Friends Always

This weekend is Mother's Day and I want to wish all of you a wonderful day!  My mom passed away in 1989 and this card is a tribute to some special friends who have been like a mother to me, (even though I'm older, LOL!)

 I decided I wanted to enter my card into two of my favorite challenges - Runway Inspired and CAS-usal Fridays.

For the Runway Inspired Challenge #35, their inspiration photo is of a gorgeous outfit from Miu Miu.  My eyes immediately went to the horizontal stripes of the dress with a pink polka dot collar and black zipper detail offset to the side.  I also felt that the model wearing a yellow dress in the background was a detail I wanted to incorporate.  To give some movement to my card, I wanted to draw your eye down to the bottom of my card with a few black pearls, emulating the dots on the handbag.  I was also struck by the simplicity of the wooden runway, so I used a wood grained embossing folder as the card base.

For the CAS-usal Fridays Challenge CFC100, their theme is one of their Top 10 challenges, Tic Tac Toe, (celebrating their 100th challenge and 2nd birthday.) I chose the top left, polka dots going diagonally down to black&white.  With Black Diamond Stickles, I think I brought the bling, baby!

I had fun fusing these two challenges together!  And to make it even more fun, I am including this card in a batch I am sending to my dear friend, Barb Engler, for a United Way campaign she will be participating in at work.  All the profits from the sale of the cards will be going to United Way!  

 

Thanks for stopping by and as always, I love to read your comments!

Supplies:

Paper - HA snow layering, PPI black cardstock, Bazzill

Stamps - HA Pinstripe BG and Untitled Postmark

Ink - Versafine Black Onyx

Other - Lil Inker Bow die, Spellbinders classic circle, Hero Arts black pearls, Black Diamond Stickles, Sizzix wood grained embossing folder, black velvet ribbon from my stash

Here Comes The Sun!

Good afternoon!  Today, I am hosting the Hero Arts Flickr Group 90 Minute Scramble challenge.  The theme is "Here Comes the Sun."  This for all of you who could use a good dose of sunshine!

In our crazy world, we are experiencing a weather phenomenon that is bringing record-breaking snow to the South and 80 plus degrees to the North.  It’s like the Earth has flipped, LOL!

So I’m asking you to create a project that uses one or more of these elements:
The word SUNSHINE

An image (die, cut file, or stamp) of the SUN

An ALL YELLOW monochromatic project that conveys the feeling of a SUNNY day

Here are my cards I made for the challenge.

 My first project is a tag from one of the new Hero Arts stamp sets, Tag Collage.  I stamped it in Pale Tomato mid-tone shadow ink and then dry embossed it with a bird and vine folder.  The flower is one of my very favorites, Hero Arts Stencil Flower.  I used the emboss resist technique with clear powder and Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold, and Worn Lipstick distress inks. The bird is a wood cutout that was originally intended to be a score/bone folder - yeah right?  REALLY!  I covered it in a scrap of MME Miss Caroline paper and added a pretty pool pearl for the eye.  I think she's sweet!  My SUNNY element, as if the flower and bird aren't enough, is the Hero Arts sentiment stamp from Homey Patterns.  I've used this stamp often.  I thought Soft Pool shadow ink would match that paper and pearl perfectly.

To finish off my tag, I added a bow made out of seam tape I dyed with Squeezed Lemon distress ink and a pretty new-to-me die from My Favorite Things, Leaf-Filled Flourish I also distressed with the lemon ink. 

My next project is a CAS card.  I KNOW - I don't make these EVAH!  But hey, it's a challenge and this is the only sketch that came to mind.  It's from the Clean and Simple On-Line Card class. 

I simply dry embossed a white card with a SU lattice folder.  Next, I stamped the Hero Arts Radiant Banner in Butter mid-tone shadow ink on white cardstock, then die cut a circle from Spellbinders on the bottom part of the stamped image.  I turned the image on its side and attached it with foam squares to the card base.  I added some puffy, white clouds using my new Lil Inker die cut set and then used a Copic to shadow it in blue.

I finished off this quick card with a scrap from the same MME Miss Caroline paper pad, but this time I used another Hero Arts stamp from Heydey Sentiments set with Memento ink in Tangelo.  I used My Favorite Things Fishtail Flags die for the sentiment.  That's it!  Easy Peasy!

I hope you can join in on the fun!  Thanks SO much for visiting my blog and as always, I love to read your comments.