Mother's Day Cards

Wow! I can't believe it is already May. It seems like every year goes faster. This last weekend I recaptured my inspiration and started making Mother's Day cards.  For the first one, I used PTI Blooming Button Bits stamp (sentiment) and Beautiful Blooms 2 die and stamp. The flowers were first die cut and then stamped with CTMH bubblegum, creme brulee and holiday red inks. I love when a company design stamps that coordinate with punches and/or dies. It makes life so much easier and cardmaking much faster not having to cut the images. The leaves were stamped with CTMH sweet leaf ink and hand cut.

I put dimensionals between each layer to create depth. The strip of patterned paper is from a 6x6 Basic Grey pad. I stamped the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black and placed some tiny CTMH gems besides it. I added a third gem to the center of the flower (Bo Bunny).

This is the small 3x3 version. It used the same stamp sets and inks.

 

For the last one I only used the Blooming Buttons Bits stamp set. The edge was done with the SU! lace border punch.

Wishing for Spring

After a looooong month of absence, I think my inspiration is back. My creativity works in cycles. There are periods in which I am constantly creating cards, scrapbook pages, altered objects and all kinds of stuff. Then suddenly I enter a dry spell in which I only read blogs, browse papercrafts magazines and maybe buy some stuff (which is left untouched). Then one day I feel inspired again, and the cycle starts over. It is a bit like the sea tides: sometimes high, sometimes low.
I had bought the Papertrey Ink Blooming Button Bits more than a month ago. After seeing Splitcoaststampers CAS challenge 54 Wishing for Spring, I decided it was time to ink it up. I stamped the stems with CTMH Clover Meadow ink on PTI white cardstock. I then sponged some PTI Spring Rain and CTMH Clover Meadow to simulate the sky and the grass, respectively. The buttons are from my stash of Basic Grey embellishments. I matted the image with some coral cardstock (either PTI Berry Sorbet or SU! cameo coral, I'm not sure.) The green patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie collection, and the yellow and purple ones are from PTI Bitty Box Basics. The border was made with Fiskars apron lace punch. I added three Hero Arts gemstones to balance the design.
Making this cheery card lifted my spirits and now I have been able to do some scrapbook pages. It looks like the creativity tide is rising again!

CAS 50 Challenge: Using Teal

I made this card for the Clean and Simple (CAS) Challenge #50 at Splitcoaststampers. The challenge consists of using teal, white and an additional color in a card. While at the mall yesterday, I saw some teal, white and black dresses. I immediately knew that I wanted to use that color combo in my card. I stamped the butterfly (CTMH Butterfly Kisses) with Versamark and embossed it with black embossing powder. I colored it with a SU! Bermuda Bay marker. Then I added some details with an Uniball Signo white pen. The butterfly is placed on a PTI white cardstock square stamped with the Hero Arts Woodgrain Background stamp. I matted it with SU! Bermuda Bay and black cardstock. The patterned paper is from PTI Polkadot Basics pad (I love it!). The decorative strip was punched using the new SU! scallop punch. I wrapped PTI satin ribbon around the strip. The sentiment (CTMH) was stamped in CTMH Ocean. It means "Thinking of you" in spanish.

When I fall in love with a SU! In-Color, I try to find a similar color in another company. I found that SU! Bermuda Bay is very similar to CTMH Ocean. The good thing is that I am not left with "orphan" products (eg. ribbon, cardstock, etc) when the color is discontinued at the end of the SU! year at the end of June. Other similar colors are PTI Blush and SU! Pink Piroutte. I still have not found an adequate substitution  for SU! Baja Breeze, which is sad since I loved that color.

Baby Scrapbook Kit

It has been raining nonstop for three days. We have been inside since Wednesday. I have taken advantage of the weather, and dedicated myself to my crafty endeavors. Today I made a baby scrapbook kit for my baby niece. My sister has mentioned a couple of times that she would like to place the all the baby photos in a scrapbook, but she feels intimidated by the whole idea of scrapbooking. So I made her journaling cards and number embellishments (for the months) so she could slip the photos in a photo album and record her memories without the pressure of actually making a scrapbook from scratch. After all, the important thing is to preserve the histories behind the photos.

I used the Basic Grey Sugared Collection. The rest of the materials were taken from my stash. I used CTMH stamps with CTMH Creme Brulee, CTMH Mellow Moss and SU! Pretty in Pink inks. The edges were inked with Creme Brulee ink. All the journaling cards measure 4x6 inches, so they can be slipped easily in a photo album sleeve.

I packaged all the journaling cards in a box made using the template of the memory keeper featured this week on Gina K's Stamp TV. I used PTI Sweet Blush CS, SU! So Saffron CS and Basic Grey Sugared DP. "My Baby" was spelled with CTMH alphabet stamps.

Here is a closer look of some of the mats I made. They could be used to mat the journaling cards, titles, photo mats or as journaling cards. I added glitter using the Nicole Heady's technique of placing a sticky strip and then adding glitter.

I packaged the number embellisments in a bag made with the Big Shot and the SU! Fancy Favor die. I think the kit turned out pretty cute. I hope my sister likes it.

Cutting Out Squares

I had this card in mind when I saw this card on the Simplicity by Lateblossom blog. I read her blog daily because her cards are simply awesome. I used this card for the Splitcoaststampers CAS 49 challenge. The challenge consists in cutting out an element and attach it on the card. So, I cut out the three square images and attached them to the card front. Is that cheating? I wanted to do something more elaborate but with two little preschool kids demanding my attention, it had to be a fast card.

I used SU! kraft CS as the base. The images are from the SU! Of the Earth stamp set. They are stamped with CTMH goldrush, CTMH olive and SU! baja breeze inks. The sentiments is from CTMH With Love stamp set. I wrapped SU! twine around the card front and threaded it through a PTI summer sun button. I put a mini glue dot behind the button to keep it in place.

Color Inspiration #57

I made this card for the color inspiration challenge at kwernerdesign.com. I plan to give it to my husband on Valentine's Day. I used PTI white CS as the base. The patterned paper is from the My Mind's Eye line Love Me Do. The birds (SU! Love you much set) were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copics. The image is matted in PTI Lemon Tart and Pure Poppy CS. I added a little PTI Pure Poppy ribbon for interest, although I was hesitant at first because I read somewhere that cards for men should not have ribbon. Oh well, I think I broke a couple of rules, since it was also recommended to avoid anything with bright colors and/or scallops. :) I hope he likes it.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #21

This is almost the same card as the one I showed in the previous post with only one difference: I used Very Vanilla SU! cardstock, instead of PTI white. I made this one for the Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #21, which requires a card using chocolate, soft yellow, light aqua and cream. I enjoyed making these cards because these are non-traditional colors for St. Valentine's Day.