Monday Musings

Hi, everyone,

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

The good news is that the weather was gorgeous here these last couple of days. The bad news is that makes it kind of tough to stay inside and work on cards. But, I managed to get a couple of cards made anywhere -- 6 to be exact!  Here's some information on 3 of the cards.

OWH Sketch #124: Red, White, and Boom

 I love the simplicity of this week's sketch.

                                 

As always, I used it as the inspiration for an Any Hero card. For the card below, I rotated the sketch to make a horizontal card. And, I changed things up a bit going away from my usual Bo Bunny Liberty and SignifyPink Pages of Honor papers. Shocking, I know!

Paper: We R Memory Makers Red, White, & Blue collection; Stickles; garage sale funky fiber

Ever since I picked up this pack of paper, I've wanted to play with the fireworks pattern. This week's sketch seemed like the perfect opportunity! I used some crystal, candy cane, and midnight blue Stickles to pop the fireworks. I eventually decided to go with this blue fiber although it wasn't my first -- or for that matter, second choice. But, my first choice was glittery adornment that reminded me of razor-thin Easter-basket grass. So, I was really concerned that it wouldn't get the OWH glitter-free seal of approval. This ribbon doesn't carry through the fireworks idea, but I know it's a safer bet.

A Greeting from Three Amigos and A World of Thanks

A manager at work is celebrating the big 6-0 this week. So, our team is having each person give her a gift every 60 minutes. What better gift than a handmade card for Janet -- and a set of handmade cards for her to give to her family and friends?

While I didn't think I could get 60 cards made by this Thursday --LOL -- I did think I could put together a pack of 6 cards (one for each decade) by then. I finished the final two today! So, Janet will be receiving  a "thinking of you" card, a "hi" card, two thank you cards, a Bo Bunny Father Time card, and a birthday card. I won't bore you with all six! Instead, I've chosen two card to share.

Materials: A Mash-Up of garage sale finds, craft store clearance items, and Tuesday Morning finds!

What I LOVE the very most about A Greeting from Three Amigos is that it truly was a coming together of lots of finds. It is the first card that I've created from so many different sources! The stamps I used for the sentiment and the ghost image flowers in the top right corner, and the Distress Inks used to stamp the sentiment and flowers, are the only "full-priced" materials in this card. :)

Materials include:

• Studio G clearance paper flowers
• garage sale Studio 18 rhinestones
• garage sale Making Memories foam flower stamp
• Tuesday Morning American Craft stamp marker
• garage sale Gartner Studios card base and coordinating envelope

Techniques include:

• Using ghost images for the flowers in the top right corner
• Wiping ink from the bottom of the left and right stems so that the stems faded into the bottom of the card
• Adding lines and a flower to the inside of the card  :)

Three additional thoughts:

• I decided against embossing and/or adorning the sentiment on the bottom right. While I initially entertained both ideas, I decided to not do anything that might take away from the flowers
• After looking at the card when I was finally done, I realized that the flowers looked like they were waving a leaf to say "hello" themselves. Silly, I know... but I thought it anyway!
• Think I'm going to post this for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge to use a little bling.

S.E. I. Moonrise paper and embellishments, card stock from stash

The paper for A World of Thanks is the same collection that I used for the use something you've been hoarding challenge OWH's VCMP challenge. (Remember the paper I was saving for my nephews' weddings? Yep, that collection!)

Parting Thoughts

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Not quite sure what work holds this week. Last week was pretty crazy -- and I think it's going to be that way for awhile. (I'm just hoping Janet likes her gift.) So, I'm not sure if I'll get any other cards made or not...

Until Friday, thanks for visiting and happy scrappin!