Card Patterns Sketch 86

I really needed to make a birthday card for someone, and I was not sure where to begin.  I decided to check out the latest Card Patterns sketch and it's been a while since I've played along over there.

I don't spend as much time blog hopping and checking out other challenges sites as much as I'd like to, so I decided it was time to visit my other favorite challenge blog.  So here's my card for CP Sketch 86:

Here's a close-up shot:

The Details:

Cardstock Bazzill Basics

Patterned Paper My Mind's Eye

Tag (cut down to a rectangle) Martha Stewart

Scalloped Trim Making Memories

Stamp and Ribbon Stampin' Up

Pearls Kaiser Scrapbook

Ink Stampin' Up and Tsukineko

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Stampin' Up Week at 365 Cards

This week we are being sponsored by Catherine Pooler, frequent 365 Cards participant and Stampin' up demonstrator.

Here's the sketch to start off the week:

And my card:

I'm such a rebel with my own sketch.  Based on the sketch, I should have something in the bottom left corner, but I just could not come up with something that wouldn't spoil the overall look of the card.

My absolute favorite product from Stampin' Up is the ribbon.  It's gorgeous and each spool comes loaded with ribbon.  The ribbon and the Happy Birthday stamp are both Stampin Up - and this is just a teensy bit of what I have in my stash :)

This week there has been a big change at 365 Cards.  We now have a set of seven spotlight designers that we'll reveal every Monday from the previous week's challenges.  It's been a change that was long overdue.

I hope you'll join us this week for some great challenges!

We have some incredible sponsors at 365 Cards, and this one is no exception. We got to play with some fabulous stamps this week, and here is my interpretation of this week's sketch:

I was feeling Halloween-y....hmmmmm, I wonder why?

Have a great week!

Jumping in...

I'm jumping in on a challenge with Sophie this week, called The Break-up, because it's all about breaking up sentiments from rubber or digi stamps to suit the design of the card.

We are being sponsored by Wink Wink Ink this week, and I use this sentiment on my card:

I had such fun with this card! I've been making lots of cards for 365 Cards recently, but I haven't had a chance to post them.

Things are crazy around here with school starting last week. I'm excited about the Holidays and all the motivation I usually have to create!!

Welcome SNR Magazine Readers!

So glad you could drop by! I'm a happy staffer of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine for sure!!

As the header of my blog suggests, I am a card maker, but I do dabble in other crafty areas from time to time. So I'm going to share a different kind of project...

My youngest daughter recently celebrated her 4th birthday, and I decided to make all the party favors for the girls. I realized I had everything I needed, except for some cheap plastic headbands. I have more ribbon than a person should, so I put it to some good use.

A little hot glue is all it takes to attach the ribbon and some decorative blossoms. Here are my favorite ones:

The crocheted flowers came from my MIL who whipped up a bunch of these in several colors for me - I'm totally spoiled!! I had a big container of white blossoms that I glittered, sponged on and/or colored with my Copics. This was so much fun and I was able to make about 3 in an hour. I also made hair clips using some plain metal clips, ribbon, buttons, blossoms, etc.

Here's a look at a few of them:

I used hot glue to attach the bow to the clip and then popped a felt flower on the inside to better attach it (plus it's just prettier that way):

For the packaging, I found some plastic bags at the craft store, and I cut out some giant labels on my Cricut out of decorative paper and then folded them in half. I stapled the labels around the plastic and the favors were complete:

Honestly, these were not at all hard to make and helped me use up some things in my stash.

This was also my first attempt at making homemade cupcakes. And not from a box! A good friend came over and helped me decorate the cupcakes. Here's a close-up of one:

If you're thinking the theme was Princess and the Frog, you are correct! It was hard to find P&F stuff at the store, but we did find plates and napkins, and one mylar ballon with Tiana on it.

Thanks for visiting my blog and enjoy browsing the most recent edition of the magazine -- it's loaded with eye candy and ideas to keep you busy until the next edition comes out...

Color Scheme Challenge at 365 Cards

Whew - look at me just scrapping away lately! Gloria, I miss you and you can have Mondays back, lol!! Okay, seriously though, it's good for me to jump in and play along, which I need to do more often.

I threw in another color challenge, since those are always fun and generally well-received. Here are the colors:

And my card, using an image from this week's sponsor, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps:

And since it's officially past 2 AM for me, I'm heading to bed!

A Whole Sheet of 3x3 Cards

Last year, thanks to SNR Magazine, I had the pleasure of working with some Glitz papers and embellishments, and as a card maker, I wanted to make the most of the paper I had. I started with a 12x12 sheet of cardstock in a coordinating green color. I cut it down into 8 3x6 pieces:

Next I scored each piece to create 8 3x3 card bases.

The beauty of using a piece of patterned paper like this is that it isn't a uniform pattern, making each card that much more different from the others.

It's also a double-sided piece, creating more options. Here are the pieces I cut down to put on the card bases:

And here they are attached to the card bases:

Whenever I make a set of cards such as these, I like to pull out any embellishments that I think will coordinate nicely with the patterned paper. Here are some I grabbed out of my stash, along with the Glitz embellies I received to work with:

You can probably tell that I love my rhinestones!

Once I had everything laid out in front of me, I got to work on my cards. On a couple of the cards, I took Glitz stickers and out them on a piece of white cardstock so that I could cut them out and add Pop Dots to create dimension. Here's a look at a bird I cut out:

On another card, I made use of this really cool background stamp and added a houndstooth pattern to the other side of the patterned paper:

Here's another sticker, which I also stuck to white cardstock so I could add Pop Dots to it:

Here's the completed card:

I loved creating my own pattern on the red side of the paper, so I used a bit of this patterned transfer on another card:

Here's another transfer that I used on the red paper:

Here's the entire collection of cards that I created:

For me, the key to making a fun set of cards like this is to restrict my options by placing everything out for myself before I get started. Then I just let the creativity flow. I can usually make a set of these in about an hour and then I tuck them away for when I need to attach them to gifts.

Thanks for looking!!