Like a Mother to Me

I have the best mother-in-law in the world! She's a kind, compassionate, intelligent, Christian lady who loves to help others. Her health is so great it's hard to realize that she's 87. Moreover, she raised a wonderful son! Here is a card I made just for her.  I used the Perfect Sentiments Challenge #29 Sketch and the intriguing palette from The Play Date Cafe Challenge #129.

I had some paper  similar colors in my Basic Grey "Eva" collection but I had seen the challenge at Our Creative Corner to use watercolors, so I decided to make my own ink using reinkers for the butterfly corner stamp (greenish yellow) and mixed watercolors to get the other two colors for the butterfly.

The challenge from Our Creative Corner was also to make a Mother's Day card with Embossing, ribbon, and brads or buttons with the watercoloring. I actually painted the butterfly more than once to get the layers of color I wanted. I purposely left a few white splotches on the edges of the wings. The butterfly was stamped and cut out twice so it's layered. The entire yellowish corner was stamped using a mixture of Sunkiss Yellow and Sweet Leaf mixed then poured on a small pad that passed as a stamp pad. The white daisies on the yellow area were stamped on another paper, cut out, then adhered in place, so that more detail shows with the black ink.

The ribbon strips were cut from a piece of Eva then embossed, inked with Cotton Candy, then covered with ribbon. Brads that are Pansy Purple and Vineyard Berry were inserted into two of the flowers, which were also watercolored just in the center, then dried.

Thank you ladies for the fun challenges. I certainly got out of my usual "box" to craft this one.

Challenges:

Our Creative Corner - recipe for Mother's Day

Perfect Sentiments Challenge #29 - sketch

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #129 - Dusk, Magenta, Seedling

 5" x 6.5" Mother's Day card Recipe:

Paper - Bazzill (dusk)cardstock; Close To My Heart White Daisy cardstock and textured CS; Basic Grey "Eva"

Stamps - Our Daily Bread Designs "Butterfly Corner;" My Favorite Things (sentiment)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Vineyard Berry (Painted some on butterfly)

Reinkers - CTMH Sunkiss Yellow, Sweet Leaf

Other - CTMH watercolors, brads, Cuttlebug "Mary Ann" and Holly Ribbons embossing folders; Recollections floral embellishments; The Robbie Stanley collection magenta ribbon

Model T Father's Day Card for Stampin' Sisterhood

My wonderful hubby is a chemist who wishes he was an automotive engineer instead. He loves to build cars-especially from scratch. It has taken him quite a few years to make a 1933 Ford. This summer he plans to start on a T-Bucket which resembles a Model T but is made from a pickup truck body. I recently got this stamp from Rubbernecker Stamps in honor of his project.

This month the challenge at Stampin' Sisterhood is to use the following sketch. I thought it would be perfect for a Father's Day card using "checkered flag" type paper, gears, and the Model T stamp. This card definitely fits the challenge this week at Our Creative Corner - Our Boys and Their Toys. 

I used the colors black and cream with a touch of "Barn Red," so I'm entering this card in Lisa Somerville's Blogger's Challenge to use black and white or cream with a touch of one more color. I had some acrylic squares that matched the Barn Red to use in place of brads.

I embossed the front of the card using a Cuttlebug "Clockworks" embossing folder. It's one of the larger ones for 5 x 7 cards. I also embossed the cream colored 3" circle. The embossing was lightly sponged with ink for a shabby look and to bring out the embossed details a little more. (Looks like Bill handled it after spending the day working on a car--dirty, dirty!) Instead of framing that circle with another black circle, I used one of the Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels. The sentiment is the shabbiest element. I simply stamped it the way it was and cut it out. It was from an older Father's Day stamp set that also had an old car - one I've stamped and given hubby several other times.

This card is 5.5" square, so I'm not entering it in the following challenges, but I wanted you to have the information. I've been encouraging people to visit Send a Smile for Kids to send Mother's Day cards. This week their challeng also includes Father's Day Cards. In addition, Operation Write Home both the mid-week challenge and the Muscle Card challenge are to make cards to send to our service men and women that they can send home to dads/husbands. Both challenges need these cards by April 30th. If you're interested, please visit their websites for more information.

Here's a photo of his car just before it was finished. The body was made by using an actual old car body, making a mold of it, and pouring a new fiberglass body in the mold. He also made the rest with lots of welding over several years - DEFINITELY HIS TOY.

 

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

MOJO Monday 235 Green Spring

I am so late starting MOJO Monday Challenge this week, but life has been busy with three birthdays and lunch with friends, etc. I wasn't sure if the sketch would work with this image of lambs playing from A Day for Daisies, but when I added the shape on the left side, it was fine. Here's the great sketch this week:

 I thought that the lambs playing would go well with the challenge at Our Creative Corner this week to use Green as the main color using this beautiful photo inspiration:

The photo doesn't show the glittery details on the butterfly from Verve. I used a Sakura Jelly Roll glitter pen to color 4 small sections and outline the larger ones with the thin silvery line.

5" x 6.5" Easter Card Recipe
Paper - Basic Grey Sweet Threads & Indie Bloom; CTMH Sweet Leaf Textured CS, New England Ivy, Crystal Blue, Baby Pink cardstock
Stamps - Verve All Aflutter Plain Jane, Joy for the Journey
Ink - CTMH New England Ivy
Other - A Day for Daisies "Lambs Playing" digital stamp;Spellbinder's Nestabilities "Lacey Circle, "Martha Stewart border punch, Recollections White rose,  Sizzix "Swirly Vines with Hearts" embossing folder, copic markers, Sakura Jelly Roll glitter gel pen

MOJO Monday 230 Birthday Card

We're planning something special for my mother-in-law's 87th birthday, so I made this card for her today. Since it's the last Monday of the month, the MOJO Monday challenge is to make either a round or square card using this sketch:

I wanted to incorporate bright yellow into the colors of my card after walking down our long driveway seeing the buds of daffodils anxious to bloom. I found a scrap of June Bug that was definitely bright and cheery enough for this card. I left the upper portion white with polka dot embossing to match the polka dots in the paper. The sentiment is matted on black, then on a chipboard frame that I just got from Close To My Heart that I couldn't wait to use. Each shape for journaling has a different design embossed, waiting to be inked. I used a sponge and holiday red, then cranberry to ink the polka dotted  border. Instead of having three flowers on the left, I put three other mixed elements. The flower is felt. The butterfly was a white one in a set of CTMH Just Blooms. I used a black marker to outline the shape and attached clear and red sparkles. The yellow ribbon reflected enough light to make the red sparkles appear yellow in the photo.

Since I won't be mailing this card, I purposely made the yellow ribbon longer than the width of the card to go along with the challenge from Our Creative Corner to go "Over the Edge." That also allowed me to focus more on the daffodil color that I can't wait to see in my yard!

5.5" square card recipe:

Paper - Basic Grey "June Bug;" Close To My Heart White Daisy, Black cardstock

Stamp - CTMH Birthday Script (retired)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Other - Close To My Heart "Persnickety Journaling Spots" Irrisistibles, Clear and Red/Pink sparkles, Just Blooms butterfly; Martha Stewart border punch; K and Co felt rose; ribbon unknown

Happy Birthday, Sydney! MOJO222 Card

Today is our oldest granddaughter's 7th birthday. She loves pink and purple, so her card was made with the bright color scheme and theme suggested by Our Creative Corner: a celebration card made with bright pink, bright green, bright yellow, and bright purple.  These are bright colors like her personality!

I used the MOJO Monday #222 sketch for the design of this card.

For the Basic Grey Challenge I used papers from Green At Heart (purple and pink) and Nook and Pantry (green). The yellow is Basic Grey, but it was in my scraps so I don't remember. I stamped it with a yellow startburst, but the yellow wasn't showing up, so I outlined one side of each ray with a Sakura gel glitter pen. The white flocked wired ribbon is backed with CTMH white cardstock to show up more. The center of the flower has one of the pink starbursts punched and glued on with a pink rolled ribbon rosette for more dimension. The black cardstock was cut from Cricut Art Philosophy and the sentiment/image rectangle was pop-dotted. All of the stamps and ink were Close To My Heart, but the images were colored with CTMH markers and Prismacolor pencils.