Christmas in July

Since there are only a few days left in July, I figured I should do at least one "Christmas in July" card. Brrrrrrrr!!

We just got back from a vacation in Orlando where the heat index was 112. I guess thinking about temperatures about 12 or 13 instead of 112 is appropriate after almost having heat stroke earlier in the week. :-o

Outlines Rubber Stamps is sponsoring a Christmas in July challenge so this is the card I made for the challenge.

The image was embossed 0n three different colored pieces of cardstock with black detail embossing powder. I stamped/embossed an extra cream colored piece so I could use it for layering. Using one of the cream colored pieces of cardstock for the base, I fancy cut (or craft knife) to layer different pieces till I got the effect I was pleased with. A hole punch was used to add more dimension to some of the layers.

Since it isn't Christmas with out sparkling lights, I added Stickles and rhinestones to give the card some shimmer. There was lots of paper piecing to make this card but there are enough pieces of colored cardstock left to make two more cards if I stamp/emboss two more cream colored pieces of cardstock to use for the bases.

I bought 2 Christmas gifts! I haven't started my Christmas cards yet :-(

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

OCCC All the B's

This is my second post today, I just got back from vacation and am trying to catch up on some challenges.

I found this great Creative Corner challenge from Summer Card Camp. Some of the blogs I visited had cards that were entered in this challenge. You know me.....I never met a challenge I didn't like, well maybe there were a few. (wink) I loved what I saw on this blog so I decided to give it a try.

This week challenge is to use All the B's! Include Black, Bling, Buttons and Bows (or one of each!) on your project.

The stamps are all PTI. The flowers were colored with Copic markers.

The watering can (PTI) was stamped onto Shrinky Dink Paper. (Holy blast from the past) Then it was heat shrunk with my heat gun. I placed it in the bottom of a small box while I shrunk because it was too small to hold on to. A red heart rhinestone and stickles added just the right amount of bling.

The same heart rhinestones were placed on the gardening gloves. The rhinestones are from a Nail Art set that I bought at Wal Mart. These Nail Art sets are just the right size for card embellishments. The ribbon and lady bug button are from Michaels.


Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

CR84FN34

Time for another color challenge from CR84FN. The beautiful Hibiscus in the inspirational photo are making me wish I was back in Hawaii. I tried to grow Hibiscus but my thumb isn't green enough so I am giving Hydrangeas a try. With that in mind I created a Hydrangea card.

The Hydrangea is a Hero Arts stamp. It was stamped with Vintage Photo ink on a 3 1/2" X 4" piece of cardstock then stamped, at a slight angle, a second time (without re-inking) onto a 4 1/4" X 5 1/2"piece of cardstock. The image on the smaller piece of cardstock was colored with Copic markers, highlighted with a Stardust pen, then fancy cut. 3D paint was applied to the center of the flowers. Then set aside to dry.

The remaining image was stamped with a PTI Text stamp that was stamped off twice before applying it to the cardstock, then the image was lightly colored with Copic markers. A brown Prisma colored pencil added some depth to these leaves. A scalloped paper cutter was used to trim about 1/4" off of each side then Vintage Photo was sponged around the edges. Two stripes of Copic markers were added to the right and left side of this piece of cardstock. The fancy cut Hydrangea was then foam mounted on top of this image by lining up the stem and slightly angling the flower to the left.

The antennae on the Martha Stewart butterfly was formed with 24 gauge wire. The 3D (white) paint in the center of the flowers was colored with a yellow Copic marker.

The ribbon and the pearls on the 'bling' are from Hobby Lobby.

This is the inspirational photo for this color challenge. Enjoy!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Week #4 Card Camp

This second card is in honor of the description of this weeks color combo.

This color scheme makes me want to head for the ocean and a week’s vacation. Or perhaps two weeks, I’m not picky!

The stamps are from Stampscapes and the shells are from a beach in Hawaii. The color was applied with a make up wedge using Marvy Dye inks. The clouds were formed by sponging color over a torn paper towel.

To my fellow campers...thanks for visiting and I look forward to the next card camp. Your cards have been an inspiration to me! Till we meet again...Aloha

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Card CampWeek #4

This is the first of two cards for this week. Sorry to say this is the last week of card camp. The teachers, guest designers, new techniques and layouts, color combinations and uploaded cards have been fantastic. This is the description of this weeks color combo.

Say hello to pear green, teal, tranquil turquoise, sky blue and crisp white. This color scheme makes me want to head for the ocean and a week’s vacation. Or perhaps two weeks, I’m not picky!

Here are my cards for this week.

This first card is CAS and the verbiage says it all...... "Joy" is what I felt everyday as I opened my e-mail to view the newest material. The embossing courtesy of PTI and Sizzix.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Memories

I made this card using the colors from Card Camp Week #3. This is my third card this week because I really love this color combo. I will definitely use it again especially for masculine cards. I followed the sketch from Card Patterns to create this card.

The Treasured Moments Tickets are from Whimsey Stamps, the post card and ephemera are from Prima, the postage stamp is Hero Arts and the" Memories" is from Inky Antics. The embellishments are from my stash. I achieved the distressed look on the paper edges by using a Tim Holtz distresser. I used Vintage Photo ink on a piece of Cut 'n Dry to give the pieces an aged look. I look "aged" but don't have to use Vintage photo to get that look. ;-0

Here are the colors for Card Camp Week #3.

This is the sketch I used to create this card.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Shabby Tea Room #70

Yikes this is my third post today...look out world.... I'm on a roll!

Time to visit the Shabby Tea Room for this weeks inspirational photo. There are some extremely talented card designers on this site! Layers upon layers upon layers. The local stamp store closed about 3-4 yrs ago and I was just beginning to get the basics of card making. Needless to say CAS was in vogue....not now! Did you ever hear of "trial and error?" Well that's how I am learning. Mostly errors but they are getting fewer and fewer. Here is my card for this week's "Flower Power Challenge" which uses red, pink and neutral...arggg. (If you read my "Hello Cupcake" posting you understand....arggg) wink!

The cupcake was paper pieced. All these lovely companies had a hand in the creation of this card. Bazzil-CS, Heidi Grace- patterned paper, Martha Stewart-edger, PTI-doily die cut, Want2Scrap-pearls, Outlines-cupcake stamp, Inky Antics-"Hello Cupcake" stamp, Nestabilities-shaped die cuts, Copic-markers, Ranger-Stickles, Cuttlebug-embossing folder and Michael's-flowers and ribbon. I am doing my part to help the economy! Not sure my husband would agree.

This is the inspirational photo.

Back to creating card in my Butterfly Garden.

Card Camp Week #3 Take 2

Wow I love this color palette. I struggled with the colors the first two weeks and kept reviewing all the wonderful cards and saying "Why didn't I think of that?" Now these colors I feel comfortable with because I'm an earthy person! I made one card week one and one card week two but this is my second card for week 3. Now that's progress.

The patterned paper is Basic Grey, CS is Bazzill, and ribbon is from JoAnn's. The doily and small polka dots are PTI, circles are Nesties, rhinestones are from Recollections and small tag is Sizzix. I embossed the words with white embossing powder. I made the little stick pin with some beads that I found in my stash.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Hello Cupcake

This card is for the CR84FN color challenge and the Mojo Monday sketch challenge. I have been try to make a card for the CR84FN challenge (Red, Pink and Neutral) since July 2. This was a real tough challenge for me....don't know why! :-( Nothing seemed to go together but I kept at it until I got a card that I was happy with. After I assembled it I realized that if I added one more circle in the top right hand corner, it would fit the Mojo Monday sketch. I love it when a plan comes together especially when I didn't even work at it! WOW how good is that? :-) See all good things come to those who wait (or keep working at it).

