Love You Forever, Mom

This is my second post this evening using the same paper and the stamp from "Love You Forever." I love the way the shapes look stitched. Stitching always gives me that "homemade" warm fuzzy feeling. The kind you get from moms.  That's why this one is a Mother's Day card for the children's hospital in Iowa. (See Send a Smile 4 Kids for more information.)This time I showed more of the striped paper and more white. I used this great sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

I made mine more rectangular, embossed the front with a wood grain embossing folder, and cut out the stamped images after coloring so they could be pop dotted on the circle.

I chose the thin red line of red  in the patterned paper to be my accent color for the flower, twine, and mat for the letters. The 3" white circle for the nest image was made a little smaller by attaching a thin 3" open circular mat of Kraft cardstock that I cut out on the Cricut. That allowed some of the image to overlap. The pop dots were cut into thin slivers so they wouldn't show. Such a fun sketch and actually quite simple. I wanted it to be Clean and Simple for CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week! The sentiment letters were stamped on 1/2" circles then matted on 5/8" circles.

Challenges:
Freshly Made Sketches - Sketch #32
CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #50 - Spring creations with flowers or trees

5.5" x 4.25" Mother's Day Card Recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart (retired Fun-tastic pp - very old!), White Daisy, Cranberry, and Kraft cardstock
Stamps - Love You Forever, Tiny Typewriter
Ink - Tuxedo Black-Memento
Other - My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Twine, Sizzix Wood Grain embossing folder; Copic markers; CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge

Clean and Simple - Mother You're the Best

Today I was praying for a friend who isn't treated well by her older teenage children. It's a common problem in many homes. I'm praying for these young "adults" that they will learn the Biblical truth to honor their mother that it may go well with them, the first commandment with a promise.

I was making this card when my daughter called me on her way home from work. I feel so blessed to have children who passed through that difficult stage and are on track spiritually. I suddenly realized how important it will be for me to encourage the mother who will be ignored on Mother's Day with a card that tells her some day they'll come to the realization of what she's done for them. I'm glad that this particular friend has decided to lovingly scrapbook these kids when she feel down about it, hoping that someday they'll also see her love for them in the scrapbooks.

Here's the card that was inspired by the colors in the Craft your passion challenge #107 photo and the sketch from CAS-ual Fridays.

The photo has feminine decorations in pinks and brown, so I chose to make a feminine card with the colors and embossing with this particular folder is definitely girly and fits well with the Kaboodle Doodles Challenge 116, embossing.

Challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays- Challenge #49 Sketch

Craft Your Passion Challenge 107 - photo inspiration

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge 116 - Embossing

5.5" x 4.25" Mother's Day Card Recipe:

Paper - Close To My Heart White Daisy and Cotton Candy cardstock

Stamps (both retired) - CTMH Reminisce, Family ("Mother")

Ink - CTMH Baby Pink, Chocolate

Other - CTMH Baby Pink organdy ribbon, Sizzix embossing folder - Ornate Swirls, 1 3/8" circle punch, Spellbinders Nestabilities -scalloped circles

Clean and Simple Sketch for Mother's Day

This is my second card today using the Stella paper pack from Close To My Heart with the Lagoon dotted paper in the pack Dotty For You. These colors, Sunset and Lagoon, are opposites on the Color Wheel, which is part of the challenge this week from CAS-ual Fridays, Opposites Attract. I don't often make Clean and Simple cards, but I'm trying to learn.

They really do go well together, especially on white with black accents. The sparkles are also a turquoise color, but look more blue in this photo.

I used the CAS166 sketch on Splitcoast Stampers today. The frame is one I had left over from a set I used to make Halloween layouts last fall. It's black foam that is self adhesive, lightweight and very easy to use. I'm putting this card in Sentimental Sundays challenge - Frame It. I wanted it to partially hide one of my hearts, which were stamps from three different old sets.  The turquoise dotted strip was scored from the left at 1", 1.5," 2.5," 3," 3.5" and 4" then pleated.

CAS-ual Fridays Sentiment

Here is a clean and simple version of my last post. I wanted to draw attention to the sentiment, which is the challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays #43, "For Sentimental Reasons," making the sentiment the focal point.  CAS means Clean and simple, without a lot of patterned paper or design elements, leaving a lot of white space. This time the lightly embossed flowers show up. I used the same pre-embossed card on my last post and they didn't.

My one thin strip of patterned paper runs horizontally under the sentiment, hopefully drawing the eye to the words. My image stamp is a large Sweet Leaf green design that I stamped in 2nd generation before I stamped the words in black. It's very faint, but should also draw the eye right to the words. The ribbon and felt flower and heart were added as the simple embellishments. In the English language we read top to bottom, left to right, so the flower draws the eye to the starting point for reading and the heart goes with the sentiment's meaning and is the final punctuation. OK-enough description from the retired reading teacher!

Like I said in my last post, I pray that you have friends who touch your heart and that you can be that kind of friend to others.

5.5" Square Card Recipe:
Paper - Prima "Madeline;" Bazzill light blue cx
Stamps - Close To My Heart "Friendship" (February 2011 stamp of the month)
Inks - CTMH Sweet Leaf, Black, Tulip
Other - CTMH Juniper loopy ribbon (from Creative Basics Wings collection), Chipboard hearts; felt flower from my stash, unknown

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #42 - Hey, Baby!

It seems our children and their friends are now beyond the "having babies" stage. Except for one of my daughter's friends who just got married later in life. She quit her job and is staying home, hoping to get pregnant soon. I made this card for her. She spent a lot of time adoring the first set of twins my daughter had and I know she'll make a great mom! I made this one Clean and Simple, perfect for a baby card - at the suggestion of CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #42.

I used the challenge from Shopping Our Stash Weekly in more ways than one. Except for the card, all of my papers were scraps, the giraffe paper- quite old. Their challenge was to emboss, which I did to the entire front of the card with the larger Cuttlebug embossing folder for dots. The two blue pieces were Spellbinder's Nestabilities Label Nine. I cut the giraffe out using my Cricut and a scrap of orange polka dotted paper, source unknown. I punched a 5/8" circle from the same paper, but stamped a "B" using the CTMH Hodgepodge Alphabet on the reverse side that had a flower in that circle and matted it with a 3/4" circle, then tied around the neck with some CTMH baker's twine. The "lace" is cut out of a piece of DCWV The Sweet Stack using a Martha Stewart Punch.

CAS-ual Friday's Valentine for a Friend

I made several Valentines last night, so here's my next one. I'm still trying to learn to make Clean and simple cards, so I used this sketch from CAS-ual Fridays Sketch #37.

I used a stamp that was a special from Close To My Heart after the Japanese earthquake. I embossed .25" from all four edges. I slightly ran the edge of the papers along a juicy black inkpad, just to give the papers some definition. I pleated the sentiment strip and added one embellishment, a butterfly that I had inked with Cotton Candy ink. It was definitely a quick, easy card to make. Because of the butterflies in the stamp and embellishment, I'm also adding this to Flutter By Wednesday's challenge#188  this week.

6.5" x 5" card:
Paper - K & Co, Darice CS (pink), CTMH CS (white daisy)
Stamp - CTMH "Hope," "True Friends"
Ink - CTMH Black, Cranberry, Cotton Candy
Other - CTMH Just Blooms Paper Shapes (butterfly)

Clean and Simple Hearts

I'm still trying to learn Clean and Simple cardmaking. My last one needed more white space, so I'm taking the challenges at I Brake for Challenges to make a "clean and simple"card and at CAS-ual Fridays to do the same plus chipboard. I used a stylus to emboss two lines between which I stamped and heat embossed the heart border. By impressing the two lines first, I can keep my hearts going across the page without slanting since I had to stamp the border twice and couldn't see the Versamark that well. I tied a simple strip of red gingham above the embossed line and attached a chipboard heart that was pre-embossed. I simply rubbed it on my CTMH Holiday Red inkpad and wiped excess ink off of the design with a kleenex. Talk about simple! Quick, too!

5" x 6.5" Card"

Stamps - CTMH retired "

Ink - Versamark, CTMH Holiday Red

Accessories -  CTMH Irresistibles "Villa" Chipboard, retired ribbon

CAS-ual Stippled Butterfly

CAS-ual Fridays challenged us to use Kraft cardstock and string for this card and the Kraft Journal Make It Monday Challenge #52 is Anything Goes.

I began this card by cutting a shape on the Cricut using Art Philosophy Cartridge.  I used the negative space placed over white cardstock as a stencil. I began stippling lighter colors in the center going to darker colors on the outer edge. I used CTMH Crystal Blue, Twilight, Outdoor Denim and Lagoon inks. I removed the "stencil" and stamped the butterfly with Pansy Purple, then used a large foam inker to

highlight the butterfly with Vineyard Berry ink.  I cut out the stenciled area leaving about a 1/4" white border for accent. The Kraft Cardstock was impressed with an embossing stylus 1/4" from all four edges on the inside so that it was raised on the outside. I stamped "Friend" in Memento Black Tuxedo ink and attached the butterfly image with pop dots.

 Two colors of coordinating baker's twine (My Mind's Eye Lime Twist) were tied on the top after inserting into a CTMH Juniper button. This button has a stitched edge appearance, which I love, but has four holes. By tying one color in the top two holes and another in the bottom two holes and tying the two colors together, I finally solved the issue of what to do with four holes. I think any of my friends would enjoy getting a card with this simple treatment. And it was quick and easy to make! This is my favorite butterfly stamp so I'm entering it in the Flutter By Wednesday's challenge, also. Thanks for looking!