Graduation Card: Gimme some tassel!

Do you remember this from Disney's Aladdin? Genie says "Yo Rugman, gimme some tassel!"

Well my daughter loved this movie as a child. (Actually any Disney movie. We love our animated movies.) So while I was pondering my options for cards I was thinking about "graduation" things. Mortar boards, robes, tassels. Yeah... tassels.  And I recalled this quote. I pictured her saying this when she was small. So cute. And then I thought of making this card using that line. I found a tassel at the Silhouette online store. Only problem was it had a different year. I managed to create my own year charm hanging off the tassel - score one big Silhouette software achievement for me (I'm still struggling but I'm getting better LOL!).
Alrighty - that's all for today. I'm at the graduation, then dinner out with family. Have a great day!

Graduation Card: Reach for the Stars

So, my daughter is graduating from college on Monday, tomorrow. It's a little crazy - it seems just like yesterday when she began. But here we are. I think since she's my "baby" that the time just kind of sped up. I remember having similar thoughts when my son graduated from college - but this REALLY went by fast. Anyway - special events require a card from me :-) natch. So I made two! Actually I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to do - I had several ideas. One funny and one serious. So here's my "serious" one ;-) I used PTI's Star Gazer Additions stamp set. It has some very nice sentiments as well as that large constellation stamp. When I bought this set I had in my mind doing the polished stone technique and I think, for the most part, it worked out well. I had a tough time getting a pic I liked - one that showed off the gold highlights.  I clear embossed the large image if that's not apparent then created the polished stone over it. The sentiment was stamped in Versamark as well but I used gold embossing powder.
So last week I mentioned we were heading up to New York City and I'd explain why. My daughter had one of her illustrations entered in a competition. And she was one of the winners. If you are an illustrator, this was a prestigious competition. So on Friday night, we went to the opening of the show for the winners. It was quite the night. For her, and for her proud parents :-0 After the opening we went out to dinner in the city - my nephew and his wife had driven in from NJ - a really wonderful time had by all. Then we had to drive back Saturday because today, Sunday, we have to drive up to Baltimore to attend my daughter's graduate exhibition. I guess that's what you call it LOL. All the seniors put on an exhibition of their work. We've got a bunch of family coming in for it. It's going to be another great day for her. Followed by the graduation tomorrow.
So I'll be back with the other card - have a good one.

Tinkerbell Birthday

So next Monday is the birthday of my youngest niece. My sister's baby. She will be 5 (goin on 15). And she is theee girliest girl ever. She loves pink and anything sparkly. Did I mention glitter? This girl loves glitter. And she loves Tinkerbell. She has decided her birthday shall have a Tinkerbell theme. (Yes, I said that right. She decided. LOL) As she lives on the other side of the country (much to my great dismay. No, sadness. I wish I could be with her on her birthday.  Maybe another year. This year in particular it's not happening. On Monday I shall be attending my daughter's graduation from college! But we'll talk about that in another post.) So I have sent the gifts already but I have to send the card and some tags for those presents - so at least I'll be there in spirit. And this child will be expecting an Aunt Tracy card dontchaknow.

Now, I don't have any Tinkerbell stamps. I don't even know if one exists. But the internet is a wonderful thing. I found a cute project online to make a magic wand that has Tinkerbell on it. I briefly toyed with making that magic wand (cos I know this kid would love it but I feared it would be crushed in transit) but decided to use the images to make a card and some tags. For the card I printed out the project itself. The main framed Tinkerbell and a separate star image. I cut those out and glued them together. I added some cardstock that I ran through my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dot Embossing folder. I used some foam tape to pop the main image up. I found a cute font and printed out the sentiment and handcut it to make a banner. And of course I had to add some glitter. In Photoshop I took the image of Tinkerbell herself and printed out a few and ran them through the Big Shot with PTI's Tag Sale #3. They really look cute - and I know she'll love it.
Alright that's all for today. I will be back to show you the graduation cards I made for my daughter. Yes, they're already done. I had to get them done ahead of time as we're heading out of town on Thursday for NYC. What's going on in NYC? Well that is a good question - and I'll be back to tell you :-) (It's "Proud Mom" stuff :-))
Thanks for stopping by. Have a good one!

