Challenge: Companion #2 Create a Recycled Project

I got super excited when I saw the theme for Crafting with Cristina's second Companion Challenge - RECYCLED! Since I am currently visiting in Saskatchewan and away from my crafting I thought I wouldn't be able to do any challenges this week. However, I purchased a magazine for the trip and when I saw the theme for this challenge I figured - hey, why not use the colourful pages of a magazine in a card? I've also been wanting to try making a German paper star (Froebel Stern). So, with a little help from Free Craft Ideas, some glue stick and a new Martha Stewart punch I bought with a 40% off coupon at Micheal's I was able to make this super colourful card. All the paper you see is from the same magazine. I found a page for pool exercises (hence the blue water) and a clinique advertisement that had two large green apples that make up the green paper you see. Even the sentiment is from an advertisement for ice cream :) I had a lot of fun making this card! Thanks Cristina for the inspiration & great theme! I've also included some pictures of the first froebel stern I made. This one is in 3-D unlike the green one on the card.

Blog Candy

Hi all - There are some wonderful women celebrating their birthdays with blog candy. has some major blog candy for her birthday, you should check it out :)

Jodi at Inked Inspiration

Tanya at Obsessed & Crazy Momma

Challenge: Throwback Thursday Birthday Celebrations

Emma over at My Creative Time currently has another Throwback Thursday Challenge to make a birthday themed project using "Celebrations" or an old cartridge. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to create a card for my great uncle in Germany as my whole family missed his 70th birthday (yes, I know, we are horrible)! Since I don't have "Celebrations" I used "Zoobaloo" to make the thought bubble (actually a cloud) and MTC to make the sleeping kitty and Microsoft publisher to write the sentiment (in English it reads: Happy Belated Birthday) for this German card. On the inside of the card I wrote (in German): While we were also sleeping, we missed your birthday (it sounds more eloquent in German :). The kitty took me a long time as I converted a clipart svg file into layers. I was originally skeptical about the layering of the pillow, but am quite happy with the results!

Challenge: Card from a Sketch V

Hi all. A Crafty Little Place is having another card from a sketch challenge this week. This time it's a vintage design.

I had some fun with this oval shape and the card layout, taking some "creative license" with the sketch. And I must say, I am quite smitten with this cute little hippo that I created in MTC :)

Challenge: Girly Affair

It's that time again - Tuesday Challenges with Momo. This week she has chosen a super fun theme - "super girly"! I was very excited to make a girly card using lots of pink (and my favourite - green)! I love pink and green together :) This is why I decided to make a little froggy for this card (possible a prince in disguise?). Unfortunately I don't have any little animal punny stamps (yet), so I just went simple with "hello" and added some green bling for his eyes (what could be more girly?). Hope you like it.

Challenge: Flower Power

It's time for more challenges! I found a fun one over at Paper Playtime. They have a challenge every Monday and this is their first sponsored challenge. For this challenge we were to create any kind of paper project inspired by the following theme:

Alongside butterflies and owls, flowers are one of my faves! That being said, it took a while for me to narrow down what I wanted to do for this challenge, and ultimately I decided it would be a great chance to try making a paper flower bow that I learned about on Tammy's YouTube channel. I used the swiss dots cuttlebug folder on the bottom and left the top blank, ready for a sentiment when the time comes. Hope you like it!

Basic Ribbon Ingredients:

4 strips of cardstock at 1" x 8
button
needle
thread

Instructions:

• Loop each of your strips individually and adhere them together where they overlap.
• Bend each loop in half (avoid creasing the ends - you want to keep them rounded as the petals of the flower) with the overlapped part at the bottom center.
• Place two loops on top of each other making an "X" shape. Repeat with remaining two loops and then combine to get the shape below (so that no loop is directly over top of another loop.
• Thread your needle and tie a good knot in the end. Poke your needle through the center of the bottom of the loop stack, making sure to go through each piece of paper.
• Once you've poked the needle through the center of the top thread it through your button and then back down through the loop stack.
• Tie the thread in a good knot again at the bottom of the loop stack (should now have two good knots at the bottom and a button on the top.
• You should now have a simple paper flower bow :)
• To create a larger flower, add more strips - each set of four should be increasingly larger than the first set (usually by 1 inch).
• I then cut out a flower on my Cricut (using MTC) at 2 inches to place underneath the paper flower.

