Remember Happy Moments

Here I am, getting out of my box again! This is a one layer card and as per the challenge at Less Is More, it is a one layer card with a bird. All of the birdie stamps come from a Clear Art Stamps set that I bought used from Nina Bracket last year. Couldn't find a name for the set but there was a number on the back -- 139. The sentiment is Autumn Leaves, Remember -- got it on sale at Wal-Mart a good while ago. The name of the background stamp is Solid Block Group, by Stampabilities. Vicki Dutcher reminded me about the ink, spritz and stamp technique in one of her recent posts and this is what I did with the blocks (which is one large stamp, by the way).

Crazy 4 Challenges 119 is requesting a monochromatic blue card and Just Us Girls 119 has a technique challenge; they are asking for a collage card (mine is a collage of stamps -- I guess it could also be a collage of blues).

Last, but certainly not least, Stamping Together Divas has a love challenge. It can be a valentine or a love card. Along with "Remember Happy Moments", my card also says "Love Warms Every Nest". I thought that this might be a good card for a mom whose little bird is leaving the nest -- she has many happy moments to hold close to her heart and the joy of knowing that she provided a warm nest for that little one, who is now not so little any more!

Later,
Betty

Another Guy Birthday Card

My card started out as a challenge over at Flourishes for their new release week. However, I couldn't make it work with only two layers so I gave up and made it the way I wanted to make it! You know, you just can't please everybody all of the time!!

My tree is from Stampin' Up. I colored the stamp with markers and the impression came out perfectly. Love that you can see the tree trunk all the way up through the pine needles! Used a Cuttlebug folder (Checker Board) to emboss the background panel and the sentiment is from Layers of Love which was cut out with a Spellbinders die and sponged. Got a terrific embossed impression with this die too!

This will be another card for the church's birthday file!

Betty

A Look of Nature

Good Morning All! I surely do hope that Blogger is more cooperative today than it was yesterday. I had a lot of trouble getting to blog posts and once there, more problems leaving comments.

My card this morning uses Repeat Impressions Sketch J1112 --

I will also enter the Dutch Dare Challenge -- For the Boys. I need to get some masculine birthday cards made for folks in the church this next month so this challenge was perfect!

I used Annabelle Stamps, All Things Grow and cut the sentiment with a Spellbinders Ribbon Tags Trio die. The green background panel was embossed with a Cuttlebug Folder, Forest Branches, and the border was done with Martha Stewart's Grass border punch. The border is adhered to the inside bottom edge of the card and the front panel is cut a little shorter than the rest of the card.

Thanks for coming by,

Betty

Christmas Cards?

Yep, my cards today are for Christmas, 2012. ABC Christmas Challenges has released their first challenge for this year -  A is for Anything Christmas. The oranament stamp is from Inkadinkado, Holiday Silhouettes, and the sentiment is Stampin' Up. The ornament was "fussy cut" and popped up on a sponged Nestabilities die cut.

The layout of my card comes from the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches #17. Here's the sketch:

This is my first entry at this challenge site; I was too late with my card last week. I do like their neat and clean sketches; I've been trying to get comfortable with other styles, but neat and clean remains my favorite!
I will also be entering this card at For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes.

Thought that I might try to sell some Christmas cards this year since we don't have an outlet for cards in English here so I made an extra card while I was at it. The Christmas tree stamp is also from the same set by Inkadinkado and the sentiment is from Layers of Color, Christmas Verses.

So long and best wishes for a happy day,

Betty

Make It Monday with Papertrey Ink

Dawn McVey demonstrated the technique for making a background with border dies. I don't have any of those gorgeous border dies from Papertrey Ink (will have to be satisfied with a "wish list" for now) so I used a Martha Stewart border punch.

My card design matches the one that Dawn created here very closely. She used stitching where the borders backed together and I used a strip of the colored paper. She put her sentiment on top of her butterfly die which she had decorated with a button but I didn't want to cover up this beauty. Next I stamped the sentiment in Cameo Coral and was very pleased with the overall look.

Check out the video -- you might want to give this a try!

Betty

Butterflies

I was a little to late getting this card made for the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches but will try to do better this week. Don't you just love this brilliant butterfly? All I had to do was print and cut it out. I had two others cut out but they were too large for the space so I had to stamp a couple of little ones (Martha Stewart stamp).  They are all popped up with dimensionals. The brown "leather look" background was leftover from my first attempt at the cowboy card I posted yesterday and adding the blue made it perfect for the Designer's Choice Challenge at Repeat Impressions, to use the colors brown and blue. I colored the pearls with a Bic marker to match the butterfly. I thought a sentiment on the front might distract the eye from the butterfly so I decided that I would stamp the inside when I decide how it will be used.

I was honored to have the vintage collage card that I made for the Roses December Challenge featured by Karen at The Graphics Fairy yesterday. It was also nice to have lots of visitors come by my blog to get the details of the card. Thanks, Sue, for giving us Roses a great challenge and thank you, Karen, for showcasing my card on your blog; your images made it possible to create my collage card with relative ease!

I know it's Tuesday but I'm working on Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday today. Hope you'll come back tomorrow to see how it turns out!!
Betty

Cowboy Card

Hello all! I had so much fun making this card. It sent me down "Memory Lane" and I'll tell you more about that later. I have used the sketch from Repeat Impressions and will also enter this into the challenge at Catered Crop to use a button or buttons.

The image is the same that I used a couple of days ago from Digital Two for Tuesday; I printed two at the same time so I had another to work with. I used leather textured paper from Sizzix and did some paper piercing on it; I then added a button that has a leather look. The image was also matted with the leather look paper. It is all mounted on an ivory cardbase.

Okay, here's where I go off on a tangent. Who remembers the tv western "The Virginian" which ran from 1962 - 1971? Trampas was my favorite character and I got to thinking that he fell in love with a sweet little thing on the next ranch over from Shiloh and she made this for him, using cowhide, of course. He hung it up beside his cot in the bunkhouse and looked at it every evening before going to sleep. Unlike all the story lines on the tv shows, however, sweet Betsy does not get sick and die, nor do bad guys shoot her and she does not survive. Trampas saves the life of Betsy's father and he then helps them get their own little ranch, they get married  ...........

(wordart from Ginger's House)

Thanks for putting up with my flight of fancy,
Betty