dynamic CAS birthday sketch

Cards, CAS - Colours and Sketches, Dynamic Duos, Lawn Fawn, Operation Write Home 2 Responses »
May 232013

This is just a quick post to share what I’ve created combining Dynamic Duos challenge #53 with CAS – Colours and Sketches challenge #26.  The “dessert option” for the Dynamic Duos challenge is to create a child-themed card.  I suppose mine could work for a child of any age.  :)   I stretched the sketch out to a standard A2 size card (5.5″ wide by 4.25″ tall).  It will be going in my stash for Operation Write Home.

I have to say that I love the versatility of some of my Lawn Fawn stamps. The present image and the musical notes stamp came from two different Christmas-themed stamp sets! But given non-Christmasy colors, they work fine for birthdays too! The last two words in the sentiment came from a stamp that actually reads “hats off to you!”; I simply inked only the last two words and the exclamation point to work with my birthday phrase.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Supplies:
Stamps: Bows & Holly, Pa-Rum-Pa-Pum-Pum, Hats Off to You (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Pacific Point (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); small scallop die (Papertrey Ink)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:30 pm

colourful birthday balloons

Cards, CAS - Colours and Sketches, Freshly Made Sketches 4 Responses »
May 222013

I have to admit I’ve been struggling with ideas for the CAS – Colours and Sketches color combo all week.  They are not colors I’d think to put together.  I’d toyed with the idea of birthday gifts or balloons, but it wasn’t until I saw the Freshly Made Sketches #87 layout that I got the nudge to go for it.  The card is super simple, but for what it’s worth, here it is:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: So Happy For You (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Calypso Coral, Cajun Craze, Certainly Celery Patterns designer series paper (SU); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Cajun Craze (SU)
Other: Medium Balloons die (Sizzix); Apple twine (Really Reasonable Ribbon); dimensionals (SU)

Posted by PH in VA at 11:30 am

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - May theme challenge

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, Basic Grey, Cards, Digital images, Freshly Made Sketches, Lawn Fawn 9 Responses »
May 182013

Hello there! Welcome to the weekend! Mynnette, our challenge hostess at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, has chosen holiday goodies as the theme for this week’s challenge. It sounds like a fun way to indulge in some sweet treats without gaining calories, doesn’t it? :)

I had a hard time deciding what to create for this challenge.  I really don’t have many stamps that would work for this theme, other than things like mugs of hot cocoa that I feel are more wintry than really Christmas-y.  So I browsed around online and found a site, www.coloringpagessheets.com, that has a lot of free outline images that could be printed really large to use for children’s coloring pages, or printed smaller for card making.  A cute image of a bear with a candy cane caught my eye and I decided I’d give that one a try for my card.  I sized it to fit into the large open area of this week’s Freshly Made Sketches layout and went from there.  I included a bit of designer paper that has a gingerbread man, a candy cane, and what appears to be peppermint candies.  A bow made from the seam binding seemed like it would be too large and overpowering for the design, so I layered some twine over the seam binding and fashioned a bow from that.  I felt that given the orientation of the bear and candy cane, a mirror image of the sketch would work better than the original version.  I really wanted to use a sentiment that read “Have a very beary Christmas”.  I stamped it on one of my Stamp-a-ma-jig imaging sheets and held it to the card, but it looked too crowded in the available space.  So I went with a shorter, one-line sentiment instead.

I hope you’ll check out the challenge details at the 52{C}CT site and play along with us this week!  Be sure to visit the rest of the design team members’ blogs for some more inspiration.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Digital Image: Candy Cane Teddy Bear (ColoringPagesSheets.com)
Stamp: Pa-Rum-Pa-Pum-Pum (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Kraft, Cherry Cobbler (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); designer paper from Nordic Holiday 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: printer ink; Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Cherry Cobbler seam binding (SU); Cherry twine (Really Reasonable Ribbon); markers (Copic); small scallop die (Papertrey Ink)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am

dynamic celebration!

Cards, Dynamic Duos, Inkspirational challenges, Stampin' Up! 7 Responses »
May 162013

It’s the Dynamic Duos challenge’s one-year anniversary!  They have been celebrating this week by allowing their challenge participants to choose their own color combination from any of the previous Dynamic Duos challenges.  How fun is that?!? :)

I discovered the Dynamic Duos blog shortly after they published their first challenge.  I made a goal for myself to keep up with their challenges every week, and I’m proud to say that I have participated in each of their challenges.  I even made two cards for a couple of them!  So I went back through the year’s posts with the Dynamic Duos tag, refreshing my memory on all the color combos.  It wasn’t easy deciding which one to revisit for this week’s challenge.  Finally I thought, since I still have several family members and friends with birthdays coming up before the middle of June, I’d better get working on birthday cards.  I decided to make a masculine card, and chose Dynamic Duos challenge #37 for the color inspiration.  The layout is this week’s Inkspirational case challenge.  I hadn’t used this stamp set for a long time, so it was nice to ink it up again.

 

Best wishes to the Dynamic Duos team as they start on their second year of challenges!  I thank them for a fun year of inspiration, and I’m looking forward to playing along for another year!

All supplies for today’s card are from Stampin’ Up, except the corner punch.
Stamps: Wide Open Spaces, It’s Your Birthday
Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Soft Suede
Ink: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
Other: Crumb Cake seam binding; corner rounder punch (EK Success)

Posted by PH in VA at 2:02 pm

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - May color challenge

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, Cards, Operation Write Home, Stampin' Up!, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps 7 Responses »
May 112013

Happy Saturday!  It’s time for another color challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  This time it’s a very simple one – red and white.  That’s it.  Black may be used to stamp an outline image (or print, if using a digital image) or to stamp a sentiment.  But that’s it.  Red and white must be the dominant colors on your card.  See the 52{C}CT site for the full challenge details, and to check out what the rest of the design team has created.

One nice thing about having only two colors to use – and one of them being a neutral – is that it lends itself pretty easily to a clean and simple card.  I’ve dressed mine up with dry embossing to give some visual interest.  The red cardstock is textured, but it’s pretty subtle so I did my best to make it show in the photo.  This card will be going in my stash of Christmas cards to donate to Operation Write Home, and I thought this sentiment was a good one for that purpose.

 

I hope you’ll join in the fun at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and share your red and white Christmas card(s) with us!  You have until 1:00 pm eastern time Friday, May 17 to link your work to the challenge post.

Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Tags (Sweet ‘n Sassy Designs)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); Real Red Core’dinations (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Real Red (SU)
Other: Hearts dies (SNSS); Victoria embossing folder (ProvoCraft)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am

dynamic cool popsicle

Cards, Dynamic Duos, Freshly Made Sketches, Lawn Fawn, Nestabilities, Operation Write Home, Stampin' Up! 6 Responses »
May 092013

Hello!  It’s been a very rainy, dreary week here, and I’m just finally starting to feel better after battling a nasty cold, that last night I just really felt the need to make something cheery.

For me, it’s hard not to smile when I look through my Lawn Fawn stamps.  I’ve had their ice cream themed set for a while now and decided it was finally time to use it.  Several challenges also fit together to help me make today’s card.  One of this week’s colors at Dynamic Duos is Daffodil Delight, and I’ve always felt it is a “happy” yellow.  Paula’s Virtual Card Making Party challenge is to create a card for a child, using a sketch for the layout.  I like making cheery cards for our heroes overseas to send home to their children, so I just had to find a sketch.  Freshly Made Sketches provided a good one.  Since popsicles are a tasty way to cool down on a hot summer day, this card fits into JoAnn’s Virtual Card Making Party challenge to make a summer-themed card.  And here is how it all came together:

You’ll have to forgive me for the poor lighting.  I tried tweaking with my photo editing program and this was the best I could get.  Trust me when I say that the popsicle face does not look splotchy and fluorescent in real life.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but the card does put a smile on my face and helps me remember that brighter days will come.

Thanks for stopping by today!  All comments are read and appreciated… which brings me to add, I want to apologize for the fairly strict spam catcher settings that tend to consider comments by WordPress users and international users as spam.  Please know that I do review every comment that is put in my blog’s spam folder, and if it’s a legitimate comment, I am more than happy to approve it.

Supplies:
Stamps: Here’s the Scoop (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); Baja Breeze, Daffodil Delight (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Baja Breeze taffeta ribbon (SU); Buttercup grosgrain ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon); standard circle and big scalloped circle Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders); markers (Copic)

Posted by PH in VA at 9:30 am

simple challenge mashup

Cards, CAS - Colours and Sketches, Hero Arts, Operation Write Home, OWH Midweek Throwdown, Stampin' Up! 10 Responses »
May 082013

I have two very simple, very similar cards today that combine several different challenges.  The colors come from CAS – Colours and Sketches challenge #23; although it may look like I’ve used black, it’s really Midnight Muse, a dark blue.  The “missing you” theme is for the May Operation Write Home/Our Daily Bread Designs challenge, which is also the first of Operation Write Home’s NSD 2013 Virtual Card Making Party challenges.   Having two cards ties into the current OWH Midweek Throwdown – creating “his and hers” cards.

I have to admit it felt good to use some of my Tangerine Tango cardstock!  I have such a hard time using that color.  Many thanks to the CAS – Colours and Sketches girls for making me push out of my comfort zone with it!

Supplies:
Stamps: The Art of Life (Stampin’ Up); Right at Home (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Midnight Muse, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron (SU); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Midnight Muse, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron (SU)

Posted by PH in VA at 12:30 pm

inkspirational gift

Cards, Freshly Made Sketches, Inkspirational challenges, Lawn Fawn, Stampin' Up! 5 Responses »
May 062013

Between friends and family, the month of May is full of birthdays for me, so I’ll be making a bunch of birthday cards in the next few weeks.  Today I’m sharing one that I made this morning.  I’ve combined the Freshly Made Sketches #84 layout with the colors from Inkspirational challenge #18.  I did take the liberty of turning the sketch on its side.  I really like this gift image – even though it’s from a Christmasy stamp set, it’s perfect for birthday presents, too. I stamped it on a scrap piece of white cardstock and then colored it and cut it out. When I colored it, I drew in some polka dots to help tie the olive color of the banner in with the rest of the card.  I also took a little artistic license in cutting off the curl on the left side of the ribbon.  I didn’t mind trimming out the inside of the ribbon loops, but the curl on the end of the ribbon was a little *too* fussy cutting for me.  I’m not sure how well it shows in the photo, but the white panel is textured cardstock, to help give the card a little extra visual interest without detracting from the layout and design.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Bows and Holly, Hats Off to You (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Concord Crush, Whisper White textured, Peach Parfait (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); designer paper from Bright Side 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic)

Posted by PH in VA at 2:12 pm

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - May sketch challenge

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, Cards, Operation Write Home, Stampin' Up! 7 Responses »
May 042013

Hello!  It’s the first Saturday of a new month so that means it’s time for another sketch challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown!  52{C}CT co-creator Mynnette is our hostess this month, and she’s come up with a great sketch that can be kept simple or dressed up.

I decided to turn the sketch on its side for my card.  I also simplified the central element into a rectangle, but I’ve double matted the image I used there.  The cardinal was colored using the Magic Colored Pencil technique.  It was hard getting the lighting right when I was taking the photo, but in real life the cardinal coordinates nicely with the cherry red ribbon and cardstock.  I sort of hated to cover up the lovely chocolate satin ribbon with the cherry seam binding, but I really like the extra punch of color the seam binding gives.

Be sure to visit the 52{C}CT site to see what the rest of the design team has made.  If you’d like to join us, simply make a Christmas card using the provided sketch, and link it at our challenge website by 1:00 pm eastern time on Friday, May 10.  We’d love to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: A Beautiful Season (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Cherry Cobbler, Naturals White (SU)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU)
Other: Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, dimensionals (SU); Snowflakes embossing folder (Sizzix); Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Houston Arts); pearl brads (Creative Imaginations); Classic Rectangles Plain and Classic Rectangles Scalloped Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am

dynamic sketchy birthday butterflies

Cards, Cards in Envy, CAS - Colours and Sketches, CAS-ual Fridays challenges, Dynamic Duos, Operation Write Home, Stampin' Up! 11 Responses »
May 012013

Here’s a card I put together quickly this morning to get it into a few of my favorite online challenges.  The layout is from CAS – Colours and Sketches challenge #22 and the color scheme comes from Dynamic Duos challenge #50.  I chose to make a birthday card to fit in with CAS-ual Fridays challenge #99, and the butterfly embellishments fit the theme for the current Cards in Envy challenge.

 

 

It’s not one of my favorite cards I’ve ever made, but it’ll be fine for Operation Write Home!  Actually, now that I think about it, I’m going to go back and add either some pearls or some rhinestones to the butterflies to dress them up a bit.

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Blushing Bride, Everyday Enchantment designer series paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Calypso Coral (SU)
Other: Beautiful Wings die (SU); petite oval and petite scalloped oval Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders)

Posted by PH in VA at 11:00 am

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - April embellishment/technique challenge

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, Cards, Inkspirational challenges, Nestabilities, Operation Write Home, Stampin' Up! 13 Responses »
Apr 272013

Saturday means it’s time for another 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenge! This week we have a fun theme that I guess is kind of a cross between a technique challenge and an embellishment challenge – punch art. You can join in by making a Christmas or winter card using punches to create your focal point, and linking it to the 52{C}CT website by 1:00 pm Eastern time Friday, May 2. Check out the challenge site for all the details.

I saw a darling snowman card in the Splitcoaststampers.com gallery a couple years ago and have wanted to give it a try.  I thought the perspective of looking down at the snowman was a fun alternative to looking at him at something nearer to eye level.  This challenge was just the nudge I needed to go ahead and try it.  I confess that I fudged a little on the “punch” aspect with regard to the circles for the snowman – my punches were either too large or too small, so I used my Nestabilities dies to cut them.  The edges of them are very lightly sponged with blue ink to add some visual dimension (so very lightly that it doesn’t really show in the photo.  Ooops.).  The top part of the hat (the crown?) was made with a square punch, and the brim is just a narrow scrap of cardstock that I cut to fit.  I also cut the arms and nose from scraps of cardstock.  I used my 1/4″ circle punch for the eyes and buttons, and the circles for the mouth were done with my old “anywhere punch” from setting eyelets.  I chose the ribbon to decorate the hat by color coordinating it with the snowman’s “carrot” nose, and that’s also how I chose the color for the card base.   I used my shimmer paint on the snow for the ground.  I didn’t have a whole lot of room for a sentiment, so I chose a short one that will make this a cute “any reason” card to donate to Operation Write Home for one of our heroes to use this coming winter.  (I know I still need to put a light-colored liner inside of it.)  Even though the different parts of the snowman are raised up with dimensional adhesive, I think the card will smoosh flat enough to go through the mail all right.  In real life, the dimension helps prevent the hat from visually blending into the black mat so much.

The layout for my card was taken from this week’s Inkspirational challenge.

So, there you have it.  Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll join us and play along with 52{C}CT this week!

Supplies:
Stamps: Two Scoops for Flopsey (My Favorite Things)
Cardstock: Tangerine Tango, Basic Black, Soft Sky, Early Espresso, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: standard circle Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders); 1″ square punch (Creative Memories); 1/4″ circle handheld punch (source unknown); 3/16″ hole punch (Making Memories); Frost White shimmer paint (SU); orange gingham ribbon (Offray)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am

dynamically sympathetic

Cards, Dynamic Duos, Lizzie Anne Designs, Stampin' Up! 1 Response »
Apr 252013

I’ve needed to make a few sympathy cards lately.  Today I’m sharing one of them.  It uses the color scheme for this week’s Dynamic Duos challenge, gray and black.  The idea is very similar to some of the one-layer cards I’ve made recently, but this time I’ve added a mat to the focal panel and layered them onto a card base of a third color.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree (Stampin’ Up); Everyday Sayings (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Basic Gray (SU)
Ink: Basic Gray (SU); Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: sponge

Posted by PH in VA at 1:30 pm

vine of flowers

Cards, CAS - Colours and Sketches, Operation Write Home, Splitcoast challenges, Stampin' Up! 5 Responses »
Apr 242013

I’ve been having a hard time feeling creative the last few weeks, but I wanted to give the CAS – Colours and Sketches challenge a try because I thought they were offering up some really pretty colors this week.  So I pulled that together with the current SCS CAS challenge, which is a sketch challenge.  And here’s the end result.

The pearls were an afterthought.  I had already taken a few photos of the card but felt that it was still missing something.  I had just enough of these tiny half pearls to put one in the center of each flower.  It’s not much, but it really does help dress up the card. And now I have another one for Operation Write Home.

Thanks for stopping by today!

All supplies for this card, except the pearls, are from Stampin’ Up:
Stamps: Just Vine, Trendy Trees
Cardstock: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Primrose Petals, Pool Party
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Primrose Petals, Pool Party
Other: half pearls (KaiserCraft)

Posted by PH in VA at 12:00 pm

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - April theme challenge

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, Basic Grey, Cards, Stampin' Up! 12 Responses »
Apr 202013

Hello, and happy Saturday!  This week is “theme week” at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  The challenge this week is to create a card depicting Santa Claus (or Father Christmas, or however he is known in your country).  How fun is that?  :)

I was so looking forward to this challenge until I realized late last week that – GASP – I did not own any Santa stamps.  Seriously.  So, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, which meant that this girl made a trip to Michael’s.  Thankfully, the store had a couple of Christmas stamp sets in stock, and I had a 50% off coupon, and I found a few other things I needed, and it worked out that the amount I saved using the coupon equaled the price of the stamp set I chose.  So it was kind of like getting this stamp set for free.  Gotta love that! :)   I thought the whimsical Santa in this stamp set was pretty cute, and the set has several other darling images.

I decided to use the current Inkspirational challenge for the layout of my card.  Although the designer paper isn’t a typical Christmasy print, it came from a wintry/Christmasy Basic Grey paper pad.  I liked the contrast of the light blue with the bright red.  I had made the ribbon bow for a project a long time ago, but didn’t like the way it turned out, so a few weeks ago I tossed the other creation and kept the bow.  It worked out perfectly for this card layout!  As I was playing around with fitting the bow and the focal point on the card, it struck me that the circle with the bow on top resembled a Christmas ornament.  So I thought, why not turn it into an ornament?  I started to cut an ornament hook from silvery cardstock, but that was a disaster.  Then I remembered I had some ornament hooks here in my craft room and as serendipity would have it, they were silver wire (rather than the green vinyl coated ones that we actually use on our tree) so they coordinated nicely.  In order to accommodate the bow without covering up a lot of the image, I had to place the ornament so that Santa was at an angle, and in the midst of all the arranging I decided that the card would look better if I used a mirror image of the layout.  And I also forgot until after I’d photographed the card that I had intended to put the red strip through one of my embossing folders.  Ooops.  But since the hook and the bow provide a bit of bulk, and I had to use dimensional adhesive to attach the circle, it’s probably just as well that I didn’t add even more dimension with embossing.

 

So, now it’s time for you to go to the 52{C}CT site and check out the great stuff that the rest of the design team has created!  (While you’re at it, I’m sure they’d appreciate any comments you’d like to give them.)  Then make a card showing off ol’ St. Nick, and share it at the 52{C}CT site by noon eastern time Friday, April 26.  We’d love to see what you come up with!  :)

Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Characters (Inkadinkado)
Cardstock: Soft Sky, Real Red (Stampin’ Up); Basics White (Papertrey Ink); designer paper from Aspen Frost 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: markers (Copic); Soft Sky ribbon, dimensionals (SU); ornament hook (source unknown)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am

dynamic falling leaves

Cards, Dynamic Duos, Operation Write Home 3 Responses »
Apr 182013

This week’s Dynamic Duos color challenge had me stumped for several days.  Although I know from art class back in junior high school that complementary colors (across the color wheel from each other) are supposed to work together, blue and orange still proves to be a difficult combination for me.  In my head, I tossed around the possibility of flowers – but then I would have wanted to add green stems and leaves and that wouldn’t work for the challenge.  I also thought about birthday presents but nothing really seemed to click.  Eventually my brain came back to nature, and I thought of autumn leaves against a blue sky.  Which, of course, seems really out of season right now since spring has finally arrived.  LOL  But I figured, I’m frequently working seasons ahead of time for Operation Write Home, so an autumn-ish card shouldn’t look too out of place here on my blog.

So here’s what I’ve created.  I sponged the blue ink onto the image panel first.  Then I stamped the leaves.  I wanted to add a little extra orange to the leaves, so I took a slightly damp paintbrush and “painted” water over the stamped leaves to spread the ink.  I didn’t want to blur the edges of the leaves, but just soften and spread the color inside of them.  I scored lines on the card base to frame the image panel, added a simple sentiment, and attached the panel.  Clean, simple, and fairly quick – and almost a one-layer card, too!

 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I do read and appreciate all comments – they brighten my day!

Supplies:
Stamps: unnamed leaf stamp (StampCraft); Everyday Messages (Stampendous)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie (Stampin’ Up)
Other: scoring board (Martha Stewart); sponge; paintbrush & water

Posted by PH in VA at 12:00 pm
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