Paying it Forward . . . Liebster Blog Awards!

The lovely Jill Norwood of Greenwood Girl Cards, nominated me for a Liebster Blog Award. Jill let me know in a blog comment last week, but I have been out of town & haven't been able to accept the award until today.

To accept the award, you need to thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.  Post the award on your blog. Give the award to five other bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Write a comment on their blog to let them know they have been nominated.

Here are the five super talented bloggers that I am nominating:

Flubidoo - Candles in the Garden

Jenny - I Dream in Paper

Joni Nina Andaya - Papell With Love

Sarah Shewell - Sarah's Inky Fingers 

Victoria - Love Papercrafting

I always find great inspiration when I visit these blogs and know you will too.

As much as I love papercrafting, I also love hopping around the internet checking out what others are doing - the talent & creativity is neverending!

Thanks again Jill for nominating me!

Jacquie

Papertrey Ink June 2013 Blog Hop

I didn't think I was going to participate in the Blog Hop this month, but arrived home last night from a trip to find a box of PTI goodies waiting for me. Between loads of laundry and other things on the schedule today I couldn't help but pull out my new Chevron Vertical Cover Plate Die and make a couple of quick cards.

The theme this month is Touch of Gold, and Nichole gave us this inspiration photo to help set the tone.

For my first card I cut a piece of Gold Shimmer paper with the die and layered it on the Sea Shimmer card base.

I gold glitter embossed the sentiment and layered a couple of die cuts adding a sprinkle of sequins to finish the card off.

The second card might have qualified for a 10 Minute Dash it was so fast to make. A white cardstock panel was embossed with the cover plate and three of the chevron pieces left over from the last card were adhered over three of the embossed chevrons.

The middle chevron is popped up for added dimension and the panel attached to a Smoky Shadow card base.

These photos are not capturing the beautiful shimmer of the gold paper - it really is gorgeous!

While I was away Jill Norwood (Greenwood Girl Cards) nominated me for a Liebster Award - thank you so much Jill for nominating me and I will be back later tonight to nominate 5 other bloggers for this honor!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Muse Challenge #21 + Paper Smooches Sparks Designer Draft

We are officially on summer break, so why don't I have any time to create? This afternoon I managed to squeeze a quick hour in the office and ended up with red inky fingers that look like I was involved in a kitchen accident. 

The first card is inspired by Muse Therese Calvird.

I love the dimension & colors in her flowers, so used that as my starting point. Every now and then I poke around my supplies to refresh my memory and see what is hiding. These Graphic 45 metal flowers were overdue to be used.

These flowers are a dream to shape with the help of my small pliers. I inked them with my alcohol inks, but it might have been less messy to use Copics.

The flowers are held together with brads and sit on a bed of MFT Royal leaves. Echoing Therese's card, a small metal butterfly is lifting off one of the flowers.

For the Paper Smooches Sparks Designer Drafts challenge card I used a couple of the free digital stamps.

The trio of flowers is sized and placed on either side of the "thanks" and a third trio was fussy cut and adhered to the panel.

The panel was trimmed so that a few of the flowers hand over the edge.

One advantage of not having much time is I'm forced to make decisions on color palette & details like which embossing folder to use quickly. More time usually doesn't mean more gets produced!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

CAS(E) this Sketch #31 + Fusion #10 + CASual Fridays

I had a couple of hand cut feathers sitting on my desk from a card I made last week, so when I saw the sketch for CAS(E) This Sketch #31, it was hard to walk away from using them.

I made a new feather using a couple of pages from an old dictionary with a piece of wire is sandwiched between them to create a spine.

The second card is for the current Fusion Card Challenge. Once again, as you can see, I found it hard to separate the sketch and the photo inspiration.

I used a starfish charm last week and knew I had plenty more hoarded away, so when I saw the starfish on the driftwood house I went into my stash to find three. The top part of sketch was turned, the diamonds became squares, and the stripes along the bottom became my horizontal sentiment flags.

It is hard to see, but there is a text stamp on the card base that peeks through the windows.

With the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge to include banners and flags on a project, I am also linking this card up there.

CFC104-Let's see how you use banners and/or flags on your Clean And Simple creation

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Paper Smooches + Tuesday Trigger + Retrosketches + Make It Monday

I had a very productive time in the office this morning.

First up is a card I made for the Paper Smooches Spark Trend Watch challenge to be inspired by this collage of photos and use gold on a project.

I pulled out the gold glitter embossing powder and some shimmer cardstock to make this card.

I did try to stamp & emboss on a white shimmer star, but the embossing powder was not co-operating, so I ended up using regular cardstock for the center star.

The embossing powder worked just fine on the vellum banner that finishes off the sentiment.

Next up are a couple of cards for this week's Tuesday Trigger: All Sweetness & Light at Moxie Fab World. Cath has done it again with an amazing inspiration photo. I'd LOVE to have this bedding in my room, but I think it is a little too feminine for my husband.

I was inspired by the colors, the font on the "A" on the nightstand and the white pompoms on the duvet cover. 

The design of this card came from this week's retrosketch.

Because I used the negative of my letter die cut on this card, I had the word "thank" sitting on my desk begging to be used, so I made another quick card for the Tuesday Trigger.

Once again, the colors are a big part of the inspiration, but on this card I embossed the main panel to mimic the colorful quilt in the photo.

With a number of scraps on my desk and a graduation party to attend this weekend, I couldn't help making another card for the Make It Monday: Flagged Borders challenge from Dawn McVey at Capture the Moment.

The sentiment is from PTI's Birthday Bash Sentiments stamp set and the flags are cut with the Sketched Shapes dies.

I hope you were able to have some creative fun today!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Make It Monday: Flagged Borders Take Two + Simon Says

Looking at the calendar today I realized I needed to get a card in the mail for my dad if I had any hope of it arriving before Father's Day. I really liked the simple card I made with the wood veneer people for my husband and decided to expand on that idea for my dad.

It's a good thing there are a lot of pieces in the pack of people!

I included my mom in the top row, but decided to cut my husband and the other "in-laws" out of the family for this card. The middle row represents me and my siblings and the bottom row represents the grandchildren (birth order from left to right). My son ended the streak of female grandchildren and he is very happy that the next and final grandchild was another boy.

The card need a little something to balance all the wood pieces, so I followed Dawn's advice in this week's Make It Monday tutorial and added a flagged border using the PTI Sketched Shape flag and arrow dies. The banner is cut with a die from the PTI In Stitches die set and I used a sentiment from Wplus9.

As Simon Says . . . Masculine/Father's Day this week at Simon Says Stamp, I am linking this card up to their challenge.

We are in our final stretch to summer vacation - dear son is done at noon tomorrow and dear daughter has to tough it out for one more week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Fusion Hypothesis #9 + The Paper Players #148

The card I have to share today is being entered in two challenges: The Fusion Card Challenge #9 and the Paper Players Theme Challenge #148.

This is my first time playing along with a Paper Players challenge, but given the theme was Summer Holiday I couldn't resist. You can check out their blog here and play along.

I find it very difficult to separate the sketch and photo inspiration challenges at the Fusion Card Challenge, so fused them for this card.

I took the colors from the inspiration photo, including the white text, and the banner idea from the sketch. Instead of stripes, I have swirly embossed lines which also represent water (instead of rain).

I love this Technique Tuesday/Ali Edwards stamp and imagine I will be using the sentiment a lot in real life as summer rapidly approaches and I chase my kids off electronics and outside.

I used a little adhesive under the starfish charm and on the ends of the hemp cord to hold the banner in place - the anchor and ship's wheel are My Favorite Things dies.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

CAS(e) This Sketch + Tuesday Trigger Take Two + Simon Says

I was sure I had feathers in my stash somewhere, but the only ones I could put my hand on yesterday when making my card for the Tuesday Trigger were red.

I couldn't get the idea of using feathers out of my head, so did the only thing that made sense and started searching Pinterest for a paper feather template. I found this neat one  - the feathers were bigger than what I wanted, but I love the basic shapes and used them to help create this card.

The feathers & colors are inspired by the Tuesday Trigger: Feather Weather and the design comes from the CAS(E) this Sketch challenge.

Once again, because Simon Says . . . Anything Goes!, I am also linking this card up to the Simon Says Stamp challenge blog.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie