S.O.T.C. May Swap Card

I belong to a Splitcoaststamper group of women who call ourselves Sisterhood of The Traveling Cards.  Each month one of the "sistahs" plays host and selects the theme and requirements for the swap cards.  This month my Sistah April made this request: "This month's theme is Monochromatic May! Your card can be for any occasion, but it should be all one color family! I tend to have a problem making cards like this, so I would love some inspiration from my Sistahs!" I chose to use a warm red with a hint of orange in variety of tones as shown in my card below and I'm hoping the white is okay with the monochromatic theme:

I chose to create a shaped card using my largest scalloped circle Nestabilities die for the base out of Stampin' Up Ruby Red cardstock.  A plain circle of white cardstock was the next layer followed by another scalloped circle of retired designer paper by American Crafts called "backyard peep".  The narrow panel crossing the center of the card is a retired designer paper from Crate Paper's Lillian Collection called "Enchanted" and was layered over white cardstock.  I wrapped this panel with two different ribbons in this warm red.  The top panel had the bottom edge of both the s.e.i. Chocolat collection "framboise" d.p. and white cardstock trimmed using Nestabilities Label 4 die.

The lacy ribbon trim is from Jolee's boutique and the butterflies were made from the Ruby Red cardstock punched with two Martha Stewart butterfly punches and accented with warm red rhinestones and attached with dimensionals.  I used the Mojo Monday sketch MOJO239 shwn here for my layout:

I'm hoping my hostess April gets some inspiration from this card.  And I'm feeling pretty good about getting this done before the deadline of May 31st! 

Twisted Tuesday Challenge

I finally took some time to create a card for the Twisted Tuesday Challenge and used this unigue sketch to make a card for my grand-niece's birthday that is next week.  Here's my card:

Sydney loves this color combination of black, white and red.  I felt I hit the jackpot when I found the great black and white d.p. with the words "Live, Laugh, Love" printed in various types all over it.  It's perfect for her.  The base of the card is Stampin' Up's Cherry Cobbler. The other cardstocks are in white and black.  The stamped the top panel with sentiments from a variety of stamp sets from Stampin' Up and The Greeting Farm.  I used a strip of sheer red to criss cross the card beneath the sentiment layer and created the two largest flowers from the Cherry Cobbler cardstock with several punches and added a pearl. (Pearls were the twist to the Twisted Tuesday challenge this week.)  The smaller flowers I can't even remember where I got them and seems like I've had them forever!

Here's the sketch from the Twisted Tuesday challenge:

Check out the the awesome creations for the Twisted Tuesday Challenge here:

http://twistedtuesdaychallenges.blogspot.com/

Hope you're having a fantastic day!  I'm trying to upload more of my recent creations and would love to have you visit my blog again soon.  Thanks for stopping by! Sending you Hugs and Kisses!

Dueling Darling's April challenge - Masculine!

It's the 15th of the month and time for another duel with the Divas and the Dazzlers.  This month team leaders, LauraJean for the Divas and Terry for the Dazzlers, chose a masculine theme.  LJ sent the Divas an awesome kit just full of terrific papers, ribbons, and embellishments along with a terrific lawn mower image and coordinating sentiments.    So here is my card both front and inside:

Here are the items I used from the Kit:

Images:  Lawn Mower and Sentiments are from "Hey, Man!" A*Muse Art Stamps
Patterned Paper:  Little Yellow Bicycle (Paradise Collection)
Ribbon:  Copper Brown and Green Gingham (Hobby Lobby)
Accessories: Ribbon Slide, Brown Felt

From my own stash I added SU cardstock in Close to Cocoa,  Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and small buttons.  The image panels were cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities, colored with Copic Markers and sponged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Old Paper.  I used the sketch from Mojo Monday (MOJO236)



I'm also entering this in the Crazy 4 Challenges C4C132 using buttons as seen here:  http://crazy4challenges.blogspot.com/

A special bonus challenge was to mention the special guys in my life and I almost forgot to do this!  My special guys are my husband (we just celebrated are 49th anniversary) and my 2 sons.  Today, I'm thinking of my dad who would have  been 98 years old on April 13th.  I miss him so much and he was a very loving dad and did so much for my sisters and me and our children.

Check out the rest of the Divas' cards here:
Kelly: http://sandcastlestamper.blogspot.com/
Carol: http://lostinmycraftroom.blogspot.com/
Barb: http://inkingintoretirement.blogspot.com/
Jamie: http://butterflystamper71.blogspot.com/
Joan: http://msearlgrey.wordpress.com/
LJ: http://buckygirl.blogspot.com/
Tami: http://blueinksdesign.blogspot.com/

And also visit the Dazzlers starting with their leader Jeanette here: http://creativeplayischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com

Thanks for coming by!  I would love to hear what you think of my masculine card.  Wishing you a blessed day!!

More Punch Art Challenges!

This week on Paola's Punch Art card swap thread on Splitcoaststampers (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/cards-f107/%2A-u-postal-yet-%2A-pleezz-check-punched-art-%2Adue-april-2-2012%2A-t545218.html) Melina challenged us to make a card using one punch 3 times.  In addition we needed to emboss our punched pieces either dry or wet embossing.  I love embossing so I decided to do both and here's my creation:

If you've known me long you know I love anything with butterflies so naturally when Melina challenged us to use one punch 3 times I knew I had to use one of my butterfly punches.  This one is from Martha Stewart.  The butterflies were punched out with Stampin' Up's Bermuda Bay paper which had been dry embossed with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder then rubbed with Versamark pad sprinkled with black embossing powder and heat set.  I felt the butterflies needed a little more definition so I punched more in black cardstock, trimmed and adhered to the embossed butterfly punches.  The butterflies were attached to the panel with designer papaer from Graphic 45...Love the colors and the butterflies on that paper!  When it came to choosing a focal image I couldn't resist using C.C. Designs Ima Butterfly.  I was so fortunate to win this cute image in a recent reveal of their Swiss Pixie's stamps for March.  You can see them here: http://www.allthatscraps.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=650_1412  I colored this adorable Ima Butterfly with Copic markers, enhanced her ribbon, wings and boots with Stickles.  The panel was cut with my Spellbinders Nestibilities Labels One, sponged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in antique linen and edged with Copic Marker YR23. The Bermuda Bay panel was embossed with the CB Swiss Dots folder.

The layout for this card is from {FreshlyMade} sketch #28 (FMS28):

Another Punch Art Challenge Card

Every Tuesday someone participating in my friend Paola's Punch Art card swap on Splitcoaststampers (SCS) chooses a punch art theme challenge.  Since no one else stepped forward I decided since it was the first day of spring to challenge my fellow punch art enthusiasts to create a card featuring flowers created from punches.  Here is my creation:

Paper: The Paper Company Metallic Cover Kiwi, Bazzill  and Stampin' Up cardstocks
Designer Paper: Crate paper Neighborhood Collection
Ink: SU Cameo Coral, Momento Pear Tart, Copic Markers: R22, BG10
Stamps: SU Flower of the Month, Happy Birthday Frame
Punches: Martha Stewart, Fiskars, Marvy, Carl Carla Craft, McGill Craftivity
The sketch is this weeks Mojo Monday MOJO233:

This card is going to one of my dear friends who is celebrating her birthday this month. Hope she likes it!



One for the Money, Two for the Show....

Remember that old ditty?  For some strange reason it was running through my mind as I prepared to upload two new cards.  My first card is for today's Dueling Darling Challenge, "St. Patrick's Day"!  The Dueling Darlings are two teams, the Divas (my team) and the Dazzlers who create around a theme from a kit supplied by their team member.  Each month one team member from the Divas and one from the Dazzlers get together to choose a theme for their month.  From that theme they individually create a kit using stamped images/sentiments, paper and embellishments and mail to their team mates.  On the 15th of the month we reveal our creations.  Often there is an additional challenge.  Here is my card created from the fantastic kit sent by my teammate Barb:



 The Kit Contained:

Whipper Snapper Designs
4--Images—Irish Luck-stamped in Memento Black
4--Sentiment—Happy St. Patrick’s Day
it is stamped in Memento Black-2 & Cottage Ivy-1 and Stampin Up Garden Green-1

