Have A Fin-Tastic Day!

Its rare that I am inspired by challenges, but this one caught my eye. I had entered last week's All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge as a fluke (just so happened to make a card that fit the criteria), when I saw the challenge for this week... a color challenge using Chocolate, Aqua, and Kraft colors. I love love love this color combo, so I kept this challenge in the back of my mind. This is what I came up with... just got this new Mermaid Emma holding a starfish digi and thougth she would be perfect for this challenge. Now, she actually comes in another version with seaweed, a rock, etc., but I opted for the image that just had her in it. Since there was no other scenery, I had to make my own... I thought my distress inks would provide the perfect ocean look for the card and mounted it on the chocolate brown. The card base was cut from Kraft cardstock. I then handcut my rock for her to sit on and laid her on top of it. Found some old Doodelbug sea creature stickers and used it for the rest of the scene. The sentiment was from one of the CC's summer sentiments set. Here's a close up of the mermaid. I think she's just darling! Hope you have a Fin-Tastic week! Supplies:

• Mermaid Emma- CC's Designs
• Seaweed, fish, and shell stickers- Doodlebug Designs
• Fintastic sentiment- CC's Designs
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Distress Inks- Ranger
• Stickles

A Fairytale Hello

This little cute bug is Phillip from CC's Designs Fairytale line. Boy is he a cutie! I don't normally do boy cards, so this was challenging for me. I guess its cause you can't just put flowers and ribbon on the card to dress it up. I opted for my MS branch border punch for a more forest look that matched the paper. I also stay away from scallop circles and ovals for the most part since they seem kinda girlie too. I guess its always good practice to do boy cards! Supplies:

• Fairytale Phillip stamp- CC's Designs
• DP- Doodlebug Designs
• Branch border punch- MS Crafts
• Ovals dies- Spellbinders
• Hello sentiment- CC's Designs

Double Pocket Of Sunshine

Hello Everyone! Thought I'd actually get a head start on something for once. Craft Night at Island Scrapbooking is the first Friday of every month and I'm hosting the card drawing this month. Decided on a "Summer" theme and what better stamp to use than Sunshine Anya! I think she's such a cutie in her bikini. Also thought I'd make the double pocket card again- which was a lot easier to make than I expected. Here' s a close up of Sunshine... And do you like my crab peeking out? Hope to see you at Craft Night! Supplies: Sunshine Anya- TGF Happy Summer sentiment- CC's Designs Crab- Sizzix Cardstock- Bazzil DP- Reminisce Oval and scallop oval punch- SU

July OCS- Better Late Than Never!

Wowee- July sure flew by so quickly! I barely had enough time to finish up my OCS- in fact I had to ask for more time! Sorry Grace!

This month Linda challenged us to use words as the focal point of the card. I found this to be extremely challenging. I normally add in a stamped image or die cut as my focal point, but I had to keep reminding myself not to do that. I settled on flowers as accents so that it would not overwhelm the words.

This sentiment is so cute! Its from the new Greeting Farm Sunshine set. Since the set is made for scrapbooking, the words are rather large and didn't fit nicely on a regular A2 sized card, so I had to super-size it.

Found this cute paper to use as the background- the cool thing is that I flipped it over for the inside of the card! Accented the bottom of the cover using my MS daisy border punch.

Here's the inside of the card. Loved the fact that I could use both sides of that DP- and it was perfect since the writing matched the sentiment on the front of the card!! Couldn't resist adding these cute flowers from the Sunshine kit since they are smiling.

Here's the card I received from Grace. Isn't it awesome? I love how she cut the corners of the blocks to form the hole for the Many Thanks sentiment. I'll need to remember this layout for future use. Thanks Grace!

Here' s a close up of the focal point...

Happy Fall!

