AnnaBelle Stamps Challenge

I'm really grateful for all the sketch challenges that are helping me get my birthday cards made this week! This time, it's a clean and simple sketch from AnnaBelle Stamps (ABSC054).

I used a Sizzix Texturz Backgrounds plate on the Creamy Caramel card stock; it's a subtle impression that I like on that expanse of "clean"; unfortunately you can't see it in the photo. I printed up a page full of these colored butterflies and cut them out the other night when I couldn't sleep -- might as well get something accomplished in the early morning hours!! The butterfly is coated with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel and adhered to a panel cut with a Ribbon Tag from Spellbinders; birthday stamps are from Gina K. Designs. I lucked into finding a ribbon in my stash that matched really well.

May be back later if I get another one done!
Betty

Two Challenges

This is my second post today and I have two cards for two challenges so will share them alphabetically, by challenge name!! Is that organized, or what???

First, is the AnnaBelle Stamps challenge to Say It With .....  Background Stamps. I was inspired ty the two Sue's on the design team. Sue K. had a fantastic, funky design and I loved Sue W's choice of colors.

Next up is Merry Monday -- this is a sketch challenge and here's my offering .........

Come play with Lesley at Merry Monday! You have until midnight on Saturday to enter your creation! (and you will have one Christmas card done early!!)

Betty

A Red, Black and White Birthday

I laid in bed for almost an hour tonight without being able to get to sleep so I decided to get up and make a card. If I can't sleep, I might as well be doing something enjoyable!!

This card was made with the inspiration from three wonderful challenge sites:

Repeat Impressions What If? Wednesday Sketch F812

I didn't deviate much from the sketch; kept it fairly simple and I really like how it turned out. I did add the banner with the birthday sentiment.

 

AnnaBelle Stamps Say It In....Red, Black and White

I followed this one to the letter; Nothing but red, white and black on this card!

Just Us Girls 123 Technique Challenge

We're to use or create an image with a button center. I hope that my flower qualifies. I have a red layer with white dots, then a sold red smaller layer; finally there is a solid red button in the center of the flower with homemade bakers twine threaded through the button holes and tied in a cute little bow!

The circle and banners were cut out with Spellbinders dies and white brads were added at the bottom corners of the three panels.


Hope you're all having (or will soon have) a restful night's sleep,
Betty

A Note of Thanks

As usual, the turquoise in my card looks blue but is really is turquoise, along with lime and yellow, the color challenge from Annabelle Stamps. You should check out the cards from the design team -- they are smashing!

My layout uses the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches #18. I have found several challenges at Lesley's blog, Always Playing With Paper that are new to me that I know I will be playing along with from now on! Also met a new on-line friend who loves watching birds as much as I do -- hi LeAnne!

The challenge at Do You Stack Up? is to use patterned paper; designer paper, or create your own. My patterned paper is all from Stampin' Up. The fan fold flower is made from patterned paper although it's a bit difficult to see. Actually, it's the flip side of the turquoise piece with white polka dots and contains all the colors of the challenge.

I've been seeing cards with lots of "white space";  I'm going to try to get used to making some cards in this style along with continuing to make a few each month in the vintage style! Hope you'll walk along with me on this journey to try something "a little different"!

Betty



Layers, Layers, I Love Layers!

The layout for my card comes from The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge; here's their sketch:

I will also be entering this card in the Annabelle Stamps Challenge - Say It With .... Anything Goes

The papers on my card are from Basic Gray and stamps are from Annabelle Stamps, All Things Grow.

I saw cards created with this sketch on several of my friends' blogs and thought I'd jump on the bandwagon too. Still working on those masculine birthday cards!

Betty

P.S. The bird from yesterday's post is an oriole -- possibly an altimira oriole or a baltimore oriole.

There's Something In My Pocket

Jellypark Friends Friday Challenges wants us to use a pocket on our card. Their theme is "Something In My Pocket". I had no pocket stamps so I cut out a pocket shape and added faux stitiching and brads. PaperPlay Challenges has the theme "In Stitches" -- this can either be faux, hand, or machine stitches.

And this is what's in my pocket.......

Speedy the Fox and Friends is having a challenge to create with a border punch. I used my Stampin' Up Scallop Border punch to create some layers at the bottom edge of my card. 

I would also like to enter this card into the ABC Challenge - H is for Happy Birthday. 

The birthday sentiments are from Annabelle Stamps. Did you notice the shiny embroidery thread on the little "pocket pull-out"? A friend from church gave me some of the most beautiful Brazillian embroidery thread recently, hoping that I might be able to use it on my cards since she was never able to get around to using it for embroidery! It is simply gorgeous stuff -- thanks, Lucinda!

Hope you all had a blessed Lord's Day!

Betty

Last Minute Christmas Cards

I made four of these cards tonight for the attendants who take care of my mother-in-law at her assisted living home. The Inkadinkadoo angel was stamped with versamark ink and embossed with Winter Wonderland Opaque embossing powder. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up. After embossing, I ran the panel through my Big Shot with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and adhered it to a white base with a little panel of silver metallic card stock. I would like to enter my card(s) in the following challenges:
Annabelle Stamps - Christmas Card
For Fun Challenges - Christmas - Anything Goes
Joan's Gardens - Quick Christmas Card
Paper Play Challenges - Christmas Theme

Thanks for stopping by during this busy season!
Betty

A Christmas Box

My project today is to Say It With A Christmas Box from AnnaBelle Stamps and I have used a technique from  Capture the Moment Make It Monday #45, to color an embossed image. I will also enter my box into the ABC Christmas Challenge where we are up to the letter "Y is for Yippee" -- Christmas is almost here and anything Christmassy goes for the challenge.

I used an empty butter container and a scrapbook kit from the Paper Studio to create my box. Covered the box with a layer of ivory paper, cut out two different paper designs for the sides of the box, and used stickers from the kit to decorate.

To complete the technique from Make It Monday, I stamped the NOEL sentiment in Versamark, embossed with white powder, and cut out with a Fancy Tag die from Spellbinders. Next I used two different colors of green to go over the embossing. I was pleased with the effect I got from the coloring and think it goes better with my decorated box than the stark white embossing would have! To finish, I tied a bow with ribbon from All The Trimmings, which I purchased from Jo-Ann Stores a number of years ago.

**the NOEL stamp is by Layers of Color, from their Christmas Verses set.

I'd like to share a couple of Christmas related pictures with you -- I always think of poinsettias at Christmas and I have a picture of me standing beneath a large poinsettia plant in the area and also one of the poinsettia in the front yard of my MIL's assisted living home which is right next to an orange tree!

Hope you're all enjoying this time before Christmas arrives.

Betty 

Birthday Card and a Sunset

This card almost didn't get posted. I made it yesterday and had to keep changing and adding till I finally got to where I "didn't hate it"! Today, I added the little bow and I think that's when I came around to liking it. Poor little card -- it just wanted some love!!

I'll be entering it in the following challenges:

My stamps are from AnnaBelle Stamps -- Sentimental Bluebells and Backgrounds by Design 2.

Lily Pad Color Challenge -- Blue, Mustard, Rust

Cupcake Inspirations Photo -- The colors in the photo can be seen in the designer paper from Gina K. Designs that I used on my card. 

I have to share another photo with you. Last evening we had the most glorious sunset! Now, we have beautiful sunsets almost every evening but this one was super spectacular. We walked out in the yard and looked straight up, then turned completely around in a circle. Everywere you looked you could see "fire" in the clouds! Not just over the back fence where the sun sets, but everywhere you looked! I tell you, it was a sight to behold -- God was really doing an awesome work with His paintbrush during the sunset last night!

Bye for now and happy crafting to all,
Betty

Happy Birthday ala Nature

I have another card today for the sketch at Lily Pad Card Challenges. You are allowed to enter more than once and it is such a great sketch that I decided to use it again. Didn't even flip it this time!

My colors come from the challenge at AnnaBelle Stamps to Say It In ..... Pink, Green and Kraft.  The stamps are also from AnnaBelle's set All Things Grow.

I pulled out a tool that hasn't seen the light of day in a long time -- my crimper. Sounds like someone on "So You Think You Can Dance" -- oh wait, that's a crumper! Any how, the Kraft paper in the background has been crimped.

Now, on to my report about my trip to Miguel's in Guadalajara. It was two stories of arts and crafts supplies, but very little for card making. All I saw was a small selection of patterned paper and several assorted hand punches for small items like stars, small animals, etc. But, there were ribbons along several sides of the store, both downstairs and up -- they won't be running out any time soon! And what really appealed to me (although I have plenty in my stash and no need to buy now) was a full long aisle of glitter! Boy, was I in glitter heaven -- every color you could think of, from tiny packs to huge bags!  There were foam crafts, artificial flowers, flower picks, storage containers (some of the cutest tiny containers!), jewelry making items, all manner of beads from high end to plastic.  The majority of the upper floor had Christmas items. There were many other things that I can't remember but you get the picture! And speaking of pictures........

Along the right wall is a section of ribbon on the upper level.
There's even more than this downstairs, plus the special bins throughout the store with Christmas ribbons!

Here's the glitter aisle, friends!
The left hand side is the bagged glitter. Right hand side are things that already have glitter on them!

I guess you can tell that I had a good time on my outing; didn't buy anything but had a great lunch, lots of fun laughing with friends and looking at pretty stuff! And we all made it back to Chapala in one piece!! Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that at one point Johnny Cash was singing "Ghost Riders in the Sky" over the intercom system at Miguel's!

Gotta go for now, adios.....
Betty

Nightingale Birthday

We have sunshine today! We've had several days of rain due to Hurricane Jova which hit the west coast of Mexico near the Puerto Vallarta area. There are mountains between the coast and Chapala so we are pretty well protected from hurricanes (PTL!) but we did get lots of rain (which was needed, by the way, because our normal rainfall for the year was about 8 inches low).

