Just Because

Hi Everyone!

I had a productive day yesterday.  I spent a few hours thoroughly cleaning my papercrafting area.  I sorted and organized most of my supplies.  I did some rearranging so that even more of my supplies are within reach. 

While I was organizing I found a brass butterfly stencil that I know I didn't buy.  I am thinking that either Janet or Sandy gave it to me.  I decided to play with it.  I used some Washi tape to temporarily adhere it to a piece of white tag.  Then I used a Tim Holtz blending tool and some distress ink pads to color the butterfly. 

I colored 3 butterflies, fussy cut them, and adhered them to a piece of patterned paper from Lawn Fawn's "Hello Sunshine" 6" x 6" petite paper pack.  The partial butterflies are adhered with a glue runner.  The complete butterfly is adhered with foam tape.  The sentiment was created with a stamp from Simon Says Stamp's "Flower Friend" clear stamp set. 

I used Black Enamel Accents to add another color to the butterfly.  Here's the card.

 

Have a great day!

Carol



String Art

Hi Everyone!

Emily Keaton from "My Little Slice of Bliss" has inspired me once again.  She shared a string art tutorial on the Denami Design blog.  The string art brought back wonderful memories of playing with Spirograph many years ago.  So I created this card last night. 

The paper is from Heidi Grace.  The sentiment was created with a wooden stamp from Denami Design. 

Thank you Emily for the inspiration.

Have a great day!
Carol

Beth's Shower

Hi Everyone!

2013 was the year of milestone birthdays.  2014 is the year of showers, weddings, babies, and graduations.  Beth's bridal shower was the other night.  Marie, Allison, Lisa, and Beckey gave the shower and did such a great job.  The theme was "By the Sea."  Here's one of the 60 favors they made.

They poured some sand into each jar and added a candle, some seashells and a sea star.  They used an Impression Obsession die to create the sea star.  I taught them how to fold it to make it 3-dimensional. 

The lighting at the restaurant wasn't ideal for picture taking, but I'll still post some pictures.  They wrapped twine around the center of some tall vases and hot glued a real sea star to the center of the twine.  Then they filled each vase halfway with sand and added seashells.

They used seashell candy molds to create lots of pieces of candy.  They baked and frosted 3 flavors of cupcakes and sprinkled brown sugar (sand) on the frosting before they added a piece of candy. 

The background paper on the Gifts sign is from Graphic 45's "By the Sea" paper collection.

My gift to Beth was a set of thank you cards with a By the Sea theme.  I will share some of them with you later today.

Have a great day!
Carol

PartyTime Invitation

Hi Everyone!

Busy Days!  Busy Nights!  Marie graduated last night.  I cried. I cannot believe that my "baby girl" has her Master's degree.  We aren't having her party until sometime in June, but we have been planning it. 

I've been working on the invitations. Thanks to Emily Keaton from mylittlesliceofbliss.blogspot.com I have a great graduation embossing folder that I have been using to create the background on my paper.  The embossing folder is a Darice one.

Here's what the outside of the invitations looks like

 

 

The paper is actually a pale sky blue, but I think that you can see the embossing more easily if I post the card this way.  I used a Fiskars paper punch to cut out the clouds and then I ran them through a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder.  

The graduation caps are Recollections stickers.  I stocked up on them when they were on sale at Michaels a few weeks ago.  They came with foam dots on them so they are 3 dimensional.

The banner and the sentiment were created with clear stamps from
Paper Smooches.  I ordered them directly from the company and could not believe how quickly they arrived at my house.  The banner from their
Streamers clear stamp set is attached to the card with foam tape.  The sentiment is from their Birthday Sampler clear stamp set.  

I am busy working on thank you cards for a bridal shower and surprises for Marie's party so I am not sure when I'll post again.  I'll try to remember to take pictures.

Have a great night!
Carol

Flower Friend

Hi Everyone!

Today I am going to share a couple of cards that I made using stamps from the Simon Says "Flower Friend" clear stamp set. 

