Glitter Accents

It's Stamp-a-faire time at Papertrey Ink, and I managed to make one, yes only one, card.  I couldn't resist the glitter technique!  There are several others I can't wait to try, but I won't get them finished in time for the contest, but really - it's about the learning!

Here's my card for Glitter Accents:

The apples are die cut using the Teacher's Apple die and the sentiment is from Signature Greetings!

You can participate in this challenge by clicking here or see all the contests by going to Nichole's blog here.  

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

This month Nichole challenged PTI customers to this:

"It only takes a little *something* to take a project from ho-hum to amazing!  Even something as small as tilting your images or sentiments at an angle can have a huge impact.  This month we are challenging you to create a project that features something tilted.  Position a frame at an angle, tilt your text, add a background strip diagonally, create a border that has an incline, slant a sentiment block, the sky is truly the limit!  We look forward to seeing your projects!"

After scrolling through my blog, I realized I have many projects that have angles and tilts on them  - sometimes even on purpose!

Here' s my project for today:

Fancy Folk Art stamp set, Thanks die

I stamped this background several weeks ago for another project that went unfinished.  I couldn't make it work, so I set this aside for the right time - which is now!  I cut the mat and panel for the sentiment, adhered it to the background and trimmed it to fit.  I was happy to find that the sentiment fits perfectly on the panel.  Adding a few rhinestones was my finishing touch!

I have a second card for the challenge.  This is what I was thinking about while I was monitoring my students during their state assessment tests yesterday.  I was trying to think happy thoughts!  ;)

Up, Up and Away stamp set and Cloud dies

I know I'm going to love this theme for the blog hop, and I cannot wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Thanks for visiting  My Happy Place!

Cool Shades Challenge

I have to admit that this week's challenge at Paper Smooches Sparks challenge had me a bit stumped.  The two blues threw me off, and I had a serious block to the colors.  As I was cleaning up my crafting area, I ran across my glitter in one of my drawers and remembered a technique that a crafty friend once shared - glitter masking. It's a fairly simple technique, but it packs a pretty big punch.

Here's my card for today:

I began by cutting an adhesive sheet and peeling off the backing.  I used the Hickory Leaf die to cut several leaves from the adhesive backing.  I did the same with the butterfly die from Flap Happy. The trick is peeling off the diecuts only when you are ready to pour glitter over that area.  After getting all the glitter down, I used Staz On ink to stamp the sentiment, trail and antennae for the butterfly.  Adding a few black rhinestones for the body gave the card a little dimension.  

Here's a photo in the sunlight:

I hope you have a wonderful day, and thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Glitter Butterfly

The month of April brings a lot of birthdays for people I know.  Several dates mark the birthdays of 2 or 3 of my friends, so birthday cards are a common thing to make for me during this time of year.  I made two this weekend.

This one is for the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge.  The sketch challenge this month is this:

I used one of my favorite - and first - sets from Paper Smooches, Giddy Bugs.  I inked up the little butterfly with some new Hero Arts Orange Soda ink.  I shaded in the head and body with colored pencils, and glittered up the wings with some Doodlebug Sugar Coating glitter.  The sentiment was stamped on the orange cardstock and heat embossed with holographic embossing powder.  The Loopy Leaf diecut leaves are also from Paper Smooches.  I love the shape of them!

CAS-ual Fridays Blog is challenging us this week to use glitter on our projects.  I'm so glad I saw their challenge, because I really needed to add a little shimmer to that cute little butterfly.  Glitter did the perfect job!

You can play along with either of those challenges by clicking the links above.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Easter Bag

There's a fun challenge on the CAS-ual Fridays blog this weekend!  We've been challenged to create an Easter project - but it cannot be a card!

My project started out as a tag, but I had the problem of deciding what my tag would be placed on. For Easter,  I bought my son his first Bible, so I was thinking about how to wrap it.  I have some Kraft paper I was going to use, but opted for a Kraft gift bag instead.

Most of the stamps are from bunny4Easter from Stamps of Life.  Now a die has been introduced for the little cutie, and I'm probably going to have to get it.  I stamped him on Vintage cream in brown ink.  I shaded him in with some pink and off-white colored pencils.  (The clouds are from PTI.)

I hope you are having a joyous Easter, celebrating with friends and family!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Picture Perfect Challenge

I loved this week's inspiration photo at the Sparks Challenge! It is very simple, yet beautiful!  I loved the soft colors and the corner on the frame.  I didn't want to lose the simplicity of the photo in my card, so I created a very simple CAS card with a lot of whit space.

I used two sets from Paper Smooches.  The sentiment and butterfly come from the Flap Happy set, and the hearts are from Giddy Bugs. 

Here's a close up:

I wanted to mimic the corner of the frame, so I used the D'Vine Swirls embossing folder on a piece of cardstock, and adhered it to the edge.  The white panel was popped up on a white card base.

If you want to play along and see the other cards for this challenge, go here! 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Mixing Patterns

I'm going back to Day 1 of the this online class and looking at my patterned paper a little differently.  I followed Jennifer's advice and pulled out some of my neglected 6x6 paper pads.  The one I chose to use today is Lime Twist from My Mind's Eye. 

