Heather in Florida

It's almost happy new year for everyone! So long, 2009....hello 2010!

Today's card is for my mother-in-law's birthday, just after the first of the year. For Christmas, she gave me some of the punches I requested to make paper flowers. This is my first attempt with them. I thought it fitting that since she gave them to me, she should be the first recipient of something I made from them.

The first one was hard, but once I understood the mechanics, the second one was easier, and I'm proud of the result. Hopefully she'll appreciate this! :-) Now, to figure out how to get it to her without it getting destroyed in the mail.

Supplies: Vintage Cream and Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink, Core'dinations cardstock for the flowers; Papertrey Ink Fancy Flourishes stamp; Cornish Heritage Farms Birthday Centers stamp; Adirondack Dye Ink in Lettuce; Martha Stewart border punch and butterfly punch; The Punch Bunch ovoid and sakura punches; Carl Craft sakura punch; Want2scrap.com pearls.

I made these cute little bags for my sons' teachers this year. Back around May/June, I started seeing these cute little paper backpacks popping up on a lot of blogs for end of school year gifts. I've kept the idea in the back of my mind, knowing I'd use it one of these days. Christmas seemed to be a good time to try it out.

I searched the internet for a pattern and found this one at Split Coast Stampers. Since I have a Cricut and SCAL, I decided to convert her PDF pattern to a file I could cut. After working out the design to a cuttable version, including the right sized holes so I could use my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite and its grommets, I cut seven of these.

I realized nothing would really fit in the front pocket, so it's merely decoration. The stamp on the front is from Just Rite Stampers. I bought the set before Christmas last year and just now used them. (I'm really bad about buying stuff then not using it.) The name tags were cut first and then stamped with an Inkadinkado set that also hasn't been used until this year. (See what I mean? Lol.) So, even though the names aren't even, I think it lends a little bit of character to the package. Or maybe I'm just making excuses for myself, lol.

I was told that the teachers really appreciated them. The insides held chocolates and a Target gift card.

Below is the side and back of one of the backpacks.

My sister-in-law had a baby girl at the beginning of December. I know...it's now the END of December, and I had the card made within the week after her arrival. I just didn't get it posted due to the previously-mentioned hectic nature of the holidays.

So this is the card. I technically still haven't sent it because I'm an idiot and sent their holiday gifts (including the baby card and gift) to the wrong address, and I got the box back the day before Christmas Eve. So they still have not received this, but it will be on its way again on Monday.

Anyhoo...I hope they think it was worth the wait! :-)

Supplies: cardstock: DCVW (green), Stamper's Select White and Bitty Baby Blessings from Papertrey Ink, plaid and pink flowers, unknown; Bitty Baby Blessings and Vintage Labels stamps from Papertrey Ink; Darice letter beads; Martha Stewart twine; unknown tag and butterfly; Basic Basic pink ribbon; EK Success border punch

Yes, I know I'm posting after the fact, but as everyone knows, things get hectic just before the holidays. I was good just to get them all completed and mailed! But now I'm sharing.

I used the smaller two Nestabilities poinsettia dies for the flower. I used Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream for the flower, sentiment and card base. After die cutting the poinsettia shapes, I ran them through my Cuttlebug with the Textile folder. The centers are from Want2Scrap.com.

I also used the Labels 4 Nestabilities for the sentiment and its backing. The backing is Dark Chocolate from Papertrey Ink. The outline around the sentiment is from Waltzingmouse Stamps' Very Vintage Labels No 4 set. The sentiment is from the Papertrey Ink Holiday Wishes set. Both are stamped in Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate. The ribbon is Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream. The inside sentiment was another from the PTI set.

The patterned paper is from a Anna Griffin Christmas Scrapbook Cardstock stack. I used probably six different designs. They came in gold and silver designs, so I had an alternate color scheme of Vintage Cream and Smokey Shadow. I used Basic Basic ribbon from Michaels in a silver color for the ribbon.

Thanks for looking, and I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday!

Just wanted to share really quick that I now have my own little crafting room/office area. In the past, my stuff was in a 6 x 10 area of our family room, and my kids had a playroom. The playroom became a junk room, and they never actually *played* in it.

I'd been thinking about switching the rooms, but I wasn't sure what my husband or my kids would say. As soon as my husband mentioned that we should do something else with that room, I jumped. "Well, you know, honey, I was thinking..." :-) He went for it! So I got the playroom and the boys toys are now organized in what was my crafting area.

My older son even said, "Mommy, thank you for our new toy area. I really like your new office!"

Originally, it was our guest room, then it was a nursery (twice), and then the playroom. So I didn't have to paint it, and the carpet is still in relatively good shape. It took me a while to get it organized -- those Jetmax cubes are great, but a pain to put together -- and it's not completely organized (you'll see schtuff on my desk and in corners still), but it's getting close enough to take pictures.

Now, I have to get a baby card done (SIL had a daughter yesterday) and my holiday cards. I'm just so psyched that I have my own space that I can keep relatively clean so when we have guests, we don't have to sprint to get all the toys and papers off the floor of the room, lol!

Thanks for looking!

First pic is a view from the north door (there are two doors, as this used to be the back of the house before the addition was constructed). Second pic is the east wall. Third pic is the west wall, and last pic is the view from the south door.

I know, it's the day after Thanksgiving, and late Friday at that! But I wanted to share our place cards from this year. Last year, my mother-in-law was visiting, so I made little boxes and put candy inside. This year, we didn't have any family in town, so it was just us, but apparently last year a tradition was born. :-) My older son asked what the place cards looked like for this year. Um, place cards? Ohhhh kay. Hmmm.

So ON Thanksgiving at about noon, I started thinking about what the placecards could look like. Procrastinating, I came across this post on Craft Gossip and thought it would be easy enough for me to make one in paper. So I designed in Inkscape, imported to SCAL and cut it all out. The "feathers" are just half of a scalloped circle, hand-cut along the bottoms so they were slightly curved instead of sharp edges.

The names were printed from my computer. I stamped the circle (part of a Studio G $1 monogram set) around them, then punched them out. The sentiment is from the Inkadinkado Seasons set that was sold at Costco last holiday season. The sentiment and scalloped circle behind it were cut with Nesties. Paper was all from the Paper Company multi-color packs from Michaels.

Thanks for looking, and hopefully your Thanksgiving was relaxing!

By the way, this is last year's box/place card:

I don't know why, but I haven't been making cards for my close friends at work. I recently decided to start, and this is one of the first. I did a 40th birthday card for a friend earlier this year, but that was a special occasion. This is a non-milestone birthday. :-)

This friend at work likes birds and bird-watching, so I thought Papertrey Ink's Bird Watching set would be perfect. I colored the birdhouses with my Copic markers and then cut them out with my Nesties. I also got to use my brand-spanking new MS "around the page" border punch, but I didn't go around the page, lol. I'll try that at a later date, because I bought the corner one, too. Anyhoo...I hope she likes it. She's one of the ones who sees all of my cards at work before they're sent to the recipients, and she seems to enjoy them, so hopefully she'll enjoy one of her very own.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Kraft and Stamper's Select White cardstockfrom Papertrey ink; Pink textured paper from a Momenta Tranquil 5 x 7 cardstock pad; MS patterened paper; Bird Watching stamps from Papertrey Ink; MS border punch; Nestabilities: Circles, Labels 3, Ribbon Tag Trio; Copic markers; Offray and Basic/Basic ribbons; Memento black and Versamark inks; Kaisercraft rhinestones

A friend of mine is turning 40 in the next few weeks, so this card is for her. I can't believe all my friends/classmates are turning 40. How/when did that happen? I have until February, and it's not like 40 is bad, just weird. :-)

For this card, I got to use some new goodies, or at least new to me. A couple of weeks ago, I won some great blog candy from Ashley Cannon Newell. One of the things was a wavy paper crimper, which you'll see on the cardstock on top of the "ribbon". I also used a set of stamps from a new stamp company: Stamps of Life. The set is Back2Basics.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Rustic cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink and beige cardstock from Bazzill; Back2Basics stamps from Stamps of Life; Versamagic chalk ink and Versamark; A La Mode clear embossing powder; random flower from my stash, Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening buttons; Papertrey Ink cream rustic twine; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; Clinique box (lol -- hey, it was shiny); Offray Verano Tan ribbon; Marvy Uchida wavy corrugator; Kaisercraft rhinestones

I am pretty proud of myself today. The card pictured here uses several things that are new to me, whether it's the product or technique or both.

I have an admission to make. I don't like to practice at anything. I have a tendency to give up on something if I don't get it right away. It's not this way with everything, of course. Just things that don't "matter" in the grand scheme of things, like piano lessons -- I'm not going to die if I don't practice. Of course, I won't be good either, but I HATED practicing piano when I was younger.With schoolwork, "practice" -- aka homework -- is necessary, and you have to work at relationships and such. But crafty techniques...not so important. :-)

So anyway...the card... This one is for a guy at work whose parents will be celebrating their 64th anniversary this year. He had seen some of my cards at work, so he asked me to make one for his parents. When I asked him what they liked, he said his mom's favorite flower is the sunflower since she's from Kansas. I've admired Lori Tecler's use of Kitchen Sink stamps (among other things), and I was pretty sure I'd seen a sunflower a while back, so I headed over to Kitchen Sink Stamps and found the Giant Sunflower set. It seemed a simple enough process. Looks can be SOOO deceiving! :-)

I received my stamps on Thursday and sat down this morning to try it out. First problem -- I didn't have enough colors in the same families. What to do, what to do? I tried it with the colors I had -- it was close, but not close enough. Plus, I was having SUCH a hard time positioning all the layers. So I went searching for tips and found Tammy Hershberger's tutorial. I tried the Kitchen Sink tutorials, but I only "got it" after reading Tammy's tutorial. I tried another couple of times (there's the practice!) and finally got a good one! Yay! The leaves were much easier, and I think that now that I've done one well, I should be able to do it again. So lesson learned: practice can be good! Perseverance, too.

So, I also received my Waltzingmouse stamps today. I was so excited because they came all the way from Ireland and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get here. Laurie Schmidlin and Ashley Cannon Newell had both been showing off cute stuff made with Waltzingmouse stamps, so I had to get some of my own. I had already decided to use my Labels 4, but when I got my stamps today, I knew I could use my Very Vintage Labels No. 4 as well. Yay!

The other thing my friend from work was thinking was to have a sky and I started thinking of Kansas' rolling hills. Kansas is flat, but I never really knew flat until I moved to Florida, lol! Kansas is NOT flat! So I decided to give the front some rolling hills. I freehanded some curves and stitched them with my sewing machine (another first for me). Next, for the sky, I was thinking maybe I could finally make use of my Copic Airbrush System. I practiced on scrap paper, and came up with what I thought might look sort of like dusk. I hope I was successful in representing that.

Last new thing was including the butterfly charm hanging from the bow. Michaels has a bunch of stuff on clearance, and I got several cards of charms, thinking I could do exactly what I did with the butterfly.

Anyhoo...it took a while, but I'm pleased with the result. Thanks for looking and reading my rambling. This experience was great in terms of showing me exactly why practice can be so helpful. (Not that I didn't know, but it's good to be reminded every so often.) :-)

Supplies: (There are so many I hope I don't forget anything!) Paper: Rustic White, Dark Chocolate, and Lemon Tart from PTI, green from Bazzill; Dark Chocolate ink and Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo from PTI, Versamagic chalk ink in Thatched Straw, Mango Madness (stamped off), Pumpkin Spice (stamped off), Sage, Spanish Olive, Hint of Pesto, Sahara Sand, and Jumbo Java; Labels 4 and Ribbon Tags Nestabilities, Copic Airbrush System and Copics (sorry, don't ask what colors!); Plaid Petals a Plenty charm; Rustic Cream Button Twine from PTI.

My friend Vicki at work just got married. I made this card for all of us to sign. She really appreciated the effort, and my co-workers thought it was pretty, too. :-)

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White and Smokey Shadow cardstock; American Crafts Wedding, Papertrey Ink Fancy Flourishes and Polka Dots 2 stamps; Versafine black ink; Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow ink; Perfect Medium; Kaleidoscope Stamp n Stuff embossing powder; Quickutz Retro Diamons embossing folder; Basic-Basic silver ribbon; Holiday Trim-It-Up silver cord; unknown buttons; Rectangle Nestabilities; EK Success embossed scallop border punch.

I created these notes to write thank yous to the people who gave my son birthday gifts this year. Once I finally figured out how everything would come together, they were quick to make.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Kraft and Pure Poppy cardstock; DCVW DP from The Grade School Stack; Quickutz Retro Diamonds A2 embossing folder; Spellbinders Labels 3 die cut; Papertrey Ink Around and About Sentiments (star border) and Star Prints stamp sets; Versamark and Versamagic inks; EK Success corner rounder.

