Poetry

Today is my final CCEE Stampers challenge for the month.  April is National Poetry Month, and today is Poem in Your Pocket Day.  I'm asking that you create a card using a poem as your inspiration.  For my inspiration, I chose Joyce Kilmer's Trees.  And, of course, I used an image from Stampin' Up's set Lovely as a Tree on my card.  (Not too original, I know!)

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree;

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more poetic creations.

Friendly Llamas

I have another one of the new CottageCutz Llama and Botanicals dies to show you today.  You might want to check them out while they're still 25% off.  I used the die with two llamas for my card.  Again, I used one of Splitcoaststampers old sketch challenge layouts as my starting point . . .

. . . rotating it for my card.

To begin, I cut all the elements of the Llamas die from white cardstock.

I then colored the pieces with my Copic markers and "built" my llamas.

Then I cut my cardstock as follows:

Turquoise cardstock - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored at 4 1/4"

                                    3 1/2" x 2 1/2"

White cardstock - 4" x 4" and 3 1/2" x 4"

Dark patterned paper - 3 1/4" square

Light patterned paper - 3 3/8" x 2 3/8"

From the two small white pieces of cardstock, I cut the largest Double-stitched Square and the 2nd largest Double-stitched Rectangle.

I then constructed my card following the sketch.

After stamping the small sentiment at the top right-hand corner of the yellow panel, I placed foam pop-dots behind the two llamas and placed them on the card, adding a bit of shadowing beneath them with a gray marker.  My card was complete.

CottageCutz dies used on this card are:

National Bicycle Day

I'm continuing as hostess for the CCEE Stampers.  Today is Bicycle Day, so I'm asking you to put a bicycle on your card.  If you don't have a bicycle, use anything with wheels.  I have a confession to make:  I didn't learn how to ride a bicycle until I was an adult.  My husband taught me!

Be sure to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team handled my "wheely" fun challenge.

Masters of Magic - Kindred Stamps April Release

Welcome to the Kindred Stamps Blog Hop! We've been changing things up this month, and we've introduced a Design Team to our group! These ladies are INCREDIBLY talented and will be with us for the next several months! We couldn't be more excited to be working with them!  I'm so happy to be included as a Guest Designer again this month.

Please visit their blogs, and the Kindred Stamps blog, and comment on all the blog posts. Doing so will make you eligible for winning shop credit! The winner will be chosen Friday evening, the night of the 20th, and will be announced in our Fan Club!

I was so excited to receive one of the newest Kindred Stamp sets to play with this month -- Masters of Magic, which coordinates with last month's release, Students of Magic.  In fact, some of my cards use images from both sets.  PLUS, there's a bonus -- a pair of digital characters as well.

If you've visited my blog before, you know that I like to make fun fold cards.   Several of my cards for the hop fall into this category.  The first one is a Building Block card, using one of the Masters of Magic teachers as well as some stickers from the Students of Magic sticker sheet.

If you would like to make a similar style card, here is a link to a tutorial.  I did adjust the measurements, however.  The original directions allow for four fold-out sections on the inside.  For five of them, I added 1 1/4" inches to the height of the card.

My second card includes not only one of the teachers from Masters of Magic, but also one of the students from last month's set.

If you've seen the wizard movies that inspired these stamps, you might remember the family tree appearing in one of the houses.  That's what gave me the idea for my next card.  I used one of this month's coordinating digital images along with a stamp from Masters of Magic for this familial creation.

Shaker cards are always fun.  I made this next card using some Halloween patterned paper, which seemed to be appropriate.  Black, green, and silver sequins are in the shaker box.

My final card today includes this month's other digital image as well as several of the teachers in another fun-fold card, a side-step card.  Last month's School of Magic digital is in the background.

I hope you've enjoyed looked at my cards, and I'm sure you have or will have loved everyone else's creations.  Here are the links to all the participants in this month's blog hop.


Kindred Stamps 
R Winn Creates
My Clever Creations
The Frolicking Fairy
Mad Crafters Tea Party
Fanciful Spaces
Wunder's Crafty World
Crafting Love
DaggDesigns Blog
Clownmom Creations (that's me!)

Potted Cactus

My card today uses part of one of the dies from the CottageCutz Llama and Botanicals release, which are currently 25% off.  You might want to check them out.  The die I used, Potted Cactus, actually has two plants included in the set, but I'm using only one of them.

I keep some small notebooks with layouts from Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenges.  When I'm stuck for a layout, I pull out one of the notebooks and try to find something that will inspire me.  This is the case today.  I found this layout, which dates back to a 2007 challenge.

This is my card, based on that sketch.

To start my card I cut out the pieces with the die.   I'm not going to use all the pieces that were cut, so I just chose the pieces for the right-hand cactus on the packaging.  I'll save the other pieces for another card.

Using Copic markers, I colored the die-cut pieces and assembled my cactus, succulent and pot.

The paper I used for the card is as follows:

Yellow cardstock - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored at 4 1/4"

Rust cardstock - 4" x 5 1/4" and 2 3/8" x 3 1/8"

Cream cardstock - 2 1/4" x 3"

Rust checkered patterned paper - 3 3/8" x 3 7/8"

Yellow plaid patterned paper - 1 5/8" x 3 7/8"

I glued the two pieces of patterned paper onto the rust cardstock, using the sketch for positioning.  I sponged a bit of Ranger Rusty Hinge ink onto the small cream piece of cardstock, adhered it to the small rust piece of cardstock and glued on the cactus.

I then placed some foam pop-dots behind the panel and placed it on the card.  I then added three enamel dot stickers, and I was finished.

Here again is my card:

The CottageCutz die used on this card:

Dogwood Tag Book Card

I'm a big fan of Karen Burniston's pop-up dies.  I saw a very pretty and very clever card on her blog the other day, and I knew I was going to have to try it.  It featured her Tag Book Pop-Up die.  I've made a few cards using this die before, but this one used acetate for the inside pieces.  It gave the illusion of the cherry blossoms she used as floating.  I didn't have the cherry blossoms, but I did have an Impression Obsession branch and Heartfelt Creations dogwoods -- so that's what I used on my card.  The front was pretty easy . . .

. . . the inside took a bit of concentration.

As you can see, I glued the die-cut pieces directly onto the acetate "frame" and they appear to be floating.  Here's a photo which shows the "floating" elements a little better.

This was a very fun card to make.

National Pet Day

I'm continuing my month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers.  There are many lists of "holidays" on the internet.  One of them listed yesterday (April 11th) as National Pet Day.  I asked the team to use a pet (dog, cat, bird, whatever) on their cards.  I chose an owl, Harry Potter's pet.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more pets.  Do you have a pet?  If so, maybe you'd like to join in on this challenge yourself.