Quilled Birthday Wishes

I created this 4 layered quilled flower to include in a quilled floral design to place in a frame that I plan to display in my home, but instead, decided to use it for this birthday card (now I have an excuse to make another one):

I'm entering it in this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge:

Thanks for stopping by :)

Supplies Used:
Paper: CTMH Patterned, Colonial White, Cocoa, Barn Red; Quilling strips
Stamps: Verve Amazing Wishes
Ink: CTMH Cocoa
Other: CTMH Artisan Studs; Poppy Stamps Lorelai Leaf Die; Verve Charming Ovals Die Set; Cuttlebug; Cuttlebug flourishes embossing folder

Warmest Thanks

How can you not be inspired by the gorgeous fall colours at this time of year?

I especially love seeing all the fall-themed cards online, which always end up inspiring me to make one myself.  This week, I'm playing along with Verve's Inspiration Challenge, where the theme/inspiration is fall:

Here's my fall-inspired card. I wish you could see just how sparkly it is IRL with the shiny sequins from Verve (which I just LOVE), the sparkly gem on the bow, and the sheen from the leaves: 

 One thing we love to do as a family is discover and explore nature trails, especially during this time of year.  We had a particularly fun time on this trail we found in Stouffville, Ontario last week :)

My son and brother-in-law are avid amateur photographers:

My son was super excited about finding this tree frog, which is kind of like find a needle in a haystack, since it's the size of a thumb:

He also found this bullfrog:

And what a nice surprise it was to come across these horses!

Finally, here's Bailey, my nephew's new puppy, who joined us on the trail.

Isn't he just adorable?!!!

~Thanks for stopping by~

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Supplies Used:

Paper: CTMH White Daisy & Kraft

Stamps: Verve's Artful Elegance

Ink: CTMH Creme Brulee, Autumn Terracotta, Cranberry

Other: Verve's Charming Oval Die; Verve's Shine Bright Sequin Mix; Jolee's Boutique Brass Leaves; The Crafter's Workshop Mini Bricks stencil; sponge; Cuttlebug; Memory Box Bramble Circle die; ribbon and gemstone from my stash.

Halloween Birthday Card

Here I go again taking The Diva Dare from Verve!  My Terrific Trios this time are the 3 inks I chose to sponge on the card, more specifically, on the cupcake (the background used four).  I had never intended to use this cute cupcake stamp set (one of Verve's latest releases) for a masculine card when I ordered it, but hey, boys love cupcakes too!  My nephew's birthday falls on Halloween and this year he's turning the big one-oh.  

I used the emboss/resist technique to create the background and the cupcake frosting:  The background was made using a chevron stencil - I heat embossed with Versamark & black embossing powder, then sponged on the different colours.  The cupcake was stamped with Versamark, then also sponged using the 3 inks. 

I added some glitter to the cupcake as well as to the number '10', which I drew in with a black Sharpie.

As a finishing touch, I thought it would be cute to incorporate a little spider (a digistamp) hanging by its web from the flag :o)

This card also qualifies for the Show Us Your Verve challenge, using 2 of Verve's August releases.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Paper: CTMH White Daisy, Black
Stamps: Verve's Small Packages; MyGrafico Digistamp
Ink: Rangers Broken China Distressed Ink; CTMH Creme Brulee; SU Lovely Lilac & Only Orange
Other: Verve's Cupcake Frame Die Set; Cuttlebug; Color Box Chevrons stencil; Versamark; Stampendous Black embossing powder; Sponge; Martha Stewart Onyx & Turquoise glitter; Black Sharpie; silver thread from stash; 3-d foam tape

Quilled Teddy Bear

It's time to take the Dare! Verve's Diva Dare, that is!  My Terrific Trios are the 3 quilled balloons.  
Addicted to Stamps and More has a CAS challenge and Addicted to CAS has a 'Cuddly' theme this week (my 1st CAS challenges ever!) that I'm also playing along with.  
I haven't quilled in a while, and thought it would be fun to make this card for my husband's colleague, who just had a baby boy.  This little teddy bear gave me quite a challenge, though-I couldn't seem to make him quite 'cute enough'.  It wasn't until I got some advice from my wonderfully creative cartoonist husband :0) on how to make and position his nose and eyes that I was satisfied.  Prior to his facial reconstruction, the poor teddy looked 'freaky', as my son put it!
(Wish I had a before-and-after shot)

Have a wonderful day!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Verve's Small Phrases
Embellishments: Verve's Shine Bright Sequins
Other: Verve's Charming Banner Die; Cuttlebug; Cuttlebug Polka Dot embossing folder; twine; quilling strips

Fall Festive Card

It's my favourite time of the year-there's an abundance of inspiration all around, from the colours nature's offering to the delicious food (pumpkin and apple pie, oh my!)  Addicted to Stamps and More has a 'Holiday' challenge this week, and being in the fall festive mood I'm in, I decided to have some fun and play along using some of my 'Thanksgiving goodies'.
I particularly love this stamp set that I used from CTMH because of how versatile it is.  I've used the cute images for Valentine's Day, Easter, and now Thanksgiving (love the sentiments that go along with it, too!)

We had a wonderful evening out with some dear friends last week, so I'm planning to mail this card out to them :)  Hopefully they'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it!


Supplies Used
Stamps:  CTMH 'You Are My Happy'
Paper: Recollections Autumn Designer Paper Pad; CTMH Black, Kraft
Ink: CTMH Cocoa, White Daisy
Embellishments: My Mind's Eye Enamal Dots; CTMH Canvas Buttons; Jolee's Boutique Brass Leaves; twine
Other: Versamark; Recollections Snow Embossing Powder; Cuttlebug; The Paper Studio Woodgrain embossing folder

Wtf?

Well, it's been a while since I had the chance to make a card, and with our busy summer schedule, I'm surprised that this card actually came into fruition.  I couldn't not make a birthday card for my sister, though.  She's turning fifty and not too pleased about it, so I thought I'd aim for a card that would at least get her to smile :)  

I used this week's fun sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

(It's hard to see in the photo, but IRL the background paper is a pretty shimmering blue)

Thanks for taking a look!

Supplies Used:
Paper: Recollections
Stamps: For the Birds TiddlyInks digistamp; CTMH Large Chocolate Alphabet
Ink: CTMH Black, Chocolate
Other: Cuttlebug; The Paper Studio Woodgrain embossing folder; Copics; Fiskars cloud punch; 3d foam tape; sponge

Dance-themed Thank You Card

Freshly Made Sketches has a great sketch this week by Linda C.

When I saw the diagonal stripes, I knew a music bar would fit the theme, and I had just recently made some girly dance-themed tags for party favours, and that's where I ended up getting most of my inspiration from.

I cut strips of white paper and glued them to Recollections pink cardstock. The stars were stamped using CTMH's You Are and You Are My Happy stamp sets with Memento Black ink, 'stickled', and cut out. The musical notes were computer generated, fussy cut, and sparkled up with Martha Stewart black glitter.  The sentiment was also computer generated: I stamped around it using Verve's scroll stamp and glued it to the black scroll matching die cut.

The background white paper was embossed with Goose Bumpz ZigZag embossing folder.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hope you have a great day!