KCRR #23 & RetroSketches #72

I'm excited to share today's card with you! It's one of my favourites! I used 3 elements from our new KCRR challenge and a fabulous sketch from Retro Sketches!

Markers

Mixed Bunch Stamp Set

Regal Rose

 

 

 

This is my kind of sketch! It gives an opportunity to use lots of embellishments. I used a combination of Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Early Espresso and Whisper White and here's how it turned out:

 

 

I find it quite challenging to use markers on my cards, but it worked out quite well with this design! I used Early Espresso and Regal Rose markers on the stamp from Flowering Flourishes, as well as the sentiment. The butterfly was created using one of the flower stamps from Mixed Bunch. I used the Rock 'n Roll technique and simply cut out two of the petals. Pearls and linen thread are added to embellish it.

 

 

What do you think?

 

Make sure to drop by Karly's Creations to see what she's created with these 3 elements.

Join us tomorrow with a new "Inspired By..." challenge!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Petite Pairs, Flowering Flourishes

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Regal Rose, Whisper White

Ink: Early Espresso, Regal Rose

Tools: Blossom Punch, Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Apothecary Accents framelits

Accessories: Pearls (Michaels), Linen Thread, Regal Rose 1/4" taffeta ribbon, Early Espresso 1/4" taffeta ribbon, Blushing Bride buttons





Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a great weekend so far! Last night especially was a highlight. I enjoyed a great date night with my hubby. We went to see Iron Man 3 -- it was awesome! Such a great end to the series... or is it the end?? We then finished with an evening stroll around the neighbourhood. Love how peaceful it is at night!

Today, I think of my wonderful Mom on Mother's Day. She is such a blessing in my life! I miss her so so much! Wish I could be back home celebrating this day with her. Love you, Mom!

 

 

Also, a very Happy Mother's Day to my Mother-in-law! She has also been such a blessing in our lives!

 

This year I made a fun-folded card for both my Mom and Mother-in-law. It's called the Z-fold. Super easy to make, but takes some time to decorate. I just LOVE this fold! I used monochromatic colours for both cards and added designer paper, stamped flowers, leaves, and rhinestones to embellish them. Here are a few pictures:

 

I thought I would enter one of these cards in the Pink Elephant challenge. They have a Mother's Day Theme challenge this week.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog today :)  Wishing all the Mom's out there a wonderful day!

FM100 {Z-Fold Mother's Day Card}

This week is slowly coming to an end. Looking forward to seeing my hubby tomorrow!
All day yesterday, the weatherman was calling for a big dump of snow in PG. Well, it came true. Woke up to a winter wonderland this morning. Ugh. I wish winter would come to an end! Summers are so short here! I really miss the weather in Ontario. Their winters aren't so harsh, the springtime is nice and mild and the summers last longer than 2 months! But, I shouldn't complain... BC is a beautiful province to live in!

While my productivity at work seems to be decreasing as the week goes on, I seem to get quite a bit done in the evenings! Last night, I decided to work on filing our tax return. This is my first year doing our own taxes and I found it so easy! (I used U-File online) While I couldn't quite complete it (because I'm missing one receipt), I got everything else entered in. It feels good to get that almost completed!

Today's card was inspired by Friday Mashup's 100th Challenge!

 

Well..I may have missed the close date/time :( But, I decided to post my card anyway :) I think the biggest challenge was trying to pick one from the long list of challenges! I had a few in mind, but narrowed it down to one - FM#53. The challenge is to make a project with a "special fold", or make a project using the Tic Tac Toe board, or mash it up and do both! I decided to mash it up!

 

I love this challenge! It's so versatile - each card entry could be very different from one to the next. I love the options of the tic tac toe board, and special folded cards are so fun to make! I think this may be one challenge I would turn to multiple times for inspiration.

For the tic tac toe options, I chose flowers, ribbons, and neutrals. The "special fold" I used is the "Z-Fold".

It took me a while to figure out the correct measurements for this fold. I did a lot of pinterest searching and finally combined a couple tutorials to make my own. It's actually quite easy!

Take any colour 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock. I used Basic Gray (as my neutral). This will be your card base. Measure 2" up from the bottom right corner and 2" down from the top left corner. Cut from point to point diagonally, like so:

This will create 2 card bases (you will only need one). Score at 3-7/8" and 7-3/4" to create the 'z-folds'. Here's a couple pictures to illustrate:

Then it's the fun part - decorating! The options are endless for this type of card! I decided to make a Mother's Day card and covered it with designer paper, flowers, and leaves. Here's how it turned out:

 

I just love it! I don't normally use purples, but I'm glad I did for this card. The colour combo of Wisteria Wonder with Basic Gray and Whisper White is just lovely! I added some elegance to the card with the stamped flowers from the Mixed Bunch stamp set and for a little detail, I added a scallop trim border on the top of each fold. 'Bling' is added to each of the flowers and Basic Gray satin ribbon completes the card.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to visit tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Mixed Bunch

Paper: Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder, Basic Gray, Whisper White

Ink: Elegant Eggplant

Tools: Labels framelits, Blossom punch, Boho Blossom punch, Little Leaves sizzlit, 1/4" circle punch

Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's), Basic Gray satin ribbon (ret.)



Birthday Wishes for a Special Sister-in-Law!

Yesterday was a fairly good Monday. The work day went by fairly quickly... however, we got another dump of snow! About a foot of snow fell and it was a winter wonderland in PG by the end of the day! While it did look quite pretty, I was kind of disappointed... What happened to the early spring they predicted?? Here are a couple photos I took of what is hopefully the last big snowfall before spring:




 


Despite the disappointing snowfall, I came home to a few goodies in the mail! First and foremost, I received my prize from Verve Stamps for the card that was chosen as a winner at Mojo Monday. To see the original post for this card, click here. I got to choose a stamp set of my choice from Verve Stamps and this is what I chose:

 

It is such an adorable stamp set and I can't wait to use it! It will make some cute baby cards!

Another wonderful surprise was a card from my Mom. She is so sweet and I love getting things from her in the mail! It makes me smile and miss her all the more!

 

And finally, I received the new Stampin' Success magazine! I love getting this magazine in the mail. It has many great ideas of how to use Stampin Up's products in unique ways. I often see quite a few things that catch my eye and inspire me to try a new layout or technique.

 

 

Today, I think of my dear sister-in-law, Angie. It's her birthday today! Unfortunately, she is so far away, living in Uganda, Africa, and I wish I could be there to celebrate with her! The closest I could get was a phone call on Saturday morning :) It was great to catch up with her! I miss her so much! She is such a sweet, caring, supportive sister and a wonderful mother to 5 darling kids. I hope she has the best day and that God blesses her with a wonderful year ahead. Love you, Angie!

I sent her a little package in the mail to let her know I'm thinking of her. I filled an envelope with a few goodies and this fun-folded greeting card!

 

This is a cascade card fold. It's created with an 8.5"x11" piece of Old Olive cardstock. I've made cascading cards before in a larger size, but I love this size, just for the fact that I can stick it in a regular A2-size envelope! I decorated it with designer paper from the Twitterpated collection and stamped flowers in Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo and Pool Party. I added leaves that were cut from the Little Leaves sizzlit and embellished a few of the flowers with rhinestones. The sentiment is stamped in Elegant Eggplant and punched out using the Curly Label punch. Here is a side view of the card:

 



I left a spot on the back of the card to write my card message. I just love this card fold! It's so unique and can be decorated in so many different ways! I hope to make more of them and do a picture tutorial with instructions in a future post. Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow to see my take on the Mojo Monday sketch this week!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Elementary Elegance (ret.), Mixed Bunch
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White, Twitterpated DSP
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo, Pool Party
Tools: Blossom punch, 1" Circle punch, 1/4" Circle punch, Little Leaves sizzlit
Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's)

FMS #72 {Negative Space Technique}

Today's card is inspired by the new Freshly Made Sketch challenge this week. It is a very clean and simple sketch and there is so much that can be done with it. I had a few ideas, but finally narrowed it down to one. Here is the sketch:

I wanted to try a new technique and this sketch was perfect for it! The technique is using negative space. This is very simple and looks really neat in the end! I used the blossom punch to create a window on the edge of the paper. I covered the card front with polka dot Rich Razzleberry designer paper, which can only be seen through the negative space from the blossom punch. I used a bright-coloured designer paper from the Sycamore Street collection and paired it with Pool Party and Rich Razzleberry cardstock.

 

For the center of the flower, I popped up a stamped image from the Mixed Bunch stamp set (one of my favourites!) and added a rhinestone to embellish it. I love the simplicity of this card. I think the designer paper really makes the card - the colours are so vibrant and really stand out.  

 

 

I think I'm going to try this negative space techqnique in a few different ways. I am a big paper scrap saver and I often save the scraps from punching out shapes. They would work great for this technique!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)

Paper: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Rich Razzleberry, Sycamore Street DSP

Ink: Rich Razzleberry

Tools: Blossom punch, 1" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch

Accessories: Rhinestone (Michael's)

 

Thanks for visiting!

Birthday Flowers

Yesterday was a nice relaxing Saturday. Slept in, hung out in my PJs till about 1PM and crossed some things off my to-do list :) I spent the evening papercrafting and watching TV. Definition of a perfect Saturday in my mind :)

I combined two challenges for my card today: a great sketch from Retro Sketches and a birthday theme from Friday Mashup!

I love challenges like this week's Friday Mashup! Birthday cards are so nice to have on hand. The challenge is to create a birthday themed project or a project using brads, or mash it up and use both! I decided to go with the first option and create a birthday-themed card. And since I love starting a card with a sketch in mind, I turned to one of my favourite sketch challenge blogs - Retro Sketches. This week's sketch is a good one! When looking at the flowers, I knew exactly what stamp set I would use -- Mixed Bunch. I just love this stamp set. I use it SO often. I wanted to make my card fun and colourful, so I chose beautiful designer paper from Sycamore Street (Sale-a-bration item). Here's my card:

The designer paper is quite 'busy' on it's own, but adding the solid Island Indigo flowers and leaves tones it down a bit, I think. I used Pool Party for the strip of cardstock in the middle. This colour compliments Island Indigo quite well. I embossed it with polka dots and added ruffled ribbon. The sentiment is popped up using dimensionals and rhinestones are added to embellish the card.

Island Indigo has to be one of my favourite colours - it's so pretty! It reminds me of the colour of the bridesmaid dresses at my wedding 4.5 years ago....



Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)

Paper: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Whisper White, Sycamore Street DSP (Sale-a-Bration)

Ink: Island Indigo

Tools: Little Leaves embosslit, Blossom punch, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder

Accessories: Pool Party ruffled ribbon, rhinestones

Thanks for visiting!