Graduation cards- Sketch Saturday

Hello! I'm back today with a couple more cards. This time I made two graduation cards using the current sketch at Sketch Saturday:

For the right hand edge of my cards, I stamped the words "Congrats " and "Congratulations" with Versamark and then heat embossed them with clear powder. I found patterned papers in the graduates' school colors and attached them to the left side. I used the cute little graduate stamp and my scalloped circle punch for the little embellishment and finished off the cards with a piece of glittery ribbon.

Happy Birthday- CAS(E) This Sketch

Hello! As you may know if you have followed me for a while, June and early July are big months around here for birthday and anniversaries, so I make a ton of cards! I am here today with my first of the bunch. 

This card was inspired by the current sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch:

I loved the stars in the sketch, and since I was making a card for a 4-year-old, I decided to stick with them. I started by using a star mask, Distress Inks and a blending tool to make the pink and green stars. I then used the mask and some of the smaller stars to "lift" some of the ink with a baby wipe to make the lighter colored stars. I filled in with smaller stars and a Gelato and finished up with a stamp and the teal ink. I used that same ink to stamp and heat emboss the sentiment on some vellum. I used a few pieces of star confetti to finish off the card.

June Calendar Page- Stick It Down

Hello! I have my calendar layout for June to share! I love summer and the bright colors that go along with it, so I had a lot of fun creating this page. I started with the current two page layout at Stick It Down:

This was a little different style for my, but since I will be added pocket pages between these two pages, the layout of the left side works well. I added interest to the left side without patterned paper by using a mask and Distress Inks to create a rainbow of colors to match my papers. My papers are all from the Pebbles "Fun in the Sun" collection. 

One of the embellishment packs in this collection has these popsicles with actual sticks and space to journal on the back. I added a puffy sticker to this one for some color and interest.

There are cute cut apart Project Life style cards in this collection as well. I added interest to this one by using some foam adhesive and a matching sticker.

This collection also has the cutest matching striped Thickers! I used a puffy sticker and cardstock sticker to dress up the title area.

Materials:
Cardstock- Die Cuts with a View, other
Patterned Paper, Die Cuts, Enamel Dots, Chipboard- Pebbles
Ink- Ranger
Mask- Studio Calico
Font- Element
Tape- Bella Blvd.

Thank You Cards

Hello! I have a few cards to share today that I made a couple of weeks ago for the child care workers at my church. I went to my Pinterest board for ispiration.

First up was a die cut background, inspired by this pin. I went pretty basic and just made strips of patterned paper to back my die cut background. I added a die cut phrase and dressed it up a bit with some Stickles to finish it off.

For the next card, I was inspired by the sketch from Sketch Saturday a few weeks ago.

The stamping technique used on the background was inspired by this pin. I used my inkpads directly on my stamp to get the different colors. For the center circle, I used my Stamping Gear. I finished this card off with a die cut sentiment as well.

Finally, I have two cards that were inspired by this pin. I used Distress Stains as my water color. I found that the Cracked Pistachio color had the least contrast with the areas where the color was "lifted." I kept the embellishment minimal on these and just stamped and heat embossed a sentiment and ran a piece of tape down the side of the card.

New Baby- Stick It Down May Card Sketch

Hello! I have a card to share that I did some time ago, but forgot to post! I used the May Card Sketch from Stick it Down and my card was featured at the beginning of the month with the sketch reveal.

I played a bit on this card, making it a little different shape than I usually do. To make it still fit in a standard envelope, I made sure the final dimensions were still 5 1/5 by 4 1/4. For the base, I made a shaker by cutting a piece of patterned paper and a piece of vellum to the same size. I sewed them together using my sewing machine. I sewed 3 sides, added some glitter and sequins and then sewed the last side. For the main panel, I used a Cricut cut that I popped up on some foam adhesive. I finished the card off with some self adhering pearls.

 I made this card for my newest niece and ended up giving it to here parents at her baptism party. Everyone (especially the adults) loved the shaker feature on this card and it got passed around and shaken. :)

If you would like to see the rest of the team's takes on the sketch, check them out here.

It's Hard to be Neat...

