Butterfly Birthday

While I had the Gina K Springtime Silhouettes kit out I made several cards using images from the set.  I have had this gorgeous butterfly DP for a couple of years and thought the butterbly stamp would be ideal backed by this paper.  I stamped it with Memento Lulu Lavender and then took Memento Grape Jelly and touched along the edge of the stamp for some depth.  I used Nestabilities to cut it and the sentiment out and again rubbed Lulu Lavender around the edge.  A little ribbon for the tag and I was all done.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Birthday Shoes

I have been using a lot of one company's stamps lately and realized I needed to give some of my other stamps some love.  Part of my Christmas giving is to to make up a set of 6 cards for various family members and friends.  Since I have more girls to give cards to now I pulled out my Gina K Springtime Silhouettes Kit and went to work.  The set has some very feminine stamps and I thought this one with the heels would be a fun one to use.  I went to my stack of DP that has been sitting around forever and found this scrap that works perfectly.  I stamped the image and the sentiment with Memento Grape Jelly then cut them out with Nestabilities. Leaving them in the Nestie I rubbed on Memento Lulu Lavender around the edge.  Once they were mounted onto the card I thought it needed a little bling so I added 3 lavender rhinestones.  The card base is a hot pink that matches the pink in the DP. 

I like how it turned out how about you?   Thanks for stopping by.  

A Whale of a Birthday

I love this set from Papertrey Ink, Whale Wishes.
It's such a cute set and has a die to cut out the whale.  I think it is adorable for a child but could easily be sent to an adult also.
The DP is some that has been sitting on my desk for over a year (going back to my 'use up what I have' quest).  This DP was from 12 x 12 sheet that I had cut in half length wise, then I cut it down to three 4 by 5 1/4 pieces.  One piece was all the circles, one was all green and this one of course is half and half and works perfectly for this card.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Merry Christmas

Wish Big

Well after all there is no point in wishing small is there? This sentiment is from the Big & Bold Wishes set.  What is nice about them is that it can take up a large spot on the card front without overwhelming it, great when you have pretty DP that you want to show off.
I stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa and cut it out with Nestabilities, the matting is a very pretty chocolate sparkley paper.  It really glitters.  
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Frame for Mary

I decided to make two more frames using the Papertrey Ink In The Meadow set.  I needed one for my cousin Mary and another for friends up north.  This is the one I did for Mary.  I wanted to make this one a little different from the others so I chose to cut out two trees from Papertrey chartreuse felt and dot them with glue and glitter.  I cut out the 'hills' with felt and ran some blue stickles along the edge to give them more dimension.  I then embossed the saying on the glass, let it all cool off and assembled the picture.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Comforting Quilt

I found this stamp at a scrapbook convention this fall and as soon as I saw it I knew just who I'd be making cards for with this set.  My neighbor who makes beautiful quilts  It is Rocking Chair from Our Daily Bread and it comes with a matching die.  The set up is really neat.  You stamp the image , color it and then there is a clear plastic template that goes over it with little circles to mark where to place the die for cutting.  Ingenious.
So I stamped and colored with Copics, cut out and assembled the card.  Easy, peasy.  The DP is Echo Park Victoria Gardens and the matting is Memory Box.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Nativity Framed

After I had worked on the In The Meadow framed scenes I decided to try using the Nativity set from Papertrey Ink also.  I stamped the stable and sentiment with Versamark and embossed with black detail powder.  (I'm learning, no burns or cuts this time.)
I used some chalkboard vinyl I found at Michael's for the Holy Family for this scene.
I think it turned out well don't you?
Thanks for stopping by.

Snowflakes Sparkle

 Well snowflakes do sparkle if the sun hits them right and it's cold enough not to melt.  These are two more of the framed In
The Meadow sets I made.  For the top one I used Papertrey Ink's felt for the meadow and the tree.  This felt is so easy to cut (yes I tried a cheaper felt and it didn't cut worth a darn).  I adhered the meadow with Scor-Tape and the tree with Zots.  On the tree I dabbed some glue and sprinkled some glitter, just a little.  I stamped the sentiment and snowflakes with Versamark and embossed with detail powder.  (Reminder to self glass gets HOT and is sharp, ouch).

This framed scene is done with black and white self adhesive vinyl and the sentiment and snowflakes embossed with detail powder.  Note to self, try not to get heat too close to vinyl cut outs since it can melt.
I think this one is going out west to a friend who can't seem to remember the joys of living in Michigan in the winter.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

O Holy Night

This Nativity set from Papertrey Ink is a wonderful set for Christmas.  The matching dies that let you cut out the Holy Family really make the set.
For these two cards I wanted to show the contrast of the rustic and the more elegant.
Stamping the sunrise and the stable onto the kraft paper and then adding the die cuts over top is a more earthy style.
Using Cryogen white and stamping the sunrise using Memento tear drop pads in Cantaloupe and Tangelo for a more vivid image.  After I added the Holy Family I decided it needed some angels (one can never have too many angels can one?).  I added the star and the sentiment then mounted it onto some kraft and then to the card base.  Both cards were easy to make and so quick, love it.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

A Boy Sledding

Papertrey Ink's October release included the In The Meadow set and has become my all time favorite Christmas/Winter set (especially since the matching dies make it so easy).  The countdown blogs leading up to release day are so much fun to read and so inspiring that I just spend way too much time on the computer (and way too much time deciding what I'm going to buy).  One of the design team is Betsy Veldman and her post using this set just blew me away.  I knew I had to copy it.  (click on 'post' above and see her work). 

So I headed over to Michael's and picked up some frames and got to work.  My frames aren't wide enough to stand on their own so I used Memory Box card stock for my background, oddly enough for a sky background the card stock is a color called Water, go figure. To me it looks like that cold winter sky that's crystal clear and goes on forever.  So I die cut my sledding boy using some black self adhesive ( that I picked up at Michael's). I placed it on the glass and then I stamped the snowflakes with Versamark and used white embossing powder.  One caution from Betsy I learned in reality, the glass gets HOT.  Another caution is that the edges of the glass are sharp so beware if you try this.

After assembling the "picture" I was very happy with the results.  Over the next few day I will post others that I did using this set and the Nativity set also released in October.

I hope you like this and thanks for stopping by.  

Chriatmas Tags

I decided to be a little more creative with my gifts this year and make my own tags.  Usually by the time I get to this point I'm so tired that I just slap on the sticker kind.  Well not this year.  I used two of Papertrey Ink's Tag Sale dies, #1 and #4.  To me Tag Sale #4 looks like a Christmas ornament anyway so it was perfect, I used #1 because it was the first one I found.
So I cut them all out using white card stock and then decided I wanted colored ones instead.  I started out to decorate them with different Christmas DP's and got tired of that real quick.  Copic air brush system to the rescue. I just started air brushing using what ever Copics I grabbed out of the collection.  Came up with quite a variety (the photo doesn't show all of them either).  After I had them all colored I started looking through my stash of embellishments and started to play.  It's very interesting what you can put together with limited resources.  I had fun doing these and I hope that the gift recipients will enjoy them also.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Chanukah

These cards are for my sisters.  Each of them needed some Chanukah/Hanukkah cards to send out to friends.  I had ordered the Mazel Tov set from Papertrey Ink in anticipation of this need.
I had some dark blue card stock so I used silver and blue embossing powders for the sentiment and the Menorah.  The card to the right is from The Paper Cut, one of the oval window cut outs.  The card to the left is Gina K.  The embossing powders are Martha Stewart's. 
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

A Willow Sympathy

I went shopping at Hobby Lobby last week and came across some purple DP that I thought was so pretty.  I had made a promise to myself that I wouldn't buy any more DP until I had used up what I had, a promise just made to be broken. 
Well when I got home I set it aside until I received my order from CutCardStock.com that included this Dark Purple card stock.  Wow they look good together don't they?  I had also been wanting to make some sympathy cards for my gift packets and use the Willow set from Papertrey Ink for the cards.
So I got to work and cut out the tree using the matching dies for the set.  I stamped the tree trunk with Memento Rich Cocoa and the leaves with Desert Sand.  The sentiment is from the set also and is stamped with Tuxedo Black and cut out with a Stamping Up sentiment punch.  I used strips of the other DP for the tree to 'stand' on just to ground them. 
I really like how the cards turned out, hardly any time at all to make and I think they look great.  What do you think?  Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas for Erin

My nephew Greg is getting married next summer and his fiance, Erin, chose a deep purple as one of her wedding colors.  I've been on the hunt for some card stock that I can use for something for the wedding and or shower.  Well CutCardstock.com has some gorgeous colors and this Deep Purple looks like it's a good match.
So I thought it would be fun to make Erin's Christmas card with some of this paper.  I chose to use Papertrey Ink's In The Meadow Christmas Tree for the focal point.  I decided to use embossing powder, Martha Stewart's Dove, to emboss the tree and the sentiment (from the same set).  That white against the dark purple is really striking don't you think?
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by. 

Cards from My Prize

I was lucky enough to be the first Facebook winner in Ellen Hutson's 5th anniversary give away.  The prize was a Hero Arts/Sizzix Floral Stamp & Die Cut set.  What was so impressive to me was how fast I received it.  Of course I had to play with it right away. Forget about cleaning the house, doing the laundry and getting ready for Christmas, I had to play.  For this card I used Echo Park's Happy Days for my DP.  I stamped my image using Memento Cantaloupe and Bamboo Leaves and after cutting it out with the matching die I added some Potters Clay, Tangelo and Canteloupe to the petals with Memento markers and colored the center with Rich Cocoa.  I mounted the flower and the little dragonflies onto a piece of scrap black card stock after adding the scrap of yellow across it (the DP is two sided so I knew it would work-takes a lot of thinking out of the process when using these paper pads).  I stamped the sentiment with Tuxedo Black and cut it out and the card was done.

For this next card I used DP from Jilly Bean Soup's Dutch Mustard paper pad.  I used Cryogen White for my card base and then cut the DP slightly smaller.  That card stock has a subtle sparkle that I just love and hate to cover up completely.  The yellow is Memory Box Sunflower card stock.  This flower I stamped with Cantaloupe and then I swiped some Tangelo around the center and again Bamboo Leaves for the stem and leaves.    The sentiment was stamped with Rich Cocoa.  All of the DP was part of a previous order I received from Ellen Hutson , love her site.   Hope you like my cards and thanks for stopping by.

  

A Tree of Ornaments

A blog that I follow has been championing the use of products that we crafters have on hand in new and different ways.  I had picked up these stickers a couple of months ago thinking to use them on a card making retreat.  I used a few but had many left so I thought about decorating a tree with them.  Okay that was one idea, then I was making card bases and scoring them for the fold when I goofed on this one, I scored it at the wrong point.
It's great card stock so I didn't want to waste it.  I just stared scoring vertically and horizontally every half inch and ended up with a grid card.  I pulled out these ornament stickers and made a tree.  Trying to find an appropriate topper was a trick until I remembered these snow flake brads that I've had forever.  Stamped the sentiment and added a couple of more stickers and there was another Christmas card for my stash.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Birthday Balloon?

This is how I used the Mega Mat Stack 3 that I couldn't use on yesterdays card.  I had cut it out from Papertrey Ink's Simply Chartreuse Perfect Match card stock.  I had the Echo Park Victoria Garden's paper pad laying there so I chose this sheet for my base.  When I cut it down to match my card front I was left with a narrow strip (it's a two sided paper) so I used that also.  I wanted an image that would fit well with the rounded top to the Mat Stack 3 die so I went with the Papertrey Ink Up Up and Away set.  I love this set.
I stamped the balloon and the basket separately using Memento tear drop pads.  Stamped the sentiment and assembled the card.  Easy Peasy.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by. 

Happy Birthday Mary C.

I made this card for my cousin (she way younger than me by a whopping 54 days).  I used a rose stamp from the  Gina K set Year of  Flowers.  I wanted to try and get it close to the image on the DP which is from the Echo Park's Victoria Gardens paper pad.  I stamped the image and colored with Copics and cut it out with Papertrey Ink's Mat Stack 3 Layerz. I wanted to layer it with another Mat Stack but it didn't work out (you'll see it on a different card tomorrow).  I thought about it and decided to use one of  the Half and Half dies instead.  I stamped the rose on it using Versamark ink for a subtle background effect. 
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Follow His Star

This is a wonderful new set from Papertrey Ink.  Nativity Silhouettes and Additions came out last month and I knew that some of my Christmas cards this year were going to be made with these sets. 
I was laying in bed one night last week thinking about the sun rays stamp and wondering how I could stamp it with multiple colors.  So of course I pulled out my Memento tear drop pads and had a go at stamping with first Cantaloupe and then swiping Tangelo upwards a few times.  It took me several practices to get the effect I wanted and this is what I came up with. The set has the co-ordinating dies for the Holy Family, so I just took the baby Jesus cut out and stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa and set him in front of the rising sun.  The sentiment is embossed with gold.
I used a piece of the Gina K Good as Gold card stock for my matting and then a white card base.  I like it, what do you think?
Thanks for stopping by. 

A Teacup of Flowers

I received my latest order from Ellen Hutson the other day and had a chance to play with two of the three stamps that came in that order.
I found this image just so charming and it fits perfectly in the oval cut out on this card that I picked up from the Paper Cut ( I love this company they have the greatest pre-made cards).
So I stamped and colored this image (I know it's suppose to be African Violets but I was feeling orangey, so sue me.)  I taped some white card stock to the inside of the card and stamped through the window.  Coloring with Copics was easy.
I just added the sentiment to the front and was done.
A fast easy card to make and it looks so much more complicated than it is, something a card maker loves.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Recycling Christmas

We crafters are the original recyclers I believe.  We will use what ever we can to make cards.  These two cards are an example.  According to the post office whatever is delivered by mail, unsolicited, belongs to us to use as we want.  These two cards use the front of some sample cards sent out hoping that you will order sets of cards from that company.  The cards were gorgeous but huge.  I cut down the front of those cards and made 14 new cards.  The front of my cards used about 2/3rds of the original card.  Originally I had only intended to make this top card, all I did was attach it to a red card base and was done.  Well then I took a look at what was left and couldn't throw out the leftovers.  What to do, oh what to do?

  

Well I pulled out my black Papertrey Ink card stock and went looking for some gold card stock and found some Gina K Pure Luxury Good as Gold card stock.  Now normally I would center the focal point on the gold card stock and then center that onto the card base, however when I picked up the stack of papers it was all offset like you see it here and I liked the look.  I took some of the gold card stock and embossed the sentiment with black detail embossing powder and cut it out with a Nestabilities label and mounted it with some black brads.  So there you have it my adventure in recycling, gotta love it!  Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

A Trio of Angels

When I saw this Love Lives Here: Holiday set from Papertrey Ink, I knew I had to have it.  My sister Ann collects angels and I wanted to make some cards using this set for her to send out at Christmas.
I have been watching the various blogs and web sites and I'm really loving the trend away from the traditional Christmas colors.  So for these cards I decided to go outside of my comfort zone and picked out some pretty wild DP's.  Unfortunately I can't remember for the life of me where this DP is from (and of course I can't find the paper pad to give you a name ).  The sentiment is from Stampendpous.  I used the co-ordinating die to cut out the angels and then stamped them, the little heart ornament is also from this set that I stamped and cut out by hand.
Hope you like these cards and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm running late posting these cards since we've been so busy.  I've actually been making cards (along with a million other things I have going on) and just have not had time to photo them and get them posted.  I made a 20 of these cards using Papertrey Ink's Gobble Gobble set and their Fall Prints and Patterns DP.  I decided to go with the idea of a camouflage turkey for my cards.  After all what turkey wouldn't want to blend into the background when it comes to this time of year.  I used the Gobble Gobble dies to cut out my turkeys from the DP's from the paper set and also for the layering on the card.  All in all they turned out to be quite colorful.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Leftovers from Fall Cards

The one thing I love about crafters is that we never (or almost never) throw anything out.  These cards are and example.  After making cards for a few hours I started to clean up and put things away and came across these scraps of DP from Papertrey Ink's Fall Prints and Patterns.  The leaves were there also so all I had to do was make a couple of card bases and hey presto two more cards.  Rounding the corners and rubbing Papertrey Ink's Fresh snow along the edge finished them off (after stamping the sentiment).
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Krafty Birthdays

The card ministry group that I belong to at my church held a creative retreat this past Saturday.
The idea was to teach how to make cards using basic items that you might have around the house.
These are two of the cards I designed as samples of what you can do with tissue paper and double sided sticky tape.  First of all I used kraft card stock for the bases then for both cards I took bubble wrap and created the background just by stamping with Memento Rich Cocoa.  The card on the left I ran glue stick all over the card base and after crumpling up the tissue paper I spread it over the glue, pressing down firmly, then I bubble wrap stamped it.  I put another layer of kraft and stamped again with bubble wrap.  Finally I tore some tissue and glued it down and stamped the sentiment.
The card on the right was easier to do with just two layers.  After I stamped the bubble wrap over the card base I layered some more kraft card stock and stamped the sentiment.  I ran a layer of double sided tape and carefully sprinkled green and copper glitter on it and pressed it down with my finger.
The leaves are some that I have had laying around for years so I just positioned three of them and added a green gem to the center.
We had a lot of fun at the retreat and none of the cards made turned out looking anything like mine but all were fabulous.  My cards were intended to be a jumping off point and the ladies took them and ran with great results.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

A Crafty Halloween

We went a bought our pumpkins a week ago but they've been sitting out in the garage waiting to be cleaned up and decorated.  So the day before yesterday I finally felt well enough to tackle the job.  Cleaning them up was no problem but decorating????  That was a whole other story.  I'm really not a Halloween person and cutting up pumpkins is way to messy so I look for other ways to do the job.  I bought 5 pumpkins (is that crazy or what) and now had to come up with a way to decorate them.  So I grabbed my Sharpies and decided to doodle some faces.  The odd shape of the larger pumpkin was easy so that was done first, then I took a close look at the small round one and all the lines went in first and then I doodled eyes and bats, kind of like looking through prison bars, right?  So I had two done and had to come up with ideas for the other three.  I turned to my card making supplies for ideas and came up with Memories Mists in Whipped Cream and Black.  Perfect!  I took all the pumpkins out front and started spraying them, I did one of the small ones in white and one in black and the large one in both.   After I had them all done I coated them all with an acrylic spray.
We had a lot of Trick or Treaters last night (close to 300) and my pumpkins were a hit.
Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Thank You Trees

This is another of the thank you cards I made a week or so ago.  I used Papertrey's Fall Prints and Patterns for this card also and the image and sentiment from their Masculine Motifs set.  When I made this card I originally intended to use the stamp on DP idea.  I had it all finished and ready to go and took a second look at it and decided that it was all wrong.  The DP was too dark and you really had to look hard to see the trees and the sentiment.  Nobody should have to work hard to read a card.  Luckily there was enough room for me to stamp the image and sentiment onto a piece of Cryogen white card stock and mount it over my mistake.  In the end I think it looks great, what do you think?   Thanks for stopping by.
  

An Oopsie Halloween

One of the mantras of card makers is that when ever you goof on a card it's just another opportunity for embellishments.  This card is an example.
I love working with vellum, I really do, BUT it is so darn hard to attach it to any thing.  In this case I pulled out my vellum tape and used it on the four corners, but you could still see it, bummer.  So I thought about it and decided to make some photo corners.  Well I went looking for my punch and instead found this leaf punch and went with that instead.  I just punched the leaves from some of the Basic Grey Indian Summer DP that I had used for this card.  The card base is DCWV, the DP is Indian Summer and the Ghost is Penny Black.  I had stamped the ghost onto kraft and it came out well so I didn't use the embossing powder.
Great, the card was all done, or so I thought, when I went to put a sheet of white paper on the inside I realized I had assembled it upside down. LOL  I quickly pulled the focal piece off and turned it around and all was well.
  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Halloween

I wanted to make a half dozen Halloween cards to send out and didn't have any Halloween paper. Oh my what to do.  I've been battling a really bad cold and didn't want to go out to shop (not wanting to share germs with the general public) so I went looking for some DP I could use for my project.  Luckily I found my Basic Grey Indian Summer 6x6 pad and with the darker colors I thought it would work.  So then I chose this ghost stamp from Penny Black for my focal image.  I started out stamping it with Papertrey's Fresh Snow and it looked good but I wanted better.  I realized that it is a hybrid ink so I quickly poured on some Reflections white embossing powder and hey presto a whiter ghost.  I did worry about embossing on vellum, but I was careful and it worked great.
I used DCWV charcoal card stock for my base and then layered Indian Summer and black and orange vellum to finish the design.
It may not be the spookiest card but I think it turned out really well.  What do you think?  Thanks for stopping by.   P.S. Lots of layers just for you Sandy.

Trees on Leaves

This is another of the thank you cards I made last week.  Using a white card base and Papertrey's Fall prints and Patterns DP I made a very simple card.
I stamped directly onto the DP using the trees and sentiment from Papertrey's Masculine Motifs.
Very simple, very elegant and very masculine.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Celebrate A Hoppy Day

What can I say about these cards except that they make me smile.  There's just something about a smiling frog that makes me grin.  I had been making some fall cards using Papertrey's Fall Prints & Patterns and had some scraps leftover so I made an anniversary card.  Yes I said anniversary, I think they don't always have to be bells and flowers, anniversaries can be fun and amusing.  (Think of Kermit and Miss Piggy if you want a laugh).
Anyway I used the Boy Basics-Frog Hop for these cards (only one is for an anniversary, the other will be a birthday card-maybe).  I used the matching dies to cut out the frog and the lily pad and stamped and colored them up.  I added the fly from the set as an after thought thinking the frog might be hungry.  I cut a circle of orange paper with my Limitless Layers die and stamped the sentiment from the set, put it all together and was done.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Postal Notes

There was a request for some thank you notes and since they had to be more of a masculine style I pulled out several of my Papertrey stamp sets and got to work.  I made a dozen cards and these are two of them.
 First of all I pulled out the Postmarks DP, thinking it would be appropriate. Then I used stamps from the Postmarks set and a sentiment from a Stampendous Everyday Messages 2 set.  It was such fun putting these cards together.  These were not the first cards I made and as I was layering these I just started through the left over bits to use for matting and decoration.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Trees from Scratch

These cards are designs made up for a Creative retreat that the Card Ministry that I belong to at my church is putting on next month.  The idea is to teach people how to get in touch with the creative side of themselves that they have let go of in the course of daily living.  We want to keep it very simple and basic and help them to look around the house and use things they already have to make cards.

               

In these four cards I just used card stock and embellishments to make the trees.  The trees are just squares of green card stock cut in half and layered on top of each other.  The card bases are all just white card stock and the first layer is just red with the sentiment stamped on it.  I placed the trees on that and then 'decorated' the trees.  The tree with the ornament stickers is my least favorite, if I could do it over I'd use only one sticker at the top and call it done.  The card next to it and the one above were just decorated with pens and the top left card with some bling.  The button was and after thought and I'm still thinking about it.

What do you think?  Thanks for stopping by.

