From boring to beautiful...

I have a fun project to share today...a little something I made for my flight instructor. The name plate in her office left a lot to be desired (see the before photo below), and frankly, as the chief flight instructor at my flight school, and a totally awesome person, she deserved better.

Now I didn't just spring this on her out of the blue...I'd given her a card in the past so I know she's a fan of all things crafty. So when I mentioned that her name plate needed a little jazzing up, she enthusiastically agreed!

The finished size is 2x8 inches. First I cut a piece of chipboard for a solid backing. Then it took me a little while to come up with the background paper, but one night it hit me...use an actual sectional chart!!! I had a couple of outdated sectionals on hand so cut out the appropriate areas. Vicky teaches at two locations, Norwood and Providence, and the area just below the airplanes on each name plate shows the respective airports.

I used the plane from my PTI Fly Away set and coloured it with copics. I added a little felt cloud using the small flat-bottom cloud die from MFT then added a little rhinestone swirl for a girlie feel. The little cities below the plane are from the Little City 2000 font at dafont.com...thanks for this font tip Regina!

The letters were done on my Silhouette machine. It was a Christmas gift and I haven't spent any time learning how to use it, so there was quite a learning curve figuring out how to do the letters and the mat, but well worth the effort.

It took me a couple of weeks from first mentioning the idea to the finished product, and when I installed the name plates last week, Vicky was thrilled (and so was I!).

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Couch Potato

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC97. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

For my card today I created something with absolutely no purpose in mind...I made it just because I wanted to! And that, my friends, is a wonderful feeling! I dug into some much neglected Papertrey supplies and created this springy feeling card using Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers. The stamp set is On My Couch and I also used my PTI Rickrack border die and Beautiful Blooms #1 dies. The chair is entirely paper pieced and I added the "potato optional" sentiment directly to the patterned paper. Of course I couldn't create a card without a little sewing too. The finished card measures 3 1/4" x 6 1/2".

We're taking next week off of Sweet Sunday Sketches so I'll see you back here for another fabulous sketch on January 2nd!

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now let's go see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers created.
Jen Tapler
Lynn Put
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Flying By Birthday Wishes

I needed a birthday card for one of my "flying friends" last week so I reached for the most appropriate set I own, Fly Away from Papertrey Ink.

I inked the solid airplane image with Memento Paris Dusk and stamped it onto Choice Snow White then cut it out. The banner was stamped with Memento Bamboo Leaves and the words with Memento Cantaloupe. The patterned paper is from my Basic Grey Wander pad and I thought the map look went well with the airplane flying above. I used my MFT cloud trio dienamics on white felt then gave the card a notebook feel with my notebook edge dienamic. The blue punched star seemed to fill the space nicely and I finished it with an SU corduroy brad.

That's it for me today...must rush off to finish up Christmas stuff.
Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

A Plane (not plain) Birthday Card

A few weeks ago in this post I mentioned how I was all over the April release from Papertrey Ink because of the masculine sets.

Well this little gem, Fly Away, caught my attention because it's absolutely perfect for one of my brothers...he's a pilot and has his own plane. Although it's a float plane, but this is close enough.

His plane is white and orange so I coloured this one with plenty of orange and a touch of yellow...leaving it white just seemed wrong when I love colouring so much! The layout is SSS56 from the Sweet Stop Sketch blog and it's a sketch with a spin, to make a masculine card. I was also totally inspired by Stacey's Curtain Call Act 29 from a couple weeks ago...the colours were perfect for my vision of this card (and that's also where the yellow comes in...LOL!).

I used patterned papers from my Basic Grey June Bug 6x6 paper pad and paired them with Summer Sun, Bordering Blue, and a little Basic Grey for good measure. The sentiment banner is stamped onto Tangerine Tango and I tied it to the plane with black hemp. I used my new MFT cloud trio Die-namics and some fabulous white felt from the Necessary Neutrals for a nice texture.

That's it for me today...have a fabulous day.
Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Sentiment

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC67. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog, The Sweetest Thing.

For my card today I decided to make something completely outside my normal style. This idea came to me as soon as I saw this week's sketch. I recalled seeing a twisted ribbon flower tutorial on someone's blog several months ago (sorry, I can't recall who you are, but if it's you, please let me know so I can give proper credit) and knew it would be perfect for this sketch. Plus, my Signature Greetings from Papertrey Ink arrived this week and these sentiments are pretty enough to take center stage on a card.

