Butterfly Thank You

This card incorporates 2 challenges: Flutterby Wednesday and Color Throwdown.  The Flutterby Wednesday Challenge is it's an open challenge - just be sure to include a butterfly, fairy or angel on your new creation!  Color Throwdown #103 is:

I really love this combination of colors.  When I saw them, I immediately thought of these gorgeous new of papers I just bought from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon Store - Webster's Pages Seaside Retreat, Garden Gala & Nature’s Storybook Triple Pack DP.  They are just beautiful and can be used with little embellishment.  I used River Rock as my card base and added a layer of Riding Hood Red.  The next layer is Garden Gala DP.  I used Certainly Celery 5/8" grosgrain ribbon topped with Riding Hook Red 3/8" taffeta ribbon on the right side of the card for embellishment.  I stamped 3 different butterflies from Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Dreams in Certainly Celery, Riding Hood Red and Soft Suede ink, then cut them out with Papertrey Ink's butterfly die.  I adhered them to the ribbon with Dimensionals and bent them up a little on each side.  I added another strip of the DP to the right of the ribbons that I had cut when I was sizing the main panel.  I added tiny 4 tiny half-pearls to the center of the butterflies and 2 larger half-pearls to the top and bottom of the DP strip.  I stamped the "Thank You" sentiment from Butterfly Dreams on the center butterfly using VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink.  Thanks for stopping by today! 

C4C Inspiration Birthday

Isn't this such a fun ensemble???  This is the inspiration for this week's C4C challenge.  I just love it.  I have been on vacation with my family for the last 2 weeks on beautiful Long Beach Island on the Jersey shore.  I loved my beach and family time, but I could not wait to make something upon my return.  So this is what I came up with for this challenge... 

There were a few things I wanted to do:  use some tools and papers that needed some love, keep it simple, and not take forever to make it.  I love the way it turned out!  I used my new Jumbo Scallop and Scalloped Scallop Die-namics dies and  from MFT and Basic Grey's June Bug DP . Those 2 things pretty much made up the background.  I just added the sentiment using Verve's Wonderful Wishes cut and embossed with Spellbinders Ribbon Tags Trio Two, and added some SU Real Red grosgrain ribbon and a button tied with black jute thread from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon Store. Volia!!! And it took a lot less time than usual!!  Mission accomplished.

Sweet Simple Fourth

This card is a combination of three things that came together perfectly. I have had this wonderful set from Papertrey Ink for a while - Vintage Picnic. I just love it. Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge this week is to focus on using STARS on our projects in any way we choose. I decided to go with fourth of July stars, and then I pondered my layout. Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch #75 brought it all together for me.

I just loved working with the stars, the stamps and the sketch! My card is 5 1/4" square.

Here are my ingredients:

Stamps~Papertrey Ink's Vintage Picnic, Verve's Starstruck (stamped on the inside with River Rock ink).

Ink~Memento Rich Cocoa, Versafine Black Onyx, Ranger Antique Linen Distress ink, River Rock.

Paper~River Rock, Riding hood Red, Ninah Solar White, Soft Sky, Western Sky DSP (SU retired).

Accessories~Nestabilities, Copic markers, white mini brads, Dimensionals, glue dots, natural twine, buttons, SU Modern Label Punch, Sponge, SU striped 1 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.

Thanks for stopping in and happy Fourth of July weekend!

Cosmo Bella

I love this stamp - Cosmo Bella from Stamping Bella. I have had it for a while and not inked it up yet. When I ran across this sketch on Bloggabella this week, I knew just what to do.

I stamped my Cosmo Bella with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and colored her with Copics. I used white for my card base and added a layer of Dusty Durango. The background patterned paper is from s.e.i. The striped panel is the back side of the same paper. I took a chance using Rich Razzelberry ribbon and mat for the square piece. It's a little intense, but I like it. The green patterned paper mounted on the Rich Razzleberry square is from SU's Cottage Wall DSP. I used layers of foam flowers and put them together with a Basic Grey brad. The largest flower was white and I colored it with a Copic marker to match the Dusty Durango panels. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Chillax set. Cheers to you! Thanks for stopping in.

Stamp Simply Thank You

This week, Sharon's Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge #145 is a color challenge. The challenge colors are YELLOW and GRAYwith EITHER White or Ivory as your neutral and adding Black for a little POP if you so desire. I had this short piece of wide yellow striped grosgrain ribbon from SU that I have been wanting to use up. I started with that for my yellow piece, and built the rest of the card around it. I used this fabulous new stamp set I purchased from Waltzing Mouse Stamps called Very Vintage Labels #5. The stamps are designed to be compatible with Nestabilities Labels Five. Claire Brennan is the designer, and her stamps are gorgeous. There are many other sets in Claire's collection that are designed to coordinate with Spellbinders label dies. This set will get lots and lots of use. The possibilities are endless!! The sentiment is from Verve. I received it as a thank you gift with an order. Very elegant. I really love the way this card came out. Thanks for the inspiration Sharon!!!

Fourth Grade Memory Book

Each year, for the last four years, a friend of mine and I have worked with the kids in our children's classes to make memory books for their teachers as an end of year gift. There are two classes and 2 teachers. I have twins, so our family always has both teachers. Emile distributes the card stock to the class through our kids, and she makes photo collages from the year's activities for the book. I make the cover. The kids write, decorate, draw, attach photos - whatever they wish to do to contribute a page to the memory book. We decided that this would be our final year doing this. We are so glad we gave it one more go. One of the teachers was a brand new teacher. She did such a wonderful job with fourth grade. The kids loved her and she did so many great projects. As I read through the kids' memory pages, it was so evident that she really made an impact. The other teacher is a seasoned teacher. This was, however, the first time she received a gift like this from the hearts of the kids, and she loved it.

I forgot to take a picture of it at home, so here is a quick shot of it that I took with a colleague's camera. I CASE'd THIS creation from Theresa Momber using Back to School from Gina K. Designs. I stamped the globe and microscope images and used the masking technique to place the globe behind the microscope. I stamped the books image, cut it out and popped it up with dimensionals. I used Copics for coloring. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Techer's Apple. I really love the way this came out, and I am so glad Emile and I did this one more time. The teachers were both very touched by this gift of the heart. The children were very proud of their memory book. It was a great way to end a very happy fourth grade year!

I had a stroke of genious when I thought to use my Just Rite 2" round stamper and 15 point Times New Roman font stamp set to personalize this graduation card design. I have made many of these and the kids just love them!!! I CASE'd THIS card by Debbie Olson, personalized my cards with the school colors, the school initials and the graduation year. The stamp set is "For the Graduate" from Papertrey Ink. I love how these turned out and I have made many of them for this year's grads.