My Crafty Week

This was a bit of a crazy week, as I helped both of my kids get packed up and out to the airport to fly East to go back to college.  In between everything, I had snippets of crafty time, and today I am finally ready to put the finishing touches on everything and write up this blog post.

First up is a little set of flat thank you cards I sent my daughter back to school with..her birthday is coming up, and it's always good to be prepared to send thank you notes.  These flat note cards are her favorite type--just enough room for a proper thanks, but not the vast open expanse of a folding card.

My cute puppies are from Mama Elephant Puppy Play, and I am entering them at Inspired by #139.

My next few cards use a technique called SWINKING that I just learned from this video by Ardyth.  It is so fun, easy and absolutely addictive.  Basically, you just swipe your inkpad directly on your card.  For this card, I used inkpads in orange, pink, yellow and peach, and just started swinking.  The result could have been an absolute mess, but actually turned out so pretty.

I had to figure out what to do with this beautiful background I made, so I decided to put a black birthday die cut on it as well as wipe the edges in Wink of Stella.  I am entering this card at Color Throwdown #608.

Still in a SWINKING kind of mood, I wanted to play along with Seize the Birthday #198: Add Gold, and wondered what pink paper swinked with gold would look like.  It's very hard to see how shimmery this pink background is, but trust me it really shines in person.

Here is a closer look at the SWINKING.  I heat embossed the sentiment from Penned Elegance by PTI in gold on a Big City die by Ellen Hutson.

For my last SWINKED card, I used gold ink on white cardstock.  I stamped a trio of gold butterflies right on top as well as my sentiment in black.  I am also entering this card at Seize the Birthday #198: Add Gold and at Just Us Girls #551: Butterflies.  My butterflies are from PTI Butterfly Blooms and the sentiment is from PTI Ombre Sentiments Birthday.

My next card is inspired by the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches #450 and features these 2 adorable Nom Nom Kitties by Mama Elephant happily sharing their ramen.

This card ended up so very different than my initial idea....I stamped a bunch of Brownstone Houses from Altenew and intended them for this card.  But, I couldn't get them to work with the sketch, so I went another direction..using stencils from MFT for my clouds and sun rays and plant from Altenew Indoor Garden.

I am entering this card at the sketch challenge for August at Altenew as well as Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Beautiful Botanicals.

And...this is what I did with all those fun and colorful brownstones I stamped.  I am entering this card at Inkspirational #220: Rain or Rainbow.  I think of this as sort of a Painted Ladies of San Francisco meets the Brownstones of Brooklyn.

Getting tired?  Almost done.  My next two cards are made from the latest batch of stamps and dies from this month's MMH kit.  I am entering them at Stay Crafty with Hero #14: Critters (cat in 1st card, cat and bird in 2nd card), A Blog Named Hero: Cute, and Shopping Our Stash #427: Pile it On.

I am also entering this first card at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Beautiful Botanicals.

Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end.  Please stay safe and stay crafty.

Thanks for Visiting