Sketchivus for the Rest of Us...

It is so hot and smoky here in N. Cal that it's hard to imagine it will ever be cold again. But Christmas will be here before you know it and I have less than 10 cards made! Today I made a card based on the sketch currently featured on the Jingle Belles blog Sketching in a Winter Wonderland. 

The lovely and talented (and traveling buddy extraordinaire) Stephanie created this sketch:

I made a birthday card yesterday using these botanical papers so they were sitting out on my table just daring me to make a card from them. So I did. Take that botanical papers! The sentiment has been in my stash for several years and I'm glad to finally put it to use. It's shiny so it didn't photograph that well.

I am also submitting this to Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge: Anything goes, as long as it's Christmas. 

Jingle on...

Less than 200 days til Christmas and I'm way behind on Christmas cards so today I made a card based on the Jingle Belles challenge, to make a card featuring bells. The sentiment and most of the papers are from a coordinating scrapbook paper set. I think I'm up to 7 cards.

Summertime means graduations and tomatoes

I am on a roll, two cards in two days. Yay me! I found the perfect sketch  for a graduation card I need for this weekend, Sketch Saturday #515. Here's the sketch:

For my card, I used two types of miscellaneous patterned paper, two types of ribbon, and a few embellishments. I cut the cap and diploma using Cricut Design Center. Unfortunately, the colors look a little muddy in the photo but I'm pretty happy with it. 

I'm also entering the following challenges:

Always Fun Challenges where the theme is Graduation, perfect!

Crafty Hazelnut Patterned Paper Challenge

Shopping our Stash Graduation or Congrats

And now if you made this far, feast your eyes on the coup de grace, the harbinger of summer...my first almost ripe Early Girl tomato.  I love love love sandwiches of all kinds and few things me happier that a REAL tomato on my sandwich. You're welcome. 

Oh tie a piece of twine around the Christmas card...

Finally a couple of Christmas cards, based on the Jingle Belles card challenge, to make a Christmas card using ribbon, string, twine, lace, dental floss, shoe strings...you get the idea. I made two using the Tim Holtz Snow Globe dies. 

It might not be very noticeable but the first card uses subtly patterned paper for everything except the snowy roofs and mountain tops.

For the second card, I water colored the globe and then die-cut all the pieces using different colors of Kraft-core paper, and roughed them up with a nail file.

Now I'm up to six Christmas cards. Hmm.

I am also submitting this to Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge, this week's challenge is Anything Goes as Long as it's Christmas.

Goldilocks and the three squares

I am combining a few challenges today. The Winter Wonderland challenge, Real or Faux Stitching, was a slam dunk because I love sewing on paper (which reminds me of an interesting story when I took my 32 year old Kenmore in for repairs and explained what I use it for, but that's a story for another day). I struggled a bit with the Jingle Belles challenge to make a card using inchies. First I tried using an actual one inch square. It was TOO small to put anything on it.Then I tried a two inch square. It was TOO big to fit into the layout I had in mind. Then I tried a one-inch-and-a-halfie and it was just right. I added a rectangle and a large square to add some interest. This is a truly a Heinz 57 of stuff, dies, stamps, papers and a bit of stitching. It was very fun to make. 

In so many words...

The current Jingle Belles challenge us to make a Christmas card featuring text in some form or another. I pawed through my papers and found a pad of coordinating papers that include several pages with Merry Christmas in various fonts and colors...score! Threw in a few more layers from the same pad, a bit of stitching and an embellishment...pretty simple. Here's my first one:

And here's my second one:

One month almost over and 4 cards in the bin, yay!

I am also submitting this to Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Anything Goes and Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge. 

Three deer is better than two

This week I'm playing along with Jingle Belles We Three Kings challenge, to make a Christmas card featuring three of one element. Using the Stampin' Up Carols of Christmas dies, I went with three deer. I planned to do three trees as well, but I liked it better with 4. Two Christmas cards down!

Bird Crazy Birthday

I needed a birthday card for a young man and decided the Tim Holtz Bird Crazy stamps and dies would fit the beak perfectly (get it?? Beak instead of "bill"...snort!). My inspiration for the layout came from the current Fusion Card Challenge (Happy 4th Anniversary Fusion!), and I played with just the sketch. Here's the sketch:

I flipped the sketch because I thought it worked better since the bird faces left. I colored my bird with Spectrum Noir markers, stitched around the edge of my cardstock and voila!

I am also playing along with Seize the Birthday Anything Goes. 

                                           

Merry Christmas to me...

Didn't have access to my crafting supplies for most of 2017 so I'm thrilled to be back to it. This is my first card of 2018 and first card posted in a year! This one is based on the Jingle Belles challenge to make a card using goodies received over the holidays. The Merry Christmas is from the Anna Griffin Winter Wonderland Cricut cartridge, a thoughtful gift from myself to myself.  

I'm also submitting this to Craft Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas