Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 45

Good morning bloggies! I'm back this morning for two posts: Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 45 and The Craft's Meow May Release - Day 3. So make sure you check out BOTH posts ok! ;)


Let's get on with it shall we? Claire has a completely different sketch for this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 45. I don't know if I've ever seen a sketch like this in any of the challenges I have ever joined. And that's exactly what I love about WMSC. Here, let me show you...

The wonderful thing about it is that it's totally open for your interpretation! Don't you just love it?! I must say though, I mulled over it for quite a while. I actually made two cards for this one. After I had made the first one I wasn't too happy with it. So as I always do, I stepped away. After two days, an idea came to mind...and here it is!

I actually saw this pinwheel tutorial on one of the blogs that I follow. I'm so sorry to say that I can't remember which blog it was. I look at soooo many of them everyday. I find that when I'm stumped, it's always a good idea to look around what other people have up their sleeves. lol. Well, after I saw the pinwheel tutorial, I came up with this! :) The sentiment is from Frame It, and the flowers are from Roses in Bloom. I made the tassel from ribbon, pearls and a charm. What do you think? :) I can't wait to see what you'll do with this sketch. See you there! :)

The other wonderfully, talented Mischief Makers have more inspiration for you, so don't forget to head on over to check out their blogs! 

• Beate Johns
• Clare Buswell
• Edna Morrisedie
• Jean Martin --> you are here!
• Jen Cuthbertson
• Lenet Mos
• Savitri Wilder

CR84FN25 and The Shabby Tea Room #59

Hi bloggies! I've been so busy with the TCM release and my other DT projects that I haven't been able to play in any of my favorite card challenges. I thought I'd remedy that with a card for CR84FN25 and The Shabby Tea Room #59. :) The colors are a mix of brights and lights. And so I found that I was able to work with it. I guess you could say, I'm really trying to go out of my comfort zone here. I'm actually happy with the results! Here's the color combination and inspiration photo:

Sorry I have to keep this short. I have other posts to make and schedule for early tomorrow morning and I haven't even started them yet. I hope you like my card. The labels are from Waltzingmouse Stamps. The sentiment is from WPlus9. And the butterflies are from Martha Stewart. Enjoy your evening and I'll see you all tomorrow! :)

Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop

Hi friends! Whew the weekend was busy! I hope you all enjoyed your Easter Sunday! I have a card for the Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop. It seems I've missed several already and I really don't want to miss this one too. The theme for this blog hop is the men and boys in our lives. Masculine cards was never my forte. But I decided to give this one a go. I hope you like it!

For my card I used the following Papertrey Ink stamp sets: Just the Ticket, Postmarks, Mat Stack 1 Collection, and Little Argyle. I just tried to go very masculine with the colors and the images I used on my card. I also tried to keep things simple. What do you think? Enjoy the blog hop! :) That's it for me tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

ColourQ Challenge 81 and The Shabby Tea Room Week 58

***If you're looking for my Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge card, just click here.***
**And don't forget to check out The Craft's Meow sneak peaks!!!**


Hi friends! I have a card for the ColourQ Challenge 81. I saw my friend Christina's card and I was inspired to join. The colors were within my safety zone...so here I am! :) The colors and card I was thinking of making also fit the challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room. Yay! So two challenges with one card!  :) 

I was trying my hand at something new with this card. I used some enamel accents to dot the edges of my card and label. I wasn't very successful as they are not even at all. And in the middle of that my cat Lucas decided he wanted to inspect my card. He managed to paw parts of the "dots" that I had made. :( He loves to sit with me when I'm making cards, but he usually just sits patiently and waits until I'm done. I guess the smell of the enamel accents made him curious. Heehee!

The challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room was Pastels and Stripes, so I stamped the background with PTI's Distressed Stripes. The pastel colors of the ColourQ Challenge were exactly what I needed! For the labels I used my favorite Very Vintage Labels 18. I haven't even begun to use all of the wonderful stamps in this set. I really wanted to get some Spellbinder's dies, but got side tracked by all the wonderful stamp sets that were on my list. The gorgeous flowers are from Roses in Bloom...all from Waltzingmouse Stamps of course! What do you think? I hope you can still see the light blue...I guess I used a very light, light blue ink....oops! :) 

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 44

***If you're looking for my CASE Study Challenge card, it's here! :) ***


Hi everyone! I'm back today for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 44. I really enjoy going through all of the gorgeous works of art that our Waltzingmouse friends submit every week. I get a lot of inspiration from you and I find more and more people to follow. :) I hope I'm bringing you as much inspiration as you bring to me. Here's our sketch for this week.

Isn't this wonderful? You can do sooo many things with it. The possibilities are endless! Here's my card for this week. I found this color combination on the front cover of CARDS magazine, and I have found myself using it over and over again. It's sooo beautiful. I have wanted to make a background of these gorgeous flowers every since I first saw them. They're from Roses in Bloom. I'll be using this stamp set again and again, that's for sure. And I still can't get enough of Vintage Labels No. 18! I still don't have the dies for this, you can still use it though, but I have a feeling I'm going to want to get my hands on one. The sentiment is from Frame It. I LOVE script sentiments, and this is perfect! I embossed the bottom portion of my card using an embossing folder from SU. I hope you like my card for this week. I'll see you over at Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge ok?! :)

The other wonderfully, talented Mischief Makers have more inspiration for you, so don't forget to head on over to check their blogs out! 

• Beate Johns
• Clare Buswell
• Edna Morrisedie
• Jean Martin --> you are here!
• Jen Cuthbertson
• Lenet Mos
• Savitri Wilder

BIG News!!! and some cards to share

Hi bloggies! I have the most wonderful news to share with all of you! I might be a little late, but better late than never!!! I was recently invited by Lisa Hjulberg from The Craft's Meow to be a part of her awesome design team!!! Yay!!! I'm sooo excited! And not only that!!! We get to work with stamp sets designed by the ubberly talented Nina Brackett. I have to tell you...I've seen the May release...and O MY GOODNESS!!!! You're all in for a treat!!! I can't wait to play with them and show you all!!!! The sneak peaks will start on April 28, 2011 and will end with a blog hop (with wonderful prizes!!!) on May 1, 2011. You also have to hop on over to check out the talented girls that I'm so lucky to be working with!!! 


The Craft's Meow also has a wonderful array of paper kits, put together by the talented Sarah Martin Parker,  Alice Wertz, and Ivana Camdzic. Hop on over to the store and check out all the fabulous crafty goodies to be had. See you on April 28th over at The Craft's Meow, and bring a friend! :)

I have one more good news before I share some cards with you tonight. I was also invited by Debbie Marcinkiewicz to be a guest designer on The Shabby Tea Room on June 20th. I know it's a little early to announce but I was so excited I wanted to share it with all of you! :) Can you imagine...me?!?! A guest designer for The Shabby Tea Room, when I was just saying that I didn't feel my cards were shabby chic enough! I'm so happy! :) Yay! Join me and the Shabby girls there on June 20th!!! :)


Ok finally, some cards to share. These were some of my submissions for magazine calls that were not accepted. I wanted to share them with you because I had a lot of fun making them. Here they are! Oh and sorry about the poor quality of the pictures. I didn't have my extra lights yet when I took a picture of these. I hope you'll enjoy viewing them! :) That's it for me tonight. I'll see you all again tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by.

PDCC77

Hi friends! I'm back late tonight...or should I say early this morning...for a card I wanted to submit for the Play Date Cafe Challenge 77. The colors were a lovely neutral and I LOVE neutral colors. I passed on the previous challenge because the I chickened out when I saw the colors. I didn't want to pass up on this one because I knew I could handle the colors this time around. I hope I'll eventually get over my fear of very bright colors. :) Here's the color combination.

Didn't I say it was a lovely neutral combination? The images have enough pop of green color in there though, which I found beautiful. Here's my card. I took several pictures of it. I also tried changing the backgrounds...white to black...I thought perhaps the contrast would be good. Tell me what you think...I'm only experimenting with my pictures because I don't really know anything about it...does it look better with the white background...or the black...


