Grab Some Thread??

"Grab some thread" is the title of the Timeless Tuesday challenge at Flourishes. I rarely sew and I can't justify sewing on cards when I have clothing that needs to be sewn. That being said...I read farther and saw "FAUX" sewing is allowed.......now that's something I can do!

The image was colored with Copic markers and the bee wings were highlighted with a Stardust pen. An ultra fine black pen was used for the "FAUX" stitching which showcases the trail of the bees.

The inside of this card was done!!! Now that is remarkable for me....I have a gazillion cards with nothing on the insides...I figure I can add an appropriate verse when I get ready to use the card! yah right!! Whenever I do this I wish I had a scrap of DP from the front to put inside, think I can find one measly little scrap....NO such luck. It would take me a week of Sunday's to put insides in all of my completed cards, so I am going to attempt to finish the inside when I create the card. Notice I said 'attempt'...not etched in stone. Does anyone else have baskets of cards with nothing inside? Please tell me I'm not alone :-)

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Hawaiian Floral Sketch

No vacation would be complete with out bringing back souvenirs and if you are a paper crafter, the best souvenirs are stamps, embellishments and papers. I brought back some beautiful stamps, papers and embellishments from Island Paperie, located on Maui.

Three different stamp sets were used on this card (Lots of Aloha, Nesting Retro Plumerias, and Tropical Flowers A). The vertical strip of paper was created by stamping the solid Plumeria stamp and the outline stamp. Both images were stamped with Distress Inks (stamped off once for a softer effect). The Bird of Paradise flower was colored with the same distress inks and highlighted with Copic markers.

This is the wonderful Paper Players  sketch that was used to design this card.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Bring on Spring

Enough already with the snow!! Winter just refuses to leave. This 'spring'card is for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge appropriately named "Bring on Spring".

The image was colored with Copic markers, using the colors in the DCWV patterned paper on the right. The DP has a gloss on some of the flowers so I used glossy accents to mimic the flowers in the DP. The  stamp is from Flourishes, die cut is Sizzix, ribbom from AC Moore.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Bees a Buzzin'

This is my second post for the day because the week ahead is pretty full so I won't have time to post. It seems as though 'the postings' are taking more time than the actual card creation from conception to completion! Either I am getting quicker at creating cards or my typing, photo editing, watermarking and writing skills are awfully slow.

This card is for the 'Sweet 'n Sassy Digi challenge'. The challenge was to use digi images on a Z fold card.

This is the inside of the card. A left over scrap from the background was cut and colored to resemble a beehive and placed on the tab on the far left.

The background paper was created by resizing, scattering and turning the bee image randomly before printing on yellow/gold paper. After it was cut to size it was embossed with a Sizzix die then the raised areas were highlighted with Vintage Photo Ink applied with a piece of cut 'n dry. The beehive was paper pieced then highlighted with Copic markers. A piece of Terrycloth was used to add some texutre to the Copic coloring on the hive. A small bee was fussy cut for the front of the beehive. Stickles were added to the bumblebee wings.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Entered into:
  Spark Your Creativity Challenge---anything goes
  Cute Card Thursday ---anything goes

Springtime Sketch

Snow is on the ground but 'spring' is on my mind. Since the warm weather seems to be avoiding upstate New York, I thought I would participate in a 'Springtime' sketch challenge at The Sweet Stop sponsored by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.

The "Springtime Cocoa clear stamp set was used to create this card. Copic markers were used to color the image and the matching flower, die cuts from Sizzix and edger from Fiskar. Stickles were added to the flowers. DP from Heidi Grace.

This is the sketch that was used to design my card. As usual I turned it on it's side!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Top 'o the Morning to You

Time for a St. Patrick's Day card.

 My selection of St. Patrick's Day supplies is very limited so I got out some die cuts, embossing folders, ribbons, stickers, glue pen and glitter.

Inside of card with a CG verse.

The shamrock was created using a Kindness Flower Die Set from Sweet 'n Sassy. The white flower on the left is directly from the die. The left shows the part that was cut away to make the shamrocks. Love dies that have multiple uses!! There are four different size dies in this set which can be used to make wonderfully layered flowers (there is also a matching stamp set). After each shamrock was cut, they were placed into embossing folders to get a variety of textures.

