Macarons and Hearts Birthday

Fun and for a friend with a birthday on or around February 14th is what I had in mind for this card.   After all how serious can you be when you are listening to Thing 1, 2, Crazy Sister and possibly some cousin!   That is some way out family for sure!   Anyway, Double Trouble and Inspiration Station teamed up for their current challenges and they both have inspiration photos showing valentine heart candy in pastels.  So using the sketch at Fusion,  I set to work to meet the requirements for all of  these challenges.   Pastels and hearts is my takeaway from Inspiration Station and the directions at Double Trouble were explicit -- no chocolate, so that ruled out doing the whole challenge over at Fusion (just the sketch) -- but I'm hoping macarons are acceptable!    For some reason I was drawn to use this bold green DSP.  I'm not  a pastels person, so I think I needed it to balance the pastels.   A picture of the cards without the doodling is below the challenges...I just felt it needed something else!  I would love to know what you think, you can even make suggestions for how you would have done it!     Thanks for looking,  have an awesome week.   Smiles,   Kathy

Image:  Glacielle

Sentiment:  Flowing Flowers SU

Hearts: Punch from Simply Marblelous (current SU)

DSP: Sunshine and Rainbows (current SU)

Inspiration Station

Blue and Gray Birthday Card...

Today has been a fun play day...it has snowed off and on all day and since we don't get much snow here in SC, it  has  been a treat.  We are officially snowed in,  everything was closed for the day.   For many years I worked in Radiology with the local hospital system and we had to report to work snow or no snow, so as you can imagine I am loving being retired.   I kept looking at this Try Stampin on Tuesday sketch trying to come up with a way to use it.   This morning as I was waking up, I remembered the Lovely Day stamp set that came with one of the Paper Pumpkin kits a couple of years ago and thought it would work well with this sketch.  I used retired SU DSP that works well with the challenge at Seize the Birthday use Blue and Gray.  I ended up stamping the cake with crumb cake ink so I decided it was a spice cake!   Since the lovely stamp was a little on the big side I decided to just stamp it on the tag and add a little navy clothes pin.   Thanks for stopping by and have a safe week!    Hugs and Smiles,   Kathy

 

Reel Deal Birthday Card...

The sketch at Try Stampin on Tuesday baffled me until this weekend.   I was looking thru my Power Poppy Digital stamps and came across the top image and could see this coming together.  I used Cinnamon Cider CS and the panel is an Etsy digital paper download.  I'm also participating at Seize the Birthday "anything goes."  It looked like rusted corrugated metal to me,  I used an SU embossing folder to add some depth.   I used watercolor pencils.  The sentiment is also from an Etsy download.   Since I don't have a dedicated scrap room, but use my guest bedroom, I am moving more to digital.   I plug in my flash drive and store everything there.

Thanks for stopping in.    Kathy

 

Lots of lines Birthday Card....

The challenge at Seize the Birthday is "Use a stencil."   I usually just do the anything goes, but I decided to use a stencil, only problem, I didn't have one, so  I ordered a collection from Amazon. To be honest,  I really was clueless about what to do until I made the stenciled panel and remembered this SU set Celebrating with flowers, and because my stenciled piece had curvy vertical lines Idecided that the panel needed horizontal straight lines.   I followed the sketch  from  Freshly Made Sketches.   I don't use purple or variations of it very often in my art work, but today I decided to be adventurous, and in addition to SU granite gray, I grabbed fresh freesia and soft succulent (from this years in-colors.)  The flower in this set doesn't stamp very well,  but maybe that's actually part of it's allure, definitely has that handmade look!  I finished it off with soft succulent enamels.  The way my MOJO has been this week, I'm just happy to get something made!         Thanks for stopping in!         Kathy

  

Several shades of yellow...

Today's card follows the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.   Their sketch was perfect for what I had in mind to do.   When I saw the vertical birthday sentiment in the Celebrate with Flowers stamp set in the current catalog I knew I had to have it.   A long time ago I owned a birthday set from CTMH that had a smaller vertical birthday sentiment, but I have not seen another one since that set.    I love a monochromatic look and I think the papers are crushed curry and bumblebee but there may be another color in there somewhere.   I'm also linking the card to Seize the Birthday challenge "anything goes."   Thanks for stopping by,  comments appreciated!            Kathy

 

#500 Freshly Made Sketch

 

In celebration of Freshly Made Sketches 500th sketch, I made a couple of cards.   The first one is the actual submission because it follows the sketch more closely than the Second one.   I used new product from SU, Celebrate with Flowers from the new Annual Catalog and Beautifully Penned DSP from the Sale-a- bration freebies.   The freshly Made Sketches are always awesome and I h much doing these sketches over the years whenever possible.   This is linked to Seize the Birthday Anything Goes.  I also enjoy the inspiration their blog provides.     In addition to the sketch I was also inspired remembering how much my mother loved fabric and was such an awesome seamstress.  When I saw the DSP in the neutral grey,black,white I thought of so many cute dresses she had made for my sisters and I and others many years ago... So I gravitated to frou-frou.   I can imagine my mom making a cute little gathered empire waisted drees with gathered cap sleeves out of the polka dot and then for added cuteness making big pockets on the skirted part  out of the striped fabric (going horizontal of course with the stripes)..    One of her favorite things when the grandchildren came along was going to a local children's manufacturing outlet and buying the rejects for 50 cents  a piece and turning them into adorable with embellishments etc..    She didn't have to have a pattern, a picture worked just fine, and she even made my dad a suit on an old sewing machine, that was nothing like what is available today.   Since she made flowers, worked with permanent color tubes, she definitely would be my cardmaking buddy if that had come along a little sooner.   Thanks for looking have a great week.   Kathy

Birthday Boy Card...

Clean and playful was the look I had in mind for this sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches this week.  I kept it simple and decided not to go all frilly--after all boys have birthdays too!          The DSP is in the current catalog I think its' called Playing with Patterns.   I usually gravitate toward muted colors, but I decided Primary colors would work best!    I am also linking it to Seize the Birthday "Anything Goes."    Thanks for stopping by,     Kathy

 

Dragonfly birthday...

It's going in a mother's day basket for a friend.   It's all current product except the base (have no idea where I got it or what the color is) and the watercolor pencil (very old CTMH) Spring Iris.   I had planned to put the white panel on white...but when I saw how it looked it just didn't work.   So I went scrambling for something to match my original dragonfly.  This card base didn't match but I didn't have anything any better, so I stamped another  dragonfly and  watercolored it Spring Iris and then went hunting in the Blue Belle sequin collection for the closest match blue I could find.   There are few variations in the pack, they are super pretty...anyway--it's finished.   For some reason I am really loving the new SU Whimsy die collection.  Sketch is Tuesday Morning Sketches and I'm linking it to the "Anything Goes category at Seize the Birthday..   Thanks for stopping by,  have a safe and productive week!     Kathy

PS     I am rearranging the blog trying something new, so no telling how long that will take!   Please excuse the lack of personalization for now!

 

Happy birthday 2U

It's been weeks since I have made  a card.   Just been busy on several fronts, but today I wanted to play some.  I had in mind to make a cute and playful card, using these "soon retiring" SU DSP papers from 2 different sets.  I used the sketch at Hand Stamped Sentiments, and for the As You See It challenge I wanted to use a numeral 2 and U rubons, and also ended up using 2 baby animals.   Of course birthdays count as celebrations so I am also linking he card to Paper Craft Crew Challenge and Seize the Birthday    I also used "stitching" all over my card and this is my first time to play at Cute Card Thursday!  I layered the berry burst panel paper on he green and then cut it with SU rectangles.  My card color choices are usually more subdued, but in this case,  I like the bright colors and I can think of several friends that would appreciate receiving it!   Thanks for stopping by,  Kathy

Lotsa' happy birthday...

Post title was chosen because of all the challenges I  brought together to make it.  My creation falls short of a masterpiece, no surprise there and while it may not be the prettiest "card" on the block, it is sweet and simple and is "sendable" and that works for me.  On Saturdays I usually stroll through challenge blogs looking to see what I find interesting and see if I can use them for inspiration as I create throughout the week.  I print them out on pages, (about 7 challenges per page) since that it is the only way I can keep them in mind.  For this card  I started with As You See It "when I think simple I think one layer card" which led to Less is More for this week, make a one layer card to focus on sentiment  In keeping with that since I had in mind to also participate at Seize the Birthday "anthing goes.I picked out this small birthday sentiment and decided to emboss around it using a small oval frame well that brought to mind, Just Add Ink and the "Just Add Embossing" challenge.  And while the frame worked , it also added another problem when I ran it through my cuttlebug the edges of the frame made score lines of sorts so I decided to add "stitching" using stamps from SU Sale A bration set "Needlepoint & Thread"  to try and cover them, so that led to the creation of a grid the theme over at Addicted to Cas.  I added the flowers because the lines didn't quite meet since the stitching images were shorter than where I needed them to reach.  OK...The stitches don't quite cover the scored places, but by that time I was out of patience and decided to just "let it go."   Thanks for stopping by,   Maybe at least you will get some good ideas and hopefully I've learned some lessons as well!     Kathy
PS,   Making the card was a lot easier than doing the blog posts and linking it!!!!

Orange/white fall...

I made this for Color Throwdown # 463 using colors orange, kraft and white and Seize the Birthday    toppings using "script or text" in the background.   The leavess were cut from the Flourishing Phrases Die Cuts SU.    I decided to make a square card after I goofed on the A2......anyway that's how it often goes, and as I say quite often, I usually end up with something entirely different than what I started out to make!    Thanks for looking!
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Gentle buds...

Click for Color Throwdown #459
Today has been a good day for me, I was able to go to worship with my church family for the first time in many months.  I fell a few months ago breaking my foot, 3 bones-4 fx's.   This left me in a cast and then in a boot non-weight bearing.  Using a walker I can walk bearing 50% of my body weight.  In a couple of more weeks I should be able to say good-bye to the boot! I have been playing in my craft room-office during this time.  My card is based on Freshlymade Sketches #301

and also a part of Seize The Birthday Challenge "anything goes" 

 I got the idea for leaving the leaves and blossom uncolored from a card I saw on Pinterest for the Spring Wishes CTMH stamp set.   I decided to go with a white enamel dot from SU as my center and let the color of the twigs and center of blossom be my pop of color.   Thanks for looking!