Stars, Elmo, and Christmas Trees

Hi everyone,

First of all, thanks to everyone who commented on the birthday candle card and Any Hero card. If it weren't for wanting to honor copyright laws, I'd publish the inspiration card for last post's birthday card. The Leisure Arts book Card Sketches for Paper Crafters is carried by Archivers -- or can be purchased at Amazon  -- if you're interested in checking it out. 

It's been a busy weekend. But, I still managed to carve out a little crafting time this weekend. :)

So, what do stars, Elmo, and Christmas trees have in common? They've all been the focus of this weekend's crafting activity!

Card 1: Your Courage Inspires Me

The first card is an Any Hero card inspired by this week's OWH sketch and this week's Midweek Throwdown challenge to make a card in red, white, and blue.

                                              

Paper: We R Memory Keepers Red, White & Blue; AC blue cardstock; Bazzill watermelon cardstock
Sentiment: Stamper's Best in Distress Ink Vintage Photo
Tools and Techniques: star punch, heat embossing with clear powder

As with most of my Any Hero cards, I rotated the sketch to make a  horizontal card.

Card 2: Elmo

The inspirations for this shaped card were: 1) a similar card posted by Sandy a few months ago and 2) this week's Casual Friday challenge to create a card with something torn.

Paper: AC Cardstock
Techniques: tearing paper
Tools: Creative Memory circle, circle punches, corner rounder

This was actually pretty quick to do. Elmo's face is a solid piece of cardstock covered by strips of torn paper.

Next time, I'm going to try and use smaller strips -- maybe quilling papers. And, I think I will fan the strips out in a circular pattern around the nose area and vary the strip lengths a little bit more.

It's also worth mentioning that the white circles are 4-plyed so that  they won't bend easily while in transit -- or while in the hands of a little one. :)

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the way this little guy turned out. :)

Card 3: Season's Greetings

The last card is part of a set I'm making for next month's craft fair.

Paper: Authentique, AC black cardstock
Sentiment: Hero Arts in Distress Ink Black Soot; Gems: Core-dinations Nightfall
Tree: Hero Arts in clear powder using VersaMark
Tools and Techniques: border punch, heat embossing 

 Parting Thoughts

I'm hoping to get a few more Season's Greetings card done tonight. We'll see...

Have a great week. Thanks for visiting and happy scrappin'!

3 for 1

Hi everyone,

I have three cards from one sketch to share today. But, first, a couple of thank yous.

Thank You #1

As always, recent comments from followers and visitors are truly appreciated. Special thanks to Kathryn for her reminder to make a template of the little candy corn cards before I ship them in the mail to my nephews. I would've totally forgotten to do that. :)

Thank You #2

This one's a huge shout out to the wonderful people at Oak Creek Printworks. For the second straight year, I ordered sleeves for cards I will be selling at an upcoming craft show. And, for the second straight year, I was blown away by this company in Simi Valley (Pacific Time Zone) -- totally blown away. I called Monday after work (Eastern Time Zone) and my order arrived in Wednesday's mail!  Moreover, I had a wonderful conversation with Nancy when I placed the order and the sleeves are fabulous! 

Thank you, Oak Creek Printworks -- you totally rock!!!

And now for the main attraction... Drum roll, please.  

Paper: Jillibean Dutch Mustard Soup

                                                Card #1

While Pizazz It! is no longer a brick and mortar store, it is building a nice online presence. The card at the right was made from a wonderful card kit that was put together by Tiffany, who is a former Pizazz It class teacher and a great little designer. This sketch became the inspiration for two more cards.

Card #2

I used this design to make a few holiday cards for an upcoming craft show. For the show, I try to make several different designs to appeal to a variety of potential customers. Since this design has a quilt-like feel to it, I used some old-fashioned-feel paper to make several cards like the one below.

Paper: Authentique Festive collection, AC Christmas cardstock; Emagination punch, which was a garage sale bargain  :)

Since the paper combination was a little busier than what I typically use, I decided against a sentiment. But, that's not necessarily a decision carved in stone. :)   A shout out to Lynn at Scrapbook Art's OWH Card-Making Party last month for the idea to shadow the little Christmas tree. (BTW  This little card is already inside its protective sleeve.)

