Birthday Sundaes Challenge #5

Hello!

I was going to take a few days off from challenges, but I got this inspiration piece in the mail and I could not wait to get to work. I remembered that Birthday Sundaes has a weekly challenge, so I figured this would be a great way to jump into their celebration. The challenge was simply to make a Birthday Card. You can find the full challenge here:  Birthday Sundaes Challenge #5 .

Now - I know like many others, I am often inspired by things I see in magazines, advertisements, or even catalogs. I usually forget about the ideas though when I finally have time to work on projects. This week my husband got an advertisement in the mail from Helzberg Diamonds in the form of a greeting card. As soon as I saw it, I put it on my craft table so I wouldn't forget.  So, here's the card I used for inspiration....and then the card I made.  I believe this is my most favorite card that I've made EVER!

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Now My Card:

Inside:

Card Recipe:  I used Stampin Up cardstock in white and cranberry crisp. Sentiment and butterfly inside is stamped with SU's cranberry crisp ink. The butterflies on the outside were cut on the Imagine with the Hannah Montana cartridge at various sizes. I ran the cranberry butterfly through the Script folder on the Cuttlebug - then pop-dotted him, and the green butterfly through the Swiss Dots folder. Both were "rubbed" with Versamark to make the embossing pop. I used scrap papers for the green and pink butterflies (believe it or not, the one is pink - it just didn't photograph well). The sentiment is from Birthday Greetings from Papertrey Ink.

Enjoy!

Kim G

Sketch Challenge 50

....with a Twist!

Hi There!

I'm getting the hang of the challenges now.  I'm glad the winners are chosen at random though because there is SOOOOOO much unbelievable talent out there that it can be quite daunting. I've found so many bloggers out there who are now my paper crafting idols!  :-)

I made this card for the Peachy Keen Stamps Sketch Challenge #50 - With A Twist.  To enter, you have to make a card using the weekly sketch for inspiration, and somehow use something metallic - whether it was metallic paper, embellishments, glitter or something else.  Here's the link to their challenge:  http://peachykeenstampschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/04/peachy-keen-stamps-sketch-challenge-50.html




Here's my card!

Card Recipe - Standard A2 card. Card stock is all Stampin Up (sorry, I no longer have the color names). The sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages by Papertrey Ink. The smaller metallic flowers are from my "unknown" embellishment stash. The larger flowers were punched from metallic/mirror paper by Prestige. The bunny was cut on the Cricut from the New Arrival cartridge at 3".  Of course, the face is by PKS. Also added Frosted Lace glitter glue by Stickles.

Take Care!

Kim G.

Mother's Day Challenge

Hi There!

I'm going to try yet another challenge!  I am getting so excited to work on these now. This one is for Peachy Keen Stamps' Let's Face It Friday, Mother's Day Challenge.  You can check it out HERE.  The challenge was to make a Mother's Day card using PKS face stamps.  I just found these stamps at my   local scrapbook store (Memories & Beyond) ...... LOVE THEM!!!  (the stamps AND the store!)

Here's the card I made today for the challenge.....

Card Recipe:  Standard A2 card using Stampin Up, Real Red cardstock. Front layer is "natural" cardstock from my scrap stash. Cupcake is from the Sweet Treats cartridge, print/cut at 4.2" on the Imagine using scrap white cardstock. Face is from PKS. Punch is the lace Punch Around the Page from Martha Stewart. The sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages from Papertrey Ink.

Have a great day!!

Kim G.

My First Challenge!

Happy Sunday Everyone!

One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog was so I could enter some of the many challenges that other bloggers offer. I've been watching the blogs over the last few weeks, and last night as I was following along with My Pink Stamper's monthly Pinkalicous Bloghop, I found a few that piqued my interest. I thought I'd be ambitious and do a project for each of them, but since weekend time seems to fly by so fast, I had to pick just one.  I chose to do the "So Saturday Challenge - Spring Project" challenge from Card Creations & More by C.   You can find this one and all her other weekly challenges  HERE.

So here is my very first Challenge project!

This is a standard 5.5 x 4.25 card.  I added an extra element to the challenge by allowing myself to only use papers from my scrap bin as it's getting quite full! So, all papers & card stock are scraps. The image was print/cut on the Image using the Better Together cartridge. I print/cut the full image once at 4", and then print/cut the bird layers and pop-dotted them for some extra dimension. The font was cut from the Making the Grade cartridge (.7 inches). The music notes are just hand-drawn....just in case that wasn't obvious (ha ha ha).  I used the EK Success threading water punch for the bottom border. I also couldn't resist using some diamond Stickles on the insides of the flowers.

I hope you like it!  I can't wait for the next challenge!!

Enjoy!

-Kim G

The Weekend Is Here!

Happy Friday!

The weekend couldn't come fast enough for me this week. But - now it's here and the temps will be in the 60's and 70's, and I get to spend almost the entire weekend in my craft room.  I'm going to work on a couple of challenges as well as the invitations and favors for a friends baby shower. I just love it when I can spend time in the craft room without feeling guilty!

Pictures to come!  Enjoy your weekend!

Kim G

Another Birthday Celebration

Happy Saturday! 

Today we went to a birthday party for a friend of my husband's family. What's not to love about a party?  Since this was her 50th, I wanted to try something a bit different than a regular card - so I did a banner card. Originally there were going to be 50 cupcakes, but after cutting the 13 needed for the letters in Happy Birthday, I decided 50 was going to take a little too much time. Then, since we were giving her a gift card, I decided this morning to make a matching "bag" to go with it.  I think the reason I liked the banner card outcome was the silver mirror paper I used for the cupcake wrappers. It really made a BIG difference in the end!

So many fun projects coming up!  Enjoy your weekend!

-Kim G

Here are some shots of a couple sections up close....

And here is a picture of the matching "bag"....

Recipe -

* Pattern paper was printed using the Hopscotch cartridge for the Imagine.

* Font is from Hannah Montana (who knew I'd ever find a use for that cart!)

* Colored cardstock is from DCWV Brights Stack

* Black and White cardstock from Stampin Up

* Silver mirrored cardstock is from my local scrapbook store (Memories & Beyond)

* Black sheer ribbon is from Stampin Up (from many years ago)

* Scalloped circles were cut at 5" from the preloaded shapes on the Imagine

* Cupcakes were cut from Celebrations cartridge

* Bag was cut from BTBM cartridge

Happy Birthday Diane!

Yay!  The weekend is here! I decided I needed a short spring break myself, so I took yesterday and today off in hopes of getting some housecleaning and a lot of projects done. So far I have one card done and I managed to squeak in the laundry between shows on HGTV.  Today I decided the house looks good enough to me and I’m not moving from the office/craftroom.

The card I made yesterday is for one of my oldest and dearest friends. Let me clarify that by “oldest”, I mean chronologically!!  Ha ha! We don’t get to see each other much these days, but I think about her all the time. It usually turns out that we get together on one of the coldest days of the year. Thankfully it looks like winter is finally moving on and we can enjoy some warmer weather activities.

To date, this is one of my favorite cards! I think it’s because I just love the sweet face on the cupcake. The little design made me renew my love of the Imagine. Good thing too because I was just salivating over the new Expression 2 that is coming out later this month. I guess I don’t really need 3 cutting machines…..do I?  I still have the Xyron Wishblade sitting in the closet.  Anyway…As I was looking through my cartridges for inspiration, I was amazed at how many cupcake options there are. Good thing I LOVE cupcakes!!  I didn’t take a picture of the inside of the card, but I printed/cut a 1.5 inch version of the cupcake and adhered it to the inside corner to dress it up a bit. I don’t always decorate the inside of my cards, but this time I couldn’t help using the little cupcake again.

Have a great day!

Kim G



Recipe
This is a 6.25 x 4.5 inch card (#2 envelope). The cream cardstock is by Papertrey Ink. The pink card stock, and the white cardstock used to print the designs on the Imagine are from Stampin’ Up. I also used Diamond Stickles to bling it up a bit. The swirly designs around the outside were made using a clear stamp from the Circles & Dots collection from Inkadinkadoo. I used Stampin’ Up’s Pretty In Pink for the design. The sentiment stamp is from Birthday Bash Sentiments by Papertrey Ink, and I used Stampin’ Up’s basic black inkpad.

Better Together Imagine Cartridge - The base that the cupcake is sitting on is the first two layers of the You Make My Heart Sing image on page 7 of the handbook. They were cut at 3.8 inches. The cupcake is from Page 5. I printed/cut her as one merged layer and then cut the top layer a second time so I could pop-dot it up for the 3-D affect. I used additional pop-dots to make the entire cupcake stand out.