Didn't make the cut

Since I got an e-mail letting me know I didn't make the Design Team for High Hopes, I thought I might as well share this card here that I made for it. Honestly I don't blame them. This isn't even my best work, never mind the fact they have one of the best DTs there is! That's okay, I still love the product they carry and will continue to participate. :)

Thank You

Sorry for the not so spectacular picture. I got a new camera yesterday which I absolutely LOVE, but unfortunately it doesn't like my version of a lightbox. lol

Anyhow, I put this little card together for a friend of mine at church. She's been such a supportive part of the Bible Celebration that my Sunday School kids are hosting. They've (most of them) have learned all 66 books of the bible by singing it to a rap tune. So she went and made T-shirts for them all. The kids are really excited about what we're doing. If you can get kids excited about the Bible, that is an awesome thing!

Anyhow, I cut out papers to do the same design, but on other color cardstock, like pastel blue and green. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get those put together yet.

Go Back in Time

I'm on a roll! Though this layout took a ton of time. I got carried away in the specifics and less in just story telling. I tell you, my Germany scrapbook is going to be a mish-mash of overly done and barely done layouts!


Once again, the picture really doesn't do the layout justice, both papers are just too big to stick in my lightbox!

The papers from DCWV's Happily Ever After were just screaming to be used with my layout all about the castles we saw in Germany. I scattered some of the Prince Epoxy stickers throughout. And though it would be so much easier to buy chipboard letters, I once again made my own. Though they didn't turn out anything like I had been going for, I think they pull out the color of the bottom most paper, so it works nicely. It's one of those things where what you accidentally get is better than what you had planned!

Simply Special

Though I don't post much, I do visit the Splitcoast Stampers forum a lot. I love that about every month the membership pulls together and makes some cards for a cause. This month's cause happens to be the Lydia Project. This is a great organization that serves women facing cancer by providing hand-crafted tote bags, prayer and ongoing support. I know two women personally who have fought cancer and won. One of which is my own mom, who triumphed over thyroid cancer, and my hubby's step-mom, a dear sister in Christ, who fought a bitter battle with Breast Cancer.

They requested the cards be kept simple, to help keep down the cost of postage, so these will not be fancy and laden with embellishments. But I think they are special none the less. Simply special I'd say.

I immediately reached for my scriptural vellum stack I bought some time ago. I don't know how any woman could get through something as big as Cancer without having Jesus to carry them through.


The sentiment is mounted on a marble blue paper, which reminds me sort of like a blue sky. The beautiful yellow paper below it is from a hand made paper pack I got a while ago. I love the colors in it. I placed a bow along the top. The inside of the card is lined with the same marble blue paper mentioned earlier.


When browsing through Walmart's discount section yesterday, I found this beautiful ribbon. It was marked as Valentines, but it feels much more like a spring ribbon to me. Anyhow, I knew I wanted to use this, so I grabbed some purple paper with subtle white flowers from memory makers and mounted another encouraging scripture vellum on white card stock that had been inked around the edges with purple chalk ink.

They're collecting cards for this organization through March, so I hope to do more but this is what I got done last night. I love the fact that my hobby both gives me an outlet for my creative side, and yet still has an impact on others. How fantastic is that?

Splash

I tried to create a card today. I especially wanted to participate in High Hopes' most recent challenge. But due to a lack of sleep last night I just stared at my stuff, unable to get an idea in my mind. I rarely know exactly what I'm going for, but still, I didn't even have a starting point! So I headed back to my scrapbooks in progress. Thankfully I was drawn to pictures from a visit to a park in Germany that were waiting to be scrapped.

I found this sketch at Split Coast Stampers that worked perfectly, just I needed to downsize it to an 8x8 layout.



I used three different flourish stamps with a light blue ink on plain white card stock. I matted all the pictures with light blue paper, then inked them and the background paper with darker blue ink. As I positioned the pictures on the paper, it seemed that the layout was really missing something. I decided to draw on the flourishes with a darker blue gel pen. I love how that turned out! That simple action gives them so much more depth! Now they really do remind me of splashing.

As for the title, I used my cuttlebug machine to cut out letters from thin chipboard. Gave them a generous coating of glitter and sealed them. As I laid the letters on the paper, they didn't stand out quite enough, now the flourishes were to strong! So I muted the background a bit by laying a piece of vellum where my title would be. Added borders of the same paper used to mat the pics, and it looks great. And of course, had to add a couple flowers. I wish I had some embellishments a bit more suitable for the theme, but they're all I had, and their colors match fantastically!

Back in Time...

Before I loved Card Making, I loved Scrapbooking. But ever since I was taken over by Card Making, my Scrapbooking hobby has been ignored. For whatever reason, earlier this week, I pulled out the last scrapbook I had been working on. We lived in Germany from 2003 - 2006, I wanted a scrapbook to capture what our lives were like there. It's now 2009 and I've barely gotten a few pages done! I had been working on a layout for our visit to the Zoo.



It's not nearly as 'pretty' as the cards I do. The fabulous thing about Scrapbooking is it's different to different people. There's no right or wrong way. Some people make their layouts little works of art. I've seen many layouts that focus on one picture and have a ton of embellishments. I love the artwork involved in that, but it just doesn't suit my reason for scrapbooking.

I've seen pictures from my parent's generation and older. Some I sit and wonder who the people are, what's the story behind the picture? So I like to have a lot of journaling in my layouts. I want a story to be told for future generations. I want to spark the memory of our kids who were so little at the time.

So this layout is very busy, lots of pictures. But it does it's job in capturing a day of our adventures in Germany. My daughter helped by making the lion, monkey and elephant with her CuttleKids machine. I love how we can work together on capturing our family's story! Now I'm wondering how long it'll be before I get the next one done!

High Hopes Challenge 17 - Again

I have the greatest kids! I shared with them about the Guest Designer call at High Hopes, and they told me to try. I asked but what if I don't get it? Can I cry? My son denied me the right, my daughter said it would be okay. I showed them the current Design Team cards, and it's obvious my kids love me, cause they're far to confident in my ability. lol



Anyhow, I went and made this card off of the sketch to submit. I'm not sold on it though, I think I roughed up the edges a bit too much. Visually you wonder how the heck they're staying up! Really wish I had my old sewing machine working!

There's still time, I'm going to keep trying. On the bright side... I'll have extra cards!

CSAD #163

I volunteered over at the Card Sketch a Day blog in December to do a card off of a sketch. The one I received happens to be #163. I've had this card done since before Christmas, but didn't feel right sharing it until it went live on that site. Now the day has finally come!



I am really, really, really pleased with how this card turned out. It began as a challenge, I don't really have many Valentine Stamps on hand, and I'm not used to a sentiment being the main focus of a card. It went a long nicely till I hit a bump in the design when it came to the heart. I left it for a night and returned to it the next day to put it together. Have I mentioned I love how this turned out? :)

I ever so slightly distressed the edges of the pink striped and worded papers, given it a rougher edge, while the embossed flourishes on the white paper and the heart give it a bit of elegance. Hearing those words, distressed and elegant, you'd think it wouldn't go well, but I think it balances each other out nicely.



The pink papers I picked up in the Target dollar section last Valentine season, the red fabric hearts on a string I picked up in the Walmart discount section sometime before last Thanksgiving. They are not intended for paper crafts, I believe they came from the fabric department originally, but I love to combine materials in this craft. Just goes to show little works of art are all around you! I have no idea who makes the "all my love" stamp, I've had that in my stash since before I was seriously into card making. The flourishes on the white paper is clear ink and bridal embossing powder. I repeated the design on the heart, only using white pigment ink to help it stand out.



This is the first card that I really paid attention to the interior of it as well. I suppose creating this for my husband shortly after his return from Iraq had something to do with it. But it's an area I think needs to be paid attention to. Sometimes all you want to do is be finished with a card, it's challenging to do the inside as well. But I think it really sets a card apart.

Okay, I'm done rambling about this one. :) Thank you Susan for the opportunity to be a part of this! I hope I can participate in more!

High Hopes Challenge 17 - Sketch

Ever since I found them High Hopes has been one of my favorite stamping companies. And I'm not just saying that now, I've said it in past blog posts. Today they revealed try outs to be on their Design Team. Man, if only I could color better, talk about an opportunity. They have one of the best Design Teams there are!

Anyway... I did up a card for their Challenge #17.



This is one of those cards that doesn't turn out the way you envision it, but you like it anyway. I had pictured this card bright and cheerful, but when I laid the layers together the edges needed something. I don't have a sewing machine so I inked them. Unfortunately the blue ink subdued the colors. So the card has much more of a blue overtone to it than I had intended but all in all I think it still turned out cute.

I would have loved to have paper pieced this fun guy, but unfortunately I don't have this stamp. I received the image in a swap so I had to work around that. Now that I look at the picture I think the clown needs a shadow. Oh well... this is a craft that I'm learning and growing in!



The inside is all ready for a hand written note!

Smile

Whew! I finally got some time today to make a card. It's been a while since I've brightened my grandmother's day, so I wanted to make a simple card for her. This last week and a half has been unbelievably challenging for me. I've forgotten how spending some time on a simple gesture for someone else seems to brighten my own disposition as well! It doesn't hurt that we're actually warm and sunshiny today!



I started off by rummaging through my drawer of forgottens. This is a drawer that I stick things in and then forget about them! (Not intentionally, but that is what happens!) I found three stacks of vellum quotes that I can't recall ever actually using! That's where I found the smile sentiment. It's so simple and cheerful I head to my paper to pick out some coordinating papers. I think the hint of yellow helps add to it's cheerfulness.

I couldn't find a main paper that did the trick for me, so I created my own. Cut a square of white card stock, sponged some colors on it, and inked the edges. It was still missing something, so I stamped a few random flowers in white embossing ink and added clear embossing powder. The effect is very subtle, but just enough to add some details.

I decided to place the sentiment off center and add a flower folded in half to the far left side with a gem as it's center. I thought the dome button was the perfect addition to sit atop the "i". The card still seemed to be missing something, so I decided to add a ribbon. The fact that it's a sheer ribbon helps to not visually weigh it down. I'm happy with it, I think it's cute, and I'm sure it'll do it's job once it reaches it's destination. :)

Help a good cause!

My grandpa was a special person in my life. He had a way of making each of his six grandkids feel like they were his favorite. I'll never forget sitting on his lap while he snuck cheez-its to me. He was a special man, who unfortunately died of a heart attack when I was a senior in highschool. Perhaps that's why I am so excited about what my daughter is participating in.

There's a new post today on her blog explaining it: Help me Celebrate Jump Rope for Heart's 30th Birthday.
Jump Rope for Heart is a nation wide program by the American Heart Association. She's raising funds for the Association and will be Jump Roping for two hours after school on Friday 13th.



So to help her in her efforts, I've put together a small goodies package to give away for any one who's given on her behalf and leaves a comment on her blog entry. I know times are tough, but if you have the ability to help out such a worthy cause, you would make one little girl very happy, and maybe win a few scrapping goodies.

Pink Christmas Card

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted! I have made a few cards, but they've all been for someonelse's blog, so I haven't been able to share them here. I'm hoping to squeeze in a little card making this coming week. Sometimes life just gets hectic!

Anyhow, this card I made for my Design Team submission for the Christmas Cards All Year 'Round February Challenge. The challenge? To use Valentine's Day colors on a Christmas Card. Oh, and don't forget to use hearts! At first I thought this would be quite a silly Christmas Card, but I think it actually turned out cute! It's definitely for a girl, but it isn't like most Christmas Cards!



There's actually quite a few steps that went into this, though I did have a lot of fun with it. I chose pink paper with white polka dots thinking they would kind of resemble snow. I cut several hearts out at different sizes, outlined them with pink marker, turned them upside down and created a Christmas tree! Lined them with glue and added clear flakes to it. Add two ribbons as a tree topper, and it's a pink Christmas Tree.

The white paper with silver star bursts is from that Natural Paper pack I mentioned a few posts back. I love that pack. Anyhow, the rest is pretty obvious, pink brads on the rounded corners to finish it off. I'm looking forward to Christmas time, when I'll open up my card box and see such a great variety of cards ready to be mailed out!