Color Inspiration.

One of the main reasons I started blogging a year-and-a-half ago, was because my friend (and Close to My heart Upline) Yvonne, showed me a card that she had created for a color inspiration challenge over at KWernerDesign. She explained all about blogging at our unit meeting that night and challenged us to use blogs for inspiration and start our own blog to create an online presence for our business.

I was HOOKED from that point on. I started doing tons of color challenges (and other challenges too) but Color Inspiration soon became my total favorite. It was the biggest motivator to get me to create a great card with a fabulous color scheme. When Kristina decided not to do the challenges anymore, I was pretty bummed, but totally understanding...she picked several favorites from the challenge and created a mosaic that linked back to each original card....I am sure it took hours!

The challenges taught me good design and craftsmanship and helped me meet a lot of really great bloggers! I was super excited this week to notice a new color challenge...sort of a one-time-only, (that's okay! Be sure to check out her weekly card videos for ideas and inspiration, they totally rock!!!) I am at home because of the weather and I was really struggling to get some mojo going this week. This color inspiration challenge was perfect!

Here is my card for this week's challenge. I used a stamp set by hero arts and some cardstock from Close to my heart. The little Matryoshka doll is paper pieced as I was trying to incorporate all the colors from the challenge. The bird cage paper is from Hambly....I LOVE my Hambly paper!! I have to have a really good reason to use it though...I am always afraid I will use it up too quickly. Check back tomorrow for an all-Hambly mini album I am finishing up!

My goal was to create a whole stack of Valentine cards for a swap later this month so I used up the rest of the birdcage paper (and traded the mustard + saffron for brown and green on some of the cards)

Some of you had asked about the deer that I used in some of these cards. He is a felt die cut from Close to My Heart....I only had one and I was hesitant to use him, because he is so cute...So I traced him onto cardstock and now I use that as a pattern on other papers so that I can re-create that same idea over and over....

I actually had a tricky time shooting the photos for these....It was WAY too cold to do it outside (I tried, but the -10 wind kept blowing them over) and it was right at sunset...around 5:00 pm....so the sun was quite harsh and kept making bright sun streaks and shadows everywhere whenever I tried to use my usual window to take the pictures.

Wouldn't this be a cute teacher Valentine?

Those little envelopes are waaaay easy to make. I used 2X2 squares, folded them in half and then in half the other way....and then you just fold the corners into the middle and viola, a cute little square envelope. I leave one corner up for the flap...and line it with a scrap of paper.... I practiced some stitching on cards again for the one above....I sewed that ribbon to the card.

The cupcake punch is from Martha Stewart. I used a scissor edging technique....where you scrape the edge of the cardstock with your scissors to rough it up....on a lot of my cards and elements.

That pink frame in the background in some of my pictures is from T.J. Max...I went there last week and bought a huge stack of cool frames...I am trying to decide what to put in them and where to hang them....I want to create a wall of cool frames, possibly on my mantle piece....this is an idea for one of them....It totally matched the color scheme so I had to use it in my pics!

Hope you are having a great week and staying super warm!! If you are making any Valentines, I would love to see them!! I looked online and couldn't find much in the way of inspiration!

Color Inspiration Challenge # 53

Hey guys! Just a quick post for Kwerner's color inspiration challenge!!

This card features some basic faux stitching, new-to-me hounds tooth ribbon, a CTMH stamp set called 'In the Wild' and a little bit of flocking around the lion's mane. I rarely buy outline stamps, but this one was fun to color with my blending pen and markers. A little tip about using flocking....use liquid glue, apply glue and flock liberally and then press it firmly onto your image. Allow the glue to dry for a few minutes before coloring with a marker.

Owl Always Love you Color Inspiration #51

So....you know how sometimes you get an idea and you just have to see it all the way through...You really can't get anything else done until the creative spark is seen into fruition. That was me last night. I postponed watching the Idol results show until this card was finished. I was sitting there, looking at a shelf with some wooden owl stamps on it...and then I started looking at my acrylic owl stamps and I decided to do an OWL Line Up...I really wanted to use ALL of my owl stamps on a card. Sort of like when you get all of your stuffed animals out and line them up in rows on your bed from biggest to littlest....(as a kid!!)

