Our family is following a new schedule the past month, and it has wreaked havoc on my crafting time! That is why I haven’t been able to post anything new, well, up to now, that is   Splitcoast Stampers launched their Hope You Can Cling To Challenge, and being one of those whose family has been touched by this dreaded disease, I knew that I would join and send some cards to UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.

One of the challenges, which is hosted by Beate, is to make a circle card. To make the card above, I printed the digital image of the wreath I made below (yup, it’s free, just right-click and save in your computer, please respect Gem’s Cottage Digital Images Policy when using this image). The printed image was then cut out and layered over a piece of pink Bazzill Basic paper circle. The sentiment was printed on GP white cardstock using Albemarle Swash font, then cut out into a circle and positioned in the middle of the circle card. The pink Offray ribbon was added as a final touch. Inside, the sentiment reads, “Every crisis faced together makes the circle stronger”.

If you are looking for more wreath images similar to the one below, you can see a Fall/Thanksgiving one in Do Me a Favor , and there are several in Calico Christmas II. Have a happy card-making day!

Tags: circle card, pink ribbon, Wreath

Two years ago, when I hosted the Cards for Inmates project, I offered this digital image. Fast forward to present date, and I saw that the sketch challenge at SplitCoastStampers involved two identical images facing opposite directions. Another challenge, the color combinations,  called for using the following: Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Cajun Craze (these are Stampin’ Up names for a shade of green, light yellow and orange). Sooo…. I came up with this card!

Two years ago, prison officials specified that cards for the inmates’ use can only be one layer, so the card I made with this image before was digitally layered. This time, it’s layered for real!

This card really came together quickly – the longest part was cutting out the image after I’ve printed it. I don’t have the exact colors specified, so I just used the closest ones I had in my stash. Also, I flicked a brush loaded with thinned, off-white acryclic paint onto the red cardstock for more visual texture. I really liked how it turned out.

The oak sprig coordinates with images from  Candlelight – Fall and Winter.

Tags: acorn, autumn, Fall, oak sprig

The inspiration for this card took quite a while to gel and mesh together. It started with Karen Barber’s color challenge: use Cherry Cobbler, Calypso Coral and More Mustard – a combination that is way out of my comfort zone. I started working on it last Tuesday, but I was really struggling and couldn’t come up with a good idea. I got as far as die cutting two shapes – one in cherry and one in coral, then cut strips of mustard, and that was it! All the things I tried to do with what I had was bleh… Then, on Friday, I saw WendyBell’s Free for All challenge of crossing strips, and that was the catalyst. Saturday morning, I woke up and suddenly got the idea of braiding the strips of paper I had. It took some experimenting before I finally came up with this card (well, it’s already Sunday, lol!). Thank you for the challenges, Karen and Wendy, because without them I wouldn’t have come up with this idea!

BTW, if you want to know how to braid using more than 3 strips, this link really helped me. I used 7 strips in my card – it’s pretty much the same process as 5 strands. Also, the strips of paper I used are 1/4″ wide then I run them through a crimper so that they would be more flexible and have texture.

Tags: Bible verse card, Braided Paper

On August 29th, two of my kids will be back in school – the older one will be a junior in high school, while the youngest will be in first grade (don’t wonder about the age gap, accidents/miracles happen all the time, lol!). My oldest still has one more month of taking it easy before she embarks on her college adventure.  Now, my two teenagers wouldn’t dream of giving any of their teachers anything close to the picture above, so I’m glad that we still have a “little one” who would proudly give that tote box to his teacher on his first day of school

This tote box is made from chocolate brown Bazzill Basics cardstock – yup, the entire thing,  even the dowel-like part where you hold it! The template is from here, or, if you have a cutting machine that uses svg files, you can use this. The front (and even the back) was decorated with a digi background paper from Cool School Tools, then wrapped with a navy blue satin ribbon. I tied another short navy bow on the handle with a yellow tag and a punched apple. The tote box is filled with fruit (2 apples) and nuts (covered with plenty of chocolate ). I hope that my son’s first grade teacher will like it, and I’m also hoping that she will find the tote box useful when the food is gone.