This one is for another nephew. Still feel for the same sister -- this nephew is EIGHTEEN! She's neck deep in college applications and planning at this point, lol. He's a talented performer, so I went with "rock star" on this one. This one was pretty quick, but hopefully still appreciated.

Thanks again for looking!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White cardstock base and Star Prints stamp set; Colorbok Deluxe Textured Cardstock (aqua); Versafine black ink; Fiskars extra large star punch; unknown DP (pack from Target); Martha Stewart border punch; Versamark and A La Mode clear embossing powder (click the photo and you can hopefully see the stars in the background).

This card is for one of my nephews. He turns sixteen -- SIXTEEN! -- this year. :-) My poor sister, lol. Nothing super-special about this card, so thanks for looking!

Supplies: Kraft cardstock, white Rustic Twine, Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo (for distressed edges) and Scarlet Jewel buttons from Papertrey Ink; Inkadinkado Birthday Fun stamp; Versamark Chalk Ink; Martha Stewart border punch; EK Success corner rounder; My Mind's Eye Just Dreamy 2 Enchanting "You and Me" So Cloase/Red Hot Paper.

Well, I can't believe my youngest turned five this past week. He's getting so big! And he had a great time at his party. I think he even appreciated this card, lol! He said, "Look at the puppy!" That's not much, but at least it got a comment, like many of the cards didn't! He, um, hasn't learned to at least pretend to look at the cards yet...just digs in for the presents, lol.

I got to use one of my new Cuttlebug folders from a set I bought from HSN. I also sort of airbrushed the color on the dog with my Copics and used a Spica pen to color the puppy's tag. The "Make a Wish" is a rub-on from Three Birds' Perfect in Platinum rub-on set that I got on clearance from HSN. The party hat is the other impulse buy from Michaels I mentioned in my last post. The "paper" across the bottom was actually from a sheet of KI Memories Sheer Delights that I got on clearance from Two Peas. (I luuuuuurv clearance!)

Supplies: Unknown dots dp, yellow and green The Paper Company cardstock, KI Memories Sheer Delights "Birthday", Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Cuttlebug (I think it's Harlequin?); Three Birds Perfect in Platinum rub-on; K&Company Layered Accents "Party Hats"; Sandylion puppy stamp from "Boy Clear Stamps" set; Colorbok orange brads; Memento ink; Copics and Copic Airbrush System; Martha Stewart zigzag rotary cutter.

This card is for my friend's daughter's birthday. I (impulse) bought a couple of things at Michaels, plus I got some "blingy" paper from HSN (Three Birds on clearance). I wanted to use the blingy paper and it just so happened to go with the Deja Views Clear Cut Shapes -- I mean PERFECTLY! And they both went well with my Raspberry Fizz cardstock and ribbon from Papertrey Ink. I thought it came out cute...I hope she liked it!

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Raspberry Fizz cardstock and grosgrain ribbon from Papertrey Ink; "Be Happy" and butterfly from Deja Views Clear Cut Shapes "Garden" set; EK Success border punch; DP from Three Birds Bling Extreme kit; Kaiser rhinestones

Continuing the wedding theme from the previous post, my friend also asked me to make thank you notes for her to give to her attendants. She mentioned that I was going to do this to her fiancee, and he asked if I could make his thank you notes for his groomsmen, and I agreed. I tried to keep them somewhat tied to the invitation. The wedding colors are technically pink and black, but I thought white and silver fit in as well. And it gave me more to work with, lol!

For the bridesmaids cards, I used a scrap of the pink patterned paper left over from the invitations. I also used some Canson Effects paper for the silver, and punched it with the Fiskars Apron Lace punch. I used the new Papertrey Ink Vintage Labels set, which coordinate with the Nestabilities Labels One set. I also "borrowed" Nichole Heady's idea of masking off the center, and stamped it with Background Basics Text Style using Versamark and clear embossed it. Then I used Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms set to stamp the flower and its center. The flower center is silver embossed. The Gratitude sentiment, from a Hot Off the Press Expressions set, is also silver embossed. The greenery behind the flower is a Sizzlet. Lastly, the background was stamped in Silver from the Papertrey Ink Fancy Flourishes set and the edges were swiped with silver ink.