I stamped the sentiment with chocolate craft ink and embossed it with clear detail powder to give it a little more presence. I used my corner chomper to chomp the top right corner of the white panel then did a little paper piercing border. The white panel is layered onto Prism frosted pink (which I ran through my textile Cuttlebug folder) and chocolate chip. As if there wasn't already enough texture with the flower and cuttlebug folder, I wanted the ribbon strips to have some interest so I pleated the green one and stitched it "saddle stitch style" before adding two ribbon leaves. I tried adding different elements to the flower center but nothing looked as good as the plain flower.

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation to Karen's blog. Now it's time to see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers created with this week's sketch.
Jen Tapler
Joanne Basile
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Nancy Riley
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

I Miss You...

I whipped up a quick little card a few minutes ago and instead of waiting I thought I'd share it with you right now. When I was blog surfing earlier today there were a few challenges that caught my eye and I've combined them on this card.

The first is the Three Cheers for Chairs challenge on the Moxie Fab blog. What a perfect excuse to use my new Chair-ished set from Papertrey. Then I saw a new challenge blog, The Papertrey Paper Dolls and their first challenge was a sketch (I'm too late to link my creation to the weekly challenge but that didn't stop me...really, you're never too late to play along with any challenge if it gets the creative juices flowing, right?). And finally, my friend Jeanie has a Krafty Thursday feature on her blog and I decided to jump in and use kraft cardstock on my card today, in honour of her! Phew...that's a good mix of challenges in one card. I hope you'll play along in a challenge that gets you stamping just for fun!

I had so much fun making this card though! It came together super quick and the paper piecing was easy peasy. I liked to combination of papers I used yesterday from my Green at Heart 6x6 pad so I used them again for this card. The floor is a stamp from the set then I just coloured it in with copics. Probably the longest part of the card was stitching the ribbon into pleats, but even that only took about 5 minutes. The buttons coordinate perfectly because they're Basic Grey buttons. It's funny, I have a LOT of buttons and when I bought these I KNEW I didn't need them, but I wanted them, so I bought them, and I'm so happy I did because they coordinate perfectly!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Volkswagen

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC66. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

I really really really love this week's sketch...I love working with circles! But I wasn't sure just what I wanted to stamp until happy mail arrived on Friday containing my order of new stamps from Papertrey Ink! I tell ya, I was all over this month's release because it was so masculine, and with all the boys/men in my family I'm always on the lookout for masculine goodies.

Enjoy the Ride couldn't be more perfect for one of my brothers...he's a VW fanatic (he owns three bugs) and I simply had to buy this set to make his birthday card. I'm totally working ahead on this one though because his birthday isn't until October! And don't worry...he doesn't read my blog so I'm not spoiling the surprise. I stamped the outline of the bug first with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Buttercream then I used the solid image stamp to fill in the car with Baja Blue ink. I added a few touches with copic markers then cut out the image. The headlights got three coats with my clear Glaze pen so they'd have that rounded look that VW lights have, but I only went over the windshield with one coat to keep it more flat.

I broke away from the Quite Contrary papers for two days in a row now and reached for my October Afternoon Farm Fresh 8x8 papers for this card instead. I used two different Cuttlebug folder for texture and balanced the offset car with three buttons. I love love LOVE how this card turned out!   :)

I hope you'll play along with this week's Sweet Sunday sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now let's go see what the other Sweet Sunday Stampers came up with using SSSC66.
Jen Tapler
Joanne Basile
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Nancy Riley
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Friends for Life

I switched gears today and stamped a card that required no colouring at all. When I was blog hopping I came across a sketch/Zva/colour challenge on Lisa Johnson's blog and thought it would be fun to play along.

I'm impatiently patiently waiting for my order of new stamps from Papertrey Ink to arrive so while I wait I reached for my Life set. I dug out (and I really do mean dug it out from under several inches of stacked patterned papers) my SU Urban Garden patterned paper because the colours are perfect for this challenge. I used Night of Navy and Kiwi Kiss inks and added some zig zag stitching around the patterned layer. The entire Zva crystal swirl didn't fit in the spot I wanted to place it so I cut it off and used the leftovers to dot the blue flowers. I added a little more texture by running the patterned piece through my swiss dots Cuttlebug folder before stitching it down.

That's it for me today...

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen