Thank You Mercy!

I’ve been struggling with really low card-making mojo over the past couple of weeks and I have at least a half a dozen sketch challenges printed out and sitting on my craft table just waiting for me to get busy on. Today I had a little bit of luck. I took a look at Mercy’s Sketch Challenge (MTSC74) from yesterday(by the way – Great new blog design Mercy!!!) and I was surfing through SCS (I usually do a few times a day – I know, I have no life!) and really wanted to play with the color challenge from yesterday (CC271) to use Dusty Durango, So Saffron and Rich Razzleberry. I’m really trying to use up a lot of my scraps (I sorted through them all and put similar color pallettes together in ziplock bags when I had no creative juices flowing) before I get any new paper (save for the Basic Grey 6 x 6 packages I’ll pick up this weekend when I visit my dad in the States from a recent on-line order I placed). Here is what I came up with . I started with a white card base (Papertrey Ink. CS) and added a panel of Dusty Durango. I used some old SAB paper from Stampin’ Up for the rounded top panel. I used Rich Razzleberry CS and a MS punch to the bottom of that. The sentiment and flourish circle are from Verve. I punched the sentiment with a 1 3/8 punch and layered that on a So Saffon punched circle (1 11/16″). I added some dots around the edge with my SU Basic Black marker. I used my nesties to cut and layer the circular panels. I popped up the sentiment panel a little for a bit of depth. I added some black organdy ribbon and a saffron coloured button tied with black embroidery floss. Thanks, Mercy, for helping me to get a wee bit of my mojo back!

More Birthday Wishes

I made this card for today’s SCS Sketch Challenge (SC280). I waited a little while today to make my card to see if something would just pop into my head, since I don’t have much mojo these days. I’ve had this SAB set from SU but hadn’t inked it up before (aside from one of the sentiments), so I thought the cake would be a good size for the square, slanted panel. In keeping with using some scraps, the SU DSP is also from my scrap bin. I kept this card pretty simple since the pattened paper has lots of detail. The colours include Ruby Red, Kiwi Kiss, and SU DSP. The card base is Flourishes white CS (love the thickness of this). I coloured the cake with various copic markers. I used the same sentiment from my earlier card. I added a bit of bling with stickles on the candles. Pretty straight-forward. Thanks for having a look.

Birthday Mojo

I made this card yesterday for Monday’s Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge (MOJO138). I thought this sketch might be a little challenging, but it turned out to be relatively easy. I was really low on Birthday cards, so thought I’d make a couple this week. I have so many scraps sitting in a basket on my work surface. I thought I’d better start to use them up. I really wasn’t sure what kind of image to use either. I’ve lost a little mojo over the past few weeks. Maybe I just need a little break, but I feel bad that my supplies sit there for awhile. Anyway, I this is the result of this challenge. My card measures 5.25 x 5.25. I layered some Pretty in Pink on top of that that I ran through the Big Shot with a Texturz plate. I added the checkered patterned paper (SU) onto Ruby Red. The 3 strips on the right are also SU DSP. The flower is from Verve which I coloured with copic markers and the sentiment is from Stampendous. I notched the corners and added self-adhesive pearls with a pink tint to the corners and in the centre of the flower. I also added bigger pearls at the top of each vertical strip. The main image was popped up for a little dimension. Thanks for having a look.

Birthday Girl

Two cards today – wow! It’s not often I get a chance to do two cards in one day. I love participating in challenges and I always take a look at the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge (SSSC67). I also love trying to incorporate a color challenge and today was able to make the Scrapmaster’s Paradise Color Combo Challenge (SPCC46) work. Sometimes I’m amazed at what color combos these creative geniuses come up with – Pixie Pink, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip? I wasn’t sure how I was going to put this together. I kept looking at the sketch and wondered what kind of image I was going to stamp. I pretty much always use flowers, but decided to look through my stash of patterned paper scraps for some kind of inspiration. Lo and behold, I found this cute paper that is bright pink and has a touch of brown in it. Perfect! I thought I’d keep the card pretty simple. The card base is Flourishes Cream and the patterned paper (from a scrapbook calendar) was layered with Chocolate Chip. The two horizontal panels are Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip. I had already made the flower combo a few weeks ago, so that was easy just to stick on. The sentiment is a rub on from SU’s Chit Chat package. There is no stamping on this card at all! Thanks for having a look.

More Candles

I made this card for my Aunt’s 79th birthday tomorrow. I hope I can drop in to see her tomorrow night with a little treat (she has a sweet tooth). The card also satisfies today’s Mercy’s Tuesday Sketch Challenge (MTSC72) as well as the Creative Belli Blog Challenge #90 (CBC90) to make a birthday card. The Belli Challenge also called for us to use some old stuff. I’ve had these grayish flowers for about 5 years and I have never used them until now. I was also able to use this patterned paper that was in the middle of a “Take Ten” magazine a few years ago. Gotta love that. I flipped the sentiment panel over to the other side so I wouldn’t hide some of the patterned paper. I was just going to leave the swirls alone. I’m not really sure why I felt I needed to add the prima flowers and self-adhesive half pears. Anyway, here is the recipe:
Card Base – Papertrey Ink. White CS
Next layer – SU Bordering Blue (gotta admit I’m glad this one is retiring)
Next layer – patterned paper and light yellow (on bottom)
Stamps – SU
Ink – Navy Blue StazOn
Accessories – SU Punches/Die & MS border punch , Navy Satin Ribbon, Large half pearl – SU Pretties kit & smaller half pearls from the dollar store

Well, that’s it for now. I have recently placed some orders for Spellbinder’s pendants, borders and nesties as well as some new copic markers. I can’t wait to get all of my new goodies so I can expand my stamping style a little. I plan to get lots of inspiration from all of you awesome stampers!

Mom’s Day

I need to get this card sent off to my lovely MIL as soon as possible. I combined today’s Mojo Monday Week 137 challenge with last week’s Curtain Call Color Challenge. I started off with a totally different card, but was not at all happy with the way it turned out, so started all over again. I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled with the sketch, but I think my Mojo was on vacation today. I started with Flourishes White CS for my card base. I added a layer of Melon Mambo as well as the patterned paper. I wish I had made my flower image a wee bit smaller so the patterned paper could show through a little more. I stamped the Spiral Bouquet flower from Papertrey Ink. on white CS using Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery and Chocolate chip. I layered that panel with Pink Pirouette and Melon Mambo. When I saw the sketch and the vertical panel, I immediately thought of using paint samples. I’ve had a bunch of them for ages. I layered the green paint sample onto Certainly Celery and tied some Melon Mambo polka dot grosgrain ribbon to the top. I stamped the frame from SU’s Vintage Labels in Chocolate Chip and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to centre the sentiment from SU’s Blooming with Love set. I punched it out using the label punch and larger die. I finished the card off with some Melon Mambo colored self-adhesive rhinestones. That’s it for now. I hope to get a bit more Mojo tomorrow to do a few other challenges. Thanks for having a look.