ColourQ Challenge #134 - Happy Birthday

I got a chance to play along with the current CoulorQ Challenge this week! I have to say, it took me a while to get this card to come together, but I'm glad I stuck with it because I'm so happy with the results. Here is the color palette photo:

I translated the color scheme into PTI Scarlet Jewel, Melon Berry, Orange Zest, Hawaiian Shores and Stampers Select White. The leaves and branches are from Lovely Leaves, stamped in Melon Berry and then colored with Copics (R01, R02, R05). I stamped the striped panel with Faux Ribbon and added the scallop edge using the heart border die.

The Happy Birthday is from Think Big Favorites, and I added the three little gemstones after custom coloring them with a Copic to match the Hawaiian Shores elements.

Thanks for the challenge, ColourQ! The orange and aqua are very "comfort zone" colors for me, but mixing them with burgundy and coral definitely forced me out of my comfy-colors-rut! :)

And thanks for stopping by!

PTI April Blog Hop - Happy Mother's Day

*whew!* I wasn't sure if I was going to get a card made for this month's PTI Blog Hop, but it did come together at the last minute (I won't confess just how last minute that was! ;) For this month's challenge, Nichole provided a lovely inspiration photo:

I pulled three primary things from the inspiration photo:

1. The color combination (which I translated into PTI colors of Spring Rain, Sweet Blush, and Berry Sorbet, with a little bit of Spring Moss thrown in the mix)

2. The mix of pretty patterns arranged in linear blocks, especially the blue stripes and the damask

3. Those gorgeous, big pink roses

As I was making the card, I wasn't sure what sentiment/occasion I was going to use... but I looked at it at one point and thought "hey, this looks like a Mother's Day card!" so that's where it went - check that off my card-making to do list! I used Damask Designs tone-on-tone on the background panel, and Faux Ribbon the for the stripes. The flowers and leaves are from Rosie Posie, and the "happy" is from Make a Wish (selectively inked), with the "mother's day" from Pretty Peonies.

I popped up the largest rose on the Mat Stack 1 + Layerz focal point, which itself is also popped up on the card base. And of course, I added those sweet little scalloped borders with the heart border die (I think someone needs to take it away from me.... I can't seem to stop using it! LOL!)

Three little pink Creative Charms rhinestones add the perfect finishing touch!

Thanks for looking, and thanks to Nichole and PTI for another great Blog Hop challenge!

Tweet little bird wishing you brighter days

Just a quick little card today that I wanted to share. I am loving the interplay possibilities of the new Tweet Talk with Little Bitty Bird and LBB Additions! They really all complement each other so beautifully and I love mixing and matching the elements of these sets. This card really started with the Think Big #10 sentiment, which I wanted to use.

The die cut bird is colored with Copics, and of course he has to sing from his perch atop the pretty little branch. I created the sun with the Limitless Layers Circles die collection, and thought that the cloud moving aside and the sun "peeking out" went well with the sentiment.

The sun is popped up on 2 layers of foam adhesive, as well as the cloud.

Thanks for looking!

a Trendy Tree Tops Happy Birthday!

I was eager to create something with my new Trendy Tree Tops set. I knew I wanted to include 3 trees across the card front, but they are a little too big to make that work on a standard A2 size card, so this one is 5"x7".

I die-cut the tops from white and trunks from kraft. The tops are stamped in Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet, and Aqua Mist, and the background panels in the same colors are stamped with Polka Dot Basics in Versamark Ink.

The tree tops and trunks are popped up on dimensional adhesive, and the heart on the first tree is popped on a slightly thicker adhesive so that it stands out more. I added the sentiment and lines from Faux Ribbon.

I'm not sure I'm in love with this card... it's one of those that looked better in my head than the finished product, lol. But that's ok, it just means I need to have another go round with this set soon! :)

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday to You with some Pretty Peonies

I just finished this card tonight, drawing inspiration from this lovely card of Laurie's. I really liked her layout, with the patterned block and the layered flowers at the top. I used PTI's Damask patterned paper, and the flowers are from Pretty Peonies, copic-colored and hand-cut. The frame is also handcut, and both it and the sentiment are also from Pretty Peonies.

The leaves are Turning a New Leaf. Leaves, flowers and frame are all popped up on dimensional adhesive. And you can never go wrong with some sweet little pearl gems to finish it off! :)

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday: Step It Up - Layering with Little Bitty Bird

This is my second try at this week's Make It Monday: Step It Up - Layering challenge. I thought that Little Bitty Bird and the new Additions would fit well, so I made two different version of this "Sending You Sunshine" card. 

In the first version, I actually did a one layer card! SHOCKER, that is every unlike me, lol! I combined LBB and Additions with the grass  from Love Lives Here, the "sunburst" from Nativity Silhouettes, the frame from Sweet Spring and a sentiment from Simple Sunflower.

Now, for the "stepped up" version, I popped up the birds and birdhouse on foam adhesive. I cut a "sun center" from Harvest Gold with the Love Lives Here small scalloped circle die, and stamped it with a pattern strip from Half & Half in Summer Sunrise. It is popped up on foam adhesive on the sunburst. I also cut the Sweet Spring frame and Stamped it the same way. Then I put my sentiment on a banner strip, stamped in brown and Summer Sunrise, and popped it up on the frame shape. I used the picnic plaid impression plate on thefocal point panel, and then popped it up on a Summer Sunrise mat, and adhered that to a white card base.

This is a fun challenge - it's interesting to think of different variations on the same card! Thanks for stopping by!

Make it Monday: Layering

Betsy Veldman offered up a great tutorial for today's Make It Monday - layering stamping and elements to create added depth. She showed different "stepped up" levels of applying the technique... so interesting to see essentially the same card design created in 3 different versions! I wanted to make a sympathy card today, so I applied the technique to add several layers of elements to the card.

