tis the season

the challenge over at moxie fab (one of the christmas related challenges that is) is to create a paper crafted gift for the Season's Giftings Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. how fun is that? i decided to go with making a gift card holder.

i started with an old cd tin [remember in the early 2000's when aol would send 100 to your house filled with their 'demo' cd or whatever?, well i still have some (*whistle*)]. anyway, i covered the tin in some christmas-like paper - it's actually not christmas paper, but i thought if fit and was fun, so i used it! then i used some vellum and white ribbon on the top of the tin. over that i layed down a white tree vinyl rub-on (from ead designs) and then topped that tree off with a red bow and red heart-shaped button. the stamp 'very merry' is simple and sweet! which is why i chose it!

the back of the tin is just covered in paper - no embellishments here, it has to lay flat somehow! :)

inside is cardboard cut to fit into the case and then covered with paper. there is a double sided ribbon tab under the gift card for easy access to the gift card! and i used some fun scrap tape with red and light teal birds for an accent below (along with a few more red heart buttons up top).

i LOVE the color combination for this, these are the colors i decorate in when it's christmas time. love love love!

enjoy!

even elephants embellish off the wall

brace yourselves, i actually made a card with no owls or trees! ha ha! i know, those are few and far between. but don't worry, i made up for that with lots of little, tiny hearts! why have those become a staple of mine? i have no clue, but i can't seem to hide from them!

not only that! - but this post is a two-for! two challenges/two different cards in one post. oh yeah, i told you to brace yourself! :)

the first card is the non-owl/tree card referred to is for the latest embellish magazine color challenge: use the colors below (yellow, gray, black and white) and a stamped background. so here we go!

little baby elephants are just so cute! and i thought these non-traditional baby colors would be a great compliment to a new baby card! i masked the hearts on the background of the paper (through a punched out heart on scrap paper!).

the elephant was stamped twice and then i popped up the ears and added a little bling eye for fun! to add to the fun, i also glimmer mist-ed the elephant! the sentiment was created with thickers, and i just added the punched out hearts randomly to them, i LOVE how that turned out. i think it's my favorite part of the card!

the next card is for off the wall craftiness! i love those color challenges! below are the inspiration colors for this week:

and here's my card! just a nutty little birthday card! i added some browns to the card, forgive me! but the squirrel and acorns had to be brown-y. :)

the acorns were stamped twice on the two afore mentioned browns, and then one layer was popped up. i also popped up the balloons and the sentiment - for which i used the hero arts stamps.

thanks again!

enjoy and good luck!

i got sketchy

alright, i haven't made that many halloween cards - mostly i just made autumn cards (if that!), so i thought i'd try my hand at an actually halloween card for the new challenge at get sketchy! as soon as i saw the latest sketch, i had a great idea! check it out, here's the sketch:

and here's my card:

i loosely interpreted the card...you know me and my interpretive-tendencies! anyway, i had this big bag of different shaped google eyes that danielle at girlracer scrap had given me for my birthday, so i was finally able to use some of them!

i wanted this card to be halloween-y, but not over the top. i also wanted it to be sort of girly, so i added the pink hearts, and made the sentiment in pink. i really like the color combination of pinks, black and white anyway, so it fits i think! i used my white ribbon to create the mummy's wrap.

anyway, there it is, an official halloween card by sam. :)

enjoy!

another wee hero arts collaboration

well, it seems i've combined another challenge - and it's again, hero arts and wee memories! the challenge for this month on hero arts is anything fall related, and the channlege for this week's wee memories challenge is either clean and simple or tags! well, i was going to make a tag, but then this great idea popped into my head:

i have had the sentiment concocted in my head for a while, and i've just been waiting to use it! i just free hand cut the tree out and then i used my circle punch to make the leaves. first i punched out a circle. and then i put that same circle back in the punch to create the leaf shape - easy peasy! (and simple!)

i used glimmer mist on the background of the card - because i had to jazz it up somehow, even if it is barely noticeable! and then i used the same colors in the tree for the stamping and gradually darkened it, like fall leaves!

clean and simple. and fall! :)

enhoy!

oops i did it again

alright, i know i already entered one card for the moxie fab - offset scallop challenge, but when i sat down to make a card for my grandpa, this is what happened!

here's the scoop: my grandpa has been very kind and gracious to watch our cat (phoenix) during this latest move/transition for us - thanks grandpa! anyway, this is not just your simple, 'let a cat into your house and go about your business' cat, no - phoenix is very high maintenance, wants to play (on his own terms of course), and is super nosy (he has to know what's always going on! that means, no doors shut, people. ever!). so anyway, i am so thankful for my grandpa for watching pheonix for us, and i made him a card to show him that:




notice, the cat (yellowy/orange, just like phoenix) is covered in toilet paper. yep, there's no doubt, that's phoenix! i saw that stamp set and knew what i had to do! i paper pieced the stamp set and popped up the toilet paper for added dimension.


