A Baby Thank You Redone

A few weeks ago I posted this card. It was the original to today's card. I asked my friend Sandy for some advice on how to improve my cards and she said LAYERS!! I tend to like the clean and simple look but sometimes it's just not enough. In this case she's absolutely right. I'm making a set of thank you notes for my niece. There's a baby shower coming up the end of July and I thought it would be fun for her to have some special thank you cards for closest friends and family. I decided this JJ image from Bugaboo would work really well. The original sentiment is Baby made me eat it! I changed it and on the inside I'll stamp Just a Not to Say Thank You. Kind of a play on when we were kids and Mom had to force us to write thank you notes. Any way I took a hard look at the original card and decided that if I'm making cards as a gift then they ought to be better (I was thinking in terms of keeping them simple so I could assembly line them easily).

After I had reached the decision to add more layers I just grabbed my stack of DP and started pulling out the ones that made me think of little boys. I had a lot more than I thought, my next problem was I had to orient my cards vertically because of the image and some of the papers were oriented horizontally and then I saw this post and my problem was solved because the third card showed me what to do, instead of using the DP over most of the card base, use a portion of it and mat it. This made for more cutting and matting but it really made me more satisfied with the cards.

What do you think. Thanks for stopping by, have a terrific Memorial Day.

Sympathy Church

I found this stamp at Hobby Lobby earlier this week. Last year I was looking for a really nice church stamp and could not find one any where that I liked a lot. The ones I did find were to odd or cartoonish. I did find an Art Impressions church stamp I liked and I did get it but it was a small image, I wanted large. Well this is a large image and it makes me think of all those old New England or country churches. It is a Stampabilities stamp and I think it can be very versatile.

For this first use I wanted to try a soft image so I stamped it with Memento London Fog, then I used Nestabilities Mega Curved Rectangles to cut it out. Leaving it in the Nestie I air brushed Copic C3 Cool Gray around the edges. I used my friend Sandy's trick for clouds of torn paper towel ( I used scrap paper instead) and air brushed B43 Powder Blue for some sky. I like the moody look it all makes. I set it aside because I couldn't decide if I wanted any thing more on the card. This morning I picked up and decided not to add any layers or embellishments (sorry Sandy) just a sentiment. I needed something that would just fit into that space and not overwhelm it. Luckily I remembered my Wishing You set from Papertrey Ink. Using my positioner I tried stamping it with London Fog but it was too light so I went with black.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

P.S. I think I'll use this stamp and make a wedding or anniversary card. Wait and see.

JustRite Round Challenge

When I went cruising through the craft sites today I saw that the JustRite challenge for this week looked like fun. I don't have a lot of JustRite stamps but those I do have I just love.

The challenge is to use round stamps or use any stamp and make it round. So here's what I did.

I took my oval Beautiful Blossoms and Borders set and chose this flower, then I hauled out my round Nestabilities (plain and scalloped) and went to work. First I chose paper from the Citrus DCWV mat stack (such a pretty and cheerful set) and proceeded to cut out my circles.

After I colored my image (Copics of course) I put it back into the Nestie and air brushed some color. I then assembled the circles. When I had them all together I looked it over and saw a smudge now hidden by the brad. Don't you just love the craftiness of using embellishments to hide something. I then found my Custom Design Card Making set and chose to make this a Happy Birthday card (you can never have too many of those). I stamped the sentiment in Memento Rhubarb Stalk.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Baby On Board

My Niece is expecting her first baby come September and I like to let her know that we think this is absolutely wonderful. She's a beautiful girl, smart, athletic,and puts up with my nephew with grace and humor (humor being the most needed).

I found this Alexa image at Digi Stamp Boutique and immediately thought of Michelle. I'm trying to up my cards by using more layers (Yes, I know Sandy, I do have a ways to go, but I'll get there yet thanks to your tutoring).

The DP's are (in order) Bazzil Basic Swiss Dots, Kelly Panacci Atomic Turquoise and The Paper Company Green Glimmer.

I colored Alexa with Copics and the sentiment is computer generated and the image was cut out with my new Deckle Edged Rectangle Nestabilities that I picked up at Hobby Lobby this morning.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

The Final Edition of the Shower Invites

Well the invitations are finally all done. It was a labor of love and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had a few problems along the way, first I couldn't find the paper I wanted to use, but I found these two colors in the Bazzil Basic Swiss Dots and they work even better. Then I printed them off and started cutting them out and realized I had and incorrect date. That required a trip back to the store to get more paper. I then had to figure out what was wrong with the front. It looked to plain. That's when I hauled out my Rosie Road Show stamps and picked out the cutest ones that looked like they would belong on a Onesie. There were a lot to choose from. I stamped them out and used my one inch punch and they still didn't look right. I kept looking at them and knew I wanted to do something to the edge of both the Onesie and the circles, so I took my Copic markers (Willow for the green and Buttercup for the yellow and just ran them along the edge), looking better but still not quite right. I decided to color a little bit of each image and I finally thought Okay! When I started to assemble them I really came to like them a lot, hope you do too. Thanks for stopping by.
P.S. The second picture is of all the different "appliques" I used.

Challenge,Challenge, Challenge

When I got up this morning I decided I wanted to do something different. So I went to the Daily Dare site and chose three challenges to participate in. 2Sketches4You, 365 Cards, and Color Chef challenge #52. Whew did I know what I was getting into??? Not!!!

First of the sketch is not one of my favorite things to do but I need to get out of my comfort zone and this was really way out of it, but it is a great sketch to follow, then the colors are black, yellow, turquoise and red. Let me tell you my search for turquoise was a real hunt. I had one DP picked out (Atomic Turquoise) but it was too busy and just wouldn't work. My husband found this polka dot paper from Doodlebug Designs called Swimming Pool Swiss Dots, then I used Canson Blush for my yellow and Bazzill Basics Red Swiss Dots. I was all set when I found the Imaginisce Twitterpated Hey Foxy paper to complete my card for the 365 Days challenge which is to use Flora and Fauna until I remembered they had to be from different sources. So I rummaged through my embellishment stash and found this Flower Ribbon brad from Spare Parts. I added the ribbon and sentiment and a little stick on bug from the miscellaneous drawer and put it all on a black card base.

Snips & Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

This card was made for the Catch the Bug challenge over at Bugaboo Stamps, it is to make a male oriented card using the sketch. I chose to use Michael from the Brats group. Doesn't he look like he's been on a week long survivor adventure trip. All things a young boy would like, no clean clothes, no baths, getting dirty with no Mom to tell him to wash his hands. When I saw the challenge I just had to jump in (even though I always have trouble with sketch challenges.

I cut him out with the largest scalloped oval Nestabilities, then I smudged some Memento Desert Sand in the scallops, I used a glitter pen for the dots. I used lots of brown and beige Copics to color Michael also. The DP Sand Rain Drops from the Paper Company, the Snips and Snails came from my scraps drawer and I used EK Success Bumpy Road for the edging. Hope you like it and thanks for dropping by.

A "Beer"y Happy Birthday

When I saw this image from Digi Stamp Boutique I downloaded so fast it wasn't funny. I'm not much of a beer drinker myself but I have a "few" family members and friends who enjoy a brew now and then. I thought it would make a cut birthday card for some of them.
So when I was cruising the various blogs today and say AmyR's Friday sketch I put this card together. I had colored up the image already so I went through my DP's to set up this card. The stripe paper is Lasting Impression, there's Kraft paper and scraps from my scrap drawer and of course a few copper brads. I tried to match the sketch but I think I'm off a little. Hope it's okay.

A Birthday Daffodil

This is another of the middle of the night cards. I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep and started thinking about card designs. This birthday ribbon that I've had on hand for at least a year has been bothering me every time I open my ribbon container. It seems like I should be able to use it easily but I just hadn't come up with an idea that I liked. Well I started thinking about this card I saw on the My Stamping Addiction blog. It gave the jumping off point for my card.

I have a lot of strips of the Bazzil Basic Swiss Dots paper and I thought the ribbon down the center would work well. I then used my Scor-Pal to make a channel for the strip to ride in. Then I had to decide what to do with the rest of the card. I pulled out my Papertrey Year of Flowers: Daffodil and used just the flower head and stamped it in three different shade of Memento yellows. I like how it turned out. I simple card that says a lot. What do you think???

Circle Flowers

This was a really fun card to make. I had punched out all these circles from the DCWV Prints Mat Stack a week or so ago and when I straightened my desk up the other day I found them. I had used some of them on a previous card then set the rest of them aside. Last night while I was trying to go to sleep I started thinking about them and came up with this idea.

Luckily I was tired enough to go ahead and go to sleep rather than get up and make this card.

I gathered the circles together and got out my Papertrey Ink Basic Buttons set and got to work. I started to stamp out the flower stems and then realized that I wanted them to go completely across the page, what to do, I had already started in the center of the card stock so I took another piece and butted it up to this one and stamped part of the flower stems on each piece. I ended up with two sets of flower stems to add circles to and thus two cards. I took some green card stock and used my new Martha Stewart Fringe scissors to make the grass. Across the top I used the EK Success Bumpy Road punch ( to me it kind of looks like clouds).

I really like how this card turned out, it seems to be such a happy card. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Punchy Wedding Card

I was cruising through some blogs the other day and came across a card that was just so beautiful. It was layers of card stock that had been punched with different border punches. It was all white and looked fabulous.

Last night I was still awake at 1:15 AM and got to thinking about that card. I got up and decided to try and recreate that card. Boy howdy was that a mistake. I finally finished this card but it was a real struggle. My first mistake was using a white card base and then using Cryogen white for my layers. Not such a good look. I ended up putting a strip of Cryogen white at the bottom so the hearts didn't show the white. I finagled with these strips for quite awhile until I got the look I wanted. The top strip is and EK Success punch the rest are Martha Stewart's. The card that was my inspiration (I went back through a whole bunch of web sites looking for it and couldn't find it any where) had no stamping on it but mine needed something so I used this Congrats Rose stamp from Stampendous at the top. I used the palest pink and green Copics to give it just a touch of color. I think it will make a perfect wedding card don't you? Thanks for stopping by.

Year of Flowers: Daffodil

This is another of Papertrey Ink's Year of Flowers series. The Daffodil is such a sweet versatile set. I saw this idea of stamp in Fresh Snow on Kraft paper on Nichole Heady's blog.

It is such an elegant design on such a rustic paper that it really works.

It also ends up being a beautiful card. The sentiment is from the same set. I used a ruler and a white opaque pent to make the border. Very simple, very fast, very elegant and very perfect.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Citrus Birthday

Well it has been a busy couple of days around here. The sun has finally come out and we were able to get some of the yard work done. Got the bushes on the side trimmed up, lawn mowed and then we started to edge the lawn. What a mess, we ended up going the store to get a new edger. By the time we got back it was late and we needed to eat so the edger is in the trunk of the car and will be put together today and used tomorrow.

More importantly I had a chance last night to make some cards. This was actually the last card I made. Last week I saw this card and really liked it a lot. When I had finished making my cards last night and started to clean up I picked up the white punched border and the ribbon and the light bulb went off. I attached the ribbon to the border, scored a couple of line and thought okay now what. Then I noticed the Bazzil Basic Swiss Dots paper and went looking for something to co-ordinate it with. I pulled out the DCWV Citrus stack and chose this DP. There's some sparkle to the paper and the yellows sort of match so the card was done.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Shower Invite

This is the baby shower invitation I'm making for Michelle's shower in July. I'm using the Rock-A-Bye-Baby Click Simple Template from Papertrey.

When I heard that Michelle was expecting I immediately went to the site and got this template. I had thought it was a cute idea when I first saw it but didn't think I'd have a use for it. Wrong.

I used my Photoshop Elements 2 to print out the invitation info on the back of this paper (I ran off 20 with the wrong info as I told you yesterday). Then I was able to set it up that I could get 4 image per 8 1/2 by 11 sheets of paper The invitations are slightly smaller than a normal A2 size, they're 4.2 by 5 but it still works.

I used Google images to download the store logos that she's registered at. So much easier than adding in those little cards. (Target doesn't give out those cards anymore anyway). I ran a Copic marker, Cashmere around the edge of the Onesie and around the "applique" I ran Dim Green. Some of the invitations will be done on the green paper with the yellow "applique". Got to have some variety ya know.

I did blur out some of the info, security you know. Wouldn't want any crank calls or emails.

I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Baby Thank You

This is one of the wonderful digital images from Bugaboo, it's from her JJ line, the pregnancy series.

When I saw this particular image I immediately thought of my niece who's expecting and has a big shower coming up in July. I'm making the baby shower invites for that and when I was printing them off (I'd gotten about 20 of them done) I found that the wrong date was on it. I'm using the

Bazzill Basics Swiss Dots paper you see as the background for them. Well (I said to myself) I can't waste this paper so I'll use it for thank you notes.

I had printed off the images awhile back and so I colored one up and put it together to see how it would work. The printing for the invite is on the back of the Swiss Dot paper and since it is a good quality thick paper it's no problem to use the other side. Isn't it great that paper is two sided lol.

I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

P.S. I'll post the invite tomorrow.

Dylan's Graduation

I had to share the card I made for my nephew Dylan's graduation. ( I can't believe that little punk is graduating high school already).

I used the same set I used for Paige's card that I posted a couple of days ago, For the Graduate from PaperTrey.

I used Bazzil Basics Dotted Swiss for the back ground and again I used Google to download a mascot image from Dylan's school. I found out about Google Image from my sister who found out about it from her sister-in-law who found out about it from her daughter (computer guhruing long distance is so fun). I should have just asked my friend Sandy who knows everything about computers (right Sandy????).

Anyway I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Get Well Daffodil

This stamp set was also in my PaperTrey order this month. It's from their Year of Flowers line. The Daffodil set includes this large daffodil and a smaller daffodil flower that is just the head no stem. I used the flower head to stamp a background on the card base using Memento Cantaloupe. Then using Fresh Snow I stamped the large flower onto kraft (an idea from the tip sheet for this set).

The sentiment is from the Communique Sentiments set.

This set has 7 sentiments in neat fonts and also a line of dots (I suppose you could use the dots as a border or just to indicate that you should open the card for further sentiments).

I need to add to my Get Well stash of cards and this set is really a good one for that, as well as birthday, sympathy etc. etc.

The year of flowers line is also intended as a tool for making calendars.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Sweet Pea

This is Sweet Pea one of the Year of Flowers stamp sets from Papertrey Ink. I fell in love with this set. The flowers are so delicate and fun to color. I used the small flower head stamp to do the background, stamping in two different inks, Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid and VersaMagic Pink Petunia. The focal point was stamped in Pearlescent Orchid and colored with Copics. I wanted to keep it soft so I used YG11 Mignonette on the leaves and RV00 Water Lily on the flowers. The card base is also from Papertrey.

I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Paige's Graduation

When I placed my order for some of the new PaperTrey stamps I didn't know just how much I would use the graduation set. I knew I wanted it to make my nephew's card but I also needed for a granddaughter's card. The same day that the stamps arrived we received the graduation announcement for our oldest granddaughter. Works out well.

One of the great things about PaperTrey is that when you click on any of the stamps you get access to the gallery for that set and also there is a tip sheet for each of them. Really helpful information.

Since Paige's school colors are red and silver I used that color combo. I first went to Google Images and downloaded the mascot,and sized it to fit into the center of the focal image stamp. I just printed it in red cut it out with a circle punch and ran my silver leafing pen around the edge. I used a scalloped circle Nestabilities to cut out a mat for the mascot image and mounted it to the stamped image. PaperTrey has come out with a line of dies to coordinate with many of their images. I used the Mat Stack 1 die to cut out the shape then I stamped on top of it. Since the stamps are clear it's easy to line them up.

I then stamped out the class of image and added the year with the individual numbers included in the set.

The DP is from the White Washed Core-dinations line that I ran through the CuttleBug with a Quickutz embossing folder that I then sanded. It sounds like a lot of work but it really wasn't. The most time consuming part was lining up the year numbers (shaky hands sometimes makes life a little difficult).

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Father's Day

This card was made with my brother-in-law in Florida in mind. He's not a sailor or a boater but he does fish and that makes me think of water,so that's a natural progression, right???

On this card I used DCWV Cafe Mediterranean DP. The colors are so nice and sunny I thought it would work. I used three different Memento tear drop pads to color the boat; Potters Clay, Tangelo and Cantaloupe. Then I used Danube Blue and Bahama Blue to sponge on the water and Danube Blue for the sky.

Don't you just love the names of the colors and I love that they come in the tear drops, that way you can get a lot of different colors for not so much money. Yeah!

Well I'm off to start making graduation cards. Got a real nifty idea for them.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you like my cards.

Father's Day

I received my PaperTrey Ink order the other day and couldn't play with it right away. Ooh that hurt. This last release came just in time for Father's Day and Graduations.

The same day I got my stamps we received the graduation announcement of our oldest grandchild, coincidence???

Anyway I needed to make some Father's Day cards first so that's where I started.

I thought something a little rustic would be kind of neat for one of my brothers-in-law. He's not a hunter but comes from a family of active people enjoying the outdoors on long bike rides and camping. Once a year the Dads take all the kids old enough to go for a weekend camping out. The Moms stay home with the babies (if any) and relax. I really think they end up doing all the stuff they can't do with a house full of kids, but I digress.

I used a dark brown card stock for the base and stamped leaves from the set in a random pattern ( I originally stamped in Memento Desert Sand but it faded away to nothing, I re stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa. I took a strip of Kraft and stamped the trees (slightly off the paper) and the buck (also partly of the paper). The sentiment went on last. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Emma

When I was making the Trevor card yesterday I also started this card.

This is Emma, I picked up this digi image from All That Scraps and she's just so cute. I really had fun putting this card together.

All the DP is again DCWV Green Stack. After coloring Emma and the tree stump (Copics) I trimmed them out and mounted them to the leaf design DP, but it didn't look right, so I cut that paper down so more of the base paper showed.

