Sunday, March 1, 2020

Spring Cards

I’m excited to share my third card as a DT at Sheepski Designs! The theme this month is "Die Cuts and Punches." Stop by the challenge at the Sheepski blog to learn more. Maybe you’ll be inspired to enter a card or two yourself and have a chance to win some Sheepski Designs digis!
I chose another of Andrea Norris’ newest gnome digis… that I just love… named Giant Daisies. I looked through my dies and punches and decided to keep things simple this time… at least in the choice of punch I used. (Because, if you have followed my blog, you’ll know that my cards are usually anything but CAS! This card provided lots of happy time fussy-cutting, layering and punching coins from metallic gold paper. But, I do have to admit that the end results provide me with just a “wee bit ‘o joy!”)
The pot that holds the punched coins is from a DDDoodles freebie digi. I enlarged one of the pots to the appropriate size then recolored it with my Word program to grey tones. After fussy-cutting, I added a few additional highlights and bit of shading before loading it up with bling!
Supplies: 
·    Digi- Sheepski (Giant Daisies)
·    Front Sentiment- Freebie from Decosses Dynamite Doodles Doodles (Oh Happy Day)
·    Inside sentiment- Freebie from LoveSVG. (Happy St. Patricks Day)  
·    Pot of Gold Digi- Decosses Dynamite Doodles Freebie (HERE)
·    Colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen
·    Rainbow stationery sheet, metallic paper, and circle punch from my stash.
·    Four Leaf Clover paper- Hobby Lobby
Entered into:  
Outlawz Sunday Challenge- Songs and Rhymes- I’m Looking Over A 4 Leaf Clover              
Di’s Digi Stamps- Show Some Green                                                     
Cute Card Thursday- Challenge #623 Spring Fever
Outlawz Challenge- Festive Fridays                                                       
Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge- March                              
A Perfect Time to Craft 2020-Anything Goes- Challenge #3-2020

My second card was crafted for a very special reason. The Classic Design Challenge is currently running an extra challenge to increase awareness of the devastation that fires are causing in Australia. Stop by this link,  Save Australian Animals Challenge, to read about some of the heroic efforts to save lives of vulnerable wildlife. I’m using a few digis from a new set designed by artist Beccy Muir, who lives in Australia, and who owns Beccy’s Place (where I’m honored to have served as a Guest Designer and now am one of Beccy’s “Contributors”.) I seldom use colored images, but I loved Beccy’s deft coloring of these images so printed the colored versions. I added a few touches of shading and highlighting, because I think our printer ink needs attention, then fussy-cut and attached them to a gate-fold card. Note- Beccy named this set “Warm Fuzzies” (Isn’t that adorable?!)  The delicate rose patterned background papers are treasures from my mom’s stash. After she passed away, I loved going through her many treasures (she was a bit of a packrat, which I also resemble!) and picked out a small box that was falling to pieces. It held a few dozen of these pretty little note cards. I loved the delicate roses and rosebuds plus gold embossing. I think they add the perfect touch to this Mother’s Day card, especially after I fussy-cut a few of the buds and blooms to decorate the sentiment. My know that my mom would have loved it! (Her name was Rose, and she loved fuzzy critters of all shapes and sizes!)
I’m entering this card into several other challenges including Double D’s Hello February Challenge (my card features the sentiment and also roses like the inspiration photo), Bugaboo’s Funky Folds (not sure if a gate-fold is considered funky… but it is one of my favs!), Beccy’s Place (she does create the most amazing, and often realistic,  critters for her digis), and Path of Positivity Challenge (the optional twist is Adoration, which is how I felt about my mom when I was little… and even after I was “all growed up.” She was the kindest most generous person I’ve ever known. I think of her so often and can’t wait until we can, once again, share chatter and her amazing “egg coffee” in her heavenly mansion!
 
Supplies: 
·    Koala digis- Beccy’s Place (Warm Fuzzies)
·    Pre-colored image- I added a few highlights and shading with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen
·    Front Sentiment- scrapbookandcards.com (Hello)
·    Inside sentiment- Computer Generated
·    Vintage note cards from my (mom’s) stash
Entered into:  
Classic Design Challenge- Save Australian Animals Challenge
Double D’s Challenge- Saying Hello             
Crafty Catz Challenge- Anything Goes #495 (Optional twist- Pretty Papers) 
Bugaboo Stamps- Funky Folds     
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge-Anything Goes                                 
2craftycrittercrazies Challenge- March 2020 #36                                 
Beccy’s Place Challenge- March      
Path of Positivity Challenge- Challenge #77 (Optional Twist- Adoration)

My final card features three of my favorite resources. The first FAV is plastic file folders. (These wonderful items come in a pack of assorted colors and can be found in the office supply section of most stores and sometimes dollar stores. They're cheaper than colored vellum and are more translucent.  The plastic is also easy to fussy-cut with a sharp pair of scissors.) The second FAV is an assortment of vintage sheet music. (My hubby's grandmother was a church choir director in the 1940s. After her death, we discovered boxes full of choir books in the attic of her home. Many of the items are dated in the early 1900s, and most were falling apart or already in scraps. However, they work beautifully on cards and are precious to me.) And the third FAV are puffy heart stickers that I stumbled upon at Walmart a few years ago. (The pack contains 113 assorted puffy hearts for just 99 cents!)
I’m entering this card into several challenges including Simon Says Monday (music sheet),  Outlaws TicTacToe (last column- feather, washi tape, and petite flowers. I provided an enlarged image where the feather is more easily seen) and The Butterfly Challenge (I used one color- tea rose and two themes- two birds and two petite butterflies.)
 
  
Supplies: 
·    Birdhouse Image- Embossing Arts Wood-mount stamp (the company is no longer in business)
·    Front Sentiment- Freebie from Paulaposts (Thinking of You)
·    Inside sentiment- Sparkle N Sprinkle- Birdhouse Friends digi set (the company is no longer in business)
·    Colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen
·    Pink dotted washi tape, vintage sheet music, heart scrapbook templates and plastic document folders from my stash
·    Puffy Heart Stickers- Sticko’s from Walmart 
Entered into:  
Simon Says Monday Challenge- Inspired by Music                               
Outlawz Challenges- Tuesday Color Challenge- Tictactoe 
Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #428-429 Anything Goes            
Butterfly Challenge#137 T for Tunnel Card 
     

14 comments:

  1. Wow you are quite busy making these wonderful cards. I love them all, but that one with the koalas was so real looking. I HAD TO take a closer look at it. Thanks for sharing and joining in the fun at Double D Challenge," Hello".
    Barbara DT

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  2. Hi Kathy your cards are gorgeous. I love them all. Take care. Hugs Jackie

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  3. OMG these cards are all just AWESOME Kathy! Thanks so much for joining in the fun at our Double D ‘Hello’ challenge! Good Luck and we hope you’ll come back often.
    Darlene
    DOUBLE D Challenge Blog
    DAR’S CRAFTY CREATIONS Please stop in for a visit!

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  4. Wow, what a great collection of cards Kathy, these are fabulous! The St. Patrick's Day card is adorable, I love the little gnome couple. The pot of gold coins was an awesome idea, I'm sure it would have taken ages to punch and arrange all those little shapes, but it was definitely worth the effort.
    Your second card got me a little teary... it was so lovely to read about your sweet Mom. You've done a really beautiful job creating this card in her memory, it's a wonderful tribute.
    The final card in your post is absolutely beautiful and features some of my favourite things too... the little birds and birdhouse. The colouring is wonderful, I particularly like the contrast with the sheet music background. Having come from your hubby's Grandma makes it that bit more special. Beautiful.
    Cheers,
    Beccy

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  5. What a fabulous collection of creativity, Kathy! How love to have all those memories of your mum and hubby's grandma and to be able to use their stash. Talk about made with love!
    Thanks for playing with us over at The Outlawz Colour Challenge!

    Jacqui
    DT for The Outlawz

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  6. I am loving the way you are using up those music score sheets on your cards. This is delightful. Thankyou for coming and spinning the butterfly wheel again with me. Hugs Mrs A.

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  7. I so love what you did with the gnomes!! :) your other cards are awesome as well <3
    Andrea x

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  8. A fabulous trio of cards and how wonderful to have stash from your mum and husbands grandmother, such fabulous memories to include on your cards, thanks for joining us at Crafty Catz this week x

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  9. Three lovely cards. I love that you used some of your Mum's stash in the card that you entered into our challenge. Thank you for joining the Adoration Challenge at Path Of Positivity.

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  10. You have been a busy girl. Your koala card is so cuddly looking, they are cuties. Thanks for joining us at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies, CarolG

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  11. So cute gnomes card! Thank for playing with us at Di's Digi challenge this week.
    Nathalie DT

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  12. Wonderful creations. Your koala box is adorable. Thanks for joining in the Catch the Bug fancy folds challenge, Lisa Lynn DT.

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  13. Beautiful cards! I can't choose which is my favorite! Thanks for playing along in our fancy folds challenge! I hope you join us again soon.
    Hugs Joy
    Joyfully
    Bugaboo DT

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  14. Very cute card, lovely image. Great Work. Thank you for joining us At A Perfect Time to Craft. Karen Neil DT

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Thanks you for your comments. They bring joy to my day!