is my pet name for her and thought this would be great to give her before her year end ballet show in a few months. I used my new Notched Star banners and had the little bit of yellow peeking through the stars and on the border.

This next card also uses a softer color combination found at Dynamic Duos this week. I've wanted to try that inlaid diecut technique I see on cards I love so I die cut butterflies on white cardstock to simulate some movement and used pretty patterned papers for the butterflies.

And my final creation is a little Christmas tag that is inspired by the first Festive Friday Challenge of 2014. This year's challenge is to make something Christmas themed inspired by the inspiration photo below. This is my first time participating in this challenge but thought it would be great for me to play along since I want to build up my stash of holiday tags throughout this year. I'm hoping I won't be making tags at the last minute like I did last month!

My tag is a little simple. Eek, maybe a little too simple? I was inspired by the red barn to use some patterned paper from a Studio Calico Christmas collection and the sentiment from PTI's City Scene.

Hope you are having a great weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by!

CASology #78

This week's CASology cue card is DOT. I love dots & circle so this clue is very inspiring to me. One card for now, hopefully make more later this week.

I stamped random circles from the PTI Bit and Buttons set in the pretty color combo at ColourQ this week on a white panel and adhered it to Aqua Mist cardstock. I added the birthday sentiment die cut in the middle with some foam tape for dimension.

When I first saw the ColourQ colors on my computer, the poppy color looked a bit orange. After I made my card and looked at the blog post again on my iPad, it looked more red. Not sure which color it is exactly because I don't have that Stampin Up color but I think the color I used works too.

Thanks for popping by!

Cold Air Fuels My Creativity

Its FREEZING around here! The temperature in NJ yesterday hit the lowest its ever been in the last 20 years. 8 degrees yesterday morning (plus wind chill factor) makes for frozen toes and fingers after waiting at my daughter's bus stop for 25 minutes and the bus never even came!

But apparently for me, this cold spell has my creativity at a peak. Thank goodness I have time, or at least I'm making the time, to hang in my craft space. My work, spreadsheets, and chores I've been putting off will come a calling soon....

I'm longing for the warm weather so flowers and springtime images seemed to be my focus yesterday.

I don't have many flowers in my stash surprisingly. First card uses a pretty graphic circle from an old Lily Bee stamp set. Honestly, its the only image I've used from the set. I created a flower out of it and used an old Papertrey card sketch for inspiration as well. Colors are inspired by this week's Colour Me...Striking challenge. I'm also entering this into this week's "Anything Goes" challenge at Seize The Birthday.

This next card uses PTI Mini Blooms set which I never use because the flowers are well, too mini for my liking. Might have to sell this set & dies on the forum soon. I like how this card turned out though. I dry embossed the leaf vine and then stamped inside. I raised two of the flowers with foam tape for a little variety and added some pearls to the centers. Colors are inspired by the Bold & Cheery challenge at Dynamic Duos this week.

This last card is for the fun new challenge blog called The Card Concept. I'm hoping that this challenge will push me to try different card styles but for now, I kept to my usual style - Clean and Simple. I used my PTI Notched Flowers dies for the first time I think and paired it with some pretty patterned paper from Lily Bee. Background is dry embossed with the PTI stripes impression plate.

Wish you all warm thoughts and creative fingers! Thanks for stopping by!

Thinking Of You

One of my resolutions this year is to be better at reaching out to friends and family who are going through rough times. What better way than a pretty card? So I need to build up my stash with these types of cards and some current challenges gave me a little nudge.

First card is for the Colour Me Challenge. I stumbled onto this beautiful patterned paper from Studio Calico Memoir when I was looking for some other items. I knew I had to use it as a base for a card I've been meaning to make using a silhouette. I die cut the butterfly image and placed a tilted banner (from Simon Says Stamp) over the top.

For this next card, I used my new PTI set Ruby Reprise which came free with my order last month. I paired it along with the original Ruby Rose (& I store them together so I don't forget about it) in the Dynamic Duos colors this week - green and yello.
I grounded the sentiment and flowers with the dotted image from Craft's Meow Inspired By Audrey which I still had on my desk from the other day. Stamped it in PTI Soft Stone so it would be more subtle.

