Love your Pet!

You know that when there are pet themed challenges, I'm going to be all over that!  This card is especially pet themed because I laid a bunch of scraps I had from my 6x6 Snap pad on the floor and said "Sophie, which color should I use?" and the first two she picked were the teal and red.  (Never fear, I made sure they would ALL coordinate with each other before I let her choose!)  I matted them together and then put on a dog cut from Paper Pups that always reminds me of Sophie, because she loves to run around like crazy.   We call it "The Zoomies," and she actually stopped me while I was making this card to entice me into a round of chasing her around the house while she zipped and zoomed around. 

The washi tape underneath the main image is from Queen and Co.  Then below that is a stamp from the "Furry Friends" stamp set by Pink by Design.  I put three gems in the other corner to try to balance it out, and voila: a Sophie inspired card.

This card is being entered into the following challenges:

Craft with Cutters- Love your pets
Fantabulous Cricut- Fun with Puns

Exploring Cricut- Love your pet

PS: Here's a picture of Sophie.  You literally cannot photograph her running, because she's too fast.  So most pictures I have are when she's lying still.  This is the bed I bought her for the craft room, because we spend so much time in there, and the dog blanket that she got from my sister for Christmas. :)

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day tends to get a little overlooked in my house, because it's also Sophie's birthday!  Still, I recently won a set of St. Patrick's Day stamps from Mary at CardzTV, and it inspired me to remember that March 17th is more than just my dog's birthday.  :)

I used a white A2 card base.  It looked so stark against the shamrock paper (from Paper Studio's All Seasons 2) that I decided to ink up the edges a little.  I just used my regular green dye ink, nothing special.  Then I put down some green Ric-rak ribbon.  I cut the shamrocks from Celebrate with Flourish, only using the shadow and the base cut.  Then I went around the shadow with Star Dust stickles.  I love how the clear-ish stickles colors can spice up anything!

I finished the card off with a stamp from my new St. Patrick's Day stamp set. 

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
CardzTV- Luck of the Irish
All That Stickles- Star Dust

Inspired by Pinterest!

Although I've been adding to my Pinterest boards daily, it's been awhile since I actually sat down and made something that I'd seen there.  I get the idea that that might be a common phenomenon.  ;)  Since there's a "Pinterest Inspired" challenge going on at Cut it Up Challenges this week, it seemed like as good a time as any.

I took my inspiration from a card at Mariana Grigsby's Blog.  I don't post other people's pictures on my blogs, so you'll have to check out the link to see her original card.  She uses washi tape and a stamp, along with some rhinestones, to make a really pretty card.  I have the same sets of washi tape, which is why the card initially caught my eye, and I'm always looking for new ways to use it, so it seemed like time to give it a try. 

For my card, I used the shades of blue/purple washi tape set from Target.  I followed her instructions on how to layer the washi tape.  I wanted my card to be a "get well" card, so I stamped the sentiment from Joy's Life "Everyday Occasions." 

The butterfly is cut from Storybook.  I wanted something that was just a silhouette, and I liked this one.  I adhered it down and then drew the fly marks with a gel pen.  For a finishing touch, I decided to add my sparkle not with rhinestones, but with Stickles!

Best of 2012

Nana at My Crafting Channel is hosting a linky party encouraging us to look back at our 2012 projects and pick out what were our favorites.  I had so much fun going back through my posts!  It was hard to pick a favorite, but when it came down to it I decided to go with my Thanksgiving banner, that I made for the first Thanksgiving dinner we hosted here at our house.  Here's a picture in case you need a reminder:

I'd encourage you to look back at the things you made last year and reminisce about them (but I generally encourage reminiscing anyway, because I think it's fun) and then go over and join the linky party! 

10 minute challenge!

I've never done a timed challenge before.  It was hard!  I hadn't realized how much time I spend moving this here, or trying another way to do that, or just tweaking things.  When you only have 10 minutes, you just go!

Because I used a time limited challenge for this card, it's pretty basic.  I stamped the sentiment from an Inkadinkado set, inked the sides a little with some distress ink, and then put it on some kraft cardstock and used foam squares to adhere it.  Then I stamped each of the three arrows (from Stampendous), cut around them, and adhered them with foam squares also.  That's why you can see the shadows behind them. I added three brown pearls at the top and adhered the whole thing to a kraft card.  

Total time: 9 minutes and 29 seconds!

