You're the Bees Knees!

Another Father's Day card. This one is for my friend Christina to give to her father, who keeps bees as a hobby (which sounds really cool, but I would worry about being stung).

This image from Saltbox Studio was so fun to color, and I have to thank Tiffany for having the perfect patterned paper for this card! The inside of the card reads "Happy Father's Day". Hopefully Christina likes this!

I know that people always think that Man cards are hard to make - but think of them as opportunities to stretch yourself creatively!

Supplies:

Stamps: Saltbox Studio, Amuse

Ink: Memento, PTI Fresh Snow

Ribbon and Twine: PTI

Markers: Copics

Button: PTI

Doggie Father's Day Card

A couple friends have asked me to make them some father's day cards. This card is meant for my friend Michelle's adorable little Yorkie to give to her husband. I love doggie Father's day cards they are such a cute idea! This card was fun to put together. I wanted to use Papertrey Ink's white snow ink and polka dot basics, and also use the I heart my dad stamp from Studio G and a Paw Print from Inkadinkado. It was more fun then usual because my friend Tiffany was over when I was making this card and we had a great time staying up late and crafting.

The ribbon is also from Papertrey Ink. I hope you enjoy my card! Look for more Father's day and graduation cards this week.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Archiver's

Stamps: Polka Dot Basics (PTI), I heart my dad (Studio G), Paw Print (Inkadinkado)

Ribbon and Twine: PTI

Ink: Memento and Staz On

Paper Challenge #5 and 2 Sketches 4 You

I have a bunch to post tonight, so stick with me! I finally finished the cards for Paper Challenge #5 (at least I cut everything out and made the 3 samples.) Here are the Paper Challenge Rules:

1. Swap 1 - 12" x 12" sheet of patterned paper with one other person from the group of 5.
2. Create what ever you can out of the sheet of paper you received from someone else and make sure you make one for everyone.
3. Bring in your cards to swap.

This is something that some of us who do the monthly card exchange at work decided to start because of our mutual habit of buying paper and hoarding it. I love having crafty friends at work, although with Tiffany and Randee in the group, I feel the pressure!

I was able to create 3 cards for each person (15 total from 1 12 x 12 sheet of patterned paper). For one I used this sketch from 2 Sketches for you . (It's the one with the heart). The heart is where the circle is on the sketch and the sentiment is the mini circle. I decided to wrap fiber around the heart rather then having ribbon at the top of the card.

Here's the group shot:

The 2 Sketches for you submission (this is about as close to country as I come):

Card #2

Card #3

I was lucky in that the paper Randee gave me was the Comstock line from We R Memory Keepers and I had some other papers from We R Memory Keepers that was very similar. I am very happy with how they came out and I hope my friends enjoy them!

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers

Cardstock: Stampin Up

Ribbon: Dots and Dashes, May Arts

Fibers: Papertrey Ink

Thread: Coats

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Coffee Cup), Hero Arts (find joy), Amuse (Mom and Friend stamp)

Ink: Ranger Distress Ink Brushed Corduroy

Button: Vintage Wood (Papertrey Ink)

A couple cards

A couple cards to share tonight. The first one was by request for my Grandmother whose Nephew just became a grandfather again. He likes birds. My mother was over and was going to be leaving soon and she said "Oh your grandmother needs a Congratulations Grandpa card". Which means I made this card in about 10 minutes (sewing and all!). That is a record for me. The new grandpa likes birds, so I covered a chipboard bird from Scenic Route with paper from Basic Grey and trimmed with an exacto knife and then sanded the edges. The sentiment is a combo of a Hero Arts stamps and a stamp from the $1 bin at Michaels (there were all sorts of family words, it's from awhile back so don't get excited and go out looking for it). Stiched around the edges and wa-la! A manly card that has a bird! I did also use Kraft as the base. I took a kraft hiatus, but it is back with a bang!

Card number two was another quickie. It was for my Mom's birthday. Sometimes I just don't know what kind of a card to make for her. So I used some of the Amy Butler papers from the mat stack (the Sola line) and added a simple ribbon treatment and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink that I stamped inside the Border Basics Rectangle.

So that's that. Two nice and simple cards. Have a great night!

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #19

I had been seeing these great sketches on Rochelle and Sarah-Jane's blogs; the Sweet Sunday Sketch. So this week I decided to play along. Of course this caused some consternation when I saw the sketch because I am not good at placing little doo-dads below my card, and pairing those with a focal image is also not my forte.

So I did my best. I love these fabric brads from Amy Butler and paired them with a retired sentiment from Stampin Up. I love how the blue on the fabric buttons is mirrored in the cardstock on top.

That's my contribution, hope you like it!

Supplies:
Carstock: Stampin Up

Stamp: Stampin Up

Ink: Memento

Ribbon: American Crafts

Twine: Papertrey Ink

Papertrey May Blog Hop

It's my first Papertrey Ink Blog Hop! Hopefully I have done everything correctly! I am so excited to be playing along. I really didn't know what to make using yellow, so I just went with a clean and simple card (Which is what I usually come up with *grin*). The card base is PTI Lemon Tart (I used my scor-it to emboss the bottom half every half inch but it's kind of hard to see), and the ink from the flower is Berry Sorbet. A yummy Melon Berry ribbon tied with one of the new wood Vintage Buttons adds a powerful punch. The sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages and the flower from Life. I hope you all enjoy my creation - I can't wait to see all of yours!

KWerner Color Inspiration #53

I don't know about you, but cards with primary colors are not my forte. I think I need to spend more time in the toy aisle!

This card came together in my mind once I found the sentiment. It is one of the new images that Silhouette just released. I saw it and instantly knew it would be great paired with a giant heart. I kept my fingers that the sentiment would cut correctly the first time and I was so excited it did!

Now that I look at the card, it is very Wonder Woman- esque. The yellow ribbon is velvet and I love how it gives the card texture. I have been doing very simple and classic designs and colors lately, and while this card is still simple it is a lot more on the retro funk side of the scale. Hope you like it!~

Supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin Up

Pattered Paper: KI Memories

Ribbon: Fancy Pants (yellow), Basic Basic (Blue)

Die cut: Silhouette

Card Base: Die Cuts with a View

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #7

I spent all day outside weeding and planting. In the middle of the day my DH decided we needed to get dirt delivered, and 3 cu yards was on our driveway 2 hours later. I am sooo tired! But when I saw Dawn had posted another color challenge I felt the need to put something together.

Clean and simple. I used all PTI paper and ribbon for this card. It is interesting to me that the spring moss paper and spring moss ribbon look different when paired together. Can't wait to see what everyone else creates! I think I will hop around and look tomorrow it's time for bed (yes its only 9:15 on a Saturday night but I am beat!)

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink

Stamp: Papertrey Ink

Ribbon: Papertrey Ink

Ink: Stampin Up

Bling: Crystal Elements

A Roaring Good Day

Tonight I decided to play with the sketch on 2 Sketches 4 You. I found out about the sketch challenge from Amy's awesome blog. They have a fantastic contest coming up in June as well. I used another one of my new stamps from Paper Makeup Stamps. His name is Terry and he is adorable. I also bought the matching sentiment.

I colored Terry with my copics, another new obsession of mine. I have collected quite a few, so I may be okay for a bit. I just got my Papertrey order from the last release today, so look for cards from those toys next.

And where do I play with all my "toys"? I was fortunate enough to be able to finish the basement in our house and I was also fortunate enough to have a husband who let me take about 1/3 of it to create an awesome room. Then there was having a friend who has an awesome husband who is a contractor (so if you are in the Chicago suburbs and need any kind of work done in your house email me and I will send you Mark's email. He rocks!) My room was finished about a month before my son was born, so I am still working on decorating and I think organization will be a constant challenge. I tend to take out a bunch of supplies and create until the piles start to fall off my table. Then I put some stuff away and start over. I was going to wait until my room was "clean" or "finished" to post photos, but that will never happen. So you are seeing it in all its glory.

I have storage all throughout the room. The doors there hide a big pipe along the wall and also hold supplieds. And I am a bit obsessed with ribbon. It's pretty much everywhere.

I bought this chair so I could curl up and read magazines. Someone else usually is curled up there. Her name is Ginger. I swiped my husband's craftsman tool chest. He really didn't need it *grin*. The punches are on kitchen towel racks from IKEA (not my idea, my friend Tiffany saw it somewhere). The display shelf was Mark's idea. It lights up. I love it.

Long view of the room. That's an 8 foot table. And its covered. I think I could have a 20 foot table and it still would be covered. And yes those are paper racks you see. That's for some of my patterened paper collection. The 25 cubby shelf is also from IKEA and holds lots of fun stuff.

More paper storage and more fun stuff on this 9 hole cubby. Its from Target, and I got it about 7 years ago. The wood boxes are from IKEA but they are a pain to put together (I didn't put them together, but my hubby says they were a pain *grin*). There's my litttle cuttlebug on the floor. I love it. I hav a silhouette but I was sucked into getting the bug because of the cool embossing folders.

My table. The trimmer on the left is a Carl Trimmer that is from Sam's Club online. It cuts chipboard and up to 30 sheets of cardstock at once. It was my Valentine's day present last year.

So that's my room. It's my own little world and I love it.

Card Supplies:

Stamps: Paper Makeup Stamps

Paper: Basic Gray

Cardstock: Stampin Up, Neenah

Ink: Memento

Ribbon: May Arts

Markers: Copics

Brad: Making Memories

Oh Baby!

I created this card for the Oh Baby call that CARDs magazine had for the October 2009 issue. Sadly it did not get selected. I still think it's a great card so I wanted to post it and see what you all thought of it!

