Happy Birthday

I made today's card for my nephew's b-day which I got to him late...bummer.  I guess better late than never though.  Let me tell you teen guys are the hardest to make cards for!  I definitely went to a couple of challenges to help out with this one!  The other day I saw the Color Me Beautiful challenge (love the colors!) and the Paper Craft Crew challenge (there had to be a way to make it masculine and still follow the sketch) and tried to figure out what I could come up with for him using these two challenges.  I don't think it turned out too bad.  Just wish the reflection wasn't so dark...but once it's dark there's no going back and I wasn't starting over! lol  Normally I don't have such a dark band in between the mountains and reflection either, but I wanted to follow the sketch as closely as I could while still making it masculine.  That meant no ribbon or bows!

 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Stamp Sets:  Vintage Labels (retired hostess) & a very old retired set (trees) from 1992!

Card Stock:  Soft Suede & River Rock

Classic Stampin' Pads:  Perfect Plum, Old Olive,

River Rock, Baja Breeze & Soft Suede

Punch:  1 1/4" Circle

Brads:  Neutrals

Sponges

Red Hot Swap

Here are the cards I made for our Red Hot Stampers holiday catalog swap.  I don't have a lot of sets from the catalog, and wasn't sure what to do.  I wanted to use a set, but not for its intended purpose, plus I wanted to work with colors that I don't use that often.  I decided to use the set Evergreen with Baja Breeze card stock and make a reflection scene. :)

And here are the cards I got from the Red Hot swap.  Love making one card and coming home with different ones! :)  Oh, one card was actually coasters...what a cute idea. :)  Thanks for the lovely swaps, ladies!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Stamp Set:  Evergreen

Card Stock:  Baja Breeze & Very Vanilla

Classic Stampin' Pads:  Baja Breeze & Crumb Cake

VersaMark

Stampin' Emboss Powder:  Clear

Embossing Folder:  Delicate Designs

Punch:  1 1/4" Circle

Ribbon:  3/8" Seam Binding in Crumb Cake

Shimmper Paint:  Champagne Mist

Sponges

Lovely as a Tree

Last night I was going through all the sketch challenge blogs that I follow to get a little inspiration and was able to come up with this card.  I LOVE the colors together!  These colors were inspired by the Less is More challenge #83.  Hmm...now that I think about it I'm not sure if it is as clean and simple as it should be because of all the sponging I did. :(  Guess I should have done a little masking.  I also used the Paper Players challenge because their theme is using leaves or trees.  I've had my Lovely as a Tree set sitting out wanting to do another card with it, but waiting for just the right idea...and this was it! :)

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Stamp Sets:  Lovely as a Tree & Blooming with Kindness

Card Stock:  Very Vanilla

Classic Stampin' Pads:  Crumb Cake, Soft Suede,

Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink & Pink Pirouette

Versa Mark

Embossing Folder: Delicate Designs

Stampin' Emboss Powder:  Clear

Shimmer Paint:  Champagne Mist

Sponged Serene Silhouettes

Today's cards are a couple of masculine cards I made using the stamp set Serene Silhouettes and also using the sponging and masking techniques.  Have I mentioned before that I love this set and I love sponging? lol I really enjoyed making both of these cards.  This first one was inspired by Jess and you can visit her blog here.  I liked the design and colors of her card and went on to create my own version of it.  Thanks for the inspiration, Jess!  

This second card is similar to one I did a while back for one of my stamp a stacks and a Red Hot Stamper's sketch challenge (check it out here).  Because I really liked that card I decided to give that same idea a try again with my new stamp set.  I actually had the whole card done and thought maybe I could add the sun or moon to this pic, so I punched out a circle and started sponging away again.  Didn't take much to darken things up a little so you could see the "sun".  Then I did the same thing down at the bottom for the reflection.  I still haven't decided if it's the sun or moon yet though. lol 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

1st Card

Stamp Sets:  Serene Silhouettes & Curly Cute

Card Stock:  Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo & Whisper White

Classic Stampin' Pads:  Basic Black, Elegant Eggplant & Island Indigo

StazOn:  Black

Embossing Folder:  Square Lattice

Punch:  Circle (Don't remember what size! lol)

Sponges!

2nd Card

Stamp Set:  Serene Silhouettes

Card Stock:  Soft Suede, Crumb Cake & Very Vanilla

Classic Stampin' Pads:  Soft Suede, Crumb Cake & River Rock

Punch:  Circle (Don't remember which size for this one either)

Sponges!