Take off for good times

I'm getting ready to put my house up for sale and so I've packed away a lot of my craft supplies. I've tried to just keep out the basics along with a minimum of patterned paper and embellishments. As a result I'm trying to use what I have still unpacked in more creative ways.

This boy's birthday card is completely without stamps (the good times sun is a rub-on) and as all my crafty friends now, I love my stamps, but they were one of the first items I packed away (except for some favorites, of course). I added brads in an unusual way (for me) by putting them onto the tree. And finally, I created the bike ramp by using strips of scrap paper. The design of the card is out of a magazine but unfortunately I can't share which one because all my magazines are packed now and I forgot to write the magazine name down when I made note of the sketch. The papers are all Abby Road.

Challenges:

• Bling It On - A-B-C (Abby Road, Bike, Clouds)
• Cards for Men - Anything goes
• City Crafter - Use scraps
• Paper Crafting Journey - Anything goes
• Paper Issues - Let's ride
• Paper Playtime - Anything goes
• Secret Crafter - Create a scene
• Unstampabelles - Wheels

A little birdie told me

Today's card is a pretty simple one - I coloured a stamped image from Whipper Snapper using the Paper Pals colour challenge combo as my guide. The sketch is from Midnight Madness. I used Basic Grey's Life of the Party background paper and embellishment (the flower). Once again I've left off any sentiment so that I can use the card for a multitude of occasions although I am leaning towards using it as a congratulations card ("A little birdie told me you ...").

 

Challenges:

• Crafts & Me - anything goes
• Divas by Design - summer
• Glitter Geeks - furry & feathery friends
• Pal's Paper Arts - color challenge (the colours match much more closely in real life)
• Simply Create - favourite animal (cats!!!!)
• Tuesday Throwdown - summer

A dragon for any reason

UPDATE:  365 Cards chose my card as one of their Spotlight Designs! I also won the random draw at Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday! It's been a great week for winning!

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I coloured this absolutely adorable little dragon awhile ago and finally got my act together and made him into a card. I haven't decided whether he'll be for a birthday, thank you or just because so he'll go without a sentiment for now. I just love how the colours and image are perfect for a boy even though the main embellishment is a pair of stacked canvas flowers.

The papers and flowers I used are from Basic Grey's "Life of the Party" set and the dragon is from Bugaboo. Isn't he cute? As usual, I used Copics for my colouring.

Challenges:

• 365 Cards - pair of opposites (first set: colours - blue & orange - that are opposite to each other on a colour wheel; 2nd set: masculine image - dragon - with feminine embellishment - flowers)
• Anything Goes Challenge - flowers
• Basic Grey - sketch - too late to enter the challenge :(
• Craft Us Crazy - anything goes
• Fabulous Friday - colour in an image
• Lil Red Wagon - critters
• Scrappin' Chic - banners/pennants (on the patterned paper)
• Stamp Something - use a digi

Road work ahead

I was inspired to make today's card by an article in the June issue of Cardmaking & Papercrafts about making masculine cards using die cuts. I apologize for the poor quality of the picture but my camera battery died and I had to scan the card - my scanner never seems to get the colours quite right.

The papers and die cuts are all from Abbey Road. The wheels on the van are circle-punched from the patterned paper, then attached loosely with brads (so they actually turn).

Challenges:

• Bling it On - A-B-C (abby road papers, brads, car)
• Here Come the Boys - travel
• Come & Get It - anything goes
• Corrosive Challenges - male
• Craft Us Crazy - anything goes
• Crafts & Me - anything goes
• Craft Your Passion - anything goes
• For Fun Challenges - anything goes
• Heidi's Hobbystuggu - card for a man
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes with optional metal
• Unstampabelles - wheels

Getting zipped

Last week I found a zipper laying on the floor of the laundry room. Of course I didn't throw it away, instead thinking to myself "how can I use this on a project?" Well, I decided to try my hand at an ATC.

I only had the zipper pull so I started by creating a zipper strip out of embossed paper. I then attached stars to some coated wire and inserted them so that it would look like the stars were shooting out of the unzipped pocket. Oh, and just in case you aren't already horrified impressed by my use of garbage reclaimed materials, the backing for the ATC is scavenged from a MacDonald's Happy Meal toy package. I am the Queen of Cheap! And now I must go shopping .... LOL.

Challenges:

• Alphabet Challenge - "M" for metal
• Blogger's Challenge - embossing
• Crafts & Me - anything goes
• Crafts 4 Eternity - anything but a card
• Craft Us Crazy - anything goes
• Crazy Amigo Challenge - anything goes
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes with optional metal

Larry lives happily ever after

Update: Woo hoo! My layout was chosen as one of the favourites over at Color Throwdown. Thanks Tammy!

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Today I'm sharing another (finally) finished layout that was started at last month's all-day scrapbook marathon put on by Jennifer at Scrapbook Adventures. I chose to scrapbook a photo of my dog Larry along with journalling talking about how he joined our family earlier this year. Larry wouldn't be most people's first choice (he's old, arthritic, deaf, and on lifetime meds for thyroid problems) but he is just perfect for our family! He had a tough beginning to his life but we'll make sure that the rest is "happily every after..."

I ended up changing out the background cardstock (thank you to Color Throwdown Challenge for reminding me that reds can really make browns pop!) for something bolder which I think really draws more attention to Larry's lovely face.

Challenges:

• A True Friend - pet tales
• Amber's Crafts & Stuff - patterned paper (I used 5 different patterns!)

• Color Throwdown - color (I even matched the dog to the color palette!)
• Crafts 4 Eternity - anything but a card
• Hooked on Crafts - cute & cuddly (it doesn't get any cuddlier than my Larry)

Jedi birthday

Update: Yay! My card was chosen as one of the top 3 over at Totally Papercrafts!

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We just got back from vacation and I realized that the kids have a couple of birthday parties coming up quickly so I sat down and made this card in a bit of a rush. It's pretty simple (and looking at the photo now, I wish I could go back and jazz it up with some layering or inking) but the kid it's destined for is a huge Star Wars fan so I figure he'll be happy.

The card uses a sketch from Sketches by Carly and a digital image from Dustin Pike. The papers are all Basic Grey and the circles are cut using Nestabilities.

Challenges:

• Corrosive Challenges - all about kids
• Doodle Dragon - animals
• Sketches by Carly - sketch
• Stamps R Us - happy birthday
• Totally Gorjuss - punch or die cut
• Totally Papercrafts - one for the boys