Last month at our Lilac Inkers meeting, Cathy was our wonderful hostess. She designed a card, made kits with all the necessary pieces for the card and 'voila' we just had to stamp and assemble!! Sharing time making cards with friends who love card making is so much fun!! Especially when most of the work is done for us. I thought I would "CASE" her card for my St. Patrick's Day card. So here is the lovely card she created for us.

As usual...I rotated the orientation.

This card is being submitted to these challenges:
  Fun 'n Flair - texture
  Sweet 'n Sassy SNSDC95 - go green
  Clearly iStamp #70 - die cuts

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

More Fun with Washi Tape

I had a a bit of spare time so I sat down with my Washi tape and was able to make three more cards in a very limited amount of time. These are for the Moxie Fab World Washi Tape Challenge.

This was the quickest and easiest of the three cards. A few pieces of tape, some Penny Black stickers and a sentiment from Inky Antics. When you remember at the last minute that you forgot to send a card and the mail carrier is due soon, this is a card you can create in less that 5 minutes.

This card took a little longer because background was stamped and colored (Copic) and glittered (Stickles) with an old See D's stamp set called "Girlfriend".

The DP (DCWV) was a scrap left over from a previous card. It was a perfect color match to the tapes that I wanted to use. This is one of those times I thought "I wish I had bought that Cameo Stamp" !! Since I didn't...I cut one of the cameos from the tape, mounted it, mounted it again, mounted it a third time to fill the allotted space.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Playing in Paradise

After vacationing in Paradise, it is only appropriate that I try a "Playing in Paradise" sketch challenge.

DP from Heidi Grace, die cuts are Sizzix, birthday stamp Art Impressions, embossing powder (on leaf die cuts) is from Stampendous, floral stamp from the Long Stem Silhouette's set by Sweet 'n Sassy.

This is the sketch that was used to design this card. Nothing has changed....I'm still rotating my sketches :-)

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Shopping Our Stash

After a much needed vacation, I have the creative juices flowing once again. Jessi came to visit my "washi tape" posting and when I visited her blog HERE, I immediately decided to participate in the "Shopping Our Stash" challenge. For this challenge we are encouraged to use a border punch that either we haven't used before or one we haven't used in a long time! I knew exactly which punch to use! I simply had to have this punch and obsessed about it till I finally broke down and bought it. Once I got it in my hot little hands....I had no idea what to do with it :-(. It has been hovering over me like a black cloud every time I looked at it. So today was the day to tackle this beast and finally get some peace of mind.

Working in my Butterfly Garden it was only natural that I buy the MS 'butterfly' punch. So here is the card that was finally created with this nefarious punch. Ha...I win!! I finally exercised that demon. I kept this card simple so that the butterfly border punch could take center stage. Now that the punch is out on the table, hopefully I will be able to create more cards with it.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Washi Tape Challenge

After a much needed 3 week vacation in Hawaii, I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. I am refreshed and even finding time to create once again!

Washi tape is the "must-have" trendy staple these days. I have been hording different tapes for a few months so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to get back into the 'challenge world'.  Moxie Fab World is challenging everyone to come up with a clever innovative way to use these tapes on a card. Can you say "addictive"? I sat down with a blank card base and before I knew it I had created 3 cards. My limited time and tape selections prevented me from making more cards. I can see 'shopping' in my future :-).

This is actually the third card I created. I just tore and layered different pieces of tape vertically across a separate piece of white cardstock, mounted this piece on pink cardstock and added a pink Sizzix label and a Hero Arts sentiment. My favorite gold pen was used on the edges. A few score lines on the top and bottom and 'voila'.... a completed card.

This is the second card. I actually place a piece of 'washi tape' on a scrap of cardstock, then used my paper cutter to make the tape a bit narrower so that I would have the same amount of white space on each side. After cutting this I just lifted the tape off of the scrap cardstock and placed it on my card. (the pink with white polka dots on the far right, was the piece that I made narrower).

This was the first card that I made. The edges were cut instead of torn. The sewing machine from MFT was stamped on a separate piece of cardstock, then fussy cut and glued to the card.

It sure does feel good to be posting again!!!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.