Less is More 17

The 17th challenge at Less is More is to pick a square and stamp only within that square. Our long Memorial Day weekend was filled with company and yardwork, but in my mind I was sorting through stamps thinking about what might work.


For the center square, I used a Studio G birthday stamp. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and added crystal stickles to the candle flames. I love that little bit of sparkle on this card, and I think it will be a good card for a child's birthday present.


I used another Studio G stamp to make a small baby card, perfect to tuck in with a shower gift. I paper pieced the baby carriage and popped it up on dimensionals. Finally, I added a PTI sentiment. This little card is my favorite of the three.


I used AMuse stamps for my final card. I really like the look of this sledding bear in the lower left corner, but I'm not so pleased with the sentiment. I need to think about this one some more.


Now I'm off to have a look around at all the other fabulous entries!

OLW 55: Dogs and Cats

The One Layer Wednesday challenge at Styles Ink this week is to make a one layer card with a dog or cat. I have to thank my 6-year old daughter, who asked for a puppy party for her birthday on May 1. Otherwise I wouldn't have had a single dog or cat stamp.

I picked up a cute Inkadinkado set of dogs on clearance to use for her birthday invitations. This dog, and the one Jenny M used on her OLW card, are my two favorite dogs from the set. They're so cute!



I started by using brown ink on a kraft card base, and then switched it up by using a white card base and adding a couple more colors. I used a small butterfly from a Fiskars set and added a butterfly trail that I masked from a Studio G dollar stamp. Some grass from an AMuse set grounded the dog and a PTI sentiment finished it off. It's quite an eclectic mix of stamps, but I'm happy with the way it came together.

Since we're talking dogs, here are all the puppies (donated from my aunt's beanie baby collection) that my daughter's friends adopted at the birthday party. Each girl chose a puppy, filled out an adoption certificate, made a collar and tag, got a vet check, visited the puppy beauty salon, and picked out a dog bed (which I had made the week before) and dog dish. It was one of my favorite birthday parties we've had.



Supplies:
Paper: PTI
Stamps: Inkadinkado, Fiskars, Studio G, AMuse, PTI
Ink: Brilliance coffee bean, pearlescent ivy, Mediterranean blue

Papertrey May Blog Hop and CFC#3

The blog hop at PTI this month is all about flowers. I made several cards using Year of the Flowers: Lily of the Valley. I am a clean and simple kind of girl, so my cards don't have a lot of frills and layers. I think the beauty of this image speaks for itself.



I chose a bright happy pink for my first card. I stamped in Memento Rose Bud and used Raspberry Fizz as the card base. I added some glitter to each lily for a little sparkle. I think it adds a little extra touch to a CAS card. The first has just a touch of sparkle on the underside of each flower, and on the second I went a little crazy and really glittered it up.



I also wanted to make a sympathy card for Make it Monday, so I switched to a deep purple card base. I couldn't decide if bling was fitting for a sympathy card, but my rhinestones were a very subdued purple color and I thought they looked tasteful, so I added them in the end.


I am also submitting my cards to CAS-ual Fridays, a new CAS challenge blog I've been wanting to participate in. Since my cards got blinged up a bit with glitter and rhinestones, I think they'll work for CFC #3: Bring the Bling!

Supplies:
Paper: PTI
Stamps: PTI Lily of the Valley, Mega Mixed Messages, Communique Curves Sentiments
Ink: Memento Rosebud, VersaMagic purple hydrangea

Versatile Blogger Award

Sometime back in April the wonderfully creative Jenny of Crafting in the Country passed the Versatile Blogger Award on to me. Here it is already near the end of May. I also discovered that the talented Deborah of Deb's Gems has given me the same award. Thank you both so much.

I haven't been blogging for very long, and it is nice to know that someone actually enjoys looking at the cards I make. More importantly, I feel as if I have joined a lovely and supportive crafting community. Who knew?

To accept this award I am to thank those who shared the award with me, share some things about myself, and pass the award on.

Some random and unusual facts about me:

1. I am a mom to two wonderful daughters, age 6 and 9. My hubby is pretty great, too. :)

2. I am a teacher by profession. I taught in a small country school for eight years before my girls were born. My youngest starts full day school next year, so I'm beginning to think about getting back into the classroom. I miss it, but wouldn't trade the time I've had with my girls for anything in the world.

