Once Upon a Time #11

 I can't believe it is June!  The school year is just about over and we are in the thick of end of the year school events.  Graduations and graduation parties, end of the year field trips, exchange students preparing to go back to their home countries...our house gets pretty crazy this time of year!  

I actually think the book for the Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog, The Little Engine That Could, ties into my life right now.  I think I can make it over this mountain of chaos that will lead into summer 😀

If the Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog is new to you, the basic idea is that there is a monthly children's book and the challenge is to create a card inspired by the book cover.  If you'd like to play along, more details can be found on the Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog.  

For my card, I started by using a stencil to create the background.  I roughly followed the book cover, making the ground green, the track area brown and they sky yellow/orange.  For the train itself, I used a stamp set from The Stamps of Life.  I colored the train blue and yellow which is similar to the little engine in the book.  I stamped the tracks directly onto the background and fussy cut the train, which I mounted on foam tape for some dimension.  I scissor cut the smoke from some gray card stock and inked a little around the edges.  There were several sentiments in the stamp set to choose from but I decided to go with "Just chugging by to say Happy Birthday to Choo!''

Challenge details and design team inspiration can be found on the Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog.  I hope you'll join us and play along this month!

ONCE UPON A TME #10 ONE LOVE

 I can't believe it is May 1st!  2023 is just flying by.  Today marks the start of a new challenge at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog.  As always, the theme is based off of a children's book cover.  The challenge is to create a card inspired by the cover.  This month's book is One Love by Bob Marley.  It took me a bit to decide how I wanted to make my card.  Usually, I try to mimic the cover of the book in some way but this time I decided to take the theme of One Love and make a wedding card using hearts.  I don't have very many stamps or sentiments relating to weddings but I thought this "Wishing you the most beautiful day" sentiment from The Stamps of Life would be perfect. Since the book has green writing, I decided to use green as the main background color.  So from the book I've pulled the theme of love (hearts and wedding card) and the color green.  The other thing I wanted to add was sparkle so I heat embossed the sentiment in silver and found some shiny silver card stock for the leaves and background of the sentiment.  For the flowers and card front, I used a really pretty glittery white card stock.  Of course it is hard to see in the photos but it really sparkles.  And the last bling I added was silver rhinestones in the center of all the flowers and a few around the sentiment. 

I tried to post a short video so you could see some of the sparkle.  For some reason, it won't post.  You can check out my Instagram if you want to see the video. I think it turned out really well and I it is perfect for my cousin's wedding in a few weeks. 

Now for some exciting news!  Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog is having a design team call!  If you are interested in joining the DT or guest designing, HERE is a link to DT Call details.  I joined as a guest designer for the 2nd challenge and then shortly after decided to join as a design team member.  It's a really fun challenge, especially if you love children's books, and the best part is the commitment is only one card per month.     

I hope you'll join us at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog this month!  Details, design team inspiration and DT call details can be found on the blog. And make sure to stop by again next month for the June challenge.  I can't give any spoilers but it is a book that most of us will recognize and I can't wait to make the card for it! 

Once Upon a Time # 9

 I can't believe it is April already and we are finally moving into some spring weather!  As always, the beginning of the month brings the start of a new challenge at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog.  If you haven't heard of this challenge before, it is super fun and I love it.  The theme every month is a different children's book.  The challenge is to make a card (or other craft project) that is inspired by the current book cover.  I think the reason I love this challenge so much is because my kids are all too old for me to read bedtime stories to anymore and the books in this challenge are often very nostalgic for me.  This month the book is Corduroy by Don Freeman and was originally written in 1968.  I can't even begin to guess how many times I've read this book to my all three of my kids.  I think there was probably a time when I barely needed the words because it was committed to my memory.  

I decided to mimic the cover of the book by using a bear dressed in green and with a red background.  The bear stamp and sentiment are both from The Stamps of Life, although they came from two different stamp sets.

I hope you'll join us this month for the challenge at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog!  Challenge details and design team inspiration can be found on the blog.

Once Upon a Time Challenge #7

 I can't believe it is already February!  If time keeps flying by like this, we will be done with 2023 in the blink of an eye. My favorite thing about the 1st day of the month is the new challenge at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog!  This month the book is My Heart by Corinna Luyken.  As always, the challenge is to create a card using the book cover as inspiration.  

For my card, I made a background from ink blending a few different gray inks.  Then with the darkest of the gray inks, I stamped a silhouette of some grass and flowers.  I actually think it turned out pretty similar to the book cover.  My next step was to search through my stamp sets to see if  I had anything that would remind me of a little kid in yellow overalls with a little yellow heart.  I actually found one of a little boy pulling a star in a wagon that I thought would work perfectly.  I've had this stamp set in my stash for several years and have never used it. I love challenges that make me search through my stash and find all the hidden treasure.  The sentiment says "Follow your dreams, they know the way". 

