Clean and Simple Cards

Last Monday my friend Donna was finally able to come for a few hours to make cards. She recently went back to work, so it's been more difficult finding a free morning. We decided that we wanted to make clean and simple cards. Donna sells some of her cards at a local shop...so these cards are easy to make and the cost is lower because they don't have a lot of embellishments.








Most of these cards are a combination of cards I saw on Splitcoast Stampers. The gallery section for clean and simple cards provided loads of inspiration. We spent about 15 minutes looking through some of the samples and then picked out a few stamps we thought would work well for these cards. We made almost the same cards...just changed colors or stamps.


These are a sample of the cards Donna made. She actually made multiples of each and will finish them later at home. She will be adding a sentiment and perhaps a piece of cardstock along the top or a ribbon...or leave them simple...which looks quite nice. She also made some similar to the first 2 cards.






The last card is also based on a card I saw on Splitcoast...I think the original card had a bouquet of flowers. I have already given the card away. She should have received it today with "a little something." Hope she likes it.

So...Donna left 2 containers of designer paper and card stock for me to plan ahead for our next stamp day. She really needs to make some things with all the product she has...boy, does that sound familiar. The plan is to have a plan! Perhaps then we will get more accomplished in a short period of time...
yeah, right!

2 Challenge Cards

The sketch for the first card comes from Jen's Saturday sketch challenge. The card is for my nephew who turned 13 on Saturday. I know I'm a bit late in making the card. It's not that I don't remember these birthdays...I just remember too early and then put off making a card...then when I remember again...I'm late! I need a better system.
The sentiment on the card is from the retired SU set called Alphabet Soup (this set is one of the retired sets that I am selling).
Stamps: Alphabet Soup, Sanded background
Paper: baja blue, not quite navy, basic grey, white, not quite navy dp
Ink: not quite navy and going grey SU markers
Accessories: punches
I made this card for a friend using the mojo monday sketch. Papers: white, baja blue, Parisian Breeze Specialty paper. Ink: Not quite navy, baja blue, SU markers (not quite navy), reinkers (baja blue and kiwi kiss) with blender pens
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Cheep Talk, Think Happy Thoughts
Accessories: grey satin ribbon, punches, ice brads

Yummy Bunny

I didn't think I would have the time to make a card for Taylor's sketch challenge this week, but thanks to Jill I had an excuse to make this one. She needs a card for her nephew and everything I've made so far has too much "girl" stuff on it. So I took out TE's Sweet Spring set and chose the cuppie and bunny and used lots of blue. The bunny and little boy blue cuppie were both colored with SU markers. I used a white glaze pen on the bunny's tail. I could probably add another layer of glaze and make the tail "pop" a bit more.
The background paper is from SU SAB paper set.
So that's it...simple, but cute.

My 2008 Books I've Read List

I realized that I still had my book list was still from 2008. So I'm going to list them here and create a new list for 2009. I love to read and have been disappointed to find that I am reading less. Perhaps I am on the computer too much. I know it's not from exercising more! That said, I need to push away from my desk and just read.

2008 Books I've Read

• The Bible (NLT)
• My Christmas Assortment (3)
• Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg
• Dawn's Light by Terri Blackstock
• True Light by Terri Blackstock
• Night Light by Terri Blackstock
• Last Light by Terri Blackstock
• My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas
• The One Minute Entrepreneur by Ken Blanchard and Don Hutson
• Breaking the Discipleship Code by David Putman
• Mudhouse Sabbath - Lauren Winner
• Crazy Love by Francis Chan
• The Shack - William P. Young
• Courageous in Calling - a Catalyst collection of assorted authors
• Death in Berlin - M.M. Kaye
• Epicenter - Joel Rosenberg
• I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt - Vince Antonucci
• Looking for God - Nancy Ortberg
• the organic God - Margaret Feinberg
• The Purpose Driven Life - Rick Warren (was the 2nd time I read this one)
• The Small Rain - Madeline L'Engle

Mojo Monday #80

Card sketch challenges are a wonderful inspiration when making a card. But even then I sometimes have a difficult time choosing colors or stamps. But today's Mojo Monday card was much easier for me because I had a specific kind of card to make. I needed a card for a new baby boy and I wanted to use the retired SU set "I'm Here." I couldn't believe I still had some papers from SU "Splash" designer paper collection. Now all I need to do is make a couple of scapbook pages for Ty and I should be able to use up ALL of that paper.)


Gotta go, Gary will be walking through the door any minute and I need at least look like I'm making dinner. :)
Paper: barely banana, certain celery, bashful blue, white, Splash dp
Ink: bashful blue, barely banana
Accessories, punches, certain celery grosgrain ribbon

Hoppy Birthday Card for SFYTT

Yesterday I took care of Ty while his mom and dad were painting and working at their new house. Ty's sleeper had a pocket on the front with frog eyes coming out of the top and frog legs sticking out the bottom...so cute! When I took the picture, I had already made the card, but got an ink smudge on the white card stock next to the frog image and was quickly stamping and coloring another frog. I put a couple of blankets on the floor and let Ty play. He figured out how to grab one of the hanging rattles and was having a great time. Such a cutie!



Anyway, his frog was the inspiration for the card I made for Jen's SFYTT challenge. All of the stamps are from the retired SU set called Unfrogettable. Everything was first stamped in Garden green and then colored with SU markers. The toadstool/mushroom is cutout and attached with a pop up dot. The patterned paper is on of the SAB papers (still available for 2 more days).
Check out the other samples posted on Jen's blog.
All supplies Stampin Up!
Paper: barely banana, SAB print, bashful blue, white
Ink: Garden Green, SU Markers - gable green, only orange, bashful blue, barely banana, garden green
Accessories: brads, Stampin Dimensionals

Cupcake Challenge #61

This is the card layout from yesterday's Cupcake Challenge. It also fits the Stamp Simply challenge found here. That challenge is called "Let's Forget the Rules." It requires the use of either stripes or dots and if desired another print or pattern. That was easy...I chose one of the patterned papers from Taylored Expressions Easter Key Ingredients Kit. It had stripes on one side and polka dots on the other.





The image and sentiment are both from TE Sweet Spring set. I used SU markers to color the cupcake and jelly beans and of course added a TE brad on top. Bree really likes this brad...it sparkles. The felt flowers and light pink brad are from SU. I remembered to stamp a cupcake on white paper for the inside of the card.
The black border is one that Julie made for me.She sells her absolutely fabulous textures and borders (for printshop) on dvd. The dvd also includes a video tutorial and extra photoshop brushes. This is how she describes her textures and borders dvd:
Each texture and border was handcrafted for the purpose of making art. By mixing the elements of texture and line you will discover techniques to bring fine art elements to your own imagery. The video tutorials introduce techniques to get you started, but I encourage you to experiment with your own digital manipulation techniques…there are so many possibilities! Here are the specifics of what is on the disk: 31 different textures (I know, why couldn’t I have made it an even 30), 11 borders, 8 bonus Photoshop brushes and 4 video tutorials to get you going. Fun Stuff!

Check out her blog...