Use it Up group 1

Here's the first group of individual card pictures from the groups I shared last night.

I used SC306 for the layout.  I had a small strip of the polka dot paper, and I just made a quick mat for it using a MS border punch.

Supplies for Wishing You All the Best card:
Stamps:  Verve "Great Friend" for flower (cut out and popped up using foam tape) and sentiment from Verve "Kind Words"
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Paper:  Cream, Bazzill "Foxy" and dp from K & Co. Brenda Walton "Small Wonders Girl"
Other:  MS Vintage Floral border punch, ivory organdy ribbon from stash, Bow Easy, Nestabilities circle and petite scalloped circle dies, Recollections pearl flourish
Card size:  A2

I used the same layout for the next two cards and just changed the sentiment and the accents.  I had a bunch of thin strips from trimming full sheets that were just too big to throw away.  SC343 was the perfect layout for using up my strips.

The birthday card uses rhinestones to accent the flower's center and the feel better soon card has pearls for the accent.  For both cards, I stamped flowers in 2 sizes, trimmed them down by hand, and then mounted the smaller flower on foam tape to give it a little more dimension.  I also cut the petals apart a little bit and slightly turned the edges up for additional dimmension. 

Supplies for Birthday Wishes card:
Stamps:  Verve "Great Friend" for flowers, sentiment from Verve "Wishful Elegance"
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: Cream, Bazzill "Foxy" and dp from K & Co. Brenda Walton "Small Wonders Girl"
Other:  Recollections rhinestones
Card size:  A2

Supplies for Feel Better Soon card:
Stamps:  Verve "Great Friend" for flowers, sentiment from Verve "Feel Better Soon" plain jane stamp
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: Cream, Bazzill "Foxy" and dp from K & Co. Brenda Walton "Small Wonders Girl"
Other: Recollections pearls
Card size: A2
Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

I Did It!

Well, I did it!  I managed to use up an ENTIRE paper pad.  I love the various paper pads and have collected (ahem!) quite a stack of them.  I decided that I was going to use up one of them, and I managed to do it. 

I had a variety of paper sizes.  Some sheets were 4" x 6" and others were various scraps which were anything from an inch to half sheets.  I started with some VLV and Sketch Challenge layouts from Splitcoaststampers, and I just made a whole bunch of card bases that were focused on just getting the dps on to the card bases.  Since I was just making "generic" layouts at this point, the most challenging part was to go back and find sentiments that fit the character of the paper and the orientation and spacing of the layouts.  I used some layouts several times, and other layouts just once again based on what I had available. 

These cards will all be going to my mother-in-law for Christmas.  For the past few years, I've been giving her a big box of assorted occasion cards, and she really likes it, so I will continue to make cards for her.

I'll start with the "group photos" and then I will post the individual cards including the supplies used over 2 maybe 3 other posts as I think it will just be too long for one post with the various layout pictures included.

I shared the two cards on the right (perk up and beautiful kindness) last week, but they were also made with this dp, so I included them again in this group photo.

Here's what I had left at the end of my "use it up!" campaign.  For reference, the white paper is 12" square.  I was OK with tossing ALL of these little bits.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

Beautiful Day

I made a card for The Shabby Tea Room's Color Me Pretty Challenge.  We were supposed to use pink, blue, white/cream, flowers, and a fabric element such as ribbon.  I also combined this challenge with the Oldie But Goodie Challenge which is Anything Goes.

Here's the pretty inspiration photo from TSTR.  What a lovely setting!

For my card, I went with soft blue and pink with cream, a flower, and a wired blue ribbon as the fabric element.  I'd tossed that bow aside when making a different project, and it was just perfect for today.

To make the scalloped border, I used a MS straight border punch and cut apart the repeats.  I covered the seams with the little pearls. 

Here's a closeup of the bow and flower.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Verve "Beautiful Kindness"
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Papers:  cream, dps from K & Co. Brenda Walton "Small Wonders Girl"
Other:  Recollections flower, organdy wired ribbon from stash, Bow Easy, MS vintage floral border punch, Recollections pearls

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

A Fantastically Magical Day

I'm back to share my last 3 cards for the Viva La Verve challenge on Splitcoaststampers.  I finished these cards earlier this week, and just didn't get around to posting them.

The first card uses Charmaine's sketch for week 2.  I loved the look of this sketch with all of the different elements involved.

I'll admit, this sketch was by far the hardest one for me. I was set on using a particular floral paper, and the string of circles at the bottom would have covered the biggest rose, so I just put a few small roses on the left and let them flow into the big rose.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Verve "Birthday Surprise" sentiment
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Papers:  Cream, green, dps from K & Co. "Watercolor Bouquet"
Other:  Organdy ribbon from stash, Bow Easy, pink ball button from stash, Recollections mini roses, Nestabilities circle and petite scalloped circle dies

Card #2 uses Maureen's sketch.   This sketch is a pretty simple layout that could be used for a lot of different styles.  I think I might reuse it for some Father's Day cards.

