Vintage School Girl & Another Good Bye

Hello! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. It's time again for the fortnightly challenge at the Creative Card Crew. This will be my last challenge with this design team. I've been with them for almost a year and I'm stepping down to make more time in my schedule to play in the challenges that I want to play in. While I do love to be on a few design teams, I have decided that I need time to be able to make the cards and projects that I want to make and not be bound by a set of criteria for every single project. At the peak, I was on six teams and was turning out almost a card a day. It takes me 5-6 hours to make one card so I was spending too much time in my craft room and then rest of my free time at my computer making comments. Finally I decided enough was enough.

Our challenge theme at the Creative Card Crew this week is Back to School. I really puzzled over this one for a few days and then I found this vintage school girl in my vintage image files and the design began to come together. I found a sheet of designer paper in the Tim Holtz Lost & Found paper pad that had ABC flash cards on it, but as usual I covered most of it up. I also used one of Tim's new Texture Fades (embossing folders) called Note Paper. I cut a piece of SU Natural CS with the Top Note die and ran it through the Note Paper Texture Fade. I sponged it with Vintage Photo distress ink and also spritzed it with a mixture of Vintage Photo reinker, water and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls. The flowers were cut using the Old School digital DP from Raspberry Roads Designs. (BTW, Raspberry Road is having a 50% off sale this week. The Old School pack was just $1.) The small flowers were made using Spellbinders Flower Creations 3 dies and the larger, red flower was made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. The tickets were stamped with the Autumn Leaves Ticketed set.

Thanks again for stopping by. Hope you will also stop over to the Creative Card Crew to see what the other designers have for your inspiration.

Challenges Entered:

Pile it On - Farewell to Summer

Die Cut Dreams - Soft Shades of Vintage

Incy Wincy Designs - Back to School

The Shabby Tea Room - Old Meets New (old - SU CS, vintage image, seam binding, new Tim Holtz products)

Artful Inkables - Distressed Out

All That Scraps - Crinkled Ribbon

Little Red Wagon - Back to School

Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or Back to School

Fussy & Fancy - Back to School

Stamp Something - Back to School

Forever Shimmer and Shine

This fortnight, our challenge to you at the Creative Card Crew is to make a card with shimmer and shine. That's always fun, right? An easy peasy challenge so we're looking for a great participation. Our sponsor this time is The Digi Shack and they have kindly offered the design team an image to use. I chose this lovely silhouette for my shimmer an shine card.

Products Used:
Stamps: The Digi Shack, sentiment from SU Always set
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Printer Ink
Accessories: Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder from SU, Cuttlebug Heart Blocks embossing folder, Cuttlebug Ornamental die, Spellbinders Classic Ovals and Lattace Pendant Die, silk flower and lace with rhinestones from Jo-Ann's, black rhinestone flourish from Prima

That's it for today. Hope you will play along with this fun and easy challenge at the Creative Card Crew.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

Sentimental Sundays - Lace or Ribbon

A Pocket Full of Posies - All That Glitters

The Crazy Challenge - You Are My Heart

The City Crafter Challenge - Isn't She Lovely?

Artful Inkables - Bling it On, Baby

Fun With Die Cuts

Good moring friends! I'm so happy you stopped by this morning to check out my sample for the Creative Card Crew challenge. This week, Jen is our hostess and she has challenged us to use die cuts on our creations. We all love our dies and die cutting machines, don't we? So this should be a fun challenge for everyone and I'm looking forward to seeing what you all can do.

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp and they have offered a generous prize - a $20 gift certificate. So that should be a great incentive for you to join in our To Die For challenge!

My sample was made using one of the JustRite stamps I won earlier this spring. I'm not sure why I ended up with so much red in this card, but I really like it. I started with the K&Co. DP and since the one paper had some red in it, I decided on red for my die cut and everything got out of hand from there. I was working on it on the 4th of July so maybe I had red on the brain or maybe because it rained here in Miami all of the holiday weekend I felt the need to brighten things up. Red is my favorite color so when my mojo headed in that direction, I just let it run wild.

All the layers in the center medallion were cut with various Spellbinder dies. I'm not going to name them all here, but if you can't identify one, let me know and I'll do an update at the bottom of this post. The flowers are from Prima, the buttons from Foo-fa-la and the clip is from the SU Hodge Podge Hardware. I bought the gorgeous red crinkle ribbon on Etsy. That's about it - nothing tough or involved on this one. Just a lot of cool die cuts!

Please be sure to stop by the Creative Card Crew blog to check out the wonderful samples from the rest of the team. And sometime over the next two weeks, I'll be looking for your To Die For card linked to the challenge!

As always, thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

Little Red Wagon - Use Nestabilities

Creative Card Crew Thank You Challenge

This fortnightly challenge at the Creative Card Crew is to make a thank you card. I went with soft colors and shabby style for this one. The DP is Melissa Francis and the gingham is from The Pink Petticoat. All edges were roughed up and sponged with Creamy Caramel. I don't remember where the velveteen ribbon/trim is from, but it matched the Sage Shadow CS very nicely. The stamped image and sentiment are from Verve and the fabric flowers came already made up in Jo-Ann's trim aisle. I colored white pearls with my Copics.

Sorry for the short post, but my Internet is problematic and I'm trying to get this up before it goes out again. I'll be back later to flesh out this post. Til then, thanks and hope to see you again soon.

Blessings & hugs,

May Flowers

A good Tuesday morning to you! So happy you stopped by to see what I have made for this fortnight's Creative Card Crew challenge. It was my turn to set the challenge this time and I decided the theme would be April Showers Bring May Flowers. I think most of the rest of the DT went with the April Showers part of the theme, but since I already did an April showers card last week, I decided on May Flowers. I really wanted to do a vintage image for this project and rather than actual flowers I decided on seeds for flowers. I thought this Burpee's Seed catalog cover from 1901 was the perfect image for this project. I followed last week's Shabby Tea Room sketch. I was really challenged by that sketch and didn't think the first card I did for it was quite right so wanted to try it again. Unfortunately, I forgot that I couldn't publish this card until Tuesday so I missed submitting it for last week's challenge. On second thought, after thinking about this further, I am going to enter it into the Shabby Tea Room for this week's challenge. The theme is Comforts of Home and I think a flower garden definitely qualifies as a homey comfort.

Okay, the details - no stamping here, but ink distressed the edges with Creamy Caramel ink (what is Stampin' Up THINKING? Discontinuing my favorite distressing ink and one of my favorite card stocks?), the wonderful vintage image was downloaded from the Shabby chic papirskatter. I used the SU border punch from Sell-a-Bration. Card stock is Creamy Caramel, Not Quite Navy and Very Vanilla. Flower by Prima, colored with Copics, ribbon from Michael's sale bin and button from Foo-fa-la.

Now it's time stop by the Creative Card Crew to see what the other DT members have for your inspiration today. You'll want to be sure to make a card for this challenge to be entered into the drawing for this lovely Rachel Ann Miller stamp given by our sponsor Crafty Addicts.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comment you care to leave. Have a wonderful day!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges:

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Vintage Style

Practical Scrappers - Floss, Fibers & Ribbon

The Shabby Tea Room - Comforts of Home

Going Dotty...Challengewise, at Least

Greetings and thanks so much for stopping by. This is the week of the bi-weekly Creative Card Crew challenge and we are challenged to go dotty. I have so many deadlines lately that some days I think I am going dotty. But seriously, I love polka-dots so this was a fun challenge for me. I used another image from a recently discovered digital artist - Lindsay of Lindsay's Stamp Stuff. She had a great sale over the weekend (sorry, it's over now) so I purchased several sets of her digital images. She does have some freebies on her site, plus her sets are very reasonable so it's worth a visit to see if you like her style. This image is from a set called Doode Flowers. I think it looks very country, which is a style I favor. And, again, I went to my digital files for both the paper piecing and for the designer paper, which I printed on my home printer.

I used an Onare paper piercing template on the kraft card stock which I sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The border punch used is the new SU one from Sell-a-Bration. I think everything else is self explanatory, but if you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them.

Be sure to stop by the Creative Card Crew blog and check out the beautiful work by the rest of the team. Our sponsor this week is Crafty Addicts and they are giving away an adorable House Mouse stamp.

Challenges Entered

Daisy Doodles - Artist's Choice + a digital image

One Stop Craft Challenge - Spots and Dots

It's a Birthday Celebration and Blog Hop

Creative Card Crew is turning one year old this week and we're having a celebration! That's right and it's a celebration for YOU. Because without you, our loyal participants, we wouldn't have made it this far. The festivities this fortnight include:

3 digital images of the winner's choice from Sunshine Stamps

These two stamps from Bunny Zoe's Crafts:

A $20 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp

and (...drumroll please...)

A One Month Guest Designer Opportunity with Creative Card Crew

And that's not all folks. Our design team has blog candy on their blogs. So start hopping and sign up for your chance to win individual blog candy from:

Paula, Owner

Claire

Janna

Linda

Maria

Pauline

Sam

Victoria

and welcoming back Sharon,

one of our original founders who is making a return visit

just to celebrate with the Crew

Our challenge theme this week is CELEBRATION. Can't wait to see your challenge entries.

Here's my blog candy. To be entered into the drawing, you must post your CELEBRATION card on the Creative Card Crew challenge blog, post your entry here using Mr. Linky and also leave a comment in this post. This contest closes at midnight on March 15th and the winner will be announced on March 16th.

