So Many Candles

I made this card for my husband's 50th birthday that is in a little over a week from now. I had a already planned to use a different sketch but then I saw this sketch from Retro sketches http://retrosketches.blogspot.com/2012/07/retrosketches-22.html: 

and decided this would work better.
Here is how the card turned out:

 I don't usually make square cards mainly because they cost a bit more to mail but I will not be mailing this card so I went with the square shape.

The candle stamp is from Hero Arts and I stamped it three times with Versamark Watermark ink then embossed it with black sparkle embossing powder on the gray dot pattern paper.

 I then stamped the candles three more times on striped pattern paper the same way except I cut out the candles and glued the striped candles onto the stamped candles on the gray pattern paper.

I made my own sentiment with some small letter stamps from Technique Tuesday. It took some time and a bit of patience on my part to get all the letters straight and even.

 

I was looking for a zigzag border punch when I ran across the "drippy border" punch from Martha Stewart (I don't know the correct name for the punch) and thought it could represent dripping candle wax or icing melting from the heat of sooo many candles. { hee hee}

 Instead of a button on the paper ribbon srtip I used a green and white chipboard piece and added a black punched circle of cardstock to the middle and put the # 50  in white stickers.

We may camping during his birthday but I'm not letting him get off easy. We will be with six or more families so there will be plenty of people to help celebrate the event. I also have a ton of decorations and plan on decorating our trailer and site with all kinds of stuff and I'm lucky there is a Costco nearby so we can have cake too. Just hope everyone can keep it a secret.

Teresa

A Little Gift To Keep In Touch

Just a short post for today.

If you saw the post Blue Floral Set http://teresazuehls.blogspot.com/2012/07/blue-floral-set.html you'll know that I made her a set of six notecards for my aunt's birthday. I wanted to make a box to hold the cards so I grabbed a clear box that Papertrey Ink stamps come packaged in (or at least they use too.).   

 I  made a white belly band to go around the box and decorated the front with some leftover pattern paper from the cards. Then I used two sizes of Nestablilities dies from Spellbinders. The smaller one from one from white cardstock and the larger one from blue cardstock. I stamped the sentiment "Keep in Touch", the swirl and the pen in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. All the stamps are from the set Happy Trails from PaperTrey Ink.

 It's nothing too fancy because in true fashion I was in a hurry to get the package in the mail and  keeping my fingers crossed that it would get there in time. :)

Now I am working on a set for my Mom's birthday. Wish me luck that I get it done in time!
Hope you're having a great day!
Teresa

Butterflies and Blooms

I love my gardens even though I spend many hours tending them.
The rewards I reap from the garden are many.
I feel more in harmony with Mother Nature when I am digging in the warm earth finding creatures that live underground, hearing the birds sing their beautiful songs and watching butterflies and bees gathering sweet nectar from the flowers I have grown in hopes of drawing these creatures of flight to my garden.
I am grateful to live here in the Pacific North West where it is easy to grow such beautiful plants and flowers.
Today I am sharing the bounty of my gardens with you in the form of photos so you too can hopefully enjoy the beauty that only nature itself can provide.



 Have a wonderful day!

Teresa

New Look and A Wild and Crazy Day

Good Morning! Yes, you have reached the right blog. I just changed the picture in my header. I 've had the same photo ever since I started this blog and thought it was high time for a new look. The flower is a gardenia from my garden. Aren't they the most beautiful flower?

Ok, now that it's been established that you're at the right blog it's time for me to share today's card with you.

I based my card off of  Sketch it Saturday Unscripted  Sketches #168 where every Saturday morning they post a sketch for the week. Flip the sketch, rotate it… create a card, a scrapbook page, or anything your imagination comes up with! There is no right or wrong way, as long as you are use the Unscripted Sketch as the inspiration and basis of your creation!

It is also the monthly PIGGYBACK CHALLENGE! The Piggyback challenge is simply an additional, optional challenge to exercise your creativity! This months piggyback challenge is to USE AN ANIMAL on your project.

Go to : http://unscriptedsketches.com/2012/07/unscripted-sketches-168/ to see what the DT made with this sketch.

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 I loved this nice CAS sketch after my last card. (scroll down to the next post to see the many layered card) This sketch is more my style. Not many layers although it would be easy to add more.

As soon as I saw that the Piggyback Challenge was to use an animal I knew I was going to use the zebra stamp and die from It's a Jungle Out There  by Papertrey Ink and also their Animal Print Impression Plate.

Here is how the card turned out:

The paper all came from DCWV Animal Cracker MatStack. The zebra was die cut from white CS and stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I also inked the edges. The circle is also white CS that I ran through the Cuttlebug with the PTI Animal Print Impression Plate then ran the inking tool over it with Black Soot distress ink to help the print stand out a bit more and finished the circle by inking the edges.

