Momenta's Floral Simply Perfect Page Kit

Hi Everyone!

Busy days! Busy nights! I've been working, entertaining, being entertained and getting ready for Jeanne's birthday. Jeanne will turn 55 on Saturday and I have been creating all sorts of paper crafts for the celebration. I cannot share them with you until after the party because Jeanne and some of her friends read my blog. I am very excited about some of my creations so it's hard to wait to share them with you.



Meanwhile, last night I stepped away from "preparing for the party" for a while and played around with some of the contents in Momenta's Floral Simply Perfect Page Kit. This kit includes 6 patterned papers, puffy stickers, bling, alphabet and message stickers, chipboard stickers, a gorgeous die cut mat, frames, tags, and more. I decided to use 2 of the papers, some of the chipboard stickers, and a few of the alphabet stickers to create some cards.


I added some ribbon from my stash to this card.

The text was created with a stamp from Lawn Fawn's "Hello Friend" clear stamp set. All other components of the card are from Memento's Floral Simply Perfect Kit.


Everything I used on this card with the exception of the lace is also from that kit. The lace is from Hero Arts.

The background paper, butterflies and flower on this card are also from the kit.

 
I used a scrap of SEI paper to create the sun. The text was stamped with a clear stamp from PaperTrey Ink's Egg Hunt set.

That's it for today.  Science program tonight!  Have a great night!
Carol

4th of July Cards

Good Morning Everyone!

I have another 4th of July card to share with you today.

I used mini porcupine balls to create the fireworks.  Mini porcupine balls are 1" balls that have little flexible rubber points.  Some are rounder than the ones in my photograph. 

You can find them in party stores. I clipped a clothespin to a ball before I dipped it into a puddle of paint. Then I pounced the ball onto a sheet of tag so that a spatter of paint was left on the paper. I did that over and over again using red, white and blue acrylic paint. 

The patriotic puppy was created with a Serendipity stamp.   I used a Hero Arts clear stamp from their Celebrate Everyday set to create the text.  The dog's shirt was colored in with a couple of red Copic markers.

If you have children they would enjoy painting with porcupine balls.  Potato mashers, dish scrubber brushes, and bottoms of soda bottles are also great for gadget painting.

Have a great day!
Carol

Hoppy Birthday to ME

Good Morning!



It's nice to see a blue sky again today. Now if the sun could warm us up just a little! I celebrated my 58th birthday yesterday. I am having one of those wonderful birthdays where the celebrating goes on and on. It started with a package that was overflowing with papercrafting goodies from MaryBeth and has continued with a pre-birthday dinner at Jeanne's last Sunday, a day of shopping and eating out with Jeanne yesterday, a family party hosted by Marie tonight, and Chinese food with Patty next Thursday. I have daffodils from Diane on the dining room table and daisies from Marie on the kitchen counter and in the bay window. There are cards on the mantle and cake balls in the refrigerator. Fun! Fun! Fun!

In between planning and prepping some early childhood teacher trainings and a cooking class for a new afterschool program, I've been busy creating cards for online challenges and trying to rebuild my card inventory.

The minute I saw this wooden "Flower Frog" stamp from Hero Arts I knew I had to add it to my collection. Don't those big eyes and that wide smile on his face make you smile? I have a variety of great text messages I plan to use with that frog, but the first card I created with him was this "Hoppy Birthday!" card. I created the background cattails by adding Stickles to a long grass stamp from A Muse Artstamps. The clouds are die cuts from PaperTrey Ink that I paper pierced. The full view frog is attached to the card with foam tape. The frog's eyes are highlighted with black enamel accents.

I have a stack of cards that need to be photographed, but I need to focus on planning my workshops today. I'll try to post more cards sometime this weekend.


Would you like to see photographs of some of the goodies I have purchased recently and where I got them? If so, please leave me a comment and I will photograph the goodies while I am taking pictures of my cards.


Talk to you very soon.
Carol

St. Patrick's Day cards

Good Morning!

