Heather in Florida

Congratulations, Austin!!!

2010-06-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

My nephew, Austin, just graduated from high school. I'm working on something else for him, but needed to at least get a card (and some money) in the mail since he graduated a few weeks ago. :-) We are all so proud of him. He was accepted to the Boston Conservatory of Music, so that's where he'll attend college. He has done extremely well in his school chorus and theater program, as well as the various theater companies in his local area, so he's planning to continue pursuing a dream in that general area. The Boston Conservatory is a great place to do it. His parents aren't looking forward to paying for it, lol, but it is a great institution, and they're proud he was accepted.

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise noted): cardstock: Smokey Shadow, Kraft, and Stamper's Select White; For the Graduate stamp set; Versafine black ink; Lemon Tart ink; Scor-Pal

Thanks Grandmother

2010-06-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of posts ago, I shared a thank you note for my dad for flying me to see my grandmother as my birthday present. While we were there, my grandmother was the perfect hostess, so I wanted to thank her for her hospitality.

She lives in a very nice senior community, and they have a beautiful clubhouse where they are served their meals, like it's a restaurant. We ate there a couple of nights, and she took us to the cafe at Southern Season, which was a real treat. And she showed us the sights in her town.

So this thank you is for her. It was somewhat inspired by a bunch of posts over at Dawn McVey's blog. She found some Martha Stewart die cut tags that were really cute. Had I not seen them on her blog, I'd have never known they existed, and I went last weekend and got some at Michaels. I just think they're so cool! I could probably make something like them with my Cricut (my poor, unused Cricut), but they were $3 (on sale) for a pack of 12, and $3 is cheap enough for me to not want to spend the time, lol.

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise noted): Round and Round exclusive stamp set; cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Hibiscus Burst, Smokey Shadow; Martha Stewart tag; Smokey Shadow and Hibiscus Burst ink; Versamark; silver embossing powder; Mat Stack 2 steel die; grey tulle from COD Warehouse; Scor-Pal

Boy Birthday Thank Yous

2010-06-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Back in April, my oldest son turned 8. We hosted a great laser tag party for him and his friends. Of course he received gifts, and gifts always mean thank you notes. But I have such a hard time with male cards, much more so with male child cards. They're past the cutesy, but not to the adult male stuff either. Waltzingmouse to the rescue! The owner, Claire, created a couple of GREAT sets for boys: Free Spirit Boy and Free Spirit Sentiments. I had just received my Papertrey Ink order as well, and thought A Little Argyle in boy colors would be a nice background element. So this is what I came up with. I also used Waltzingmouse's Off Beat Backgrounds for the "hills" for the skater dude and PTI For the Graduate to frame him.

Supplies: stamps: Waltzingmouse Free Spirit Boy, Free Spirit Sentiments, Off Beat Backgrounds and Papertrey Ink A Little Argyle and For The Graduate; cardstock: PTI Stamper's Select White and Kraft; ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening, Vintage Cream and Colorbox Chalk Wheat; PTI Mat Stack 1 steel die

Masculine Thank You

2010-06-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted. Things got super busy again. I wasn't crafting as much. When I did craft, I didn't get pictures... I'm hoping with school out, maybe life won't be so hectic, but who knows.

Anyway, I took pictures of a few cards I made last weekend -- love three-day weekends -- so I'll spread them out over the next several days. I need to make a couple of cards this weekend, and I still have the photo tent set up, so hopefully I'll get pics before I have to send them off.

I made two of today's card. One was for my brother-in-law, who gave me a generous birthday gift that I'm still spending (can't wait to get the exclusive Nesties dies from Scrapyland!). The other is for my dad, who also gave me a generous birthday gift. He flew me to visit my grandmother. He came in as well, and when my sister found out about it, she decided to fly in, too! So it was a nice little mini-family reunion, and it was so much fun.

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise noted): Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Terracotta cardstock; Masculine Motifs stamp set; Rustic Cream twine; Dark Chocolate buttons; wood grain impression plate; EK Success corner rounder; Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Vintage Tea Dye Duo ink; Versamark

Last Thank You (for a while)

2010-03-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the last (for a while) of the thank yous using the Hero Arts background stamp. I've been seeing a lot of window cards lately, so I wanted to try one. It was fun, so I'll have to do that again! I also have been enjoying clear embossing for a tone-on-tone look, so that's here as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Kraft, Stamper's Select White, Black, and Plum Pudding Papertrey Ink cardstock; Versamark; Lavender Moon ink from Papertrey Ink; Birds & Branches stamp from Hero Arts/Archivers; Floral Fusion (sentiment) from Papertrey Ink; K & Co rhinestones; Nestabilities

Yet Another Thank You

2010-03-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

I said it was a variation on a theme. ;-) Still with the Hero Arts/Archivers background stamp. I've said before that it's near impossible for me to make two cards exactly the same. Sometimes I'll do it for thank you notes, because usually they are being written in response to an event and there are many to write. In this case, I was playing and there weren't so many to make, so they're all different.

This one isn't so different from the previous one, but I thought the flower/button addition was cute.

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies: unknown green burlap; Kraft and Vintage Cream Papertrey Ink cardstock; Birds & Branches and Butterflies & Lace Hero Arts/Archivers stamps; Wheat and Pumpkin Spice Versamagic chalk ink; White Papertrey Ink pigment ink; Prima flowers; Papertrey Ink button; generic twine; Recollections pearls; Nestabilities

Another Thank You

2010-03-13T07:47:00.000-08:00

Here's another thank you card done with the Hero Arts/Archivers background stamp. I've had this green burlap in my stash for quite a while. It was a 12x12 sheet, and looking around for ideas, I came across it and decided to stamp on it. So I did. :-)

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: unknown green burlap; Vintage Cream and Kraft Papertrey Ink cardstock; Birds & Branches and Butterflies & Lace stamps from Hero Arts; Beyond Basic Borders (sentiment) from Papertrey Ink; Want2Scrap.com pearls; Wheat Versamagic chalk ink; Lettuce dye ink from Adirondack; Chamomile Tea Dye Duo and White pigment ink from Papertrey Ink; Nestabilities circle die; pinking shears

More variations on a theme

2010-03-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is the first of a series of cards that use the same stamp. When I was in Kansas City, I got to go to Archivers -- my first time stepping foot in the store. I've heard so much about it, but they don't have them where I live. That's probably a good thing for my wallet, lol! So anyway, I am a sucker for stamps (big surprise), and they have a line of Hero Arts stamps that are exclusive to Archivers. So I couldn't pass them up. :-) And since I was there for a birthday celebration (just prior to my real birthday), I had several thank you notes to make and write.

I also wanted to try my hand at the embossing resist technique I've seen so much lately. I'm not 100% pleased with the results, but it was fun to try, and I love this stamp.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by! I'll reveal the other variations over the next few days.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Kraft, True Black, and Pure Poppy cardstock; Papertrey Ink Beyond Basic Borders (sentiment) and Text Style (you can't see it in the photo, but it's on the white); Hero Arts Birds & Branches; Papertrey Ink white and Pure Poppy inks; Versamark; clear embossing powder; Opalite ink; K&Company rhinestones; Fiskars border punch; Michaels black ribbon

Variation on a theme

2010-03-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have a weakness in that all of my cards have to be different. I view it as a weakness because sometimes I just don't have that many (or any!) ideas or sometimes I'm under a time crunch. These two cards were the result of such a time crunch. I wanted to make cards for a couple of my online friends, but as I said before, February got totally crazy for me, so they both ended up being late. Gah! And when I sat down to do them, I had enough pieces/parts to make two, but as I said... all cards must be different!

Sooo, I have two very similar cards to show you. I just changed up the orientation and the flower layers. The first is for Denise C, the second Kim B... both from my Cricutlovers Yahoo group. And how bad am I... Denise's birthday is before mine and I got her card out after my birthday! February was a rough month for free time. :-(

Anyhoo... I hope the recipients liked them (I've heard from one already, and she did). And thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Paper Company green and pink cardstock; Stamper's Select white from Papertrey Ink; Striped, polka dot, and pink flowers DP from Making Memories; Papertrey Ink Around and About Sentiments; Papertrey Ink white ink; EK Success flower and corner rounder punches; Colorbok brads; Recollections pearls; Fiskars border punch; Martha Stewart butterflies punch

Blog Award

2010-03-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

Someone gave me a blog award! Melinda from Melinda's Cut-N-Up Creations received it from someone else and has passed it on to me. I'll play along with the first part, but I'm not going to pass it on, only because it's impossible to choose who to send it to... there are so many worthy blogs.

Anyhoo... I'm supposed to tell you seven things about myself, so here goes:

I am a Florida transplant, but I've been here for just about half my life.
I have two wonderful, little, Mario-obsessed boys
I get creative block quite frequently, lol
I'm a paper hoarder... aw, heck, I hoard all papercrafting supplies!
I spend more time looking at blogs than making stuff... there aren't enough hours in the day, lol
I just turned 40... how the heck did that happen?? Shoot... I guess that means I need to update my profile.
I want to move back to KC where most of my family is, but DH doesn't want to live anywhere that it's cold. He's been hating this Florida winter this year!

