A New Year

Thank you, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

The last three months have been a whirlwind of chaos, first dealing with the renovations at my new apartment, then followed by the horrendous task of packing and unpacking as we moved to our new place! Finally with the last of the boxes unpacked ... I can breathe a huge sign of relief ... and reward myself with some creative R&R as I bunker down in my new craft room .... YAYYYYYY and super hooray!

Mojo Monday #328's latest sketch this week is a wonderfully simple design that is so versatile and easy that I made two cards quickly ... just to 'kickstart' some of the creative 'mojo juice'.

The colours for the first card was inspired the very rich hues of blue and bright red in Runway Inspired Challenge RIC#51

For the second card, I looked towards The Paper Players Color Challenge #178 and loved the cheerful colour options!

The background stamp of the calendar week is from Hero Arts - My Week whilst the sentiment stamp in the centre is from Penny Black - Your Days.

thanks so much

thanks so much, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

another thank you card - this time made based on the design in retrosketches #75 - am loving the wonderful ideas that these challenge blogs present!

* the flowers and leaves stamps : Hero Arts - Love Jar stamp set

* the sentiment stamp : Hero Arts - Made with Love stamp set

with gratitude

with gratitude, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

a simple thank-you card based on the sketch for this week's

CAS(E) this sketch #39

* the outline of the flower petals were embossed in white, and the petals were then colored with Derwent Inktense water color pencils - love the brilliant effect of ink pigments on kraft-stock paper

* the stem and leaves were embossed in different shades of green embossing powder

* both the flower and stem/leaves stamps are from Penny Black's Round and Round stamp set

* the banner (from Paper Smooches - Streamers stamp set) was stamped and white embossed

* the sentiment (from Paper Smooches - Chit Chat stamp set) was stamped and yellow embossed

*** it's always good to take a step back and reflect on all who deserve a word of thanks for being part of our lives ***

thanks teacher, you rock!

teacher, you rock!, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

I love playing with the Paper Smooches stamps - so versatile and such cute cartoony characters, like this little mad curly-haired professor!

Card was inspired by this week's Paper Smooches 8-14 July Designer Drafts challenge

check out the draft design below

The books, apple and professor stamps came from PS Smarty Pants set whilst the 'You Rock' sentiment came from PS Sentiment Sampler set.

* the books stamp was stamped 3 times, one on top of the other to create a stack, and finally topped off with the apple stamp

* once the stack of books image and the professor image are colored, they were fussy-cut with a thin white edge

* the pseudo blackboard is actually a black card with white edges, upon which I stamped the two sentiments in VersaMark and then white-embossed

* to create the slightly chalky look of a blackboard, I used a sponge dabbed in white chalk ink and lightly dabbed over the black card

* the stack of books was fixed on with mounting tape for dimension, and the mad little professor was fixed on with an Action Wobble Spring so that there's a bit of 'mad' wobbling when the prof is touched!

PS Note: thrilled that this card was chosen to be Featured Player in the PS Designer Drafts Challenge!

crayons thanks

crayons thanks, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

This week's Paper Smooches Challenge is a Picture Perfect Challenge - where we use the picture below as our inspiration for creating our card!

picture credit

Based on the crayons picture and the neutral color base - I decided to go with the neutral-colored kraftcard as my base. 

* A scalloped heart was die-cut from the front of the card, with a part off the edge off the card - using QuicKutz Nesting Scallop Hearts - a piece of transparency was affixed to the heart aperture.
* A line of mini crayons (from Paper Smooches - Smarty Pants stamp set) were stamped at the left side to 'point' towards the inset of the card - some were separately stamped on whitecard, colored and fussy-cut before affixing with mounting foam.

* The inside of the card is a light yellow patterned paper (edges distressed) with the stamped easel and sentiment (from Paper Smooches - I Heart Art stamp set) showing through the aperture - the multi-colored sentiment was stamped using Kaleidacolor Autumn Leaves rainbow dye inkpads from Tsukineko.

Thanks - postcard

Thanks - postcard, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

a thank you card for LZ's mum - to thank her for encouraging me with her gift of a scrapbooking kit .... bless her!

This was made using Hero Arts "Thanks Postcard" cling stamp and Hero Arts "Little Tags" stamps.  The centre butterfly was stamped, cut, curled and then applied with Inkssentials Glossy Accents.