Tags: back to school, Teacher gift, tote, Tote Box

I joined a Christmas card challenge at SCS since I always seem to run out of handmade cards during the holidays. My goal is to make 10 per month (if I can, I’ll make more) up to November so that by December, I should have enough for friends, relatives, teachers, kids’  friends, neighbors, DH’s officemates, etc. etc. Well, “should” is the operative word, LOL.

I’m starting the challenge with the card above: I used a digital image from KaeLynn Winn’s Christmas Traditions at www.pccrafter.com, punched it into a 2-inch circle, then framed it with paper piercing - the pattern is from Paper Piercing Floral Set at Gem’s Cottage.  For the ribbon label, I printed “Joy” using Albemarle Swash font, then cut it out using Cricut with SCAL. The red and green cardstock are by Bazzill, ribbon is Offray. 

Using the same elements but switching the red and green cardstock, here is another version of the same card (couldn’t decide which one I like better):

Tags: christmas, Christmas card, paper piercing

This card is inspired by Dr. Seuss’s book, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! and will be given to a friend with these paper sneakers:

Both projects are entries in Splitcoaststampers’ DTGD Challenge, and today is the last day (which is why I’m going to keep this post short  so that I can go back and craft some more, there are a few more challenges I want to do!). If you’re wondering about the sneaker images on the card, I did a digital image, and if you want it, post a comment below (I’ll e-mail it to you tomorrow).   I sponged them somewhat, distressed the edges, then rubbed distressed ink. I did the same thing to all the other pieces on the card. Next, I punched holes on the shoe images then laced it with a quarter-inch wide black ribbon. As for the 3D sneakers, you can find the template here. I added faux stitching with a white gel pen, eyelets and punched a 1-inch circle with the image below (snag away if you want it!):

Tags: sneaker card, sneaker image

Going back to an old favorite project this time, here is another entry for the DTGD Challenge.  The template can be found here and the instructions are here. The beautifully embossed cream paper is from The Paper Company, while the red polka dot embossed cardstock is a Bazzil Basics. Red paper bag from Hallmark, black ribbon by Offray. Keeping this post short because I babbled a lot in my previous one, LOL!

Tags: gift bag, paper flowers

This card is the result of a scavenger hunt. Really. It’s a Diamond Fold Card, another entry for the DTGD Challenge.  It all started with that digital image – if I have to use a good image, I know I won’t be stamping it (I am a bad stamper, I live in awe of the ones who do it!). So, off I go hunting for that perfect image (and for those who hoard digital art like I do, you know that it means going through several hundred – yes, hundreds! – of images)  and happily settled on a pair of hugging girls from Sweet Memories by Tina Wenke. Next, I thought of using paper piercing to frame the girls and I chose a square frame from Gem’s Cottage’s Paper Piercing Floral Set (that was an easy part).

From there, I decided to use a warm, rust colored patterned paper for the card’s base. The card tutorial specifically stated to use patterned paper, not cardstock, and patterned paper is not something that I have plenty of  (my dear husband disagrees). I mean, I have several stacks of cardstock because that’s what I use a lot, but only one stack of patterned paper plus a few scraps here and there (I am not whining, just stating a fact ). I did find the right paper – there was only one piece of it, so I cannot make a mistake. I started cutting, scoring and folding, but… it came out all wrong – the card didn’t close! I went back to the measurements and sure enough, I made a mistake! Okay, now what? Go back and hunt for another piece of patterned paper (the floor is starting to get littered with paper), and settled for a black polka dot one – once again, there was only one sheet. This time, I followed the rule, measure twice, cut once , and got the card to look like the one in the tut.

Next, I decided I will have red as a contrasting color – an orangey kind of red to coordinate with the girl’s red hair. Hunt. No luck. Green – like the sleeve? Hunt. No luck again. Orange? Nah, black and orange is Haloweeny for me. Yellow? Okay, that’s better, I found a 3-inch rectangular piece of buttery yellow cardstock with a circle punched out on one end. Not much, but I think it’s enough (floor has several piles of paper scattered all over already).

Ribbon! I wanted a ribbon to go on the top flap like the tut – so go on a ribbon hunt. Green? Nope. Yellow – straw colored, lemon, neon, bright, dark? Naaah. Purple, lavender, violet? Naaaah. Sigh. Maybe, no ribbon. Make paper lace instead (floor and crafting table now have rolls of ribbon mixed with paper).

Okay, need a nice punch to make paper lace – bring out box of punches and choose a nice border punch with flowers and scrolls. Punch out border on white cardstock – nah, details are too big. Need a punch with something small, delicate. Hunt. Okay, tried the scallop punch from Making Memories. Aaaah! Perfect. (Floor is now liberally sprinkled with tiny pieces of punched cardstock.)

Embellishments? Some black rhinestones or half pearls - hunt. No such luck. Flowers? Nah – too big. Buttons? Ummm… yeah, what kind? Flower buttons, black spider buttons, airplane buttons, square buttons – oh, loookee! Tiny colored buttons! Yes! (Floor? Can’t see it anymore. Table? What table?)

Now, to work on the inside of the card. Oh, no, there’s not enough of that buttery yellow cardstock! Hunt for more of it – nada. It’s almost 11:00 pm and craft store is closed. Choose another sheet of yellow cardstock that is close (cat tries to lie down on craft table, yell at cat, cat steps on floor, yell at cat – cat sadly goes away).

Print sentiment, print image on the inside of card, glue. Yay! Take pictures. (One big clean up tomorrow,  tired of the scavenger hunt, scoop up cat, cat purrs contentedly… it’s way past midnight,  everyone else is snoring happily.)

Here are the inside pics:

Tags: Diamond Fold card, paper piercing

This is a card entry for the DTGD Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  I am keeping it clean and simple (CAS) this time because I do think it doesn’t need anything more (of course, my right hand did not agree, it secretly scurried to get some ribbon, but fortunately, my left hand wrestled it and made my right hand put back the ribbon and other embellishments it was holding, rofl!). Inside, the sentiment reads, “Thank you for being such a sweet friend!”

The digital image of that scrumptious cake came from Over a Cup of Coffee (one of my all-time faves), printed twice so that I can layer it with pop dots. The background stripes (also digital) came from the freebie Simple Sampler and was printed on light yellow cardstock. The whole thing was layered on red paper, then “framed” with kraft cardstock. I also “sprinkled” Glossy Accents on the icing and on the raspberry, but my camera couldn’t quite catch it

I’d bettter go buy me some chocolate cake, looking at the card made me hungry…

This teapot is the second project I’m doing for the Dare to Get Dirty week at SplicoastStampers. It’s my first time to participate and I noticed that THE challenge, on top of the numerous challenges, is to combine as many challenges as you can on one project – sounds really challenging, right? LOL! My first project combined (a measly) two challenges in one project, but this teapot project combined five challenges – yes! I’m getting the hang of it, LOL!

So…what I did was to use the teapot template, and for those who use cutting files, you can also see it here.  If you’re wondering how I got those polka dots, I used the dip-n-dot technique with white acrylic paint (use the wooden end of a paint brush, dip it in the paint, then make a dot on the paper). The sentiment was printed using the font Murray Bold, while the flowers and leaves were a gift from a friend I swapped with last year. The grosgrain ribbon is by Offray, while the yellow and green cardstock are by Colorbok.

The teapot will be filled with different kinds of tea, and will be sent to my good friend who gave me those flowers (you know who you are, and hopefully you are not reading this because I want it to be a surprise!).

Tags: coffee, coffee pot template, tea pot template, teapot