Creative Journey

My Whole Heart...TSTR Week #99 - 'Love is in the Air'

Hello Friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! As I mentioned earlier, we welcomed a new visitor to our family, and we have been enjoying the time with her immensely! We were able to take her to two different parties this weekend, and we have had such a great time with her! We are sending her off for a camping retreat tomorrow, and we are already missing her just thinking about the two days that we will not see her. However, we hope to be able to get together with her again at the campsite this Friday, and our family is really looking forward to it!

Well, today I have a card inspired by the Show Us Your Style Challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ,  the Ribbon Challenge at the Secret Crafters Saturday Challenges,  the Lovely Lace Challenge at Paper Play Challenges, the Diamonds or Pearls Challenge at Stamptacular Sunday and this week's Shabby Tea Room challenge #99 which includes this inspiration photo:

and calls for a VALENTINE'S DAY card or project inspired by the COLORS IN THE INSPIRATION PHOTO and WITH A MAIL OR POSTAGE ELEMENT.

Here's my card:

The background paper is from Martha Stewart, and I embossed it with a Cuttlebug folder, being careful not to emboss the postage stamp on the corner.

I layered a heart shaped doily with a length of lace and seam binding ribbon and a journaling card from Daisy D's. A single rhinestone marks the box "whole heart" on the journaling card. Finally, I embellished the card with silk flowers, Recollections pearl and rhinestone swirls, and pearl brads on the flowers and along the ribbon. If I were to choose between diamonds and pearls as an embellishment, I would pick pearls. However, I'm partial to diamonds for jewelry! ;D

I enjoyed creating this card so much, and The Shabby Tea Room happens to be such a wonderful source of inspiration for me! I hope that you all take the opportunity to create something for this week's challenge, and if you do, please let me know! Post a link to your project so I can take a peek at it as well! I would love to hear from you! :)

I also wanted to mention that my project was chosen as one of the Top 3 for the Shabby Tea Room 'Gorgeous Gateaux' Challenge #97...

and my gift box and card set was picked as the winner for the Shabby Tea Room 'Sparkly and Bright' Challenge #98!

Eeek! I was so excited and happy to hear about that! What an honor to be able to share this with you all!

Now it's time for me to help our exchange student get ready for tomorrow's camping trip! Thanks so much for visiting, and I hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow!

Love You...CardPatterns: Sketch 149

What a wonderful winter day it has turned out to be here! The temperatures are cool and the skies are fairly clear. The hills outside our home are simply beautiful! Praise God for days like this! Just looking out at the beauty is a simple reminder of God's love, and it is so inspiring being able to create projects where I can view God's creation nearby.

Today I'd like to share one of the projects I made that I hope will be a reminder of my love to someone special. It was also inspired by this week's Anything Goes Challenge at Creative Inspirations, the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp, the Pretty in Pink Challenge at Charisma Cardz, the Pixie Dust Paperie January Love Notes Challenge, and CardPatterns Sketch 149:

 

I rarely make shaped cards, but when I do, I can't help but feel delighted by its unique form. I really ought to try making more, and I resolve to do so after I set up the Silhouette Cameo I got for Christmas (yes, I'm so bad with installing and setting up equipment like that, but as soon as I clear a space on my desk for it, it shall be done! LOL! :D ).

Here's my card:

I decided to use a round Wilton doily on top of pink cardstock for the card background. This card opens from the left side, and I made sure to cut around the doily, leaving about two inches of the fold on the left to create the card base.

The cream pleated ribbon from Hobby Lobby is topped with aqua blue trim and laid across the middle of the card. The pink ruffled paper beneath the Prima flowers is actually a Martha Stewart cupcake liner. They were on sale at Michaels so I picked up a package, and I just love the scalloped edges and texture they add to the project!

 

The monogram card is from Fancy Pants, and the mini alpha stickers are from Carolee's Creations. The card wasn't complete until I added the crystal swirls from Zva. They add the perfect touch of bling, don't you think?

I have really enjoyed using the sketches over at CardPatterns to spark my creativity! They are really inspiring to me, and I hope they inspire you to create more projects as well. In fact, my card for Sketch 148 was chosen as a CardPatterns Super Six Winner, and I will be a guest designer for one of their sketches soon. I hope that you will all stay tuned and watch for it!

Thank you for stopping by for a visit today! We will be attending my mother-in-law's birthday party tomorrow, and we'll be seeing some relatives on my husband's side of the family that we haven't seen in a long time. I am really looking forward to seeing them again, and being able to do a little dancing with our family (our daughters love to dance, and they are excited about being able to do some line dances with their cousins!).  Lord willing, I'll be able to capture some photos and videos of the celebration!

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed weekend!

Cherish the Moments...TSTR Week #98 - 'Sparkly & Bright'

Hello! It's been a crazy week here, and I can't believe it's almost Friday already! Whew! The time has sure flown by, and we have been working hard to prepare our home for a visitor from China tomorrow! She will be staying with us for three weeks and will be studying with other students at our church and a sister church in Riverside County to increase their knowledge and their faith in Christ while visiting America. Lord willing, we can be a blessing and encouragement to her during her stay, and we look forward to her arrival tomorrow evening!

Well, now that you have an idea why it's been a while since my last post, I can share with you all a gift box and card for someone special that I happened to have a bit of time to put together. These projects were inspired by the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp, the Pretty in Pink Challenge at Charisma Cardz, the Anything Goes Challenge at Creative Inspirations, and The Shabby Tea Room's Sparkly & Bright challenge this week which included this inspiration photo:

Aren't the colors just gorgeous? I love it! The challenge called for projects with the colors white or cream, silver, and a dash of pink.

Here's my take on this challenge...

I used this week's Sketch 252 at Card Positioning Systems for my card:

This card started with pink Bazzill cardstock which I embossed using my Scor-Pal. I usually like to use patterned paper for my backgrounds, but I really like the look of the embossed rectangles!

I used pieces of a Making Memories metal border (that I've been hoarding for a LONG time! I love those metal borders! :D ), and a Prima die cut felt border along the center of the card. Layered on top of the doily is a journaling card from Daisy D's (yes, I confess, that's another thing I've been hoarding all these years in my stash! Heehee!).  To complete the card, I embellished the journaling card with Prima flowers, a Making Memories metal heart tag, and a jewelled center which I believe is from one of Teresa Collins's collections.

For the gift box, I painted a paper mache box with white and cream paints then added a covering of Fancy Pants pink glittered paper. I then embellished the top with a doily, layered a Martha Stewart die cut, and a vellum sentiment. To finish off the top, I added lace along the border and seam binding gathered with Prima flowers and a vintage-looking silver and pearl center (this was actually a small piece taken from a long Christmas ornament). The bottom of the box was embellished with a Paper Trey Ink die cut border and pearls.

Well, that's all from me tonight! I need to finish boxing up some of my supplies and cleaning off the mess I've made in my creative corner (a.k.a. the dining room)! I hope that all of you have a wonderful Friday and a blessed weekend!

New Things...

Today I'm back with a couple of new projects that I created this week! My husband's cousin is expecting a new baby girl in a few months, and I thought it would be great to have a card ready for the day she arrives!

This first card is actually inspired by the wonderful news of an expected new blessing in their family as well as the following sketch from My Mind's Eye:

The following card is what I created:

All of the supplies I used to create this card are from My Mind's Eye with the exception of the Prima flower, brad, lace, and doilies.

I wanted to use the 6x6 paper for the background so I made a square card and embellished it with a glittered die cut banner and glittered sentiment stiker. The seam binding ribbon and mini pompom trim were perfect for this baby card!

Since I loved the sketch so much, I decided to make another card using a different collection from My Mind's Eye:

I just love the vintage feel of this collection, and the colors are some of my favorites! This would make a great Valentine's Day card, too!

Well, I hope you all have an opportunity to create something new this weekend! I would love to be able to have more creative time today, and will try my best to have something more to share with you next week! Until then...

Beautiful Friendship...

Hello Friends!

I hope you all have had a wonderful week and are as ready for the weekend as I am! I was able to spend a day with my best friend (my husband) at Disneyland, and we had a great time there celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary! The longest wait for a ride was only 15 minutes, and we were able to go on all the ones that we wanted right away. We went shopping afterwards, and I can't wait to dig into the stuff I brought home! Hopefully, I'll be able to work on a couple of new projects I had in mind for them and share them with you all next week!

In the meantime, I will share a few cards I made today. The first one was inspired by challenge #97 at the Shabby Tea Room. Here's the inspiration photo:

The challenge calls for a project using the colors GRAY (or silver), LILAC, PEACH & PINK PLUS LACE (paper or fabric) AND A METAL EMBELLISHMENT.

And here's my card:

The patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye, and the sentiment and swan stickers are from K & Company. The card is embellished with a Tim Holtz ornate name plate, Prima flowers, a doily colored with Ballet Slipper Shimmerz Pearlz, and seam binding and lace.

The next card was inspired by this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger photo:

I loved the soft, pastel colors so I went with that as my inspiration. Here's my card:

The background paper is actually the backing from a package of K & Company die cuts. It was too pretty to discard so I used it on this card. The sticker and sentiment are from K & Company as well. A heart-shaped doily, Prima flower, Recollection swirls, and a Making Memories metal border complete this card.