Thanks, Melinda! Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!

Welcome, Lily!

2010-03-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine recently had a baby. She was due February 17, but had the baby February 2, so I was completely unprepared (card-wise) for the arrival, lol. And then, the insane new mom came back to work after three weeks. YES... THREE WEEKS! And I was still completely unprepared. Sigh. I thought I had three more weeks, lol! (Not really, I knew I needed to get it done, but sheesh... who comes back to work after three weeks?) Anyhoo... I finally got down to business and made a nice card for the baby's arrival.

Good thing is, my friend loved it. She particularly loved the bling, and I apparently chose a good color scheme. Brown and pink are the colors of the baby's room. How's that for coordinated? She even mentioned maybe putting it in a shadow box to hang in the baby's room. Awwww!

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies: Papertrey Stamper's Select white cardstock; unknown pink houndstooth DP; Background Basics: Hearts and Bitty Baby Blessings stamps from Papertrey Ink; Waltzingmouse Very Vintage Labels No 4; Floradoodles glittery flowers; Papertrey Ink button; Dark Chocolate, Sweet Blush, Vintage Cream and Tea Dye duo Papertrey Ink ink; Want2Scrap bling; unknown Its a Girl tag and butterfly; Michaels cream ribbon; Stampin Up! scallop trim border punch

So much for updating regularly... Hubby's birthday card

2010-03-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

OK, so I'm not doing so well keeping this thing updated. :-) I am crafting... sometimes I take pictures... sometimes I'm late getting them done and it's all I can do to get them out the door on time! And then there's the whole "life" thing that gets in the way. Somehow, February turned into a very busy month for me, and it just seemed like I didn't have time for much. I have Papertrey stamps that I received several days ago that are still in the boxes! I normally have them out of the box, labels attached, and played with them by now -- usually the first night! I even got some stuff at Joann last weekend and it's still in the bag!! So really, I just haven't had much time for anything lately.

But I have been making more of an effort to at least get the picture before it leaves the house. So I'll be posting over the next week or two with stuff I've done over the past month. And hopefully by the time I'm catching up, I'll have more to show!

Today, I'm showing the card I made for my husband's birthday. It's mostly Papertrey. I think it's a nice, masculine card, and I think he liked it.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies (all PTI unless otherwise specified): Turning a New Leaf, Background Basics: Diamonds, and Through the Trees (sentiment) stamp sets; Kraft, Enchanted Evening, Vintage Cream cardstock; Dark Chocolate buttons; Vintage Cream and Enhanted Evening ink; Versamark; Filigree white embossing powder; Martha Stewart border punch; EK Success corner rounder; generic twine.

Happy Birthday, Rich!

2010-01-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

This card is for my brother-in-law's birthday. We both turn 40 this year. FORTY! How the heck did that happen? I probably should have made this card "special" for the 40th birthday, but I didn't. It's still special because I made it, right?

Anyhoo...I made use of a bunch of Papertrey products on this one. All but the beige ink on the medallion is Papertrey. LOVE me some Papertrey! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Rustic Cream, Vintage Cream, Kraft, and Enchanted Evening cardstock; Papertrey Ink Faux Ribbon and 2009 Autumn Tags stamp sets; Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening, Ripe Avocado, and Vintage Cream ink; Versamark Chalk Wheat ink; Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening button; Rustic Cream twine; Nestabilities circle and pinked circle dies; EK Success corner rounder

Happy Birthday Mom-Mom 2010

2010-01-21T03:00:00.000-08:00

This is the birthday card for my grandmother. I had more fun with my Punch Bunch punches in creating the flower. I also received my very first ever Stampin Up! stamps this week. And punches. A girl on one of my Yahoo groups had a virtual party and I had a weak moment, lol. That, combined with the fact that they're selling clear-mount stamps now was a dangerous combination!

So, on this card, I used the Well Scripted set for the sentiment, the Scallop Trim border punch, and the Bird on a Branch punch for the leaves. But I'm most proud of the flower, which I made with the Large Dahlia Petals Punch Bunch punch from Core'dinations cardstock. I have the two flower art books, and I thought the Dahlia punch would be used to make a dahlia flower, but the instructions say something else. So this design is sort of made up based on the basic mechanics of making flowers with their punches.

I'm mailing it in a CD mailer so it doesn't get smooshed. Doing that also allowed me to make it square. I don't make square cards often because I'm usually already paying a bit more for postage due to the bulk/weight, but the CD mailer will cost more anyway. I hope she appreciates the card!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Bazzill blue and Core'dinations orange cardstock; green from Stemma Citrus Bleu paper stack; unknown white/blue and orange DP; Well Scripted Stampin Up! stamp; Papertrey Ink Snow White pigment ink; A La Mode clear embossing powder; Large Dahlia Petals Punch Bunch punch; Scallop Trim Stampin Up! border punch; Bird on a Branch Stampin Up! punch;

Sympathy

2010-01-19T03:00:00.000-08:00

A "friend" on one of my Yahoo groups just lost her grandmother, so I wanted to send a note of sympathy. It's pretty simple, but I just wanted her to know I was thinking about her. I lost one of my grandmothers in 2005 and it still saddens me that she's no longer here for me to talk to, so I can imagine how my Yahoo friend feels.

Thanks for visiting.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow and Stamper's Select White cardstock; Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow and Color Box black pigment ink; A La Mode clear embossing powder; Papertrey Ink Life and Damask Designs stamp sets; Martha Stewart butterflies punch; Celebrate It (Michaels) Black sheer ribbon; Recollections pearls

Happy Birthday, Henry and Blog Counter

2010-01-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

I was very productive this weekend -- FINALLY. I had about five cards I needed to get done, and I got them all done! Yay me! :-) I'll reveal them over the next few days rather than all at once.

This card is for my nephew who turns ten this year. It's so hard for me to do masculine cards, especially for boys who aren't kids really anymore. :-) Can't make it too babyish, can't make it too serious, don't want it to be too dorky. I'm not sure why it matters...I'm pretty sure they don't appreciate a hand-made card, but I do it all the same. But I thought Cosmo Cricket's Boyfriend line would be manly enough but playful.

I also finally added a counter to my blog. I've only had my blog a year. It's about time, huh? Maybe in the future I can use it to do giveaways and such. Of course, I suppose that means I need to be more consistent with updating my blog so there are new things for people to see, right? And maybe letting people know it's updated? Perhaps? ;-) My template is growing old, too. I think I want a change, so you might notice things changing soon, hopefully for the better.

Anyhoo...thanks for taking a peek today.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream cardstock and Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend DP; Cornish Heritage Farms sentiment from Mona Lisa Moments Birthday Centers; Colorbox Chalk orange and Papertrey Enchanted Evening inks; white Basic Basic ribbon colored with a Copic; EK Success border punch; EK Success corner rounder punch

Christmas Thank Yous 2009

2010-01-01T05:43:00.000-08:00

This is my thank you card this year. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, and I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but I thought it came out cute. I got to use my new Storybook cartridge. :-) And a Close to My Heart stamp set I purchased at the beginning of December.

Anyhoo...thanks for looking!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream and Dark Chocolate cardstocks; Making Memories Cosmopolitan Workweek Stripe Pink patterned paper; Hero Arts Art Flowers; Want2Scrap.com pearl; brown rickrack from Michaels; Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream hybrid ink and White Pearls Stamp N Stuff embossing powder; Scor-Pal and Scor-Bug.

Happy Birthday, Judy (Judy, don't peek!)

2009-12-31T07:33:00.000-08:00

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.

Teacher Gifts 2009

2009-12-29T06:44:00.000-08:00

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.

Welcome, Katie!

2009-12-27T06:35:00.000-08:00

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

Happy Holidays! 2009's Christmas Card

2009-12-26T08:18:00.001-08:00

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!

I got my own ROOM!

2009-12-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

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.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

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:

Happy Birthday, Penny!

2009-11-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

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

Happy birthday friend

2009-11-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

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

Practice Makes Perfect

2009-11-14T15:01:00.001-08:00

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.

Vicki's Wedding Card

2009-10-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Thank You Notes

2009-10-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Happy Birthday, Austin! (2009)

2009-10-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

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).

Happy Birthday, Dylan (2009)

2009-10-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Happy Birthday, Matthew! 2009

2009-10-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Happy Birthday, Alexa 2009

2009-10-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

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

Wedding Thank-You Notes

2009-10-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Wedding Invitations!

2009-10-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

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!

Happy Birthday, Sheri!

2009-09-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Dad Anniversary

2009-09-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

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

Seize the Cake!

2009-09-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

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!

Happy Birthday Tag

2009-09-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Get Well Grandma

2009-09-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Mom Anniversary

2009-08-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

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.

