Loonie Stampers Challenge #51-Happy Birthday Regan

Today I'm playing along with the Loonie Stampers Challenge ladies to celebrate Regan's birthday. I've only participated in their challenges a few times but I've had a lot of fun. I was supposed to have my post up at 6 am this morning, but wouldn't you know that the batteries in my camera were dead so I couldn't take a picture of my card. I had to search the house for some of the kids toys that ran on AA batteries...too funny!

I hope you have a wonderful, happy birthday Regan! I'm honored that I was asked to play along.

For this card I used almost all Papertrey Ink products. I started off with a Vintage Cream card base and inked the edges with Vintage Touch Tea Dye. I cut a piece of In Bloom patterned paper with my Nestabilities Curved Rectangles and mounted it. I wrapped some Scarlet Jewel grosgrain ribbon around the card and added an Enchanted Evening button threaded with DMC floss. I cut a Nestabilities oval and inked the edges with the Vintage Touch Tea Dyes again. I stamped the large flower from In Bloom in Vintage Cream on Scarlet Jewel cardstock and cut it out then mounted it with 3D foam squares. I added a few small pearls to the center, stamped my sentiment and that's it! I hope Regan likes it!

I don't know if you can see it, but an ant is trying to climb up the card. I had to shake it about 10 times to get rid of him. I guess he really liked the flowers!

Recipe
Stamps: In Bloom, Birthday Basics (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream (PTI)
Patterned Paper: In Bloom (PTI)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko); Vintage Cream, Vintage Touch Tea Dye (PTI)
Accents: Ribbon, Button (PTI); Pearls (Michaels); 3D Foam Squares (Close To My Heart); DMC Floss
Tools: Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Cuttlebug (Provocraft)

Check out the other Loonie ladies to see the cards they've made for Regan:

Dee Jewels Maria Wendy Charlene Regan


Have a great day,

Outerspace Birthday

So, my baby boy turned 5 on July 1st. I guess he's not such a baby anymore! He'll be starting Kindergarten next month and he's so excited. Five years has gone by so fast. During that time we've lived in 4 different houses in two different states (Alabama and Georgia), in two different countries (Germany and US), and in four different cities (Ft Rucker, Ansbach, Wiesbaden, Midland). We've seen and done a lot of things, and even managed to make it through one 15 month deployment (and hopefully no more)! Here's the birthday boy with his cake.

And the day he was born. He was just 5 pounds 15 ounces...so tiny. He had to wear preemie clothes for over a month. He's still small so I guess that will never change. :)

Connor just loves robots, astronauts, and spaceships so I bought Close To My Heart's Robot Power stamp set and Stardust paper packet just to make his card. Eventually I'll make a scrapbook page with it too. All of the products used on this card are CTMH.

I started with a Honey card base and sanded the edges. I added the two pieces of patterned paper from the Stardust paper packet. I added the photo corner stickers from the Stardust My Stickease packet and the Make a Wish Flexi Label. These are so cute and rubbery!

I paper pieced the spaceship and robot so they weren't just one color (I got this idea from the CTMH idea book). The colors I used were Topiary, Honey, Holiday Red, Dutch Blue, and Grey Flannel. When I was finished I popped them up using 3D Foam Squares for some dimension.


Recipe
Stamps: Robot Power (Close To My Heart)
Cardstock: Honey, White Daisy (CTMH)
Patterned Paper: Stardust (CTMH)
Ink: Topiary, Honey, Holiday Red, Dutch Blue (CTMH)
Accents: Stardust Flexi Labels, Stardust My Stickease, 3D FoamSquares (CTMH)
Tools: Sandpaper (CTMH)

Thanks for looking,

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #12-Card #2

I really liked the colors of Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge this week so I decided to use my other new Papertrey set, Everyday Button Bits to make a second card for the challenge. I love, love, love this set. I have all of Papertrey's buttons and use them all the time so this is the perfect set for me. Plus, I've never seen anything like it. Nichole Heady is a genius!

I started with a Vintage Cream card base and covered it with a sheet of Bitty Box Basics patterned paper. I used my Nestabilities to cut out a rectangle from Vintage Cream and scalloped rectangle from Spring Moss cardstock.

I made the grass from stamping one of the trees in Father Knows Best onto Spring Moss cardstock. I just hand cut the cardstock into grass. I didn't think it would turn out but it doesn't look too bad. I stamped the balloons and sentiment from Everyday Button Bits. I picked a few buttons and threaded them with DMC floss and adhered them. The scalloped rectangle is popped up with 3D foam squares. Some Scarlet Jewel grosgrain ribbon was added at the bottom and that's it! I'm not even going to tell you how long it took me to tie that knot so that it looked okay. I'm just so ribbon tying challenged!!!




