a true friend is you friend

I'm doing another guest spot on 365 Cards today, today's theme is "imagine this wood."  This week we have some great goodies to play with from Heidi Stock Design.  I've used the Flora Flourishes set, printed out a collage of different sheets, scored the middle (so my card actually has a back, something I rarely do.)  I ran the doily through the woodgrain embossing folder and then heat embossed the rosy posie die cut with clear embossing powder.  So, even though I haven't used any Lawn Fawn stamps, I'm going to enter this in the Lawnscaping Embossing challenge, and there's still a tiny bit more time to play along with the Three Cool Chick's "Let's Get Trendy Now" challenges, so I've got a doily and woodgrain, double whammy here.


365 Cards is giving away 3 paper packs this week from Heidi's design shop.  Come play along with us for your chance to win.  If you can't wait and want to get some fabulous goodies this week she's offering a special 40% off coupon.  Please put 365365 in at checkout, good for any item in her Etsy shop.  Can't wait to see what you do with the wood themed.  


Materials: PTI Fillable Frames, PTI Rosie Posie, Heidi Stock Design Flora Flourishes, doily, Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder, Versafine black ink, Versamark, Stampendous clear embossing powder, PTI rustic white card stock, PTI rosie posie die

Happy Birthday pocket card

Procrastinator over here is making cards instead of packing a lunch and getting ready for a crazy day at work...  so... straight to the details.  Today's card uses this week's Play Date Cafe and the new Make It Monday "pocket card" video.  I'm thinking this might work for the teen birthday card I was asked to make? Over and out, better get my rear end out the door, Happy Memorial Day.

Materials: PTI sentiment, PTI Boy Basics, The Craft's Meow Retro Foundations, VersaColor icicle ink, PTI pure poppy ink, Versafine black ink, PTI vintage white card stock, staples, corner rounder

Happy Birthday, plus tag and wine label

Welcome to another 365 Cards Super Sketchy Sunday, we have a fabulous sponsor this week, Heidi Stock Design.  I've used her Digital Paper pack Flora Flourishes and printed it onto kraft card stock.   I'll admit that my first attempt at this week's sketch was another wine label, see below, but something wasn't quite working, so I left it to simmer on my craft desk and then revisited it in the morning (giving it a good trim and a few minor adjustments).  But then I decided that the wine label needed a card (see above).   Those Three Cool Chicks are still having fun with their Let's Get Trendy Now class and this one uses woodgrain in a different way then my last project.   

But then my card and wine label decided that it wanted to be a whole party package.  Do you ever have  those times when your craft project takes on a life of it's own?

So I thought since I had out The Craft's Meow stamps with the fun Heidi Stock design paper I might as well play along with their sketch challenge, I just made a gift tag.  

And now my birthday goodies are complete, card, cute decorated bag, bottle of wine complete with fab label.  Only thing missing?  A birthday party invitation.

If you've made it this far you deserve a prize!  And speaking of prizes, 365 Cards is giving away 3 paper packs this week from Heidi's design shop.  Come play along with us for your chance to win.  If you can't wait and want to get some fabulous goodies this week she's offering a special 40% off coupon.  Please put 365365 in at checkout, good for any item in her Etsy shop.  Please leave me a comment if you get inspired by my birthday goodies, I'd love to see what you create.  And now, go check out the other 365 Cards DT gals and see what they've created.

Dana, Wendi, Rose, Jenny and Annie

Materials: Card: The Craft's Meow Retro Foundations and Sew Happy, Heidi Stock Flora Flourishes digital paper, PTI kraft card stock, black card stock, Versafine black ink, Tim Holtz distress ink antique linen, Stampendous clear embossing powder, EK Success 1 3/4th inch circle punch, Spellbinders scallop circle die,  Martha Stewart scor-pal

Wine Label: The Craft's Meow Sew Happy, Heidi Stock Flora Flourishes digital paper, PTI chevron and edgers #1 die, EK Success 1 3/4th inch punch, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 8 die, PTI kraft card stock, Tattered Angels black mist, Versafine black ink, Stampendous clear embossing powder, Littly Yellow Bicycle rhinestones

Tag: The Craft's Meow Sew Happy and Retro Foundations, Heidi Stock Flora Flourishes digital paper, PTI double sided banner die and Tag It Sale die, vellum, Versamark black ink, Stampendous clear embossing powder, Little Yellow Bicycle rhinestone, Paper Souce circle punch, May Arts natural string, Sharpie Black pen

a note of thanks, PTI blog hop

It's another PTI blog hop, and I just love checking out all the amazing projects.  This month's challenge is to make a card based on the photo above.  I thought of this card and CASEd myself, always fun to have a project to revisit. If any of you PTI fans live in Northern California I've got a fun giveaway on my work blog, click here to see what you could win.  Off to hop along some crafty fun and find more inspiraiton.

