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

Celebrate New Life with Verve

We have a ministry in our church called Baby Grace. It's designed to give prayer support and funnel donated items to young, new parents. We also try to send cards to them for different occassions. This is one I'm adding to my stash. I chose the theme from Kaboodle Doodles Challenge #114 - Celebrate New Life.  I just loved the digital image of the rabbit holding baby ducks.  I used the Viva La Verve Sketch for the 2nd week of April 2012.

I combined the  floral paper with flowers that are glittered along the edges to go with Sugar Creek Hollow's Challenge #6 - Floral.  It's definitely a shabby chic card.  I also chose the elements to go with Our Creative Corner's challenge "In Your Easter Bonnet" to include things you would have on your bonnet. I included the flowers, leaves, pearls, buttons, and organdy ribbon.

I made my tag a little differently than I would usually do. I left it long horizontally and clipped the top two corners. The twine that's tied to the button is also wrapped through the tag. I inked the edges of all of the papers with Cocoa ink.

6.5" x 5" Baby Card Recipe:

Paper - Graphic45 "Once Upon a Springtime ;" Close To My Heart Brown Bag, Colonial White, Kraft cardstock

Image - from Free Vintage Digital Stamps

Stamp - Verve "Hope Blooms"

Ink - CTMH Black, Cocoa

Other - Flowers & leaves -Petaloo Flora Doodles; CTMH button from Red Collection, Organdy; twine from Papertrey Ink

Circles and Squares Birthday Card

Challenges and patterned papers help me to develop my creativity. A couple of my friends think they're not creative. I know how that feels, but I decided to become more creative last year and challenges give me that little push to step outside what I used to do and try different things. Three challenges gave me the inspiration and ideas I used to make this card.

This morning I saw Kaboodle Doodles Challenge #112 to use Circles and Squares. I had picked out this Basic Grey paper to use with the color Challenge #112 at Cards & Things and realized it was perfect for Kaboodle Doodles' challenge.

Then I realized it also had grid lines and circles and squares arranged in rows (grids) which goes with the Fabulous Friday Challenge at Frosted Designs. I decided that the design would look great if the circles and squares were popped up for extra dimension. I punched 1" circles out of the circle designs, stamped a red flower over the pink flower that was on the paper and pop dotted them over the matching circles, trying to match grid lines. I cut out the squares with scissors and pop dotted them in place. I had envisioned green ribbon so I left a space on the backs of the squares when I added the pop dots. However, red organdymade it "pop" and green didn't. Adding the ribbon and sentiment was my final step at this point:

I started to photograph the card and realized it needed just a little more pop and added the two colors of sparkles as a finishing touch. I seem to do that a lot. I think I'm finished with a card so I take a photo, then I think of one more thing. Most of the time I don't heed that thought, but today I'm glad I did.  I hope this thought process helps one of my friends who wishes she had more creativity. Happy crafting!

5" x 6.5" Birthday Card Recipe:
Paper - Basic Grey "Sugared;" Close To My Heart Autum Terracotta, Colonial White cardstock
Stamps - CTMH "Aspiration" (flower), "Card Word Puzzle" (sentiment)
Ink - CTMH Holiday Red, Olive
Other - CTMH Holiday Red organdy ribbon,  Red/Pink Sparkles; My Mind's Eye sparkles; 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches, pop dots

Lovin' from the Oven

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge #107 is called "Let's Get Cooking." That's something I loved to do when I was young but lost interest in when food allergies and arthritis took over. But my family knows that when it comes to desserts for birthdays and holidays I'm more like to bake a pie than a cake. So here's a card I made with a sketch I borrowed from My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club.

I used watercolor pencils and a waterbrush to color Flopsey but I stamped the piecrust on colored cardstock and cut it out. Next time I think I'll reverse that and stamp Flopsey on colored cardstock.

5" x 6.5" card:
Paper - DCWV "The Sweet Stack;" CTMH White Daisy and Crystal Blue CS; (red strip with hearts from my scraps)
Stamp - My Favorite Things "Sweet as Pie Flopsey"
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Vintage Photo
Other - Cuttlebug "Mary Ann" embossing folder, Bazzill button, CTMH white ricrac, pink ribbon unknown scrap from stash

More Vintage Christmas

At Christmas, I prefer giving cards that keep the focus on Christ. These two cards came together so quickly. After finding free vintage Christmas cards/clipart earlier this week, I just had to make one more card using vintage clipart for the challenge at Little Red Wagon. The rules at Vintage Holiday Crafts say that you can't use more than five on a blog, so I'm still safe. 

I took Freshly Made Sketch 14 and lengthened it vertically to accomodate a rectangular picture instead of a square one. I used 4 rectangles from Basic Grey's "Curio."  The papers are heavily "inked" on the edges already so I cut the pieces from two corners for each design. I used some long-hoarded gold cardstock that CTMH used to sell to mat the vintage print. A simple poinsettia that has a gold-rimmed pearl brad in the center provided the one embellishment. Easy and simple!!

The next card was also easy. I saw Kaboodle Doodles Challenge today to use Christmas colors: red, green, gold, and white. I had a pad of the Paper Studio paper at hand with those colors and knew that the Clean and Simple Stamping Sketch would be great with those colors and 3 stars.

I tried to combine a rustic look of Kraft cardstock signifying Christ's humble birth with elegant gold embossing to show his glory. The inside verse is simple: Wise men still seek him. Merry Christmas.

I used stylus to emboss a line .25" from all four edges on front. I had made the middle star a little bigger on white paper embossed with gold, like the sentiment. I cut the stars on the Cricut with the Art Philosophy cartridge. The two side ones were 1.5" with a one inch star stacked on top. The middle star was cut at 1.75" to match the star in the stamp set "Love Life." It's too bad the design doesn't show up as well in the photo.The embossed sentiment comes from CTMH "Everlasting Life." I think I'll make more of these!!