I wasn't too sure how this would work because I have a lot of owl stamps. So I just started stamping and cutting. I decided to work with this week's color inspiration challenge colors...to simplify things a little bit...I knew it would be a busy card regardless....

After stamping all of the owls, I realized that I had 3 sizes...baby, medium, and big. I even had some egg stamps...maybe I could make an accordion card showing all of the stages of 'owl' ages. Well, once I actually made the accordion part, I realized that the eggs wouldn't fit so I left them off.

In order to give the chocolate cardstock base some variety, I did some clear embossing. I let my husband heat up the last panel, he likes watching the powder melt...and he was waiting for me so we could watch idol. It was pretty cute.

I added the rhinestones as an afterthought. The card was 'missing something'. The 'love' paper was stamped with the Tiny Typewriter alphabet stamp. I popped the 'brown' owl off of each panel for some consistency. I think this is a fun card. Thanks for looking!




I just love these colors!!

Life is good!!

A few weeks ago, I learned how to make a paper ice cream cone via this tutorial over at the Angie's Blog. She has a lot of simple creations for workshops and things, I just love her videos!

Anyway, last night I really wanted to make something for fun and ignore my to-do list (Mother's Day cards, graduation cards, designing cards for a June workshop, etc.) So I was browsing blogs and I came across this great color 'challenge' over at Jeanette Lynton's blog!



I am super excited because these are Close to My Heart colors!! I will be looking forward to this weekly posting: !! Yay!!!

Anyway, here is my set of ice cream cone cards based on the colors and the tutorial. I have changed the cone a little bit to make it my own....but it is basically the same. Everything is CTMH, except the ribbon...those are just some random bows I had laying around. If you have any questions, please ask! Enjoy!!



***I was just thinking my cards looked a lot darker than the examples on her site....that is because I accidentally used Crystal Blue instead of Heavenly blue...ooops!! All well, they still look alright!!******

CI #48 Inchie Card

Hey!! I am just getting ready for a workshop at my house tomorrow night but I decided to take a couple of minutes before bed to make a quick card for KWerner's color inspiration challenge. These are some of my favorite colors! Ooh, and I just got a couple of new punches and I wanted to try them out. (Thanks Lisa...I might need to make another order next month...I am addicted!)

Anyway, this card features a couple of brads, some vintage paper and some white gel pen action for the butterfly trails. All of the hearts, butterflies and tags were made with punches. They are the cutest little inchies!! I am also working on an idea for my Etsy shop....I don't have anything posted yet....but I am going to be selling some little inchies similar to these and I am going to call them 'Nellie's Embellies.' This is a sneak peak of what they will look like. (Thanks Sarah for calling the embellishments I sent you 'embellies' you totally gave me the idea!!)




All of the products on the card are Close to My Heart.

Color Inspiration Challenge #47

Hey!! Just a quick card for the KWerner Color Inspiration Challenge #47. I wanted to use some of my Hambly screenprinted transparency paper for this card. It is pretty basic. The owl sticker is from Hambly. The stamp 'Whooo Loves You" is from CTMH.

Color Inspiration Challenge #46

Yahoo!! I was so excited to see that this week's color inspiration challenge had a really light blue. I have been playing around with embossing on vellum. I got a new silver pearl embossing powder so I put Versamark on the stamp and then Crystal blue ink, then I sprinkle with the powder and it gives me this great pearly blue, perfect for butterfly wings. Anyway, this card is for Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration challenge #46.

Don't ya just love that foundry bookplate. I decided to leave off black and use this dark metal as a substitute. At the bottom, I did some paper piercing and faux stitching with a white jell pen. I also use a Martha Stewart lace punch for the patterned paper. The ribbon is some that I had in my stash and the pearl pin is a corsage pin, quickly becoming one of my favorite things to use on a card!! Enjoy!!

