ABC Christmas Challenge x 3

Because of spending a LOT of days at the hospital these last weeks I haven't stayed caught up on the ABC Christmas Challenge.  F is for Frills or Not.....I chose not, just a simple gold cord.  I used my favorite things lamp post die.  I got this free over Christmas in my order and never got to use it.  I really like the simplicity of this card.  The sentiment stamp is from Oscar's Door County Rubber Stamps.  The stitched snow hills are also MFT.   Yes, I did run the lamps through the Big Shot for the little light pieces.   What we stampers won't do when we have an idea! 

Just to prove that I got caught up, I also made the D is for don't over do it and the E is for embossing.  I am entering only the Frills one.

 The D is a one layer card with masking and inking.  The E is a piece of gold foil paper embossed and adhered to the card stock front.

Stamps # 544 & 545

These very ancient retired stampin up images never go out of style.  For the Simon Says Monday challenge we were challenged to use food or beverage.  I chose beverage.  With letters going into the prison now, I need to make lots of one layered cards.  I am writing to two people regularly and I know they like to receive cards.  The layered look was created with clever masking using MFT pierced dies.  Tim Holtz distress inks and SU markers.  Our son loves coffee an unfortunately he is forced to drink instant made out of hot tap water.  ick but it serves the purpose of pretending you have coffee. 

Using a sketch

MFT Wednesday Sketch # 272

I really enjoy using sketches.  They used to be so difficult for me but now they really cause me to use things in my stash.  This entire card was made from scraps and i really like the clean simple look of it.  Thanks to MFT for their weekly sketches that trigger my creativity.

ewe baby #543 & 544

A simple little cute and cuddly card for an upcoming baby shower.   This fits for the Simon Says Cute and Cuddly Wednesday challenge.  I used my spell binders curved edges to emboss the subtle hills.  I sure enjoy embossing with my Big Shot and dies.  The little lamb is a Stampin' Up image.  The sentiment is MFT but i only inked up the parts i needed and hand lettered the rest.  I exchanged the heart the lamb was holding for a little baby rattle from a very old set of stamps i have.  It's been forever since i used this little lamb. 

it's in the stars

Simon's Says Monday Challenge is Lucky Stars.  I used this paper from the Boy Crazy pack from My Mind's eye.  The rest of the elements are all MFT.  I really like that diagonal stitched cut out die.  I used a bit of a sparkle pen on the CELEBRATE.  Masculine Birthday.  I made two of these for both of our oldest brothers, their birthdays are one day apart. 

swingin by

For the MFT Sketch Challenge I went searching in my MFT box of stamps.  I always love this little guy.  With spring coming it was the perfect stamp to use with the spring colors yellow and navy.  I don't know if you can tell on the photo or not that the background panel is embossed with large dots. 

Entering into:
MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #270
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Touchy Feely
Word Art Wednesday #221
Use Your Stuff- Twine or Lace

#542 A fun MFT stamp

I really like this set from MFT called Birthday Sentiments.  For this stamp i stamped with versamark and then sprinkled with Violet embossing powder from Hero Arts.  After heating it I sprinkled again and heated and then did that one more time.  I was so pleased with the way the word "you" came out with the triple embossing.

I stamped on water color paper and then used my old stamps from Mark's Finest Papers in the corners and water colored them with my Stampin Up Lavendar Lace and Garden Green.

I will enter this into Simon's Says Touchy Feely Wednesday challenge as you can't help but run your fingers over that triple embossing.   I then stenciled with Mowed Lawn distress ink through a Tim Holtz stencil and then I splattered paint around the finished panel.  It needed that ribbon but i didn't want to cover up any of the corner flower.  I just cut a small slit to line up with the edge of the number 2 and voila' we have something a little different.  Maybe i will start a trend. 

Also entering into Word Art Wednesday #221.  They have a $20 gift certificate to Newton's Nook that would be so fun to win.

Touchy Feely Stamp #540 & #541

Stamp #540 & 541 are Stamps by Judith.  I went through a phase of buying Stamps by Judith and I love them.  They are so fun to create little scenes like this. These are all from her line.  I've been wanting to pull them out and use them again.  All of these are her stamps but I have already counted the rest in my count down of stamps as I use them.

I thought the felt grass would be a nice touch with these images and that allows me to enter this into the Touchy Feely Wednesday Stamp Challenge with Simon.   Because it has a sentiment showing, I will also enter into Word Art Wednesday #221.  WORD ART WEDNESDAY COMMENTATOR PLEASE SEE MY NOTE BELOW.  THANK YOU

I have received quite a few store bought cards recently and I noticed that several of them had cut outs on the fronts with the sentiments showing through from the inside of the card.  Using my MFT sentiment dies I cut an elongated hole in the top of the card for the sentiment to peek through.   Thanks for stopping by.  Love all my crafting friends.

The die I used for the sentiment hole is a MFT die and the grass is also MFT dies.  

Message for Word Art Wednesday:
I have tried over the past few months to leave comments on your page.  I can link my photos but i cannot post a comment.  Every time I try to leave a comment in the comment box this is the message I get.  I see that a few others are posting comments but am wondering if any others are having this problem also?  The comment box always says Your Comment is saved for approval but i don't believe you are receiving them at all.  Thank you if you can help me in anyway with this.  I would love to leave comments for you all.  


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Square Cards

I've never really varied much from the standard A2 card but i saw a sketch on SplitCoast that i liked and it just worked perfectly for the square.  For some reason i had an extra square already folded and decided to make this masculine low embellishment card that a friend asked for.

Awhile back I had made this washi tape circle die cut for something and it didn't work for one reason or another so it took it's place on the corner of the stamp table with other "i will use them soon" pieces.

I found this Authentique paper today in my stash and it was perfect for the die cut with it's little horizontal green lines.  This is truly a Use My Stuff card.  I had the twine from off a little gift box that came to me over the holidays.  So there you have it, how a card is born.  I will also enter this into Word Art Wednesday.

Anatomy of a card Stamps 538/539

Where do you get your ideas?  How do you know what papers to use?  What makes you choose a certain stamp?  These are questions that stampers get and how do we really know how to answer them?  ~~This week, I needed a wedding card.  I chose the brides colors and even used the ribbon from the invitation she sent us.  I looked at Split Coast Stampers and this was the sketch for the week.  Okay, I think I like that.  Now, the papers.  Hmmmm...that piece in the back needs to stand out but not be too bold.  I thought originally about a paper with the flourishes like the ones i stamped but i couldn't find any and while looking I saw this paper that looks like textured shabby chic ribbons sewn together and had a decidedly elegant look to them.  Pull that out.  Then the next layer.  Since her invite had these similar flourishes i wanted to include that look.  Thanks to Mark's Finest Papers very old retired stamp I had the perfect set.  Once stamped in the corners with Eggplant Envy from SU I thought the panel looked a little bare.  I grabbed my Tim Holtz Stencil and sponged very lightly with Linen distress ink in both of the opposite corners.  To get the circle image I used the same set to stamp this elegant frame onto the scalloped Spellbinders die cut.  The curved open lacy look of the die offsets the square and rectangle panels perfectly.  Now add the ribbon to be the little panel that sits under the circle in the square and we have the sketch done perfectly.  Now in real life the colors are much more cohesive than what shows up here.  The ribbon panel and the hearts match almost perfectly.  The Eggplant Envy color and the ribbon match beautifully also.  The little gem???  Had to add that to cover up a spot that the ink caught the edge of the sentiment stamp.  So THAT's how we come up with a card.  Fun, eh?