Stacked Animals

Welcome to my second post of the day! I wanted to play along with Monday Muse before their challenge closes tomorrow. I love the inspirational card this week made by Therese Calvird!

How cute is that?! I drew inspiration from the stacked animals and pulled out my Fox & Friends stamp set. I made my card bright and colourful using the colour combo from Color Throwdown and used an older Freshly Made sketch as a guide.

I think these colours are perfect for a kid's birthday card! Here's what I came up with:

Isn't it fun? Curious where the little bird stamp came from? It's from the adorable stamp set called "Moving Forward". I thought it was the perfect touch to finish off the stack of animals. I love this colour combo! The patterned designer paper adds to the funness (if that's a word!) of this card. I embellished the card with Old Olive satin ribbon and small rhinestones on the ends of the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by! I plan on taking a break from my blog for the rest of the weekend, so stay tuned for a new post on Tuesday!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Fox & Friends, Moving Forward, Short & Sweet
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White, Brights DSP, Polka Dot Parade DSP
Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive
Tools: Word Window punch
Accessories: Old Olive satin ribbon, rhinestones (Michael's)

Happy Birthday to Sweet Zu-Zu!

Even though I am quite tired, today is going to be a good day. I have a fresh new haircut, it's nearing the end of the work week, and I get to see my hubby! It's been a long week and I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

Today is also a very special day! It's my adorable neice, Zulea's 3rd birthday! My brother & sister-in-law adopted Zulea from Uganda in June 2010. She is a funny, out-going, adorable little girl and I'm so proud to be her aunt! I wish I could be there to give her the biggest hug and kiss! Here's a few pictures of sweet Zu-Zu:

 

For Zulea's birthday, I made her a 6" x 6" mini accordion album and filled it with pictures of her and her Auntie Charissa and Uncle Kevin... something for her to remember us by while she lives so far away. Here's what it looks like:

 

 

To make the base of this album, you need 3 pieces of 6" x 12" cardstock, score them each at 6" and simply glue together, remembering to not put glue at the top of the album in order to create pockets. And then decorate! This is the fun part. The letters on the front were cut using my cricut machine. I then added designer paper, stamped images and embellishments. The pictures filled most of the album. I created a diagonal pocket on the last panel and slid a tag in the pocket with a written message on it. It folds like an accordion to a 6" x 6" square. I love these albums - so simple to make and fun to display!

 

Thanks for visiting! Make sure to stop by for tomorrow's new KCRR challenge!

Dynamic Duos {Wish Big}

My "Monday" carried over into Tuesday morning when I went to take a shower and discovered there was no hot water. Showers are what wake me up in the mornings, so I braved the freezing cold water and while it wasn't pleasant, it certainly did wake me up! Not a great way to start my morning though! I can tell this is going to be a long week... Tuesday was a long work day, but I made the most of my evening. I came home to a new issue of Papercrafts Magazine in my mailbox! I got the subscription to this magazine as a Christmas present from my Dad - what a great gift!

There are lots of inspiring ideas in this issue! It's all about baby cards and weddings - a perfect Spring issue! I will definitely be using some of the layouts and tips in my upcoming card creations.
To complete my evening I created a couple cards, watched some tv and made a delicious apple crisp, which made the apartment smell so good!

For today's card I played along with the Dynamic Duos colour challenge:

I went all in for this challenge and decided to incorporate the dessert option into my card as well. I don't have any cloud stamps, so I turned to using punches. Here's what I came up with:

It's a very simple card, but so adorable (in my opinion!) I used Basic Black for the card base. The card front represents sky. I used the cupcake builder punch to create the clouds. They are lightly sponged with Tempting Turquoise ink. A hot air balloon is created using a circle punch for the balloon and the cupcake builder punch for the basket.  The balloon is 3D - it pops out of the card, but folds flat so it can go into an envelope (cool technique!). I stamped and cut out the cute little monkey and stuck him in the basket. The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black, but unfortunately, my Basic Black ink is running dry, so it didn't quite stamp as solid as I would have liked. I actually like the faded look, however. I outlined the edges of the word "big" with black marker and I think it works!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Word Play, Fox & Friends (ret.)

Paper: Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise marker

Tools: 1-3/4" circle punch, Cupcake Builder punch

Accessories: Early Espresso Bakers Twine