365 Cards...Day 195

I found a great site that has a new card/challenge every day. This is Day 195 out of 365. The design paper is Simple Stories, the brown, teal and yellow are Bazzill, and the white is card stock. For the stamps, I used two from Paper Smooches. The circles were done with Nestabilities and the border is by Martha Stewart. I touched up the image a bit with Copics. The finishing touch was a set of googlie eyes!

Make sure to check out 365 Cards. It has some great ideas! And with so many of us making cards for Operation Write Home, we need lots of ideas.

Live in the Moment

If you follow me, you know I rarely make CAS (clean and simple) cards. I'm all about lots of layers. So I was thrilled that this card turned out so well! I used a Paper Smooches die, some Hero Arts stamps and a piece of Simple Stories paper. I love those streamers on the handlebars and the sentiment reminds me of how much I used to enjoy riding my first bicycle.

This card is also for CFC109 over on CAS-ual Fridays and CAS(E) this sketch #36.

Here's hoping you have a chance to get inky today!

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge 100!

Sketchbook Saturday has reached it's 100th sketch! How exciting for them and their followers. You can find the sketch challenge right here over on Random Acts of Creativity.

For my card, I used some pretty scraps of Echo Park patterned paper and ivory card stock. The pretty embellishments are Jolee's Boutique and the sentiment is from Inkadinkado.

Enjoy your day!

OWH sketch 180

Here are two cards for OWH sketch 180. They're the same except the Doodlebug papers and sentiments. The black, white and red are basic card stock. Both sentiments are from Paper Smooches. The border was done with an EK border punch. The clear bling at the bottom is from my stash.

Happy crafting!

Freshly Made Sketch 94

My favorite stamps lately have been my Paper Smooches set. I love the writing style and the images are so cute and adorable. Both the image and sentiment are by Paper Smooches. I colored the chickie with Copics and used Pearl Pen for the dots. The brown is textured card stack and the white is from Stampin' Up! The background paper is by Paper Adventures. I used FMS94 for the sketch.

I hope you have time to get crafty today!

Mojo Monday 301

I enjoyed using the latest Mojo Monday sketch. The circle paper is from Pebbles; the black and white is basic card stock; the green, blue and orange are Bazzill. The green is embossed with the Cuttlebug Spots & Dots folder. I used a Stampendous sentiment. The ovals were done with Nesties. American Crafts makes the white brads.

Have a fabulous day!

Thank you...MWT and sketch 178

Today I have a dual duty card. It's for the Midweek Throwdown and sketch 178, both for Operation Write Home. The MWT calls for masculine cards and I managed to get four out of this piece of double sided Moxxie DP. The orange, brown and green are Bazzill and the white is card stock. The stud embellishments are from Michaels. The sentiment is by Stampendous and stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa.

Thanks for taking a look.

Clean & Simple 248

Here's a card based on Clean & Simple 248. I really love the background clock paper by DCWV. It goes so well with the Hero Arts stamp set. The brown paper is Bazzill and the white is card stock. American Crafts makes those black brads and a Martha Stewart border punch did those holes. The circle and scalloped circle are done with Nesties.

I'm trying to branch out from using only Operation Write Home sketches which I love because they have measurements on them. Other sketches make me think and I'm enjoying that lately!

Scraps

I had this scrap of Doodlebug chevron paper I needed to use and this is what I came up with. I cut it diagonally and made two cards out of it. Both cards use red and blue Bazzill as well as some basic card stock. The first one has two A Muse stamps. The HAPPY is really dark and pops much better in reality. The second has a Paper Smooches sentiment heat embossed in white

Have a fabulous week!

Cherie

One layout...four cards...lots of red, white & blue

This layout is pretty simple and easy to make into any type of card. I used Doodlebug paper from a 6x6 pad, some Bazzill, and some white and black card stock. The "screw" brads are by Recollections and one of my new favorites as you'll soon discover. The black brads are American Crafts and the red is bling from a friend.