Recently a few friends asked me to create some St. Patrick's Day cards. When I looked through my collection I discovered that I didn't have even one St. Patrick's Day stamp. Not a shamrock, a pot of gold, or even the words, "Happy St. Patrick's Day"!  Although I have placed multiple stamp orders in the past month or so I never even thought of that holiday.



I drove to one of my favorite specialty stores and didn't find any St. Patrick's Day stamps in stock. I asked the woman at the desk if I had overlooked them and was told that they hadn't gotten any yet. Okay, now what?


I purchased a set of Hero Arts "Celebrate Every Day" clear stamps and that gave me the text that I wanted. I drove home and sat staring at my "wall of stamps". Suddenly I had an idea. I grabbed a Martha Stewart heart paper punch and punched out 3 green hearts. I ran them through my Cuttlebug Dots embossing folder and scored them in the middle to give them a little texture. Added a scrap of paper for a stem and I had a shamrock! If I added a 4th heart I could have created a 4 leaf clover.


Then I took my new medium round bowl stamp from DeNami Design, stamped it once on green tag and once on black tag and by adding a few embellishments I had pots of gold.


I found some St. Patrick's Day paper in my "green" paper drawer and some ribbon I liked in my ribbon stash.

Without further ado...here's my first card. The "gold pieces" are rhinestones from my bling container.

Here's my second card. I ran the layering paper through a Cuttlebug Argyle embossing folder. The layering paper has a variety of St. Patrick's Day related words on it. If you tip the paper back and forth you can see and read the words. It's kind of magical.  (You can click on the picture to enlarge it and then you might be able to make out some of the words.  
The "rainbow" was created with some very cool flat rhinestones. The shamrock is a Favorite Findings button. The text was cut from a piece of patterned paper.


Having some friends over today and tomorrow to paper craft!


Have a great day!
Carol

Birthday Lanterns

Good morning!



Valentine's Day is 5 days away, but I have decided it's time for me to move on from that "love"ly holiday. Although I haven't exhausted my ideas or materials for valentine cards and crafts, I've created all of the valentines I need for me to send and for others to purchase.


My house is still decorated for Valentine's Day and there are still valentine treats to bake, but I am in the process of transforming my "Own Little Corner" to get ready for Spring, Easter, and Mother's Day creations. I've rearranged my stamps so that the ones I have for those occasions are front and center. My ribbon organizer is mainly filled with pastel ribbons. Rotating materials makes me more aware of what I have and also makes me aware of what I "need". Note to self... I DON'T need any more Easter or spring themed paper punches.


I rotate my materials frequently, but I clean this corner CONSTANTLY! Why is dust so attracted to computer monitors? Add embossing powders, glitter, adhesives and tiny scraps of paper to the work area and there's even more of a need to clean.


Last night's class for the Lexington Community Education program was so much fun. I met the nicest people who created adorable wreaths and sweet cards. It's fun to share ideas and techniques and to see how others approach their projects.

I made this birthday card a few days ago. The lanterns were created with 2 wooden (from a set of 3) lantern stamps from Hero Arts. I used my Tuxedo Black Memento ink pad to stamp the images onto some scraps of pink, green, and yellow vellum. I colored the images with my Marvy Twinklette markers. I fussy cut the lanterns and punched a tiny hole in the top of each of them before I threaded some gold cord through them.


I ran a piece of white tag through a dotted Cuttlebug embossing folder before I attached it to a blank card. The lanterns are adhered to the layering paper with dimensional foam tape. I touched the tip of a few markers to some of the dots on the tag to make them look like confetti falling through the air. "Birthdays are the best" was stamped with a PaperTrey Ink clear stamp from their Blooming Buttons set. I deliberately "curled" the stamp a little before I attached it to a clear block.


Have a great day!
Carol

More Valentines!

Good Morning Everyone!

I cannot believe that I haven't posted for 5 days.  I guess I was too busy creating cards to notice! 

