Happy Birthday

To me! This year I decided to make myself a birthday card! I used Taylor’s Sketch #71 and there was no doubt I’d be incorporating a cupcake. A big, happy almost birthday to Taylor too, her's is Friday. A great month to be born! Though perhaps I'm biased.

Taylor's Sketch


Happy Birthday, Meg!

{Supplies: SU! Crazy for Cupcakes, DCVW patterned paper, CB swiss dots and happy birthday folders, Offray and Joann ribbon, Stickles – yellow and waterfall}

I even wrote myself a little note and set it out for me to find this morning. A lovely “surprise!”

Happiness is...

Shiny, new organization! Though no pictures yet... sorry, still cleaning! But happiness is also another card. Slowly working back into a craft routine. Since Taylor lengthened the time you have to enter her Cupcake Challenges I've managed to miss them all! The standard "I have plenty of time" and then suddenly the deadline is gone. So this weekend I made sure to get to it!

Taylor's Sketch:













Happiness is... (Inside: Being with you!)
Supplies:
Penny Black Basket of Chicks
Prima screen print stamp
SU! Warm Words (I masked the "is" from "Cherish" so the fonts would match)
HA green note card
The Paper Studio yellow paper
J.Crew catalog
J.Crew buttons (spares - I did not disassemble any shirts)
JoAnn Craft Essentials ribbon
Stickles - crystal and yellow

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes

I decided to get back to cupcakes for this week's TECC. The result has me thinking of cutesy bakeries and wishing for a cupcake. Mmm cupcakes.

Taylor's Sketch

















You're Sweet
Supplies:
SU! Crazy for Cupcakes
Studio G from series 27
DCWV Papers
Stickles - Yellow and Cotton Candy

Frog Prince

I took a bit of a break from crafting this week. I did make one card for the Hero Arts weekly challenge (focus on messages) but I don't like it so I'm not going to post it here. I just made this little card for Taylor's challenge. The message was done with HA stamps so I probably will enter this one into the HA challenge as well.

Taylor's Sketch:













Frog Prince
Supplies:
Imaginisce Snag'em Stamps Frog
HA small variety alpha
Prima screen pattern stamp
Bazzil Dotted Swiss cardstock
DCWV patterned paper
La di dah courtyard felted shapes
Yellow stickles (on crown)
Prima flower
Pearl sticker
hemp string
Favorite findings buttons

Happy Easter

I decided to use this week's TECC for my second and final Easter card. The first happened to also be a TECC. Interesting, eh!

Taylor's Sketch:

















Celebrate!
Supplies
DCWV papers
Bazzil Dotted Swiss cardstock
Stampendous Chickie Hop
La Di Dah Courtyard felted shapes
Favorite Findings buttons
Offray ribbon



























"I know you can't control yourself any longer. Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger. Don't you fight it till you tried it - do the conga beat!"

The New Flatness

I really wanted to push myself a little further with a one layer card. I was looking at Taylor's new sketch and was possessed to attempt it in one layer. I happened to be talking to Lysa at the time and she dared me to add Kristina's new colors into the mix, too. I couldn't pass up that challenge!

A special card for the special Hero Arts blog birthday!

Taylor's Sketch

















Kristina's Colors










Three Challenges: All in One Layer
Supplies:
HA Clear Design Cupcakes
Colorbox Lime Pastel, Ice Blue, and Dark Brown chalk inks (sponged)
Making Memories ribbon
Favorite Findings buttons
pearl stickers









I used a lot of scraps for various mats (lots of thinking on this one! Which part to sponge first?) and some strategic Xactoing for the ribbon.

So flaaat:

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

I got this kitty stamp at the stamp show - four weeks ago! He's been sitting around, colored, since then just waiting for the perfect card.

Enter TECC #61:














Tulips are my favorite!
Supplies:
SEI Dill Blossom patterned papers
Bazzil Dotted Swiss paper
Magenta stamp
Ranger Glossy Accents (on kitten's nose)
Flowers unknown
Favorite findings button
Hemp cord

The Mighty Jungle

For this week's installment of Taylor's Cupcake Challenge, I finally went out and got the oval nestabilities. I've been thinking about them for a long time! Eventually I'll get their scalloped partners, but that's another day, another coupon. I also got to put my new jungle critters to good use!

Here's the sketch:

















Giraffe Family
Supplies:
DCWV papers
Offray ribbons
Autumn Leaves Mindy's Zoo

A Bug I like

Phew! It's been a busy crafty few days. I did find time to pull together this little card for Taylor's cupcake challenge. I got some new paper that I really wanted to use since it is much brighter and more vibrant than anything I had before. Finally some good yellows!

Taylor's Sketch












My take: Bug me!
Supplies:
DCWV papers (the citrus and green stacks!)
Stampin Up! Very Punny
Heidi Grace flowers
EK Success dotted scallop border punch

Easter Chickies

Another week, another Cupcake Challenge!

Taylor's sketch











I've never really pushed myself too hard with inchies or dimensional pieces. I normally stick with things that fit perfectly on the inchie or only popping one simple item. After seeing this week's sampler's amazing card, here, I really wanted to try. I think it came out pretty well! Though it's really hard not to love these images, I just bought them last weekend and couldn't wait much longer to ink them up. I keep itching to add more dimensions and embellishments but perhaps less is more?

Happy Easter
Supplies:
Stampendous Chick Ears
DCWV papers
K & Co. rhinestones and pearls
Stickles - Lavender, Yellow, Waterfall
Best Value organdy ribbon












Look at the pop!













I thought using "Hoppy Easter" might be pushing the cutesy boundaries a little, so I refrained.

Welcome - Cupcake Challenge

I hadn't originally planned to play in this week's TECC#57 but then this card materialized and I love it and its simplicity! The cat is really my favorite part, Penny Black just has the cutest animal images ever.

Here's the sketch:













Here's my card:
Supplies:
Penny Black Merci
Stampin' Up! Warm Words
Pearl Rhinestone Stickers
DCWV patterned paper












And a second view at an angle (I'm into that right now):

















I might use this as my new niece's birth day/welcome to the world card - 3 weeks to go!

Cupkizzles #49

Brother's birthday is coming up in less than two weeks. For his card I decided to play along in this week's TECC (#49!) over at Taylored Expressions (see second half of this post).

This is the sketch.









I was expecting this sketch to be a challenge. Normally when I attempt this type of symmetry I end up thinking my design looks too simple. I liked playing with Brother's card so much though that I made a second. (Does that make me a cheater?)

Grillin' and Chillin'
(The inside says "And Chillin' Happy Birthday!")
Supplies:
Studio G grill set from series 14
SEI patterned paper
Bazzil Cardstock
JoAnn's Sew Essential buttons








How Sweet
Supplies:
Stampendous Hey There Cupcake
SEI patterned and solid paper
Heidi Grace printed flowers
White Opal Liquid Pearls








I'm pretty psyched that I was able to line everything up so well! Really, it's layouts like this that make me wish I had a tiny level...

Trick or Treat!

Time for another TECC entry! No cupcakes this time, I happened to make the three little figures as I was playing around with an idea for cookie bag tags (more on that next time!) and decided to go for another Halloween card. I must say that I borrowed the super cute mask idea from 1scrappycat on the Hero Arts Flickr group. I wish beyond all wishes that I could take credit for the idea - I LOVE the owl! But alas! She won second place in the paper challenge! As you can see from her winning card, I kept the owl pretty much the same but played around a little with the bear.

Taylor's sketch:
















For my take, I flipped the sketch. This was a last minute decision because I wanted the trick or treat stamp to go this way.

Trick or Treat!
Supplies:
DCWV and Provo Craft papers
K & Co. Rhinestones
Magenta Stickles (on kitty's hat)
HA Playful Animals
Stampendous Witch Kitty
Doodlebug Halloween
Offray ribbon

With a Cupcake!

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge # 38 take two! I already revamped my original idea from earlier today - cupcake now included! I like this one better because of the cupcake, so I'll be entering this one:

Dibs!
Supplies:
Imaginisce Penguin Dude stamp
Stampin' Up! Short & Sweet Cupcake
Colored with Prismacolor pencils
Inkssentials Glossy Accents on cherry
Offray Oatmeal Ribbon
DCWV papers
JoAnn Sew Essentials Buttons









The inside will say "The cupcakes are all yours today!"

I'm wondering if I should speak to someone regarding my apparent view that penguins are greedy...

Picky Penguin

After getting my feet wet in a few Hero Arts challenges I decided to tackle a challenge I've seen Lysa enter a few times. Taylor over at Taylored Expressions holds a weekly Cupcake Challenge! It's a sketch challenge where you make whatever you want following a given sketch. Whilst it's called the Cupcake Challenge, cupcakes are not mandatory.

This week came with an additional challenge to tell Taylor what our stamps are really saying or thinking. Here is the sketch:

















Here is what I came up with:

Popsicle Penguin
Supplies:
Imaginisce Penguin Dude stamp
Colored with Prismacolor pencils
Inkssentials Glossy Accents on popsicle
Offray Oatmeal Ribbon
DCWV papers
JoAnn Scrap Essentials Brads
Hero Arts Gemstones






I haven't created an inside for the card yet but plan on having it say "It's your special day, you deserve to take the last one!"

I did want to use a cupcake (I love cupcakes!) and considered selectively removing the popsicle and adding a cupcake instead. Hmm. I might still do that as something to play around with. I haven't entered the contest yet and have until Monday at 8am, so I now feel possessed to play around with including that darn cupcake!