Stacked Animals

Welcome to my second post of the day! I wanted to play along with Monday Muse before their challenge closes tomorrow. I love the inspirational card this week made by Therese Calvird!

How cute is that?! I drew inspiration from the stacked animals and pulled out my Fox & Friends stamp set. I made my card bright and colourful using the colour combo from Color Throwdown and used an older Freshly Made sketch as a guide.

I think these colours are perfect for a kid's birthday card! Here's what I came up with:

Isn't it fun? Curious where the little bird stamp came from? It's from the adorable stamp set called "Moving Forward". I thought it was the perfect touch to finish off the stack of animals. I love this colour combo! The patterned designer paper adds to the funness (if that's a word!) of this card. I embellished the card with Old Olive satin ribbon and small rhinestones on the ends of the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by! I plan on taking a break from my blog for the rest of the weekend, so stay tuned for a new post on Tuesday!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Fox & Friends, Moving Forward, Short & Sweet
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White, Brights DSP, Polka Dot Parade DSP
Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive
Tools: Word Window punch
Accessories: Old Olive satin ribbon, rhinestones (Michael's)

Inspired By... A Tea Cozy!

It's Friday! And that much closer to the long weekend! This weekend will be a catch-up weekend for me. First and foremost, I have plans to get caught up on Grey's Anatomy (I can't believe how far behind I am!), then I hope to finalize our trip plans (it's coming up in just 3 weeks!), and possibly start scrapbooking again. Monday we hope to check out Barkerville for the day, depending on the weather. Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia and is preserved as a historic town. It will be neat to see all the exhibits and learn about the history of the gold rush.

Yesterday, I found out that I am a 'Mashup Glamette' at the The Friday Mashup! To see my original post, click here.

Now onto today's challenge:

It was my pick this week and I chose a photo of a knitted tea cozy. What a neat idea! I'm a tea drinker and i think this would be a handy thing to have! It was made by a Canadian crafter from Alberta. Check out her shop on Etsy!

The colours in this photo caught my eye. I decided to use Gumball Green and Summer Starfruit for my colour combo (with some added neutrals). I used the Mojo Monday sketch this week as a guide.

The layers in this sketch are great!  I used the appropriate stamp set, Tea Shoppe, snipping out the stamped tea cup and popping it up to give the card some dimension. I stamped the tea cup a second time on a separate piece of Whisper White cardstock, snipped out the flowers and popped them up on the tea cup. I love the 3-dimensional look!

 

 

The flagged banners on the one side of the card are created using a 1" square punch. I saw this idea on another blog as I was browsing one day (unfortunatley, I can no longer remember where I found it...), and I thought it was brilliant! Simply punch out a 1" square from cardstock or designer paper, cut the square piece in half and flag the ends. How clever is that? To embellish the card I added small pearls to the flowers and underneath the sentiment, as well as a large brass button with bakers twine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Tea Shoppe, Petite Pairs
Paper: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Print Poetry DSP
Ink: Gumball Green, Soft Suede
Tools: 1" Square punch, Circles nestabilities
Accessories: Pearls (Michael's), Brass Button, Bakers Twine (CTMH)

KCRR #18 and Fab Friday #18 {A Matching Set}

Welcome to a new KCRR challenge!

The two items that were randomly chosen are:

Retired Stamp Set

Quilting Technique

 

I love using different techniques in my cards and 'quilting' is one I haven't used very often so I'm glad it was one of the chosen elements this week! I have a few retired stamp sets to choose from and decided "Upsy Daisy" would work best with this technique. I used a fun and fabulous colour combo from Fab Friday and picked an older sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and my card came together so nicely!

 

 

There are a couple different ways of doing the quilting technique. For my card, I punched out 1-1/4" squares from designer paper, glued them on white cardstock, put it through the big shot with the Top Note die and finally embossed it with the Square Lattice embossing folder. So easy, and the result is beautiful! I loved this colour combo so much, I decided to make a matching set of cards:

 



 

 

Here are close-ups of the other two:







Thanks for visiting! Head on over to Karly's Creations to see how she used these two elements in her card.

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy (ret.), Tiny Tags
Paper: Soft Suede, Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, Very Vanilla, More Mustard, 2012-2014 In-Colour DSP, Print Poetry DSP
Ink: Raspberry Ripple
Tools: 1-3/4" Circle punch, Scallop Circle punch, Tag punch, Scallop Border punch
Accessories, Primrose Petals stitched satin ribbon, Pearls (Michael's)

40th Wedding Anniversary Wishes!

Wishing my wonderful parents a very Happy 40th Anniversary today! What a day to celebrate! To give a brief history, they met in the Netherlands and moved to Canada shortly after they were married. They are still Dutch citizens to this day! To celebrate, they took a trip to Holland and are now enjoying time with family. They raised their 5 children in a loving Christian home and continue to be such a blessing in our lives. We couldn't ask for better parents! Here are some lovely pictures I found of the two of them:

To give them my best wishes from afar, I handmade a card that I thought would be perfect for them. A while ago, I found a retired Stampin Up stamp set called "The Netherlands". I just had to buy it! My parents are true Dutchies and I knew they would love this card:

I used a past sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch as the base design for my card and chose Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso, So Saffron and Very Vanilla for the colour combo.

