Just Be You!

Hello Everyone!
Sorry I've been MIA for most of the past week.  School starts in 3 days and I'm also starting a part-time job this week, so I'm feeling the pressure to get everything caught up around here first. 

I did get around to making one new card for the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger.  Here's the trigger picture:

I drew my inspiration from the colors - the teal and yellow of the pillows, with just a  shot of the hot pink thrown in.  Here's what I came up with:

I have to admit I'm not sure what I think about it.  It's a different style for me, but I guess it's always good to try something out of the box for a change.  Since I didn't have a bird stamp, I just hand cut these out.  The branch was my own creation, too. :)I also did a little dry painting around the edges of the teal paper for something different.  Let me know what you think - and I already know one thing - I either need a cute bird stamp or some bird patterned paper before I try this again!  (Cosmo Cricket has some adorable bird paper in their new Togetherness line.  Can't wait to get some!)

Have a wonderful week and hopefully I'll get my creative juices flowing again to make some new creations to share with you.

God bless you!

-Rachel-

A good laugh is sunshine in the house!

Hello! 
We just got home this afternoon from a weekend with my brother and his family at their cabin.  We had a great time with many good laughs.  My best friend from college also lives in that city, so it was wonderful to see her and her husband as well.  We only see each other once a year at most, but when we get together it's like no time has past.  I'm so thankful for friends like that!

Today's card is one I made for the Paper Crafts Simple Sentiments Challenge.  I don't know why I've never used them before, but there are free downloadable sentiments on their site that are perfect for cardmaking.  And did you catch that they're FREE? Gotta love that!  Here's the link - they have new ones added every month.  Something I'll definitely be using again in the future.

I just love that sentiment!  I printed it right onto some Cosmo Cricket paper and then colored in the house with markers.  I've had the chipboard sun for a while - it came in a Jenni Bowlin kit.  The yellow paper is more Cosmo Cricket and the blue lined paper is Love Elsie - another one I've been hoarding a while.  I'm actually thinking that this is one of my favorite cards I've ever made. 

I also found some happy news when I got home when I saw this.  I don't think I've ever won in a contest (besides runners-up or random drawings), so this made me extremely happy. And speaking of random drawings, I found out last week that I won some Cosmo Cricket fabric, which I can't wait to receive in the mail!  So I'm feeling rather blessed today!

Thanks so much for visiting, and I pray that you are feeling blessed today, too!

-Rachel- 

Friends 4Ever

Hi and Happy Friday!!

Wow, I'm on a roll this week with another card for you!  I made this card for the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge.  This month's challenge was to use this sketch:

And this is what came to be:

I used my Stampin' Up Girlfriends set and my blender pen to color it in.  It really is fun to color, I don't know why I don't do that more often. (very time consuming!) The sentiment is a rub-on from Melissa Frances - my favorite!

 I have a ton of things to do around here today, so I'm making this a short one.  Have a great weekend!

-Rachel-

2 Cards in a Day!

Hi everyone!

How's your week been?  Mine has been good, though it's going so fast, mostly due to the fact that I've been running kids to and fro for volleyball tryouts and football practice every day.  All that running definitely breaks up the day!  But despite all that, I was still able to make 2 new cards yesterday.  I've also managed to get a couple scrapbook pages done this week, so I guess it's been a pretty creative and happy crafting week for me!

The first card is for a challenge that Kim Kesti posted on her blog.  Here is her card that she wanted us to use as inspiration to make a card of our own:

And here is my card.  I've wanted to try those scallops on a card, so here was my chance.  To make mine, I punched several circles and then cut them all in half before layering them on.  I like the look, even though this is a very different style for me than I usually make.  Different is good, though!

I have to say that without even thinking about it, I like to put hot pink together with turqouise.  I think it goes back to 18 years ago to my wedding day.  My bridesmaid dresses were this bright turquoise and the flowers were hot pink roses.  (Yeah - definitely an early 90's wedding!) 

My next card is more my typical style.  I think I'll always love Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird line - the colors are just me.  This one is for the Paper Crafts Sketch Challenge #6.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I love these happy pinwheels!  Alpha stickers are from October Afternoon (LOVE those too! and all patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day and God bless you all!

-Rachel-

Play Date Cafe Challenge Card

Happy Saturday everyone!

We are heading out to the lake with some friends in a little while, but I first wanted to get a quick post done and show you the card I made for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.  The colors for the challenge were dark brown, green, and beige.  I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but there is a circle cut out in the front of the card, and the butterfly rub-on (Stampin' Up) is on the inside of the card.  I also used Glossy Accents on the butterfly for a little extra sparkle.

