Trying A New Challenge

Hi everyone. I know I said in my last post that I wouldn't be posting for awhile, but I managed to squeeze in another post. I'm trying a new challenge I recently discovered. It's at the Cards Magazine blog called Create: The challenge is to make a card using baker's twine in an innovative way.

I was trying to think of other ways to use twine than your typical tying a bow around something. I decided to make lollipops with twine. How did I do it? You know the clear plastic backing you get when you buy clear stamps or stickers? You know, the stuff you usually throw away? I have been saving them. I thought I might be able to make my own Glubers with them. I used some Zig two way glue, put a bunch of it on the backing and waited for it to dry into a re-positionable blob of glue. Starting in the center and working my way out, I just kept winding the twine around in a circle until it was the size I wanted and cut away the rest of the plastic. Then I adhered the "lollipops" onto kraft sticks, criss crossed them, tied a bow at the intersect. Here is the rest of the card recipe:

Card Stock - Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Big Top Birthday
Sentiment - Papertrey Ink
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Embellies - Buttons, ribbon, twine

Trigger Target: Perty & Flirty B-Day

Hi everyone! I am excited about today's card. It's another Moxie Fab World Trigger Tuesday card. Cath posted a gorgeous photo of a butter yellow coat against a soft rose background. I love the color of the coat!! It's my favorite color. Heck, I love the coat. I don't think I'd look good in it, but it's nice to admire from afar.

If you love this photo, you too should give this week's Tuesday Trigger a try. It's a two weeker, which gives you plenty of time to play!!

You can see that I drew my inspiration from the color palette. I used the bold yellow paper and paired it with a soft rose background stamp. In the inspiration photo, you'll notice that only a touch of black is in there. I, too, just used a little bit of black.

I also drew inspiration from the pleating on the coat. To mimic the pleating treatment, I ruched the yellow satin ribbon, which also added a soft fabric texture - just like the coat.


One of the gallery idol contestant's cards also served as inspiration. I initially found the card on Pinterest, but I after digging a little deeper, I learned it was a top 20 finalist in the Gallery Idol competition. It was create by Clare Buswell. I love the layout and used it as a sketch for my card.

I hope you enjoyed this. I probably won't be posting for awhile. I am the arts and crafts teacher for my church's VBS and then I will be vacationing in sunny Myrtle Beach with my fam!!

Card Recipe:

Paper - Stampin Up! Whisper White, Big Top Birthday
Stamps - Stampin Up! En Fracais background, So Many Scallops, Studio G
Ink - Stampin Up! Regal Red, Memento Tuexedo Black
Embellies - Yellow ribbon, baker's twine, glitter tape

Tuesday Trigger

Inspiration Card by Clare Buswell

Have a Nice Daisy

This is for my dear friend Bethany, who sent me an image on Facebook and told me she thought it would be good inspiration for a card. I told her I thought it was cute and then she said "You have thus been challenged." Hmmmm ... Okay. I'll take it!! So, Bethany, this one is for you.

Everything was made with my Silhouette die cutting machine. I used the Cuttlebug to emboss the Swiss dots on the purple cardstock.

I thought it might be fun to see if anyone else wants to take up this challenge. Ask a friend to send you an image of something that inspires them, then make a card using the inspiration, then send it to your friend. Wouldn't that be fun? I'd love to hear from any of you who do it. Leave a comment with the link to your post.

Have fun and happy crafting!!

Here is the inspiration photo:

Here is the card:

Hello!!

Hi everyone. Thanks for visiting me! I'm sure most of you got here via the Moxie Fab World blog, where Cath kindly chose to feature me as the Moxie Fabber of the Week.

I was quite humbled when I got the e-mail inviting me to participate. That's why I want to give a big shout out to Cath. She does a terrific job of making each of us feel special.  That has to be hard to do when you have thousands of moxie fabbers out there, because - as Cath says - we are all moxie fab in our own way!!

And, if it weren't for all you moxie fabbers, Moxie Fab World wouldn't exist. Yikes!! I am so grateful for this awesome community of talented and creative individuals, which is why I want to welcome you with - what else - a card!!

Recipe

Ink - Versamark chalk ink, Memento Tuxedo Black

Coloring - Copic Markers

Stamps - The Paper Company, Whimsical Birds; Lawn Fawn, Hello Friend

Paper - Recollections

Foam dimensional adhesive

Flower embellishement

P.S. Feel free to follow my blog. If you leave me a comment letting me know you're a new follower, I'll gladly follow you in return. I love to follow blogs!! :-)

Trigger Target: Stamp It! Cards

Last week, Paper Craft Magazine published its latest edition of Stamp It! Cards. I've entered several contests to try to win a copy, but if I don't win one, I'll have to buy one. It looks gorgeous.

In celebration of the new Stamp It! Cards, Cath posted a very pretty card from the new edition and asked us to use it as inspiration for Tuesday's Trigger Target Challenge. If you've never participated in one, you should try. It's really fun. Cath posts a new challenge at noon every Tuesday.

The card is created by Tina Fussel. I went to her blog hoping to find out a little more about her creation and found a post she had written about what inspired her to create it. Tina writes, "When I made my card I was thinking of what my dream home might look like… a little retro, a little modern, and a little feminine too!"

Armed with this knowledge, I started thinking about creating a room using the stamps I have. This is the card I created. The stamps are from Lawn Fawn's Sew Lovely set. I didn't have any doilies, but I have doily stamps from Maya Road, which I used to create the table cloth. I added a little lace to make it just a tad more feminine.

My Card

Inspiration Card

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!!

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!