Great Giveaway

I've been seeing twine pop up on card creations all over the place, and I've been wondering how I can get my hands on some of this twine-y goodness.

Today I learned about this great giveaway that The Twinery is holding.

If you like winning free stuff, you should check it out!

Scrap-tastic Card

The January challenge for the HCCC was designed so that I could use up all of my little scraps of cardstock.

I had visions in mind of all the great cards I would make.

Instead, I made this:

It's okay, but its not great. Really wish that I had a sewing machine... that totally would have stepped it up to the next level.

Hopefully I'll be on my game for February's challenge. Can't wait to see the challenge that is issued.

'Til next time :)

Neutrals Challenge

Wow, today is a 2-post day! I think this is a first for me :)

I've completed all of the colour challenges issued on the Moxie Fab World blog and wanted to share with all of you the card that I made for the Neutrals Color Challenge for Color Inspiration for Card Makers Week in the Moxie Fab World. I really like the colour combo that was issued for this challenge and couldn't wait to start getting crafty.

Here's a look at the color combo:

And, here's a look at the card I was inspired to make using these neutral colours:

I used some yummy Basic Grey paper and paired it up with some Stampin' UP! cardstock and stamps to get the finished result. Coloured in the truck with my blender pen and Voila! I love this finished card! Probably one of my favourites from the colour challenge.

Thanks for visiting!

Monochromatics Challenge

Today's card is the one that I made for the Monochromatics Color Challenge for Color Inspiration for Card Makers Week in the Moxie Fab World. This is the 5th of the 6 colour challenges that were issued over on the Moxie Fab World blog to celebrate the release of Paper Craft magazine's special colour issue. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, you should! It's been a lot of fun to play along with.

I love monochromatic cards. I always think that they look so sharp and clean.

Here's a look at the colour combo that was issued for the monochromatic challenge:


And here's a look at my finished card:

I was feeling very uninspired when I started working on this card, and wasn't staggered by the results, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. Love the buttons!

Thanks for visiting.

Metallic Challenge

The card that I have chosen to share with you today is the one I made for the Metallic Color Challenge for Color Inspiration for Card Makers Week in the Moxie Fab World. When I heard that there was going to be a 'metallic' colour combo, I was intrigued.

Here's a look at the colour combo we were challenged to use:

(Note: it contains pink).

I wasn't too happy to see pink in the combo (again), but that's why they're called challenges!

Sadly, I've seen the inside of too many funeral homes over the past month. My heart and prayers go out to my family and friends that have suffered loss.

When I saw the above colour combo, I thought it was subtle enough that I could use it to make some simple and understated sympathy cards. Here's a look at the end result:


Nothing too fancy-schmancey. A simple card with a clean look.

Thanks for stopping by to have a look :)

Jewel Tones

I'm really excited about today's card. It is the card that I made for the Jewel Tones Color Challenge for Color Inspiration for Card Makers Week in the Moxie Fab World. I have really enjoyed playing along with this challenge and today's card marks the half-way point. If you haven't checked out this challenge yet, click on the above link to take a look.

Here is the colour combo that we are supposed to use as our inspiration for the Jewel Tones challenge:

So pretty. So inspiring. I love it.

Now, here's a look at the card I made:

I love the way the light hits the rhinestones, adding another special 'jewel' element to the card. And the little birds in the Unity Stamp Co. stamp are so cute.

Thanks for visiting!

Pretty Pastels

Today I am going to share with you the card that I made for the Pretty Pastels Color Challenge for Color Inspiration for Card Makers Week in the Moxie Fab World. So far, I have found this the hardest colour challenge to be issued.... I know, I know, it's only the second one! ;)


Very pretty colours..... very.... pink! Totally not my style, which is why it was probably such a challenge for me. Here's a look at the card that I made:


Ribbon and rhinestones and punches, oh my! I mixed and matched stamps from Unity Stamp Co. and Stampin UP!. Love the way the flowers pop on the bottom half of the card. A nice all-occasion card.

Bold & Bright Challenge

Last week Paper Crafts magazine released a special Color Inspiration for Card Makers issue and over on the Moxie Fab World blog they celebrated the release of this special issue by holding a daily colour challenge. Each new day revealed a new colour challenge that readers could play along with.

Since I am constantly inspired by colour and often use different colour combos as my starting point for cards, I decided that this challenge would be perfect for me to play along with. I encourage all of you to play along as well. It's super fun! You have until the end of the month to complete all of the colour challenges.

First, check out these bold & bright colours:


Now, here is a look at the card I made for the Bright & Bold Challenge for Color Inspiration for Card Makers Week in the Moxie Fab World.