Hello There Fabulous

So last week I was talking about cards being born out of desire to use a stamp set, or an idea you have for a card and then there is the technique you wanna try. Well this one is more in that last range. It's not exactly a technique - more of a media. I was stamping around making some more background "paper" with some Versamark clear embossed images. Little flowers from the PTI Mini Blooms. I'd clear embossed the images and was applying the ink and there was a piece of vellum on my drawing board - from some other card. And I got to thinking I should make some background paper with that - and what would it look like if it was layered on top of the cardstock paper with the same images. So I stamped some little flowers on the vellum and embossed with white embossing powder. I die cut the frame from PTI's Fabulous Frames, put the vellum behind that and layered it on top of the cardstock patterned paper I'd made. I also through on some sequins and used some embroidery floss I had hanging around.
Okay - gotta run - have a good one!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day. I'm hoping to get in some crafting time - specifically scrapbooking. But we shall see. In the meantime I thought I'd post this card I made for my Mom.
I was very much wanting to use my Silhouette Portrait. I've been working on using it - for me the learning curve has been big. Everything I want to do apparently isn't just straight up cutting LOL. I did cut some vinyl recently and a lovely little quote is adorning our bedroom walls now. I was very pleased with that accomplishment. (it only took looking at a bazillion videos on You Tube.... ok. I exaggerate a tad. But it took a while.)
So back to the card. Recently the Silhouette store had a lovely 50% off sale on all shapes and I bought a few with my gift card. One was the background you see here in the card. It's actually a card - but I only used the lattice part.  The peony was a freebie - the Silhouette store gives away a shape every week and I gotta say their freebies are pretty fabulous! This flower was so easy to put together - just cut and glue. My kinda flower! The tag is from PTI's Fillable Frames #9 - cut it with the coordinating die and stamped the border on. The sentiment is from PTI's Boutique Borders: Mother. Oh yes - forgot to say the latticey background there is cut from PTI's Spring Moss Bitty Dot patterned paper.
Have a wonderful day!

Even more cards (I didn't post) LOL

I know... You'd think I would just take the pics of the cards and post them right away but in the last month it just wasn't always possible so here I am with two more cards.
For this first card I had a tough time getting pictures - it didn't want to stay closed LOL.  The second pic will give you a better idea of the diecut feature. The black background is all one piece including the half circle. It was a little tricky getting that accomplished (the partial diecutting I mean) but it was worth it.
I don't know about you but for me -sometimes a card is born from a specific idea of what I want it to look like, or a stamp set that I want to use. But lately it's about techniques I wanna play with. Like in the case here. I was seeing all that ombre out there in the internet card-land. I think it is obvious I'm not too trendy LOL. I'm more of a classic kinda girl. Always have been. But I was liking the ombre. And everything old is new again now isn't it ;-) So I pulled out PTI's Polka Dot Basics stamps set and stamped a whole sheet of cardstock with some of the larger polkas. Oh yeah. In versamark. That was fun (like stamping in the dark!!!) Then I clear embossed those polkas. I grabbed some Aqua Mist ink and that Tim Holtz ink applicator with the foam - I hadn't played with that in quite some time. And I started inking up those polkas from bottom to top and left to right. The important part here is the left to right. Only going in one direction. If you click on the photo hopefully you'll see what I mean. It made the polkas 3D. They have a shadow on the right side and it just pops them right up. (it was a little squeal moment). So I became less intrigued with the ombre (which here is so very subtle) and more so with the 3D effect I was getting. I decided I had to work in a sentiment from PTI's Stylish Sentiments: Birthday and turn my little exercise into a birthday card.

I was going to post the other card but now I'm thinking that's enough for today LOL! I need to get a move on - busy week ahead. Big doings - graduation approaches and a side trip next weekend before the big day - very exciting. I'll tell you all about it soon.
Thanks for stopping by! Have a good one.

More cards I didn't post

Yes, I have a few more cards I didn't post. And I absolutely meant to do so but what can I say - I got busy. I definitely wanted to post these cos I had such a good time making them. I'd gotten the Stylish Sentiments: Birthday stamp set and saw that little diagonally striped stamp - it's maybe 1/2 inch by 1 inch. I wondered what I could do with it. And I started playing around. With one color then two colors and well here's what I came up with. I really like the way this one came out. I used Aqua Mist and Spring Moss inks and Hawaiian Shores Cardstock - the sentiment (from the same set) is stamped in Fresh Snow ink and I used white embossing powder. In case you're wondering I stamped in one ink in one direction then stamped over that with another ink in another direction and it created this cool pattern.


Then I made a thank you card using the same stamp, inks and technique - different sentiment (Think Big Favorites #3). Obviously I didn't mix the two colors just overlapped the stamping.
Pretty cool what you can make with one little stamp huh?














Oh yeah. Here's that cake I was working on. I had a few issues with the chalice at the last minute. It cracked. And there was actually leaves and grapes and wheat. But no matter. There was a time when I would have absolutely freaked out with things going wrong at the 11th hour. But I didn't. I just got rid of everything but the chalice and host, added the lacey looking frosting and voila. Cake done. And everyone, including the little Communicant, loved it. It tasted great too.

Oh and one more thing. I made cookies. I felt bad that we weren't able to attend the Confirmation for the other nephew last week (the brother of the Communicant). So I made doves - or in this case - Holy Spirit cookies :-)

Alrighty thats enough for the day. Off to make dinner. Have a good one!