Stitched Thank You

 I took the inspiration for my card today from two challenges:

 Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger : Chiclectic

AND

 CFC40: With Mardi Gras in a few days the Gal Fridays thought it would be fun to have a gallery full of Clean And Simple Party cards with ribbon. 

It took me forever to finish making this card. I tried a gazillion things every which way.  I do like the way it FINALLY came together though.  When I saw the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger inspiration photo, the colors put me in mind of these polka dot grosgrain ribbons from my SU stash.  The ribbons went along with the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.  Cath Edvalson of Moxie Fab World gave PTI a big shout out in THIS post, so I thought it only fitting to use PTI products to complete my card.  This is not hard to do - I have a serious PTI addiction and I am well stocked with PTI product.  I used PTI's Leafy Vine border die cut to edge the left side of my center "stitched" panel, which is stamped with images from PTI's Stitches and Swirls collection.  The sentiment is from PTI's Think Big Favorites #2 set.  Thanks for your visit today!

A Hundred Hearts

Happy Valentines Day - a little early!  This card is for my mom - my first Valentine.  She is 89 years old.  All of my life, she made every holiday special with little things that meant so much.  Every Valentines day, my sisters and I would come home from school, and when we got home there would be a heart shaped double layered crown cake with pink, seven minute frosting, coconut flakes on top and bitter chocolate dripping down the sides. Amazing!!!!  I love to do special little things for my boys on Valentines day with her love in my mind and heart.

My layout is inspired by Clean and Simple FTL177.  Here is the sketch:

I was also inspired by the current Catered Crop recipe, which is to use HEARTS on your project. Here is the photo from the heart mosaic on the Catered Crop blog that inspired my card:

 

The heart image I used to stamp the multi-color hearts and the sentiment is from Verve's Hundred Hearts.  The newsprint DP is from a retired SU paper pack.

 

 Thanks for stopping in today. Have a happy day.

be mine - stripes and circles

This week Mandi & Chrissie of Less Is More have challenged us to a one layer creation with stripes.  This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to use more than 5 circles on your creation.  I thought and thought about making something with both challenges in mind.

I decided to go for stripes of circles.  I used many shades of pink inks and various circle images on masked spaces in stripes.  The little stripe of hearts on the bottom is stamped in Real Red.  I like the result, but I have to say that I wish the "b" in "be mine" was either a little more to the left or to the right.  I don't have the inclination to do it again, and since this is a one layer card, there are not a lot of options to fix it!  The sentiment and hearts are from Verve, the rest of the stamps I used are PTI.

I peeked at the creations so far in the LIM gallery.  What clever creations as always!  I love to see all of the different ways challenges are interpreted.  I am heading over to check out more postings, then over to the OLW gallery.  Thank you for stopping in on this snowy night (here in northeastern US).

Aqua Thoughts

For the first anniversary of the "Less Is More" challenge blog, Mandi & Chrissie are back to a repeat of their inaugural challenge which for the first Saturday of the month is colour... and this time they have chosen

AQUA

 

I was trying to channel my inner Chrissie here.  I love the way she uses inks and the gorgeous affects she creates.  They make me swoon.  I would like to go to inking camp.  Is there such a thing? I am sure there is.

 

I am very curious about the ink duster brush that Chrissie mentioned using on her ink panel in her challenge post this week.  I read a bit about their use, and came up with a plan to improvise because I don't have one.  I masked the rectangle on the front of my card, and applied Ranger Tumbled Glass distress ink with blending tool.  I then put a drop of PTI Hawaiian Shores refill ink on my Tim Holtz Teflon matt, loaded a stenciling brush from my "stenciling phase" LOL, and stippled over the blended ink.  I embossed this gorgeous Memory Box image, Drift Flowers, with white EP, then stamped the image again in Tumbled Glass ink next to the embossed image.  I wanted to see how it would work to emboss on top of the aqua panel rather than emboss first.  Some of the powder stuck to the blue panel.  I like that with this particular image.  The sentiment is from PTI's Botanical Silhouettes collection.  To finish, I added a little Dazzling Diamonds to the flower to give it a little sparkle. 

 

Voila!  A new year of LIM challenges begins!  I love being a part of this community.  Thank you again Mandi & Chrissie for creating this wonderful place...

and thank you for stopping and for your wonderful comments.  Be well.

Happy Birthday Joseph!

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday.  It's a BIG one.  He's a low-key kind of guy in terms of being in the spotlight, so I did not add bells, whistles or numbers on this card!  I just got this wonderful Friendly Flags set from Hero Arts, and when I saw the CAS-ual Friday sketch challenge this week, I knew that I would put the two together along with Dictionary Greeting.  I think it is crisp and fun - perfect for this occasion!

Supplies used:
Paper~PTI white, SU Black, Neenah Solar White.
Stamps~Hero Arts Friendly Flags & Dictionary Greeting, PTI Think Big Favorites #12.
Ink~Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaFine Onyx Black.
Accessories~Copics, Nestabilities, Dimensionals, The Twinery black twine.

Thanks so much for coming by today!

Tuesday Trigger Birthday Blossoms

I saw this photo on the Moxie Fab World blog earlier this week, and had a project in mind. Then I saw THIS beautiful interpretation on Vicky Hayes' blog today and I just had to put this together.  I immediately thought of some sets in my PTI stash that would work beautifully, and some of the retired SU inks were perfect for what I had in mind.  I really love the way it came out.  Thank you Cath (host of Moxie Fab World) for this beautiful inspiration photo, and thank you Vicky for sharing your gorgeous interpretation that inspired me to make this.

Supplies used:
Stamps ~ PTI Stitches & Swirls, Enjoy the Ride and Beautiful Blooms II.
Ink  ~ PTI Vintage Cream, VersaMark, SU Crumb Cake, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, and Certainly Celery.
Paper ~ Taylored Expressions Buttercream, SU Crumb Cake, Textured Cream.
Accessories ~ PTI Spring Mix Vintage button, twine, SU Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, PTI dies, White embossing powder, adhesive pearls, Dimensionals, glue dot, Scor Tape.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

You color My world

I am excited about this card for 2 reasons:  #1- I completed the LIM challenge on day 1 (click HERE for details on this week's sketch LIM challenge).  #2 - I have been so taken with and inspired by Susan Raihala's work since I happened upon her blog a year or so ago. I feel that my inner Susan came out in this creation.  With that said, this is also a submission for One-Layer Wednesday 76: Color in Winter:  Make a one-layer card that uses white, gray, with a pop of one bright color of your choice. (If you must, you may use black for the sentiment.) 

I masked the area with the stamped geometric design per the LIM sketch and scored it on the sides.  I clipped the metal "legs" off of the rhinestone brad so that I could attach the brad with a glue dot to keep the metal pieces from coming through to the inside of the card.

Materials used:

Stamps~PTI Rosie Posie and Happy Trails

Paper~PTI White Paper Basics

Ink~Memento London Fog, SU Basic Gray

Accessories~Scor Pal, SU Rhinestone brads

Thank you for visiting my blog. I am so grateful for your feedback.