Two Hearts Coming Together

My husband has a friend who just got engaged and he asked if I would make a card for her. My first question was "what's her favorite color?" His reply was blue lol. So today we went to the LSS and I had him pick out the blue he wanted me to use. I figured it was simpler than trying to determine which blue he wanted. This is what I came up with. I'm not sure who makes the flourish stamps but the EF is from Cuttlebug. After I saw the picture, I went back and added Glossy Accents to the dots and the end of the flourishes. The blue really pops; he picked a great color.

Yesterday I made a couple of cards with buttons I've had for awhile. I had the hardest time coming up with ideas to showcase the buttons themselves because they are so pretty and I didn't want them lost. The shapes are all Nesties, the AEIOU stamp is Hero arts, not sure about the miss you stamp.  The EF is Geo Flowers from The Paper Studio. I'm still not completely happy with them, but they'll have to do.

This one was inspired by a pin on Pinterest. I was dying to make a pretty spring card. The flowers are Hero Arts Earth Flowers, the sentiment is Magenta and the EF is Cuttlebug. I used Nesties for the ovals. The flower is embossed with Recollections Snow embossing powder.

Now if it would just stop snowing here, I'd be all set for spring!

I hope your day made you smile.

Cherie

A few cards...

Today I'm sharing a few cards I've made just because...no sketch, no challenge, simply enjoying my crafting time.

I've made one of these before in a Disney theme and the bottom was closed. I left this one open so it can slide in and out easier through the top or bottom. The papers I had on hand, the scalloped circles are Nestabilities and the stamp is Fiskars.

This one I CASE'd from Pinterest. The big flower punch is EK and the small one is Fiskars, the distress ink is Tim Holtz. I always have fun using my piercer and this one used it a lot. The sentiment is Stampin' Up! and some buttons I already had. I moved my jar of buttons to my craft table, so I see them and use them. I simply used my fingernails to give the small flowers some curly petals.

I don't remember where I saw this sketch, but so many ideas for it flashed through my head. The first one has a Fiskars sentiment and some small red buttons with tan ribbon as the background accent. The purple one uses several Stampin' Up! sentiments, a bit of white ribbon, buttons and baker's twine. All of the patterned papers are from Provo Craft Bitty Pads. It's a lot of trimming, but worth it.

I hope you're enjoying National Craft Month as much as I am.

Be well,

Cherie

S&S Sketches 17, 18, 19, 20

I had fun today working on some more S&S sketches. Today I have four for you. The first one is sketch 17. I used the Sizzix Hearts EF. On the small piece, I inked the folder before I used it and cut out the hearts with Nesties. All of the papers come from my stash. The black dots are Pearl Pen.

Next is sketch 18. The stamp is Earth Flowers from Hero Arts and colored with Tombow markers before I stamped it. I saw the technique about two years ago and it popped into my head for this sketch. It's the first time I've tried it and I really like how it turned out. The purple paper has a slight metallic sheen to it and I added the pink bling to finish it off.

For sketch 19, I could hear my monkey stickers from The Paper Studio calling out to be used. I picked this one and sure enough, he looks happy with the hearts. Again, I used Sizzix Hearts EF and some Pearl Pen for accents. The smile stamp is from Magenta, ribbon and papers from my stash. I like how this can be used as an adult or kid, male or female card.

Last, but not least, sketch 20. I found these papers while digging through one of my drawers. I had totally forgotten about them. I believe they're from DCWV. The stamp is Fiskars and dots are Pearl Pen. I love the metallic look of the paper.

Here is one extra picture. People have been talking about how they store their ribbon. This is how I do it. I cut out 3x5 pieces of thin cardboard, from cereal boxes, granola bar boxes, etc. I tried 3x5 cards, but they were too thin. I wrap the ribbon around them and sometimes use a glue dot to secure the end. This makes it easy to see what colors and patterns I have. It also shows me I don't need any white ribbon for awhile! It takes up a lot less space than having all of those spools and it's easy to see how much I have left of a particular ribbon. I hate it when you pull ribbon off a spool only to discover you only have three or four inches.

How do you store your ribbon?

Smiling because I can,

Cherie

S&S Sketches 15 & 16

Two more S&S sketches for you today. I'm slowly wittling away at them.  Are you one of the many people who resolved to get them all done this year?

My take on sketch 15:

The stamps are all from Hero Arts Big Candles. I used an EK border punch and Copics to color the candles. I inked the white edges with black to make them blend a bit better. A good masculine birthday card, I think.

Here is sketch 16:

I embossed the blue with Polka Dots and the flowers are from Our Craft Lounge Pretty Petals. I colored them with Copics, cut them out and popped with some dimensionals. I like the look of only half the corners rounded and find myself doing it a lot more lately.

I hope you're having a good Saturday. And if you have nice weather, send some here please. We had snow again today!

Cherie

March ODBD, MWT, Sketch 112

It's rare that I have a card that meets more than one challenge. But today I have one that meets three of them!

The March ODBD challenge is a tic-tac-toe challenge. I chose to use a digi stamp, layers and embossing. You can find the digi here on Paula's blog. It's one of my favorites for OWH cards. It's colored with Copics and I used a stencil for the heart. The heart has Glossy Accents to make it shiny. The red is embossed with Sizzix Hearts folder. The background is stamped with a Provo Craft stamp I inherited from a dear friend.

Here is where you can find sketch 112 and here is the current MWT which is making a miss you card.

Don't forget March is craft month. It's also been proven that it helps you relax, de-stress and improves relationships. I knew there was a reason I love doing it.

Now go get crafting!

Cherie

This Time It's for Me!

It's very rare that I make something for me when I craft, but when I saw this idea, I knew I had to do it. There wasn't anything wrong with the way I kept my cards separated before except it was with scraps of paper that always seemed to slip down into the box and get lost. This is my interpretation:

I chose to use soft colors for the dividers which are 6x6 and used my corner rounder. Then I cut copy paper into quarters and rounded the corners. I scored 1 inch from the top to give myself a reference point for the stamps. I had a stamp for all of them but 1. It was fun looking through all of my stamps to find ones for the holidays/seasons. I had to use an alphabet set for "fall." I also made a couple of blank dividers.

Here are the categories I have in no particular order: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Happy Birthday, Thank You, Just Because, Miss You, Thinking of You, Winter, Love, Christmas, Easter, Fall.

They were simple to make and make me happy when I look at them. It will also be easier to see what categories I need to fill in. It's the simple things in life that make me smile.

Enjoy the simple things!

Cherie

Spring Has Sprung! (and S&S Sketches 13 & 14)

Crafty Contagion is challenging us to make a spring card over the next two weeks. We've had snow here and 60 degree weather in the last week or so, so I'm more than ready for spring! For my card, I used S&S sketch 14:

The image is Rainy Day Ruby from Sparkle Creations that I got when I took a Copics class but never had a chance to color. I think it's the perfect "spring" stamp considering the weather in WA this time of the year. The sentiment is from OWH Hero Arts All the Time set. I used white Gelly Roll pen to add the dots to her umbrella. The background was Cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots. All of the papers I already had.

I also finished S&S sketch 13. When I first saw this with a diagonal sentiment, my mind went blank. I'm more of a straight lines kind of person. But thankfully there was an example to give me some inspiration.

The letters are A Muse Graffiti alphabet with the Cuttlebug folder Floral Fantasy as the background.The floral paper is by DCWV. The flowers are Prima and I was happily surprised to see how well they went with the paper. I'm not sure where the flower brads came from. Again, I already had all the papers on hand. It's a bit over the top for me, but hubby assured me Mom cards should always be over the top lol.

Today is a busy day for me with a SU party at 10, my craft group and a friend's birthday party. But I'm looking forward to all of it!

Happy Saturday!

Cherie

S&S Sketches 11 & 12

I've done a couple more sketches from the Stars & Stamps blog. I'm slowly working my way through them. I'm trying to do them in order. Let's see if I can keep it up! Here is sketch 11:

The flower paper is DCWV and the embossing folder is Geo Flowers. The buttons and other papers are from my stash. The sentiment is Fiskars. I'm not quite happy with the finished card, but hubby liked it, so that was enough for me! He never has any problem telling me if it needs something or has too much of something else.

For sketch 12, I came up with this:

When I saw this sketch, masculine popped into my head. I'm not sure why, but some of them just seem to look that way. I used one of the new OWH Hero Arts stamp sets, All The Time, that I got for my birthday. I really like how the layering on the sketch makes the image stand out. The only embellishment I used was a dot of Pearl Pen on the center of the clock. I used an EK border punch on the brown paper. All of the papers I had on hand.

