City Crafter Challenge Blog week #115 - Make a Gift

No card this time...a gift as per City Crafter's challenge this week.

 I recently made a pillow for a friend's birthday using chocolate brown felt and a flower die (I was pretty sure the chocolate color would tie in nicely with her sofa and color scheme.  Here's a picture of the pillow.

  I die cut 9 sets of 4 each flowers, layered them together staggering them and stitched onto my pillow front, added a french knot in a contrasting color in the center of each flower set. Then sewed the pillow front to the back leaving an opening for the pillow form to slide into.  This opening was then closed with some velcro tape.


Here's a picture of the pillow now in my friend's house on her sofa,  I think it looks quite nice with her other two floral pillows and the leather sofa.

What do you think?  I'd love to hear your comments on the pillow.

Supplies:
Stampin' up Big XL Flower Folds-Bigz Die
Brown felt from my local fabric store
Velcro fasteners, thread and pillow form

Tuesday Trigger: Man-tastic

LOOK at this image credit from Moxie Fab, of course the challenge is closed, but I still love the photo.

Isn't it great? 

This is my interpretation.  Granted my colors aren't the same even though I like the inspiration one, but when I saw this paper it just jumped right out at me.

 I wanted the paper to be the focal point so I limited my embellishments considerably. Cut a strip of white card stock, added an embroidery floss "ribbon", stamped the sentiment and I was done.  (h'mm why did it take so long)?   My card is intended for a male but could be used for anyone to brighten their day.  I purposely left the inside blank for room to write a personal note.

Supplies:
Paper:  SU International Bazaar
Ink: SU Midnight Muse & Lucky Limeade
Sentiment:  PTI Lighten Up





What do you think?  I'd love to hear from you
Nancy

Freshly Made Sketches #40

Another sketch from Lesley, creator of Freshly Made Sketches, my that gal sure is busy!

I used Lesley's sketch just tweaking it a bit.  I wanted the oval focal point to be something eye-catching and I think this oldie but goody stamp set was just the ticket!
It was one of the first two-step inking processes that my daughter Nance Leedy of Canopy Crafts first introduced to me.  Then of course I had to have this stamp set which she was able to find on the web and buy for me, it's still one of my favorites.

 
Here's a close up of the main image showing the ittsy-bittsy pearls matching the larger pearls in the upper right hand corner.  As one of the design team member says "you can never have too many pearls"!  H'mm maybe I should have completely covered the center of the flower.

I also embossed the top portion of the card base to coordinate with the two striped designer papers.

Supplies:  
Paper: SU Card Stock & DSP Pool Party, Whisper White, Midnight Muse, Gumball Green
Inks:  SU Pool Party, Midnight Muse, Gumball Green & Pear Pizzazz
Stamps: SU Pretty Peony, Itty Bitty Banners
Misc: SU stripe EF, Bitty Banners Framelits, and pearls


I guess that's just about it.  I'd love to hear what you think about this card.
Thanks,
Nancy

WHAT a plant with black leaves-why not!

 I discovered this challenge from dynamic duos  which is to use only TWO colors, Black and Melon Mambo with a neutral on a card and/or a ribbon if desired.

I've been anxious to use this stamp set for a while now and thought this was the perfect time.  I know, I know you're going to say what...black leaves on a plant!  Well you haven't seen my garden, I could easily have black leaves, anyhow I thought I'd try it.

I used a white card base, framed in a Melon Mambo polka-dot and framed again in black, which I stamped in black with the leaf pattern tone-on-tone, but it's very difficult to tell (but I know it's there).

I stamped the adorable little plant container twice in Melon Mambo so I'd have one to cut out and pop up.  Then I remembered I had just bought black and white twine...perfect to wrap around the container as well as the white panel to give it a little charm and of course any plant has to have a bow!  Next I stamped the leaves in black and added all the little clusters of flowers in Melon Mambo (almost couldn't stop myself they're so darn cute).  Added some glitter on a few of the flowers and stamped the sentiment. Don't you love the font on the sentiment. I do, I think it yells FABULOUS!

So what do you think of my plant with black leaves?  I'd love to hear your comments on this card.
Thanks,
Nancy


Supplies:
Paper-SU card stock and DSP
Inks-SU Melon Mambo, Basic Black
Stamps: PTI Garden Variety II and Dress Form Stamps (sentiment)
Misc. items SU's Dazzling Diamonds and rhinestones from my stash 






The following bookmark was my original entry for the challenge but I soon realized by adding the color green to the stems it no longer met the criteria for the challenge.  I really liked the design and wanted to post it.   I'm sure I'll be able to use it in one of my books. 

Hydrangea birthday card

Isn't this a gorgeous hydrangea stamp? My inspiration for this card came from Nicole Heady with the stamps being designed by Maile Belles, who always has the nicest designs.

I stamped an all-over background pattern in beautiful "real-life" hydrangea colors, filled in the white spaces with the adorable smaller flowers and leaves.  I then stamped the sentiment on a white panel and framed it with a smidge larger die in the lavender paper.  An added textured green panel grounds all of the floral images.  I've been hoarding my satin pleated ribbon (yes definitely hoarding not yet used), but decided to finally use it and splurged using not one, but two rows to offset the center panel.  I really like the way it stands out.

What do you think?  I'd love to hear your take on this card, I really appreciate all your comments.
Thanks,
Nancy



Supplies:
Stampin' Up card stock Lavender Lace & Whisper White
Inks:  S.U. Lavender Lace, Lucky Limeade & Concord Grape
Stamps, S.U. Happiest Birthday Wishes (1 of 2) & PTI Happy Hydrangea
Die, PTI Mat Stack #1 and Layerz Mat Stack

Freshly Made Sketches #39 Challenge

It's been a while since I participated in Freshly Made Challenges, one of my favorite blogs,  just busy doing other things, but here's my card...just under the noon-time wire.

Guess I was feeling somewhat patriotic, maybe thinking about the 4th of July holiday coming up soon.  Anyhow this challenge from Jen  at Freshly Made Sketches seemed to lend itself well to this CAS design.  Hope you like it too.

Supplies:
Stampin' up card stock and DSP-Patterns Stack, Brights collection
Sizzix star die
SU's Itty Bitty Banners die, stamp, Midnight Muse ink (love it) & Embossing folder
Cuttlebug Stars embossing folder

One more Father's Day card

Here's another FD card clean and simple.  In keeping with the nature image of bamboo I thought using the natural white card stock was perfect along with a single twine ribbon.   And of course I had to add the adorable little dragonfly.
I'm sure you notice a smaller version on the envelope too.

Supplies Used:
Card Stock-Stampin' Up Natural White
Stamps-Stampin' Up Asian Artistry & PTI's Peaceful Garden
Inks- Stampin' Up Old Olive and Crumb Cake


I hope you enjoy this Father's Day weekend with family and friends wherever you are.
Thanks for taking a peek at my blog, I'd love to hear from you it really does inspire one!
Nancy

Father's Day cards

With Father's Day fast approaching I had a few cards to make that had to be mailed like now!
In my haste to get them finished I forgot to photograph one of them and it's already on it's way, but here's one of them.

My brother is a huge Harley-Davidson biker fan so this card is right up his alley (or road). It was made from some HD scrapbook paper I had been hoarding for a few years.  I cut up the paper so that the belt would be the focal image of the card (the belt was too long so I had to adjust it).  Then heat embossed a sentiment on the seam binding and added a few silver brads. I also made the card size taller to accommodate the belt.

Here's a peek at the inside sentiment.  I first stamped off once and then stamped the motorcycle directly onto the card base.  Typed the wording on the computer onto vellum paper and adhered over the motorcycle image.  I think it
 turned out good.
Did you notice I lined the envelope with more of the denim paper to finish off the look.

Birthday card

It's a very CAS card, one layer inspiration from Simply Stamped.  I stamped the butterflies on the far right hand side of the card front, then fussy cut them leaving a beautiful edge.  Stamped the sentiment and it was done, how quick  is that and I love the results.

Here's a peek at the inside, I really like using an image from the front of the card to carry the theme to the inside (from my daughter Nance Leedy @ Canopy Crafts)

Fussy cutting the edge of this card has inspired me to try other stamp images in a similar fashion, how about you?

I'd love to hear from you regarding your thoughts on my card.
Thanks for looking,
Nancy