This one has an A Muse sentiment I got at their huge sale a couple of weeks ago.

The bug stamp is by Hero Arts and the sentiment is Studio G.

The motorcycle and sentiment are from Hero Arts on this card.

Last one for today has another sentiment from A Muse.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Cherie

Kathryn's 6x6 Tutorial

One of the blogs I follow, Kathryn's Cards, posted a wonderful tutorial back in May. She took the time to figure out two different ways to cut some 6x6 papers and make several cards with a minimal amount of scraps. You can find her tutorial right here. The first time you do it, it take a little time to figure it all out, but once you have that first set of cards done, it goes so much faster. The first tutorial I did was the second one and it makes eight cards.

Here is what I came up with. I used a Doodlebug Sweet Cakes 6x6 pad that has 24 double-sided pages. All of the other papers are basic black and white card stock. The first card uses a Stampin' Up! stamp and the sentiment is A Muse. The silver embellies are JoAnn Craft Essentials. There are three of this card.

 

This one uses more JoAnn Craft Essentials embellies and another A Muse sentiment. There are two of this layout.

 

 

There is only one of this card. The sentiment/embellishment is from Michaels dollar bin. I used a white gel pen on the darker pink to make a border.

 

 

This last one (although there are two of them) has banners which I love! I added some American Crafts black brads and what I believe is a Studio G sentiment.

 

 

I'm looking forward to using this tutorial again as well as giving the other one a try. Are there any tutorials that have truly inspired you?

 

Cherie



 

Warm Thoughts

This card is much brighter in person. I'm not sure why the picture is so dark. But anyway...I made 17 of these for OWH. It was originally going to be a birthday card, but Sandy said she already has plenty of those! The idea for the layout can be found here.

I used two different Fiskars Dot Flourishes stamps to create the background and mounted it on black card stock which was then mounted on some teal Bazzill. The butterfly is done with a Marvy punch and edges with a black marker. The pearls on the butterfly were cannibalized from a very ugly leaf embellishment I got on clearance. The sentiment is Paper Smooches.

 

Have you ever looked an embellishment and thought, "I can cut it apart and use it for this and that and plenty of the other thing?"

 

Cherie

 

 

Miss You

Today's card was a bit labor intensive, but I didn't mind at all. It's worth the work to send a card I'm proud of. Don't you think? There are eight of these for my next OWH box.

I used some Moxxie Zoofari patterned paper and some teal and orange Bazzill. The white is card stock. The top layer of the star is done with Nesties while the other two layers were done by hand. I was so glad to use some of the Studio 18 orange rhinestones I've had forever. For the sentiment, I used a Paper Smooches stamp.

 

Do you ever buy Bazzill or card stock paper to match your patterned paper and have leftovers you will never use? That's what happened to me with that odd orange paper. I'm not sure I'll be able to even use it for Halloween cards.

 

Enjoy yourself today!

 

Cherie

Hey Buddy

Here's a bright card for you! I had fun making something so bright and yellow...it's definitely not a color I use often. I've paired these two papers together before and liked them so well that I did it again.

Both patterned papers are from Paper Pizazz. The yellow, blue and red are Bazzill while the black is card stock. I stamped the Paper Smooches sentiment on the textured side of the yellow. It makes it kind of bumpy looking which fits this card, I think. The red bling is from my stash.

 

Have you found papers that go well together and keep going back to them over and over?

 

Have fun today!

 

Cherie

Doodlebug Thanks

I completed 17 of these cards for my Veterans Home Project. It features some Doodlebug papers as well as blue Bazzill and white and black card stock. The stars are done with Nesties and the brad is American Crafts. The sentiment is by Inkadinkado.

 

How many Any Hero cards have you sent to OWH so far this year?

 

Cherie

Love Ya

It's another love card today. It's another idea from Pinterest that you can find right here. Six of these are for OWH.