Thanks for stopping by here and the Creative Card Crew blog to help celebrate our birthday. Can't wait to see your entry into our celebration card challenge this week. Good luck on all the drawings!

Have a wonderful week!

Blessings,

Challenges entered:

Lexi's Creations - Anything goes

Pollycraft - Distressing

Paper Jewels - Cute & Girly

Quirky Crafts - Cute

Crazy 4 Challenges - 3 Distinct Textures (mine are smooth/normal, heat embossed bottom panel, distressed/torn edges)

One Stop Craft Challenge - Optimistically Pink

Scrap & Stamp - Use texture on your card

Secret Crafter - Use stitching

Stamp Something - Recipe Challenge - Use ribbon, buttons and designer paper

Cute Card Thursday - Ribbon-tastic

Pixie Dust Studio - Think Birthday

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Use scallops

Get Well Wishes - A CCC Challenge

This week the challenge at Creative Card Crew is to make a get well card. It's always good to have a few get well cards tucked away so I happily got down to the business of designing my DT card for this week. This card features an image from the new vintage/primitive digital stamp company Sugar Creek Hollow plus a sentiment I made up and printed on my home printer. The digital image of the pretty spring bonnet was colored with Copics and popped up with craft foam. The lovely mellow yellow paper is from SU's Parisian Summer pack.

The frame and border are both Spellbinders dies and the corner pieces are a Cuttlebug die. All edges are distressed with Creamy Caramel and the main image panel has also been sponged with Scattered Straw distress ink. The flower was also made using the Flower Petals Spellbinder dies. The leaf is a Sizzix die purchased through SU.

I think that's about it for the details. Let me know if you have any questions. I was really happy with the way this card turned out. I really like the gentle feminity of it. Be sure to stop by the Creative Card Crew blog and check out the lovely work of the rest of the design team ladies. Our sponsor this week is Truly Scrumptious Crafts and the prize is some lovely ribbon and charms.

Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you blessings on your week.

Challenges entered:

Corrosive - Sew it Up

One Stitch at a Time (a brand new challenge blog) - Stitching

Stamp Something - Something Cute (I think this card is very cute)

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Digi coloring

Fun 'N' Funky - Shabby Chic

Digital Tuesday - All Things Girly

Pile it On - Let's See Flowers

Cute Daisy May - Bright and Cheerful

Handful of Stamps - Open Challenge

Everything & Always

Good morning friends! Thanks so much for dropping by to view my weekly Tuesday posting. I'm sorry to be running a bit late getting it up this morning. If the truth be told, I was up until 2:00 a.m. struggling with a challenge card for later this week and then went to bed forgetting to schedule this morning's post. I guess sometimes I get too obsessed with certain projects - LOL!!

So here is my design team card for Creative Card Crew. The challenge this week given to us by DT member Sam is to make a Valentine card. This challenge was lots of fun for me. Sometimes cards just seem to fall together. As usual, this card doesn't look much like the idea I had in mind when I first sat down, but I really love the way it came out. Red is my favorite color and you have to admit, this card is a red indulgence!

I dug way down into my stash and came up with this designer series paper from SU. I've had it for at least three years and tend to hoard it because the reds are so lovely. This cool paper ribbon has been sitting on my craft table since Christmas. I have had it literally 10 years. I don't know if they even make the stuff any more. I found a bundle of it with my Christmas wrapping gear this year and grabbed it for my cards rather than pack it away again. Two stamp sets were used - SU's Always and a Verve set my DD gave me for Christmas called Thankful Accents. A couple of Spellbinder dies and a Martha border punch also contributed to the design of this card.

This week's challenge at Creative Card Crew is sponsored by Crafty Addicts. You can win this sweet stamp to be given away by random drawing. This challenge is now biweekly so you have until February 15th to play in the challenge and participate in this drawing. I hope you will stop by and see what the other wonderful ladies in the Crew have contributed.

Challenges:

Fussy & Fancy - Hearts

Stamp Simply - Bleeding Hearts (red hearts)

Stamp Something - Delightfully Delicious Somethings

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Love Actually

Blessings on your day,


Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Punchy Tilda

Here's this week's DT card for the Creative Card Crew. The challenge is to use punches on your project. I used a Fiskars border punch on both borders of the pink strip. I punched the contrasting Baja Breeze paper also and used the punched waste hearts to fill in the spaces in the pink. I liked the way it tied the two colors together. Both the Regal Rose and Baja Breeze cardstock matched up great with the Basic Grey Urban Prairie DP. (Unfortunately you can't see too much of the DP here). The pink gingham was digitally matched to the Urban Prairie DP and printed out on my printer (I am so excited to be able to do that!!). The "Sweet" sentiment seal from Designer Digitals was also digitally matched to the DP. Tilda was stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink, colored with Copics and sponged with Tim Holtz Scattered Straw distress ink.

