Celebrate-The Greetery Cake Pops and Pinwheel Stencils

 Hello!

I hope your week is off to a good start. 

I've got a fun project to share today. My friend, Kay, at My Joyful Moments, posted projects for The Greetery's May and 1st Anniversary Release recently.  I became completely smitten and had to have them so I could join in the fun. 

*Ü*

I pretty much CASEd Kay's projects, tweaking a bit here and there based on supplies I had. By the time I ordered, some of the products were already out of stock. No matter, I was still able to have fun creating. 

Feel free to click on the images to enlarge the photos. 

Kay added a cord to the base of her cake. I didn't have any cord, but I thought this 1/8th inch ribbon looked nice. I also just had to add the tiny pink bling on the cake plate. I also added some "frosting" to the flower centers. 

View from the top!

I ordered the pinwheel stencils and could not believe how easy these were to use to make an amazing card! I found a video ont the Greetery's You Tube page that shows how to use them, but basically you just follow the markings on each stencil. So fun!

I used Distress Oxide Inks to create the pinwheels: Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar, Squeezed Lemonade and Spiced Marmalade. There is a fun stamp set that has the sentiment Let's Party, but it was sold out. So I used an MFT Celebrate die. Too bad you can't see the glitter from my Nuvo Shimmer Pen. The banner is from a Greetery mini add on die and stamp set. The Let's Party stamp set has super fun star images that Kay used on her card. Well I had to get creative and searched my stamp collection to find Lawn Fawn's Party Animal set with confetti type images. The star stamp is from Hello Sunshine. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Hugs, 

Needed Some Cards...

Hi there!

Well, I wish I made some cards just for fun, but unfortunately, I found myself in need of sympathy cards. My lifelong friend's father passed away. He and his wife had been married for 54 years! What a remarkable achievement. He had a good life, but is gone too soon. 

I was inspired to make this card from one made by Kay Miller

The following card might be a little bright, but I feel it still fits. I cased this one on Clips-n-Cuts 

I actually made a third one, but I neglected to take a picture of it! Darn. 

It looked a lot like this one. :)

I also made this birthday card. I saw this design somewhere, but cannot find it right now. 

My girls and I actually went to California to attend the funeral. It was the very first time my girls had been there and the first time I'd been back "home" in fifteen years. We spent a long weekend. My dad was thrilled (well, except for the reason we went). The service was lovely and a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man. 

The highlight of the trip was going to the beach. There was no way we were going to be in CA and not go to the beach. My mom took us kids every Wednesday during summer break when I was growing up. She would drive us through Topanga Canyon, for those of you who might know that route. We used to go to Santa Monica beach, but it's gotten to be such a tourist area, my brother thought it'd be more fun(less crowded) to head to Zuma beach. He was right. We did drive home on Topanga Canyon, though. :) 

And look! We saw dolphins! (I asked the lifeguard to be absolutely certain). I've never seen dolphins when at the beach. There were about 6 of them swimming along the shoreline. They'd move out of our sight line and then they came back. I was thrilled to capture them in photos. So cool!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I truly appreciate the visit. 

I hope you are having a good day.

The Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics are tonight. Are you going to watch?

Hugs,

Jeanne

Birthday Card(s) and Gift

Hello there!

Long time, no chat! I'm still here in my little corner of the world trying to keep up and catch up on all the stuff I need to do. After being a stay at home mom for 13 or so years, I never thought getting a part time job would throw my world into such the tizzy as it appears to have done. I think having two girls in middle school has helped keep me hopping as well. 

The job is going well, but it's definitely a busy one. I'm on the go from the moment I get there and I don't really stop until the shift is over. I can't remember if I shared that I am working as a cook/cashier in an elementary school kitchen. In my life before kids I was an elementary school teacher. However, I don't wish to go back into the classroom (I know myself~I wouldn't be able to balance mom and teacher very well at all-heck I can barely manage part time work and mom)so, this was a good alternative for me. I still have some contact with the kids, but I don't have to worry about lesson plans or grades and I am home when my kids are home. Win, win! The girls have had many after school/evening events over the past several weeks which has kept me/us on the go. Add a weekend activity or two and my crafty time is shot. But really, I know I am singing to the choir. I don't know how some of you moms handle full time jobs and kiddos and crafty time. Bless you for keeping it together better than I feel I am doing. Life is full and good, and my kids are happy. That is what matters in the end. *Ü*

I am trying to be crafty, but it's a different crafty, how's that? I have rediscovered my love of counted cross stitch. Like crocheting or knitting, it is something I can pick up when I have a minute and put down when my time is up or when my eyes refuse to stay open. So, when I have a minute that is what I have been working on. I showed you a couple of projects in my last post. Well, I have a few more items to share today, plus a couple of cards. Yay! 

Sit back, grab a cuppa whatever, this post is a little bit photo heavy. Fair warning!

A couple of months ago I came across a book from Annie's Attic called Easy Cross Stitch Cards & Tags. One of the projects on the cover was this owl. The card in the book is a Halloween swing style card, but  I have a friend whose birthday was approaching and I thought she'd like this owl on her card(and not necessarily the Boo! in the original design). She's likes to cross-stitch, too. This is stitched on perforated paper and cut out. I used lots of pop dots to give it a bit of dimension. The paper is Doodlebug, my favorite!  I was really excited to see ideas for cross stitch projects made into cards and look forward to trying to make more.

I also found a neat idea in a magazine called Just Cross Stitch. I picked this issue up at Barnes and Noble. What drew me in is the gorgeous wreath on the cover. Yeah, I actually thought I'd be able to whip that one out in time for Thanksgiving this year. Delusional much? Snort. I haven't even started stitching it. Inside though, I saw a neat Owl Candle Band and I thought my friend, who loves owls, would like this as well. Only not as a candle band. She's not a fan of candles (we have a lot in common, I'm not such fan of them either). 

It's kind of hard to take photos of stitched projects. I think the camera is great at emphasizing the holes in the paper! Click to enlarge if you like. This is also stitched on perforated paper. 

Here is my alternative to a candle band.

I found a jar at Hobby Lobby that the band would wrap around. I added a tube of cardstock.

I filled that tube with dark chocolate M & Ms.

yum

I added some tinseling fluffy stuff in fall colors to hide the tube.

And attached the band to the jar using super sticky tape. 

I got the tube idea from one of my new friends and co-workers who is a crafty gal. Her idea was to use the tube on a smaller scale as way to give money as a gift. She saw it on Pinterest, I think.

And finally, Jessica had a birthday last month. I saw a card idea I knew she would love on the Lawn Fawn blog here. I watched the video and figured I could make it, if I had the  images used. I got some help from a friend(thank you so much, sweet friend) since I didn't own the kitty and frame stamps needed (I had other stamps to do the rest) and got to work casing the card.

Jessica loved it! 

She has a cat loving friend who attended the birthday party who loved the card, too. 

So, when the friend's birthday came around, I made her one, too.

I used Distress Inks-Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberries and Squeezed Lemonade.  The frame and kitty images are from my friend(Lawn Fawn sets). The cupcake is from an old Doodlebug birthday set. The word birthday and hat are from Lawn Fawn's So Much to Say set. The letters for purr-fect are an Avery Elle letter set. The banner on Jessica's card is a heart stamp. I was in Michaels recently and came across a wooden stamp two-fer that had the banner on the friend's card. Whoo hoo! The coloring on the cat, frame and banner is done with Primacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. 

Whew! 

That is it from me today.

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading if you got this far.

Have a happy and creative day!

Hugs,

Jeanne

Happy Birthday Cards

I've got a card to share that I started working on a couple of weeks ago. I had trouble with creating it, so when I got frustrated, I'd walk away from it. When I felt like I could try again, I'd go back and get a little bit closer to finishing it. I tried last week to get it done, but the girls kept distracting me with this, that or the other. I'm sure you get the gist. Well, they are back to school now, so I had no excuses today when I decided to try and finish it. 

Success! 

I picked up a book on interactive cards at Joann's last month. One of the cover cards drew me in big time and it was the attempt at making this card that got me so frustrated. It wasn't that the card design was so difficult, it was the fact that I don't own the die that the person used to create the model card. I wanted to manipulate my Spellbinders Labels One die cut to work. I think I finally got it! Here's my version of the card that is on the cover of the book.

I decided to use a Hero Arts stamp set called Cupcakes. I really wanted to use the sentiment included in the set, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the stamped sentiment to fit into the opening when the slider was pulled out. That was another source of frustration with this card. I decided to use the computer for that part. I found the font,  Celia Garcia, on Dafont. The papers are mostly from DCWV's The Birthday Wishes stack (6x6 size) The happy birthday is from Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics. (note to self; look for some new birthday stamps!) I used Sharpies to color in the cupcake image and fussy cut the images and attached with foam squares.  I used a Labels One Spellbinders die and my trimmer to cut the opening for the slider portion. I was going to decorate the inside, too, but you know what? I didn't feel like it anymore after I got it done today. I'm calling it good. :)

This next card was inspired by one that was linked on my friend, Alanna's blog. (Alanna's blog is fun. She is a sweetheart and makes great Clean and Simple cards-check it out if you have a minute) She was highlighting a new follower on this post and I clicked over on the link she provided. And proceeded to get all happy about the card I saw. I started following Katie's blog, too, and decided to case the card. Did you follow that? I keep trying to explain it and it seems so convoluted. Here's a link to the card I was inspired by.

It's a case for sure, the Paper Smooches kitty from Chubby Chums sure makes me smile. Doodlebug stripes seem to fit the card. The paper is from Doodlebug's Fruit Stand 6x6 pad. I colored the kitties with pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I tried to color the background with pencil, too, but it didn't look good. I thought I could color over it with Sharpie and get away with it, but seeing it here, that didn't work so well. In real life, it doesn't look that different. Hrmmmm, may have to restamp and recolor. Sigh.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hope you have a happy day.

*Ü*

Jeanne

Happy Summer!

Hi there!

Well, it's officially summer! Hope you are enjoying it wherever you are. It hasn't been too hot here, but I'm sure that won't last too long.

*Ü*

The girls and I are enjoying ourselves. We've done a few things, but mostly they are enjoying life being a little low key right now. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to sneak into my crafty corner as often as I'd like. But today I managed to. Well, I had to do some clean up before I could actually do anything. It's amazing how things start to pile up when you turn your back. 

Anyway, after some fiddling and futzing, this is what I came up with. I was inspired by a card I saw here. (edited to fix link) The yellow and black really caught my eye. 

I searched my stash and found a Close To My Heart Stamp Set that doesn't have a name on it. I'm pretty sure I've used it before, and Becky probably told me what the name of it was, but I didn't note it. (oops) The Happy Birthday is from Papertrey Ink. I added some gems and decided at the last minute to try putting some tiny ones on to mimic doodling three dots together. I like it! (The yellow ink is Sunflower from CTMH)

And just because it's not really summer until you have a "snowcone." I had to get some shots of Jessica making hers. It's a shaved ice machine, but the girls call them snowcones. Who am I to quibble? I'm happy they are self sufficient and make their own.  ;)

The juice is Strawberry Watermelon. 

Yum!

Well, they thought so. 

I like mine with lemonade, but we don't have any right now.

Best fix that soon.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I hope you have a happy day!

Jeanne

Mary Engelbreit Easel Birthday Card

Updated January 12, 2015 to let my readers know that My Scrap Chick is no longer selling the Mary Engelbreit SVG files. I don't know of any shops at this time that are carrying them. :( If you come across this post and find another store selling the files, please let me know and I will update this post. 