The card base is Lemon Tart. I stamped the stems in Memento Cottage Ivy and the sentiment in Summer Sunrise Ink (PTI) and the Cottage Ivy on PTI's white Paper Basics cardstock. That was diecut with a square Nestabilities, and I used the coordinating scalloped square Nestie on PTI's new Enchanted Evening cardstock.

The buttons -- except the pink one -- are from Making Memories' Chloe's Closet line, as is the DP. The pink button is one of PTI's Vintage Buttons in Raspberry Fizz. They're sewed on with DMC floss. The lace was some I found on clearance at Joann a while back. I punched one of the pieces of DP with the Fiskar's Apron Lace border punch.

They are going to get it early because if I don't send it now, it's likely I'll forget to send it! But hopefully they will like it. :-)

Thanks for looking!

First Vintage Picnic cards

2009-08-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

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 also used this opportunity to ink up, for the first time, a set I bought many months ago -- Background Basics: Text Style. I used it, with Opalite Ink in Sterling Frost (also bought a LONG time ago and not used until today), to make the background on the white card blank. Again, I'm not sure if you'll see it because my camera sucks, lol. But hopefully you see the hint of it -- it was supposed to be subtle as well. Today was apparently "use what you bought and haven't ever used" day. :-)

The picnic basket was stamped in Black Memento ink on the plaid from Papertrey Ink's Chocolate Remix patterned paper. I shaded it just a bit with Copic markers. Then I cut it out and pasted it under the colored flowers. I stamped the sentiment in Black Memento as well.

I used my circle and Labels Three Nestabilities to cut and emboss the colored flowers. The purple cardstock is Plum Pudding from PTI, and the white is PTI Paper Basics in white. Purple Kaiser rhinestones adorn each corner of the Labels Three die cut. The ribbon is from American Crafts Brown Basics set. Unfortunately, I ran out, so one card got a bow, the other got a knot. I like the bow much better, but what can you do when you run out of one spool of a five-spool set? I'm not running out to buy another whole set, lol!

Anyhoo...now I just have to write my notes of thanks and send them off, and hopefully I can convey how grateful I am for their gifts and for remembering our anniversary.

Thanks for looking!

Karen's Birthday: Floral Fusion

2009-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

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.

This time I made a birthday card from Floral Fusion for my sister-in-law. Everything's Papertrey except the lace, rhinestones, and maroon strip that is from my scraps: kraft, white and Ripe Avocado cardstock, Raspberry Fizz and Ripe Avocado ink, Kaiser pink rhinestones, Webster's Papers Trim & Lace Spring Whimsy lace.

The maroon and Ripe Avocado strips are punched with EK Success border punches. I rounded the corners with an EK Success corner rounder punch. The sentiment was cut with a Ribbon Tags Trio Spellbinders die.

Thanks for looking! I hope she likes it!

Fifteen Years

2009-08-09T11:42:00.001-07:00

It was my 15th wedding anniversary last week, and this is the card I made for my hubby. My how time flies! So I made this for him...

All of the cuts are from the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge. The paper is a mixture of scraps and Creative Memories. I think it's an Avery card blank. I borrowed the Graphically Speaking cartridge, but there are so many great cuts on this, it might be one I want to invest in eventually. Lots for scrapbooking, but still lots of stuff that could be used on cards or other non-scrappy papercrafts.

Thanks for looking!

OK it's not Monday or Tuesday...CHA Papertrey followup

2009-08-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm a bad blogger. I don't seem to have the time I used to have and I'm not sure why that is.

Anyway, I said I'd post my second make & take from the Papertrey booth at the CHA consumer show from August 1. The stamp set used was the exclusive CHA set, and I didn't get it right, lol. There were so many people waiting their turn for the make & take, that I just figured I could practice more later. So here's the original:

And here's my version.

I did a standard 4.25 x 5.5, and theirs was slightly smaller. And since the Vintage Cream piece was slightly larger for the larger card base, I flipped the stamps around and added a bit of a flourish in the upper right. After I cut the cardstock, I realized I should have made it to open at the bottom to accommodate the wrapped twine, but instead, it was opening at the side. I figured, well, I can punch a hole to string the twine through. But then I cut the green piece too small, so it became notched at one end. And then there was no room for the button. Hey...I was trying to salvage what I could, lol. I also don't have the Polka Dot II set they used on the green piece, but I got my first Cornish Heritage Farms Scrapblock at the consumer show, so I used that instead, and it was a nice, muted effect. I didn't have the colors they used at the make & take, so I used Colorbox Chalk ink. I still think it came out pretty nice.

Since my brother-in-law was kind enough to send me money to spend at the consumer show -- he essentially enabled me to get this exclusive set -- he's getting this card. I made another card this evening with the set as a birthday card for my sister-in-law, so I'll post that sometime soon. I'm not making any more projections of when I post things because apparently, life happens. :-)

Thanks for looking!

What I did yesterday....

2009-08-02T13:49:00.001-07:00

This will be long because I'm excited, lol. I went to the CHA Craft Supershow in Orlando!!!! It was so much fun. Exhausting, but fun. I can't imagine the people that went BOTH days. But there were lots of exhibitors and tons of peoples and lots of giveaways. Unfortunately, I didn't win a giveaway, but the two friends I was with did, both from Michaels. One friend won a $10 gift card. The other won a Fiskars gift pack (a paper trimmer, scissors, and a stamp set).

But I still feel like I won because I. GOT. THE. PAPERTREY. INK. EXCLUSIVE. CHA. SET!!! (Sorry...using Stephenie Meyer's method for emphasis, lol.) I also got two of their cute pink shopping bags (I went twice, lol), two of their pens, a ton of "To Do" notepads they were giving away with purchase (item #1: Visit www.papertreyink.com, lol) and they were giving away half-sheets of their Guidelines paper as well. Those are just the freebies. To get the exclusive set, you had to spend $100, which is NOT hard for me to do at Papertrey, especially since I've been holding out the past couple of months.

In addition to the exclusive set, Floral Fusion, I got:

Vintage Picnic
Vintage Picnic Sentiments
Bitty Blessings (a baby set)
In Bloom
Everday Button Bits (love buttons!)
Teacher's Apple

Between all the sentiments across all the sets, I'll should be set for a long time, which is good because I'm officially broke now. The only reason I was able to get so much is because my dear brother-in-law sent money for me to spend. Wasn't that sweet? Now, I have to start practicing with my Copics: In Bloom and Vintage Picnic are both singing for them. :-)

I also got some Papertrey cardstock in White, Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, and Enchanted Evening (a new blue in their line).

I sat for two of their make & takes. This is the first one I did on the second day, which was actually their second of three for the day. There was no way I was waiting for the first one. They were six deep waiting for that one! In the picture above, you may recognize Michelle Wooderson and Heather Nichols on the left. I think the one on the far right is Debbie Olson. They are all Papertrey Design Team members. I saw Nichole Heady and Dawn McVey, but didn't get pictures of them. I hope there wasn't someone else I missed! Oh!!! I also met Ashley Newell of A New Design live and in person. She's so tiny! And sweet. Here is the card I made at this one:

I'll post the one I made using the exclusive set tomorrow or Tuesday.

Soooo tired today!!! :-)

Anyone up for Papertrey Goodies?

2009-07-27T06:04:00.001-07:00

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!

Megan's Wedding and SCAL 2.0

2009-07-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

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!

Anyhoo...on to the card. I used SCAL, but not really any of its new fancy features. I just wanted to test it out. My husband's cousin got married last night, so I'm sure the card is late (I mailed it Thursday I think), but hopefully she likes it. I tried to use the amazingly talented Paulo's intricate heart frame, but I think I need a stickier mat. I need to figure that out because many of his designs are so beautifully intricate, and I just have to be able to cut them! I tried to cut it twice. Sigh. The solid heart portion cut fine, so I decided to use the two solids instead of my original idea.

I started with a Bazzill Basics 5 x 7 base in a cream color. I cut a 4.5 x 6.5 rectangle containing the "mr & mrs" from Canson pearlized paper using Cotillion font and SCAL. I cut a small piece of purple paper to put behind the pearl, so the purple would show through. I'm pretty sure purple was one of her colors because her invitation was printed in purple. It was much easier to do that than to cut the letters out and get them placed "just so", but I had to find a font that wouldn't cut complete holes in the letters (because I'm lazy and didn't want to have to glue the centers on) but still be super pretty. Cotillion fit the bill. I used my Scor-Pal to score about 1/4-inch on all four sides to make a sort of frame. Adhesive flat-back pearls from Michaels were adhered to the corners. Using the same purple, I punched a scalloped strip with a Fiskars border punch and adhered tiny flat-back pearls to every other scallop. I adhered a strip of cream trim from my stash, and adhered that to the pearl paper.

For the hearts, I stamped one of the borders from Papertrey's Damask set in Versamark and heat embossed it with Stampendous Detail Gold. Then I adhered the hearts with dimensionals so they'd pop off the page a bit.

I'm glad I used my Cricut again. It hasn't been getting much love lately with my recent stamp obsession. But like I said before, I have to start using what I have, and the Cricut with SCAL affords me so much flexibility, it's silly for it to sit idle.

I'm hoping to try some glass etching this weekend. Maybe Megan and her new hubby will get a late wedding gift (on top of the small token in the card) as well! The glass etching kit is something else I've had for MONTHS and haven't cracked the seal.

As always, thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2009-07-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

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'm really trying to use things I felt like I HAD to have, but haven't touched yet. I'm sure a lot of you have stuff you've bought but haven't used yet. And I'm not saying you bought it yesterday, I'm saying you bought it a month or two ago, or longer! Lol! Please tell me I'm not alone!

Ok, so the Bo Bunny Press paper is a relatively recent purchase (as was the paper on the previous card) from my LSS. The stamp set (cupcake, sentiment, loopy thing on the bottom, balloons on the purple) are from The Paper Company's Cupcakes acrylic set, which I've had for at least two months and this is the first time I've inked it up. The ribbon, button and twine are from Papertrey Ink. The brads along the bottom were a clearance purchase (gotta love that) from Michaels -- Around the Block Paper Treats Birthday Brads. The card base is Ripe Avocado from Papertrey Ink. The purple paper, believe it or not, was given away as a freebie when I bought some stuff at an LSS YEARS ago. It has some funky design on the other side, but the color was perfect for this, so I'm glad I hung onto it. :-) The edges of everything are also distressed all over with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The tag is a Cuttlebug die, and the top portion of patterned paper was punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

I'm sending it out tomorrow, so I hope he likes it. Of course, he's my dad, so he'll TELL me he likes it, but I hope he REALLY does. ;-)

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Larry!

2009-07-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

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! :-)

This one is for my step-father. I saw this cute paper at my LSS and thought it would look cute as a card. It's from Creative Imaginations. I cut following the line of one of the sentiment lines on the paper and adhered it to Papertrey Ink's Pure Poppy cardstock. Before adhering, I made a few scores with my Scor-Pal as well as a few dotted lines with my Scor-Bug and the Scor-Pal. It's the first time I've used the Scor-Bug and it was fun!

I also used Around and About Sentiments from Papertrey Ink for the "happy birthday" round sentiment. The star brad is actually an American Crafts miniMarks rub on graphic on an American Crafts Elements silver brad. The party hat is from the Inkadinkado Birthday Fun set. Little silver brads and orange ribbon are from my stash.

I sent the card very early because I couldn't remember if I had given myself two weeks to do it or one week based on the task I created for myself in Outlook. I was converting to the iPhone at the time (new to me, but not brand new). On my Palm Centro, I used Agendus, which showed me calendar events and to-dos in the same view. I haven't found the same on the iPhone yet, so I was discombobulated. :-) But anyhoo...he got it about a week and a couple days early, but he saved it to open on his birthday. My mom said he liked it a lot. Yay! It's most important that the recipient likes it. :-)

Thanks for looking!

FIL Birthday: Just Rite

2009-07-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

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!

Birthday Card: Papertrey Bird Watching

2009-07-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

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. :-)

Father's Day Cards for hubby

2009-07-02T18:24:00.001-07:00

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?

Father's Day #2

2009-06-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

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

Father's Day #1

2009-06-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

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 Font Just for Cutting

2009-05-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

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!

New Neighbor Gift

2009-05-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

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!

Birthday Boy's Card

2009-05-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Mother's Day #3: Grandma cards

2009-05-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the cards for my grandmothers for Mother's Day. I'm fortunate to have one still living, and my husband has one still living.

The first one is for my husband's grandmother. I cut the label and it's shadow using my Cricut and SCAL. The shape is from a file offered a long time ago by Dan. He's a talented artist, and he was graciously offering freebie cutting files every week on his blog. He still sells them separately.

The butterfly is from an Inkadinkado set. First I heat-embossed it in black, then I cut it out and colored it with watercolor pencils. A slightly wet paintbrush gave it a slightly watercolor look. The sentiment is also from Inkadinkado and was cut/masked with my oval Nestabilities. I ran the background through my Cuttlebug with the Distressed Stripes embossing folder, added a few purple rhinestones and some purple organza ribbon, and it was done!

The card for my grandmother sort of evolved from other stuff I was playing with. I mentioned a while back that I needed more practice with Papertrey Ink's Guide Lines set, so I was playing around with that. Once I was done, I cut a piece that would go on an A2 sized card and added some rhinestones. Later I stamped and cut out the butterfly. Then I needed a Mother's Day card, and both items were sitting on my desk. An idea was born! :-) I pulled out my Papertrey cardstock, an EK Success border punch, and my Women of Life stamp set. I added a FloraDoodles white daisy, some purple gingham ribbon, and a Papertrey Ink button with a rhinestone on the front, and it was done!

If anyone's interested in the supplies I used, let me know. There were just too many to mention for both cards in this one post. :-)

Mother Day #2: Mother-in-Law...Don't Peek!!!

2009-05-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's my second Mother's Day card to share with you. Monday's was for my mom; today's is for my husband's mom. I pulled out my Papertrey Ink Women of Life set, plus the Tags for Spring set. (Can you tell I'm a little obsessed with PTI?)

After I stamped the flowers, I thought glitter centers would be nice, so I used my glue stamp pad and added some glitter. It's my first time doing that, so I'm sure I did something wrong because the glitter didn't completely stay on. I mean, if you didn't touch it, it was fine. But if, say, your husband ran his finger across one of the centers, oddly some glitter came off. :-) But at Michaels on Sunday, I saw Glossy Accents and immediately thought it would make a great sealer for the centers, and it did!

Supplies:
Paper: random card blank; DCVW green textured cardstock; Making Memories Chloe patterned paper
Ink: Memento, Palette Stamp & Stick Glue Pad
Tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities rectangle and circle sets; Fiskars circle punch
Etc: Lace (Joann); Glossy Accents; Prima flower; unknown heart rhinestone

Sympathy Card for Friend

2009-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased the Papertrey Ink set With Sympathy strictly for the graphics. I absolutely love the huge vine stamp. When I received it, I actually thought to myself, boy I hope I don't need these sentiments. I mean, we all have people in our lives who lose loved ones, but you never WANT to make a sympathy card.

Well...a friend's father passed away last week. They sort of knew it was coming, and since he was in such extreme pain, perhaps it was for the best for him to pass. This weekend I made this card for her. It was the first card I made with this set. I took it to work today and asked the rest of my team to sign it and we gave it to her. Hopefully it lets her know we care!

Supplies:
Paper: random card blank; Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream; Bazzill
Stamps: Papertrey Ink With Sympathy
Ink: Versamark, Colorbox Chalk, Memento
Tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Labels 4; Martha Stewart border punch; EK Success corner rounder
Embellishments: Paper borders (a freebie with my order from Cutter's Creek); toffee organza ribbon from C. O. D. Wholesale

Mother's Day #1 -- Mom, Don't Peek!!!

2009-05-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well I'm hoping my mom doesn't read my blog, or that she can at least follow directions (per the title). I had fun making this one, and it sort of evolved. I knew the stamp set I wanted to use. Heck, I bought the stamp set specifically for Mother's Day. I just wasn't sure how I was going to use it, and ths is the result.

Supplies:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Mother, Damask Designs
Paper: Generic card blank; The Paper Company white cardstock; Papertrey Ink Bitty Dots; Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate; Paper Wishes brown iridescent paper (sorry, not sure of collection)
Ink: Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz, Dark Chocolate; Tim Holtz Distress Inks Antique Linen
Tools: EK Success corner rounder; Martha Stewart border punch; Cuttlebug; Swiss Dots embossing folder; Making Memories slot punch
Etc: Lace from clearance at Joann (sorry! it's the ones on the bolts, not on a spool); Prima flowers; pearl brad

Birthday boy thank yous

2009-05-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, my mom always taught me it was polite to send thank you notes. Of course, she never required hand-made thank you notes, but these days, people kind of expect that from me. :-)

So, it was my son's 7th birthday celebration last weekend, and as with many seven-year-olds, he got lots of stuff. I made these thank you notes for him to give to his friends and to send out to family. Now, I just have to get him to write them. :-)

Supplies:
Stamps: Sentiment from Papertrey Ink Beyond Basic Borders; star from Sandylion Boy stamps
Paper: Various Papertrey Ink cardstocks (Perfect Match 2008 colors, Kraft, Vintage Cream); DCVW Nana's Kids striped paper
Inks: Memento, Versamagic, Cats Eye Chalk
Tools: Cuttlebug; Spellbinders labels die; Fiskars crimper; EK Success corner rounder
Etc: generic square antique silver brads

Butterfly Birthday

2009-05-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while. Things have been busy around here, with birthdays and family in town and whatnot. I've been doing some crafting; I just haven't gotten around to posting.

So here's a card I made for my really good friend. Her birthday is May 14, and I really hope she likes this one. I hope y'all do, too!

Supplies:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Life, Birthday Basics
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Kraft, The Paper Company (green), Martha Stewart Candy Shop Floral Tile
Inks: Memento
Ribbon: Papertrey Ink Ripe Avocado Saddle Stitched Ribbon (5/8 inch)
Tools: Fiskars Apron Lace border punch; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; EK Success corner rounder punch
Etc: Recollections adhesive backed rhinestones

A Baby Card

2009-04-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

I never get to do baby cards. Mostly because I'm growing older and it's not like my friends' kids are having children yet. :-) But most of my friends are past having children as well. All but one, apparently, lol! A friend I reconnected with on Facebook is having a baby boy at the end of April. I wasn't able to attend her shower, but I wanted to send her something, so I made this card. I actually picked up the stamp set by Sandylion a couple of weeks ago when my mom was visiting, and I bought it because I thought it would be perfect for a baby card, plus there are other "boy" images that would be good for kid birthday cards.

I stamped the lion in Memento Cocoa Brown ink and then colored it with my (very old) Prismas (see previous post for the age of these markers). I stamped in Papertrey's Vintage Cream hybrid ink on some Papertrey Dark Chocolate cardstock with the big polka dots from the Polka Dot Basics. I also used my neglected Quickutz Stiletto alphabet on this card. I LOVE how the Cuttlebug accommodates so many different die systems. :-) I thought the card came out really cute, and I hope she likes it! Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Summer Sunrise cardstocks; Memento Cocoa Brown ink; Papertrey Vintage Cream ink; Sandylion "Boy" clear stamps; Papertrey Faux Ribbon (sentiment inside); Prismacolor markers; Square Nestabilities; Quickutz Stiletto alphabet; Scor-Pal; Offray Spool O'Ribbon cream ribbon; Sheer Creations gold ribbon; Fiskars border punch.

Step-mother Birthday -- (Almost) All Papertrey

2009-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

I am loving Papertrey Ink. :-) Everything on this card is Papertrey, except the black ink. The stamp set is Wishing You... It's really nice because the oval images work perfectly with the Nestabilities oval set. I started off following a Taylored Expressions sketch, but ended up changing it a bit for what I wanted. Sketches are always nice to start from.

The inside uses Papertrey's Birthday Basics plus another element from the Wishing You... set.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Papertrey Kraft, Raspberry Fizz, True Black cardstock; Papertrey Sweet Blush Bitty Dot Basics; Papertrey Raspberry Fizz hybrid ink; Memento black ink; Papertrey Raspberry Fizz ribbon; EK Success border punch; Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers embossing folder; oval Nestabilities; Papertrey Wishing You... and Birthday Basics stamp sets.

Coloring a Birthday Card

2009-03-28T16:52:00.000-07:00

I saw these cupcake stamps at Michaels today -- one of the Studio G $1 sets -- so I got them. For a buck, how can you go wrong? :-) Once I got them home....hmm....what to do with them? My half-brother's birthday is coming up. He'll be 20 this year. I have some cards made, but wasn't sure I wanted to send any of them to him. I feel better knowing that this one was made FOR HIM. So...I have some really, really old (we're talking 20+ years old?) Prisma markers. Yes, they're still good! Anyway, I knew there was a reason I never pitched them and now I know why. Apparently I enjoy coloring. I feel a Copic habit coming on, lol!

Oh! I also actually used my Cricut again today! The black panel was designed in Inkscape and cut with SCAL. It's been so long since I've cut anything on my Cricut. I should use it more, but I just have so many other tools and techniques that I can use, too! I also got to use my new Argyle Cuttlebug embossing folder. So, I hope he likes it! Thanks for looking!

Edit: I forgot to include the inside of the card. I don't normally do anything on the insides of cards, but I recently purchased Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics set. As a result, I'm trying to pay more attention the insides:

Supplies: Papertrey Kraft for card base; yellow patterned paper from Sam's paper pack; True Black Papertrey cardstock; Bazzill Apple Crush (light green) cardstock; Studio G stamps; Inkadinkado Birthday Fun ("Happy Bday"); Prismacolor markers; Memento Black ink; Colorbox Chalk ink; Argyle Cuttlebug embossing folder; Basic Basic (green with white stitching) and Offray Spool O'Ribbon ribbon; circle punches.

Papertrey Thank You: Guidelines and Damask

2009-03-20T07:00:00.001-07:00

This is another Thank You card using Papertrey stamps. They just released Guidelines Two on Saturday night, and I only got Guidelines within the past month. So before I committed to Guidelines Two (which looks really cool and will probably be mine eventually), I figured I should play with Guidelines. And it's a good thing, because I'm not so sure I'm good with it, lol! I think I just need practice. This one turned out alright, but I'm going to see if I can salvage the other one I tried. I should lay off the caffeine first. Ha!

So anyway, this will be another Thank You card for my family. I used Guidelines and a sentiment from Damask Designs for this one. I also got to use one of the brand-spanking-new border punches from Fiskars. While my mom was in town last weekend, we went to Joann, and she was kind enough to buy me some goodies. This was one of them! I was so excited to see the new ones there. So I'm pretty sure my mom will be getting one of these, since she helped create it in a way. :-)

Supplies: lavender cardstock base, The Paper Company; black cardstock, Bazzill; grey strip (stamped on), Making Memories Scrapbook Basics black & white mat set; black Memento dye ink; lavender Colorbox chalk ink; lavender satin edge organza ribbon from COD Wholesale (they often have GREAT sales on this stuff); Fiskars scallop border punch; Scor-Pal (for the grid above)

Papertrey Thank You

2009-03-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

I received my Papertrey order from February's release a couple of weeks ago, but didn't have time to play until this weekend. And since my birthday was at the end of last month, what better thing to make than a Thank You card, to thank my family for their thoughtful gifts?

I would also like to take this moment to say that Papertrey cardstock is really heavy. And I'm not saying that like it's a bad thing, lol! I've been so used to working with the paper from Michaels that is sold in packs, which is fairly lightweight. After feeling the weight of this paper from my February order, I ordered the pack of all of their 2008 colors during the March release party on Saturday night, and other than layering here or there, I may never go back to the other stuff, lol! I have some Bazzill, too, and it has a nice weight, but I'd been to my LSS and touched Bazzill...I knew it was thick. I was very happy that the PTI paper has a nice weight as well. I'm digging their ink, too. The cardstock on this card was part of the Friends Till The End kit, which included ink, and it's very nice I must say!

I made two of these. Not sure who will get what, yet. I've always been good about writing thank you notes, so even if I make too many, they'll eventually get used. I have another one to show in a couple of days. I don't make many square cards because just about all of mine get mailed, and they're usually heavier/thicker due to embellishments. I don't want to get hit with the weight surcharge AND a square surcharge. I made sure this one would fit in a regular A2 sized envelope, so it'll just be the weight surcharge.

Supplies: grey Bazzill card blank; Raspberry Fizz cardstock, Papertrey Ink; black cardstock, Bazzill; white cardstock, The Paper Company; green patterened paper, Me & My Big Ideas; green Colorbox chalk ink; Raspberry Fizz hybrid ink, Papertrey; black twill ribbon, Michaels; silver ribbon (through button), Michaels; button from my stash; EK Success corner rounder.

Red & Green birthday

2009-03-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another card I did a while back but didn't post. This one was inspired by the Cuttlebug embossing folder in the grey strip (Floral Fantasy) and the stamp in the center of the flower. I received both of them by way of Scrap-aholics.com's closing sale. It's hard to see because it was stamped in red and clear-embossed. I thought I had every color of ribbon in the world, but when I went looking for this green, I couldn't find one wide enough. So I *had* to go to Michaels to get some green ribbon. (Or at least that was the excuse, lol!)

I think this will be my step-mother's birthday card in April. I hope she likes it! I received my Birthday Basics set from Papertrey a couple of weeks ago, so I think one of those nice sentiments will go inside.

Supplies: Black and white polka dot paper and grey strip, Making Memories Scrapbook Basics black & white mat set; red strip, The Paper Company; flower border stamp, Papertrey Ink Around & About Sentiments; flower center Hot of the Press Expressions; green flower, Prima; red flower, unknown; green ribbon, Michaels; border punch, Martha Stewart; Floral Fantasy Cuttlebug embossing folder; adhesive rhinestones, Michaels.

Wow I'm behind

2009-03-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking, especially when it comes to keeping up with my blog. I haven't made many cards, but I have made a few; I just haven't posted them. First, the delay was dragging the camera and portable lightbox out and taking pictures. Then it was work keeping me extremely busy. So, since I have the day off, I figured I'd post a couple cards.

First card has already been mailed to the recipient, my brother-in-law. It was part of two challenges. First was Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply #75 challenge to stamp black only. Your embellishments could be another color, but the stamped image had to be only black. The second challenge was from my Cricutlovers Yahoo Group. Every Tuesday, one of the moderators starts a top 10 list. Around the same time as Sharon's challenge, the top 10 list was ten things you have in your stash that you haven't used. Yes, only ten, lol! A LONG time ago, I bought these little glass square embellishments at an LSS that has since gone out of business. I thought they would be cute on cards, but I never actually used them. So the challenge was to try to use at least one of the items you named in your top 10 list.

