Anything But a Card Week 3 of Anything Goes

Hello!  It is my turn to share a project for Anything But a Card Challenges.  Our challenge this month is Anything Goes-With a Holiday Twist.  This leaves the creativity door wide open for just about anything!  There have been a lot of wonderful holiday theme creations shared at the challenge site, but that doesn't mean you have to do that.  As a matter of fact, my share is not Christmassy at all (well there is a peek of an evergreen on there, but that's it!).

At the beginning of the challenge, I had decided I was going to get some Christmas and winter scrapbook pages finished.  Then we had a major ice storm followed by a lot of snow and after getting stuck in my driveway three times this week, I did NOT want to think about crafting anything that resembled snow or winter!  So I went in a completely different direction and made a page for my art journal.  It was quite relaxing to pull out some stamps and lots of inks and sponges. I also played with some Inka Gold metallic rub.  It's very pretty, but I need to play with it a little more.  My initial application was more streaky than I wanted, but I love the gilded look it gave my sculpey picture frame.

It hasn't been a bad week, but there have been a lot of cancellations and rescheduling of plans.  It left me feeling out of sorts and annoyed-not at all what I want be. I was debating what the message of my page should be and decided that since art is my therapy, my message should reflect what I want to achieve.  So I decided on 'enjoy the journey', a good reminder that things will happen and I can either get upset or get over it.  I don't have to like ice and below freezing temperatures, but since they're not going away any time soon, I need to enjoy my journey.  Of course, digging my car out of the driveway in the frigid air was no picnic...  Hey, I said it was therapy, not a miracle!

I hope you will find time to join us this week and please stop by the blog and leave some love for my fellow crafty peeps!!

Project Recipe:  Stamp Sets-Lovely as a Tree, World Map, Of the Earth, Wonderful Favorites, Fresh Vintage, Ink-soft suede, crumb cake, early espresso, garden green, poppy parade, very vanilla Accessories-Tim Holtz metal tag, twill ribbon, postage stamp punch, Martha Stewart clay mold, Log Cabin smooch spritz, Inka Gold metallic rub

Out of the Box for Mother's Day

I am officially on summer vacation!! I can not tell you how wonderful it is going to be to sleep in the next few days!  But enough of me rubbing my good fortune in your faces!!

Last weekend, I needed to make a couple of Mother's Day cards for Mom and my MIL.   I have seen flower pot cards on different blogs, but never saved a link.  I went to Pinterest to see if I could find one with instructions.  *Here's a little background on me... I'm not sure why, but I tend to make most of my cards the standard size.  I've done a some square cards and even a few shaped cards, but I always end up going back to good ol' 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  And my cards ALWAYS  fit in the envelope (stop laughing, Lisa M, don't you judge me!!).  So I was trying to stay away from any designs that would be too big.  I found the perfect one here and Brenda's step by step instructions were fabulous! Even better, it would fit a standard card envelope!

So I got busy cutting and scoring the pot, making the insert and then the fun part-the flowers!!  I wasn't sure how many I would need and didn't want to stop to make more after I started assembling so I made a nice variety to choose from. Then something incredible happened, well at least for me...  I went crazy! I kept adding more leaves and flowers and absolutely loved how it was turning out.  I finally hit a point where I looked at it and thought 'OK, I'm finished.'  Then it hit me... There was NO WAY this was going to fit in a standard envelope!!!  I had completely stepped out of my comfort zone, had a wonderful time, made a card both Moms would love, and I had no idea how I was going to present it to them!  Luckily after a little digging, I found some larger envelopes, left over from who knows what, and there was enough room to slip the cards in without squishing them.  Problem solved!  I'm just glad I didn't have to mail these!

I decided to use all of the retiring In Colors on this card.  I absolutely love pear pizzazz, but hadn't really used a lot of the other colors.  I'm also hoping I haven't forgotten any of the supplies.  It was a bit of a whirlwind of creativity on this one!

If you would like to recreate this card, I highly suggest clicking on the link above! Her directions and pictures really made this easy to create!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-2010-2012 In Colors, whisper white, Ink-pear pizzazz, concord crush, Stamp set-Fresh Vintage (from SAB), sentiment-unknown, Accessories-bakers twine, Boho Blossoms punch, eyelet border punch, bird builder punch, fun flowers die, floral fusion and little leaves sizzlit dies, square lattice folder, perfect polka dots folder, petals a plenty folder

Fresh Vintage Postage

At the risk of sending my friends and followers into shock, I have yet another post this week!! Astonishing, I know! I wanted to be sure to share a few more of my club creations featuring the sale-a-bration products while they are still available.

I LOVE this stamp set and paper together!  Add the cute ribbon and they make a vintage look so easy to put together! After looking at this card, I think I should have distressed the edges of the 'stamps'.  

On leap day, I took advantage of one of the shutterfly coupons and ordered 130 pictures! Since 101 of them were free, I couldn't pass it up! So I have now ensured Scrapbook Mondays for a very long time!!  Of course, this doesn't even put a dent in the CD, memory card, and hard drive photos that still need to leave cyber and digital land!  Of course, I could take a break from using my camera to catch up... Did I just type that with a straight face?!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting!

Card Recipe:  Card stock-very vanilla, Everyday Enchantment DSP, Ink-pool party, lucky limeade, Stamp Set-Fresh Vintage, Accessories-postage stamp punch, Everyday Enchantment ribbon & brad pack (lucky limeade)