Sketch Saturday (and why I don't try to make duplicate cards...)

We got a chance to celebrate the birthdays of two of our friends on Sunday, so I got to make two birthday cards, one boy card and one girl card. The boy card, for our 1-year-old friend Bobby is based on this sketch from Sketch Saturday:

I used some of the scraps from the calendar pages I am currently working on.  I love this smug looking frog from "Boys Will Be Boys".

 

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill, American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Target, Die Cuts With a View, October Afternoon

Ink- Clearsnap, Ranger

Stamp- Stampin Up

Embossing Powder- JoAnn Crafts

Punch- EK Success

Trim- The Robin's Nest

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Boys Will Be Boys

Pen- Zig

I started by trying to make two cards with the same design so I could include one in the cards that I will be giving to my grandma for Christmas.  After realizing that my scraps were not big enough to make two identical cards, I abandoned that idea and decided to make two cards with different designs.  Even the second frog didn't turn out quite right and was missing part of its left foot (hence the scalloped circle accent covering it on the second card).

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill, American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Target, Die Cuts With a View, October Afternoon

Ink- Clearsnap, Ranger

Stamps- Hampton Arts

Punch- EK Success, Marvy

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Boys Will Be Boys

Pen- Zig, Sakura

I also made this card for Bobby's big sister Annie who turned 3.  I didn't use a sketch for this one.  I just started pulling out items that were left of my Cosmo Cricket DeLovely collection and worked from there.  I love the little birds in this collection and started with those.  I haven't used this tree cut yet from "Cindy Loo", but I liked it to perch my bigger bird it.  To make it stand out, I added the dark circle to the background.  After that, things came together pretty quickly.

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill

Patterned Paper- Cosmo Cricket

Glitter Paper- Making Memories

Sticker- Cosmo Cricket

Trim- Target

Stamp- Hampton Arts

Ink- Clearsnap, Ranger

Embossing Powder- Jo Ann Crafts

Pen- Sakura

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridge- Cindy Loo

Happy 4th Birthday...

To Miss Addy! While today is her actual birthday, we celebrated on Saturday with family.

 As we were planning for the party, she kept saying she wanted Tinkerbell on her cake. I was fine with that, but she had had a fairy cake last year and her sister had a Tinkerbell cake a couple of years ago. When it came time to actually decorate the cake and I was looking for a coloring book picture of Tinkerbell to work from, I came across some of the girls' Strawberry Shortcake coloring books and and said, "Strawberry Shortcake would also be fun on a cake..." Addy said, "Yeah, I want Strawberry Shortcake!" And took the coloring books and started looking for a picture for me to duplicate. She ended up selecting a picture of Lemon Meringue for me to base the cake decorations off of.

We started a tradition when Ellie turned 4 of bringing the kids to their first movie in a theater as their gift. Rick ended up finding a "cheap" theater that was still playing "Brave" and took her to that. We thought she would enjoy "Brave" more than the current kids' movies out in theaters. Addy really enjoyed her first movie theater experience and kept talking about how big the screen was.

I made a card to give her at her party yesterday using the current card sketch at Stuck on U Sketches.

The cute fairy girl is a cut from the "Playtime" Lite cartridge. I decided after I had cut out all the pieces that they needed some definition so I ended up going around everything with a pen, which was a bit tedious, but I am happy with how it turned out.

Materials-

Patterned Paper- Cosmo Cricket, Provo Craft

Cardstock- Bazzill

Ink- Color Box

Pen- Marvy, Creative Memories

Stamp- Close to My Heart

Punches- McGill

Felt Trim- Michaels

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridges- Playtime, Live Simply

Glitter Glue- Ranger

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 10-21-12

It's been a busy week and weekend so far! I managed to get my photos taken for the scavenger hunt, though these were a little tricky!

Orange
This photo is from our trip to the pumpkin patch last Saturday. They had several cute arrangements set up around the farm.

Faceless Portrait
I decided to capture a photo of my 26-week-pregnant belly for this one. I tried some more "typical" shots in the mirror, but ended up liking this top down approach the best.

View From the Top
This is a shot from Addy's birthday party today. This one is of all three kids and their cousin.

Cozy
We went to the zoo on Thursday so my oldest could check out the new black bear exhibit (she was in school the last time we went). Here is one of the bears in his cave- doesn't get any cozier than that!

Stacked
This one is a bit of a stretch, but I thought this photo was just too cute. Here is Will "stacked" on one of the chicken statues in the chicken barn at the zoo.

Quick Card

I put together another quick card this afternoon using scraps from my latest calendar pages (you will have to wait to see those!).  I used the current Unscripted Sketch for this card.

I had quite a few bits and pieces left after I finished the layouts, so I did a lot of piecing together for this card.  To add some extra texture, I ran my plain cardstock pieces through my Texture Boutique and inked them a bit with Weathered Wood Distress Ink.

