Sketch Challenge, Paper Smooches, March 2018

     I created this Easter card for the monthly sketch challenge over at Paper Smooches. This is my first time to join in with their challenges.

     I heat-embossed the sentiment onto clear vellum. To create the cross, I barely touched the cross stamp to my StazOn teal ink pad. Then I stamped it lightly onto shiny gold cardstock. I fussy-cut the cross and adhered it with foam tape.

     There is still time if you want to join in the fun. Here's a copy of the sketch and a link to the rules.

https://papersmooches.blogspot.com/2018/03/march-2018-challenge-sketch.html

Materials used:

cardstock- Moonstruck (Pink Paislee)
stamps- Easter Blessings (Paper Smooches)
ink- black (ColorBox), teal (StazOn)
powder- clear embossing powder (JoAnn Essentials)

Happy Easter Card

     Thought I would continue with a head start on my Easter Cards. To create this card, I  printed the free Easter basket digi stamp from Paper Smooches. I colored and fussy cut the basket and eggs. I added brass brads and a few hand-cut blades of grass. Then, I used Paper Smooches Easter Blessings (#FBS235) stamp set for my sentiment.

     Paper Smooches is looking for a guest designer for March, so I'm sending this over to their blog. There is still plenty of time to send in your own card. Here's a link to the rules: http://papersmooches.blogspot.com/2017/02/guest-designer-search-march.html

    Free digi stamps are here: http://papersmooches.blogspot.com/p/free-digi-stamps.html

DCWV Stack-a-holic Card Sketch Challenge - August 2015

     Thanks for stopping in. Hope your day is off to a good start.
     Today, I have a card for the Stack-a-holic challenge over at DCWV. I used The Good Wood Stack from DCWV to make my card. Some great masculine papers in the stack. I made this card for my stepdad's birthday coming up soon.
     I made the swags with stamps and dies from Our Daily Bread Designs. The 'cherish you' sentiment is from the I Blank You collection from Paper Smooches.
     There is still plenty of time if you want to send a card to the challenge. Here's a copy of the sketch we had to work with and a link to all the rules.
http://www.dcwv.com/blog/post/stack-a-holic-challenge-for-august

Magazine Monday Challenge - Week 100

     Thanks so much for stopping in. Hope you are enjoying your day.
     Today, I have a card for the << 100th >> challenge over at Papercrafters Corner.

     We got to pick from three different magazine covers this week. You can see them below along with the link to join in the fun. We also had to use or represent the numbers 100, 10 or 1 in some way. I have 10 arrows on my card.

     The colors from the first cover and the beautiful curves of the third cover inspired me. I used patterned papers from Colorbok (59587A). I stamped all the sentiments by curving different clear stamps from Hero Arts (CL342) and Paper Smooches (A1S208) to match the curve of my ten arrows. 

     Now, here are the magazine covers and a link to PaperCrafters Corner.

http://papercrafterscorner.com/blog/papercrafting-challenge-magazine-mondays-week-100/

     Hope you have a great week!
     May the Lord be glorified by the work of my hands, Pamela

Fiskafriends The Power of Community Blog Hop and Giveaway

       Welcome to our blog hop!

     We are celebrating our First Anniversary with a Fiskafriend Blog Hop.  You do not have to be a Fiskafriend to visit and comment on our bloggers' posts. This hop is open to everyone! International visitors included! The theme of the hop is Anything Goes, so be prepared to find a variety of creative projects and ideas. 
     Giveaway prizes?  Of course! Everyone loves a giveaway! We will have an end of the hop giveaway with fabulous prizes. In addition to the end of the hop giveaway, some of our bloggers are offering giveaway prizes of their own on their posts.    For the complete blog hop list and to be entered in the Fiskafriends' sponsored giveaways, leave a comment on any of the listed blogs and follow the sponsor giveaway entry directions at: http://fiskafriends.blogspot.com/ 

     I am having my own giveaway too! Instructions to enter my separate giveaway are at the bottom of this post.

     I  have Easter cards to share with you on my hop stop.

     I've been playing around lately with the idea of what impact color and simple patterns can have in card design. I used a fairly bright pink on my first card. The gingham gives it a sort of country look, even with the fancy, white, die-cut overlay.

     I used the exact same design on my second card changing only the color and using a solid instead of a printed, oval layer. The second card is certainly more elegant than the first.

     I had a heck of a time photographing this second card. Something about the flowers is reading wrong through my camera. I'm sharing it here anyway, so you can at least get a better idea of what I'm talking about. The flowers in 'real life' are a much better match with this light peach background.  

     >>>DESIGNER TIP<<< To get my heat-embossed sentiment to match the curve of my oval panel, I curved the clear stamp as I placed it on an acrylic block. Kind of gives an extra life to a lot of my stamps.

 

      I want to show you the inside of my cards as well. I often don't put as much effort on the inside of the card, but I'm changing that. I like bringing a little something from the front to the inside - color and theme in this instance. I wish I had thought to put a piece of the die-cut vine on the inside to peak out from under the sentiment tag. Too late, the cards are already in the mail headed to their recipients.

   For the complete blog hop list and to be entered in the Fiskafriends' sponsored giveaways, leave a comment on any of the listed blogs and follow the sponsor giveaway entry directions at: http://fiskafriends.blogspot.com/ 

     Now, for my own giveaway. I have an e-book copy of my latest children's book, "Max, the Boy Raindrop" in which I created all the illustrations using only paper/cardstock and scrapbooking tools. I will also include a fun border punch from EK Success to send to one of my followers (US residents only). Join my blog and your name will go in the drawing. Let me know in your comment that you joined. If you are already a member of my blog,  tell me so and your name will go in as well. I will draw a name for my personal giveaway on Wednesday, April 1st.  Check back in to see if you are the winner. You'll have two weeks to contact me with mailing info.

