Texture

I love to use different textures and layers on my cards. While I do create the occasional minimalist card with fewer than 3 layers, they're not so common and usually not my favorites. I love color, gems, pearls, ruffles, embossing, all that fun stuff! This card represents a lot of that for me, and I love how it turned out. I had this piece of Graphic45 paper laying around, just enough for a card, so I started with that.

I wanted to do a birthday card because I was getting pretty low on those, so I looked through my stamps and found a long neglected set of Verve Stamps that I like. I stamped, colored and cut out the balloons and then realized that I wanted to use that bright green ribbon so I made a bow. I thought I might as well make some crepe ruffles, so got that out and decided on a Kraft cardbase and got to work.

The die cuts were just in my "misc card items" box, so I grabbed those and stamped the sentiment. I wanted an interesting punched edge on the card, so I did that too. Then I decided that the ruffle needed a scallop at the bottom, so I added that in.

LOL, see how this is going? I guess what I want to say is that this card just made itself! I really didn't have a grand plan, things just tumbled out of my head and stuck onto the card - and I like that. :)

Last of all, I put on the mismatched gems and pearls. They were mostly left over from other projects, and this was a good way to use up the stragglers.

Well, if you've made it this far in my rambly post, congrats! You deserve a bowl of ice cream, so don't feel guilty about it. Really, I have that power to grant it to you.
Thanks for taking a peek ♥

Masculine

Most card crafters find it hard to do the more masculine cards. I know I do! However, I've found that with just a few items, masculine cards aren't quite so scary. I personally don't do flowers on masculine stuff, I like more of the rugged look and that is easily achieved by tearing paper, inking, etc. For this card, I embossed with the "Distressed Stripes" Cuttlebug embossing folder and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink by Ranger. I used DoubleMates paper by Paper Accents, the texture and dual colors were perfect for this card. I used DoubleMates "Creamy Cocoa" 12 x12 (6518) and it provided me with both the dark rich brown and the tan.

This card is super simple and easy to reproduce.
1. Fold card base with DoubleMates paper - light on the inside.
2. Emboss top part of another piece of the same paper, stamp the bottom sentiment and ink it.
3. Adhere it to card base.
4. Take scrap of same paper, tear and cut it to size. Adhere it to where embossing ends.
5. Ink Tattered Angels crown and adhere it over sentiment.

If you're lucky enough to have some of the new Tim Holtz embossing folders, you have a million options open to you on masculine cards like this! The bricks, woodgrain, there are some awesome ones! As for me, I hope to get some of those this year, they look fantastic.

Hope you're having a great weekend, and thanks for taking a peek!

Feel Better!

I just love the cloud and galoshes from the "Fresh" American Crafts clear stamp set. In fact, the whole set is just cute! I used the cloud with Papertrey "Fresh Snow" ink - the BEST white ink on the market. The angle of the card makes the clouds look softer than they really are, actually. in real life, they're pretty pronounced.

I used Studio Calico "Anthology" paper and Paper Accents cardstock, another 2 fav companies! The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Mega Mixed Messages" set and the flower is from Dove of the East. I accented it with a couple of blue crystals. Thanks for taking a peek!

And this is why I keep plastic packaging...

For cards like this! I used the clear plastic packaging that came with my Cuttlebug B Plates for the bird cage. I simply stamped and heat embossed the cage image and then cut it out. Then I stamped the birdy on my card and used "Mini Adhesive Squares" from Glue Arts to attach the cage. I heat embossed the cage with metallic powder, so it would look like the cage was made of metal.

I used quite a variety of stamps here, the sentiment is by Papertrey Ink ,the rose is by Crafty Secrets, and the bird and cage are from American Crafts.
The ribbon is some vintage ribbon my mom gave me, just a soft blue satin. I used my Martha Stewart Double Edge punch for the green paper and layered that over ruffled crepe paper (crepe streamers that come on a roll).

I used Beacon Adhesives "Zip Dry" for everything, love that stuff to pieces! All the paper is by Paper Accents, and the paper is actually what inspired this card. I loved the beautiful Spring colors and just had to use them! Well, thanks for taking a peek ♥

Yum!

I don't have a fun ice cream cone stamp, so I just googled a clip art and drew one. They're really easy! After I drew it, I colored it with Copics and used some Stickles to embellish. I used October Afternoon Cherry Hill paper, Papertrey Ink & My Sentiments Exactly! stamps, Hobby Lobby ribbon, Martha Stewart Arch Lattice edge punch and EK Success diamond scallop punch. All in all, a fun and easy card, and that ice cream looks good on a humid day like today!
Thanks for taking a peek, enjoy your weekend :)

Apples to Apples

I love any sorts of papers, stamps, etc with fruit on them. Looking through my Unity Stamps, I came across this cute little tree set that I hadn't used in a long time (it's the Tiny Trinity set). I was in the mood for some red and green but didn't feel like Christmas cards just yet - so I did apple trees! I just stamped the trees in brown and colored them with Copic Ciao and Spica markers. If you look carefully, you can see the glittery leaves on a few of them.

Isn't that green ribbon fun? It's from good old Hobby Lobby, I just can't get enough ribbons. Well, hope that you have a great weekend, and thanks for taking a peek!

Cardstock: Paper Accents

Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilties, Martha Stewart Double Edge punch

Stamps: Unity Stamp Co.

Ink: Memento

Other: Copic markers, Hobby Lobby Ribbon

Use up those numbers

I love to use Thickers and other dimensional stickers, but find that I don't often use up the numbers. Instead of let them sit for ages, I decided to use them up on birthday cards. These are some of the easiest cards to make, and it's fun to see what different color combinations you can come up with! It doesn't matter if they're all the same size or not, personally I like the mix and match look.

So if you have sheets of numbers, why not throw together some quick birthday cards to keep on hand! Thanks for taking a peek :)

Another pastel

The other card reminded me so much of my mom, I had to make her another one! I'm pretty sure she had a dress that was like the colors in the ribbon when I was a kid; I just look at it and think of her.
I paired this one with some heavy vellum (Paper Accents Heavy White 8.5x11 (903)) to soften the yellow polkadot paper. The paper was more sunshine yellow without it and didn't quite look right with the pastel ribbon. I added a Black River Designs rub-on sentiment to the vellum and was good to go! I used the same crepe paper technique as last time. Thanks for taking a peek!

Pretty pastels

I guess I don't often do pastels, but since I was doing some cards as a gift for my mom and she LOVES pastels, I decided to do a few. I picked up this pretty ribbon at Hobby Lobby last week and knew I wanted to pair it with white. While at HL I also picked up one of those rounds of crepe streamers. I love ruffles and figured the tissue would work well, especially since it was already cut to size.

Well I'm going to have to pick up a few more of those babies, because I loved working with it! It folds so easily and sticks perfectly to a line of tape runner. I got a huge roll for only 99cents, so I'm going to go back later for a couple other colors. I thought I could get by with just white and color it with glimmer mist, but the color wasn't as dark as I'd hoped it would be. The crepe didn't really absorb it like I thought it would. But hey, at 99cents per roll, I think I can handle a few more!

This card was super simple, I just used my Glue Glider Pro to put a line of adhesive down and then folded the crepe back over itself to make the ruffle. I tied the ribbon on the card and made a bow and then put a Melissa Frances rub-on sentiment on a scrap of paper I had lying around. I edged it with a glue pen and sprinkled iridescent glitter over the top. Done!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger

I just loved the porcelain ruffles on the tuesday trigger, so I wanted to play along! Here is my pink ruffled flower I patterned after the dishes on the trigger photo. You've got till May 25th to play along, so don't miss out!

birthdays galore

It seems that while June is the start of "wedding season," May is the start of my "birthday season." We have so many May birthdays, and I'm guessing we're not alone. I only had one birthday card left at the store when I went the other day, time to restock! Here is one I made, taking advantage of some large envelopes I had left over.

