Beautiful Blooms Thank You

For today's card I used the wonderful sketch #212 from Unscripted Sketches.

What is so nice about this sketch is that you can leave it pretty simple and have a great little card or dress it up as much as you want.

 My inspiration to make this card all came from the pretty edged yellow ribbon that I bought yesterday at Jo-Ann's in the dollar section. I don't know about you but I always have to check out that section because I almost always find something I can't live without. Yesterday it was just the roll of yellow ribbon that came home with me. I matched the ribbon with the mat stack Cafe Mediterranean from DCWV.

I used the Papertrey stamp set "Beautiful Blooms II for the flowers and leaves. I used Broken China and Shabby Shutters distress inks to stamp the flowers. I kept adding things to the flowers after I had stamped them instead of just leaving them as they were, which is what I generally do. Instead I added the button and tied it with bakers twine and for the smaller flowers I added yellow pearls. The border strip is wrapped with twine and I roughed up the edges of the strip with my distress tool which I seem to be using on all my cards this week.

Here is a tip for your distress tool:

Mark the sections with #s so you know which ones have been used and are dull and which ones haven't been used and are still sharp. As you can see I haven't used mine all that much as I am still on the first section. But I know that is the section I have been using and will continue to use it until it no longer works before moving on to a different section and numbering it #2. Not a big tip but one that will help you to get a longer use out of your distress tool.

Here is a peek of the inside of the card.

 

 Once again I had a leftover strip of paper. It was a piece of the pretty floral pattern paper and I didn't want to throw it out or store it so I decided to use it on the inside of the card and stamped a flower and leaf to go with it.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I am so excited to have something creative to share with you all once again. It has been forever since I have made a card. Although I have been crocheting a bit the last two or so days.
Any way yesterday I finally felt a creative spark and cranked out three cards. I made them all thank you cards as that is what I needed. I have found it very difficult to make any cards since I have a very tiny space to work in and a very limited amount of supplies. I will have to take a picture of my temporary space. I can't wait to get back to my craft room!!
It was kind of hard finding my creative groove again so I am not exactly happy with the out come of the cards. I guess it will take a bit of time to get my mojo going again.
For my first card I used the March sketch from A Blog Named Hero (http://ablognamedhero.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-sketch.html)

And here is my creation:

 For all three cards I used my new DCWV Cafe Mediterranean matstack.

I love the hummingbird and floral print. I used Walnut Stain distress ink on all the edges and used the Fiskar Treading Water border punch.

The heart is from an Autumn Leaves Heart and Star stamp set. I stamped the heart on pattern paper with Versa Mark Watermark ink and used clear embossing powder. I then cut it out and inked the edges before adhering it with pop up dots to the card. I forgot to add the twine so I just added a strip of pattern paper. Actually come to think of it I don't have any twine with me so I would have had to use paper anyway.

For my second card I used  sketch #201 ...

...from Unscripted Sketches.

It's a pretty simple card, actually all three are pretty simple cards.

I just used a Spellbinders die and white cardstock to stamp the sentiment on and inked the edges with Firebrick Red distress ink and used popup dots to adhere it to the card.

And for my last card I used this sketch...

...from Freshly Made Sketches .

And here is my last card:

 Again another quick and simple card. By the time I finished this card I had ran out of sun and had to take these last two photos outside.

I used Spellbinder dies where I stamped two flowers (Inkadinkado- Doodle Flowers) and the the "thanks so much" sentiment (Papertrey Ink) in black ink. I popped up the sentiment in the middle of the flowers.and three layers of pattern paper.

I wanted to make a fourth card but ran out of time. Maybe I will get to it today but right now I need to get back to some house work. You know mundane things like the morning dishes, laundry and groceries.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting. Hope to hear from you again soon!

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

...The Courage to Imagine

I made this graduation card using this sketch from Unscripted Sketches:

And I am also entering it in the Damask and Brocade Challenge at Moxie Fab World:

http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/05/card-creations-week-damask-brocade.html
And here is my card:

 The black and white damask pattern paper is from Studio g the stamp is Tim Holtz.

