Viva La Verve: Welcome Baby

It's been a long time since I've participated in online card challenges! Today I'm linking up with Viva La Verve and their July Week 2 sketch (click here to see the post). I love layered sketches, so this one caught my eye!

 

I looked through a couple of colour challenges this week for inspiration and loved the colour combo from Colour Throwdown (minus the lime-y green). So, while I can't participate in this colour challenge because I didn't use all the colours, I still loved 3 out of 4 of the colours and decided to use them for my card -- Basic Grey, Smokey Slate, and Bermuda Bay. These colours could be use for any occasion. For me, 'baby' came to mind! My daughter's nursery has similar colours - light grey and teal/aqua. Here's a couple pictures of the card:

 

 

I love how it turned out!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Celebrate Baby (SU)

Paper: Bermuda Bay, Basic Grey, Smokey Slate, Whisper White, I Am Me DSP

Ink: Smokey Slate, Bermuda Bay

Tools: Decorative Dots embossing folder, Circles nestabilities

Accessories: Basic Grey satin ribbon, Bakers Twine (CTMH)

A Pokemon-Themed Card-in-a-Box

This past week I had a request to make a Pokemon-themed anniversary card. I am not familiar with Pokémon at all, but I thought I would take on the challenge. The recipient wanted the characters Charmander and Vulpix on the card. So I went right to google and found clipart of these characters:

Easy enough, I think! I simply drew these characters on cardstock and pieced them together from scratch. I then made a card-in-a-box base, added designer paper to each panel and added these characters to the inside panels. Here's how it turned out:

 

 

A close-up of the characters:

 

 

Card Ingredients:

Paper used for the card base: Smokey Slate, Island Indigo, Summer Smooches DSP

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Memorable Moments

Punches: Modern Label, Word Window, 1-3/8" Circle, Heart to Heart

 



 





A 50th Birthday Card for a Doctor

I often have requests to make customized greeting cards. This time I was asked to make a 50th birthday card for Kevin's aunt. I was given the following specifics to incorporate into the card:

- something medical (as she is a doctor)
- her favourite flower - hydrangeas
- her favourite colour - purple

I always love being presented with challenges - it gets my creative juices flowing!

How am I going to incorporate all 3 items into one card? Well, the first thing I usually do is grab my sketchbook and start brainstorming by sketching some design ideas. As I'm doing this, I google medical related clipart for inspiration.

Here's the sketch of my final design:

A little bit of everything in one card :)

And here's how it came together:

The stethoscope, syringe and doctor bag were all made from scratch using pieces of cardstock. The medical symbol on the doctor bag is a punched out symbol from the Stampin Up Itty Bitty Punch Pack. The same punch was used to create the hydrangea flower. I used the stamp set "Memorable Moments" for the sentiment, popping up the "50th" to give the card some dimension. For some added elegance, I embossed the white background with the "Elegant Lines" embossing folder. 

Feeling Scrappy

This past week I've been focusing on scrapbooking. It's good to get back into it again! I'm currently working on a scrapbook of my daughter's 1st year. My goal is to have this completed by her 1st birthday. I'm doing traditional scrapbooking, which can take some time to put together, but I really enjoy it! I use any bits and pieces of cardstock, designer paper and punched images, as well as memorabilia that I've collected to create beautiful pages. I always love looking back at the scrapbooks I've made. One day I may consider switching to digital scrapbooking or maybe the new Project Life form of scrapbooking, but for now I'll stick to the traditional kind :)

Here are a few of my favourite pages that I've completed over the past week:

 

So crazy to look back at how small my little girl was and how far she's come! I will cherish these memories forever :) 

A New Wall Banner for a New Season

Apart from greeting cards and scrapbooking, I also like to occasionally make some crafty things as home décor. Last fall, my intention was to make a wall banner for each season. I started off well and made one for the Autumn season...

But then life got busy and I skipped Winter and Spring.... My husband made a comment like 'soon we'll reach Fall anyway and you'll be up-to-date'. Well that made me think, OK it's time to change that banner! It will be almost a year since it's been up! Crazy how fast time flies!

Anyway... I made sure that was one of my goals this week, and it took a lot shorter than I thought to make one! Here's my new Summer banner:

 

This hangs in our dining room. I love how it brightens up the room!

