MIM#72 Step it up - Embellishments/Moxie Fab World Birthday Card Challenge

Sorry I haven't been posting. :-( We went away last weekend to see my nephew graduate. It was a great weekend away just for starters - but seeing him graduate (Summa Cum Laude - I'm just sayin - so proud)  was the highlight! When I returned I had to get into birthday mode as both my son and husband's birthdays were this week (son born 5 minutes to his Dad's birthday). We had some nice low key celebrations - which suited us all. I have one of the birthday cards to share today which I made with the MIM challenge in mind. I used Papertrey Ink's Giga Guide Lines stamp set and stamped one of the images in black all over kraft cardstock. This took a bit of time, trying to line up the images - I'm slightly off here and there but overall it went well. Then my little bit of crazy took over because I wanted the pattern orientation to be on an angle (not straight across up and down as I'd stamped it - it was just easier to stamp it that way) - so I had to cut it on on angle (not sure  if that's clear - wish I'd thought to take pics as I cut it but there you go LOL). Then I stamped out my embellisment which is the center piece you see here - from Papertrey's 2012 Birthday Tag set. I stamped it on PTI cardstock colors- Kraft, White and Fine Linen - then cut it apart and reassembled it. I used the PTI Limitless Layers Ovals to cut the main oval and the white pinked edge oval - the rest I fussy cut. I know I'm not alone in enjoying some fussy cutting now and again - kinda like therapy isn't it? Finally I decided I needed a little more white in the card. I decided adding some little white circles to the centers of the elements would do the trick - but what could I use to make those white centers? I thought about using a gelly roll white pen - forget it. Then realized maybe just a hole punch? I pulled out my We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-dile - tried both sizes of the punch - and settled on the smaller of the two and punched out a bunch of wee circles and glue penned them on. If I'd had some of those cute little gems handy I guess I coulda used them - but then again this card was for my husband and I don't think he'd be into little sparkly thangs. ;-) (that's my department!)
Anyway I'm hoping to get some card making in this weekend (no I'm definitely going to!) I'm also going to enter this card in the Moxie Fab World Birthday Card challenge because stamping is definitely the primary technique in this card - I love the Giga Guide Lines set for making big bold backgrounds! Thanks for stopping by!

MIM: #71 Bordered Sentiments

I've been a little busy and wasn't able to give last week's Make It Monday Challenge a try but this week I was able to give it a go... sorta. I'll explain. The challenge was to mask off your bordered sentiment and then stamp your background. And I did indeed do that - but after some consideration I wasn't liking what I came up with. Here it is before I kinda went off the Make It Monday trail.... and in the photo you can also see I stamped the sentiment again on a piece of white cardstock measured to fit inside my pen borders.

And here's the card when I added that sentiment and then added some stitching. (click on it for a clearer look). Yes, I added some fringe. Paper fringe. The other day I was playing around with my Martha fringe scissors and thought it might be kinda fun to add some paper fringe to a card. I'd earlier been playing with the Background Basics: Medallions set from Papertrey and thought what I came up with looked a little like bandanna fabric - do you agree? Well I thought they'd make a cute combo - and when I saw the MIM I thought why not give that a try. I spose I really should give the challenge another try - but for this particular card I think I needed that sentiment stamped on white. I do like the line I drew in bordering the white. It accentuates the white just right.

Now while I was at it I decided to try another card with some more faux Bandanna fabric :-) I had a sentiment I'd stamped out on kraft cardstock - Happy Birthday. I stamped some more with the BB:Medallions - put those two together on a darker blue background. Then I made a little more paper fringe - but it needed something else. I looked around on my drawing table and I saw a piece of red cardstock that I used to cut out the Superstar Border Die from Papertrey - it was the negative of the stars, if you will. I liked the red with the fringe - stitched it all up and this card was done.
Okay - I need to get some dinner on the table for this family. Have a good one!

Happy Father's Day

Here's the card I made for my husband. He is quite wonderful and is the world's greatest Dad to our 2 kids. I kinda hit the jackpot when I married him.
I went to look back on this here blog to see what cards I'd made for him in the past (I've been blogging for over 7 years ...  I had totally forgotten it had been that long.. but I digress).
Here's a favorite Father's Day card from the past (it's got the three most important people in my world right on it)

http://smallsmackerels.blogspot.com/2007/06/fathers-day.html

Have a good one ~

Make it Monday #69 - Inspiration into Unique Sketches

 