 I stamped it with versamark watermark and embossed with black sparkle embossing powder.

I added black floss to the cardboard button then layered it with black cardstock and an orange die cut circle and inked the edge with black soot distress ink. I inked the congrats stamp from PTI with Memento black ink on Neenah white solor paper.
And thats it for now.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Teresa

You Are A Special Friend

For today's card I used a sketch from Unscripted Sketches:

http://unscriptedsketches.com/2012/04/unscripted-sketches-156/  They just posted a new sketch so go on over and check it out and play along.

Here is how I interpeted Sketch #156:

 There is a sad little story about the stamp I used but it has a happy ending. I believe it was my Aunt who gave me this sweet little boy stamp years ago and I really loved him but I couldn't think of a single way to use him. Of course I had not been stamping long and had few stamps which could have been part of the reason for my lack of inspiration. I even almost purged him a few months ago but just didn't have the heart because he was just too cute and I felt guilty not even inking him up once. So I held onto him. A few days ago I was putting stamps away after finishing some cards and I ran across the little guy and it just hit me that he would be perfect to use with this sketch. And now I have thought of a few other ways to use him so I think he will be sticking around for a while longer.

 The papers are all from the Matstack Linen Closet from DCWV and it's one of my favorite Matstacks. The flowers and the sentiment are from Hero Arts Heart Flowers and I believe this is the first time I have used this set too. I inked the flowers with Broken China distress ink and stamped them onto Neenah Solar White paper. I then spritzed them lightly with Perfect Pearls so they the look of watercolor. I added some blue gemstones to the centers of the flowers.

For the boy I stamped him with VersaMark ink then used black sparkle embossing powder to heat emboss him. Next I used watercolor pencils to color him and I apologize for the bad coloring. That is one area I need a whole lot more practice in. Also I have a just a handful of colors. (Not that it would help me much to have a wider variety to pick from.) I cut him out and adhered him to the white paper and lightly spritzed with Perfect Pearls then I backed all the rectangles with a tan mats. I wrapped blue thread around the little boy rectangle and I had enough thread leftover to make a bow which I put in the upper left corner. I arranged all the finished rectangles onto a shiny blue mat that I had trimmed on two edges with a scalloped border punch from Fiskars. I left the two short ends straight. I stamped the sentiment with VersaMark ink and embossed with white embossing powder. Then I adhered the finished blue mat onto the front of  my card.
I tried to show how shimmery the blue paper and the white rectangles are. The shimmer is so hard to capture in photos.

Enjoy your weekend!

Teresa

Last of the Patriotic Cards

I now have twenty two 4th of July/Patriotic cards to send to our troops overseas! Here are the last two cards I made:
First card is from sketch #155 from Unscripted Sketches:

This is really a fun and easy sketch to use. Click here and check out how their design team used the sketch: http://unscriptedsketches.com/2012/04/unscripted-sketches-155/

Here is my card:

 The background is embossed with the star and dotted swiss Cuttlebug embossing folders. I stamped the star image over Hero Arts Envelope Pattern. Both were inked with Fired Brick distress ink.

 I wrapped the gold thread under the stamped star and tied it. I used a gold star gemstone on the small blue square.

The sentiment was stamped with Watermark VersaMark ink and embossed with white embossing powder.

And here is the last of my patriotic cards:

 The red cardstock is embossed with the star embossing folder and the blue cardstock is embossed with the swiss dot folder. The three small stars were punched out of leftover white cardstock that had been stamped with the Envelope Pattern from the card above. I inked the edges with Fired Brick distress ink.

 I wrapped the cardstock with red and white bakers twine and tied a bow. I stamped the two sentiments on white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I used a gold star gemstone on the 4th of July sentiment.
Taking a break from cards for a day or two and will have something else to share with you all tomorrow.
Teresa