Card #3

The final card is for this week's Throwdown Color Challenge to make a card with black, white, and a pop of green or red. Since I had just mailed my holiday cards to OWH, I went with red and made my first Valentine's Day card of the season -- although I must confess I went with cream and black to use paper from the yummy DCWV All Dressed Up collection. :)

DCWV All Dressed Up, AC Christmas cardstock; EK heart and Fiskars border punches; heart-shaped gems ???

The Fiskars punch was another great garage sale bargain -- which made up for the this-three-way-heart-punch-is-so-darn-cute-but-more-than-I-want-to-spend impulse buy at my LSS. :)  I was really, really pleased with the way this card turned out. It was fairly labor intensive with all the punching, but definitely worth it.

Parting Thoughts

I really need to get some things done for the craft show. And, I'm hoping to get a little time to work try out this week's Sunday sketch. But, there are a few things that need some attention before I can get to the Menopause room. 

Hope everyone has a great week!  Thanks for stopping by and happy scrappin'!

Merry Christmas... and Happy New Year!

Hi everyone,

Many thanks to everyone who made a card for last week's OWH Sketch #140. Extra special thanks to those of you who posted cards and/or left such kind comments. (It's always amazing to see how one sketch can produce such different cards. :)  Looks like another great sketch from Julie this week.)

Kudos to those who are sharing cards on your blogs for the World Card Making Day Blog Hop. I took a quick look yesterday and am hoping to spend more time there today. At first glance, I saw some really pretty cards -- definitely worth a second look. :)

A Christmas Card Inspired One of Ashley's Sketches

That's right -- one of my favorite designers posted another great scrapbook double-page sketch! I used the left side as inspiration for the following card.

 

Authentique Festive collection, stash cardstock; computer-generated font; Creative Memories circle templates and miscellaneous circle punches; crimping and inking

Once paper choices were made, there wasn't anything too complicated with this card. My biggest decision was which paper(s) to use for the punched-out circles in the bottom left and top left. Some papers seemed like too much, others not quite enough. When I finally decided to use the same pattern for five of these circles, the card felt just right -- as Goldilocks would say. :)

Finally, I inked the outside of several of the larger circles in Adirondack Espresso, and I inked edges and crimped ridges on the cream and red ornament paper using Close to My Heart Desert Sand and Adirondack Espresso.

Think I'll post this one for the ODBD October Challenge to make a card using circles.Isn't it great when one card does double duty?!   :)

Parting Thoughts

Not quite sure how many cards I'll be making today. There are a couple of things on my to-do list that have to come first. And, I actually need to plan out what my next couple of card-making weeks will look like. :)

Have a good rest-of-the-weekend and a great start to the work week. As always, thanks for stopping by and happy scrappin'!

Season's Greetings

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone's had a good weekend.

I met a friend for a day of talking, eating, and shopping -- probably in that order -- yesterday and picked up a couple of yummy 6 by 6 pads of Christmas paper. Put one of those pads to use on the card below.

Authentique Festive; Hero Arts stamp, heat embossed in Distress Ink Vintage Photo; corner rounder, hole and ek border punches

Why is it that my cuts and paper placements always look so much straighter in my craft (aka menopause) room than on this computer monitor screen? Hmmm...

Anyway, love that the paper is two-sided. Love the designs in the collection. Thought the font of this sentiment felt right with the old-fashioned feel of the paper. And, I was pleased with the look achieved by applying  just a touch of Distress Ink to the top edge of the plaid paper.

I used OWH Sketch 139 for the design. (Since I don't have any brace/bracket dies, I went with a corner rounder for the top paper.) Also, I went with the red and green palette for this week's Midweek Throwdown Challenge.

Parting Thoughts

Hoping to make an Any Hero card using Sketch #139 this week. [In January, I resolved to make an Any Hero card for any OWH sketch I used during the year. Not quite as ambitious as Kathryn's resolution. But, a resolution I still want to keep. :) ]

And, I'm really looking forward to the card-making party at Scrapbook Art this coming Saturday. If you're interested in joining us and need some info, please click here.