3. I spent my childhood summers on a small island in Washington State. I worked as a commercial fisherman there for many seasons.

4. During my summer vacations from college I worked park maintenance for a parks department. One of the parks I worked at was a farm where I helped deliver a litter of piglets.

5. I once talked a hang glider into taking me hang gliding. It was an awesome experience, but at 38 I don't think I would do it again!

6. I am the leader of two troops of Girl Scouts, one for each of my girls!

Now, to pass the award on to some other lovely Bloggers. I know that not everyone participates in blog awards, and that's okay. I'd still like to give a shout out to the following blogs that I love to visit:

1. Heather T. at Bits and Pieces
2. Colleen at Kroppykat Stamps
3. Lisa at I'm in Haven
4. Stephanie at My-Ink-Well
5. Lynne at Card's from Lynne's Loft
6. Susan Goetter at Keeping in Touch

Less is More 16

The challenge at Less is More is to use butterflies on a clean and simple card. My mother-in-law gave me a Martha Stewart butterfly punch for my birthday a few weeks ago. I hadn't played with it yet, so this was the perfect opportunity.



I made these a couple of nights ago and I must have been in a pink mood! I paired the punched butterfly with a lace background stamped in pink. The panels are popped up on dimensionals and the butterfly is adhered so only the body is attached, giving the wings a little lift.

I rather like the first card with the black butterfly, but I need to rework the second card. I like the shimmery pink butterfly on the pale pink background, but other than that, things are not quite right!

Supplies:
Paper: PTI White
Stamps: PTI sentiments, Recollections Lace Backgrounds
Ink: Memento rosebud, Versamagic pixie dust, Brilliance graphite black
Accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punch

One Layer Wednesday #54

The One Layer Wednesday at Simplicity is to make a one-layer baby card using inspiration from this post of Sunday Sweets on the CakeWrecks blog. I don't have a great variety of baby stamps, so the button cake immediately appealed to me.


Since Susan's sample card had ribbon and pearls, I went on the assumption that buttons would also be allowed. :) I embossed the bottom portion of the card with my Swiss Dots embossing folder and placed a row of pastel buttons along the top edge of the embossed section. I stamped my sentiment and was done!


Supplies:
Paper: PTI white
Stamps: PTI Mega Mixed Messages
Ink: VersaMagic
Accessories: buttons, embroidery floss, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots

Less is More Week 15, Take 2

I've already submitted an entry with dry embossing, but I was inspired by all the heat embossed beauties on Less is More Week 15 to dig out my embossing supplies. They've not been used in years, and I discovered that even my old Top Boss embossing ink pad still has some juice left in it!

I have long been wanting to try the resist method of embossing and then sponging ink over the top. I stamped my Inkadinkado trees stamp twice across the card base and embossed it in copper. Then I masked it off with post-its and sponged the panel in oranges, browns, and yellow.


For my last two cards, I was inspired by this card of Heather T.'s. I love her yummy pink panel with white and black flowers. I masked off a panel and embossed my flowers in white (I don't have any clear EP, but I must get some!). For the first card I sponged oranges and pinks, and on the second card I went with straight pink. Finally, I stamped more flowers over the top in Stazon black and added a sentiment.


I love how these turned out. There are so many possibilities that I want to try, but I had to call it good at 3 cards. You can be sure I'll be playing around with this in the future with snowflakes and fall leaves, but I needed some spring flowers in my life since the weather hasn't been cooperating!

Thank you, LIMettes, for all the inspiration!

One Layer Wednesday 53

The challenge at Styles Ink for One Layer Wednesday is to make a new home card using two colors of ink. Sounds easy enough, but this card was a real struggle for me and I'm still not entirely happy with it. I've fiddled enough, though. Time to be done with it and move on!



I didn't think I had any house stamps but I discovered this little Studio G dollar stamp that I've never used. It's a really sweet image, and it actually stamps well, too. It's quite small, so I made a smaller sized notecard. I made a little sentiment on the computer since I didn't have any stamps that would work. I stamped a hill and sponged some green and blue ink for grass and sky. Finally, I colored the house with colored pencils and rounded the corners.