I used the last of my Cloud 9 Design frog paper. The blue and green are Bazzill while the white is card stock. The embossing is done with a Cuttlebug folder and the border punch is Martha Stewart. The circles are done with Nesties and the sentiment is by Little Yellow Bicycle. The silver bling is JoAnn Craft Essentials.

Make sure to tell someone today that you love them!

Cherie

Love

I have a love card for you today. There are six of them to add to my OWH box. I found the idea on Pinterest. I do love pinning! But when I went to move the pin from my idea board to my inspired board, I think I accidentally deleted the original pin or I'd be linking to it here. Oops!

The heart paper is Hambly Screen Prints and the rest is basic card stock. The hearts were done with Nestabilities. The bling is from a friend in my craft group. And the sentiment is from Little Yellow Bicycle.

Enjoy your day!

Cherie

Flag Day!

It's Flag Day and I have a red, white and blue card to help celebrate! I used the new sketch from Clean & Simple for the layout.

The patterned papers are Doodlebug and the red/blue are Bazzill. The white is basic white card stock. The background is embossed with my Cuttlebug and the layered stars were cut with Nestabilities. That white brad is from American Crafts. The sentiment is by Hero Arts.

 

Have a fabulous weekend!

 

Cherie

Hugs!

Last time I shared kisses. Today I'm sharing hugs. And robots! It's amazing what you find when you clean and organize, isn't it? I thought this would make a cute boy card. This is kind of a take on one of the OWH banner sketches.

This card features paper from Pebbles Lil' Buddy Collection, black and white card stock, and some blue and green Bazzill. I used my new star Nesties and a star brad from my stash. The sentiment is Paper Smooches.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cherie

Kisses!

Here's a love card for my next box of cards. It's very simple but I really wanted to showcase the cute frog/heart paper I found when I was cleaning out my paper stash. So...I used a sentiment to reference kissing a frog to find a prince lol. The inspiration for the layout can be found here.

The frog paper is Cloud 9 Design; the blue and green are Bazzill; the white is card stock. For the sentiment, I used a stamp from Little Yellow Bicycle. Bling is some JoAnn Craft Essentials.

I wish you a fantastic day with much laughter!

Cherie

Thanks using sketch 111

Today I have two more Any Hero cards using more of my 6x6 Doodlebug paper. I'm really liking the colors of this pad. All layering papers are Bazzill. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches, heat embossed and cut with Nesties. The star brads are from my stash. Both use OWH sketch 111.

 

 

Have a fabulous day!

 

Cherie

Sketch 175 and another thank you

Here is my interpretation of OWH sketch 175. I really liked the white space at the top so I left it that way and put my Inkadinkado sentiment on the bottom. The plaid papers are from Doodlebug and the rest is all Bazzill. The brads are from my stash.

 

I tend to take sketches literally. Do you? Or do you tweak it into something a bit different?

 

Cherie

Lucky Stars

I saw a version of this card as I was flipping through a card magazine at the book store the other day. Theirs used only yellow for the stars. I wanted mine more colorful and bright. I used some bright lilac and turquoise for this. I love the new way to use this Hero Arts set. I did discover the need to be patient and wait until the inks dry. A couple of the cards got recycled because of smudges.

 

Thanks for taking a peek!

 

Cherie

Red, White and Blue sketch 115

Here are some more cards with Doodlebug paper. This time I used OWH sketch 115. All layering papers are Bazzill. The sentiment is SU. The brads are from my slowly shrinking stash of brads.

 

 

Enjoy your day!

 

Cherie

MWT...Sketch 174...Love

I've got three challenges in one card today. The current Midweek Throwdown is Transportation, the current sketch is 174 and Sandy has asked  for love cards. (Ok, the last one isn't a challenge, but I challenged myself to make some.) I made eight of these and used up two pieces of 12x12.

The striped and blue paper is DCWV. The others are all card stock I had on hand. The car stamp is by Hero Arts. The sentiment is My Favorite Things.

