Valentine's Day Highlights

Hi again! 

Here are a few highlights from my Valentine's Day:

The night before Valentine's, my hubby surprised me with a gorgeous bouquet of red and white flowers!

And the card he gave me also made me smile :)

Inside reads: "And trying not to drool". Hilarious. 

We went out for dinner at a local restaurant called North 54. We started off with the best Ceasar Salad ever (this is the main reason we love going to this restaurant). I had the most delicious raspberry/cranberry/lime martini, along with spaghetti carbonara, which was so filling that I now have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch (yum!). Kevin enjoyed red wine with seafood jambalaya. And we finished it off with a strawberry mousse cake - so good!

And last but not least, a handmade card for Kevin! 

 

This is called the Building Block Card. I followed this simple tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers and love the end result! 

I'm playing along with a theme challenge at The Pink Elephant:

Happy Valentine's Day

I also used the picture inspiration from Stampin Royalty's challenge this week to come up with the colour combo in my card.

Stampin Royalty Challenge #214

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the weekend!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Love You Much (ret.)
Paper: Basic Gray, Primrose Petals, Pool Party, More Amore Specialty DSP, 2012-2013 In-Colour DSP
Ink: Basic Gray
Tools: Circles Nestabilities, Large Oval punch, Owl Builder punch, Heart to Heart punch, Diagonal Strips embossing folder
Accessories: White foam letter stickers (Michael's), Pearls (Michael's)

A Framelit Easel Card - Celebrating Mom

What a wonderful weekend it is so far! The weather was glorious yesterday!  I got my first suntan of the year :) After doing a bit of shopping and running errands, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a nice long walk with our dog, Keta. I then soaked up the sun while browsing through the new Stampin Up annual catalogue. It was a perfect Saturday afternoon!

I am playing along with two challenges today: Stampin Royalty's challenge is "Celebrating Mom" and the Paper Players has a Mother's Day theme as well.

I wanted to try a framelit easel card for these challenges and found a great video on youtube with simple instructions -- check it out here!
 

The base of the card was super easy to make! I decided to keep it fairly simple. The flower from "Blooming with Kindess" is so pretty on its own! However, I decided to add small butterflies and a rhinestone in the middle of the flower to embellish the card front. I stamped the sentiment "happy mother's day" and cut it into a flag shape. A Rich Razzleberry button acts as the 'stopper' to keep the card front upright. Here's a side view of the card:

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your Sunday. Hope it's sunny and warm where you are!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Blooming with Kindness, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Tools: Label Framelits, Beautiful Wings Embosslit die
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry button, White bakers twine, Rhinestone (Michael's)

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)



 

This Week's Highlights and Inspired By... a Retro Pattern!

It was so great to sleep in this morning! After a looongg week at work, it's something I look forward to! Today is going to be a day dedicated to my papercrafts. Only one week left until the craft fair and I feel like I have so much to do in so little time!

Here are some of this week's highlights: 

1) This card won two challenges! Click here to see the original post.

It was a 'goddess pick' at Stampin Royalty and winner of the My Favourite Things sketch challenge! 

2)  The mini album I made this past week was a top pick at Friday Mashup! Click here to see my original post.

3) The gift tag set I made a while ago was chosen as a Deconstructed Sketch favourite! Click here to see my original post.

Now onto this week's "Inspired By..." challenge:

Karly chose a photo that she took of an ottoman for this week's inspirational photo. It has a great retro pattern and nice spring colours!

IB #13

 

It took me a while to think of how I would incorporate this pattern into a card. But, after looking through the challenges this week, I came across a sketch challenge by CAS(E) This Sketch! and was inspired to create a clean and simple card with bright coloured flowers, just like in the photo. Here's what I came up with:

 



When I first completed it, I wasn't too happy with it, but it's growing on me! I like how the flowers really stand out against the simple background. There is quite a bit of white space in this card, which I'm not used to, but I think the addition of the stamped sentiment and dotted border fills some of that white space and draws attention to the flowers.

 

 

Thanks for visiting! Make sure to hop on over to Karly's blog -- Karly's Creations -- to see how this photo inspired her :)

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: One of a Kind (ret.), Fabulous Phrases

Paper: Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Subtles DSP

Ink: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight

Tools: Boho Blossom punch, 1/2" Circle punch

Accessories: Rhinestone (Michael's)

Mini Baby Cards

Zumba was a great workout last night! I usually stick to the back row, but at times it's hard to see the instructor and can be quite challenging to keep up! This time I moved up a row and I could follow along SO much easier! It was a fun workout and I look forward to next week!