 

On the front of the card is a traditional Windmill image and a dutch wooden shoe (called klompen) filled with tulips. On the inside of the card I stamped a row of tulips. And on the envelope I stamped a cute image of a dutch couple.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Make sure to come back tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge! (Karly and I have changed the day for the KCRR challenge to Thursday and the 'Inspired By...' challenge to Friday, since weekends are a busy time for us in the summer!)

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: The Netherlands, Memorable Moments
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Subtles DSP
Ink: Early Espresso
Tools: 1-3/4" Circle punch, Circles nestabilities
Accessories: Pearls (Michael's)

Friday Mashup #109 {A Matching Set!}

Last night I tried a new recipe that I found on Pinterest (if you haven't already, join Pinterest! They have some awesome ideas on crafting of all kinds, household tips, fashion, and food!). This one is called Meatloaf Muffins. Click here to see the recipe. They were absolutely delicious! I used moose hamburger instead of beef and combined the meat with some veggies, spices, bbq sauce and salsa and used an ice cream scoop to scoop them into the muffin pan. I will definitely be doing this again! It's a great alternative to chicken and pork and goes well with mashed potatoes and veggies!

I also spent some time crafting last night. It feels like it's been a while since I spent that much time in my craft area lately! It was kind of nice to get back into it again, although I struggled a bit with design/creativity last night so my project took a little longer than I wanted it to. But in any case, I decided to play along with the Friday Mashup challenge. It's a good one this week!

1. Create a project using "the sketch".
2. Create a "set of cards".
3. Or Mash it Up and create a "set of cards using the sketch".

The designer this week created a tutorial to make a matching DSP card set.(what a great idea!). I picked Summer Smooches designer paper and after following her tutorial, here is what I came up with:

 

I love the bright colours of this DSP! It really speaks for itself, so I kept the cards pretty clean and simple. I used some of the sentiments from the stamp set "Word Play" as the central image in each card, and then embellished the cards with ribbon, rhinestones, etc. Here are some close-ups of the cards: 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Word Play

Paper: Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry, Pool Party, Whisper White, Summer Smooches DSP

Ink: Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry

Tools: 1-3/8" Circle punch, Scallop Circle punch, Extra-Large Oval punch, Oval Embossing Folder, 1" Square punch, Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die

Accessories: Satin ribbon, Rhinestones (Michael's), Button, Linen Thread

A Thank You Card for a Swimming Instructor

What a great weekend it was! Some highlights: Dinner date with my hubby at Original Joe's, movie date to see Iron Man 3, skype call with my Mom, phone call with my Mother-in-law, and a delicious homemade rhubarb cake! I also accomplished a lot of cleaning/organizing! Love weekends like this!

Amidst the busyness, I found some time to make a couple of cards :) I had a request to make a thank you card for a swimming instructor. I found this a bit challenging! I looked on pinterest for some inspiration and found lots of ideas for the beach/summer, but not quite suited for a swimming instructor. So I thought of using punch art to create a person swimming, using a typical swimming logo/icon as a guide. Here's what I came up with:

Fun, right? And it was so simple! I used the extra-large tag punch for the body, 1" circle punch for the head, and the Word Window punch for the arm. The 'waves' designer paper comes from the "Sunshine & Sprinkles" DSP collection. I also created larger waves using a 1" circle punch and Bashful Blue cardstock. The splashes of water were cut free-hand.
The sentiment is popped up using dimensionals.

 



Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Monday!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Made for You
Paper: Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP
Ink: Marina Mist
Tools: Extra-Large Tag punch, 1" Circle punch, Word Window punch

Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a great weekend so far! Last night especially was a highlight. I enjoyed a great date night with my hubby. We went to see Iron Man 3 -- it was awesome! Such a great end to the series... or is it the end?? We then finished with an evening stroll around the neighbourhood. Love how peaceful it is at night!

Today, I think of my wonderful Mom on Mother's Day. She is such a blessing in my life! I miss her so so much! Wish I could be back home celebrating this day with her. Love you, Mom!

 

 

Also, a very Happy Mother's Day to my Mother-in-law! She has also been such a blessing in our lives!

 

This year I made a fun-folded card for both my Mom and Mother-in-law. It's called the Z-fold. Super easy to make, but takes some time to decorate. I just LOVE this fold! I used monochromatic colours for both cards and added designer paper, stamped flowers, leaves, and rhinestones to embellish them. Here are a few pictures:

 

I thought I would enter one of these cards in the Pink Elephant challenge. They have a Mother's Day Theme challenge this week.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog today :)  Wishing all the Mom's out there a wonderful day!