October HYCCT cards

As most of you know, October is breast cancer awareness month. Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) sponsors a month long Hope You Can Cling To (HYCCT) challenge.  36 Daily card making challenges,  a few extra at the start & close of the month, are posted on their site.  The cards that are made for the challenges, plus any extra people want to include, are sent to MD Anderson, Univ of Texas, Cancer Center and are available to be used by the patients & their families.  The challenges are creative, fun and motivating, and all for a great cause!  The added incentive is even if you can only make one card and upload a picture of it to the SCS gallery, you're entered into a drawing for prizes donated by several different stamp companies.

Every year it's a challenge for me to find the time to participate, especially not till after 10/15 - the IRS tax extension deadline.  I don't think I was able to start this year till after the 22nd.  But with late nights & trying not to overthink it, I actually got all 36 challenges done!!  It helped that they give us till midnight (9pm AK) on Nov 7 to upload pics.  Another big (added) challenge is that since MD Anderson is associated with the state of Texas, we are not allowed to use Bible verses or anything religious on the cards.  We can use the word 'faith' but in the general sense, not tied to any one religion.  That always cuts out most of my word/sentiment stamps!

I've read that about 215 people participated this year and over 4600 cards were sent to MD Anderson!  I'm still slowly working my way through the gallery of challenge cards, viewing everyone's creative interpretation of the challenges, so inspiring!

Here's a few of the cards I made (with the challenge listed first):

Colors of Cancer: use colors representing cancers family & friends have had. I used Pink-Breast, Dark Blue-Colon, and Black-Melanoma

Stamps: Hero Arts-saying, Sweet n'Sassy Stamps-New Beginnings butterflies & dies, Bo bunny denim paper

Hope you have a great day - make them smile or laugh, a cheery card. I used an old sketch SC38 posted on SCS as my layout.  

Stamps: Rubber Stampede-bee, Memory Box-saying; Spellbinders circles, Stickles for the wings

Use a message or image to reflect a message to or from a group of people, to send & receive a group hug. The EF was inked up before embossing. Glimmer Mist was added to give it a shimmer/sparkle. Flower brads embellish as well as help hold the sentiment down, in case the adhesive doesn't stick well on the embossed/misted background. :)

Stampendous stamp, Spellbinders Labels 18, Cuttlebug EF Bit of Paisley, SU ink, Glimmer Mist,flower brads

I heart you - make a heart shaped card or a card with hearts.  :)

Spellbinders hearts, Cuttlebug Love Language die, Stickles

Warm & Furry Fuzzies - use an image with a furry animal :)

Stamps: Crafters Companion, Mulberry Wood-Gone Fishing colored with Tombow markers

Peace & quiet, no words, just an image.  Wonderfully simple, and blue to add to the peaceful image. :) Stamp-Impression Obsession

Sending Flowers - Flowers are my favorite stamp image yet I decided to use some 3D flower stickers I had in my stash for this challenge! I loved the soft yellow of the flowers, paired it with my leafy die on an earthy base with corresponding sentiment. :)

Stamp-Printworks, Memory Box-Fresh foliage die, Jolee's Boutique flowers

Bursting with hope, create a Starburst/Sunburst with papers, not stamps or ef.  My horizon wasn't straight so I kept adding paper rays. :)  I can email the tutorial that was provided, but it also helped me to watch a video of the technique on YouTube 

Stamp-Morning Star Stamps, Paper-DCWV Fresh Floral

Make a pocket full of hope, in pink or orange with hearts or stars

Stamp-Inkadinkado, Paper-BoBunny, DCWV, McGill round envelope punch, Spellbinders-hearts, 

Cuttlebug EF-language of love, ribbon, brad

Peaceful Leaves.  I just had to look outside to be inspired for this, swirling fall leaves!  

Endless Creation-stamp, Darice EF-Fall Leaf Background, McGill-Oak leaf punch, 

corner rounder, TH Distress Inks, sponges

Use the KISS technique- adds texture to solid stamps.  KISS also stands for Kindness in Showing Support. (HA, probably not what you thought I was going to say!)  I used a stamp combo (the block background and flowers) I had used years ago, when my Mom & sisters were just showing me the fun of stamping (1998?!).  I smooched the block background stamp with a new to me checkered background stamp, trying a few different soft color combos before settling on this one. :) 

Stamps: Hero Arts-blocks, Poppy Stamps-checkered background, Rubber Soul-vase of flowers, 

Memory Box-ToY; Hero Arts shadow ink, Memento Black

Stand Tall - tall/skinny card.  I had some tall floral stamps that I thought of immediately for this challenge. I colored the rubber with markers, huffed & stamped!  It was a bit of a challenge to color red rubber with markers that barely showed, or looked like the ink dried right away, hoping I wasn't going to end up with a putrid mud color or something!  Thankfully, with much huffing & puffing, this came out on the first try. :)

StarvingArtistamps-Backlit Blooms Orchid, Tombow markers

Black & White card with a pop of color.  I always enjoy seeing cards like this made by others so thought I'd play with tape & inky sponges myself.  Thankfully the 'removable tape' only tore the card near the opening edge so I could trim it off.  The black did not stamp as solid as I liked but I found a black Zig pen that matched and touched the image up a bit. I think it added some texture/dimension! :)  

Sweet n'Sassy Stamps-Landscape Silhouettes, Memento blues, Versafine black

Let's punch out breast cancer - use punches and or dies.  My sister had punched a bunch of these 6" squares with the WRMK corner punches for me so using this makes for a big card!  The flower die was just a big so it fit just right, after trimming the stem. I have seen a few people make bows with brads, it's not easy tho. Darn tiny brads with stiff ribbon, lots of tugging & twisting but I like it!

We R Memory Keepers Mini 8 punch-Vine, Memory Box die-Bella Bouquet,

 DCWV- Fresh Florals paper, Stickles, Ribbon, brad

 Inner Strength - use a dimensional image on the inside that can be seen from the outside.  I embossed the Love You stamp & added a heart shaped rhinestone on the inside.  The embossed cover was sponged with pink and several hearts highlighted with pink Stickles.

Stamp-PSX, The Paper Studio EF-Doodle Hearts, Spellbinder Heart die, Stickles, Clear EP, Rhinestone heart

It's a cover up - with a hidden message to be uncovered not just by opening the card.  My extra front flap became a front pocket on my card when I taped the 3 sides shut!  That's what I get for not having a clear picture in my mind (focus!) as to what I was going to do.  I like the pocket (tho a bit big) so went with it & made a tag with the 'hidden message' to put into it.

Stamps: Sweet n'Sassy Stamps-Wildflowers, SU-friends saying; Paper-DCWV Fresh Florals; 

Deckle Edge scissors, tag die, ribbon

Birthday card swaps

Here's 2 more cards I just finished up for swaps. The first is the Men's Birthday Card using Blue, Brown and White. A few of the men in my life are hunters so when I read this swap, a wild animal stamp came to mind. This is one from the Stampin' Up set - Yukon.

I like Blue and Brown combos, man card or not. I wouldn't normally use white with this, it looks so bright but that's what I get for using such dark colors. After the card was assembled I saw it needed something else. My first thought for embellishing is always ribbon with a bow or knot but that wouldn't do on this man card! I didn't really leave much room to add anything to it like brads or eyelets so I decided on adding brown (copper-y) glitter glue along the embossed stripes. I don't think my man will growl about brown glitter. : )

Stamp:Elk-Stampin'Up (Yukon set), Birthday-Lasting Impressions with Panache; Ink: Stampin'Up-Chocolate Chip (Elk), Adirondack-Denium (Birthday); Cuttlebug Embossing folder-Distressed Stripes; Stickles glitter glue-Cinnamon

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The next swap is a Lady's Birthday card using Red, Pink and White. This color scheme makes me think Valentine's not birthday. Not wanting to spend too much time thinking about it, I just started playing around, but using the required colors in the process.

I had just bought a couple of small containers of very thin fun foam flower and heart stickers at Target for $1 each (container of 50+, I'm guesstimating). I'm not a big fan of these foam stickers but thought they'd be a good challenge for me to use, for a good price. They were just the colors I needed here! I added dots of red glitter glue to their centers.

I've used this swirl stamp on other cards with paper flowers so I thought it would be ideal here since I didn't have any patterned paper with these colors to play with. The Happy Birthday stamp was 1 long rubber stamp (unmounted). I cut the 2 words apart to make it/them more versatile. This way I was able to mount the words on a block at an angle to fit the white space just the way I wanted it. Well, it was a little challenging to get it about right and mostly straight since they are rubber and not the clear poly stamps like the swirl is. Not my usual style but simple and quick to make. I think some young lady might like it. : )

Stamp: Swirls-Autumn Leaves, Birthday-Endless Creations; Ink: Stampin'Up-Rose Red; Ribbon-JoAnn's; Stickles glitter glue-Christmas Red; Foam flower stickers

Cards - Birds & Butterflies

August is typically our rainy season here in the valley. Since I don't have to go out to mow the lawn (!) and I have some birthday & anniversary cards to make for August, I've been working on a few cards this past week.

With a person in mind who likes birds, I chose to use a stamp of a couple of birds from the "Best Friends" acrylic set by Inkadinkado. They were colored with Prismacolor pencils and layered on patterned paper from BasicGrey, the Sugared collection. I lightly sponged on some distress ink to help tone down the white cardstock and also edged it with the same ink. This is the first time I've used decorative Twill tape; I like it but it'll be a bit lumpy for mailing in a standard envelope.

It takes me awhile to pick a layout let alone colors so I've gotten into the habit of making more than one at a time, using at least a couple of different layouts, seeing what I like better, sometimes liking all or none.

As I made the Birthday card, it dawned on me that the stamp of the 2 birds would be good for an Anniversary card too.

I think this patterned paper looks antiquish, good for an Anniversary of say, more than 14 years? : ) Ours is next Thursday, 15 years!! Lots of love and prayers, thru the highs & lows. Ok, back to cards... The shade of brown used for matting matches the orangish brown dots on the patterened paper, tho you may not be able to tell from this small picture.

Stamps: Birds-Inkadinkado "Best Friends" acrylic set, Happy Anniv.-Stampin' Up, Happy Bday-Stampabilities

Ink: Colorbox Chalk Ink-Charcoal, TH Distress Ink-Antique Linen; Prismacolor Pencils

Paper: Solid-DCWV; Patterned-BasicGrey Sugared Collection

Twill-Creative Impressions

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After a few of those, I moved on to someone else's Birthday. She likes purple. Even tho I had a color picked out - Purple - I was kind of overwhelmed by the paper and image choices so I tried to get back to keeping it simple in my mind. I chose the butterfly from the same acrylic stamp set as the birds and some fun, not too big, bold or busy background paper that actually matched my Birthday wishes for her - Love, Laughter & Happiness (that happened to be in purple!) : ) I didn't have a small Happy Birthday that I liked for the tag so I went with ol' reliable (and true) - Thinking of You. I stamped a big Happy Birthday inside.

The purple Stickles used to highlight the stamped image reflected the camera flash a little brightly! I didn't realize how bright till I had the pics loaded. I think you get the idea of how Stickles adds bling! I like Stickles! (It's a brand of glitter glue that comes in many colors and in small bottles, found in most stamp & scrapbooking stores.)

Stamps: Butterfly-Inkadinkado "Best Friends" acrylic set, ToU-Endless Creations

Ink: VersaMagic Chalk Ink (DewDrop)-Eggplant; Stickles-Purple

Paper: Solid-DCWV, Patterned-Hot Off the Press "Purple Happiness"

May Card Swaps

I finished up some of the stamped card swaps I had committed to and I'm getting them ready to mail. Thought I'd share a few : )

I don't get over to the MojoMonday blog very often but I enjoy their challenges to help me to be more creative. One of the Yahoo groups I belong to challenged us to use this MojoMonday Week71 layout using Blue, Green & Brown. Here's my take on it.

I wanted to use some of my scrapbook paper that had those colors in it but other than that, I didn't really know what stamps I wanted to use. With this, I found the less I thought about it, the better and easier on my brain, not to mention the faster the card was made. I went thru my stamps, which seem to be mostly flowers, and just picked some stamps that I thought allowed for the overlap. I used some Frosty Stickles to add alittle sparkle to the flower and the hearts. It is different for me, when I look at it sometimes I like it, sometimes I'm not sure if I do or not. : )

Stamps: Flower-Watercolor Daisy Hampton Art Stamps, Verse-Printworks; Ink: VersaFine Olympia Green; Frosty Stickles

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This card was made for a Turq. Blue, Yellow & Red card swap. I wanted to do something summery other than flowers, so the nautical theme came to mind : ) I had a few extra of these lighthouse images laying around from the last time I had used the stamp a few years ago. It is part of a larger stamp that I cut down to just the framed image. I didn't have brads just the right color or size so I used my 1/8" hole punch and "made" some dots to add to the corners. For a card I wasn't too keen on making, I think it came out ok! What do you think?

Stamps: Lighthouse image -D. Morgan for Stamps Happen, Thinking of you-Stampin'Up; Ink: Memories Black; Prisma Color Pencils

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Ahhhh, back to flowers! This card was for an Apricot, Orange and Blue swap. I wasn't too sure what the difference was between Apricot vs Peach vs Orange vs Tangerine vs ...... so I just made sure I used 2 different shades of an Orangish color. I was impressed as to how the blue ink looked on the pale Orange (or peach or apricot). I stamped several images so I could experiment with how to color them, if at all. I had fun coloring, practicing blending colors with colored pencils, the white "pops" out nicely on the daisy. I really like using this verse to encourage people on a Thinking of you type card.

Stamps: Flowers in Pitcher- Great Impressions, Flowers for background paper-Daisy Trio by Elzybells Art Stamps thru A Muse, Verse-Endless Creations; Ink: Stampin'Up Orange (background), VersaFine Majestic Blue (image & verse); Prisma Color Pencils

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Here's the Black, Rose & Pink swap card. The scan of this card didn't come out very well. The base card is pink, which you only see on 2 sides in this picture. The knot of the ribbon holds the card up just enough to blur the image a bit too. : ( The real thing is one of my favorites tho... I used the Fiskars Deckle scissors on the edge of the pink stamped image, not trusting my paper tearing. There's a dot of Pink Stickles in the center of the 2 flowers of the image, a tiny bit of bling to not overwhelm or distract from it. : )

Stamps: Floral image- Stampin Up, Thinking of You- unknown; Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black; Pink Stickles