Be Merry and Bright Card Set

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday. Are you still sleeping off all the turkey and trimmings? I definitely ate way too much! ;)

A friend saw a card I made last year and asked me to duplicate it as a card set. I'm not good with making multiple cards exactly alike, and I have almost completely lost my cardmaking mojo since saying goodbye to my little Silkie, Ozzy, 2 weeks ago, so I wasn't sure I would be able to do it. Ozzy was always underfoot when I worked in my craftroom in the middle of the night, and it's just not the same without him around. Since I haven't been able to find my get-up-and-go to design any cards at all, I thought CASing my own card a few times might help me get back in the groove again. 

Here's the entire set. I basically just chose four different groupings of paper, twine, and beads, then colored the image to match it's card. I like how they turned out. You can't tell in the pics, but all the Christmas lights have clear Wink of Stella sparkling on them, and the little puppies' noses are all dimensional with Glossy Accents. Close ups of each one follow:

I didn't take pics of the insides, but they all have the same sentiment and 3 flags in the corresponding papers either sewn or stapled to the card. If you want to see an example of what I did, I do have a pic of the inside of my original card here.

While I haven't made any cards in a few weeks, I have been busy making books. Now that I don't have to reference a book or video every time I want to make a book, I can make them without having to concentrate a lot, for most of the process. I'll post pics of them soon.

In the meantime, thank you for visiting my blog today, and BIG HUGS to all my Paper Sweeties Design Teammates, Facebook friends, and real life friends who have sent me such wonderful messages of condolence. I know Ozzy was "only" a pet, but, to me he was as much a part of my family as anyone else in it, and if you've ever lost a beloved pet, I know you understand how devastating it can be. :'‑(

Have a wonderful weekend!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes
Your Next Stamp Color Challenge #28 (the first card fits the challenge)
Sugar Pea Color Challenge #7: CCC7 (the first card fits the challenge)
TCP Tuesday 304: Anything Goes
Tiddly Inks Challenge #171: Anything Goes!
The Paper Shelter Challenge #229: A Christmas Card
DoubleClick Skittles Challenge: Christmas Holiday Challenge
Sweet Stamps November Anything Goes Challenge

~Hugs,

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Paper Sweeties March Release Rewind!

It's time for Paper Sweeties March Release Rewind! Today, we'll be showing you how well the new release works with older releases. I made a boxed gift card set using the new I Pick You stamp set and also images from the Home Tweet Home stamp and Sweet Cuts die sets, and the Sending Sweet Thoughts stamp set.

I love that there are so many little images in different stamp sets that are similar in size. They made for a sweet little summer scene on the front of the box.

To make the cloudy background, I embossed blue cardstock with a Cloudy Sky embossing folder, then swiped white pigment ink over the clouds. The hat was stamped on designer paper and shaded a little with a Copic marker, and the frog was stamped on white paper and colored with Copics. Both those images were fussy cut. All the other images have matching dies, which made this a quick and easy scene to create.

After stamping simple sentiments and tiny creatures onto 3" x 3" white card bases, I added a variety of sequins. Have you seen Paper Sweeties newest sequins? Oh my, you need to check them out! Spring Peeps and Jellybeans sequins are my favs! I used Jellybeans on the frog card, and Spring Peeps on the bird card. I added Stickles to the centers of all the sequins except the ladybug card. On that one, I used red sequins from the Apple Pie mix of sequins and put a drop of black Pearl Pen in the center to match the ladybug. Green Apple sequins are on the dragonfly card.

Here's a look at the back of the box, which I made with an envelope punch board. There is a thin magnet under the flap and inside the back of the box to hold it closed. It is large enough to hold all four cards and the four envelopes I made for them.

When you are looking through Paper Sweeties shop, choosing your favorite stamps and dies, keep in mind how well the images in different sets work together. All the mixing and matching is sure to give you an extra spark of cardmaking creativity!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Design Team for more Rewind inspiration:

Cheryl Lea (you are here)

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties
Jill Norwood 

Julie Tucker-Wolek
Kathy Schweinfurth

Larissa Heskett
Lysa Rohrer 
Mackie Robertson

Maria Patrick

Michelle Bala
Mynnette Kitchen

Nancy Penir

What's New

I Pick You

Stitched Tags #1

Stitched Tags #1 Sweet Cuts

Thanks for stopping by, and have a Sweet Week!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Things That Fly
Simon Says Stamp Monday: Lions and Lambs, oh my!
613 Avenue Create Challenge #115: Anything Goes
Corrosive Challenge #220: Our Animal Friends

~Hugs,

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One Sheet Wonder Boxed Card Set with Wisdom

I hope y'all had a wonderful holiday, and are, perhaps, still enjoying it. In the words of the world's most famous fictional trespasser, Christmas at our house wasn't too crazy, it wasn't too tame...it was "just right." Well, all except for the flu bug we've had for over a week! But, that's almost run it's course, too, so all is well.

