Birthday Cards Day 2

Hi Everyone!
The rain has finally stopped. Pool party in my basement...again! Thank heavens for Robbie. He’s been in charge of the pump and the water vac. But like I said the rain has stopped so let’s move on to happier subjects. I am going to continue showing you birthday cards for the next day or so.

I used a Sizzix die to cut out the ice cream cone and ice cream on this card. I then paper pieced the cone and ice cream before placing them on the card. If you look closely you will see that I used the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder to create the background of the card. I own more than one dozen different Cuttlebug folders and wish I would remember to use them more often.

This second card was also created by paper piecing. The cupcake pattern is from the Scrapbooks, ETC. web site. There are many different free paper piercing patterns available on their site. Sometimes I enlarge some of the smaller patterns on my scanner so that they are easier to use. I have a subscription to Scrapbooks, ETC. magazine. The magazine is mainly for scrapbookers, but there are ideas for cardmakers in it each month along with papercrafting tips and scrapbooking ideas that I alter to use on my cards.

This "Make a Wish!" Card was created with a DRS Designs rubber stamp. It’s not easy to see in the photograph, but after I heat embossed the stamped image and colored the candles and flames, I used Glossy Accents from Ranger on the candles and the flames. If you haven’t used this product it comes in a bottle that has a narrow tip on it. You squeeze the solution onto any part of an image. The solution dries to a hard, clear, glossy finish. When I am holding the card in my hand, the candles look "waxy" and "real" to me.

Another part of the card that I like are the buttons which are called "Favorite Findings". I buy Favorite Findings buttons at JoAnn’s and use an awesome tool called a Button Shank Remover to cut the shanks off the back of the buttons. This tool costs under $10 and is worth purchasing if you use any buttons that have shanks in your cardmaking.

So that’s it for today. My friends Toni and Peggy gave me some gift certificates to Michaels so I am off to "window shop". Yeah, right. I know no one would believe that about me! Carol

Birthday Cards Day 1

Hi Everyone!

My daughter, Marie, will turn 23 this Saturday. In honor of her birthday I have decided that each day this week I will post pictures of some of the birthday cards I have created.

Ever since she was a little girl Marie has always loved presents and always wants her presents to be wrapped. Years ago I started to wrap Christmas gifts from Santa in Santa paper and gifts from Mom and Dad in a different paper. I also wrapped even the tiniest stocking stuffers before I put them into everyone’s stockings-that was a HUGE mistake. About a year or two ago I thought that neither of my kids would mind if I stopped wrapping the stocking stuffers. WRONG! Both of them were big time disappointed, so I am back to wrapping everything for all occasions.

In honor of Marie’s love of presents I created a card for her that looks like a present. I plan to put a gift card inside of the card so it really will be one of her presents. I used "Polka Dot Basics" from PaperTrey Ink to stamp the background onto the card and gift tag. There are 6 varieties of polka dots in the set. I used Jeanette’s (from Stamped Designs in Dover, NH) technique to make the bow for the card. It was an easy card to create.

My "Happy Bird-day to You" card is adapted from an idea in one of my favorite papercrafting books, Treasury of Tips & Tricks from Paper Crafts Magazine & Stamp It! Paper Crafts magazine is my FAVORITE papercrafting magazine. I also purchase and love their special issue magazines and own and treasure all of their other books. Visit their web site and sign up for their blog. You’ll learn about products and get ideas for your own papercrafts. Visit Moxie Fab World and read Cath’s incredible blogs. Cath is the Creative Editor for Paper Crafts magazine. Cath has another blog called Cath, ETC. That I also love to read. Her writing makes me laugh, cry, nod my head in agreement...She’s an incredible writer and an incredibly talented papercrafter who must be a total blast to know.

Oh, wow! I have so many things I want to tell you about and so many birthday cards to share with you. I promise that not all of my blogs will be this long. How about one more for today? Well, sort of one more as the cards are all basically the same. I found the 3D Crayola embellishments that I used on these cards in the Dollar section at Michaels. There are 8 layered embellishments in a package. The embellishments are a little flimsy and are meant for a child to use, but they totally work as embellishments for a child’s card. I used my 1.5" circle and my 1.25" square punches to make the backgrounds for each embellishment. The "Happy Birthday" message you see stamped on each card is a stamp from Hero Arts. It fits perfectly on a 1.25" square.

Okay, that’s it for today. I appreciate the comments that you have been posting. Please feel free to post questions too if you have any and maybe I or one of the other readers can answer the questions for you!

Rainy Days and Mondays Won't Get Me Down!

Hi Everyone!
Another rainy Monday! I refuse to let these "Rainy Days and Mondays" get me down. I am very excited about this blog. In addition to showing you photos of my cards and sharing the techniques that I used, I plan to tell you about the papercrafting books and magazines that I treasure, the places I shop for my supplies, and how I organize my materials.

