The Delay

I know I haven't posted for a while. Normally, I try to post a new card at least every alternate day. However, on friday, my daughter came home for spring break and it's been a long two months since we had her home. So, I have been doing what mothers do in these situations. I have been hovering :)
And cooking her favorite food and chatting up about anything and everything...I guess if you haven't had a child go away to college, it is difficult to understand the emotions. But enough of that. I did take sometime out today ( like most college students, she is a real late riser ) and photographed the card that I made

 

The colors on the card are more vibrant than they appear in the picture. I guess something to do with proper lighting?

 

The Papers used are from the " Luxury Collection" matstock and " Once upon a time" collection. I used the following dies:

Spellbinders nestabilities Label Four

Spellbinders Parisian motif'

The banner on the bottom is hand drawn and cut

I am submitting the card for the following challenge

Birthday Sundaes

Secret Crafter challenge

My sister's B'day

My sister is a wonderful person and her birthday is coming....and soon. Well, not so soon actually, but when you have to mail your card halfway around the world, you don't want to take any chances.  So I have been thinking of making a perfect b'day card for her and the current challenge at the shabby tea room made my job sooooo much easier :)
The inspiration for this week is this beautiful picture

http://theshabbytearoom.blogspot.com/2012/03/week-104-colorful-confections.html



I decided to make a step ladder card - haven't made one of those in a really long time. So, her is my interpretation

 

The papers are from the "Garden Party" matstock by DCWV, except for the pink flower paper which is from an old origami packet. I used a number of die cuts from the Parisian motif and the Parisian accent by Spellbinders.

For the butterfly, I used the Martha Stewart Punch.

And all that is left now is to mail it tomorrow morning :)

Ain't it tough ?

Today, I attempted to make a clean ans simple card - not my forte, really. I love making cards with lots of layers and flowers and glitter and pearls and......well, you get the point. But keeping it minimalist, that's a challenge. However, I wanted to try the CASE study challenge and there simply was no other option :)
This was the inspiration picture

Lovely, isn't it?

And here is my interpretation

It definitely looked better in my head :)
This attempt made me realize how amazingly hard it is to make a card 1) that is clean and simple and 2) that is white in color. I did waste a few papers because, somehow, a little piece of dust or mark or something, managed to show up....
Now, everything on the this card is cut by hand - surprisingly, cutting the balloons was harder than cutting and paper piecing the post ! Who would have guessed ?

Gift Box

I hate it when this happens. I just finished writing the post and uploading the pictures and then the computer started acting weird and I got irritated and well...I pushed a few buttons here and then some there and of course, deleted everything :(
So here it goes again...
Today, instead of making a card I decided to make a gift box. Reason ? Well, I sometimes make jewelry too and find it really hard to get a nice gift box. There is nothing as depressing as packing your beautiful gift in bland white box. So I went ahead and made a small gift box

The paper is from DCWV Christmas collection pack which I bought on discount after the winter holidays last year. It has some really great all-occasion papers.  For my base, I recycled ( ahem, ahem...)
my favorite cereal box. Colored the flowers and the butterfly with my son's crayons and a Q-tip. Well, they use my supplies all the time, I guess I am entitled :)

Made the inside box from a regular card stock, folded accordion style.
Its going to be really hard to part with the box unless I make a few more :)
Entering this for the Cute Card thursday contest. I believe, projects are eligible too ?

Colorblind

There is an extremely interesting challenge over at "Our Creative Corner". It's the Making Melody challenge. Taking inspiration from a song, the DTs ask us to create a card. I chose the song "Colorblind" by the group Counting Crows. It's a lovely song. If you haven't heard it, here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0s7ycdUcHk
 Last year, Leona Lewis also sang this song - equally haunting and beautiful. Anyhow, here's my card, inspired by this song

Ok, now for all the spellbinders dies I used, and oh man! did I use them all :)
 The two ribbon strips on the side are from Fleur de Lis Accents
The central pendant is from Fleur de Lis Squares
The motif on the top of the square is from the Parisian accents collection.

I embossed the background paper with the Cuttlebug A2 snowflakes folder.

Inspiration

I saw this card on a blog by Moni and immediately fell in love with it. I tried to create something similar but a bit different. However, the credit for this beautiful card goes totally and completely to Moni. You can see the original at
http://nixe-moni.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-birthday-everybody-art-challenge.html
My card is of course, a little simpler

The papers used are from DCWV "Far East Mat stack" and the "Coral CoutureMat stack"
I used Quick Kutz dies for some of the basic shapes

Hope you like the card as much as I do.

A Birthday card for a pretty girl

Sometimes, when I start a card, I have no idea how it will turn out. This card is the prime example.

I needed a card for my niece who is turning 14 later this month. I knew what it couldn't be. I couldn't have cute, babyish stamps, it couldn't have too much pink etc. etc.... No cutsey stuff...after all she is turning 14!

So I chose this beautiful paper from DCWV "Once upon a time" collection for the background and a green polka dot paper from the "Christmas Collection". And then, somehow, the card built itself from there :)
The paper on the bookmark is an old paper from an origami packet that I bought when we lived in Japan, some 13 years ago. I do tend to hold on and save things for a looooong time....

 And my proudest achievement - I built the fence myself..Didn't have the die cut :(

 

I am submitting this card for two challenges:

Flutter by Wednesday's

Stampin' for the weekend- Flowers -polka dots- die cuts ( the round green butterfly die from Spellbinders )