Little Baby

Lovely, right? Above is the inspiration for this week's challenge at Off the Wall Craftiness. I was immediately drawn to that plaid bowtie!!

I really wanted plaid in my card, but did not have any matching plaid paper. I decided to make my own. I took a piece of scrap cardstock, and masked off strips with scrap paper. I inked the stripes in one direction, then again in the other, making sure to keep them semi-transparent. I think that is what makes a better plaid pattern.

At the end, I stamped the thin stripes in black (again, keeping it less saturated). I really love how it all turned out!! And it was my husband's idea to die cut a duck from it- thanks Dave!

Hopefully this picture below helps you see how I stamped the plaid:

OCC Getting Wordy

Good morning! We've got another fantastic challenge for you again this week at Our Creative Corner! The challenge, from Sarah Gough, is to use a sentiment stamp (stamped repeatedly) to create a background or layer for your project.

I chose a bold and simple "thank you" stamp for my background. The main sentiment is embossed in white, and the others were stamped with my VersaMark pad (gotta love it!)

I finished off the front panel with embossed flowers. If you choose to do this, you must wait for the watermark ink to dry first, which takes some time-hit that baby with the heat gun to speed things along! Once I thought it was dry, I stamped the flowers and poured on the black powder, and still had a few stray morsels (is that the right word? particles? molecules?!) of embossing powder stuck to the Thank Yous. I just brushed them off with a paintbrush- no biggie.

Other elements in my card include the scoring on the white cardstock, and my looped/twisted ribbon. I love doing that to my satin ribbons, like in this card. This one too.

So get out those sentiments and play along!

Make it Mondays- Mr & Mrs

I decided to play along again this week for Papertrey Ink's Make it Mondays. The challenge this time is to incorporate a vellum sentiment strip. I swear I made this card hours ago, and that ink is still wet. I don't know how to get it to dry! In the past I have tried to heat-set it, but I often end up discoloring my vellum (guess I'm not careful enough!).

I tried to keep this card as clean and simple as possible, because I wanted that awesome green and white paper to hold the spotlight. When I was done, I felt it needed a border, so I got out my trusty transparent ruler and a micron pen to draw one. Tough to tell in the pic, but the front panel is cream- not white.

I wish I knew someone who was getting married! (well, by the time that ink dries, I just might!)

Totally Hues!

How exciting...a new challenge! This one is courtesy of Heather Pulvirenti, and I just love the colors she chose for the first challenge. Of course I waited until the last minute (don't I always?!) to enter, so there was not much time for editing. I still really like how the card came out:

The stitching was an afterthought, but I think it added that little something the card was missing. I also used this week's CPS sketch for inspiration.

OLW Two For the Show

Every One Layer Wednesday Challenge I participate is extremely difficult for me. The simplicity of a one-layer card means that what few items are on the card need to be perfect. It honestly took me about 30 minutes to choose what cardstock/ink/embossing powders I wanted to use for this card.

The challenge this week is to use only 2 image stamps, and no sentiment. That's it. No embellishments, no nothing. I made a circular mask out of scrap computer paper, and stamped the musical staff paper through it. Once that dried, I heat embossed the butterfly. And there you have it!

The Appearance of Cameos

I'm so glad I had time this weekend to play along with the Moxie Fab World's Appearance of Cameos challenge!

For my card, I went for a more modern interpretation of the cameo. I die cut the silhouette and attached it with foam adhesive (the 3D-ness of it is a little tough to see in the picture...). The pink rhinestone frame was a great craft-store clearance find- I think it was 35 cents.

I love the grey patterned paper I used on the bottom half of the card, as well as the fuchsia band of cardstock! I embossed the sentiment in black, and finished it all off with a thin white ribbon.

OCC Cut it Out

Good morning! Once again, our DT member Lori Rider is the host for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. This is sure to be a fun one!! The challenge is to use any cutting technique- fussy cutting, paper piecing, etc- on a card or project.

For my card, I did a lot of cutting! The front white panel and black border were both die-cut, I used my paper cutter to make the triangles in the banner, and I stamped the cupcake 3 times (onto fuchsia, white, and lavender), hand-cut, then layered them.

I also added embroidery floss, organza ribbon, and put some glitter on the cupcake.

I had a great time with this challenge, and you will too-I hope you join in on all the fun at Our Creative Corner!