Both of these challenges refer to Mothers Day and while my own mother made a massive difference in my life, she is now deceased as is my Mom in Law. With that said there isn’t usually a reason for me to make a Mom’s Day card, but this year I have a good reason. Our contractor employs a female carpenter who has seen some of my card making when she’s been here. She recently asked me if I ever made cards for sale, to which I replied that in general, I don’t, but if she would like a card made I would be happy to do it for her. This is the card I made for her and it seems to fit both these challenges so I’m posting it.

The die used is an unbranded die purchased through Amazon and is quite intricate. I added some glitter CS behind the die cut panel. This panel is slightly larger than our standard sizes so I cut the card base accordingly. I love the deep colour of the CS but have no idea where I got that piece from. Using the Tim Holtz/Sissix set of dies called Tiny Tattered Floral, I die cut different sizes of CS for the flowers. I made enough to decorate a box for the card, shown in next photo.

The very tiny flowers on the card were not made by me but came from a small bought package I’ve had for some time. They are a paper flower with a rolled center. The word is a die cut from MFT and was done in silver. I have to say making a display box is not my forte, but I managed without making a huge mess of it. I’ve also since learned a hack to make the flowers stay rolled the way I want them as using a quilling tool means they can be quite loose. At the time I didn’t know this hack so my flowers didn’t quite stay as I wanted them once off the quilling tool. After attending a local gallery that was showing a small exhibition of quilled art, and where the artist was doing a demonstration, she mentioned that she dips her finished pieces into a mixture of Modge Podge and water, as when dry, this stiffens the piece. I shall be trying this in the future. Our carpenter was thrilled and insisted she should be paying for the card. I wouldn’t let her, but she did do a small extra chore in the house at no cost so I guess we are even. Have a great day everyone.

It is an honor to be guest designing for the Peace on Earth Christmas challenge and I had fun figuring out what to create. My inspiration came from the bottom right photo as I liked the idea of a vertical look and embossing in the background. As well something I’ve seen on Pinterest also helped me with this idea. I used a StampinUp folder to give me the embossed background. Long before some of the embellishments and stamps we use today were common, I bought some items that were ready made such as flowers and the pearl spray that I’ve used here. Once it was attached I added some die cut stars which were cut with an infinity set from Hero Arts. Glitter paper from Scrapbook.com and a mirror gold scrap was used for the stars and then I added dimensionals to attach them as you see. The little bird is a CTMH stamp that I’ve had for ages and once coloured using Ohuhu pens, I fussy cut then added to the top of the star. The sentiment if from Divinity Designs and the little embellishments from my stash. Another card ready for Christmas is the bonus here. Hope you like it.

Spring is kind of here and it is definitely warming up although it is still quite cool at night. We see bees in the garden though, which is a good sign, and I figured if bees are showing up, it won’t be long before we see our first ladybug, hence my card. The stamp is from a collaboration set by the Stamping Village and the one I’ve used is by Pink and Main. Once it was stamped I used an Inktense pencil to colour in the body and added some Sakura glaze to the spots and head of the lady bug. Quick and simple with a ton of white space which I find hard not to add to. The temptation is huge. Thanks for looking.

Although it is photo week at JUG’s they made a small error and put word week on the photo. Made me chuckle as the image is all stones painted with words. I went through my stamp sets and pulled out the mandala maker set by Rina K. Using various inks and stamps I randomly stamped the circles and then added the tiny flowers around them. I thought about colouring in some of the circles but decided against it and I’m glad I left it alone. The word die cuts are from a small set, but as with some of my stuff, it is a set without the brand name. Its a simple card, but I quite like it. Thanks for sharing your time with me today.

One of by besties daughter is expecting her first baby any day now. I don’t know the sex so decided to make 2 generic cards ready to mail (one for the new mom and one for grandmother) and I thought the CYHTP with a twist of pastel’s challenge was the perfect way to make a card and enter a challenge at the same time. Using a new stamp set from MFT that I hadn’t inked yet my first task was to make those images work. Using Tombow markers and a technique seen on A.I, I added colour to the stamp with the markers and then stamped the image onto mixed media paper. With a wet brush I filled in some colour pulling it from the lines of the image. Once they were done I needed backgrounds and on Instagram I viewed a card by Sheri Gilson and another by Gina K – both with ideas I thought would work for the backgrounds. The following cards are what I initially came up with. The one at the top is what I did today when I realized that I hadn’t used any embossing on the my first efforts.

Once the images were done I die cut them and added some foam tape to the back. Taking a white layer piece I used a stencil, I don’t remember from which company, in various inks keeping them as light in colour as possible. This is the background for the giraffe card. Using the idea on Sheri’s card I also added some pastel strips across the layer. Then I popped the image on top, added the sentiment and a few gems. The one with the elephants is close to being the same except in this case I used Gina’s bubble wrap technique for my background and I added some gold pen to the frame of the image. I also scored the card edge and added the layer between the scored lines. You can imagine my face when I realized that I had met the pastel part of the challenge but not the embossing.

The one I did today is also along the same lines but in this case I used an EF by, I think, Crafters Companion and another one by WeRMemory Keepers. The panel was embossed first and I used the debossed side with soft inks sponged over the top. The strips were done with the triangle folder. And I added a small frame popped up over the image before attaching it to the card front. I added the tiny gems at the top only. I’m happy with all of these although I still need a lot of practice with the water colouring part. Having the cards ready to go as soon as I know the baby is here and one to spare is great. Thanks for spending time with me today.

This is my second entry to this challenge and the inspiration for it came from a card viewed HERE. I rarely do mixed media type cards, mainly because I don’t think I am very good at them, and often get stuck for ideas too. That said, I have a background stamp that looks like a postcard from a company called Graphic 45 and I had used it a while back and then couldn’t think how to proceed. I am clueless sometimes – lol. So there it was sitting in my tray waiting for ideas and yesterday I saw the card that helped me come up with the rest. I used various distress inks over the stamped image and then took several stamps (old and unknown brand) and added some geometrics in a few places using Iced Spruce ink. Then I took an old GKD stamp set (first one purchased at StampTV), and stamped two balloons. I wasn’t using my Misti and the result was a bit faded so I went over them with a fine pen. I added some leaf sprigs at the bottom, a few tiny kites and some flowers from the Kitchen Sink set on the balloons and also around the leaves. The sign post is from Elizabeth Craft but was quite large so I cut it to make it fit and I added some vintage photo around the edges. The sentiment is a quote found on Pinterest and I used CorelDraw to make and print them. Cut them out and added them to the arrows. My aim was to make this postcard look well traveled. Considering that this isn’t my usual style of card, I’m quite pleased with the end result. Thanks for looking.

The die cut umbrella used here was cut using the very first die I ever purchased, but at that time wasn’t smart enough to keep the information about brands etc. so I have no idea from which company it came. The stamps used came from Designs by Ryn – water droplets, the sentiment is from Joy Clair, the tiny flowers are from Kitchen Sink and I used them because they were still on my desk from my last upload. The little boots are fussy cut from a store bought card as I thought they would come in handy for a design. The background PP was a gift and I believe is from Michaels, the umbrella piece is StampinUP and the stitched frame is from GKD. Basically I stamped the water droplets and used some Crystal Glaze to make them look realistic. While they were drying I prepared the other elements and also added the PP to the card front. After adding the boots I stamped around them with the tiny flowers. Added the sentiment and using foam tape popped the panel onto the background piece at an angle. A simple card but fun to put together. Thanks for looking.

It isn’t often I manage a twofer, but this card is exactly that. An ink blended background and a building, in this case a dog house. I have a new MFT die set, called appropriately Dog House, and have been wanting to play with it. This challenge seemed the perfect time to do so. I first die cut all the parts I wanted to use and assembled the dog house. PP used is from StampinUP. To make it sturdy and give dimension I stacked several die cuts together. Then I stamped the pug from a Dollar store set, coloured him using Ohuhu pens and a prisma colour pencil, then fussy cut before adding him in the doorway of the kennel. I laid it all out on my kraft sheet to see how it would look before I carried on. I made my own circle template out of some plastic so I could mask off the panel I was going to use and then ink blended some distress inks, squeezed lemonade, Tea dye and dried marigold. Once I was happy I adhered all the elements to the layer. Using an Elizabeth Craft die set called Planned Essentials, I die cut the arrow and stamped the sentiment. It still needed something so I found a Kitchen Sink stamp set that has tiny stamps and stamped the butterflies onto the background. It turned out better than I expected and I hope you like it.

Besides the colour inspiration this card design was inspired by the one I found here on Pinterest. I think the strips on the Pinterest version are done with Alcohol inks, but mine is done with Color Burst Powders and a small amount of Pistachio Distress Spray. After sprinkling the powders I sprayed with water and smooched a piece of mixed media card stock over the result. The green had turned a little too dark so I added the distress spray to bring a bit more green to the piece and I also added some Perfect Pearl powder to get a little shimmer. Using an MFT tag die I cut 4 tags and then I threaded the green cord through the holes leaving a lot hanging, and added foam tape to the backs, while I decided what to do next. I wanted to use a subtle embossing folder, but most of mine are quite distinct in impression so in the end I went with the leafy one you see here. I laid the tags on top and they kind of fell into the position you see so I slowly removed the backing on the tape so they could be attached one by one. I wove the cord back down so it is double in a few places, knotted it and then using some glue curved the ends before cutting off the excess. With a couple of scrap pieces of CS I die cut a couple of the leaf outline using a die from the unbranded set I just got through Amazon. The mirror piece is double thickness as I put 2 together before adding them to the card front. The sentiment is from another MFT set called Itty Bitty Basics and I used the tiny fallouts from the tags for some embellishment. Although I really love the original card from Pinterest I am quite pleased with how my take on it has turned out. Hope you like it and thanks for looking.

Since I acquired the sunflower digi from Power Poppy, I hadn’t had time to use it so I decided to do so for this challenge. I resized the image in CorelDraw before printing it. Then I used Tombow markers to colour it and added a bit of sparkle with a pen to the flower centers before die cutting the panel. Dies used are double stitched rectangles from GKD. I backed this panel onto an orange piece and in turn layered it onto the StampinUP DSP and from there to the yellow card base. The sentiment is from an MFT set and I fussy cut this to fit before gluing it down. Almost forgot to mention that the spatter is a small stamp from a StampinUP set called Friendly Hello. Added a small yellow ribbon from my stash to finish the card. Thanks for spending time with me today.