Hey there! Happy hump day! I'm so happy today! I got my garden planted this weekend and we got through our first series of tornado warnings! Hubby and I were standing on the back patio watching about three centers swirl right above our heads wondering if a funnel cloud/tornado was going to drop out of one of them. Needless to say, I was a bit stressed last night! lol Ah, the joys of the early summer!
My garden will be lush and hopefully brimming with all kinds of goodies! I planted tomatoes and tomatilloes, green beans, peas, yellow, zucchini, scallop and spaghetti squashes, cucumbers, basil, thyme, sage, parsley, chives, edamame, serrano peppers and pumpkins! Cross your fingers for me! I love a prolific garden - it's so fun to watch and share.
Onto my cards for today...I have a lot of blogs in my Google reader, as I'm sure a lot of you do. I tend to scroll through and find things that catch my fancy, right click and save a copy for further inspiration. Well, I used some of that inspiration this past weekend for a baby shower and also at the beginning of the month when I needed a Mother's Day card for my sweet SIL. CASEing is so helpful when you don't have a ton of time to create a beautiful card for someone - all the hard work is already done for you! Here's the mother's day card.
This design came from an
Easter card that Debbie Olson posted on her blog. I chose to go with a purple and green version because I only have satin ribbon in the plum pudding color. I like the result though.
My card is different from Debbie's with the flower/ribbon color, the sentiment, the small die cut behind the button and the stamp I used in the background.
The lavender sprig from Life is colored up with SU markers in Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss and stamped off a couple of times. The cleavers sprig is stamped in Spring Moss ink. The main image is cut out with a long rectangle Nestabilitie die and sponged with a light blue chalk while still in the die. The background is stamped in Spring Moss ink on SM cardstock with one of the larger images from Turning a New Leaf. The background paper is up on dimensionals from the card base. The die behind the button is from the Fleur de Lis pendant die set. I think it looks like a leaf behind the button - something I may have to do again later!
Now for the baby shower card. I love Baby Button Bits - it has so many great images in it! Strangely, I've only used the bee image with buttons so far. I used another of
Debbie's cards as inspiration for this one. I truly copied this one with the supplies that I have because I had about an hour to make it. Funny how I know about things well in advance but tend to wait until the very last minute to make something!
I may have to make a stack of these to keep on hand because I think they're so cute! I really love the pops of black on this card - it just works for me! I think this card would be so fun done in nontraditional colors - like the new Hawaiian Shores or Hibiscus Burst. The couple we gave this to have chosen to not know the sex of the baby, so I kept this gender neutral.
The wings are colored with a Sakura Clearstar pen and then I spread the glitter around with an Aquapainter.
Everything is stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink and embossed with clear ep. I chose a button with four holes to mimic the stripes on a bee and threaded them through the cardstock - I'm surprised I had the patience for this! lol The black bow is a cheater bow created by making a ribbon loop and tying a button around it. I have the Bow Easy now, so we'll have to see if my bows get better!
The inside uses Inside and Out: Baby. I've started using this set on the baby cards I sell and feel that it gives them a much more polished look. Rarely do people want to have to think of something to fill up all that space on the inside of a card - me especially! These sets are so worth the money! Most of the inside is embossed. I decided to add the congratulations at the last minute once everything was assembled and didn't want to deal with the mess, so it got stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black.
That's about it for today! I'm off to go play in the garden {I have more flowers to plant} and push the boy on the swing! Hope you are all having a wonderful week - woohoo, it's already half over! :o) lyss
SUPPLIES ~
MOTHER'S DAY CARD:
STAMPS: PTI Damask Designs, Mother, Life & Turning a New Leaf
INK: PTI Plum Pudding & Spring Moss; SU Mellow Moss & Perfect Plum markers
PAPER: PTI Rustic White & Spring Moss
OTHER: PTI Plum Pudding satin ribbon & vintage button; Spellbinders Classic Long Rectangle Nestabilities, Fleur de lis pendant die & Ribbon Slide Tag die; PTI Rustic Cream twine; Pebbles Pearlescent Chalks; dimensionals; glue dots
BABY CARD:
STAMPS: PTI Baby Button Bits & Inside and Out Baby
INK: Versafine Onyx Black; Memento Tuxedo Black
PAPER: PTI Rustic White, True Black & Pretty Pastels DP
OTHER: Copics {Y21, Y32, Y38}; PTI True Black saddle stitch ribbon & vintage button; PTI Lemon Tart vintage button; paper piercer; black embroidery floss; Sakura Clearstar pen; Filigree clear embossing powder; dimensional tape; aquapainter; glue dots
This sketch is sponsored by Sew Many Cards Digital Stamps. They were generous enough to allow the design team to play with an image of their choice. I chose the Airplane with the blank banner. If you buy the set of the airplane, it comes with an I miss you banner and a Come Visit banner. 
