Quilted Americana

I made this card back in early July, inspired by Donelda's Tea Party challenge to use salt. While most "salty" tutorials use glossy cardstock, I've always loved the look you get from using plain cardstock with a single dye ink - not as dramatic, but a soft, lovely design that seems a bit fabric-like. For this card, I started with some scraps of white cardstock (since I knew I was going to be punching squares out, it didn't matter what the starting shape was!) and managed to color my fingertips blue and red along with the paper... but hey, isn't that part of the fun of stamping? ;)

While the treated cardstock was drying, I randomly stamped "America" (from Stars & Stripes) onto some other scraps of white, and also got my bear ready to go. I then punched out a ton of squares from the three papers and created the quilt-like background. I played with the arrangement a bit, and then when I had them laid out like I wanted, I glued them onto some plain copy paper, then trimmed it down to the size I wanted. A bit of black cardstock sets off the bold colors, and a simple silvery bow is the final touch.

Patriotic Fun

The 4th of July is rapidly approaching - and since we have small children, the celebration of that holiday always includes sparklers! When I first saw the bear from Stars & Stripes, I decided I could trim the star out and replace it with some sparkling fun :)

I started out with the sketch from Dina, but I must admit that I fiddled around a bit with the elements. I paired the bear with BasicGrey Cupcake paper (and can I just say that I have NOTHING patriotic in my stash!), and created the sparkler with a stick pin and tiara glitz stickles.

Be sure to check out how Susan, Giovana, Dina, Donelda & Donna each used the sketch, too.

Seeing Stars

When Giovana issued the "shape" challenge, my mind immediately went to the Stars & Stripes set. I bravely sketched out a primitive star shape onto a plain white notecard... and well, it went into the trash shortly thereafter. My second attempt fared better, though :) I stamped the adorable patriotic kitty with versafine ink and colored with prismacolor pencils, adding just a bit of light blue around the edges. I also went over the heart with a spica glitter pen - it's very subtle, but I had to add just a bit of sparkle somewhere! I stamped the word, and also accented that with a red pc pencil, then finished off the card by stippling some mustard ink around the edges. Fun, simple, and it still fits in a standard A2 envelope!

The whole team "got in shape" today, so be sure to check out their creations: Dina, Giovana, Donelda, Donna, & Sarah (at Susan's blog)

Getting around to another tea party...

As I mentioned in my last post, Donelda is our hostess for this smART Cookie Tea Party, and she challenged us to incorporate a circle in some form or fashion.

My card is quite simple, but I incorporated a circle and I actually used something from my embarrassingly large embellishment stash. Double points! :) I started by stamping the super-cute Mama Teddy (Teddy Gals) and then added color with prismacolor pencils. I trimmed the panel down, and matted it with blue (accented with the fancy corner punch). I stamped screen onto some light blue cardstock, and then layered that onto the gray card base. I tied on the yellow ribbon, and then added the circular charm with the word "adore" (from Making Memories), then mounted the main part with foam dots so it has a bit more dimension.

All the other cookies will be posting their creations throughout the day - click over to Susan, Dina, Giovana & Donelda to see how they got circular.

Sparkly Teddy Bear

A simple but fun card to share today, featuring a glitter window. If you've never made one, you really should - they're easy, and always guaranteed to impress. You can find a good step-by-step tutorial here.

Anyway, this card features the Teddy Gals set. I used the flower image on the front of the card, and then punched the circle. I then laid that on a white card base and carefully punched another circle. Next, I traced the circle onto the inside of the card (very lightly), then stamped the teddy using my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig, so that she'd be featured nicely in the opening. The SAMJ made it easy to position the greeting on the opposite side, too (from Semi Say #2). I tied ribbon onto the red panel before doing the glitter window, then glued everything together. The process was a bit more meticulous than my normal "fly by the seat of your pants" routine, but nothing too difficult - and it's very cute, if I do say so myself!

So did you notice the circular window? Well, that's also a good lead-in to tell you about the next Tea Party on November 12. Donelda has challenged us to incorporate a circular element - the card itself can be a circle, or it can have circular images or embellishments, or you can even use punches :) We'd love to have you join in the fun, so hopefully you can find some time to get circular.

Tea Party!

It's Tea Party time again, and Peggy Lamb was our hostess this week. She provided a sketch, which was to feature paper piecing on the main image. Can I let you in on a secret? I really don't like paper piecing - I get impatient with the detailed cutting (as is the case with anything that's overly involved, which is why most of my cards are relatively quick to recreate :) But I must admit that I really like the way this card turned out, and the extra four minutes of work was definitely worthwhile!

For the main image, I chose this adorable bear from Teddy Gals, and used the scraps (BasicGrey Euphoria)from the baby card I made last week on her dress and hairbow. I also unearthed a scrap of silver metallic paper for the watering can. I colored the body with prismacolor pencils, the sleeves of the dress with gel pen, and the flower with twinkling H2Os. The sentiment is from Bloomin.

Would you like to see what the other team members have created? You can see Peggy's card at Susan's blog, and Dina, Giovana & Donelda will be posting their cards, too. We'd love to have you join in - just leave a comment with link to your creation!