Less is More 15

We've had a busy weekend but I managed to make a few cards last night. The challenge for this week at Less is More is to use either heat embossing or dry embossing on a one layer card. I chose to use dry embossing and pulled out my Cuttlebug to make this one layer card with a simple ribbon treatment. I believe ribbon is okay on a one-layer card, but if not, I'm sure someone will set me straight! :)



I'm off now to have a peek at some of the other submissions. From first glance, it looked like a lot of people chose heat embossing. Heat embossing was the first thing I did as a stamper, and I haven't done it in years. I wonder if embossing powders have a shelf life. Mine must be about 14 years old!

Supplies:
Paper: PTI white, spring rain
Sentiment Stamps: PTI, Studio G
Others: Cuttlebug embossing folders, ribbon

Less is More 14

This week at Less is More the challenge is to make a clean and simple, white on white card. No color, except possibly outlines. Looking at the other submissions was very inspiring - so many beautiful and elegant cards with lovely textures.

My card is very clean and simple, perhaps too simple, really. I used the same basic layout as last week, replacing the papers with white and the apples with flowers. I added a big bit of bling in the center of each flower. I rarely use gems on my cards, and I never use the big ones, so it was kind of fun!


All of the sparkly gems were calling to me, so while I had my supplies out I had to make one with a bit of color in the center just for fun. I was inspired by this card, where Susan used big blue gems with what I think is the same flower punch. I tried several colors, but I love bright blue and white together, so I used blue in the end and added a sentiment in Brililance Mediterranean Blue.


Supplies:
Paper: PTI White
Stamps: PTI sentiment
Ink: Brilliance Mediterranean Blue
Other: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, flower punch, gems

One Layer Wednesday 52

Susan's One Layer Wednesday for this week is called 'round and round.' She wants us to use circles in some way on our one layer cards. I immediately thought of this Hero Arts stamp called dots and circles that I purchased on clearance last fall. It worked well to make these super simple cards. I made one horizontal and one vertical and added a bit of bling for fun.



Supplies:
Paper: PTI white
Stamps: Hero Arts dots and circles, PTI sentiments
Ink: Memento Bahama blue

Less is More 13

Two posts in one day is a miracle around here. Even though I made these yesterday, I had to post my One Layer Wednesday first since time was running out! Week 13 at Less is More is a Lucky Dip Week - make a thank you or congratulations card.

In the United States this week is teacher appreciation week, so I set about making thank you cards for my daughters' teachers. I purchased this apple punch last fall on clearance, thinking it would be great for teacher thank you cards. Too bad I didn't make my cards then! Instead I waited until the Monday of the start of teacher appreciation week. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!


For the first card I went with a simple layout featuring a raised panel of 3 punched apples in red, yellow, and green. I included a strip of ribbon and a sentiment. I'm pleased with the pop of colors on white card stock. It feels very clean and bright.

For my second card I stamped a random alphabet background using my Versamagic stamp pad onto the kraft card base. I saw this technique used somewhere, possibly on PaperTrey Ink. I randomly placed clear letter stamps on my acrylic block and stamped onto the kraft. By arranging them on the block first and then stamping just once, it went very quickly. Then I filled in the gaps with other letters since my block was not quite as large as the card base. I used some very old scraps of red and green patterned paper from my scrap box for the apples.

I'm pleased with both of these cards and hope my girls' teachers will like them. I taught school for 8 years before my kids came along, and I always appreciated handwritten notes and cards from my students and their parents more than anything else. It's nice to feel appreciated.

Supplies:
Paper: PTI kraft and white, scraps from scrap box
Stamps: PTI sentiment, AMuse clear alphabet stamps
Ink: Brilliance pearlescent ivy and rocket red
Other: apple punch, ribbon

One Layer Wednesday 51

I am just barely squeaking in for this week's One Layer Wednesday at Styles Ink! I love this week's challenge to make three different one-layer cards using the same image stamp. I chose a flower image from PTI's floral fusion #1.

My first card is my favorite. I stamped a frame and then masked it to stamp a flower background in pink, green, and yellow. I love this bright, happy color combination! Finally I stamped a crooked sentiment in the frame.


For my second card I stamped the flowers in red and added the stems and leaves. I finished it off with a sentiment and a little gingham ribbon.


I used kraft for the third card and I really had to whip this one out in a rush. The clock was ticking! I embossed the bottom portion of the card with my Cuttlebug, stamped the flowers and the sentiment, and added a ribbon. I'll definitely tweak this last card a bit.


Stamps: PTI
Ink: Memento
Other: Cuttlebug, ribbon from stash