Mother's Day for Grandma

I have been waiting for a couple of weeks for this stamp set from Kitchen Sink Stamps. I have no idea how Maria does it, but the detail of the layering of her stamps is unbelievable. They look so real once they are stamped.


This is the card I am going to send to my grandma for mother's day.

I played with the stamps immediately once they arrived. I stamped this rose using only Purely Pomegranate ink, stamped off twice, then once, then at full strength.

The sentiment "Grandmother" is from Women of Life from PTI. One of my favourite things about acrylic stamps is that they are flexible. I was able to create the curve in the word to follow the oval I cut using my coluzzle.

The Certainly Celery oval was cut with the coluzzle one size larger than the designer paper, then trimmed with some of my very old, and sadly neglected, scalloped scissors.

The card base is 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 Not Quite Navy. The photo makes it look more purple, but it really is blue in real life.

Colour Combo Challenge

It has once again been a while since I have updated my blog. I am still creating, but I don't always take the time to upload my photos.

Kristina's colour challenge kicked my butt into gear this week to get something posted.

The inspiration came from this photo from West Elm.



I didn't use any of the design elements as inspiration, but I did use most of the colours.



This card base is 41/4 by 51/2 Old Olive with the fold at the top. Then I have Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, and Very Vanilla layers each 1/4 of an inch smaller.

The image is stamped in both Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip to create a bit of a shadow.

The flowers are stamped with Taken with Teal, and I had some primas that fit with the colour and shape perfectly, so I added those too.



I used Stardust Stickles in the centres of all of the flowers (stamped, and primas). The ribbon is the 5/8 Old Olive grosgrain from Stampin Up. I wanted to include a sentiment, but It just didn't fit on the card.

Mother's Day Swap

I was at a wedding over the weekend, and I should have posted these before I left, but I ran out of time.






Both of these were done for a swap on SCS. The photos are not great because I was taking them early in the morning, so I didn't have any natural light. I wanted to get photos before I shipped them off to the swap hostess.

Challenging Colour Challenge

I don't know how I found Kristina Werner, but I *LOVE* her Make a Card Monday videos, and I have been following her blog for about a month or so. Recently she started posting colour challenges, and this is the first one that I have completed.

The combo came from this photo from Pier One.

Translated into SU colours we have Orchid Opulence, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Basic Black and Whisper White.

I found this colour combo to be particularly hard because I don't like Orchid Opulence. It's not a colour I use very often, and it's the only colour in which I haven't bought a full pack of paper.

I knew I wanted to use one of my new sets from the Occasions Mini, so I chose Tart and Tangy since the orange could be pumpkin pie, and the cherries, or the strawberry would look good in rose red.

This is a very plain card for me, but I really struggled with the colours, and didn't know what else to add.



The sentiment is from the rub ons also available in the Occasions Mini.

Paper Trey blog hop

Nichole and the rest of the Paper Trey gang have come up with a really cool way to get inspired and see some amazing paper creations. They are starting a monthly feature called the Blog Hop. Unfortunately I was too slow in registering my blog to be included this month (the deadline was the 23rd), so I am not *officially* part of the blog hop process. However, it's my birthday, so I have decided that I can participate anyways. :)



The idea was to use ribbon as a focal point, and at least one Paper Trey product. Although I am not sure I actually achieved that, I did use lots of ribbon on this card.

I *love* the Text Boxed set, and it was great fun to pull it out for this challenge. This is the stamp set that got me hooked on Paper Trey. The sentiment is from Alli Miles' first set Shapes by Design. I thought the sans serif font complemented the lines of the ribbon, and the stamps.

This is the first time I have ever made a card that folds along the short end, and I really like how it turned out.

Thanks for "blog hopping" by, and I will be back tomorrow with some swap cards I made a few weeks ago.

Easter Greetings

I was in Saskatoon visiting my family over Easter, and I should have posted these before I left, but I ran out of time.

These are the cards I gave to my family this weekend.






These two cards use the He is Risen set from Gina K. The first card was inspired by the card posted by Melanie during the release party held on SCS. It is stamped on a cropped photo that Deron took. The second card really reminds me of the wood of the cross with the sanded background and the earthy colours.



This card uses the Baskets of Happiness set, also from Gina K. I don't have nestabilites, or a square punch that is the right size for the scalloped square punch that I have, so the image was cut out with my paper cutter, then the corners rounded with the SU corner rounder punch. It was coloured with SU markers.















These three cards were all done with Melanie's set Just so Hoppy! I am loving this set. I had so much fun using fun flock on the chicks and the bunny. Deron's favourite card of the whole lot is the second card with the chicks that has them dancing on the grass. I really like the texture on that card, but my favourite is the bunny card. I love the basket handle being thread through the bunny's hand, and the two colours of brown to make it look like the basket is woven, and the flock on the bunny, and finally, the way the paper matches the flower embellishment perfectly.




Lastly, this card was made with sets that are not from Gina K. Crazy, huh?

The background is made by smooshing pale plum, and perfect plum ink on opposite sides of a plastic report cover, then closing them together, re-opening and putting glossy cardstock in between. It creates a bit of a marbled look. The stems are from the Garden Whimsy set from SU, and the grass is created by removing the cross hairs from the wide Old Olive grosgrain ribbon.

I hope you enjoy these somewhat delayed Easter greetings, and I will be back later today with a ribbon based card using Paper Trey stamps.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

It has been a REALLY long time since I posted, but I have still been creating in the background. I had a craft fair to prepare for, and I have been doing research into the stamping industry to see if there would be a market for a store in my area.

Hopefully some of this is slowing down, so I will have more time to post my cards (and clean up my horribly messy craft room).

This card was made with Women of Life one of the PTI stamps released last month.