 I'm really happy with how this card turned out and I already have a recipient in mind for it.  We took several trips with our Italian exchange student last year and I bought charms that commemorate each trip. I'm going to send them on the one year anniversary of each trip.  In February of last year we went to Disney World so I'm sending her a charm of Cinderella's pumpkin carriage.  It's especially cute because I call her my little zucca, which means pumpkin in Italian.  My daughter and I get matching charms so its fun to match with our favorite Italian, even from across the world.  In March, she'll get a Nashville charm and in April, an Arizona charm.  This card is perfect because the sentiment is really sweet and can be for any occasion.  

I hope you'll join in on the challenge this month at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog.  All of the challenge details and design team inspiration can be found on the blog.  ALSO, the blog is running a design team call.  If you are interested in joining as either a guest designer or a design team member, you can find info about that on the blog.  

Once Upon a Time #6

 Happy New Year!  It's hard to believe that we are in the year 2023!  Since it's the first of the month, that means a new challenge is starting today at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog!  This month's book is The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  It's a cute story about a little boy excited to play in the snow.  The inspiration for my card comes from the snowy hill and footsteps on the cover.  I used a border die to create a hill and blended some pink, blue and green ink to look similar, but not exact, to the cover of the book.  I used a stamp set from The Stamps of Life for the fox and his cute little paw prints.  The inside says "it's your birthday" and I stamped another set of paw prints across the inside corner. 

I hope you'll join us for the challenge this month!  All of the challenge details and design team info can be found on the Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog. 

Once Upon a Time Challenge #5

 It's a new month and with it comes a new card challenge over at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog.  As always, the challenge is to make a card inspired by the cover of a children's book.  This month the book is The Legend of the Poinsetta by Tomie dePaola.  It's not hard to imagine why I made the card I did so I guess very little explanation is needed this month. 😁

I used a layered poinsetta stamp, I think from Hero Arts but I can't remember for sure.  I embossed over the top layer with gold to give it an elegant, sparkly look.  It's funny that the card I had envisioned when I started and the card I ended up with are nothing alike.  Sometimes it just works out that way but I'm ok with how it turned out, even if it wasn't what I planned.  

I haven't embossed in awhile so I asked my exchange student if she wanted to see some "magic".  (I do feel like the point when it melts is very magical, lol!).  She seemed unimpressed at first but as soon as it went from dull powder to shiny gold, she was pretty amazed.  She said, "That's so cool, why don't you do it on every card?"  Good question!  My embossing supplies are one of those things that just sits there out of sight and mind but I think I'll be making an effort to use it more often.  

I know this is the month when everyone is very busy with the holidays but I hope you'll join us at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog!  Challenge details and design team inspiration can be found on the blog. 

Once Upon a Time Challenge #4

 Welcome to November!  I'm very excited to have joined the design team at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog starting this month.  I've been guest designing for the past two challenges and I'm really happy to be a part of the team now!

If you don't know, Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog is one of the coolest (in my opinion!) card challenge blogs out there.  There is a new challenge every month and the theme is always a children's book cover.  I love books in general and children's books especially so I think this challenge is amazing. 

This month the book is Dreamers by Yuyi Morales.  It is a very short little book with amazing illustrations about a migrant family who comes to America and is having a hard time adjusting until they find the local library.  There they able to use books to learn the language, culture and truly begin their life in America. 

The card challenge is to make a book inspired by the cover of the book which I tried to do with a really sweet "Dream" sentiment from an older stamp set that I've had for quite some time and found a patterned paper in my stash that kind of resembles the color scheme of the sun on the front of the book. My main focus was the library because, even though it isn't represented on the cover of Dreamers, it plays a huge part in the story.  I used a stamp set that I just recently received from Rabbit Hole Designs.  I actually bought it for a different project (stamping inside some books I'm giving as gifts) but it turned out to be exactly what I wanted for this project.  

I have a niece getting ready to turn eight years old and I bought her a box set of Roald Dahl books for her birthday.  This will be a perfect card to go with some of my favorite books ever! I think she'll like it 😀

I hope you'll join us this month at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog and share how you are inspired by this book!

Once Upon a Time Challenge #2

Have you heard about the new challenge blog at Once Upon a Time Challenge?  Since I LOVE children's books so, so SO much, this challenge is right up my alley.   Every month there will be new card challenge based on the cover of a children's book.  You can design your project based on however the cover inspires you.  It could be the color scheme, the layout, or the story theme.  The choice is yours!  Brilliant idea, right? Just make sure you describe how you were inspired in your blog post.  Other challenge details can be found on their blog at Once Upon a Time Challenge.

This is the 2nd month of the challenge and the book is Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  I'm really excited to be guesting designing for this month!  I LOVE this book.  And the movie.  And the other movie.  I love them all.  I must have read the book a dozen times in my life and watched the cartoon much more than that.  For my card, I knew it had to have a little Wilbur.  I colored him with pencils and paired him with some red card stock and wood themed patterned paper to represent the barn.  The ray die cut behind the card isn't exactly a spider web but it is as close as I had to anything spider related.  Apparently, I'm not much of a spider fan since I had nothing in my stash 😁. The saying Chin Up is, of course, from the first time Wilbur meets Charlotte in the movie and she gives him some musical advice about being happy and positive.  And who doesn't need a little extra positivity in their lives?  

I hope you'll check out the blog and join in on some challenges!  I know I'll be joining whenever I can.