Memory Keeper box for my Cards

This week's color inspiration challenge is gorgeous!! I love brown and pink. Tonight I made this box for my cards using 2 challenge prompts. The first one of course is the color inspiration challenge and the second prompt I utilized is from The Creative Type blog. This week's prompt left me in stitches! The goal is to use stitching for the lettering on our creation. For the first time, I hand-stitched the lettering on my title. This totally reminded me of Jr. High home economics class.

One of the projects we had to do was make a pillow with hand embroidered names on the front. I got really into embroidery floss and hand stitching. My mom still has the pillow and it has names of my Jr. High classmates, some are first names, some are last names and some are nicknames. I don't even remember who the nicknames are or why they had that nickname...but it is lovingly stitched on the pillow.

I remember getting together with a friend to sew one Saturday afternoon. I threaded the big embroidery needle and realized that I forgot something like scissors. I was sitting on the bed with a friend and I set the pillow down and stuck the needle in the mattress and ran to get the scissors. When I came back I hopped back up on the bed and the eye of the needle went straight into my knee!!! I freaked out! The thread was sticking out and so was the pointy end of the needle. I sent my friend to get my dad. He came in with pliers and carefully pulled it out. I don't remember it being sore or hurting all that much, but it was pretty tramatic...I was in jr. high so every thing was so much more dramatic.

Needless to say, I took shop in high school and steered clear of home ec. Haha....shop is way more dangerous than sewing, but I had had enough! Now I wish I knew how to sew, I haven't threaded a sewing machine since jr. high, but I have used some major power tools so I guess that is a plus...

Anyway, I had fun stitching the letters and I did quite a bit of painting on this box. I mixed brown paint to make all of the elements coordinate. I really like how it turned out...even my husband said "WOW" when he saw me putting the finishing touches on it. Hope you enjoy!!






Supplies used: CTMH unless otherwise noted.
Chipboard 'a' Basic Grey
Chipboard leaf and shape Basic Grey
White screen print overlay, Hambly

Color Inspiration Challenge #43

For this week's Color Inspiration Challenge I have decided to get out a butterfly stamp from last year. This stamp set is from Close to My Heart. I love it!! I have used it a lot. I decided to get a jump on birthday and Mother's Day Cards for my mom since she loves butterflies, I will be giving these to her. The first card is for the color challenge and the second card is for fun. I tried to match the colors as closely as I could....I don't have any orange ink so I had to be creative, I mixed holiday red and honey to get the orangy color....I don't think it is pumpkin pie, but it is close enough. Also, I used a garden green instead of old olive.


I stamped the images in regular ink, then went over each stamp with a Versamark and then used clear embossing powder, then I hand cut each butterfly out and attached it with a glue dot. These were really fun to make, I plan to make more! I think I will get a shadow box for my mom...she used to have a butterfly collection, I will be making her something for her birthday that resembles a shadow box....sort of like this card. She will love it!

Color Inspiration Challenge #41

Whew it is Friday the 13th!!! I made this card last night for the Color Inspiration Challenge. I love the black and red combo. This card is pretty simple. I am trying to use up scraps! The black and white felt scrap is from Hobby Lobby, I am not sure of the brand. The red ribbon is from CTMH (and so are the stamps), the color is Cranberry. This is a very simple Valentines Day Card. I am excited to move on to spring...but I will miss V-day....I love hearts!

Color Inspiration Challenge #39

Fellow Close to My Heart consultant Vicki designed the most perfect accordion card style card to use with this stamp set. I just got this stamp set in the mail and her 'sketch' helped me come up with a Valentine Card for my little brother and I am showing it off over at this week's Color Inspiration Challenge, KWernerDesignBlog.



Sorry about the annoying picture quality. I am saving up for a new camera....and I usually take the photos during the day. Most of the paper is from my stash. I am trying to use up all of my old 'non-ctmh' products for these challenges. The stamp set is called Rockstar. Be sure to click on the picture to see the card up close. If you want to make a similar accordion card, the measurements are: 4 1/4 x 10 1/2" CS, scored at 1 3/8", 2 1/2", 4 3/8", 6" and 8 1/4", folded accordion style. (Mine is 5" X 10 1/2").