Happy Birthday Jen

When I started to think about making this birthday card I really thought about the type of person Jen is. She's an athletic girly girl. I really admire that about her.

I decided to go with the pretty, feminine card for her. I also wanted to try out a technique I've seen around of using sticky double sided tape to add glitter to a project.

So for these cards I ran several lines of red tape across the card, pealed off the top layer and sprinkled Doodlebug Design glitter over them. Worked beautifully. I then stamped the dress form image from the Gina K Springtime Silhouettes StampTV kit in Memento black. After cutting out the images I embossed them and sponged color around the edge. I also cut out the mats with Nestabilities. I just lightly colored the dress forms with Copics.

On one card I stamped the sentiment (from the same stamp set) directly onto the card base, on the other I goofed while stamping it so I stamped onto a scrap of white card stock, cut it out with a Nestie, sponged it and mounted it with pop dot.

All done and I think they turned out well. Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

P.S. the one I sent is the one on the right.

A Lullaby Card

I went to the book store yesterday to pick Mariah Stewart's latest (Almost Home if you like to read this Chesapeake Diary series is terrific) and after I had paid for my purchases and on my way out of the store I saw this CD. Well of course I thought of my great-nephew Kellen and went back and bought it. I'm shipping it to him with this card that I whipped out in 5 minutes.

Of course the only reason I could put this card together so quickly is my inability to throw anything out.

Way back when I got the brilliant idea to make up card bases to have on hand (turns out not to be such a bad idea after all) and this is one of them. Then another idea I had was to print out some digital images to color up (the coloring up part never happened on this one) and have at the ready. So these two items have been sitting around for about a year and all I had to do was color up 'Michael' from Mo Manning and cut it out and mount it to the base. I have no idea where the DP is from but it works beautifully with this image don't you think.

I used Copics to color and this is what I used-- Hair YR21,YR31; Cloud B000 under the cloud for shading BG000; Skin E00,E21;Nightshirt Boo and for the wing and halo I used a Sakura silver Jelly Roll pen.

I cut the image out with a Nestabilities Deckled rectangle and edged it with YR31.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Easter Cards

When I set out to make Easter cards for the Easter food baskets I knew I that an assembly line process was going to be a must. I also knew that to make 20 some cards exactly alike would bore me to tears. So I went looking through my goodies for ideas and these are what I came up with. I stamped the three different crosses from Papertrey's Everyday Blessings in Memento Rich Cocoa and then stamped Rejoice from Inkadinkado and He Is Risen from Great Impressions all on Beckett Expressions White. Whew...

Then I mounted them onto card base from Memory Box in what I call the Easter/Spring colors.

This assembly line process is working really well for me. I may have to make some more to mail to friends and family.

Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

The Rainbow card

I was puttering around my craft desk the other day and realized I had left a few bits and pieces laying there. As I shifted them around I saw that all of the scraps worked well together, I just didn't have a focal image. The pink scalloped circle was one I had cut out with a PaperTrey Limitless Circle die so I went looking for something I could put in the center and PaperTrey came to the rescue again. Back in February PaperTrey made several tags available (design team creations) for a contest (I didn't win) and this was one of them by Melissa Bickford. (If you click on her name it will take you to her blog and see some really great creations.)

I can't tell you where the DP comes from since they were scraps but I believe they were from different sources, just a lucky chance that they worked together.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Some cards just fall together. A few weeks ago I met my friend Sandy for lunch and shopping at Hobby Lobby. I found this DP from the Paper Studio and thought, okay I can use this for my March cards. So I bought a sheet and some cards stock for the base and figured I'd find a stamp or digi image to use. Well then I was in Michael's the other day and found these glittered shamrocks on a display and thought they'd make and easy peasy card.

Can anyone have too many shamrocks???

There are so many Irish blessings that could be written on the inside that it's hard to choose, but there is an Irish saying that I really like and would be a boon for many people. "When God made time He made plenty of it" Wouldn't it be nice if time was a bit more elastic and we could stretch out a day now and then. Of course when time snapped back into place it could really sting lol.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Tulips and Butterflies

When I was making the 'Black Butterfly' card last week I found this DP from Memory Box's Minuet paper pad and thought it would make a cute background for this tulip stamp from JudiKins. The mat is from the same set.

It just gives me that spring is coming feeling (even though there is still snow on the ground).

I colored with Copics of course and used Memory Box Wisteria for the card base.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Variety

I forgot to post this series of cards using the last of the medallions I bought on that fateful shopping trip with Sandy. These medallions are very thin and so delicate looking that I had a lot of fun making these cards.

I chose a wide variety of DP's on these four cards and I really, really like how they turned out. They could be used for almost any occasion and could go either masculine or feminine. In these cards the DP actually is the high point of these cards rather than the medallion. The colors can reflect almost any mood and I hope you like them as much as I do.

Four Flowers

Well when I get on a roll I keep on rolling. I had these embellishments out along with the medallions and decided that they deserved to be used. The package came with six of these flowers and I had used two of them and wanted to clear them off my desk rather than put them away (and forget I had them). These four cards really weren't planned out at all. The first thing I did was choose the card bases to go with each flower then I chose the DP's which in a couple of them changed the card bases. The first card used scraps from another card and a Martha doily, the second card I didn't have a ribbon I really liked so I layered a brown over creme, the third card had a mark on the DP so I found a scrap to run across the card and placed the flower over that, and the fourth card I pulled out my airbrush and colored the doily to match. It's a wonder I finished them at all.

Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

Slanting the Focal Point

Occasionaly something happens that sparks a creative idea. I was making three cards using this same image from JudiKins. (as a side note-while cleaning up my craft area I sorted out stamps I haven't inked up in a long time to give away and found old favorites that really needed to be loved again).

I decided to use and assembly style of card making and stamped out the images, chose the DP all from Memory Box the Minuet collection, colored (leaves YG03,YG95 and flowers BG11) the images, cut out the ovals and used a scalloped oval Nestabilities for the matting. So, after all that this image fell onto the card base at a slant and the light bulb went off and voila a card was born.

A Trio Of Medallions

Shopping with my friend Sandy is always fun. She has such good ideas and a wonderful color sense.

When shopping with her the last time we wandered down the embellishment aisle and I found these Medallions by Tradition at Hobby Lobby. I bought a package of them ( 4 for $2.47, what a bargain) and made these cards (and one other but it wouldn't fit in the photo). Isn't interesting how the different DP's and card bases give such a different look and feel to each of the cards. When it came time to mount the cards I used some new dies I just got from Papertrey the Limitless Layers Circles. On the center card I used only the 1 3/4 " size but for the other two I used that and the 2 1/2 " circle. They co-ordinated perfectly with the medallion.

So I quickly made four cards with a lot of color but no ink. Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

P.S. wait til you see what I made with the other goodies I bought that day.

A Scrap Tale

A few days ago while putting stuff away I had this Prima Flower on my desk along with scraps from previous cards. I looked at the flower and the scraps and thought they would look well together.

I remembered these doilies by Martha Stewart and thought it would work well for a base for the flower.

The card stock is Memory Box and the DP is also Memory Box the Pixie collection.

So instead of throwing out the small scrap and putting away the card stock and flower I made a card.

Hoe you like it and thanks for stopping by.

The Black Butterfly

"The Black Butterfly" doesn't that sound like a title from an old black and white film from years ago?

A lesson I've learned when wandering through Michael's and Hobby Lobby is never to bypass the jewelry making aisles.

I found this black butterfly by Traditions in the jewelry components section of Hobby Lobby. I'm not sure how it would be used as jewelry but I couldn't resist it for a card.

I had found this DP from the Paper Studio on the same shopping trip and last night as I was cleaning up my desk and getting ready for bed I came up with this idea.

I knew I wanted to make this a black and creme card so I found some scraps to mount and mat the butterfly on and assembled this card in just a few minutes. I just love it when I think of a card and I can make it come together the way I want. In that same aisle there were some medallions in gold and bronze that I'm itching to work with so I'll have to stay up late again and think. Hope it works.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Beckett Tulips

My final experimental card is done on Beckett Expressions Radiance.

The coloring for this one is again YG01 and YG03 for the leaves and the flowers are RV00, RV11 and RV34.

The color went on smoothly and blended well, so my conclusion is that whatever paper you like and can afford is the best one to use. I enjoyed this experiment so much I think I'll do it again.

The DP for this card was Memory Box Pixie with card stock in Cranberry and Meadow.

Hope you have enjoyed my experiment and thank you for stopping by.

P. S. While going through my stamps I came across so many old favorites that I think I'll be tripping down 'Memory' (pardon the pun) lane for awhile.

Cryogen Tulips

This is the second card in my experiment. For this card I used Cryogen White, it is more of a cream color with a very lovely sparkle to it.

For coloring I used YG01 and YG03 for the leaves and Y11,Y06 and Y15 for the flowers. Again the colors went on smoothly and blended nicely.

The DP is also from Memory Box Pixie with the card base in Sunflower and the matting is Cherry Blossom.

So far I'm not finding much difference in the papers for coloring.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

X-Press It Tulips

Well after cleaning up my craft area I deserved some play time. Bruce is gone for the day so I can play with my toys. While cleaning and straightening up I came across some X-Press It Blending paper that I bought from Ellen Hutson several months ago. I had put it away and never used it. I decided to have some fun and experiment with three different card papers for coloring with Copics.

I chose this stamp from Northwood Rubber Stamps to use on all three cards.

The leaves are done with YG01 and YG03, the flowers with R20,R83 and R85. The DP and card stock for the base and matting are all Memory Box Pixie, Taffy and Meadow.

It was easy to blend my colors and I like how it turned out.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Cleaned Up Desk

I've spent the last few days cleaning up my craft area (again). One of these days I mught actually be satisfied. I went to Michael's the other day to pick up some paint for my husband and passed by the storage items on sale 40% off. Hmm (I said to myself) these look intersting. There are actually two units here. The top is a four shelf cube and the bottom has shelves with storage boxes. I think I'm going to take the lids off the boxes since it's easier to get in and out of them more like drawers that way. After assembling them (and believe me that was a joke) I had fun moving stuff around and clearing out items I don't use anymore and ended up with enough space on my desk top where I can really work. I had time today to make some cards that I'll post over the next few days.

Hope you all have been having fun. Thanks for stopping by.