Thanks for taking a peek! Have a great day.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I know its been awhile since I've posted here. December went by in a blur with the holidays, family visiting, a short fun ski trip to PA, and my twin daughter's eighth birthday. I hardly made it into my craft space except to make quick tags I needed for gifts. Hence, one of my 2014 goals is to make tags in advance all throughout the year. But I did stay active in the crafting world by keeping up with my blog reader (you all were very busy crafting and inspiring me last month!), bookmarking projects I loved, and commenting when I could. Another 2014 goal is to comment on the blogs I read more. I know how happy your comments make me and I am hoping to spread the love a bit more this coming year.

I finally had some time to open up some packages brimming with new supplies this morning. When you have been away from creating for awhile, color, paper, and stamp choices seem so much harder to make! Here are a few cards I made while watching the last episode of Downton Abbey (WOW, what a finale! Can't wait for the premiere tomorrow!) to help get me back into the swing of things.

First card is for the FUSION challenge which I am thrilled is up and running again!

I needed a simple and modern baby card for some friends due next month so I drew my inspiration from the challenge photo. I die cut a onesie from the PTI Bitty Baby Blessings die using orange gingham from the Lily Bee Double Dutch collection. I used my new congratulations stamp on a banner and put that all on some scattered American Crafts orange and grey bakers twine. I had seen twine used similarly somewhere (Sorry, I can't remember which fab cardmaker did this!) and thought it was a clever use of texture. I backed it all up on some grey cardstock to help the white panel stand out.

Next card is for the brand new color challenge, Colour Me Card Challenge which features a monochromatic indigo. I love color challenges so I had to check them out as soon as I heard about them. Congrats ladies on your new blog! I hope to play along often!

I used my PTI Center Stage die with some Pebbles Scene and Noted patterned paper. I used PTI soft stone for the die cut stars and sentiment to create this birthday card with a masculine feel.

This next card uses my new stamp set from Craft's Meow, Inspired by Audrey. As someone who often finds it difficult to let things go, its sentiment is one that I hope to hold onto this year so I thought it would be perfect for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

I used the set's pretty feminine graphic in a pattern using PTI Melon Berry, Summer Sunrise, Hibiscus Burst, and Scarlet Jewel. I added a few pale pink rhinestones to finish. Definitely quite Audrey inspired don't you think?

Edited to add: Totally forgot to mention that the sketch inspiration for these three cards above is latest CAS(E) This Sketch challenge!

Last card today is for the new One-Layer Simplicity Challenge. Yay for a new card challenge! The challenge this week is to "Restock Your Shelves". I am always in need of masculine birthday cards so here's a simple card using my favorite candle from PTI's Make A Wish set in PTI New Leaf, Limeade Ice, Enchanted Evening, and Hawaiian Shores. One layer seems like its simple but always ends up taking longer than I think!

I stamped some candles and sentiment on the inside too.

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! As always, thanks for stopping by my little part of the world.

ColourQ #218

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....For my ColourQ card this week, I used my favorite PTI Snowflake Flurries set to create a holiday wreath. I used PTI's aqua mist, hawaiian shores, and simply chartreuse for the wreath.

Hope you are having a great week. Thanks for stopping by!

Dynamic Duos #81

It's "Your Choice" for the Dynamic Duos challenge this week. I always find "my choice" to be more difficult because its hard for me to settle down to just one color. There are just too many great colors to pair with this dark color. And of course, after seeing the great DT samples, I too wanted to use an aqua with the midnight blue.

So daring to be different, I paired a shimmery silver with PTI's Enchanted Evening. LOL, not that daring...I really just wanted to use my new snowflake dies!

I diecut the chevron coverplate in Enchanted Evening and put some dotted enchanted evening behind it. The snowflakes and banner are cut from PTI's silver shimmer cardstock. I popped up the smaller snowflakes with foam dots. Sentiment is from PTI Merry & Bright and is heat embossed in black on the banner.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great week.