Our sponsor this week at Creative Card Crew is Sunshine Stamps with three digis of the winner's choice. Hope you will stop by and check out the rest of the DT's creations and play along with us this week!

I know this is a short post for me but I think everything else is self evident. If you have questions, leave it in the comments section and I will be happy to share supply or technique info.

Challenges this card is playing along with:

Quixotic Challenge #9 - Judy's Sketch

A Spoonful of Sugar - Lots of Layering

Raise the Bar - Debut Day (use something new)

Willow's Thanks

From The Funkie Junkie

This fortnight's challenge over at Creative Card Crew is to make a distressed card. Oh well, not really a challenge for me - LOL! It's actually my very favorite style of card crafting and later this week, I hope to put together a little tutorial on how I do my distressing.

I really enjoyed putting this card together. I chose the Willow Kneeling image from Whiff of Joy and decided to make another thank you card that would be suitable for a Christmas thank you. The floral and dotted DP is from MME Wild Asparagus collection and the gingham is a digital paper I printed. I am so proud of myself! I didn't have any gingham paper that was a match for the burgundy color so I put the MME paper on my scanner, scanned it and opened it in my PSE7. Then I opened a digital gingham paper and changed its color to match the scanned MME paper. You can't believe how thrilled I was when this experiement actually WORKED - LOL!! It has opened a whole new world of digital papers for me.


The card is built on a 5.5" square of Whisper White. But I thought it was too white so I stamped it with an SU Garden Silhouettes stamp inked with Bordering Blue and Bravo Burgundy which matched the MME paper almost perfectly. I also sponged the edges with Bordering Blue. Next up was a layer of Bordering Blue. The edges are scissor distressed and sponged with Close to Cocoa ink. The Thank You sentiment is from SU's All Holidays set.

Inside, the focal element is two stamps from the new Verve set Thankful Accents, which my sweet daughter (with a whispered suggestion from me) bought me for Christmas - stamped in Bravo Burgundy.


The open panel in the lower inside was stamped with the Garden Silhouettes stamp, again inked in Bordering Blue and Bravo Burgundy. Flowers by Prima, branches from an MS punch and buttons from Foof-a-la. Several Spellbinders dies were also used.


Also entered into:


Quixotic Challenges - Lace
Stamp Something - use a new craft goodie, either brand new or something you have had but never used
Creative Inspirations - Thank You
Bizzy Becs - Creatalicious - Something old (almost everything), something new (Verve stamps inside), something torn (distressed edges), something blue (Bordering Blue CS)
Roses on Paper - Color with your favorite medium - hands down Copics are my fav!
Pile it On - Anything digital - my digital gingham paper that I changed the color on
Crazy4Challenges - Polka dot fun - one of the designer papers I used has polka dots - you can see it better on the bottom interior panel
ABC Challenge - Layering
Corrosive - Use 2 of your favorite things - okay, I used many fav things - distressing, layers, Copics, lace, etc.!

Christmas Tags a al Tim Holtz

Our last challenge for this calendar year at the Creative Card Crew is anything goes. I have long admired Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas and decided to give them a whirl. Should have been a piece of cake, right? After all, I DO VINTAGE. It's my favorite and a think I am pretty good at it. So why did a struggle so with these tags? Maybe because I was running behind in everything all weekend and I left this DT assignment until the last minute. Normally, I would have fussed more, or re-did some of the elements or backgrounds, but I was totally up against my deadline. So here are my first two attempts at tags a la Tim Holtz. I say first two because I know these won't be my last. I really love his style and will definitely be working to bring more creativity to my tags - might take awhile, but is sure to be fun.

When you stop by the Creative Card Crew, you'll notice that we are running a DT call through January 5th. Would you like to be a part of this talented group? If so, just enter the challenge and type DT Call in your comments. Again, it's anything goes this week at the Creative Card Crew. Hope to see your card or project entered into the challenge this week - no excuses, just take a little time out for yourself and make something this week!

Gold 'N Angel

This week, our challenge at the Creative Card Crew is to make a card with silver or gold on it. So here is my design team card with a bit of gold. Well maybe a little more than a bit - sometimes I don't seem to know when to stop! But I think it works - I like the gold against the navy blue.

The main image is from SU's retired set Yuletide Montage, stamped with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and colored with chalks. I used a little Antique Linen Distress Stickles on her wings. The main image is mounted on a panel die cut with Nestabilities Large Deckled Rectangles, stamped with the Script BG stamp and embossed with Judikins Egyptian Gold EP. The DP is SU's retired LeJardin pack. The gold CS is also from SU and was die cut with Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Borderabilities. The tag was cut with Spellbinders Fancy Tags. The Merry Christmas stamp is from SU's A Cardinal Christmas and the gold half pearls are from Michael's.

Wishing you blessings on your week!

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.