I have some family cards to share today.  The first is a house-warming card for Rob.  It's basic, but I like the way it turned out.

Next is a sympathy card for a friend on her father's death.  It's a trifold that opens to show the entire picture of the father and daughter on the bridge; then opens again for the sentiment.

Last is Ryan's birthday card.  I  combined several card ideas from Pinterest.  The picture background is a shot of a Springfield golf course.

This card uses From the Heart stamp Winter Friends for their monthly digital stamp of the month challenge.  I paired the image with one of my favorite sayings.

This card uses Meljen's image A Little Zen. I love her sweet designs, and her diverse images cover almost every possible need.  This is for the challenge blog for July 24.  The challenge is called Feature Presentation and it requires that your card be inspired by a movie.  I've been wanting to use this little guy for a while now, and this seemed the perfect opportunity.  I used The Golden Child as my inspiration.  I'm fairly please with the way it turned out except for the coloring around the image.  This was my first use of Wink of Stella.  I really don't care for the applicator.  No matter how much I tried to smooth it out, it still looked messy.  I'll have to practice more before I use it on another card!

Does this card look familiar?  Yes, it's the Your Scrapbook Place challenge card updated.  Holley Barnhart told me that Squigglefly's current challenge is "Over the Edge."  I just needed to add something that goes over the edge to enter the card.  I had already used Crissy Armstrong's Dog Pile image inside the card. I reduced the three little guys and added them to the outside.  I like the card even better!

Here's my card for the Your Scrapbook Place  Christmas in July challenge. The twist is that the project has to use non-traditional Christmas colors--no red, green, or white permitted.  I used primarily silver, purples and blues.  Getting Stuck is an image from Cheryl Alger at Squigglefly. This image is retired, but Cheryl has many other cute Christmas designs.  For her newest stamps, visit Sassy Cheryl's Stamps to find a whole neighborhood of sassy kids.

Today, I have a couple of family cards.  Both are CASEd from Printerest posts. The first is a belated birthday card for Becca.  It uses Mo Manning's Oh My Goodness image of Shirley Temple.  I found a sailboat template for the boat and embellished it with a charm wheel, a craft stick mast and a sticker flag.  The sand is DIY "flowersoft" made from shaving a styrofoam ball. I used wood textured paper for the boat and canvas textured paper for the sails.  With so many paper companies making textured paper now, it's easy to find specialty paper.  I think the textures give the finished project a more authentic look.

The second card is for Ryan and Whitney's wedding.  This is the first card I've made that is basically all die cut.  There are so many brands of dies available now in such beautiful designs--I'm totally hooked on them. I have several bride and groom dies in various sizes.  I love this one from Frantic Stamper because the veil is cut separately.  I used three cuts to make the cathedral length veil that mimics one of the special features of Whitney's dress. The rose window is from Poppy Stamps and the music, fence, and gate are Memory Box.  Although it's barely visible in the picture, I also used the Tim Holtz weathered brick embossing folder for the background so it is vaguely reminiscent of Blessed Sacrament Church.

I also made my first duplicate die purchase--a sure sign that I need intervention to stop buying more.  The good news is that I know someone in one of my internet groups will gladly take the duplicate off of my hands.

I used digital papers and elements from Lisa Decosse at Decosse's Dynamite Doodles to make this Christmas in July page for the challenge at Your Scrapbook Place. I've been enjoying Lisa's wordart for years, but this is the first time I've used her digital kit items. It definitely won't be the last!  I love the way the page turned out. It highlights the colors of the cute dresses Emmylou and Maybelle wore to Christmas Eve, but doesn't over-power their  sweet smiles.

Card Front

Since we spent two weeks traveling and then had lots of company and events at home, I haven't had much time for crafting.  I did get a card made for Damon's birthday.  Next up are belated birthday cards for two nieces. I'll get Ryan and Whitney's wedding card finished on time.  Then I'll be back on track for future birthday cards.  I have both a card-making event and another crop coming up later this summer, so I hope to do lots more crafting this summer.

I used this card on both the Your Scrapbook Place blog and for the challenge on Creative Bug on the Loose Challenge.  The challenge required something old and something new.  The new items are the cute images from Creative Bug. The old items are the bottle cap, tag, ribbon & fiber.
 

Card Inside with tag in the bed pocket

  Tag with bouncing heart 

Here's another new card for the blog at Your Scrapbook Place.  It's an example for a 1-2-3 challenge:  1 patterned paper, 2 images, and 3 buttons.  Because it's a window card, one of the inside images shows on the front.  I really mixed up the stamps for this.  The two on the front are Sewing Cat by 2 Cute Ink and Sewing Box by Broken Box.  Inside I used Woman Sewing by Jellypark and Buttons by Meljen.  Usually I have tried to stay with a single designer for a card, but this mix and match effort turned out fine.

Your Scrapbook Place has a May challenge sponsored by Scribbles Designs

I used one of the Scribble images to create these two easel cards.  The first one is a pop-up image of just the fish.  I think he'll make a fine graduation card.  The second card is a little more elaborate.  I used a coloring page background to create the fish tank. I used a more monochromatic color scheme for my fish. The sand is a mixture of homemade flower soft and glitter. I covered the finished image with a sheet of acetate to mimic the fishtank glass. 

It's been a while since my last post.  I have been doing a little crafting, but mostly working away from the craftroom and computer.  I'm proud to say I've lost 15 pounds on my new Virtual Lifestyle Management program.  I have taken time for making a couple of box cards.  I love the format.  They look so spectacular and they're really not that hard.  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures before mailing them.  Luckily, Amy K posted a picture of hers on Facebook so I grabbed it to post here.

I finished up the matchbooks for the Old Man Winter swap at Scrapaholics Anonymous. The cover is on the left. The opened matchbook is on the right.  A little humor and a little space for journaling--I like that combination.



















And here's the birthday cards for the Birthday swap, also at Scrapaholics Anonymous. The idea for the front came from a card I saw on Pinterest. I love my owl punch.
                                                                                                 
I have found there are owl puns for every possible occasion.

 The inside was a printable found online. It included the Happy Birthday sentiment, and I added the Owl never tell. I was pleased with the result.

I realized that I hadn't posted these cards.  I made the pop bottle valentines in both Coke and Pepsi versions for various family members.  We sent the box of spring to my Aunt Sandy who is going thru chemo again.  The texts say:  Made just for you because you're PRICELESS (with barcode), Sending you a box of spring, May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun and find your shoulder to light on, and Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. I've also started swapping again, so I hope to post some swap cards soon.