I combined some of my favorite stamps...of course you already know my favorite WMS stamp set...Victorian Frippery...I stamped the gorgeous border flourish on a piece of canvas. I frayed the edges and inked it. For the background, I used Mehndi Medallions from WPlus9. 

CR84FN24

Hi bloggies! I'm back today for one of my favorite color challenges. I always look forward to Sundays because of it. And today is no different. Have you seen the color combination?! Oh my goodness it's gorgeous!!! I have this feeling I'll be using this combination a lot from now on. I started on my card early in the morning and had to cut it short to go to this Palm Sunday mass. But as soon as we got back, I added the finishing touches and took my pictures. Here's CR84FN24.

What do you think? I LOVE this card! I had a wonderful day yesterday, because my mail man left me some goodies in the mail box! I had been waiting for my order from WPlus9, and they arrived just in time! I used these gorgeous tulips from A Special Lady, and the sentiment from Brothers & Sisters. I also finally got Mehndi Medallions, my friend Christina, uses them perfectly ALL the time. And I've been telling myself that I would get them. Well, Christina, I got them!!! Yay! I used them so many times yesterday for some cards that I was submitting to a magazine call. I'm really glad I got them. I still have a few more on my list that I wasn't able to get, but only because I was trying to spread out my purchases between 3 of my favorite stamp companies. Hopefully, by next month I'll be able to get all of them. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this one.... 

I usually order my craft supplies once a month. And I always have a budget that I try to keep and so far I've only done that a few times. I'm REALLY trying to stay within it and I was really glad that I was able to this month. I usually order from 3 places...and I usually concentrate on stamps. Which is why you'll notice that I use the same trims, ribbons, flowers, etc. I buy those in bulk so I don't have to get them constantly. I really wish I could splurge on embellishments, but for some reason stamps always come first on my list. Well, thanks for stopping by! 

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 43

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! If you're looking for my Embellish Color Trends Challenge submission just scroll down. Otherwise, we have a great sketch this week for Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 43. After all the recent layered cards I created, I decided to go a little light on this one. I wanted to try to make a simple card. But with BLING! Haha! Before I spill the beans and show you what I mean...here's the sketch for this week.

I've decided to call this "Shabby Chic CAS" Heehee! Absolutely no pun intended! It's shabby chic (my version of it at least) but it's clean and simple considering I didn't layer it to my heart's content. :) These rhinestone embellishments were on sale for 40% off at Michael's this week. I grabbed a couple of them because they were so beautiful! I'll be trying to make a few more shabby chic CAS cards here and there. Tell me what you think ok? And come join us over at the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge! I love perusing through the gorgeous cards that are submitted every week. See you there!

Embellish: Crochet Trim Color Trends Challenge

Hi friends! Whew! It's finally the weekend! Yay! I'm exhausted! I was going through my favorite blogs tonight and found a video by Sarah Martina Parker. It was about how she went about making her cards for Embellish Color Trends Challenges. This one was for the Crochet Trim Challenge. I was so inspired by the video that after it, I went straight to my craft table and started making my card. Sarah has always been one of my favorite designers. Before I was part of the Mischief Makers, I would always find inspiration in her cards every Saturday for the WMS Sketch Challenges. She's just a genius when it comes to combining elements for her cards. I based my card for this challenge on her creation. Thank you so much for all of the inspiration you  share Sarah! :)

Here's my card. As you can see, I CASEd Sarah's layout a bit. And after seeing her video, I went looking for a fabric brad. Unfortunately, this was the only one I found that matched the colors of this challenge. Haha! I should get more! And oh my goodness! How I wish I had those cameos too!!! At least I know where to get them now! I hope you like this one. I'll be back tomorrow for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge! See you then! Good night everyone! :)

The Shabby Tea Room Week 57

Hi everyone! I was just going through some of my Papercrafts Magazines tonight and noticed that there weren't enough Shabby Chic cards in it. It was mostly CAS and graphic cards. I hope they'll make an issue that's filled with some shabby and vintage goodies! Or at least add more shabby chic and vintage cards. I know there's a big following for CAS cards, but I'm pretty sure there's also a growing one for shabby and vintage. I knew where I would find it in blogland though! The Shabby Tea Room of course! This week couldn't be more perfect! The theme is Doilies and Lace! Two of my favorite embellishments! :) Here's their inspiration photo.