Sorry this is so short and sweet!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Rachel-

Make a Wish

Hi everyone!  Hope your week has been going well.  It's been a hot one here...kind of makes me excited for the cooler fall weather that will be here before we know it.  Fall is definitely my favorite time of year - jeans and sweatshirts, football games, pumpkin spice candles, visits to the pumpkin patch, and lots of baking.....things to look forward to!

I found another card challenge that I decided to enter this week.  It's the EtsyInspired Challenge, and it just so happens to be their 100 challenge this week.  (So the prize package is pretty awesome!)  This challenge site features an Etsy shop and we were to find inspiration there to base our project on.  This week's shop was Cathy Walter's.  She makes beautiful pendants for necklaces.  I saw so many that I just loved.  And I have to be honest...I've tried about 4 projects for this challenge, but nothing seemed to be working out this week!  So I'm finally settling on a tag that I made today.  My inspiration came from her "Make a Wish Pendant":

This is the back of the pendant - more inspiration!

And here's my take - thanks to her inspiration:

I love cupcakes, so I used my Studio G stamp and paperpieced the cupcake and adhered it with popdots.  The "MAKE" is from an old Scrabble game, the "A" is from Karen Foster (I've had that alpha set for a while) and "WISH" is from Cosmo Cricket.  I decided to add a fabric ruffle to the bottom - that was my favorite part of the whole project.  I gathered it with some loose stitches first, then ruffled it and attached it with a zig-zag stitch.  I generally make cards, but I really had fun with this tag and think I need to make some more! :)

Thanks for looking!  God bless!

-Rachel-

Cute as a Bug

Hi Again!
 
I'm back with another card for the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge. This time I made a baby card using the buttons as the ladybug's spots.  I've always loved this saying and it reminds me of a t-shirt that my daughter had when she was really little.   

The ladybug was adhered with pop dots to give it some more dimension and the antennae were made from wire.  Kind of a simple card with just cardstock, my sewing machine, a circle punch and some buttons and wire...but I have to admit I like how it turned out.  

Have a great day!

-Rachel-

EBTKS Challenge

Happy Saturday!!

Hope you're having a wonderful summer Saturday.  We enjoyed the day yesterday hiking around the trails at a state park, so today is more the cleaning-around-the-house-day.  And I'm so glad we did the hiking yesterday because it was so gorgeous and not nearly as muggy out as it is today. 

My card today is for the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge.  This month's challenge was to use buttons.  Now I use buttons often on cards, but so do so many other people!  So I tried to come up with something a little different for me.  It's a new style for me, and the colors kind of say "summer" to me.  I have another idea brewing, so hopefully I'll sit down this weekend and try to come up with a second card for this challenge. 

Enjoy your day and keep smiling!

God bless you!

-Rachel-

Play Date Cafe Challenge

Hello!

I'm surprising myself that I've found the time to make another card this week already! :)  Amazingly, this card came together really fast (that doesn't happen very often!)  And is it bad to say that I'm really happy with how it turned out??

Anyway, I just discovered a new card challenge site called The Play Date Cafe. I'm still learning how it all works out, but this week's challenge was to use the colors black and white with green.  I'm hoping cream counts for white! 

Here's what I came up with:

I've had the bookprint paper for a while, but I'm pretty sure it was Jenni Bowlin. The flower rub-on is from Stampin' Up and the sentiment is Lucida Handwriting font. 

I'm really enjoying these card challenges - they sure help get my creative juices flowing.  Give them a try!!

Thanks so much for looking and God bless you!!

-Rachel-

Paper Crafts Sketch Challenge

Hello!!
Hope you're enjoying your weekend.  Can you believe it's already August? School will be back in session in exactly one month, so we're going to savor these next few weeks!  Of course they'll be filled with a week of VBS, a week of volleyball tryouts, and the start of football season, but we'll have to squeeze some fun in the middle of all that, too.

I finally found some time to make a card for this month's Paper Crafts Sketch Challenge.  I tried using some crepe paper on this one - something I've been seeing used more and more lately. 

Hey, is anyone else going to Scrapfest at the Mall of America in September?  I've never gone to it before, and so my sister and I decided that we're going to spend the day there together on that Saturday.  We haven't done anything with just the 2 of us in years, so I'm looking forward to it.  I've been seeing lots of fun, new releases from some of my favorite companies, so I'm excited to get my hands on some new paper! :) 

Have a great day, everyone.  And may God Bless You!

-Rachel-