Flower on Top

When I was at the Novi stamp show last August one of the places I had to stop at was The Paper Cut booth.  I'm always excited by the variety of papers and shapes that they have.
This card is from a set of cards that came with the card base and the over layer.  It's such fun to try and figure out what to do with these cards.  (NOT)  I first went through the whole stack and decided what over layer to put with what card base.  Then I had to come up with how to decorate.
Well for this one I chose to use a stamp from this set that I won in a Sweet Stamps challenge.  This stamp set is great.
 I colored with Copics of course and then just stamped without coloring on the over layer.  I added the leaves on the over layer just  to add some more color.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Sympathy Sail

This image of the sail boat was another element 'floating' (pardon the pun) around on my desk.  So of course I had to use it as part of my quest to clean up the area.  Since I had stamped this boat in Memento Rich Cocoa I used the brown and blue color scheme that I had going already.  The image is from Papertrey's Masculine Motif's set.
I really had goofed a little bit while stamping this by not getting the best coverage of ink.  The image is somewhat distressed anyway so I still think it works.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Lone Sunflower

This card was part of the birthday gift for my sister.  She doesn't like to acknowledge the passing of another year but she can always use a card or two to send out so that's what she gets.
Papertrey's August release had a Simple Sunflower set (with the matching die of course) that just jumped into my virtual shopping cart and screamed 'Take me I'm yours' (do ya think I've been reading to many romance novels???).
So I made this card with a leftover sunflower and a strip of DP  from the Fall Prints and Patterns by Papertrey.  The sentiment is from the Think Big Favorites 7, also Papertrey.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Tea Pot of Sympathy

I was lucky enough to win a challenge on the Sweet Stamps blog a little while ago and with my prize I selected this stamp (among others lol).  There were so many great stamps that I just had to go over my budget.
I really like this stamp a lot.  While I was getting ready to color, with Copics of course, I tried to picture what kind of card I wanted to make and sympathy kept coming to mind.  After all what is more comforting in sadness that a nice cup of tea.  I have also come to believe that sympathy cards don't always have to be somber so I chose to go with bright colors.  After I had the flowers done I went to the color wheel and picked this blue from the opposite side of the wheel.  I wanted strong contrast and I think I achieved my goal.  I used a bit of distress ink around the edges of each layer to soften it up a bit.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

The Flower In a Tea Cup

To continue my saga of desk cleaning....this tea cup was an element that was left over from a card making session many months ago.  I had seen this idea on a blog some time ago and thought it was a really cute idea.  I used my mat stack dies and cut out the frame and set it on the card base to get an idea of positioning.  Then I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey's Think Big Favorites 7.  The cup is also from Papertrey the Tea for Two Additions and was cut out with the co-ordinating die.
The flower is from their Flower Fusion #5 set.  I stamped directly onto the DP (also Papertrey, Bitty Box) then the flower was cut with a die and stamped with Memento Lady Bug and mounted to the DP.  This shows that you can have several layers and still keep a clean look that highlights the image and sentiment.  I truly love cards like my friend Sandy makes that show great color and texture with layers of DP that make a great card but I also love the Clean & Simple cards that are just as satisfying.  If you click on those names you can see what  I mean about the cards in both design ideas.
I do hope that you like my card and thanks fro stopping by.

Alice Says Hello

While cleaning up my desk last week I came across some images that I had colored up and set aside for future use.  Well the future came and went and there they sat, so since they were on my conscience I said ok already stop whining and I got to work.   This image is from Maurie Manning and is so sweet that I had to have it, but has been a struggle for me to come up with what to do with it.  Well inspiration struck while I was looking at it and this card is the result.
Since Alice's dress is blue I went with the brown and blue theme I had used on other cards.  For Alice it works very well.  I used the hello sentiment from Papertrey's Peaceful Garden set.
I'm really fond of this card, several layers but still a very uncluttered look.
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Rose Red

Well actually it's Raspberry Fizz.  That's the name Papertrey gives this card stock.  I used co-ordinated DP from the Bitty Box Basics set on the base, then a layer of white card stock then another layer of the Bitty Box paper.
Then I got tricky, I took my Mat Stack 1 die and the Mega Mat Stack 1 die and layered them and ran them through with the white card stock.  That left me with a separate center portion that I could then rub the edge with Memento Lady Bug ink.  This makes it look as though it's another layer but it is just nestled back into the frame.
I used Memento markers to color the rose from Papertrey's Year of Flowers set, trimmed it out and pop dotted it onto the mat.  While I was making this card I kept thinking "Wow this is a bold color, not sure if I'm getting it right" but in the end I loved it.
 Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Card for Tara

Yesterday was a granddaughters birthday.  She turned 18 and I think that age brings out the sophistication in a girl.  So for that reason I decided to go with black, silver and white theme.
In the past I've used medallions on my cards and so I pulled a couple of them out to work with on this card.  I also pulled out this beautiful DP that I believe is from The Paper Company.  It's a black and silver paisley pattern and when ever I see I grab a sheet of it.
I ended up selecting the card on the right to send her as I like the angles of the DP and the medallion.  The medallion didn't show up very well on the DP so I cut a small piece of white card stock and rounded the corners to mimic the medallion.  I opted to leave off a sentiment from the front of the card to keep it very simple.

Big Sisters

My sister is Nanny for a family that has grown this past week with a new little girl.  She has two older sisters that are so excited about a new baby.  I thought it would be fun to send them each a card to congratulate them on the new baby. 
Last August at the Novi stamp show I picked up several card sets at The Papercut.  I just love that company, they have the neatest items.
These cards are an example.  The set consists of the card base and and over layer that has a cut out under the circle.  I used a Papertrey 3/4 inch die (Limitless Circles )as a mat for the focal image and the image is from an acrylic set that I've had for years and I no longer know where it came from.  I colored with Copics and added the sentiments on the over layer.  By the way I ran the over layers through my Cuttlebug using Swiss Dots for one and Divine Swirls for the other.  I haven't heard how the girls liked them but I'm sure they are to busy playing with the new baby.

Happy Birthday Ann

Like many of us my 'younger sister' Doesn't really want to acknowledge her birthday.  I don't know why since it's a day traditionally spent eating cake and ice cream.  Oh well.
I did make a card for her that just asks her to celebrate the day anyway and on the inside I asked her to enjoy the day that she joined our family.  It's a fall card since it is fall and I used DP from Papertrey's Fall Prints and Patterns.
It also gave the chance to use some of the leaf cut outs I bought from The Papercut that I bought at the Novi show in August.  (One good thing about cleaning my desk is finding all the goodies that had gotten lost in the shuffle.)
So I used a green card stock for the base then the DP and layered on some of the leaves.  I decided to stamp the sentiment right onto a leaf rather that add another layer (sorry Sandy).
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Thank You Cards for West Side Story

I've been super busy lately with many ongoing projects, but I have had some time in the last couple of days to make cards.  These are cards that are long over due but still needed to be made and sent.
Last May was Bruce's 75th birthday and my family went in together and bought him a gift certificate to the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts.  What a terrific gift.  We took it over there this past week and purchased tickets for West Side Story that will be here in November.  This is one of Bruce's favorite musicals, can't wait.
So of course I had to get off my (you know what) and get the thank you cards made & on the way.
I have been clearing my desk off (again) and had made some other cards (to be posted later) using a brown and blue theme.  I'm really liking this color combo so I decided to use the scraps and for my images I chose to use Papertrey's Peaceful Garden set.  Using the dies that go with the set I cut out my focal points and stamped them with Memento Rich Cocoa.  The middle card was easy but I decided to get fussy with the other two.  First I stamped the image onto the blue card stock, stamping once and then again without re-inking,  I then added a narrow strip of the brown card stock as a base and pop dotted the focal images.  Then I just stamped the sentiment and was done.  I think they came out very nicely, what do you think?
Thanks for stopping by.