MFT Sketch 442 - Hope Your Birthday is a Hoot

This week's MFT Sketch Challenge has a lot of components to it.  I don't have a die to make an arch as shown in the sketch, so I had to get creative and come up with something that would at least resemble the arch across the upper portion of the card. 

The base of my card is Whip Cream card stock that was dry embossed with a Darice wood grain embossing folder.  I lightly brushed the wood grain with brown ink to add a bit of color and dimension.  

The Snow Globe die gave me the shape of an arch and provided an inset for the owls.  The upper portion of the arch is framed with leaves to more closely resemble the shape of the arch in the sketch.

I moved the squirrel, meant to represent the circle element of the sketch, to the opposite side so he is looking up at the mama owl, the mama owl is looking at the squirrel, and the little owl is looking at his mama.  I don't know if anyone else will notice, but I thought it was cute that way. 

The card didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned, but I think a child recipient of the Send a Smile for Kids card drive will like it.  Next on my list is to make two Christmas and holiday cards using the same sketch as a guide.

All of the MFT supplies are listed below.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

P.S.  The edges of the brown card stock are even on my card.  For some reason I often have trouble reflecting that in my photographs.  Does anyone else have that problem, or a suggestion to avoid it when taking the picture?

 

MFT Supplies:

I'm Owl Yours stamps and die 

Wild Woodland stamps and dies

Wild Greenery dies

Tree Branch die (free with $60 purchase - thanks MFT!)

Snow Globe die

Slanted Sentiment die

A2 Rectangle STAX dies

MFT card stock:

Whip Cream, Chocolate Brown, Gumdrop Green, and Sour Apple

 

AAA Birthday Card Game 2 - Use Water Colors

Today I have a card for the AAA Birthday Card game.  For this second Birthday Card Game, we were asked to use water colors.

I chose the MFT Fresh Cut Flowers Background stamp.  It was the first time had I used it, and the first time in quite a few months that I've water colored an image.  I really enjoyed it.

I stamped the image with Versamark ink on Strathmore Bristol paper and then heat embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder.  It's my favorite gold embossing power, a soft warm, gold.

The water coloring was done with Zig markers and a water brush.  The colors I used are listed below.

The sentiment is from the MFT More Essential Sentiments set.  It was also heat embossed with Liquid Platinum embossing powder and then popped up with a piece of foam tape.

The water colored image is mounted on a piece of blue vellum, and I added a strip of washi tape to the left side.  I used an A6 (6.25" x 4.5") Pure White card base from Paper Source.

 

Supplies:

Strathmore Bristol 100lb Smooth Surface card stock 

MFT Fresh Cut Flowers Background stamp

Versmark ink

Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder

MFT More Essential Sentiments stamp

MFT Slanted Sentiment Strips die

Reflections blue vellum

Reflections gold & white washi tape

Water brush

Paper Source A6 Pure White card base

Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers:

036 Light Blue, 041 Light Green, 045 Pale Green, 055 Pale Yellow,

067 Mustard, 072 Beige, 083 Lilac and 200 Sugared Almond Pink

AAA CAS Game 142 - One Layer - Black & White

Hello, and thanks for stopping by to take a look at my card for the current AAA CAS Cards game #142, a one layer card with an optional twist using only black and white.

I love the DT team inspiration cards for this challenge.  They are striking, crisp and clean.  So many different creative layouts as well.  I started planning my card in my mind right away.  

Once I sat down to create what I thought I wanted to make, oh my, did I struggle.  This game was definitely a challenge for me.  I found it difficult to see my card as anything other than a stamped image waiting to be colored.  I worked my way through several different images and design ideas, not happy with any of them.  So I set aside this project for a few days and moved on to some other cards I needed to make.

A few days later, using the Shoe Wardrobe set by The Ton Stamps came to mind, and I was immediately on my way to creating a one layer black and white card that I liked.  And even though I'm not a high heel shoe girl, I love the message of the Coco Chanel quote that I used.  It's from the Timeless Icons set, also by The Ton Stamps.  I added some score lines to my card for added interest while still keeping it CAS and one layer.

Have a great day, and thanks again for stopping by!

Supplies:

The Ton Stamps Shoe Wardrobe 2 & Timeless Icons Sentiment stamps

Versafine Onyx Black pigment ink

Paper Source Pure White card stock

MFT Birthday Project - Make a Wish - Happy Bear-thday

Today I have another MFT challenge card.  This one is for the monthly Birthday Project.  The theme this month is Make a Wish, or use candles on the card. 

My MFT Beary Special Birthday set gets a lot of use. The cute little bear holding a cake with candles was quick and easy to color with Copic markers..  My card is simple in layout, but I love the colors.  All of the MFT supplies are listed below.
 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a beary good day!

MFT Supplies:

Wonky Stitched Rectangles STAX dies

Beary Special Birthday stamps and dies

Slanted Sentiment Strips die

Petite Plaid 6x6 Paper Pack

I made a second card, both will be donated to Send a Smile for Kids as the are currently in need of birthday cards.

MFT Sketch 441 and Color 119 Challenges - Sending Joy & Good Cheer

Hello, and thanks for stopping by.

Today I have a card for both the MFT Sketch 441 and MFT Color 119 challenges.  

Beginning the first week of June, I've used the weekly MFT sketch challenge to make birthday and Christmas cards to donate to Send a Smile 4 Kids, and winter theme cards to donate to Christina Hor's Cards for Little Hearts.  It feels good to get a jump on the holiday cards! 

For this week's Sketch 441, I first made a birthday card with the MFT Color Challenge 118 colors, Grout Gray, Cement Gray, Coral Crush and Limelight featuring a cute dinosaur from the MFT Delightful Dinosaurs set.  I started to post it, and realized that I was a day late for the color challenge entry.  No worries, at least I had another fun birthday card to donate to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

Next I made two holiday cards using the same Sketch 441, one with the current MFT Color Challenge 119 colors, Sweet Tooth, Limelight, Razzle Berry and Steel Gray.  It's such a bright and happy color combination, and I like to make holiday and winter cards in non-traditional colors.  I made a second card using shades of violet and blue.  All of the images are colored with Copic markers.    The hat and sweater colors didn't match my MFT Razzle Berry card stock too well, so I Copic colored the edges of a pieces of white card stock to match.  I used clear Wink of Stella to add a little sparkle to the snowflakes, hats and scarves.

My entry card.

 

 

 MFT Supplies:

 Double Stitched Squares die

PI Dashing By stamps and die

Dashing Deer stamp and die 

Slanted Sentiment Strips die

Snowflake die

Tiny Check Brights 6x6 Paper Pack - Limelight

 

All three cards.

 

MFT Sketch 440 - Let's Celebrate You

For this week's MFT Sketch Challenge, I flipped the sketch upside down, changed the shape of the circles and overlapped them to create a birthday card with three balloons.  All of the supplies are listed below.

Thanks very much for stopping by, and have a great day.

 A second card, both will be donated to Send a Smiles for Kids.

MFT Supplies:

Big Balloons stencil

Bundle of Baby Clothes dies (bow & clothesline for the string)

More Essential Sentiments stamp

Handwritten Happiness sentiment stamp (2nd card)

 MFT Black & White Stripes 6x6 paper pack

Black Licorice card stock

Other Supplies:

Distress Oxide Cracked Pistachio & Tumbled Glass ink

Distress Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade & Squeezed Lemonade ink*

(*all three colors were blended with one brush to create "custom" colors)

AAA Cards CAS Game #141 - 5th Birthday

Today I have a card for the AAA Cards 5th birthday celebration.

My card features the Uptown Girl Wilma Loves Wine image by Stampingbella.  I love the Uptown Girl series, they are fun and fairly easy to color.

I colored Wilma sitting in a glass of white wine using Copic markers.  The 'happy" die cut is by Wplus9, one of three 'happy' dies in the Happy Trio set.  The 'BIRTHDAY' stamp is from the MFT Birthday Bears stamp set.  I added a strip of washi tape from my stash.  The inside sentiment is "Wine flies when you're having fun."  How fun is that?

Thanks very much for stopping by to take a look at my card.  And Happy 5th Birthday to AAA Cards!