Pink Birthday

UPDATE: I'm so proud that this card was chosen as one of the Top 5 in the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge at Hope Stamps Eternal. Click here to see the other fabulous creations!

Here's a fun card for my boyfriend's daughter. She went to prom last weekend and she's graduating from high school in June. She's getting ready for college in the fall, but first, she celebrates her 18th birthday in just a few days. She's a girly girl who loves pink and purple, so this is just her style.
To keep the tension, I tied the clips together with narrow ribbon behind the main image, which is colored with watercolor pencils. The colors were blended with damped cotton swabs.

This layered card answers several challenges:

Pile It On: photo inspiration
Secret Crafter: Metal
Stampin Moments: scallops
Hope Stamps Eternal: cupcake inspiration
Spoon Full of Sugar: Cute and girly
Stamp Something: Celebrate something
ABC: U is for Unused Stash (swirly stamp)
KL Stampin and Scrappin: Animals
Stampavie: pink
Gingersnap Creations: pencils
Practical Scrappers: patterned papers

My point of departure for the design comes from 2 Sketches 4 You.

Here's a better look at the layering and the embossing.

I have only recently started using clear embossing powder. Love it! Plus, there are fewer problems with stray specks, which can be an issue when using colored embossing powders.

Supplies:
Cardstock: The Paper Company

Paper: Tinted Medallions, reverse of Drooping Vines (Rose Colored Glasses Collections -GCD), Dennison sketchbook/watercolor paper, gold Canford
Stamp: Hearts Away (Penny Black), So Swirly Stampin’ Around Wheel (SU)
Ink: Stazon black, VersaMark
Accessories: Staedtler watercolor pencils, clear embossing powder (Stampendous), pop dots, curly paper clips, ribbon, rhinestones

Fly!

This is a card for a colleague who is leaving our company. She's taking her life in a whole new direction. Thus, the butterfly and the simple "Fly" sentiment.

The card answers several challenges:

City Crafter: Pink

Practical Scrappers: Punches

Paper Play: Brown and...

Cricut Cardz: 3 circles

Stampavie: Pink

Totally Gorjuss: pink and green

ABC: U is for unused stash

Sentimental Sundays: For someone special

Cute Card Thursday: someone special

Incy Wincy: Color Challenge

Stamp Something: Celebrate Something

Fab N Funky: metal or metallic

The card design is based on the sketch from Truly Scrumptious:

The butterfly is reverse stenciled. The medallion is lifted on pop dots. Two colors of cardstock are punched and offset behind the sentiment.

This is the first time I've used Mays silk ribbon on a card. It's SO nice to work with! It's not available to me locally, so I ordered it from Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Ribbon store online. She has TONS of ribbon in all kinds of colors, but I started with some I knew I'd use: cream, black, and burgundy. I'm sure you'll see more ribboned-up cards soon!

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Supplies:

Cardstock: The Paper Company
Paper: 3 Birds, Autumn Leaves C’Est Pink
Stamps: JustRite New Times Roman lower case
Ink: Color Box pigment ink in magenta
Accessories: EKSuccess Circle Scissor, Spellbinders Circles, Scalloped Circles and Butterflies, Martha Stewart medallion punch, EK Success ¾ inch circle punch, silk ribbon, pop dots, glue dots

Embossed and Fussy Cut

I got some new stamps in the last couple of weeks and I got to use them on this card! I picked up the medallion stamp on my way to see my mom for Mother's Day last week. It was stamped with VersaMark, heat embossed with clear embossing powder then fussy cut. The colors are the inks in the unembossed spaces. The backgrounds florals are from a clear stamp set I bought with a gift certificate I won in a blog hop a couple of weeks ago. YAY! I double stamped the images to create extra depth, which is (of course!) hard to see in the picture.

The card answers these challenges:

Card Positioning Systems: Sketch
ABC: U is for Unused Stash
Papertake: Shiny, Sparkly and Special
Pixie Dust: cut it out
Crafty Card Makers: Distressing
Your Next Stamp: cut it out and pop it up
Tuesday Taggers: Do something different (heat embossing for me!)
MelJen's Designs: Flowers and Blooms
The Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge: 3 embellishments, 2 papers, 1 image

The central image is raised on pop dots. Here's the medallion up close:

And another angle:

Thanks for visiting. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!


Supplies:
Cardstock: Michael's
Paper: Hot Off the Press (Purple Sponged), Basic Grey (Marrakech-Sencha)
Stamps: Starburst Lace (Hero Arts), Kind Deeds (Clear and Simple Stamps)
Ink: VersaMark, Color Box pigment ink (scarlet, orange, violet, cyan), Color Box chalk ink (Warm Violet), Stampin’ Up (Bordering Blue), Tim Holtz distress ink (antique linen)
Accessories: pop dots, corner rounder, ribbon, pearls, clear embossing powder

Simple Sympathy and More

This week, I needed to send a sympathy card to a senior manager in my company. This black and white embossed sympathy card was fairly easy to create, and I put together a few more so I would have them on hand.

I printed the sentiment with my computer and embossed with two Cuttlebug embossing folders. The double embossed lines were made using the Scor-Pal on the reverse side. Why? Because embossing lines with the printed side up will have the raised line on the back of the card. The embossed cardstock is matted on black and adhered to a standard 5-1/2 x 4-1/4 card created from white cardstock.

The card design is inspired by SusieB on the card messageboard at Cricut.com and also answers the White, White Space and Wings challenge at 365 Cards. I have also made these sympathy cards with navy or dark royal blue so it's less stark. White on white is also good too -- like the Thinking of You card below. The pink card is part of a stationery project for a gift.

Mix and match embossing folders and colors to create projects ranging from elegant to whimsical.

Supplies:

Cardstock: The Paper Company (black, white) and Hammermill (pink)

Embossing: Birds & Swirls and Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folders, Perfectly Paisley on the pink card

Accessories: Fonts (Coronation Script, Arial Narrow), Scor-Pal

Anniversary Butterfly Card

I would love your comments on today's card! It uses die cuts, reverse stenciling and a combination of a several challenges:

Practical Scrappers: Stickers
365 Cards: The 3 A's (alpha stickers, arc, anniversary)
Pile It On: boyish colors
Paper Play Challenges: Pastels
Creative Cottage: Circles
Cute Card Thursday: Make Your Own
The Shabby Tea Room: Bling
Tellen's Place: butterflies or dragonflies
Flutter by Wednesdays: open but must have fairy, angel or butterfly

The card is based on the sketch at Papertake Weekly:

To create the butterfly, I reverse stenciled. I inked the butterfly Spellbinder then embossed it onto my white cardstock. Then I centered it in the circle Nestability and cut.

I've had these border stickers for years and I think I used them once before. The border is very flexible so I used it along the outside of the die cut circle underneath the embossed butterfly. This golden border is actually tiny butterflies but looks ends up looking like a scroll in the finished product.

Here's one close up view.

Here, it's easy to see the dimension of the embossing and how the reverse stenciling really outlines the butterfly.

Another angle showing layers of the card:

Thanks for looking! Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Supplies:
Cardstock: The Paper Company
Paper: DCWV
Stamps: Fiskars Round of Applause (sentiment)
Ink: Color Box Chalk ink in Ice Blue, Stazon black
Dies: Spellbinders Butterflies Shapeabilities, Circle Nestabilities Small, Curved Rectangles Mega Nestabilities, Fancy Tags
Accessories: Queen & Co pearls in Brilliant Blue, golden border stickers, sheer ribbon, pop dots

Purple thank you

Here's a closeup of my latest creation.

It's another monochromatic card. I love that Caardvarks Core'Dinations challenge! I've used a 365 Cards sketch as the basis for the design:

I glimmered up some Core'dinations cardstock, masking a couple of parts to create a design with the original color. The card looks less yellow, more gold and more sparkly and subtle in real life.

The card also works for the following challenges:

Crafts and Me Challenges: Sparkle

ABC Challenge: T is for Thanks

Stampin Royalty: Punches

365 Cards: Favorite color

Papertake Weekly: Do Something Different (masks)

The Shabby Tea Room: Bling

Here's some detail on the card. After using a Cuttlebug embossing folder, I sanded the raised sentiment to show the lighter purple of the cardstock core.

The original pictures are more true to color, but... After moving to a different light source, I got some pictures that I think make the card look sparkly... or at least gold instead of yellow!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Core'Dinations, The Paper Company

Paper: DCWV

Accessories: embossing folder from Cuttlebug Thanks set, Nestabilities grand lace border and In Spades Borderabilities, EK Success Moroccan Lace punch (inside), Tim Holtz "Regal" mini mask, Gold Glow Smooch Spritz