MIM & OLW: Baby Card

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to use an inspiration photo from Pinterest. I decided to make a baby card! If you did not see my post yesterday, I recently found out that I'm expecting my first child. :) Here is the card, "Every Child Begins the World Again".

I think this card speaks to the idea of renewal and the hope that a new baby brings to the world. It also kind of reminds me of the hopeful feeling of spring after a long winter.

I used this photo as inspiration. I just loved the bright colors of the room and the unique design.

I am also entering this into PTI's Make It Monday challenge to use distressed edges in your card. I edged the card with Tea Dye ink and then distressed it with Tim Holtz's paper distresser tool. This is a great tool to make distressing your card much easier! It can also help to ink it before you distress. The wetness of the ink can make it tear a little easier.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a very sunny day today! :)

All supplies are Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Merry Little Christmas, Inside and Out: Baby, Love Lives Here
Ink: Versafine Graphite Black (Brilliance), Sunflower Yellow (Brilliance), Tea Dye Duo
Paper: Vintage Cream

One Layer Wednesday Challenge: Christmas Kindness

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to make a Christmas card. It is a special edition of the OLWC because these cards will be sent to inmates at the North Dakota penitentiary, so they will have Christmas cards to send to their loved ones.

I tried to think of a card that would be warm and soothing for someone to receive. It is really cold in North Dakota, so I wanted to make something with warm colors. So I stamped the Thomas Kinkade winter scene onto PTI's warm Fine Linen CS using Versafine Toffee ink. Then I added the sentiment from PTI's new Big & Bold Holiday wishes (love this new set) in red. 

To finish the card, I spritzed it with PTI's gold mist spray to give it a warm glow and shimmer, almost like a lamp light over the whole scene. 

I will be sending this out to Rhonda tomorrow! If you would like to contribute cards to this Christmas Kindness card drive you can find the details on Susan's blog here. Thanks so much for stopping by today. Hope you have a warm and sunny day!

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink unless otherwise listed)
Stamps: Christmas Village (Thomas Kinkade, CHF), Big and Bold Holiday Wishes
Paper: Fine Linen
Ink: Toffee (Versafine), Rocket Red (Brilliance), Rocket Red Gold (Brilliance)
Other: Gold mist

Just a Note: More Small Thank You Notes

In yesterday's post, I said I would be posting more small thank you cards with a different twist. Today's cards also use the Mat Stack 4 stamp and die but these have a more retro musical look.

By stamping the frame in a shimmery gold/black it gives a more retro, almost record player-like look. The circles in the mat stack kind of look like visual rhythms in a song or music notes. I prefer the mat stack stamped in lighter colors but do like the contrast it provided for this card. I used just a spot of red, with the intention of entering this into Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge here. I masked out the circle and stamped the lines from the PTI "Take Note" stamp set.

I curved the inside sentiment and added a musical note, leaving just enough room to add a short message.

My family has quite a few musicians in it...my aunt was a professional violinist, my grandma plays the piano and used to teach and my uncle plays drums...so it is nice to have a few music "notes" on hand! :)

That's all for today! Have a sunny Sunday! :)

All supplies are Papertrey Ink (PTI) unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Take Note, Tiny Treats: Halloween, Just A Note (musical notes, Wplus9), Thanks (sentiment, American Crafts)
Paper: Stampers Select White
Ink: Brilliance inks (Lightning Black, Rocket Red)
Other: Mat Stack 4 die

P.S. Just a reminder, my url has changed to www.craftinginsunshine.com. I redirected it through blogger so all links to the previous url (www.monicacrafts.blogspot.com) still work. Just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to update!

It's beginning to look a lot like...Fall!

So in Florida, we don't have autumn (or winter either for that matter), so if we want to experience the missing seasons, we have to get a little creative! I love fall leaves, but the closest I can get to them is by stamping them. So that's exactly what I did for this card project! :)

I got a beautiful CHF Oak Leaves backgrounder stamp in the mail recently and I immediately thought it would look lovely stamped in gold on white paper. Then I saw Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge this week, which challenged us to add something metal to our cards (you can find the details: HERE) and this project came together!

Here's my entry. It is a set of metallic leaf notecards to give as a gift.

I stamped the leaves with Versamark ink onto Papertrey Ink's white shimmer cardstock. (And I'm going to totally enable you and say that if you haven't yet tried it--you must! So beautiful.) Then I sprinkled embossing powder onto each and heat set it.

Another interesting thing, I used a different EP brand for each card. Here are some closeups so you can see the shimmer of the cardstock and compare the embossing powders for yourself. (Click on the images to see them enlarged.)

Here's the gold (using PTI Filigree gold EP). See the CS shimmer? :) And check out the amazing detail. You can see all the veins of the leaf! The PTI Filigree powder gave the most detailed and clear lines.

And the copper (using Zing! EP). The lines were much "puffier" and thicker and not as detailed.

And the silver (using Stampendous detail EP). The lines were very precise, but there were a lot more excess stray bits that stuck to the paper and in between the veins of the leaf.

Isn't the detail in these leaves amazing? I had a lot of fun stamping them. Now they are sitting on a shelf in my living room, shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. Nevermind that it's 89 degrees outside--if I turn down the A/C just enough, it's beginning to feel like fall around here! :)

That's all for today! Enjoy your beautiful, sunny autumn day wherever you might be! :)

Supplies
Stamps: Oak Leaf Backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Paper: White Shimmer Paper (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Versamark
Other: Embossing Powers- Gold (Filigree-available at PTI), Silver (Stampendous, detail), Copper (Zing, American Crafts)

You're a Grand Old Flag...

I hope you all are having a wonderful 4th of July! I just wanted to pop on here real quick to show you a card I made for Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge on the Simplicity blog. The challenge this week was to create a patriotic card using just one layer of paper and ink. So I thought it might be fun to stamp an abstract flag design! I am also entering this into Ted's Old Glory challenge, which challenged us to use the colors red, white and blue.

The stripes are from the fun stamp set by Practicing Creativity, called You're Dandy. The other stamps are from We R Memory Keepers, Old Glory collection. I masked around the circle and around the sentiment and then added red gemstones to give it some 4th of July sparkle. You can find my other 4th of July posts HERE and HERE. I just love the bold shapes and colors of this holiday!

Have a fun and safe 4th of July with your family and friends! And thanks so much for stopping by the blog today. Have a wonderful, sunshine-filled 4th of July! :)

Supplies used.
STAMPS: Freedom from the Old Glory collection (We R Memory Keepers), You're Dandy (Practicing Creativity)
INK: Rocket Red (Brilliance), Mediterranean Blue (Brilliance)
PAPER: Stampers Select White (Papertrey Ink)
OTHER: Red gemstones (Michael's)

One Layer Wednesday: Overlapping

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge on the Simplicity blog was to create a one layer card overlapping an image with a sentiment. Here is the card I made for the challenge, There's No One Like You.

Just received my first Hero Arts order from Stampin' Treasures, and had fun playing with some of my new goodies. 

I love that in real life no two butterflies or clouds look alike, so I especially like this sentiment for the card. It might make a nice winter card to use the same sentiment with a snowflake, since they are also unique. 

The butterfly is stamped from the Antique Engravings set using the rock 'n roll technique with Memento Tangelo and Lady Bug inks. I thought it might be interesting to do some extra overlapping for the challenge, so I then masked the butterfly and stamped the cloud stamp in Memento Summer Sky ink. Finally, I stamped the sentiment from the Happiness Messages set directly onto the butterfly with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. I didn't take a picture of it, but the clouds are stamped and continued on the back of the card too.

I did several versions of this card. Here is a simpler version without the clouds.

And here is a more masculine, natural version with a PTI woodgrain background and rustic cream paper. The woodgrain and edges are sponged with PTI Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo.

That's all for today! Be sure to check out the Simplicity blog and play along. It's a lot of fun!

Have a wonderful, sunshine-filled day! :)

One Layer Wednesday with Ribbon

Here is my entry for Simplicity's weekly challenge. We could only use a single folded card, ink and one piece of ribbon. What a fun challenge!

I used the Lawn Fawn stamps I received recently. I just adore her new stamp line. The images are so adorable, fun and happy!

To emphasize the phone ringing, I stamped the image once in yellow ink and then stamped again right on top with a contrasting ink for each of the images.

I created a double-sided ribbon by scor-taping a piece of satin Lemon Tart ribbon to a satin Summer Sunrise ribbon to add some dimension in the color. Then I wound the ribbon on the side to mirror the cord on the phone headset.

I still feel like the ribbon needs something. Any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by! :) Have a sunny day!