Thursday’s Way to Use it Challenge was to make an ATC card. I had just gotten my preorder from the Occasionals Mini catalog and decided to use the new set Great Friend for my ATC.

I decided to change it up just a little and make a small full card instead of just a card front. 

My card base is a 2 1/2″ x 7″ piece of Basic Gray cardstock folded in half. It was layered with a 1/8″ smaller piece of Baja Breeze cardstock. The top corners were punched with the ticket corner punch.

Both designer papers are from the Walk in the Park designer paper. The top part was ticket corner punched, paper pierced and distressed. White Taffetta Ribbon was tied around both layers.

The frame from Great Friends was stamped in Basic Gray on Shimmery White cardstock. I reversed masked it and added a few branches from the same set in Kiwi Kiss. It was cut out and adhered over the ribbon with dimensionals.

The butterfly was inked with Baja Breeze. Before stamping it on Shimmery White Cardstock, I added Pacific Point around the edges with a sponge dauber. The butterfly was cut out and placed on the frame with dimensionals. Dazzling Diamond glitter was added with 2 way glue around the edges and over the images inside the butterfly.

The sentiment was stamped in Basic Gray on Shimmery White. Some branches were stamped in second generation Kiwi Kiss over it. The sentiment was punched out with the small oval punch and taped to the bottom right of the tiny card. A Shimmery White flower that had been punched with the Three for You punch was added with dimensionals. A small Ice Circle Rhinestone brad was placed in it’s center.

The inside was layered with a 2 3/8″ x 3 3/8″ piece of Baja Breeze.

The butterfly was stamped in Baja to the top left.

A 2 3/8″ wide strip of Basic Gray was punched with the Eyelet border punch and topped with a strip of Walk in the Park Designer Paper.

The top row was paper pierced.

Have a wonderful Monday! I will be busy baking cookies, dusting, vaccuming, mopping, cleaning bathrooms and doing laundry! A normal Monday at the Johns house.

Today Sharon Harnist is the hostess of the Weekend Sketch Challenge. 

She created this sketch for us.

It was not an easy one for me.

Bev Rousch came over last evening and we tackled this sketch together. We had a lot of fun, although all we did was struggling to finish a card for this sketch.

We both turned the sketch, added a slim strip of designer paper and worked from there.

I started out with my main image.

I stamped the duck from Wagon Full of Fun twice on Watercolor Paper and colored it with So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie and Always Artichoke Marker and Aqua Painter.

I cut the wing out of one image and the entire image from the second stamped image.

The wing was attached to the full image with dimensionals.  The entire image was adhered to a 1 7/8″ x 2 3/8″ piece of Whisper White cardstock. I doodled a border on that before taping it to a scallop rectangle that I had cut out of Artichoke cardstock with rectangle Nestabilities.

The next two layers are a 2 1/2″ x 3″ piece of Parisian Breeze Specialty Paper layered on a 1/4″ bigger piece of Basic Black cardstock. The designer paper was sanded down and paper pierced.

The card base is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Baja Breeze cardstock. The edges were lightened with Whisper White Craft ink.

Next is a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Basic Black cardstock. The Saffron designer paper is from the (way to early retired) Parisian Summer Designer paper, the Artichoke paper is from the new To The Nines Specialty Paper. 

Where both papers meet I added a small strip of Whisper White cardstock that was punched with the Eyelet Border Punch.  White Satin Ribbon was tied above it (Thank you Bev!!!) and two 5/16″ white brads were added to the upper right corner.

The sentiment was stamped in Black Stazon on Whisper White, punched out with the Window Word Punch and taped the the lower left.

Make sure you check the other Friday girls samples:

Cambria Turnbow

Charmaine Ikach

Jennifer Balcer

Laurie Schmidlin

Lori Craig

Mary Jo Albright

Sharon Harnist

Have a wonderful weekend. Hugs and smiles

Monday’s Technique Lover Challenge was to make a Crimped Envelope card. I couldn’t help myself. I had to use Friends 24-7 again. I just love that set. The Damask stamp from that set isn’t leaving my table anymore.

I started out with a card size Kraft envelope. It was taped together and 1 1/4″ were cut off from the top. White Taffeta ribbon was tied around it.

The sentiment is from Pocket Silhouettes. It was stamped in Black Stazon and punched out with the small oval punch. Next the damask stamp was inked with Always Artichoke, stamped off once and then stamped over the sentiment. I added one line of paper piercing under the sentiment before taping it under the ribbon. A small Pink flower from Flower Fusions Too with a vintage brad in it’s center finishes off the “lid”.

That top was first punched with the Eyelet Border Punch, then sponged with Always Arichoke ink.

The big part of the envelope was stamped with the Friends 24-7 Damask stamp in Artichoke. Then I stamped the background stamp Sanded over the entire envelope with Artichoke. Once that was done I ran the big part through the Crimper.

The bird from Friends 24-7 was stamped in Black Stazon on Shimmery White cardstock.

The chest was colored with Aqua Painter and Pink Pirouette.  The damask stamp was inked with Sahara Sand ink, stamped off once and then stamped over the main image. That was cut out with Oval Nestabilities and layered on a sponged Artichoke Scallop Oval Nestabilities cut out. The edges of the white layer were paper pierced and sponged with Sahara Sand ink. Before taping it to the envelope with dimensionals, I added Dazzling Diamond Glitter with Two Way glue.

Two Fusion Too Flowers were added to the left hand side of the oval. The larger one has a Build a Brad with black cardstock in it’s center, the small one a vintage brad. The swirl was cut out of Artichoke cardstock with the Sizzlits Swirls Scribbles.

I kept the insert for the envelope pretty simple, pretty much like an inside for a card.

I started with a 4″ Always Artichoke square, followed by a 1/4″ smaller piece of Kraft cardstock.

The Shimmery White cardstock strip measures 7/8″ x 3 3/4″ and was stamped with the Damask stamp with second generation Sahara Sand. I t was layered on a bigger strip of Always Artichoke. The bottom of that strip had been punched with the Eyelet Border punch.

The back side of the insert is even simpler then the front. I just layered it with a 3 3/4″ square of Kraft cardstock that had been stamped with the Damask in Versamark.

Have a wonderful day! Hugs and smiles

…was one of the VSN challenge weekend before last. It was a tough one. You could pick from three, in my opinion, really tough color challenges. I took the easiest one for me: Regal Rose, Apricot Appeal and Chocolate Chip. It reminds me a lot of Sherbert. So fruity and bright.

I started with a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Apricot Appeal cardstock folded in half.

Three weeks ago Rebecca burst out laughing when she looked into my Apricot paper holder. It had cobwebs on it. When I stamped this card with Jenn, she picked Handsome Hunter in her color combo. Check out what she found in that paper storage in her blog post here. Needless to say she was laughing hard as well.

On top of the card base is a 3 3/4″ Chocolate chip square, followed by a 1/4″ smaller piece of Regal Rose. The corners on that square were punched with the ticket corner punch. That was layered with a 3 1/4″ square of Shimmery White cardstock. The corners were ticket corner punched and the edges were paper pierced.

I stamped the flower from Three Little Words in Chocolate chip on the right hand side of the Shimmery layer. I stamped the flower head again in the same color on a scrap piece of Shimmery White, colored the inside with Regal Rose ink and Aqua Painter, cut it out and adhered it with dimensionals to the main image. The retired Chocolate Satin Ribbon was tied around the bottom of the Chocolate/Rose/White layers.

I stamped the sentiment from the same set in Chocolate Chip on Shimmery White cardstock and cut it out with Oval Nestabilities. It was layered on a slightly bigger Chocolate Chip Scallop oval. The T was colored in with Regal Rose ink and Aqua Painter. Three 1/4″ Regal Rose Circles were taped underneath the sentiment and Vintage brads attached over them. The sentiment was attached to the main card with dimensionals.

 On a side note: WHAT THE HECK happened to my 1/4″ circle punch? WHY is that retired? First All in a Row, now my 1/4″ circle punch…..SU is retiring my favorite staple tools and stamps. I don’t like that!!!

For the inside of the card I repeated the layers of the card front.

I stamped the flower on the bottom of the Shimmery Layer with Regal Rose and stamped the second part of the sentiment in Chocolate chip ink.

Have a wonderful Tuesday! Hugs and smiles

Yesterday’s Featured Stamper on SCS was Kelly_H. She has a great gallery. I thought the featured stamper challenge would be an easy one to get myself back to the challenge chasing mode.

I picked THIS CARD from Kelly to case. I loved the layout and the soft colors she chose for it. I kept those, but changed the set out and added hardware and ribbon.

The card base is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Shimmery White cardstock folded in half. 

Next is a sponged 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Baja Breeze. The bottom had been punched with the Eyelet Border punch (before you cut it down to the 4″ width). The top corners were punched with the ticket corner punch.

The third layer is a 1/4″ smaller piece of Parisian Breeze Designer Paper. It was sanded, distressed, the top corners were ticket corner punched and the edges were paper pierced.

For the main image I started out with a 2″ x 2 1/2″ piece of Shimmery White cardstock. I stamped the bird from Friends 24-7 in it’s center with Baja Breeze.

I inked up the damask from the same set, stamped it off once (or twice, I can’t remember….sorry) before adding it as a background to the image.

The layer was distressed and sponged and layered on a 1/4″ bigger piece of Baja Breeze. That layer had been sponged and distressed as well. Both layers were taped to a 2 1/2″ x 3″ layer of Shimmery White cardstock. The edges of the image layer were paper pierced. The image was adhered to the main card with dimensionals.

I stamped the sentiment on Shimmery White in Baja Breeze, punched it out with the 1 1/4″ circle punch and paper pierced the edges. It was layered on a Designer Label frame from the Styled Silver Hardware Hodgepodge kit that had a sponged Baja Designer Label Punch-out underneath. The right hand side of the label was attached to the card with a brad, the left hand side with White Taffeta Ribbon (I hole was pierced through all layers but the card base and the ribbon was tied through.). To finish the card up, I added two Jumbo Silver Brads on the left hand side of the card.

I kept the inside of the card rather simple.

A 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Baja Breeze was sponged around the edges.

Paper piercing was added to the top left and the bottom edge. White Taffeta ribbon was tied above the pierced border and the damask image was stamped in Baja over the ribbon knot.

Have a wonderful Monday! I am off to do my weekly cleaning. The cookies are already baked and today’s challenge already chased!!! Wohoo!

Hugs and smiles