Recipe
Stamps: Everyday Button Bits, Father Knows Best (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Spring Moss (PTI)
Patterned Paper: Bitty Box Basics (PTI)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko); Spring Moss, Raspberry Fizz (PTI)
Accents: Buttons, Ribbon (PTI); DMC Floss; 3D Foam Squares (CTMH)
Tools: Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Cuttlebug (Provocraft)

Thanks for looking and have a great day,

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #12

It's time for another one of Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge. I just got my Papertrey order on Saturday so I had to use one of those stamp sets. I decided to use In Bloom. It was a set that I wasn't sure if I wanted to get but I really like it after using it.

I started with a Scarlet Jewel base and stamped the large flower in Scarlet Jewel ink all around the outside for my background. I then used my Cuttlebug to cut two curved rectangles from Vintage Cream, one for the front of the card and a larger one for the inside. I stamped the sentiment from Damask Designs using Versafine Black Onyx ink. I find that it's the darkest black and great for fine detail like sentiments.

The flower was stamped twice on Raspberry Fizz cardstock using Vintage Cream ink and once on Scarlet Jewell. I cut out each layer of the flower and layered them using 3D foam squares, then added a few rhinestones. The leaves were stamped on Spring Moss and cut out. I used the Fiskars fingertip knife to cut everything out. I love them because they're really good for detail work. I got mine in pink at Target. I saw a purple swivel one somewhere that I might just have to get (mostly because it's purple)!

I added a bit of Spring Moss satin ribbon around the middle of the card and mounted the curved rectangle with foam mounting tape so it's popped up a bit. And that's my card. Hope you liked it! (Don't forget you can always click on the photo to enlarge it).


Recipe
Stamps: In Bloom, Damask Designs (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Scarlet Jewel, Vintage Cream, Raspberry Fizz, Spring Moss (PTI)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko); Vintage Cream, Ripe Avocado, Scarlet Jewel (PTI)
Accents: Ribbon (PTI); Rhinestones (Me and My Big Ideas)
Tools: Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Cuttlebug (Provocraft)

Have a great day,

Loonie Stampers Challenge #48

This week's Loonie Stampers Challenge is to make a Christmas card. It's so hard to think about Christmas when it's 100 degrees outside. I decided to use Papertrey's Home For the Holidays and Boards and Beams. They're two sets that I bought with the intention of making Christmas cards last Christmas but I just didn't get to them. I knew that they'd be time consuming sets to use and boy was I right! This card took me forever. I can just imagine how long it would have taken if I'd colored the house too!


(If you click on the picture you can see a lot more detail). I started by stamping the house onto kraft cardstock and then stamped the windows and door separately and cut them out. I colored them using my Copics and glued them over the original windows. I adhered the house to Papertrey's Rustic Cream cardstock and stamped the fence, then colored it again with the Copics. On separate kraft cardstock I stamped the trees, cut them out, colored them in, and added them with 3D foam squares. For the snow I used white Liquid Applique and added some glitter to it, although you can't really tell from the picture. It looks nice in real life. I added a strip of PTI's Holiday Vintage Prints paper along the bottom and a strip of Pure Poppy above that. On that I stamped the sentiment and embossed it with gold embossing powder, added a couple of buttons threaded with twine, and was finished. I really like the way this card turned out but it took SO long to make. Definitely not one I'll be mass producing.



Recipe
Stamps: Boards and Beams, Home for the Holidays (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy, Kraft, Rustic Cream (PTI)
Patterned Paper: Holiday Vintage Prints Collection (PTI)
Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko); Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Accents: Buttons, Twine (PTI); Liquid Applique (Marvy Uchida); Copic Markers; Gold Embossing Powder, Prisma Glitter (Close To My Heart)

Have a great day,

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Mojo Monday Week 94-Take 2

I wasn't really happy with my last card that I made for Mojo Monday so I tried another. Again it just didn't work out the way I'd hoped and I'm not terribly happy with it but oh well. I'll submit it anyway. I used Close To My Heart's Emporium paper packet. I love, love, love this paper and hadn't had the chance to use it yet.

Recipe
Stamps: Thank You (Close To My Heart)
Cardstock: Crystal Blue, Buttercup (CTMH)
Patterned Paper: Emporium (CTMH)
Ink: Twilight (CTMH)
Accents: Buttons (CTMH and Papertrey Ink); DMC Floss; Rhinestones (Joann's); Ric Rac (CTMH)
Tools: Ticket Corner Punch (Stampin Up)

Have a great day,

Mojo Monday Week 94

I took Kristina Werner up on her challenge this week to use scrap supplies that I've had sitting around and not using. I have a lot of K & Company Wild Saffron paper and embellishments that I've been meaning to use but haven't. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but I finally just gave up on it. :) This is the first card in a LONG time that I didn't use stamps on. Seems strange.