That friendship card then inspired me to create another one:

The patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye and K & Company. The sentiment sticker and green vellum corners are from K & Company, and the flowers, swirls, and felt die cut are from Prima. The card is made complete with a length of lace and aqua seam binding.

Well, that's all for today! I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

Lots of Love and A Whole Lot of Pink - Mojo Monday 224

Hello Friends!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend! We happened to get a few clouds on Saturday, and then we had some showers on Sunday which was quite refreshing. However, it also brought some coldness that we have not had in a while (yes, we are spoiled here! ;D ).  Despite the clouds and gloomy weather we had today, I was able to create some projects with colors that brought some brightness to my day!

The first card is inspired by today's Mojo Monday Sketch #224:

Here's my take on the sketch:

For this card, I used patterned papers from My Mind's Eye, Prima flowers, Martha Stewart trim, and Recollection rhinestone swirls.

The next card is inspired by the Card Patterns Sketch #148 and the Pixie Dust Paperie January Love Notes challenge:

Here's my card:

There's more My Mind's eye papers on this plus die cut images from K & Company's Valentine Ephemera Die Cut Cardstock pack. I also used the filigree border die and round floral dies from the Limitless Layers collection by Paper Trey Ink and an eyelet circle die from Spellbinders. The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby, the lace is from Dollar Tree, and the rhinestone swirls are from Prima.

The last card that I'll be sharing today is inspired by Cardabilities Sketch #47 and the Pixie Dust Paperie January Love Notes challenge:

The background paper is from 7 Gypsies, and this card is layered with a Wilton circle doily and some pink My Mind's eye patterned paper punched with a Martha Stewart border punch. The momogram card is from Fancy Pants, and the mini tickets are from K & Company's Valentine Ephemera Die Cut Cardstock pack. I used Paper Trey Ink dies from the Limitless Layers collection and the Doily Details Collection. Finally, I used Prima flowers and swirls to complete the card.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope your week is filled with lots of love and colors that make you happy, too! :)

I Love You and Thanks...

Hello Friends!

I hope you all have had a wonderful week, and that you are looking forward to the weekend as I am! What an exciting week it has turned out to be for me! I am so honored to have had one of my projects chosen as a winner for last week's Mojo Monday challenge. I really appreciate all of the kind words and sweet comments I've received these past couple of days. In fact, that's how I found out about having won! So, thank you, ladies, for the encouragement! :)

Today, I'll be sharing a couple of projects I just finished. I had these in mind for a while, but I just didn't have time to get to making them until today. The first one is the first Valentine's Day card I've made this year. It was inspired by sketch #147 at Card Patterns and the January Love Notes Challenge at Pixie Dust Paperie. Here's the sketch:

Here's my take on the sketch:

I took the liberty of turning the sketch 90 degrees clockwise, and instead of equally spacing the sweet little Prima flowers, I positioned them on each end of the banner on the bottom of the card. I used a fairly old, but very pretty sentiment sticker from 7 Gypsies which was glittered with some Ranger glitter glue and layered on top of a doily. The pleated ribbon is from Hobby Lobby, and the patterned paper is from the Lost & found Madison Avenue collection from My Mind's Eye. I love how the 6x6 size of the paper fits perfectly for the design of this card!

The next card was inspired by this week's Card Positioning System Sketch #250 and challenge #96  at The Shabby Tea Room.

Here's the CPS Sketch #250:

You should see the samples that the DT created for this challenge at the Shabby Tea Room! They're all truly inspiring! Here's the inspiration photo:

Here's my card:

The challenge called for sewing-themed embellishments so I stitched the papers for the borders and added seam binding and lace to the card.

The patterned papers are from 7 Gypsies (script paper) and My Mind's Eye (aqua blue postal paper). The glittered paper is from DCWV. The chipboard fleur de lis is from Tattered Angels and is topped with one of the Tim Holtz ornate plates. The alpha stickers are from Making Memories, the flower is from Dollar Tree, and the lace is from Joann's.

Well, I hope you take a moment to visit the challenge blogs linked above. They provide such wonderful prompts that inspire us to get creative, and I hope you have a chance to create something special this weekend from the inspiration that you see there!

I've got to get around  to cleaning up some of the mess that I've made today so that I can get to work making a new mess tomorrow, and hopefully, that will result in my having some more projects to share with you soon! ;D

 

Many Thanks...

Good afternoon! What another beautiful day we're having here!  I can see the bright blue skies and lush green hills through the windows near my desk, and it's absolutely lovely! Praise God for His wonderful creation!

