A Feathery Birthday Card

After a busy, long week, I spent part of my Friday night making some cards. It took me some time to gain inspiration, but after looking through a few card challenges for this week, I was inspired to make a birthday card using a stamp set I haven't touched for a long time! 

Fab Friday has a clean and simple sketch this week, which gave me the perfect start to making my card:

And Seize the Birthday has their usual "Anything Goes" theme this week. The 'Topping' option this time was felt, but I'm pretty sure I don't own any felt... or it's buried somewhere in my crafting supplies... So I opted out on that :). 

And here's the card:

The Stampin Up stamp set I used was "Four Feathers". I loved this stamp set when I first saw it, but wasn't really sure how to incorporate it into my card designs. This sketch gave me the perfect opportunity. The large circle on the card was the perfect spot for these 3 feathers that I stamped and die-cut. The colours I used are probably my favourite colour combination lately -- Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Pool Party, Basic Gray, Smokey Slate, Basic Black and Whisper White. Shades of teal have always been my favourite colours! I added a small strip of black and white designer series paper which seems to pop right out of the card! A couple of the feathers and the sentiment is popped up to give the card some dimension. I've also added texture by embossing the background with "Decorative Dots". Bakers twine and small rhinestones embellish the card.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Fresh & Bold: A Flowery Birthday Card

I'm jumping right into my first 2017 entry for card challenges with a fresh and bold birthday card! 
Three card challenges inspired me to make this card.

I love using card sketches and Mojo Monday never disappoints! This week's sketch is a simple yet layered sketch:

The colours I used for this card were inspired by the inspiration photo challenge over at The Card Concept. This photo is clean & fresh with a pop of bright pink and orange. 

And finally, Paper Players has a Clean-and-Simple challenge this week with a twist: Flowers. I love using flowers on my cards. My latest favourite is the Botanical Builder framelits from Stampin Up. There are multiple flowers in this set, with options to be creative and layer the flowers. 

Now to finally show you the end result in combining all three of these challenges...

I added a little texture in the background, as well as a strip of striped designer paper in bright pink. A few of the flowers are popped up to give the card some dimension. Rhinestones are added in the center of each flower for some bling! 

I'm Back! (A Blogging Update)

After taking a very loooonnggg break from blogging, I've decided to step back into it again! I've missed it! So much has happened since Summer of 2015!  Life got busy after going back to work (starting a new job) and taking care of my now 2-year old! Crazy how fast time flies! 

With another little one on the way (due in June!) my time may be even more limited, but I thought I would try to blog every once in a while, participating in card challenges and sharing my latest projects with you. 

To give you an update in my crafting world... 

➤ I'm still keeping up with making birthday cards for family members (lately its been limited to just that)

➤ I hope to stock up my Etsy shop - making cards for upcoming holidays and keeping my shop up-to-date.

➤ This past fall, I participated in one craft show and it went really well! I hope to do at least one craft show each fall. 

➤ Over the next couple months I will be moving my crafting area to a new space in our basement (to make room for baby!). I look forward to setting up my new crafting area and making it a cozy place for me to retreat to! 

Stay tuned for another post later today where I'll be entering a recent card I made into a few challenges online! 

Viva La Verve: Welcome Baby

It's been a long time since I've participated in online card challenges! Today I'm linking up with Viva La Verve and their July Week 2 sketch (click here to see the post). I love layered sketches, so this one caught my eye!

 

I looked through a couple of colour challenges this week for inspiration and loved the colour combo from Colour Throwdown (minus the lime-y green). So, while I can't participate in this colour challenge because I didn't use all the colours, I still loved 3 out of 4 of the colours and decided to use them for my card -- Basic Grey, Smokey Slate, and Bermuda Bay. These colours could be use for any occasion. For me, 'baby' came to mind! My daughter's nursery has similar colours - light grey and teal/aqua. Here's a couple pictures of the card:

 

 

I love how it turned out!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Celebrate Baby (SU)

Paper: Bermuda Bay, Basic Grey, Smokey Slate, Whisper White, I Am Me DSP

Ink: Smokey Slate, Bermuda Bay

Tools: Decorative Dots embossing folder, Circles nestabilities

Accessories: Basic Grey satin ribbon, Bakers Twine (CTMH)

A Pokemon-Themed Card-in-a-Box

This past week I had a request to make a Pokemon-themed anniversary card. I am not familiar with Pokémon at all, but I thought I would take on the challenge. The recipient wanted the characters Charmander and Vulpix on the card. So I went right to google and found clipart of these characters:

Easy enough, I think! I simply drew these characters on cardstock and pieced them together from scratch. I then made a card-in-a-box base, added designer paper to each panel and added these characters to the inside panels. Here's how it turned out:

 

 

A close-up of the characters:

 

 

Card Ingredients:

Paper used for the card base: Smokey Slate, Island Indigo, Summer Smooches DSP

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Memorable Moments

Punches: Modern Label, Word Window, 1-3/8" Circle, Heart to Heart

 



 





A 50th Birthday Card for a Doctor

I often have requests to make customized greeting cards. This time I was asked to make a 50th birthday card for Kevin's aunt. I was given the following specifics to incorporate into the card:

- something medical (as she is a doctor)
- her favourite flower - hydrangeas
- her favourite colour - purple

I always love being presented with challenges - it gets my creative juices flowing!

How am I going to incorporate all 3 items into one card? Well, the first thing I usually do is grab my sketchbook and start brainstorming by sketching some design ideas. As I'm doing this, I google medical related clipart for inspiration.

Here's the sketch of my final design:

A little bit of everything in one card :)

And here's how it came together:

The stethoscope, syringe and doctor bag were all made from scratch using pieces of cardstock. The medical symbol on the doctor bag is a punched out symbol from the Stampin Up Itty Bitty Punch Pack. The same punch was used to create the hydrangea flower. I used the stamp set "Memorable Moments" for the sentiment, popping up the "50th" to give the card some dimension. For some added elegance, I embossed the white background with the "Elegant Lines" embossing folder. 

Feeling Scrappy

This past week I've been focusing on scrapbooking. It's good to get back into it again! I'm currently working on a scrapbook of my daughter's 1st year. My goal is to have this completed by her 1st birthday. I'm doing traditional scrapbooking, which can take some time to put together, but I really enjoy it! I use any bits and pieces of cardstock, designer paper and punched images, as well as memorabilia that I've collected to create beautiful pages. I always love looking back at the scrapbooks I've made. One day I may consider switching to digital scrapbooking or maybe the new Project Life form of scrapbooking, but for now I'll stick to the traditional kind :)

Here are a few of my favourite pages that I've completed over the past week:

 

So crazy to look back at how small my little girl was and how far she's come! I will cherish these memories forever :)