Family Challenge - Treasures Pack

My Mr and I were in Richmond BC recently and we visited the Aberdeen Mall. It is mainly an Asian mall offering all sorts of unique shops and restaurants.  One of my favorite stops is a dollar store.  I comb through all of the exclusive items to see what takes my interest.  This year I scooped several items with the thought to share them with my sister Nina and Sister in Law Judy and issue out a challenge to use all, some or one item to create a card for a healthy little "Family Challenge"

I gathered a few bits of each items into envelopes and mailed them off.

Today is the day we chose to publish our creations.  I made a Valentine's themed card - using only the adhesive gold foil sticker sheet.  I'd originally had a project in mind using the craft paper but I blush to say that I misplaced it somewhere in my craft area. (area 53 haha!)

Recipe:

Stamps - "happy & valentine & day" words - (inside) Stampin' Up

Stamps - Recollections (the two birds) 

Stamp - "Love You" - erm, not sure, package missing

Embossing Folder - Darice

Wink of Stella (birds beaks, wings, tails) 

Hearts - Gold Sticker sheets

I confess I "cased" a card Nina made me a few years ago - a little "hello" card with a twerpy bird on the bottom.  

I hand cut these pretty adhesive gold foil stickers out from the larger sheets, graduating them in size.  Such fun!  

You probably should scoot over to Nina's and Judy's blogs to check out how they used the ingredients from my little surprise package.  

Sure glad you popped by!

Tuesday Morning Sketches #335 Card

Yeah yeah, I know yesterday was officially "Blue Monday" - and it affects me in a big way and I have to work very hard to dispel the heavy mantle of mid-winterness - full on here in (supposed to be) Sunny Osoyoos BC.  I think I've seen the sun peep out only twice in the the past two weeks.  I feel like I'm wearing dark glasses and my head feels full of cotton and weight presses on my eyes.  I refuse to give in, I make some small manageable goals each day and stick to them.  I can't change the weather but I don't have to be controlled by it either.

One thing which is brings a bit of sparkle into my day and which I thoroughly enjoy is creating - so my reward for reaching my goals in any day is to allow myself to play!  Today I teamed up with my Sister in Law Judy as we took the

Tuesday Morning Sketches #335 Card Challenge 

Lots of scallops and shapes to work with, loving layers too!  

I chose to go with an embossed white background - to be fair I should always mark my folders... I don't know but I think this one is by Elizabeth Craft.  The scallop cuts were created on my Silhouette Cameo.  Both stamps are Stampin' Up.  I embossed the bloom and embossed it with a gold glitter.  

I have been waiting to use these sparkly washi tapes forever and a day... well cloudy, gloomy doomy day was today, and it really did chase my blues away!  I punched the two tiny hearts out of the scraps!  

I wish you sunshine wherever you are (and please send me some too!)  

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday "Ombre" Card Challenge

Oh LA-LA!

I've been just waiting and waiting for a challenge calling for an "Ombre" theme and so I was very excited to find this weeks

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Ombre" (January 13, 2016)

So this is a totally inspired create as I had this concept in my mind all along:

The first step of this was to lay down the Ombre background onto my cardstock with Three shades of Tim Holtz distress inks - "barn door" "ripe persimmon" and "tattered rose".  Next I whipped the rest of  this card together by using this pretty butterfly card cut which I believe is directly from the Silhouette Store.  I used a heavier card-stock.  After I got it all cut and knocked out the bits and pieces I decided that it was rather "flat" looking so I ran it through my Cuttlebug embossing it with a Chevron folder from We R Memory Keepers.  

I thought the little blossoms needed something in the middle so placed a little dollar store gem in the middle of each.  The final touch is this tiny "special" word stamp from Stampin' Up. 

I hope your eyes enjoyed my card today! 

Addicted to CAS 79 Card - and a good tip!

How could one resist making a card with a CAKE theme?  January is such a dull month here (weather wise) that I jump at the chance to celebrate ... anything!  I chose this challenge to perk me up:

Addicted to CAS #79 Card "CAKE" theme - 

I got an idea for CAKE, right off the bat:

Oh I had such fun!  I had some cardboard sitting about and I thought it was the ideal shade and texture for cake, so I cut it to what I felt resembles a generous wedge.  

The next step in is where the good tip comes in - 

This "icing" is actually a mix I dreamed up mixing a small amount (tablespoon or two) of spackle (I used DryDex from the dollar store) and mix it with about 1/2 tsp or more of craft glue (I use Aleene's Tacky glue) and there you have it!  You may have to experiment to get it to the consistency you're happy with and is flexible as well.   I smear that on and let it dry.  Though I did add a goodly sprinkle of Twinkle Dust into the top layer before it dried.  The glue keeps the spackle flexible enough so it does not crack.  So inexpensive and gives me loads of ideas. 

I created the tiny candle out of a snippet of designer paper, a little crochet cotton and the flame is sparkle paper.  I punched a circle out, the trimmed it so that the bottom would be nicely rounded.  I hope this was helpful for you today!

The background is simple - just a bit of  "Flea Market" 6 x 6 by Crate Paper - and I chose the teeniest "Celebrate" stamp by Stampin' Up.

Mojo Monday Challenge Card

Mojo Monday #427 Challenge Card

The sketch:

Here’s my take:

My card was an assembly of scraps.  I used a Martha Stewart snowflake punch.  The background cardstock was embossed with a Cuttlebug snowflake folder and the “joy” stamp is from Stampin’ Up.  I have to say I’m sort of stuck on that “joy” stamp, I love the way it looks.  The bow is crochet cotton twisted with glittery thread. I inked the corners of the card with Tim Holtz distress ink in Tattered Rose. 

Technorati Tags: Mojo Monday,Stampin' Up,Tim Holtz,Martha Stewart,Mrs Miles

Family Challenge card (YAY!)

Family Challenge – STITCHING

I love this time with my family members, my sister Nina who was the person who got me into making cards and my sister in law Judy who is always game to jump into creative time with us and its almost like a big family visit – and Judy is featuring my niece Samantha’s card on her blog too as Samantha does not have time to post!  Bonus is we each walk away with something pretty and useful.  I think I especially appreciate that we all have our own unique styles and I hugely enjoy seeing what everyone else comes up with. 

For me, I went with simple with my card choice:

I am making myself use a set of Tim Holtz distress inks which I bought recently (in the feast part of my feast and famine existence) and so I layered and blended two blues (tumbled glass, faded jeans) and pumice stone to create a night sky feel.

I used a pin and a stampin up piercing and stitching set to line up holes which I threaded with a sparkly blue and silver thread.  Believe it or not, I free-handed the stars onto double sided foam tape and then dipped one side into glitter and affixed to the bottoms of the stitching.  The final touch?  The lovely peace script stamp by Stampin’ Up.

Can’t wait to see what Nina  Judy and Samantha made! 

Technorati Tags: Tim Holtz Distress Inks,Tim Holtz,Stampin' Up,Mrs Miles,paper piercing,Family Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches No.122 Card Challenge

Managing to fit in a FM challenge today - it appealed to my ‘simple’ mood for the day and came together quickly.

Visit Freshly Made Sketches 122 - today’s sketch:

Here’s my take:

I used some scraps of paper and cardstock I’d had sitting around and fit this project.  The “just a note” stamp, not sure about

 

but the pretty floral (which is actually berries on top but I turned them into little sequin flowers) is from the Stampin’ Up “Oh, So Lovely” set.  I stamped it onto two layers and married them into this design.  I finished it all off with a bow of embroidery thread to ‘tie it all together’  (pun intended)  and a few gems in the centers of the flowers.

Thanks for stopping in!

Technorati Tags: Freshly Made Sketches,card challenge,Stampin' Up