New Sketch Team

Hi! Welcome to the first sketch with Lauren's new full team! The peaks look amazing, and I am sure your will be in for a treat as you visit their blogs.



The sketch this week is one that I would love to use as a scrapbook page, but instead, I made a birthday card for Lauren. Her birthday is on May 3rd, and the optional, additional challenge is to make a birthday card using the sketch.





This is the card I made for Lauren's birthday. We all know how much she loves butterflies, so that was the starting point for me. I didn't add a sentiment because I didn't have one that would fit along the side.

The butterflies are stamped on velum paper using the SU retired set Simple Sketches. I stamped the base image on the velum, then the other two layers on a different part of the velum to add a different element to the dimension. I cut out all of the butterflies with paper snips, and layered them with mini glue dots.



You can kind of see the glue dots through the velum, but not too much, and I love the depth it creates.

I used my piercer to make the trails, and my spica glitter pen to add some glitter to the butterflies. I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but IRL there is some glitter there.



I added the green prima flowers to provide some balance to the green paper on the other side of the card.

I never decorate the inside of my cards, but this one is for the fabulous Lauren, so I decided to make the inside pretty too.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the inside when it was light outside, so the colours are somewhat "off".



I had some extra butterflies stamped on velum, and decided to cut them out to continue the theme to the inside. I used the top note die to create the black frame around the kraft cardstock to again mirror the colours and theme from the front of the card.

I hope you will play along this week!

Please check in with everyone else, show them some love and welcome them to the team. I am really excited to be working with such an amazingly talented group of people!

Lauren
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristen
Tracey
Pam
Jennifer
Odette
Lisa
Dana

When you participate, please come back and lets us know, and use the keyword mytimess32 in any online gallery so that we can find all of your wonderful creations.

Templates to the rescue!

Grab a coffee, because this is a long post, with lots of photos.

One of my best friends from high school recently had her first child, a baby boy.
I wanted to make something special for her, and her son William.



I bought a plain wooden frame at Michael's thinking I would somehow paint it or "scrapbook" it for him.


I knew that the colours in his room were chocolate brown, orange, and light green. I went to my LSS and found the PERFECT paper to use as the background.



I pulled the colours from the paper and painted the frame chocolate brown and lime green. Then the paper was cut to size, and the centre square was cut out. I used the same green paint to dry brush an area that would "frame" the name that was cut out using my Big Shot, and the Sunset font from Sizzix.



I added some extra dimension by using some of the paper that was cut out for the centre frame, and continuing the pattern. I also used my star punch to add some stars to the corner of the frame, and some fabulous buttons to fill in some of the circles on the paper.





This is the first time I have done anything "scrappy", and I am really happy with how it all turned out.



I also wanted to make something special for Chris (the mom) because I know she will need some time to herself to relax as well. Lauren's From the Desk of template to the rescue!



I made two of the From the Desk of templates, and then secured them back to back to create a carrying case for the goodies. I used the tip Lauren shared here to add the side panels to the doubled template. They fit perfectly!






I cut out a little handle using my circle punch from SU, and punching 3 times to make enough room to carry it.

Inside the gift was a bottle of liquid honey, two boxes of cookes, and an assortment of teas.



I made a small box for the teas, and wrapped the cookies in coordinating paper, so that when it was all packaged up, it looked like an actual gift basket.

BLOG CANDY!!

Below are a number of fantastic blogs offering candy. You better act fast though because at the end of April, these will all be given away.

Passion for crafts is giving away this AMAZING collection April 30th.

Look at the Copics and Nesties.


My cardz is giving away some ink, nesties, stamp, and basic grey paper pack.




Tammy's Place is giving away this amazing assortment on April 29th.




Vicki is giving away these awesome items on April 30th.

Saturday COLOUR Challenge!

You might be surprised that I am not doing a sketch challenge with Lauren this week, but that's because she changed up the sketch team, and the way we will be doing challenges. Read here for all the details.

So, this week we had a colour challenge using this fantastic bag from Clutterbags.



Instead of making one card using all of those colours, I chose to make one Project using all of the colours. (I substituted Real Red for Pure Poppy, Cool Caribean for Spring Rain, and Basic Grey for Smokey Shadow).




This is a mail sorter using Lauren's Filed with Flair template from PTI.

It does not stand for To Be Determined (although with mail that could be the case), but instead it is for Tamara, Bills (yuck), and Deron (my partner).

The front is somewhat plain, but I added more details to the sides.



The second layer on the sides was printed on cardstock weight velum and cut out. Then I inked my texture plates with the corresponding ink and ran them through my Big Shot.



I also added some ribbon and ric-rac, the ric-rac was MUCH easier to get around those corners, and finished off the top of my box with a couple of Prima flowers.

I wanted to keep it kind of plain so that if it gets ripped or something due to daily use with the mail I won't be too upset about it because I can easily make another folder to fit into the tray.

Please check out the rest of the COLOUR challenge team this week!

Lauren
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra

When uploading to any public galleries or forums, please use the code MTTC01 so we can find your AWESOME creations.

Ants on Parade

I got this cute bug image in an image swap a couple of months ago. I just now am getting around to using it because of challenge #10 on Three Clovers Design.

The challenge today was to use any animal stamp.



The grass background paper is from a HUGE package I got for really cheap at Joanne's the last time I was in the US.



It's a super simple card, but I think it's cute, and I guess that is what is most important.

Mojo Monday - 83, Tamara - 1

I have heard about Mojo Monday for quite a while, but I have never participated. Until today!

I made this card for my partner who was SUPER supportive this weekend as I crafted most of the day Saturday, and for a few hours Sunday morning making a gift for a friend's baby shower. (That project coming later this week).



I think I followed the sketch pretty well for a first try.



Initially, I had done the card without a sentiment, but it looked kind of dark, so I added the sentiment which really brightened it up.



This was a REALLY quick card for me (about 10 minutes). I used Mocha Chica stamps and Mocha Chica paper, both from the Kim Hughes collection at CHF.

The bottom scallops were cut with some r-e-a-l-l-y old decorative scissors because I don't have a scallop punch of any kind.

The "branch" is from the Bird with Leaves & Flowers die that I got from SU.



The bird is popped, and the wing is pieced, and popped to add some great dimension.

Saturday Sketch!

I am back with another of Lauren's FABULOUS sketches.

Here is the sketch.



And here is my card



I used the Chocolate Chip designer series paper from SU for the background. I used a brayer to add the pink to the paper. I am totally in love with pink and chocolate brown!

The stamp, and the smaller brown and pink paper are all from the Kim Hughes collection, available at CHF.



The felt flowers are from the accents and elements kit from SU. The brads are covered with pink perfect pearls because I didn't have any pink brads. I went over the "love", the bird's wing, and some of the flowers on the background with my clear spica glitter pen. It is really sparkly!

Be sure to check out the rest of the sketch team, including Lauren's blog for her changes for the upcoming sketches.

Lauren
McKenzie
Dawn
Maria
Kendra
Kirsten
Kristy


Also, I missed last weekend because I was busy with Easter, so I whipped something up for that sketch as well. I really don't like my card, and I hope to have time to do another one this weekend to vindicate myself with this sketch.



It didn't really turn out as I envisioned. I thought the flowers would be more white, and not so clear. In order to make them stand out more, I drew around them with a white pencil crayon.



The sentiment is also hand written with a white pencil crayon. Then it looked kind of bland, so I added some doodles, but my doodles are not too good, and now it looks very amateurish. I am going to *try* to fix this card, but I am not holding out too much hope.