A New Thank You Card

Hope you all have had an amazing weekend! 

I'm so excited that the temperature has dropped some here in Western Georgia. 

It's still warm, but certainly cool than it was a few weeks ago.

Here is the cute little thank you card I created this weekend. 

I used the "thanks" stamp from our Feel So Blessed set, from Close to my Heart! 

If you purchased this set for $5 during September, then you already have it! 

I used Sweet Leaf exclusive ink for the sentiment. 

I used a few rhinestone bitty sparkles, to jazz it up. 

Then there're three layers of patterned paper. 

All three layers are from the Cats and Bats paper pack from Close to my Heart. 

The cobwebs layer, the orange layer and the letters layer.

I submitted my card to a few challenges this week:

Pile It On! Challenge Blog #135 Spiders/Cobwebs

Creative Moments #128 Anything Goes 

Jo's Scrap Shack Fun-Day Friday Challenge #210 Anything Goes 

Addicted To Stamps and More Challenge #263 Holiday

Sweet Stampers Challenge Blog #12 Autumn or Halloween
Cardz 4 Guyz #180 Halloween or Autumn

Some fun with a few retired items...

So tonight, I pull out a few retired stamp sets from a while back, and created this cute little card...

For this card, I kept things rather simple. 

The hearts, are three different sized hearts from the retired "Whooo's Your Valentine" Stamp Set. 

I stamped each heart using the Lagoon Mini Pigment Ink Pad, on white cardstock. This Mini Ink Pad is from the Adventure color family. Some of the hearts are stamped off once, some stamped off twice. 

Then I used my Tuxedo Black Memento Ink to stamp "Thank You" from the retired "Courage" stamp set. 

Then I trimmed the cardstock down to about 4 x 5 1/4 inches. I mounted the white cardstock on a piece of dark gray cardstock that is folded to a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card. 

Lastly, I just added a few Rhinestone Clear Sparkles to give it a little extra flare. 

If you have these sets in your collection, be sure to pull them out and give them some love. 

I also chose to enter this card into a few challenges:

Jo's Scrap Shack Fun-Day Friday Challenge #198 Anything Goes 

Not Just Cards Challenge Blog # 46 Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More #251 Anything Goes

Love To Scrap Challenge Blog #99 Mid Month Inspiration 

Christmas Is Only 155 Days Away...

That's right, 155 days or 22 weeks away. 

It will be here before you know it. Im usually pretty good about shopping for gifts throughout the year, but Christmas cards... that's a different story. 

So every year I start in July, and I still don't always finish in time.

 In my defense however, we don't receive many cards, and I usually end up sending folks cards, that never send us one, so I at least start with the ones that do send us one first. 

So for this card, I kept things rather simple. 

I started with a white card base, which I rarely do, but for this I decided to go with white. 

I cut 1/2 inch strips of several pieces of Fundamentals Papers. 

There's probably at least 1 pattern from each color family. 

The larger red strip in the middle, was cut at 1 inch. 

I adhered each strip, then trimmed down the edges. 

The sentiment "Happy Holidays" is from the current stamp set "Short & Sweet" Sentiments. 

The outline is a stamp from our older retired "Cute Koalas" stamp set, in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. 

After stamping the sentiment with my Cranberry Mini Pigment Pad, I also sponged the edges, after fussy cutting it out.

I cut a 1 1/2 inch circle out of the yellow patterned paper from the Prickly Pear Paper Pack. I cut it in half so that each side peeks out from behind the sentiment. 

Then I adhered two small Rhinestone Clear Sparkles for a little extra pizzazz. 

Lastly, I sponged the inside of the card with my Cranberry Mini Pigment Ink Pad. 

I will add this card to my collection of Christmas cards that are ready to go the day after Thanksgiving. 

I also chose to submit this card to a few challenges:

Cards TV Card Crazy Crafters Anything Goes Challenge #6

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra

Christmas Cards All Year Round Anything Goes

C. R. A. F. T. Challenge #425 Christmas

Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenge #17

Merry Monday 2nd Annual Christmas In Summer Link Up

ABC Christmas Challenge N is for New & O is for Old 

Christmas in July

When you have a large family and plenty of friends, you have to start your Christmas card making early...  

So this evening I sat down and started making a few Christmas cards.

I utilized the Jack Paper Packet from Close to my Heart, for the red and green patterned paper. 

The sentiment is a simple, "Just for You" which is perfect for a gift card inside or a card attached to a gift.  This versatile stamp is part of the Petite Perks "Just For You" stamp set. This cute little set has 4 different sentiments. 

As an incentive from me, any order placed in the month of July on my personal website or with me, for $20 or more, will receive a free Petite Perks "Just For You" stamp set. 

How fun is that? A FREE stamp set! 

Once your order is placed, I will ship you the set absolutely free! If you do not already have a 2 x 2 acrylic block or larger, you may wish to add that to your order. It is the recommended block for this FREE stamp set.

I kept the embellishments simple for this one, and only added two Rhinestones, and added a bit of ink sponged around the edges. 

I also added this card to a few Challenges:

Cardz TV: Christmas in July Challenge #1

CraftyHazelnut's: Christmas Challenge Extra for July 

Christmas Cards All Year Round: July Challenge Anything Goes

Jo's Scrapshack: Fun Friday Challenge #196 Anything Goes

Deep Ocean Challenge Blog: #158 Lots of Layers

A Little Marker Fun...

I created this card, just to have an excuse to bring out my Markers... I mean really, who doesn't like to color?

I used my ShinHan Twin Markers, to color in my image. 

The sentiment is from the Close to my Heart, Petite Perks "Just For You" stamp set. 

Two simple Rhinestones in the corner for a little bling.

I also added this card to the DL.ART JULY linky challenge.

New Card for a Few Challenges

Hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July!

We had a chance to relax, did little grilling and then went on the base so the kids could play at the park and watch fireworks. I love that we have the freedom to do just about anything to celebrate. Overall it was a great day!My husband is retired Army, therefore patriotic holidays are usually spent with a great deal of pride of his accomplishments and sacrifices. Therefore you will notice that this is the second card this week that was red, white and blue. 

This card didn't take too terribly long. I utilized Sketch Saturday #470, for the format.  

Here is the actual Sketch:

Then I added a few extra embellishments to meet the guidelines for a couple of challenges. 

There's a ribbon tab, and a few rhinestones for some sparkle. My favorite way to add ribbon, is to create the little tab, as you see here. I like using it this way, because it gives just a touch of ribbon without taking over the card, but also I am able to utilize scraps and small pieces of ribbon.

I even pulled the Cricut out for the oval layers, and flourishes at the bottom.

The sentiment is stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, and the You're the Best stamp from the Petite Perks set "Just for You" by Close to my Heart. 

The inside of the card, is matted with little ink for the distressed look.

This card is also submitted to the following challenges:

Glitter & Sparkle Challenge Blog: #246 Freedom

Cards In Envy: Patriotic Please

Jo's Scrap Shack: #195 Fun- Day Friday Anything Goes

As You Like It Challenge : Favorite Way To Add Ribbon & Why

 Deep Ocean Challenge Blog : #158 Lots of Layers

The Ribbon Girl Blog: July Card Challenge

Shopping Our Stash: #310 Flag Day

SugarPea Designs: Mix It Up Challenge #33

Paper Sweeties: #57 July 2017 Challenge