Last Hope

Another huge round of cards for Hope You Can Cling To!  This will be my last post about them as I finally FINISHED!  Yay. I love being able to do all 35 cards, but it seemed extra challenging to finish them all this year.  I am happy that my mom and Jason both encouraged and supported me to make it happen.  Now on to the cards (and then on to cleaning the house! Yikes):

This one using the MFT Bokeh Builder set for Kelli's bokeh challenge.  Pretty easy choice of stamps for this one.  lol     I used one Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad for all the pink and just stamped off to get the different shades.  

Kathy's challenge was all about the book The Fault in Our Stars and asked for a romantic card to give to a significant other.   I think this image is so sweet and it was sitting on my shelf brand new and needing love.   Jason is sweet and cuts up apples for me all the time, so I thought it was pretty fitting for the love of my life.

Lydia's final challenge for this year was to make a card based on our favorite children's book.   I love books and always have, so it was hard to pick just one.  I do remember being super obsessed with a book called Spooky Tricks and decided to do a magic card.  I actually won a The Cat's Pajamas gift certificate one year from the HYCCT challenges and got this stamp with it.  :)   Perfect, right?!

This sweet little bunny from Mama Elephant just had to make another appearance on my cards.   Tabbatha's challenge was to use two different mediums on your creation.  I used distress inks, craft ink, and alcohol markers for mine.    The clouds are another HYCCT prize that I picked with a gift certificate from Your Next Stamp!   I love being able to use previous prizes on these cards.  

Here's an almost all Stampin' Up! card for you purists.  :)  Teresa's challenge was about cheering and we spelled out BOOBS. ha!   Blue, circle element, round embellishment, and black.    

Angie's card was about tilted layers.   I was almost asleep the other night and the idea for this one popped in my head.  I started telling Jason all about it and I think he was confused as to why I was thinking about stamping when I was supposed to be going to sleep.   Men are just so different from women!  I do my best thinking right before I fall asleep.  He got me this fun Texas stamp last year for a stocking stuffer and I thought it was time I inked it up.   I kept the card clean like the Texas flag.  

This is the last one.  I actually plan to go back and add some Crumb Cake seam binding to it because I'm not happy with the end result.  The challenge was Susie's to make our own background, no designer paper.   I love my background, but not the rest of the card.  Hopefully I can get it apart and fix it before I mail it off.   The SU World Map stamp is so fun with watercolor paper and distress inks! 

My little picture helper this morning.  She's telling me all about the Texas she found on this card.  lol 

Freshly Made Tissue Flower

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  Linda is our hostess this week with a fabulous design.  I combined the sketch with Debbi's HYCCT challenge to use tissue on our card.  I love making tissue flowers!   The only tissue I could find had silver sparkles on it, so I ran with the silver and added in some navy.   I'm not sure what you'd use it for, but I added a hand-written joy and am calling it a Christmas card.  Ha!

Remember when you play along you can change out the shapes to whatever works for you.  :)

They had a bit of fun playing with the sand toys.  Laila is more into knocking over the sand castles than building them.  lol 

So Much Hope

Beware!  I'm behind on posting cards so there's a lot of my Hope You Can Cling To cards in this post.  :)   Enjoy the inspiration.

First is my stair step card for Kim's challenge.  I used my sweet little snowman from My Favorite Things.   I love this stamp so much!   I added in a pink scarf to honor the theme of the challenges.

Gail's challenge was all about keeping connected.   I didn't have any telephone stamps, but I went with the "girl time" idea of a coffee date.  I know when I'm struggling a nice coffee date with a friend really helps me recharge.  

I made this tag a while back but never found a way to use it on a card.  When I saw Barbara's challenge to use embossing paste I thought I could do a pretty background and add my tag.   It still seems a little plain, so I might add a few butterflies on the white layer before I put it in the mail.

Patricia's challenge was all about spraying ink to get lots of dots and/spots.   I don't love this one and will probably try to do a different card.  I tried a million things to get it to look better, but it is what it is.   We all make a dud sometimes, right?  lol

Stacy's challenge was "show me the love" and involved making a card showing love without putting love on the front.   I used my sweet little hedgies from Lawn Fawn.  

Robin's challenge was to use one of several resist techniques.   I went with a crayon rubbed resist technique.   I put my paper on the raised side of an embossing folder and rubbed my crayon over it.  It reminded me of my favorite childhood toy, Fashion Plates.  Once I did that, I inked up my brayer with Crumb Cake and ran it over the paper to make the resist show up.    It seemed too plain, so I did sponge some Early Espresso around it as well.   Fun technique!

Jeanne's challenge was all about pink balloons.  I have a strange fear of balloons, so I tend to not buy a lot of balloon stamps.  I did have this cute little chick that I hadn't inked up yet, so I added her to the big sentiment from Winnie & Walter.  

Whew!   That's all for now.  I am trying SOOOO hard to get all 35 challenges done, so you might see another long post from me soon.   

My mom went home today.  :(   We are sure going to miss her.   It has been so wonderful to see how much love she has to give to our little girl.   I wish we didn't live so far apart.

Prickley Pear Monday Inspiration

It's Monday, which means new inspiration from the Prickley Pear team!   I was feeling a bit festive, so I pulled out the Christmas Trees set and die.  I decided to just use the sentiment and the die along with some gorgeous paper.  Espresso and blue aren't the most traditional colors, but I love them!   Be sure to head over to the blog and check out all the other great cards!

Stamps:  CLR009 Christmas Trees, PPRS-D009 Tree Die

Grammy made sure she had another University of Kentucky outfit. lol  

More Hope

I managed to get a few more Hope You Can Cling To cards made.  I have eleven more to go to finish them, so I'm working so hard and stamping every spare minute!   I hate to not meet my goal, but sometimes life happens.   I'll happily send along every how many I do make. :)   This one was Joyce's challenge of "Something Missing" and I hope I did it right.  I die cut the hope and added a paint sample behind it instead of using the die cut itself.  

This card is for Lori's "Warm Fuzzies" challenge.  A fuzzy bunny in a tub fits the bill for me.  :)   I love this image!   It was fun to color too.

Finally, this one is for Edna's challenge called "All that Binds Us" and it was to make or mimic a bound book.   I used washi tape to make a faux binding and then used my fun book stamps to finish off the card.

On Thursday we left to go on a little vacation to Florida.   It ended up being a disaster and we came home early.   Laila just cannot sleep in anything except a crib and she was up both nights we stayed.  We were just too exhausted to try another night.   Last night at home she slept like 13 hours and took a long nap today.   No more vacations for a while as we all need our sleep.   We did enjoy the beach for a little while on Friday, so it wasn't a total waste.

Lots of Hope

I have several HYCCT cards to share with you today.   This first one is for my friend Jen Timko's challenge. Her theme is "Hope Soars" inspired by this quote: “When everything seem to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it ….” ― Henry Ford Isn't that fabulous? She's a pilot, so no surprise that we are using airplanes. :)

Sabrina's challenge was to NOT use traditional adhesive.   Yikes!   I can't sew on cards, but I tried.   I did have to beat some serious dust off the machine that Mom got me several years back.   I'm hoping that maybe I can work on it and figure out how to do it so that it doesn't look so crazy.   I did try though!   I had to sew the button on by hand.   That I can handle!  

Julie's challenge was to smash ink or paint onto your paper.  I didn't have any acetate or glossy cardstock, so I put some Island Indigo reinker on my craft mat, added a bit of water, and smashed my paper into that.   Once it dried, I painted over it with some gesso to soften the colors.  I think it makes the perfect background for this cute little guy. I did a bit of paper piecing on his clothes to match up the colors as well.  

And finally, Natalie's challenge was soft and cozy.  You could use a soft material or images that conveyed that feeling.  I still had some of the fabric that matches my favorite Spice Cake paper, so I decided to use that.   

Whew!  That's enough for one day, huh?!

Someone is getting way too spoiled with their Grammy here.   I think Jason and I will be in for it once she leaves.  There might be a whole day of time-outs at this rate!   They are really enjoying their time together. 

Freshly Made Flower

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.   I am the hostess thsis week and I hope you'll come over and play along!     We have been so busy for the past week that I was running in at the last minute to make my card.   It was a VERY quick one and super simple.   I wanted to combine it with Paula's Hope You Can Cling To challenge to not use any stamps.    So...no stamps!  :)

Be sure you go check out the rest of the design team cards and come play along with us.   See you in the gallery!

Laila did not want me to take her picture on Saturday when she wore her costume, but I managed to sneak in this one.  She is in a major NO stage at the moment and every single thing is no.   No, no, no, no, NO!  lol

My Hero

Checking in and sharing another Hope You Can Cling To card.   Bridget's challenge was to make something inspired by your hero.   If you follow my blog, you know my mom has become a major quilter and I am so proud of her.  My card was inspired by her love of sewing.   I used my Paper Smooches sewing set and colored it with my Copics.   My layout was inspired by an awesome card by Kay Miller that I found here.  

Mom gave Laila the quilt she made her and they had to spread it out and lay down.  :)