I loved the colour combo, but totally hit a brick wall trying to decide on a layout. I eventually grabbed a magazine sitting nearby and started flipping though it. My eyes came to rest on an ad for the RCMP, and I thought "Eureka! This is my layout" ;) I tweaked a few elements here and there to suit my purposes.

Super happy with the end result. And I can't wait to share the rest of my colour challenge cards with you over the next couple of weeks.

A Little Thank-You

December has been over for a while, and 2011 is well on its way.... but I still wanted to play along with the December HCCC.

I received a few unexpected gifts over the Christmas holidays, and I thought the challenge would be a great way to say "Thank-you". I decided to keep the layout and colour scheme as simple as possible. I think the entire set only took me about 20 minutes to make.

Thought I would add a little bit of international flavour to the design by using a "merci" stamp from one of the Unity KOM's.

I think the end result is a fun little thank-you note.
Thanks for stopping by! :)

The Last of 2010

So, on this last day of 2010 I thought I would share with you some of the cards I made over the course of the year that for some reason or other never got posted to my blog.

A birthday card using my newly acquired kraft cardstock:

An amazing thank-you card that I made for a friend. It was so pretty. I would just stare at it until I finally had to place it in the mail:

A pretty birthday card that I made. Loved the flowers. Not crazy about the green sparkle stems.

This card was made for my Aunt on the occasion of her 25th year of teaching. My mother wanted a special card that she could give her to celebrate the occasion:

A fun Christmas card that I made for 2010:

Another fun Christmas card that I made for 2010. I love the Hawaiian greeting:

See you in 2011!!

1st Birthday Card

My cute little niece celebrated her first birthday last month, and I knew that I had to create a card that was equal to the occasion... a single-fold card would just not do the trick! I had also recently seen a colour combination of pink/black/grey and wanted to try a card with it. And because she is such a little princess, I just had to use my castle stamp :)

Here's a look at the finished product:

I am especially please with how the castle turned out:

I stamped the castle image in black ink on white cardstock. I then coloured over certain sections with a white crayon so that they would be highlighted after I sponged some pink and grey ink overtop. The final touch was to tear the edges of the cardstock.

The picture just does not do it justice. It was so pretty. I think by the time I was done with the castle, I was so tired I kinda skimped on the rest of the card, but I still think the finished product is suitable for the occasion.

Dynamic Christmas Colours

A friend showed me this card, and as soon as I saw it I knew it would be the inspiration for a set of Christmas cards I would make. I love untraditional Christmas colours, and this combo was so A.MAZ.ING.

Here's a look at the card I made:

And a close-up of the sentiment:

I especially like the three dots beside the sentiment. I had just purchased a supply of glitter glue from Michael's the day before in every colour under the rainbow and I couldn't wait to use it :)

In the Nick of time

It is 12 minutes to midnight as I begin typing this post. My goal is to be done before midnight so that I can get my entry for the November HCCC in on time.


I created the challenge for this month, and was super excited about it. Didn't seem like much of a "challenge" to me. Boy was I wrong. Couldn't get inspired. That'll teach me :)

So, I just sat down and started playing with cardstock. Forced myself to use a shade of blue (Ballet Blue - SU) that I have never used before. That was really hard for me, because I like sticking to my favourites :) Had some fun stamping the snowflakes and then heat embossing them with silver. Really wish that I had some rhinestones to use on the sentiment (to add some 'sparkle') but had to settle for some silver glitter glue.

The pictures are not great, 'cause I was pressed for time, but here's a look at the finished product:

11:55pm. Phew.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I think the Christmas season has officially arrived. My sister has had her house completely decorated for at least a week... her shopping is nearly complete and the presents are sitting wrapped under the tree waiting for Christmas morning. I've nearly perfected the Christmas playlist on my mp3 player and I'm singing along to it in the car every chance that I get. The only thing I'm waiting for is that first wonderful fall of snow. Can't hardly wait.

I was perusing the latest issue of Paper Crafts magazine not too long ago and was smitten by one of the featured cards on the cover. I thought... "I can do that", and set to work.

I love the simplicity of the layout, and the witty sentiment: Happy "holly"days. Hee hee.


I was especially psyched to use some of the red buttons that I picked up at the dollar store for the holly.

Stay tuned for more festive creations :)

Another Card

It's the beginning of a new week, so I figured the best way to start it off would be with another card for y'all.

Back in September I attended a shower for my cousin and his fiance who were recently wed.

I was in a rush to make a card for the shower, so I knew that the creation had to be quick and simple. Since I had a newly purchased package of Kraft cardstock just waiting for me, I pulled it out and set to work. Here's a look at what I came up with:

It was as I was surveying the finished product that I realized I hadn't used the sentiment stamp I had planned to use.

Instead of just saying "it looks good enough", I set to work stamping my intended sentiment and then adhered it overtop of the original sentiment with some foam adhesive to pop it up on the card:

The bride-to-be was very pleased with the card when she opened the envelope.

Inspired By Carrots

This month's HCCC was inspired by an abundance of carrots.

When I first looked at the picture, I was tempted to design the layout of my card to mimic the layout of the picture. But in the end I was short on time and I opted to just use the colours in the picture as my inspiration.

The most recent issue of Paper Crafts magazine had a sketch in it that I thought was fantastic and couldn't wait to use.

Here's the end result:

November is chock full 'o birthdays in my family, so I have a lot of b-day cards to make. I always find the guys cards the hardest ones to make, so I thought I would start there, and make a card for my older brother's birthday. I think he'll like this one.

I thought I would colour in the apples that are sitting in the back of the pick-up, so that they would 'pop' on the front of the card. The end result is a bit more subtle than I was expecting - but I think I like that even more :)

cardstock: chocolate chip, certainly celery, pumpkin pie (SU!)
stamps: Countryside (SU!)
embellishments: eyelets (making memories)
ink: chocolate chip (SU!), antique linen (Tim Holtz Distress Ink)

Quick and Easy Birthday Card

My nephew had a birthday 5 weeks ago, and I was pressed for time, so I had to assemble a card for him in a hurry.

When I think of kid's cards, I am always drawn to bright colours, and for some reason boy = blue.

So, I took out my new Cuttlebug, the sweet embossing folder that I bought on sale at Walmart, and the birthday sentiment stamp that I borrowed from Angela, and whipped up this little creation:

I love how the stars 'pop' on the card and that they bring a sense of celebration to it as well. I also love how simple, easy and quick this card was to make.

I'm always playing around with variations of this layout. Next time I'll probably try this layout with some ribbon, and maybe heat emboss the stars as well.

Tidings of Comfort & Joy

I made a bunch of Christmas cards back in the summer, but haven't had a chance to post all of them yet.

I really like this one:

It's just elegant and classy. I used black, red and vanilla card stock, and I got to use my new cuttlebug die cut for the oval shape that I stamped "merry wishes" on.

Can't wait to make some more super festive Christmas cards!

Musical Inspiration

OK, it's really late (or early, depending on how you look at it), so I apologize if there isn't much substance to this post, but I wanted to make sure that I got my HCCC card for September posted before the month was over :)

Here's a look at my finished product:

It is a 6" x 6" card. I had a hard time picking a 'favourite' song to inspire me. How can I just choose one? So, I decided to keep my selection to music from the past year, and I picked the song that I listened to the most over the past 12 months. My inspiring song choice was 'United States of Eurasia' by Muse. I listened to it over and over and over and over again while working on the card so that it would inspire me.

The second part of the challenge was to use paper piecing. Ever since I got this sweet stamp (as seen in the above pic) in a Unity KOM, I have been dying to paper piece it. It took me several attempts to get the effect that I was going for, but I am really happy with the final result.

But, it just didn't seem like enough on its own. I needed a little something extra to pull the card together, and settled on adding a cluster of buttons in the lower right-hand corner for that finishing touch.

I wasn't really sure what type of sentiment to put on the card, but felt that the one I chose fit in with the umbrella.

Not sure what type of occasion I can use this card for, but I'm sure I will find a use for it someday. In the meantime it looks pretty sitting on my bookshelf :)

White Crayon..... Who Knew?

I'm really excited about this post. I just finished this card, and I couldn't wait to share it with y'all:

I received a truly excellent, unexpected gift on the weekend, and needed to make a card to thank the giver. Since the intended recipient likes all things 'rooster', I knew that I was going to use the rooster stamp from my SU "Provencal" stamp set.

I cased a bunch of different cards on Splitcoaststampers and combined all of the elements that I liked into this card. I wasn't really sure what to do with the empty space at the bottom under the stamped image, but ended up finishing it off with some rustic looking button-y goodness.

The most exciting part of this card for me is the stamped image of the rooster. While I was looking for inspiration on Splitcoaststampers, I saw a card on which the artist had used white crayon and then used the emboss-resist technique overtop. "Interesting," I thought to myself, "what a great way to highlight a stamped image..... I can totally do that!"

So, I hunted through my crafty storage and unearthed a white crayon from an old box of crayons, and set to work. I just love the end result:

I will totally have to use this technique on more cards in the future.