Thank You Cards (Post 2)

I'm back with the last two thank you notes for the show choir directors/parents.  The first one is my absolute favorite of the four I made.   Loving that the Misti made making four of this same card super easy.  I always love sentiment sets and this Neat & Tangled set is perfect for many sentiment cards.  And can we just talk about Impress Fresh Inks...I love how they ink up...beautiful in my book!  

My second card is for the mom in our show choir who is absolutely incredible. She gets the costumes ready for 180+ kids in our three show choirs. The kids always look incredible on stage due to her time and impeccable attention to detail. The sentiment set is from a new PaperSmooches set I just got.  Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!

Hello

It has been way too long since I've played along with a PaperSmooches challenge.  Over last weekend I had lots of time to create.  We were inside most of the weekend due to lots of rain.  Pat was busy watching the Tour de France and I was happy creating in my craft room.  I think you can see how I was inspired by the stripes on the blanket and the happy summer colors.  Looking back at this card, I think I would like it better if the sentiment panel had rounded corners, but I'm happy with the cheery feel of the card!

 

You are amazing!

Posting three days in a row! This card was also inspired by the most recent Stampin' Up catalog.  There was a card in there with a similar embossed background.  For my card, I embossed the Hero Arts background and then colored it using by Zig markers.  I finished it off with a flower and tag from PaperSmooches and a sentiment from Reverse Confetti. I playing along over at AAA Cards where the challenge is to use a tag.  I love mixing/matching goodies from different stamp companies!

Dude, Let’s Party

 

These little die cut frogs have been sitting on my desk for months...and the perfect opportunity came along to put them to use (Thank you Michele...I made a few of these cards!).  I am always in need of boy cards and I thought the CAS(e) this Sketch was perfect for those adorable little frogs.   I added my standard go to layout of a strip of black paper and a bit of patterned paper.  Love that the pattern paper coordinates with the colors of the frogs.

I'm curious...what is your favorite go to layout for cards?  I obviously followed the sketch, but always seem to be added a strip of paper to the edge.  Would love you to link me to your favorite layout.

Edited to Add:  Sentiments are from Word Salad set from PaperSmooches; dies are from Poppy Stamps.

 

Celebrate

Okay...so I have zero cards in my stash...literally have one thank you card and one graduation card and nothing else so all the cards I am making right now are just in time cards.  I'll work to change that over the next few weeks!  This card was for a co-worker whose birthday was Friday.  Played along with the current CAS(e) this Sketch.  Love white on white cards and thought this was a fun way to play along with the pattern in the sketch.

Deepest Sympathy

Happy Monday.  I hope you are all recovering from the long Thanksgiving weekend. We had a wonderful weekend (five days off!) with lots of time with our family.  Perfect. I was having a laugh to myself on Saturday when my sister-in-law texted and asked how many people would be at our house. 35.  Thankfully Pat and I have a routine and everyone brings something so entertaining for 35 really isn't that big of a deal.  I love that everyone loves to be together. We are certainly blessed!

This card is for a dear friend of mine who lost her brother-in-law last week. He was put to rest on Friday. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Happy Christmas

Of course, I had to play along with the new PaperSmooches Challenge.  I'm trying to stretch the supplies that I already have for Christmas so I pulled out all of my Christmas dies.  I also have a lot of double sided gold paper, so it was perfect to pull out for this challenge.  To finish off the card I die cut the poinsettia leaves using this fun plaid paper.

25 Days of Christmas Tags

Have you been oohing and aahing at all of the gorgeous Christmas tags on Tracey's Blog? She has an all star line up of stamp companies and designers participating in her 25 Days of Christmas Tags.  I am thrilled to be able to play along with PaperSmooches.  You all know how much I love their fun and whimsical stamps!

So how are your holiday preparations coming along?  Be sure to play along with Tracey's challenge to get a jump start on your Christmas tags!  You will certainly be inspired by all of the amazing tags!

