Thursday, June 30, 2011

Happy Fourth of July!!

Independence Day in the U.S. is right around the corner. In fact, my family and I went to fireworks last week. We sat so close that ashes fell in our hair!! A burning ember hit the ground just a few feet from us. I love fireworks, but the burning ember near my young kids made me a little nervous. We ended up having a great time and the kids can't wait to see fireworks again on the fourth (and neither can I)!

Here is a little card I whipped up last night in honor of Independence Day. As I was making it, I was thinking about how loud the fireworks were last week because we were so close. Boom! was the perfect sentiment to describe our evening!

The border frame was made with my Silhouette machine, as were the stars and the sentiment. I actually took two border files that come free with the Silhouette machine and merged them with the frame. This is also known as welding. Then, I embossed the white background with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and adhered the frame onto it with pop dots. I added the stars and button to finish it, but I kept thinking something was missing. This morning, I looked at it again and the lightbulb above my head turned on (just as I thought it was burned out!) I decided to weave some red ribbon through the holes of top and bottom borders. I really like the finished product!!

I decided to submit it to the Moxie Fab World Beautiful Borders challenge. I usually only submit one card per challenge, but I like this one and I'm just going to go for it!! You are all invited to "go for it" too. Just click on the link above and enter your creation!!

Happy Fourth of July to all my American visitors!! And to all of my visitors, have a great weekend and happy crafting!!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Borders Make Me Smile ...

... and I'm not talking about the (now defunct) bookstore or boundaries separating countries. I'm talking about the beautiful decorative edges on cards. This card was made for the Moxie Fab World Challenge to create cards using borders. There is still a lot of time to join in on the fun.

Speaking of fun ... I had a lot of fun with this one. I decided to just let go just play! Not only was it fun, but it was the perfect opportunity to use up some of those pesky little scraps that seem to overtake my storage bins! I used several techniques to create the borders. The top border was created with a scrap using my MS border punch. Border number 2 is a piece of designer paper I dug out of scrap box. I decided not to put any edges on it because I felt the stripes were decorative enough. Border three is some ribbon. I made the fourth border with my scallop punch. Instead of punching the whole piece of paper, I just punched a small edge three times. Then I arranged the pieces to form a border. Ditto to the bottom border. This time I used my circle punch two times. I cut the circles in half and overlapped them a bit to give them a scalloped look.

The border around the flower was created with a Studio G stamp (Michael's dollar bin). I stamped it on another scrap and cut it out. The flower is one of those awesome medallion flowers from Maya Road. I just love them!! The sentiment is from another company I love, Lawn Fawn!

Here is the card:


The Deets!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Feeling Blue?

Hi everyone!! I hope you had a nice Father's Day. I let my DH take a really loooooooooong nap. Meanwhile, I made a card!!

This one is for the Moxie Fab World Trigger Target - Rainbow Bright. (See pic below.) I noodled on this for awhile. I kept thinking of ideas, but none were inspiring to me. Then, I made the fatal error of checking out everyone else's cards in the challenge. They are all really good!! I have to say, there are some amazing paper crafters out there.Watch out Hallmark! These guys put you to shame.

I almost gave up on entering this challenge, but then I came across this card by my friend Lisa Lara at SCS. I loved the idea!! The best part of this card is that it was so quick and easy to make. I just took my Copic Sketch markers and made a few swipes with the wide edge using ROY G BIV colors. (I never knew how significant that acronym would be when I learned it in elementary school!) I knew the perfect sentiment to complement the design: the Inkadinkado Kids Quotes! The sentiment fit the design and the fun childlike font went well with the hand-colored rainbow.

Here's my card:


Feeling Blue?


The details

Trigger Target - Rainbow Bright

Monday, June 13, 2011

My Boy Is Six!!

Today, my favorite little guy turned six. I can't believe how big and mature he is getting. I still remember the ornery little toddler who kept me on my toes! He's still ornery and he still keeps me on my toes, but a toddler he is not. He is so full of personality and zeal. He is so passionate about the things he loves. Right now, his passion is cars. He loves all cars, but his all-time fave is Disney Pixar Cars. The new Cars 2 movie is slated to open in a week-and-a-half and my little bud is practically beside himself. So, of course, when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, his answer was a Cars 2 cake - not a Cars cake, but Cars 2. I had only one problem with that request. Cars 2 isn't out yet and none of the bakeries carry Cars 2 cakes. I had to exercise creativity and make one myself. I am not, nor will I ever profess to be a cake decorator. But I am a mom who loves her boy and wants to make him happy, so I gave it a go.

First, I scoured the web to find ideas. I looked at cakes, pictures and even went to the Disney Pixar site to find out more about the new movie. Then, I had a plan.