This card is being entered into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Challenge- Use an arrow                                                                        
Pretty Pink Posh- 10 minute dash

Add a little color

The Alley Way Stamps is having another Be Inspired Challenge and I wanted to play along.  I love the colors that they choose to inspire us!  This week's color palate was so bright and colorful, that it made me think of their new freebie- a paintbrush!  I colored the paintbrushes in the four main colors of the picture, and had them "dripping" washi tape colors down the page.  I liked that the washi tape had flowers, because the chair in the inspiration picture had flowers on it.

Then I printed out the freebie sentiment that goes with the paintbrushes and put it over the washi tape.  I colored dots around a few of the letters to highlight it and it was done!

Happy bird-day!

Today's card is totally Cricut-less!  Can you believe it?  I wanted to play along with some challenges and just didn't feel like getting out my little end table, setting up the Cricut, untangling the cord, etc.

I have a simple black base with a white piece of paper that has been stamped with the Fiskar's "Threading Water" border punch.  I stamped the sentiment and the bird from Jaded Blossom's "Bird-Day" stamp set, which was free with a purchase during their release weekend this February.    Then I stamped the bird twice more onto a sheet of pink cardstock.  I cut around the entire bird and glued it down over where I had stamped onto the white cardstock (except for the beak and feet), and then but around just the wing, popped it up with a foam square, and covered it with Fruit Punch stickles.

For a finishing touch, I added a strip of Target brand Washi tape down the left side.  Clean and Simple! 
 

This card is being entered into the following challenges:

All That Stickles- Fruit Punch
CAS-ual Fridays- Black and White plus 1
Alphabet Challenge Blog- A for Anything with Wings                                                      

Paper Playtime- Sentiment Stamp 
Simply Create Too- Mother’s Day/For a Female

Pawprints on my Heart

Today I have a layout to share.  You might remember, I scrapbook Sophie's albums in 8x8.  I've decided to expand the color scheme on her books now that I'm on the third book, in part because I was running out of the original "dog" stack that I had, and in part because there were some awesome dog lines that came out after CHA 2013 and I wanted them.  All.  :)  So here we go:

The background paper is just a piece of cardstock I got in a stack at Hobby Lobby.  Then I put a piece of brown paper and a piece of blue paper from the Deja Views Dog Days stack.  I liked how the brown paper had that big paw print peeking out.  So are the strips of red and blue with green polka dots on each corner.  They're actually a strip of red with some blue/green on top, and I cut the one on the top into the shape of a banner.

Next, I cut the journal block and the yellow heart with the paw print out of a sheet of cuttables I had gotten.  I've already cut away part of the branding strip, but what I still have says "Craft N' Craftin."  I tried to google them and couldn't find anything, but I got it at Archivers if that helps anyone who might like it.  The date block is from Basic Grey's Max & Whiskers. 

Finally, the title is part of the bits from Imaginisce's "Good Dog" line.  So, there it is. 

This layout is being entered into the "The Notebook" challenge at Red Carpet Studios Challenges

Yee Haw!

Hello!  Are you ready for another challenge at Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges?  This week, our theme is:

Use a Hat

This was a really fun challenge!  It gave me a chance to look back through all of my cartridges, because hats are something that I never really paid attention to on cuts.  In the end, I went with one of my newest cartridges, Once Upon a Princess.  I loved this little cowgirl and her hat is so cute!  She's cut at 4 inches, and I used the same colors for her outfit as in the manual, because I loved the combo so much.

My card is slightly smaller than A2.  It's from a premade card base that was given to me by a friend.  I used a cute paper from Echo Park (the This & That: Graceful 6x6 pad) that reminded me of lassos.  Then, I got a chance to use my new Distress Ink (in Old Paper) to ink the edges.  I held off on getting Distress Ink for a long time, but this turned out so cute that I'm positive I'll be getting more.  Watch out, checkbook!

I used a piece of washi tape by We R Memory Keepers as an accent, and then stamped the words using Lawn Fawn's Jessie's ABCs and brown ink.

I used the same alphabet stamps and ink on the inside.  The picture came out way darker for some reason, and you can see the flecks in the paper.  

Our challenge for you this week is to make a project that includes a hat on it- any kind of project!  Link up with us at Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges and play along!  This week's prize is a stamp set from Cardz TV!

White on White

If yesterday's card was meant to highlight the embossing as a contrast to the dark colors, today's is meant to highlight the embossing in a whole other way!  When I saw that the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog was having a White-on-White challenge, I definitely wanted to give it a go.  I love the simplicity of White-on-White.

I used a regular A2 sized white card base, with rounded edges.  Then I ran a piece of white cardstock through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder, and cut it to just slightly smaller than the base (again with rounded edges).  I put a piece of white crinkle ribbon around it toward the top, and then centered on a piece of cardstock that had been embossed with one of the Winter Jellies folders.  (side note:  when using the Winter Jellies folders, I believe it is mandatory to dance around your craft room and sing "I don't think you're ready for this jelly...")

Then I cut a strip of paper for the bottom and stamped the sentiment using Alphadots from Paper Smooches and Memento grey ink.  

Happy Birthday card

There's a birthday card challenge this week at Pink by Design.  I decided to go with darker colors on this card, since I usually use bright colors or pastels.  I used a dark green card base and ink as well as dark purple crinkle ribbon.  

I embossed the white cardstock with the Friends Forever Cuttlebug folder.  As soon as I got this folder, I knew that whenever I used it the design of the embossing would be the focus of the card.  It's just so pretty!

The stamp is from Pink by Design's "Big Thoughts" stamp set.  

Last 2013 Valentine?

This may be my last Valentine card of 2013.  I'm starting to run out of inspiration and red cardstock. ;)

This is a special kind of shape card (I hope it's still considered a shape card!)  The heart is the actual card, and I adhered it to a piece of patterned paper as a little extra embellishment because it looked too plain by itself.  The heart card is cut at 3.75 inches from the Sweethearts cartridge and that patterned paper was just cut to be a little bigger.  I cut the shadow of the heart in white cardstock, the blackout in maroon, and the swirl itself in bright red.  I covered the bright red in a thin layer Christmas Red stickles.  I wanted to make sure the bright red shone through the sparkle.  I wish the stickles glittered better in the photo.  I took so many stinkin' photos trying to get one that showed the sparkles and also kept the colors true.  In the end, I settled for one that shows a smidgen of sparkle but also makes the maroon heart look kind of purpley. 

The stamp is from My Craft Spot's "Birthday Wishes" set.  I masked over part of the sentiment and just stamped the part I wanted. 

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
My Craft Spot- For Your Sweetheart     
Pumpkin Spice- Valentines Day

Fantabulous Cricut- Be my Valentine

Bitten by the Bug 2- Love is in the air (heart or cupid)    

Exploring Cricut- Be my Valentine                                                                     

All That Stickles- Christmas Red                                                                               

Pile it On Challenges- Shaped Card 
Die Cuttin Divas- Color
CASology-Red                              


On another note, look what came in the mail for me yesterday: my prize from a recent challenge win at Little Scrap Pieces!  Those stamps are going to be so versitile and the crinkle ribbon is in such vibrant colors. 

                       

Love is Sweet

Hi friends!  Today I'm sharing a treat using Jaded Blossom stamps.  I just got my new order this afternoon and wanted to make something Valentiney before it was too late.  :)

My treat is a red bag filled with Hershey Kisses.  There are silver hearts all over the bag, in case you can't see it well in the picture. 

I made a 3x3 tag using white cardstock with rounded edges.  I inked the edges with red ink, and then stamped the heart from Jaded Blossom's "Simple Sayings- Valentine Edition" also in red.  Then I stamped a sentiment from the same set in black, just barely overlapping the heart.  I finished it off with some gems on the heart.  Below is a picture of the whole set, and the second picture is a close up of the tag.

I'm entering this card into Jaded Blossom's February Valentine's challenge.

Dog + Cat

Here's a card I made with Four Legged Friends.  As soon as I got this cartridge, I noticed that the little cat and chihuahua both had hearts in their mouths and I thought it would be cute to put them together.  I colored their eyes in with gel pens.  In order to make their hearts different colors, I had to cut the base image again in those colors and then cut them out and glued them on.  I finished the pets off by putting little colored gems on their collars.

The background paper is from Paper Studio Basics.  The pink strip is actually a strip of Target brand washi tape that I taped over a piece of pink paper and then cut out.  It's bright and colorful so if you guessed this Valentine is going to be on its way to my sister, you guessed right.  In fact, it should be there today.

The sentiment is from Scrappy Mom's Stamps "Raining Cats and Dogs" stamp set.  I'm entering this card into the Scrappy Moms Stamps Valentine’s Day challenge.