A couple of posts ago, I made a set of cards for a One Sheet Wonder Challenge at Viva la Verve, and I decided to give it another go, this time making a hinged lid box for the set, too. You can see the spine of the box here.

I used mat board to construct the box, and I wanted it to be really sturdy, so I glued 2 boards together to get a nice thickness. The box is actually large enough to hold the envelopes, too, but I forgot to put them in for the photo.

I've always loved making and decorating boxes, and have made lots of different ones, usually out of heavy cardstock or chipboard. And, having a Silhouette has certainly made boxmaking much easier, but I see more boxes like this one in my future. Between the gorgeous, heavy papers and the super thick boards, this box has a nice, substantial look and feel to it that I like, and it's definitely worthy of gifting! Now here's a look at the cards that are inside:

The Words of Wisdom stamp set from Verve is one of my all-time favorite sentiment sets. The sentiments are encouraging, and appropriate in so many instances, and the bold and varied fonts are just plain fun! I stamped those in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I colored the Crackle embossed layer and the sentiment circle with copper and turquoise Inka gold and edged them with Black Soot Distress Ink. For just a little more texture, I added one line of stitching to each sentiment, leaving threads dangling, and also stitched on one other piece on each card. The colored dots were mini pony beads in another life. For Christmas, my daughter gave me a toaster oven for my craft room so I can make embellies without having to heat up the big oven upstairs. It works great except for the stench from the melting plastic! I may carry the oven to the back porch before I try that again! (The 6x6 paper I used is from the My Mind's Eye Reunion pad).

The inside of the cards are all similar. I used a white, tilted personalization layer with distressed edges, added two 1" circle punches from an extra sheet of the cardstock (remember, I used the entire 6x6 sheet for the front of the cards, so there wasn't any waste there), and used opaque Souffle pens to do just enough doodling to brighten everything up.

And, that's all for now! Thanks for visiting, and have an awesome week!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Viva la Verve December 2014 OSW Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create Challenge #104: Anything Goes
Sugar Pea Designs SPD12: Anything Goes
Robyn's Fetish Challenge #244: Anything Goes
TSC Challenge #61: Anything Goes

~Hugs,

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One Sheet Wonder Christmas Card Set

My favorite way to start a card is with a sketch, and Viva la Verve has a sketch challenge for December that I couldn't pass up--a One Sheet Wonder Challenge.

I had never even heard of something like this before, so I was interested in seeing if I could do it. I decided to go for a vintage look using some Tim Holtz Blueprints stamps, colored very roughly with Copics. My supply list is at the end of the post.

I didn't take a photo of the inside, but each card is stamped with the same Christmas sentiment.

This was definitely a challenge for me, and it was pretty cool to use every single inch of a 6x6 piece of paper, but I think I prefer winging it when I make cards, even if it means there is a little waste involved. ;~)

Thanks for stopping by, and have yourself One Wonder-ful weekend!

I'm entering these cards in the following challenges:
Viva la Verve December 2014 Sketch Challenge
Simon Says Monday: Anything Goes
Simon Says Wednesday: Winter Inspiration
613 Avenue Create #102: Anything Goes
Sugar Pea Designs SPD12: Anything Goes
Chocolate, Coffee, & Card Challenge #80: Christmas
Corrosive Challenge #214: Anything Goes
Robyn's Fetish Challenge #242: Winter Cards with Glitter

~Hugs,

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Tiddly Inks New Ewe Release Boxed Card Set

I adore making boxed card sets, especially when I have a fabulous set of stamps that coordinate perfectly, and Christy, at Tiddly Inks, has just released seven--YES SEVEN--Tiddly Inks sheep stamps that are adorable individually, but that are also just right for a card set! To top that off, every single one has a sentiment built right in! And, since they are sheep, there was very little coloring required. BAAA-AM! This sweet card set practically made itself!

I made 8 cards for this set, using the Thank Ewe image on two cards, colored differently. For the box, I modified this tutorial, which I used in another card set almost two years ago. I used the curly D'Vine Swirls embossing folder for the side panels, and inside back of the box, to go along with the sheep theme. The cards are all 3.5" x 5.5", and I made white envelopes for them with an envelope punch board. (A card recipe for the set is at the bottom of the post.) For the cards and the box, I used Recollections 110 lb. cardstock, which is the heaviest cardstock I've found, even among other 110 lb. cardstock brands. (If I had needed to do more coloring, I would probably have used X-Press It Blending Card for the images, colored them, then mounted them to the front of 110 lb. card bases, but the extra step wasn't necessary for these cards.)

Here are pics of the individual cards. I have to apologize for the yucky colors. White cards are my Waterloo! I can never get the color right when photographing them, and when I start editing them in my photo program, they turn out all different colors, depending on what other colors are on the cards. So, so frustrating. Trust me when I say that every card is the same beautiful, bright white, and the colors are vivid and crisp. ;)

Happy Baaa-Day to Ewe. Diamond Stickles are on each of the little notes, and Black Wink of Stella gives the little sheep faces a bit of shine.

Ewe Sparkle & Shine. Each star was colored with a yellow Copic marker, then I added yellow Stickles over that.

Ewe and Me. Diamond Stickles on the sweet little star. I think this is my favorite of all these images.

Hope Ewe Get Well Soon. Colored with Copics. The colors here look a bit washed out. :~( This photograph could certainly use some doctoring!

Thank Ewe. I printed this one to cover the entire front of the card. The ombre colored "thank" is a little more intense in real life.

Second Thank Ewe. This is printed slightly smaller than the first one. I used magenta, yellow, and blue-green markers to make the dots, which also gave me orange and green dots when they mixed. Then, because all those dots were making my eyes crazy, I edged parts of the letters with the blue-green marker to add some definition. 

Ewe Rock! Glossy Accents give this rocker's shades some style! Don't you just love his heart tattoo? As a bonus, the Thank Ewe image and the Ewe Rock image are together--2 for 1. Who doesn't love that? ;)

Only Have Eyes For Ewe. I couldn't get it to show up in the photo, but Xmas Red Stickles is sparkling on the little heart.

Here's an inside look at the box. The finished measurements are 6" long x 2" deep x 4" high. The front panel is 2" high. To modify the original tutorial, all I had to do was cut the original piece of cardstock to 8" x 10", then followed the rest of her tutorial. This was a blast to make!

Now, hurry on over to Tiddly Inks to see what the rest of our super talented DT did with these images. You're going to want to add these New Ewes to your digi stash for sure! And, you can even use them to enter the current Gratitude and Joyfulness Challenge, too!

Oh, and, lucky you, today is a two-fer! It's also Tiddly Inks Fabulous Friday! If you'd like to see my Fab Friday post, go here.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a Be-ewe-tiful week!

I'm entering this card set in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create Challenge #100: Anything Goes
Robyn's Fetish Challenge #240: Anything Goes
Corrosive Challenge #213: Happy Everything!
TSC Challenge #58: Anything Goes

~Hugs,

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Chubby Chums Boxed Card Set

I don't know about you, but I think my days are getting shorter! I have been so busy lately, I can barely keep up. Soooo, I'm making this post extra short! Good for you and for me. ;D

This is a boxed card set made using a Paper Smooches stamp set. It's colored with Copics. You can see it at Impressive Ideas, in Roswell, Georgia. I'm teaching it there this month. :-)

It has 3 adorable cards in it. I think this set would make a great gift for a tween girl!

Matching envelopes, too!

I counted...under 100 words! 8~) Short and sweet!

Thanks for stopping by, "Chums," and enjoy the rest of your week! ;D

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Paper Smooches Sparks June Challenge: Wk1-Anything Goes
Verve June 2014 Inspiration Challenge: Winged Whimsy
TCP Tuesday Challenge #267: Anything Goes
Paper Issues: The World is a Circle
The Corrosive Challenge #200: Celebration! - Anything Goes
Robyn's Fetish Challenge #214: Anything Goes

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