Milestone- Happy Birthday Old Man!

My DH just celebrated a rather large birthday in the past few weeks. On the day of his birthday, I gave him a big hug and said "Happy birthday old man!" Well much to my surprise he was not happy about that!  I never knew him to be upset by a birthday ever. After all he looks much younger than his actually age. But this birthday- I guess it took him by surprise and next to 40, 60 is a big milestone!

Over at the Allsorts Challenge, the theme is milestone birthday. It could not have come at a better time. Hubby's birthday card was quite timely! 

Maybe if enough people comment on his card, he might not feel so bad about being an old man- oops I better not say that again!

For his card I used sentimental borders from Mama Elephant, super script from Altenew and number dies from Papertrey Ink.

Oh yeah- hubby loved all his cards- this one? Not so much!

Tagarama

Lots of excitement on my blog today!! I am so excited to be part of Tracey from In My Creative Opinion's 25 Days of Christmas Tags! Tracy has been doing this for the last four years. You can check out her Pinterest site for the previous years creations.

Tracey has some great prizes from some fabulous and awesome companies. For a chance to win some these amazing prizes, just leave a comment on Traceys blog for each one of the days (plus the main prize drawing here) and you will be entered to win. you have until 11:59pm EST on November 27th to enter.   

You will also get an extra chance to win by commenting on my post! You have until 11:59 EST on  November 26th to comment. I will randomly choose one commenter and pass their name to Tracey include in the drawing.  Winners will be announced on November 28th on Tracey's blog.

The Card Concept this week is posting a snowman inspiration. When you check out the challenge you will see that the whole DT made snowmen tags. We are all participating in the Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags.  

 Remember to leave a comment for a chance to win an awesome prize from Tracey and I hope that you will show us your best snowman creation over at the Card Concept!

Challenge Sunday

 Its Sunday and its challenge day. I was glad to see there are still some challenges that want Thanksgiving cards. I have a few left to make.

This card began with the idea of texture, which is what they want over at Just Add Ink. I got out some acetate which I haven't used for awhile. I stamped the leaves with StazOn ink and colored the opposite side with copics. I love the way they blended in a puddle fashion. Kinda like alcohol inks which makes sense since thats what copics are. I stamped and fussy cut the leaves to embellish the front of the card. I added the twine for extra texture and a few gems and there  ya have it!

Here is a view that allows you to peek inside the card.

 Look how cool those copics blended together!

I am entering this into Pals Paper Arts color challenge- OK once again maybe I am fudging it a bit.

AAA cards has this awesome photo inspiration- can ya see where I was going with the card and the photo?

The Paper Players has another Thanksgiving inspiration

Lastly CAS on Sunday wants you to use twine. I was trying to think of something really creative, but nothing would work but something traditional. But what the heck it is Thanksgiving- the penultimate traditional holiday!

So one card, five challenges! WOOO HOOO!!

Off to finish my paper on self-care- now that I have just practiced my own self-care!

Krafty Christmas

Only two more challenges and I will be done my  term as a wild card designer at the Card Concept.  Trying different styles of card making has certainly been an eye opener. I realize that I can embrace other styles as well. Today the challenge at the Card Concept is a "krafty christmas" with a photo inspiration.

Today, I went for a clean and graphic look. This stamp from Hero Arts just lent itself to that style.
I stamped it with khaki ink from Simon Says Stamp. I glittered the whole tree and added a glittered wood star for the top of the tree.  The saying is a combo of a very old Hero Arts christmas sentiment set and a die cut "merry from the new Papertrey Ink- wet paint holiday. I die cut the merry with red card stock to make it pop.

This isn't in my comfort zone, but I am so pleased with the results, this will definitely be massed produced to send out for the holidays.

Please join us for this great challenge at the Card Concept!

Thankful

Sundays seem to be challenge day for me. I wake up and sit in front of the puter and go through all the challenges and see what inspires me and then I go to work. I am in a Thanksgiving mood and have been making quite a few to send out to those peeps I am thankful to have in my life.

This card was inspired by several challenges. First over at the Male Room (  a new challenge site I discovered and really like) we are asked to use wood in our design. Well, I used real wood on my card. The wheat sheafs (from Impression Obsession) were die cut from a thin piece of balsa wood and lightly sponged with khaki brown ink. What is more male than using real wood huh?

TIME OUT challenges has a photo inspiration and while it is somewhat Christmasy I thought the cream sofa and the wood crate coffee table was the perfect inspiration for my card. 

The Pink Elephant challenge also has a photo inspiration, I  hope you can see the elements that inspired me.

Lastly I am going out on a limb, but Shopping our Stash has a word theme of leaves. I know this is not a conventional leaf card, but those wheat sheafs are full of wheat leaves. I pulled out the balsa wood and the Tim Holtz Thanksgiving folder from the stash, dusted them off and used them for my card. Hey if you folks over at SOS think I am stretching it, I totally understand.

So wow weeee, one card, four challenges!

Thanks for taking a look and if you like what you see leave a comment- and hey if you don't like it don't leave a comment- I am very sensitive! :)

Peace on Earth Online Card Class Homework

Please do not tell Dr. Ambrose that I have not been working on my final paper that is due in 2 weeks. I just can't get motivated when I would rather be doing my homework from the Holiday Online Card Class with Jennifer Maguire and Kristina Werner!

So, I gave myself permission to take this weekend off and play and I promise I will knuckle down next week. I watched a number of videos from class today. The funny thing was I really wanted to see how Laura Bassen made her winter wonderland scenic card, but it was Julie Ebersole's videos that stole the day for me.

My card today was combination of two cards she made and I really like the the subtle gold sparkle of the Delicata gold ink around the masked Martha Stewart dove punch. The saying is from the new brush stroke set from Papertrey Ink.

If you haven't taken any of the online card classes, you are really missing out on alot of fun and new techniques and ideas.

OK- gotta go more homework  to finish from class. Now I have to try that winter wonderland scene.

Let it snow!

Thanksgiving is only a month away and that means Christmas isn't far behind. Now is the time to start thinking about all of your holiday crafting.

I always am thrilled when I come up with an idea that can be easily reproduced in a variety of ways. This blueprint with a tag on a plain card base can be made in any number of ways. I made a similar card featured on this blog posting.

My tag cards use two new products just released by Memory Box. The winter large snowflakes stencil and the die- let it snow clouds.

So how did I make these cards you ask? I free cut a tag shape and sponged  MenentoLUXE inks on to the tag with the snowflake stencil. I used summer sky, angel pink, pear tart and toffee crunch. Next I tried something everyone has been doing but I have been late to the party on this technique. I placed the stencil over the tag so the snowflakes are covering open spots and using the shimmer creative medium from Imagine Crafts.

I spread the medium through the stencil with a palette knife and carefully removed the stencil. while the medium was still wet I sprinkled glitter on the tag. While the tag was drying I die cut the let it snow die and just used the words.

 When the tag was dry, I attached the "let it snow" sentiment. Lastly, I adhered it to my base card with foam tape and added matching ribbons and some of the ever popular sequins. Why you ask? Because you can never have enough sparkle!

Here is another view, so you can appreciate the glittery snowflakes on this fun card.

I am entering these cards in two challenges featuring tags. First the word at Addicted to CAS is "tags".

Second, I discovered a new challenge site that is all about tags called Tag You're It! where these tags were the inspiration.

I hope you like these clean and simple tag cards. Let me know how you would interpret this blueprint.

Wit or wit-out

Hi Everyone! What a cold and dark Saturday morning. It is just a taste of what is to come. But the positive spin is that cold mornings make you happy to be inside and hunkered down in my studio with some soft music and a cup of tea ready to create with soft fall colors. Oranges, rust, saffrons and browns.

This month at House of Cards we are challenge you to a fun sketch.

I had to go with  Thanksgiving theme, plus it gave me the opportunity to use my new "songbirds" set from Papertrey Ink. I love anything with birds on it, so naturally it was the first set I grabbed for this challenge.

Of course, because I have been so busy with school and work, I didn't get photograph till this morning, when it was kinda dark still. Sooooo we have two photos and as they say at Pat's- "one wit and one wit-out" light that is- not cheese! The top photo has the flash off. the one below has the flash on. Sometimes I like the flash, it reminds me of family photographs from years ago.

Please join us this month for the sketch challenge at House of Cards and check back in each week to see what each style has to offer starting with the CAS team on Monday.