 

Have a wonderful week. Take some time to be creative!

 

Cherie

Patriotic sketch 123

I've opened a new 6x6 pad from Doodlebug. With the Memorial hop, I'm still feeling very patriotic. And way back at the beginning of the year, I made a resolution to make 100 cards for Any Hero mail so I could have a card signing party at my local veterans' home. It's time to finish the last 25 cards and get moving on my goal!

These two cards are based on OWH sketch 123. The stars were cut with a Sizzix die and held with a brad from my stash. Both sentiments are by Paper Smooches. All cardstock is Bazzill.

 

 

 

How are your New Year's resolutions going? Are you still working on them? Or are they like mine usually are...long forgotten by now?

 

Cherie

Any Hero Cards

We were challenged on our first stop during the Memorial Day blog hop for Operation Write Home to write at least two Any Hero cards. In my two years or so making cards, I've only done one Any Hero card. I figured it was time to step it up, so I committed to writing two. I ended up writing five.

They all have the same thing in them (a little bit of info on my brother's birthday bbq and a thank you for serving). As a matter of fact, I wrote the cards before I made the fronts! I used sketch 111 and some patriotic Doodlebug paper. I layered the paper with red and mounted them right on the card front. I used Nesties for the sentiment piece on some Bazzill papers. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches and embossed in white. The star brads I had on hand.

 

Hope you're having a good week.

 

Cherie

Celebrate!

Wednesday is my brother's birthday (so glad he'll always be older than me!) and here is the card I made for him. It's super simple but I know he won't care, as long as I made it.

The image is from a Recollections set and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches. I colored him with Copics and added some googlie eyes. The patterned paper is from scraps and die cut with my new Paper Smooches die.

 

Please remember the reason for today, Memorial Day. I will be visiting both of my grandfathers' graves today and letting them know how proud I am that they served in the military.

 

God Bless,

Cherie

Authentique 6x6 Challenge: part 3

Here are the last of the cards from my Authentique 6x6 pad. I cannot tell you how glad I am to be done with this challenge. I think it's the pressure I put on myself to finish a whole pad that was the problem. I won't do that again!

All of the papers besides the Authentique are Bazzill and white cardstock. The first card is a CASE from this post. I ran the card front through the Cuttlebug with the Divine Swirl folder then used a circle Nestie to make space for the Stampendous birthday sentiment. The next card inspiration was found here. The clock and sentiment are from Hero Arts using a scalloped Nestie to add some more detail. The sentiment is heat embossed in white.

The bottom two cards use OWH sketch 23. I used ribbon from my stash and Nesties for the circles. The sentiment is Hot Off the Press. This one was great to use up the last few pages.

 

The last two only had 1 each done. The left one was a birthday card for my mom. It uses lots of bling and a sentiment from Stampendous. I don't remember where the sketch came from (oops!). The right one was taken from here. I used some brads to give a bit more detail and again, it has a Stampendous sentiment.

 

 

Whew! That's it for that 6x6. I think I'll start working on some 12x12 papers now.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Cherie

 

Thinking in Threes

This week the Midweek Throwdown over at the Stars & Stamps blog is "Times Three." We need to use something three times on our card. It could be a stamp or some type of embellishment. I did both!

The chickie stamp is by DeNami and they are colored with Copics. The smile stamp is a retired SU stamp. I ran it through my Cuttlebug with the Floral Fantasy folder. Then I wrapped some twine around it and added brads for more zing. How did I do? Three chickies, three strands of twine, three brads. I love when it all comes together.

 

Thanks for taking a peek!

 

Cherie

OWH MWT and sketch 173

Today I have a card for you that covers two challenges over at the Stars & Stamps blog. My goal was to finish sketch 173, but as I looked at the finished card, I realized it also fits with the Midweek Throwdown. How great is that!