the house, door, grass, is hand cut (my cricut is packed people! can you sense the desperation in my type!?), hence the crafty feel of the card! and of course i scalloped the roof of the house with randomly cut out circles. i used white ink to randomly stamp the background of half of the card with the paw prints and 'meow' word. then i used the hero arts tiny letter stamps i have to create the sentiment - which i then popped up. dimension, always dimension. :)

i made the card with bright, happy colors, so maybe i could convince my grandpa about how fun it was to watch phoenix...ok, mayeb not! but maybe he can momentarily forget the daunting task he went through to receive the card! ha! :)



(a picture of the reason and inspiration for the card!)
enjoy!

clearly i stamp

well, clearly i stamp, interpretively! ha ha! anyway, here is a card i made for the challenge over at clearly istamp! this is my first time playing along with them, but the challenge was to use an owl, or owl habitat (ie: trees!). and you all know how i love those little hooties! (i stole that from danielle at girlracer scrap - she loves owls too, and calls them hooties!)

anyway, on to the card!

now i shall explain, sigh. there is a band out there called 'owl city', and they have a song called 'vanilla twilight' - it's currently in my top 10 fav songs right now! anyway, the sentiment to my card ('as many times as i blink i think of you') is a lyric from the song! and i tried to make the sentiment look like a tree branch...and the buttons are the leaves...oh well. i'm not sure if i missed the mark or not, but i tried! i like it, and that's what matters, right?

i also tried to create the owls to look like one had their eyes opened, and the other two were 'blinking'. ??

anyway, there it is!

enjoy!

owl be clean and simple

this is the first time i have played along with caardvarks, and the challenge this time is 'clean and simple' - sounds easy enough, right? i think sometimes i fluctuate between clean and simple and just crazy!

i do love owls, and it's been a while since i worked with fabric and scra-fts (that's my new shorthand for scrapbooking related crafts!), so i wanted to give it a whirl! i just hand cut the owl with some fabric scraps, and sewed the legs by hand. as for the final touchof the owl, i thought two button eyes would be the cherry on top! for the border of my card, i used my sewing machine - something i always love to do!

the saying was stamped on with my hero arts individual letters, and vwa-la! well, almost vwa-la...i tried to resist using a tiny heart...i really, really did...but alas, as you can see, i decided to add one on anyway! *whistle*

see? easy peasy and simple too!

enjoy!

everything but the kitchen sink - macgyver style

yeah, you read that right. i totally macgyver-ed this challenge at everything but the kitchen sink - and just in time too (in true macgyver fashion, of course)! below is the sketch for this challenge:

i think it's so cool that the sketch is based off of the playstation - my husband loves video games, so i could totally relate! :) here's my take, and then i'll explain!

here's somethink you should know. i love peanut butter and jelly. like, an unhealthy amount, i could eat pb&j everyday.now that that's out of the way...

ok, so first of all, i fliped the sketch over. and the stamps, ah the stamps! perhaps you may recognize them from lawn fawn's cozy christmas set? i have (once again!) modified the poor little glass of milk into peanut butter and jelly jars! (maybe one day i'll actually use the cute, little glass of milk in the intended way - a glass of milk!) anyway, i stamped the image on to white cardstock, scanned it into the computer and erased the 'wave' lines of the milk. then i fliped the image so i could have them facing each other! he he!

i drew the peanut myself and cut it out, and the strawberry was part of a border stamp set i had, from which i cut out one. as if that wasn't enough macgyver-ing, i also used toothpicks (which used some of my brown stamp pad to darken) for the body of the tree! then i used my cloud punch to create the 'leaves' of the tree.

what do you think? totally macgyver-ed. i know. *sigh*. i figured, it's an 'everything but the kitchen sink' challenge, so why use conventional items!

ead and 2 sketches 4 you challenges

i have another double challenge card here - whew! :) i wanted to be sure to get my card in for the ead designs challenge and the 2 sketches 4 you challenge, so i decided, why not combine the two? the color challenge for the ead designs and the sketch for the 2s4y challenge are below, check them out:

have i mentioned that i have a little obsession with birds/birdhouses lately...? *whistle* well, that obsession has crept back up again! ha ha! i made this card the other day for these challenges, but i am just now getting around to posting it! oops!

when i saw the sketch i instantly thought of a clothesline made out of floss - especially since i just bought some tiny, wooden clothespins at hobby lobby last week, i figured, this is the time!

i hand cut out the birdhouse and popped it up for some dimmension, and (again) finished off the birdhouse with a button. the little teal birdie is actually a vinyl rub-on from ead! i love their rub-ons! and the stamps are those same hero arts tiny letters! the teal 'sky' was hand torn, and i really like that you can see the white, i think it adds to the landscape!

so that's the schpeal! thanks for checking it out!

enjoy!

wee marshmallows

i have to say, i'm super excited about this card! :) he he! i had a whole different card made for the wee memories SOS (scallops, orange or string) challenge this week, but then my new lawn fawn stamps came in the mail, and to the side it went! i love lawn fawn stamps - they are such great quality! anyway, as soon as the stamps came, i had to play with them - and then this card developed in my mind, and BAM, i had to make it right away! and it just so happens that it also fits the guidelines for the wee memories challenge this week! bonus!


anyway, the challenge was to use any 2 of the 3 ideas (scallops, orange or string), but i sort of used all three! it just happened! ha ha! take a look:



i just think it's so cute! there is a glass of milk as a stamp in the cozy christmas stamps from lawn fawn, and as soon as i saw it, i thought *snap* marshmallow, i can turn it into a marshmallow! and then couple that with the fire, and *kabam* instant smores. lol! i pretty much popped everything on this card for dimension, all but one of the marshmalloes are popped, one of the clouds is popped up, and the fire stamp is paper pieced and the flame is popped. the 'stick' is actually a toothpick!




my husband thinks this card is a little canabalistic and dark...but how can that be when everyone on it, is so happy! look at the cute little faces on the marshmallows and fire - it's a party, and well, 'you're hot!' personally, it makes me laugh, and i love it!


so anyway, what do you think? let me know, i'd love to hear your thoughts! :)
enjoy!

i'm a blog hop candy winner!

today started off like it was going to be just another one of 'those' days. my little, darling 2 year old son, decided to wake up at 6:30 this morning! ew! no one likes that. ha ha!



lucky for me, i got a call from danielle at girlracer scrap telling me i had won some blog candy at off the wall craftiness! yippee!! obviously, that made my day much better and brighter! how fun!! i can't wait to try out those fun new stamps!





thanks again for the opportunity to win!! i can't wait to get started on the latest challenge at off the wall craftiness!

thanks again! :)

paper piecing with embellish magazine

i have been wanting and wanting to make a card for the latest embellish magazine challenge for a while, but i just wasn't loving any of the ideas i had come up with. i finally went with the layout below, and turns out, i like it! :)

the challenge this week at embellish magazine was to use paper piecing with the colors below (yellow, kraft, lt green and dk green):

usually when i use muted colors, i like to add a pop of a bright color for major contrast, but alas, i was able to resist (there are no tiny hearts either!). i have really been liking birds lately, and so when i saw some cardstock that had birdhouses on it, i was instantly inspired to use birdhouses for this card!

i cut the birdhouses by hand with various colors of cardstock and pieced them together! the buttons were lent to me by Danielle at Girl RacerScrap for the openings on the birdhouses, and they saved the card if you ask me! :) the sentiment is from hero arts, and the little birds are from lawn fawn. i love lawn fawn stamps! have you used them? if not, what are you waiting for?! :) ha ha!

thanks for stopping by!

enjoy!

moxie fab scallops

have you seen the challenge going on over at moxie fab world? it's all about the offset scallops, an i couldn't be happier! The Offset Scallop Gallop Challenge in the Moxie Fab World is h-o-t HOT! ha ha!

i don't have a scallop border punch, but i did have a circle punch - so i created my offset scallops with that! and if you know me, you know i'm all about the beach, surfing, sand and waves. so my offset circle/scallops were created to look like an ocean scene!

i used three different colors of cardstock for the waves, to give the 'ocean' a bit of depth. and then i used the same circle punch to create the clouds. the sentiment is just hanging there by the brad, and i wanted to make it yellow-ish to represent the sun.

i'm all about interpretive crafts, as you may or may not know! :)

i also used some of my homemade glimmer mist on the sentiment (which is by hero arts of course! i love them!) to add just a hint of shine.

anyway, there it is! :)

enjoy!

a wee memories and hero arts challenge combo!

wow - i've just been one busy multi-tasker lately! here's another two-fer card! i made this card for the hero arts contest and the wee memories challenge #22! and...here's a secret: i'm loving this card!

ok, here's the skinny on this card. both challenges are autumn/fall themed! i love it already!! fall is by far my favorite season! i love pumpkin patches, apple picking, warm apple cider and donuts, cool weather...i could go on and on! *sigh*

the colors i chose for this card are very fall-themed: greens, brown and orange. i (finally!!) used the masking technique for the sun/moon (depending on what time of day you think it is!). i really liked how the white stamp ink made it look all misty and a just a touch spooky. i hand cut the 'hills', and i really like how the olive green and lime green patterned cardstocks almost don't go together. but i think they work! i popped up the top layer of hills to add dimension, as well as the sentiment - which i stamped using the hero arts individual letters clear acrylic stamps!

i have to admit, the pumpkins are my favorite part!! i made them using orange buttons, a tiny cut of very thin lime green ribbon (for the leaf), and an even tinier cut of twine for the pumpkin stems. cute! i also incorporated the twine by wrapping it around the card and under/over part of the sentiment.

i really hope you like this card as much i do! it just feels homey and welcoming to me, what do you think?

enjoy! :)

off the wall 2-for-all card

today was a productive, and yeah, i'll say it: i was innovative - i made one card, to fit 2 purposes! woah, i know. maybe i should have warned you. things like this can take a person by surprise and make you fall out of your seat. :) ha! so friends, please put your chairs in their upright and locked position and bunker down! (ok it's not really that exciting...) :)

off the wall craftiness had a color challenge, and their colors are eerily similar! check it out for yourself:

on top of making this card for the challenge, i also made it 'by request'! my mom wanted a card for a very dear family friend who recently lost her husband and also had a birthday. my mom chose the sentiment (thinking of you), and i think it fits. she specifically didn't want a card that said 'happy birthday' since it would be a very difficult one. so without further adieu here is my 2-for-all card:

i wanted to make the card as happy and light as i could. and the color pallette was perfect for that! i used my hero arts individual letter stamps for the sentiment and i arced the letters to create a sort of rainbow feel. i thought about doing different colors to really accent the rainbow effect, but i decided subtle was better. i created the 'sun' by cutting a very thin strip of cardstock and wound it into a tight-tight-tight circle. then when i decided the cardstock had taken the circle shape, i spread it out a little (hmm, note to self, it's hard to explain that!)!

i drew (free-hand mind you!) the cloud shapes onto an adheasive sheet. then i placed those sticky cloud cut-outs onto the dry embossed polka dots and glittered my little heart out! i finished the card by making the clouds rain hearts (popped up of course). i love when clouds rain hearts, but i know it's been done a lot - but i really want it to rain love on this family friend, so i went with it! :)

alright, you are now free to walk around the cabin! lol! thanks again!

enoy! :)

embellish magazine challenge

i'm so excited about this card! i made it for the embellish magazine color challenge using squares. check it out:

first of all, what's not to love about this color combination? it's fantastic! i love the added idea of using squares. i had some other ideas for creating my card, but went this way instead! either way, i knew i was going to start off with a square-shaped card.

so, i cut out teeny tiny squares in various purple and green cardstock (the purple squares are larger than the green squares). and then i created a mosaic tree with the colors! i tried to also create a fading effect by going dark to light (fromt he top to the bottom) with the green, and then light to dark with the purple (f that makes sense!) it was a little teedious cutting out all of the little squares, and glueing them down one-by-one, but it was easy, ha!

then i layered some ribbon on the card as well. i used the same technique i did before; glueing the white ribbon to the black ribbon, so it looks two-sided. can i ask why i haven't seen double-sided ribbon in the stores? it's so fun! in the meantime, i'll just keep making my own!

i also decided to add a little rub on bird on top of the tree. i think the mosaic tree definately needed a little birdie (the only thing this card is missing is my signature little, tiny hearts!).

thanks again for checking it out!

enjoy!

off the wall friendship card

i saw the color challenge at off the wall craftiness this week, and i knew i wanted to play! i love the color combination, and have already used it in some of my cards in the past, as a matter of fact! here are the inspiration colors:

i made this card with some help from Danielle at GirlRacer Scrap yesterday! i don't know why, but i love adding little hearts to things! so i had already punched the little hearts out, and was not sure how to use them. do you ever have one of those moments when you have all the greatest makings of a card, but you can't quite put it together? well that was me! luckily, Danielle was there and suggested i use the hearts as butterflies! genius! i was just going to have the hearts 'raining' out of the clouds, but it's been done so much, i wasn't liking the way it looked. but i do love how the heart-erflies tured out! :)

i also used red ribbon, and folded it down (and cut the ends of the ribbon decoratively) so it would look like a banner! and then the sentiment is metal accent letters that slide onto the ribbon! i also popped up some of the clouds so the card wouldn't be so 'flat'.

thanks for checking out the card!

enjoy!