Red, White and Blue

In honor of the 4th of July, several blogs hosted Red, White and Blue challenges this weekend. Our Creative Corner and Penny Black Saturday Challenge both asked their visitors to use this color scheme. Sketch Saturday posted their usual sketch, but issued the optional challenge to use Red, White and Blue. Creating a card using the color scheme wasn’t much of a challenge. Incorporating a Penny Black stamp had me stumped a bit. Eventually, I made a decision and here is what I came up with:

I just couldn’t resist using Hang In There with the Independence Day sentiment. What do you think?

 

Christmas in July

I have been busy pursuing crafty pursuits other than cardmaking over the past week or so. I completed the two Bo-Bunny chipboard books as well as six pages in my family scrapbook. But, today, I decided that I wanted to get back into a bit of cardmaking. The card that I made should work for 3 different challenges: My Time to Craft – No Patterned Paper, Stamp Something – Christmas in July, and Friday Sketchers. Here is what I came up with:

I used two solid sheets of cardstock for the card and the triangle. the stripe behind the snowman is a Creative Memories sticker as is the bell which is the circle embellishment from the Friday Sketchers sketch. I just moved it up to the top of my image rather than having it at the bottom corner.

Photographing this card proved harder than expected for whatever reason, but I think that you get the idea. Let me know what you think.

 

Crazy for Chipboard Books

When I was off from work the other day, I headed over to Great Scraps where I found two very summery-themed chipboard book kits from Bo-Bunny. Now, I have never done anything with the chipboard books and, to be honest, my craft knife scares me. But, I had seen a couple of ladies working on one of the kits on one of my recent trips to Create IT Crafts and I decided that it didn’t look that hard.

Not surprisingly, I have been obsessed with working on these two books. The first one (the one that I saw the ladies working on at Create IT Crafts) was the Bo-Bunny Fun in the Sun kit which I decided to make for my younger son. Here are a couple of photos of the completed book:

It has a lot of fun little hiding places for photos inside and the bright colors suit my son’s personality.

It really wasn’t that hard to do, so with the second kit – The Bo-Bunny Endless Summer kit – I got a bit more ambitious. The pages in this kit all are various arrows and there was a lot of opportunity for me to form a long-lasting bond with my craft knife. Here are some pictures of this completed book:

Believe it or not, these colors actually suit my older son quite well. This book was more difficult than the first one, but was still a lot of fun to put together. And, the best part is that now both of my boys will have someplace to capture a few of their favorite pictures from our upcoming trip to Hawaii.

So, how did I do? Have you used any similar kits? Do you have any suggestions of other similar types of kits that I might want to try?

 

A New Experiment

Now, for most of you,  it probably isn’t something new, but for me it is. Yesterday, I got two board book kits from Bo-Bunny: Fun in the Sun and Endless Summer. I have never worked with the chipboard books or used these types of kits so I am eager to work on them. I started one this morning, but then I had to go to work, so I didn’t get to make much progress. I hope to get more done with them over the long weekend and will try to post some pictures when I get them done.

I am thinking that they will be perfect for my boys to collect their memories from our upcoming Hawaii trip.

 

Patriotic Celebration

I knew that ABC Challenge was back up to the letter U but I had no idea what they would pick for this week’s theme. I was very excited when I checked the site earlier and saw that U is for United States and that the challenge was to create a card using Red, White and Blue. As the boys and I set out to run our errands, I knew that one stop was going to be the local Michaels so that I could get some papers to use for the challenge. Here is what I came up with:

I love this little zebra stamp so I am always happy to use him regardless of what the cause for celebration might be. This time, I stamped him in blue and colored his sparkler using red marker and white Stickles. The little button embellishments read Spirit and Brave even though they are a bit hard to read in the photo. The layout of the card is actually inspired by a scrapbook layout that I found in Easier-than-Ever (page 46). What do you think of my interpretation?

 

Little Boy Mojo

I am looking forward to having a bit of time off from work over the coming weeks. I hope to use the time to create some cards and to get some scrapbook pages done because I know that by the end of the summer I will be inundated with photos.

This morning, I spent a little bit of time working on a card based on the latest Mojo Monday sketch. Here is what I came up with:

All of the supplies were just from my stash. I do love this image of the Teddy bear nestled in the moon from Inkadinkado. What do you think of it? of the card as a whole?

 

Not My Usual

I know that my posts are supposed to be about cards and scrapbooking and crafts but this one is going to be about something a bit different. One of my friends and colleagues just launched his new web comic, Bedlam Court, today. Anyone who has been following me for awhile knows that I live in a house with two boys, two cats and two dogs. Knowing this about me will help you to understand why it is that I am so excited about Bedlam Court. It is my life.

I am also working with the creator of Bedlam Court and hoping that he will eventually produce a line of stamps based on the characters of Bedlam Court. Check it out and if you love it, leave Bryan a little love there, and then come back here and let me know how you would feel about seeing these crazy hijinks translated into a line of stamps.

 

The Journey

When I saw the latest challenge over at Cute Card Thursday: Wheely Good Fun, I knew that I wanted to join in the fun, but I just didn’t have any images that worked. So, last night on my way home from work, I stopped by one of the local craft stores to check out their stamps. Not a single image stamp included wheels in any way. I didn’t give up hope and instead found a sentiment stamp and some stickers that I could use to create a Wheely Good Fun card. Now, to figure out how to put it all together. I decided to use the latest sketch from Friday Sketchers turned on its side. While my card isn’t nearly as beautiful as the DT creations, I think it fits my style and I like how it turned out:

What do you think?

 

Sage and Gold

The challenge over at ABC Challenge this week is to create a two-tone card. When I envisioned the card, I was thinking that I wanted to create something using pink and black. Unfortunately, when I went to the craft store on my way home from work, I didn’t find black and pink that would work. Oh well. I went back to the drawing board and selected some sage green and gold papers and embellishments to create this:

When I showed it to my sons, they said that it was not my usual style, but I think that it has an understated elegance to it. What do you think?

 

Two Challenges for Tuesday

The card that I finished up this morning was for two challenges. When I was at the craft store over the weekend, I bought a couple of sheets of Basic Gray paper that I knew that I wanted to use for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge – Pink and Green. As you will see, I included some brown, so I hope that is okay. I had the papers but I wasn’t quite sure what else I wanted to do, so when I saw the sketch over at House Mouse Monday, I decided to work from it. I did divert from the sketch a teeny bit but I think that you still get the feel.

Here is the card that I made:

On the sketch, the circle is more under the image, but when I saw the rows of 3 brads or eyelets, I thought that it would be cute to weave some ribbon between them. I also added the little cupcake brad to extend the cupcake theme from the image.

What do you think of my interpretation of the sketch and my use of pink and green?