4th of July

In the three years that I've been selling cards, I have never once sold a 4th of July card. I have never sent or received one either. I guess I just don't see the 4th of July as a "card holiday." It's too bad, really, because with the fireworks, stars and bold color scheme, 4th of July projects are so fun to make!

I made the red and blue banners with PTI doily stamps (the largest ones) and Memento ink in Bahama Blue and Lady Bug. the little stars were punched out with mini and regular punches (Target) and accented with tiny gems. The ribbon is May Arts and the punched edge is from a Martha Stewart Double Arches Deep Edge punch. Thanks for taking a peek and happy 4th of July to my US followers!

Limes

I love limes. In fact, I had a yummy Mike's Limeade last night and it really hit the spot. With temps in the 100s this week, I might need more! I'm also a margarita fan, so I was pretty excited when my best friend, Dayna, gave me this stamp from Unity. There is also a margarita glass with a wedge of lime, but I forgot to snap a pic of the inside of the card.

 

I have had this vintage image for quite sometime - it is from Crafty Secrets. Isn't she fun? I used a background paper by Prima along with Spellbinder die cuts (Eyelet Squares and Classic Lace Border). The flower is from a May Arts ribbon; I can't get enough of this stuff! It comes in white and cream too and takes color mist spray very well. I made the flower center and adhered it with Beacon Adhesives Fabri-tac. The cardstock and Glitter Cardstock (peridot) is from American Crafts. 

Thanks for taking a peek!

June Weddings Part 2

At Hobby Lobby, they have such a cute selection of buttons in the scrapbooking section. However, the packages are small and rather expensive without a coupon. Instead of getting packages of the small themed buttons, I like to get the extra large grab bags that have a TON of buttons in them - you don't know for sure what you'll get and that's part of the fun. I've never been disappointed. In the last bag I got, I found a cute little diamond solitaire button and I've been saving it for a cute wedding card. I'm glad I finally got around to using it!

 The background paper is a damask embossed cardstock - not sure on the brand. I die cut the white doily with a PTI Parisian Doily die. I love the detail you get with this die. The lacy ribbon is by May Arts and I stamped the sentiment with Versamark ink and embossed it with American Crafts Zing embossing powder.

Thanks for taking a peek!

June Weddings

I adore making wedding cards. I also find that I like to do monochromatic wedding cards - especially white and cream. If I'm the one giving the card, I will fashion it to fit the wedding theme and colors, but when I sell cards, I like to make them in various styles so people have a choice. I don't make assembly line cards, so each card is completely an original. On this card, I had fun with the white on white accents. There really is a lot that can be done with white. For the stamped images, I embossed with fine silver powder.

I accented the cake with Silver Liquid Pearls for some dimension. While this card looks a bit complicated at first, it was a snap to put together. I used my Grand Calibur machine to cut all the die cuts in one pass - pretty nifty! I used Spellbinders Nested Poinsettias, Beaded Ovals, Standard Ovals and the Foliage set. I also embossed them all in one pass and they were ready to go. I sprayed the flowers with some white Perfect Pearls mist and then accented the center with a large pearl surrounded by small pearls. The background was embossed with a 5x7 Cuttlebug folder.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Popping in!

 

If you're a regular follower, you'll know that I'm a stamp lover. I've been stamping for more than 10 years and I love all of the fun techniques and products that accompany stamps. That said, sometimes I like to venture out into the digital world and search for free digi stamps that I can use. I recently happened upon this lovely site called Birds Cards that offers free digi stamps and cutting files. Beautiful stuff! I found this cute poppies file and knew I had to use it right away. 

I printed it twice in the same size and then cut a few pieces of the 2nd copy to adhere over the 1st copy. I colored the first copy and then colored the select pieces from the 2nd copy and cut them out using my Westcott 6" Microtip scissors - these babies are amazing for fussy cutting! The handles are large, so no finger pain. 

I love the cute little protector cap it comes with, as well! Seriously though, these scissors are awesome and I highly recommend them. The super sharp titanium bonded blades and the large comfortable handles make fussy cutting a breeze.

After I cut the selected poppies, I adhered them with foam dot adhesive. These poppies can be stretched big enough to look nice on a layout as well. Thanks for taking a peek!

Sandy Beaches

I remember getting sparkly and fun cards for birthdays when I was a kid. The more texture and layers, the better! As an adult, I still really enjoy all the textures and fun embellishments. I like the added interest that textures add. On this card, I used several different textures. The cardstock (Webster's Pages) is smooth, so I added that as a base. The "aloha" stickers are also smooth, and beyond that, everything has a texture.

To create the palm trees, I used a Cuttlebug die and folder set (At the Beach) and cut and embossed kraft paper for the trunks along with American Crafts Glitter Cardstock for the palms. I added coconut buttons with GlueArts Mini Adhesive Squares. The flower was made with American Crafts textured cardstock from the Tropicals pack. the green was die cut with a Spellbinders foliage die and the flower was made with a couple different punches. 

The sandy island was my favorite part. I had a piece of kraft paper left over from another project; it had some computer generated text on it. I put an adhesive sheet over it and then accented the edges with Glossy Accents. I sprinkled Sandtastik loose sand over it and let it dry. Sandtastik sand is a lot of fun, by the way. It comes in all different colors and Sandtastik also sells Sculpey clay along with many other fun craft mediums! For product reviews and tutorials, check out Scrap n' Art - we have done several features on Sandtastik.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Not so much

You'd think with the kids at my parents' house, I'd be getting all sorts of things done. I suppose if you count watching 1.5 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Hulu, you'd be right. Other than that...not so much. I do have a couple of cards to share with you though :) 

This card was sort of a "throw-together" card. I didn't plan on doing it and I just happened to have these elements already made. I just put them on the base and decided - yes, that will do. I do like the orange and pink though.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Adhesive: Glue Arts, Beacon Adhesives (Zip Dry)

Die Cuts: Spellbinders (Foilage, Beaded Oval)

Embossing Folder: Sizziz

Stamps: Martha Stewart Crafts (flower) & Papertrey Ink (sentiment)

Trim: Hobby Lobby

Ink: Memento

This next card was one of my favorites. I just love bright colors with black and white. I used a Pink Paislee Mistables tag, but instead of misting over it, I sponged Memento inks over the white emboss resist. It creates a much brighter color palette with less drying time than the sprays. I added a rub-on sentiment and a few pink and blue gems to finish it off and embellished the card with a Petaloo flower and some baker's twine.

You can't see the embossing on the white cardstock very well in the photo. It's a zebra print. 

Cardstock: American Crafts

Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives (Zip Dry), Glue Arts (Adhesive Squares)

Embellishments: Pink Paislee, Petaloo, Want2Scrap, Melissa Francis (rub-on)

Ink: Memento

Thanks for taking a peek!

Hello June!

What a pretty month you're starting out to be - the sky is blue, the sun is radiant and I'm ready for summer. I just got back from visiting western NE; I stayed with my parents and got to see a lot of friends and family. My brother, Brian, came back from CA and it was great to see him again. Micah and Alexis couldn't get enough of him! My brother, Neil, brought his girlfriend, Casie, and it was great getting to know her as well - a kindred crafty spirit! I also got to hang out with my bestie, Dayna, and we had a great time stamping in her basement. I got to see lots more friends I haven't seen in a long time, so all in all, it was an exciting and fantastic trip.

I'm hoping to be able to get lots of crafting done in the next couple of weeks as the kiddos are still vacationing at the farm with my parents. I got everything re-organized today, so hopefully that helps. I haven't actually gotten anything else done, so I guess I'll share some older stuff I haven't gotten around to posting yet. This is a layout I made for my mom's heritage book; it's of her and her dad. This is a great way to use up scraps of random paper, by the way!

 This card is a fun little vintage number I threw together after I embossed that background with a newish Sizzix embossing folder.  I love that pattern! The clouds are by Papertrey Ink (dies), the label is a Spellbinders die and the sentiment is a Cuttlebug die. The vintage image is from PaperDreamsFactory - they have the BEST vintage images! 

I've got more to share, but I'll post them later this week. Oh, and make sure you check out the June issue of Scrap n' Art. It has so much cool stuff in it! Thanks for taking a peek!