Carefree by the Sea

This card is a change of genre for me. Instead of figuring out what embellishments to add....I am trying to 'challenge' myself to make cards with few or no embellies. Now for me that is a real challenge!! One thing for sure...this card won"t be returned by the Post Office for insufficient postage or because it is too thick!

The Less is More challenge for Week 4 is based on a sketch.

The lighthouse stamp is from Flourishes, the sentiment is from Raisin Boat and embossing folder is Cuttlebug. I chose to use a small zig zag as a border to mimic waves.

This is the sketch that was used to design my card. I hope you will consider joining me on my CAS journey....it is definitely a learning experience, but practice makes perfect!  I Hope :-)

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

BLACK is the color of....

This week I have card that is predominately 'BLACK'...one of those colors that I seldom use. It is Black Tie week at Dynamic Duos. This week we have a Black Tie colour choice! Poppy Parade, Basic Black and a dessert option to use PUNCHES!! CAS-usual Fridays Challenge is Create a Clean And Simple card using a black card base. Asian themed cards are quite often BLACK and RED, so with that in mind I created a card that qualifies for the Fairy Tale Challengeblog.

The Washi paper, the 'Miyoko' (image) stamp, the 'Mizuhiki' cord, and punches are from Hanko. A HA stamp was used for the background. Copics were used to color the image and a Cuttlebug embossing folder was used on the white oval.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

CASology Challenge

There is a new challenge in the blogosphere. It is CASology! Each week you "Take the cue word and run with it! Interpret it however you'd like! Just be sure and keep things clean and simple!!!" After having my heavily embellished card returned because it was too thick...I thought I'd give this CAS challenge a try. Oh my no embellishments!!! I'll probably have withdrawal without those extras. Here's my attempt at CAS.

The 'CUE' word for the week is "HAPPY". The sentiment is a die cut from Sizzix, the ink pen and splotches are from PTI. I absolutely had to add a tiny touch of bling in the ink splotches as the withdrawal was becoming unbearable! I resisted adding it to my letters. :-)

This is the 'CUE CARD' for the week. There's still time to play...if you can tolerate the embellishment withdrawal!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Bruchetta al Pomodoro

Love the fresh tomatoes that are available this time of the year. So with those delicious tomatoes in abundance this was the perfect time to make some Bruchetta. Even though this an appetizer we would be happy eating this for our main course.

Amanda is the hostess for this week's Timeless Tuesday Challenge at Flourishes....and.....surprise....her challenge is to make a recipe card! Wow how great is that! If you're looking for some new recipes to try, this is the place to visit. While you're visiting why not leave one of your favorite recipes.

The tomato stamp is from the Italian Garden set.

Get out your stamps, papers and recipes and join in the fun.  Each week Flourishes draws one lucky name for a $10 gift code to the Flourishes store! You can't win if you don't play along. I recently won the entire July Release for entering this card which can be seen HERE.            


Thank you Flourishes!!


Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

CAS-Wordsmith & Thank You

I mailed a Birthday card last week, several layers, heavily embellished, with a piece of bubble wrap inside the envelope to prevent the embellishments from poking through and it weighed under 1oz. It was returned to me yesterday for additional postage because it was too thick to pass through the post office machinery! So I am on a CAS mission...no more thick, heavily embellished cards that will arrive LATE because they require extra postage.

Leann is the hostess this week at the Paper Players. Her Clean & Simple Challenge is to make 'words' the focal point. The Moxie Fab World Stamp it Challenge is to make a Thank You card.

The rainbow was created with a Raisin Boat stamp. The sentiment is from Stamp Oasis, the music notes are from Rubber Stampede and embossing folder is Cuttlebug. Colored glitter was lightly applied to each color of the rainbow.

Stamp from Raisin Boat and sentiment from PTI.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Soft Romantic Colors

***This card won Honorable Mention***

Thought I try my hand with a TWO color palette challenge at Dynamic Duos.  Everyone is familiar with color challenges that are THREE or more colors. It is really a challenge to limit your choices to TWO colors. Here is my attempt for this challenge.

The headline in today's newspaper reads: "HEAT WAVE 2012....We need rain, we need rain..." With the lack of rain in mind, I thought I would create a "RAIN" card. The stamps are from SWALK and the bg stamp is Hero Arts (highlighted with a Sakura Stardust pen). The top part of paper pieced umbrella uses paper from a Heidi Grace pad. A clear POP Dot was used under the umbrella to give it more dimension. Copic markers were used to color the image and Glossy Accents were used in the puddle and on the rain drops.

This is the color palette that was used to create my card. Grab some papers and give this two color challenge a try....It is a fun to try a duo challenge.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Sentiment Front and Center

This week Denise is the hostess for the Timeless Tuesday challenge at Flourishes. She has challenged everyone to create a card using a 'Sentiment' as the main focal point.

The sentiment is from the Butterflies and Blossoms set and the butterflies are from the Gerber Daisies set. The butterflies on the background paper (K and Co) were highlighted with a Sakura Stardust pen and liquid pearls were applied to the center of the bg flowers. Since I don't use a sewing machine I applied faux stitching around the edges with a white get pen then highlighted the stitching with the Stardust pen. The butterflies were stamped on vellum then fussy cut. The ovals are Nesties and the ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Strokes of Wisdom Text

Still working on getting my Mojo back. So today I had a little time to play with my Raisin Boat rental stamp set for the month. This set fit perfectly with the "TEXT" challenge at CAS-ual Fridays.

All stamps are from the Strokes of Wisdom set. The cards are from the Summer Lovin Collection, the Springin Gingham Ribbon and twine are from the "Keepers" section. The cards even come with envelopes and "inies" with verses for the inside of your cards.

Various inks were used along with a Cuttlebug mini embossing folder (see the Celebrate card, lower left and upper right).

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

It's Sketchy Challenge

***This card was a Winner at The Flourishes "It's Sketchy Challenge"***

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of creating cards. Starting with a sketch always makes the creating process easier. This week Flourishes is hosting a sketch challenge, so of course I thought I'd play along.

Great paper from K and Co, embossing folder from Cuttlebug, Calla Lily stamp set from Flourishes, pearls from Zva, ribbon and heart button from Michaels, Gold metallic pen from Marvy and colors from Copics were all used to create this card.

This is the lovely sketch that was used to design my card. Still time to play along, so grab some papers and join in the fun.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Simple "TEXT" Note Cards

Hello all my wonderful blogging friend. And a HUGE thank you to everyone who contacted me to check on my well being. Sorry I haven't been around. After 22 years...I had to update my resume and go 'pounding the pavement' literally and figuratively. When life hands you lemons.....you set up a lemonade stand!  Fortunately I was able to find a job but during the search I lost my "Mojo". I spent a great deal of time in self examination and am starting to get back onto the swing of things. Lots of adjustment yet to come, including working days, evenings, weekends and/or holidays.

After checking out the latest challenges, I decided to get my muse thinking about the "Text" challenge at CAS-ual Fridays. I made a set of 8 note cards each with a different text.


The same LO and edger was used for all of the cards just the embossing, flowers, colors and 'text' has been changed. An article that I read, a while ago, stated that if you found a LO that you liked, use it over and over...just change the images. This was a great way to re-connect with my Copic markers.

This is a set of all occasion cards...birthday, thank you, sympathy, thinking of you and get well, just to name a few.

I colored four of each image, fussy cut them and used one somewhere on the inside of each card. Rather than show you all of the insides here is just one of the eight. The thank you cards have plenty of space to write a personal message.

Now that the creative juices are flowing once again I'll see you real soon!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.