Design Team Projects for July

 

 

I'm not quite sure how this month has gotten away from me, but it definitely has! I won't even mention that it's like a month till school starts (cry, scream cry some more!). I found this beautiful line of paper called Lakeslide by Pebbles at the store and it was a lot of fun to use. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the teal floral and it's reverse side, the coral/vanilla check. I used the entire sheet and may have to go back for more!! The other florals and the navy constellations were a little harder to use, but I threw them all in there and I like the overall effect. I always make cards for my Design Team commitment so this month, I made a little bag, too. It's called a Box in a Bag and it's one of the easier containers I've made. The other cards are pretty straightforward - I always put lots of layers on the cards I make for the store. I used some build-a-brads I dug up for accents and a bit of double-stitched ribbon that I ruffled, sort of. Thanks for stopping by! If you're in Knoxville, stop by Scrappin' in the City and pick up some of this gorgeous paper!!

Happy Birthday, Chris!!

Today is my sweet hubby's birthday and he is completely addicted to his iPhone, so when I received this thank you note from a friend, I knew I had the inspiration for the perfect card for him! My friend's card is more polished, but I am really pleased with the way mine turned out, especially since I was winging it. And I think Chris was impressed! Thanks for stopping by!

I {Heart} Art!

I had the LUCKIEST day recently!! I went to my local scrapbook store and found this adorable stamp set called I Heart Art from Paper Smooches that I was able to get for half off (and I used a gift card)!! Paper Smooches makes fantastic stamps that are clever and just a little different with big, bold sentiments. I found the inspiration for this card on Splitcoast Stampers and I can't wait to make more of the beautiful cards I found! I layered the paint palette over the paintbrush by first stamping the palette and then stamping it on a little post-it note to make a mask. After carefully cutting out the mask, I placed it over the stamped palette and then stamped the paintbrush. Finally, I cute out the whole thing. It worked perfectly!! Thanks for stopping by - have a great weekend!

colourQ challenge #197

Well, this isn't my favorite color combo, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my NEW STAMP SET!! It was the last one at Scrappin' in the City today and I got it for HALF OFF!! Can you tell by all the capitals that I'm super excited? I really love Paper Smooches stamps - their sentiments are the cutest! So I used my new set, called I Heart Art, to make this card that I cannot wait to send to someone special. Thanks for stopping by and have a great hump day!!

colourQ challenge #196

The colors in this week's colourQ challenge are perfect for Independence Day! I thought I would make a fireworks card, but I only had a few minutes to throw something together so here it is! I should've timed it - I'm pretty sure it would've qualified for the 10-Minute Craft Dash I've done before! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're holiday continues this weekend!

Happy 4th of July!!

Well, it's been a soggy 4th here in Knoxvegas, but we still had a fantastic time at the homestead. Chris cooked everything in town and it was all delicious!! Seriously, he grilled steak, shrimp, lamb, tilapia, bratwurst, and veggies! He's really set the bar high for future holiday cookouts. My parents came over and the kids entertained (of course!) and we had a really great afternoon. It's fireworks time now and I am sad that it's still raining, but hopefully we'll have a chance to set off our stash on Saturday! I saw a card similar to this one on Pinterest and, after another "treasure hunt" in my stamp stash, I found a few stamps that worked as fireworks! I really LOVE the results! Thanks for stopping by!

But the greatest of these is love!!

One of my favorite Scriptures is 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. My dad is a Mason and when I was growing up, I listened to him practice his memory work, and this is one of the passages I heard often. Many years later, on the day I was married, my sweet daddy recited 1 Corinthians 13 from memory during the service. I had my husband's wedding band engraved with a portion of the verse as well!

The last card I posted is my favorite of the ones I've made recently, but this one is a close second! I adore these colors together and I was so excited to find the jar stamp in my stash!! The flower is from Heartfelt Thanks, an SU! stamp set from way back, but still one of my favorites. I had a terrible time lining up the flower with the jar, so I heated the stamp and removed the rubber. I was then able to attach it to an acrylic block for more precise placement. I did the same thing with the sentiment.

This design is likely to show up for a color challenge so check back often to see what's stampin'!! Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!!

Praying for you . . .

I've mentioned before my friend, Leanne, whose sweet baby Drew has been at Vanderbilt hospital since he was born 7 months ago. Leanne has amazing faith, more powerful and inspiring than anyone's I have ever known. She posts daily about how God speaks to her and how He is working in her life and I am always awestruck.

The ladies in my Bible study group are sending cards with words of encouragement to Leanne so, of course, I wanted to make some extra cards for those ladies who want them. This is one of those cards, but I'm going to be selfish and send this one to Leanne myself since it's my favorite one!! I LOVE the colors and I can't believe my old faithful stamp set, Paint Prints, works perfectly for this design. I am so quick to always want the newest stamp sets that I see used on-line when I typically have something similar that will work if I will just take the time to look! We'll call it a treasure hunt!! Thanks for stopping by - hope you have a great weekend!!

colourQ challenge #195

I'm afraid this week's colourQ challenge didn't really do much for me . . . until I found the inspiration for this card on Pinterest! When a color scheme is challenging for me, I ALWAYS overthink it and try to make an intricate, detailed card. Bad move! If the colors don't inspire you, it's much easier to choose a simpler design . . . like this one! Bella Toile is one of my favorite background stamps and, stamped using VersaMark, it gives a very subtle texture without being overly busy. You could also emboss with clear embossing powder for additional dimension. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

colourQ challenge #194 (part 2)

