Can You See the Forest for the Trees?

My card today was inspired once again my Mynnette Kitchen.  I saw this picture on her web site and decided to check it out.  The original inspiration came from For Your Inspirational Challenge.

Then I went in search of a sketch.  I knew because the picture was busy I wanted something clean and simple...ah yes CAS(e) This Sketch.  Not much simpler than that.  

Now my take on the inspiration picture was that I could see three definite colours, green, yellow and grey.  Those were the colours that I chose for the card. 

The nice thing about making a card like this one, with no sentiment on it until you need it, it allows you to decide if you want to use it in the portrait or landscape form.

To give the focal point a little more umph I stamped and punched out then distressed the edges of the postage circle.

I really like how this card turned out.  I think I got the colours just right and the distressing of the edges goes along with how birch trees shed their bark, even if I did use an oak leaf for the stamp.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

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MojoMonday meets The Dynamic Duos

So I am a little partial to the colour red, if you look at my blog picture you will see that I have a red accent in the front of my hair.  This red has been with me now for about seven years and was first created by my daughter.  Over the past year at work I have noticed that it is catching on and now several fellow staff members are sporting a red accent in various parts of their hair as well.  So needless to say when I saw this weeks challenge over at The Dynamic Duos I just knew I had to find a sketch challenge to go along with the challenge colours, so enter Mojo Monday. 

I needed a birthday card for a friend and fellow coworker who moved away last year so I thought the sentiment that I used for the card front was very appropriate.

I hope that you like what I have come up with for both of these great challenge sites.

Thanks for dropping by.

Nancy

Don't forget I love your comments so please remember to leave me one.

Masculine Monday - Father's Day

Today I have a special card for Father's Day.  In our recent session of Stampin Fun and Friends we celebrated Mother's and Father's with projects for these upcoming events.  My submission was geared towards the first Mother's and first Father's Day.

I used the Tool Shed stamp set and cut out the tools to form the word "DAD".  I thought that this was a rather different way of using the tools.  Then I framed them with the Framelits Labels Collection.  for the background I used a piece of Very Vanilla CS and masked the areas to make a barn board look and stamped over it with the woodgrain stamp.

For the inside of the card, waste not want not!  I used the pieces of left over Framelits and framed the "Happy first Fathers Day" on the Very Vanilla CS.  The saying was created using my MDS.  I am not the greatest at using my MDS and really do not use it to its fullest potential, but I modified the stamp set and added the word "first" in the middle.

For my project I must admit I had a little help with the idea from CherylAnn Robinson. Once she mentioned the idea to me I knew exactly what to do.  Being a new parent you have lots and lots of baby food jars so thinking back to my Dad and my Granddad I used the baby food jars to create a storage containers for nails, nuts or bolts. I'm sure you all will remember this type of storage from your younger days.

As a side note the barn board used to create the project came from my late Father-in-laws farm and the tools used belonged to my Grandfather.  I thought it would only be fitting to use them in the projects.

I hope that all the Dad's out there, whether they are new at this game or seasoned veterans, have a great Father's Day this Sunday coming.

I hope you enjoy.

Nancy

I like to know what you think so please leave me a comment.

TST #65 Come Aboard...and one more!

Jen has come up with a rather different sketch for us this week at Try Stampin on Tuesday.  When I first saw this sketch I turned it round and round until I was finally able to get a vision to work with. Not all cards have to be done the way the sketch is presented. I have decided to make it a portrait card rather than a landscape one.

I used the image of the anchor as the dark line down the left side and ran rope along the image of the rope on the DSP. I am not an expert by any means in nautical knots but I am able to tie one knot in particular so I added that one as an accent on the front as well.

A distress tool was used to distress the edges of the manifest.

A small strip of Marina Mist was used to make the bubble strip. In hindsight I would have put the white behind the bubble punch strip to accent the bubbles more. The anchor from The Open Sea was stamped lightly along this piece as well.

Then for a more feminine version I have come up with this card using the same sketch. I chose not to put the extra strip down the one side.

So now it's your turn.  Use the sketch and turn it whichever way you want.  Go ahead give it a try.

I hope you enjoy my versions.

Nancy

I like to hear what you think, so please leave me a comment.

Masculine Monday 30/04/12

It's Monday Morning again and I have a birthday card to show you today using once again Sense of Time.  It is such a shame that this set was discontinued.  I think  this was one of the very first SU stamp sets that I purchased and it probably gets ten times more use than any other set that I own.

I started with a black base and layered on Chocolate Chip CS 1/8" smaller all the way around. Then I used Very Vanilla 1/4" smaller all the way around. I distressed the edges all the way around and tore small "V" shaped openings on either side of the CS. The clock and gear images were stamped in Chocolate chip, then I crumpled it up slightly and then laid it out flat. With Soft Suede I used the ink pad directly onto the CS and the areas that were creased picked up the ink. The cogs were punched from Chocolate Chip CS and adhered to the front of the card. Using the round tab punch I first stamped the birthday greeting and then accented it with a cog on either end. Twine was wrapped around the top layer of the card and through the two smaller cogs.

The inside of the card was done basically the same way but only using the gear stamp and then a greeting from Cloud 9 Design Simple Thoughts-Happy Birthday.

The envelop was stamped on the outside with the gears as well.

Hope you enjoy!

Nancy

I like to hear what you think, so please leave me a comment.

Techostamper Monday Lunchtime Sketch Go Confidently...

Well I am back from a great 7 week vacation in Florida and ready to take on some new challenges.

I saw this challenge over at Technostamper for their Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge and thought I would give it a try

I used my MDS to print out the cardstock for this card. That is one of the great advantages of using MDS.  Once I had the paper printed out I distressed the edges with my Tim Holtz distressing tool and stamped the remaining images.  After it was all layered I added the string for a little something extra.

Hope you enjoy!

Nancy

I like to know what you think so please leave me a comment.

More Scraps...

I cannot believe the amount of scraps that I have.  I have taken the time to go through all of them and separate them into size and useability.  No new cardstock has been cut since the new year (other than the occasional card base). 

Todays card is another birthday one, again for a co-worker.  Working with Whisper White for the card base the purples used were scraps that I had from my scrapbooking days.  I like the way the edges are distressed on a lot of cards, but I don't seem to be able to accomplish the same effect.  I think I did pretty good here, but in order to achieve this I used a pair of decorative edge scissors and then my Tim Holtz Distress Tool. Using My Friend and stamping on an incline on the paper to give a staggered effect.  Satin ribbon was used to tie a double bow and then accented it with a purple button and rhinestone.  Smaller rhinestones were used on the stamped backdrop.

Hope you enjoy!

Nancy