Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge - Hey diddle diddle

Happy Monday, everybody!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Today I have a card for this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge.  Since it's the second week of the month, that means it's time for a designer drafts challenge:

Yep, it's another one of Kim's awesome sketches.  And like I've said before, these sketches have truly challenged me.  But from every challenging sketch has come a card I've been really happy with. And this sketch is no exception.  Here's the sketch:

See, those curved lines just messed with me. My brain wants them to have a purpose, and not just serve as an arbitrary place to change patterned papers or something like that.  I need to have a reason to have something shaped like that on my card.  Dumb, I know, but that's just how my brain works.  So after looking at that sketch for a while, it hit me: those two curvy lines create a shape that looks like a crescent moon.  Then I had the perfect idea for this paper yummy:

 I used that crescent moon to make a baby card based on the nursery rhyme "Hey, diddle diddle."  You know, the part where "the cow jumped over the moon."  I free-hand drew the moon, cut it out of the yellow gingham paper, and stitched around the edges.  I stamped the cow from the Green Acres set onto white cardstock, masking the legs when I inked it so that I could stamp them at an angle to make it look more like the cow was jumping.  After I colored it in, I fussy-cut around it, and boy is that tale skinny!  I stuck the back legs and udders behind the moon, and the front legs on top of the moon.  I adhered the back of the cow down flat to the card, and used foam tape under his face:

I stamped a star from the Space Cadet set onto the blue patterned paper, and drew in a line to make it "hang" from the moon. I used the Alphadot and Graffiti sets to create my sentiment.  I was inspired by this post by Kim Hughes herself where she encouraged us to use stamps in different ways. To create the "Hey", I used the A from Graffiti, but masked off the top part to turn it into an H.  The y is a lower case h turned upside down.  I ruffled some gingham ribbon and hot-glued it around the edge of the blue paper.  I finished off the card with a button and some twine:

I'm really excited to see how other people interpret and use this sketch!  You can play along with the challenge here.  You have until next Sunday, August 19th at 11:59 PM EST to play along.  The winner will receive a $30 credit to the Paper Smooches store!!  And don't forget the check out the rest of Team 2's wonderful creations, and give em' some love!

Angeline

Erica

Jackie

Savannah

Thanks so much for looking!  Now get busy with that sketch! :)

Supplies: cardstock: Core'dinations (kraft) Georgia Pacific (white for stamping); patterned papers: My Mind's Eye; stamps: Paper Smooches; ink: Tsukineko; markers, black pen: Copic; ribbon: American Crafts; button, twine: craft supply; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Coats & Clark (yellow), Singer (white)

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge - Squeal!

Happy Monday, everybody!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Today I have a card for this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge.  Since it's the second week of the month, that means it's time for a designer drafts challenge:

Here is the awesome sketch Kim designed for us this week:

I thought this was a pretty fun sketch to work with.  I wanted to use some of the super cute stamps from the Paper Smooches June release to make a baby card.  Now for the paper yummies:

I stamped and paper-pieced the adorable little piggy from the new Green Acres set, and used the "squeal" from the same set.  Then I used another sentiment from the Pip Squeaks set below that.  I used patterned papers from the new Echo Park Sweet Day collection.  I fussy-cut this banner from one of the patterned papers, and stitched across the top of it and around the orange paper:

I finished off the card with some twine and a button:

I'm really excited to see how other people interpret and use this sketch!  You can play along with the challenge here.  You have until next Sunday, June 17th at 11:59 PM EST to play along.  The winner will receive a $30 credit to the Paper Smooches store!!  And don't forget the check out the rest of Team 2's wonderful creations, and give em' some love!

Angeline

Erica

Jackie

Savannah

Thanks so much for looking!  Now get busy with that sketch! :)

Supplies: card base: Recollections; patterned paper: Echo Park; stamps: Paper Smooches; ink: Tsukineko; twine: Offray; button: craft supply; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer

CPS 263 and Color Throwdown 190

Hello again!  I'm back with my second post for today (for my Simple Card Saturday post, click here).  For this card I used this week's sketch from Card Positioning Systems:

I also used this yummy color combination from Color Throwdown:

I actually liked this combination so much that this is the second card I made using it.  I'll be posting the first card I made tomorrow, and it's SUPER cute, so make sure you come back to see it!  Okay, for this card, I wanted to use a nice big "baby boy" stamp I got recently, and I thought it would be perfect for the large horizontal element in the card sketch.  So I created this paper yummy:

Man, I just love those colors together!  They work so perfectly for a baby boy card, but also for a feminine card.  In fact, the first card I made for this color challenge was a Mother's Day card, and I even used the exact same patterned papers too!  I'm definitely going to have to keep this combination in the ol' ideas file.

