For the love of butterflies.....

I love butterflies...somehow they are so graceful and gorgeous to look at. They whisper of summer, soft breezes and a quiet, joyful time. You can tell, I'm mesmerized even as I just think about it.

I don't often buy ready-made embellishments...preferring to make my own. But when I saw a pack of these beauties in the store a few months ago, I went for it. I've been hoarding them too, wanting to use them on just the perfect card. Well this is it!!! The colors went together so well and the bottom layer is just gorgeous going from pink to brown to green to blue.  It's one of the favorite embellishments I have ever owned.

Now that I have oohd and aaahd over a store bought butterfly, let me tell you about the rest of the card. The background paper is sort of a vintage paisley that looks like  it's been washed.  The flourishes are sizzix cut with the Cuttlebug and then embossed with a very shiny clear and then clear glitter. This double embossing leaves the flourishes looking very thick, shiny and multi-colored. The sparkle goes from brown to blue and green. And, I have a corner embellishment topped with Stickles on the right.

This card will fit into the Play Date Cafe challenge for scarlet, orange, brown and blue. The top layer of the butterfly has orange on it.
It will also fit for the Crafty Calendar challenge for having bugs on your card. A butterfly is a bug, right?

Thanks for stopping by.
Please come again, and leave me a comment....I love to hear what you have to say.

ttfn
e

JFF & Speedy the Cat and Cuttlebug Challenges

Here's my card:

And this is the inside and the matching envelope.
The card is an "Inchies" card...one of my favorite layouts that I like to go back to. They're fun and there's so many ways of doing them. Hero Arts featured the "Inchies" stamping technique a year or two ago and I got hooked. So I was really tickled to see that Cuttlebug featured the inchies as their focus on their challenge this week.

The card: Just for Fun Color Challenge was for green, pink and white. So I stuck with those colors in different shades. The white cut mat is a Fiskars edge punch...could not line up the corners no matter what I did, but at least I was able to get them even so that it looks like I meant for it to look like that. I need some new edge punches!!! The white flourishes are a Sizzix die cut, using my Cuttlebug...I love that thing....could not work without it! There is a little heart charm on the right side. It is much prettier for real. It did not photograph well.

Again, the Speedy Cat Challenge: (stampinwithmarkiesmom.blogspot.com) is for 3 flowers on your card.
All four of the inchies have flowers on them. I stamped them and then used the Sakura Stardust glitter pens. Those are my absolute favorite pens. I can hardly make a card without using them somewhere!!!!

That's it for today....
Have a WONDERFUL week.
ttfn
e

Caardvarks & Speedy Cat Challenge

Hello everyone....
I have a couple cards for you that I made to coordinate with the "Caardvarks.blogspot.com" and the "Stampinwithmarkiesmom.blogspot.com challenges for this week.
I am always in need of Birthday cards and it's fun to combine those with a challenge. It gives me inspiration and sometimes techniques that maybe I wouldn't think of on my own. I LOVE to try new stuff and hardly ever make the same card twice...although, if there is a layout that I particularly like, I'll use it again, but change things around.

For this card, I used a mustardy yellow Hero Arts stamp for the background. I used the 2nd generation technique so as not to get a clear image...just color.
Next I stamped the flower heads using two different SU colors of blue. I then embossed the flowers with clear glitter. I cut out a double of the flower images and covered the flowers so that the grass stamp would not go through the flowers, but they would remain on top. I HATE doing that....it's so time consuming!!!
Anyway, next I stamped the blades of grass in a moss green.
The butterflies are gold Dazzles over matching blue CS.

Hero Arts background: Misty Swirl
Flowers: Stampin' Up  (don't know the set name)
Blades of Grass: Stampin' Up

So there you have it...it was fun. I really like the colors. Seems summery, and I really, really, REALLY like summer!!!

ttfn
e

A card for my Pastor

I found this card layout on Lynn Mercurio's blog "Stamperosity.com" . I needed a masculine card for my Pastor's Birthday and loved this layout. Thank you, Lynn!

The card background is from a pack I had and the blue leafy stuff is embossed with a slight glittery sheen.

Just enough to add a little sparkle, but pretty subtle.

The letters are chipboard that I colored and embossed to go with the whole background theme.

The red ribbon is a very light see-through type that looked really good. Satin would have been very nice also, but I didn't have the right red.

The navy blue matting just pulls all those colors together.

This will definitely be one of my go-to card layouts.

Be back soon,

ttfn

Some More Great Challenges

Hi everybody....
Lately I have become quite engrossed in all the challenge blogs that have sprung up all over. You can find a challenge for just about any kind of an inspiration you like.

This card fit in nicely with the Just For Fun Color Challenge. The colors were tan, light blue &olive; and that's exactly what I had made for a volunteer in our church library.
Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge was for a male card and I think this works. I think the colors and the bird work well for a man.
The third challenge is for the Stamptacular Sunday challenge. Theirs was a male card also that could be used for Father's Day.

The bird on this card is cut from a punch by Stampin' Up...I love that punch. It is the perfect size and looks great layered or embossed. I use it a LOT!!!
My other favorite thing on this card is the "You make me smile" stamp. I LOVE that statement...
Unfortunately, my stamp is almost ruined...it didn't last very well and I have been searching for a new one something like that. I have not come across one yet. If any of you know where I can buy a "You make me smile" stamp, let know. I just cannot be without one!!!

Thanks for looking,
ttfn
e

Anniversary Card for Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog

Hello Peeps,
I found this challenge blog that I had not seen before. Their theme this week was a wedding or anniversary card and it was perfect for this verse I had found. So I went for it. If you like challenges, take a look at their blog. It looks like it will be fun.

A black and white card seemed to be the right thing for this verse . I'm an old romantic when it comes to poetry and beautiful words that touch the heart. I gave this card to my daughter as a "just because" card because I felt that it spoke of the relationship they have in their marriage.

On to the details: the white cardstock is a swiss dot embossed with the Cuttlebug. The flower oval is done in the black magic technique...which is to stamp the image on black cardstock in white ink. Color the image with watercolor pencils, then outline the edges with a white gel pen. It is a very striking. The colored image looks good, but when you add the white outline, the whole thing just pops! I LOVE the technique.

The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch. I punch out a bunch of them in different colors and then emboss with several layers of clear, some with sparkles, some without. Then I have some on hand whenever I need. Embossing them in clear gives them this iridescent multi colored and thick/rich texture. It's hard to see it here, but this butterfly shows a lot of iridescent purple shine.

Hope you like the card as much as I enjoyed making it. Leave me a comment to let me know you've been here. I'm new at this blogging stuff and I LOVE to get comments!!!

Be back soon,
e

Crazy 4 Challenges & Charisma Cardz

Hey everybody,
This card was made specifically for the two challenges I am entering this in. I am having a hard time getting the link to be linked to the card properly. I am sure it's easy once you've done it correctly once or twice, but as yet I have not been successful....Hopefully, this one will work.

I love this card because it has a clear overlay on it. It's not what I do very often, but I really like it. The transparency is stamped in white Staz-On and then the tiny flowers are embellished with diamond Stickles. I know you can't see that here, but it's just enough glitz to be very pretty. This top layer is adhered to the card underneath the ribbon so that the glue dots are hidden.

The underneath black die-cut has flowers done in the black magic technique. They are stamped in white, colored with watercolor pencils and then outlined with a white gel pen. This is a new technique to me and I LOVE it.

And then the ribbon...I used black satin as the first layer and then pleated the polka dot ribbon on top.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Hope you like it.
I'm off to work today and want to get this posted before I leave.
Come back soon.
ttfn,
e

InLinkz Challenge #1

Here is my boy card for the challenge. It's a tent card so that the cut out circle can dangle easily. My grandson, Eli, is 5 years old and they just got a new puppy...I thought this little rub-on was perfect. I wasn't sure about the colors in the challenge when I first started but they worked really well together and that's the fun part of participating in challenges is that you use colors or designs that maybe you wouldn't normally try.
VERY FUN!!!
By the way, the little poem on the front is the old adage that says, "Snips and snails and puppy dog tails,
that's what little boys are made of..."

Wow!!! Where has the time gone?

I did not realize that I have not posted since the end of April...That doesn't mean I have not made cards...I just have not been able to get them onto the site.And even now, the card that I want to put here just will not cooperate. But I'll keep trying. I'm going to have to find some classes about how to take good pictures of my projects and size them so that they will be accepted by Blogger.

On to the card above:
I love black and white and this color. I also love very simple, elegant designs. BUT I hardly ever make cards that are like this because it always seems like I should be adding "stuff". I don't know if you can tell from the pic...but this card shows really nice in real life. The very soft pink glittery part is just enough to give it wonderful flair. I made this card for a friend whose husband died just a couple of days ago...No card can erase the pain she is going through...only God can heal such an ache. I pray that for her.

Thank you so much for looking,
e