Time to try a few more sketches. After all, March is National Craft Month!

Cherie

OWH MWT and Sketches 9 & 10

This week the Midweek Throwdown at Operation Write Home's Stars & Stamps blog is to make a Mother's Day card. Here's one using sketch 9:

I wanted a flower and I happened to have my jar of buttons sitting on my craft table. That's a lacy circles Nestie for the flower base. I used a Fiskars border punch to double edge the pink paper. There is wide white ribbon under it and some wired sheer ribbon with a touch of silver on top of it. I stamped the sentiment, from Fiskars, in Memento London Fog. All of the papers were from my stash.

Another sketch I worked on was sketch 10 and is a birthday card for a friend.

The tags are a SU punch. I used a cotton ball and some Studio G ink to distress them and a Fiskars alphabet set for the letters. I used the same method for the sentiment which is from Paper Pizazz. The flower paper is from DCWV and the background is from the Divine Swirl embossing folder. I added brads to the tags for a bit more dimension.

Hope you're having a great week,

Cherie

Masculine Birthday

Here's another masculine birthday card, but according to my hubby it can be a feminine one as well. What do you think?

All of the papers are from my stash, as well as the blue eyelets. The letters are from an A Muse set I've had for awhile. I love how well they stamp the first time. Again I used the black pearlized paper and the tag layer is silver. No Cuttlebug or Nestabilities used!

Enjoy your day!

Cherie

Happy Birthday

Here is another card I made for a gift pack of cards. You can never have enough masculine cards, don't you think?

The wood and brown papers are from a DCWV pad and the sentiment is DeNami. The pearlized  black mat paper is my new favorite color from Core'dinations. It's so much more elegant than plain black. I added some white eyelets for a bit of depth.

Mickey Mouse

When I saw this card on Pinterest, I knew I had to CASE it. The idea came from here. Mickey is my absolute favorite Disney character. I even have a book, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned From the Mouse."

I enjoyed figuring out the dimensions and how to close the bottom so the card part didn't slip through. (It's a piece of 12x12 paper cut at 5 1/2 and scored at 4 and 8.) I think next time, I'll leave both ends open so the card can be slipped through either end. I used my Cuttlebug for the background and Nesties for the circles. The ribbon was part of a Secret Santa gift. Pearl Pen provides a bit of bling. I lined the front and back of the card so both sides can be used for writing. I love this idea for all types of cards. It will definitely go into my repeat file.

Enjoy your week!
Cherie

It's Pluto Time

Disneyland is easily my favorite vacation spot in the world. We even went there for our honeymoon! So when I saw this Disney paper, I had to get it. It has several characters on it, but for these cards I focused on one, Mickey's dog, Pluto.

I love the look of squares with opposite corners rounded. This one I tried to make a bit more masculine with my paper choices. All of the patterned papers are DCWV. The background was Cuttlebugged to add a bit more texture and the sentiment, I believe, is from Hero Arts. I added little Pearl Pen dots to add some more dimension.

I've been trying to do more masculine cards lately and I think this one qualifies as well as the previous one. I like the look of the script embossing folder; it's elegant yet simple. I added two colors of twine in a crisscross pattern to give it a little more oomph.

There's no pretending this one is masculine! Don't you just love the polka dots? I used silver Pearl Pen on all of the white dots. The ribbon was some my mom gave me. I thought there was more of it, but it was just enough for one card, so I'm glad it went on a Disney card.

Hope you enjoyed and thanks for stopping by!

Cherie

OWH MWT - Use a digital image

This week over at Stars and Stamps, it's time for a challenge using a digital image, or digi stamp as they're commonly known. I made two cards with the same image.

The image is from Tiddly Inks and his name is Bo. The sentiment is Inkadinkado. I colored the image with Copics and kept most of him white to resemble more of a beagle. I added a few layers of paper and the background was Cuddlebugged. This card was for a sick friend who needed some cheering up. He had a beagle when he was younger.

This is a completely different use for Bo...a birthday card. Again he was colored with Copics. The sentiment is from a Fiskars birthday set. This was part of a set of cards I gave for a birthday gift. All of the papers for both cards came from my stash.

Hope you have time to get inky this weekend!

Cherie

Think Green

Over at the Crafty Contagion blog, they're having a "green" challenge. There are lots of sample cards created by the DT that all use the color green. And I happened to notice a lot of the cards I made this week had green in them.

