Best Wishes!

I'd been thinking about the current sketch at Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge for several days.  I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to do with it.  Then I looked at two other challenges, the Bingo challenge at Papertake Weekly, and the Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend challenge at The Shabby Tea Room, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do:  use my Mom's buttons!


First, the super cute sketch.  I just loved that big flower at the top.

Second, the bingo board for PTW.  I used the whole board except lace and punches.

Finally, the inspiration photo from TSTR.  Look at all of those beautiful sparkles and pearls!

I started by laying out the various button options that I thought would work.  You can see the Marianne doily die that I used underneath all of the buttons as a kind of frame.

So I putzed around and tried all sorts of different buttons, and then took a picture of it just in case I knocked it on the floor.  I really didn't want to try to lay it all out again!

Here's the finished card:  The picture is just a little blurry as the camera was fighting to focus.  I think the big gem in the bottom button was casting some glare that didn't help matters.

I added mini pearls all around the edges of the doily as a finishing touch along with a few pearls scattered throughout the design to fill in some of the empty space.  I used a second doily die cut (one from Stampin' Up!) to fill in the space between the buttons and flowers.

I used a wire cutter to snip off the shanks on the buttons before I glued them in place.  The 2 smaller flowers above are made using a scrap of Warm & Natural 100% cotton quilt bat with the rolled rose die from My Favorite Things.  The larger center flower is made with a Sizzix die using the same batting.

Mom left a paper box (the ones that come with 8 reams of 8 1/2" x 11" paper) FULL of these lavish buttons.  She had planned to make a whole bunch of button angels for Christmas tree ornaments.  They are so quick and easy to do, and it is so fun to pair up the different buttons and look at all of the possible combinations.  Ariel and I are going to work our way through this button box at some point before Christmas (I hope!).  She can be in charge of layouts, and I'll run the hot glue gun.

This angel is about 4" tall including the hook.  Here's what the back looks like to give you an idea of just how quickly these angels can be assembled.  First glue the head and wing buttons in place, and then add a hanging wire on the back.  If you decide to try this project, these ornaments can be quite heavy depending on the size of buttons used, so make sure you get a lot of glue in there to hold it all together!

Card supplies:
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse Stamps:  "Fancy Phrases"
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Paper:  White
Other:  Black satin ribbon, Prima glitter rose, a few buttons from JoAnn's, other buttons from Mom's stash (some of them might be Favorite Findings?), Recollections mini pearls, Marianne doily die, Stampin' Up! doily die (layered on top of Marianne die), rolled rose die from MFT, Sizzix die
Card size:  5 7/8" square (I slipped when I was cutting it, so it's not 6" this time!)


Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

Summer Challenge card

Hi!  Today I have a summer themed challenge card to share with you.  With the temperature over 90 today, it seems to be an appropriate theme!

Here are the challenges I combined:
Simon Says Stamp:  summer inspiration photo board (I chose to use the colors pink, orange, and green which were prevalent in many of the pictures along with flowers)
Our Daily Bread Designs SLC112:  Summer theme (I chose flowers)
PaperTake Weekly:  3 -2 - 1 (3 gems, 2 dps and 2 different ribbons, 1 mini rose)
Sketch Saturday 212:  layout

Here's a look at the inspiration photo with its glorious summery colors!

Here's the layout I used from Sketch Saturday.  I was the lucky winner in last week's challenge, and I still haven't narrowed down my wish list to Simon Says Stamp!  :)

Here's my card.  I used a flower stamp from ODBD called "Bleeding Heart" as the focal point for my card.  For the cluster of 3 circles shown in the sketch, I combined a bow, mini rose, and bling flourish.

Here's a closeup of the bleeding hearts.

I really liked the colors in the hot air balloon, and on the inside of my card, the dp I used gives that same effect.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Our Daily Bread Designs "Bleeding Heart" and sentiment from ODBD "Birthday Blessings"
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black and Memento Tuxedo Black
Papers:  White, black, dps from Basic Grey "Sweet Threads"
Other:  Organdy ribbon for bow from stash, American Crafts ribbon (the wider one), Bow Easy, Recollections bling flourish, Recollections mini rose, Copic markers
Card size:  6" square

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

Something x 4 Challenge

Good morning!  This week's Shining the Light Challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs involves 4 different somethings:  borrowed, blue, old, and new.  Sounds fun, doesn't it?  In addition to sketches, I love using recipes like this one when making a card.

I used a layout from Sketch Saturday.

Here's my card.
Something old:  ODBD "Faith" butterfly branch stamp
Something new:  dps from Prima "Madeline"
Something blue:  blue butterflies
Something borrowed/gift:  Hero Arts Hero Hues pink pearls that I won at SCS for the HYCCT challenge last fall

Supplies used:
Stamps:  ODBD "Faith"
Papers:  white, dark brown, dps from Prima "Madeline"
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Other:  Recollections pearl flourish, Hero Arts Hero Hues pink pearls, Prima flower
Card size:  6" square

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

Challenge Cards

This morning I have 2 challenge cards to share with you.  I made the first one for The Shabby Tea Room's Shabby Beautiful challenge using the June week 2 VLV sketch.  Check out the inspiration photo!

Tosh's sketch was so fun to use! I had a lot of fun laying out different dps and creating all of these layers.

I found some Prima "Madeline" papers that even looked like the wallpaper in the inspiration photo right down to the little bird in the corner!

Supplies: 
Stamps:  Verve "Love Story"
Papers:  White, dark brown for mats, dps from Prima "Madeline"
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Other:  MFT doily die, lace from stash, pink organdy ribbon from stash, blue flower by Recollections, Bow Easy
Card size:  A2

My second card is for VLV June week 1.  I've had this done for several days, and I just hadn't posted it yet.  Check out this great sketch from Amber!

I managed to use up a little more of that Basic Grey "Sultry" paper pad.  It's almost gone! 

Supplies:
Stamps:  Verve "Beautiful You"
Papers:  White, black, dps from Basic Grey "Sultry"
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, SU! pink (didn't write down what I used, sorry!) for sponging
Other:  Recollections gem flourish, black satin ribbon, Bow Easy, Recollections single gems, black button from stash
Size:  6" square

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

Hola Chica!

This is my second post for today as I have some challenge cards that need to be posted by the deadline!  For the Sketch Saturday challenge, I decided to use a cute little chickie that I colored sometime back in April.  It was originally going to be used on an Easter card, but I didn't get a chance to finish it. 

Here's this week's sketch. 

Here's my spring inspired card.  I decided that my chickie looked better in an oval, so I modified the layout just a little bit.

Supplies used:
Stamps:  Verve "Chicks Rule" image and sentiment
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black and Memento Tuxedo Black
Papers:  White, black, dps from The Paper Studio "Daydream Doodle"
Other:  pink organdy ribbon from stash, Bow Easy, Recollections bling accents, Copics, Nestabilities oval and scalloped oval dies

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

Santa's Workshop WMSC 100

Congratulations to Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge as they celebrate their 100th challenge!  They are having some special prizes in honor of this milestone.  If you haven't already entered, you can find out the challenge details and prizes available using the above link.

Here's the sketch for this week.

I decided to use my "Santa Was Here" set for the challenge.  I thought that the little reindeer in the dp would be the perfect complement to Santa and his sleigh in the image.

Supplies used:
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse Stamps "Santa Was Here"
Ink:  SU! "Cherry Cobbler"
Papers:  White, pink, dps from Basic Grey "Eskimo Kisses"
Other:  May Arts 1 1/4" burgundy silk ribbon, Bow Easy, white heart button from stash, thin twine, small jingle bell (Michael's), SU! ticket corner punch, MS border punch

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

Seeing Double

So I sat down to make a card with the goal of using up more of my Basic Grey "Sultry" paper pad.  The remaining papers however were a combination of some of my favorite prints and some of my least favorite prints.  What to do?  Cover as much as possible of my least favorite print.

I started with Papertake Weekly's sketch from a recent challenge, changed the proportions to fit my scraps, and made the image panel a circle instead of a rectangle.

I ended up making 2 cards that will go to my two best friends from college.  I figured that if I wanted to use up this paper as that deepest layer in the layout, I should use up both sheets of the print while I had an idea of what I should do with it!  The layout hides most of the pattern of these really big leaves that are pink, lime green, and brown with white popping through, and I'm pretty happy with my finished projects.

Here are the matching cards for Suz and Chris.  I used two different sentiments.

Here's the Butterfly Kisses card.

Here's the Springtime Hello card.

Supplies used:
Stamps:  Magnolia, sentiments from Whimsy stamps "Spring Letter Seals"
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black and Memento Tuxedo Black
Papers:  white, dps from Basic Grey "Sultry"
Other:  Copic markers, MS butterflies punch, Recollections pearls, Nestabilities circle and petite scalloped circle dies, Recollections glittery flower, Prima mini rose, Organdy ribbon from stash, Bow Easy, pink lace from stash

I'm entering these cards in two challenges:  Anything Goes at Just Magnolia and Hanglar Stanglar and Anything Goes at Papertake Weekly.

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah