Christmas in July

This is a great sketch by Unscripted Sketches. I decided to use a 6x6 paper pad purchased in London and gifted to me. It is the craziest paper pad I've ever seen! The theme is Christmas, but the various papers do not coordinate with each other. I want to use these up this Christmas, but am having a hard time. All the patterns in this card are from this pad. As you can see, the reds do not match. Some of the papers are brown (for the holidays?), some are blue, and some are pink. I guess I'll purchase coordinating Bazzill cardstock and go from there...

DSP: 'Traditional Christmas' Paper Pad by Paper Cellar

Oval Dies: Spellbinders

Snowflake Punch: Family Treasures

Digital Image: Free Dearie Dolls Digi Stamps

Challenges: 

Flashback Summer Sketch Unscripted Sketches #27 

CiSC3: Christmas in July

Crafty Catz #193: Christmas in July

Creative Corner Challenges: Christmas in July

Fairytale Challenge #72: Christmas in July

MIM #151 (Make it Monday): Anything Goes

HIMCR #108: Christmas in July

Not a Halloween Card

It's almost the end of July---too late to be sending Halloween cards to Operation Write Home. However, I couldn't resist purchasing a few orange and black patterned papers especially when these cute pumpkins were smiling up at me...OK, I have cuteness issues. So-o-o-o, the card is an autumn-themed Thank You that follows the sketch very closely. Always fun!

Double-sided Pumpkin and Orange-Striped Paper: Colorbok
Black and Orange and Yellow Striped Paper: Paper Pizazz
Circle Die: Spellbinders
Small White Circles: 'Candi' by Craftwork Cards
Digital Sentiment: The DigiChick
Corner Rounder: Creative Memories

Challenges:
OWH Sketch #183
Pile It On #30: Anything Goes
Paper Playtime #15: Pattern Paper
Sister Act Challenge #17: Anything Goes

TMS #208

Hey, it's Tuesday, and you know what that means! Another fun Tuesday Morning Sketch. I discovered this adorable pre-colored digital image and couldn't wait to use it. The snowman is warming up in a cup of steaming hot cocoa after a cold winter day. It never really gets cold enough for hot cocoa here in SoCal, but when the temperature drops below 60 degrees, a warm cuppa is definitely in order :)

Because I used the "winter trees" embossing folder that was made for a vertical card, I had to cut the middle section down so everything would go together. Then the printed sentiment was so long, I decided to place it standing on it's side. The center circle is lifted with dimensional adhesive.

Digital Image: Doodle Dragon Studios

CS: Bazzill
Circle Dies: Spellbinders
Sentiment: Printed from Microsoft Word (Bradley Hand font)
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug

OWH Sketch #182

These sketches are so easy to follow! Thanks to the precise measurements of each element. Sketches are always good, but these are always great :)
I found the patterned paper at the recent Scrapbook Expo in a bin of double-sided patterned 12x12 paper for 33 cents each. I bought a few of them to make cards following the "One Sheet Wonder" formula. When I looked more closely at this paper, I realized the front and back were almost the same pattern, only one was smaller. So this paper would not work for the One Sheet Wonder idea. Then when I saw this sketch, I knew this paper would work for a CAS card like this:

DSP: "Stop Watches" by Scrappin' Sports

Blue CS: Bazzill

Brads: Recollections

Sentiment: "All the Time" stamp set by Hero Arts

Challenges: 

OWH Sketch #182

HIMCR #107: Freestyle

Challenges 4 Everybody #25: Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge #16: Anything Goes

TTCRD: Anything Goes

S & S Midweek Challenge: Christmas in July

It's that time (already!) to begin making Christmas and Winter-themed cards for Operation Write Home. It is warm and a tad humid in East San Diego, and I've been wearing shorts for weeks. So I will wish for a rainy winter and begin creating cards for our deployed military.
My daughter-in-law brought a paper pad of Christmas patterned paper back from England for me so I can finally use it. These papers don't match each other--kinda strange for a 6x6 pad--but each of the patterns are very nice.
I got a great deal on the rubber stamp I used last spring. It is a "combo" wooden stamp with three stamps on one piece of wood. Another sentiment and the snowflake on the end. Pretty cool. My first card had only three flakes near the sentiment and looked too plain. As you can see, it doesn't look plain there anymore :)

DSP: Paper Cellar

Sentiment, Snowflakes: Stampourri

Ink: Night of Navy by Stampin' Up!