 

 

I used Scallop Square framelits/nestabilities and added layers of cardstock and designer paper to each scallop square. I used Stampin Up's photopolymer stamp set entitled "Larger Than Life Alphabet & Numbers" for the letters. They are stamped, cut out and popped up to give the banner some dimension. A small flower with a rhinestone in the centre is added to 3 of the squares to embellish them. The squares are attached to burlap ribbon to make the banner.

Father's Day Weekend Recap

Last weekend was a busy one! Saturday I spent the day with two of my nieces. We had a great time together! I know these two girls (ages 3 and 7) love to craft. Each time they come over, they head straight to my craft room wanting to draw, write messages to friends, stamp, and glue paper cut-outs to create their own piece of art. So, since I had them for the day, I wanted to organize a crafting 'workshop' for them. Father's Day was the next day, so I thought it would be perfect for them to make their own cards for their Dad. I created a couple samples for them to follow:

Simple with lots of white space for them to add to it. They loved it! It was so fun to watch them think of how they wanted to decorate their cards, making it their own. I find crafting brings out creativity in most people, especially kids.

I also gave them a couple more blank cards for them to decorate for any occasion. Here they are showing off their completed cards:

Father's Day was a special day this year, as we celebrated my husband's first year being a father! Kevin is a wonderful father to our little girl. He loves her so much! I had Raya make him her first card...

It was quite the challenge to try and get her hand prints... as you can see on the card front, I was unsuccessful, but it still looks like a piece of art, right? :)
Tracing her hand and foot was a little easier.
My hubby loved this card!

I decided to make a card with a gardening theme. Kevin has been working on our gardens quite a bit over the past couple months and is doing such a great job! Not only did he plant trees, bushes and flowers, he also made a vegetable garden with its own irrigation system - very impressive!

In fact, we harvested our first vegetable - radishes - a couple weeks ago. So fun to watch everything grow from seeds!

Having said that, here's the card I made for Kevin:

I was inspired by this card and decided to CASE it, however making it somewhat my own by adding woodchips in the wheelbarrow and a spade shovel on the side. Both the wheelbarrow and shovel were made from scratch using pieces of cardstock.

And finally, I made a Father's Day card for my dad and father-in-law, using the "Building Blocks" card fold.

For this card I used the tie stamp from the "Something for Baby" Stampin Up stamp set. I thought it was perfect for my Dad as he loves to wear a shirt and tie every now and again.

We refer to my father-in-law as "Pop". He celebrated a birthday also this past week so I added a 2nd sentiment on this card :)

Building Blocks Card Fold Instructions:

To make this card fold, simply start with a piece of cardstock measuring 5.5" x 10.5". Score on the long side at 3.5" and 7". Fold to create one mountain fold and one valley fold.
To create the blocks, cut 1.5" in from the valley fold at the following measurements:
3/8", 1-5/8", 2-1/8", 3-3/8", 3-7/8" and 5-1/8".
Decorate each panel as you like!

A Year to Remember

It has been almost a year since my last post - wow! A lot has happened... saying goodbye to what has been our home in B.C. for 3.5 years, moving across Canada, buying our first home, having a baby prematurely, adjusting to motherhood... that about sums it up! These photos say it all:

Saying goodbye to Prince George, B.C.

Farewell at work

One of the last beautiful views of B.C. that we will see in a while - miss these mountains and aqua blue lakes!

A gorgeous sunset in Tobermory - one of the many stops we made along the way to Ontario

Moving into our new home!

Proud homeowners

Our little miracle, Raya Jacoba, born 6.5 weeks early

Enjoying life as a mother to this happy and healthy little girl

It's been a year to remember. A lot of ups, downs, and everything in between! But life is good and I'm enjoying the moments I have at home with my little girl, though it may be challenging at times.

Now that I've kind of gotten into somewhat of a routine, I thought it was about time I return to blogging! My goal is to post at least once or twice a week, sharing with you my latest crafty cards/projects. While I am no longer a Stampin Up demonstrator/hobbyist, I still love to craft and do so almost at every spare moment I get.

With Father's Day coming up, I'm currently working on cards for my Dad, Father-in-law, and of course, my hubby! I look forward to sharing these with you next week!