Birthdays, Butterflies, and Bows - And a Custom Touch

I had so much fun making this card! The inspiration for it came from 3 different card challenge blogs (one of which was closed even when I started the project!), and I'm super pleased with the result:

I just LOVE the quick-and-easy customization "trick" I learned at the SU Regional I went to last month: insert a piece of DSP into the envelop for an instant "luxury" look! So simple, but the effect is fantastic.

As I said, this card was inspired by several fun sources. The layout for this card came from Freshly Made Sketches (FMS86). 

The touch of butterflies came from SUO Challenges #70. When I saw that SUO was all about butterflies, you know I was so totally all over that! Haha. I love me some butterflies.  :)

And the birthday theme came from a fun tic-tac-toe challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays in celebration of their 100th challenge! Hooray! These challenges are always a lot of fun.

Fusion Challenge and My FIRST My Digital Studio!

Hello again! I hope you all enjoyed the fun May Day Blog Hop we had last week! If you missed it, click here to start hopping.

This week, I've tackled TWO new things in one project! It was a little overwhelming and scary for me to take on that much "new" all at once, but I'm pretty proud of myself in the end. As silly as it sounds, even though I've been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator for nearly 3 years -- and even though My Digital Studio (our digital crafting software) is only $20 -- until this week, I'd never actually created ANYTHING in My Digital Studio! I know, it's ridiculous. But I've now righted that wrong!

And so I present: My very first MDS creation! Made entirely in the FREE TRIAL of My Digital Studio!

I made this card for the Fusion Card Challenge, which is a relatively new stamp challenge blog with a fun concept. The designers give you a sketch and an inspiration photo; you can use either -- or both! -- in your creation. This was their Fusion #5. I was inspired by the photo, so I pulled its colors into the card (made with their layout, too). I'm pretty happy with it.

As I mentioned before, this was made entirely with the free trial of MDS. I didn't buy/download any stamps or accessories or anything. And it was made from scratch, not from a template (but that's another fantastic option, too).

May Day Blog Hop! (And SUO 69!)

Welcome to our May Day Blog Hop! Take a hop through and see all of the fun May Day projects we've come up with for you. As always, please hop all the way through. Comments and pins are always appreciated. Enjoy!

Today, I wanted to show off one of my FAVORITE new stamp sets. You'll get to see this gorgeous set in the upcoming catalog, and I just can't wait until all of you can use it with me! To me, May means birthdays. My family has at least 6 birthdays in May, and so I wanted to create fun, happy, special cards with specific people in mind. So here's what I've come up with.

I made this 3x3 card last, but it's absolutely my favorite! I love how you can create
your own "DSP" look in the background by lining up the stamps!

Since these adorable little 3x3 cards can't be mailed, this mosaic card is for one of my dear friends here in the Provo area. It's such a perfect little pick-me-up card! The students here at BYU have just finished finals, so I think I'll send this as a "Welcome to summer!" note for a friend.


This next one might be my favorite. It's so hard to choose, though -- it's like picking a favorite kid!

This one was CASE'd from a card by Illina Crouse,
and I'm totally in love with the details of it! 

"Today calls for something pink with sprinkles on top!" The saying on this card absolutely, positively reminded me of one person in particular - my old roommate and best friend, April. She LOVES everything pink and sparkly! Which is just fantastic, since she's expecting a little baby girl this summer! This may just turn out to be her baby shower card. (But shhh! Don't tell her!)

If the SUO Challenge I entered (see below for details) only lets me enter one card, it's this one! It's my favorite of the three -- if I really, really had to choose.



Next up, a colorful variation!

This one was a total mess until my dear husband suggested the
dimensional gray flowers at the bottom. Perfect touch!!

And this card is most likely destined to be a thank-you card for a friend of mine. I have so many great friends to be thankful for, so it's going to be hard to choose! I guess I'll just have to make more!

Card Details:

All of these cards were made with the Mosaic Madness stamp set, the coordinating punch and Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, and just a few colors - Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink, Silver Glimmer Paper (or embossing powder), and Very Vanilla.

Since 2 of the 3 cards I made used the Textured Impressions Embossing Folder for the Big Shot (both Sizzix products, sold by SU), I've decided to enter these cards in the SUO Challenge this week! Their challenge, SUO69, features ANY Sizzix product, and you should go check out the fun entries there!

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my creations.

ColourQ and Messy Deadlines

This week's ColourQ challenge gave me a gorgeous palette to work with - Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Kraft (Crumb Cake), and (Whisper) White. Such fun, springy colors! I came up with two freaking adorable cards for this challenge, and it was going to be the perfect post for our upcoming May Day blog hop -- except that the challenge ends tonight (!!) and not on Wednesday when our hop is. Oops! So here's the challenge projects, and you can look forward to seeing some brand NEW (hint, hint - sneak peeks!) projects for the hop in a few days.

My favorite part of this one? The details!

My second favorite part? The adorable coordinating 3x3 card I made to go with it!

I like the torn honeycomb background in particular. Isn't it fun?


Like I said, this was for the ColourQ cQc182 Challenge, which has this fun and Spring-themed inspiration photo:

This card was CASE'd! I also want to give credit to the card that inspired these projects. I found this card by Amanda Mertz over at Did You Stamp Today, and I just LOVED it! So I decided to basically use her layout with the ColourQ color challenge.

REMINDER: Look forward to our May Day Blog Hop this Wednesday! My projects will feature some of the fun BRAND NEW, will-be-debuting-in-June's-catalog products I bought at the Salt Lake Regional event.

Paper Players One-Layer Challenge

This week, The Paper Players had an interesting challenge -- a one-layer card. So many of the cards I make involve multiple layers either through stamps or just separate layers, so this was quite a challenge for me. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially the "faux layer" around the greeting. 

This is a technique I've seen used a lot, but I've never actually done it. I stamped the sentiment and then taped a mask over it. Then I stamped the leaves and flowers and sponged off the edges of the mask. That's it! A simple technique, but it gives a cool effect. 

Challenge Info

Card Details

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Perfectly Penned

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Old Olive, Creme Cake, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede