Hard Cards

I personally think that sorrow/sympathy cards can be some of the toughest to make. I never want to go too "over the top," because I don't want the sentiment to be overshadowed by the card. Today, I thought I'd post a sympathy card to help any of you out who struggle a bit like I do with this style of card. The recipe for the card will be posted below the picture. Feel free to help me out by placing a link to your sorrow/sympathy cards in the comments.




Materials:
Stamps - Thoughts and Prayers (SU!)
Patterned Paper - Want S’more and Skipping Stones (Cosmo Cricket’s Mr. Campy line)
Card stock - Sage Shadow, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip (SU!)
Ink - Chocolate Chip (SU!)
Markers - Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Old Olive (SU!)
Ribbon - Old Olive (SU!)
Eyelet Border Punch (SU!)
Big Shot (Sizzix)
Dye - Buttons #5 (Sizzix)

Fish Pun Fun!

I floundered a bit with the title of this post, but I thought most of you could handle a few cheesy fish puns. I know I need kelp, but I'm having a whale of a time coming up with them. Enough silliness now, and on to the porpoise of this post...the cards! Both cards use paper from Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel Line called "School's Out." This paper is bold, bright, and boat loads of fun. The cards also use stamps from SU!'s new stamp set Circle Circus. This set reeled me in. Additionally, I used the "get whale soon" stamp from Pun Fun (SU!) for the first card. Don't be koi, take a peek at the card below.

Additional items used:

Card stock – Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Elegant Eggplant (SU!)
Ink – Basic Brown, Elegant Eggplant (SU!)
Copic Markers
Ribbon – Certainly Celery, Elegant Eggplant (SU!)
Scallop Edge Punch (SU!)
Dew Drops (Robin’s Nest)

Now on to card two. This card dances to a different tuna. It is called a flip flop card. Beate over at Splitcoast Stampers created a great tutorial for this card style. Just follow this link. So you don't think I'm shellfish, I'll post 3 pictures of this card and the "recipe" after the pictures. Just in case you can't reed the sentiment it says "No trout about it...without you I would flounder!"

The front of the card:

An action shot of the card opening:

The card fully open:

Items used:

Paper – School’s Out (Snorkel Line by Cosmo Cricket)
Card Stock – Whisper White, Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango (SU!)
Stamps – Circle Circus (SU!)
Ribbon – Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant (SU!)
Dew Drops (Robin’s Nest)
Word Window Punch (SU!)
Photo Corner Punch (SU!)
Sentiment was computer printed on Whisper White card stock.

Now don't be bassful, leave a comment and let me know what you think of all this fish pun fun!

A Bevy of Dutch Beauties

Alright, I'll admit that the title's a bit of a stretch, but today I've got 3 cards for you. All 3 were made primarily using patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket's Dutch line. This paper is soft, and sweet, and oh so very fun to work with! I wanted to show today how you can get 3 very different cards in varying difficulty from one line of paper. First, I'll post a picture of the 3 cards together, and then I'll follow up with some close ups and deets on the cards.

Now for a close up on my personal favorite:

Did you see the weaved pattern in the background? This is the first time I wove 2 sheets of patterned paper together and then cut out the small swatch I needed from the 12x12 woven sheet. This is the first time I've tried this technique, and am so happy with how it turned out. I love how the rich colors of Cosmo Cricket papers weave together. All the materials besides the pattern paper are from Stampin' Up!. I used Baja Breeze ink and card stock. There is Riding Hood Red ink and card stock. The stamps are from the Razzle Dazzle set. and I finished up the label with 2 jumbo white brads.

Now a close up on the easiest card to complete:

I stitched the button on to the flower with some white thread. My favorite detail on this card is the paper piercing just in the bottom 2 corners. This card was finished up with some taffeta ribbon, a pretty flower, and a Riding Hood Red button, all from SU!. The "thank you" is from the new SU! set teeny tiny wishes, and is stamped on a tag from the Dutch Girl Tag sheet (Cosmo Cricket).

Finally, the card with the most sparkle:

This card uses not only the Dutch Girl paper, but the Dutch Girl die cuts as well. The ice cream Sunday was stamped from SU!'s Goody-goody Gum Drops set. I colored the Sunday in with markers, then covered the Sunday in glitter. I also adhered it to the tag with some pop-up dots to really make it stand out. The "Sweet Stuff" sentiment is a rub on from DCWV.

I hope these Dutch Beauties inspire you to go out and create (or at least go out and get an ice cream Sunday!).

A Little Campy

Today's card is a birthday card for my dad. I absolutely love this paper from Cosmo Cricket's Mr. Campy line (Happy Trails, Nature Walk, and Skipping Stones). The colors are so rich and earthy that I just look at it and see woods and a lake. Take a look at the card, and then I'll give a little more detailed explanation of what's going on.

The tree image is from Stampin' Up!'s Trendy Trees. The tree trunk was stamped with Chocolate Chip craft ink on Really Rust card stock and then embossed with clear embossing powder. The leaves were stamped on the tree with bleach. Just "ink" your stamp with bleach instead of ink and watch the color fade. I like to use a paper towel dipped in bleach as a make shift ink pad. The "happy birthday" stamp is from SU!'s Teeny Tiny Wishes, and was also stamped with bleach. The card is finished up with a little linen thread down the left side and a 5/8" brad on the right hand corner.

All Clean and Sparkly

It's been a bit since I've posted. I have a long list of craft projects to do (cards and presents for weddings, birthdays, etc.), but I promised myself I'd clean my craft room BEFORE I started anything else. Since my room looked like a paper bomb had exploded, it took a little bit. I sure do love creating when I don't have to search for my stuff, though. Well, that's the clean part, now on to today's card, and the sparkly part. I have a few weddings coming up in July, so I made a few wedding cards. Same general idea for the cards, I just switched up the color scheme to match the wedding colors. This one is for my cousin. We made her invites back in April, so I know her colors are pink and green.

This first picture is the outside of the card. I tried to keep it simple, because the inside is a bit elaborate.

This is absolutely one of my favorite all time stamps. It's from Stampin' Up! (SU!) and it's called Once Upon a Time. The words are embossed with Chocolate Chip Craft ink (SU!). I mixed a little diamond glitter (SU!) with clear embossing powder to get a glitter that stays put. The dots of glitter along the scallops were made with stickles. The flowers in the bottom right were cut with my Silhouette SD. The paper is all from SU!. Some of it is current, and some is retired.

Now for a pic of the super fun inside!

This cake is made with a die from sizzix. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE using this die. People are always so impressed by this. And, really, who doesn't want a cake to pop out of their card? It takes a little time, but is truly worth it. Just a few additional notes on supplies. I cut the scallop circle with my Silhouette SD. Just in case the picture doesn't show it well, there are dots of sparkle all the way around each of the layers of the cake. I used my stickles for this as well. Hope this inspires you!

A little of this, a little of that

Here are just a few things I've been working on.

First, I got this great deal on the We R Memory Keepers Urban Window set from scrapbook.com. The kit came with 4 frames, ribbon, chipboard tags, and chipboard letters. Here's the first frame that I made for a friend who's having his first baby in November:

Here are the other 3 frames from the set. I'm going to hang these in our bathroom after our trip to Italy in the fall. The frames say "faith", "hope", and "love" in Italian.

Now for a fun card I made with my Silhouette SD, some paper from DCWV's Citrus Stack, the warm words stamp set from SU!, and some stickles.

And a close up of the card so you can see the glitter. I used the stickles to outline the "wonderful" tag to mimic the glitter paper used for the tail of the peacock

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all had a restful and blessed weekend!

Great Dads

I feel so blessed some days. I am surrounded by more great dads than anyone should be allowed. My husband, of course is an amazing dad. My father is fantastic. My father-in-law is truly wonderful. Even my grandpa is great! So here's a card I made for one of the wonderful fathers in my life as we're getting ready to celebrate Father's Day. The "Happy Father's Day" was created by coloring directly on the stamp with my markers.

Recipe:
Patterned Paper: Citrus Stack - DCWV
Cardstock : Whisper White - SU!
Stamps: All Holidays - SU!
Markers: Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Apricot Appeal - SU!
Circle Brad - Making Memories
Ribbon: Certainly Celery - SU!
Punch: Spiral - SU!

Just Stop

Sometimes, when making a card, I just can't seem to stop myself. I want to add more, cut more, stamp more, color more...you get the idea. Sometimes, though, simple is better. This is one of those cards that I just wanted to add more, but simple is better. This is a card for a wedding shower I have coming up in a few weeks. A few notes on things that don't show up well in pictures. The bells are embossed with silver embossing powder and then popped up from the paper with Stampin' Dimensionals. The ribbon is double layered. There is pink satin lined organza ribbon over silver organza ribbon. Very pretty in person. A recipe follows the picture.

Stamp: Goody Goody Gum Drops (SU!)
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Silver (SU!)
Markers: Pretty in Pink (SU!)
Ribbon: Silver Organza, Pink Satin Edged Organza
Tools: Sizzix Texturz (Stampin Up! #1)
Adhesives: Stampin' Dimensionals (SU!)
Silver Embossing Powder (SU!) Scallop Square Punch (SU!)

