Beau Chateau Mojo/ Mojo Monday #289

I woke up early enough this morning to take a look at the Mojo Monday sketch, but not early enough to do anything with it.  So, the wheels in my head were turning on ideas all day.  It was kind of fun, really.  I knew I really liked the sketch.  In fact, I may make several different cards based on this one.  However, I wasn't sure what exactly I would do with it.  As the day went on, it became clear to me who this card would be for and that always helps with design inspiration.  Sometimes it's great fun to design just for the fun of designing, but it's important to remember the real WHY behind homemade cards.  The point of this particular paper craft is to  send a message and love to some one we care about.  That's what I love most about making cards--- the creative processes brings joy to me and the finished product is designed to bring joy to someone else.  So, this little beauty will go out tomorrow to remind a friend of mine who is going through a tough time that she isn't going through it alone.  Thanks to the ladies at Mojo Monday for giving me a great launching point for this design.

Cloudy Whales

While enjoying my snow day yesterday, I decided to try yet another card challenge.  This time, I hopped on over to the Creative Card Crew blog to see what they were up to this week.  It turns out they are focusing on clouds.  Sounded fun, but I didn't think it would really work with my need to make one more baby card.  Little did I know that clouds would play an important role after all!  I'm not sure if it was just lurking in the back of my subconscious while I was designing, but I quickly realized that the perfect back ground for this super cute little card was my clouds embossing folder.   I was even more excited to discover that my little whale paper clip would be another great addition to the card.  It's always fun to find a way to use new embellishments!! (As if the stamp, die, & paper weren't enough whales for a girl to have) This card also gave me a chance to pay tribute to one of my favorite SU colors that will go away at the end of this catalog season--- Bashful Blue.  It's being replaced by the former In Color, Soft Sky, but I'm not quite ready to let go yet.  So, let's make cards while the sun still shines--- or while the snow still falls!

Whalecome Papertake Challenge

Today ended up as a bit of an oddity.  There were big predictions for a nasty winter storm in my area, so my school district decided to call school for today off around 10:30pm last night.  Wouldn't you know the storm didn't amount to much--- for us anyway.  However, it was way too late to call school back on, so I've had a pleasantly not very snowy snow day.  :)

It gave me a great opportunity to craft!  I decided to check out some card challenges I've never attempted before.  I settled on the Papertake Weekly Challenge for this card.  On their BINGO card I selected "die cut, free space, buttons".  Of course, I only used one button & it is kinda tiny.  :)  No worries though, I think it still counts.  I've been itching to use my coordinating whale stamps, paper, & die from the Spring Catalog and it just so happened that my friend is in need of a baby card.  All things came together nicely and resulted in this little creation.  I think I'm just as happy with the inside as the out today, so I'll post a photo of that as well:
Heck, this one is so cute, I think it may be time for a 5 card class so we can all make it!

Lovely As a Tree Mojo/ Mojo Monday #288

Ah, it feels good to get back into the Mojo Monday groove.  It's such fun to start the week off with a little crafty inspiration.  I went over to the Mojo Monday site this morning knowing I needed to make a sympathy card.  I think their sketch lends itself nicely to the simple elegance I like in any sympathy card.  For this one, I took out an old favorite.  Lovely as a Tree was the very first stamp set I ever bought from Stampin' Up.  It's also been in the catalog longer than any other current set.  I think you can see why.  Its simple beauty makes it just so versatile.  The best part was using this specific stamp with my new ink pads for the first time. In the past, it was a pretty difficult stamp to ink evenly.  I knew that I would have to stamp a few times to get an image that had a complete center.  Well, no more!  This one was a first shot. :) I know the super juicy ink pads take a bit to get used to, but boy do I love them.