simply flat..with {tExTuRe}

Happy Friday to you!  Hope you all had a great week.  Just wanted to pop in with a simple card I created.  After making this one, I decided that I should sit down and make a stash of these simple one layered cards to have on hand..especially thank yous!  The inspiration for this card is actually from a couple things - 1) the chevron arrow stamp from the Border Banter stamp set and 2) the leaf from the Wonderfall stamp set, both of which are in the Holiday Mini catalog.  I've been wanting to play with both of these and I happened to have a white 3 1/2" x 5" card in close proximity to my computer, so, as I was sitting on a conference call, I thought I'd try these stamps out.  I found it to be very effective multi-tasking!  I was really pleased with how it came out - for no layers at all, it seemed to be chock-full of texture.  Here's another view, so you can see what I mean about flat texture:

So, what do you think?  I thought it had a nice retro-modern look to it, especially with these colors.  I used the brand new In Color, Summer Starfruit, and paired it with a classic favorite - Pumpkin Pie.  For the Thank You sentiment from the Itty Bitty Banners set, I used Early Espresso Ink to make it stand out, in a subtle sort of way.  Here's the recipe for you:

 

{Wonderfall Chevron Thanks}

• Stamps: Wonderfall, Border Banter, Itty Bitty Banners
• Cardstock: Whisper White Notecards & Envelopes (3 1/2" x 5')
• Inks: Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso

Now, the fun part.  Last but not least, I was blurfing {aka blog surfing} a little bit ago and saw that my sketch actually fits Pals Paper Art's sketch challenge for the week, so without even intending, by serendipitous luck, I'm actually getting to play in a card challenge!  Woohoo!  It's been awhile for me. :) 

 

In any case, I hope you guys like the card, or, at least come away with an idea for trying to create texture with a one dimensional card.  Patterns really do a lot - be it stamps or paper - and they're fun to dabble with!  Give it a whirl and see what you come up with.  Thanks for popping by and have a great weekend!

 



Simple Posy Punch Thanks

Hi all!  Happy Saturday!  I've still got a case of the challenge bug, so today I'm sharing a quick card I made for the Pals Paper Arts challenge - where you need to use 1 piece of DSP 1 punch and 1 sentiment.  Plus, the inspiration photo reminded me so much of my kitty when we got him that I was inspired to play along!  Here's the inspiration photo:

How cute is that little kitty cat?  It soo reminds me of my Ollie when he was super little!  Well, anyway, here's a look at my full card:

This card was super easy to put together and I think it packs a lot of punch, considering how simple it is!  I love the Posy Punch Hostess stamp set and if you're curious as to what DSP I used, it's actually a Hostess DSP as well called Cheerful Treat, and what a treat it definitely is!  I punched out the Fancy Flower punch from the DSP, then I stamped the Posy Punch image {the flowers from this set actually coordinate perfectly with the Fancy Flower punch!} on a piece of Whisper White cardstock and lined it up with the punched DSP.  I then used dimensionals to adhere my DSP to the stamped cardstock.  Viola!  All I did after that was add the cute little pom pom trim at the top and then the button at the bottom of my pennant.  I hand cut the little "V" at the bottom, which was easy peasy!  Lastly, I stamped the Thank You from the "Thank You Kindly Stamp Set and I was done!  I think I'll be making a few more thank yous in this design cuz I think it's a fun and easy one to mass produce!  Plus, love the DSP!!  Hope you like it!  Here's the recipe for you.