Today, I would like to share a couple of projects that I've created. Both are thank you cards, and I have to confess that I have enjoyed making them! Whenever I create thank you cards, I am reminded of the blessings for which I ought to be thankful, and my heart simply fills with joy at the thought of how gracious the Lord is to us!  I will have to share about our family's experience this past Thanksgiving at a later time, but it is one of the events that truly reminds me of His loving care for us in the midst of an unexpected disaster and potential tragedy.

Well...on to the projects!

The first card was inspired by this week's Mojo Monday sketch, the Pink Elephant TPE130 Challenge, and the Moxie Fab World Die Cutting Challenge.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on the sketch:

See that pretty rose? Well, that was actually created using Tim Holtz's Tattered Pine Cone die. When I assembled the flower, I simply formed it by curling down the petals and shaping it to look more like a rose rather than a pine cone!

For this year, I've decided to try to use as much of the papers and embellishments that I've been saving to create more projects. I'm hoping that I'll be able to whittle down some of my accumulated stash so that I can justify buying new stuff soon! Heehee! :)  I used a Teresa Collins text paper for the background, a piece of damask paper from My Mind's Eye Home collection (from the 6x6 paper pad), a journaing card from Creative Imaginations, and a sentiment stamp from Paper Trey Ink's Think Big Favorites #1 stamp set. 

This card is also embellished with lace from Hobby Lobby, Prima crystal swirls, and glitter paper swirls that were die cut using Tim Holtz's Elegant Flourishes die. I stitched the Melissa Frances glitter heart and added a couple of flowers from Michaels to finish it off!

The next card was inspired by the With Thanks Challenge at Creative Inspirations.  I didn't get it posted in time before the challenge deadline, but I wanted to give credit for the inspiration source. :)

For this card, I embossed the card front with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, layered a length of pleated ribbon from Hobby Lobby onto a piece of stitched patterned paper, added a journaling card from Creative Imaginations, and layered the left over piece of the journaling card from the first card above. The sentiment is made using Making Memories mini alpha stickers, and the card is finished off with Prima flowers, a Tattered Angels chipboard frame, and Sizzix swirls die cut from green glitter paper.

Thanks so much for visiting today! May you all have time to create something beautiful, and I hope you all have a blessed week!

Cherish...

Hello Friends!

We have been enjoying some unusually warm days in Southern California this week, and it almost seems like spring/early summer rather than the wintertime here! It has been wonderful, and I truly cherish days like this when our family can go out together and enjoy each other's company.

I suppose the weather has influenced the card that I've created recently, and I have to mention that the current challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room greatly inspired it as well. Here's the inspiration photo for the challenge:

We were also asked to created a project that included something with wings. Using  sketch #46 from Cardabilities:

This is what I created:

I used a couple of Martha Stewart butterfly punches to create the butterflies and embellished them with tiny pearls. The printed paper is actually a journaling sheet from Prima, the large flower is from Prima as well, and the rhinestone swirls and turquoise trim is from Recollections. The sentiment was die cut with a Spellbinders Labels Eighteen die from an old sheet of Making Memories definitions that I had in my stash, and the doily is from Wilton.

I hope you're enjoying the weather wherever you are, and want to thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit today!

Blessings,

Christine

Happy New Year!

Hello dear friends!

I hope and pray that all of you enjoyed a wonderful holiday season! I know I say this often, but I can't believe how quickly time has gone by! It has been quite some time since I have updated my blog, and I thought it would be a good time to begin again with a new project that I just created today. Yes, it's the first one for this year, and truth be told, it's probably the fifth project that I've created in the past year (REALLY! No joking! :D).

This is the card that I created using today's sketch (Sketch #222) over at Mojo Monday. The MM sketches and designers are so inspiring! I just had to pull out some papers that I had been hoarding in my stash and make this:

Please forgive me for the dark photo. After such a long break from blogging, I feel like I'm re-learning how to photograph and edit photos all over again! Hehe! :)

Here's a close-up of the front of the card:

The papers are from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Collection called Portobello Road. I used the papers from the 6x6 paper pad, and they are perfect for making cards like this! The banner and sentiment were cut from the papers in the pad and were embellished with a bit of Ranger Crystal Stickles, silver alpha stickers from Stampendous, and aqua seam binding ribbon. The flower is from Prima, and the ribbon and trim are from the local craft store. I also embossed the paper beneath the mini banner with a damask Cuttlebug embossing folder for added texure.

I am looking forward to being able to share more creations with you all again, and I am already planning what I will be posting in the near future with you. There are some loose strings that need to be tied, and I will be working on those hopefully this weekend so stay tuned!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! It is a true blessing to be able to create again! I hope that you are inspired to create something with the sketch as well, and if you do, please let me know! I would love to see your creations, too!

Much love and blessings to you all!

~ Christine