Supplies: Olive (card base and mats) and white cardstock from The Paper Company; black and grey striped paper from Making Memories Scrapbook Basics Black & White mat stack; Inkadinkado Seasons dragonfly stamp;Papertrey Ink Mixed Messages ; Colorbox chalk black ink; buttons and brads from my stash; white BasicBasic twill ribbon, green Offray Nice & Narrow ribbon; black & white Celebrate It ribbon.

The second card I have to share with you today is another birthday card. I made this one because I had just received my second order from Papertrey Ink and I was excited to try them out! The blue flowers are hard to see in this picture, but have a little bit better contrast in real life.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Out On A Limb Revised; Papertrey Ink Mixed Messages (sentiment); Prima blue flower; clear skittle; brown satin ribbon from my stash; Martha Stewart border punch; Colorbox chalk ink; generic card blank; DCVW dark brown cardstock; Bazzill light blue cardstock.

Thanks for looking! I'll try to post a couple more this weekend. Now I have the pictures, but I want to spend my time making some more cards!

Martini Birthday

2009-02-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

Oh boy, did I have fun today! I was sort of procrastinating on this one, but I *had* to get it done today and then inspiration hit me! Thankfully! 'Bout time, lol! But...I think that ultimately, it was well worth the wait, and I hope you do, too!

This is a 40th birthday card for a co-worker. She turns 40 on Tuesday and of course, we're doing it up for her. I've never been asked to make a card for anyone at work, but they know I make cards and this was a special occasion.

I did everything in Inkscape and SCAL. The "40" font is Showcard Gothic. The "you're not" is 1 BeanSprout DNA. That one was really tricky to cut. I welded the "40" in Inkscape and then created the three additional layers. I could have done this in SCAL alone, but I wanted to size everything and make sure it looked pleasing to me before cutting. Similarly, I could have typed, welded, and shadowed the "you're not" in SCAL alone.

I thought I had some martini paper, but after reorganizing my paper on Saturday, I couldn't find it. Boo hoo! So I was contemplating whether I should just make a martini glass and if so, out of what, and then it hit me! Why not a 3-D martini glass? I have GBC plastic covers...they're pretty thick, but they cut with my Cricut using multi-cut. But how to design the glass so that it sticks out but is still adhered to the card? Maybe if there are a couple of tabs on each end, they can be inserted through the card and folded so they stay put? So...off to Inkscape to design the glass.

Hmm....wonder what I could use to make it look sort of like there's a drink inside? I have transparencies...I could print the glass on a transparency and cut it out. If it has the same curve as the glass, it should more or less stay put. But I could put an olive in there, too, and maybe somehow camoflauge any adhesive I use to keep the "liquid" in place. And hey...look...I have this paper that looks kind of like a toothpick so I can just cut this sliver, stick it on a green oval so it looks like it's coming out of the oval, cut a tiny red oval and voila -- olive on a toothpick!

So anyway...this is the final card. I really had fun making this. Now I have to figure out how to make a 1" thick envelope to accommodate the glass!

Oh! The inside of the card says "You're 22 with 18 years of experience! Happy Birthday!" I really hope she likes it!

And a birthday card

2009-02-05T18:49:00.001-08:00

I've been trying to use the supplies I have, because I am apparently a serial collector. :-) I know there are people who can identify with that. And so far, I haven't been too good about resisting buying new stuff. But...back in December, I placed an order with one of my favorite online sellers, Cutters Creek. Kim, the owner, was running a promotion offering freebies for certain orders. I ended up "winning" one of these freebies, and she graciously sent some laser-cut borders with my order. I hadn't used them yet and it's FEBRUARY!!! So I thought it was long past due. I actually did this on Sunday, but haven't had time to take pictures until now.

The patterned paper on the card is from a paper pack that was sold just before the holidays at Costco. The gold metallic strip across the front is Fresh Paint Gold Pearlescent Paper from Marcella K. I embossed it using a Sizzix Texturez plate through my Cuttlebug. The green scalloped strip is from the freebie pack. The stamped image is from a K & Co. stamp set called AB Lotus Greeting Stamps that I got from Michaels for $1.99 on clearance. Woo hoo! :-) This clear stamp set contained about 9 main stamps plus 8 smaller complimentary stamps. So, great deal for $1.99! The main image is stamped in Hint of Pesto Versamagic chalk ink. I used one of those complimentary stamps inVersacolor Sand pigment ink on the off-white card blank.

I cut the main stamped image and the blue scallop using my oval Nestabilities. I trimmed the card blank and added a blue border punched from the Fiskars Threading Water border punch. The blue is Bazzill cardstock from a winter pack.

Thanks for looking!

Decorated bag for Papertrey

2009-02-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Papertrey's 2nd Anniversary is being celebrated this month, and they have events scheduled for every day up until their traditional "new release" day of the 15th. Today's event is the possibility of winning a Papertrey tote with a $100 gift card inside. Details can be found here. The deal is this: you decorate a bag and post it for them to see and they randomly choose a winner. So...I rushed home to decorate my bag and here it is! Hooray!

I used my Cricut Expression to cut the bag from Plantin Schoolbook. It's the key using the Tall Ball feature. I cut it to fit the page out of generic pink cardstock from Michaels. I used the Papertrey Ink Around & About Sentiments set to stamp the heart border in Colorbox silver pigment ink, and then clear embossed it. Then I added the "happy everything" circle sentiment from the set in red dye ink. I used the solid circle center from the set and stamped the centers with Versacolor white pigment ink and then white embossed it. I stamped the larger heart from the set on top of the embossed circle in Rose Coral Color Box chalk ink. Oh, I almost forgot, I then stamped a bunch of the little hearts in black.

I also used Dan's flower SVGs to build a flower. I cut the flowers using SCAL from paper in a Making Memories Black & White Scrapbook Basics mat stack. I inked the edges and slightly curved the petals with a bone folder, and then stacked them using foam squares between each layer. The top "button" is actually five circles punched from black paper (just for bulk) and one circle punched from a GBC plastic cover, and all punched with a button hole punch. I strung white DMC floss through the holes and tied a bow. I placed a couple of half-pearls in the center of Prima flowers, and arranged the Prima flowers with my homemade, layered flower on the front. Lastly, I wrapped some black BasicBasic ribbon around the bag and tied a knot.

It would be great if I could win the prize, but it was worth it to participate because now I have something I can send to school with my son for his teacher's Valentine gift. I hope she likes it! :-)

I assembled the bag using Scor-Tape -- that stuff really holds well! Then I wrapped some BasicBasic ribbon from Michaels around the bag.

A New Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) group

2009-02-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! A friend of mine just started a new group to talk about Sure Cuts a Lot. It's software for the Cricut that allows you to cut any True Type font on your computer as well as cut SVG files, which you can find for free, for purchase, or you can make your own with Inkscape! (Inkscape is a free vector art program, by the way, that can be found at www.inkscape.org.) Just the sheer amount of dingbats available for FREE (or purchase....www.scrapnfonts.com has a ton of good ones, reasonably priced) is mind-boggling in terms of what you can cut with your Cricut! If anyone wants to check it out, go here! It just started, so it may take a while to get hopping, but hopefully it will be a great place to share hints about SCAL and learn more!

Chloe's Closet and birthday card for hubby

2009-01-31T17:22:00.001-08:00

I've had a lot of fun today. I love it when I get a chance to make some cards. This morning I was particularly anxious about something and just decided to make a card to "get away from it" for a bit. It worked! Crafting is GREAT therapy!

I've gotten a few things from the Making Memories Chloe's Closet line and decided I wanted to make some cards today. I also recently got my very first Papertrey Ink stamps and wanted to use those as well. Soooo....here's what I came up with. I stamped "just for you" from PTI's new Around & About Sentiments set. I also used the solid circle stamp and the flower stamp for the inside of the circle. I used VersaMagic chalk in in Hint of Pesto, Aloe Vera, and Aegean Blue. Then I punched it out with a circle punch and stuck a little K & Co Brenda Walton adhesive rhinestone in light green in the center of the flower. I used Bazzill cardstock from a winter pack for both cards. The DP on both cards is from Chloe's Closet.

For the portrait card, I stuck paper flowers, and buttons from Chloe's Closet and from a Recollections pack around the sentiment. The orange ribbon is from Michaels. I so used my Scor-Pal to score a couple of lines on either side of the ribbon, and pierced the corners of the card.

For the landscape card, I added a strip of yellow Bazzill cardstock from the winter pack, punched with my Fiskars Threading Water border punch. I used a few of the Chloe's Closet brads through alternating holes in the punched border. I ran some blue ribbon along the seam where the DP and the yellow met up. The little rosette behind the stamped image was kinda fun. I saw it on a blog and as soon as I figure out which one, I'll be sure to post it here. I thought it was kind of a cute idea. It's another piece of Chloe's Closet DP, cut 1" by 12". I used my Scor-Pal to first score every 1/2 inch, then moved it over 1/4" and scored every 1/2" again. The Scor-Pal has 1/2" grooves, not 1/4", and you need a series of 1/4" marks for this to work. After everything's scored, fold it accordion style. Connect the ends and then sort of push the center down, so it forms a rosette. Then stick it on something (I used a punched circle) to keep it from popping back up. And I adhered my stamped image on top.