I just love the font they used for their sentiments. 

Have a great night!
Carol

Thank you

Hi Everyone!

It's Saturday morning and I could be sleeping, but my mind is racing so I decided to get up and be productive. I have been a fan of Lawn Fawn stamps since their first stamp set arrived on the market.  I own most of their stamps and have owned all of their 6" x 6" paper pads.  I follow their blog and watch their videos on YouTube.

In the video that I watched the other night Kelly Marie showed a cool technique using a cloud cutout  and distress ink to create a sky background.  You can watch the video at this link.  I don't have Lawn Fawn's tag stamp or die, but I have several other tag dies and keep a stash of die cut tags on hand.  I like to create scenes on them and add them to blank cards.

I am working on 2 different gift sets that will be all thank you cards so that's what you'll mostly be seeing on my blog for a while. 

Here's the card I created last night. 

 

The rainbow paper is from Lawn Fawn's "Hello Sunshine!" small paper pad.  The sailboat is from Lawn Fawn's "Float My Boat" clear stamp set.  The sentiment was created with a Stampendous wooden stamp that was sitting on my work table. 

 

I used Kelly Marie's technique on 2 blank white tags.  Then I stamped a sailboat directly on the first tag.  I also stamped it on a scrap of rainbow paper, fussy cut the sails and adhered them to the tag.  I cut down the second tag and used a Fiskars waves border punch to create waves on it.  The tag is attached to the card with foam tape.  I rounded the corners on my layering paper and card to mimic the rounded corners on the tag.  The buttons remind me of port holes. 

 

Have a great Saturday!

Carol



Western theme cards

Hi Everyone!

When I learned that the theme for Lauren's bridal shower was a Western one I looked through my papercrafting supplies to see what I already owned that could be used for a Western theme.  I found an AccuCut Zip'e Slim die with a boot and a cactus on it, a Sizzix die with a larger cactus, and a Sizzix die with a cowboy hat.  That was all I had so I bought a few more things.

I bought a Paper Smooches "Buckaroo" clear stamp set and Lawn Fawn's "Happy Trails" clear stamp set mostly because I wanted the 'Happy Trails" sentiment in it.  I also purchased a QuicKutz horseshoe die, Carta Bella's "Giddy Up Boy" 6" x 6" paper pad, and Best Creation's "Cowboy Up" 6" x 6" paper pad.  I couldn't  resist buying multiple packages of SandyLion Western Essentials dimensional stickers. 

My standard gift for most occasions has become cards or some other papercraft.  I wanted to make cards for the bridal shower, but wasn't sure how many to make.  I asked a few friends and they suggested 20 to 24 cards.  I decided to make 24 cards, a gift box, and a bridal shower card. 

Many years ago when my employer at that time asked me to create 75 Christmas cards for some reason I made 75 different ones and that took more thought than was needed.  After I did all of the work I realized the cards were going all over the country and it wouldn't have matter if there were duplicates. 

So this time I was smart.  I made 2 of each card which meant I only needed 12 different ideas.  Here are some of the cards.

I stamped the boots twice.  Once on a tan textured paper and once on a dark brown textured paper.  I fussy cut the tan ones and adhered them to the brown ones.  The hearts are Country buttons I found in my stash. 

 

There was a set of "trading cards" for lack of a better word in one of the paper pads.  I cut them up and put them on some of the cards.

 

 

 

These boots were also cut from textured paper.  The stars are brads.  I folded the sentiments banner to add dimension to the card.

 

 

 

This was a super easy card to create.  I just cut down a piece of the paper so that it measured 4" x 5.25" and adhered it to a tan blank card.  I used a word bubble stamp from The Alley Way Stamps "Talk to Me" clear stamp set for the word bubble, fussy cut it and stamped "thanks" in it. 

 

 

 

The boots on this card are SandyLion Western Essentials stickers.  I used a die to cut a stash of tags and used one of them on this card. 

 

That's it for today.  I'll be back soon to share more of the cards.

 

Have a great day!

Carol