Saturday Stress Reliever

One of the kiddos is sleeping and one is watching a movie through Netflix so I stole some time to make a quick card for a few challenges. We are in the middle of a car-buying process and it is so stressful!

I did half of the card sitting on the couch with my oldest daughter though! That was a challenge!

Here is my card and the first one I've ever done for a photo inspiration challenge. There is an interesting one over at Anyone for Anya? Here is the picture for the challenge:

I used the Limited Edition Wonderland Stamp - Alice from The Greeting Farm. I also used the Delicate Words die and threw a little pink bling on the card.

I colored her hair using my favorite blonde combo- Y11, Y21, YR23. I used the typical pink copics - R81, R83, and R85 for her dress and bow. I used B34 for the shoes and eyes and C1 for the shadows on her. apron.

I'm also following the Garden Variety's Challenge on The Greeting Farm which is a sketch this week.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Anyone for Anya? Photo Inspiration

The Greeting Farm - Garden Variety Tuesday Sketch

No Time to Waste - 10 Thank You Cards in 40 Minutes

Hi all,

I wanted to share with you a brief post about not obsessing over perfection in cards. Sometimes my cards take more than two hours to complete (including coloring) and I use a Clean & Simple (CAS) style. I can't imagine what kind of time commitment truly intricate cards take you.

It is Teacher Appreciation Week at my daughters' daycare/preschool. With two little ones, it is very hard to get time to craft. I had one hour and ten thank-you cards to complete. With some cardstock, a bit of washi tape, some embellishments, my favorite The Greeting Farm stamps, and sentiment stamps...you too can have quick thank you cards! What' even better, these cards cost pennies to make.

Make a quick A2 card, stamp TGF stamp

Attach Washi Tape & Embellishment of choice

Added "To" stamp from TGF's Signature Set. Added Person's name (not shown). Colored one element of the stamp using clear atyou spica pen (sorry doesn't show up well in photos - colored the cloud here)
DONE!

Used the Thank You stamp for the inside of the card (sorry no photo)

Whew, quick and easy. I'm going to pair these with little gifts I have yet to get. Teacher Appreciation Week is half-way over so I better get crackin'!

Recycling Old Cards

Today I would like to share a card with you that uses a recycled element. I don't know about you but I hate throwing greeting cards away, even the (gasp!) store-bought kind. Compound that with a mother in law that loves sending multiple cards for every holiday and happy occasion and it results in a huge basket with a few years worth of Hallmark greetings. About a year ago, I started combing through the older ones and cutting out cute sayings, embellishments, and cute characters (like Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, etc) and saving them in a zip-loc bag for use on my cards. However, that's where they sat. Until Today! Anyone for Anya has a great challenge right now - Recycled!  This was just the perfect opportunity for me to reach into my stash and find something fun.

The card I made using Miss Anya Lounge. I love, love the Miss Anyas! They are so stinking cute! I'm not sure if this set is retired or not but I couldn't find it on The Greeting Farm's website - really glad I already have it.

The recycled element is the Happy Birthday sentiment. I took it from a fun Snoopy card where he is riding a motorcycle. Don't worry, I also cut Snoopy out and plan to use him someday on another card. The rest of that card went into the recycling bin. :)

For Miss Anya, I wanted to play with my new blue copics - B32, B34, B28, and B37. I had to add some sparkle to her headband, her eyeshadow, and her number on the jersey - used the copic spica glitter pen.

Enjoy!

The sentiment comes from the TGF Anya Lifts stamp set. Circles were cut using the Sizzix Framelits.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Anyone for Anya? - Recycle!

The Greeting Farm's Retro-Fresh Challenge - Polka Dots and/or Plaids

Purple Wonderland

Today, I wanted to share with you another of the TGF Limited Edition Wonderland Stamps - Hatter Bean!

I colored her up with my usual medium of choice - copic sketch markers! Since she is a little "mad" I wanted to give her a funky hair color. I love my purples and had a great time giving her locks of that hue. I specifically used V12, V15, and V17 for the hair and V04, V06, and V09 for the coloring on her outfit and hat. I used cool greys (i.e. C1, C3, C5) for her hat, dress, and boots.

I couldn't find any papers in my stash that had purple and gray in them so I decided to make my own! This was the first time attempting this but I think it came out great. I used the chevron stamp from the Close To My Heart Stamp Set and stamped it with dusty concord distress ink (shown below):

I also added flowers from my Sizzix Sizzlits Flower & Loopy Flower #2 die and finished it off with brads from my stash. I'm still loving the Delicate Words die from The Greeting Farm so I used that as well.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my show-and-tell and this helps you be even more frugal by creating your own paper. Look around at your stamps...I'm sure you have lots of possibilities! This leaves more money to spend on cute stamps and copics!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

TGF's April Showers Bring May Flowers

The Perfect Sentiment - Make it Feminine

Mad for Markers May Challenge - One for the Girls

7 Kids College Fund - April Showers Bring May Flowers