I've had this Bon Appetit Magazine (May 2012) sitting on my kitchen table since...well May ;-) Last weekend I was looking at and was struck by the cover and those gorgeous baguettes. I loved the composition of them on the cover and was thinking - that kinda makes me think of a card I could make.... On Monday afternoon after work I go to check Nichole Heady's blog to see what the new Make it Monday is - I love the videos and have been trying to challenge myself a little in my card making lately. Basically it was about taking an inspiration and turning it into a sketch.  I'm thinking - hey how is she reading my mind about those baguettes? LOL Although there are some absolutely wonderful sketches provided for the challenge I thought why not take the inspiration to make my own and give it a whirl. So back to those baguettes. What intrigued me the most was the composition - particularly the one baguette - on top of the rest or fourth from the left (it is under the S in Paris). I thought I wanted to see what I could do with this little-out-of-order element. I drew a few sketches - my drawing teachers would wonder what has become of my drawing skills... but I digress ;-) I decided on a twist on that little element (instead of it being out of order I'd put it at the top - near the sentiment) and here's my card. I used My Minds Eye Lost & Found paper, the Double-Ended Banner die and Think Big Favorites #12 sentiment from Papertrey Ink. And I did a little stitching around... Okay blogger is not being cooperative so I'm going to stop fooling around with this post. Thanks for stopping by - have a good one!

Queen for a Day - Simon Says Stamp Challenge

I decided to try the challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog (be Patriotic, Celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, add Crowns and/or Gems). I went with a birthday card - Queen for a Day! I poked around in my stash and found a deck of cards and selected the Queen of Diamonds. The celebrate sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Celebrations stamp set. The smaller sentiment is one I printed on my computer onto a diecut (you knew there had to be one didn't you? The Double-Ended Banner die from Papertrey). The background patterned paper is from my stash - it's from Li'l Davis Designs (who apparently are now part of Fiskars). I used some Antique Linen Distress ink on the sentiments to age them a little - using a stippling brush. I'm kinda pleased with the card - sortofa clean and simple vintage card ;-)
Have a good one!

84th Birthday

My father-in-law will be celebrating his 84th birthday this week and I needed to get a card made so I could put it in the mail tomorrow. Fortunately it came together pretty quickly and I think he'll like it :-) That's all for today! Have a good one~

Cardstock: PTI Kraft & Aqua Mist
Stamps: Background Basics: Woodgrain, Movers & Shakers Sentiments; StampinUp! Stippled Shells (retired)
Ink: PTI Kraft and Aqua Mist; Stampin Up! Craft White
Die: PTI Mat Stack 1
Ribbon - from my stash

Make It Monday #68 Pocket Cards

I've wanted to try this Make it Monday challenge all week and yesterday I finally had a little bit of time to give it a go. The challenge was to create a pocket card. I love pocket cards. So fun! I also really loved Heather Nichol's video - she made a beautiful card using the Rosie Posie stamp set - I didn't think I needed that one but it has now gone on my wish list! Okay so I decided I'd like to stamp my background, as Heather did - one of my favorite things to do and I don't do it enough. And since I'm currently in love with my Strawberry Patch stamp set - that decision was easy. Leah at Paper Blossoms had posted a lovely card using the Strawberry Patch set - stamping on PTI Fine Linen. That color combo had also been on my mind all week- red with Fine Linen. So I was ready to begin. I was going along fine til I got to stamping with white. My old StampinUp! White craft ink pad was just not cutting it. The white was just not white enough. I am still happy with my card but now I've decided I must have PTI's Fresh Snow Ink. If you look at the coverage that ink gives in Heather's card - well it's a no brainer.  Onward. I decided I really wanted a white card to go in the pocket but I needed another source of white on the outer card to balance that out - hence the white scallop border. I created the white card and edged it in some Fine Linen Ink (one of those details you'd only notice if it wasn't there yaknow?). I used the little plaid patch in the set, stamped it on Fine Linen and cut it with the Framed Out #1 die. I stamped a strawberry and die cut it, popped it up with some foam on top of that little patch and adhered it to the white card. I looked around for a sentiment and finally settled on the "Hello you" from Trendy Tree Tops. I made the little tab on the upper right corner using the same little plaid patch and glued it on. Finally, I stitched around the whole thing. That's all for today. A lot to do this afternoon. Why are the weekends so short? Have a good one!

Tag-a-lot

When my daughter and I used to do Girl Scouts we'd also do the summer Day Camp program for a week that they have here in my neck o' the woods :-) It was called Camp Tag-a-long. (The idea was mom's who volunteered could also bring other kids with them and those kids could participate in all the activities too - it was great - course my son is 5 years older than his sister - and he was not gonna tag-a-long LOL but that's another story). Anyhow I was thinking about those days while I was making a bunch of tags this afternoon. I tagged-a-lot. I cracked out Papertrey Ink's Tiny Treats: Birthday set as well as the 2012 Birthday set - I just love these stamps! The first pic shows tags using the 2012 Birthday set. I did a lot of stamping, cutting apart, and gluing - I swear it's better than therapy. I just love doing this kind of shtuff. I used that Tag Sale #3 die again as well as the Limitless Layers Ovals and Circles Collections. 
On the next two tags I used the Tiny Treats: Birthday set. There are so many cute little images to choose from but today that little bee caught my eye. I used a Copic marker as well as a Prismacolor pencil with a little sparkly Gelly Roll pen (for the wings) to color him in. And those polka dots? I had some Smash tape sitting on my desk and I thought it would go very nicely.
Okay that's all from me - have a good one!

Baby Cards

 I recently bought a baby stamp set from Papertrey Ink called Bundle of Joy - it's so cute and a really nice basic set. I hadn't had a new baby set in years - I needed something new! I thought I'd make a few cards for my stash this afternoon.  The background paper is from the Fine Linen Pattern Pack from PTI.
This set is so easy to stamp with - lining up the different bundle patterns with the main bundle image - easy peasy! Then I just colored in the baby with some Copic markers.
It's been a while since I've made a card with no die cutting involved! I do love my dies :-)

With that said, I did make some gift tags to go along with these cards - using what else? a die LOL  I used the Tag Sale #3 die from Papertrey. It's just the best all around tag. Here's a pic of the tags. I think they're really going to look so cute on a baby gift. I didn't add any ribbon right now. I'll pick the ribbon when I wrap the gifts.
That's all for today - have a good one!

A few more Father's Day cards

I'm back again with a few more Father's Day cards using the World's Greatest stamp set from Papertrey Ink. On the first card I also used the Background Basics: Medallions (I think next to the BB: Gingham, the Medallions is my favorite!) On all three of these cards I used the Half & Half Die Collection (you see two of the three dies here - such an easy way to create a design element on a card. I also kinda think they'd make nice bookmarks yaknow?). Oh yeah - on the first card I cut the striped circle using a circle die and the other cards I die cut those cute little ties (I still have a bunch of ties sitting on my drawing table here just waiting for some ink).

Hope you're having a good one - it's been pretty hot here in the 'burg- our upstairs A/C gave out on Monday.  Not great timing but then again - it never is right? The temps on Monday and Tuesday were over 90. Today the temperature is more like 80 and - the repairman came and we're back in business. 
Alright - enough from me for today! Have a good one ~

Father's Day Cards

A few cards I made using PTI's World's Greatest stamp set. It's really a great set for Father's Day or masculine birthday cards - so many wonderful sentiments that you can mix and match.

A few more Graduation Cards

 I made a few more graduation cards

Make it Monday #67 Mixing Patterned Papers

So the challenge was to combine 3 or more patterned papers. For me.. this was a challenge. I go for two routinely, but 3 is hard. I used two papers from the Memory Box Minuet 6x6 paper pad and some lovely plaid paper from Chatterbox I've been hoarding. I love that plaid....  I used the Papertrey Ink Enjoy the Ride set I've had for a long time (and it needed a little love :-)) to make a Graduation Card. I die cut the cute little car and stamped the colored portion twice with Spring Moss (I wanted a darker green that's in that Chatterbox paper). Cut the double ended banner die and stamped it in a navy ink. I used some foam mounting tape to pop up the car and the center of the banner.  I've taken about 4 pics of this card and it looks crisp and clear until I upload to blogger - I wish I knew what that was about...grrr. Anyway, that's all for me for today - we're going to look at flowers for the yard so I need to get a move on. Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Oh I just checked and if you click on the pic of the card you'll see a nice clear image - yay!

PTI Blog hop for May

I wanted to participate in this month's blog hop. The challenge was to pair green with bold black and white patterns. Ok... so no real patterns here LOL. I did play around with some and as I'm running out of time this will have to suffice. Now that isn't to say I don't like what I came up with - I really am happy with it. I wanted to try out using my new Notched Flowers Die Collection. And I haven't used this sentiment - from Flower Fusion #12. But I have used that little flower from the Mat Stack #5 collection and I love it here. Also - it's hard to see but I dry embossed some lines around the sentiment. Ok I have to run. Thanks for looking

For You (Year of Flowers)

I wish these photos were better but .... I wanted to make a few cards with the Garden Variety II set from Papertrey Ink - along with the Year of Flowers Collection set. May's flower is Lilies of the Valley and we know how much I love the larger version of that stamp. I used the Seed Packet Frame 2 die and stamped it then used the Year of Flowers Titles Mini Stamp set to stamp in the "Lilies of the Valley" at the top. I used some Anna Griffin patterned paper I still have along with some cardstock I embossed with the swiss dot embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I searched around and found a wee label from Making Memories that I could stamp with "for you". Now I know you can see some black ribbon and some polka dotted ribbon but you cannot see some Smash tape (black polka dot) that's there too - but you can see it in the next card. And finally I used some Copic markers to color in the image of the flowers.

Now on to card number two. This also uses some Anna Griffin paper and the same Seed Packet Frame 2 die. This time I took the title and kinda bent the stamp so the title "Morning Glories" follows the line of the seed packet frame. I used the same ribbons and that Smash tape as well as another little tag. The flower image was colored using Prismacolor pencils - for the leaves I used some Copic markers.
I'll wrap up here saying that I have such a hard time tying those pretty bows (and they certainly don't survive an envelope well) - but they're so pretty it can be worth the effort every one in a while LOL
have a good one!

another Grad card

this one came together very quickly - I embossed the Mat Stack #1 die shape with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder. The image and sentiment are from PTI's For the Graduate stamp set. And I also used the Limitless Layers Circle Die Collection for the center die cut and the black layer underneath it. A simple but elegant graduation card.
Today I worked on some Father's Day cards I'll probably post tomorrow. Have a good one!

Graduation Cards

It's that time of year - Graduations going on everywhere. I made a few cards from a retired StampinUp! set.
I like the red/black combo and they're the colors for one of our local high schools
I even cracked out the Stampamajig for this one - that background text stamp is maybe 2x2.

For the second card I also used Papertrey Ink's By the Numbers dies.








I'll definitely be making a few more graduation cards in the next few weeks - and I'll be trying out a new Papertrey Ink graduation set I just received - it's nice to have a little creative variety right?
okay I'm off to see what I can make! Have a good afternoon ~

Let's get together for coffee

I had a little bit of time this afternoon so I thought I'd make a couple of quick cards. I used the Heart-2-Heart #1 mini stamp set from Papertrey Ink as well as the coordinating die for the cup, the double ended banner and spiral notebook page dies. I also used two stamps from Purple Onion Designs: the Late 1800's script and Antique Ledger backgrounds. The patterned paper is an old one I had from Foofala. I colored part of the cup with some Copic markers. I used some Antique Linen Distress Ink on the sprial notebook page around the edges and did a little stitching on both cards. I really love the color combination of the kraft, cream and red cardstock (Scarlet Jewel from PTI).  Okay that's all for now!I

Happy Birthday Princess

I've been waiting for several months to make this card LOL and today I finally got my chance. It's Mother's Day - Happy Mother's Day to you all - and so I'm a lady of leisure today. (I hope you are too.)
So as I said I've been waiting to make this card - just other cards to make, things to do, blah blah. But today had to be the day because my sweet-pink-and-princess-anything-that-sparkles-loving-almost-4-year-old niece's birthday is next Sunday and I've got to get her gifts (and card!) in the mail. This is the youngest of all my many nieces and nephews and my sister's child. She is a special kid and deserves a special (pink-of-course) card. I hate to admit it but I bought the stamp set I used - Papertrey Ink Tiny Treats: Birthday primarily because I wanted that adorable little princess image (and in fact I have used the set for other cards already - so it's worked out quite nicely). And when deciding to purchase that set it was this card by Dawn McVey that sent me over the edge. All the little "2"'s - well and that adorable monkey - but the 2's stuck in my head and I thought I'd have to use that for this card - but using 4's ;-) .... which necessitated the purchase of the By the Numbers dies.... LOL. Okay so I used some Copics and Stampin Write markers as well as a Gelly Roll Clear Glitter pen for the little image. Other dies: the Limitless Layers Circles and the Mat Stack 5 and Mat Stack 5 Layerz. Oh yes - and the Swiss Dot Embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I should mention that I sort of edited the sentiment. I bent the Happy Birthday part so it was rounded/arc'd...?... and I just inked up the word Princess (the stamp actually says Princess Wishes).
All for now - enjoy your Mother's Day!

Make it Monday #65 - Shabby Strawberry Card

okay so the challenge was to use patterned paper scraps to create a background. Originally i wasn't going to do this challenge - although I loved the wonderful video and I loved the card that was created for inspiration. I just have been playing with stamps in some stolen moments and had a few cards to make that I just needed to get done. I looked down at my drawing table and I discovered I had all kinds of patterns floating around LOL - now they weren't patterned paper scraps per se. They were pieces of stamped images - mostly background stamps. I thought well HEY... I'm gonna give this a try! And a card was born :-) I used all stamps from Papertrey Ink: Strawberry Patch, Polka Dot Basics, BB: Tintypes, BB: Gingham. The sentiment is a partial stamping of a sentiment from the Celebrations set. I used my circle Nestabilites and accompanying scallop circle, as well as the Papertrey Double-Ended Banner die. I found a button and threw that into the mix. And I did a little stitching on my machine. Oh and the strawberry image is stamped but the background around it is colored with a Copic marker.  I am so glad I gave that a try - I really like all the patterns together! Now off to go out to dinner with my family for Mother's Day (the husband has to go out of town tomorrow afternoon so we're doing our little celebration this evening). Have a good nite!