The cupcake was paper pieced and the stamp is from Outlines, "Hello Cupcake" and small cherries are Inky Antics stamps, "enjoy"and small polka dots are PTI, red stickles were used for the small dots around the cupcake image and the coloring was done with Copic markers. The little stick pin was made with beads from my stash. The small tag is Sizzix. The frosting was highlighted with Diamond Stickles. The cherry bling is actually a flip-flop adornment that I cut apart from the kids summer craft section at JoAnn's. It was even on sale! BONUS. The patterned paper is from a Heidi Grace pad, pink papers are Bazzil, edger is EK Success, ribbon from Michael's and circular shapes are Nesties.

Here is the inspirational photo for the color challenge.

This is the challenge sketch that just happened to fit the card I made.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Card Camp Week #3

I can't believe that we are already on week three of card camp. I wish it would last for the rest of the summer. The color combos have been great and the uploaded cards are spectacular! If anyone had told me that there could be 883 different cards using the same color combination.....I wouldn't have believed it, but that's how many cards were uploaded for week two. AWESOME. :-) There are definitely talented card makers among us. People from all over the world are participating in this camp.

The colors for this week are taupe, brown, chocolate with pops of white and red. Think hot fudge sundae.

Here is my delicious card.

The embossing folders are Cuttlebug, the floral stamp is from Hero Arts, basket weave background stamp is Rubber Stampede (you can barely see this so there is a close up below), butterfly punch is Martha Stewart, rhinestones and pearls are Recollections and ribbon is from JoAnn's. I stamped with Vivid Taupe for the background, Adirondack Espresso for the floral image and PTI Fresh Snow around the edges. A Sakura Clear stardust pen was used to add a few highlights.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Shabby Tea Room #69

This is the second post today. Time for another visit to the Shabby Tea Room. The theme for this week is "Happy 4th of July" and the color combo is red, white and blue.

This is a shaker card that I'll probably give to one of my grandsons. I used tiny red and clear beads inside the shaker. The "cheeky boy" stamp is from Stampavie and was designed by Penny Johnson. If you're not familiar with her designs you can check out some of them here. The kite stamps are from PTI, the sentiment is from Darcie's, and the red paper is from the Animal Crackers pad (DCWV).

They always supply a photo for inspiration and here it is.

Ever wonder who has picnics where the food looks like this photo? Whoever they are and where ever they live........I want an invitation. See you there!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Mojo Monday #198

Time for another great sketch from the gals at Mojo Monday. This week was extremely busy so I am very late getting this card posted. Time flies when your having fun!

The papers are from K & Co., flower and leaves stamps and dies are PTI, the flourish stamp is Wiff of Joy, the polka dot stamp is also from PTI, the butterfly die is from C. C. Designs, and the pearls are from Eyelet Outlet. The butterfly die was cut three times in lt. green, white and dk. green. The white and dk. green butterflies were cut in half and offset behind the lt. green butterfly. The flower and leaves were stamped with Memento ink, colored with Copic markers then curved over my finger so that there was more dimension when they were placed onto the card. . I used cut 'n dry to apply Vivid Tea Rose and PTI Fresh Snow around the paper edges. PTI Fresh Snow was also used to stamp the flourishes and the polka dots. A few highlights were added with the clear Sakura Stardust pen. I think I will scatter some small pearls on the right side of the card...just thought of that! I quite often think of something to add, just when I finish the posting. Go Figure. ;-) grrr

Here is the sketch that inspired this card.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Card Camp Week #2

More fun colors for this week's color combo at Card Camp.

The intro to this weeks color combo states "this week’s color combo has me dreaming of a Mexican fiesta – complete with a chilly margarita. At least that’s what those two green colors make me think of! Warm chips and salsa, watermelon…" I think of Margaritas', too :-)

The stamp is from Outlines, die cut butterfly is C.C. Designs, charm is from Stamp and Create, image and pearls were colored with Copic markers, ribbon from Michael's and the antennae is 24 ga. wire from Darice.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.