Button Cluster Butterfly

It's a very stormy day here today. I started a card using a kaleidoscope of colour suggested by Simon Says Stamp and Show, but tornado warnings came up for the area where my son lives and that changed things. My card was nearly finished, but I started making phone calls to his phone and his wife's. When I couldn't get either of them, all I could do was pray for their safety and watch the TV for any news. Finally, his wife called me that their adventure was over. They were in a theater a few blocks from their home. My son said his phone vibrated with a call from his wife's mother then from me and he knew that meant there must be a tornado. The theater stopped The Avengers and said there was no safe place for them to go so they decided to race for the safety of their own basement. Thankfully the warning expired. When it was over I realized I had been unconsciously singing "Trusting Jesus."

My goal with this card was to make it colorful for a child in the hospital for the challenge this week at Send a Smile 4 Kids, using buttons, ribbon, and or flowers. I was also inspired by Challenge #108 at Craft Your Passion, to use Lots of Texture. The versatile sketch #164 at Card Patterns provided the structure.

The texture was provided by a Sizzix embossing folder, textured cardstock, and lots of buttons on the butterfly. Initially it was cut on the Cricut to match the stamp set. After stamping the spots and flower shapes I matched buttons to each shape. On the largest flower shapes I used two flowers punched out of the same purple paper as the heart circle diecut. The smallest dots were covered with Stickles for some glittery texture. I know that the little girls I used to teach would have loved this colorful, textured card. It's not my usual style, but thanks to the lovely ladies who dream up these challenges, I stepped outside my box.

Challenges:
Send a Smile 4 Kids - Buttons, Ribbons, and/or Flowers
Simon Says Stamp and Show - use a Kaleidoscope of Colour
Craft Your Passion Challenge #108 - Lots of Texture
Card Patterns Sketch #164

5.5" x 4.25" Kids card recipe:
Paper - Basic Grey "Color Me Silly" and "Euphoria"(purple); Close To My Heart Twilight and Colonial White Textured cardstock
Stamps - CTMH "Love clusters" (butterfly), "A Little Buzz" (sentiment)
Inks - CTMH Black, Twilight, Sunflower
Other - Spellbinder's Heart Circle die, Sizzix Floral Flourish embossing folder, MME Lime Twist baker's twine, CTMH buttons and Glitz Glitter glue Stardust

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

My Favorite Things Mother's Day Card

Once again, the color palette at ColourQ inspired my next card for Mother's Day for Send a Smile 4 Kids. It was similar to a striped piece of Basic Grey's Sugared. I left off the pink strip and it reminded me of the latest sketch from My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club. I knew I had a sweet little Pure Innocence "Sunflower Girl" stamp just screaming to be used.

Here are the colors and sketch that inspired this card.

I decided to use two different border punches. Also, instead of having my border strip on top pointing away from the wide paper strip, I thought I'd have it over the green part for a change. The red stripe in that strip was a little dark, so I covered it with red velvet ribbon about the same size. Also, I ran an Autumn Terracotta marker over the nearly Pumpkin colored stripe to make the color more what it should be (artistic license!). The original sketch has two small circles arrayed vertically for maybe buttons, brads, or other elements. I chose to put black pearls over the white dots in the pattern. Here's a photo of the white dots being covered by the black half pearls.

This adorable girl image was colored with Copics, but I didn't have one that was even close to the pumpkin color. My remedy was to mix two colors. First, I colored a small area with E33 Sand, then I colored over it with YR68 Orange. The only thing that didn't show up well was the sunflower. If I was to do it over, I'd leave the petals white and make the center orange.

If you'd like to send Mother's Day or Father's Day cards to Send a Smile 4 Kids so that kids in the hospital can give them to their parents on that special day, you can find details on their blog.

May God bless you in your crafty pursuits!

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.

 

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!

April Viva La Verve Sketch for Mother's Day

This month I'm making some Mother's Day cards for Send A Smile 4 Kids Challenge - cards that kids in the hospital can give to their moms. They are due by April 30th. You can find the details on their blog. I used the Viva La Verve April sketch for Week 1. 

The front of the card base was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The layers were added. The flower/sentiment was first stamped with Sunflower ink, then colored with a Y13 Copic marker, then stamped with stamps from two CTMH sets. I made an identical card with a sentiment stamped with Verve sentiment plus the letters M-o-m. Send a Smile 4 Kids requests that you don't send religious cards since the nursing staff wouldn't know a family's beliefs.

Besides the papers used, I used three embellishments for the challenge1215 at CCEE Stampers -- velvet ribbon, a button, thin twine.  I folded a piece of red velvet ribbon, adhering it together with two small glue dots. I threaded the yellow button with the fine natural twine with the ends protruding from the back of the button. I used a glue dot to attach the threaded button to the ribbon then tied a bow with the twine on the back of the ribbon. I usually like to leave it a little loopy so it shows up behind the ribbon bow. This type of bow lays a little flatter than a tied bow when you're using thick ribbon like this velvet ribbon.

I hope you'll consider sending some Mother's Day cards to Send a Smile 4 Kids this month. And may God bless You!

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

Paper - Basic Grey "June Bug," (floral); Graphic45 "Fashionista" (blue/yellow dots), Close To My Heart cardstock

Stamps - retired CTMH (1st card); Verve Hope Blooms and Joy for the Journey

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; CTMH Sunflower

Other - Cuttlebug 5x7 embossing folder; Copics Y13; Martha Stewart border punch, Spellbinders Nestabilities "Lacey Circle;" 2" circle punch; Papertrey Ink natural jute twine; CTMH red collection ribbon and button from my stash.



Freshly Made Sketch with Butterflies and Basic Grey

Ever since I read on the blog "Send A Smile 4 Kids" about the need for cards for a children's hospital in Iowa, I've started making more for kids. There current challenge is to use things with wings for kids. I saw that they need Mother's Day cards by April 30 for the kids to give to their moms. So this Basic Grey challenge #65 to make Mother's Day cards using Basic Grey was perfect. This sketch from Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #28  is also perfect for so many possibilities. I'm sure I'll use it multiple times. I love making Mother's Day cards even though my mom is home with Jesus now, so I enjoy finding others I can give one to and I remember good things about my own mom while I make it. I hope some of you can send cards in this way, too. May God richly bless you!

4.25" x 5.5" Card Recipe:
Paper - Basic Grey: Indie Bloom; CTMH Blush, Hollyhock, White Daisy cardstock, scrap of black cs?
Stamps - CTMH all retired - Dream Big, A Little of Everything (sentiments), Butterflies and Celebrate Life (two different Monarch butterflies)
Inks - CTMH Black, retired Watermelon, Goldrush dabbed on wings
Other - Sizzix embossing folder, ribbon from Michaels