Celebrate Fresh Inspiration (A Little Late)

Hi All! I just wanted to share a card that I made for my niece. The inspiration came from this Freshly Made Sketches challenge:

This was actually last week's sketch, but I didn't get my card mailed until late, and I didn't want to post it until I was sure my niece received her card. Soooooo...... (It was fresh inspiration when I made it!) ;-)

Here's my take on the sketch:

I had so much fun making this card! I began by layering Thistle cardstock on a Neenah Solar White 110lb card base, and then set it aside to work on the front panel.

For said panel, I ran a 4 x 5 1/4-inch piece of White Daisy cardstock through my Big Shot Plus machine using the new Happy Thoughts embossing folder by Close To My Heart. I then cut a strip of Sea Glass glitter paper and added it to the embossed layer with regular adhesive. 

I cut the striped panel from paper from the Whimsy Fundamentals paper pack and added two strips of gold foiled dotted vellum from the Uptown Fundamental paper pack to the back of it, and popped the whole thing over the Sea Glass glitter paper with foam tape.

I cut Celebrate from Sea Glass glitter paper using the new Celebrate Thin Cuts Die by Close To My Heart and added it to a third strip of the dotted vellum with foam tape. I then popped that strip up over the striped paper using strategically placed foam tape.

I cut "You" from the gold striped paper in the Uptown Fundamentals paper pack using My Favorite Things Little Letters Die-namics Dies. I tucked them under the vellum and adhered them with Liquid Glass.  I then finished things off with a liberal sprinkling of purple and clear sequins from 28 Lilac Lane. I added the front panel to the base with regular adhesive. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

So better late than never! Hopefully we'll be back on schedule with some sketch challenges this week. In the meantime, have a wonderfully creative day!

CTMH Uptown Fundamentals Paper Pack	CTMH Whimsy Fundamentals Paper Pack	CTMH Thistle Cardstock	CTMH Sea Glass Glitter Paper
CTMH White Daisy Cardstock	CTMH Celebrate Thin Cuts	CTMH Happy Thoughts Embossing Folder	Neenah Solar White Cardstock (110LB)
CTMH 3D Foam Tape	CTMH Liquid Glass	MFT Little Letters Die-namics	On Lilac Lane (28 Lilac Lane)
Pastels Sequin Tin (28 Lilac Lane)

InLinkz.com

Big Wish, Bitty Stamp...

Hi All! Just stopping in with a masculine birthday card that I recently made.

I've really been into the 4-bar card size lately. It's slightly smaller than the regular A2 card, but big enough to go through the post. So for this card, I cut the base (3 1/2 x 5 inches) from white Neenah Exact Index cardstock. I then used images from the So Many Smiles stamp set by Close to My Heart to create a fun background with a slightly retro feel. The images are stamped in Crystal Blue, Cranberry, Cashmere and Whisper inks. I then stamped the sentiment from the Bitty Birthday stamp set (also by CTMH) in Cranberry ink on a strip of White Daisy cardstock that I layered on Crystal Blue cardstock and then added to the front of the card. I had originally created this to as a one-layer card, but decided that I liked how the Crystal Blue cardstock made the sentiment pop and tied the rest of the card together.

Here are a couple of close ups:

And that's it. Pretty darn simple! The Bitty Birthday stamp set will be retiring at the end of August. You get these two birthday sentiments for $2.95!

You definitely don't want to miss out!

Have a wonderfully creative week!

CTMH So Many Smiles	CTMH Bitty Birthday Stamp Set	CTMH White Daisy Cardstock	CTMH Crystal Blue Cardstock
CTMH Crystal Blue Ink	CTMH Cranberry Ink	CTMH Cashmere Ink	CTMH Whisper Ink
Neenah Exact Index Cardstock (white)	ATG Gun	SureCut Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer

InLinkz.com

Cultivating Happy!

Hi All! Just wanted to share a little card I created from a coloring piece I did earlier in the month for The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge (#thedailymarker30day). I've been posting my coloring on Instagram, which you can see here.

Let's take a look at the card:

This medallion is from Close To My Heart's Ornate Blossoms stamp set. I stamped it on Pearl Shimmering Cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with my Copic markers. 

The card is a 3 1/2 x 5-inch top folding base cut from White Daisy cardstock. I cut the shaker frame from White Daisy using dies from the Stitched Rectangles Stax by My Favorite Things. I added gold dot acetate from We R Memory keepers to the frame to make the window. After I added foam tape to all four sides of the window, I filled it with heart glitter by Martha Stewart Crafts. I then added it to the card base and popped the medallion on top with more foam tape. 

Here's a look at the medallion up close. The picture on the right is my attempt to show the shimmer of the paper:

I stamped the inside greeting in the same Memento ink using a stamp from the Bitty Birthday set by Close To My Heart. Here's a look:

And finally, one last look at the card:

This coloring challenge has been a lot of fun! There's still time left to join in. It's a great way to spend a little time relaxing and creating each day.

Have a wonderfully creative week!

CTMH Ornate Blossoms Stamp Set	CTMH Bitty Birthday Stamp Set	Memento Tuxedo Black Ink	CC Shimmering Pearl White Cardstock
CTMH White Daisy Cardstock	Copic Sketch Markers	MFT Stitched Rectangles Stax Die-namics	Martha Stewart Glitter
WRMK Clearly Posh Acetate	CTMH 3D Foam Tape

InLinkz.com

Have Your Cake and Paint It Too?

Hi All! Welcome to the Rose Blossom May Stamp of the Month Blog Hop featuring Close To My Heart's May SOTM: Celebrate with Cake! If you've just hopped over from wonderfully talented Shelly Nemitz' blog, Just One Pretty Piece, you're in the right place. If you're just starting with me, I'll have a list of all the participants at the end of this post. Now, let's take a look at the stamp set and project for today.

I love the "doodle" look of the "Celebrate with Cake!" stamp set, and the mix of fonts used for the sentiments. When I saw it, I knew I needed to do at least one card with it using the no-line watercoloring technique, and that's exactly what I did for today's project. Let's take a look:

This cute little birthday card is cut to 3 1/2 x 5 inches from White Daisy cardstock. I layered it with patterned paper from this month's special paper pack: Happy Times. The gold striped piece is from the zip strip on the gold stripe paper in the pack. (I love this paper! I'll be showing it a lot this month I'm sure!) I stamped the cake and roses on a piece of White Daisy cardstock (cut to 2 3/4 x 4 3/4) in Champagne ink. I then painted it using the CTMH watercolors. I added a white shimmer paint to the cake plate and white cake using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi water colors. I also added a clear shimmer watercolor medium to the pink cake. After all the paint dried, I added some Diamond Stickles to the cake layers, candle, and roses. I then layered all my papers together and popped the whole thing up on my card front using fun foam. Finally I added blue, yellow, clear, and iridescent star sequins to had a little pizazz.

Here are a couple of close ups:

Finally, I added the Happy Birthday sentiment to the inside of the card using Thistle ink:

And there you have it! Thanks so much for stopping by. It was such a fun and simple card to make. I hope you enjoyed it! Now hop on over and see what the amazingly talented Mary Newman has in store for your inspiration at the Pixie Dust Playground. If you get lost along the way, here is a list of hop participants:

Brenda

Lynn

Shelly

Kim {that's ME}

Mary

Kristine

Kim

Have a wonderfully creative day!

CTMH May 2016 SOTM	CTMH Happy Times Paper Pack	CTMH White Daisy Cardstock	CTMH Champagne Ink
CTMH Thistle Ink	Watercolors	Watercolor Brush Set	Martha Stewart Glitter
Sunshine Sequin Mix	Blue Sequins	ATG Gun	Sookwang Double-sided Tape
Craft Foam

InLinkz.com