Sympathy cards

It's always hard to make Sympathy cards and I don't usually make them unless I need to. I was under pressure to make two tonight after hearing of the sudden death of a close friend's brother today. His nephew is staying with us and we are taking him to the airport tomorrow so that he can be there for the funeral on the weekend. These two cards I've made are for the two families. I have decided to use the PTI Boutique Borders again, this time with the flourish outside the frame. The flower is made using the Lovely Layers dies. Thank you for dropping by.

Challenges:

PTI Make It Monday - Stamped Square Frames

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Keep it Clean and Simple

Ingredients:

Neenah Solar White, Vellum, PTI Boutique Borders - Birthday, Lovely Layers and Everyday Photofinishers, Hero Arts Soft Granite and Navy, Ranger Archival Coffee, American Crafts Jewel Brads.

CASE Study 159

Has anyone noticed that I'm obsessed with CASE Study Challenges this month! That's because I've discovered an amazing designer - Kathy Racoosin and I absolutely love her style! This is the last CSC challenge with Kathy as the muse this month and I could not make any other cards until I've done this one. Here is my card and the CSC159 card after that. Thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients

Neenah Solar White and Desert Storm card, Papertrey Ink Lovely Layers and Bows and Ribbons, Hero Arts Navy midtone ink, MFT Fishtail layers STAX, Sizzix Tim Holtz embossing folder, American Crafts brad, Hemp from Hemtique, white gel pen.

Published in CARDS July 2013

As it has been a month since my card was published in CARDS July issue and the August issue is now out, I'm allowed to show my card online. I still don't have a copy of the magazine, but can see an online version of it. This card was submitted to the wedding category for the submission call. I love the photo they have taken for the magazine page! At the time, I had just received my PTI 'Lovely Layers' stampset and dies and I combined it with my favourite papers from Pink Paislee. Sadly, I don't have much of the papers left as I made quite a few cards out of the 6x6 pack! I also have another card in the current August issue of CARDS in the Sketch category, I will share details next month.
Did anyone notice that I got another mention on the Paper Smooches Sparks blog for this card submitted for the Picture Perfect challenge? I'm having so much fun with my new PS stamps! Thanks for dropping by!

CARDS Jul 2013 - pg30

Ingredients for card:
Neenah Natural White, Pink Paislee London Market,SSS Banner Sentiment, PTI Lovely Layers stamp and dies, MFT Dienamics Flag STAX, SSS Folded banner die, HA Soft Granite, Hemp from Hemptique, Kaisercraft pearl brad

Splash of green!

I've been itching to play with this challenge ever since it was posted. Why? And I don't even like the colour green? Well what intrigued me was that Pantone announced the colour 'Green' as the colour of the year for 2013 and so Play Date Cafe decided to add it to their challenge. Why I don't like green? It was my school uniform colour! Anyway, I'm going to embrace and celebrate the Pantone Green this year to overcome my fear! Here is my card with my favourite flower from PTI coupled with Basic Grey Serenade paper! Oh, I also used my new Fiskars stamping tool for the first time (sentiment only) - took me three goes before I got it right! You have to press very hard and walk around the whole stamp. Personally, I prefer to stamp on a telephone directory and tear out the soiled pages after each use! Anyway, practice makes better!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah

Paper - Basic Grey Serenade 6x6

Stamps - Papertrey Ink Lovely Layers, Hero Arts Big Ticket

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black, Hero Arts Field Greens

Last CR84FN

I am saddened to hear that Mona is hosting her last CR84FN challenge. This challenge has a special place on my blog as I got Terrific Top Three for a card I submitted last year in CR84FN49 and it prompted me to start a blog. Now, 10 months later, I have submitted over 100 cards last year in challenges and publication calls. So, I've made a special effort to get a card submitted in time. I decided to use Sweet Sunday Sketch 176 with the colours for the CR84FN70 challenge, along with my newest stamps. I'm also submitting this card to Moxie Fab World's Make a Background challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Herocontest on Splitcoast.
I've just heard on Twitter that USPS will be increasing their international rates by 60% and it will take effect late February. This is not good news and it will mean that it will take us longer to get the newly released stamps! So I'm not too happy and will be placing some orders soon to beat the increase!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White and Dessert Storm

Stamps - PTI Lovely Layers, Hero Arts Tweed Background, SSS Sentiment

Ink - Hero Arts Mid Tone Inks - Pool, Wet Cement and Butter Bar, Tim Holtz Broken China

Dies - SSS Banner, MFT Dienamics Flags STAX

Others - Twine and brad

Repeats and Rainbow

It's difficult when we have to make a sympathy card. I wanted to make a cheery Sympathy card for someone who passed away just before Christmas. He had a long battle with cancer and would always bounce back after each bout of chemotherapy. This card is to celebrate his life and his final release from all the suffering. I was reading Nicole Heady's blog on PTI's Make it Monday and knew this is what I wanted to make. I've used colours from HA's mid tone inks to match the rainbow set number 6 as I do not have any PTI inks. I'm also entering this card to Moxie Fab World's Make a Background challenge. Here is my card that I'm going to post tomorrow, thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White, green card stock

Stamps - PTI Lovely Layers, HA CL497

Inks - HA Midtone Inks: Pool, Butter Bar, Green Fields, Bubble Gum and Stone Wash

Sweet Dreams

I couldn't resist the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger and had to wait until the craziness of Festive Season settled. The trigger photo beckoned me to use MME All is Bright (believe it or not, I did not use it for any Christmas cards) and BG Paper Cottage. I wanted to use the PTI Lovely layers and combine it in a sketch from Random Acts of Creativity's Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #86. My card is below and the trigger photos below that. The sentiment I used was from a new HA stamp set I just received, so I'm entering this card to the HA January contest and A Blog Named Hero's New Year New You challenge. Thanks for all the lovely comments on my previous blog!

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White
Papers - BG Paper Cottage, MME All is Bright
Stamps - PTI Lovely Layers, Hero Arts CL497
Ink - HA Pool
Dies - Spellbinders Scallop Circles, PTI Lovely Layers, MFT Dienamics Fishtail STAX
Others - Pearl Brad, Hemp from Hemptique

Mr and Mrs

I had an order from my niece for a wedding she is attending. She saw my previous card made with the PTI Lovely Layers stamp set and wanted something similar. Funny, I always challenge myself to make something unique each time! I decided to use the same patterned papers but the layout is different. I gave it to her yesterday and she loved it! I didn't make this card for any particular challenge, but there is still time to put it into the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge. Thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

Paper - Pink Paislee London Market

Stamps - PTI Lovely Layers, SSS Festive Holiday stamp set

Ink - HA Soft Granite, Field Greens

Dies - PTI Lovely Layers, MFT DieNamics Fishtail Flags STAX

Others - Kaisercraft Pearl brad, Hemp, Silver gel pen

Dawny's Sketch

I had to make two cards this week, one for a wedding anniversary and one for a wedding. I recently received some stamp sets from Papertrey Ink and papers from Basic Grey. I've been dying to try out my newly acquired stash and I incorporated them in Simon Says Stamp's Sketch Challenge for both cards as I liked the sketch. A little tip to salvage more patterned paper - I diecut a  tag out of the bottom piece of patterned paper to be used again next time so not to waste my precious stash!
The first card is made with Pink Paislee's London Market collection. I've had this 6x6 pack for months and I have been waiting for the right card to use it. I based this card on the PDCC 158 challenge (Rose, Eucalyptus and Slate). This is for a couple celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary, hope they like it!

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White
Paper - Pink Paislee London Market
Stamp - PTI Lovely Layers, Hero Arts CL272
Ink - Hero Arts Soft Granite
Die - PTI Lovely Layers, Martha Stewart Lacey edge punch
Others - Kaisercraft pearl brad

The second card is made with my new BG Lucille collection - this collection was inspired by Lucille Ball! I love the 60's look of these papers. This is an unusual wedding card for me as I usually stay with the neutrals or pink/red for Chinese wedding cards. I recently re-learned how to crochet (I prefer knitting) and have made lots of little flowers, I've actually made more than I need! So it was quite handy to pull out one of these beauties to add to the Lucille butterfly which came with the 12x12 pack. Thanks for dropping by!

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Dawny's Sketch

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White
Paper - Basic Grey Lucille 12x12
Stamp - Hero Arts CL272
Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs
Dies - Memory Box Woven Circle, Fiskars edge punch
Others - Kaisercraft pearl brad, White gel pen, crochet flower