Unity Fall card set

So I've been slowly working on a fall card order, but my inspiration works in funny ways, so I haven't been staying on track.  But, since it's Friday I thought I'd pull out some Unity Stamps for Friends with Flair and see what I could make in the fall themed department.  I actually started with the bookmark because I wanted to play with the All Things Unity "One Layer" challenge and it's been awhile since I play with Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge, her challenge is to find inspiration on Janelle's blog and I loved her post with all these fabulous bookmarks.  But I liked the bookmark so much that I made a card :)  I thought the card would work well for the current Unity Challenge "Falling Leaves" and the Ippity Challenge "Tie it Up" challenge because I've used some May Arts twine.  Because I splurged the other day and bought the new Tim Holtz fall distress inks I thought I should play along with the CR84FN color challenge (although I promise to use the new purple soon, it's FABULOUS!).  And then I decided to make an envelope, because as you'll see below my younger crafting son decided to decorate his envelope for his card to my grandmother.  When I told him his project would work great for the Young Crafters Unite challenge and that I'd make one too he said, "But you're not young."  Thanks son!  (For those of you who have been to my blog before, Mr. Ben, age 6, LOVES LOVES comments, so please include a shout out for his project, it seriously makes the little guy grin ear to ear).

Materials: Card: Unity Bit of Burlap, Unity Moments in Bloom, May Arts twine, Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 8, Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Stain, Tim Holtz Distress inks: mustard seed, gathered twigs, ripe persimmon, water color blender pen

Bookmark: PTI Bookmark die, May Arts twine, Unity Bit of Burlap, Unity Moments in Bloom, Tim Holtz Distress inks: mustard seed, gathered twigs, ripe persimmon, water color blender pen

Envelopes: Unity Bit of Burlap, Unity Moments in Bloom, May Arts twine, PTI Fillable Frames die, Tim Holtz Distress inks: mustard seed, gathered twigs, ripe persimmon, water color blender pen

Thursday's crafty projects

I don't usually make circle cards and so when I saw this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge I was having a hard time thinking outside the square box.  Well, thanks to my youngest son's cold I had a rather sleepless night last night and started my day far too early today, so all I could think about this morning was coffee.  Well, in the end, the perfect place for the sketch is on a one pound bag of local coffee!  So I used this week's Make It Monday technique and recycled the cheerio box into thick coffee cup chip boards, what a fabulous tip!  And no project is complete without a card, or two, I also used up some recycled take out coffee holders :)  Simon Says Stamp Blog is having an "Anything Goes" challenge with the mission to reach 1000 entries, woo hoo!  And since these coffee projects use the fabulous Authentique paper I'm going to enter them in the current Wee Memories "Patterned Paper" challenge.

The Embellish challenge was to use the above colors and misting.  I used the current Skipping Stones sketch and thanks to my win on Karen's blog, I am actually able to include a Skipping Stones stamp!  I haven't decided if this card is going to say birthday or anniversary or something fun like trimester...  

Materials: Coffee bag: Waltzingmouse Frame It sentiment, PTI Warm Happiness Too stamp and die, Hero Arts Classic Fabric Cling,  PTI double sided banner die, Spellbinders scallop circle die,  Authentique Blissful patterned paper,  PTI kraft card stock, Versafine black ink, Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink

Coffee Cards: PTI Warm Happiness and Warm Happiness Too, PTI Mat Stack 1 stamp and dies, Waltzingmouse Very Vintage Label 4, Authentique Blissful patterened paper, recycled take out coffee holder, PTI kraft card stock, Versafine black ink, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 4 die, Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress stain

Happy 3rd card: Skipping Stones Grunge sentiment, PTI Big Birthday Wishes, PTI Mat Stack 1, PTI Mat Stack dies, PTI By the Numbers die, Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder, Core'dinations card stock, Tim Holtz Distress Stain Antique linen, Smooch Spritz Navy Twinkle, Versafine black ink, Twinery Stone twine

thanks

I love CAS cards and I wanted to play along with the Authentique color challenge, deadline being today, so I pulled out some full patterned paper (to be able to play with the fabulous gals at Wee Memories "Patterened Paper" challenge) and added a fun little tag from Monika's I Love It All shop.  

 

Materials: I Love It All tag, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 4, Authentique Blissful patterned paper, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Patterned paper and Prima Marketing Nursey Tales patterned paper

PTI Blog Hop & Super Sketchy Sunday

This month's PTI blog hop is to find inspiration from the above photo.  After a few failed attempts (it was all too busy for the CAS girl in me) I decided to go back to the fabulous technique of inking up the impression plate.  So with the help from some distress inks I made this simple one layer birthday card.

And welcome to another 365 Cards Super Sketchy Sunday card. I've used mostly PTI goodies on this card, so I thought I'd combine these two posts into one.  I also used the CAS-ual Friday challenge of "mostly chromatic plus brown" for my colors.  I'd love to see what you'd do with the sketch.  

 

Materials: Birthday Card, PTI Impression plate, PTI Think Big Favorites #7, Tim Holtz Distress inks fired brick, worn lipstick, tumbled glass, faded jeans, wild honey, Versafine black ink

Dragonfly Card: PTI Happy Trails die, PTI Impression plate, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label One, MFT Die-namics Large Scallop die, Core'dinations card stock, vellum, Black Sharpie pen

Thanks Hello Friend

A girlfriend found herself in Paper Source and couldn't pass up the scrap bag, so she bought it for me.  I thought it would be nice to regift her the paper in another form, so I made a set of cards.  Obviously I've got mini cards on the brain, as these ones are 3 1/2 by 3 1/2.  I used the Unity sentiments so I could play along with the Friends With Flair crew.  Then I decided to try my luck in the Lessology challenge to alter a trinket box, so I upcycled a cardboard jewelry box and covered it with some of the Paper Source scraps.  I had this fabulous Paper Phine necklace hiding in my ribbon stash, so I wrapped it up and and included it in the gift.  

And since said girlfriend is a writer I thought it would be fun to make some additional mini cards to go in the little box, so I found inspiration from today's Moxie Fab World post with Kim Kesti's fun texty/thought bubble set.  I'm going to enter these cards in the Lawnscaping "Get Texty" challenge.  And since the new Young Crafters Unite challenge is to make a matching envelope, I found one lone mini envelope and stamped a larger thought bubble on the outside of it.  And then I hand delivered the goodies to the girlfriend and she loved it!  Success.

Materials:  Top card set: Unity sentiments, Paper Source paper, Core'dinations card stock, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label One, Versafine black ink, black sharpie

Box: Recycled jewelry box, Paper Source paper, Paper Phine paper necklace

Bottom Card Set: Hero Arts clear stamps Write Your Own Message, Lawn Fawn Just My Type sentiment, Jenni Bolin Vintage Red Bookprint, Paper Source red paper, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label One, Versafine black ink

fall cards

I've used this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge to help me tackle a few more of the fall cards that I need to make, silly ol me can't just make 10 of the same cards, that wouldn't be any fun!  The first card uses a Hero Arts sentiment, so I'll enter that in their month long fall challenge.  The second card was inspired by this week's May Arts/Tattered Angels week, I've used some May Arts twine and I misted a cut out of the scallop die.  None of these cards use any patterned paper so I'll enter these in the Wee Memories challenge, loving the new Tim Holtz Kraft Core card stock, amazing what a little embossing and sanding can do.  And since it was the fabulous Simon Says Stamps shop that delivered some of these goodies to my door I'm going to play along with their current challenge to use dies.

And then since I'd stamped and fussy cut out the Waltzingmouse leaves I had some extras floating around the messy desk and decided to make another card with the Do More with Less challenge of clear block stamping.  Love the texture it gives these squares.  I used the Play Date Cafe colors as a source of inspiration, I thought maybe I could squeeze in a bit of red since some of the DT used red and some used orange, literal girl over here is struggling to go against the grain.

Materials: Friend: Hero Arts sentiment, Waltzingmouse Stamps Big Blooms leaf, PTI impression plate, MFT Die-namic large scallop die, PTI kraft card stock, Tim Holtz Kraft Core card stock, May Arts twine, Versafine black ink, Tim Holtz Distress Ink fired brick, Sharpie black pen, Fiskars rotary cutter with scallop blade


2nd card: Waltzingmouse Big Blooms leave, Waltzingmouse Vintage Labels One, Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder, Spellbinders Labels One and Eight, MFT Die-namics Large Scallop die, Tattered Angels black mister, PTI kraft card stock, Tim Holtz Kraft Core card stock, Tim Holtz Distress Inks mustard seed and fired brick, antique linen, Versafine black ink


4 Leaves: Waltzingmouse Big Blooms leaves, Tim Holtz Distress Inks antique linen, fired brick, mustard seed, shabby shutters and wild honey, PTI kraft card stock

live.laugh.love

I was inspired by the Do More With Less challenge with clear block stamping.  So I made another mini card set for the CAS-ual Friday challenge (these ones measure 3 1/2 by 3 1/2).  I struggle with one layer cards, but was inspired by Jen's scored border on this card.  Less Is More is having an anything goes challenge this week in attempts to reach 1000 entries.   I'm adopting this sentiment for the next 3 weeks while I try my hand at single parenting (DH is on an overseas trip), I'm sure I will have a lot more respect for those parents who did it on their own by the time he returns.

Materials: Paper Salon coffee cup, PTI Mat Stack 4 sentiment, Tim Holtz Distress Inks tumbled glass and faded jeans, Versafine black ink, Martha Stewart score pad, cream card stock

Happy Birthday Super Sketchy Sunday

Welcome to another 365 Cards Super Sketchy Sunday.  This week the DT is lucky enough to play with some Tradefish Designs stamps, so in addition to the sketch we're all trying to incorporate some masculine themes into the cards.  I received the stamp set "Another Year" which has some pretty silly sentiments.  I'm also going to enter this card in the Go Fish Challenge Blog where they're having an "anything goes" challenge, you could win a set of their stamps!  Or you could win a set of their stamps on 365 Cards this week, just play along either with the Super Sketchy Sunday crew or any one of the other card challenges this week for your chance to win.

Materials: Trade Fish Design Another Year stamps, PTI By The Numbers Impression Plate, Core'dinations Kraft core card stock, PTI Kraft Card stock, Versafine black ink, white gel pen, water color pencils

Waltzingmouse September Blog Hop

Welcome to another Waltzingmouse Stamps Waltz, this month the theme is Halloween.  I do not own a large supply of Halloween stamps (probably because I lived in New Zealand the last 5 years where they don't "do" Halloween like they do here in the US and therefore I haven't needed to make anything Halloween themed before?).  But now that I'm back in the US I better get on board right?  I got a little help from my son's set of Mrs. Grossman stickers.  I had a kraft bag from the local wine shop, so I covered up their wine label and recycled the bag (for the Do More With Less challenge) and made a cute little Halloween bag.  

And here's my son's card.  He LOVES comments, so please make sure you include a shout out for his creation, it'll make his day.

Materials: Waltzingmouse Stamps Say It Loud sentiments, Waltzingmouse Stamps Very Vintage Labels 4, Tim Holtz brick embossing folder, recycled kraft bag, black card stock, Core'dinations orange card stock, white gel pen, Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 4, PTI Mega Mat Stack 1 die, Versafine black ink

fall friend

Fall is definitely in the air here, so excited!  I've got an order to make some fall cards for a friend, so I really should get cracking on some of those.  Hero Arts is celebrating fall this month and this card uses the Designer Friend leaf stamp.  I've also used a loose take on this week's Card Patterns sketch, I tried and tried to incorporate the two little tabs and it didn't work, so I'm going with the CAS style.  It's hard to see in this photo but I used the eyelet punch to create mini holes in the two corners, I swore off using the actual mini eyelets after one too many frustrating attempts months ago, so I've just got holes.

And since the current Flashback Friday is to repost your first fall card I pulled out this one (using the same stamp!).  I made this card in May 2010 for one of the Play Date Cafe color challenges.

And least but not last... I wanted to share some storage ideas... I posted a photo of my very messy desk last week and somehow inspired Amy to do a bit of a clean up... thanks Amy for the added motivation, because a clean up was indeed in order over here.  I recruited a little helper, because he's actually quite good at cleaning up if he's motivated.  He came in, took charge and somehow I managed to find the floor, desk and make some order in the drawers.  Here are Ben's top craft room organization tips: 1) turn off the computer, 2) don't get sucked into to making cards and 3) just put it away.  Here are some photos...

Before

After

 This is a peek in the drawer with my dies, normally I just chuck them in the drawer (as seen on the top), but I've got these fabulous magnet holders that Ayana has mentioned once before, so my tip is to actually use them!

Scrap folder

Scrap Organizer

So I've got lots of fabulous scraps and heaven forbid you should get rid of them, but I'm not very good about filing them away in my scrap binder,  but tip #2, recruit helpers!  The clear sleeves are great for finding the perfect color.

And the final result!  A clean desk (and floor) just in time for my grandma's visit!  Woo hoo!  I'll add this to "What's On Tap Tuesday" since I was brave and posted the before photo here.

Materials: Hero Arts Designer Friend, Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder, Tim Holtz Distress ink mustard seed and fired brick, Versacolor Orange ink, May Arts burlap twine, Making Memories eyelet punch