blue bib welcome

l love making 'welcome baby' cards as they celebrate such joyous occasions with new life coming into the world

this faux 'baby bib' card was made by die cutting a scalloped square against a folded white card stock (with one edge of the scalloped square off the folded edge of the card stock)

pram was stamped onto the turquoise-striped card stock and once again on the polka-dotted patterned paper, which was fussy-cut and layered into place onto the turquoise card stock with foam tape

the pram stamp comes from Hero Arts - New Baby stamp set

whilst the sentiments come from Paper Smooches - Simply Said stamp set

card is entered into The Card Concept Challenge #13 - Oh Baby! - using a Clean and Layering style

PS note: a big thank you to Lee Ann for choosing my card as one of the winners for the Card Concept Challenge!

happy father's day in blue and red

made a Father's Day card for a friend, with the centrepiece of the card being a wonderful black & white photo of the family mounted onto a scalloped square die-cut in white card stock (from Spellbinders Nestabilities - Lacy Squares range)

the card design was based on Seize the Sketch Challenge #22 (sketch by Lori Tecler), whilst the colour combination of red, blue and white was inspired by The Paper Players - Colour Challenge #199

the card base is white, on top of which is blue card stock mounted onto red card stock  - on the blue card stock, I had stamped in VersaMark using Impression Obsession's Cover-a-Card - Distressed Lines stamp, and then heat-embossed the same with white and glitter powders ... I loved the effect created (this would actually be a great Christmas card design!)

card was decorated with Hero Arts - Spring Branch die-cuts in red and white card stock (with embossed glitter), and finished off with a red bow and ribbon strip

now and forever my cup of coffee

card was inspired by the aroma in my coffee cup as I was contemplating this design in CAS(E) this Sketch #78

this was so much fun with lots and lots of gold embossing, first on the coffee cup from Hero Arts - Need Caffeine stamp set, and on the swirly design from IO-Cover-a-Card - Swirls stamp

the curvy 'steam' was cut using Paper Smooches - Borders 1 dies, and card was finished off with a sentiment from Paper Smooches - Simply Said stamp set.

final close-up shot of that 'luxe' cup of coffee!

some kind of wonderful

red, white and black are my favourite colour combination, and when they are colours for Fusion Card Challenge (Dinner is Served) - goodness, how could I resist?

the circles are die-cuts on white card stock and red polka-dotted pattern paper - using Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Scallops Dies

the background banner and centrepiece music score was stamped using Hero Arts Cling Stamp - Music Background whilst the sentiment stamp is from Just Rite - What I Like About You clear stamps set

there was a bit of glitter added onto the music notes, which didn't photograph well in the top photo .... so I took another close-up to try to show it (but it still didn't turn out that well) but at least you can see the lovely silver edge embossing to the sentiment tag!

circle of thanks

pulled out some of my old stock and saw this stamp and embossing folder set (Floral Wreath) from Hero Arts - I loved how the flowers are embossed exactly where they should be so long as one is careful to ensure that the stamped image is aligned properly with the embossing folder ... in my case, there was a slight misalignment but then who is perfect always?

the colour scheme was inspired by Colour Me Challenge CMCC#21 - Subtle

thanks notecard gift set

I love this flower stamp from Hero Arts, which is both graphic and yet pretty .... in this series of 3 cards, I had white-embossed the flower prints in different positions, then coloured the background for each of the cards with Distress Inks - barn door red, mowed lawn green and vintage photo brown, and finally stamped the flower print again but this time in Versafine vintage sepia.

The sentiment 'thanks' was gold-embossed onto vellum and affixed to the card front. A couple of pearls affixed to the centre of some of the flowers was the finishing touch.

I wanted to use this series of cards as part of a gift note-card set... so I created a holder for the cards, the note-paper and envelopes.

The same flower stamp was used for the card-holder but this time, stamped in Versafine toffee (brown) and spanish moss (green). On the inside of the holder, a little pouch was created to hold the cards, note paper and envelopes.

This was such a fun project ... I am tempted to do a couple more of such gift sets for Christmas!

The colour scheme for these cards was inspired by Just Add Ink Challenge #215 - colour combination

happy birthday in red, yellow and green

card design was based on CAS(E) this Sketch #75 (which again, I was too late for submission ... this is getting to be a bad habit!) and inspired by the lovely colours scheme in the Paper Players Color Challenge #195 (which submission I made just in time)

*the card base - yellow cardstock which was stamped with Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card - Tapestry 2 stamp in watermark ink, clear-embossed with heat, and then sponged lightly over with Distress Inks - Barn Door red and Mowed Lawn green

*the corner tag - green cardstock embossed with a flourish design with the raised portions lightly sponged with Versacolor White ink, and then mounted on red card stock

*the embellishment - flower die-cut from Hero Arts - Chrysanthemum Fancy Die on coral red card stock, and heat embossed with embossing glitter, and finished off with a Hero Arts - Go Out and Play stamp - using only the Happy Birthday sentiment, again lightly sponged over with the same Distress Inks colours

a close-up of the card to show off the glitter on the flower die cut

metallic wishes

the wonders of embossing powders... especially the metallic ones in gold, silver and copper!

card was made for CAS.ology #94 challenge: Metal

the bird cage die cut is from Cheery Lynn Designs - Bird Cage, whilst the sentiment is from Hero Arts - Good Luck stamp set

I die-cut the bird-cage on two pieces of card stock to give it added thickness. The die-cut was then sponged over with VersaMark, sprinkled with silver and gold embossing powders and heat-embossed. This process was repeated once again for a more pronounced metallic finish.

Similar process used for the 'wishing you the best' sentiment which was popped up using mounting tape.

Card was finished off with a string of pearls attached to the top of the bird cage.

What's Up?

With paint already on my palette, I thought I might as well colour up a few more images, and this one of Cheeky Chat from The Greeting Farm is one of my favourites!

She's colored in yellow, aqua and grey shades ... for the last challenge at Dynamic Duos: Challenge #100 (and it's so sad that they are closing the wonderful blog just when I have discovered them.... sob.. sob!)

The sentiment comes from Hero Arts - Guess What stamp set, whilst the diamond-shaped embossing folder is from Cuttlebug.

Cheeky Chat was coloured using Caran D'ache Neocolor II Water-soluble wax pastels - I love the richness of the colours and the ease for water-colouring and blending.

my cup of coffee

sometimes, I can stare at a sketch for a long time and then suddenly, 'click' - the light bulb comes on and I know exactly what I want to see on the card

this happened with this week's CAS(E) this Sketch #73, which was paired together with Runway Inspired Challenge #58 (love the dramatic combination of red against black)

for this card, I thought the CTS sketch of the semi-circle was perfect to depict a checkered-tablecloth with cups of coffee on the table... 

the coffee cups and latte glass stamps are from Hero Arts - Need Caffeine stamp set whilst the checked gingham stamp is from Impression Obsession - Cover-a-Card Gingham