It was actually really easy to create as well. The star paper has star cutouts and I cut the polka dot paper to fit so that it showed the zigzag on the left and the polka dots through the stars. Then I stitched around the border of the card. The elephant is a die cue and the letters are stickers! All products are from Making Memories.

Paper Makeup Stamps Challenge

My friend Randee introduced me to a great stamp company: Paper Makeup Stamps. They are the company that I got the cute monster stamps that I have been using. Then she directed me to their blog, which posts challenges every Monday. This week's challenge was to use Apple Green and Watermelon and pair it with White and/or Black. I thought that Bronto would be so cute for this card and he didn't disappoint. I am having so much fun with these stamps and hope you enjoy my creation!

Supplies:
Stamps: Paper Makeup Stamps, Hero Arts
Paper: Stampin Up
Ribbon: Making Memories
Buttons: Foof-a-loof
Ink: Memento

KWerner Color Challenge #52

My first impression of the colors for the color inspiration challenge was "Oh no - FIVE colors"! I sometimes struggle when I get too many colors going on, and so I really took my time and just let the creativity flow. I pulled out the papers, perused my stamp collection, and put some of my stash away that had buried my desk.

I settled on using my Papertrey Ink "Life" stamp set. I also knew I wanted to use the So Saffron ribbon from this past Sale-a- bration. The clincher came when I found a 12 x 12 sheet of Sahara Sand in an old Simply Scrapping kit. I thought I only had the ink - talk about limitations! I matted the main image with Baja Breeze, it is a lot more apparent IRL. In the end I was happy with what I created, which is my goal any time I sit down to make a card. Hope you enjoy it too! Off to see what you all have created!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin Up

Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Life

Ink: Stampin Up

Ribbon: Stampin Up

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge Week 6

I was so surprised when I checked Dawn McVey's Blog tonight and saw that there was another Color Challenge posted! These colors are so fun and so I dove right in. I came up with two cards that are only slightly varied from each other.

I couldn't decide which I liked better so I did what every cardmaker who stamps at home does....I padded upstairs and asked my hubby which he liked the best. He never just placates me with an "They are both great honey", he takes time to look at each card, selects which he prefers, and then describes to me why he likes one card over the other. I love that about him!

He preferred the card above. He said that he liked that the white was the focal point of the card (it is embossed with the cuttlebug leaves folder) and that the colors were just accents. He also liked the bow.

I was still torn because I really, really liked the aqua mist background on the card below...so I posted them both. Hope you enjoy! Off to hop around and look at everyone else's entries!

Edited: I added two more photos I took outside. I think the embossing shows up better.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink

Ribbon: Papertrey Ink

Stamp: Paper Makeup Stamps

Ink: Memento

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug

Meet Dreck

I made this card a few nights ago, but didn't get around to posting it until today. I have fallen in love with the Monsters from Paper Makeup Stamps. This little fella's name is Dreck. He kind of reminds me of a little boy running around in footie pajamas.

I colored him with copics and used a Sakura glitter pen to highlight the spots. I ran some vellum through my Cuttlebug embossing folder to add texture.

Supplies:
Stamps: Dreck (Paper Makeup Stamps), Sentiment (PTI)
Cardstock: Stampin Up, DCWV
Ribbon: Dots and Dashes
Ink: Memento
Markers: Copics

Vintage Baby

I just love the 3D stickers from K and Company. I used the airplane in this post and decided to pair the tricycle with the sentiment stamp from Cloud 9 Designs. It made me giggle to think of my little guy tearing it up on a tricycle. I used the Tim Holtz distressing tool on the cardstock and paper, that tool is perfect for this sort of thing. I am not a big vintage card maker, but many of my cards have been leaning that way lately.

While I was in the mood, I made another baby card using some paper that I hadn't put away yet. The block alphabet is Karen Foster and it is from many years ago. I paired it with some plaid chatterbox that just seemed to go perfectly! Love the Heidi Swapp clear stamps as well!

Hope you like them!

Supplies:

Born to be Wild
Cardstock: PTI

Patterened Paper: Fancy Pants

Ribbon: May Arts

Stamp: Cloud 9 Designs

Ink: SU Basic Gray

Sticker: K and Company

Other: Thread

Baby
Cardstock: PTI, Archiver's

Patterned Paper: Karen Foster, Chatterbox

Ribbon: PTI

Stamp: Heidi Swapp

Ink: Distress Ink

Other: Thread

May Card Exchange Roundup

You aren't seeing double...above is the card that I posted yesterday. I wanted to post it again in the round up! See this post for the details on my card. Below is what my wonderful friends have come up with. The theme was to use vellum or acetate on your card. I think everyone did a great job!

Chris' Card

Alyson's Card

Joan's Card

Susi's Card

Teresa's Card

Tiffany's Card (see more of her creations here)

Randee will be posting her card later on her blog.