Hello! I got a change to work on a layout over the weekend in celebration of National Scrapbooking Day! I started with this sketch from Scrapbook Challenges:

Since the subject of my photos was messy eating, I was also inspired by the mood board at Paper Issues this month:

I was inspired by all the food and splatters. The splatters made me thing of spray ink, so I used a mask and spray for my background cardstock. I then layered on paper and border stickers. I found the phrase for the title on The Perfect Title. At first, I was a little unsure of using such a long title, but I am really happy I did it. I didn't have much for journaling, so the long title added some interest to the page.

I used both a sticker banner and a punched one for this cluster. I finished off the cluster with some chipboard pieces, stickers, a brad and enamel embellishments.

I used similar supplies for this cluster. For my title, I used a combination of letter stickers, rub ons, chipboard letters and die cut words.

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill

Patterned Paper and Stickers- Fancy Pants

Chipboard- Fancy Pants, Studio Calico, Basic Grey

Brads- Maggie Holmes, October Afternoon

Enamel shapes- October Afternoon

Mask- Heidi Swapp

Ink- October Afternoon, Studio Calico, Tsukineko

Rub ons- Making Memories

Pen- Sakura

Punch- American Crafts

Fonts- Famous Fromage, Farewell

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Software- Craft Edge

Happy Birthday- Inspired by All the Little Things

Hello! I have a card to share today that I made for my nephew who turned 6 earlier this week. I started with the photo from Inspired by All the Little Things when I found out he was going to have an airplane on his birthday cake.

I started by dry embossing the light blue whitewash cardstock for my background. I sanded it a bit to make the blue show more. I fussy cut the clouds from a transparency and cut the plane with my Cricut and the "Boys Will Be Boys" cartridge. A quick stamped sentiment on a hand cut flag finished off my card front.

I am also entering this in the Emboss It challenge at Simon Says Stamp this week.

Happy Mother's Day!

Good morning and happy mother's day to all the mothers out there! I have a couple of Mother's Day cards to share today. My first card was inspired by the photo inspiration at The Card Concept:

I was also inspired by the card sketch at Paper Issues:

Here's what I came up with. I have had the lilac stamp for some time, but I don't know if I have used it. I always feel like it is a little small, but I found that if I stamped it multiple times, I could make it a better size. I drew the stems with a Distress Marker. I went for a clean and layered style and used stamps, paper, and an embossing folder to create texture and interest.

Next up is a card using the current sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch:

I was also inspired to use my Cricut by the current challenge at Bitten by the Bug, which is to use a bouquet/vase cut. I used the tulip and vase cuts from the "Walk In My Garden" cartridge. I cut the vase from glossy cardstock and then colored it using alcohol inks. For the background of my card, I used a background stamp and a similar ink color to create a tone on tone pattern. I used some gold spray ink for the splatters.

May Calendar Page

Hello and Happy May Day! I have my May calendar page ready to share today! I used the April two-page sketch from Stick it Down:

I mixed and matched several different companies and collections for my layout.  I used patterned paper by We R Memory Keepers and American Crafts and die cuts from a very old Crate Paper collection. The large chipboard letters are by Making Memories.  The "m" and "y" were a good color as is, but the "a" did not coordinate with the rest of my layout, so I covered it with some patterned paper so it would match.

I felt like there was a lot of space between my photos on the left hand page, so I added this little block of patterned paper for some interest and to even the spacing. The roses spread around the page were fussy cut from a sheet of patterned paper.  The orange/yellow/pink background on the bottom of my page is a sheet of the Cosmo Cricket Just Add Watercolor paper pad. I sprayed it with some water and coordinating spray inks to match it with the rest of my layout.

I added dots of Platinum Stickles around my page to coordinate with the gold accents on the pattern across the bottom of my page. I also used some more of my Perler bead dots on this page.

I was surprised by how well these die cuts from an old Crate Paper collection matched these papers! The paper from that collection is long gone, so it was great to find another collection that they worked with. I had a little fun stamping and writing some journaling on the speech bubble die cut.

 Speaking of Stick it Down, the May sketches were just posted, you can check them out here.

Materials:
Cardstock- Bazzill
Patterned Paper- We R Memory Keepers, American Crafts
Die Cuts- Crate Paper, K and Company
Specialty paper- Cosmo Cricket
Stamps- Hampton Arts, American Crafts
Ink- Tsukineko, EK Success, Heidi Swapp
Pens- Marvy, Sharpie
Font- Splash
Glitter Glue- Ranger
Chipboard- Making Memories