I created a card, then threw it in the trash can.  Then got it out of the trash can and tried to revive it a little.  So this is take two:

The original had just the orange panel and I was at a loss.  It looked bare.  So, I added the bottom red panel and the strip of stars to the middle.  I matted the strip to set off the patterns a bit, again using Jennifer's advice. I like it a lot better than the original.  

I'm off to try the resist technique on patterned paper now.  Hope I don't kill my iron...not that I ever use it.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Sparks Challenge

I caved.

It's Day 5 of the Pattern Play Online Card Class, and I'm tardy.  So many beautiful cards have been showcased on some of my favorite blogs, and I have this huge stack of patterned paper, and huge stash of scraps of patterned paper.  I just needed to figure out what to do with it. So, I enrolled in class tonight.

After taking a moment to peruse through a few PDFs I wanted to get a card started for Day 2 where Jennifer Rzasa worked with us on paper piecing.  The Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge has a wonderful color combination this week, so that has been on my mind the last few days.  Now, I'm so happy that it's Friday, and I had a chance to make something using these colors:

For my card, I used  my not-so-new stamp set, Flap Happy and the matching die.  I also used the Loopy Leaf die which is a companion die to the Leafy Greens stamp set.  Here's what I came up with:

I die cut the butterflies from cardstock and stamped them.  I also stamped them on the patterned paper and cut around them with scissors.  After impressing and inking up the Vintage Cream panel, I adhered the leaves to create a border, and then attached the butterflies.

Here's a closer look, so you can see the dimension as the wings aren't adhered to the die-cuts.

You can play along with this week's Sparks challenge if you click the link below:

Details here!

Thanks so much for visiting My Happy Place!

thanks bunches

I have another Paper Smooches card for  you today. My first two sets from Paper Smooches were Giddy Bugs and Vegtastic.  One of my favorite techniques is paper-piecing and both of these sets are perfect for that!

While I was at work today, I would take a brain-break every now and then and look at a few blogs.  Some of my blog friends were updating and I was a little envious.  A new online class has started with the focus on using up some patterned paper, and several of the blogs I visited were showing off projects for the class. (ETA: Now, I've enrolled in the class and am very excited to participate!)

That got me thinking about what I could do when I got home, and this was it:

One thing I learned from making this card is that I really do not have that much purple in my patterned paper collection.  Must fix that!

After stamping, cutting and piecing all the veggies together, I had the problem of figuring out how to do the sentiment.  I remembered Cath, over at Moxie Fab World, is celebrating lots of trends this month with the release of Card Creations 11.  So, I used a die-cut speech bubble from My Favorite Things to house the sentiment from Vegtastic!   You can see all the details if you click here!

 Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Chipboard Challenge

For details click here!

This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays blog is to use chipboard in one of our projects.  I haven't used chipboard in a long time, so I had some digging to do!  I found several pieces of chipboard shapes that I have purchased, chipboard letters and even a 12x12 polka-dotted chipboard "paper."  I settled on using some coaster board I purchased a long time ago.  The cream color is perfect for adding a bit of color with stamping.

Here's my card:

 

I used the color scheme that Lizzie Jones challenged us with in her PTI Newsletter.  I finally ordered Fancy Folk Art and I had to use it right away, so Lizzie's color combo and her inspiration were a great place to start!

After finishing the focal point, I stamped the background with elements from the set.  The sentiment was stamped on Kraft and the coaster board again.

Here's another view:

If you want to play along with the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week, click here.  The sponsor this week is Casual Fridays Stamps!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Ombre Butterflies

I've been busy again with my new Flap Happy stamp set from Paper Smooches! This time, I thought I'd play along again with this week's Sparks Challenge, a sketch:

I wanted to see if I could work with this sketch and a one-layer panel along with the ombre color scheme again.  Here's what I came up with:

To be honest, this is the third attempt at this card.  The first time, I thought I'd put a die-cut butterfly on top, but I didn't like it.  Taking it off did not go well.  The second time, I had it all finished - turned it over to crease the fold, and apparently there was ink on my mat, so the front got smudged with some orange ink.  I didn't give up!

Cath, over at Moxie Fab World is celebrating lots of trends this month with the release of Card Creations 11.  This is another one is for her challenge to use ombre color scheme.  You can see all the details if you click here!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Teacher Thank You

It's getting to be that time of year - time to thank my son's teachers for their undying patience this year.  He's a handful.  Cute, but a handful.

In my recent order from Paper Smooches, I included the Clipboard stamp set and dies along with the Notebook Paper stamp set.  I like that the 2 lines for the margin are a different stamp, so I can use different colors!

I created this card to enter into the Sparks Challenge this week, which is this sketch:

After stamping and using an impression plate on the red panel, I cut some of the chalkboard paper I found in my stash.  I had a package of back to school paper from August that I never had time to use.  Now - I can use it for end of year cards!  {winning!} I love any ruler ribbon and pick some up any time I see it.  
 
I die cut the clip from a piece of Soft Stone polka dot paper and stamped the image on it.  After I stamped the notebook lines, I used a Fiskars edge punch on the paper.  I used some scissors to make the edges of the paper look a little worn, and bent the tabs of the paper up. That checkmark is from the Clipboard set too!

All of this was mounted on a Kraft base.  I popped the clipboard up and it hangs off the edge a little, so it's not a true A2 size, but that's alright.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  Be back tomorrow with another Paper Smooches card for this sketch!