I found the inspiration for these cards on Pinterest and thought I'd give them a try with this week's colors. The emboss-resist technique is great and I always love the Watercolor Wonder stamp set! Thanks for stopping by again today - happy first-day-of-summer!!

colourQ challenge #194

OMGosh!! I know I say this every week, but this week's colourQ challenge is REALLY my favorite color combination!! Ha! Ha! That is, until next week, right?!? This week's colors reminded me of summer picnics and trips to the beach, and since I already had out PTI's stamp set, A Day at the Beach, I had to use it on this week's card. I LOVE how the rows of flip-flops turned out - I especially love the poppy polka-dot ones! I deviated only slightly from the color palette by using black on the flip-flops because none of the other colors would show up correctly. Thanks for stopping by - I hope you're enjoying your summer!!

With Deepest Sympathy

 

Over the weekend, I made sympathy cards for a family who recently lost their mother/wife. Since I didn't have a lot of time to craft, I made the same card to send to the lady's husband as well as her daughter & her family. I never know if I should make a sympathy card to reflect the person who passed away or the person to whom I'm sending the card. I sent the coral card embossed in white to her daughter and the black & olive card to her husband. I love this Scripture from Matthew and the card's simplicity makes it a perfect choice if you need to make several card. Thanks for stopping by today - I hope you have a great week!

colourQ challenge #193

This week's colourQ challenge is another GORGEOUS combination!! It must seem like I love ALL colors, but there are really only a few that excite me every time I see them and two of them are making an appearance today: turquoise and red!! My obsession with turquoise and red together came several years ago when SU! put Real Red and Cool Caribbean together - I have been hooked ever since!! I did not intend for this card to look like this originally, but I really love the way it turned out! I received some nice feedback when I put those little stars on a previous project, so I used them again. They are an easy and cute filler since I CANNOT STAND white space! I knew I wanted to make a little banner, but I don't have that particular SU! punch and I knew I could never cut four identical triangles, so I used my Nestabilities Labels 4. A little twine and a birthday sentiment from my favorite PTI stamp set and there you have it! Thanks for stopping by and have a great Fathers' Day weekend!!

I'm a colourQ Courtier!!

I am so excited to have been crowned a colourQ Courtier in last week's challenge!! I LOVE the card I made, but I never, ever expect to be selected for anything, so this was a great surprise!! This week's colourQ challenge is another gorgeous combo, so check back later in the week (I guess that would be tomorrow!!) to see what I came up with!!

PTI Make it Monday #120

I have never, ever, EVER completed a Make it Monday Challenge on TUESDAY so obviously it was a super easy one! This week's theme is Overlapping Ombre, which leads me to a question that's been on my mind for a while. How does one pronounce "ombre?" Does it rhyme with somber or is it pronounced like the Spanish word, hombre? Very curious . . . Anyway, here is my submission for this week's challenge and I loved pulling out ALL of my turquoises for this one! I hope you're not tired of them yet. I embossed my sentiment in white on Stampers Select white cardstock and then I stamped, from top to bottom, in SU! Soft Sky, SU! Pool Party, PTI Hawaiian Shores (MY FAVE!!), and SU! Bermuda Bay. So, however you pronounce it, OMBRE is a great technique for putting lots of color in your projects! Thanks for stopping by - I'm off to watch "Pretty Little Liars!!!"

colourQ challenge #192 (part deux)

I wasn't completely satisfied with my first attempt at this week's colourQ challenge, so I decided to CASE another card I have in my card file on Pinterest! After looking at several of the other challenge submissions, I realize that I should have substituted Pacific Point for Island Indigo, but I love Hawaiian Shores so much that I completely threw caution to the wind! And I definitely like this card better than my first one. Have a great weekend!!

colourQ challenge #192

This week's colourQ challenge is a cool and crisp palette of colors reminiscent of the pool or the ocean. Although, sadly, my ocean colors look a bit stormy since I didn't have the lighter Going Gray, instead opting for a stamped-off Basic Gray. I didn't have Island Indigo either, so I used Papertrey Ink's Hawaiian Shores, which is a GORGEOUS turquoise and my all-time favorite color, although quite a bit different from Island Indigo. If you follow my blog, you probably recognize this card from a few week's back. It's my favorite go-to design for color challenges because you can do just about anything with PTI's Watercolor Wonder stamp set!! Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

Make It Monday #119

This week's PTI Make It Monday is a great challenge using flagged borders. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the new line of paper from Pebbles that I bought yesterday at Scrappin' in the City and I couldn't wait to use the entire collection to make this card! I'm not very good at randomly doing anything crafty, so I arranged my flags in a fairly uniform pattern. Luckily, there's room for all kinds of styles in the crafting world! I also used Stamper's Select White Cardstock, Hawaiian Shores and Summer Sunrise inks, and Stylish Sentiments: Birthday stamp set, all from Papertrey Ink. Thanks for stopping by and have a great evening!!

colourQ challenge #191

This week's colourQ challenge is a beautiful color combination that I truly love so I dug out all my washi tape that's been collecting dust for a few weeks and went to work. I ADORE this card!! I completely understand if you're not as over-the-moon about this card as I am, but seriously, I love its simplicity. You can do some amazing things with a few well-chosen colors! Now get busy and create something beautiful this weekend!!