NBUS Challenge #62

One thing I'm trying to do is to really dig deep in my stash and start using some of my NBUS items, and the NBUS Challenge Blog is perfect for that!

This small stamp set from Close To My Heart is the one I dug up yesterday. I believe I found it on eBay a while back. The reason it really jumped out at me is because of the sentiment "you're in our thoughts and prayers." I love that the plural was used and hadn't seen that elsewhere. I picked it up for not too much money and there it sat-until yesterday.

The name of the stamp set is called A Blossom (A1121). I struggled a little with it because there's not a middle to the largest flower, but I thought the enamels do a good job for that.

I also used a variety of inks from Stampin' Up! and Memento for this project. The paper is from my stash as well and the base is Pear Pizzazz from Stampin' Up! The enamel dots are from Doodlebug Designs.

Thanks once again Darnell for helping us dig around in our craft rooms and create something new! Be sure to hop over to the NBUS Challenge for some extra fun!

Ombre Floral Congrats Card

There's a special young lady graduating from high school and I wanted to make a card just for her. I almost threw out the letters that I used for this card, but was so glad I didn't because I had just enough to spell out the word "congrats!" and include a few flowers too.

These letters were part of a set that was gifted to me. I believe they're most likely 20 years old. The ombre patterned floral paper is from one of my favorite designers, Paige Taylor Evans. Her stuff is always so bright and cheery!

I had to stagger the letters to get them to fit on the front of the card. They were peel and stick, but I didn't trust that, so I glued them down too.

It was such an easy card to make but I love the look. It's leaving tomorrow in a pink envelope that has the flap coordinating with the card too.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Harry The Trout

My daughter is in her last year of grad school. She already has a job in Wisconsin, but she's more than ready to move on. This card is an encouragement card for her; a reminder to keep swimming.

I mounted mine on a piece of green card stock and embellished it with puffy stickers from the Dollar Tree. I really like these stickers because they give a nice amount of dimension without adding bulk and making it cost more to mail. Oh, and they're cheap too, and that helps! :)

He's also the perfect size to mail in a business sized envelope.

Here's the free digi. As always:

1. Snag it to your desktop or photos.
2. Put it in a Word or Pages Document.
3. Resize it to the size card you want to make.
4. Print it out, either at home or at a copy center. 

I hope you enjoy the freebie! Thanks for stopping by my blog today and have a wonderful day!!

Simply Clean & Simple May 2024 Challenge

I bought this string at a thrift store
because I wanted the bobbin. I'm so 
glad to be able to use it on a card!

Tonight I had fun making a card for the Simply Clean & Simple Challenge Blog. CAS is always their theme, but they also have an optional theme. This time it was flowers. That was easy because I love stamping flowers of any kind.

I opted for a red, white and blue theme because I'm so ready to kick off the summer this Memorial Day weekend! I'm ready and excited for summer (minus the continual hurricane threats). There's just something special about those days that the sun stays up late and the air is thick with warmth. And the abundance of watermelon is a really big plus too!

I used a Stampin' Up! set that is one of my all-time favorites. I tried very hard to keep the card clean and simple, which isn't always easy for me. There's quite a bit of unused space on this one, however it's blue. I'm hoping that still qualifies it for a clean and simple card! :)

My complete supply list is:

• Stampin' Up! So Very Grateful Stamp Set
• SU! Real Red Card Stock
• Papertrey Blueberry Bushel Card Stock
• Memento Black Ink
• White Card Stock
• Copic Markers
• Verve Sentiment
• My Favorite Things Die (for sentiment)
• Vintage String

If you'd like to join in the fun, be sure to check out Simply Clean & Simple. They have a fun new challenge each month and it's always fun to play along!

Retro Rubber Lavender Love Challenge #231

Over at Retro Rubber's Challenge #231 (#rrcb231) they have another fun color challenge-lavender! It's always fun to use this color because there are so many shades to choose from. They listed some suggested colors, but anything that falls in the lavender category is game, as long as you use a stamp that's over a year old!

Here's my complete supply list:

• Stampin' Up!'s Because I Care Stamp Set (2010)
• Michael's Purple Card Stock (from a multi-purple pack)
• Memento Lilac Posies Ink
• Memento Elderberry Ink
  
• Memento Sweet Plum Ink
• Memento Grape Jelly Ink
• Memento Bamboo Leaves Ink
• Memento Pistachio Ink
• Memento Olive Grove Ink
• SU! Gorgeous Grape Ink
• Kaiser Craft Patterned Papers
• Misc. Dots and Washi

Since I had so many flowers I thought a slimline card would be a better choice to display them on. That left me with extra room so I filled in some of the spaces with pre-printed cutouts from the Kaiser Craft pack.

If you get a chance head over to Retro Rubber. They always have a great challenge and it's so much fun pulling out your old stamps. I had forgotten how much I like this one and was glad to have a chance to use it again!

Wild Peacock Encounter

While checking out some yard sales near my mom’s neighborhood in St. Petersburg, Florida we came across this peacock who was all too ready and willing to show me his beautiful feathers! At the end his feathers vibrate in a process called “train rattling” which is designed to attract a female. 

I feel so blessed to have gotten this video!

Purple Flowered Cat Birthday Card Freebie

Recently I came across a girl on The Angel Card Project who loved cats and the color purple. I created this card just for her, adding a few embellishments to make it pop a bit more.

I used purple paper from Michaels then adding the embellishments. Sending it in a purple envelope makes it fun too! I picked those up at Amazon.

Here's the free digi. As always:

1. Snag it to your desktop or photos.
2. Put it in a Word or Page Document.
3. Resize it to the size card you want to make.
4. Print it out, either at home or at a copy center. 

I hope you enjoy the freebie! Thanks for stopping by my blog today and have a wonderful day!

Soft Birthday Floral Card

This card was just a fun one to make. I didn't follow any rules, but just made it up as I went along. 

This set is called Raining Flowers from Stampin' Up! It's an old but fun set, but I wasn't too sure that I actually liked it at first. I only paid $1.00 for it at a sale, so I figured I'd at least give it a try before I donated it to my local Salvation Army.

All things considered, I think it's a pretty fun card. It's soft and perfect for a girl's birthday.

My complete supply list is:

• Stampin' Up!
• Lawn Fawn Patterned Paper
• Misc. Washi Tape
• SU! Bubble Bath Ink
• SU! Cucumber Crush Ink
• SU! Gorgeous Grape Ink
• Soft Brads from Dollar Tree
• Copic Markers R81 & RV55
• Sentiment from Verve

Well that's it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog!

Care Bear Card

I love all the unique requests that come through The Angel Card Project. While looking at birthday card requests, I came across one girl that loved Care Bears, especially Bedtime Bear. I went online looking for an image of Bedtime Bear and came across one HERE. It said it was a freebie, and because I used it for personal use only, thought it was okay to snag it. 

It was printed at FedEx then mounted on pale yellow card stock and I trimmed that out. This gave the image a little extra strength to be mounted on the embossed card stock. After mounting it, I used Unicorn Stickles to add some glimmer to the embossing. Then it was mounted on the card base.

It's so fun being able to customize cards like this. I'm sure she'll be happy with this one. No matter what image you're looking for, chances are good that there's a freebie online somewhere.

Thanks for stopping by today, and happy card making!

Kaisercraft Lilac Mist Cards

Here are two super-easy cards that I made using Kaiercraft's Lilac Mist patterned paper pack. It's a 6.5" x 6.5" and since the dream catcher took up the whole 6.5 inches, I make these cards an A6 size, which was perfect for the paper.

The sheet I used was one sheet with a dreamcatcher on each side. I cut in in half and used the other components in the paper pack to accent each card.

The only two other things I used was some silver card stock to compliment the paper and Stampin' Up!'s Blueberry Bushel Card Stock.

I love it when I can use up some of my supplies and create something pretty, even if it is super easy!

A closer view shows the silver in the Kaisercraft Paper.

Glimmery Purple Heart

Here’s a card that I made using my Minc machine, and some Julie Hickey pre-cut foibles. I color them with subdued Copics. It’s a simple card that I adds just the right amount of shimmer.

I also used some purple metallic background paper and it’s all mounted on a piece of Stampin’ Up! Bubble Bath. card stock. It’s finished with a few glittery purple enamels.

It’s finished with a few glittery purple enamels.

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a blessed day!

A "Big Sister" Crochet Blanket

After completing a baby blanket for a friend at church, she and her family loved it so much that I thought I would make one for the big sister. In this case, she's nine and going to be a sister for the first time. I wanted to make her feel really special by making her her very own blanket. It's bigger than her little brother's blanket, and the colors are much cooler.

I love this pattern because it's easy to keep track of the stitch counts as you're watching TV or talking to others. That's something I really struggle with so it's important for me to have something that's easy to keep track of.

You can find the video showing how to make this  pattern HERE on YouTube and my post to the original baby blanket HERE. It's amazing how different the same pattern can look with different kinds of yarn.

I'm giving it to her this Sunday and I'm hoping she really likes it.

If you're looking for an easy yet fun blanket to crochet in any size, be sure to check out the link above. If your a beginner to intermediate crochter, you'll love this pattern.

Afternote:

I found these adorable pictures on Facebook of the big sister enjoying her new blanket. It made my heart happy!

Word Power Challenge May 2024

One thing I'm really loving is the (fairly) new Word Power Challenge. This card is made for challenge #5. They have some really amazing cards over there this month. All the design team member's have great cards, but their guest designer Gloria's card is especially lovely. Be sure to stop over there if you haven't done so already and play along if you want!

The goal of their challenge is to use a sentiment as a main focus of your card. At first I didn't think I had too many large sentiment stamps on hand, but it's amazing how many I can make fit this category.

Today's card starts off with a sentiment from the Stampin' Up! set called Sorry For Everything. The hearts and flower come from another SU! set called Heart Happiness. All of the images are fussy-cut. The black and white paper is also from SU! It's all mounted on SU! Poppy Parade card stock.

"Sorry" cards are often difficult for me to make because I worry that they may be a bit to cheery for the occasion. This card started off with the sentiment "Sorry for the loss of your furry friend," as I see quite a few posts on The Angel Card Project for people who have lost their pets and I thought it would be good to have some of those cards on hand. But after adding the hearts and flowers, plus the main color being red, it seemed too cheery for the loss of a pet.

I'll save this one for a happy occasion like when someone is moving on to a better place or a job promotion. Hopefully the hearts will convey love for that person and won't be seen as inappropriate for a "Sorry" card!

I'm sure I think too much about this stuff. I often think back to what my daughter once told me, "Mom, it's just a card." 

Thanks for stopping by today, and thanks to Darlene and Diane for a great challenge blog!

Christmas (or Not) BINGO Challenge #7

My Mom modeling the shawl for me!

With Mother's Day just around the corner, I came up with a sweet idea that would be perfect for any mom or grandma. You could even do a grandpa gift with this pattern if you chose different colors. But for this project, I'm calling this a Mother's Day Shawl.

We have a new BINGO board over at Christmas (or Not) BINGO Challenges. This time there was an opportunity for me to put down my paper and ink and to pick up my crochet hook. I chose column "I" and selected the elements "Stripes," "No Stamping," and "Monochrome." 

I love to crochet while watching TV or chatting with friends. I'm also part of a church group that crochets shawls for nursing homes, so I usually have a basket of yarn not too far away at all times.

However for this challenge, since it needed to include stripes, I found THIS NEW PATTERN. It's by one of my favorite crocheters, Mikey from The Crochet Crowd over on YouTube. He is so easy to follow that any pattern he does I feel I have a pretty good chance of being able to do it.

This pattern is called the Moss Stitch, and it's fairly easy to do. However, I do struggle with one thing with crochet, and that is keeping the number of stitches the same row after row. See the picture below for my "mistakes" and "remedies."

I love how this pattern allowed for a border all around it, which helped me straighten out the finished piece. I would ahve made the border wider, but I used up all the dark purple yarn and didn't want to buy more.

The hat is something that I always throw in because they're really easy to make, and the church likes to give a hat away with each shawl. If I don't provide one, they may pair my purple and lavender shawl with a yellow and orange hat, and I would hate that!

What I really love about this pattern is that you use two different yarns, but never have to cut the yarn to switch colors, you just leave it at one end and pick it back up after two rows of the opposite color. When you put the border on, it hides the yarn that was leftover.

Below is a picture of the yarn I used for this project.

The Mandala Ombre yarn is such a nice yarn because it's not real fuzzy. I'm thinking that this makes it not pill as much too. It comes in so many colors from darks to brights. 

The solid purple is from Caron Simply Soft. You can get just about any yarn color from that line. It is really soft, however, I sometimes find that it's harder to word with because it's not woven as tightly as others. Yet for this project the size and color were perfect, so I went with it.

On the right you can see how messed up the edges are. But I filled in the gaps with double crochets instead of singles before putting the border on. I don't thing anyone will notice!

I had just enough for the shawl, border and hat. Perfect!

One thing that I would recommend is to use lighter colors if you're new to crochet. Darker colors can be harder to see as you stitch, but they are somewhat forgiving.

No matter what you choose to do, be sure to check out our BINGO card this time over at Christmas (or not) BINGO Challenges. We are an all-crafts challenge and would love to have you play along with us!