Happy Mother's Day for Cards n Things Sketch

I thought I'd try some new Kraft cardstock from My Mind's Eye using the Cards & Things Challenge #115 sketch. Creative Card Crew challenge #8 was to use Kraft cardstock. This sketch provided a quick card that I'll include with the ones I send to Send A Smile 4 Kids to give kids in the hospital so that they can give one to their moms on Mother's Day. If you're interested in this opportunity, you can find details on their blog.

The papers are from My Minds Eye and K & Co. Both of them have similar grid patterns that remind me of sewing or quilting. That homespun quality is what led me to use Kraft for the sentiment. I used brown buttons from CTMH tied with Twilight waxy flax and a heart button tied with twine from Papertrey Ink. I'm entering this card in the buttons challenge #132 at Crazy 4 Challenges.


The sentiment is from a set of May words that are now retired from CTMH. I finished it with a more feminine blue satin ribbon. It's much darker in real life. The photo lighting sort of bleached its appearance.

I hope you'll consider sending a card or a few cards to help the children in the hospital. And may God bless you in your own card-making!

Shabby Bears for Boys

With five grandsons, I think about making more masculine cards, but usually make them for my female friends instead. Here's one I made using the sketch challenge this week from Sugar Creek Hollow. In addition to the sketch, they want you to use a "cute" stamp and make it vintage/shabby chic. I don't have many "cute" stamps, but I knew I had three bears (from a very old CTMH stamp) that might work. Here's the sketch:

I used a paper pack called "Lucky" from Close to my Heart to have both the vintage and masculine look. I used lots of scissor distressing and some sponging in two colors to distress the oval and the cut-out bear image. I used watercolor pencils (but no waterbrush) on the cross-hatched portions of the bear image for more shading. Vintage cards often have pearls so on this masculine version I used CTMH mocha adhesive gems in the darkest brown color.

I'm also posting this card on Creative Card Crew's Challenge #4 for a masculine card and on Here Come the Boys Challenge #21 - a masculine card with "Vintage Feel." I'm also combining these challenges with the DYSU Challenge #60 - Distressing - since I used two kinds of edge distressing.

6" x 6" card recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart "Lucky"
Stamps - CTMH retired
Ink - Ranger "Vintage Photo" (image); CTMH - Outdoor Denim (sentiment, sponging), Cocoa (sponging)
Other - Spellbinders die (oval); Martha Stewart border punch; CTMH mocha adhesive gems, jute; pop-dots