4th of July

Hi Everyone!

July is always a fun and crazy month and that craziness starts in June each year as I plan for Robbie's birthday on the 2nd and Jeanne's on the 16th and the 4th of July between them.  My plans for Jeanne's card and gift are starting to come together, but I still haven't figured out what to create for Robbie this year.  So for the moment I am focusing on the 4th of July and hoping an idea for Robbie will pop into my head VERY soon. 

Each year on the 4th I bake something for our neighbors, Bob and Jan, and make them a card.  Jan is such a sweetie.  She has saved every box, bag, and card I have given her over the years.  She displays them on her entertainment center and shows me them when I stop by to deliver that occasion's card and treat.  I made this card a few hours ago and may give it to Jan...or to Annie! 

I really like that torn paper look.  The star was created with a Lockhart wooden stamp and the sentiment was created with a Lawn Fawn clear stamp.  I added a clear Wink of Stella to the red and blue stripes on the star to help them pop out.  I also added tiny red and blue rhinestones to the card to give it even more sparkle. 

Have a nice night!
Carol

Birthday Cards

Hi Everyone!

I'm going to share some birthday cards with you today.  I use my tag dies to cut leftover pieces of patterned paper into tags.  I use those tags for some of my crafts and on some of my cards.  Here's one card with a tag on it.

You've seen this dimensional cake sticker on some of my other cards.  No matter how many of them I use there always seem to be plenty of them left. 

 

 

Corn on the cob for supper! 

 

Hope you'll stop by again tomorrow.

Carol



More Thank You Cards

Hi Everyone!

I am stopping by to share some more thank you cards with you.  Look at how simple and summery this first one is.  Think of how easily you could create similar cards for other seasons.

Robbie makes the best cherry pie I have ever eaten.  Whenever I see cherries I think of his pie.  I added a clear Wink of Stella to the Lockhart cherries I stamped on this card.  That simple touch added so much to the card.

 

 

This was another easy card to create.  I found a piece of paper that already had waves on  it.  All I did was add some Favorite Findings fish buttons and a sentiment.  

 

Thunderstorm is heading this way.  I am seeing flashes of lightning and can hear thunder in the distance.

 

Have a great night!

Carol



Thank you cards

Hi Everyone!

It's a hot one today.  I did some errands, went out to lunch with Robbie, and have been sitting at my computer since the middle of the afternoon working on my lesson plans for the week.  It's not so bad sitting here in "my own little corner".  I have a window fan in each of the windows and both of them are blowing directly on me. 

I thought you might like to see some thank you cards today. 

 

 

 

 

Have a great night!

Carol

 

Happy 70th Birthday

Hi Everyone!

Today I attended a 70th birthday party for my dear friend Sandy.  Sandy's real birthday was on June 13, but the party was today.  It was a wonderful party.  The food was fantastic and we hung out with a lot of fun people.  I knew some of them, but hadn't seen them in years.  Sandy's grandchildren and some other children entertained us as they splashed in the pool. 

When I first started to create cards many years ago Sandy cheered me on and encouraged me to keep making them.  She always took the time to look at the ones I had made whenever she was visiting me.  She often bought some of them to give to her grandchildren. 

I decided to make Sandy 70 cards in honor of her 70th birthday.  I've shown you some of those cards in recent posts, but now I can show you others.  At least 35 of them were mini cards that I didn't photograph, but happily I have many others to show you. 

Here are 2 of the get well cards I made her.

 

 

I'll be back tomorrow with more cards to show you.

 

Have a great night! Go Bruins!

Carol



Birthday Cards

Hi Everyone!

It's amazing how quickly life can move from crazy to crazier!  The school year ended for my students, but now we are in the summer program where I have new students and a temporary room for the summer.  Meanwhile, back home the heavy rains that we have been having lately finally flooded our basement and family room sometime over the weekend.  We have a pump which clearly wasn't working.  Happily most of my stuff wasn't on the floor this time as we have been flooded many other times.

As always making a few cards calmed me down.  Card therapy is such an amazing treatment for almost anything that ails me!  Now that I have so many cards in my card box I need to make the time to sort the ones I have photographed and blogged about from the ones that I haven't done yet.  Happily there are at least 100 cards in that box that need to be shared at some point.

This morning I grabbed 2 birthday cards to share with you.  The light is tricky in the morning.  Most areas are too bright from the morning sun and others aren't light enough.  The best time to take pictures is usually midafternoon and sometimes I am not here to take pictures.

Here's card number one for today.

It's simple and festive.  The cupcake, present, and party hat are all dimensional stickers.  The sentiment is from the Hero Arts "Wonderful Birthday" clear stamp set. 