Most of you have seen "Riley" cards in other posts.  Riley is Jeanne's adorable little dog who NEVER stops barking.  Since the  "puppy with heart" stamp from Serendipity stamps reminds me of Riley I use it over and over again when I am creating cards for Jeanne.  This card will be Jeanne's valentine this year.  I found the ribbon in my stash and thought the words on it suited Riley's relationship with Jeanne perfectly.

Marie has become my tea drinking buddy.  She's a coffee drinker in the AM, but a tea drinker after dinner.  Every night she makes each of us a cup of tea with a splash of milk and Splenda.  This card will be Marie's valentine.  
The background papers are from the American Crafts "Abode" collection.  The "big cup" is a Hero Arts cling stamp.  The text was created with an
A Muse Artstamps.  

As you know I LOVE everything about SEI.  I follow their blog on a daily basis.  It's through their blog that I learn about their products.  It's through their blog that I become inspired on ways to use their products.  It's through their blog that I learn wonderfully creative ideas and techniques.  Last week I read Audrey Yeager's "Heart Garland Tutorial" and immediately sat down and created some of those hearts.  I hung mine from pegs on my favorite display shelves that MaryBeth gave me several years ago.  I am hoping to make more of them so I can hang some in my bay window.  Valentine's Day is coming fast, but happily the hearts are quick and easy to create.

My "Chickie with a heart balloon" valentines received such a positive response that I made more of them.  This card uses the same sketch I used last week, but I changed the layering paper and love this card even more.  The layering paper is from the American Crafts "Abode" collection.  We are going to make this exact card in my paper crafting class tonight for Lexington Community Education.  The chickie stamp is one of the many chickie stamps that Denami Designs creates for us. 

I am planning to spend the day cooking.  My schedule is happily becoming packed with teacher trainings and classes so I want to fill my freezer with meals we can grab. 

Have a great day!
Carol

Robot and Cupcake Valentines

Good Morning Everyone!

I purchased a dcwv "All About Boys" small stack at JoAnn's the other day. It's filled with all sorts of cool papers with outer space, pirate, zoo, under the sea, cowboy, superhero, and robot themes. I just had to use some of the robot papers to create more valentines along with the Stampendous robot stamp I showed you a few blogs ago. This time I masked off the text from the stamp and used just it on some punched out hearts.  I positioned the text on the hearts and the hearts on the cards in such a way to make them look like word balloons.
I'm nearly out of what seemed to be an endless supply of Lil' Robots chipboard pieces from My Mind's Eye. I added a few of the ones I had left to my valentines. The tiny "Happy Valentine's Day" message was created with an A Muse Artstamp.

Just couldn't pass up the opportunity to use my Hero Arts large cupcake cling stamp on some valentines. After all it does have some hearts on it. As I have done in the past on birthday cards I stamped the "muffin wrapper" part of the stamp onto one patterned paper and the "frosting" part of the stamp on a different patterned paper. I fussy cut both images out and ran the "muffin wrapper" through my crimper before I adhered it to the layering paper. I used dimensional tape to attach the "frosting" to the layering paper. The text is stamped on some Martha Stewart "ribbon style tags" that I spotted at TJ Maxx a few days ago.
 



Now I need to stop creating cards for a few hours and creatively do some cleaning!
 
Have a good day!
Carol

Bridal Shower Card

Hi Everyone!
It's been a busy day here.  I have a friend who requested a bridal shower card, a friend who requested 5 valentine cards, and another friend who wanted some thank you cards.  So in between laundry, cleaning, and prepping next week's workshops I made some cards. 

I used an umbrella from Lawn Fawn's "Partly Cloudy" clear stamp set for this bridal shower card and gift tag.  After I stamped the umbrella and the text I ran the white tag through a Cuttlebug Hearts embossing folder.  The text was created with a clear stamp from Hero Art's "Best Wishes" set.  The tiny hearts on the card and tag are "scrap hearts" that come from a Martha Stewart's hearts edger punch.  There are tiny white pearl embellishments on the umbrellas. 

I made a variety of thank you cards.  These cards were made with paper from Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl block.  I stamped a spool of thread from PaperTrey Ink's "Quilter's Sampler" set on the first card and a pincushion from Hero Art's "Sew Artsy" clear set on the second one.  The "Sew Much"  text stamp is from Stampabilities.

Here's one of the valentines that I made.  I used Hearts Nestabilities to cut out the 2 hearts, a Martha Stewart edger punch on the layering paper.  The love birds and the text were stamped with A Muse Artstamps.   The  branch is from the Hero Arts "Trees, Birds & Messages" clear stamp set. 



Have a great night!
Carol

Birthday Cards

Hi Everyone!

It all began when I was viewing the sale stamps on the A Muse Art stamps web site. I was looking at the image for the Holiday tree stamp, but I didn't see it as just a tree. I also saw it as a party hat. Best of all that holiday tree/party hat was and still is on sale for just $2.00. So I purchased that stamp and a few others and 2 days later the package arrived at my house.

I used my water color pencils to color in 3 "party hats", cut them out, and adhered them to some paper from the Sassafras Nerdy Bird wee bundle. I adhered that paper to another paper from the Sassafras Nerdy Bird wee bundle, and stamped "happy birthday" with a clear stamp from my collection. I attached jewels from my stash to the dots on and the tops of the party hats.

Now that I had created one birthday card I decided to make a few others.  I used some papers from
Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl pad and a Hero Arts cupcake cling stamp to create this card. I stamped the bottom part of the cupcake stamp onto one paper and the top onto another paper. After I cut it out, I ran the "muffin wrapper" part of the cupcake through one of my paper crimpers and attached it to the layering paper. After cutting out the "frosting" on the cupcake I used pop dots to attach it to the layering paper.

The musical notes paper on this card is also from the Sassafras Nerdy Bird wee bundle. The cupcakes paper is from SEI's Happy Day collection. The birds are cut from a paper from dcwv Songbirds pad.


 
 
 
That's it for today!
Have a great night.
Carol

Hello!

Hi Everyone!

I am VERY VERY excited about the cards I am going to share with you today. I’ve told you that I keep my clear stamps in cd cases. I cut the packaging that has the black outlines of each stamp and use my Scor-Pal tape to attach it to the empty case. Then I match the stamps to the black outlines, but there are exceptions. I store all of my "happy birthday" clear stamps in one case and all of my "thank you" clear stamps in another case. As of today I now store all of my "hello" stamps together along with Lawn Fawn’s telephone clear stamp.




The telephone is from Lawn Fawn’s "Just My Type" clear stamp set. "Just saying hello" is from the Hero Art’s Everyday Sayings stamp set that I have been talking about for the past couple of days. One of the "hello" stamps is from Lawn Fawn’s "Just My Type" clear stamp set and the rest of the "hello" stamps are from all different sets of clear and wooden stamps in my stash.

After I had stamped and colored the telephone I very carefully cut the receiver off of the phone. I used my paper piercer to make a tiny hole in the phone and in the receiver. I wrapped thin jewelry wire around a toothpick to curl it like a real phone cord and then I put one end of the wire in the hole I had made in the receiver and the other end in the hole I had made in the phone.

The yellow memo paper is from the Sassafras Nerdy Bird Wee Bundle. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Yesterday I had lunch with an "old" friend. Well, she’s not really that old...she’s 3 years younger than I am. I packed us a picnic lunch. As I drove to her home I realized I had forgotten to pack salad dressing so I stopped at Stop & Shop to pick some up. While I was there I decided to quickly browse through the magazine section because you never know what kind of inspiration might be lurking on the shelves. I glanced at the magazines on the shelves and the August/September 2010 issue of
Quilt magazine jumped out at me. I looked at the quilt on the cover and the first word that came into my mind was "Nestabilities". I knew I could use that quilt as a trigger to create a quilted card.



Here it is! After I created the quilt I decided to use my Cuttlebug and run the quilt through an embossing folder. Wrong...it was too thick. I peeled the top three circles off of each stack. Then I was able to emboss the rest of the card and embossed the 6 stacks of 3 circles each separately. Then I reattached those circles to the card.
I still have a stack of cards that I made last weekend to share with you. Hopefully, I will have a chance to post them tomorrow.

Have a great night!
Carol

Sympathy and Apology Cards

Happy Sunday Everyone!

The Hero Arts ClearDesign Everyday Sayings stamp set features a large scope of phrases. I challenged myself this weekend and tried to incorporate each of those phrases into one or more cards. Turns out the challenge was easy for me. The hard part will be spreading those cards out over my blog posts for a week or longer as I am not good at keeping secrets when I am excited about something. The good news is I have already photographed all of the cards and edited my photographs.

I feel that sympathy cards don’t need to be dark and dreary. A touch of color may be just what it takes to brighten someone’s day. I remember when our mother passed away my sister Paula insisted upon wearing a bright outfit to the funeral because our mother had bought it for her and had loved the colors in it. Sometimes something that is beautiful and elegant makes us cry. Sometimes crying helps us cope with a loss.

The paper from SEI’s chocolat stack has just the elegance that I wanted for my sympathy cards. If you study these first 2 cards you will notice that I played around with the same blueprint when I created them. I’ve decided that I prefer the one that has the patterned paper at the top, the ribbon/bow in the center and the solid paper at the bottom. I think the patterned paper at the top helps lead your eye to the message at the bottom of the card. The card with the solid paper at the top feels bottom heavy to me. I added pearls to both of the cards. Although I seldom wear mine I love pearls. When I saw my mother wearing her pearls I always thought she looked very dressed up and beautiful and that’s how I wanted my sympathy cards to look

I’m happy with his card. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to place the sentiment and had accidentally glued my patterned paper onto the blank card before I made that decision. At that point rather then run the risk of stamping a sentiment that wasn’t clear and crisp directly onto my card I stamped it onto a coordinating strip of paper and added it to my card. The lettering on many of the stamps in this set is tiny and doesn’t require much ink so I like to practice with each of those stamps before I use them on my cards. Both of the papers I used on this card are also from SEI's chocolat stack.




I love this card. I think it looks elegant and tasteful. I used my corner rounder punch on the layering paper and on the card. I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch to create the butterfly embellishment. I fashioned some antennae for the butterfly out of thin jewelry wire. I don’t think they show up in the photograph. Both of the papers I used on this card are from SEI's chocolat stack.

The phrase "I’m sorry" is included in the Hero Arts Everyday Sayings stamp set. I had to really think about how I would use this stamp because I feel that no matter how hard it might be "I’m sorry" and all life changing messages should be delivered face to face. I actually fell into a great article the other night called "How to Apologize". I highly recommend that everyone take the time to read that article because at one time or another each of us has needed/will need to apologize to someone. Maybe an "I’m sorry" card could be the place to write out an apology which could be handed to someone as you apologize face to face.

I used the "Posey Penguin" from Memory Box stamps on this card. The paper is from SEI’s Poppy paper stack. The blank card is from

A Muse Artstamps. The card is smaller than most of the other cards I create, but I felt it worked perfectly for the card I wanted.

This card has a "Sun Days" stamp from Penny Black stamped on it. I added some gems to add a little sparkle to the card. The butterfly was punched from an EK Success small butterfly punch.

I’ll be back in a day or two to share some of the other cards I have created this weekend.
Have a nice night!
Carol

Poppy Paper from SEI

Hi Everyone!

Warning! Warning! Warning! This is going to be a long post. Probably the longest one I have ever written. But it comes with pictures so I think you'll enjoy it.

Hope you noticed that a few weeks ago thanks to blogger I was able to add a "search" button to my blog. It’s a very cool resource and I use it often when I am trying to remember if I have already posted something or not. So if you search for "SEI" for example the link to the birthday cards I made with their Happy Day paper will pop up. When I read that posting I realized that I never did post pictures of the cards I made with their Moravia paper. I am hoping that I actually took pictures of them because I’m not sure if I have any of those cards left...but we won’t worry about any of that today. I still have lots of that paper left and will make more cards with it one of these days.

If ink, paper, embellishment, stamp companies, etc. have a newsletter I sign up for it. I usually skim through them when they appear in my mailbox. I learn about products and new techniques. Sometimes I receive coupons or special offers. And sometimes I learn about many people’s favorite 4-letter word....SALE!

Not long ago I got an e-mail from SEI telling about a clearance event and I decided to check it out. As I had anticipated I saw some blocks that I loved. They come in different sizes. Most of the cards I make measure 5.5" x 4.25" or 4.25" x 5.5" so I mostly purchase the small blocks that are 4.5" x 6.5". That’s not to say that I never purchase the 8" x8" or the 12" x 12" blocks because sometimes I do. But sometimes the patterns on the 12" x 12" blocks are larger than those on the smaller blocks and don't look as good on my cards as some of the smaller patterns do.

So I purchased one block each of their Eerie Alley, Chocolat, and Poppy papers. The package arrived yesterday and I LOVE LOVE LOVE (I sound like Toni!) what I bought. I stayed up until 2 AM creating cards. I just couldn’t help myself. Got up this morning and have already made another card.

All of the cards I have made so far have been created with the Poppy paper. I am sort of thinking that I "NEED" to buy another block of it while it’s still available. MaryBeth and I have great jokes about "NEED" versus "want". I might be good. I do have a lot of paper here to work with so I should be good. We’ll see.
Without further babbling...here are the cards.

Used my Fiskars small poppy punch to create the flowers on this card. I used scraps that were leftovers from the other cards when I was punching the flowers. I have saved every scrap and every leftover trimmed piece from the Poppy block in a little clear box because I like the way the colors work with each other and I want to use as much of it as I can. The leaves and stem were created with a clear stamp from PaperTrey Ink's "Turning a New Leaf" set. I use that set probably more often than any other set that I own. "Thinking of you" is from the Hero Arts clear stamp set called "Everyday Sayings". I haven’t had that set for very long. I love the variety of phrases on it and know it will become one of my frequently used sets.

The brads are a good example that sometimes it makes sense to stock up when you see a good deal. A long long time ago one of the chain stores had a great selection of brads in the clearance section and I remember MaryBeth and I bought a ton of them. Like I said it was a good decision because I have LOTS of brads in LOTS of colors so I always seem to have the colors I need to coordinate with whatever paper I happen to love that day!



I love this card. It’s not very busy and it works for me. "Thinking of you" is from that same Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings" clear stamp set. I added some twine to the button before I attached it to the card with a large glue dot.







This card reminds me of kitchen tiles. Not sure why! I like it. A lot. Not sure where the "Happy Birthday" clear stamp came from as I keep all of my Happy birthday stamps in the same cd case. When you click on the card to enlarge it notice the gold flourish that is on the square in the upper left hand corner and on the bottom middle square. Wish I had paid more attention and used a scrap with that gold flourish in the upper right hand corner too...just thought I'd share that thought with you so maybe you will think of it when you are creating your cards.



I love the background paper on this card. Used my plain and scalloped circle Nestabilities to create the circles. See the brads that I told you I had stocked up on. Same deal with the flowers. I pick them up when I see a good deal on them. Gems too. Didn't use any gems this time.





I think I like this card. I want to like it. It’s a little different. "Hello" was created with some Mrs. Grossman stickers that I bought a long time ago. The color works perfectly with this paper collection.





Now this card has a different color scheme than the others, but it is from the same block. Used my one-inch circle punch to create the circles. Notice there are more brads in other colors. Used the same Fiskars punch for the flowers and the same Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings" for "thinking of you."

Now many of you may not have the same papers that I used on today’s cards, but you can still create similar cards. Just substitute papers from your own collection and "copy" the ideas I have shared with you. Or so a little shopping with SEI!

Just got a great newsletter from http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/ in my mailbox. Sign up for it. Their newsletters are always filled with wonderful ideas.

I'd love to know which of today's cards you like best and why. Please post a comment to this blog so that I can share your thoughts with others. Your suggestions may trigger new card ideas for all of us.

Have a great day! I'm off to do some work.
Carol