{Simple Posy Punch Thank Yous}

*Stamp Set: Posy Punch, Thank You Kindly

*Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Cheerful Treat DSP

*Inks: Melon Mambo

*Accessories: Melon Mambo Pom Pom Trim {retired}, Subtles Buttons, White Twine, Fancy Flower Punch

Hope you guys have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by today ;)

PPA Color Challenge...Just for You

Hi all!  I know I should be decorating my house right now, but I came upon the PPA Color Challenge and the colors were too fun to pass up, so I thought I'd play along.  I feel like it's been such a long time since I've done a challenge!  How do you like the sneak peek picture?  The colors are Early Espresso, Pear Pizazz and Regal Rose:

I wanted to use the Northern Frost decorative strip die, so I managed to work that in.  Here's the full card for you:

What do you think?  I had fun making my snowflake flowers!  Though I will say it took me a while to figure out how I was going to put them all together on my card to make it work.  Hope you like it.  Here's the recipe:

{Snowflake Flowers Just for You}

*Stamp Set: Teenie Tiny Wishes

*Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Regal Rose, Pear Pizazz, Early Espresso

*Inks: Early Espresso Marker

*Accessories: 2 3/8" Scallop Punch, Large Scallop Punch, Northern Frost Decorative Strip Die, Basic Pearls, Corner Rounder

Thanks for coming by!  Enjoy your weekend :)

Wickedly {Haunted Houses!}

Hey there - just a quick post for you tonight...I wanted to play in the Pals Paper Arts Wicked Halloween Inspired Challenge before the cutoff time!  So here's my pair of Haunted Houses.  You may recognize one of them, which I originally created on this post, but I "spooked" it out a little with my scary friendly ghost!  For the second house I made {the green one}, I shaped my roof with the wide oval punch to flare it out a little, and then also used the Pinking Hearts Trim and finally, embossed it with the Square Lattice embossing folder.  Here's a closer look:

I love the little ghosts that I've seen on a variety of blogs and galleries...very ingenious to use the owl punch upside down!  So, I added one of these cute little guys to haunt this house, too.  Hope you like my haunted houses!  Thanks for popping by!

{happy} 4th!

Hi there blog peeps!  I hope you're having a fantastic day so far.  I'm enjoying a relaxing day at home, catching up and taking a breath from this past week and my whirlwind birthday weekend.  I can't believe it went by so fast!  I had a lot of fun seeing a lot of friends and family last weekend that I wish the time didn't speed by so fast.  I think my last birthday is my favorite so far, believe it or not!  Anyway, today, I have a 4th of July card to share with you!  And, what's great about it is that I got my inspiration from 2 challenges...woohoo!  The sketch it from the Stamping 411 challenge and the theme is from this week's Pals Paper Arts challenge!  Here's what the sketch looks like:

And here's my interpretation with the 4th of July theme:

I love this newly retired DSP called Pink Flamingo.  I am such a hoarder that I still have lots of this paper pack left!  I was searching for a DSP with Real Red in it, and was happy to have rediscovered this paper! I thought the hibiscus flowers in Real Red would make a great non-traditional looking background for my 4th of July card.  What do you think?  Hope you like my "island" spin :)  Here's the recipe for you:

{happy 4th!}

All supplies Stampin'Up!

*Stamp set: All Holidays

*Cardstock: Whisper White, Real Red, Night of Navy, Pink Flamingo DSP

*Inks: Night of Navy marker

*Accessories: Scallop Trim Border, Billboard Sizzlits Decorative Strip, Alphabet Simple Bigz die, Real Red double stitched grosgrain ribbon, Star punch, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder

Hope you enjoy your 4th of July festivities!  Thanks for visiting :)

Happy Father's Day!

Hello there blog peeps!  Just a quick post today to wish all the Fathers out there a Happy Father's Day!  Here's the Father's Day Card I made for my father-in-law.  He's an avid golfer!  Here's a look at the full card:

I made the green out of felt using the Ovals Bigz die and created my flag out of one of the party hats from Party Hearty.  Hope you like it!  This summery themed card also happened to match the Pals Paper Arts challenge of the week, too, so of course, I had to play ;)

Have a fantastic day!

