Inspired By... an Outdoor Patio Set

Happy Friday!

Not only does it mean the weekend is almost here, but we have a new inspirational photo challenge to introduce! 

IB #37

This week was my choice and I wanted to pick something that reminds me of spring/summer! It's been a long winter and I've had warmer weather on my mind! I chose this photo of beautiful outdoor furniture from the Pier One website - one of my favourite home decor stores. How nice would this be, to relax by the poolside in this inviting comfy chair on a warm summer day? :)

I love the colours in this photo! I decided to use Island Indigo, Pool Party, Old Olive, and Smokey Slate. I used the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches as a guide for my card design.

I am also linking up with The Friday Mashup challenge:

1. Create a project that's "Monochromatic".
2. Create a project with "Flowers".
3. or Create a "Monochromatic project with Flowers". 

I used the new stamp set Petal Parade from the Sale-a-Bration catalogue, stamping flowers in monochromatic colours randomly to create the background. I then added different elements, popping them up to create some dimension. I love a card with layers!

Hop on over to Karly's Creations to see how this photo inspired her! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Petal Parade (Sale-a-Bration 2014), Happiest Birthdays

Paper: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Smokey Slate, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Old Olive, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Smokey Slate

Tools: Beautiful Wings embosslit, 1-1/4" Circle punch, 1-3/8" Circle punch, Little Leaves Sizzlit die

Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's)

KCRR37 & MOJO334

Lately I've been feeling the winter blues... we are having another cold snap here in Prince George, which is making me think Spring is a long ways away yet! Cold weather usually means lots of indoor activities... and that is when I resort to papercrafting! It's gotta be my favourite winter-time hobby. One of the things I decided to pick up on again is scrapbooking! I've been talking about it for a while and finally decided now is the time to sort through pictures, memorabilia, and souvenirs and put together scrapbook pages! I've been working on a career album for my husband, putting together pictures of hands-on learning activities in college, graduation ceremonies and multiple training courses. This past weekend I designed 8 pages! Here's a snapshot:

It's actually quite challenging, scrapbooking masculine pages. I tend to use the same colours (blues, browns, greens). But I tried to keep it interesting by finding scrapbook layout sketches on Pinterest and using those as a guideline, making each page unique. I hope to complete more this coming weekend! 

Moving on to our new KCRR challenge!

Paper Piercing

Love & Sympathy Stamp Set

Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder

I combined this challenge with the Mojo Monday sketch this week:

I decided to make a card with no sentiment and used pastel colours - Calypso Coral, Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe. 

I love how the vintage wallpaper embossing folder adds so much detail to the card! The bottom half is layered with strips of designer paper and the Pistachio Pudding piece of cardstock is paper pierced along the edges. Rhinestones embellish the card. 

I made a matching envelope using the new envelope punch board from Stampin Up. This punch board makes it SO easy! They have the exact measurements on the punch board itself for any size card you can think of! It also has a corner rounder punch - brilliant! 

Thanks for stopping by! Join us tomorrow for a new inspirational photo challenge!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Love & Sympathy

Paper: Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White 2013-2015 In-Colour DSP, 2012-2014 In-Colour DSP

Ink: Calypso Coral marker, Old Olive marker

Tools: Circles nestabilities, Scallop Circles nestabilities, Paper Piercing tool, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder

Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's)

Inspired By... the Olympic Rings!

While I haven't been following the Olympics too closely this time around, I've been keeping up with the medal counts and cheering Canada on! (and having a Dutch heritage, the Netherlands too!) Just recently we celebrated two gold - one for women's curling and the other for women's hockey against USA!! And now we are 2nd in medal standing overall! So proud to be Canadian! 

For our inspirational challenge, Karly chose the perfect photo for this week! 

IB #36

I was inspired to use the colours in this photo to make a kid's birthday card. I am playing along with the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and an "Anything Goes" challenge with Seize the Birthday:

'

Here's how it turned out:

Lego pieces! I sponged the edges of each cardstock piece as well as the circles. The circles are popped up to give the card some dimension. While this was quite simple to figure out, it was time consuming to put it all together! I simply added the birthday sentiment "wish big" to complete the card.

This card was CASE'd from Ladybug Designs. 

Thanks again for stopping by! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Short & Sweet

Ink: Basic Black

Paper: Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Gumball Green

Tools: 1/2" Circle punch

KCRR #36 - A Vintage Anniversary Card

I've had a pretty productive week so far! Organizing my craft room has been top on my to-do list lately and I'm close to checking it off as being complete! I hope to share some of the organization tips I used within the next week, so stay tuned! 

Let's introduce a new KCRR challenge!

Strawberry Slush

Vintage Style

Teeny Tiny Wishes Stamp Set

We decided to keep choosing three items (instead of two). I think it's fun and a tad more challenging!

There are two other challenges I wanted to play along with. The first is a card sketch from a new challenge blog that I came across just recently. I absolutely love their card sketches and couldn't wait to play along! Cardabilities, it's called (check them out!). Here's the sketch this week:

And The Card Concept has a theme this week:

I'm going with a 'shabby chic and vintage' style for my card design and using my Stampin Up colour coach, I chose Rich Razzleberry and Crumb Cake to go with Strawberry Slush. I think these colours are fabulous together! 

I layered cardstock to make up the card front and distressed and sponged the edges. Though hard to see, I stamped lines on the Crumb Cake cardstock. Strawberry Slush ruffled ribbon wraps around it. The fabric flowers are one of my favourite embellishments to use and I think they work perfectly in this card design. I sponged each flower with Rich Razzleberry ink and added pearls to embellish them. Here's a closer look:

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to play along with our KCRR challenge! (just post a link to your blog post in the comments below)

Come back tomorrow for a new inspirational photo challenge! 

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Bliss (Sale-A-Bration ret.), Gorgeous Grunge, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Strawberry Slush, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Tools: Circles nestabilities, Little Leaves sizzlit, Distress tool
Accessories: Flower trim, Strawberry Slush ruffled stretch trim

A Birthday Card for a 2-Year Old!

I'm a little behind on this post... but better late than never! A couple months ago, we celebrated our niece, Emma's 2nd birthday. I had the chance to spend some time with this adorable girl a couple weeks ago at West Edmonton Mall. She was full of smiles and cuteness with her pigtails and fashionable outfits. It was hard to say goodbye, but I got one last cuddle in before we went our separate ways. Here's wishing her the best year yet! 

The card I made for her was inspired by one of Karly's cards a while back (click here for the original post). I used the animal stamps from the stamp set "Pun Fun", cut them out and stacked them just like this:

I love the colour combo of Summer Startfruit, Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple - it's perfect for a girl's birthday card! I added rhinestones to embellish the animals and wrapped stitched satin ribbon around the card front.

I added a strip of matching polka dot designer paper on the inside of the card as well. I think I may do this more often. It's a great way to use up scraps of designer paper! (and I've got lots!)

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Pun Fun

Paper: Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, Primrose Petals, Print Poetry DSP

Ink: Basic Gray

Tools: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Circles nestabilites

Accessories: Raspberry Ripple stitched satin ribbon, rhinestones (Michael's)

Valentine's Day Highlights

Hi again! 

Here are a few highlights from my Valentine's Day:

The night before Valentine's, my hubby surprised me with a gorgeous bouquet of red and white flowers!

And the card he gave me also made me smile :)

Inside reads: "And trying not to drool". Hilarious. 

We went out for dinner at a local restaurant called North 54. We started off with the best Ceasar Salad ever (this is the main reason we love going to this restaurant). I had the most delicious raspberry/cranberry/lime martini, along with spaghetti carbonara, which was so filling that I now have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch (yum!). Kevin enjoyed red wine with seafood jambalaya. And we finished it off with a strawberry mousse cake - so good!

And last but not least, a handmade card for Kevin! 

 

This is called the Building Block Card. I followed this simple tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers and love the end result! 

I'm playing along with a theme challenge at The Pink Elephant:

Happy Valentine's Day

I also used the picture inspiration from Stampin Royalty's challenge this week to come up with the colour combo in my card.

Stampin Royalty Challenge #214

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the weekend!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Love You Much (ret.)
Paper: Basic Gray, Primrose Petals, Pool Party, More Amore Specialty DSP, 2012-2013 In-Colour DSP
Ink: Basic Gray
Tools: Circles Nestabilities, Large Oval punch, Owl Builder punch, Heart to Heart punch, Diagonal Strips embossing folder
Accessories: White foam letter stickers (Michael's), Pearls (Michael's)

Inspired By... a Vintage Teacup

Happy Friday and Happy Valentine's Day!

For this week's inspirational photo challenge, I browsed Pinterest (one of my favourite places to look for inspiration) and found the perfect photo!

 

IB #35

 

I thought this was something quite unique. I like the vintage feel to this photo and decided to incorporate that into my card design. I also pulled some of the colours from the photo, including Pistachio Pudding, Sahara Sand, Raspberry Ripple and Crisp Cantaloupe.

Deconstructed Sketch had another great sketch this past week and so I decided to play along with their challenge as well.

Here's how it all came together:

 

A card with lots of layers! I love how the colours combined so well together! The swirls on the designer paper really add to the vintage style in this card. The tea cup from Tea Shoppe stamp set is probably one of my favourite stamps. It can be used for so many different occasions! One of the things I love to do with this image is to pop up the flowers on the tea cup to add some dimension. I also added pearls to embellish them. I decided to not put a sentiment on this card, so that it can be used for any occasion.

 

 



Thanks for stopping by! Hope you all enjoy this Valentine's Day. Tonight is date night with my hubby :) I will share the special card I made for him tonight!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Tea Shoppe
Paper: Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla Raspberry Ripple, Print Poetry DSP
Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Crisp Cantaloupe
Tools: Distress tool, Circles nestabilities, Bird Builder punch
Accessories: Pearls (Michael's)

KCRR & Mojo Monday: A Father's Day Card

Before I jump into our new KCRR challenge this week, I must share an honourable mention I received for one of my cards last week!

Last week I played along with the Muse Challenge (click here for the original post)...

Moving on to KCRR...

Mocha Morning DSP

Baked Brown Sugar

Needle Point Embossing Folder

The random picks lately seem to work so well together! And this is no exception. One of the new in-colours, Baked Brown Sugar, matches quite well with the retired Mocha Morning designer paper. And it's simple enough to add the texture with the needle point embossing folder! I followed a sketch by Mojo Monday and decided to make a masculine card. With Father's Day down the road (ok, maybe quite a ways down the road), why not start early?

Mocha Morning DSP may not be my favourite, but some of the designs work quite well for a masculine greeting card.

 

 

 

This is probably one of the most clean and simple cards I've made! I really like how it turned out!

 

Make sure to hop on over to Karly's Creations to see how she used these three elements in her card, and come back tomorrow for a new inspirational photo challenge!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 



Card Ingredients:
Stamps: All Holidays (ret.)
Ink: Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Paper: Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Baked Brown Sugar, Very Vanilla, Mocha Morning DSP
Tools: Tags Die, Needlepoint Embossing Folder, Circles Nestabilities, Cupcake Builder Punch