Whipped up a baby card for this week's Color Throw Down Challenge. I've been wanting to get a start on making baby card sets for a gift for next Christmas so this was a good start.  I used Avery Elle Postage Stamp Dies and Avery Elle Special Delivery Stamp Set. Plus a few copic markers and some Papertrey ink cardstock. CTD424, #CTD424, #colorthrowdown 

 On card number two I stamped the images directly onto the card base and used different tones of pink and green copic markers compared to the first card. I used black card stock to add the frame.

Challenge Accepted

Had a week off of work and decided I'd better get cracking on making those Christmas cards. But first I had to finish my last birthday card. Finished and in the mail goes the last one of the year today! This ends my challenge of making an individualized card for each family member this year. It was harder than I thought especially starting in August when the waves of birthdays keep rolling in by the doubles. My family has almost all it's birthdays during what I call our birthday season, from August through November. Some if not most of the cards I sent during this time had the word belated in the birthday greeting. Anyway, that is over and now I'm challenging myself to make as many individualized Christmas cards as I can. I also want to enter some card contests/challenges along the way.

This card is for my dad who loved a bird he named Sonny. Don't get me wrong. He had two sons of his own (and three very lovely daughters :). Maybe he just wanted to even the son thing out because when our youngest sister was born my older sister and I rubbed it in our brothers' faces pretty hard that the females now dominated the household. So this card is for my dad. The pine cone reminds me of the times he took us to play hide and seek in the pine tree farm near our home. Simple times, fun times, great memories.

Dad is in an assisted living home now with his memories quite tangled up but he's still dad, the kind man with the bright blue eyes and the same meticulous nature, gentle laugh and accepting welcome. I tease him it's his new job to be the official welcome person because he was one of the first ones at this new place. I don't visit or call him often enough but he is in my thoughts always. Love you Dad!

 I am planning to submit this card to Paper Sweeties Inspiration December 2016 Challenge. I am new at this so I am also hoping to figure out how to add a link back to them in my blog which they require. So much to learn, which is good, but so little time, which is not so good! Plus the brain cells are getting up there age-wise.

Paper Sweeties Inspiration December 2016 Challenge

Art Impressions Stamp I won on Facebook page My Inky Oasis




Just a quick update...I didn't win the challenge and when my 6-year-old granddaughter heard that this card didn't win she was very busy for a moment in my craft room then gave me an award she made for my card.

Today I made a quick card using the new SOA (Stamp of Approval)  Wonderful World Collection. I absolutely love the sentiments that come in this collection by Catherine Pooler. I ordered this collection on Wednesday morning and it arrived Friday! Amazing.

Although the collection came on Friday I wasn't home. So today I opened it up and took it to my very messy craft room. Today was house cleaning and chore day. Yuk! After cleaning up the room I took a quick 15 minutes to stamp out this card.

Here's the recipe made from items already left out on my desk:

Using Clarity Brushes I added Distress Ink (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, and Stormy Sky) to the edges of this card after stamping the scroll stamp around the sentiment.
I add a little butterfly and a few stamps with that small fluffy thing, added clear embossing powder and heat embossed with my heat tool.
On my desk was a leftover scrap die from the Mama Elephant Madison Frame die set so I added that and a thin line of blue around that edge. I didn't even take the time to set the card up for a picture, just held it in my inky hands and took a quick shot.

Love when it's this easy and yet I feel like I've had a chance to be creative!

Working on Mother's Day Cards, mostly because it will be here earlier than usual this year and also because I love flowers...and my two Moms, of course too! So I started with a simple card with lots of flowers. Simple and sweet was my theme. In the middle of making these easy cards my new mini front and back girl and boy stamps arrived from Impression Arts. I took a break and colored some in, then went back to my mother's day project. That's when things went out of control and simple turned into a window card, with a fence and grass and two children leaning on the fence looking out of the card with a flower garden springing up behind them. Then my new Die-namics Circle Cross Stitched Stax set arrived. So I made a frame for the window. Simple is gone but cute has arrived....just have to finish the inside of the cards and I'm good to go. Almost a month early. I think in the two years I've been doing this, being early is a first for me. Usually I'm rushing to catch the mail lady.

I was so inspired by the recent Simon Says Stamp Easter release and blog hop that I had to try my hand at using dies to cut felt. Here is my card which uses my newly purchased Lawn Fawn Stitched Stackable heart dies as a holder for a bracelet on the card. With the dies came Lawn Fawn's newly released Perfectly Plaid paper pack so I use that for a second card along with my newly purchased, Lawn Fawn, Our Friendship Grows stamp set. Love the bright happy colors on this paper pack. Perfect for spring and Easter!              
                                   

Had a few minutes to squeeze out another card for the Mask-erade Online Card Class. This is a day 1 card which I tried to follow as best I could from Laura Bassen's Rainbow Card. This was a whole bunch of new techniques for me so I just went with imperfection and enjoyed the process following her card almost completely. I think there were only two new colors of Simon Says Stamp ink dyes that I didn't yet have. When I was done I and the card were an inky and gluey mess but I did my best to hide the imperfections behind lots of dots.

I'm taking another Online Card Class. This one is called Mask-erade.

Day 1 was all about masking with paper. I followed Kristina Werner's card to make a get well card for one of our supervisors at work. The three birds represent myself and my two coworkers.. I used the oh so popular Bird Crazy stamps from Stampers Anonymous and Tim Holtz. Anyone can see why this stamp set is so popular. The expressions on these stamps are priceless. I also used my new Zig Clean Color Real Brush  pens to colors these crazy guys in. The moment I saw these pens demonstrate by Jennifer McGuire on her YouTube channel I knew this was the type of water coloring medium I'd been waiting for.

Day 2 continued the topic of masking with paper. I followed Jennifer McGuire's second card and cut made a birthday card for my grand daughter who is turning 5 soon. She's big on celebrating her new number so I cut a five out with my Silhouette Cameo on masking paper and stamped a star background covered with birthday images. I used Simon Says Stamp Ink Dyes for the birthday images. Of course I smudge some of the ink and then I had a bright idea. I decided to color in little images with my Copic markers and whoops. One marker was overfilled from last weekend when I refilled it so it came gushing out all over my card! That's why I broke out my sequins and added some bling. Still trying to figure out how to arrange sequins but this was pretty easy,. I just covered all the splotches. There are so many more techniques I'd like to try but too little time. It's summer and I want to spend as much time outside with the grand children. Today was rainy and the kiddos were gone out of town so it was the perfect Saturday to play with colors. Since I'm learning to use these new water color pens I used much of my day to try them out.

 And then I skipped over to Day 5 to make this adorable elephant card. It was a great learning experience for me. Now I just need some practice....Went a little crazy on the balloons but then an elephant would need a lot to help him fly...

And then this card also using heat embossing as a mask:

And these cards using rubber cement as a masking fluid: