Celebrate

CASual Friday challenge (CFC102) is to do a red-white-blue card, so I'm looking forward to the Fourth of July. I love fireworks and our town has a lovely fireworks show every July.

The fireworks are embossed with a glittery white EP (It's called winter wonderland, but here we are going to call it Fireworks Sparkle).  The star is a wooden embellie I colored myself.  I just pressed it into a pad of Colorbox Lipstick Red ink, then layered some paper glaze on it to give it a shine. 

And that shining star makes this the perfect entry it 365 Cards Challenge Day 149, where the Wednesday word  is "shining."

Happy day

I haven't made a card first thing in the morning for a long time, but that's what I did today.  I had been playing around with ideas for Feeling Sketchy #60 and decided to give it a try. 

My original intent was to die cut the butterfly out of the circle and use both the negative and positive in the design, but I couldn't figure out how to make it look good. I know I've seen other people do it, so I'll have to study some pictures and figure out what they are doing that I'm not.

The papers are all from a Cosmos Cricket set, and the stylized flowers go with my stylized butterfly die.  The ribbon is a little sparklier than I first realized, but I'm going to claim that makes the card fun.. I also used some diliberately wonky sewing around the blue panel.  I was going to do a second row and weave the two, but the bobbin starting catching and I didn't have time to try to fix it (again - it's an ongoing issue).

Parties all around

Just sitting here on a rainy Sunday waiting for a bunch of teenage boys to arrive and celebrate my son's 17th birthday. Exactly 17 years ago, it was also a Sunday, but extremely hot and sunny. Seems like yesterday...

While waiting, I discovered that The Alley Way Stamps is having a linky party. Just make a card featuring TAWS stamps and link up by midnight tonight.  Since I just got a set of TAWS stamps and wanted to play with them a little more, why not?

The stamp set is called Delicate Doilies, and the images are so pretty and delicate.  I used the current CAS(E) This Sketch, #28, and was inspired by the colors of the TAWS Be Inspired Challenge (oddly enough, also #28). The central image is stamped in Ranger Slate, clear embossed, fussy cut and popped up.  The other ink I used is from Colorbox and is called Papaya.

Three little stockings

I have to admit, I am a fan of symmetry.  And the sketch this week at 52 (Christmas) Card Throwdown is a study in symmetry, so I pulled out my Christmas card supplies and went to work.

The stamp is by Stampabilities. I inked it in Colorbox Chalk Lipstick Red, and colored it with green pencils. The stamp actually is a line of four stockings, but three fit in the oval I wanted to use, so three it is.  I bought the scalloped border die back in February but have just started using it. I have a bad habit of letting craft supplies get old before I use them.

A friend of my always adds a pierced hole in each scallop and I decided to try it. I kind of like the look, how about you?

Happy Bday, bro

May is a big time for birthdays in my family, so I crank out a lot of birthday cards in the spring. Most of the birthdays belong to guys, so I'm always trying to come up with something that can pass the masculinity test.

Sailboats qualify as masculine, right? Hope so, because this one is for my brother.  It's from an old SU set called Wonderful Woodcuts.  I used the Sunday Sketch from 365 Cards (Day 125).  The papers are all from a Making Memories stack, and I tried to find colored pencils that coordinated pretty well to color the image. 

Metal embellies always seem masculine, so I added a photo turn.

An unusual embellishment

Every once in a while, a challenge just seems tailor-made for a specific card.  This one, for example. Challenge #122 for 365 Cards is called "You Used What???" I used part of a belt.

The belt is made of interlocking loops, and it was simply too long. I realized I could just cut off a couple of the loops without hurting the rest of the belt and get it to a better length for my needs. After snipping off the leather (or probably pleather -- it's from Kohl's), I put them on my craft table.  When I decided to craft a little purse as an embellishment for this purse-themed card, I saw the belt remains laying there. I cut one of the loops and used it as a handle on the tiny handbag.
 
The stamps are from Purple Onion Designs. On the inside it says something like "too many purses, too many shoes or too many awesome friends."  Papers are by Heidi Grace.

The strangest thing I have ever seen used on a card was part of a chicken bone. A woman in a Yahoo group I'm in posted a picture of that card. What's the weirdest thing you've seen on a card?