Cardmaker BIRTHDAY Color Challenge Hop

Hello! Before I get to the original purpose of the blog hop....I wanted to take a minute to wish a HAPPY Birthday to Brooke!  She is the managing editor of Cardmaker Magazine and the one who keeps us all organized and on track on the Cardmaker blog!

Here is the birthday card I made for her:

 Wishing you a very happy birthday, Miss Brooke! xo

Now....onto the card that I created for our monthly Cardmaker Blog team hop.  This month, Brooke challenged us to create a birthday card using the colors in this inspiration photo:

 Photo credit

Here is my take on the challenge:

I needed a birthday card for a special young lady who will be turning 16 soon.  You can read more about her story HERE.

I used my Imaginisce i-top tool to create the coordinating brad :)  So fun!  The bottom panel is embossed with the Cuttlebug numbers folder.  I hand stitched the frame that is holding the number sentiment.  I die cut the flower from some felt and put the brad through the center.

Supplies:

white cardstock (Gina K Designs); aqua, grey cardstock

Die- By the Numbers (My Favorite Things); label Nestabilities (Spellbinders); flower trio (My Favorite Things)

felt- Smoky shadow (Papertrey Ink)

Imaginisce- i-top tool
ink-Memento tuxedo black
stamps- Sentiment sampler (Paper Smooches)

baker's twine- Caribbean (The Twinery)

clip- (Stampin' Up!)

cuttlebug numbers folder (Provocraft)

ribbon- white seam binding

sewing machine

Patterned paper- Little Girl (Echo Park)

Head on over to the rest of the team's blogs to see more color inspired cards:

Tami

Trudy

Colleen

Kimberly

Cardmaker blog

Thanks for stopping by!

Imaginisce Hop

Hi There! Welcome to the Cardmaker Blog Team imaginisce Blog Hop!  Imaginisce is the amazing company behind the I-Top and they generously gifted the team with the i-top tool and all the fun punches and brads/button accessories to go along with it. THANK YOU imaginisce!!

So, today we are sharing all of the creations we made!  I am excited to see what all the gals made! This tool was a blast! As I started playing around with it...I thought of more and more ways to play with it.  I have so many ideas in my head but settled on these for today:

For my first card, I used the small 16 mm brads to create a paper rainbow--I covered each brad with colors of the rainbow and then I poked them through the card stock layer.  After inserting the brads in the rainbow shape, I took some twine and ran it under the brads and tied it on one side.  I added the cloud with sentiment on the other side of the rainbow:

(Stickers (SRM Stickers), baker's twine (The Twinery)

Tip: when using paper with your i-top, it is sometimes helpful to lightly moisten the paper with a damp paper towel to make the paper more pliable. It will remove the paper wrinkles. 

For my next card, I went super simple.  I covered a large 34 mm brad with fabric to create the center of the flower.  The flower itself is actually made with the coordinating punch that you can use to punch the paper for the brads.  I thought it made a fun flower with a covered brad in the center:

 (Stamp- Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches); baker's twine (The Twinery)

Finally, I ventured off the card "path" (smack my hand) but I wanted to make something else with these.  I designed a simple Scotty Dog stuffed animal (I can post details on this later if you are interested.) I sewed and stuffed the animal and then I wanted to make him a fun collar.  So, I used two 16 mm brads and one 22 mm brad and attached them to some baker's twine (The Twinery) that I gently wrapped around the neck. I bent the brad prongs around the twine and using a wire tool, wrapped them back so they would stay in place.

It was so much fun to play with the i-top tool. Thanks again, imaginisce!!!


Now before you venture too far, head on over to Trudy's blog for some more imaginisce inspiration!!

Here is the complete blog hop list in case you get lost along the way:
Cardmaker Blog
Tami Mayberry
Carolyn King (You are here!)
Trudy Sjolander
Colleen Schaan
Kimberly Crawford
and also joining us this week---
Melanie Muenchinger and
Lora Brickman

Thanks for stopping by today!

My Favorite Releases from CHA!

Hello!  I am finally recovering from the time change from attending CHA earlier this week.  CA is a lot farther of a flight from PA than it was from Texas and it hit me harder than usual.  I just downloaded some of the product pictures I took and thought I would share some of my favorite products that will be coming to stores very soon!

First up---this Scissor Mouse by Westcott.  This is really cool. There is a blade underneath and you run it along your paper just like a computer mouse.  It runs smoothly and the best part---you don't have to put it on a mat...there is a protector underneath that protects the surface so you can cut anywhere:

SRM Stickers new release includes these crystal clear border stickers- We've Got Your Border-- that you can add to anything---cards, scrapbook pages, the Tubes, ribbon etc! Fun to be able to create your own patterns:

I love these 3d pieces from Studio 490 (Ranger).  You can stamp them with coordinating stamps, add patterned paper and/or ink:

Paper Smooches (Kim Hughes) released new stamps for CHA that will be available in March.  The collection features wonderful backgrounds and some more adorable hand drawn images that we all know and love:

October Afternoon had a big display of their Sprinkler sprays in so many colors that coordinate with their papers and I really liked the new collection called 9 to 5:

Little Yellow Bicycle always has fun papers and embellishments and I was excited to see what was new with them.   The Escape (June release) features these papers and embellishments. Cute!

