Embellish Magazine Challenge #3

I'm getting this in just under the time limit. Things have been crazy at my job IRL. I'm now working in THREE different departments at three different times during the day and I'm trying to balance everything with all three of my new 'bosses'. The receptionist went into early labor and gave birth today, which threw everyone into a tizzy because our plan-of-action went into effect three weeks early. But that's okay - a brand new baby girl has arrived for me to introduce to her the love of paper crafting!!!

So on with Embellish Magazine's newest challenge. I decided to make a pocket card to hold a book mark. I'm sure many of you (too many of you!) have had to come to grips with cancer in one form or another. My Dad died of pancreatic cancer in '06 and my Aunt (my Dad's twin sister) is a breast cancer survivor for over 20 years. My co-worker is also a breast cancer survivor having to ordeal the situation at only 35 years old. I know for myself that it doesn't make sense. Why? The eternal question that will never be answered. So we can only continue our journey to defeat this thing.

Okay - enough with the tears....here is my pocket card....



My gray paper that I used as the 'envelope' is SU! Going Gray. I cut a sheet of 8.5" x 11" along the 11" side and at 5.5" I folded it in half. I then scored along the 1" part of my front flap and punched with my Martha border punch.

Here is a pic of the inside bookmark. I only had white eyelets so I used a bit of my Copic markers E000 to tone it down a bit. The stamped image I got way-back-when my Dad was first diagnosed. It's from Endless-Desions and I cannot, unfortunately, give credit to who is the original author of this sentiment.




And here is my bling.....







Because I'm a bit under the time limit, I'll have to come back and fill in all the details. If you want more info, just leave me a comment and I'll reply back. Thanks for stopping by!

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop!

The PTI Blog Hops are so much fun and they inspire creativity like nothing I've ever come across. The October Blog Hop is set up specifically for holiday inspiration and I hope I inspire!!

I make these little gift card/money holders for the people in my family. I make up a whole shoe box full and bring them to our family Thanksgiving dinner for them to take home as many as they would like. Not all of them are Christmas themed...most of them are not, but you can get a little sampling of them below...



I was on a roll with the PTI Polka Dot Parade paper so everything you see will have that paper on it. This can be easily switched up to incorporate any PTI patterned paper or any design that you hand stamp.

This is NOT my original idea so I cannot take credit for it. I've seen a lot of demonstrations on it but this is the best one I've found for video, because I'm a visual learner, so I hope this is useful. Thank you Dawn!

So here are the results......





Here is a picture of the inside holding a gift card....



And another pic of it showing money....actually, I've made so many of these cards that
I've learned that the money slot needs to be a bit wider if you want to fold the money in half rather then the way I did it for the picture. Just take your SU! Word Window Punch and extend it to almost the edge of your paper to be able to fold your money in half.



And here are a couple of shots of the closure tab so you can get a feel for how it all stays closed....






Thanks for hopping by!!! I hope I've inspired even though it wasn't all PTI all the time. Please leave a comment...I like to know what you think!!!

Embellish Magazine Challenge #2

So Ashley proposed a new challenge on Embellish to make a circle card. Easy enough.....I've done them before and any kind of a shaped card, other than a rectangle, is usually a big hit, because it's not expected. The second part of the challenge was to use the colors shown above.

I pulled out my Cricut Wild Card cartridge and went to work, cutting out the base of the card using the doily image from the cartridge on PTI Aqua Mist card stock. I threaded some PTI Dark Chocolate twill ribbon through the edges all the way around the card and tied it in a simple knot at the top. I love how this is coming together already!!

For my focal image on the front on the card, I stamped on a piece of Stamper's Select White with the branch from the original sized Out On A Limb set in Dark Chocolate ink, along with some leaves in Spring Moss and a bit of Melon Berry dots. I know Melon berry isn't a color choice, but it seemed kind of blah, so I went with it. I stamped and cut out the bird's body in Spring Moss and the wing from the Anniversary set Everyday Classics in Aqua Mist and cut it out and adhered it with pop dots. The result....



A deformed looking bird that looks like my 7 month old grandson cut it out. In addition, because I chose not to cut around the legs but rather DRAW THEM ON, well, quite frankly, I hate this card. So it has sat around my crafty cove for the last couple of weeks. Every day it would stare me down when I came into the room. Looking at me. Mocking me. Taunting me about what a crappy job I had done. I mean seriously....look at those legs!! And the cutting??? Forget it!



So tonight I decided to fix it. Not a do over...FIX IT! The one thing I didn't like about this card was the bird and his stick legs. So, I stamped him again on thinner paper, thus reducing the jagged edges when I cut him out. Also, I kept a slight white border around him as I cut, and I didn't amputate his legs this time. The next challenge was to pull off the old bird and put on the new and improved one, which was easy - he was only held on with pop dots. I was able to position him over just about all of the drawn on legs, except one little area, which I went over with a white gel pen. I then adhered him back on to his rightfully earned perch. In addition, I added a bit of bling to his eye. (If you click on the picture, it will get bigger.)



Now he looks like a nice little bird in a tree, one that I won't be embarrassed to give to someone! And before I go, a shot of the inside.



Someone once asked me why I don't stamp a lot of sentiments on the inside of my card. The reason is, for my own personal stash, I like to keep them blank on the inside, so when I do need a card, I can just pull one out and stamp the appropriate sentiment on the inside for whatever the occasion is. That way, I always have a bunch of cards that I can customize for whatever the occasion without having to manufacture a new card!

I hope you liked today's card....it was a doosey to say the least, but I'm much more happy the way this card ended! Thanks for stopping by!!