Patterned Paper:
Reminisce Lucky Me
--St. Patrick’s Day—clovers/swirls
--Lucky Stripe—stripes/clovers
--Micro clover—small clovers/stripes
Reminisce Shenanigans
--Shenanigans--Words and outline clovers

--Various Ribbons and Twine--White Buttons

--Shamrock and Leprechaun shoe Brads

--Various pearls, rhinestones and foam stickers

I LOVED all those papers and had a hard time choosing which to use so I cut strips, layed them diagonally along withe the green ribbon on a card stock panel then zigzag stitched each panel and around the edges of the panel.  This darling leprechaun image was colored with Copic Markers, die cut with Spellbinders' Nestabilities Labels Eleven and enhanced with a shamrock brad, rhinestone and shiny green adhesive embellishments.  The final touch was those sparkly green foam shamrocks in opposite corners.

And in addition to creating your card, Michelle and Barb  requested us when we post our cards to "please tell  if you have a tradition relating to St. Patrick’s Day. Do you crave a type of Irish food? Do you prepare something special or go out to a certain place to eat that day. Do you have any special memories of that holiday from the past that you want to share?"  I'm married to a man with the name Patrick McMullen. So what do you think?  Of course, we celebrate St. Paddy's day usually with him preparing Corned Beef and Cabbage.  This year we're delaying the celebration by one day.  We belong to a Gourmet Club and it so happens this month the dinner in falling on the 17th and our hosts have decided the theme should be Vietnamese food.  Go figure!

Please visit the rest of the Diva team here:
Kelly: http://sandcastlestamper.blogspot.com/
Carol: http://lostinmycraftroom.blogspot.com/
Barb:  http://inkingintoretirement.blogspot.com/
Jamie: http://butterflystamper71.blogspot.com/
Joan:  http://msearlgrey.wordpress.com/
LJ:  http://buckygirl.blogspot.com/
Tami:  http://blueinksdesign.blogspot.com/

And also visit the Dazzlers starting with their leader Jeanette here: http://creativeplayischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com

My second card of the day is for a challenge on my friend Paola's Punch Art swap thread on SCS (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/cards-f107/pleezz-check-%2A-swaps-due-soon-punched-art-%2Adue-april-2-2012%2A-t545218.html).  Each week one of the participants in the swap chooses a challenge using punches.  Here is this week's challenge from Rosie in her own words: 

"Use DP for the background of your card, sounds easy right. Ok here is the twist, you must use a solid color paper on the top, make a frame using punches.

You will be layering the card with DP and then place your punched solid color over the top to see the DP through your punched frame.

You may decorate how ever you would like......after the first steps are done"

Here's is my card (sorry the lighting was so dim!):

Several months ago I received a surprise package in the mail from my dear and generous niece.  Inside was a treasure trove of Martha Stewart punches, all with a snowflake image.  So may punched panel was made with the punch anywhere large snowflake and the "punch around the corner" snowflake corner and border punches.  The background paper is a freebie digi paper from Lauren Meader's My Time Made Easy store.  I used some blue grosgrain ribbon from Michael's.  I stamped the "peace" sentiment in SU's Bashful Blue and used Bashful Blue cardstock for the base of the card.  I think this card also qualifies for this week's Clean And Simple (CAS) challenge on Splitcoaststampers (SCS): White with Shades of Blue.

I would love to know what you think.  Wishing you many blessings and Hugs!

Punch Art Challenge, Week Two

My friend Paola is hosting a Punch Art card swap on SCS.  For those participating and friends she decided to add a special weekly challenge using punches.  Each week one of the swap participants presents a challenge and this week my paper punching pal April has challenged us to create a card using non-border punches to create a border.  Almost immediately I thought of using a punch  I rarely use to create a border of four leaf clovers on a card celebrating St. Patrick's Day and here is my card:

The designer paper is from Best Creations, St. Patrick, Base and layering paper is from Stampin' Up, four leaf clover was punched from Bazzill cardstock as where the scalloped hearts that create the shamrock embellishment.  The smaller hearts on the shamrock are from some scrap d.p.  I added a button with lime twist twine from My Mind's Eye and a trailing ribbon stem.  The "Happy St. Patricks Day was cut from SU cardstock on my Cricut.  The used this week's MOJO Monday sketch 230 here: