Mojo Monday 300

It has been so long since I have had the luxury to make a card! I am so excited that I finally have time (kind of) to do some crafty projects. Here is the Mojo Monday layout that I followed:

I have a close friend who has a lot of things going on right now; making a card is one of the best ways I can think to show her that I care. That is why I love making cards so much. It is so much more personal than buying one. (and so much more fun!)

love always

I got an early start on the Mojo Monday card of the week and am very excited to post my creation today. I did two versions of the card.

Hot Pink Thank You

A few months ago I bought this hot pink paper that I have been really excited to use. When I saw this week's Mojo Monday challenge, I decided it was finally time.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

This week I was really excited about competition week at Mojo Monday. I really liked the sketch and was excited to try it out. Sadly, I didn't get time to work on my card until it was already too late to enter. Still, here is the card that I made for my grandma, whose birthday is later this week.

I thought it would be appropriate to make a fun, colorful card for a fun, vivacious woman. I love my grandma!

Mojo Monday 274

After a long and much needed hiatus from cardmaking, I pulled out my paper last night to make a card for my brother. I was excited to do the Mojo Monday 274 sketch, although I didn't get it finished in time to post it to their website. Here is the card that I came up with. I hope he likes it!

Supply list:

• cardstock from Close to My Heart "Cruisin" line
• light orange ribbon that I got from a garage sale (brand unknown)
• light orange brads from Paper Studio
• Fiskars "Get Well Soon" stamp
• StazOn ink in Timber Brown

(My apologies for the low quality picture. I took it with my phone.)

Mojo Monday 264

Here is another Christmas card for Mojo Monday! Even though I love using traditional Christmas colors, sometimes it is fun to mix it up and use different variations.

Mojo Monday 263

So, I am planning on entering some craft shows this winter and selling some of the cards that I have been making. I am very excited about it, but a little nervous because I have so much work to do. With Christmas cards on my mind, I couldn't help but stay with the festive theme when I started on the Mojo Monday card for this week:

Mojo Monday 261

This week for the Mojo Monday sketch, I had two major firsts. I used my first stamp and I made a card in the "shabby chic" style for the first time. Because it was my mom's birthday card, I wanted to wait to put it up until after I gave it to her this evening. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the challenge ended an hour ago. Even though I can't win the contest this time, I am still posting this card.

Modern Thank You

After I finished the car seat canopy, I was just so excited about how cute it turned out that I decided to make a card to match. I used the Mojo Monday sketch again. I really like how the geometric shapes and colors that I used made this card look very modern. I also made a Thank You card that has the exact same colors and pattern. Here they are:

Mojo Monday 259

I bought my very first ink pad ever for this card! It is a Tim Holtz distressing ink pad. I felt like it was a really significant moment for me because I have been intentionally resisting buying them for a long time. And, of course, I had my usual moment of "frantic yearning" as soon as I got home. Does anyone else get that? Sometimes after I buy something, I get home and I feel like I need to drive right back to the store and buy it in every color, or buy all of the matching accessories, or something equally {crazy} - especially when you live on the kind of budget that I live on. But I resisted. At first I told myself that I would just wait until the next day so I could use my 50% off coupon again. By the next morning I was able to quell the urge to buy another one until I have a specific project that justifies the purchase.

Anyway, I actually used this week's Mojo Monday sketch to do a few different cards. The first card that I made was a Halloween/Autum one and I love the combination of colors.

I cut out a little owl from my paper to use on the inside of the card. Lately I have noticed that a lot of people in the crafty blogging world decorate the inside of their cards to coordinate with the outside. I decided I would try it out too.

A few weeks ago, I asked my mom to show me how to do distressing with ink. I think I could still use a little practice, and maybe some sort of sponge or something, but I still feel really good about how this turned out.

The Sweetest Thing

I found a new challenge. It is called the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge. I just finished a few scrapbook pages and had some leftover paper that I really liked so I set it aside to make a new card. The layout of this challenge just went perfectly with the paper that I had.

Similar Cards

After I finished that first sketch for Mojo Monday this week, I decided to use up the rest of the paper scraps that I had left. I created a few more versions of the same sketch and I really like how they turned out.

Mojo Monday 257

This week is contest week for Mojo Monday. Even though it has been a busy one for me, I have been thinking a lot about how I would use the sketch. I finally decided to use some leftover paper from Ashlyn's baby book. Because it was from her book, I wanted to use it in a card that would, in some way, honor her memory.Whenever I think about Ashlyn, I think of purity, gratitude, kindness and love. I felt like the sentiment that I found was perfect: "May every day be a celebration of the heart."

Supply list:

• paper: scraps (American Craft brand)
• flowers: Recollections
• sentiment: Cloud 9 Design, Celebrate expoxy stickers

Anni-verve-sary Challenge #3

Luckily, my baby boy is taking pretty long naps today so I have had time to do the third challenge for Anni-verve-sary. This time, they gave us a layout to work with:

As I am doing these challenges, I realize that I really prefer to use a pre-designed layout than have to come up with one on my own. Maybe that is a testament to my lack of creativity, but I am okay with that. I really like how this card turned out. 

Supply List

• Paper: Paper studio tiny stripe navy/cream, Paper Studio quatrefoil navy/cream, Echo Park yello flourish, navy and gray cardstock
• Accessories: navy ribbon, Mosaic stickers by Mark Richards
• "Thinking of" Century Gothic font (Microsoft Word) "You" French script

Mojo Monday 254

I really like the card that I made this time for Mojo Monday. The layout is super cute and was really easy to work with. I decided on a navy blue and lime green color combination, which seems to be pretty popular right now (isn't it weird how colors go in and out of style?)

Supplies:

• paper by the Paper Studio
• green ribbon and brads 
• printed message using Harrington font in Microsoft Word (I know everyone else uses stamps, but my computer is so much cheaper to use and doesn't take up extra storage space....)

Mojo Monday 253

I really enjoyed doing the Mojo Monday sketch last week so I decided to do it again this week. This past weekend I bought a 6x6 paper pad that I was so excited to use for this card. I just love every single piece of paper in the entire pad.

Supply list:

• Shine On... paper pad by BasicGrey
• Yellow ribbed ribbon by Paper Studio
• "you are my sunshine" printed from my home computer

When I looked at my paper options, I thought the yellow dots would look great as the circle in this sketch. when I cut it out, I couldn't help but think of the sun. I guess that's how I came up with the color combination. I really like how it turned out. Very happy and sunny :) I considered having it say "here comes the sun" (a get well card, perhaps?)... maybe I will make another one and use that line.

Mojo Monday 252

I just discovered this great site last week. Every Monday, the design team at Mojo Monday puts up a card layout and anyone who wants to can make a card using that layout as inspiration. Then, they just link up the picture of their card. Sometimes they even turn it into a competition. How fun! So, I decided that this week I would try it out.

This is the layout of the week:

I have been really into the yellow and grey color combination lately, so that is what I used for this card:

Supplies:

• Yellow Grey Plaid, Recollections; Watering Can Dots, Lasting Impressions; yellow and gray cardstock.
•  Foral embellishments by Recollections 
• Ribbon from Paper Studio
• Circle cutter by EK success 
• "thanks" printed from my home computer