HB2U

This is only January and I have already completed 4 birthday cards for upcoming parties my kids have been invited to attend. I can only imagine what the rest of the year will bring for my social little girls.

For this birthday card, I am using another cute digital image from Sassy Cheryl called "Let's Party". This image worked so well with the super fun and bright paper from the We R Memory Keepers Hip Hip Hooray collection. I just bought this collection and it has quickly become a birthday card go to.

For the tiny present, I simple folded a smaller bit of pattern paper and wrapped the "gift" with twine. The tiny HB2U is from MFT "It's a Sign".

The image is coloured with Copic markers. I also applied a bit of Glitter Ritz fine white glitter to her party hat and the trim of her dress. I think most of my cards recently have had glitter applied somewhere. What can I say I love it. I really like that you can still see the colour through the white glitter, so I don't have to worry about trying to match up my colours. Just colour and add glitter.

Of course my card it not complete without a decorated inside. The inside sentiment is from Stampendous "Birthday Wishes" and the cupcake which was coloured with Gelatos (applied with my finger) is The Paper Company "Cupcakes".

The layout was based on this fabulous sketch by Karen Giron from The Sweetest Thing. I would also like to give a shout out to Karen as the creator of my super cute watermark. She has a fabulous selection at her blog for purchase. You can find a link to her watermark gallery in the side bar of her blog.

Challenges:

• Sassy Cheryl: #199 Winter Blues (there is no winter on my card, but plenty of blue! Besides who doesn't love a party to chase away the thought of snow and cold.
• The Sweetest Thing: # 202 Sketch
• 4 Crafty Chicks: #176 bows (the little bow around my tiny present)
• Through The Craft Room Door: January 14 - 20 Anything goes
• Papertake Weekly Challenge: New Year, New Stash (my new is the image. It was a recent purchase - a gift to myself as most of my craft stuff is. This is the first time I have used this digi).

Have a crafty day and thanks for taking a peek at my latest birthday card!

Tracy

Picture Perfect Birthday

For the past week I have been in creative mode - with a focus on birthdays. Specifically kids birthdays. In addition to my own daughter who has a birthday fast approaching next week (for which I still have a HUGE to do list). My kids have a rather active social schedule over the next few weekends that includes a number of birthday parties to attend.

For the first birthday card, I have I dipped into my stash of My Favorite Things stamps. I decided on a stamp that I wouldn't think is generally used for birthdays. I have had the "Picture Perfect" stamp for a while and haven't used it, so I decided to see what I could do to make it more birthday suitable.

For this card I used the latest sketch from My Favorite Things. I stuck pretty close to the sketch for my card.

I paired the MFT's image with paper and albums made easy cards from We R Memory Keepers Hip Hip Hooray collection. I love the bright colours. I used my Spellbinders Nestabilities circles and scalloped circles and the My Favorite Things "Cute Camera" to which I added the HB2U message (heat embossed with white embossing powder).

The image is coloured with Copic markers. I also added a bit of Glitter Ritz micro fine white glitter around the frame for a bit if shimmer. The image was cut out and added to the card with dimensional adhesive.

Inside the card I added the "Little Shutterbug" image from  My Favorite Things image and included a  sentiment from this set, which I altered. I covered up the word "day" from the sentiment and then added "birthday".

I think I could say this was a successful repurpose of a non-birthday stamp!

Challenges
My Favorite Things: Stamp and Win with Sketch 158
Simon Says Monday Challenge: Anything Goes

Happy Monday everyone!

Tracy

Artist Party Invitations

This year for my youngest daughter wants to paint for her birthday. She is definitely a crafty girl in the making. For her party invitations, I dug into my Cricut cartridge stash to see what I had that was art themed.

Using the Cricut Lite cartridge called "Recess", I was able to cut out an the image of the paint brush and paper.

The paint palettes I hand made. The one on the cartridge didn't work for us. I found a simple clip art image of a paint palette and cut it out, then traced it onto card stock. I used a regular hole punch and backed with different coloured paper for our paint look.

The "party" was cut from the Cricut Calendar cartridge.

My daughter created the background by flicking different paints onto watercolour paper. She was very particular about keeping to the colours showing in the paint palette. She was covered with paint in the end, but had a lot of fun helping with the invitations.

Some of the images on the Critcut Lite Recess cartridge.

Thanks for taking a look!

Tracy

Love Potion # 9

I was very excited to see that Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps is currently hosting a challenge for Krafty Guests. I adore Kraftin' Kimmie's stamps and my collection of their fabulous stamps continues to grow. Check out the challenge blog for details on the Krafty Guest Contest.

For my challenge submission I used one of the Moonlight Whispers stamps called Josephine. I decided this image would make a fun Valentine's card.

I was able to use a number of scraps to create a patchwork look on my card. I tried to stick to colours I used in her dress, however I did miss adding a bit of green (oops).

One of the requests for the challenge was to add sparkle. Just like the Krafty Girls, I love bling. I added a few small gems to the scalloped paper and there is glitter added to my image.

My close up came out a bit dark (I'm still working on my photography). I added Glitter Ritz Micro fine glitter to her dress and to parts the "love" fumes coming out of the bottle. It's hard to see in the picture.

Inside the card I added a sentiment from the Lawn Fawn "Future is Bright" stamp set. I repeated the love potion image and added some paper that I used on the front of the card.

The inspiration for the layout came from this fun sketch from Seize the Sketch. 

