Pilin' On the Awareness

The theme this fortnight at Pile It On is Colorfully Aware (Be inspired by the colors of an Awareness Ribbon). I'm using Teal for Anxiety and Green for Kidney Disease; this card represents the journey my husband & I have taken in our relationship.

To begin the new year, the next month will be our first annual Charity Challenge! Thirty dollars will be gifted to the charity of choice of one lucky winner (randomly chosen from challenges #124 & #125.)

I used some of my favorite papers from Graphic 45, plus a lovely dog die.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Allsorts: Cats and/or Dogs
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything Goes with Patterned Paper
Happy Little Stampers: Always Anything Goes with Dies
Nordsalten Hobbyklubb: Make what you are best at (cards, easy fancy folds)

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

Pinktober at Crafting with Dragonflies

Our theme this fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies is Pinktober; make a Breast Cancer Card.

I have made several Awareness cards, but this one is very special to me. I made it using some embellishments a friend, who we lost this week, gave me many years ago. I went for a cupcake theme, because I plan to give it to her best friend who is starting a cupcake business.

Sending love to all of you.



Thank you for visiting, 

Happy Movember!

November is Movember, a time to raise awareness for men's health issues. I chose a lavender palette for general cancer awareness.

The background was created with glimmer mists on vellum; I made it a long time ago, but found it in my stash & thought it was perfect for this project. The mustache paper is from Michaels, as is the washi tape across the missle. The sentiment is a rubber stamp that I heat-embossed in white on black paper.

My husband sports an impressive mustache all year long and I try my best to keep mine at bay, so we simply donated to the Movember Foundation!

Inspiration/Challenges:
The East Wind Challenge: Movember mustache
Mojo Monday: Sketch #422 (2nd entry)

Update: I was the prize winner for The East Wind's Movember Challenge!

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Pinktober at Crafting with Dragonflies

This fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies our theme is Pinktober / Support Breast Cancer Awareness. I used Fashion model with Beehive Hairdo by SLS Lines to create this BCA card for a friend:

Inspiration/Challenges:
ABC Challenge: T is for Two
Crafty Boots: Pink

Tuesday Throwdown #267: You Have My Support
Eclectic Ellapu (Pink Team): For a Cause
Ooh La La Creations: Pretty in Pink

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at Crafting with Dragonflies,

Monochromatic for a Child at the Crafter's Cafe

The Crafter's Cafe Challenge theme is Monochromatic for a Child, partly in celebration of National Child Awareness Month. Starting today, our challenges will run roughly 2 weeks, on the 1st & 15th days of the month. For this challenge, we're sponsored by Bugaboo and All Dressed Up Stamps, and I used A Star is Born by All Dressed Up.

I used a Sizzix Flipitz die for the card base, and a Shake It plastic piece for the shaker on front.

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

Pink for BCA at Crafting with Dragonflies - Week 2

This is the 2nd week of our Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness (Cards only) at the Crafting with Dragonflies Challenge. I used Butterfly for a Cause by our sponsor Sami Stamps.

This card is pretty much a different take on my previous Pink Card. The image was printed on a bright pink paper along with a sentiment from TLC Creations. I colored it with Copics and gel pens. The butterflies were cut/embossed with a SU! Embosslit die from a pink metal sheet from Add a Little Dazzle.

I'm entering this card into these fabulous Challenges:
Die Cuttin' Divas #188: Think Pink + Die Cuts (butterflies are die-cut)
Digi Makeover Challenge: Think Pink + Digi Stamp

My thoughts are with you all struggling with this (or any) disease, yourself or with a family member. Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at Crafting with Dragonflies,

Pink for BCA at Crafting with Dragonflies

This fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies our theme is Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness (Cards only). I used Butterfly for a Cause by our sponsor Sami Stamps.

The flowered paper is from a Heidi Grace glitter pack. I cut a small piece of it, edged it with a scallop die, and inked it with a bright pink ink.

The image was printed on a bright pink paper along with a sentiment from TLC Creations. I colored it with Copics and gel pens.

The butterflies were cut/embossed with a SU! Embosslit die from a pink metal sheet from Add a Little Dazzle. The heart button was cut from a darker pink metal using a PageMakers die. The yellow ribbon is actually a scrap from a card I made two weeks ago; Hmm, I need to clean my craft area more often! I finished the card with some strands of gems.

Sketch #172

I'm entering this project into the following Challenges:
Deconstructed Sketch: Sketch #172
Fussy and Fancy #124: Lots of Pink or Breast Cancer
Karleigh Sue Challenge: Pink Ribbon Challenge
Live & Love Crafts Challenge #28: PINK Anno 2014
Sisterhood of Crafters: Think Pink (Breast Cancer Awareness)
The Crafting Cafe: Think Pink

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at Crafting with Dragonflies,

Hairy Hope

I don't share a ton of personal information on my blog, but I thought my followers would get a kick out of my latest life story...after growing my hair out for more than 6 years, I decided to cut it. I loved having flowing locks, but I have very thin hair and half the time it just frizzed into a big bird's nest! But I've known many people who have donated their hair, so I wanted to grow it long enough for that. Here's my before-and-after photo:

Honestly, this was the longest I've had my hair since I was maybe 13 and cut it all off. My husband also has very long hair, and I was once actually asked by a group of women if my husband "allowed" me to have shorter hair than him! Wow, that is so not our kind of marriage. No, my husband is amazingly supportive and even spoiled me with a shampoo-and-style along with the cut. I'm impressed by how much hair the stylist was able to save and still be able to give me a nice layered bob.

After doing research, I chose to send my ponytail to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program (Pantene conditioner is probably the reason my hair isn't one big knot!); They donate the hair directly to the American Cancer Society to be made into free wigs. Since I'm a cardmaker, I thought it would be fun to make a thank-you note to include with my donation.

The card design was partly inspired by the current CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: Use 3 of something on 1/3 of your CAS card. I used a Tim Holtz Alterations die to cut the three flourishes from packaging cardboard from my recycling bin (using something recycled just seemed appropriate!). I inked them, respectively, with black ink (Martha Stewart), Mango chalk ink (VersaMagic), and Tea Dye distress ink (Tim Holtz). The background is just a bright white paper embossed with a Sizzix folder. I backed that with a shiny gold paper, as a nod to Pantene's official colors.

I used a lavender-and-white bakers twine for the bow because Lavender is the official Awareness Color for all cancers.

I actually made several little "ponytails" so if you know someone who'd like a similar card, let me know!

Inspiration/Challenges:
CAS-ual Fridays: Use 3 of something on 1/3 of your CAS card
Craft Room Challenge: Recycle (packaging cardboard for flourishes; I used three shades of cardboard!)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Die Crazy

All my best wishes to you & yours,

Happy Movember!

Are you familiar with the Movember Foundation? They promote Men's Health, and every November they fund-raise by having volunteers grow their mustache! Well, they ask the men to grow their mustaches...women can participate as well. Because I support Women's Health organizations, I'm happy to help out my brothers obtain the same kind of specialized care.

This year, a H.S. friend has set up a group with some of her girlfriends, and her photo on their Movember page inspired this card:

The notch swing card was designed in Sure Cut A Lot (SCAL) and cut with my Silhouette electronic die-cutting machine. All of my Notch Swing Cards are archived here. 

If you'd like to try it yourself, this card design is now available for purchase as SVG files in my Etsy Shop.

The Mustache Silhouette SVG is from BeaOriginal, and I used foam tape to adhere it to the polka-dot-embossed paper (Jo-Ann's) . The opposite side of the central swing piece was heat-embossed with a stamp from TPC Studio's Retro Technology set. The ribbon is from American Crafts, the flowers are Prima, the mini brass brad is from Burlin & Co., the white cardstock is from Recollections Metallics line, and the whimsical DP is by .

Be sure to check out my friend's Movember group, the Edgar Allen Mos. You will will a big kick out of my color inspiration!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafting By Designs: Anything goes
Scrapbook Stamp Society: Black & White + 1 Colour [I won the runner-up prize! Thanks!]
Scrapping4funChallenges: Anything Goes
WordArt Wednesdays: Anything goes + Uplifting

Thank you for visiting,

Flippin' Happy Bluebirds

I was so thrilled to win the Wobble challenge at Art Impressions with my Dr Seuss card, and even more thrilled to win a $10 GC to their store; although perhaps my best "prize" was how much my nieces enjoyed receiving it!

I've admired AI's "Fronts & Backs" line for quite some time, so I just had to buy this cute group of birds and make a Notch Swing Card (Does anybody recognize this technique and know it's proper name? I know I must have seen it somewhere.)

I made little notches (they need to be a bit bigger than slits) in the card, and tucked the image circle into them. It easily swings...

...to reveal the bird's backs and the rest of the sentiment:

Inspiration/Challenges:
Inky Impressions Challenge #101: Add Blue for Colon Cancer Awareness
Really Reasonable Ribbon: flowers and ribbon
Rhedd & Rosie's Challenge Blog: Birds
Simon Says Stamp: Sketch #1 
Sparkles Forum March Challenge: Birds
Tando Creative Challenges: Flowers

Thank you for visiting,

A very special - and PINK! - challenge

If you follow my blog, you know that I couldn't do any of this without my wonderful mom! So I always love a good mother-daughter story, like that of my Feline Playful teamie Dawn. Her mom has been battling breast cancer, so in a show of support Dawn is having her head shaved on September 8th to raise funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer! [Update: Check out Dawn and her beautiful, brave, hairless family in her post-shaving post.]

I invite you to visit Dawn's Just Giving Page to read their story, and consider making a small donation. Hey, if you can afford a digi stamp this month you can help Dawn too!

Also, I hope you'll join us for the special BCA Challenge at Dawn's Crafting that runs September 4-29. The theme is Breast Cancer Awareness and/ or Think Pink (not just a little use a lot)! There are lots of delicious prizes up for grabs from Joanna Sheen, Saturated Canary, The Crafty Pad Designs, Mo's Digital Pencil, Dude Time Doodles, Crafty Emblies, Fairy Dust Crafts, Funky Hand, Iva Nova Chest, and Lindy's Maid Wid Luv.

There's a separate, sister challenge going on over at The Crafty Pad through the month of September. They have completely different sponsors, but the theme is the same: Breast Cancer Awareness/Think Pink. PLUS, they have a bunch of great BCA digis for FREE download.

I'm very happy to have been able to participate in Dawn's challenge by making this card: 

I printed the sentiment (a freebie from Create with TLC) directly onto the pink paper, and then stamped my Lace clear stamp from KaiserCraft in Memento Rose Bud ink directly on top. 

For the lacy element on the top right, I used a sort of Double /reverse embossing technique except that I used a solid die cut to create a shape. Although the instructions call to use a Texture Folder, I found that I was able to use my Fiskars Texture Plate with a little adjustment.

Although this is a serious card, I wanted there to be an element of humor as well, hence the underwear-and-breast pun that I think is evident in the design!

The lace frame was made by adhering strips of Wright's bias tape to white cardstock pieces, and simply framing the pink inset. Really quite easy!

clean&simple FTL #205

Inspiration/Challenges:
Catered Crop: Anything Pink
City Crafter Challenge: Monochromatic

clean&simple FTL #205: Sketch (right)
The Crafty Pad Special September Challenge: Breast Cancer Awareness/Think Pink
Live & Love Crafts Challenge: Lovely Lace and/Terrific Trim

Squigglefly: Monochromatic 

I hope you'll check out Dawn's challenge and the other great challenges I've entered and make a card or two yourself! Thank you for visiting,

R.A.D. Card

Happy Reptile Awareness Day (R.A.D)! I wonder why it's a day of awareness instead of appreciation? Does one need to be reminded to check oneself for reptiles on a regular basis?!

I am very reptile-aware, being the proud owner of an 11-year-old green iguana, Percy. He's the pride of the family, truly!

I found out about this Day via the current challenge at Die Cutting Divas, and made a point of visiting TLC Creations today because she always has freebies for Specials Days. She certainly didn't disappoint! I just had to use her vintage image & sentiment digis for the DCD challenge. For the layout, I went to the current sketch at Card Positioning Systems.

I whipped this up pretty quickly! I designed the front pocket & tabbed insert in SCAL, and used Cricut's Paper Dolls cartridge for the die-cut leaves. The insert has a photo of Percy himself: