Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there!  I hope you all are having a blessed day with your families!  I wanted to show off what I was up until 11:15pm last night making made for my mom and my MIL. :)

Here are the cards I made:

I stamped these flower stamps in grey ink and then used colored pencils to color them in.  I even tried something new (to me) - shading!!  I am in no way, shape or form an artist so this was pretty big for me.  :)  Once I was done coloring in the images, I used mineral spirits and a paper pencil to blend them in.  This smooths out the lines and evens up the color. 

Here is what I made for my MIL:

Other than putting pictures in a big album for her, I've never really made anything for my MIL before.  I wanted to take the picture I took of her and her kids at Mother's Day last year and make it into a nice framed piece.  I took a piece of 8x8 chipboard and sprayed it with adhesive.  Then I placed a piece of burlap over it.  I just layered everything else on top and this is how it turned out.  I'm proud of it, so I hope she liked it!  (I was home with a sickie today, so I didn't get to see her reaction.)

This is what I made for my mom:

My mom goes by Mimi and I'm sad to say that there is not a lot of Mimi-personalized things out there.  I thought I'd take some vinyl that I just got and make her a frame of her own.  I used my Silhouette to cut out the sentiment.  It was super easy and fast to make.  My kind of project!  

That is all for now! Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday afternoon!

Until next time...

Everywhere a butterfly...

Happy first day of Spring, everyone!  Seems kind of like it's been spring all winter long here, minus the few weeks we had 20 inches of snow on the ground from back-to-back blizzards in February.  Mother Nature is one bipolar chick, that's for sure!

Anyway, I have a couple cards I wanted to share today.  I used butterflies on both of these cards, which I have never done before.  Whenever I've seen or pinned a card with butterflies on it, I always thought they looked so beautiful and delicate, but I've never been inspired to actually use them before.  Well, until now.  :) 

This first card was commissioned by my brother-in-law.  My sister-in-law gave up a baby girl for adoption a couple years before she and my BIL got married, so they celebrate Birth Mother's Day, which is the day before Mother's Day, every year.  This is the card I came up with:

 

I wanted to make a card that was happy and pretty and not hokey in any way.  I had to print out the sentiment myself because, let's face it, stamp makers haven't rushed out to make stamps celebrating the incredibly difficult decision of giving up a child.  But I digress...  Here is a close-up:

I have known my SIL for MANY years and I was dating my husband when she was pregnant.  I have been lucky enough to have met the little girl she gave up for adoption a few times as my SIL has been very close with the family who adopted her.  Her birth daughter is a spitting image of her.  Just beautiful.  It was an HONOR to make this card for my BIL to give her this year. 

The second card I am showing you doesn't have quite as exciting of a story, sad to say.  I made it for a challenge.  :)  I actually might be entering it for TWO challenges, so this story is actually looking up a bit.  I made it for this challenge:

And here is what I created:

 

I wanted this card to be simple with little pops of color, which I think I accomplished.  In retrospect, I wish I would have chosen a paper that didn't have so much white in it, but it still works. 
 

I used a rainbow of colors for the gemstones in the center of the butterflies.  You can't really see them well in this picture, so just try to imagine them.  :)

The other challenge I will be entering this card in is this Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge:

My card isn't SCREAMING these colors, but the butterflies definitely have these colors on them in one way or another. 

Thank you for stopping by today to see my latest creations!  Until next time...

Chalkboard art

Today is my final How To'sday tutorial for the Scrapbook Steals blog.  Make sure you head over there to see how I created these cards:

I can't believe my term as a Scrapbook Steals design team member is already over.  :(  Those three months FLEW by!  I enjoyed my time with them and am thankful that they gave me the opportunity.  On to (hopefully) bigger things! 

Until next time...

Some swanky snowmen...

Hello!  Today I am back with a couple more Christmas cards I have created.  I recently purchased a cute stamp set by Paper Smooches called Swanky Snowdudes.  I love the cute little snowmen and accents in this set. 

Here are a couple cards I've made with this set:

This first card is one of my favorites.  I paper pieced the scarf and hat and heat embossed the sentiment onto the banner.  I'm not a pro at doing the heat embossing thing, but I still like how it turned out.  

This second card is my girls' favorite.  This is one of the first cards where I've used blocking to create a layered effect.  I paper pieced the scarves and colored the rest in with colored pencils.  To make the colors look more blended, I used mineral spirits to soften everything out.

Thanks for stopping by again today!  I'll be back with more soon!

Until next time...

Christmas Card Time!

I decided this year was the year I take a stab at making my own Christmas cards.  It always seemed like way too daunting of a task in the past, but now that I'm more comfortable making cards, I figured now was as good as ever.  For the past couple weeks, I've been making a card or two every few days.  No two cards are the same yet, so I'm still having fun creating them.  :)

I thought I'd share a couple with you throughout the month.  If I can inspire someone in even the slightest way, well then I've done my job.  :)  And some of my crafty friends may join in and show some of their creations along the way as well...double bonus!!

