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

Hoppy the Bunny

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I am so excited to announce that I won the Impression Obsession drawing after I submitted a cupcake card into their It's a Cupcake Kind of Day challenge. I won a gift certificate to their online store and cannot wait to choose my new stamps. Be sure to start following their blog and pay attention to the challenges so that you can submit cards too. When you win you get to add a blinking widget to your blog.


I have been busy creating cards and paper crafts for St. Patrick's Day, Spring, Easter, and Mother's Day. There's still snow outside, but there's spring everywhere you look inside my house.

The blank card I used for this card is hot pink not red like the camera made it look. I stamped the Tree for All Seasons from Stamps by Judith onto the layering paper and then ran the paper through my newest Cuttlebug embossing folder.  Then I punched out lots of baskets and eggs from a Martha Stewart Easter basket/eggs punch that I purchased last year after Easter. When you punch you get one basket and 4 eggs. I set most of the baskets aside to use on other cards, but I cut the handle off of one basket to create a stand for the tree. I punched out a chick from another Martha Stewart punch and put it "in the stand". After I studied the picture I added a tiny black rhinestone to the chick for an eye. I used mini glue dots to attach all of those tiny eggs to the tree. Suggestion...Put the eggs on the strip of mini dots and then pull them off of the paper one at a time as you put them on the card.

Hoppy the Bunny from A Muse Artstamps is doing the Bunny Hop with his friends.  Hoppy is on sale on their web site for just $2.00!  You don't want to miss out on a bargain like that one!  I stamped Hoppy over and over again across the card and then used my watercolor pencils to color in each bunny. I'm not sure that you can see it in the picture, but I tapped a pink American Crafts glitter marker onto each bunny's nose. Used mini glue dots to attach each tiny pompom cottontail. The butterfly is from a Fiskars hand punch and the flowers are too. I used my Martha Stewart fringing scissors to cut the grass.


That's all I have time to share today, but I'll be back again soon with more ideas for you. Please remember that all bloggers love comments. Please send some to my blog instead of to my e-mail.  Thank you in advance for taking the time to comment.
 
Have a great day!
Carol
 

Paper Pieced Birthday Cards

Hi Everyone!



I spent the day cooking, baking, and creating cards. I was in the mood to do some paper piecing and decided to make some birthday cards.


Paper piecing is easy and fun to do. You just need a pair of small sharp scissors and some patterns. You can find a variety of free paper piecing patterns on the Scrapbooks, ETC. web site. The patterns for the cake and cupcake are from "Birthday Paper-Piecing Patterns" in the Events section and the dog pattern is from "Animals Paper-Piecing Patterns" in the Animals & Nature section.

The patterned papers I used on today's three cards are from the American Crafts awesome "Abode" collection. I ran the white tag on this card through a Cuttlebug Spots & Dots embossing folder and then used a Martha Stewart Scallop Dot edger punch to embellish one side of it. "Make a Wish" was stamped with A Country Welcome wooden stamp. Before I adhered the assembled cake to the layering paper I put dimensional tape on it so that it would "pop" off the card.

The "Happy Birthday" text on this card was created with a Heartfelt Creations wooden stamp. I ran the "muffin wrapper" through one of my paper crimpers before I assembled the cupcake.

I used Martha Stewart's Zig Zag edger punch to embellish the white tag on this card. "Have a doggone great day!" was stamped with an Inky Antics stamp. I adhered dimensional tape behind the message and the dog's face. The dog's eyes are created with small black brads and the heart nose was punched from a small heart punch.  The tag on the dog's collar is a brad. 



Have a great night!
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

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

Moonrise from SEI

Hi Everyone!

From the moment I first saw SEI's Moonrise paper pad I loved it. The oranges, yellows, golds, and browns which are the dominant colors in the collection remind me of fall leaves, pumpkins, and gourds. I knew the papers would be perfect for some Thanksgiving cards.

I told you that yesterday I purchased a new Fiskars oak leaf punch, the SEI 6" x 6" Moonrise paper pad, and Martha Stewart's scallop dot edger paper punch. Well, last night I "played" with my new "toys" and created the cards I am going to share with you in today's post.

I used my new Rich Cocoa Memento dye ink pad to stamp the text.

The small "Happy Thanksgiving" was stamped with a Northwoods wooden stamp. The large "Happy Thanksgiving" was stamped with an Inkadinkado wooden stamp.

Aren't the papers on these cards yummy! And elegant! Love 'em!

Please be sure to visit the first ever link party at SEI by visiting the blog at http://www.shopsei.com/

Have a great day.

Carol

Baskets of Fun

Hi Everyone!

Today’s cards were created with some stamp sets from Hero Arts. The basket and the flowers are 2 of the 3 stamps in the Sunny Smiles clings stamp set. The pineapple and the phrase "simply the best" are 2 of the 9 stamps in the Simply the Best clear stamps set.

I did some masking on both of today’s cards. I wanted the flowers to look as if they were in the basket. I wanted the pineapples to look as if they were in a basket and I wanted one pineapple to look as if it were behind 2 other pineapples.

For the card with the flowers in the basket I began by stamping the basket on a sheet of 4" x 5.25" white tag. Then I stamped the basket on a Post-it and cut it out. Look at the image of the basket. I trimmed the Post-it so only the front handles and front of the basket were intact. I then placed the Post-it on top of the image I had stamped on the white tag. Then I stamped the flowers. Some of the stems went on the Post-it and some went "in the basket." When I removed the Post-it , it looked as if the flowers were in the basket. I used Marvy Twinklette markers to color the basket and the flowers and then attached the white tag to a green A2 card.

I used Martha Stewart fringe scissors to create the grass on the card. If you’re unfamiliar with these scissors you may want to check them out the next time you are out shopping. Instead of the usual 2 blades, these scissors have 10 blades, five on each side that all cut at the same time. They are fun to use when you are creating grass, fringing, cutting confetti, etc.

I didn’t ink the back handles or the strip across the back of the picnic basket when I stamped the basket image for the second card onto white tag.

I used the same mask I created for the first card on the basket with pineapples card. I put the mask on top of the basket and then I stamped the pineapple that you see in the center of the basket. I stamped a pineapple on a Post-it and cut it out. I placed the Post-It pineapple on the pineapple I had stamped and put the mask for the basket on top of the stamped basket. Then I stamped a pineapple to the left and to the right of the original pineapple. After I colored in the pineapples and the basket I cut them out. I attached them to the "sky decorative paper" with thin pop dots. I used an EK Success dotted wave border punch to create the edging on the curtains.

I love that basket stamp and think it has lots of possiblities. Have a great night.
Carol