Inspiring cards

Today I have some happy inspiring cards to share with you.  On World Card Making Day I was lucky enough to win a fun card kit from Simon Says.  Since it arrived I have pulled each piece out and touched it, and held it up against the others, showing them all to hubby one by one (boy, is he thrilled LOL!), but just couldn't bring myself to use them.  I am such a hoarder!  Finally, I opened the stamp set and dug out the washi tape and buttons, then found items in my craft room that kind of went with the theme, so that I could save the lovely one of a kind pieces from the kit for a future day {roll eyes here}.

So here are the first three cards:

The colour scheme is based on what they had in the May 2012 card kit  which Simon Says sent me, but slightly substituted.  The main colours are Pool Party, Real Red, and Chocolate.  I've used a Stampin Up digi set in MDS to create the balloons.  The sentiment has been stamped in Versafine in a brown colour called Vintage Sepia.

In the MDS software, you can choose to recolour all or part of an image, so I coloured the baskets chocolate brown, and the other parts the Real Red and Pool Party, so that they would completely coordinate with my paper.

You may notice some shine on the balloons, I printed them on Best settings on photo paper, which came out really well, and then hand cut them.

This last one came out completely crooked, but I figure I'll give it to someone forgiving.  Despite the crookedness, it's still my favourite of the bunch.

So a huge thank you to the folks at Simon Says for all the inspiration they gave me with this stamp kit, even though I'm only using a couple of items directly from it, I have gotten a lot of enjoyment from that card kit.

And on to other news, yesterday I finally ordered a Silhouette cutting machine, after wanting one for over 3 years, I'm so excited!!!  If you have any tips or suggestions for getting started, please share those with me.  I've been madly searching online for tips and tricks (and of course, free cutting files LOL!), and have loaded the software up and experimented a bit.  Now I'm waiting for the post now to bring it to me, sigh!  I'll be thrilled with any suggestions you all have to share with me on what has worked or not worked for you, or sites you'd recommend I'd check out online :-)


I'm entering these cards in the following challenges:

Card Crafters Circle - Patterned Paper
Sentimental Sundays - Dimensions
Hybrid Chicks - National Chocolate Day  (chocolate coloured sentiment and accents)
Pink Gem Challenge Blog - Polka dots
Totally Gorgjuss - Anything with a button
Sweet Pea Stampers - Support

Ho Ho Ho

Ho Ho Ho!  I may not have been all that creative today, but I've been finding some Christmas gifts for myself!  To share with you, are a couple more unposted projects.  Plus I found a long forgotten stash of charms, dimensionals and double sided tape in my craft room, yay!

So here is yet another unposted project, this one from a couple of years ago, don't know why I never posted it for you, but here you go, I hope it inspires some fun holiday decorating:  

The cute birdhouse was made using a template I found it here.  I cut it out of Kraft paper, and sprayed the box with Walnut Gold Tattered Angels glimmer spray.  The bird is a Heartfelt Creations stamp, that was coloured with Copics then cut out with a coordinating die cut.  I made the decoration over the "door" by stamping an HC image, colouring it, adding glossy accents as well as 3 rhinestones.  I cut the roof using green coordinations paper, embossed it, then sanded it. 

Next, a super quick and easy card:

Here I used an SU digi set, printed it, cut out with A2 Card Creator dies, and added some airbrushing.  Easy peasy!

We'll see what tomorrow brings, hopefully some really fabulous fresh creations....(either that or cleaning the kitchen, hmm.....)

She's all that - Birthdays

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, and for those of you in Canada  great Thanksgiving.

I've updated my blogger background, what do you think?  Have any of you changed your blogger templates lately and have suggestions?  Also, if any of you have trouble leaving comments or viewing my blog, please send me an email, which is available in my blogger profile.

Below I've got some cards and entering them in some challenges, one more complicated than the rest,
here are the first couple, going with a simple colour scheme of just the black, white and cameo coral.  The fancy edges are made using the A2 Card Creator dies and the one uses an old cuttlebug embossing folder that I thought tied in well.  The cake is coloured brown and the candle has a yellow flame and there are a few bit of other coloured items too.

The one on the right I am entering in Flourishes challenge for World Card Making day to focus on the 5 senses.  For me, the sight of the girl carrying the cake makes me think of our family birthday parties, and as soon as the person walks out of the kitchen carrying the lighted cake, we all start singing happy birthday (hearing), it always smells sweet (here chocolaty) and then we get to eat it--yum! (smell and taste), I used a textured embossing folder for the candles, which make me think of heat (feel), and my eye is drawn by the little bit of colour incorporated in to the image (sight).

The next couple are more colourful, one of them using some very busy DP that has been collecting dust, combined with an embossing folder again, and the other uses an old background stamp.

I am entering the following challenges with these cards:

Flourishes, World Card Making Day 5 senses (see explanation above, after the first photo)

By the Cute and Girly - Birthday

Fab & Funky - No DP (all of these would qualify except for the second to last one)

Sentimental Sundays - Anything goes

De Creative Zebra - Anything goes

You look fabulous

I recently upgraded my MDS software to MDS2 and have to say I am LOVING it, not just for use with my SU digis, but other digis as well.  The coolest feature is that you can recolour pieces of the image or the whole image.  Here are a couple of examples featuring one of the images from She's All That.

As you can see, I was able to colour the sentiment, handbag, necklace and shoes to be the same colour as my card stock.  It was super easy to print that, and then I simply layered it using the card creator dies and the stamped image of the medallion in the corner to create a background to dress it up.

 

This second one was even easier, using the A2 Card Creator dies and the digi, it was a very quick card to make and came out lovely.  These are two cards I will be proud to gift.

I am entering the top card in the following challenge:

http://www.lovesrubberstampschallenges.com/ - create your own background

Wedding congrats

The weekend is here again, and I hope you all have some fun plans (and time to play and be inky!).  It is sunny here, and I should be out in the yard doing fall maintenance, but I think I just may just do some crafty stuff inside, hubby is very forgiving!

Here's another of the cards I made using the SU digi Wedding Wheels.  I made 12 cards in one day and this was hubby's favourite.  It is such a fun image!  This was another super quick and easy card to make and is decorated with some edging from the fabric store.  I sure am loving these new A2 card creator dies which I used to cut the fancy edge layer as well as cut and emboss the main layer.

Wedding wheels

I had a fun "inky" day today, though I barely touched any ink.  Today I enjoyed using a bunch of digi's including some from SU....the first time I have used the SU digis, and they worked just fine.

While I don't like the MDS software, I found I can use the SU digital images from MDS using Powerpoint as I do with my other digis, since they are available in PNG format.  You just have to dig through your file drive to find the images.  I love this image called Wedding Wheels, it is just so happy and a nice break from colouring.  Here I paired it up with the new A2 Card Creator dies from Spellbinders.