When I went through the stack I found the beaver and the skunk and had an aha moment.

I took a circle punch and cut out Mr. Billy Beaver (well that's what I call him) and then I trimmed out Hunky Skunky. I slipped them a little under the mushrooms and thought Okay!!!

I stamped out the sentiment and added some star brads and I was done. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

I think I'm going to enter this card in the Anyone for Anya challenge also. Not sure if can do more than one but I think it's cute enough.

Trevor

I found an interesting challenge blog the other day and wanted to enter this card. Goofy me I entered the wrong card, a big oops.

The challenge is Anyone for Anya, and all you have to do is have an Anya , Greeting Farm or CC Designs image on it. This weeks challenge is lots of layers.

I chose to use the CC Designs Spring Trevor for my card. I stamped Trevor and the stump out on Beckett White and colored with Copics.

I then trimmed them out and positioned them on the DP (two layers). All DP is from DCWV The Green Stack. It is 70% recycled so Trevor is also being environmentally conscientious.

With the sentiment stamped and matted I count 7 layers. The little birdies are cut out from another sheet from the stack. I don't think you can get too fussy with boy cards so I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

The Perfect Pair

There were several things I wanted to get accomplished today. Making this card was NOT one of them. High on my list was cleaning off my craft desk. Imagine if you will a very nice desk with room for all manner of things, then imagine all manner of things on top of that desk. Kind of looks like Michael's, Joanne's and Hobby Lobby dropped off a boat load of craft goods on top of it. I had the idea of cleaning it off and then making some cards. DETOUR!!!

When I started to move some things around I found this stamp set, Chair-Ished from PaperTrey Ink, sitting there. I got it a week or so ago and set it aside to play with later. Well later came today.

I needed to make an anniversary card for a young couple we know and I thought this set would make a really cute card. I went up on the the PaperTrey site and looked for some inspiration. I found it in the gallery in Melissa Phillips gallery. I didn't copy hers exactly but it really inspired me to make mine. This card uses several techniques that I don't often do (too much finagalling) . I paper pieced the chairs, masked them off to stamp the rug, used several layers, then I used some of the DP to computer generate the sentiment. All the DP is from DCWV Linen Closet. I had the card photographed and already to upload when I realized I had forgotten to put the pearls on, oops.

Well I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

My Mother's Day Card

TiddlyInks is have a Mother's Day card challenge and I wanted to join in. I've already made the cards for the Mothers in my family so I decided to make a card for myself.

I don't have any two legged children just my four legged Jack Russell (and no I don't consider Bruce my child either).

Eddie and I had a restless night last night (he got me up at 1:36 AM to go out and play). I had started this card earlier in the day and decided to finish it. I got back to bed around 3:30 and slept in a little to make up for it.

The DP is from My Minds Eye Laundry Line, the matting is some shiny card stock I've had for awhile. I printed Bo out on Cryogen white and colored with Copics. I added some glaze to the balloons for some shine. The sentiment is computer generated. I colored the ribbon with Copics and made the bow with my Bow Easy. Air brushing around the edges before taking it out of the Nestabilities finished it of nicely I think. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

I was asked what colors I used on Bo, for the main body I used Egg Shell and Bisque, for the spots I used Chamois.

Birthday Grillin' King

When I made the card for Randy using this image from Mo Manning I also had to use it for birthday cards (I made three). Guy card ideas are so hard to come up with but this image is a natural. I think I'm going to have to get more Big Guys.

I printed it onto Cryogen white and computer generated the sentiment. Doesn't he look like he's in his element?

I colored with Copics and added a couple of small brads.

The matting is Coredinations color core paper. It's hard to see but the blue that shows through after sanding (run through the CuttleBug with the Hounds tooth folder) matches one of the shades of blue on the DP from Lasting Impressions.

This was an easy card to make. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Big Guy Grillin'

Why oh why wasn't this guy around at the beginning of April (or if it was why oh why wasn't I smart enough to see it). This is the perfect image to use for my brother-in-law Randy. Randy is a big guy 6'5" and is a master griller.

We are headed to their house this summer (Tampa) for a graduation and will get to enjoy his luscious ribs -- yum, yum.

When I saw that Mo's Digital Challenge this week was a masculine theme I decided to send him a just because card.

I printed onto Cryogen white and colored with Copics.

The DP is Lasting Impressions and the mat is Coredinations Burnt Sugar. The edging is some narrow wood inlay strips that we found in a wood working shop in Grand Rapids a year or two ago. (got to use up this stuff I've had laying around)

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.