Inspired By Burlap & Black

I was inspired by the comfy, cozy photo at the Inspired By Blog! My thoughts immediately went to burlap ribbon to mimic the basket in the photo. I wanted to pull in some black, but keep the entire card simple on a clean white base.

{photo inspiration}

Be sure to see Laurel's lovely creation and play along with the Inspired By #48 challenge!

A Song on my Sketch!

A silly title for this post, but I really do have a "song" on my sketch challenge card! I have combined two challenges for this lovely card. The first is from Ribbon Carousel Challenge Blog and the other is Mojo Monday.

At RCC we are challenged to create a card inspired by the music you enjoy. I happen to big fan of Dave Matthews and will often turn my iPod to his albums before I sit down to create. One of my favorite songs right now is called You & Me. Listen to it sometime when you get a chance.



Here is the sketch from Mojo Monday. I love all the layers, but was mostly drawn to the center sentiment.

Supplies:

(CTMH) Wings paper, colonial white cardstock, black buttons & brads, stamps; Universal Backgrounds, Hodgepodge Alpha & Love Birds, black ink.

(Twinery) Honeydew Twine

(Fiskars) Scalloped Punch

Lollipop Watermelon

Do you recall when "lollipop flowers" were the hot new trend? Today I bring it back, not as a flower, but as a watermelon!

In July I am hosting a "food themed" card swap. The participants already have their assignments and possibly hard at work. However, if they don't have a variety of "food" stamps to use, this is a great alternative. Use the papers you already have and make it look like food. I will post more ideas all month long, so come back for more inspiration and in July I will post the cards from the swap!

I am also submitting this card into two challenges this week. The first is for Heart 2 Heart's sketch challenge. I really enjoy the simplicity of the sketch allowing the artists to embellish as they desire.

This is also for Ribbon Carousel Challenge this week. Anything goes as long as it contains some sort of fiber that comes on a spool! No problem!

My watermelon has 7 layers. I started with some Tulip B&T papers from a mix of paper packs. These make up the first four top layers. My next layer is from an old children's dictionary. I punched a section out and inked the edges lightly in green. {if you look closely you'll see that I used the section with the watermelon definition on it!} The final two layers are sweet leaf cardstock and clover meadow green B&T papers. By having that little bit of white paper it really makes it look like the rind of the melon. Finally, I added some little black seeds which were free hand cut from black cardstock.

Here's the sketch~

So many favorite products and techniques on this card. First, is the watermelon. Whether it's lollipop flowers or fruit, it's just a simple and fun edition to any project. I also love faux stitching. It really ties the base pieces all together. By removing the guard on the corner rounder punch you can create perfect scallops as I did here on the Tulip cardstock. I {heart} the new CTMH buttons and pearl opaques. My papers are all CTMH. Did you notice the lovely creme brulee paper leftover from the You & Me kit? My fibers include a stitched sweet leaf grossgrain ribbon from CTMH and Peapod green twine from the Twinery.

Frightful Friday ~ Spooky Cards

For my last Frightful Friday post I have some spooky cards for you. I used some newer Halloween stamps, but mixed them with an older patterned paper. They also contain some of my favorite embellishments and styles out there right now. I incorporated glitter, bling, ruffled papers and ribbon, lollipop flowers and something different...wispy webs! I hope you love them as much as I do!

Need more Halloween inspiration? See all the clever creations on the Heart 2 Heart Blog this week!

Sentiments in a Pocket

Another card featuring a sentiment or two! This was an idea I thought of for my upcoming card exchange. What I like about it were the two pockets sewn into the card. Each pocket holds a tag that when pulled out reveals a little message and checklist. I thought the color combination was cute and somewhat shabby chic. I certainly can't resist the lollipop flower and pleated paper either. However, this was not my final choice, you'll see the card I ended up duplicating for the exchange soon. I am super excited to see what everyone else has created too!

Summer Wishes in a Jar

~ Heart 2 Heart ABC {anything but a card} Challenge ~

I enjoy making cards and scrapbooking my photo's, but I especially love creating projects from found or recycled products. For this week's challenge over at H2H, I wanted to create a jar to showcase some snap shots from this summer and fill it with our memories!

The Ball jar has been hiding in the back of my pantry for some time now. I created a four panel piece of card stock that is decorated with Splendor papers, family pics and stamped images from Hot Diggity. I also stamped tiny bumble bees and adhered them inside the jar with a tiny bit of liquid glass. It reminds me of summers back east as a little girl trying to catch fire flies. That is also how I arrived at the tag description of "capture summer wishes". It will be an ongoing project this summer adding more memories that we have yet to make.

I topped off the jar with circle paper flowers, or as I learned from Tresa Black this weekend "lollipop flowers". I adorned it with some sheer and grosgrain ribbons.