Fortunately, Cars 2 toys are at stores. I picked up a small Cars 2 Lightning McQueen and Francesco Bernoulli (a new character) at Target. I bought a toy Hot Wheels trophy at Party City and found these cool sugar sheets from Wilton for the track. I made a World Grand Prix sticker for the trophy and created flags on my computer, cut them and used toothpicks for the flagpoles. The rest was done with frosting and cake decorations.



I am happy to report that the cake was a big hit! He loved it. I love him. Happy Birthday, little buddy!!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

You Melt My ♥

Hello friends. Today I have a fun card I made for the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger challenge. Not only does the card complement the inspiration photo (See Cosmopolitan Neapolitan photo below ), but it's very timely! Ohio's weather is crazy lately. We went from a cold, miserable winter, to six weeks of rain and accompanying thunderstorms, to record-breaking high temps. I must say I prefer the high temps, but I miss the mild spring weather. IMHO, the best way to cool off in the hot humid weather is a big old bowl of ice cream. Those of you who know me personally, know that I loooooove ice cream. When asked, "What's your favorite food?" my reply is always ice cream!!

So without further adieu, I present to you my card, appropriately named "You Melt My ♥":


Inspiration: Cosmopolitan Neapolitan
Believe it or not, I don't own an ice cream stamp, so I created the sundae with my Silhouette die cutting machine. The scoops of ice cream were easy to make. I created an oval and some smaller circles and welded them together. The dish was actually a free download I found on the Paper Craft Magazine web site. I imported it into my machine and turned it into a cut file.  I also created the melted goo in my machine, but if you don't have a die cutting machine, MS sells a fun punch called Drippy Goo that would work, too. The word melt is made from a font I found called Schlop. It's perfect for this!! (Warning: Do not use Schlop in red unless you want a scary card that looks like dripping blood!)

If you look closely, you'll see that the ice cream and the words on the card have a pearly finish. That's because I used Liquid Pearls on them. I noticed the frozen treats in the inspiration piece had a glazed look, as if they were starting to melt. I wanted to achieve the same effect, but since paper doesn't melt, I had to use the Liquid Pearls to make it look melted! I also followed the color palette in the inspiration photo, using cream, pink and brown. And, of course, the frozen treat in the pic was the inspiration for the ice cream! Thanks for looking and enjoy!!

Monday, June 6, 2011

A Classically Modern Card

Ah yes, it's Sunday night and the deadline for the Moxie Fab Trigger Tuesday Challenge is fast approaching. I barely made it by the skin of my teeth. I don't like doing things at the last minute (except for when it comes to cleaning and especially laundry. Yuck!). It has been a very busy week. My three year old came down with a fever, and I've had birthdays, graduations and doctor's appointments. I'm glad I made it in.  :-)

Here is the inspiration piece for the this week's challenge:


Isn't it gorgeous?!? It's the perfect color scheme for a bedroom. The blue is soothing, making it easy to relax and fall asleep. Zzzzzzz ... Oh, excuse me, I dozed off for a sec. Seriously, the blue is awesome. The white, however, is a great color to wake you up and put you in a good mood. It's bright and cheery.

Here is the card:
 

 I followed the color scheme of blue and white with just a touch of pink. I was inspired by the damask pattern on the bedroom wall. I created the flourishes on the white part of the card with my Silhouette. Did you know you can install dingbats and the Silhouette turns them into cut files? Yep. That's what I did. The fleur d lis is from a stamp set I bought on sale by the Paper Studio. The metallic bling is also cut from my Silhouette machine. I added diamond stickles to make it shine. I think it looks a lot like the artwork hanging above the bed in the inspiration piece. Then, I added a touch of pink with a sparkly gem in the center. I hope you enjoy it.

It's too late to enter this week's challenge, but if you go to Moxie Fab World on Tuesdays, Cath posts a new challenge every week.



Thursday, June 2, 2011

Inspiration is Everywhere ...

 Including the Scrap Yard!

I decided to participate in the Etsy Inpsired Challenge. I entered it once before a few weeks ago, but haven't found the time to enter it again until now. I'm so excited about this particular challenge. The featured Etsy designer is PaulaArt, a self taught artist who works with lost, tossed and forgotten items that are left by the roadside, buried in an old barn, or deposited at the local scrap yard. When I saw her work, I knew my card would include a lot of texture, distressing, layers, metal embellishments and bold colors on an earth-tone background.

Here is the artwork that inspired the card:


And here is the card:
I loved the bold colors against the rusty background. I also was inspired by the red and yellow lines that form a diagonal on the top right corner. The stamp is one I found in the Michael's dollar bin. It's Studio G and apparently it's rare and hard to find! I loved the vintage look of the stamp and thought it complemented the Blaster can in the original piece. I hope you like it. I had a lot of fun making it!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...