Inspiration Challenge

Last Saturday, I was completely inspired by the inspiration challenge over at SCS and I had to give it a whirl. The challenge was posted by SmilynStef and we had to choose one of Catherine's Animal prints to use as our inspiration. We had to interpret the picture and create whatever we were inspired to create using the layout, colors, subject and/or ideas that sparked from the pictures. This was an AWESOME challenge... and it got my MOJO flowin!

I chose to use the Zebra 1 picture as my inspiration...

I used the colors and layout to make my design... and I must say, I've very pleased with it.

I'll be back again soon... I'm off to the dentist... arrrggghhhh!

Blessings,

~Sara

Feel Better

A couple weeks ago, a very dear friend of mine was feeling very "rained on." She was having a rough week and had tears on deck, ready to pour down at any moment. I felt horrible for her. I have dealt with depression personally for years. It's hard. Depression hurts... it hurts your emotional heart, your physical body, and the people who care for you. I didn't know what else I could do for my friend, other than to tell her I'm here for her whenever she may need me and that I'd keep her in my prayers; so I made her a card.

This card has a lot of details in it that you might not notice at first glance... The puddle and raindrops are covered with Crystal Effects and Belinda Bumberboots (from Stamping Bella) is completely stickled out. Her umbrella, wings, clothes & boots all have stickles all over them. A little much? I don't think so. Next, I want to draw your attention to the bottom of the card. I used my Martha Stewart border punch to go along the Real Red, then I backed it in YoYo Yellow. On the yellow, I mimicked the pierced dot pattern from the punch onto the Yellow layer using my paper piercing tool. I used my 1/2 inch circle punch to make the scallop border on the right of my imageFor the background on the red, if you look closely, you will see that I scored lines all the way down the red at 1/4" intervals. It just added a little more texture to the card. To finish it off, I added the sentiment from Blooming With Happiness (retired SU! hostess set) that says "Friendship is the shelter from life's little storms" using my White stazon ink pad and then tracing over it with my white gel pen (to make it darker).

Thanks for checking in on me... I'll be back soon with more of what I've been working on! God Bless!

More to share...

So... like I said in my previous post, I have been busy... I just couldn't share because the recipients hadn't received their cards yet... so, I'm here to share a few more.

First up, I have a card that I cased for the layout. I don't know where I saw it, or what the fold-type is called... I'll call it another type of Gate-fold card. I used my Polkadots and Paisley stamp set along with my Garden Whimsey set (have I mentioned how much I love my Garden Whimsey set???) I used Pretty in Pink and Rose Red ink and cs... I also used Shimmery White CS for the focal point. I think the Corner adorner is from SU, but I might be wrong. I made three of these cards and sent one to one of my SBS10 sistah's, one to my neice, and the last one to a dear friend of mine. All three were used as birthday cards.

The next card is one I made for one of my best friends, Anette, for her birthday (which was Saturday)... Anette's favorite color is green, so I had to use it... The scalloped edges were made with a Martha Stewart border punch (I don't know the name of it). The stamp is Cuppacakeabella from http://www.stampingbella.com/, and the sentiment is from SU!'s Sincere Salutations stamp set. My colors were Certainly Celery, So Saffron, and Real Red... not one I would've originally put together, but I like the end result. Of course, I went Stickle-crazy... on the cupcake, the & the dress! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE stickles! After all, diamonds are a girl's best friend and stickles constitutes as papercrafting "diamonds" in my book!

This next one is nearly the exact same card with a ton of color changes... I made it for one of my SBS10 sistah's... I hope she loved it! It was so fun to make!

This last one is one I made for two different people... One for my friend's (Suzanne) birthday, and the other, I changed the sentiment to say "missing you" for my GodDaughter, Lindsay. I used my nesties on this one along with my Martha Stewart border punch (that I don't know the name of). This was a sketch challenge of some sort, but it's been so long, I don't know whose it was... if it was yours, let me know so I can give credit where credit is due! :) My colors were Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, and Chocolate Chip for this card. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations (love that set too!) and the grapes are from Gorgeous Grapevine (now retired) from SU!)

I suppose that's all for today...

SYKE!

I'll give you just one more...

and I saved the BEST (in my little 'ol opinion) for last... I used my Cricut Animal Kingdom cartridge for this one... I am sooooo beyond pleased with how this card turned out. I wanted to make a card to send to my parents while they're away on vacation just to "check in" on them & see how things were going.

I cut these chickens out 4 times just to get the result I ended up with. It's a lot of layering and pieceing together, but totally worth the work! The "egg" behind those chicks was a bit of "work" too... It started out as a piece of Very Vanilla CS... I color dusted it with Close to Cocoa and used my Itty Bitty Backgrounds to add a few spots. Then, I embossed it with Ultra Thick Clear Embossing Powder & stuck it in the freezer for a couple minutes. When I took it out of the freezer, I folded it back & forth a few times to create the "cracked egg" look. This technique is called Cracked Glass and you can find the real tutorial for it HERE. To make the background, I cut thin strips of Bravo Burgandy and Ruby Red cardstock and layered them onto a sticky piece of Chocolate Chip to get kind of a "barn door" effect. I color dusted it with Chocolate Chip and then layered it onto my card base. To finish it off, I used my word window punch to cut the space for my sentiment (which is hand-written in my chicken scratch) and added buttons to balance it out on the other side. I doodled around the edges to bring it all together & I must pat myself on the back for this one... I am BEYOND PLEASED with this card!

Okay, for real this time, I'm off to do some more creating! Have a blessed day!

Challenge, Cupcake!

For my first Friday Sketchers Challenge, I just HAD to ink up my new Cuppacakeabella.
I also wanted to participate in Gina's Card Kabin Blog Candy Challenge... and my entry applies to both challenges... I used the Sketch from Friday Sketchers and the requirements from Gina's challenge (pretty paper, flowers, ribbon & a stamp) and this is what I came up with. I wrote the sentiment b/c I didn't really have anything to go with my image (yet). And the scan didn't pick it up very well, but I watercolored the Cupcake and the polkadots on Bella's dress using my Watercolor Wonder Crayons (LOVE THOSE!). The icing is Lovely Lilac and the wrapper & polkadots are both Pixie Pink. I used an image from the Fabulous Flowers (SU) set for the BG on the WW cardstock. I ticket punched the lovely lilac layer and dabbed a little Pixie Pink ink onto an already pink flower for a little punch. As an afterthought, I masked and stamped the Polkadot stamp from the Polkadots and Paisley (SU) stamp set onto the Lovely Lilac cardstock. All in All, I love how this turned out (except my little boo boo on the Lovely Lilac paper - did you see that? - and it's WAAAAAY prettier in real life! Oh, and the bella image layer is pop-dotted... is that a word?


On to greater things... I got a RAK a couple weeks ago and have neglected to post it... my Best Friend, PennyO (myhobbyisstamping on SCS) sent me a card just because and I just think it's GOJUS (shout out to Jan Tink!)

I miss you too Penny... watch the mail... your Mother's Day card is en route!

Well y'all, I'm off to keep playin... I'm inspired... perhaps because I have two more uninked bellas sitting on my table SCREAMIN "Ink Me, Ink Me!" TATA for now!