Friends Forever

Happy Monday everyone!  I have another spring like card.  Maybe all the spring/Easter cards being posted will help the weather to actually cooperate!  LOL?  I started this card by making my own stamped background using Memento Pear Tart ink on a mottled type pink cardstock.  I stamped it with a flourish stamp from Autumn Leaves Stampology set.  I cut some of the background into the larger and smaller flower petals also.  The other patterned flower petal is from Basic Grey Sweet Threads.

I love this silhouette stamp of girls dancing in flowers.  I find it very whimsical!  I wanted it to be soft so I stamped it in Angel Pink and fussy cut around the top and sides of it.  The sentiment stamp is from a set of sentiments, Retro Greetings, by The Paper Company, all designed with their own cute label design around the sentiment.  I stamped this in the Pear Tart and fussy cut it also.

I popped up the image on a background of a lime green cardstock embossed with a lattice emboss folder backed on pink cardstock with pink decorative photo corners "bradded" on the top corners.  I also added a strip of green lattice embossed cardstock along the bottom of the card as a paper ribbon or border for the sentiment.

The flower is formed together with a pretty clear pink plastic flower button left over from one of my Taylored Expressions monthly kits.  I strung it through kraft twine, made a bow behind the button, added beads to the ends and then looped the twine behind and up over the sentiment.  The beads I have had for years from a bead/necklace kit that never got made.

Doesn't it just make you want to find a May pole or a field of wildflowers and go running through them?  If only the weather would help out right?  I've entered this card into the challenges at Stampin' Royalty and In The Pink.

Stampin Royalty #168

 Challenge #17 - Spring/Easter in Pink

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment (The Paper Company Studio); background flourish (Autumn Leaves); Girls silhouette-Dancing with Flowers (Hero Arts).

Paper:  Light mottled pink cardstock; kiwi kiss cardstock. DP (Basic Grey, Sweet Threads).

Ink: Pear Tart and Angel Pink (Memento).

Extras:  Lattice emboss folder (Cuttlebug); decorative photo corners (Sizzix); Blossom die (Lifestyle Crafts); white brads; twine; pink beads.

Spring Blessings!

Happy Spring!

What speaks spring more than a nest full of eggs? I found this cute little stamp at my local Micheals craft store in their $1 bin. So cute! That is why I chose it for a very springy type card. The stamp is actually placed diagonally on the stamp mount, so I stamped it on white cardstock and die cut it so it would be straight on a label die cut, which I inked on the edges also.  The label is adhered to an embossed chipboard label. I stuck die cut leaf stamped branches behind the chipboard along with a bird, stamped and fussy cut. The dark coral doily behind the chipboard is a die cut from My Favorite Things, with a regular paper doily behind it.I sprayed the paper doily with some of my own homemade glimmer mist to get the rosy color.  All of these layers are placed on a DP background that is adhered to a white card base.

I've entered the card into the challenges at Papercraft Star and Shopping Our Stash.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Nest (Micheals $1 Bin); bird (Hampton Art); Sentiment (Taylored Expressions); leaves- from Friendship Blooms(Taylored Expressions)
Paper:  White and coral cardstock; DP (stash). DP (stash); chipboard(Studio18);
Ink:  Cocoa Brown, Teal Zeal, Summer Sky (Memento); Skin white, Flesh Pink, Champagne, Atoll, Ice Mint (Copics); Rose glimmer mist (Homemade).
Extras:  Embossed chipboard frame; Label die (Taylored Expressions); Leaf die (Taylored Expressions); Doily die (My Favorite Things); Lace doily.

Papercraft Star Challenge #137 - Birds

Challenge #94 - Easter or Spring

Spring Blessings!

Alleluia!

 An Easter card for Palm Sunday.   I'm entering it in The Pink Elephant Challenge and the Shopping Our Stash challenge.  I decided to double up on sentiments this time.  The butterfly I cut from the DP paper to make an embellishment.  The sentiment and cross stamps are some of my oldest stamps, about four years old!

SPIES:
Stamps:  Crosses (Studio G).  Sentiments (Studio G).
Paper:  Brown cardstock.  DP - Vanity Fair (My Minds Eye).
Ink:  Rose and cocoa brown (Memento).
Extras:  Scallop oval dies(Spellbinders); scallop border die (Taylored Expressions); scallop rectangle die (Spellbinders); pink patterned ribbon; white button; pearl gems.

Challenge 191- Easter

Challenge #94 - Easter or Spring

Take Flight

 Happy Saturday!  It's a chilly one here in North Carolina even being the first weekend of spring.  So maybe my card with all it's happy flowers and bright yellow background will coax the temps up!  Trying to get this posted before I set off to Chapel Hill so my son can install a new  hard drive into my laptop.  Thank goodness we still have our desktop!  However, funny how you get so used to one thing, it's hard to switch over!  Worst thing, I haven't been able to access any of my photos or files on my external drive because it is only compatible with my laptop!  UGH!  Again, creature of habit.

Anyway, I made this card using inspiration drawn from the Muse challenge this week.  And I decided to incorporate some things for a few Moxie Fab World challenges, you know, the two birds, one stone thing.

So to begin with, I painted paper.  I used my old acrylic paints to make a graduated background.  Hindsight, I probably should have painted some clear Gesso on afterwards but one thing led to another and I didn't do it.   I started out by stamping the flower image across the bottom of my background paper and I just didn't like it.  So, I painted more paper, stamped and embossed the flowers some more and then cut them out to layer them for a more 3-D effect (see below).
 

I like it a lot better now.  After stamping the flowers, girl and butterflies, I decided to stamp another butterfly on the painted paper and cut it out.  Then, I used a Spellbinders label and die cut a hole in the top of the paper to use the negative of the label.  Next I added the slate blue ric rac ribbon to the top and bottom before adhering it to the white card base with pop dots, lots of pop dots.  Then, I stamped my sentiment inside the negative label with Memento Canatloupe ink and added the third butterfly.

 Moxie Fab World:  The Emphasize the Negative Challenge

Moxie Fab World- The Ombre Challenge

Muse Challenge #9

SPIES:

Stamps: Flowers(Recollections); Butterfly(Inkadinkadoo); Girl(Redhead Paperworks); Sentiment - Delightful Day (Taylored Expressions).

Paper:  White cardstock.

Ink:  Versamark; Cantaloupe (Memento); White emboss powder; Harvest Gold, Lemon Custard, Canary Yellow, Pale Yellow (Folk Art Acrylics); Sunshine Yellow(Adriondack Paint Dabber).

Extras:  Ric rac ribbon; Spellbinders Nestabilities Label #9.

Hello ~How Are You?

And yet another card tonight!  Three in one night, rare these days for me!  This one is for ColourQ.  I love ColourQ color challenges.  They always have such great color combos!  I recently purchased this stencil die from Taylored Expressions and it makes a wonderful trellis!  The sentiment stamp comes label fashioned and all I did was fussy cut around it.  This card really put me in the mood for spring making all those flowers.

SPIES:

Stamps:  Flowers (Taylored Expressions).  Sentiment (TPC).

Paper:  White and kraft cardstock.

Ink:  Love Letter, Dandelion (Memento); Rose - stash.

Extras: Quatrefoile die stencil (Taylored Expressions). Flower die cut (Taylored Expressions). Pearl gems.

Fabulous

A CAS card tonight, simple yet chic for Stampin Royalty CAS Challenge.  I have had this dress template for a while and I don't know why I haven't used it until now.  So, now I have!  I used a standard A2 card, scored it around the middle for a built in frame.  Then, I fit an embossed rectangle inside the scored frame and attached the dressed up dress on top.  The sentiment I thought worked very well with this elegant card and I embossed it in gold powder.  I wrapped an ivory patterned ribbon around the dress and adhered gold balls at each layer.  Short, sweet, to the point ---FABULOUS!

Stampin Royalty

SPIES:
Stamps: Sentiment (Anna Griffin).
Paper: White Cardstock.
Ink: Versamark and gold emboss powder.
Extras: Ivory lace, Emboss folder (Stampin Up!)

NOTE:  Please excuse the smudges that look like dirty spots, discovered after I posted I had a dirty camera lens!  EEK!

Got EGGS?

Good Monday Evening!  I know, another corny, punny title.  Just couldn't help myself.   Trying out a new challenge (new for me) tonight.  {PIN}spirational Challenges uses photos from Pinterest for weekly inspiration.  This week's inspiration was really scrumptious (see below).  The bunny digital stamp I believe is an old one from Digi Doodle Shop, but not certain.  I am going to have to go back and double check on that.  The stamp actually has eggs towered in his hand, but I wanted to add some dimension and so I cut a slit in his hand and added my own punched eggs.

{PIN}spirational Challenges #47

SPIES:
Stamps:  Bunny with eggs (Digital). Sentiment-Digital (Create with TLC).
Paper:  White, plum, and raspberry cardstock.  DP:  (Making Memories).
Ink:  Black.  Copics
Extras:  Emboss folder (Cuttlebug); Scallop circle Nestie; Label Die(Taylored Expressions); scallop border die (Taylored Expressions); square punch; mini oval/egg punch; purple ribbon; pearl gem.

GOT Bunnies?

Happy Spring Forward!

Hoping all are enjoying a glorious Sunday.  It's nice and sunny and WARM here in the middle of NC!  Getting ready to take the pooches out for a nice walk and fresh air.  But, before that happens, I wanted to post this card for CASology.  Now that it is Lent, that means Easter and spring cards, which I love with all the bright cheery colors and pastels.  So, my first Easter card is on the cutesy but simple side.

Their theme this week was "bunny".  And, since I've been decorating the house for Easter and used some bunny peeps in my decorating, I used that inspiration for my card (see below).

I started with a digital sentiment and printed it in the middle of the card.  Next, I took a bunny card template from The Cutting Cafe, scaled it way down to very miniature size, then copied it on a file about five times to get my row of bunnies and pasted it underneath the sentiment.  Then, I printed the card out and colored the bunnies with Copics. 

SPIES:
Stamps:  Digital sentiment and digital template.
Paper:  white cardstock.
Ink:  Copics:  Cadmium yellow and ligtning yellow.  Black fine tip marker for eyes and noses.
Extras:  None.

Happy Lent!

A Man's Perspective

TGIF Everyone!  I guess you could say that March has definitely come in like a lion.  So hopefully it will go out like a lamb.  Here in the Salkeld abode we are gearing up for a big game tomorrow, known in the Triangle region of North Carolina as the Tobacco Road Brawl or Battle of Blues --- UNC Tarheels VS Duke Blue Devils.  And, as most of you know, the Salkeld house sides with the Tarheels since our youngest, Ben, is a sophomore there.  And, the big game also ushers in spring break so our empty nest will be partially filled come tomorrow night.  Of course, I am not complaining because I do love having one or both my boys home and any given time.  The quiet will be replaced with the sounds of ESPN humming on the flatscreen and the little man in the frig will get a hefty workout!  Soda cans, chip bags, smelly socks, beating drums, and laundry bags, I welcome you all, at least for a week!  

So it is pretty fitting that this post is for a masculine card for Addicted to CAS using the sketch at Retrosketches and a challenge for Moxie Fab.  I recently purchased some new masculine designer paper and a couple new masculine stamps, as my supply of all things masculine as far as stamping goes, is few and far between.  Go figure in a house of testosterone!  LOL!  Anyway, I thought the wood grain paper from Fancy Pants Design "Swagger" pad was really cool.  I made my card out of kraft cardstock with the wood grain paper for a background.  And, I liked it even better when I pulled out a wood chip sample I got from a local flea market.  It is actually a sample for wood flooring.  It came on a strip of four different colored samples all that exact size.  I'd been waiting for the right project to use them for and Voila!  Today was the day!

I wasn't really sure the stamping was going to work on the wood sample, but I forged ahead.  I lightly sanded the top of the sample and then decided to stamp with Versamark and use clear emboss powder.  I really love how it came out!

I also decided to use some craft sticks (good ole popsicle sticks really, in bulk).  I had to cut them a bit and wrapped them with masculine washi tape and adhered them to the wood grain paper background.  I bumped up the stamped wood panel with pop dots, two thicknesses on the right side and one thickness on the left on top of the washi taped sticks.  To top of the card, I stamped the sentiment in Staz On Jet Black underneath the right side of the wood panel.

Moxie Fab World - Washi Tape Challenge

SPIES: 

Stamps:  Men & Sentiment(Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous).

Paper:  Kraft cardstock.  DP -Swagger (FancyPantsDesign)

Ink:  Jet Black (Staz On).

Extras:  Wood panel; wood craft sticks; washi tape; pop dots.

I am really loving this card!  Going to have to use some more of those wood panels soon!

Banner Luck

A card today for the challenge at Dynamic Duos.  I just .   the hexagonal background stamp from Hero Arts and had to try it out.  I cut banners out of various patterned paper and cardstock, using a chicken wire impression plate on the solid green one.  The green chevron banner I used my chevron stamp on and adhered them all to the stamped background.  Then, I used the banner die from Spellbinders Shapebilities and cut two green banners and eight yellow banner centers from patterned paper.  I adhered letter stickers to the tops of each banner section, poked holes in the corners, added some twine and adhered both banners to the top of the card.  A fairly simple card this afternoon for my first play over at Dynamic Duos.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Hexagon background(Hero Arts); Chevron (Just Rite).
Paper:  White and green cardstock; DP -yllw hexagaon(Echo Park-Country Drive); yellow chevron & circle (Echo Park-hello summer).
Ink:  Bamboo Leaves (Memento).
Extras:   Banner die cuts (Spellbinders shapeabilities); chicken wire impression plate (Taylored Expressions); sticker letters.


I have been working on several other cards and hopefully will get them posted today as well.