Last card is a birthday card for my hubby next month. I'm hoping he doesn't read my blog or that he decided not to read this entry since it SAYS hubby card in the title. :-) The striped paper came from a huge pack from Costco. The kraft cardstock is from a variety pack from Michaels. The brads in the corner are Making Memories mini-brads. The brown ribbon is from Michaels.

I tried "masking" tonight, which I've never done. It involves stamping an extra image, cutting that out, and temporarily adhering it over your main image so you can stamp around it without stamping through your main image. So, I stamped my Inkadinkado present twice, cut one out and adhered it to the other one. I used the star and circle from the Around & About Sentiment PTI set in Aloe Vera chalk ink. Then I removed the mask and used my Bic Mark-Its to color in the present. I used my Nestabilities to cut out my stamped image and the scallop behind it (the same yellow as the previous card). I used Antique Linen distressing ink to distress the edges of everything. Lastly, I used the straight Happy Birthday sentiment from the PTI set to stamp several lines on the kraft using Sand Beige Versa Color pigment ink. You can barely see it, but that was sort of my point. I wanted a subtle effect.

So....lots of fun today! Hope everyone's having a great, creative weekend!

EDITED: I found where I got the rosette idea!!! It's the I Love Pretty Paper blog. She has a link there to a tutorial on how to make it. I didn't look at the tutorial, but now that I'm looking at her card again, I'm wishing I had inked mine. So pretty!

Valentines Treats

2009-01-26T18:20:00.000-08:00

This is a prototype for goodies for my son's first grade class, closed and open.

I created the template using Inkscape. I also used Inkscape to create hearts to coordinate with the Martha Stewart valentines stamp set and a short scallop for the flap of the box. I cut everything on my Cricut using Sure Cuts a Lot. I stamped a Martha Stewart clear pattern stamp in Color Box silver pigment ink (I'm probably going to print something on the cardstock to save time). I used my Scor-Pal to create the scores so the edges would fold nicely. I used my Scor-Tape to assemble the box. After cutting out the hearts, I stamped a couple of the MS heart stamps on them. I adhered a couple of the hearts and a Prima flower to the front, inserted the Fun-Size M&Ms and a valentine (purchased) and loosely tied "Made with Love" ribbon from Michaels around the whole shebang. The ribbon just slides off to reveal the contents.

I thought it came out cute, and other than printing a pattern instead of stamping it, I think this is pretty much what it's going to look like. The box will be several different Valentine-y colors (pink, red, hot pink, grey, maybe white) and probably different ribbons based on the box color. I'm also thinking I'll put a "To/From" stamp on the back where my son can write his friends' names. For the girl boxes, I might add a teensy bit of bling with a rhinestone in the center of the flower instead of the brad. But this is generally the idea. What do you think?

EDIT: Due to popular demand, I'm offering downloads of the files. Please choose SCUT (for Sure Cuts a Lot) or SVG (for Inkscape/Adobe Illustrator). Please note the Terms of Use included in the ZIP archive.

Kristina Werner Challenge #39

2009-01-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

I'm getting this up tonight, so it's up, but I'll add details on it tomorrow. Here is this week's color scheme:
And here is my submission:

Again, no Stampin Up, so I approximated the colors the best I could!

Wow...I've been awarded!

2009-01-22T16:05:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Margie, who bestowed upon me the Proximity blog award. It's my very first blog award, and I'm proud to receive it!

This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

So, I guess I have to pick eight other blogs that I feel fit this award. I follow a bunch, so in no particular order:

Visit their blogs and hopefully you'll be as inspired as I am!

And another card

2009-01-16T20:48:00.000-08:00

I thought not too long ago about the fact that I've never made a card for the birthday parties my son and I attend. Most of the time, it's because there's not much time between the invitation and the party itself. He's only six, so there haven't been that many, but I wanted to make one for "just in case," so the next boy party, he'll have a nice card that nobody else could possibly give. Not that the other seven-year-old will really care. :-) Here's what I came up with:

I also don't do many square cards because most of mine get mailed, and a square card costs more to mail. But for a birthday party, you're just handing it to the recipient or it's attached to the present.

The cardstock, I believe, is from Joann open stock. It's textured a bit, so I know it's not from one of the generic packs of cardstock. The patterned paper is from the Nana's Kids premium stack. The Wish and cupcake "button" (that I snipped the shank off of) are from a Jesse James button pack. The green cardstock is generic and was run through the Cuttlebug sandwiched in the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The orange is also generic cardstock. The two buttons are from a Making Memories Chloe's Closet pack (great colors!), and the floss I strung through them is DMC. The cardstock behind the Wish button is from scraps and was cut with my oval Nestabilities -- the light blue is a bit pearleascent. The light green is actually from a pack of paper I got from Sam's Club. The stamp on the Orange is from SeeD's Say It Again set, and it's stamped in Versamark Pumpkin Spice chalk ink.

I don't have a recipient yet, but hopefully there will be more parties this year!

(EDITED: Oops, I almost forgot to give credit. This card is almost an exact copy from Kelly Ramussen's submission for Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #37. I had the Wish already assembled and wanted to use the paper, and came across the submission and thought the design would be PERFECT.)

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #38

2009-01-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

I've never tried one of these before, mostly because I don't have ANY Stampin Up products. But, I'm a huge fan of Kristina Werner, and she hosts a color inspiration challenge on her blog. So...this time I decided I'd try anyway.

These are the colors for this challenge:

And here is my submission. As I said, NO Stampin Up, but I tried to match the colors:

All cardstock is generic cardstock from Michaels. The pearls in the corners and on the flower are from Michaels. The ribbon is from Michaels. (Sense a pattern?) I don't have the Stampin Up ticket corner punch, but I love the look, so I simulated it by punching the corners with a circle punch. The red medallion is from We R Memory Keepers and is an Extra Large Gromlet from the Frenzy collection. The spotted flower is Prima, and the smaller pink flower is from Michaels. The stamps are from Inkadinkadoo (flowers from Occassions, Thank You from a set of thank you sentiments). The ink is clear embossed Color Box Frost White pigment ink (the flowers on the orange) and Cats Eye chalk ink in Lipstick Red. Oh, and I used my handy-dandy Scor-Pal to score the grid on the pink. I hope you like it...I hope Kristina likes it! Even if I end up not featured, I'll try again. It's definitely a good exercise.

More Cards -- I've Taken My Time Posting

2009-01-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

I had a bit of fun this weekend, but haven't made time until today to take the pics.

The first one is for a challenge in one of my Yahoo groups. The deal is you make a card and submit it. A random number generator decides who wins of the entries, and the winner gets all of the submissions! Kinda cool! I figure if I win, I'll donate them to the Cards for Kids. But I never win anything, lol! The card blank is from Joann. The stamp is from Michaels, as is the ribbon. The stamp was stamped with Cats Eye chalk ink in Lipstick Red. The DP is generic from my stash. I pierced the card and drew faux stitching with my Ranger Inksentials Opaque White pen. The center of the stamp is clear embossed, and I cut the stamped image and the scallop behind it with my Nestabilities.

The next two were completely random. I think this is the first time I've made a card with no particular purpose in mind. I had specific supplies that I wanted to use, so I just picked an occasion and went with it.

The first one is a generic thank you note. The DP is from a Making Memories 6x6 stack called Fresh Anthology - Sydney. The stamp is from the Inkadinkadoo Blossoms set from Costco, and it's stamped with Cats Eye chalk ink in Blue Iris. The yellow cardstock and dark blue cardstock are from my scrap stash. The yellow button is unknown, but the blue heart button is from Jesse James Dress It Up. The ribbon through the yellow button and the gold ribbon on the card were from a Tonal Adornments pack of fibers from EK Success. It was given to me by a fellow Yahoo group member, and I wanted to make good use of it. And the gold adhesive rhinestones were from Michaels.

The last card is a birthday card, but it wasn't made for anyone in particular. I have a couple of guy birthdays coming up, so this might end up being used for one of those. The stripe DP is from Making Memories Fresh Anthology - Eliza. The orange is from a Bazzill Basics Winter pack. The border punch is from Fiskars. The candles are from the Inkadinkadoo Seasons set from Costco, and it's stamped with Versamark chalk ink in Spanish Olive. The words on the strip are from the Inkadinkadoo Occasions set from Costco and are also stamped in Spanish Olive. The ribbon is from Michaels.

I'm hoping to post a video tutorial for creating aperture cards with Inkscape later tonight. We'll see if my setup works with me or against me (like last night, lol). Stay tuned! (EDITED: CamStudio wins. I lose. I can't figure out how to get a good video that a normal person would be able to actually see, so I'm giving up for the week. I may try again this weekend, but it will likely be a different topic. I will figure this out...it's just a matter of time. But for now, CamStudio has beaten me.)