Challenges:
Kraftin' Kimmie: Krafty Guest Contest
Seize The Sketch: #11 with Kraftin' Kimmie

Thanks for having a look at my newest card. Have a crafty day!

Tracy

Little Red Wagon # 219 - All Purpose Cards

Hello everyone, it's time for another fun challenge over at Little Red Wagon.

This week Jan has set the challenge and she is looking for an "All Purpose" card. That would be a card which is not for any specific occasion or reason...... you know a just because type of card.

Since we are currently facing a mountain of snow, ice and more snow, I am still inspired (just a bit) to create winter themed cards. My card is a to let someone special know I am thinking of them!

I used a Sassy Cheryl digital image from the "It Takes One to Know One" set. The set comes with 3 fun images, including this one "Lucy Lou Princess on Ice". The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set (Everyday Sayings CL342) and it works perfectly on this card. I am sure many of us would love some warm wishes coming our way. Anything to take our minds off the snow, cold, ice, shovelling, snow days..........etc.

I inked the edges of the patterned paper with white pigment ink. The Maya Road chipboard snowflake was painted with Brushed Pewter Distress paint. Once it was dry I ran it through my Xyron machine adding adhesive to the painted side. I then sprinkled the snowflake with Glitter Ritz fine white glitter.

The paper used on this card includes: Pink Paislee "Hello Kid", Echo Park "Bundle of Joy" Dots & Stripes and Amy Tangerine (not sure on the collection - the orange paper).

I coloured the image with Copics. On her muff I added Our Craft Lounge "Sugar" Sparkly Fluff. I also added more glitter to the bottom of the image to give it a snowy/icy feel. More sparkle and dimension to the card......I love glitter.

The inside sentiment is from Hero Arts Friends (CL351) set. The layout for the card is based on a sketch from I {heart} Sketches 001.

It's always great to have those "Just Because" cards in your stash, just in case! So head on over to Little Red Wagon and have a peek at the inspirational projects the other Girlfriends have created. I hope you will join us for this fabulous challenge and be sure to link up your project over at Little Red Wagon!

Happy creating!



Challenges:

• Sassy Cheryl: # 198 Anything Goes
• Shopping Our Sash: # 133 Use Something new (the image is one I haven't used before, the Pink Paislee "Hello Kid", Echo Park "Bundle of Joy" Dots & Stripes and Maya road chipboard are also new)
• Through the Craft Room Door: Jan 7. to 13 Anything Goes
• Papertake Weekly Challenge: Anything Goes
• One Crazy Stamper: January Anything Goes
• Curtain Call: Smitten (my inspiration from the photo came from the colours which I love. As for what I am smitten with at this time of year, it would warm fleecy sweater, ice skating with the family and a nice warm hot chocolate after........and right now I am not so smitten with the recent dumping of snow we have received!)

Tracy

Perk Me Up!

The snow is really coming down and a great excuse to grab a coffee and do a bit of crafting.  I managed to get a number of cards finished, including some that are a bit more clean and simple. If you look through my cards you will see CAS is not my general style and these cards tend to take me longer than ones with layers.

I really don't know what it is about the CAS that stumps me most of the time. I always feel the need to fill all that white space with something. I figure with a bit of practice I will get better, so that is going to be my challenge to myself for this year, more CAS!

For this card I used a fun stamp set called "Latte Love" by Fiskars. The images are small and good for a simple card. 

I added simple layers to the background and on my cup with paper piecing. The sentiment is from Your Next Stamps "Hot Stuff Mugs".

Inside the card the I re-stamped the coffee cup and added a sentiment from the Latte Love set.

Supplies
Stamps: Fiskars "Latte Love", Your Next Stamp "Hot Stuff Mugs"
Paper: Kaiser Craft "Utopia Collection", kraft card stock
Card: DCWV card base (4 1/4 x 5 1/2)

Challenges:

Allsorts Challenge: # 240 Free & Easy (free of clutter and relatively quick and easy to make)
Cute Card Thursday: #302 Banish the Blue (a little coffee/latte/hot chocolate perk to kick away those holiday blues......although I am a bit blue that my Starbuck Gingerbread latte is now gone for the season)
Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
One Crazy Stamper: Anything goes
Shopping Our Stash: #132 Use the Last of something (my supply of Kraft card stock and the blue card base I made 2 coffee themed cards and this beautiful blue base is now use up from the set DCWV "brights" set.

Stay warm with your favourite beverage and happy crafting.

Tracy

Little Red Wagon # 218 - New Beginnings

Happy New Year! Wow what a year we just had. It seem to fly by me in a flash. 

This week over at Little Red Wagon Jayne's first challenge of 2014 is all about New Beginnings. For this challenge Jayne is looking for anything related to New! Be it related to New Year, a new baby, job, house or even consider new tools, paper, embellishments, stamps etc. just make it about something NEW!

This is a very appropriate challenge for me, as I am starting a new adventure with my crafting and blogging. I am excited to be joining the very talented Girlfriends at Little Red Wagon as part of the design team.

For my card I have a lot of NEW elements. The card is for a new job and I made it using mostly new products.

The digital image from Whimsie Doodles (newly acquired) is called "Cafe Lizzie". The sentiment I created on the computer. The paper is from Simple Stories Daily Grind 6x6 paper pad (new to my stash).

The image is coloured with Copic markers (no new ones) and I used my 1/2" circle punch for the tiny label on the coffee cup. I thought it was quite appropriate!

Head over to Little Red Wagon and join the new challenge. Be sure to also check out all the new projects the Girlfriends on the DT created.

Have a crafty 2014.

Tracy