The MWT is "So Sentimental" meaning the focal point of the card needs to be a sentiment.  This particular sentiment is by Stampendous and I've cut it so it's two lines instead of one long line. I then heat embossed it with black. The patterned papers are Creative Memories that I won in a blog hop awhile ago. The butterfly is a Marvy punch. All of the other papers are Bazzill.

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Cherie

Authentique 6x6 Challenge: part 2

Here's the second installment of my take on this challenge of using an entire 6x6 pad of paper.

The pad is an Authentique 6x6 pad called Journey. All of these cards use Bazzill papers and white card stock as accent papers. I used OWH sketches and Pinterest to find some layouts to use.

The first card is OWH sketch 122 with a sentiment from Fiskars. The top right was inspired by this post with a sentiment from Stampendous. On the bottom, the first is one of the OWH bonus sketches and a sentiment from Fiskars. The last one is OWH sketch 142 with the sentiment by Stampendous and some Nestabilities.

 

I'm getting a lot more cards than I thought I would out of this 6x6. It's certainly a challenge!

 

Cherie

Authentique 6x6 Challenge: part 1

I finally decided to take on the challenge of using an entire 6x6 pad of paper. There will be a few parts to this since I'm still working on it. Here's my first installment!

I started with an Authentique 6x6 pad called Journey. It has...or had lol...36 sheets. These all use Bazzill papers and white card stock as accent papers. I used OWH sketches and Pinterest to find some layouts to use. The two cards on the left use OWH sketch 123. The top sentiment is from Hero Arts and the bottom is from Inkadinkado. The two right card layouts were taken from here. The top sentiment is from Inkadinkado and the bottom is Hero Arts.

 

Have you chosen to take the challenge yet?

 

Cherie

Oh no! Monsters!

I simply adore these cards I made. I'll probably never make them again because they took so long, but I'm glad I got 6 of each done. I found the idea here from some cute treat bags.

There's a lot to these so bear with me...but here's the picture first.

First, I scored the card base at 2" and 6". Then I cut some Bazzill to fit both ends. The smile part was done free hand then copied each time. The teeth are an oval and circle punch adhered to the card base then the Bazzill goes on top of them. The eyes are two circle punches and a hole punch. Isn't the nose cute? Those are from a heart punch. The eyelashes are simply cut free hand out of black paper. The small flowers are a punch and the big flower is kind of shiny...Prima maybe? The flowers all have lavender bling in the center. The tie on the boy monster is simply black ribbon.

I hope the kids who receive these think they're as awesome as I do!

Have a fabulous rest of the week!

Cherie

I miss you mums

My friend, Sheila, brought her Stamps of Life for me to use at our last crafting get together. I had such fun going through them and dreaming up ideas. This card uses chalk and distress inks. It's mounted on two layers of Bazzill, one brown for some dirt and purple to match the big mum. Since OWH needs "miss you" cards, I used the miss you stamp that came with the set. The flowers were done with Nesties and the centers are from my stash.

Do you work on specific need cards? Or just general? Do you make any of the holiday deadlines?

Cherie

Atomic miss you...and sketch 160

I really like this atom-like paper and the yellow sunshine paper from Paper Pizazz. They go so well together and make good kid and masculine type cards. The sentiment is Hot off the Press and the star brads are from my stash. The punches are SU. The red and grey are Bazzill. This card follows OWH sketch 160.

 

 

Hope you're having an awesome week!

Cherie

Masculine miss you and sketch 156

Here's a fun masculine card. I used my new wood grain embossing folder and happened to have some wood grain paper scraps. I added red card stock to make it all pop. The sentiment is Hot Off the Press stamped on a couple of SU punches. The circles are from my stash.

Enjoy your day!

Cherie

Yes, ALL the time.

This card was inspired by this one that I found on Pinterest. I used Nesties for the shape and Echo Park paper with matching Bazzill. The stamps are Hero Arts and the brads are American Crafts. I added a bit of baker's twine for some texture.

 

Thanks for taking a peek!

 

Cherie