Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am sure that you are familiar with the expression "the apple doesn't fall from the tree". I can share this picture with you because I know that Marie doesn't follow my blog. She was in her room creating valentine mailboxes for the residents at the nursing home where she works when I snapped this photograph of her. She made mailboxes for days. She scooped up every juice carton and tissue box that Gayle saved for me along with all of the ones I have been saving too.

Those of you who don't know me personally are probably wondering why on earth I would save such things. I am an early childhood educator who trains other early childhood teachers. I create games and other learning tools out of recycled materials and share those ideas with teachers in my trainings.


Robbie and Marie have grown up watching me create dragons out of egg cartons and mailboxes from milk cartons and now Marie does many of those activities for and with the nursing home residents. I had to share the photograph because I know that those of you who know Marie are laughing right now. Yes, after all those years of head-butting, Marie and I have become more and more alike. She crafts. She cooks. She bakes and she drinks tea!

Here's the valentine I made for Robbie. Some of you know from previous posts that Robbie and I share some "owl" memories so more often than not I make him an owl card. He bought me a set of "Wise Owls" clear stamps from PaperTrey Ink for Mother's Day last year and loves when I use them. Of all the people in my world Rob pays the most attention to my cards and critiques them for me.


The branch on the card is from PaperTrey Ink's "Take a Bough" set. I use that branch over and over again on all sorts of cards. I love the font that was used on the "Owl always love you" stamp from Stampendous. It embossed beautifully. The letters are nicely raised on the card.

Last week I created several "Get well" cards and I was disappointed when I realized I had sent them off before I photographed them. Happily I still have this one to share with you. The paper is from a 6" x 6" Adhesive Paper Prints stack from dcwv. The bed and pill bottles were created with clear stamps from the "Take It EZ" clear stamp set from Woodware USA. "Get Well Soon" was stamped with a stamp from Impression Obsession. For some reason each time I look at this card I think of Beatrix Potter. The colors must be similar to colors she used in one of her books or maybe the bed looks like a bed from one of her books.

I love the idea for this card, but I don't love the vase I free cut for it. I'll probably end up pulling it off and making a slightly smaller one. Layering papers are from American Crafts. Text was stamped with a Northwoods wooden rubber stamp.


I have some baking to do right now and a workshop later so it's time for me to sign off for today.
 
 
 
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

More Birthday Cards

Hi Everyone!

I love everything about Christmas especially our family traditions, but for some reason I keep putting off working on Christmas cards. It may be because I know once I get started I won't want to work on anything else. It may be because I dislike snow and ice so much that I don't want to think about the winter holidays. My friend Susan suggested that I create more birthday and thank you cards for her co-workers so that is what I am doing.

I used paper from Martha Stewart's Classic Woodland and Classic Botanical 12" x 12" paper pads to create these first 2 cards. The papers are layered onto blank A2 cards which measure 4.25" x 5.5". I cut some white tag so that it measured 4" x 5.25", placed it in a dotted embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug. I cut the red and aqua papers to that they measured 4" x 2" and adhered them to the white paper.

I used Jeanette's, the owner of Stamped Designs in Dover, NH, bow making technique to create a bow for each card and then used Scor-pal tape to adhere the ribbon to the layering paper. Then I attached the layering paper to the A2 card.

The scalloped and plain circles on both cards were cut with circle Nestabililties. I put the white circles in the dotted embossing folder and ran them through my Cuttlebug before I attached them to the scalloped circles. "Happy Birthday" was stamped with a Northwoods Wooden Stamp. The cupcakes are K and Company embellishments.




I tend to use A2 cards for most of my cards, but I created the blank card for this next card. I cut some brown tag from the SEI Moravia collection so that it measures 4" x 11" and scored and folded it at 5.5". This means I was able to create 3 blank cards from just one sheet of 12" x 12" paper.




Hint: when you are cutting paper that you plan to fold be sure to cut it so that you will be folding parallel to the grain of paper. To determine the grain of a 12" x 12" paper hold the edges of the paper and gently bend it in the middle. You will feel the paper resisting when you bend it in one direction and will find the other direction bends more easily. That is the direction you will want to use when you are creasing and folding your paper. Your crease and fold will be neater when you do it that way and your paper will not crack. Try it both ways so that you will understand me.

I cut some white tag so that it measured 3.75" x 5.25" and adhered it to the card. I cut some brown tag so that it measured 3.5" x 5" and centered it on the white tag.

I am guessing that many of you are like me and cannot throw away your paper scraps. I cut the 9 rectangles that you see on the card from scraps from the SEI Happy Days paper collection. Each rectangle is 1" x 1.5". I used my Northwoods wooden "Happy Birthday" stamp to stamp the message onto a scrap of white tag and then I adhered the message to my card.

You can use your scraps to create a similar card and add any sentiment you want to the card.

Have a great day!
Carol

Halloween Day 2

Hi Everyone!

Another hot and humid day. I think this has been the most humid summer in years. I'd wish it were Fall except that would mean Winter was on its way. As much as I dislike humidity I am even less fond of snow and ice.

Today’s cards are all easy to create. Just study the photographs of my cards and then use Halloween paper from your stash to create cards of your own.


The images on this first card were cut from a 12" x 12" paper stack of Debbie Mumm paper. Basically I cut the images and glued them to a sheet of orange layering paper. Then I put the paper in the Cuttlebug "Tiny Bubbles" embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug. I think that folder makes the paper look as if it is quilted. I also feel that the images are now anchored firmly to the layering paper.



I used parts of 2 papers from a K and Company Halloween 12" x 12" paper stack to create this card. There is a page in that stack that is completed filled with jack o’lanterns. I fussy cut some of them and glued them to a sheet of purple sky tag. I put the paper in a Cuttlebug spider web embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug. The purple tag had a white core so when I embossed it some of the tag cracked and the white core showed through the card. I don’t like that look so I put some tiny bats on some of the larger "white cracks". Tip: I used a Picksey Pick-up to pick up each bat, swiped it across the top of a wide tip glue pen, and then glued it to the card. The "spooky" message was created with Maya Road Rubons.



These last 2 cards have the same blueprint. If you have been following my blog you know it’s a blueprint that I use often. I traced over the spider webs with a Pinpoint Roller Quickie Glue pen and then sprinkled fine white glitter over the glue. I tapped off the excess glitter and was left with sparkling spider webs. I like those glue pens. The barrel on them is clear so it’s easy to see how much glue is left inside the pen. The pens don’t clog either so they are easy to use.

The spiders are "Favorite Findings". The pumpkin on the first card was cut from a medium pumpkin Nestability. "Trick or Treat" was stamped from a Northwoods wooden stamp. The pumpkin on the second card was stamped with a Recollections wooden stamp.

Stop by again tomorrow to see the Halloween cards that I am going to create tonight!
Carol

Happy Days

Hi Everyone!

On Friday Robbie will celebrate his 25th birthday. Late one night about a year or so ago, he called me to his room. "Listen," he said to me. I listened and heard the hooting owl that he had heard. We sat in the darkness listening to the owl calling out again and again. Hooting owls are rare in our neighborhood so we were both excited about Rob’s discovery. We heard the owl a few more times over the next few weeks. On night’s that we didn’t hear it, as we were calling out good night to each other one or both of us would "Who-o-o."

I am guessing that story sounds sort of silly to those of you who are reading this post, but there’s more to the story. Robbie and Marie both asked what I wanted for Mother’s Day and I mentioned some choices of clear stamps from PaperTrey Ink. Rob went online and discovered that the stamps he had planned to give me were out of stock. On his own he scrolled through all of the stamps that are shown on PaperTrey Ink’s web site and discovered their "Wise Owl" stamps. He wasn’t sure if I already owned them or not and didn’t want to give away his discovery to me so he took ALL of my stamps into his room and checked through them to be sure. He was delighted to discover that "Wise Owl" wasn’t among my collection and ordered them for me.

When the package arrived Rob was as excited about his gift as I was because he had found and selected "Wise Owl" on his own. He gave them to me along with a very special note that ended with the words, "Love, Guess Who-o-o."

And so I created this "Who-o-o" card for Robbie’s 25th birthday. I know it will be meaningful to him. The branch on the card is from PaperTrey Ink’s "Take a Bough" collection. The owl is from PaperTrey Ink’s "Wise Owl" collection. The moon and the leaves are stickers from Recollections.

Riley, is my sister Jeanne’s dog. She loves Riley as if she were her biological child. I’ve created several "Riley" cards for Jeanne over the past 6 months or so. When I saw the "Patriotic Puppy" stamp on the Serendipty Stamp’s web site I knew I had to buy it to use on a card for Jeanne. "Happy 4th of July" is a stamp from Northwoods Rubber Stamps. I used Stickles to highlight the fireworks that are a part of the stamp. The background fireworks are stickers from Mrs. Grossman. The flag and dish of food are also stickers.

I loved the fireworks stickers from Mrs. Grossman so much that I decided to use them on a card of their own. I already had the blue sticker letters on my table so I quickly added them to the card.
It didn’t take me very long to create those 3 cards, but I am guessing the recipients will all enjoy them.

Have a great night!

Carol