Over the Moon - Non-traditional Baby Projects with the UnstampaBelles

I really enjoyed making my fur-baby card for the UnstampaBelles' April Challenge, but I also made this Accordion card using papers from Graphic45's Mother Goose collection.

The UnstampaBelle's challenge is to make a Baby project with non-traditional elements. I went with a Vintage style, and used lots of brown distress ink...I have a rule about not using brown on baby cards, guess why! But I think this make would make a fun card to give at a Baby Shower.

I used dies from SweetStamps for the flowers & flourishes on the outside.

I traced the chipboard stars onto a matching cardstock which I covered with glow-in-the-dark glitter. I heat-embossed the chipboard stars with different powders, distressed them a bit, and edged the pieces with a gold leaf pen. I used a die from the Accordion card set to cut out two of the pieces, and strung the stars with ribbon.

I used a clear plastic Popeze PopBlock to adhere the little Spoon & Dish in one of the interior corners (I cut the image from the same Graphic45 paper I used for this whole project).

Be sure to check out the fabulous projects by my teamies and hope you'll join us this month at UnstampaBelles! You can link up your projects until the end of the month today!, but remember that you can't use ANY STAMPS (digi or otherwise.)

Inspiration/Challenges:
Ooh La La Creations #179: Nursery Times
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything goes with Patterned Paper (4th entry)
Mema's Challenge: Use a Punch or Die

Update: This was chosen as a Top Pick for Ooh La La Creations #179!

Thank you for visiting,

Pilin' on the Patterns

The theme this week at Pile It On is Same Pattern different ways. I chose to work with a zig-zag pattern (it's cool to call it Chevron.) This Kite digi stamp is a freebie from our sponsor, Digital Delights.

The color scheme was inspired by the tertiary colors yellow-orange/blue-violet and blue-green/red-orange. I printed the kite on white cardstock (for the base) and then on 3 patterned designer papers. I cut out the white piece with deckle scissors (a great technique my Mom taught me) and pieced the patterned papers onto it. I colored the kite's flags with a Copic marker; the original paper is white with brown. I enlarged a set of the flags to fit the sentiment, a stamp from Art Impressions.

Challenges/Inspiration:
Freshly Made Sketches: Sketch #183 + Clean Lines
Shopping Our Stash #198: Use you oldest embossing supplies (I've had these embossing folders for at least 3 years)
The Crafting Cafe April Challenge: Flights of Fancy

Update: This was chosen as one of the Top 3 for Shopping Our Stash #198 as well as at The Crafting Cafe!

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Not-so-tiny Dancer

A very special lady is having her birthday next week, so I used one of my favorite rubber stamps from Art Impressions:

I used a red & blue color scheme, fudging a bit with the background DP. The background and the doily die cut are actually one piece of paper; I die-cut the shape from the double-sided DP and used the opposite side for the doily. I colored the fun image with Copic markers and gel pens, and added sparkly fluff to her tutu. She's attached with an Action Wobble. The sentiment is by Bugaboo Stamps. I cut it with a die from the same set as the other doily, and trimmed it down to fit the design. I added a border with black Liquid Pearls. I finished the card with some funky metal flourishes.

Challenges/Inspiration:

ABC Challenge: H is for Happy Birthday
Crafty Boots: Red, White and/or Blue
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything goes with Patterned Paper (3rd entry)

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting,

Ribbons and/or Lace at Crafter's Cafe

The Crafter's Cafe Challenge this week is Ribbons and/or Lace. I used Box of Crayons by Angie's Digi Stamps, the sponsor for this fun challenge, along with a sentiment by TLC Creations.

The little lunchbox was made with Shrinky Dink plastic & a MoMR rubber stamp. I stamped it in black StazOn ink, baked it in my toaster oven, and colored it with a Ranger Distress Marker (Old Paper) and an American Crafts stamp marker (Sunflower). The 3D Kraft-paper butterflies are stickers from Recollections.

The notebook- and arrow-patterned papers are actually from one sheet by Pebbles Inc. that I die-cut with a Pagemaps die. The notepage is popped up slightly with foam tape. The ruler ribbon and adhesive lace are from my stash.  

I printed the image twice, once on white paper & again on kraft. I colored the crayons with Copics and pieced it into the kraft paper box piece. I added a bit of color to the box with Copics as well. I put the box of crayons on an Action Wobble:

The base of the card is double-sided patterned kraft cardstock. I used the notepage die to create a message section:

Cheerful Sketches April Challenge

Inspiration/Challenges:
Cheerful Sketches Challenge Blog: April Sketch
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything goes with Patterned Paper (2nd entry)
Dream Valley Challenges: Use Kraft
Top Tip Tuesday: 3 of Something (three butterflies)

Thank you for visiting & hope you'll join us at The Crafter's Cafe,

High on Life!

I really enjoyed using this week's Try Stamping On Tuesdays Sketch for my Window Shaker card, but the first background I made for it didn't work for my final project. Since I still had the pieces cut, I decided to try my hand at the sketch again, this time using my new "His & Hers Flying High" clear stamp set from Art Impressions:

click images to enlarge

I used a rainbow-inspired color palette. The dotted papers are digital overlays from MelStampz. The white linen-patterned paper was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The center piece was popped with 2 layers of foam tape & edged with a glittery violet ribbon.

The images & sentiment were stamped in Memento ink. I fussy-cut the dog, parachute, and cloud. The dog is colored with Copic markers. I also stamped the main image directly onto the yellow-dotted paper, and traced the strings with a glitter pen. The cloud is stamped in a dark silver ink; the double-line effect was actually an accident (I think I pressed the stamp too hard) but I really like the result! I stamped the fun sentiment directly into the cloud. What a fun way to use my scraps!

Challenges/Inspiration:

Art Impressions Challenge #157: Make Me Smile
Crafty Creations: Seeing Spots
Red Rubber Inspirational #216: Fussy Cutting + Stamping
Try Stamping On Tuesdays #214: Sketch (2nd entry)
WordArt Wednesdays #179: A Family Friendly Challenge For ALL

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting,

Pilin' on the Rainbows

The theme this week at Pile It On is April Showers Bring May Flowers. I used the beautiful Pansies digi stamp by our sponsor, Sami Stamps:

The sentiment is from Paper Makeup Stamps. I've seen this quote several different ways, but I do enjoy Dolly Parton! It's printed onto an ombre-patterned paper. The tiny umbrellas are a cut file by Bird's Cards. The window and matching windowbox dies are by Poppy Stamps; I cut them a textured white cardstock and white foam. The window is covered with scrap plastic and filled with MS microbeads.

Challenges/Inspiration:
Alphabet Challenge: E for Eye-Catching Edges
Craftin Desert Diva's Craft It Up Linky Party: Shaker (2nd entry)
My Time to Craft: Umbrellas
Sisterhood of Crafters: April Showers (2nd entry)
TIME OUT Challenges: Inspired By 'You can't make a Rainbow without a little Rain'
THTSB WIW Challenge: Photo Inspiration
Try Stamping On Tuesdays #214: Sketch

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Good Day Shaker

I was really intrigued by this week's ColourQ challenge: Black, Gray, White + One Color. After a great deal of thought, I decided to use neon yellow as my color pop:

I embossed the pattern on black and gray white-core, textured cardstocks in my BigShot with a Sizzix folder. I used sandpaper to bring out the designs. I added a bit of neon ribbon to create the background. The sentiment and flourishes on the frame are from the Greeting Labels set by HOTP, a gift from a dear crafting friend. I heat-embossed the sentiment in neon yellow onto black paper and cut it out with a Spellbinders die. I used a foam sheet to pop up the frame; I cut the foam & white paper at the same time using Spellbinders dies. The shaker piece is covered with scrap plastic.

Challenges/Inspiration:
colourQ challenge #287: Black, Gray, White + One Color
Craftin Desert Diva's Craft It Up Linky Party: Shaker
Freshly Made Sketches: Sketch #182 + Clean Lines

Thank you for visiting & for inspiring my crafting,

Recycled Cat Food Can

I've often been inspired by our neighborhood cats, so I was excited to be able to help out my neighbors this week by feeding their sweet felines. The first time I fed them I knew I just had to alter one of the cute little cans!

I used cat food packaging for this entire project, from the can & lid for the box, to the outer cardboard for the book pages. Everything is covered with paper or ribbon, except for the outer parts of the can lid (because any embellishment on those parts impedes the opening of this fun box, which I know from experience.)

My husband figured out how to flatten the can's interior edge, using a spoon & a can opener. I covered the inside with a burlap ribbon that I bought at a rummage sale at the church across the street.

I made the paw-print pattern using the Catty font by Anke-Art. I converted two of the letters into cut files in SCAL and made the round frame for the front. It was cut from the same woodgrain-patterned paper I used throughout this project. I printed the "2015" in brown on a textured yellow paper using the same font. I think it look a bit like a flower! To finish the cap, I simply wrapped the top side with a green ribbon.

The cat cut file is from the My Family set by Bird. The cats are cut from textured papers to represent the colors of the featured felines.

The pages are bound with an orange ribbon. I wrapped more ribbon around the book, adhering it only to the front so that it easily unwraps. To secure it, I used a tiny key charm from Cousin/Designs By Me.

I had so much fun making this, and I got the best hugs from my neighbor when I gifted this to her!

Challenges/Inspiration:
2 Creative Chicks Challenge #25: "Anything Goes" (No Cards)
All Crafts Challenge: Anything But a Card
Open-Minded Challenge #34: Recycle (2nd entry)
Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent April Challenge: Recycle
That Craft Place: Alter Something

Update: This received an Honorable Mention for the Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent April Challenge.

Thank you for visiting & for inspiring my crafting,

Non-traditional Baby Card with the UnstampaBelles

This April, the UnstampaBelles are challenging you to make a Non-traditional Baby project. You can link up your projects until the end of the month, but remember that you can't use ANY STAMPS (digi or otherwise).

I made a vintage-style card to celebrate a new "fur baby" ...  adopting a pet can be a real life-changing experience, as I well know. 

The inside of the card was inspired by the Flag Book technique. I winged it, but it came out great. It's a bit difficult to see in this photo, but each gray piece is folded in half and cut down to create the flag. I placed the gray pieces slightly away from the center fold of the card so that the flags pop out.

Obviously, I was inspired by the fun "Cats & Dogs" paper collection by Graphic 45. I used it for my base card, as well as for all of the images. I made the "Welcome Home" sentiment in SCAL and cut it from black paper & silver vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo.

The background frame on the front is packaging from a bag of dog food. We buy our dry dog food is large bags, and my husband got a smile from seeing the top edge of the nag being cut off ... he knew it was for crafting purposes! The charm is from Maya Road.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything goes with Patterned Paper
Dream it Up: Showers of Showers
Open-Minded Challenge #34: Recycle (dog food bag)
Simon Says Stamp: April Showers and/or Spring Flowers
Sisterhood of Crafters: April Showers


Just for fun, here are photos of our dogs way back when... they are known around the neighborhood as "the children" as they are enthusiastic barkers but everyone knows they are sweeties too!

Walt, 2006

Allen, 2007

Be sure to check out the fabulous projects by my teamies and hope you'll join us this month at UnstampaBelles!

Thank you for visiting,

Pilin' on the Beautiful Borders

The theme this week at Pile It On is Beautiful Borders/Fancy Frames. My project has a bit of both.

The lovely flower frame is from our sponsor, Pickled Potpourri. I colored it with Copics and fussy-cut it to create a shaker card. I used a scrap piece of plastic packing to cover the aperture and filled it with sequins. The top piece is adhered to the card base with foam tape. I notched the base card's corners with my favorite Marvy punch. The sentiment (by HOTP) is heat-embossed in gold onto a shiny white paper. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the Swirly Borders by Bird from the same shiny paper.

Challenges/Inspiration:
4 Crafty Chicks #241: Die Cuts
Crafty Calendar April Challenge: Add a sentiment
Everybody-Art Challenge #319: Sequins
Fan-Tastic Tuesday #80: Anything Goes with a twist: Use a Die or a Punch
MarkerPOP Challenge:: Anything Goes + Copics
Mojo Monday #392: Sketch
Red Rubber Inspirational #215: Spring Flowers

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,