A good friend of mine is a fan of Mary Engelbreit and for many years I would look for fun ME gift items to give to her. Several months ago, one of the SVG companies I get newsletters from, My Scrap Chick, started selling Mary Engelbreit SVG files. I knew immediately I wanted to make the Ann Estelle file for my friend for her birthday. I just sent it off to her and thought you might like to see how it turned out. I used my Silhouette Cameo and the Designer Edition Studio program.  Feel free to click on the photos to enlarge them if you want a closer look.

The file I purchased had  bonus files included to make the easel card, chunky envelope and liner. The envelope is 6x6 in size, which gives you an idea of the size of the card. It also included printable tags. I just had to dig through my stash to find the colors of cardstock I wanted to use(mostly Close to My Heart, but also some Recollections and American Crafts. 

I had a lot of fun putting this one together.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I hope you have a great weekend.

*Ü* 

Jeanne

Baseball Birthday Card in a Box by Becky

Wow, isn't that title nice and almost alliterative! *Ü* 

My friend Becky liked the idea of the Valentine Card in a Box that I shared last month and wanted to try her hand at making one for an Angels baseball fan friend of hers. That's why we went shopping the other day. She wanted to pick up some goodies to use on this card (Well, and it's just plain fun to shop in a scrapbook/stamping store). She worked hard on her project yesterday and shared what she created with me. She gave me permission to share it with you. There are so many fun things to look at.  I think you'll agree she did a fantastic job! I'm sure her friend will be thrilled at the time and effort she took to create this awesome card. 

The particulars: baseball 3-D sticker and paper by Karen Foster; Angels stickers by WinCraft; All Star stamp set, Happy Birthday stamp set, Cranberry, Desert Sand and Outdoor Denim inks, Champagne, White Daisy and kraft cardstock by CTMH; scrap red cardstock

Thanks for letting me share, Becky! It's a terrific example of how versatile this card in box idea can be. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Hope you have a great day!

Jeanne

(and Becky)

*Ü*

A Heartfilled Happy Birthday Card

Happy Valentine's Day! Unfortunately for me, I was never able to head back to my crafty corner to make any other Valentine projects. :( My friend, Barb, though...wow! She's been busy creating lots of lovely projects. You should go check them out, here! That's just one post!

I do have a card to share that I made a while ago, but haven't posted. And, it's full of hearts! I watched Kristina Werner's Friday Focus video here and just really liked the idea of stamping a bunch of hearts. So, I did!

The heart stamp is from Lawn Fawn I believe. Although it doesn't matter, any small heart will work. 

I used Close To My Heart inks: Crystal Blue, Cotton Candy, Sunset, Pear and Dutch Blue. I colored the piece of vellum with a Chromatix (American Crafts) marker and was tickled at how well it coordinated. The Happy Birthday is heat embossed in white and is from the Happy Birthday set (retired) from CTMH. 

I also wanted to thank you for the well wishes for my girls. Amy was right as rain the next day and has been fine ever since. I did end up taking Jessica to the doctor earlier this week as she woke up feeling awful again on Monday morning. Her bug had developed into a sinus infection. She is now on antibiotics and is doing much, much better!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hope you have a lovely day!

Jeanne

Happy Birthday Card and Cross Stitch Project

How's that for a blog post title? They are not combined, but someday I do want to incorporate a mini cross stitch project onto a card.

Today I have a card to share that took some time in the creating. I saw this great kit on SVG Cuts and fell in love with the house. While I haven't had the chance to make that, a friend's birthday was coming up and I wanted to make a card for her. I kept looking at the card with the honeycomb/hexagons on the front and the fun pop up heart on the inside. I wanted to use that file because I thought the friend, who is like a grandmother to my girls, would love seeing the heart pop up when she opened the card. The only thing was, I didn't want the "bee mine" to be cut on the front panel. I figured it couldn't be too hard to "erase" that from the design. Well, in the end it wasn't too hard, but I am still so new to the Cameo and the Designer Studio program, it took me a while(and some tips from a friend) to figure out how to get it done. My instinct on what I needed to do was correct, I just thought for a while it wasn't working when it really was. I had to release the compound path (for those of you with a Cameo). Then pieces were under the main front panel and I had to move it to see them and then I could delete the portion I didn't want cut. Whew. Because it took a bit longer than I had hoped to figure that out (and I am like a dog with a bone when I want something to work the way I want it to work) I was running out of time to be able to get the card into the mail and have it arrive on time. So, it's not as embellished as much as I might have liked. Still, I'm very happy with the final project and I learned a few things along the way. All good things! Hope you like it, too.

The card is a bit larger than 5x7, but there is an envelope file that you can cut as well. I love how Mary and Leo think of everything!

I used Close To My Heart cardstock and paper for most of the design. The cardstock colors are Twilight and Baby Pink. The pattern paper is mostly from a retired line called Chantilly (I just love the colors, plus, my mom used to wear Chantilly perfume and that memory makes me smile). The polka dotted paper is from a Christmas 12x12 stack I got at Michaels. 

The Happy Birthday sentiment on the front is CTMH, aptly named Happy Birthday Script and the inside sentiment is Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics. 

Feel free to click on the images to make them larger if you like. 

And in case you were interested, I finished stitching the counted cross stitch design I was working on. 

The magazine shows the design put together as a cushion, but I think I may frame it instead. 

The colors just make me happy. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hope you have a great day!

Jeanne

Floral Birthday Using Art Philosophy

Hello! Hope you have had a wonderful weekend so far. Happy Thanksgiving weekend to those of you who read my blog in the US. We had a neat day. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science is hosting a Mythbusters Exhibition until January. We have wanted to go, but had to do so when Steve was available. Knowing the museum was open on Thanksgiving and that we eat at our normal supper time(no family in town), we decided to go Thursday morning. It was a great time as it wasn't too busy. 

Here are a few sort of decent photos I managed to capture with my phone camera and a bit of enhancing in PSE.

 Steve even got in on the hands on activities. This one was about building a structure that could withstand wind ala The Three Pigs. 

Jessica loved creating all kinds of structures with the different blocks available.

I'm so happy to have this picture turn out okay. This was a highlight of the exhibit. The question to answer was do you get wetter walking or running in the rain. You could do either through a walkway that mimicked rainfall. Then you could look at yourself in a mirror with a blacklight above it. You could then see how many waterdrops you got. Of course the girls went through several times, so the results are not really scientifically accurate. ;) Neat result nonetheless.

And onto the card I created. I saw the original here on Courtney Lane Designs. I thought the cluster of flowers and leaves were just so pretty. I don't own the Art Philosophy cartridge(for the flowers and leaves), but I have a friend who does (Hi Becky) and who is nice enough to let me borrow it. *Ü*

Here is my version of the card:

It's pretty much a copy and steal everything. I used CTMH cardstock and inks: Baby Pink, Buttercup, Pear, Sunflower and Cotton Candy. I used pattern paper from the Chantilly paper pack. The centers of the flowers are punched with circle punches.The focal piece is a cut from the Artiste cartridge (p. 33). The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics set. I embossed the background with a Darice embossing folder. I meant to use it the other way, but didn't realize I had it "backwards" until after I  adhered the flowers. Oh well. I kind of like the detail of the debossed look. So, happy accident there! Oh the sparkly looking gems are from CTMH as well. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I just love it when the creative mojo is flowing!

Hello! Owl and Dotty Birthday Cards

This first card has been sitting on my desk for a week or so. I got it done and took a picture, but didn't take the time to edit it until today. Then I saw there was a small scrap of paper laying right on top of the background paper. Ooops. Had to take a new photo. Looks better. 

Anyway, saw this design on Pinterest here and thought it was adorable.

Here's my take on it. Using Doodlebug Happy Harvest with a smidge of kraft paper. The pearls are from Michaels if I remember correctly. Those owls sure are cute!

Then I saw this card on Pinterest as well and had to create my own stamped version. I showed Jessica and she thought the dots were a paper, not stamped. Awwww, thanks honey. 

CTMH ink(Watermelon, Sunflower and Orange), cardstock and a bit of Bo Bunny Double Dots paper with some CTMH sparkle gems and some pink gems from Michaels (most likely). I also used a ribbon banner stamp from a stamp set that comes with the Artiste cartridge. The labels are cut with the Artiste cartridge. 

I used dot stamps from Papertrey Ink's Dot Basics set...have had that one for a lonnnnng time. Happy Birthday is from PTI's Birthday Basics set. 

Gosh it was fun to stamp the dots.

*Ü*

Thanks for stopping by. 

I've got one more to share in a new post. 

The "feel" of the card is less cutesy, so I decided to post it separately.

Birthday Cards

My oldest brother and twin brothers celebrate their birthdays this weekend. That's 3 birthday boys in two days. I was actually on the ball this year and got cards made and sent off in time! I also noticed that my last several posts have been layouts. You might be ready to see some cards. *Ü* The designs are not mine, of course, but the thoughts of my brothers while I was creating them certainly are!

 Dutch Blue Cardstock, ink, Birthday stamp set (CTMH), Green Tea Stack (DCWV) Gems, (Recollections brand, Michaels)

Kraft cardstock, woodgrain embossing folder (Paper Studio, Hobby Lobby), Green Tea Stack (brown strip and circles) {DCWV}, Gems (Recollections brand, Michaels), Happy Birthday stamp, Cocoa ink (CTMH)

I am a little annoyed with myself. I am pretty sure I saw these first two cards on Pinterest, but I didn't pin them. I just scrolled through while looking for ideas that appealed to me. Now, of course, I can't find those pins. Sorry. But I am not claiming these ideas were mine. You all know me better than that, right? 

This next card was originally created by my friend Barb, here. I just adore how Barb creates her cards. There is so much attention to detail. Plus she shares a lot of little tidbits about the techniques she uses. Anyway, I decided to mimic the card linked above.

I did vary it a bit by changing up the focal piece cut (Framelits by Sizzix, purchased at Archiver's, although sold other places as well). I colored the Meljen's cupcake image with pencils and odorless mineral spirits. (I leave the Copic coloring to the professionals, like Barb *Ü*) I added the gems (from Recollections brand at Michaels). I know I've said that a lot. There is a bigger box of these gems that they sell that have several sizes of gems in the box. That's where these tiny gems are coming from. I used a bit of a glittery pen as well at more of that Green Tea Stack (guess it's my go-to paper for guy cards). I had the same Martha Stewart border/embossing punch that Barb used. All in all, I'm pleased at the final result (although I continue to be iffy about the paper used for the strip across the card...those brown edges look strange to me, but I couldn't find anything else that would even remotely work in my opinion...It is what it is.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Enjoy your day.

Take Note Circle Happy Birthday Card

I saw a neat looking card here on the Bug Lover Cards blog. I really liked the cut out circle portion of the card. I know the person who created the card shown used an SVG file from Lori Whitlock, but I don't have that file. I thought I might be able to mimic the look using some circle punches. It was a little harder than I thought, but I managed to get a decent look with the punches I have. 

I was at Michaels over the weekend and they had some new product (to me at least) out from the Recollections line. You can see the two wooden leaves. They are small laser cut wood embellishments. Kind of like the butterflies I have used on previous cards, but these have  more detailed cuts. They are on sale this week 40% off, in case you are interested. They come in a wooden tray with six spots and a total of 18 embellishments. There are flowers, butterflies, leaves, houses and even mushrooms in one set. I was excited to use some on a card. I just used a glue dot on the side that would be covered by the flower.

Speaking of the flower, it's from CTMH's Hello Blooms stamp set stamped in Sunset ink. The happy birthday banner is from the Kudos stamp set that comes with the Artiste cartridge. And the happy birthday sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics set.

