If the shoe fits....

Happy Friday everyone! Holy crow is it HOT outside! I guess I'll just keep inking up stamps in my craft cave! Here is a card I made today for Unity Stamps Friends with Flair Friday.

and the inside:

No sketch used with this one. I totally winged it and went CAS (clean and simple). This super cute stamp set is an Itty Bitty called "If the shoe fits." I purchased it a while ago, but it never saw ink until today - in every color! I used Marvy Uchida markers to stamp the front panel, and Tsukineko Tuxedo Black for the inside. I used a punch from EK Success on the black card stock and popped the stamped panel up with some foam squares. Easy peasy!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a wonderful weekend and stay cool!

Chris ☺

BOOM!

Hey all! Do you make cards to celebrate July 4th? This will be a first for me, but I liked how it came out!

and the inside:

Here is the sketch once again:

If you've been wondering why I've been using the same sketch this week, it's because Karen Giron is having a design team call on her blog, The Sweetest Thing. This is for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, using sketch #161. Click on the link to check it out and play along!

For my card, I used Echo Park's Dots and Stripes Metropolitan collection. I stamped the star burst  on the red paper with the big polka dots. I wound up a piece of the red striped paper to make a fire cracker, used some white DMC floss for the wick, and added gold glitter to the end to make it appear that it was lit! The stamps I used on the front are from Paper Smooches (star burst and the star) and the inside sentiment is from Hero Arts. I used my scoring tool from Martha Stewart to score the stars and bent them so that they were more dimensional. The kraft panel is embossed with Cuttlebug's star embossing plate. The stickers (BOOM!) on the inside are from Colorbok.

Thanks for stopping by today. Gook luck to all the talented ladies trying out for Karen's design team!

Have a great day!

Chris ☺

Special....

Hi all! Today is another gorgeous day, so this hopefully will be a short post. I just picked up a boat load of flowers and I'm itching to start fixing my planter boxes!

This card I made using the Deconstructed Sketch #57.

the inside:

and the sketch:

Here is a picture of how I cut the decorative edge on the vertical strip of paper:

Of course, after I cut it, I realized it was too short. So this is what I did to make it longer:

It's magic! Wow! LOL! You wouldn't even know unless I told you! I used patterned paper and stickers from Echo Park's Happy Days collection. (Wow, no stamping on this card. That's almost unheard of!)

Glad you stopped by! Have a great rest of your day!

Chris ☺

Live in Color...

Hi all! Today is such a gorgeous day! And what am I doing? Blogging! LOL! I'm taking a time out from reading in my deck chair to post this card. I'm entering this for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #161.

and the inside:

Here is the sketch I used:

As you can see, I flipped it on it's side. As soon as I did that, I knew those flowers were going to be clouds. Can you just see those pennants flapping in the breeze?

The paper is from MME's Ooh La La collection. It's an older line, but still one of my favorites! I used three stamps sets from Paper Smooches: Eco Friendly, Spring Fling, and Simply Said. I inked them using Tsukineko black and for all the colors, I used Marvy Uchida markers.

Now, back to my beach, I mean, deck chair! (Oh I wish I were at the beach right now!)

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great rest of the day!

Chris ☺

So Berry Sweet...

Good Sunday Morning to everyone! It's shaping up to be another gorgeous day here in B-more. I think I'm going to give my dog, Colby, a bath outside today. (Shhh, he doesn't know that yet!) ☺

Isn't he a cutie? He's a Golden Retriever/Chow mix. We had him shaved for the summer - he loves that!

So, right before we left on vacation, the A/C unit pump that pumps the condensation water into our utility tub stopped working, overflowed and drenched part of the new carpeting we just had installed a few months earlier. (can you say 'stressed out'?!) Yep, right before we left for two weeks on vacation. Long story short, the company who installed the unit came out and fixed the pump. They also paid to have my carpets cleaned. My next door neighbor handled the carpet cleaning crew while we were away. (they did a great job) So to thank her, I made a card for her. I'm also entering this for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #161.

and the inside:

Here is the sketch I used:

The dp is from We R Memory Keepers; the stamps from Unity; flowers are Prima and Recollections; brads are from American Crafts. I used Marvy Uchida markers to color the strawberry panel. I changed it up a bit and used ribbon instead of the little banners.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you all have a fabulous rest of the day!

Chris ☺

A birthday card

Hi all. I'm back from vacationing. We took a couple weeks and drove home to Illinois/Wisconsin. We celebrated my Dad's 80th birthday by throwing him a surprise birthday party; we spent a week up in the north-woods of WI to visit with my in-laws fishing, canoeing, pontooning the lakes and just having a great time. Then back down to IL to stay with my parents, helping them out as my Mom is recuperating from surgery to her wrist. We also hung out with family and friends throughout the week. Busy busy busy!!!

I didn't take ANY scrap-booking/card making supplies with me, and as much as I desperately miss my family, I was also excited to get back to my craft cave to start creating again!

This card I made for the current Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge.

the inside.

This was a color challenge and here are the colors:

I used stamps from the Green Acres and Good Gab sets for this card. No patterned paper, all card stock. I embossed the chick and eggs (I cut one of them to look like the chick just hatched from it) and fussy cut them out of card stock. I used a corner rounder from Fiskars on two corners. Stamped the sentiment, used a light purple marker from Marvy Uchida to draw shadows, and popped the panel to the card base with foam squares. Easy peasy! I'm getting more into CAS cards. This one came together within an hour! (normally it's like 2-3!)

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment. I read them all, and they are much appreciated! Have a great evening!

Chris ☺