 I adhered the zebra image with foam squares to add a bit of dimension and interest to the otherwise flat card.

 The sentiment is from the same PaperTrey Ink stamp set as the zebra. I added the white CS so the green banner would stand out and added the square zebra gemstone. Had to have my bling!

I cut the branch with a Sizzix Branch w/Leaves die and adhered it partially under the embossed the circle so it would be grounded and not look like it was floating.

Wishing all my blog visitors and followers a happy Monday!

Teresa

Feel Better Soon

Finally I found time to make a card using this wonderful sketch from Mojo Monday #250. I have been dying all week to use it and today was THE day!
Here is the sketch:

 And this is what I put together.:

 Now this type of sketch is not easy for me since I am more of a CAS person but the all the banners lured me to the sketch 'cause I seem to like banners. 
I started out with the bottom layers and worked my way to the top then I picked my stamps and embellishments last. Usually I start with my stamp images and work from there but today was different.

The paper is all from DCWV Citrus Matstack. It has such vibrant colors and pretty floral prints.

 I knew I was making this a get well card so I picked Tea For Two stamp set from Papertrey Ink and used the teapot die that matches the stamp. Well I ended up die cutting the paper from the wrong side but actually that worked out because I wanted the teapot to face towards the right side of the card not the left. But that posed another problem. That meant I couldn't use the matching stamp because now it was going the wrong way. Now what was I to do! So I came up with idea to ink the edges of the teapot with Spiced Marmalade then added pen stitching. I'm still not happy with the teapot I may try to find something else to add to it. Maybe a small flower or something.

 The doily stamp is also Papertrey Ink and I stamped it with Broken China onto white cardstock than inked it with Tumbled Glass distress ink before fussy cutting it out and cutting it in half. I die cut and embossed a white cardstock circle and inked the edges with Spiced Marmalade.

 The sentiment is stamped with Versa Mark watermark ink and embossed with black sparkle embossing powder. I fussy cut a flower from some of the pattern paper and  made ribbon leaves for it. I just learned how to make them from the sweet Melisa Phillips blog:http://lilybeanpaperie.typepad.com/lilybeans_paperie/2012/07/stamp-a-faire-ribbon-techniques.html
She has a video on how to make three different ribbon leaves. Please visit her blog to watch her short video. I have had a small piece of ribbon floating around my desk for about a month that I just couldn't bear to throw away. Imagine how great I felt when I got to use it on my card today!!

I used foam adhesives to adhere the teapot to the doilie and white circle to add some dimension to the card.

 I have nodded off a couple of times now so I need to get this posted before I fall asleep at the computer :).

Hope everyone is enjoying family time and having a wonderful weekend.

Teresa

A Note of Thanks

Good morning! I have a card to share. I used this sketch for my card which I think has unlimited possibilities!
Here is where you can find the sketch: http://ispysketches.blogspot.com/2012/07/issc24-shari-carroll.html

 This is what I created with the I Spy Sketch:

 I decided on four colors one being neutral which is the gray. I first started with hexagons but didn't like how it was going and switched to circles. I embossed each circle with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I first tried a white background but the colors of the circles just didn't seem to stand out like I wanted them to so switched it to black and that seemed to make the colors pop.

 I added the sentiment which is from Papertrey Ink "Happy Trails" towards the bottom third of the card.

 

The five butterfly shapes are a Martha Stewart punch punched out from white cardstock then added teeny tiny black gemstones  for their bodies.

I only had enough black gemstones for four butterflies so I decided to use gray gemstones on two of the butterflies. I used foam squares to pop up the butterflies for an bit of dimension on an otherwise  one layered card.
Thanks for dropping by my blog and have a wonderful day!
Teresa
PS I also entered this card in CAS-UAL FRIDAY'S Challenge which is CFC62: Create a Clean And Simple card using a black card base. Visit their CAS-UAL Fridays blog and see the inspirtation the Girl Fridays created: http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2012/07/cfc62.html
Thanks Angie for suggesting that I enter my card in this challenge.

Sing Your Own Song

Today I was able to sneak in a card before I had to make dinner. The guys have been working hard on our fence the last two days and work late into the evening so dinner has been later then usual and gave me a little extra crafty time.

Here is my quick card:

I am entering this card in the Stamp It! Cards Birthday Challenge in the Moxie Fab World ( http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/06/stamp-it-cards-week-birthday-card.html )

 All you have to do is create a birthday card in which stamping is the primary technique.

The sketch I used is one I have made before and really liked it. You can find it here: http://www.mftstamps.com/blog/?p=9760

You can find the card I made earlier with this sketch here http://teresazuehls.blogspot.com/2012/04/special-wishes.html

The border is made with Fiskars scalloped border punch and I ran the pattern paper through a happy birthday embossing folder. I love the look of embossed pattern paper and is a great way to change its look.

 For my main element I used a Spellbinders die to cut and emboss white cardstock. Next I used one of my favorite inking techniques...resist. I stamped the bird image with Versa Mark watermark ink and used white embossing powder (you can also use clear EP but sometimes I like to use the white as it seems to stand out a bit more) to emboss the image. Next comes the fun part. I started out first with Spun Sugar Distress ink, then Worn Lipstick, then Spiced Marmalade around the outer edges. I used Worn Lipstick again on the very edge.

I then spritzed the whole thing with Perfect Pearls to give it an over all shine. After it was completely dried I stamped the sentiment "It's your day" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and used foam pop up squares to mount it to the card.

 It is so hard to caputure the shine on camera but in real life it so pretty.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and I hope you enjoyed your visit.
Teresa

Life is About Who You Love

For my card today I used this darling sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge:

Check out the details at Karen's blog http://kgiron.blogspot.com/2012/07/sweet-sunday-sketch-challenge-163.html She also makes the most amazing cards! Every card is embellished with her mad sewing skills. 

 For my card I used this little 6x6 paper pack from Studio 18. This is one out of three different packs and they all have this bright and fun retro vibe about them.

 And now for my card:

I was happy how this card came together so quickly.
For the main focal element I just cut it out and popped it up with foam squares and adhered it to the white cardstock that I embossed using the Swiss Dot EF (I don't think I can make a card without using it).  I punched a label and stamped "friend" and put it along the side.

 For the border I again cut a border from the paper and matted it with orange and white cardstock, layered the vertical element over it and layered the Simple Chartreuse ribbon (Papertrey Ink) on top.

 I layered two flowers together and I just had to add a bit of bling to the card so I put a glittered flower in the center to finish off the flower.

 Oh, and by the way the embossed background is one of the two new EF I picked up at Joann's yesterday. This one is called Palm Leaves. I really like how it looks. It also came with a border embossing folder too.
Hope you give this sketch a try because I think you will really like how easy it is to work with.

Have a wonderful day!

Teresa

Hooked on Hexagons

Today's card is for two challenges: Hooked On Hexagons at Moxie Fab World and Retro Sketches.

The Hooked on Hexagon challenge is to create a paper crafted project (card, gift bag, tag, layout, home decor item, mini-book cover, etc.) that incorporates hexagons in an innovative way. http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/07/hooked-on-hexagons-challenge.html  You really should check out the challenge as Cath has provided us with tons of beautiful and inspiring photos.

The second challenge is a sketch  from Retro Sketches http://retrosketches.blogspot.com/2012/07/retrosketches-20.html 

 Here is the awesome sketch:

This is my first time playing at Retro Sketches. I have been a bit intimidated by the sketches since I am more of a CAS girl but this week I took the plunge.

Here is what I came up with when I combined the two challenges:

 To be honest I don't know if I am pleased with how it turned out or not. One minute I love it and the next I'm not so sure and think maybe I over did it with embellishments. I made a few changes to the sketch because the vertical element that I used on my card is so much taller than on the sketch

The pattern papers I used are from this 6x6 paper pack from Paula Deen. Ha! I guess everyone is getting in on  paper crafting world! Found it in the dollar section at Michael's for $1.50.

They also had matching tags to go with the papers. And if I had looked at the tags before I started my card I could have used the tag that would have been more of the correct size for the vertical element. Next time I'll know better.

I was pleased with the way my cluster of embellies turned out but again I'm not sure if I over did it. The first time I thought I was done I decided it needed a butterfly. So I punched, embossed and inked a pale yellow butterfly and added it to the top of the cluster.

Then I wanted to add the word Celebrate on a mini tag and place it along the bottom of the flower but the tag covered up too much of the butterfly embossed hexagon. So I went to plan B and placed it at the top right side of the vertical element.

I decided to use the Swiss Dot embossing folder on the vertical element, butterfly and the smallest hexagon. I used a butterfly embossing folder on the medium brown cardstock hexagon and I spritzed it with perfect pearls.

The hexagon punches are Creative Memories and the butterfly and both leaf branches are Martha Stewart. I inked the edges of the two pattern paper hexagons. I used three different sized peals: a large one for the center of the flower, a tiny one on the wing of the embossed butterfly hexagon and the three at the bottom left corner are medium size.

I thought I would ask my you, my blog friends, if you think I over did it on the embellishments or if it is just right. I would appreciate your input as I said before I am more of a CAS type of gal.

Thanks!

Teresa