This one is pretty simple but she is such fun to color. All of the papers, ribbon and bling were in my stash. The patterned paper is from Paper Pizzazz. She is colored with Copics. I added Stickles to her hair bow, then put Glossy Accents over it. I also used Glossy Accents on her earrings and boots.

This card is made with some blog candy I won over on Kathryn's blog, Kathryn's Cards. I put the stickers on the paper then ran it through my Cuttlebug. I love the look. Next, I added some pretty sage colored ribbon to bring out the green on the stickers. It's a simple card that can be used for any occasion.

For this one, I used one of the shaker hearts I made for a bunch of Mother's Day cards. I love the different textures on the purple and green papers. I stamped a DeNami sentiment in white and it was done.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Cherie

Blah blah blah...

I'm house/cat sitting this week so I don't have my crafting stuff with me. I've been doing some coloring with my Copics, so it'll be nice to have some images already colored. I'm not sure which is worse...not having my crafting area or not having my hubby here lol. He's not far away but an hour each way adds up with gas prices going up and up and up. We text and talk on the phone, but I'm looking forward to seeing him tomorrow for the first time since Tuesday night.

I do have a card to share with you, though. This is an invitation I did for a friend's 40th birthday party:

I was stuck and had to put a call out to my stamping friends when my friend's wife said she wanted a "classy beer" invite. Thank goodness Sheila has an A Muse set with a beer mug in it! The card uses a couple of different embossing folders plus lots of layers. The black circle layer is popped up and the glass has Glossy Accents. There's a snappy little poem on the inside that I found online and adapted to this special occasion. I've never made so many of one card. Whew! It was a lot of Cuttlebugging and paper trimming. Plus it wasn't easy to find the right Copic colors for beer lol.

All in all, it's a card I was happy to make for my dear friend.

Hope you all had a good week and a wonderful weekend!

Cherie

Let's Fly Away

Today is the second Saturday of the month and that means a new challenge over on Crafty Contagion. This time we're being challenged to "Take a Flying Leap!" All you need to do is make a project with something that flies. It can be anything from a bat to a fairy to a hang glider. What can you come up with?

Here's my interpretation:

My Cuttlebug was very handy on this one. I embossed the background and the clouds. I dragged a Studio G white ink pad over the background because the sky was too impossibly blue. Then I used Momento London Fog to add some color to the clouds. Living here in Washington, we tend to have more grey clouds than white! The airplane chickies are from DeNami. I colored them with Copics, cut them out and added some clear Stickles. The clouds are layered three times to give them some depth and the planes are popped with dimensional adhesive. I left a sentiment off of this one so I can put it my stash for an emergency.

Now go take a flying leap!
Cherie

VCMP Challenge 4, 6 and 7

The VCMP is still going strong over on Stars and Stripes. Have you been playing along? I've fallen behind a bit, but we have until Sunday to complete them all.

This is for challenge 4 (beachy thinking of you) and 6 (sand and sea):

I colored the image with watercolor pencils and used a water pen to finish it. The stamp is Beachfront Boat from Stampendous. The sentiment is from DeNami. I added a few Pearl Pen dots to make it stand out more. The background is Cuttlebugged with Forest Branches. Both images are popped with dimensional adhesive.

Challenge 7 is CAS (clean and simple). I decided to try a new technique I saw here. It's really simple but makes a gorgeous impact. It's not often I don't do any layering or popping of images.

I used a cotton ball and spun suger distress ink for background. The flowers are from Our Crafty Lounge and the sentiment is Studio G. I used Dixie's bow tying technique for the bow.

I hope you have time to play along.
Cherie

Funky Fun

Time for VCMP Challege 3...Funky Fold! I was dreading this one a little. It looks so dang complicated, even after watching the video. I was pleasantly surprised to discover it's pretty easy.

The first paper I saw when I opened my drawer was the gray and black animal print. Zebra popped into my head and I went searching through my digis. I found this freebie one that printed a bit fuzzy so it took a bit of time to use a fine black pen to fix it. The sentiment should be a bit bigger next time and was printed from MS Word. I used Nesties for the circles and added some googlie eyes for my bit of bling.