I am sending out Easter cards for the first time. The envelopes are addressed and notes are written inside many of the cards. I will share photographs of some of them with you.

I used the Martha Stewart bunny punch and an EK Success flower punch to create my "Happy Spring" card. The "Happy Spring" stamp is from Northwoods Rubber Stamps. If you look closely at the card you may be able to tell that the flowers are 3-dimensional. My friend Susan DeMuth taught me the technique and I use it all of the time. Punch out some flowers and place them on a paper piercing mat. (By the way my favorite piercing mat is from Bazzill Basics Paper.) Using a stylus press down on the center of each flower. You will see the petals on the flower pop up. Use mini glue dots to attach the flowers to your card. The flowers will flatten slightly when you place the card in the envelope, but they will still have a 3-dimensional appearance.
I found a great way to attach tiny rhinestones to the centers of the flowers. Kate Farricker, the owner of Absolutely Everything in Massachusetts, showed me Picksey Pick-Ups from Outlines Rubber Stamp Company. The Picksey Pick-Ups are tiny pieces of beeswax. You soften the beeswax with the heat of your fingers and mold the piece around a toothpick. The tool you have created helps you pick up even the tiniest of rhinestones and place them on your card.

By the way Absolutely Everything is a scrapbooking store that is located in Topsfield, MA. In addition to carrying every papercrafting product you could ever want, Kate and her incredible staff go out of their way to greet you when you walk through the door and help you locate whatever you need. They also are great sources of information if you have a question about a product or a technique.

I used the clear egg stamps and text from PaperTreyInk’s "Egg Hunt" stamp set to create today’s second card. PaperTrey’s products are fantastic and I am slowly acquiring a collection of their stamps. The purple egg on my card is raised with 3-dimensional dots. When you visit their web site you can find ideas on using their stamps by clicking on the "View Art gallery" link next to the stamp images. My card is a slight adaptation of Nikki Estes card.

I want to tell you that the customer service at PaperTreyInk is also incredible. If you e-mail them a question they respond to you in less than 24 hours. Their stamps arrive in a clear plastic package along with an empty cd case for you to use the stamps, labels for the cd case, and suggestions on ways to store and clean your stamps. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter and read Nichole’s blog each day.

See the bow on my Easter egg card? I learned a really easy and awesome way to tie a bow and attach it to your card from Jeanette, the owner of Stamped Designs in Dover, NH. Follow this link to read about her technique: http://stampeddesignsblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/tying-bow-to-wrap-around-card-layer.html

I have only been to Stamped Designs once because it’s quite a distance from my house, about 1.5 hours away, but I plan to go there again very soon. Jeanette has an awesome collection of stamps and other papercrafting products. I attended a workshop at her store and had a wonderful time. I used Scor-Pal during the workshop and purchased one right after the class.

Okay. That’s all for now. TTYL Carol

And so we begin...

Hi.

My name is Carol Hartery. I am an early childhood consultant and an avid papercrafter. I enjoy reading other papercrafting blogs and thought it might be fun to share some of my ideas with other papercrafters.

Since this is my first posting on this blog I am going to tell you a little about myself. I am a single parent with two amazing children, Robbie (nearly 25) and Marie (who will turn 23 on April 3). They have both graduated from college, but are planning to return to school this fall. Marie will be working on her Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy and Robbie will be enrolled in an Early Childhood Education program.

I love to cook, bake, read, and papercraft. I am a former classroom teacher. I taught preschool, kindergarten, first and second grade. I ran a family day care program when my children were younger so that I could be there for their first step, first word, first time they played with playdough, or painted a picture.

I left teaching about 13 years ago to work in a teaching resources store. While I worked there I started to present early childhood workshops to teachers at the store and for local Head Start programs, public and private preschools, public schools, and child care centers. I still present workshops and they are a favorite part of my life.

I have only been papercrafting for about a year. As I said earlier I enjoy reading other papercrafting blogs and studying the card ideas that can be found on those sites. I tell my friends that I feel as if I am taking a graduate class in cardmaking as I study blogs, books, and magazines and try out and learn new techniques.

I have lots of photographs of my cards to share with you. First I should tell you that my sister Jeanne has a Maltese named Riley. Jeanne loves her dog as much as any of us love our children. A few months ago I purchased a Serendipity stamp called "Puppy with a Heart" to use to create my sister’s valentine. I forgot to take a picture of the card, but I can tell you that my sister loved it. Riley’s birthday was last week and I used that same stamp to create a birthday card for her. Easter is this Sunday and I used that same stamp again to create an Easter card for my sister.
I stamped the image of the dog, embossed it, and cut it out. Then I carefully cut along the dog’s chin and added a birthday gift to the birthday card and an Easter egg to the Easter card. I plan to use this stamp over and over again for my sister and will just continue to alter the image that is under the dog’s chin.

That’s all for today. Will be back tomorrow! Carol