25th Birthday Wishes for a Beautiful Sister!

Just a couple days ago my younger sister, Esther, celebrated her 25th birthday! She is a beautiful lady inside and out. I'm so excited to be living just half an hour away from her soon! She is expecting her first baby in just one short month - can't wait to meet the little one!. A couple weeks ago, we were able to get together for a short time and snap pictures of our baby bellies together! 

To make Esther's birthday card, I used last week's RetroSketches challenge as a guideline:

I love the starburst technique! So easy to do! I put some simple instructions together a while ago in one of my blog posts - click here to see it. Since Esther has a bubbly, outgoing personality, I thought it would be fun to use bright colours and different patterns. Here's how it turned out:

And a matching envelope to complete it:

I love the colour combinations in this designer paper! 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great long weekend! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Create a Cupcake, Metro Type Alphabet

Paper: Smokey Slate, Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Basic Black, Kaleidescope DSP

Ink: Smokey Slate

Tools: Scallop Circle punch, 1-3/8" Circle punch, 1-1/4" Circle punch, Envelope Punch Board

KCRR32 - A Triple Challenge

We are back with a new KCRR challenge today!

 

This week we decided to make it a triple challenge and add a 3rd element to the mix:

Comfort Café DSP

Sycamore Street ribbon & button pack (from Sale-a-Bration)

Apothecary Art Stamp Set 

To be honest, this one was a real challenge for me! Luckily Comfort Café DSP has the colour Pool Party in it, which is one of the colours in the ribbon & button pack. However, I still struggled with what designer paper to use. And then throwing Apothecary Art stamp set in the mix kind of stumped me! I decided to just simply use one of the sentiments in the stamp set.

I chose the latest sketch from Retro Sketches to use as the base of my card design because it was so unique.

I think this sketch actually added to my creative block... I'm not always a big fan of white space and as I was making this card, there was a lot of white space in my design. So I changed it up a couple times, adding more stamped images to it and some embellishments and I just love how it turned out in the end!

 

I think the colour combo Midnight Muse and Sahara Sand look fabulous with the soft pastel Pool Party! To fill some of the white space on the right panel, I added stamped images from the Flowering Flourishes stamp set - one I haven't used that often. I also embellished it with chevrons, pearls and a Pool Party button. I kept the other panel fairly simple and just embellished it with Pool Party ribbon.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Click here to see Karly's take on this challenge!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Apothecary Art, Flowering Flourishes

Paper: Midnight Muse, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Comfort Café DSP

Ink: Midnight Muse, Pool Party

Tools: Corner Rounder punch, Chevron Border punch

Accessories: Sycamore Street ribbon & button pack, pearls (Michael's)

Inspired By... Funky Nail Art!

Just one more day of work and we are on the road again! This time we are making our way down south to Kelowna, to get one last taste of summer! Looking forward to a relaxing weekend of camping, shopping, and sun-tanning on the beach!

Friday means a new inspirational challenge!

 

It was Karly's pick this week and she chose a fun photo of funky nails. Love these colours together! 

 

At first I thought of doing a nautical-themed card... However, these colours would be a great non-traditional combo for a Christmas card! And with Christmas coming up in just 4 months, it's time to start building my stock! I chose the Retrosketches sketch to use as a guide and pulled out my new collection of Christmas DSP.

 

 

What do you think? I cut strips of DSP and glued them on a piece of white cardstock. The ornament is stamped in Coastal Cabana and popped up to give the card some dimension. The sentiment is stamped in Smokey Slate and rhinestones are added to embellish it. After taking a look at it again, there was something missing on the top portion of the card so I added pieces of ribbon in similar colours and I like how it turned out!

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Enjoy the long weekend ahead!

 

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Sentiment - unknown; Delightful Decorations

Paper: Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Winter Frost Specialty DSP

Ink: Coastal Cabana, Smokey Slate

Tools: Ornament Punch

Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's), Coastal Cabana ribbon, Silver 1/4" ribbon, Pool Party Satin ribbon (Sale-a-Bration)

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





RS#66 {A Cup of Thanks}

It has been a relaxing and very productive weekend! I had a great time chatting with my younger sister on Skype Friday night. I miss her! It was nice to catch up and 'hang out' like old times. Saturday was spent cleaning our 4Runner, doing laundry, and packing for our road trip (we leave this Friday - yay!). Sunday, after an enjoyable walk, I spent most of the day papercrafting.

And to top it off, a couple of my cards were chosen as honorable mentions last week:

 



To see the original post, click here.

To see the original post, click here.


For today's card, I'm playing along with a new RetroSketches challenge.

I like the simplicity of this sketch! I rotated it to make it fit my design. The chevron shapes reminded me of the Tea for Two DSP. I cut the chevrons out of the designer paper and chose cardstock to match it. The edges of the Lucky Limeade piece are distressed and a little detail is added to the Very Vanilla cardstock using paper piercing. The tea cups are stamped, cut out, and stacked on top of each other.

 

 

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to leave a comment :)

 

Tomorrow we have a new KCRR challenge! (it has been moved up a couple days this week and it will also be our last one for a few weeks as I leave for our road trip this weekend!)

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Tea Shoppe

Paper: So Saffron, Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla, Tea for Two DSP

Ink: Basic Gray, Bashful Blue, So Saffron

Tools: Distress Tool, Paper Piercing Tool

Retro Sketches #60 and Fab Friday #16 {Sending Love & Sympathy}

I've been patiently waiting for this day to come! Today, Stampin Up demonstrators get to have an early peek at the new Stampin Up annual catalogue!!  So excited to see what Stampin Up has come up with this year! 

Today's card features a great layout based on the Retro Sketches sketch and a nice soft colour combo from Fab Friday.

I thought this colour combo would be perfect for a sympathy card. Summer Startfruit is still growing on me, but I love it with these colours! Here's how my card turned out:

 

To add some detail I embossed the piece of Crumb Cake cardstock with the square lattice pattern. The roses are sponged with Calypso Coral ink and instead of the traditional green leaves, I decided to stick with the colour combo and used Summer Starfruit instead - I like how it turned out! The Calypso Coral bakers twine is the perfect embellishment to complete the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Love & Sympathy
Paper: Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Summer Starfruit, In-Colour 2013-2014 DSP
Ink: Calypso Coral
Tools: Circles Nestabilities, Square Lattice embossing folder, Little Leaves sizzlit die
Accessories: Flower Trim ribbon, Calypso Coral bakers twine

Papercraft Crew #38 {Happy Anniversary}

It's craft fair day! I worked long and hard yesterday making several greeting cards and a few bookmarks. I counted just over 200 cards! Wow! Didn't think I had that many! Looking forward to a good day. Hoping it's a good turnout!

A couple of my projects were top picks this past week:

I was a 'cut above' at Paper Players:

To see my original post, click here.  

 And a shout-out at Retro Sketches:

 
To see my original post, click here. 

For today's post, I'm playing along with PaperCraft Crew and Stampin Royalty. Papercraft Crew has another fabulous sketch. I'm starting to really love their sketch challenges! This one is going on the favourites list!

 

 Stampin Royalty has an inspirational photo for this week's challenge:

I decided to use the colours in this photo. I chose Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals, Blushing Bride and Whisper White to make an anniversary card. Raspberry Ripple is probably my new favourite pink! It is such a rich colour - I love it! I pulled out a new stamp set that I got a while ago, but haven't used yet. It is called Apothecary Art. I definitely have to use this one more often! I thought the flowers in this stamped image represented the flowers on the plate in the picture quite well. I layered a doily and flagged cut-out underneath the apothecary framelit. The sentiment was stamped separately and popped up to give the card some dimension.

 

I just love how it turned out! I added some detail by embossing a stitched line close to the bottom and adding a couple of brads.

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Apothecary Art, Memorable Moments

Paper: Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals, Blushing Bride, Whisper White

Ink: Raspberry Ripple

Tools: Apothecary Framelit Die, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Delicate Doilies Sizzlit, Needlepoint Border embossing folder

Accessories: Brads (Michael's)



 

Retro Sketch Challenge #59 {Happy I Do Day}

I was just thinking the other day about our upcoming road trip along the west coast. It's less than two months away! I have booked all the lodging and main events and created a day-to-day itinerary of all the things that we must see! It's going to be an awesome trip! This past weekend I booked a snorkeling tour in La Jolla Cove, California. I am especially excited for this since I've never snorkeled before! We get to see tiger sharks up close - how cool is that?!

For today's card, I decided to do something clean and simple, yet elegant. I got my inspiration from the Retro Sketches challenge this week. I love the simplicity of this sketch.

I decided to make an elegant wedding card using this sketch. The flowers reminded me of Stampin Up's flower trim ribbon and I thought they would fit perfectly in the design of my card. I used Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla colour combo. I don't like a lot of white space in my cards, so I decided to stamp the background with the French Filigree stamp -- perfect for a wedding card, I think!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Word Play, French Filigree (ret.)

Paper: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake

Ink: Crumb Cake

Accessories: Flower Trim Ribbon

A Bridal Shower Card

Yesterday, I came home to a box full of Stampin Up goodies! Most of my order was paper, but I got some exciting new stamp sets, a couple embossing folders and lots of ribbon. In fact, I used one of my new stamp sets in my card today :)

I decided to play along with the new Retro sketches challenge and the Friday Mashup this week. I also used part of the Colour Q colour combo. I was too late to enter this card in the challenge, but I just loved the colours that I decided to play along anyway, leaving out one of the colours, Blushing Bride.

And here's my card...

I love the challenge this week at Friday Mashup! Umbrellas made me think of the new stamp set called "Rain or Shine" from the Spring Mini Catalogue. I made sure that was on my last order and it arrived just in time :)  I love the umbrella! And, as you can see, I matched it with the polka-dot designer paper. I added a yellow button and bakers twine to embellish the card, and embossed a stitched design next to the sentiment (it may be a little easier to see in the photos below).

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Rain or Shine

Paper: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Floral District DSP, Tea for Two DSP

Ink: Calypso Coral, Soft Suede

Tools: Needlepoint Embossing Folder

Accessories: Calypso Coral bakers twine, Chocolate bakers twine (CTMH), Daffodil Delight button