The baby stamp is from a Recollections (Michael's brand) set I got on clearance a few weeks back.  I love the subtle tiny polka dot pattern in the stamp.  I stamped it in Versamark ink, which looked good enough on that gray cardstock to leave it alone, but I'm glad I went with the mustard embossing powder.  It really pops, and matches the yellow paper perfectly!

The "welcome" stamp is from the Paper Smooches Simply Said set.  It has the most awesome sentiments!  I embossed it with charcoal embossing powder.  I machine stitched around the edges of the patterned papers, then finished off the card with these perfect buttons and baker's twine:

Now I just need to find somebody who's expecting a boy... oh wait, that would mean I would actually be giving this card away. Never mind.

I'm playing along here:
Card Positioning Systems Sketch #263
Color Throwdown Challenge #190
CropStop Challenge #70: Emboss It (2nd entry)
Little Red Wagon Challenge #131: Stitch It Up (2nd entry)
One Stop Craft Challenge #181: Celebrations

Supplies: cardstock: Core'dinations (gray), Georgia Pacific (white); patterned papers: Echo Park (blue), My Mind's Eye (yellow), KI Memories (green); stamps: Recollections (baby boy), Paper Smooches (welcome); ink: Versamark; embossing powders: American Crafts; corner rounder, hole punch: We R Memory Keepers; baker's twine: Divine Twine; buttons: Buttons Galore & More; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer

Simple Card Saturday and Paper Smooches SPARKS DT call - Congratulations

Happy Saturday, everybody! I hope you all had as wonderful a week as I did. I've felt so honored and blessed recently, first with the April guest designer spot at Paper Smooches, then making the Design Team at CAS-ual Fridays. And, just a few days ago, I got 3 (yep. Count 'em. 3) requests for publication in the September issue of CARDS magazine. I haven't seen my work in print yet, and won't until August, but between August and September, I will have a total of SIX projects posted. I seriously cannot wait! I really hope my luck continues as I apply for the Paper Smooches SPARKS DT. This is my second entry for that call, as well as my simple card for today. Here is the inspiration photo I used:So, with inspiration photos and sketches, I usually do a pretty literal translation. I'm trying not to be so literal and give myself a little more freedom. I guess I can't really help the way that something inspires me, but I'm going to try to think a little more outside the box and outside my comfort zone, at least as it relates to the photo. I made this card without having the picture in front of me (usually I pull it up on my laptop and refer back to it several times during the card-making process). I didn't do that this time. Instead, I tried to evoke a sense of what inspired me about the photo when I last looked at it a couple days ago. This was, of course, after I pulled out a puffy pink felt onesie embellishment (to do my whole literal thing), and it just wasn't quite right. I remembered feeling inspired by the darker pink color of the onesie, the lovely fabric adorning the top, the pop of green, and the baby theme. That's when I arrived at this paper yummy:
I really love just how SWEET this card turned out. I paper-pieced this adorable flower stamp from Pebbles Inc., and the sentiment is from the Paper Smooches Simply Said set. I LOVE just how crisply the sentiment stamped (which can be said for all Paper Smooches stamps!). I added a tiny button, machine stitching, a big feminine eyelet ribbon at the top, and some dainty little scalloped strips to the top and bottom. Here's a close-up of that adorable flower:

I'm playing along here:

Crafty Creations Challenges #165: Flower Power

Little Red Wagon Spring Colors Challenge

Lily Pad Cards Flowers Challenge

Pile It On #15: All About S (sewing, scallops, stamping)

The Ribbon Carousel Challenge 48: Sketch (I flipped it)

Simon Says Stamp Challenge: April Showers Bring Spring Flowers

The Pink Elephant TPE143: Flowers

The Pixie Cottage Challenge 116: Paper Piecing

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge 134: Make a Joyful Card - Something Celebratory

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white), Recollections (natural); patterned papers: KI Memories (green gingham), Echo Park (dark pink dots), DCWV (light pink dots), stamps: Paper Smooches (sentiment), Pebbles Inc. (image); ink: Tsukineko; scallop edge punch: Martha Stewart; ribbon: Offray; button: American Crafts; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer

Paper Smooches March release and CAS-ual Fridays: welcome to the world

Happy Tuesday! I'm having so much fun with the Paper Smooches Stamps March Release. I love 'em so hard! I finally got to play with Zoo Crew, which has the most adorable little animals. I wanted to create another card for the CAS-ual Fridays current challenge:And I followed this sketch:

Since the sketch has this nice long skinny panel in the middle, I picked the giraffe (plus, she looks the cutest for a baby card). I stamped the giraffe onto some cute patterned paper using brown ink, then cut it out and placed it on some more cute patterned paper. Now for the paper yummies:
I pieced together the sentiment using a bunch of stamps from the Word Salad set.