PPA Flower Challenge

If you're wondering, I didn't draw this on a chalkboard :)....So, for my SWAP Team swaps this month, one of our cards had to use the Black Magic Technique.  Have you seen that?  It's when you stamp a solid image in white craft ink on black cardstock.  Then, you add color by using watercolor pencils or watercolor crayons {which is what I opted to use}.  I also decided to use the Awash With Flowers stamp set, too.  And, coincidently, it went with this week's Pals Paper Arts challenge to use FLOWERS! As for the black magic technique, I was pretty pleased with the outcome, considering it was my first attempt!  Here's a look at the full picture:

What do you think?  You've definitely gotta try this if you haven't already.  The effect reminds me of a canvas painting.  Here's the recipe for you: 

{Awash with Black Magic}

All supplies Stampin'Up!

*Stamp Sets: Awash with Flowers, With All My Heart

*Inks: Melon Mambo Classic Pad, Whisper White Craft Pad

*Cardstock: Going Gray and Basic Black textured cardstock, Whisper White and Melon Mambo carstock

*Accessories: Scallop Square Clear Bigz die, Scallop Oval and Large Oval punch; Taken with Teal, Summer Sun, Pixie Pink and Pretty In PinkWatercolor crayons, Linen Thread

Hope you like it! Have a great day!

Mojo Pals Challenge!

Hi there blog peeps - I've got a quick post for you today...it's a challenge card! I made this for the Mojo Monday 132 challenge and the Pals Paper Arts color challenge {PPA36}.  The colors reminded me of Spring and Easter!  Here's what the challenges look like:

I used the exact colors for the PPA challenge, and added Whisper White, too! Here's another look at the card

And a look at how I did the back - I scored the top of the scallop card back and then glued the front and back scallops together.  That way, you don't see any sort of crease on the front of the card!

Here are the supplies I used:

{Mojo Pals Butterfly card}

All supplies Stampin'UP!

*Stamp Set: Tiny Tags

*Cardstock: Lavender Lace, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Whisper White

*Inks: Lavendar Lace

*Accessories: Polka Dot embossing folder, Perfect Details Texturz plate, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, Scallop Circle Bigz die, Clear Circle Bigz die, So Saffron {retired} twill ribbon, Hemp Twine, Playground button

Hope you have a great day!  Bye for now :)

Double Challenge Card Time

Hi again! I know, it's my second post today. But, I figured, I may as well take advantage of the time, right? It's been such a precious commodity lately! Anyway, I love doing challenges, so when I saw I could do 2 in one today, I got pretty excited about it! The card I created combines Dawn Mc Vey's Raspberry Suite Challenge 19 and the Pals Paper Arts Challenge 17. Here's a look at the color and card sketches: For the colors, I used Stampin'Up!'s Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, and Mauve Mist. Now, here's a look at the sketch:
Love the clean lines of this layout by Margaret Moody! Here's a look at my full card: I used the Petal Pizazz stamp set for the four colored flowers - it's a set I haven't used in a little while, so it was nice to bring it off the shelf! :) The embossed background is one of the Sizzix Texturz plates that I also got a while back at a craft show. I thought the swirly background fit in with Dawn's swirly flourish in the Color Challenge photo. What do you think? Hope you like it! Here are the details:

{Four Color Petal Pizazz Card}
All Supplies Stampin'Up! except where noted:
*Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, and Mauve Mist
*Stamp Set: Petal Pizazz
*Ink Pads: Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, and Mauve Mist
*Accessories: Scallop Square, 1 1/4" Square, and Modern Label punches, Vintage Brads, Rhinestone stickers {craft store}, Sizzix Texurz Embossing plate.

Thanks for popping by!

Christmas Cheer PPA challenge

Hi all! Are you enjoying your weekend? I'm trying to enjoy every bit of mine...and catch up with all the household chores and errands that have seemed to pile up during the past week. {How does that happen?!} Well, amidst all of that, I found a quick second to create a card for the PPA Challenge 16 this week, which is a Theme Challenge for Christmas Cheer. As you can probably tell from my blog postings these last few weeks, I've been mostly creating cards with Christmas Cheer in mind! So, along those lines, here's the card I created for the challenge:
I LOVE the real red cardstock and the polka dot grosgrain ribbon. They scream Christmas to me :) ...in a happy way, of course. The Snowflake punch has also been one of my favorites for this season, embellished with some sort of button. For this card, I threaded the corduroy button with a sliver of the real red cardstock. The only stamping on the card is the "Christmas Cheer" postage stamp, from the Christmas Punch stamp set, so this card is pretty quick to put together! Here's the recipe:

{Christmas Cheer Card}
All supplies Stampin'Up!
*Stamp Set: Christmas Punch
*Cardstock: Real Red, Whisper White, Merry Moments DSP, and Christmas Cocoa DSP
*Ink: Real Red Classic Ink
*Accessories: Jumbo Snowflake, Scallop Square, and Scallop Border punches; Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon, Kiwi Kiss corduroy button {retired}, Button Latte button, Linen Thread, dimensionals (to pop up the scallop squares)

What do you think? Hope you like it!

Since I've been MIA most of this past week, I have a backlog of things I'd like to post, so I will try and catch up on some of these this week. Plus, for tomorrow, I'll be announcing the Freebie Friday winner. Til then, I'm gonna say bye for now.

Thanks so much for visiting me today!

Anything BUT a card PPA13 Challenge

I am such a sucker for challenges! I saw this Anything BUT a Card challenge at Pals Paper Arts and I had to play. I've had this Halloween Bat idea in my head ever since I created my little pumpkin from last week, but just haven't had time to actually create it. So, tonight, I played and created. Now, I'd like to introduce... my Batty Bat made out of the Scallop Bag die. Isn't he a cute round little guy? I was struggling with how to create his ears, and finally, a lightbulb came on and I reached for my Photo Corners punch. I took the larger of the photo corners and then folded then ends in, overlapping each other so that the top crease created a "cupped" shaped ear. Here's a side view look below.
For his wings, I went with the Clear Circle Bigz die. Then I folded it in half and ran it through the Clear Scallop Square die to create the "reverse" scallop for his wings. The scallop circle for his body is the larger scallop circle on the Scallop Circle #2 die and his bat feet are made out of the Jumbo Snowflake punch. Hope you like this little fella. I was thinking of doing a tutorial, for this, though since this is my first "concept" bat, I didn't have the foresight to take pictures. They'll come soon :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a good one!

Happy World Card Making Day!

Welcome to my blog on World Card Making Day! Are you planning on making some cards or attending/hosting an event? Well, whatever the day may bring you, I'm glad you were able to stop by for a visit. For World Card Making Day, I created a card that also doubles up as my card entry for this week's Pals Paper Arts Challenge 10, which has a theme of Gratitude and Thanks. I thought it appropo to create a card saying "Thanks" in a different language, since it is WORLD Card Making day :) I ended up using French. Not only did I have the sentiment, but my card inspiration came from an adorable French inspired boutique I came across last weekend while I was up in Northern CA visiting our friends who live in Larkspur. The boutique was called "Coquelicot", which I later learned {thanks to Google and Wikipedia} means "poppy." Here's a picture of it, so you can see for yourself. I don't think the picture does it justice. It's such a charming storefront when you see it in person and all the cute stuff they had inside reminded me of the boutiques in Provence. The color palette I used was Stampin'Up!'s Barely Banana, Dusty Durango, Real Red, and Whisper White. Here's my interpretation. Isn't this a fun card? I decided to create a house shaped card (my first one!), just to change things up a little from the standard rectangular A2 shape. I used the Stampin'Up! Perfect Details Texturz plates to give some texture to my "house."
For the flowers, I thought the combination of the Dusty Durango and Real Red gave off that "poppy" color when you look at all the flowers together. I threw in a couple of buttons in my floral mix to give the card a little added detail.
And, one of my favorite things to do to bows these days is to add button centers. So fun! Hope you like it! Here's the recipe for you:

{Coquelicot Merci Card}
All supplies Stampin'Up! except where noted
*Stamp Set: For All You Do and Chic Boutique
*Cardstock: Barely Banana, Dusty Durango, Whisper White
*Ink: Dusty Durango, Real Red, Chocolate Chip
*Accessories: Perfect Details Texturz plates, Modern Label Punch, poppy buttons {PTI}, Dusty Durango polka dot grosgrain ribbon, Scallop Square Bigz die.