Here's my card.  I wanted to use the coffee cup with the sentiment, but it was just too large of a circle to put them all together.  So I stamped the sentiment and cut it out by hand.  I wasn't sure if it would show up very well if I just stamped it on that polka dot paper.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Verve "Better With You" image and sentiment
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
Papers:  Cream, green, pink, dps from K & Co. Brenda Walton "Small Wonders Girl"
Other:  Nestabilities circles dies, cream ribbon from stash, Bow Easy, button from stash, thin twine, Copic markers

The third card uses a CAS (clean and simple) sketch from Andrea.

 I like to add flowers, ribbons, and other embellishments almost as much as Andrea, and as you can see, there isn't a ribbon or even a mini rose in sight!  I used some bright and fun dps, and just stamped a sentiment in the corner.  There was a bit of smudging on my first attempt.  Somehow my hand slipped off the acrylic stamper, and I had a blurred sentiment.  I cut out another bit of paper, and then rescued the butterfly from the bad piece and adhered it using some foam tape.  It gives the card a little more dimension, so all in all, it turned out to be a happy accident.

Supplies:  Verve "Birthday Surprise" sentiment
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Papers:  white, black, dps from The Paper Studio "Daydream Doodle"
Other:  foam tape


Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

For You

Good morning!   Today I'd like to share a card that I made for the following challenges:  Just Magnolia and Hanglar Stanglar:  use gingham, Papertake Weekly:  sketch, and Simon Says Stamp:  Anything Goes.

Let's start with a look at Dawny's sketch for PTW.  I always love her sketches!

I started looking for a gingham paper in my stash and turned to some Basic Grey papers from the "Sultry" collection for my card.  I got going with pink, and the result is a very pink card! 

I really love this Tilda image!  I just think she is so cute with her nearly overflowing bouquet of flowers.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Image from Magnolia, sentiment from SU! "Elements of Style"
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
Papers:  white, dps and dark pink mat from Basic Grey "Sultry"
Other:  Nestabilities circle and petite scalloped circle dies, Recollections large flower and mini rose, organdy ribbon, Bow Easy, Copic markers, pink lace from stash

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

ODBD SLC 109 Faith looks up

I finished up my card for the ODBD sketch challenge, so I thought I might as well get it posted right away while Ariel is doing some reading and not in immediate need of anything!  Plus, the deadline is tomorrow morning, and if I don't do it now, it probably won't be posted in time.  LOL

We were given a great sketch to use for this challenge!   I think I will be using this one again in the future.

Here's my interpretation.  I'm still working on using up that Brenda Walton paper, but the stack is getting smaller!  :)  It is an odd sized card, 4" x 6 3/4" which fits into a leftover photo card envelope from Christmas.  I tried to tell the clerk that she'd given me waaay too many envelopes, but she wouldn't take any of them back. 

This sentiment really resonated with me as I've gone through the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not the cyst was cancerous.  I did a lot of praying, and it was very comforting to know that I had a lot of friends and family praying for me as well.  I'm so thankful to be on a smooth road to recovery!  How very blessed I am to be returning to good health.

Here's a closeup of the butterfly.

I colored it with Copics and cut it out by hand.  

Supplies:
Stamps:  ODBD "Faith" and "Butterfly"
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black and Versafine Onyx Black
Paper:  white, green, dps from K & Co. Brenda Walton "Small Wonders Girl"
Other:  foam tape (to pop up the butterfly), Nestabilities, white organdy ribbon, Bow Easy, Recollections mini rose, Recollections pearl flourish

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah

Thinking of You

So I thought, I think I'll have just enough time this morning to make a card using Jacque's sketch and get it posted by the challenge deadline.  I managed to get 4 challenges combined on this one card, and I am definitely feeling that my mojo is returning!  Whew!  It helps that these 4 challenges just happened to combine some of my favorite things:  colors, flowers, a great sketch, and some favorite papers.  :)

Challenges:
Just Magnolia and Hanglar Stanglar #157:  Use Jacque's sketch (I loved this sketch!)
Cute Card Thursday #218:  Use pink and green (one of my favorite color combos!)
Basic Grey Challenge #68:  Anything Goes (BG is one of my favorite papers!  I used papers from the "Sultry" collection, an oldie but a goodie.)
The Shabby Tea Room #115:  "Garden Party" (love the roses in the photo!)

Let's start with a look at the sketch and inspiration photo:

TSTR's challenge was to use the colors of the photo (pink, white, green, sky blue, and brown) along with a dimensional flower.

Here's my card.  The sky blue is a little hard to see, but I went around the edges of my colored image with the lightest blue marker I have to give it a soft edge effect.

Here's an enlarged view, and I think the light blue shows up just a little better.

Supplies:
Stamps:  image from Magnolia, sentiment from SU! "You are Loved"
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
Papers:  White, dps from Basic Grey "Sultry"
Other:  Recollections large flower and Prima roses, MS leaf punches, Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Sarah