Card Patterns Sketch 134 & SPCC Color Combo #119

I have a 2 year old boy's birthday party coming up this weekend, so I used the sketch at Card Patterns, and the colors at SPCC, which I think is my new favorite color combo (for now, lol)...

I had a little glitch with the greens, so it's not perfectly coordinated, but I think it still turned up pretty well... I don't have Lucky Limeade ink yet, so I used Pear Pizzaz, which is a good stand-in. BUT, I didn't realize until I was looking at the pictures I took, that the scrap I used for the green layer was actually Wild Wasabi, so now there are 3 different greens posing as one :P Oh well!

Here are the challenges:

Inkspirations #88 & Sunday Sketch and Stamp 74

I know I said my farewell to summer stamping already, but this color scheme from Inkspirations brought them back out for me... I should learn to never say never, especially when it's about something I love so much ;)

And the inspirations:

PaperWorks Co. #97 & SUO Challenge #28

Here's a cute, but simple, Fall card for StampinUpOnly's fall colors challenge, PaperWorks Co.'s sketch challenge and LateNightStampers fall challenge...

And here's the sketch...

Creating Pretty Cards #3 and Color Roundup #48

This color combo from Rubber Redneck was so far out of my comfort zone, I almost didn't try it, but I decided to give it a go and stretch myself. I did fall back on a sketch challenge from Craft Project Central I enjoyed earlier, and one of my favorite stamp sets though, to make it a little easier on myself ;)

And here are the challenges that inspired me:

JAI 86 & UDI Color Challenge 54

I haven't had a lot of time for crafting the last few weeks, so now that I'm jumping back in, I'm doing a bunch of challenges, just to play and get my mojo going again... so here's a random card, for the Just Add Ink sketch challenge and the Utah Divas International color challenge.

Here are the sketches:

Multi-Challenge Baby card

While I'm waiting for my friend's baby girl to be born sometime soon, the LateNightStampers Yahoo group challenge for the week happened to be a baby card, so I decided to make this one in advance. I also used the Color Throwdown color challenge, the Stamping 411 sketch and the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge to use embossing...

I love how the Stitched Stockings stamps and punches can also be used to make baby socks (and hobby horses too... coming here soon!). I also had fun going a little overboard with the embossing, to play it up for the challenge. I brayered the Stripes folder with Early Espresso to emboss the back layer; a Texturz plate on the Regal Rose square, and the Perfect Polka Dots on the RR scallop. A little smooch spritzon the EE scallop circle (from the Perfect Pennants Die) to give it some bling added one more layer of interest.

SPCC #117 & Super Sketch #98

One of the few things I can say I like about summer ending, is that it means Christmas is getting closer... next to Summer, Christmas is my favorite season. So, having done a "farewell summer" card in my last post, I decided to play with my new Holiday Mini goodies and make a Christmas card. I wasn't ready to go whole-hog and use red and green yet... gradual transitions here ;) Although it feels a little silly posting this now, since the sun has made a bit of a reappearance today, but oh well... it was cold and gloomy last night when I made this!

I used the colors from Scrapmaster's Paradise (but I swapped Crumb Cake out for Soft Suede, so I could use this Beau Chateau DSP)

And the sketch came from PaperWorks Co.

CPS 235 & Inkspirations Challenge #86

I had no reason to make this card, other than I've always wanted a chance to use this Woody stamp that my sister has (it was before my SU! time, or I would've bought this set myself),and I thought it would be a great "farewell summer" card... help me ease out of my favorite season, and into Fall.

And here are the challenges I used:

At Card Positioning Systems...

And the colors at Inkspirations...

Batman Card for my little superhero

So, usually we save our gifts for the boys birthdays for the actual day, but this year, since our gifts were games for the DS his Bubby was giving him at his party, we had to give them early... which meant for his actual birthday, I needed another card and a small gift to unwrap, so he still felt that it was a special day. So in addition to the LarryBoy card I made him for the party, I also got to make him a card with his OTHER favorite hero... Batman! He was a VERY happy boy, to be sure :)

Keep your eyes on my blog for at least a few new cards coming later today, and over the next couple days... now that we're getting into the school groove, I've had more time and energy for creating again :)

Baby Shower card & Creating Pretty Cards Challenge #3

This was for the baby shower of a friend who's having a girl... at first I had done the sleeper in Melon Mambo outline, despite the fact that I used Rose Red to coordinate with the Melon Mambo flowers on the DSP, but it looked a little too bright and busy once I had the embellishments done and added, so I redid it in Rose Red, which gave it a much softer look...

And here's Creating Pretty Cards sketch...

Flowers for the teacher

I wanted to try out one of the tutorials from Craft Project Central, and I thought these flowers would make a great gift for my son's Grade 1 teacher...

I was out of time to find the fabric covered floral wire, and this flimsy painted stuff was all Walmart had, so I had to braid 2 strands of wire, with a green ribbon to make it stiff enough to hold the flowers, but even though it was a lot more work, and it killed my wrists, it looked SO pretty in the end :)

I also gave her this card, since it matched perfectly, and I hadn't ended up using it for the end of year card for Wyatt's teacher, because I made this journal and this card instead.

Larry Boy Birthday card (plus cake and party stufff)

Yesterday was my littlest dude's 4th birthday party, and he wanted it to be a Larry Boy theme... which basically meant I had to do it all from scratch, because Larry Boy party stuff doesn't exist. I'll show you the card first since that's what this blog is about, but I'll share everything else I made too :)

Now, before I show you the card, I have to confess, this is the first time I've CASEd (Copy And Share Everything). I didn't case the whole card, but I knew to make LarryBoy, I'd have to piece him together, and not only is Punch Art NOT my forte, but I also don't have a lot of the more simple punches to work with yet. So I googled and found ONE card with a Punch Art Larry Boy, and I used the example to both punch and freehand my own version, so I didn't have to spend hours trying to design my own. I also gave him a shadow, which I thought would be funny if it looked like a pickle ;)

I also made a VERY simple banner (I was just a wee bit time crunched this week, and the party was pretty last minute), a goody bag with caramel apples, decorated as the Bad Apple, and a cake, with Larry Boy made out of Skittles...

Anyways, now that things have calmed down, (and I have lots of new Stampin' Up! stuff heading my way), expect to see more posting of my own cards and stuff again... hopefully our transition to our new, Grade 1, full-day, early morning schedule doesn't disrupt my life too much ;)