I also did this card for the 10/14 card challenge at My Scraps and More, which was to use word stickers. I used the "I Love You" sentiment from a sheet of cardstock stickers I've had for a while.

Materials:

Cardstock- The Paper Company

Patterned Paper- American Crafts

Sticker- Little Yellow Bicycle

Ink- Ranger and American Crafts

Stamp- Stampin Up

Punch- Marvy

Scissors- Fiskars

Embossing Folder- Sizzix

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 10-14-12

I got some photos taken (and edited!) this week, so I decided to participate in this week's scavenger hunt.

Water Drops
We went to a pumpkin farm yesterday. It was a little chilly and drizzling the whole time we were there. Here is a shot of some water droplets on my little guy's face.

Faithfulness
Okay, so this photo isn't from this week and I didn't even take it, my husband set up the tripod and was using the remote; but I wanted to share it and it fit the prompt.  In June, my husband and I got to take a weekend away to relax and celebrate our 8th anniversary (it was a gift from some amazing friends).  When I read the prompt, I immediately thought of marriage and faithfulness.

Then and Now
This week I took Addy's 4-year portraits.  I chose these two photos to not only show how much Addy has changed over the last year, but it is also shows my progress in taking and editing photos.

Fingertips
They had face painting at the pumpkin farm and Will decided to get a tractor painted on his face.  This lady's fingertips were kept busy painting kids' faces today!

Item from Fall Bucket List
I chose "nature walk".  As part of Addy's "photo session", we walked through the wooded part of the park near our house looking for pretty places to take photos.  Here are all three kids running through the leaves.

Bright Birthday Card

As I was cleaning up from making a project earlier this week, I decided to make a card from some of the scraps. One of the Christmas gifts I have been giving in recent years is handmade cards for my grandma to use when she needs a card. So I decided this would be a good start to those cards!

 I did another of the World Card Making Day challenges at Let's Capture These Sketches. This time it was Challenge #6- Make it Shiny! The floral paper had the glitter accents on it, and I added the dots of glitter on the bottom for a bit more sparkle. For the bottom part of the card, I ran the yellow cardstock through my dry embossing machine and then rubbed some ink over the raised parts to make them stand out.

Materials:

Cardstock- The Paper Company

Patterned Paper- K and Company

Stamps- Stampin' Up

Button- Oriental Trading Company

Twine- Pink Paislee

Ink- Ranger

Embossing Folder- Sizzix

Trim- Michaels

Glitter Glue- Ranger

Sympathy Card

I made a sympathy card earlier this week for the family that lived just up the road from us growing up for the loss of their husband/father. I made this card with inspiration from this week's Unscripted Sketch and one of the World Card Making Day Challenges at Let's Capture These Sketches. The challenge was to make your own flowers.

To make the flower on my card, I cut out two layers of the layered flower on Cindy Loo.  I inked the edges of both layers with grey ink.  The top layer I dry embossed to add some texture.  I sprayed both layers with Pearl Glimmer Mist.  For the center of the flower, I simply punched a scalloped circle, inked the edges and stamped the sentiment.  To attach the center, I used some foam tape to add some depth.  I felt that the card needed  a little something else, so I cut out the leaves to add a little pop of green and a bit of movement.

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill

Patterned Paper- My Mind's Eye and Imagination Project

Embossing Folders- Ellison

Ink- Ranger

Stamps- Stampin' Up

Punch- Marvy

Die Cutter- Cricut

Cartridge- Cindy Loo

Another Baby Card- Unscripted Sketches

As I said yesterday, I had two friends have babies in the last week, so here is my second baby card.  For this one, I used this week's Unscripted Sketch.

 I did some stamping, fussy cutting and layering.  I stamped the baby image on white, green and purple papers.  I left the white image alone, and cut out the pieces I wanted from the green and purple.  It is a fun way to add some dimension and color to your stamped images!  I colored the face of the baby with some chalk and filled the little circles with some blue liquid pearls to finish it off.

Materials:

Cardstock- American Crafts

Patterned Paper and Die Cut- Crate Paper

Stamp- Great Impressions, Leisure Arts

Twine- Pink Paislee

Ink- Prima

Chalk- Oriental Trading Company

Glitter Glue and Liquid Pearls- Ranger

Baby Girl Card- BBTB2

I had two friends give birth to baby girls last week, so I need to make some cards! Today I am sharing the first. The current challenge at Bitten By the Bug 2 is to use a tree cut on a project. The Cindy Loo cartridge has a couple of trees on it and some adorable animals, so I decided to use a couple of cuts from that cartridge.

For the sentiment, I decided to use the negative cut from another card I made as a mask and dabbed purple distress ink over it.

Materials:

Cardstock- The Paper Company

Patterned Paper- Crate Paper

Die Cutter- Cricut

Cartridge- Cindy Loo

Twine- Pink Paislee

Glitter Glue- Ranger

Ink- Ranger