It's Not a Card!

While making cards and stamping is my first love, my hand wanders occasionally into all aspects of crafting. Today is a non-card craft post, but before I show the pictures, let me give you a little back story. Recently I purchased a Silhouette SD, which I am in LOVE with. For those of you not familiar with the Silhouette, it's a digital cutting machine. I can cut so many beautiful images. One of the media I've been cutting, is vinyl. I have a 4 plate, decorative plate holder on my wall. I was sick of the plates, so I picked up 4 lovely stone tiles from the home improvement store, cut some vinyl shapes and words, and put them on the tile. The tiles then replaced the plates in the holder on my wall. Super cheap, really fun to create, and very pretty.

First a close up of one of the tiles:

Now a picture of all 4 hanging on my wall (the words read "Faith" and "Family):

A Little Quirky

Tonight I have 2 cards for you. They're a little quirky, they're made from the same stamp set (That's Funny from Stampin' Up!), and they go well together, so why not show them both off? These are also made out of a color combo that always works: green, pink, brown, and yellow. The coloring of the images was done blender pens dipped in ink from my ink pads. This is one of my favorite ways to color in images.
You can find the complete recipe for the cards at the end of this post.

Stamps:
That's Funny- Stampin' Up!

Card Stock:
Whisper White - Stampin' Up!
Pretty in Pink - Stampin' Up!
Old Olive - Stampin' Up!
So Saffron - Stampin' Up!
Close to Cocoa - Stampin' Up!

Ink:
Pretty in Pink - Stampin' Up!
Old Olive - Stampin' Up!
So Saffron - Stampin' Up!
Close to Cocoa - Stampin' Up!
Embellishments:
Pink Rhinestones - Kaiser Craft Basic
Pretty in Pink Grosgrain Ribbon - Stampin' Up!

Tools:
Paper Piercer and piercing template - Stampin' Up!
Blender Pen - Stampin' Up! Star punch - Stampin' Up!

Adhesive:
Stampin' Dimensional - Stampin' Up!

Lime Overload

One of the things I struggle with when making cards is mixing more than 1 or 2 patterned papers into 1 card. I saw this new Lime Rickey line by Basic Grey and just had to have it. I also knew that it would be a great way for me to try and mix it up a little, so for this card I used 3 different patters from the Lime Rickey Line (say that 3 times fast). The chipboard stickers are also by Basic Grey. The are so very cute, that I know you'll see me using them here again. The card stock is from SU! as is the ink, the ribbon, and the stamp set. Did you know you can get a wide variety of SU!'s stamps in Spanish as well? This set is called Sentimientos de dulzura. And for those of you who are wondering the tag translates to "a note for you". So today's card is bold and bright with a little Spanish flair. Hope you like it!

I Live for Coffee

It's true, I admit it, I'm addicted to coffee. So, when Lisa over at A Walk Down Memory Lane showed me the Cuppa Joe coffee scented embossing powder by gel-a-tin stamps, I knew I had to buy it. I have a couple of coffee stamps, but I knew this stamp from Stampin' Up!'s Pun Fun set would be perfect. I also wanted to challenge myself to make it a masculine card. The card stock, ink, watercolor paper, eyelets, and twine are also SU!. The dry embossing was done with a plate from Sizzix Texturz plates SU! Backgrounds 1. Let me tell you, this card smells as good as it looks. Mmm...coffee.

Style Challenge

One of the blogs I love is by Betsy V (see the left column for a link). Her stuff is always amazing, and totally different than my style. I don't know how she can put so many elements together and have them come out looking so great. Betsy's having a "what's you're style" challenge this week. She's asking people to find pics that inspire them, and then post the resulting card. So here are a few pretty pics that inspire me.

Alright, now for my resulting card. I took the shape from the cake, and the colors from the jewelry. Sorry about the quality of the photo. My camera and I are having our differences right now, but I still had to play along.

The paper is all Stampin' Up! as well as the ink, stamps and punches. The stamp set is called Always and is one of my very favorites.

Fast and Simple

I had my niece's 8th Birthday on Saturday. I needed a card, and I needed one fast. I know you've all been there. So, today, instead of something uber fancy, I thought I'd do something that can be created in less than 10 min. This is also one of my favorite card sketches. It works great vertical and horizontal. Small changes to it can make it look really different. The card stock, ribbon, and scallop punches are from Stampin' Up!, the patterned paper is from DCWV's Citrus stack (which I picked up for a mere $8.50!), and the rub on is also from DCWV. I also stamped "Birthday Wishes" on the inside. The paper and cupcake are sparkly, which is a little tough to see here, but a great addition.