Birthday Card for Number 95

2009-01-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

In one of my groups, one member's father is turning 95 this year. She had a great idea to solicit handmade cards from all over to be sent to her father in hopes that they would number at least 95. She says he gets a kick out of receiving cards and will hang them on the walls in her sister's house. I'm hoping she'll get a picture of them all.

So anyway, here's my contribution. I cut the "b" using Bernhard Condensed on my Cricut with SCAL. First I cut it from chipboard, then I cut it from an Autumn Leaves adhesive backed paper pack. I affixed the patterned paper "b" on the chipboard "b", then distressed the edges a bit with Vintage Photo distressing inks. I tied several colors of ribbon around the "b". Then I printed "is for birthday" from Inkscape and die cut it with my oval Nesties. I also cut a backing oval, as pictured.

The card blank is a brown blank from a Joann set. The green spotted paper is from a set of DP I got from Michaels. It came in its own 12x12 box, but unfortunately, I don't recall the designer. The middle green strip is actually a little iridescent, but you can't see that in the picture. It comes from a Canson Effects Papercraft pad. Both the DP and the iridescent green were punched with a Fiskars border punch.

The "b" was mounted using pop dots, and the oval was adhered to the "b" with the right side also getting a pop dot for support.

I thought it came out cute. I hope ToniAnn's father likes it, too!

Valentines Cards for the Hospital

2009-01-03T14:32:00.001-08:00

Well, I have at least a few cards to go to the kids at the hospital. I may make a few more, but I have a couple other challenges to get done plus stuff for my son's school. Now, I realize it's January 3, but I don't want to take on too much and then not be able to pull ANY of it off! So....starting slowly....

I've made four each of these cards. The first one uses $1 stamps from Michaels. They're stamped in Black and Warm Red Color Box Chalk Ink. You can't tell very well from the pic, but I used my Zig Embossed pen and drew in the center heart of the circle stamp, then clear embossed it. That's why it looks a bit darker. I colored the open hearts on the other stamp with watercolor pencils. The round stamp was cut using my circle Nesties, with a scalloped circle behind it. You probably recognize the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder and Fiskars Threading Water Punch. The sentiment stamp comes from the Costco Inkadinkadoo Occasions set and is stamped in Black Color Box Chalk Ink. Unfortunately, I don't remember where the blanks for this or the second card came from, but I believe they're from a Joann "Card Essentials" card blank set.

The second card uses squares punched from pink DP I got a LONG time ago. The pink ribbon is from Michaels' Basic Basic collection. It's a 5/8 inch, two-tone pink ribbon. The sentiment also came from the Occasions set and was stamped in black chalk ink. The border punch is Fiskars Diamond Border Punch.

The third card blank is from a neutrals cardstock pack from Michaels, cut down to size. I got to use my handy-dandy Scor-Pal to make the creases for the cards. The stamp is another $1 Michaels stamp and is stamped in Orchid Pastel Color Box Chalk Ink. Because of the shape of the stamp, the design was inspired by Lisa Somerville's card; I just turned it sideways. The paper scraps are the same pink DP I got a LONG time ago. And that's pretty much all there is to this card!

So I'll be sending 12 cards off on Monday to Pat for her Cards for Kids program. Like I said, I hope to send more, but at least I'm sending some!

January Cards Done!

2008-12-30T08:24:00.000-08:00

Admittedly, I don't have THAT many cards to make for January, so it wasn't a huge accomplishment to get these done. But, I'm usually much closer to the actual birthdays when I complete them. All but my mother in law's card are for the end of January.

First is the card for my mother in law. It's the one I did in an earlier post for the challenge. All of these cards use blanks that I got on clearance from Target. Unfortunately, I don't remember the manufacturer.

Second is for my nephew. I received some scraps in the mail from a generous member of a Yahoo group I belong to, including an Autumn Leaves mat stack. The scraps inspired this card as well as the one for my brother in law. I'm also sort of recycling with this one. My Christmas cards this year included some stars that I created with Inkscape and cut using SCAL on my Cricut. I saved the negative cut because the stars were lined up perfectly and I thought I might be able to use them on a card, so here they are! The background DP is from the stack. The red has a matte finish, and it's almost "soft" -- I'm sure there's a technical term for it. I distressed the edges of the card with Tim Holtz Linen ink. I also distressed the edges of the green stars with both Linen and Vintage Photo. Lastly, the sentiment is from an Inkadinkadoo acrylic set (same one as the cupcake on MIL's card), and it's stamped in Gold Color Box Ppigment ink. Oh, and a snippet of Organdy Ribbon in gold from Joann and Making Memories gold brads.

Third is for my grandmother. I used DP from a set of Heidi Grace paper (Winnefred St.) that I bought at Joann on clearance. Yay! I love sales. I also used the matching rub ons (also clearance) as the background of the card and a little embellishment in the lower right corner. The brown cardstock is from a DCVW stack. The tree stamp is from the Inkadinkadoo Seasons set, sold at Costco, and it's stamped in Color Box Silver pigment ink. The sentiment is from a See D's set (Say It Again) and is stamped on generic cream cardstock in Versacolor Celadon pigment ink. The silver ribbon is from the Celebrate It holiday collection at Michaels.

Last is a card for my brother in law. The card blank is kraft. The medallion was part of the scrap pack that was shared (thanks again, Leslie!). The blue and teal cardstocks also came from that pack. The yellow behind the medallion is just some generic yellow from my stash. The brown is another scrap of the DCVW brown, and it is punched with a Martha Stewart Lattice Arch border punch. The DP is from the clearanced Heidi Swapp paper pack. The sentiment is from the Occasions Inkadinkadoo set sold at Costco. It's stamped in Chestnut Roan Color Box chalk cat's eye. I believe the square brads at the bottom are from Making Memories, but they're out of the package so I can't be certain.

Thanks for checking out my cards! Now that I'm done with this, I'm first going to do some chores and hopefully later tonight I can start on a couple of Valentines for the kids.

Valentines Cards for Sick Children

2008-12-30T06:58:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of Sharon Johnson who owns the No Time To Stamp blog. I visited her blog today and saw this great post. Basically, a children's hospital in Michigan has asked for 1,000 Valentines cards for their young, sick patients.

Since I'm done with January cards, I'm going to see what I can come up with to help the cause. If enough people participate, they'll reach their goal of 1,000 cards in no time!

Next Year's Christmas Card?

2008-12-26T20:10:00.000-08:00

This may be my Christmas card for next year.

The stamps (snowman, snowflakes on the maroon, and sentiment) are from an Inkadinkadoo set purchased from Costco. I don't have a membership, but a friend took me to our local Costco -- they didn't have the stamps. A gracious member of a group I belong to offered to buy the three sets of stamps and mail them to me. I was so excited when I received them and this is the result.

I will probably make changes by next year. For that matter, the entire design might change by then. There's so much time between now and then! One immediate change I'll make is to heat emboss the sentiment. The packaging on the silver card blank that was purchased on clearance at Target said it was printer friendly, but they lied. The paper does NOT take ink. These are the same blanks I used for this year's cards, and I tried everything, to no avail. I didn't really expect the sentiment to pop on this. It was only later that I thought maybe heat embossing in black would be a better plan. That, and the snowman won't be at such an angle. He looks like he's toppling over!

Thank You Notes

2008-12-26T19:59:00.001-08:00

These are my thank you notes for Christmas 2008.

Santa brought me the Fiskars Threading Water punch and the flower stamp set -- it's a Studio G $1 set from Michaels. The sentiment is, I believe, a See D's stamp from the set "Say It Again". The DP is from a Marcella set. The beige cardstock is from a Michaels "starter set" of 12 x 12 cardstock. Ribbon is generic ribbon from Michaels.

I'm still getting used to my brand-spanking-new portable photo studio that my mom got me for Christmas. The colors are a little "off" in this one, but so much better than without. If anyone's interested in what I'm talking about, you can see one at Ritz Camera.

My First Ever Challenge

2008-12-26T18:30:00.000-08:00

I don't usually do well with sketches, but that's because I'm way too literal. This one at PageMaps gave me motivation to do my MIL's birthday card for the beginning of January. While she was here for Thanksgiving, I got some Inkadinkadoo birthday-themed stamps. The challenge was to use the sketch as a guideline, but the finished card had to incorporate a stamped image. My submission uses a stamp in silver pigment ink from the same Inkadinkadoo set on the red strip, the cupcake with glitter frosting, and the Happy Birthday sentiment (another Inkadinkadoo set from Costco). I regret that the sponsor of the contest is Hero Arts and I don't have any of their stamps. (Shhhh...this could be a good way to get some! :-))

I hope my MIL likes it. Shoot...I hope PageMaps likes it! :-) It's pretty much a match to the sketch -- like I said...I'm too literal. I need to work on that in the new year.

Thanks for looking. If nothing else, this was a good exercise and I got a nice card out of it. I may try another challenge in the future.