June Challenge

I have my "stuff" together...finally and I pleased to share with you the June Challenge cards.

Just to refresh your memory, this was the sketch Cassie chose for our challenge card but she stipulated that the cards must have blue on it. Cassie loves blue!



Lauralee really had fun with this challenge and sent 3 cards for the challenge.







These 2 cards cards are quite simliar. The flourishes Lauralee used are so beautiful. The hearts are flaps that contain sentiments and are topped with Lauralee's favourite MS butterfly punch, which are stamped and embellished with pearls.

For her last card, she took a slightly different path but still has all the elements.



This card contains a sassy sentiment that is perfect for the cover of the card. And who doesn't love puppies?

Below is the card Donna created. She stamped a Rosewood stamp (K20 Hearts & Flowers) in blue, cut off the top flourish and coloured the flowers. She stamped a flourish on the background and ran it through CB Swiss dots. She popped the stamped image over the flourish and tucked a MS punched butterfly underneath. A beautiful piece of ribbon, completed the challenge.



Darlene's card (below)has a entirely unique take on the challenge. The sarcophagus is a Cricuit cartridge and the coins I suspect are left over from one of her belly dancing costumes. Darlene has stamped and embossed a gold flourish on the base card and layered the cricuit die on top. She also added the ribbon element from the original sketch.



Tomorrow (hopefully) I will get the rest of the cards from the June challenge posted. I will also check to see if I have better information about the what stamps the ladies used in their cards.

Lauralee's May Challenge Card

You may recall that Lauralee's challenge was a tone on tone card. She made a stunning white card that was extremely challenging to photograph. I did manage to get a couple of photos that show just how beautiful that card is. Lauralee posted instructions for this card on her blog HERE.

This photo has a large shadow but really highlights the number of different butterflies and techniques Lauralee used to make this card. (Double click on the photo to make it larger.)




I cut off the bottom of the card in this photo but no matter. You will be able to see exactly how white this card is.




The white on white is a challenge I'm not sure I am quite ready to tackle, but I do have friends getting married this weekend. Just maybe......

May Challenge - Continued.

Jacqui's May card creation is first up today. Jacqui made good use of her Cricuit to make this shades of pink card. She stamped the Rosewood Calla Lillies in a a pale pink to make an all over background on her base card. The shaped elements are all Cricuit and the cute little bunnies are popped into the medallion. NOTE: the "m's" on the bottom of Jacqui's card are part of the frog I used to hold the card and are not part of her design. I do like the look though but not for her card.

For my challenge card, green chose me. I intended to make a blue card but somehow green spoke to me for this challenge. The base card is stamped with an old Magenta stamp. (I just can't get past a plain base card. It just looks naked.) I found some old tags, sponged them green inks to create the medallion. The sentiment is Obsession Impression and Distress Stickles Peeled Paint was added to highlight the oval. I distressed the edge of the designer paper with Memories Soft Leaf. I cut the bracket from Tim Holtz Hanging Sign diecut and trimmed it to fit the card then sprayed the brackets with Smooch Vanilla Shimmer.

And now for our May challenge mistress. Lauralee had two cards in mind with the challenge and sent them both for us to see. Since Lauralee has already posted how she made her cards on her blog. I will send you to her blog to get the instructions.



This is the worst photo of Lauralee's butterflies in flight. White is so hard to really photograph well for an amateur photographer such as myself. I intend to try again this afternoon when the sunshine isn't so bright and hopefully I can get a pic that will do her card justice. The instructions for this card are lengthy but not complicated and again I am sending you to Lauralee's blog

These card challenges are so much fun and really do stretch the creative limits. Cassie has chosen June's Challenge which I will share later.

Butterflies In Resist

Today I have the last of the cards Lauralee did for Kitchener. These cards use a resist technique that can be adapted a number of different ways but still get the same gorgeous look.

Here are the cards:



And here are Lauralee's instructions in her words but cleaned up a bit:


Use up any ugly scrap designer paper (you don’t see much of it as the design shows up very faintly so it’s a great chance to use that butt-ugly stuff you have tucked away – come ‘on, I know you have some too!!!) (Using a magazine page works great for this too)

Stamp Rosewood Music Background on the butt ugly designer paper(BUDP) with black ink – clear emboss.

Using Versmark ink, stamp the butterflies randomly on top of the music note and clear emboss (Inkadinkadoo stamp – Donna gave it to me and I gave it back to her since she couldn’t find it again to reorder. I found it in clear rubber with a bunch of other butterfly images and cut mine up so I had six single butterflies instead of one long stream of them all attached. I’m such a rebel!)

I took Distress Ink – Broken China and rubbed it all over the top, paying special attention to the sides so the edges were darker. The green was shabby shutters but was too light and you can’t make out the outline of the butterflies.

Take a Kleenex and rub off the butterflies as they will have Broken China ink on them. They will buff up nicely.

I used black bazzill paper as the background layer.

I used a smaller piece of BUDP and a Nestabilities for greeting – edged the sides with ink and then stamped the sentiment on it (I think it’s from Stampin Up). Then the tricky part – I laid the whole small label in the versamark pad and covered the whole label with versamark ink. Then I clear embossed the whole thing – it makes it really shiny and stiff. Backed it with another bazzill piece that I ran through the bigger Nestability die.

I stamped a small scrap of white paper with the music note stamp and clear embossed it. Then I used the Martha Stewart butterfly punch (LOVE LOVE IT!). Inked little butterfly with the Distress ink and put two little rhinestones on it

Distressed the edges of the music note panel and card stock base with the Distress Tool.

DONE! Phew!! That was too much work.

Thank you again to Lauralee for helping Tom & Rose-Marie at the Kitchener show and for allowing me to post all of her beautiful cards. Check out Lauralee's blog here. She always got something entertaining to share.

Barn Board Not Just a Background

Rosewood Barnboard is featured in these cards from Lauralee.



So I lied, Barnboard makes a great background. Lauralee stamped with brown Distress Inks and quickly dipped the image in clear embossing powder. The Rosewood Daisy Head was stamped and embossed in white on scrap white. Gold glitter glue as added to create the flower centres. The leaves (sorry stamp unknown) was stamped with green distress inks and embossed with clear on scrap. Both the flower and the leaves were then cut and attached to the card. Unknown sentiment, stamped directly on the Barnboard image.



Lauralee created a gorgeous background technique by cutting the stamped Barnboard into strips and then attaching them to a base card either as "shakes" or board, as shown here....



I think the butterfly is a digital image from Hero Arts...beautiful! The "boards" are attached with brads. The Rosewood Friend is on the card in the foreground. A decorative edge was punched, a bit of ribbon and the card is done. Donna told me how Lauralee got the embossing just on the tips of the butterfly wings but I have completely forgotten. I will get in touch with Lauralee next week to find out.

UPDATE - Lauralee posted instructions for these cards on her blog. Making those butterfly wings pop is really a simple technique

More Rosewood

These 2 cards are more from Lauralee's creative endeavours for ScrapFest Kitchener. These use the Rosewood Chicken Wire stamp. In the first card, Lauralee stamped the Rosewood Ivy & Flower. Then she stamped and embossed the Chicken Wire in silver. Some twine and a metal tag finish the really lovely card.




This card is one of my personal favourites. I have always liked the Larry stamps and Lauralee created a really funny card using Rosewood Hello Larry. She created the hole by masking a central point in card. The Chicken Wire was stamped and embossed. Distress Inks were used to dragged across the bottom to create the barn floor. The side panels are scrap strips of brown, run through an embossing folder for texture. Rosewood Hello Larry was stamped on a scrap piece, coloured, cut and popped onto the base card. Lauralee chose to trim off Larry's arm for this card. And Larry's escape is complete.

Today's Flower - Daisy

The Rosewood Daisy Head is a cute little stamp that can be used a number of different ways. Lauralee created these cards to demonstrate the versatility of the stamp.

This card shows the image stamped across the bottom of the card. Coloured and trimmed to create a decorative edge. Lauralee then scored the card just above the stamped images and slightly below the fold for dimension. I believe the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Gems and ribbon were added to complete the card.




This card uses the Rosewood Daisy Head and Wildflowers to create the central image. The Daisy Head was stamped and embossed in white and inked to add colour. The images were cut out and gems added. The Wildflowers were stamped with 2 colours of green for interest. The pool of green at the bottom of the Wildflower image anchors the image on the card. The Daisy Heads were added and the card was distress with a soft yellow ink. I don't know who this sentiment is from.



The card with the orange ribbon shows a similar technique the to first card I've shown. The card on the right shows the Daisy Head stamped in lines across the card; coloured and a black gems added to finish. I don't know who this sentiment if from either. Lauralee uses a corner rounder on many of her cards. It adds a little something from the traditional square cards. A wrap of black ribbon and you are done.



I have also used the Daisy Head to create an all over background with a soft coloured ink.

A Few Last Dandelions

These are the last few cards that Lauralee created with the Rosewood Dandelion.

This first card has the dandelions stamped and embossed with white. Yellow ink was added to highlight the stamped imaged. I believe the sentiment is Hero Arts stamped in red. The corners were rounded and the stamped images were layered onto red cardstock. A couple of red brad and a wrap of red ribbon complete this beautiful card.



Close-up of same card. This photo really shows how much the addition of the yellow makes the dandelions pop off the card.



This card is so elegant. The dandelion was stamped and embossed in white. A scrap piece of white cardstock was punched to create an scallop edged layer. The addition of the red ribbon creates a classic layout. Sorry, once again I don't know who the sentiment is from.




Next post....daisies

More Dandelions

These cards by Lauralee are slightly different than the ones I shared here in the previous post. It does however show the versatility of the Rosewood Dandelion stamp.



The image was stamped and embossed in white on the reverse side of the vellum and highlighted with white ink. I don't know who the sentiment is from but it also is stamped and embossed in white. The vellum was layered onto the base card and some sewing store pearls added to accent the corners.



For this card, Lauralee stamped and embossed the image in white on the base card. She layered a piece of vellum over the stamped images and wrapped it with coordinating ribbon. A very simple yet elegant card.



These 2 cards show similar layouts to today's cards and yesterday's cards. The green card is stamped and embossed on the reverse of the acetate (both images are Rosewood stamps). A bit of coordinating ribbon and you are done. The blue card uses the same technique as the red (pink?) card above. The scarf yarn adds a nice fluffy look to the card. The faux stitching was created with a white Uniball pen. Sorry I don't know the origin of the sentiment of this card either.

A New Blogger

The most talented Lauralee has taken a leap of faith and created her own blog. She is just getting started but stop by and take a look here. The timing for the launch of Lauralee's blog is perfect. She sent Donna an album full of her samples from the Kitchener show that I will be sharing with you over the next few posts.

Lauralee was kind enough to help out Tom & Donna while they were in Kitchener. In Lauralee's conversations with Rose-Marie, Rose-Marie asked to her to create cards that would showcase the Rosewood Dandelion stamp. These are just the beginning of what she created.



The dandelion was stamped and embossed on acetate and the image was mirrored on the base card in a plum ink. The sentiment is also a Rosewood stamp that Lauralee has purchased as a cling mount and cut apart to make 2 images. A coordinating ribbon was added to complete the card.




This is basically the same card but she chose not to add the mirrored image on the base of the card.

April Challenge Cards

The April Challenge was selected by Darlene this month shown here.
These sketches are really challenging for us.

Barb asked if she could join our challenges and this is the card she created. Barb has a Cricuit and used it to cut the images as well as the word "love" which she cut and layered to give dimension. My photo really doesn't do Barb's card justice.



It was Jess' turn to participate in the challenge this month and she made this rather quick card. The bows are from dollar store hair ribbons as is the bling. The sentiment is Inkadinkadoo stamped on a Spellbinder tag which was popped onto the base card.



Laurilee's card was beautiful as always, although she said this challenge was really difficult for her. She cut the 3 scalloped circles with a punch and ran it through Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and layered onto some gorgeous Bo Bunny paper. Then she used the Martha Stewart butterfly (her favourite punch all time the note says) from the same paper and added glitter. Co-ordinating ribbon was attached under the punched strip. The tag is a Nestibility stamped with a sentiment from Papertrey Ink and edged with Martha Steward pink ink. Laurilee always send great instructions with her cards.





The front of my card was embossed with the Sizzix Floral Flourish folder. The images from Inkadinkadoo Round Frames set were stamped 6 times; one set was cut out and popped over the bottom 3 images. The edges dragged with Memories Midnight blue and layered onto blue cardstock.



Darlene's card this month is quite different from her previous cards. The images are cut from her Cricuit and embossed with gold. She also embossed the edges of the green paper she used underneath the images. The stamped sentiment is Rosewood stamps also embossed in gold. Darlene used the most interesting wood grained paper layered onto her white base card. I will have to ask her exactly how she did the embossing on this card when I see her next.



The card Donna finally settled on turned out beautifully. She cut the butterflies from a Spellbinder Shapeability. She layered them onto the brown ribbon and added dollar store bling. The sentiment is Hero Arts.



Cassie decided she wanted to make this challenge as well. Her card made use of a Martha Stewart edge punch and a Spellbinder Nestibility Scalloped Cicle. She alternated the circles over a piece of ribbon and added a sticker to the centre circle.



I guess I will have to show the results of next month challenge brought to us by Laurilee in 2 posts next month. If you would like to join our challenge, let me know and I will let you know where to send your images. I will post the May challenge tomorrow.

March Card Challenge

I chose this sketch for our March card challenge and as I said in my previous post, Donna & I found it more challenging than we thought it would be to follow a sketch.



Cassie joined our card challenge this month and her card used some beautiful paper that has a hand-made look. A Nestibility die was used for the layered medallion. She added a bit of bright ribbon, dollar store paper flowers and a gem to finish her card. Cassie did realize she had cut her smaller squares a bit too small and remade her card but gave it away before I could get a copy.



Donna's card features a cute stamped puppy from Inkadinkadoo. The puppy is layered onto Nestibility frames. She then added a beautiful ribbon and some doggie themed brads to complete the layout.




I tried hard to avoid the black & white featured in the sketch but in the end just couldn't resist. There is a sentiment stamped on the Nestibility frame but it is simply the wrong colour and I will restamp in a darker colour. I added some dollar store paper flowers with gem centres and a piece of ribbon.



Darlene used her Fiskars Shapeboss to add dimension to her card. The flowers and film strip are dry embossed and glittered. She used her Cricuit to cut the tag and stamped the lady on the tag. Darlene chose to round the corners of her upper squares and managed to create a perfect copy of the sketch in an A2 size. On the inside of the card she has stamped "Out of the way of a woman working." and unfortunately I don't know who makes that stamp.



And once again Lauri has created a stunning card. Lauri has used inks from Stampin' Up to create a perfectly coordinated card. The grass stamp is from Stampin' Up and she didn't mention where the sentiment stamp is from. The sentiment is layered onto blue cardstock, roughed up with a distressing tool and the edges softened with dark blue ink. Lauri created a large stamped image that she cut to replicated the sketch.





Darlene has chosen this month's challenge. Since she enjoyed the sketch challenge we will be making our cards based on this sketch for April.

Card Challenges

Donna & I have talked for awhile about getting together for what we call play days. During the winter months we decided to meet at the store with our friend Darlene to make cards and generally chat about where ever our conversations lead us. One thing for sure there is always lots of laughter. The idea of a card challenge was born one night while Donna was talking to her cousin, Lauri. Unfortunately Lauri lives much too far from us to join us on play day but she always sends a card to Donna for our challenges. Donna chose our first challenge of red and white cards in honour of Valentine's day.



My card relied heavily on some gorgeous paper that looks handmade. The sentiment is a Cuttlebug die. The scalloped layering elements are Nestibility dies. The all over background is Hero Arts, Four Leaf Grid.



Lauri's card blew us away. She stamped the flowers on vellum and added a bit of colour to the reverse for interest. The Nestibility tag is stamped, distressed and attached with a leather strapping. The beauiful silver charm was the perfect finishing touch. (Sorry Lauri I misplaced your notes on the stamps used for this card)



Donna is an animal lover and she has always been fond of these Rosewood Teddies. She added black gems for the eyes and nose. She then added red flock to the pads of their feets. The red layering piece has been run through the Cuttlebug folder, Heart Blocks. The sentiment is Rosewood.



Darlene is a glitter girl. The double heart is a Rosewood stamp. The "ink well"(upper left), "just a note"(lower right), "hi there" and the centre band are all Cuttlebug folders. The raised parts of the Cuttlebug embossed images are hit with glue and embellished with glitter. Darlene's card is a gate fold of sorts, "hi there" creates a tab to open the card.


It was a lot of fun to see how everyone interpreted the requirements of the challenge. For March Liz chose a card sketch, seen here. As soon as Donna gets Lauri's card, I will show you the cards we came up with.