For the groomsmen, I used PTI's Tags for Spring for the leaf background stamp and the sentiment. It's layered on a teensy bit of pink and then on silver. To tie the two thank you's together, I used Fancy Flourishes on the black panel in Versamark. The pinstripe paper is aptly named Simple Pinstripe from Simply Luxe and was punched with a Martha Stewart punch. The damask and silver are from GCD studios' Cosette Collection -- the silver is the back of the print.

Thanks for looking!

A few weeks back, a co-worker came across my blog. Well, really, she had emailed my home address about something completely non-work related. My response included my normal signature, which includes my blog address. She was curious, so she went to go look.

She's getting married in November and has had so many troubles with planning her wedding. She found the perfect venue, but it ended up closing due to the economy about three months before the wedding date. She had to find a new venue on or near the wedding date and within her budget and general location...and QUICKLY...which took her a while. Before the first venue closed, she had almost purchased her invites online. Thank goodness she didn't, or she would have wasted all that money! So anyway, she saw my blog and that I make cards and she liked the cards. She asked me to make her wedding invitations. I was extremely hesitant...I mean these are her WEDDING invitations! But she felt she'd be happy with whatever I came up with, so after consulting with her about what she liked, we worked together to come up with this design.

We didn't have much time to get everything together, plus Michaels had all of their 12 x 12 paper 40% off that week, so getting enough paper to do them all was a real challenge -- many stores were sold or had depleted stock -- but she was able to find it all after visiting, I think, five Michaels stores.

I cut the black and pink patterned paper on my Cricut using SCUT. The belly band seal is the Just Rite monogram stamper with Damask borders, and it and the scalloped circle were cut with Nestabilities. The invites were printed on my inkjet printer and hand-cut to size.

All in all, she was pleased. I thought they came out very nice, as well. Thankfully, I only had to make 50 of them. I think I might have turned her down if it had been many more, lol! There was also a RSVP and Information card that was printed and hand-cut to size, not pictured here.

Thanks for looking!

A while back, a friend on one of my Yahoo groups surprised me with a birthday card. It was such a nice surprise, I decided to "steal" her idea and send cards to my "friends" when their birthdays came up. Hopefully she has received her card by now because I sent it ages ago! And hopefully she was surprised, too.

I used my Papertrey Ink Sign Language set for this one. I even used my Spica pen to add a little glittery flame. :-) It's an Ocean Tides card base with clear embossed Polka Dots dots. The DP is My Mind's Eye, Just Dreamy 2, Enchanting "You and Me" So Close/Red Hot Paper. I used Memento inks for this one (Black and Rhubarb Stalk), plus Papertrey's Chamomile cube. The ribbon is Stampin Up. Border punch by EK Success.

I posted a card just a few weeks ago for my mom's anniversary, and this one is for my dad's anniversary. I recently received Papertrey Ink's Sign Language stamp set, and decided to use it on this card. The designs are so freaking cute, but alas, it didn't come with an anniversary sentiment. Probably too long to fit the sign, lol. Anyhoo...

It's also the first time I inked up my Polka Dots II set, and the first time I used my full-sized Vintage Cream ink pad. I was really tired of trying to get everything covered with the little cube, so I broke and bought the full size.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink cardstock in Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Aqua Mist and Ocean Tides; Papertrey Ink ink in Vintage Cream and Dark Chocolate; Copic Spica (flower centers are glittery); generic rhinestones; Scor-Pal; Fiskars Apron Lace border punch; Papertrey Ink stamps: Sign Language, Damask Designs, Polka Dot Basics II; square and square scalloped Nestabilities

It's not often that I get to do little girl cards. I have two young boys, so we tend to go to boy birthday parties and HAVE boy birthday parties and such. Our new neighbors (received the bird box way back when) have a daughter who just turned six, so I got to make a girly, blingy card! Yay! ;-)

The cupcake is from The Paper Company's Cupcakes collection. First I stamped it in Memento black and colored with Copics (just a teensy bit shaded). Then I covered it with 3D Crystal Lacquer and dusted some glitter on top. Then I stamped the cupcake again in Versamark and heat embossed in silver. Once the lacquer was dry, I cut out the cupcake part as well as the solid silver hear from the silver version, and stacked it all together. Added a rhinestone and had a cute, girly cupcake! I also used my Copics to airbrush the Labels 4 diecut. You can barely see a bit of yellow and pink behind the cupcake and sentiment (from Hero Arts). Nana's Kids papers, a Papertrey card base, and American Crafts ribbon finished it off.

It's my understanding from her mom that she really liked this card and she wants to scrapbook it. :-) Her mom is allergic to cats (I have four), so I'll be bringing my goodies next door sometime soon to help them with their scrapbook. I don't scrapbook, but there's no reason my schtuff can't be used for someone else's scrapbook, right?

Thanks for looking!

Do you ever rearrange stuff in your craft area and discover lost/forgotten treasures? That's the motivation for this card. I had a birthday card to do and I was looking through a rarely-touched plastic bin and came across some tags I had completely forgotten about. I have so many Prima flowers that rarely get used (don't know why) so I resolved to find some that would coordinate with the tag.

I also just got my first Core'dinations cardstock. Joann was having a buy 2 get 3 free sale and I figured, why not? Of course, I'm a horrible friend and while I get the card made a week in advance, I don't mail it till the day before her birthday. Doh! Hope she liked it all the same.

Supplies: Generic kraft card blank, Core'dinations (sorry, don't know which color), generic tag, Prima flowers,Stampin Up cordoroy button, Papertrey twine, Around the Block Paper Treats brads (flower centers), Happy Birthday Cuttlebug embossing folder, Background Basics Retro from Papertrey, (background stamp) and Versamark, EK Success corner rounder.

This card is old at this point, but I'm not good at posting here, lol. At least I take pictures before I send 'em though, so I can post here later! :-)

This was a card for my grandmother. My father told me she'd been in the hospital and was a little bit down because she's would have to cancel a planned visit with him. It was a relatively benign visit to the hospital, but I could understand how it might make her feel sad just to have to go, and I made her a card.

Thankfully she's doing much better, and she was happy to get it, so I think it was mission accomplished!

Supplies: All Papertrey except where noted. Everyday Button Basics and Background Basics: Text Style stamps. Cardstock is Plum Pudding, Bitty Dots in Ripe Avocado, patterned paper from the Guidelines collection, and Stamper's Select white. Inks were Plum Pudding and Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo by PTI and Sage Versamagic Chalk Ink. Ribbon is from COD Wholesale and twine is from Papertrey. Buttons from Papertrey. EK Success border punch.

My mom and step-dad's anniversary is coming up in almost two weeks. The Everyday Button Bits set from Papertrey Ink has a cute sentiment, "all things grow with love", so I decided to use that with the flower stem stamp in that set for their anniversary card.

Another acquisition from the CHA Craft Supershow is the Vintage Picnic stamp set from Papertrey Ink. Since my anniversary was last week, we received money gifts from my mom and his parents, so I needed some thank you notes. This is also my first real try with my Copic markers. You may not really be able to see very well (my camera sucks), but there is subtle shading on the flowers and leaves.

I'm still playing a bit with my Floral Fusion exclusive Papertrey Ink set I got at the CHA Craft Supershow last weekend. :-) Well, technically, I'm playing with all my PTI acquisitions.

There's a blog called A Passion for Papertrey. They are in the UK, and they really do have a passion for Papertrey. They're constantly posting great inspiration with Papertrey stamp sets as well as hosting challenges for like-minded people in their area. This time, they're offering up goodies for anyone worldwide! Of course, I had to put my hat in because they're offering up the Papertrey Anniversary Set. I didn't really discover Papertrey until this year, so I had no shot at the anniversary set. It would be so cool to win it. They are also giving away the Hodge Podge paper pad that contains lots of samples of their patterned papers that coordinate with their cardstock.

If you want your own chance, visit A Passion for Papertrey. I believe they'll have the post up until Sunday, August 9. I'm not sure what time that'll make it for those of us in the States, but there's plenty of time to enter! Good luck!

Well, Todd at Craft Edge has done it again. He recently released Sure Cuts A Lot version 2.0 and added a BUNCH of features that really should have been in Design Studio since the beginning. And Design Studio still doesn't have them. From what I've read there are still a few bugs, but Todd reacts very quickly to bugs, so I'm sure the program will be perfect very soon. Todd could give many companies a class on customer service -- he's just very accommodating. He added such great things as REAL grouping, layers, the ability to have more than one mat...those are the biggies, but I know he added more stuff too. The upgrade is $30 for a limited time, or $100 to purchase. If you bought SCAL since June 22, the upgrade is free. Upgrades are only available through Craft Edge, but I believe you can find a better price for the software at Cutters Creek. If you have a Cricut -- any size -- this software is well worth the price to expand what you can cut almost infinitely!

This card is for my daddy's birthday. Yes, I'm almost 40 years old and I call my dad Daddy. :-) He'll always be my daddy!

I haven't been around much lately, have I? I have been been doing crafty stuff, I just haven't been posting much lately. At least I have taken pictures of the cards before they leave my hands! :-)

My Father-in-Law's birthday is coming up very soon. I'm pretty sure he doesn't follow my blog, so I'm pretty safe in posting this early. :-)

I used Papertrey Ripe Avocado for the card base and rounded the corners with my EK Success corner punches. I used my brand new EK Success Upper Crest border punch for the Ripe Avocado strip on the right. I also used my Distressed Stripes Cuttlebug folder to emboss the white strip. The patterned paper is from a K & Co Scrap Pad to Go. I stamped the Just Rite border in Dark Chocolate on white cardstock and used my circle Nesties to cut it out. I stamped the Just Rite sentiment with Versmark and used Stampendous Detail White embossing powder to heat emboss it. I used my circle punches (Fiskars and EK Success) to cut out the Ripe Avocado and Dark Chocolate layers of the sentiment. The ribbon is from American Crafts Brown Classics collection. The buttons are from Basic Grey, and the twine tied through the buttons is from Papertrey.

I hope he likes it. He's one of those rare people who actually saves my cards, which makes me feel pretty good. :-) Now....to pick a present, lol!

Here's a birthday card I made for a friend in one of the Yahoo groups of which I am a member.

As is usual lately, there's a lot of Papertrey. :-) I used Papertrey Kraft cardstock for the base, and Summer Sunrise and Vintage Cream for the circles. I got to use my new Labels 3 Nesties for the bottom layer of the focal point, using Nana's Kids polka-dotted cardstock. I stamped one bird from the Bird Watching set in Summer Sunrise ink from Papertrey, and the other is Ripe Avocado from Papertrey. The sentiment is in Dark Chocolate from Papertrey. I used Versamark with one of the stamp set elements to make a pattern for the background. The ribbon is from COD Wholesale, and the rhinestones are Recollections from Michaels.

I'm glad that my friend enjoyed receiving the card. :-)

OK yes, this is very late, but he did get them on time. I'm just not posting on time. And for that matter, I barely got them done on time, lol! But anyhoo...I was apparently in a heat-embossing mood for these. :-)

The first one is the one I made for my husband from the boys. It's Papertrey cardstock (Summer Sunrise) and Paper Company cardstock (the light blue). I used a Martha Stewart rotary cutter on the DCVW Nana's Kids polka-dotted paper. I used the Papertrey Star Prints stamp set as well as the Inkadinkado set, Jersey Alphabet. I stamped the "orange" stars in Versamark and used Stamp-n Stuff clear embossing powder to heat emboss. I also stamped a star with Versamark on the Summer Sunrise cardstock and heat embossed with Stampendous Detail Silver embossing powder. To punch out the star, I used the Fiskars Extra Large star punch.


The second card is the one I made for my husband from me. Again, I used Papertrey cardstock (Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides, Vintage Cream, and Spring Moss. I also used some of their Everyday Blessings patterned paper. I used the Papertrey Star Prints set again with Versamark and the clear embossing powder, and I punched the stars out with the Fiskars punch. I used Versamark again to stamp the Papertrey Fancy Flourishes set in the background. The ribbon is Ripe Avocado Saddle Stitch ribbon. I also added some magic mesh. The patterned paper was punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

Thanks for looking! Better late than never, right?

Okeydokey. Here's the second Father's Day card. This one is for my father-in-law and uses the same Papertrey set as my father's card . Hopefully he likes his, too!

This one started out inspired by the ribbon. Don't ask me why -- I'm not even sure where it came from! But I saw it in my stash and figured I would find some paper to match to it. Then I thought of the idea of stamping on patterned paper that I've seen so much of recently and figured this would be as good a time as any to try it out.

Supplies:
Paper: Bazzill green cardstock, Paper Tree maroon and white cardstock, Provocraft Slab VI patterned paper
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Colorbox Chalk brown ink
Buttons: Papertrey Vintage Button Collection in Vintage Cream
Floss: DMC
Ribbon: Unknown

Wow...I'm a bad blogger. It's been almost a month since my last post!

I lost my mojo, and no matter how many beautiful blogs or magazines I looked at, I just didn't feel motivated. It didn't help, either, that I got immersed in the Twilight book series. I went through them in about two weeks. It's been a really long time since I've been into reading like that. If you haven't read it, it's really a great story. I didn't think I'd like it -- it sounded hokey -- but it was soooo good.

Anyhoo...holidays are always a good motivator when I'm in a card funk. Especially if someone's EXPECTING a card, like Father's Day. :-) So I got busy. Well, I guess technically, I thought about it for a long time before I actually sat down to make it. And darn it...I cased a card I found online for this one and now I can't read the watermark. If someone recognizes the layout, I'm happy to provide credit. I guess I need to find another way to store my inspiration.

This one is for my father. Almost everything is Papertrey Ink. I hope he likes it!

Supplies:
Paper: Vintage Cream and Pure Poppy cardstock (PTI), patterned paper from textStyle Hodge Podge pack, chocolate remix
Ink: Chocolate and Ripe Avocado (PTI), Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Ranger Distress Inks
Ribbon: American Crafts Brown Classics
Buttons: Chocolate Vintage Button Collection (PTI)
Floss: DMC

A friend of mine recently sent me a font she created that contains a bunch of common (and uncommon) shapes. The font is intended for cutting with Sure Cuts a Lot on Cricuts, but any cutter that can cut TTF fonts should be able to use this as well. I was lucky -- I got to test drive it. :-) And it is really cool. I have many of these shapes in individual files, but it's really nice to have them all in one place.

Anyhoo, if you're interested, visit her blog to download the font. I thought it was a great idea, and I'm glad Kay went to the trouble of actually creating it.

Hope everyone's having a happy holiday weekend!

This birdhouse is based on a pattern from Nichole Heady's blog. I made an SVG out of it and made a couple of improvements. At least they're improvements for me because I couldn't figure out how to close it without closing it permanently. And then the recipient would have to ruin it to get what's inside. I'm sure there's something I missed, but I made it work for me.

I added a couple of notches in the bottom to thread the ribbon through so it would stay in place. Likewise, I cut notches at the sides of the roof to hold it in place, and I included my holes at the top in my SVG file so I could use my Crop-A-Dile gromlets and not have to cut the center out by myself.

Then I cut the house pattern and roof using SCAL and my Expression. I won't be able to share my pattern (it's not mine to share -- you can go to the blog entry to get it), but it was a PDF, so that's how I was able to make it. It didn't import to Inkscape perfectly, but it's still a shortcut to designing it myself! (Not that I'd come up with the idea.)

I used Papertrey stamps for everything: Polka Dot Basics for the polka dots on the sides and back, Faux Ribbon for the background design on the front, Wishing You for the flowers, dragonfly and sentiment, and Background Basics: Retro for the "tiles" on the roof. I used Colorbox and Versamark chalk inks, Memento (for the sentiment and dragonfly), and Versamark for the roof tiles.

I thought it came out cute! We have new neighbors, and this will be a "welcome" gift to them. I'm debating on whether to put birdseed in a baggie to enclose, or whether to do chocolates or something. Not knowing whether they have a bird feeder, I'm leaning toward the candy. :-)

Thanks for looking!

I'm a little late posting this, but I finished it up last minute and didn't get a picture of it until just a few days ago. :-) This is the card I made my son for his seventh birthday. He actually asked me to make his card this year. Isn't that sweet? He's a boy, and I really didn't think he cared, but he asked me to, so of course I'm going to!

So...the little robot guy is from a Sandylion Boys acrylic stamp set. Actually all of the picture stamps are. I colored in the little guy with Copics. The "happy birthday" sentiment is from Hot off the Press Expressions. The sentiment inside was made (I should have taken more time!) with my Just Rite rectangular stamper and my Brayton font.

I used Inkscape to create the planet terrain, including the craters. I actually cut that separately with my Cricut and SCAL and used it as a mask to ink onto the planet. I poked holes around the edge and used my white gel pen to simulate stitching. The white stamps on the front are embossed with clear. And the borders inside are both from EK Success.

I think he really liked that I took the time to make it for him!