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.

Belated Anniversary Wishes

It's been a while since my last post! It was a relaxing, yet busy long weekend with family visiting from Alberta. I've also been taking a bit of a break from blogging/cardmaking, trying to finish a scrapbook album I've been working on of my hubby's training/career history. But now that I'm a bit caught up and have some free time on my hands, I'll be slowly getting back into making cards, entering challenges and sharing my creations.

Last week, my parents celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary! I made a special card using the easel fold and here's how it turned out:

I stamped the flowery image on Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock, fussy-cut some of the flowers and popped them up on the card, adding pearls in the center of each of them:

I followed these simple instructions found on YouTube to make this card. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Apothecary Art, Memorable Moments

Paper: Basic Gray, Whisper White, Basic Black, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe

Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Calypso Coral, Staz-On Black

Tools: Label Framelits, Square Lattice embossing folder

Accessories: Crisp Cantaloupe button, pearls (Michael's)

Sweet Sorbet Birthday Card

One of my favourite Stampin Up designer series paper this Spring is the Sweet Sorbet collection. I love the patterns and the bright colours. I decided to make it the central focus on the card I'm going to share with you today. As always, Cardabilities has a fabulous sketch this week and I'm entering this card just in the knick of time. 

Not only did I use the designer paper for the card front, I also die cut flowers from the DSP as well, and I love the way it turned out! All it needed was a simple birthday sentiment against the busy background and pearls to embellish the flowers. 

Finish it off with a matching envelope and voila! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Crisp Cantaloupe, Sahara Sand, Pool Party, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet DSP

Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pool Party

Tools: Floral Fusion sizzlit die, Little Leaves sizzlit die, Itty Bitty punch

Accessories: Pearls (Michael's)

Inspired By... Multicolour Seashells!

Today we introduce a new inspirational photo challenge!

IB #42

It was Karly's pick this week and she chose a summery photo from David's Tea. I love the multicolour seashells on this bubble teapot and teacups! I decided to use these colours, as well as an ocean/beachy theme to create a spring/summer birthday card! 

I was inspired by the latest Viva la Verve sketch challenge:

This layout is somewhat similar to the card I shared with you on yesterday's post, but with just a few more layers. I started with a Sahara Sand card base and added layers of embossed cardstock, designer paper, and stamped images. "By the Tide" stamp set is one of my favourites, as I love the beach, and I thought it was a great representation of the inspirational photo. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Just a note... we will be taking a break from the KCRR and "Inspired By..." challenges for the next couple weeks. :) 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: By the Tide, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Sahara Sand, Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, 2013-2015 In-Colour DSP

Ink: Sahara Sand, Tangerine Tango, Coastal Cabana

Tools: Fancy Fan embossing folder, Distress tool

Accessories: Pearls (Michael's)

Inspired By...Gorgeous Art Prints

So far, all winter I've prevented myself from getting sick...however, on the first day of Spring I feel a cold coming on! I guess it's inevitable with the season change! With that said, I really hope it doesn't last too long... I've heard about the Organic Cold 911 tea from David's Tea and this is the perfect time to try it. With a soothing mix of peppermint, juniper berries, orange peel and natural eucalyptus oils, it has already given me emergency relief! Oh how I love David's Tea! 

For today's "Inspired By...", Karly chose a beautiful photo of art prints.

This comes from a fabulous shop on Etsy - 7 Wonders Design - check it out!

I used a simple sketch from Fusion Card Challenge and played along with a clean & simple theme at The Paper Players. 

Combine all three challenges and this is what I came up with:

This is a 4" x 4" card. I really like it! Petal Parade has probably become one of my favourite go-to stamp sets lately for flowers. They are just so Spring-y! (if that's a word :)) And the blossom in the inspirational photo that Karly chose above reminded me of the blossom in this stamp set! The stamp is actually only half this flower, so I stamped two of them to make it a complete flower (of course, using the handy-dandy Stamp-a-ma-jig!). The arrow image and the sentiment are popped up to give the card some dimension. I love how the ruffled ribbon adds that perfect embellishment. Also, as you can see, the card front itself is embossed with the new Arrows embossing folder from Stampin Up. Love how it coordinates with the arrow stamp! 

A matching envelope finishes it off.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Petal Parade, Short & Sweet

Paper: Smokey Slate, Pool Party, Whisper White

Ink: Smokey Slate, Pool Party, Crisp Cantaloupe

Tools: Arrows embossing folder

Accessories: Crisp Cantaloupe ruffled stretch trim, Rhinestone (Michael's)

100% Perfect Precious Baby

Recently, a friend of mine had a beautiful baby girl named Madelyn Joy. This special occasion called for a custom-made "Congratulations" greeting card! 

I decided to make the card a different size than usual. The card measures 7" x 3.5" and the envelope punch board made it easy to create the perfect-sized envelope for this card. I used the "That's the Ticket" stamp set for the first time on this card and personalized it by adding the baby's name to one of the ticket stamps. The adorable toucan, itty bitty flowers, and rhinestones add the perfect touch to this card!

I got to hold sweet Madelyn today and am so happy for her family! What a wonderful blessing from God! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Zoo Babies, That's the Ticket

Paper: Smokey Slate, Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Crisp Cantaloupe, 2013-2014 In-Colour DSP, 2010-2012 In-Colour DSP

Ink: Smokey Slate, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe

Tools: 1-3/8" Circle punch, Large Scallop punch, Circle nestabilities, Scallop Circle nestabilities, Ticket Duo Builder punch, Itty Bitty punch pack

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... 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 meets Deconstructed Sketch - A Patterned Occasions Baby Card

A 2nd post of the day, a little unusual... but I just had to participate in this week's Deconstructed Sketch challenge! I decided to combine it with our KCRR challenge (posting this a day early :)).

Elements to use this week:

Patterned Occasions Stamp Set

Pistachio Pudding

Ruffled Stretch Trim

Combine it with this fabulous sketch:

And this is the end result:

When we randomly chose Patterned Occasions as one of the elements, I tend to lean to... a baby card! The little elephant in this stamp set is so cute! I wanted to make use of the other stamps, however when Pistachio Pudding is one of the colour elements, it just seemed like the perfect pastel colour for a baby card. And so I went with it... I chose Smokey Slate for the card base and added in Crisp Cantaloupe and Calypso Coral. I finally got to make use of the new In-Colour Boutique Details!

And finish it off with a matching envelope...





Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Patterned Occasions, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: 2013-2015 In-Colour DSP paper stack, Smokey Slate, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White
Ink: Smokey Slate, Calypso Coral
Tools: 1-3/8" Circle punch, Large Scallop Circle punch, Word Window punch
Accessories: Pistachio Pudding Ruffled Stretch Trim, 2013-2015 In-Colour Boutique Details, Rhinestones (Michael's)

Inspired By... A Summer Garden

Happy Friday!

How 'bout a "High Five for Friday"??

Here are some highlights from this week:

1) My hubby and I enjoyed the most delicious elk roast dinner on Tuesday night. It was so nice to relax with a glass of red wine after a long day! Love random date nights during the week!

2) I had a great Zumba workout on Wednesday night. We just started a new session last week and this week I felt like I was really gettin' a hang of the new routine! We end each class with one of my favourite songs lately: "Say Something" by A Great Big World.

3) Found this beautiful quote the other day. It is a wonderful reminder to be patient, trust in God's plan, and praise Him always.

 
4) My newest niece, Amara, has been in the hospital for the past week due to distressed breathing. She has been showing signs of improvement and finally went home last night!

5) I found a brilliant idea for menu planning on Pinterest! Click on this link for printables. Simply print out a menu plan template, laminate it (or put it in a picture frame) and use dry-erase markers to create your own menu for the week! What a great idea!

Now onto the Inspirational Photo challenge!

This week was Karly's pick and she chose a picture of a summer vegetable garden:

All this greenery makes me long for spring! At first glance, I wasn't sure how I would use this photo as inspiration for my card design... however, I went through my stamp sets and found a few that would work out quite well with the garden theme!

I love how this card came together. I first chose the colour combo: Chocolate Chip, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Very Vanilla. I popped up the stamped images to give the card some dimension and added butterflies embellished with small pearls. My favourite part is the ruffled ribbon underneath the sentiment. It adds the perfect embellishment to the soft, pastel card!

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting! Hop on over to Karly's Creations to see how she was inspired by this photo!

 

Come back tomorrow for a post on a Harry Potter punch art card that I made for my nephew's birthday this past week! 

 



Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Simply Sketched, Wetlands, Inspired By Nature
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Very Vanilla
Ink: Pistachio Pudding, Chocolate Chip, Crisp Cantaloupe
Tools: Beautiful Wings embosslits die, blender pens
Accessories: Crisp Cantaloupe ruffle stretch trim, pearls (Michael's)