Happy Mother's Day!!

I'm sure you may have noticed I've been "Out to Lunch" for a while. Well, I am excited to say that I have been "training" for my second Revlon Walk/Run for Women's Cancer, tomorrow!!! It's a 3K, and I have been training hard, walking 8 miles a day so I can be in tip-top condition to beat my time of 1 hour 44 minutes, last year. It's not a contest, but I want to get more exercise and raise awareness too. Many may or may not know but we lost my sister-in-law, Julie, last January to Breast & Bone cancer, so this is pretty important to me. I am also walking for our family friend Sue Larson, who passed away in February, and a young 16 year old lady who has a rare form of cancer, who is the niece of my favorite LSS owner. My husband and two girls (one will be in a stroller - LOL ) will be with me this year :) I say all that to also say that some will not be able to have a Mother's Day this year, so please remember to hug your Mom today :)


So since I have been absent Flourishes has thrown down a few challenges. One is Bring Back Beautiful "The Beauty of A Flower" and a Release Week "Word To Your Mother" Challenge. So I was able to combine two of them into my Mom's Mother's Day card.



I used Flourishes "Cherry Blossoms" flowers and the sentiment from "Spring Bouquets" colored in with Tombows, cut out and popped up on popdots. The paper is from Graphic 45 Baby 2 Bride "Endless Love" and the last pieces of a Melissa Francis decorative edge paper. The pearls are from Kaisercraft. I used the following Spellbinders:


Classic Square
Lacy Square
Fleur de Lis
Large Scalloped Circles
and a Corner Rounder


I am happy with how the card came out, I had quite a few glitches on it :) The inside joke is that every card I make has a mistake on it, the trick is to hide what went wrong. This one I forgot to do two things, one being to stitch along the edge of my DP and to add my coordinating cardstock under the DP!! Hopefully Mom won't notice - LOL! :) I hope you can see the Melissa Francis decorative edged paper in the back ground, it's So Hard to photograph! If I have time this weekend, I'll try to retake it so you can see it better. My hasty picture isn't doing it enough justice as it looks better in person.


It feels good to be creative again, and I'm glad to be back :) I hope to balance the great exercise progress but still have enough time and energy to make cards!

Happy Mother's Day, Ladies!!! May you have a Weekend/Day worthy of all you do! You deserve it, speaking as a mother myself !! :)


Update: I took another pic, but that one washed out the coloring and you couldn't even see the decorative edges along the card :( So I changed it back to the original card picture :)

Rejoice

It's time for Creative_Sketches Thursday challenge! This week is the "Holiday" challenge, which is perfect! I know it's almost May, but I have been itching to do a Christmas card for the last month! So Yeay me! :)
This is the card idea I had rolling around for a while, and it turned out almost like I had imagined.

 

I used Flourishes "Rejoice" & "Alleluia Angel" sets colored in with Tombows and a couple SU markers. I used a Spellbinders Label Eight to cut out the center, and cut the angel out and popped both up on popdots. I added some glitter to the wings of the angel to make them look more angelic. The clear printed overlay is Hambly "Grandma's Wallpaper", My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Madison Avenue "Sisters" & Madison Ave "Girlfriends" papers. The bottom "trims" are from MFT "Open Scallop" & "Lace Doily" dies. The "Red" pearls are from KaiserCraft and the velvet ribbon was from my stash.

Although you can't tell by the way I took the picture, the inside red CS perfectly "frames" the front of my card on the outside and you can't see the cream part from the front.

I used Tombows : 761, 847, 947 & 098
Stampin Up : Old Olive & Always Artichoke

I love Christmas cards, but sometimes it's just hard to get in the mood for them until Christmas, which is often much too late to make them - LOL! If your anything like me, I put off making them until November! So it's challenges like CS has that helps me try harder to make them sooner :) Thank You Creative_Sketches!! :)

Marvelous Nature

Today is Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge, and this week Cindy challenged us to use "Aqua, Brown & Yellow" on our cards. So I really wanted to join that challenge, since those colors are not really ones I work with enough, although I love them! 
This is my entry.

I used Flourishes "Life Lines" stamped on a Spellbinders Labels 20, sponged with "Scattered Straw" Distress Ink , then layered over Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2 and 3.  I placed that over a Spellbinders Labels 21, to frame it out. I used Creative Imaginations "Cream Doily" and Scenic Route "Blue Grid Worn" papers with Bazzil Basics "Brown" & "Blue Calypso" cardstock. The pearls are from Kaisercraft and the ribbons are from my local LSS. 


My inspiration was from Cindy's sample card, where she used the newest Spellbinders dies from CHA. I really love how she used hers so I thought, why not use a sentiment only with a couple of the new Spellbinders? I love how elegant it ended up looking :)
The blue cardstock diecut is actually is darker, but I had to lighten up the background a little so you could see the lacy cut-work on the paper, and it affected the color.

This Is The Day

Ever since Flourishes released the "Lenten Rose" stamp set, I KNEW it was mean for me! So I ordered it and I've been jonesing to use it ever since. But I wanted to wait and use it when I had the perfect combination of papers to use. But when I saw this pretty, double sided bright pink ribbon in my stash, last night, I knew it was the inspiration piece I was looking for! 

 

I stamped the flowers and sentiment from the "Lenten Rose" set onto 140 lb Cold Press watercolor paper, with the edges left one so it would look like it was torn from a notebook. I colored the image in with Tombows. I used papers from My Minds Eye, pearls from KaiserCraft and a ribbon from my LSS.

