Kind and Lovely

I had that stunning moment recently when I realized that I never sat my oldest daughter down to write thank you notes for her birthday (which was more than a month ago!).  So I decided to put a little more effort into creating some extra special cards.  Of course, this takes time and so they will go up on the blog one at a time.

Here's the first one

So the gold cardstock with the white threads running through it was one of my impulse purchases.  Gold is definitely "in" right now, and I wanted to give it a whirl.  The sentiment stickers were a must have - I was eyeing them the last time I went shopping and I couldn't resist them this time.  They are Maggie Holmes from Crate Paper/American Crafts.  It was all I could do not to buy up the whole collection!  

The stars, clear sequins and the giant & are from Paper Issues Swag Bags & kits.  Pink sequins are Doodlebug.  Patterned paper is Teresa Collins.  I spritzed it with some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Primrose.

Here's a close-up of the glittery, shiny gold goodness

On a completely separate note, but along the lines of "Kind & Lovely", I had a "YAY ME" moment recently when I received an honorable mention award from the Fusion Challenge Blog.

I was so very proud of my card, and it meant a lot to have received recognition for it, so thank you for that!  I will be playing along whenever I can because I adore the idea of their challenges.

I made a completely unnecessary and frivolous purchase at Craft Warehouse today, but I am pretty excited about this one set of items in particular

Notice the price tag in the corner - American Crafts scissors from $29.99 down to $7.00 - um, yes please!  I always resent having to spend $$ on boring old supplies like glue, tape and scissors, and yet they must be a part of our crafty collection of things, so I'm happy to have stocked up.  My daughters get their hands on all of that stuff and I never see it again (until many months later when I do a thorough cleaning of their rooms!).

Alright, back to crafting - I have a few more thank you notes to create...

XOXO DS141

Wandering around blogland yesterday and found this sketch at The Deconstructed Sketch.

I was immediately inspired to create this card

I've definitely fallen in love with the sequin craze, but my other new addiction is paper straws.  I found these at Target over the weekend and put them to use right away.

The patterned paper is from the Crate Paper Love Notes collection, the woodgrain stamp is Lawn Fawn (colored with a Tsukineko Memento marker) stamped on white card stock and cut out using a Spellbinders die (and my handy dandy Cuttlebug), the cork circle is My Little Yellow Bicycle, and the other little embellies are from the Paper Issues monthly Swag Bag (which means I don't recall the exact manufacturers, lol).

Here's a close-up

I have the whole day in front of me and maybe even more crafty time.

If so, I'll be sure to post again later...

You're Somethin'

I've known about the Fusion challenge (clever idea!) for a while now, but have finally had time to play along.

Here's the challenge

And I used both the sketch and photo as inspiration to create this card

I layered card stock (All Bazzill) by punching holes, each one slightly smaller than the layer on top of it.

The stamps are Lawn Fawn sentiments, yellow sequins are from a Paper Issues Swag Bag, teal sequins are Doodlebug Designs. Punches are EK Success, and I'm not sure about the wooden heart.

Here's a close-up with some fancy photo editing

I'm super excited, this is the first Saturday in weeks that I didn't have to run around all over the place, so that means some crafty time all to myself!

I could clean the house, but.....

Happy Birthday

To my nephew, who turned 8 on the first of this month!

He's a cutie (but he probably wouldn't want me to say that) and I needed to create a "boy" card.

I turned to sketch #15 at Seize the Sketch, which you can find HERE

Great sketch!  And here's my card

You can see I smushed it down, but stuck closely to the sketch otherwise.  I went a little star crazy, playing with some goodies from the March Swag Bag from Paper Issues.

The stamp is from a Lawn Fawn set of sentiments.

I have several cards in the works, but lately it seems it takes me several days to complete one.  That's okay, though, sometimes I think they turn out better that way because otherwise I would be too rushed and I think it would show.

Crossing my fingers that I get some time to craft this weekend, have a good one!

Bee-utiful You!

I'm playing along with the Hexagons: Happy For Hexagons Challenge at Moxie Fab World.

I picked up a Heidi Swapp stencil the other day that is meant to be paired with some color mists, but I used it to trace some hexagons.

I created a bee hive on a card and this is what it looks like

I wanted them to have that hand drawn look, so I pulled out a Copic pen to trace the hexagons and then I added color with my Copic markers.  I wanted one of the hexagons to stand out so I used atyou Spica glitter pens and some dimensional adhesive (for a 3D look).  And of course I had to add a bee, thanks to some SRM Stickers.

Here's a close-up of the the extra special hexagon. 

I used my black Memento marker (Tsukineko) to create the "bee-utiful" using a Scenic Route clear stamp that was spelled the correct way. 

The "You" is from a Lawn Fawn clear stamp

If you look closely at the letters, you might see some sparkle.  I traced over the letters with a glitter pen.

I put a lot of work into this card, but I would do it again in a heartbeat because I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lots of Love

I've got a couple of cards to share.  The first is the latest sketch at Seize the Sketch

It sort of looks like the sketch...

~ Cardstock Bazzill Basics ~ Stamp Lawn Fawn ~ Stickers Fancy Pants ~ Other Stuff Tag, Sequins, Acrylic Arrow

Most of the items on the above card came from the February Swag Bag from Paper Issues.

These swag bags are the coolest - loaded with tons of embellies so I can have a little bit of everything.  I was so inspired by the latest bag of goodies that I created this card, just because

I added some zig zag sewing in the corners and an SRM sticker, otherwise the rest is from the swag bag.

I hope you are having a LOVELY Valentine's Day!

My Style

Wow, it's been nearly a month since I posted last, but I do have some good reasons.  A trip to Disneyland, the flu (that's a nasty business!!) that invaded my home for nearly two weeks, and my birthday (yesterday) all kept me crazy busy.

But I did sit down last night and play along with the very FIRST challenge over at

If you don't know Gloria, she is an amazingly talented designer who has created for several wonderful Design Teams (and she's a former 365 Cards DTer), and now she has her own challenge blog.

First up is to create a project featuring your signature style.

Boy that's hard to describe, but this card that I whipped up last night pretty much does it

I chose some double-sided Crate Paper patterned paper loaded with hearts and it became the card base.  The inside looks like it was painted with watercolors

And it's sturdy enough to just use the patterned paper without sticking it on cardstock.

I would generally describe my style as CAS, but I incorporated my favorite items/techniques into this particular card.

I added some silk ribbon, stitching, and heart-shaped pearls (Doodlebug Designs).  This card is all ready to give to one of my Valentines (my hubby & two daughters).