Guy's Layered Birthday

Masculine cards are not as common as girly cards so I wanted to share this birthday card with you. I love this patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket that I bought a couple years ago; the patterns a colors are great. I cut a few different size rectangles and layered them at different heights using dimensionals. The yellow mesh strip is actually drywall mesh tape that i snuck from my Dad's garage to provide a unique and interesting element. My white card base seemed a bit too stark so I used a bit of blue shimmer spray to add interest and tie it in with the patterned paper. Last but not least, I added a screw head brad to highlight the sentiment and make sure it didn't get lost in the busy patterns.

Heart-filled Gumball

PaperCrafts Magazine puts out some fabulous special issues. A recent one, which I think will prove to be one of my all time favorites, is Card Design Handbook. As someone who has never taken art classes, I am so excited to have a guide like this!! Anyway Cath has challanged the followers of her Moxie Fab World blog, of which I am a HUGE fan, to try out some of the concepts taught. The card I made today is for the Gallon/Quart/Pint challange. I went with a clean and graphic style for this one, and used the cute little heart-filled gumball machine from a long retured Stampin' Up set.
Hopefully I be able to find some time to enter some of the other challanges too. There are five in all, and the deadline is Monday the 24th so I should be able to challange myself with at least one more this weekend :)

Happy Fall!!

Enjoy the Ride

Can I just say how much a love this car image by Papertrey Ink?! It's part of their set called Enjoy the Ride. I've had my eye on this set for about a year now and finally purchased it a few weeks ago *happy dance.* I love how there are so many little license plate messages in the set. The little flowers on the car are not part of the set; they are just doodled by me to make it a hippie car :) My colors are so saffron, melon mambo, and then the card base is an old SU In Color that I'm not sure of.
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the ride!!

Summer Fun

  

With the hot summer we've had, I was inspired to make these two cards that have a keep cool, celebrate summer theme. For the first card I used Sprinkler Girl from the Pure Innocence collection by My Favorite Things along with their grass die cut. Both the bathing suit and the large strip of design paper are from Basic Grey's Konnichiwa collection.

For this second card, I pulled out my coordinating Island Oasis design paper and Tropical Party stamp set by SU. I absolutely adore this coconut drink stamp; it's so fun!! I stamped it in chocolate chip ink, colored in the straw and umbrella with watercolor pencils, and then layered it on a piece of So Saffron. The Happiness sentiment is from the Warm Words set; and that is exactly what comes to mind when thinking of a tropical drink and summer fun.
So enjoy the rest of your summer!!

Dance

I have two cards to share today. The first one was created using paper from Basic Grey's Plumeria line which I just can't get enough of!! Because I wanted to keep the patterned paper as the main focus, I kept the rest clean and simple. My card base is smaller than normal at 4 1/4" tall by 5" wide and the color is River Rock. The Friendship symbol is from the old SU set called Symbols of Silicitude which I punched out using the Curly Label punch and adhered using dimensionals to make it stand out a bit.

I created this card using my new Blue Skies set by Verve which I just love. The whimsical butterflies are so beautiful. I colored them in using markers in Pool Party and Island Indigo; I'm still experimenting/getting used to shading with the markers. The idea and layout for this card came from a gorgeous card made by Jen del Muro of Verve; check it out.
Thanks for stopping by!

Kites in the Sky

Here's another card I created with the Up, Up, and Away set by Papertrey Ink. I love the fun pattern stamps in this set, so I used all three in different colors to dress up my kites. My colors are Mambo Melon, Rich Razzleberry, and Tempting Turquoise on Bashful Blue cardstock. For the clouds, I chose Versamark ink so that they would look softer and further away. I love how quickly this card went together and the fact that it is a one layer card without looking to simple. Definitely going to get a lot of use out of this stamp set! :o)

Summer sky

Happy July! For this summery birthday card, I used the hot air balloons from the Up, Up, and Away set by PaperTrey Ink and then colored them in using markers.  I die cut the clouds out of tissue paper to give them a more transparent, realistic look. My sky and hills are patterned paper by DCWS and the sentiment is by PaperTrey Ink as well.
Have a happy 4th!!