Hope you have a great day!

I'm a PALS Paper Artist pick this week! WooHoo!!

Hi again - real quick post..my card was picked for the PALS Paper Artist Challenge 5, which was a Halloween Theme! Isn't that cool?! I'm so excited and happy. It's always fun when you get picked for something. :) Thanks for letting me share. Have a great night!

Twick or Tweet for challenges

It's been a while now since I've gotten to participate in a Taylored Expressions challenge, so I decided to play today. In my blurfing this morning , I also saw that the Pals Paper Arts had a Halloween challenge this week, so I was determined to figure out a way to combine them. I think it's time to start thinking about Halloween anyway, since it's the next holiday around the corner! Plus, I wanted to play with some more of the fun things I pre-ordered from Stampin'Up!'s upcoming Holiday Mini (you can order from this starting on Sep 1st!) - I got the stamp set {aptly named "Twick or Tweet"} and the DSP paper called Night and Day, which is where the herringbone paper and the polka dot acetate sheet is from. Here's a full view of my card: Oh, and of course, here's a pic of the sketch, too: Hope you like it! Are you wondering how I made the diagonal color blocks? I just cut the cardstock corner to corner, then on one of the triangles, I lined up the corner and the midpoint of the long side on my paper trimmer and cut along those lines. Tip: I cut 2 colors at a time so that I would have them lined up for sure ;) Then I put the polka dot acetate sheet on top, which I just adhered by applying a strip of the white Tombo glue across the top. It ends up nice and neat and the glue part is covered up by the ribbon! Here's the recipe:

{Twick or Tweet card}
All Supplies Stampin'Up!
*Stamp Set: Twick or Tweet
*Cardsock: Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry Old Olive, Dusty Durango, Night and Day Specialty DSP
*Inks: Basic Black Classic Ink Pad; Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Going Gray Markers
*Accessories: Signo White Gel Pen, Playground button, Black Striped Ribbon, Linen Thread, Scallop Border punch, 1 3/4" punch, Cutter kit (distressing tool to rough up the punched circle piece on my card)

Thanks for coming by today and have a great weekend!

New Pals Paper Arts Challenge

Hi there! In my blurfing today, I discovered that Mary Fish and her Pretty Pals have created a new color challenge. Well, I'm a big fan of Mary Fish, so I was inspired to create a card and play along! I had looked at the colors earlier today, and thought that they were all in colors..and then went from my memory to create my card. Here are the colors:So, I got 2 out of the 3 colors right, but the third one is close enough, I think. I used Soft Suede instead of Chocolate Chip - and I can't believe I missed that, since I LOVE the Chocolate Chip! Oh well. Here's my card:Whaddya think? How do you like my flower? It's made out of felt and I created it using the Flower Folds die and the Scallops #2 die. I even sewed on the pearls in the middle from the Pretties kit! (Check me out, huh!...that Janome is making a sewer out of me yet! Hand-stitched even!)

Here's how the pieces look - I used 2 felt pieces from the smallest flower on the Flower Folds die and one felt piece of the small scallops die on the Scallop Circle #2 die:
If you're wondering why there's only one pearl in the picture, it's because I was only planning to use one at first, but when I actually stitched it on, I thought 3 would fill the center a little better. These felt flowers are a lot of fun to make. Plus, they'd also make great embellishments on t-shirts, tanks, or other sewing projects!

{Recipe}:
* Wings of Friendship stamp set
* Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede and Whisper White cardstock; DSP
* Melon Mambo Ink pad
* Flower folds Bigz XL die and Scallop #2 die, Leaves sizzlit, and the Big Shot, of course
* Scallop oval, Wide oval punches, Pretties kit, and Melon Mambo grosgrain ribbon
* Bright pink felt from Michaels

Thanks for visiting - I appreciate you coming by!