Wish Big: a Birthday Card for Elise

I can't believe it's been over a week since I've written a blog post! So sorry to all my followers. I think my blog posts are going to be quite sporadic for a little while until I get a little caught up and into a routine again. With the beautiful weather we've been having lately, I've been spending lots of my free time outdoors. It seems we are currently in a heat wave and I'm loving it! Better take advantage before fall/winter hits! I've also been working on building up my stock for the upcoming craft fairs, creating duplicates of my favourite designs. I haven't had much time to take part in card challenges and design new cards - I miss it and hope to get back into that again soon! In the meantime, I've been creating cards for family birthdays...

Today we celebrate our niece's 1st birthday! I was fortunate to meet Elise last Christmas and look forward to seeing her again next weekend when we meet up with their family to go camping. She is the youngest of 7 (big family!) and an adorable little girl.

I used the Freshly Made Sketches challenge last week as the base of my card design.

I chose a monochromatic colour combo (Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant), polka dot designer paper, and a butterfly stamp and here's how the card came together:

 

A perfect card for a little girl! To match the polka-dotted designer paper, I embossed the Wisteria Wonder cardstock behind the butterfly with polka dots. The butterfly is popped up to give the card some dimension. The card is embellished with ruffled ribbon.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Bugs and Hugs (CTMH), Short & Sweet

Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Specialty Sweet Shop

Ink: Elegant Eggplant

Tools: Polka Dots Embossing Folder

Accessories: Wisteria Wonder Ruffled Ribbon

IB #23 {Cute as a Bug}

After a long week of being stuck in the office while the sun is shining and temps are hot, it'll be nice to spend some time outside this weekend! Looking forward to an afternoon at the beach, lounging in the backyard, and long walks with my hubby and Keta. Best to take advantage of the hot weather while it's here!

Today's "Inspired By..." challenge introduces a beautiful nature photo that Karly took. Gorgeous purple flowers with a cute little lady bug!

 

I thought of the grasses stamp in the "Inspired By Nature" stamp set. I love the purple flowers in this picture so I picked Perfect Plum and paired it with Old Olive and Crumb Cake. To help me with my design, I turned to Freshly Made Sketches. They have a great sketch this week!

 

The little ladybug was stamped, cut out and popped up. I love the pop of red in this card! I stamped the sentiment in Real Red as well, to make it stand out. The edges of each piece of cardstock and DSP are sponged with ink to soften the look. A button is added to embellish the card.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to visit Karly's Creations to see how this photo inspired her!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Inspired By Nature, Bugs & Hugs (CTMH), sentiment - unknown

Paper: Crumb Cake, Perfect Plum, Old Olive, Whisper White, Subtles DSP

Accessories: Old Olive button, Green bakers twine

Sweet as Honey

We are over the midweek hump... that much closer to the weekend! It's been a busy week so far. I'm completing a lot of unfinished tasks at work - feels great to cross things off the list!
Last night I cooked a delicious dinner of salmon, garlic quinoa with parmesan, and veggies. The salmon was baked in soy sauce, a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper, and lemon juice. It was not bad.. a little bland. I think next time I'll try a tastier marinade. The quinoa was delicious though! For the recipe, click here. It has to be my favourite quinoa recipe so far!

For today's card, I played along with a colour combo from Dynamic Duos and a fabulous sketch from Paper Players.

 

When I saw the Dynamic Duos colour combos this week, I thought of honeybees! I recently bought a stamp set from Close to My Heart called "Honeycomb" - I love it! I used hexagons in place of the squares in the sketch and added the sentiment "sweet as honey". A strip of black striped designer paper is punched with the scalloped border. I added So Saffron grosgrain ribbon for the 'dessert option'. To complete the card, I stamped a bee from the "Bugs and Hugs" stamp set, fussy cut it, and popped it up using dimensionals.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking! Make sure to stop by tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Bugs and Hugs (CTMH), Honeycomb (CTMH)

Paper: Whisper White, Neutrals DSP

Ink: So Saffron, Staz-on Black

Tools: Scallop Border punch

Accessories: So Saffron grosgrain ribbon (ret.)

 



Cute As a Bug!

What a beautiful Sunday it was! In the afternoon, Karly and I took our dogs for a walk. The sun was shining, we had a good chat and the dogs enjoyed a good run! Afterward, we played a couple games of cribbage. The rest of my day consisted of catching up on Grey's and papercrafting.

For today's card I played along with three card challenges: Dynamic Duos, Sweet Sunday Sketch, and Heart 2 Heart Challenges.

This colour combo is great for Spring, and it fits perfectly with the theme from H2H -- Spring Forward! This sketch is also a good one this week - I just love the layout!

This is the first time I'm participating in the Heart 2 Heart challenge, as well as the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge. I discovered Sweet Sunday Sketch blog a little while ago and just love the sketches! I came across the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog just yesterday and while I just started my Close to My Heart products collection, I hope to play along with more challenges in the future! 



While I was crafting last night, I wanted to try out one of the new stamp sets that I got from Close to My Heart. The one I used for this card is called "Bugs and Hugs" (even the name is cute!) I thought it would be perfect for a Spring card! Garden Green is generally not a colour I tend to turn to, but I happen to have the ink and designer paper for this colour - fancy that!  Here's what I came up with:

 

 

Everything came together so nicely in this card! As you can see, I spent time fussy-cutting the grass and the bees. This has to be one of my favourite 'techniques'. I love how fussy cutting adds more detail to a card. I added polka dot designer paper from Stampin Up's Brights and Regals DSP collections for the background and striped DSP for the 'flagged' pieces. The bees and sentiment are popped up to give it some dimension. I added a button with linen thread to embellish the card.

 

 

 

 

Doesn't this make an adorable Spring card?!

 

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment :)

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Bugs & Hugs (CTMH)

Paper: Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Garden Green, Brights DSP, Regals DSP

Ink: Garden Green, Basic Black, YoYo Yellow marker

Tools: Circles Nestabilities, Scallop Circles Nestabilities, 1" square punch

Accessories: Daffodil Delight button, Linen Thread