 

Stacia #9314 is up next:   http://www.stampzone.blogspot.com

Start here: http://fiskafriends.blogspot.com/ 

1. Jean Bullock, #8889,  http://ez3dpopups.blogspot.com 
2. Susan Slomski, #6150,  http://sueinct.blogspot.com 
3. Cindy deRosier, #4113, http://www.cindyderosier.com
4. Tifany DeGough, #5942, http://inkblotsbytrd.blogspot.com 
5. Cheryl Waters, #002, http://blog.artsyfindings.com
6. Jean Marmo, #7358, http://pagesintime.blogspot.com/
7. Teresa Godines #6857 http://purplebunnypapercrafts.blogspot.com/
8. Michelle O'Driscoll #7586 http://scrapbookingsos.blogspot.ca/
9. Nancy Carroll  #11488  http://nancecarroll.blogspot.com
10. Maya Oren-Dahan #351  http://mayadahan.blogspot.com
11. Amy Martin Jones #8546 http://thetigershaven.blogspot.com/
12. Karen Poirier-Brode (Ladydoc) #2858 http://www.karenscorneroftheweb.blogspot.com
13. Tanya Napier #5407  http://mamabirdy-happinessishomemade.blogspot.com/
14. Pamela Haskin #8040 www.cottagebelow.com  (You are here.)
15. Stasia Sloma #9314 http://www.stampzone.blogspot.com
16. Tracy Moloney  #6773 http://tracyscraftyadventures.blogspot.com.au/
17. Kim Chenez #5612 http://scrapbooknstampingfun.blogspot.com/

 

       Here's what I used to make my cards:

          cardstock: white, pink, green the Paper Studio

          patterned paper: pink gingham, the Paper Studio

          die-cuts: overlay and oval layer, Spellbinders 5x7 Heirloom Legacy

                            vine, Our Daily Bread Designs Fancy Foliage

          punches: EK Success lattice chain and corner rounder

          stamps: Paper Smooches Easter Blessings

                          Our Daily Bread Designs Earth Verses

          flowers: Prima Marketing

          brads: Recollections

          ink: black pigment, ColorBox

          embossing powder: clear, Ranger

May the Lord be glorified by the work of my hands, 

                             Pamela

                

DCWV April Stack-a-holic Card Challenge

UPDATE: Just found out my card made the TOP-10! This really is my favorite challenge each month. I highly recommend joining in on all the fun. You can see the other TOP-10 here: http://dcwvinc.blogspot.com/2014/04/aprils-stackaholic-challenge-top-10s.html
 Thanks so much for stopping in. Hope you are having a fun day.

     Today, I have a card for the April Stack-a-holic challenge over at DCWV. I used The Coral Couture Stack to make my card. I just love the colors in it. It is one of my favorite stacks from them. I save every little scrap of it. And, a good thing too -- look at these tiny little flags. Scraps worked perfectly for this card.

     I created the flower-embellishment by fussy-cutting three of them from one of the pages in the stack. I layered them using foam tape to give the flower dimension and colored the center with a yellow marker.

     I love the sentiment too! I recently won a stamp collection (I Blank You A1S208) from Paper Smooches, and it has quickly become one of my favs.

     There is still plenty of time to get your own card in if you want to join in the fun. Here is the sketch and address where you can get all the rules and other details: http://dcwvinc.blogspot.com/2014/04/aprils-stackaholic-challenge.html



Paper Smooches- Be Our Guest

     Did you know that Paper Smooches has free digitals!?! They do and they are looking for their Guest Designer for May.

     I used the Flower Cluster digi and one of the Thanks digis. I printed several flower clusters onto purple cardstock, did a little fussy-cutting and a bit of arranging. I added a few gems that match the blue trim on the banner and rounded a corner.

    Do you want to play along? The deadline is April 17, so there's still plenty of time. You can find all the details here: http://papersmooches.blogspot.com/2013/04/be-our-guest.html

Card for a Cause - In Memory of Grandma

Miss You Grandma

 

     Using my computer, I first printed the sentiment on a sheet of white cardstock. I used Edwardian Script ITC at 48 pts in pink. With the same white as the card, I punched the lattice chain with EK  Success' large edge punch then trimmed the edge to a point. I punched a Martha Stewart butterfly also in white. I used clear gems on the butterfly, coloring them to matching pink with a Copic marker - Tender Pink RV13.

     This one is for you, Grandma! I miss you and am so proud of your courageous fight. I'll see you in Heaven.

    I am entering this card in several challenges -

          CAS-ual Fridays CFC73 For the Girls http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2012/10/cfc73.html

          Paper Smooches Card with Pink Challenge http://papersmooches.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-fun-begins.html

          Fiskateers Card for a Cause http://www.fiskateers.com/message-board/topic/321878/

     Thanks for stopping by!

 



* * * Warm Winter Wishes * * *

One-layer card challenge.

     Here's my first card of the day. I'm entering this card at www.papersmooches.blogspot.com. One of their challenges for World Card Making Day is making a one layer card. So hard for me because I love adding layers, but I came up with this blue and white card. I heat-embossed the snowflakes and sentiment using Fiskars Winter Wishes collection. The cyan pigment is from ColorBox. I used clear embossing powder from Ranger. The blue stripes are 1/4" strips of blue paper.