Christmas bird

There are a couple of bird stamps that I reach out a lot.  For a Christmas card, this one from Close to My Heart To You and Yours stamp set is by far the most popular one.  I like to play coloring with it.  I usually color it with watercolor pencils, or sometimes just color pencils.  I have yet mastered coloring with markers, but I secretly play with them often to practice.

Today's card is based on the sketch from Mojo Monday:

I set my heart on making a Christmas card then I saw this requirement from Merry Monday:

So I added the bird to the sketch:

I like this card and I just had a lot of fun coloring the bird. 

I'm afraid it's time to treat my eyes again so I have to stop here.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Using my pins?

Do you pin?  How many boards do you have?

I learned that Pinterest is a lot of fun but at the same time a total time burner so I have been avoiding it.  You see I have the Pin button on my blog but I rarely pin.  Sometimes my computer is so slow that it takes longer than what my frustration allows to load my pins.  Before I start pinning, I am ready to close all my windows.  I can't help but wonder how I can use Pinterest to improve my life if I don't have to patience for it to load my pins.    Call me outdated.  Call me backward.  I will gracefully accept that.

I started my blog in part to have a craft diary.  I was asked if I would make a duplicate of the cards I make, no, because I normally take a picture of my card, write a post about it, then won't feel bad when the day I have to part with it comes.  However, when the number of my blog posts grows, it is becoming difficult to look for my past creations.  That's when I started pinning.  I pin my own cards.  Pinterest thus serves as my "back-up craft diary."  I also started other boards to pin others' cards and creations, but I stumbled upon how to organize the pins and thought I should keep the collection manageable until I know how I want to organize them.  I really wish there were "sub-boards" within boards.  For instance I  wish I could have a board for all my cards then within this board I could have a Christmas sub-board, a Birthday sub-board, etc.  Am I brain-washed by the way I organize my files in my PC so I want to do it the same way on Pinterest? 

Susan from OLW asked that we use our pins as an inspiration to create a one layer card.  She generously offered to share her boards as inspiration.  Wow.  I took a cursory look at her Pure Inspiration board and her Cards board and found her pins awesome.  I love those cards that have such a clean look but the white space is so powerful that your eyes tend to fix on it.  Amazing.

So I was inspired by the white space of her cards and I decided to make one like that.  How to make it interesting?  Colors.  But color coordination is never my forte so I looked at some color challenges to see what others are doing.  Halloween colors?  Good, I just can't go wrong with that.  I used the palette from Fab Friday Challenge:

Then I found this sketch from CAS(E) this sketch:

My card is basically a combination of the card sketch and the color combo:

No, this card is not going to a kid.  I figured that I have no Halloween decoration in my office so I'll place some random décor and cards in the office.  I should have made all my Halloween cards for the kids this year, but will make a couple extra just in case a friend asks me to lend him/her a card.

My card is also entering the following challenges:
Crafty Calendar - Halloween
Hiding in my craft room - Halloween colors
Moving along with the Times - Anything Goes
Sarah Hurley - Halloween
Craftin' Boutique Challenges - Halloween

Thanks for stopping by!

Round Christmas card

I'm rushing through because I'm posting it just minutes shy of the cutoff of Mojo Monday Challenge.  Its sketch asks us to make a circle or square card:

I've picked the round version and made a Christmas card:

I have been having quite some fun with round cards recently.  They are fun and easy to make!

Since I'm cutting circles, what about the interior?

My card is entering the following challenges:
Holly Jolly Christmas challenge - no patterned paper
There she goes clear stamps - decorate the inside
CAS on Sunday - shape it up
Christmas Stampin - circles
Jingle Belles Rock - Shape-up for the Holidays

Thanks for stopping by!

Fussy cut fun

It's World Card Making Day today!
Interesting I kicked off my crafting fun with scrapbooking instead.  That's just as fun.  But I can't let this day go without making a card.  It's World Card Making Day!

I based my card on the sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:

And my card utilizes the fall color scheme:

The title of today's post is fussy cut fun, did you see my fussy cuts?  When I was cutting out the banner, I purposefully picked this portion of the patterned paper so the flower on the paper could sit at the lower left corner of the sentiment piece, like the sketch suggests.  However, I think it needs a little more emphasis so I cut the same image from the same paper and heightened it with some foam tape.  One raised flower looks too boring, so I stamped another one and stuck it with foam tape, slightly overlapping it with the patterned paper flower.

I am happy with the result and will surely try this technique more often.  Having said that, would I be willing to waste a lot of materials to do this?  Probably not.  The papers are too pretty to cut to begin with, I hate to waste even a scrap piece!

My card is entering the following challenges:
Craftitude - Anything Goes
Crafty Katz - Anything Goes
Simply Create Too - Fall
Catch the Bug Challenge - Anything Goes
Allsorts Challenge - Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin' - Fall
2 Sisters Challenge Blog - Fall

Thanks for stopping by!

BLESSED

Happy Friday everyone!  Yay it's almost weekend and that means craft time!

I'm sharing a quick post today with my Thanksgiving card.  It is a circle card and I love shaped cards!

I've also decorated the inside with a mat and coordinating paper:

I have quite a bit of the patterned paper and am working hard to use it whenever possible.  I thought it is a nice touch to tie the inside of the card with that patterned paper on the front, don't you think?  The difficult part for me is to line up the circular segment with the sentiment.  The sentiment must go parallel with the chord, and I was so scared that I would mess up.  A big relief when I got it on the first try. 

This is my second time coloring the image on the front, except that I am using watercolor pencils this time while I used markers the first time.  I can't decide which medium I like better.  Perhaps I should color it again on a different occasion to make a comparison.

My card is entering the following challenges:
Tuesday Throwdown - Colors of Fall
Nutcrafters - use a hand-colored image
4 Crafty Chicks - Fall/Autumn
Polka Doodles - Autumn Crafting
Challenges and Candies - The colors of Autumn
An Inky Situation - color challenge

Addicted to Stamps & More - Photo Inspiration

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Wishes

Does "Merry Wishes" sound cute to you?  It certainly does to me!  I think it makes it cuter on a card with baubles, or ornaments.  That's the card I'm sharing today:

I've combined a couple of requirements for this card.  First off is the one from Bitten by the Bug - overlay.  With my Artbooking cartridge where there are a lot of overlays, the hardest part was actually picking one to use.  As I wanted to make a Christmas card, I naturally picked this one with a lot of hanging ornaments.  Using just one color is too plain, so I cut it out in New England Ivy and Cranberry cardstock then with a simple surgery I've combined the two making it more Christmas-sy.

Next up I saw the color requirements at Merry Monday challenge:

Out of the five colors I've already used Red, Dark Green and White, the remaining ones are Pink and Light Green.  How should I incorporate those to the existing overlay?  I decided to use a lighter green as a background, then used pink to stamp a snowflake in one of the outline ornaments and the sentiment.  There it is!  I tried a couple versions for the background but I liked this one the best.  I have used different background stamps including one that has the word "Merry" in various fonts.  I thought it would be very cute and conform to the Christmas theme but I was wrong.  In this case, less is more and I think having a plain background would make the center panel even more outstanding.

My card is entering the following challenges:
613 Avenue - Anything Goes
Challenges 4 everybody - Anything Goes
Craftin Desert Divas - Celebration
Make it Monday
The Glory of Christmas - ornaments

Thanks for stopping by!

Ah Autumn

I bought the stamp set Always Grateful a while back but it is the first time I'm using it today.  I love the different tree images - the nature is such a beauty that no one can resist.   As the temperature is getting lower and each day is getting gustier, I think I should catch up with my fall/Thanksgiving cards!

So it gives me a perfect reason to think what I want to do with this set.  Sometimes I bought tools with many ideas to play them but when it comes to actually trying to use it, the ideas all disappear.  Has that happened to you? 

I decided to focus on just one of the trees and played with generation stamping.  I used New England Ivy and Olive, two shades of green to create this:

There are altogether 5 trees, or some of them partial trees stamped.  The trees do make a contrast with the bright pumpkin-colored background.  I also like that the leaves in the patterned paper contrasts with the bare branches.  For the words I went to my friend copper embossing powder and it sits nicely against the New England Ivy cardstock.  Did you see the tone-on-tone stamping on the New England Ivy panel?  This is one of my all time favorites.  I think it was a bit boring to have a solid panel against the busy background above it, so I stamped a less busy background pattern on it with the same color.  It balances nicely with the patterned paper.

This card is entering the following challenges, they are all related to Fall, nature or a scene:
Heart 2 Heart challenge - Au Naturale
Amusing challenge - Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamp challenge - Create a scene
Dream Valley - Autumn
Come and get it Challenge - Fall colors
Fashionables stamping challenge - Autumn colors
Get Inky Challenge - Fall colors
Addicted to CAS - Autumn/Fall

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!