Christmas Blessings {and a Collin funny!}

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween weekend. The little guys had a lot of fun trick or treating and the older guys had friends over and had a bonfire on our patio. It was truly a gorgeous fall evening.

I still can't believe we're in November already so I'm trying to get a move on for Christmas cards.  This simple little CAS number is inspired by this week's MUSE Christmas Visions card.  I liked the soft background in blue and put yellow on my card instead and then finished it off with the sweet little bird and sentiment. I think you can see how I was inspired!

And here's my funny story for the day.  Marcel was asking what is the most expensive thing we've ever bought.  I answered our house.  Pat answered by engagement ring and Collin comes in the room and says, "Mom's craft room."  We laughed so hard...and then Pat said, "and we're still paying for it!"  Thought you'd all get a laugh out of that!

Thanks a Lot

Happy Friday, I received a thank you note recently from a wedding and I loved the colors on the thank you card.  I kept the card downstairs in my craft room until I could mimic the color scheme.  Love the lime green with the navy, turquoise and teal.  Of course I went to my go to PaperSmooches floral sets for the card.

I'm so sad that the PS Sparks Challenge is going away, but will definitely be playing along with the challenge on the main blog!

PaperSmooches: Christmas Blessings

Today we're up at PaperSmooches Anything Goes challenge. Continuing to plug away at getting my Christmas cards done.  This card uses some of my favorite dies: Poinsettia Dies and the sentiment from  A Blessed Christmas.  At first I had just the black strip of paper, but added the strip of striped paper to offset it a touch.

I hope you get a chance to play along with us this week!  Be sure to pop on over to the PaperSmooches Sparks blog to play along and check out our fabulous design team!

Karin Åkesdotter

Larissa Heskett

Lori Tecler

Savannah O'Gwynn

May Your Christmas Be Blessed

 Hey there, hi there, ho there...it's Wednesday....middle of the week!  Hope your week is zooming on by and that it has been a great one so far.  We (and I say that term lightly as it really is my hubby) have been repainting the inside of our house. We had new family room furniture arrive yesterday. It looks absolutely gorgeous!  So pleased that the paint colors (we may or may not have tried a few before we settled on where we are now look great.  Now it's time to pick out some new accessories!

But enough about house decorating...here's a card I made a few weeks ago...no particular challenge...working to continue to put a dent in my Christmas cards!

PaperSmooches: Celebrate

Today we're up at PaperSmooches Picture Perfect Challenge.  Love the fall inspiration and all of the gorgeous fall colors.  I had a piece of card stock sitting to the side that I had inked up with a variety of die cuts.  I pulled out my Hickory Leaf die and die cut it five times from the inked up card stock. I adhered them to the top of the card and finished it off with a sentiment form Flirty Frames. 

I hope you get a chance to play along with us this week!  Be sure to pop on over to the PaperSmooches Sparks blog to play along and check out our fabulous design team!

Karin Åkesdotter

Larissa Heskett

Lori Tecler

Savannah O'Gwynn

Paper Smooches Sparks: Welcome to the Neighborhood

Today we're up at PaperSmooches Designer Drafts Challenge.  This card was made especially for my dear friend, Tracey, who recently moved into a gorgeous new home.  So happy for her that she is closer to her children.  I need to visit Tracey!  I played along with the sketch (and yes again those Zig markets are out in force).  To make my card, I used The Welcome Wagon stamp set and coordinating Welcome Words Die.

I hope you get a chance to play along with us this week!  Be sure to pop on over to the PaperSmooches Sparks blog to play along and check out our fabulous design team!

Karin Åkesdotter

Larissa Heskett

Lori Tecler

Savannah O'Gwynn

PaperSmooches Sparks: Merry Christmas

Today we're up at PaperSmooches Anything Goes challenge.  I decided to continue on the trend this week of working on Christmas cards.  My first card features stamps from A Blessed Christmas.  I stamped the silhouette image and then masked it off with a circle before inking the night sky and adding the sentiment.  To finish off the card I added a strip of black paper to ground the card. 

I wasn't quite ready to put away my stamps and I wanted to play along with the Merry Monday challenge so I made another CAS card, added a strip of striped paper and a touch of holly.  Thinking my mailing costs for Christmas cards are going to go down this year with all the flat cards! This card used the A Holy Holiday set.

I hope you get a chance to play along with us this week!  Be sure to pop on over to the PaperSmooches Sparks blog to play along and check out our fabulous design team!

Karin Åkesdotter

Larissa Heskett

Lori Tecler

Savannah O'Gwynn

PaperSmooches Sparks: Your Future....

My niece just started her freshman year at Ohio University, so when I got this new stamp set from PaperSmooches:  Spreading Sunshine, I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for...a card for Laura.  I used my ZIG markers to first make the water color background.  I'm not a very patient crafter so my heat gun came out to dry it quickly. The sentiment was then stamped.  Trimmed the paper a bit to center the sentiment before mounting in on a piece of black card stock.  Felt like the card needed something extra so I added a little bit of thread. Thought about sequins or gems...but just couldn't get them to place where they looked right. Does that ever happen to you?!

Okay...so now it's up to you...pop on over to the PaperSmooches blog to play along with our Anything Goes challenge...and check out all the awesome cards by our design team below. There are tons of us playing along this week.

Audrey

Lisa

Heather

Katie

Larissa

Lori

Lynn

Savannah

Happy Birthday

Happy Monday my friends. My awesome friend, Michele, is the MUSE over at MUSE this week and is encouraging us all to get out our embossing folders and play along with her.  I admit that my embossing folders are often neglected so it was the perfect time to pull out a very old Stampin' Up embossing plate. I finished off the card by die cutting one of my favorite PaperSmooches die cuts three times: once in green and twice in black. I love how it adds a touch more dimension to the card. This card will be put in the stash for September birthdays.  I have a few that I'll need to have ready to mail!   Can you tell how easily I was inspired by Michele's card below?

PaperSmooches Sparks: I Love You

Today we're up at PaperSmooches Anything Goes challenge .  The layout of this card features one of my go to layouts.  A touch of patterned paper down the left hand side to give the card a little extra bit of color.  This card was sent to my nana a few weeks ago letting her know I'm thinking of her.  Stamped the images from the Best Buds Set and did a touch of coloring to finish it off. Quite CAS!

Be sure to pop on over to the PaperSmooches Sparks blog to play along and check out our fabulous design team!

Karin Åkesdotter

Larissa Heskett

Lori Tecler

Savannah O'Gwynn

Always & Forever {happy anniversary to us}

Happy Saturday my friends.  Popping in with a card for my gorgeous hubby. We're celebrating our 23rd anniversary today.  We started dating when I was 15 and yes...Pat was 19 (but to his defense, he really wasn't a cradle robber!).  We were only two years apart in school!  So...we're actually pretty darn close to our 30th dating anniversary. And boy oh boy do I love him with all my heart. I truly am a lucky girl to be married to by best friend. He is an amazing father and husband.  We'll be going out for a nice dinner to celebrate tonight. Happy, happy anniversary Pat.

PaperSmooches Sparks

Today's PaperSmooches Picture Perfect challenge is such a fun inspiration photo.  You could pick up on so many different ideas.  The different patterns, the apples, the stitching...go for it!  I was inspired by the fun patterns and the repeating images.

For my card, I had fun mixing/matching some patterned papers and repeated the flowers from the Needle Little Love set.  A touch of embossing on the vellum and a few enamel elements and we were finished. This card has already been popped in the mail as a sweet little thank you note.

Be sure to pop on over to the PaperSmooches Sparks blog to play along and check out our fabulous design team!

Karin Åkesdotter

Larissa Heskett

Lori Tecler

Savannah O'Gwynn