love you, Mom

Today I am sharing one of the first cards I ever made. I made it 3 or 4 years ago for my Mom. I remember I had seen Kristina Werner make one and I cased it. (Not that I knew what casing was at the time.)

I used some Hero Arts paper and white embossed a flower image on it. The 'love you' is hand written and I embossed the 'M's. I used a heart punched out of the paper for the 'o' in Mom. (My sister could never figure out it was supposed to be the 'o'. Mom thought that was so funny.) Then I simply added the ribbon and bow along the side and did some of Kristina's signature faux stitching with a white pen.

My Mom loved this card. Of course, she loved all the ones I made for her, but I think this first one was her favorite.

Today would be her 81st birthday, and yesterday my dad would have been 81. Love you and miss you both.

Happy Birthday, Samantha

Hello. I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Today my family celebrated my great-niece's upcoming birthday. Samantha will be 6 on Wednesday. Here's the card I made for her.

The image is from the  My Favorite Things Pure Innocence Birthday Girl stamp set. It was stamped onto Neenah cardstock, and colored with Copic markers. (No, my coloring hasn't improved, but I keep trying.) I paper pieced her dress using a paper from Lawn Fawn's fabulous Let's Polka 6x6 paper pad. I love the patterns in this pad! They are all so bright and cheerful.The pink stripe and yellow heart papers are from the same pad. The pattern papers were adhered to some yellow and black cardstock. 

The birthday girl panel was popped up with foam for dimension. The sentiment was cut into a banner and sponged with yellow ink. I used my clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen to add some shine to her balloon, and yellow and white baker's twine was added for the balloon string. I had to add a few of Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine sequins to this card. They just make me happy.   

Samantha had a fabulous party, full of presents, cake and ice cream. Today would also have been my Dad's 81st birthday. He would have loved to share his day today with his great-granddaughter. I wish he could have. 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Twelve

Did you see the fabulous card Jenny from I Dream in Paper had featured on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamp blog last week? It's amazing! Jenny lined up the words from the Rad stamp set and inked one letter in each word with a different color. When she was finished it spelled the word twelve vertically. You must go check it out. I just love it.

 My friend's son is turning 12 tomorrow (crazy coincidence, huh?), so I just had to try what Jenny did on a card for him. Here's my take -

I used Memento ink for the words. Yes, it took several attempts before I achieved a result I was happy with. My patterned papers are from Basic Grey's Life of the Party 6x6 pad, which, sadly, is now discontinued. Gray Bazzill cardstock was used to mount my panel and the center star pattern paper. The inked panel was adhered with foam squares for dimension. All of the pieces were adhered to a Neenah Solar White card base.

Some Studio Calico wood veneer stars and arrows were colored with the same Memento ink, to give some added interest to my card. I just had to use the arrow to point out the word twelve. A huge thank you from me to Jenny for the inspiration!

Now I'm off to see what else can be spelled with the fab words in this awesome stamp set. I just love CAS-ual Fridays stamps. They are all great fun!

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting! 

Sending Smiles

Hello, everyone. I hope all of you enjoyed your Easter. I'm on Spring break from school, and loving every minute. Well, not the "I have to clean and do laundry" minutes. but all the rest. I spent one day doing some crafty shopping with a dear friend. We had a great time finding bargains (finally found Gamsol at a local craft store) and laughing all day. Then we spent another day playing. Coloring with our Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol, and trying to decide on our "shoebox" projects for an upcoming Splitcoaststampers get-together next month. Love those kinds of days!

Here's the card I made from the first panel I colored. I used Mama Elephant's Up & Away stamp set and stamped the bunny and balloons onto white cardstock. Then I just scribbled on some color with my Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. As you can see, my coloring skills are negligible. I push into kindergarten rooms at work, and like to think I can color at that level. LOL  A Uniball white pen was used to add a line to try to highlight the balloons, and a clear Wink of Stella brush pen to add some shimmer.

The panel was die cut with Mama Elephant's very popular Femme Frames die and adhered onto a white card base. I kept it flat so it can be mailed easily. Three Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine mixed sequins were the only embellishments I added. Those Mama Elephant images are just too sweet!

Also, next month the Rubber Stamp and Scrapbooking Show will be in Syracuse. The LSS I design for, Creativ You & Co, will have a booth there, so we're busy creating Make & Takes for that. That's where I'm off to now to start making kits. 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Easter Blessings

Today I'm sharing another Easter card that I made using eggs made from Distress Paints shown in this post.

After the distress painted background was dry, I cut out the egg and adhered the Cheery Lynn Lace Egg die cut in black over it. For the middle egg, I die cut the distress background piece with the Lace Egg die. That piece was adhered to a Memory Box card base, while the two others were popped up on each side with foam tape. 

The Verses Easter Blessings sentiment was added with Versafine Black Onyx ink. I then used my We R Memory Keepers Cropadile Corner Chomper and rounded all four corners 1/4".

I wish everyone a very blessed Easter. Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

It's Bridal Shower Time

Just popping in to share a CAS bridal shower card I was asked to make by a friend.  I love the elegant look of white on white cards, and decided to make one. I used the Anna Griffin Poppy embossing folder embossed on Neenah cardstock. This folder creates a gorgeous floral embossed image.

The embossed panel was trimmed and mounted with foam tape onto a Neenah cardstock card base. I simply adhered the stamped sentiment onto black cardstock, and used foam tape to add it to my card.

A very quick and simple, yet elegant looking card, I think.

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Another Easter Card

Today's card is another Easter card. I used an A Muse floral image over an Inkadinkado background stamp. The daffodil was colored with Prismacolor colored pencils and mounted onto a black mat made with Mama Elephant's Femme Frames Creative Cuts. I love both of the very popular dies in the set, and by stalking checking their website daily, I was lucky enough to grab the set when it was back in stock recently.

I adhered the black panel onto a white top folding card base, and added the sentiment with Versafine Black Onyx ink. The sentiment is from Stampabilities, and I really like the font.

Tomorrow evening I'll be getting inky at the second of a series of  Ranger Technique Classes at Creativ You & Co, the LSS I design for. Can't wait! 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

With Love & Sympathy

Hello. Sympathy cards are some of the most difficult cards for me to make. A few days ago, I needed to make one for a colleague to give to a friend this week. I used a set from SU called Love & Sympathy.

I used Worn Lipstick and Peeled Paint Distress Markers to stamp the flower on an oval I die cut from Spellbinders Classic Ovals dies. The edges of the oval were distressed with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, and then adhered onto the largest of Spellbinder's Floral Ovals dies. I used dimensionals to pop up the panel onto green Memory Box card stock that was adhered to my card base. I added a double bow made from May Arts silk ribbon with a glue dot. 

The sentiment was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink and adhered with dimensionals. This stamp set also comes with a lovely verse that I stamped inside the card. I hope this card brought a small bit of comfort during a very difficult time. 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Graphic 45 Gate-Fold Easter Card

Happy April! Time to get some Easter cards ready. I recently made a gate-fold card using some Graphic 45 paper. Bet that surprises no one.

In this post I shared how I made some eggs from distress paints and a Cheery Lynn egg die. For this card, I die cut the egg in gold metallic paper and adhered it to my distress painted background. I sprayed a doily with Heidi Swapp's gold Color Shine and adhered the egg to the doily after it was dry.

 My card base is Memory Box card stock cut to 5 1/2" by 8 1/2". Each end of the 5 1/2 " side was scored at 2 1/8" to create the gate-fold card.  G45 Sweet Sentiments paper was matted onto a cream paper and those pieces were adhered to the sides of my card. The doily and egg are only adhered to one side of the fold to allow the card to open. Seam binding tied in a bow keeps the card closed.

I really liked how this turned out, especially because it's the first gate-fold card I've ever made. 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!