The colors on my card didn't photograph well -- what looks to be blue is actually a sage green. The papers that I have used come from an older Stampin' Up Designers Paper pack titled Autumn Vine. Card stock is also from SU, More Mustard and Really Rust.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Dutch Dare Card Challenges #134 - Sketch
AnnaBelle Stamps - Say It With Embellished Corners
MelJens Designs #80 - Use a Ribbon
Stampin' B's - Use a Bird
Papertake Weekly - Use 3 Shapes (rectangles, ovals, circles)
Fussy and Fancy Friday - Fall or Halloween
Delightful Challenges - Fall Colours

Stamps: See D's Nightingale & Gina K. Designs Fanciful Tags

Dies: ProvoCraft Corner Die and Spellbinders Large Classic Ovals

Embellishments: Metal Stickers Nailheads, Ribbon, and Buttons

Didn't get out a whole lot this week due to the rain but I was able to follow along with the Flourishes new releases and play in their challenges. I'll do a post tomorrow and show you what I created; keeping my fingers crossed to win a new stamp set!!

Betty

Almost No Stamps!

Seems like I've been in a CASE-ing mood lately. Does that mean that I can't come up with my own ideas???? Actually, I prefer to think that I am highly inspired by the creations of other talented people! My card today was inspired by Tilly at This, That and Everything In Between. You've got to go check out her inchie cards, done with Cuttlebug embossing folders -- adorable!

The color combo that I've used is from
Annabelle Stamps. My green didn't photograph well -- it's closer to the ink color of the sentiment.

I will also be entering my card in the following challenges:

Fab N Funky Challenge #93 to use die cuts or punches.

Speedy the Cat's Friends #76 to NOT use any designer paper.

Stamping Together Divas to use twine.

The chocolate background was embossed with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots, the inchies+ embossed with Cuttlebug's DVine Swirl, Tiny Bubbles and a little, tiny folder that I don't have the name of. I used Stampin' Up square punches and a Spellbinders Nestability Long Classic Rectangle die. I didn't have any of that gorgeous baker's twine that the Stamping Together Divas have, but I used some hemp cord. Sentiment is from Annabelle Stamps, Sentimental Bluebells.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Connie, my friend, if you see this hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Betty

A Neat Color Combo & Sketch

My card today uses a sketch from Paper and Such; the challenge ends at midnight, June 4, so if you want to join in, you need to hurry! Here is the sketch:

I have also used the challenge from Annabelle Stamps, to Say it In Olive, Lemon & Chocolate. Here are the colors:






The stamps on my card are from the sets "Thoughtful Stems" and "All Things Grow" by Annabelle Stamps. Papers are from Basic Grey Origins and Stampin' Up. (As I'm looking at my computer screen, the Barely Banana cardstock looks a little "Krafty colored" -- hope it's just the glare of the sun on my screen and that the color shows up as yellow -- I promise you, it is!) Also used a couple of different Cuttlebug embossing folders and Spellbinders dies. Did a little sponging and added a big of sparkly ribbon to finish it off!

Hope you can join in on one or both of these challenges -- I think you'll have fun with both the sketch and the color combo!

Betty

My Senior Moment!

Okay, here's the explanation -- I couldn't remember what the challenge was that Kym had extended to the Roses for the month of May. I knew she had sent a link to a tutorial along with it, so I started going through past emails. Found the link for a twisted easel card and got busy making one -- unfortunately, that wasn't the challenge link!!!! We were supposed to make a get well tissue box card ...... oh well, hope you'll enjoy my twisted easel card, Kym!
I have some good news to share with you -- in July I will be guest designer at AnnaBelle Stamps. I have been participating in their challenges for a while and love their stamps. I think my favorite is All Things Grow (a botanical set with reeds and grasses and misc. sentiments) but they just showcased a new daisy set this month that is super-duper! Check out the link and if you haven't had a chance to join in the challenges there, please join us!

Before I go, just wanted to share a picture of a lovely flower outside my living room window -- isn't it gorgeous? And the hummingbirds like these flowers too, which is a good thing, because I enjoy watching them too!

Betty

Happiness

Hello all! Here's a card made from scraps -- the polka dot paper is from Ashton's mailbox! I used the Card Patterns sketch again (love it!) and made the card for Annabelle Stamps challenge to Say It In Polka Dots. The stamp sets I used are Annabelle's All Things Grow and Backgrounds by Design 2. Found these sparkly stick on dots at Target in all kinds of colors and the butterfly is popped up with a dimensional.
Bye for now,
Betty

Sew Much

I made this card last night to send to Operation Write Home. The background was created with a stamp from the set Backgrounds By Design 2, by Annabelle Stamps. The image is from Clear Dollar Stamps and is available from the "Help for Katie" fund. The sentiment is computer generated. Please check out the link about "Help for Katie" if you have not already done so. A fellow crafter needs our help if you are able to give it!





Betty