Ribbon: Michaels

TMS #207

It's Tuesday, and I've spent the last few minutes (closer to an hour!) working on a card for the current Tuesday Morning Sketch with a Twist: Use an Animal Image.
Chloe is my cat. And though she has the coloring of a Siamese in the body of a Domestic Short Hair--and looks nothing like this kitty--I love all cats and really love the collection of cat images including this orange kitty, from Clearly Digi Stamps.
Addendum: Thanks, Tuesday Morning Sketches, for choosing this card as a "Top 5" winner!! Kitty says thanks, too :)

Image and Sentiment: 'Kitties and Things' pre-colored digi collection by Clearly Digi Stamps
Colored CS: Bazzill
Twine: Doodlebug Design
Button Brads: Hobby Lobby
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug
Cloud Die (w/sentiment): 'Puffy Clouds' by Memory Box

Weird or Wonderful?

Shopping Our Stash has a great challenge this week: Strangest or Weirdest Craft Supply Purchase.
It didn't take me long to decide what to use! To celebrate my retirement last September, I planned a 3-week vacation to visit family back east. While there, I discovered a sweet scrapbook shop in Amish country where there was a whole wall of small pieces of fabric for sale. The idea was to cut out parts of the fabric and stick it onto special cardstock with a sticky-side and use it on greeting cards. I was swept away with the pretty fabric and awesome examples of cards. So, of course, I had to purchase some Christmas fabric and sticky-paper. Upon my return home, the supplies were carefully stored in my craft room and never used. If anyone has seen this technique shared on the Internet, please let me know!
The red strip with holly is the fabric.

Red CS: Bazzill

Green DSP: Paper Cellar

Sentiment: pre-stamped from my LSS

Ornaments: my stash

Fabric: ?

Sticky Paper: MACtac 

Unscripted Sketches #219

It took awhile to come up with an idea for this sketch, then I decided to use a 6x6 pad of patterned papers and here is my card!
This card will be linked over at Unscripted Sketches.

DSP: 'Prairie Chic' collection by BoBunny

Circle Die: Spellbinders

Bird Dies: Impression Obsession

Sentiment: minis4circles by The Stamps of Life

Corner Rounder: Creative Memories

Ribbon, Brads: my stash

OWH Design Bootcamp: Major, Minor, and Accent Colors

Today we learned about choosing three colors for our card designs and how to keep them balanced.The idea is to use the 60-30-10 Formula. My choice was to use Pink 60%, Black 30%, and White 10%.
The circle is lifted with dimensional adhesive and the ribbon secured with narrow, double-sided red tape.

Pink CS: Bazzill
Other CS: my stash
Ribbon: 'valentine' collection by making memories
Black Ink: Dragonfly Black by ColorBox
Pink Ink: 'Pretty in Pink' by  Stampin' Up!
Circle Dies: Spellbinders
Border Punch: EK Success
Sentiment and Small Flowers: 'branches4flowers' set by The Stamps of Life

Relaxin' in an Easy Chair

Guess what I bought! A stamp-and-die combo I could not pass up. This easy chair is so sweet! And when I saw it I knew that the pillow could be paper-pieced and that is just what I did. Confession time: I have dies and stamps in my collection that have never been used :(
Which makes me wonder why I bought them. So today I used these while they were new and fresh and I know they will be used often.

DSP: 'Rosy' 6x6 pad by My Mind's Eye

Easy Chair Stamp and Die: 'Small Hayward Chair' by Poppy Stamps

Sentiment: from the 'island2visit' collection by The Stamps of Life

Circles Stamped next to Sentiment: from the 'French Foliage' collection by Stampin' Up!

Ribbon: my stash

Black Ink: Dragonfly Black by Color Box

Challenges:

S & S Midweek Challenge: Masculine Card

Tuesday Morning Sketches #206 (TMS is celebrating 4 years of sketches!!)

Songbird Challenge #24: Ribbon

TMS #205

If it's Tuesday, it must be time for Tuesday Morning Sketches!
This one is so nice and lends itself well to one of my favorite card techniques: mixing and matching patterned papers.

DSP: 'Pink Lemonade' 6x6 Paper Pad by Lawn Fawn

Circle Dies: Spellbinders

Heart Punch: Marvy Uchida

Digital Sentiment: Create with TLC

Challenge:

Tuesday Morning Sketches #205

A Berry Sweet Card

Whoa. I was full of mojo this weekend and made an incredible 18 cards! That is super for me. They are all for my August box going to Operation Write Home. I know it's only July, but we are on grand-baby watch and I need to stay ahead. Just in case I want to spend some time with Baby Hannah who is due in August :)
The majority of cards I made are from the One Sheet Wonder template. This one was made today specifically for OWH and Doodle Pantry. Thanks for stopping by!

DSP, Pre-colored Digital Image, Sentiment: 'Strawberry Ants' by Doodle Pantry

CS: Bazzill

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug

Brads: my stash

Border Punch: EK Success

Challenges:

OWH Sketch #179

DPDC36: Use a Doodle Panrty Image