On the Kraft base, I have a Lemon Tart mat with a strip of Spring Rain that I stamped tone-on-tone with Distressed Stripes. Peeking out is a Canyon Clay heart border die-cut, used as scallops.

Next I created a panel from Vintage Cream, cut one side with the Pinking Shears border die, and then stamped with a Waltzingmouse background text, and layered with different butterflies from Beautiful Butterflies, stamped in Harvest Gold, Spring Rain and Canyon Clay. All of the edges of the various layers are inked with chalk ink.

The sentiment is a Fillable Frame cut from Vintage Cream, stamped with the frame, sentiment and a butterfly. I added 3 little pearls from Creative Charms, and the Fancy Flourishes die cut, all popped up on dimensional adhesive. The inside is stamped with a verse from Beautiful Blessings.

Thanks for the great tutorial, Betsy! And thanks for stopping by!

Some special cards for some special women

I recently had the pleasure of serving as the Music Director for my kids' school's 2nd annual spring musical. This is an amazing, all-volunteer effort that has been spearheaded at the school for the past 2 years by another school mom who has an extensive background in professional theater. She has asked me to be on board each year, and this year was quite an undertaking as we did Seussical Jr! What a great show, and the kids did an AMAZING job, after nearly 8 weeks of rehearsals, at the performance Friday night.

Along with the mom mentioned above, who was our producer/director, an incredible mother/daughter team did all of the choreography for several big ensemble music and dance numbers. The four of us make a great team and love working together, along with the MANY other moms and dads who helped in so many other ways to make the show a success!

I made the 3 cards below and gave them to these 3 awesome women on Friday night. I wish I could have made a card for every parent, and every one of the 30+ kids (YES, I said 30+!!) in the cast.... but alas, I'm neither organized nor productive enough for that! :)  A brief list of stamps and dies follows each card, all products are from Papertrey Ink.

Half & Half die, Seeing Stars, Fancy Flourishes & die, Movers & Shakers Sentiments, Seeing Stars Border die.

 

Wonderful Words Additions, Block Alpha dies, Daydreamer, Flutterby Friend, Heart border die.

Pretty Peonies, Beautiful Butterflies, Mat Stack 4 + Mat Stack 4 Layerz dies, Daydreamer, Heart Border die, Faux Ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by!

One more Easter card: Little Bitty Bird rejoices!

I wasn't nearly as good as I wanted to be this year about getting Easter cards made, but I did manage to put this one together for my husband. I'm so happy with how it turned out, and I think it could be used with other sentiments for lots of occasions! I created this sweet little spring scene using a lot of images from a bunch of different PTI sets: Little Bitty Bird (tree branches, bird and music notes) + Additions (birdhouse), Up Up and Away (sun), Distressed Stripes (the birdhouse "post"), Sweet Spring (the butterflies), Love Lives Here (the grass), and Tag-Its 3 (flowers). The sentiment is from Verve's Everlasting Life.

The color combo is mostly Summer Sunrise and Hawaiian Shores. The leaves, bird, butterflies and birdhouse are all colored with Copics.

Thanks for looking!

RCIA Easter Cards

Happy Easter! In the Catholic church, each year at the Easter vigil Mass (the night before Easter), new members are welcomed into the church, following a months-long preparation course called "RCIA" (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). In our church, each organization is asked to provide a card for each of the new members. This year I decided to make the cards from two of the organizations that I'm part of - it was doable, since there were only two new members (and they are both people who I know, so that made it that much more meaningful!).

From the choir/music ministry, I incorporated a music theme, both in the patterned paper and in the sentiment verse I used (which is from Verve). These are 5x7 cards, so that they could be signed by all the people involved in the music ministry - about 40 choir members, children's choir members, and cantors! We had one man and one woman, so the first card is the more masculine version, and below it the feminine version.

The pink paper in this one is from Echo Park. I really like how the verse looks, stamped on the die-cut with the bit of the rose, which is part of the paper (I carefully placed my die on the paper, positioning it to include the rose at the corner). After I had finished both of these, I decided that I really like the focal point panel popped up and "matted" on the card base, as on the first card, better. So I actually re-did the pink one in the same way, just by trimming down the card front and then putting it on a new card base... but I didn't re-take the picture.

The other set I made were from our Cub Scout Pack. These are also 5x7 cards, but unfortunately, these ones did not get signed by all the scouts as I had intended. I had these with me the night of our last Pack meeting, but it was so busy that I forgot to call the kids over to sign them - and it would have been tricky, since both of the card recipients are scout parents and were there! LOL! So I just wrote "from Cub Scout Pack 40" inside them myself. :) The first one went to the male, and the second one to the female.

I varied the designs on these two a bit more than on the first ones. It was so fun to make each card unique and special, and to be thinking of my two friends, and their joyous occasion, as I made them!

Thanks for looking, and have a lovely Easter day!

So HOPPY for you!

A friend and colleague recently accepted a position at a different university, so I wanted to make her a "congratulations" card. She has quite an affinity for rabbits and owns a couple as pets, so I decided to incorporate that theme into the card. I used the bunny image from Tremendous Treats: Valentine, and computer-generated the sentiment "So HOPPY for you". 

I used the Sending You die and frame image, masking off the line in the middle of the frame. The bunny's ears and nose are colored with Copics, and I added a fluffy little mini-pom-pom tail. The pink paper is from Echo Park, and the green stripes are from the Simply Chartreuse Pattern Paper Pack. The teeny scallops are the Heart Border die (I love using it for teeny scallops!), and I finished things off with a Simply Chartreuse button and pink Twinery twine.

Thanks for looking!