The pattern paper is from Doodlebugs Flower Pot 6x6 pad. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Hope your week is off to a good start.

*Ü*

Take Note Flower Happy Birthday

There is a new challenge blog out there called Fusion Card Challenge. I found out about by reading Kay Miller's blog (she's on the design team). If you follow my blog at all, you know that I don't enter challenges much, if at all. And I'm not entering this one really. I just wanted to see what I could create with the ideas from the first challenge. They have a sketch and a photo and you could use one or the other or both in your card. So, I tried to use both, kinda. 

First up, I found out that my Cricut cartridges don't have a zig zag cut. Really? That seems odd, but whatever. I didn't have a stamp that I liked (that would go across the width of the paper). But I did like the Take Note zig zag paper, so that was my starting point.  The sketch had some squares on it, too, which is where the green square came from. It looked a little plain, so I added some polka dots to it. The photo had pretty flowers on it, so that's where the flower idea came from and I just got Hello Blooms from Close To My Heart (thanks, Becky) and wanted to use that set. I toyed with the idea of adding some gems somewhere, but it seemed to throw off the balance, so I opted to keep them off. 

All in all, I think it looks okay. And I stretched myself a bit. Baby steps, right?

Supplies:

Paper: Take Note Collection (Doodlebug Designs), Clover Meadow, Sunflower (Close To My Heart)

Ink: Clover Meadow, Sunset, Watermelon (Close To My Heart)

Stamps: Birthday Basics, Polka Dot Basics (Papertrey Ink), Hello Blooms (Close To My Heart)

Flower punch (McGill, I think), textured brad is from Hobby Lobby

Thanks for stopping by! *Ü*

Take Note Banner Birthday Card

I know I am a big time copy cat most of the time as my last card will attest. But on occasion I do try to pick out papers and such on my own. After I made the copy of Kay's card the other day, I worked on a version with papers I chose myself. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I think I probably should exercise that part of my brain more often. But here is what I came up with using Doodlebug's new line called Take Note.

It really is a trial and error process isn't it? I had initially picked out different papers, but upon working with them, I realized they really didn't look all that great, so I fiddled and futzed and ended up with this look, which I am much happier with. 

Supplies:

Take Note 6x6 paper pad

Cricut cartridges: Pretty Pennants (to make banner template), Artiste (label)

Nestabilities: Circle, Scalloped Circle

Stamp: Birthday Basics from Papertrey Ink

Border punches: Martha Steward, Fiskars

Flower punches, Gems: various from stash

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Sally Curtsies So Sweetly

I pinned a card last week because I thought the image was so very sweet. Then I went on the hunt at Sassy Cheryl’s to find the image. It took a little time, but I managed to find Sassy Sally Curtsy. She was in the $2 area, which I wasn’t expecting. Anyway…here’s the inspiration for the card I made. I am really liking Pinterest for opening my eyes to new and neat blogs!

I used, what else, my colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits to color the image. :) And I sponged some Tim Holtz Faded Jeans distress ink to look like sky. I had the Doodlebug polka dot paper in my stash from last spring. I paired it with Hydrangea (CTMH) cardstock and some green pattern paper (unknown brand). I punched the Martha Stewart border, added a narrow white organdy ribbon and added some Doodlebug twine. My nod to doing something different was to offset the image.  I like the final result quite a bit. :)

While I had the paper sitting on my desk, I quick made another clean and simple card, pretty much casing this one.

These are squares with two corners rounded off. The larger square is 1 1/4 inches and the smaller is 3/4 inch. I probably could have cut smaller squares, but it would have been harder to round the corners of the smaller piece. The happy birthday is from Papertrey Ink’s Birthday Basics set and stamped in Hydrangea ink. The purple gem is from my stash and I think it was Kaisercraft, but it’s not in the packaging so I can’t say for sure. It’s hard to tell from this shot, but the petals of the flower are pop dotted as well.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day!