I love the way it turned out! This card is playing along here:

CAS-ual Fridays CFC42: Hey, Baby!

Just Us Girls #126 Sketch Challenge

The Pink Elephant "Let's see those layers" challenge

Simon Says Stamp "Anything Goes" Challenge

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: card base: Recollections; cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white for giraffe's eye); patterned papers: Echo Park; stamps: Paper Smooches; ink: Memento; scallop edge punch: Fiskars; corner rounder punch: We R Memory Keepers; ribbon: Michael's; button: craft supply

CPS Day 13 and Paper Smooches Sparks - welcome lil' dude

I'm back with my card for day 13 of the Card Positioning Systems 5th anniversary celebration. I loved this sketch the first time it was featured on CPS, so I was very excited when Lea chose it for her sketch. See, I knew I wanted to make a baby card based on the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge, and this sketch just fit my idea perfectly. Here's the CPS sketch (#121):And here's the inspiration photo from the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge. I just love this puffy lil' felt heart with the stitching:
I was inspired by the felt and the stitching, but I took my card in a bit of a different direction, color-wise. I had just bought these cute little stitched felt embellishments the day I saw this challenge, so that worked out perfectly! And since I still only have 1 Paper Smooches stamp set, I'm challenging myself to find some not-so-obvious ways to use it. I wanted to make a baby card, but there's no baby-specific stamp in the Word Salad set. Hmmm...I was in a bit of a quandary. What to do...? Check out the paper yummies below to see how I created a baby card sentiment with non-baby stamps:

The Word Salad set has a "welcome" and a "dude" stamp, so I combined the two and then hand-wrote the "lil'" between the two stamped words. And since the inspiration photo had stitching in it, I added some stitching of my own around the card and the negative circle die cut, as well as with some stitched green ribbon. I love the way it turned out. Here is a closer view:
I'm entering this card here:

Card Positioning Systems 5th Anniversary Day 13

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge

Paper Smooches March Guest Designer Search

Lily Pad Cards Patterned Paper challenge

Crafty Emma's Store Lots of Layers challenge

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: card base (kraft): The Paper Studio; patterned papers: SEI (blue pattern, yellow stripes), We R Memory Keepers (multi-colored stripes); stamps: Paper Smooches; ink: Tsukineko; black pen (for handwritten "lil'"): Hampton Art; circle die: Spellbinders Nestabilities; die cutting machine: Cuttlebug; felt sailboat: Pebbles; corner rounder: We R Memory Keepers; ribbon: Making Memories; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer

CPS Day 12 - Welcome baby

Happy Wednesday! Here is my card for day 12 of the Card Positioning Systems 5th anniversary celebration. Here is the sketch (#118):

I just got the "Whale Wishes" stamp set and matching die from Papertrey Ink, and thought it would work really well with this sketch. I also thought that these papers from My Mind's Eye were so cute for a baby card - I especially LOVE those letters! I stamped the whale in gray ink, then applied Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen to help the whale match the gray in the patterned papers. I curved the sentiment stamp on my acrylic block to match the curve on the circle die cut. Now for the paper yummies:

I added some straight gray stitching around the outer edge of the alphabet patterned paper, then zig-zag stitched around the circle. I stamped the little red hearts coming out of the whale's blow hole. I love this little guy! Here's a closer look:

I am also playing along with:

Lily Pad Cards patterned paper challenge

Paper Play Challenges "Love Letters" challenge

Crafty Emma's Store "Lots of Layers" challenge

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: card base: The Paper Studio; cardstock (for stamping): Georgia Pacific; patterned papers: My Mind's Eye; stamps: Papertrey Ink; whale die: Papertrey Ink; die cutting machine: Cuttlebug; ink: Memento (gray), Staz-On (red), Ranger (Tim Holtz Distress Ink); ribbon: craft supply; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer; dimensional adhesive: American Crafts