Ok- I know- its not quite fall yet, but thought I'd start getting ready for it! I actually think this is a cute card for a teacher. I've been wanting to make an apple card using this cute Sugarplums stamp by CC's designs so when I saw these Apple shaped Spellbinders I thought it would be perfect! Love how the Doodlebug paper gives this card a country feel- just like picking apples in an orchard! I've been very productive lately... It must be because I'm so stressed out and this is my therapy! Supplies:

• Apple Emma- CC's Designs
• Apple die- Spellbinder
• DP- Doodlebug
• Cardstock- Bazzil

ATS Challenge- Double Pocket Gretel Card

I really don't remember why I decided to make this double pocket card. I think it may have been because of the ATS's challenge this week is to make one. I like this version with the diagonal pockets. I'm totally amazed that I actually made a card in time to meet a challenge deadline! Check out the ATS Challenge blog here... I really like Gretel sitting down, so I used her for this card. I think she fits nicely since the card is diagonal in the same direction that she is facing. Added in some grass from my MS grass punch so that she has something nice to sit on. Supplies:

• Gretel stamp- CC's Designs
• DP- Fancy Pants
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Sakura flowers- Island Scrapbooking laser cuts
• Rhinestones- Hero Arts
• Grass punch- MS Crafts

You Make Me Smile

I haven't made one of these slider cards in ages, so I challenged myself to make one to see if I could remember how to do it. I like making the image slide out from behind something, so this time I chose daisies. I originally had a stamped daisy, but it just didn't match up as well. Chose Tink Fairy from TGF to slide out from behind the flowers. Haven't used her in a very long time, so it was refreshing to see her again... just like an old friend! Supplies: Tink stamp- TGF Flowers- Spellbinders DP- Bo bunny Cardstock- Bazzil Stickles Ribbon

RAKs From Friends

My friend Karen gave me this thank you RAK for helping her with her blog. She used the chick from Dandelion Designs. I'm pretty sure she made that box herself and stuffed it with goodies. Thank you KI!

These next RAKs are from Donna and Kelli. Donna made favors for Kelli's baby shower and filled them with chocolate covered fortune cookies- YUM! Kelli made these cute notebooks and post it holders for us as thank yous.

I'm so lucky to have so many nice and talented friends! Thanks guys!

Bonus Disaster

My first Christmas Card Club class was last Saturday. I posted the other projects we did in class earlier but didn't post this one yet. I really wanted to try out using mica powders in sprays for a metallic look so I decided to try out this technique as a bonus project. I'm a big Tim Holtz fan and saw this on his videos where he also adds in Distress re-inkers. I didn't try this yet with the re-inkers, but thought I'd try with just the mica powder. I embossed the kraft cardstock using the new Tim Holtz scroll embossing folder (love it!) and then sprayed it with the gold mica powder/alcohol mix. It looks really nice until you touch it. Then you get gold all over your fingers.

I did some research before the class and ended up buying a sealant and bringing some hair spray to the class. We tried out both methods but not sure which one worked better. I'm hoping my students will let me know which method they used and what worked better. I'm pretty sure the sealant will be better but the fumes were not good for an enclosed classroom. I'll have to re-think this project if I'm going to try to do it again. I really like the look of this and think it would be an awesome alternative to buying metallic paper, but for now I'll have to experiment more.

If anyone has other mica powder spray sealant tips, please share them with me! Thanks!!

Supplies:

Labels die- Sizzix (Tim Holtz)

Sentiment- CC's Designs (Amy R)

Embossing folder- Tim Holtz

Mica powder

Ribbon

Cardstock- Bazzil

A Little Something,..

My friend has been trying so hard to get healthy and is doing really well, so I thought I'd make her a little something to reward her for all her hard work. She actually inspired me to teach the Stationary Box class last week and said she wanted to learn how to make it. She's told me in the past how much she loves this DP, so I used it in most of the project. I love this CC's Nora stamp so much and think she looks so cute lying down on the flowers! I kept the cards simple again and since she is also a papercrafter, I left a lot of the labels blank so she could stamp in whatever sentiment she wanted to. (Yes, they were intentially left blank for that purpose- I didn't forget to finish them!). Anyway, I hope she likes it! Here's the notecards I included in the box...

Supplies:

DP- October Afternoon, Fancy Pants

Cardstock- Bazzil

Buterfly punches- MS Crafts

Leaf punch

Swirl punch- EK success

Bird punch- SU

Tag punch- EK success

Flourish die- Sizzix (Tim Holtz)

Flowers- Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts

Stickles

Pearl Brads- American Crafts

Ticket punch- SU

Scallop circle and circle punches- Marvy

Labels 1 die- Spellbinders

Ribbon