 

Challenge: Card from a Sketch IV

Wow - it's been a whole week since I've posted! I'm currently in the prairies visiting my husband and don't have as much time to play. This week's challenge at A Crafty Little Place's  was inspired by a childhood window.

I thought I would try to mimic the layers and geometry as much as possible and this is what I came up with. Interestingly enough I didn't use my cricut at all to make the card - just a stamp set I got at Micheal's.

I feel like it still needs a little something, ribbon maybe? In retrospect, it would have been cool to do a trifold or have each "window" open to reveal an image or message -an idea for next time!

Challenge: What Love Means to Me

I feel like I'm going challenge crazy lately, but I am definitely enjoying it - plus they help occupy my mind while my husband is away! This challenge is one of Momo's Tuesday Challenges over at her blog Made by Momo. For this challenge we are to make a project of what "Love" means to us. We could do a "Love" themed card or layout for the challenge. I thought about what I wanted to do and had difficulty narrowing it down. I am currently procrastinating my wedding album by making cards and thought this challenge would be a good way to kick start that project back up - but then I remembered that my parent's anniversary is coming up. PLUS I've been wanting to try a triangle trifold card (which I learned from Crafting with Christina) for a while and thought this would be a nice time to try. So, long story short, I'm still procrastinating my wedding album . . .

Challenge: Tuesday Morning Sketches' First Birthday

Tuesday Morning Sketches is having it's First Birthday celebrations this month! This will be my first entry for their challenges and I'm quite excited. As it is it's birthday, the challenge is to choose a different past sketch each week. There are 52 sketches to choose from! Well, I narrowed it down to Sketch #2

 I'm surprised - I actually didn't use my cricut to make this card! I used an old punch that I had gotten to make my wedding album with (long before the days of cricut) and some really pretty paper that came in a "Girl" designer pack that I had won through a bet with my husband!

Challenge: Card from a Sketch III

A Crafty Little Place is having another Card from a Sketch Challenge this week. Here is my entry below - as it is summer I am drawn to making butterflies and flowers :)

Challenge: Favourite Summer Vacation Destination

The Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge this week is to create a card based on our favourite summer vacation destination. We were also to include oneo fo the three "B"s: Buttons, Brads or Bling. Well, in the summer I can't think of anywhere better to be than here - whether I'm at the lake, camping or gardening, I'm happy to stay in Canada (it's during the Winter that I dream of Mexico and Hawaii)! So, as we just celebrated Canada's birthday on July 1st, I thought it would be fitting to make a card dedicated to my country.

Late Night Owl Card Sets

Oh my goodness. I have been burning the midnight oil making these owl cards... I just can't seem to stop! I was inspired by a video Momo made for her blog hop (a few months ago). This inspiration blew out of proportion and 19 cards later I have more than enough owls to make some card sets out of!

Challenge: Orange "Creepy Crawlers"

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted! Thankfully marking is all finished so I can relax - I've been dying to kick back and watch a movie :)

Here is a card I made for Fantabulous Cricut's Challenge Me Monday #17 - we were to create a project using any type of bug and the colour orange. I've been wanting to make a butterfly card with some sparkly flower paper for a while, so thought this would be a good opportunity.

While I was making this card I made a few butterflies and had more of the flower paper so I made a second card as well. I think I like the green background better, but I do like the shadows and the blue scallop on the second card.

Challenge: Throwback Thursday "New Arrival"

Emma over at My Creative Time currently has a Throwback Thursday Challenge to make something for baby using "New Arrival" or an old cartridge. Since I don't have "New Arrival" I used "Home Décor" to make the scallops and MTC to make the elephant and pregnant woman for this baby shower card. I specifically used yellow and green so it would be gender neutral :) for a friend of mine who is about to pop!

Challenge: My Pink Stamper Colour

My Pink Stamper also had a colour challenge this week, but this one was pink, brown, orange, and green. Of course there is the cute birdy that I can't seem to get enough of since I made him using MTC. I'm hoping to make more Just Because cards this summer, but I know that I should probably start on Christmas stuff soon!

Challenge: Colour Me DeLovely

Here is a card I made for A Crafty Little Place's Challenge #45. This was a colour challenge in which we had to incorporate pink, green and blue. I also through in some yellow :). I used MTC to create the little owl - I think I'm on a bird kick - I can't seem to make cards with anything else lately.