 And this is Splash (May Release)....soo cute. Love those fish and the circle paper:

 Jillibean Soup stands out to me because they have their own style, never confused with another brand.  I love the little Cool Bean Buttons:

They have some great paper lines coming out too---this one is called Southern Chicken Dumpling Soup! (I love how they name their lines!)

 Echo Park Paper has several lines being released and they have some smaller collections being released with the thought that those collections are needed but you might not need a whole collection.  The themes of these range from 4th of July to sports.  Very cool.

They also have some full releases coming out and here are two of my favorites--
Note to Self:

 This & That:

Clever Handmade is a new paper company by Heidi Grace that features paper but also other products that enable you to go beyond the typical paper projects...definitely clever stuff!

Here is a look at the Decorative Iron ons:

 And this is one of my favorite lines called Above the Clouds:  (VERY cute but hard to photograph with the lighting)

Finally, Nikki Sivils has some really cute lines---
I loved these--- Audrey and Exit Here:

 

There was so much to see and look at that I am sure I missed a lot of great things.  I was really interested in checking out the new paper lines and products that were new and unique.  One other product I really liked but failed to get a picture of was by Imaginisce--the ribbon cutter. It cuts and seals the ribbon in one step. Very cool!

CHA was so much fun but now I can't wait to get my hands on all the new stuff!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Warm Winter Wishes Hop!

Hi Everyone! Tonight is the Gina K Designs Blog Hop for my new set- Warm Winter Wishes.

It has been a really busy week here....but I managed to finish this little box pretty quickly:I picked up the box at Hobby Lobby and just covered it with some designer paper and ribbon. I thought the window at the top was the perfect place for the little snowman. Once again, I masked off the hat on the snowman before stamping.

I added some rhinestones all around the window and added a ribbon bow. This really took no time to create. And it makes a nice presentation for a special Christmas gift.

Materials used: Stamps-Warm Winter Wishes (Gina K Designs); Copic markers; memento black ink; cardstock-white (Gina K Designs); designer paper-Perfectly Posh (Imaginisce); rhinestones (The Paper Studio); ribbon: red- Gina K Designs Holidaycollection, small box (Hobby Lobby); stripes-May Arts.

For even more inspiration visit the Idea Center gallery HERE.

Then, check in with my special guest designers:

Charlene Merrick

Tina Gilliland

Deb Anton

And, finally stop by these GinaK Designer's blog participating in the hop tonight:

Cathy Tidwell
Cindy Lawrence
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Lee Murphy
Nina Brackett
Melanie Muenchinger
Tami Mayberry
Theresa Momber

and our CenterStage Spotlight Team:

Joy Hadden
Kay Simmons
Linda Payne
Lori McAree

GinaK will be giving away a copy of Warm Winter Wishes on her blog tonight - so pop over there to leave your comment on her blog for your chance to win the set for free! (If you've already purchased the stamp set, we can swap it out for another GinaK stamp set valued at $19.95 or less.)

Blog Candy--Want another chance to win this set? Just leave a comment on this post by Friday night at 8 p.m. central and Random. Cara will select a winner. Subscribers can enter twice. Winner must contact me within four days to claim prize or a new winner will be chosen.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Special MFT Blog Hop

I missed last week's My Favorite Things blog hop showing off this new set called Spring Sprouts by a talented new illustrator, Sara Williams. So this is my own private blog hop. No place to hop to---so you'll just have to stay here! (Insert evil giggle!)

Here is my card:
The flowers on the ends are popped up and I added a brad to the centers. I added a button to the middle flower. All flowers are colored with Copic markers.

I love how Spring-y this set is...and the images and sentiments work perfectly for scrapbook pages as well as cards!

Materials used: Stamps-Spring Sprouts (My Favorite Things); Memento Tuxedo black ink; Copic markers; dp-Twitterpated, Colorfall (Imaginisce) ; brads (SU!); button (The Paper studio); notebook punch (SU!); ribbon (May Arts, Pinecone Press); Spellbinders ribbon slider dies; cuttlebug; Stapler; paper piercing tool and mat pack; olive su marker; dimensionals (SU!).

Thanks for stopping by!

Fiesta Penguin

This penguin knows how to party--TEXAS style!

Well, it is Monday again---time for the CCEE challenge. This week, was a supply challenge. Frances sent us all cute penguin stamps (girl and boy)-and this dp! I just LOVE this dp (as soon as I find out who makes it I will add that in this post!--It is Imaginisce too!!!) The challenge was to use one stamp and the designer paper...giggle! How easy was this.

This card has lots of dimension---I wanted to really use the designer paper and so I cut out some of the images (like the beach ball and the flower and the ice cream cone) to use on the card. Tip: When using images cut from patterned paper, cut the image out and then use a black marker to edge the image. This helps it stand out a bit more. Stampin' Up black marker works great because it leaves the line without bleeding. Copic markers will not work well for this.

The paper has lots of touches of glitter and I colored the penguin to match, adding lots of Clear Copic Spica glitter.

Here is photo so you can see the dimension that this card has...definitely not a .42 card!

Materials used: Stamp by Imaginisce; cardstock-red, brocade blue, white (Stampin Up!); Designer paper (Imaginisce!); tab punch (SU!); eyelet (SU!); ribbon (Offray); cord (SU!); Copic markers; Cuttlebug and Nestability dies; Pink prismacolor pencil; Copic spica clear pen; dimensionals (SU!).

Thanks for stopping by!