Let's get started!  Two of my favorite things to work with this year are kraft paper and jute twine, so you'll probably be seeing a lot of both in my Christmas cards.  Below is the first card I made this season.  It's simple yet to the point.  And it would have been better to practice with the glitter glue before I actually put it on my card...total party foul.  Oh well.  You live, you learn, right?  

This next card was super easy and fast to make.  I think that's why I'm enjoying making these cards because they're not overly intricate or detailed, so they don't take much of my time or energy.  Something I have little of at night when I get to sit down and create. 

That's all for today!  Until next time...

Feeling Funky...

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I used Pinterest frequently to find inspiration when I am making a layout of creating a card.  I thought I'd show you all a layout I created recently using a pretty funky sketch I pinned. (And I use the term "funky" loosely - it's funky to me because this novice brain wouldn't ever think to use a sketch like this.)

Here is the sketch, which comes from colorconspiracy.typepad.com:

And here is the layout I created:

I absolutely LOVE how this layout turned out.  It's so fun and different and yet still kinda me.  :)  I used Echo Park's Everyday Eclectic collection with a mix of various embelishments that I had lying around.

If you look in my stash, these are the colors that I have the most of.  :)  The pink flower was originally white, but I sprayed it with a couple different colors of Glimmer Mist to match my color scheme.  My newest obsession favorite embellishments are flair buttons.  So fun!

I love this cute little pennant.  :)  The canvass flag is from Maya Road, but I switched out the grommets to match my color scheme.  The stamp I used is from Studio Calico's exclusive Lawn Fawn set that was in their debut Card Kit.

Thank you for stopping by again today!  I hope this sketch/layout inspires you to venture outside of your comfortable scrappy zone.  Good stuff can happen if you do.  :)

Until next time...

Cards to share...

Wow, I have been on a card making ROLL as of late!  I hate to sound incredibly corny, but Paper Smooches stamps really inspire me to make cards.  (And no, I am not being paid to say that.)  Their sentiments just work for everything under the moon and their other stamps can be used for every occasion as well. Here are a couple cards I made today:

I used Circle of Honor to create this card:

This card was made with Smarty Pants:

And this card was made with a Pebbles flower stamp and a sentiment from Lawn Fawn Sophie's Sentiments.

Sorry this post is so short and sweet, but I hear my girls tearing up the house and I should probably reclaim my post as Queen.  :)  Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

Get well soon...

On Thursday I found out that my dad is really sick. He has bronchitis and borderline pneumonia and has been home sick since Thursday. If anyone knows my dad, they know how hard of a worker he is. He doesn't miss work for any kinds of sicknesses. In fact, if his employer hadn't banned him from coming in until Tuesday, he probably would have still gone in.

ANYway, I thought I'd take this perfect opportunity to use some new stamps I just got last week. I've been wanting these Paper Smooches stamps for a while now and finally took the plunge to get them.

Here is the card I created with them:

This card is simple, but I like it. I used paper from a 6x6 pad from MME's Lime Twist Life of the Party line. (Kind of ironic using "life of the party paper" when the card is "sorry you're hacking up your lungs" related. Didn't think about that until just now.) The red dotted strip is some of Target's new washi-like tape. It's basically decorated masking tape, but better. And it's from Target. When have I ever passed up anything from Target??

I knew I wanted to use the tissue box somewhere, so I decided to put that and the sentiment on the inside of the card. I used tissue paper for the tissues.

AND because I love to tag the back of my cards with my initials, the date and something fun that is card themed, I used the red cross symbol in between my initials. I love how this turned out!

That's all for today! Until next time!

I'm feeling kind of krafty today...

I thought I'd post a couple of cards that I made recently that show my love for using kraft paper. I discovered kraft paper about 8 months ago and it's been making appearances in my projects ever since.

This first card is one that I created for my hubby for Valentine's Day. I can, in NO way, take credit for this concept as I card lifted a pin I saw on Pinterest (card by Heidi Van Laar). But I CAN take credit for how cute and simple this card turned out:

I made this card in about 3 minutes. Literally. Doesn't get better than that. Plus, I used some Paper Smooches stamps. I guess it did get better. :)

The second card I made is one that I made for my bestie, who's birthday is on St. Patrick's Day. She just so happened to have given birth to her first child 6 days prior to her bday, so I had that on my brain and completely forgot to make her a card. This is what I came up with:

I actually got my inspiration for this card from Jill Cornell's blog post this morning. I always make hokey shamrock-filled cards for my friends bday, so I thought I'd stick with the green theme, ditch the shamrocks and do something different.

Both of these cards were created with MME goodies and burlap twine. A couple of my other faves. :)

That's all for now! Until next time...

Scrapbooksteals and Authentique...together again.

Hello friends! I know I have mentioned this MANY times before, but for my new readers who might be in the dark...I. Love. Scrapbooksteals.com. I stumbled upon their site just over two years ago and I've been a loyal stealer ever since (much to my husband's dismay). :) They are my go-to place for scrapbooking supplies and even more so for inspiration.

Today Scrapbooksteals.com is featuring Authentique's Journey collection as their steal! AND not only that, today the Authentique Design Team is taking part in the MCM (Monday Card Madness)!

Here is today's sketch:

And here is my interpretation:

This collection is completely versatile. It can be used on anything from baby boy pages/cards to snow pages/cards...and everything in between!

I hope you'll all go over to Scrapbooksteals.com's blog today and check out all of the other Design Team members' interpretations of the sketch!

Until next time...

Just scootin' by...

I know I keep saying things like this, but am I the only one in complete disbelief that it's already January 19th?! Where is the time going?! It's scootin' on by, that's for sure!

Speaking of scootin' by (you'll appreciate the segue in a second), I recently purchased a new stamp set from the Sweet Stamp Shop. It's called Scootin' By and I'm in love with it!


The card I made with it is the first of it's kind in my novice book, as I've never paper pieced anything together using a stamp as a guide before. I have to disclose, though, that my card is a blatant copy, er, card lift of another card I found which was created by Donna Mikasa. I wouldn't be able to do fun stuff like this if I didn't have amazing examples to follow!

Here's Donna's card:

And here is mine:

For this being my first time paper piecing, I'm thrilled with the way it turned out! I stamped the flag and the body of the scooter on patterned paper, cut them out, then adhered them to the stamped image on a separate piece of cardstock. I almost don't want to give this card away! :)

Hope you enjoyed this card and that you are inspired to try something new! You never know...you might like it! =)

Until next time,

Have a card or two...

So we all know (or maybe my new readers don't) that I do a bulk of my work going off sketches or other layouts/cards for inspiration. I still claim to not have a creative brain cell in my head, I'm just really good at faking it. :)

That brings us to today. I recently picked up Paper Crafts' Card Ideas for Paper Crafters magazine and I. Was. In. Heaven! It is filled with sketches and examples of cards from cover to cover. I found a sketch I really liked (hence the dog-ear in the picture) and decided to make a couple cards with it.

Here is the sketch:


And here is the first card I made:


I thought this card turned out really cute. My oldest daughter was invited to one of her classmates' birthday party and so I made it for her soon-to-be 5 year old friend. I used Authentique's Free Bird Series - Endless papers because they work really well for boy cards. (See this post for another example.)

Here is the other card I made:


I made this card for a friend who will be having surgery soon. I used some yummy My Mind's Eye papers that coordinated perfectly. I hope this card brightens my dear friend's day as she begins her rehabilitation journey.

That's all for now! Stay tuned for more crafty goodness!

It's time for the Authentique Paper/Unity Stamp Co. Blog Hop!!

Welcome everyone!! I am so thrilled to be a part of this fun blog hop! If this is the first you're hearing of it, head back to Authentique Paper's blog to get started! Here is the line up in case you get lost along the way:

Authentique Paper
Tifany DeGough
Maria Gurnsey
Misty Buck
Lisa Arana
Cristine Redmond <-- You are here!!
Christi Snow
Brenda Smith
Eva Dobilas
Jeannie DeGruccio
Lisa Henke
Natalie Dever
Unity Stamp Company

Don't forget to leave a comment because there will be some FABULOUS prizes!! Authentique is giving away two collection packs (one each for two winners), including a sampling of papers from EACH of the first 6 Authentique Paper collections AND a sampling of the amazing Free Bird Series. Unity Stamp Co. is also giving away two prize packs (one each for two winners), including the COMPLETE SET of Unity/Authentique co-brand stamps!! Holy fantastic prizes!!

Let's get this party started, shall we?! I had the opportunity to work with a couple versatile stamp sets to make these two cards. I love that the Unity/Authentique stamps come in sets that can be used together or separately.

For my first card, I used the Family is FOREVER set:

I loved the cute little line of birds in this set. It could be used for anything...from a get well card to a sympathy card. This card is a birthday card for someone special (don't want to say who in case she's reading this!) and I stamped the sentiment on the inside. The papers I used are from the Free Bird Series - Warmth collection.

For my next card, I used the Born an Original stamps:

I love this beautiful rose stamp. I decided to use an apple-colored ink to go with the Free Bird Delight papers I chose for the card, to make it bright and cheery. (Side note: If you don't have any of the Free Bird Series and you are a card maker, you NEED to go get some! What I love about these papers is that they are 6x6 sheets of paper either sold loose or in pads. And the paper is TEXTURED!! So not only do you not have to cut into a gorgeous sheet of 12x12 paper to make a card, you still get the same quality paper as if you were!)

Thank you for stopping by! As I mentioned before, be sure to leave a comment to be in the running for some amazing prizes! Leave a comment on each blog along the hop as winners will be randomly chosen from all of the blogs involved in the hop. Blog comments close Monday, October 10th at 11:59pm (Pacific) and winners will be announced Wednesday, October 12th on the Authentique Paper and Unity Stamp Co. blogs. {Winner MUST have a US or Canadian address to win.}

Next stop on the hop is Christi Snow!








Supplies:

Authentique: Free Bird Series - Warmth and Delight

Unity Stamp Co.: Authentique Paper - Born an Original and Family is FOREVER stamp sets

Other: twine - The Twinery ribbon