Recipe
Cardstock: Colonial White (Close To My Heart)
Patterned Paper: Wild Saffron (K & Company)
Accents: 3D Foam Squares, Waxy Flax (CTMH); Tag, Chipboard Letters, Flowers (K & Co.)

Thanks for looking,

Loonie Stampers Challenge #47

Things are still really hot here and we need rain desperately. It's in the forecast but so far only a few sprinkles. Our grass is dying so hopefully we get some soon. I know so many of my friends are getting nothing but rain right now so I can't really complain.

Today's card is another Loonie Stampers Challenge. I had SO much trouble with this card. I couldn't figure out how to combine the colors at first and I didn't have any vision about what to do so I just started making it and I kind of like the way it turned out. The colors I had to use were Papertrey's Scarlet Jewel, Aqua Mist, Ripe Avocado, and Lemon Tart. I didn't want the Scarlet Jewel to overpower the card since it's such a strong, dark color.


I made the card base from the Scarlet Jewel cardstock and added a layer of Lemon Tart with the corners rounded. I used my Cuttlebug Flower die for the flowers and cut out a bunch of different sizes out of each of the colors of cardstock. I just messed around with them to see which colors went the best together and embossed some of them with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I then added a button to each flower and adhered them all together then added them to the card with 3D foam squares. To finish it off I punched holes for the stems using my paper piercer and hand stitched each stem with DMC thread and then added my sentiment. It's funny because I don't sew at all (not even buttons) but I'll spend the time to hand stitch on cards! After looking at the card now, I think I need to add some leaves to it because it looks a little funny without them I think. Maybe I'll add them later.


Recipe
Stamps: Mega Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Scarlet Jewel, Aqua Mist, Ripe Avocado, Lemon Tart (PTI)
Ink: Scarlet Jewel (PTI)
Accents: 3D Foam Squares (CTMH); DMC Floss; Buttons (PTI)
Tools: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Provocraft); Cuttlebug Flowers (Provocraft); Cuttlebug (Provocraft); Corner Rounder (EK Success)

Have a great day,

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #11

It's time for another Raspberry Suite Color Challenge. I'm getting this one done just under the wire. We went to Florida for the 4th so I wasn't home to make my card. I was able to make it this afternoon and as I took it outside to photograph it I dropped it and dented the whole top of it. Silly me. So, I guess these photos will have to do. The colors this week were a bit of a challenge because I just have trouble putting pink and red together.

I started with a black card base and added a layer of textured grey Bazzill cardstock. Another layer of Pure Poppy, and then Papertrey white. I used Papertrey's Honey Bees set for the grass and the flowers. The flowers are stamped in Pure Poppy and Raspberry Fizz, then they're popped up with 3D foam squares but you can't really tell from my first photo. Sorry the second photo is blurry. I still can't figure out how to get a clear close up with my camera. Well, the problem isn't the camera, it's the user! :) I added the sentiment from Star Prints and some Raspberry Fizz satin ribbon and that's it!



Recipe
Stamps: Honey Bees, Star Prints (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: True Black, White, Pure Poppy (PTI); Grey (Bazzill)
Ink: Pure Poppy, Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf (PTI); Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukeniko)
Accents: 3D Foam Squares (CTMH); Ribbon (PTI)


Thanks for looking,

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends! We're spending the weekend in Florida with the in-laws. Yesterday we celebrated Connor's 5th birthday, even though his birthday was on the 1st (we just didn't tell him yesterday was the 3rd). I don't think we'll be able to pull that one off again next year. We went to the beach for a few hours this morning and we'll be going to the fireworks downtown after dinner. Hopefully it will cool down a bit since it was in the high 90s today. Luckily Brian is able to be with us this year. A year ago at this time I was taking the boys downtown without him because he was in Iraq. It seems like so long ago. Hopefully he won't have to miss too many other holidays but with the Army I won't count on that.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!

Recipe
Stamps: July Word Puzzle, Celebrate Canada (Close To My Heart)
Cardstock: White (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Bitty Star Basics (PTI)
Ink: Outdoor Denim (CTMH); Pure Poppy (PTI)
Accents: Nestabilities (Spellbinders); Cuttlebug (Provocraft)

Have a great day,

Happy Canada Day!!!

I want to wish all my friends in Canada a happy Canada Day. I do miss it, but at least we have the 4th to celebrate here in the states. It's still not quite the same though. I had to make a card just for the occasion!


Recipe
Stamps: Celebrate Canada (Close To My Heart)
Cardstock: Colonial White (CTMH)
Ink: Cranberry (CTMH); Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Accents: 3D Foam Squares (CTMH)

Thanks for looking and have a great day,