Do you ever use googlie eyes?
Cherie

Masculine Nautical

VCMP challenge 2...a masculine nautical card. Oh boy! This one made me stop and think. I have lots of beach type stamps but nothing even remotely masculine. My first thought was "it's time to go shopping!" Then it popped into my head to use nautical alphabet flags. I pulled up a chart and did a little playing around. I came up with this:

The background is Cuttlebugged and inked with grey. I cut 1/2" squares and colored them with Copics to spell "hello." I hung them from some twine and stamped a small hello inside the card to help with the translation.

To do the inking on the background, I gently dragged a grey stamp pad over the embossing. Imagine my surprise when the pad popped off the plastic! It was a $1 Studio G pad I got at Michaels. My replacement will be a better quality lol. Thank goodness it was a light color since I got it all over my fingers finishing the inking!

Have a good night!
Cherie

Hot Tropics!

OWH is having a VCMP (virtual card making party) this week! Every night they will post a couple of challenges and so far there has been blog candy for both. The first one tonight was to make a card using hot pink, green and yellow.

My first thought was the polka dot paper from Bella Press.  It has all of the colors in it. If you didn't catch it, this is sketch 107, as well. I embossed the yellow and layers some adorable DeNami stamps. It's a great spring-y card.

I hope you have time to play along.
Cherie

Sketch 107, more Mother's Day and ODBD

The new sketch at OWH today is pretty basic and easy to use for a CAS card. It also works nicely for some more Mother's Day cards. Not only that, but it fits the new ODBD challenge. I saw it and immediately knew it needed to be done with some double-sided papers.

The card back is silver and if you look closely you'll notice the black paper has a pattern on it. I added some cute Studio G polka dot ribbon I got from my secret Santa and popped the Fiskars sentiment. I have just enough of the paper left to do two more of these. But they'll have to wait since I'm off to watch the Super Bowl!

Here's the sketch I used:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Cherie

Mother's Day Challenge

Today is the kickoff for the Mother's Day Challenge at OWH. This is the perfect thing to get me started on those cards. It's been awhile since I've made any cards for a specific holiday and now is the time. I wanted them to be shaker cards since everyone seems to love receiving them. Here is what I accomplished today:

There are 19 of these. I'm not sure why it came out an odd number. The purple and pink have differend background papers and different bead colors. I used the Geo Flowers embossing folder from The Paper Studio and the hearts Nestabilities. I wanted to get at least one card completed so I'd know if I needed to make any adjustments.

That's dark purple paper on the top, not blue. For some reason my camera isn't fond of purple. The sentiment is from Fiskars and is edged in black and popped. I flipped through the sketches and found 36 fit my needs for this card.

Happy creating!
Cherie

Go Red for Women's Heart Health!

Today is Go Red for Women's Heart Health Day. You were supposed to wear something red...I chose a sweater but it could be a pin or scarf or anything. Over on OWH's Facebook page, we were challenged to make a card with red to spread awareness. Here's what I came up with:

It's a bit blurry because I'm in a bit of a hurry for a date with hubby and friends tonight. I'll try again tomorrow. I used Nestabilities for the heart and oval. I don't know if you can tell, but this is a shaker card. I forgot how much fun they are to make! The stamp is from Little Yellow Bicycle and everything else was in my stash.

UPDATE: A clearer picture.

Have a great night!
Cherie

Dies & Punches...Oh My!

It's that time of the week again...mid-week throwdown at Operation Write Home. This week our challenge is to make a card using die cuts or punches. This didn't pose any problems for me since I love using dies with my Cuttlebug!

I did two of these banner cards, one masculine and one feminine.

The pennant bits and circles are Nestabilities. On the first one, I used my Scor-Buddy to add some texture. It just didn't look manly enough when I added ribbon. The banner paper is from Graphic 45. On the second card, the background paper is from Bella Press. I used Studio G dollar alphabet sets for the letters. I wanted the "T" to be a "2" but it only came with letters. I think they'll still get the message. I pierced holes for the twine and added ribbon to the girl version. The letter circles are all popped up with dimensional adhesive.

I also worked with a sketch and used some dies. I was on a roll last night! Moving on down the list, sketch 8 was next.

Both of the polka dot papers are Bella Press. I bought them at the DeNami warehouse sale last year. I simply love polka dots! The ribbons are from my stash. I actually used up the last of the dark pink ribbon. Yay! Both pink ribbons are layered on white ribbon. I used, what else, a Nestability to cut out the circles. The sentiment is from Fiskars "Laugh With Me Quotes" embossed with black. The piercing was done at the last minute and helps pull the papers and quote together.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Cherie