And here's my card. If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I'm still on my journey to mastering shabby chic cards. There's some shabby chic in there now...it's just not shabby chic enough...do you know what I mean? Whenever I look at my cards, they usually feel like a modern version of shabby chic. I can't explain it. It just feels like it's a few steps away from shabby chicness. Haha! I'm always ooohhhing and aaaahhhing whenever I look at cards from Melissa Phillips, Beatriz Jennings, Viola Mahr...and many more... Anyway, just as long as they're soft and feminine...I enjoy making them. :) And I hope you enjoy viewing them too. I've come a long way, or so I've been told, and I totally love the process of it. Well, that's it for tonight! Good night everyone! :)

CR84FN23

Hi friends! I know it's been a bit quiet around here. We had a big party last Friday that lasted until Sunday if you can believe it! I didn't have any time for any card making at all. It's finally Monday, and things are finally quiet. Last week was such a harrowing week! We had a long time client suddenly go berserk on us! You think you know people, when all of a sudden, they show another side you've never seen before. And the sad thing was she was so very, very wrong. Working in a service-providing business is so hard. You can't seem to please people no matter how much you try. Which is why, I would LOVE to become a graphic designer and be answerable to only one boss!!!! Hee! :)


Anyway, enough of that. First on my list for this week is CR84FN23. Have you seen the color combination?! It's sooo beautiful! I couldn't resist! Here it is...

I used several stamps from different stamp companies for this card. The bird image came from Stampin' Up, something I haven't used in months! The sentiment and border image came from Waltzingmouse Stamps. And the flowers are from Paper Source. My husband was walking by and saw my card. He said "Hey, I like that!" Haha! It's very rare I get a spontaneous reaction from him. Whenever I show him my cards, he would have his brows together and his analyzing look on. He would remain quiet for a few minutes (which drives me crazy) before he says anything. Perhaps thinking of something safe to say? Hahaha! Oh but no, he's very honest with his opinions when it comes to my cards. There have been several incidences where I would have loved to whack him with a pillow. Hehe! So it's good he likes this one, because I like it too. What do you think? :) That's it for tonight. Good night every one! 

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge 42

Hi everyone! I know it's a Saturday, but sadly I have work today. So I'm leaving everyone with this post. I'll try to sneak it some more when I get home from work. Hopefully I will have some time and won't be too tired to have some crafty time for me. And since it's a Saturday, of course we HAVE to have Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge! Here's the sketch!

For this sketch, I decided to keep it simple. I know you all know how I love to layer, use ribbon and flowers...hee :) But this sketch seemed like it needed something sweet and simple. So I decided to stamp my background and not have a bunch of layers for this card. I pulled out my Asian Gardens and my Faux Fun. I don't know why, but I love these flowers in lavender. They just look so much more softer in this color. And did I tell you that I'm in love with my Faux Fun?! Especially this lace stamp. It's sooo pretty! I knew it would be perfect for this sketch. I added a little crocheted lace on one of the edges of the card. ( I couldn't  HELP it!!!) Anyway, I really hope you like this. Don't forget to head on over to Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge and give this one a try! :) Also, head on over to the other Mischief Makers and WM Design Team websites to check out their gorgeous creations. 

PDCC75 and SSD71

Hi friends! I made this card yesterday but had no time to post it. I was so busy with some take home work that I almost forgot to post this! And it's a good thing too...the challenge is supposed to close in an hour! Whew! Made it just in time. Here's the beautiful color combination over at Play Date Cafe. I also used a sketch from the challenge over at Skipping Stones Design...my first time to join! :)

 

And here is my card. I still have some more work to do so I'll keep this short! I hope you like it!