Here's card number two for today.

 

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of this card.  It came out adorable after lots of tweaking.  I cut the "half frogs" from patterned paper.  I used a Hero Arts stamp to create the frog in the center.  They are all attached to the card with foam tape.  I love the effect of the wiggly eyes.

 

The cattails were created with one of my new stamps from the Springfield Show.  They were created with a DRS Designs stamp.  I highlighted them with a gold Uniball gel pen which added color and a little texture to the card.  The sentiment was created with another new stamp that I bought at the show from Endless Creations. 

 

That's all I have time for right now.  Must get ready for work. 

 

Have a wonderful day!

Carol

  

Get Well

Good Morning!

I am going to share 2 cards with you today.   Here's the first one.

I used a die to cut out the sentiment.  I learned a very cool technique for die cut sentiments from a recent post from Jennifer McGuire at this link.  I cut multiples of the sentiment and glued them on top of each other.  Now the words pop off of my card. 

My papercrafting supplies are the most organized part of my life, but somehow a long time ago I managed to lose a couple of clear stamps from an expensive ($24.95) set.  Over and over again I hesitate about replacing that set in hopes that one day the stamps will reappear.  They were among my favorite go to stamps so I was thrilled to find a Sizzlets die that is similar in appearance to one of the stamps.  I used that die to create this card.

 

I paper punched the flowers which just happen to look like some of the flowers on the floral strip of paper.  The papers are from Lawn Fawn's "Daphne's Closet" petite paper pack.  The sentiment is from The Stamps of Life's "Flowers2share" clear stamp set.

It's going to be a long day. 
Hope yours (and mine) is a good one!
Carol

stop and smell the daisies

Hi Everyone!

I bought a Denami Design's "Flower bloom" wooden rubber stamp at the Springfield Stamp show last weekend. It's been sitting in front of me on a shelf calling out, "Pick me!  Pick me!"  Meanwhile, I ordered a couple of packages of Granny's Kitchen Rub-ons from SEI a couple of weeks ago.  They arrived in the mail yesterday.  One of the rub-ons says, "Stop and smell the daisies".  I decided that rub-on would work perfectly with the "Flower bloom" stamped image. 

I stamped the flower onto 3 scraps of paper.  I used some of my Ranger Distress Inks to paint each flower.  Then I brushed a coat of clear Wink of Stella over each of the colored images.  I stamped some grass from Lawn Fawn's "Gnome Sweet Gnome" clear stamp set below each flower and added a tiny insect brad from Eyelet Outlet to each of the images. 

The layering paper I used is from Lawn Fawn's "Pink Lemonade" petite paper pack. 

Have a great day!
Carol

Thank you cards for children

Hi Everyone!

I've been having the best day.  I've spent most of it creating thank you cards for the gifts that my students gave me yesterday.  I'll share a few of them with you.

The little boy that I created this card for loves to play in the block area. 

I used some of my dies to cut geometric shapes.  I used foam tape to adhere them to the card.  The sentiment was created with a Stampendous wooden stamp.

The little boy that I created this card for LOVES to sweep.  He was a little shy when he joined our class in the middle of the year.  On his first day with us he pretty much stood there watching the other children.  When it was time to clean up I turned around and noticed that he was holding a broom that was taller than he is.  He was grinning from ear to ear and was busy sweeping the sand from the sand table off of the floor.

 

The broom was created with a stamp from Paper Smooches.  The stickers were all in my stash.

 

The little girl that I created this card for loves to draw.  She was constantly using crayons to draw a variety of little pictures.

 

 

The crayon brads are from Eyelet Outlet and the stickers are from Heidi Grace.  The stamped crayons were created with an A Muse Artstamp. 

 





This card was create for a little girl whose mother works at Dunkin' Donuts.  They gave me an insulated coffee mug for a gift. 

 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dunkin' Donuts their colors are pink and orange.  The papers I used are from Creative Imaginations.  The mug is from Hero Arts.  The sentiment was stamped with a Stampendous wooden stamp.  I added some Recollections jewels to the card to pick up the swirls on the paper and to resemble swirls of steam. 

 

That's all for today!

 

Enjoy the rest of the day!

Carol



Washi tape Happy Birthday card

Hi Everyone!

Today is the last day of school for my students.  I've watched them grow in so many ways.  It's going to be sad to say goodbye to them.  The center where I work is open year round so I'll be working in one of other rooms throughout the summer. 

Meanwhile, I have another birthday card to share with you today.  The inspiration for it came from some wrapping paper I saw when I was out and about.  I knew I had some Washi tape with a similar design and came home and created this card.

Wish the colors photographed more vividly as this is actually a fairly bright card.  I cut a 3-inch square of white tag and covered it with pieces of Washi tape.  Then I added a bow to my "gift" and used foam tape to adhere it to my card.  The sentiment was created with one of the Verses rubber stamps that I bought at the Stamp Show last weekend.

 

Have a nice day!
Carol

Happy Birthday

Hi Everyone!

When I returned home from the Stamp Show a few days ago, I visited the web sites of many of the vendors I had seen at the show.  I noticed that one of the companies had wooden stamps with just one large word like "happy", "thanks", or "hello" on them.  I like those stamps a lot and hadn't noticed them at the show. 

I decided I could create a similar effect with alphabet stickers.  I went through my stash and found some puffy pink ones that I knew would work for the card I had in mind.

The cupcake patterned paper is from a My Mind's Eye "Lime Twist" 6" x 6" paper pad.  First I masked a Verses "happy birthday" sentiment wooden stamp so that only "birthday" would stamp and stamped it onto a scrap of blue dotted paper from Memory Box.  Then I added the alphabet stickers to the paper.  I've had those stickers for so long that they weren't as sticky as I wanted them to be so I backed them with pieces of Scor-tape before I mounted them.  I like the cherries that are on the cupcakes so I added a cherry brad to the card.

Hope you have a wonderful day!
Carol

Hoping you're on the mend

Good morning everyone!

Janet and I went to the Stamp Show in West Springfield, MA a few days ago.  We had SO much fun.  I bought tons of stamps and could have bought tons more if I had won the lottery recently.  I considered going back on Sunday, but decided I wouldn't have the energy to use my new stamps if I spent all of my grocery money on stamps. 

One of my favorite booths was Stamps by Judith & Heather.  I already owned a few of their stamps and now I own at least 5 more of them.  I have been watching their videos on You Tube and I suspect that I will own even more of their stamps very soon.

Diane and Angela, when I bought the stamps I used on today's card I turned to Janet and said that both of you will love them.  Diane makes the most amazing quilts.  I've told her she should sell tickets to her home so that everyone can visit and see her wonderful creations that are displayed so beautifully.  Angela makes incredibly beautiful purses that are more special than the brand that so many of us own.

The idea for this card was displayed in the booth. 

The small buttons and spools were created with "stick" stamps.  The larger buttons and spools were created with "stubbie" stamps.  The spools and buttons are hanging from a "dot row". The sentiment that is directly beneath the stamp images is from one of PaperTrey Ink's clear quilt stamp sets.  "Feel better soon" was with my other "get well" stamps and I am not sure who manufactured it.  I used a clear Wink of Stella brush to add sparkle to the buttons and spools.  They don't look sparkly in my photograph, but in real life that little bit of sparkle adds a lot to the card.

Have a great day!
Carol

Wishing you sunshine

Good Morning Everyone!

The humidity is gone and I am a happy person.  Not sure which state I should live in as I am not a fan of winter or of high temperatures.  Today I am sharing two similar cards that I created with identical papers from Echo Park's "A Perfect Summer" 6" x 6" paper pad. 

Here's the first one.

I used my standard and classic Nestability circles to create the sun.  The sentiment on the sun is from Lawn Fawn's "How Delightful" clear stamp set.  The sentiment on the banner is from the Hero Arts "Sending Smiles Messages" clear stamp set. 

Here's the second card.

This time I ran my circles through a Cuttlebug "Tiny Bubbles" embossing folder before I layered them.  I used a Northwoods rubber stamp to create the sentiment. 

Hope your day is filled with sunshine...and no humidity!
Carol

New Home

Hi Everyone!

Sorry that it's been so long since I last posted.  A while ago I realized that many of the paper crafts I create are for the friends and family who follow this blog.  If I want something to be a surprise for them I must wait until after I give it to them to post about it here. 

I have been VERY busy creating lately and have at least 80 paper crafts to share with you.  Now I just need to make the time to write some posts about them. 

This morning I am going to share just one card before I leave for work.    My sister, Paula, and her husband, Rob, recently sold their home and moved to a new place.  I wanted to congratulate them and wish them the best of luck so I made this card for them.

It was a simple one to put together.  I pulled out a square, hearts, a triangle, clouds and a picket fence paper punches and got to work.  I used foam tape to adhere the large heart, triangular roof and heart chimney to the card.  The sentiment was created with a Hero Arts clear stamp. 

Have a great day!  I'll definitely be back more regularly now.

Carol