Materials: PTI Mendhi Medallions, PTI Happy Trails sentiment, Creative Charms bling, Versafine black ink, PTI white and simply chartreuse card stock, black card stock, Spellbinders dies

WMS Projects

Waltzingmouse Stamps is having a belated Blog party, my thoughts go out to Claire's recent loss.  While in theory I could've made a sympathy card, I opted for more of a celebration.  Let's just say my project today took on multiple different forms before finally deciding on its mission in life.  If you scroll back through some of my other posts you'll see I've been playing with MFT wine dies, so since my desk is a disaster, there are extra die cuts floating around (or buried beneath huge piles of scraps).  So in the end I made an wedding card.  The wine label uses a felt flower for the hop and the card has a felt chevron strip. I'm also going to play along with the Let's Get Trendy Now and Moxie Fab World Doilies and Lace challenges, I ran my doily through both antique linen and vintage photo to give it a bit of a distressed look.  It's hard to tell on the wine label, but I inked up a few of the decorative accents from WMS Very Vintage Label No 1 in antique linen to give a bit of a background.

I tried, unsuccessfully to figure out how I could incorporate the hop and this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge together.  So in the end I opted to try a one layer card (b/c sometimes when I get overwhelmed by layers and choices it's a good exercise to just remove them all).  I've been wanting to play along with the Moxie Fab World postal challenge, so thankfully I've finally got out my WPlus9 and PTI postage stamps.  I've used WMS Frame It sentiment and then if you look closely you'll see WMS Big Bloom hiding in there too.

Materials: Wine Label: Waltzingmouse Stamp Very Vintage Label No 4, Waltzingmouse Stamps Frame It sentiment, felt flower from stash, button, Stampendous white embossing powder, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 4, My Favorite Things Let's Toast die, Versafine black ink, Tim Holtz distress inks antique linen and vintage photo, doily, black twine


Wine Glass card: Waltzingmouse Stamps Very Vintage Labels No 4, My Favorite Things Let's Toast dies, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 4 die, PTI chevron dies, PTI kraft card stock, PTI kraft felt, PTI limitless layers oval die, Vellum, Stampendous white embossing powder, Tim Holtz distress ink antique linen


Postage card: WPlus9 Spring Post, PTI Postmarked, Waltzingmouse Stamps Frame It and Big Blooms, PTI kraft card stock, Versafine black ink, Tim Holtz distress ink antique linen

time for some girl talk!

Seriously can you think of anything better then wine with girlfriends?  Today's I'm filling in over at 365 Cards and the challenge is "1/3rd", whether that's 1/3rd stamping, paper, etc.  I filled 1/3rd of the card with fun papers from April's Artful Delight card kit, die cut a wine glass from My Favorite Things Let's Toast die and added the PTI On My Couch Additions sentiment.  I'm also going to play along with this week's CAS-ual Fridays (dies and punches) and Make It Monday (patterend paper).  Come play along with us at 365 Cards and I'd love to see how you interpret 1/3rd...  

Materials: PTI On My Couch Additions sentiment, PTI Frame It #4 die, My Favorite Things Let's Toast die, PTI chevron dies, Pink Paislee Indigo Blue & Prairie Hill patterned paper, PTI white card stock, vellum, Versafine black ink, water color pencil

Happy Birthday

A super quick post today, as I'm trying to accomplish too many things in a short amount of time.  Today's birthday card works for the Moxie Fab World Gingham Challenge and CAS-ual Fridays "get punchy" challenge.  I just posted a fun post on my work blog, seriously makes me want to be a tourist in my own town!  And one of these days I'll share a few more photos from our travels, as I finally sorted the rest of our trip.... 

Materials: PTI Pretty Peonies stamp and die, My Favorite Things Let's Toast die, PTI Build a Banner die, Bella Blvd patterned paper, Versafine black ink, PTI white card stock

Happy Birthday and camping photos

Welcome to another 365 Cards Super Sketchy Sunday!  I've used this week's sketch to make a CAS birthday card.  Can't wait to see what you do with the sketch.  I've used a new Hero Arts flower stamp that my boys gave me for Mother's Day and some HA papers so I could play along with their month long birthday challenge.  

Go and check out the rest of the fabulous 365 Cards DT and see what they've come up with: 

Dana, Wendi, Rose, Jenny and Annie.

And I've been off playing (I know, I know, I just went to Africa, you'd think I'd stop playing, but I really believe that the best way to get over the post vacation blues is to go on another trip-- so went camping!) and b/c I love sharing, here are a few photos...    

Materials: Hero Arts flower, Waltzingmouse Stamps Frame It sentiment, Hero Arts Designer Earth paper, PTI kraft card stock, American Crafts button, Versafine black ink, Tim Holtz Distress ink antique linen. Spellbinders Nestabilities Label One

couch cards and a gardening giveaway

hoping you're fully "Re-covered" soon!  I love this PTI On My Couch and On My Couch Additions set...  and thanks to my fabulous blogging pal Jen, who sent me this card with some goodies for a project I needed ASAP, I decided to CASE her card.  And, so not to disappoint Jen in my challenge happy ways, I'm going to enter this in the Moxie Fab World "Damask and Brocade Challenge" and the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol auditions.

And after I'd made this card I decided to alter the agenda a tad and play along with Jay Gee Nook's challenge and I made a white embossed damask background, I went for the white couch in the upper right of the photo.  The goodies that Jen sent me are part of a giveaway I'm having on my work blog.  Anyone a gardener????  I'll probably share the homemade cards later in the week, but in the mean time click here to see the amazing gardening goodies I'm giving away, leave a comment to win on the Inn's blog, will ship goodies (but not the tomato plant, sorry).

And because Mr. Ben is so amazing with his cards, here's the one he made for my mom, I just love how he added the WMS Half Pint Hero head to the Practicing Creativity bike...  She liked the card.

 

Materials: PTI On My Couch and On My Couch Additions, Hero Arts Classic Fabric background, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 4, ribbon from stash, Vintage Charms, Versafine black ink, PTI white card stock, Sharpie black pen

Second Couch Card, PTI On mY Couch, PTI Damask Impression Plate, PTI Fillable Frames die, May Arts ribbon, button from Maureen, PTI White card stock

Retro Trailer Card

It's another 365 Cards Super Sketchy Sunday and I've taken the sketch, rotated it and gone Cosmo Cricket Crica 1934 happy.  Bring on summer, we're going to hit the road!  (Actually the boys are going to go camping and leave me at home to work, boo hoo me, but I'm sure my craft room will get lots of love).

Right-o, can't wait to see what the rest of the DT has come up with this week. 

Dana, Wendi, Rose, Jenny and Annie.

Materials: Unity stamp, Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 patterned paper, Versafine black ink, Spellbinders Nestabilities One and Eight, PTI kraft card stock, Tim Holtz distress stain antique linen

coffee & bicycle cards

Life is good... so I started my day off reading a few card blogs while drinking some coffee and I saw ~amy~'s card and thought, "that's a great idea, I should CASE that card."  But, being the challenge junkie that I am (and that's a nice nod to the queen of challenges Ms. ~amy~), I decided to use the Paper Smooches Hot Concoctions set so I could play along with the latest Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge and I added a doily for the Moxie Fab World "Doilies and Lace Challenge."  And lastly, Pam's challenge on 365 Cards this week was "Colorful, Coffee and Classy", and while this isn't the most colorful coffee card, I think the doily certainly adds a classy element.

But since ~amy~ was making a last minute mother's day card with her coffee card I realized that I too needed to make one for my mom-- and she's definitely not buying a drip coffee from Starbucks every morning like ~amy~'s mom.  So, I made a more appropriate card for my mom-- a bike card.  I used the new Embellish challenge colors and bike theme.  I used some fun textured scrap paper from Paper Source for the bike and paper pieced the whole bike in one piece.

And... I'm starting to feel a bit better- after jet lag & work, I got a day off and promptly came down with a cold.  I'm now well enough to at least notice the messes that we have been creating in the last week, we'll see if I'm feeling up to actually doing anything about them before I start my work week tomorrow.  Not sure if there's an appropriate comment for my space below...  Anyone want to challenge me to post an after photo?  

Materials: Paper Smooches Hot Concoctions, SRM Sticker, Tim Holtz embossing folder, Tim Holtz distress inks tumbled glass and story skies, Authentique patterned paper, doily, grey card stock, recycled take out coffee holder, Versafine black ink, vellum, PTI photo finishers die

Bike Card: Practicing Creativity The Whole Cycle, PTI Mailbox Greetings cloud, PTI Fillable Frames sentiment, Paper Source patterned paper, Versafine black ink, PTI simply chartreuse ink, Tim Holtz tumbled glass, & antique linen, PTI kraft card stock, sharpie black marker

We love you Angus, rocket ship cards

The conversation went something like this:

"I'm making a card for Angus, remember Kate's little brother in New Zealand?"

"Yes"

"He's really sick and in the hospital right now, I'm going to make a rocket ship card with your stamps, do you want to make one too?"

"What does Angus like?"

"Legos"

"I'm going to make him a lego man to go in his rocket ship."

So, Mr. Ben and I used this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge and the fabulous Half Pint Heroes set and I've gotta say, Ben's card just makes me smile.  His astronaunt and his accessories on the inside are  secured with scotch tape and when he put it over the lego guy he said "This is his seat belt, so he doesn't get out on his trip to New Zealand."

And here's the picture of Angus that made me think of him and legos.  Sending Fritha, Gordon, Kate and Angus our love from California.

Materials: Waltzinmgouse Stamps Half Pint Heroes, PTI Tiny Tags #2, Basic Grey Basics white patterned paper, vellum, PTI white card card, PTI All Booked Up Impression plate, Recollections Rhinestones, Versafine black ink, water color pencils, PTI Limitless Layers 2 1/2 inch circle die, PTI Tiny Tags die

Mother's Day Card, take 2

Happy Wednesday.  Today's card came together from a few different sources of inspirations...  I loved Lynn's card and since I'd sent her that letterpress piece I went digging through my pile of scraps and found the base for this card.  Then I saw the Moxie Fab Card Creations "Damask & Brocade Challenge" and thought this would be perfect.  And lastly since ~amy~ was talking about not mailing cards (birthday cards) on time, I thought perfect, I'll make a Mother's Day for my grandmother (who funded our int'l airplane tickets to Africa, so of course she needs to be celebrated) and I'll actually mail it so it gets there on time, thanks ~amy~ for the motivation.

And then, since I was thinking of ~amy~ I decided to play along with the latest Flashback Friday, which is to repost your first butterfly card.  I posted this card in May 2010, which reminds me that I sorta forgot my blog's birthday, perhaps I should have a belated blog birthday party?

And last, but not least... while we're celebrating my grandmother, Mr. Ben decided to get crafty with some goodies that Yvonne sent him (let's just say there's a bit of this glitter all over my desk, I can only imagine if Mr. Josh gets his hands on it, eek).  Because Ben likes Yvonne's challenges he opted for the "monogram and flowers" inspiration from Virginia's guest challenge (there's so many possibilities, come check out all her fun ideas).  And since Virginia is an SRM gal I thought she'd like the "P Love" part of the card (my grandmother's name is Peggy and Ben sent this as a thank you card for some recent goodies- ~amy~ be proud, it's in the envelope with first card, so we got a two in one!).

Materials: PTI Rosie Posie flower and die, PTI Fillable Frames sentiment, Lifestyle Crafts Letterpress background, Tim Holtz ornamental die, vellum, Lifestyle Crafts silver letterpress ink, Versafine black ink, Hero Arts pink ink, Stampendous clear embossing powder, vellum, watercolor paper, Stampin Up pink card stock, Recollections Rhinestones

Happy Mother's Day

Hello fabulous blogland!  I've been going through withdrawal from my little crafty blog world addiction, funny how international vacations put a damper on hours of internet surfing and crafting. But, why not come back with a card that works for 4 challenges?  I've made a Mother's Day for my husband, wanted to make a masculine Mother's Day card, as he's the only boy out of 4 kids.  I have used this week's Play Date Cafe colors as my color inspiration and rotated the Skipping Stones Sketch.  I used paper scraps for this week's Make it Monday challenge and the Ribbon Carousel challenge is to use the sentiment Mother's Day in your card, and I've got some fabulous May Arts ribbon on the tag (thanks Jen).

And for those of you who keep asking for more Africa photos... here's a little video I put together from one of the game parks we visited in Botswana.