Stampin Royalty's challenge this week is entitled "Oh, Baby!!". I'm going to keep the 'mini' theme going. :) Yesterday's post featured a 3" x 3" mini album and today's post features a couple of mini 2" x 3" baby cards with matching envelopes.

Isn't this size just adorable?! I stamped a little bunny in Basic Gray and popped them up to give the card some dimension. I added bakers twine and small rhinestones to embellish them. These fit perfectly in the small scallop envelopes -- I love this die!

 



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

Mini Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Forest Friends (ret.)
Paper: Basic Gray, Whisper White, Subtles DSP
Ink: Basic Gray
Tools: 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 1-3/4" Circle Punch, Scallop Envelope Die
Accessories: Gray Bakers Twine (CTMH), Rhinestones (Michael's)

Inspired By... A Beautiful Vintage Headband

It's the weekend! So happy Saturday is finally here - I get to see my hubby today! It's been a long week filled with ups and downs (yesterday, especially, dragggged on!). Hoping this will be a productive weekend! I need to build up my stock of crafty items!

Saturday means a new challenge with...

It was my pick this week and I came across a photo of a beautiful headband that I found on Etsy.

Isn't it gorgeous?! I love the spring colours and the vintage style. The lady who made this headband is so talented! Take a look at her Etsy shop: Aldona's Boutique.

I was so inspired by this photo! I incorporated the colours, as well as the vintage style into my card. The elegance of it is perfect for a newlywed greeting card!

 



I just LOVE how it turned out! It is somewhat different than what I usually create. I may have to incorporate this vintage style into more of my cards. I started off with a sketch from My Favourite Things. And my creative imagination went from there!

I wrapped Victoria Crochet trim ribbon around the card front - I thought it was a perfect resemblance of the head band itself. I cut roses from the Flower Trim ribbon and sponged each one with different colours. Strips of flagged ribbon are added. I stamped the Ribbon Cotton with Bloomin Marvelous stamps in Tangerine Tango and Old Olive and sponged them lightly to give them some colour. I then added pearls to embellish the roses. I am also entering this card in the Stampin Royalty challenge this week. Their theme is "Ribbons and Pearls".



This is definitely one of my favourite wedding cards!

Make sure to check out how this photo inspired Karly by visiting her blog, Karly's Creations!

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your Saturday!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Pear Pizzaz, Old Olive, Summer Smooches DSP, Brights DSP
Ink: Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
Tools: Little Leaves sizzlits die, Circles Nestabilities, Word Window punch
Accessories: Pearls (Michael's), So Saffron grosgrain ribbon, Ribbon Cotton, Victoria Crochet Trim ribbon

PP139 Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge {Set of Gift Tags}

Even though the work days seem long, it feels like this week is flying by! Last night I came home feeling exhausted... not sure why. I think my body is telling me that I need more sleep! It took a alot of effort to go to Zumba Fitness. I just wanted to stay home and craft and then go to bed early. But, I'm glad I went. It woke me up a bit and made me feel a little more energized. It's a new session and I think it's going to be a good one! The routines were a bit challenging, but I think after a couple more classes I should be able to catch on!

I played along with the Paper Players challenge for today's post. It's a tic-tac-toe challenge! How fun is that?!

SO many choices! I knew for sure that I wanted to make gift tags and I love using ribbon and pearls on my paper craft projects, so I went with ribbon, a tag and pearls. I love working with sketches, but this time I looked through my past card creations and used one of them for inspiration. I love the colour combo of this card I created back in beginning of February and decided to convert it to a gift tag.

 

It's a fairly simple design as I wanted the stamped flower image to stand out. I added a pearl as an embellishment in the center of the flower and tied Tangerine Tango satin ribbon through the hole at the top of the tag. Stampin Royalty's challenge this week happens to be "Ribbon and Pearls". So I decided to enter this project in their challenge as well. I made a set of 6 identical tags:

 

 

 



Thanks for stopping by!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Madison Avenue
Paper: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Summer Smooches DSP
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango
Tools: 1/4" Circle Punch, Circles Nestabilities, Scallop Circles Nestabilities, Scallop Tag Die
Accessories: Pearl (Michael's), Tangerine Tango satin ribbon (Sale-A-Bration)