Party Animals - (CTD399)

Hi there!  It's time for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge!

For my card I used the fun Lawn Fawn stamp set, Party Animal along with the coordinating dies.  The detail work is in the little animals and accessory pieces.  I colored the bear, birds, party hats and cake using Copic markers and for the balloons I ended up paper piecing from some scrap paper I had from my stash.  I die cut a square of white cardstock and a quarter of a circle from chocolate chip cardstock for a hill and arranged my scene, popping up the two birds and birthday cake.  I added the square scene I created to a panel of pure poppy stripped designer paper which I die cut using a stitched rectangle die and under that I added a white scalloped panel.  I stamped my happy birthday sentiment on a strip of white cardstock and adhered that across the lower portion of my card. For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Kara Vrabel - June Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Happy Birthday - (CTD398)

Hello there!  It's my turn to host over at the Color Throwdown Challenge this week and I've chosen some fun summertime colors for us to create with.  I hope you'll join in and play along.

For my card I used the My Favorite Things stamp set, You're the Sweetest along with the MFT One Way Chevron stencil for my background.  I started out with a white card base, then added a piece of raspberry fizz cardstock that I stenciled using the One Way Chevron stencil.  Then I die cut and stamped my ice cream cones using limeade ice, raspberry fizz, daffodil delight and more mustard inks.  I adhered my ice cream cones to a square of white cardstock, popping up the ice cream on the center cone.  After that I added my happy birthday banner and stamped the second half of my sentiment.  I added some Glossy Accents to the cherry on the center ice cream for some dimension.

For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Kara Vrabel - June Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Concord & 9th - Sending Hugs & Kisses

Hi there!  Hope you're doing well!  Today I've got a post here on my blog and over at the Concord & 9th blog where I'm sharing a gift set that I created early last month while I was a guest designer for Concord & 9th.  If you've had this fun Concord & 9th Hugs die or Hugs stamp set on your wish list or have been waiting for it to come back in stock, now is your chance to grab it up!

For my card and matching gift box, I used the Hugs die and coordinating Hugs stamp set along with the flowers from the Flourish stamp set.  I used a piece of white 12"x12" cardstock to create both my card and gift box and a piece of black cardstock for my die cut hugs for on my card and box.

I started out my card by die cutting with the Hugs die, you can see a video on how this fantastic die works by clicking here.  Once my Hugs was die cut, I stamped my flowers in raspberry fizz, hibiscus burst and lovely lady ink, stamping off with some of the flowers.  Then I did some ink blending along the top and bottom of my card using the same ink colors that I stamped the flowers in.  After that I used the Hugs die again to die cut my black cardstock and adhered them onto my card front.  Next I stamped the sentiments and hearts from the Hugs stamp set and glued on some silver sequins to finish it off.

The gift box I created was made with the same supplies as my card except I made it into a box.  You can view step-by-step directions in the slideshow below.

Wouldn't this be fun to give with a bunch of Hersey Kisses inside?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

I'm Bananas for You - (CTD397)

Hello!  It's time for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge!

For my card, I used the MFT Cheeky Monkey stamp set.  I started out with a white card base, then stamped the different banana images from the set onto kraft cardstock and colored them using my Zig Clean Color pens.  For the monkey, I stamped him on watercolor paper, die cut him and colored him with my Kuretake watercolors and once he was dry I using foam tape to adhere him onto a die cut circle. For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Kara Vrabel - June Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Ham It Up!

Hi there, crafty friends!  Today I'm sharing a card that I created using the My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge #284 (even though I'm past the cut off date to enter) and the adorable new MFT stamp set, Hog Heaven. This stamp set is so cute and fun to work with!  I stamped and die cut this cute little pig and colored her using Copic markers, adding a pink glittery bow to her head.  Then I die cut a circle, did some ink sponging using some tumbled glass distress ink and die cut a grassy hill adding some grass with Copic marker.  I added a scallop mat to my circle along with a die cut square of summer sun cardstock, then using foam tape adhered my pig.  I used the MFT Circle Grid stencil for my hibiscus burst pink background, added a vertical strip of yellow stripped designer paper and my banner sentiment to finish it off. Hogs & Kisses!

You've Got This

Last Friday was my final appearance as a guest designer for Concord & 9th.  I truly enjoyed every minute of working with their wonderful products and sharing what I created and I'd like to thank Angie and Creg for the opportunity of guest designing.
Today I've got two cards that I've created using the Concord & 9th die, You've Got This and their Wildflower stamp set.  Be sure and pop over to the Concord & 9th site and check out their beautiful new release for June! For my first card, I used a piece of watercolor paper and did a watercolor wash of three colors and stamped the floral images from the Wildflower set in the same colored inks as the background. I die cut a piece of black cardstock using the You've Got This die and adhered the negative piece to my card front.  I used the die cut pieces from my second card and inlaid the letters, fitting them into place like puzzle pieces.  For my second card, I stamped and heat embossed the floral images from the Wildflower set onto watercolor paper using white embossing powder and then did a watercolor wash of the same three colors.   Once that was dry I used the You've Got This die and die cut the center of my embossed panel.  I used a piece of black cardstock and adhered it behind my die cut panel.  To finish off both of my cards, I added colored and silver sequins.

Teacher Thank You's

Happy Thursday!  Today I'm popping in to share two thank you cards I made for my son's teachers at his school.  Over the years I've done different themed goodie bags with everything from movie tickets, popcorn and candy to Bath & Body Works to you name it (my oldest is 21, I've done a lot of teacher gifts over the years).  This year they're getting handmade cards with gift cards to Panera Bread inside.

I used the Papertrey Ink stamp sets, Apple Prints and Ombre Builders along with a Lawn Fawn thanks die.  I'm entering this card in this week's Inkspirational Challenge since I used the text block from the Ombre Builders set and the challenge is to use text.  I started out with a white card base, then added a panel of real red which I had stamped using the strip of apples from the Apple Prints set.  Then I adhered a piece of white cardstock which I had stamped in charcoal ink with the alphabet block and rounded the corners with a corner rounder.  On top of that I added my die cut and stamped apples, popping up the yellow, daffodil delight stamped apple, next my banner with black die cut thanks and a button with black & white bakers twine. Thanks for your visit!

Sending Hugs - (CTD396)

Hello!  It's time for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge.

For my card, I went with a clean & simple design and used this week's colors from our CTD challenge and the layout from the CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge.  I used the Papertrey Ink stamp set, Beautiful Butterflies and randomly stamped them in the center of my card using the three different colors from the challenge (sticking with the rule of odd numbers, 5 of each color).  Then I used the stamp set and coordinating dies from the PTI Big Hugs set and die cut the Hugs once from white craft foam and once from white cardstock, glued them together. and adhered them to my card front.  After that, I stamped the "sending" sentiment from the Big Hugs set in black ink and matted my stamped panel onto a die cut scalloped edge piece.  As a final touch I added a few iridescent sequins.

For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rohl Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Kara Vrabel - June Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.