I used Quickutz adhesive backed cork and a Cuttlebug butterflies die along with a Spellbinders oval Nestability. I layered it over the sentiment on yellow paper and attached it to the card. I used October Afternoon and G45 paper along with some Kraft paper. I punched the edge of the Kraft with a Fiskars border punch (sunburst).

The ribbon is new from Hobby Lobby. They got in a TON of beautiful new ribbon and it was 50% off this past week. Not sure about this week as I haven't had a chance to look at the ads.

I plan on making up a bunch of more birthday cards. I have a feeling they're going to fly out of the store in the next few months! Thanks for taking a peek :)

Also, head over to Melissa's blog for some awesome blog candy!

ConGRADulations!

I don't really make graduation cards. I don't get excited about them for some reason. The only ones I've made in the past have been for good friends or for those whose receptions I was invited to. So when the store asked for a few grad cards, I decided to go SIMPLE. The only stamp I had was a "congrats to the grad" stamp that is quite small. It's good for the inside of the card, but I needed something for the outside.

So I got into my sticker letter drawer and got out a couple of sheets in the colors I wanted to use. I usually dislike school colors for cards (unless they're for guys) so I chose pink/steel/light green. I don't remember seeing this idea before, but I'm sure it's been done - it's not THAT original, LOL! Did I mention how quickly this card came together? 2 minutes. TWO MINUTES!!! That's awesome. Now the Stickles on the American Crafts Thickers however, took 4 hours to dry. oh well. Such is the life of a papercrafter.

thanks for taking a peek!

Better late than never

I got this card finished early this afternoon, but didn't get around to blogging until tonight. I made up a few graduation cards to take to the store. I'll post one of those tomorrow, it's really super easy but I like how it turned out.

I made this card with that cute onesie paper from Hambly Studios. I matted that paper with some lemony yellow cardstock scraps I had lying around, and I embossed the very bottom of it with the Textile embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I used my Martha Stewart Double Edge Doily Lace punch to punch out a matching shimmery pink border and cut it in half to use on either side. I finished it off with some foam American Crafts Thickers (covered in Diamond Glaze and glitter), pastel buttons and some pretty ribbon.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Finals are over, I've finished all my Scrap 'n Art projects for the July/August issue, Mothers Day cards/birthday cards/anniversary cards are done and mailed, and now HOPEFULLY I will have some time to make cards for fun for a while :)
I ended up making 15 Mothers Day cards, I'm not sure if they all sold yet, I have to get to the store tomorrow to find out. About 5 days before Mothers Day, the owner called telling me that my first batch had run out so I had to make some more and run them over.

I would love to get involved in teaching some workshops this summer, but not sure if I will. I really wish our Hobby Lobby did classes, I would love to teach there! All the employees probably know me by name anyway :)

Well, hopefully I will be posting creations tomorrow. bye!

Almost there now

Well, I'm down to finals week and then SUMMER! I don't actually have too much to do in the way of finals, so that's nice. whew!

The May/June issue of Scrap 'n Art came out and WOWEEE, is it awesome! So many amazing projects from all over, if you're not a subscirber, you need to be! Here's a sneaky peek...

Did you have a fun National Scrapbooking Day? I entered so many contests it was crazy, CRAZY I tell you. No wins yet, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. ☺

I haven't had time to do non-Scrap 'n Art stuff just yet, but here are a couple from the Jan/Feb issue that I can share with you now. The first one is one of my favs, I just love that iris stamp by Stamp Zia! I stamped with "Tuxedo Black" Memento ink and colored the flowers with Copics. Did I mention I love irises? :) I also like sticking a sentiment to a bow with Beacon Adhesives "Fabri-Tac." No need for foam dots, the middle of the bow is just perfect to make the sentiment pop out. For the scalloped border, I used one side of the Spellbinders scalloped frame die.

Here's another Stamp Zia stamp in action, the cattails! I just love this image for masculine cards, I'm going to have to pull it out again for Fathers Day. I love it paired with these Graphic 45 papers as well, they have a nice masculine quality.

Well, I hope that you have a great week and thanks for taking a peek :)