I really love how it turned out!  I wanted a happy springy looking card with allot of color, and I also wanted to throw in a challenge for myself too. I usually cut out all around my stamped images but I wanted to challenge myself to do a "flat/one-dimensional card", and I love how it looks! My cards look flat to me, but I think this one looks great.

And I love bright cheery colors but struggle with them. Hopefully I'm finding my color groove, since I'm so reticent to use it!!

Friend

Well, the fam=bulous (Family/Fabulous) Design Team over at Flourishes is throwing out a curve ball after their Release Party, last night, and it is a good one! It's the April Speed Sketch and we had until 12 PM CST, today! There will be a drawing Tomorrow to see who wins this challenge and win the ENTIRE April Release!


So here is the sketch:

Phew! That is a good sketch, and this is my take on it :)

I used Flourishes "Lemons, Life & Love" and a sentiment from "Gerbera Daisies" set. I colored the image in with Tombows, cut it out with a craft knife and popped it up on foam dots. I used a Spellbinder Classic Square and Scalloped Square die to create my matted frame, sponged in with "Scattered Straw" Distress Ink.

The papers I used are from Basic Grey "Curio" and My Mind's Eye "Lush" collection. I used a Martha Stewart "Rain Drop Edge" punch to give me the decorative edge along the sides of the card. I finished it off with some gold half pearls and a silver hardware frame for the sentiment.


I am really happy with how it looks! I rely on light colors and papers when I make cards because I'm unsure of my paper matching skills. So when I saw the Basic Grey "Curio" papers with the Gorgeous Magnolias on it, I wanted to use it with my strong chocolate My Mind's Eye flocked paper, even though it didn't really "flow" with the subject matter (i.e. the lemon tree) - see I really do over think it all :)
I wanted really strong colors and lines, and I think I accomplished that!! I love how it looks! And this is the first time I have ever built a card from the "ground" or matting up! I always layer or build "down" or backwards to some, so I don't waste paper or am left with a huge blank space.

Well, I'm off to check out the other cards in the challenge and see what everyone else came up with :) Good Luck everyone!!! :)

Scattering Joy

Good morning everyone! :) Today I am showing you a card I combined challenges on from Creative_Sketches and Flourishes!


Flourishes has a monthly challenge called Bring Back Beautiful and this months challenge is to use "Spring Colors" which pairs nicely with Creative_Sketches photo color challenge:

 

 These colors really threw me! To my senses they seem to bright and too much of a contrast and would work together.... By was I wrong! I think they look happy and Springy together :)

 I used Flourishes "Hello Hyacinth" stamp set, colored in with Tombows and an Old Olive SU marker. I cut out the flowers added some Diamond Glaze to the water and placed it on popdots over a center cut out from Spellbinders Circle dies. I used paper from October Afternoon with an Eggplant cardstock under it. The pearls are from Kaisercraft.

I used the following colors on my card:

 

 I love clean lines on a card with little adornments, but the cards end up looking so bare to me. I just don't pull it off as well as others do, but I do love the colors together and maybe that just works and that's all this card really needed anyway :)

Quilt Of Love

With all of the contests and challenges Flourishes has right now, I am way, WAY behind!! :) I'm pretty late on this card for Timeless Tuesday's challenge, but it took me a bit to figure out how I was going to make this card.

 

I used Flourishes new "Lenten Rose" stamp set, colored in with Tombows, cut out and popped up on popdots. I scored a cream colored cardstock and used a Spellbinders Scalloped Circle die to cut out the windows for the Rose to pop up through. I used Flourishes "Cherry Blossoms" sentiment in the corner stamped in "Victorian Velvet " Distress Ink. I added pearls from KaiserCraft to highlight the embossing and add to the quilt feel. It's hard to see but the embossed cream to is placed on a light pink cardstock background matting.

I used Tombow marker numbers 772 & 837 to color in my roses. This is my favorite red and pin marker color combo when I want a soft red flower.


I knew at once when I saw the Flourishes inspiration picture, I wanted to make a card that mimicked the stitching in between the circles on the inspiration quilt. That was what grabbed me, so I set out to try to recreate that and also remake the circles, another strong focal point on the quilt. I failed three times before coming up with this card, and I am so happy with how it looks :)

New Butterflies

Good morning, everyone!! Creative_Sketches is at it again, offering up yet another inspiring sketch this week!!

A great sketch, don't you think? It really gave me allot of ideas, and I couldn't wait to get started!! :) This is my card for Creative_Sketches sketch this week :)

I used Flourishes "Christmas Postcard" to make the "frame" and adding butterflies from the Flourishes "Gerbera Daisies" and "Butterflies and Blossoms" sets. I colored them in with Tombows, cut them out and popped them up on popdots. Then I added some Diamond Glaze in thin veins and sprinkled some glitter over them. I used Websters Pages, Melissa Frances, My Mind's Eye and Graphic 45 papers. I used Flourishes Maya Road ribbon in "Champagne", a Ruby pendant from Making Memories, and the pearls are from Prima and Zva.

As you all probably know by now, I love, love, butterflies. When I saw this sketch and I couldn't resist using butterflies on it :) They are just so pretty! Growing up on 20 acres of fields, mostly of flowers in Minnesota, I really loved them flitting around. The best thing about them is you have creative license to color them in anyway you want to - like I did ;) The hardest part about loving stamped butterflies too, is trying not to over use them on my cards :)