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.