First Day

Well, in just a few short days, my baby will be starting Kindergarten.  I can't believe this day has come...I have thought about it many times since he was born and now, here he is, heading off into the big bad world.  To say this coming Tuesday will  be difficult for me is an understatement.  As  a teacher I know all too well the kinds of things he is going to be exposed to at school and it scares the bejesus out of me!  I am just hoping I can keep it together long enough to drop him off at school and then come home and have a  good cry!  I created this card to tuck in his back pack on the first day.  I was inspired by two challenges:  the sketch at Nacho Average Challenges and the Back-to-school theme at Stampin' Royalty.  Firstly, here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

First Day of School card for NAC9 and SR139 featuring the Greeting Card Kids stamp set and sentiment from First Day (retired)

Inside view with sentiments from Bring on the Cake and Perfect Words (retired)

This card is a real blend of old and new.  I love the images in the Greeting Card Kids set and this particular one really speaks to me as the little boy looks just like my little guy (spiky blond hair and all!).  I chose to use the Storytime DSP for this card, but opted out of the school-theme patterns so that the focal image would really stand out.  I coloured the image using a blender pen and watercolor crayons...if you haven't tried these yet you absolutely don't know what you're missing!  The sentiment on the front of the card is from a long-retired set called First Day.  It is one of the few retired sets I just couldn't part with and I have to say I use it an awful lot.  On the inside of the card I used two different sentiment sets.  The Wishing you a wonderful day comes from the Bring on the Cake set and the Big Hug is from the Perfect Words hostess set from last year's catalogue.  The little apple is from the brand new Perfectly Preserved set and I die cut it out with my Cannery Framelits set.
I know my boy will appreciate this card.   He so loves any card I make.  He is my best marketer...any time I make a card for one of his friends or teachers he is right there saying "My Mommy made this card.  She's really good at making cards.  She can teach you to make cards too"!!  Gotta love free advertising!

Jammin' Stampers Colour Challenge

Last week, my upline, Jamilla Ivits, issued a challenge to our team.  She just got the Colour Coach (after hearing the rest of us rave about it!) and challenged each of us to create a Christmas card using one of the Bashful Blue combinations from the Coach.  I am always up for a challenge and so I got busy last night on my card.  We are to bring them to our team meeting on Tuesday but I just have to share it now...I can't wait till then!  Here is what I came up with...

Greeting Card Kids Christmas Card

Close up of the adorable focal image.

Close up of the sentiment

Inside of Greeting Card Kids card

I just love these Greeting Card Kids!  I've had this set for a while (since the new catty came out) but haven't used this image yet.  When I looked at the colour options for our challenge, I knew I had to use this stamp.  The colours are Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi and Rose Red...these colours are soft and sweet, just like this little girl!  I stamped the image in Staz-On on watercolour paper and then coloured it in using my ink pads and blender pens.  I added little touches of Gold Lamme Smooch accent ink to the tree and the buttons on her coat (it doesn't really show up in the photo).  I then punched her out using my 2 3/8" scalloped circle punch and then notched every other scallop to give a snowflake effect. I also added little dots of Smooch to the notched I layered another scalloped circle punch in Bashful Blue behind it and mounted it to the cardfront using dimensionals.  For the background, I used one of the Wild Wasabi patterns from the subtles DSP stack and then stamped snowflakes from the Snow Swirled set in Wild Wasabi all over.  I again added little dots of Smooch to the snowflakes to add some shimmer.  I punched the corners using the Ticket Corner punch and then layered it on Bashful Blue and then Rose Red cardstock.  The ribbon is adhered using Sticky Strip and ruffled at the top of the cardfront.  The whole thing is mounted on a Wild Wasabi card base.  The sentiment is from the Christmas Greeting set and is stamped in Wild Wasabi on Very Vanilla cardstock.  I punched it out using my large oval punch and then layered it on a scalloped oval in Rose Red.  I layered that on Wild Wasabi wide oval and a Bashful Blue decorative label.  I was a little Smooch happy last night and so I added more dots to the scallops on the Rose Red layer!  The inside of the card uses the verse from the Christmas Greeting set and the snowflakes from Snow Swirled.  The layers are pretty much the same as on the front of the card.  I restrained myself from adding more Smooch to the inside...though I was tempted!