Chickie with Heart Balloon

Good Morning Everyone!

I see a bright blue sky through my dining room window.  Lots of squirrels running around out there right now.  They must be stocking up on food before the next storm arrives. 

Yesterday I played around with mainly one stamp called "Chickie with Heart Balloon" from Denami Design.  The "Happy Valentine's Day" text is an A Muse Artstamp and the red heart on the first card is from Rubber Soul.  All 3 stamps are on the tiny side, but all of them still give a clean impression when I stamp them which I believe is a testament to their quality. 

Covered the chickie's heart balloon with an epoxy heart sticker to make her umbrella.  LOVE the cloud dies I used from PaperTrey Ink.  I paper pierced them before I adhered the layering paper to the blank card. 

You've seen me use the sketch for this card over and over again.  The chickies are on 1.25" squares and are mounted on 1.5" squares.  The dotted embossing definitely adds some fun texture to the card.  Button is from my stash.  I think it's a Favorite Findings, but I am not positive. 

Robbie laughed when he saw this card and commented "That's a lot of blank space!" but that's what I like about the card.  I used a Cuttlebug Hearts embossing folder to emboss the layering paper.  Covered the chickie's heart with an epoxy sticker.

I was imagining a flock of chicks floating through the air when I created this card.  Used my PaperTrey Ink cloud dies again and paper pierced them again.  Created the text on my computer. 

I have a little rainbow thing going on here as the chicks line up.  Stamped a chick about every .75"  Red heart jewels on red heart layering paper.  They work.  The jewels catch the light. 

I thought about not posting this card.  At least not yet because I know it needs something else, but I haven't figured out what that something is.  After I studied the photograph of it I anchored the corners down better as I hate an untidy looking card.  The layering paper is embossed.  I'm afraid to stamp a text at this point because I'm not sure how cleanly I could stamp on the embossing. 

Off for a day of errands with Marie.  Have a good one!

Carol

In My Own Little Corner

Good Morning Everyone!

Do you remember the song "In My Own Little Corner" from Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella? I often think of that song and of the scene that song was sung in when I sit here working "in my own little corner". I spend more time in the corner of my dining room than I do in any other room in our home. It's in this corner that I plan and prep my early childhood teacher trainings, my afterschool classes for children, and my adult education classes. I sit here when I am planning meals and creating shopping lists. It's in this corner that I dream of and create all of my paper crafts.

As I sit here typing this post my valentine wooden stamps are displayed on the wall directly above me. Rolls of red, pink, and white ribbons are strung on the paper towel rack below my stamp shelves. My heart paper punches are to the right of me along with my valentine and other embossing folders, my clear valentine stamps, and my heart Nestabilities.

I often fidget with the heart shaped buttons that are sitting here next to me in a small red heart shaped bowl. I have a plastic drawer that is filled with valentine papers and some smaller drawers that hold my valentine stickers, brads, and embellishments.

My collection of papercrafting books and magazines are housed on some nearby shelves.


With all of this inspiration within an arm's reach it's easy to come up with ideas for the cards, tags, bags, and boxes that I love to create. As I have said before I am most definitely addicted to paper crafting.

When I glanced up at my shelves last night my "Love Goes Round" stamp from Stampendous caught my eye. I found some musical notes paper in my Sassafras Nerdy Bird Wee bundle and decided it was just what I needed for the card I had sketched. Had some ribbon with tiny hearts on it and musical notes brads in my stash so I grabbed them. I used a few of my Marvy Uchida heart punches to punch some plain and scalloped hearts. After I assembled them I ran them through a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I used red tag for the "lace" on my hearts because I thought it would draw out the red on the musical notes. As I sit here looking at the card right now I am thinking I may have liked white "lace" better so I'll try it that way on a similar card.

While I was pulling out some tiny hearts for my first card I came across a strip of plastic with red puffy letters on it that said "Love" and decided to use them for my second card. Once again I used my heart punches to punch out a plain and a scalloped heart. Paper pierced the white heart to make it look lacy. Stamped a branch from PaperTrey Ink's "Take a Bough" clear stamp set across the hearts to give the "love birds" from A Muse Artstamps a place to sit. Last night I chose to use different colors and sizes of epoxy hearts for the leaves on the branch. Today I am thinking just red ones would look better. I am most definitely my own worst critic.

This chipboard elephant was in my stash.  Wish I could remember where it came from.  MaryBeth, do you know?  Either you gave it to me or I bought it in some set when I was with you. The hearts on the elephant, the ones coming out his trunk, and the ones on the little bird all cried out "valentine" to me. Embossed the layering paper and punched a hole in it after I had adhered it to a blank card. Used a Marvy metal ring to highlight the "Be Mine" text and attached it in the middle of the hole I had punched.  When the card is opened you can still see the text. 

Two very dear friends are coming for dinner tonight so I need to leave my little corner of the world to do some grocery shopping.


Enjoy your 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

Happy Birthday Matthew

Hi Everyone!

While Robbie was out shoveling our driveway after yet another snowstorm I created a birthday card for a friend's grandson.  Matthew is a Green Bay Packers Fan and wants a football theme birthday party. 

I didn't have any football paper in my stash, but found some at JoAnn's.  I cut the paper down so that it measured 5.25" wide by 4" high and attached it to a blank card.  I searched on Google images for a photograph of a Green Bay Packers helmet, scaled the image down to 35% and printed 2 of them. After I fussy cut both helmets, I adhered one to the layering paper and then used dimensional tape to layer the second helmet on top of the first one.  This gave the helmet a 3 dimensional appearance. 

Placed "Rah!  Rah!  Rah!" stickers and an epoxy football sticker on the card and used alphabet stickers to spell out the birthday message to Matthew.  Showed it to Rob who gave it a thumbs up so off it goes into the mail. 

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Have a great day everyone!
Carol

Robot Valentines

Hi Everyone!





This is one of the valentine stamps that I added to my collection this year.  It's called "Robot Friends" and it's manufactured by Stampendous.  I just used it to create some very quick and easy valentines.

After I stamped the image onto white tag I used my Marvy Twinklette markers to color it.  You can't tell by the photograph, but because I used those markers to color the entire image it's very sparkly.  I found some Lil' Robot chipboard embellishments from My Mind's Eye in my stash and added them to the card.

The robot, gears, and word balloon on this card are also chipboard embellishments from My Mind's Eye.  This time I masked my stamp and only stamped the text.  I cut the text out and glued it to the word balloon. 




Visiting with my friend Susan today and then I must continue to prep my workshops. 

Have a great day!  Stay warm!
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

Saturday's Valentines

Good Morning Everyone!

Not exactly sure why I got up at 7 AM on a Saturday! I've had my tea, read my e-mails, and now I am ready to start my day.

Today's first valentine was created with some Stampendous stamps. The window and the "stamp" that the text is stamped on were created with Sizzix dies. I used a Martha Stewart edger punch to create the lacy heart border for the valence on the windows.

I love all things punny so when I saw the idea for this card in an old issue of Scrapbooks, ETC. I knew I wanted to add it to my collection. Found an A Muse whale stamp on their web site that I HAD to own. Used an EK Success punch to create the strips of waves. Paper pierced the cloud to make it look as if it were stitched onto the card.

Came across the blue letters on this card while I was once again organizing my alphabet drawer. Even in the photograph the embossed hearts on the yellow tag pop out at me. They were created with a Cuttlebug hearts embossing folder that my friend Peggy bought me last year. Thanks, Peggy. If you study my valentines you'll see I've been using it a lot this year.

Here it is being used again on this "Bee Mine" card. The bee is from a box of Debbie Mumm chipboard embellishments. If you purchased a box of baby embellishments you have some of those bees.


Have a great day!
Carol

Valentines for You

Hi Everyone!


I just downloaded images of 23 valentines onto my computer. I am going to try to share a few of them each day for the next week or so. I have also created some new thank you and all occasion cards that I will share with you soon.

I ran the layering paper for this first card through a hearts Cuttlebug embossing folder. Then I stamped a medium heart crock from A Country Welcome stamp onto the paper. I used my watercolor pencils to color the crock.  I masked the top of the crock before I stamped a Tree for all Seasons from Stamps by Judith so that it would appear to be growing in the crock. Then I used a heart button stamp by Judith to add hearts to the tree. I colored the buttons in with my Marvy Twinklette markers.

The papers that I used for the next card are from October Afternoon's Modern Homemaker 8" x 8" paper pad. This paper is to die for as are the embellishments and other products in this vintage line. The entire collection reminds me of learning to read with Dick and Jane and of growing up in the fifties. There's a "Felix the Cat" clock in the Chip 'n Stick package that I just had to buy because Jeanne and I had that clock in our room when we were growing up in West Roxbury.

Anyway to get back to the valentine I used a Martha Stewart punch to punch out the plain hearts and a Fiskars squeeze punch to punch out the scalloped ones. I paper pierced the the scalloped heart to give it a lacy edge. The "x"s and "o"s are Maya Road rubons. "Hugs and Kisses" was stamped with a Stampabilities stamp. I used letters from Lawn Fawn's Harold's ABC to spell out "sending you".

You'll love creating this "love" card because it's so easy to do. The paper is from a K and Company block. I used a Martha Stewart edger punch to embellish it. I cut out some of the hearts from some scraps from the layering paper and used pop dots to attach them to the card. Added a few rhinestones to help the hearts pop out even more. The letters are from PiggyTales.

Will be back sometime tomorrow.
 
Have a great day!
Carol

Thank you, Just a Note, and a Valentine

Hi Everyone!

Now that I no longer am focusing on Christmas cards, tags, and cookies I am back to creating other cards. I've made some valentines, some all occasion cards, and some thank you cards.

MaryBeth gave me a small tub of wooden stamps from Hero Arts called "Lots of Dots". There are 18 stamps and 2 ink pads in the tub. I couldn't locate them on the Hero Arts site and they're out of stock at http://www.addictedtorubberstamps.com/, but if you search in google you'll find stores that do have them in stock.


I found some paper in my stash that has lots of open circles on it. The circles are different shades of blue, yellow, and green. I decided to use that paper as I played around with the stamps MaryBeth had given me.

I used a Martha Stewart edgers punch that has lots of circles on it to embellish the edge of my patterned paper before I adhered it to the 4" x 5.25" colored tag I had cut. Then I selected a few of the stamps from the tub and randomly stamped them on the tag using shades of blue, green, and yellow that were on the patterned paper.


You'll notice that I rounded the edges of one card. The yellow circle in the corner of the rectangular card is covering an "oops", but you wouldn't know that if I didn't mention it to you.

Yesterday my friend Janet gave me a Stampendous background stamp that has sheet music on it. I had some trouble stamping the traditional way with such a large stamp. I ended up laying the stamp rubber side up, inking it, and placing the manilla tag I had cut on top of it. Then I held tag with one hand while I pressed and rubbed with the other. I was pleased with the clean impression I had when I lifted the tag off of the stamp.

I found a clip art music note and used it as a pattern for the black music note you now see on the card. The lettering was done with stickers. Adhered 3 rhinestones to the music note to add some bling to the card.

Here's a picture of a quick valentine I whipped up last night.


Have a great night!
Carol