Happy Summer??

One question mark is not enough.  I need two.

While I am in the mood of making Fall/Thanksgiving/Christmas cards, I find out that Color Dare challenge is back! 

The colors for this week's challenge are Lagoon, Pear and Creme Brulee.

I've made this summer card using the Footloose paper:

I had the most fun stamping the fish - I first stamped them in Creme Brulee, then slightly swipe their fins against the Pear ink pad.  Their fin color is different from their body color!  For the turtle, I have used a different technique.  I first stamped it in Creme Brulee, then used a sponge to ink some Lagoon and dab on his limbs.  The Lagoon color on his limbs is not as solid as the Creme Brulee on his body. 

The sketch comes from Make It From Your Heart - a publication from Close to My Heart.  It has 18 scrapbook layouts and 12 card patterns to jump start your creative juices. 

Oops.  Not until just now I realize that there is New England Ivy in the B&T paper.  I hope I could still enter the challenge, or at least share it with others through Color Dare challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Hauntings

I love Close to My Heart's Workshop on the Go Kits!  A kit has everything for your cards, layouts or home decor items.  The paper, stamp set and embellishments come in the kit are all coordinating, so you could save your time to search for the mix and match.

I am still short of Halloween cards and I used the Moonlight Workshop on the Go to create one.  The sketch is based on the one provided by Pals Paper Arts:

I was inspired by the design team's awesome artwork and decided to join the party with this card:

If you look closely you see that the owl is raised.  I stamped it again in Smokey Plum and stuck it on the original image with some 3-D foam tape.  You see the paint on left side of the fence chipping off?  I didn't do the paint, but I used the Swipe and Stamp technique to give the solid image some movement.  If you'd like to know more about it, watch the video here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Holidays

Heart 2 Heart Challenge is asking us to make one and guess what?  When I saw this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, I had this clear vision of my card. 

My clear vision did not eventually become my card.  The vision has evolved to this card:

My vision had some similar elements to my card's elements, but the sentiment, ribbon and the accent have changed quite a bit.  Does the Christmas tree look familiar?  It was actually part of the accent from Dimensional Elements in Color - Holiday.  I've detached this tree from its green background.  I know, scary!  But having the tree standing alone on this card looks so much better than with the base so I went ahead and ripped the tree off. 

I like this card.  Hope you do too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Our Hearts are With You

Sympathy cards are one of those kinds of cards that are very difficult to make.  For me, it is even more difficult than musculine cards.  This year, for whatever reasons, I have made a couple of them and they were used already. 

Some of my friends "borrow" cards from my stash.  The demand was the greatest in May for Mother's Day (For the dads out there: we love you too!), and unfortunately many had to borrow my sympahty cards, leaving them extremely low in the inventory.  So I was prompted to make one today.

My inspiration came from two sources: CAS-ual Fridays that asks us to put our heart into it:

and a color combo provided by CR84FN Color Challenge:

I've chosen Blush, Desert Sand and Colonial White to replace Light Pink, Tan and Cream respectively.

My card has very clean lines but nevertheless embellished by a pewter element:

I wanted to make a card that is not in the usual size of 4.25" x 5.5" so I made this one of 8" x 3.5".  I have only used one stamp image, except that I "broke" the image into two parts where I stamped "are with you" first, then lined up the pewter bracket and found where I should stamp "hearts".  There was no more room for the word "Our" so I wrote it on the little heart sponged in Blush.  Not bad, huh?

Thanks for stopping by!

Gratitude

I totally forgot about this great stamp set from the Flirty Workshop on the Go kit!  It has branches, flowers, a bird, a leave, border and sentiments.  When I was searching for a sentiment for today's card, I found it and thought it goes well on a Thanksgiving card!

My inspiration comes from the sketch designed by Cristina Kowalczyk on Skipping Stones Blog:

And the color scheme comes from Pal Paper Arts:

 



I've used Goldrush, Barn Red and Cocoa to replace More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso respectively:

I like the turkey!  It was cut by Cricut Artiste cartridge.  The cartridge is still being explored but the possibilities it provides are really endless!  The stamps come from the Flirty Workshop on the Go Kit.  I have only stamped part of the branches, which is a technique I am learning.  When I look at a stamp, I try to look at it from different angles and use it differently from the way it is designed.  Yup, try to stretch the use of the stamps and make them more versatile!  The sentiment is really a great one.  Happiness itself is a kind of gratitude. 

Be happy (but don't eat my turkey)!

Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men

Want to find the perfect sentiment but you don't have the stamp?  I have a suggestion!  Combine the words from different stamps!

Check it out here:

The word Peace comes from the new stamp set called "Blessings of Peace" and the words "on earth good will to men" comes from Christmas Love.  I'd like to use the word "Peace" from "Blessings of Peace" because of its size and font, but I thought an additional line of text would give it more weight.  Combining the words from two stamp set can be easily achieved with clear stamps.  If you use rubber stamps, just use a stamp positioning tool.  This technique helps us stretch the use of our stamps!

I'm participating the challenge at Less is More, which asks us to make a one-layer card with the theme of "wings".  This card is also entering the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More, asking us to make a CAS card.

Oops, totally forgot that my mission is to make more Thanksgiving cards rather than Christmas cards.  Gotta stop my obsession with Christmas cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Many Many Many Thanks

I'm trying to play along with the challenges with a theme of fall to catch up with my Thanksgiving cards.  I saw the challenge at Bitten by the Bug couple days ago and meant to combine it with Catch The Bug Challenge.  Combining two "bug" challenges!

Bitten by the Bug asked that we make a project including a pumpkin, but not Halloween pumpkin.  It also asks that we make use of our Cricut.  Em......I doubt that my cartridges cut pumpkins directly.  How about sticking three ovals together?

I have made a pumpkin with three ovals that were cut with Cricut Art Philosophy Collection.  The cartridge provides 3 kinds of ovals and I've picked the one that is least elongated.  The pumpkin was put as the focal point of a card where the card sketch was presented by Catch The Bug:

My card looks like this:

The background was the Flirty paper, and the scalloped edge is actually the zip strip of the same paper.  I simply cut the scalloped edge according to its pattern!  I wrapped around the New England Ivy cardstock with bakers twine, stuck the focal point onto the card with some 3-D foam tape and the card was finished!

Thanks for stopping by!