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

Hello!

Hi Everyone!

I am VERY VERY excited about the cards I am going to share with you today. I’ve told you that I keep my clear stamps in cd cases. I cut the packaging that has the black outlines of each stamp and use my Scor-Pal tape to attach it to the empty case. Then I match the stamps to the black outlines, but there are exceptions. I store all of my "happy birthday" clear stamps in one case and all of my "thank you" clear stamps in another case. As of today I now store all of my "hello" stamps together along with Lawn Fawn’s telephone clear stamp.




The telephone is from Lawn Fawn’s "Just My Type" clear stamp set. "Just saying hello" is from the Hero Art’s Everyday Sayings stamp set that I have been talking about for the past couple of days. One of the "hello" stamps is from Lawn Fawn’s "Just My Type" clear stamp set and the rest of the "hello" stamps are from all different sets of clear and wooden stamps in my stash.

After I had stamped and colored the telephone I very carefully cut the receiver off of the phone. I used my paper piercer to make a tiny hole in the phone and in the receiver. I wrapped thin jewelry wire around a toothpick to curl it like a real phone cord and then I put one end of the wire in the hole I had made in the receiver and the other end in the hole I had made in the phone.

The yellow memo paper is from the Sassafras Nerdy Bird Wee Bundle. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Yesterday I had lunch with an "old" friend. Well, she’s not really that old...she’s 3 years younger than I am. I packed us a picnic lunch. As I drove to her home I realized I had forgotten to pack salad dressing so I stopped at Stop & Shop to pick some up. While I was there I decided to quickly browse through the magazine section because you never know what kind of inspiration might be lurking on the shelves. I glanced at the magazines on the shelves and the August/September 2010 issue of
Quilt magazine jumped out at me. I looked at the quilt on the cover and the first word that came into my mind was "Nestabilities". I knew I could use that quilt as a trigger to create a quilted card.



Here it is! After I created the quilt I decided to use my Cuttlebug and run the quilt through an embossing folder. Wrong...it was too thick. I peeled the top three circles off of each stack. Then I was able to emboss the rest of the card and embossed the 6 stacks of 3 circles each separately. Then I reattached those circles to the card.
I still have a stack of cards that I made last weekend to share with you. Hopefully, I will have a chance to post them tomorrow.

Have a great night!
Carol

Gift Card Holders

Hi Everyone!

Talk about going out of your mind! We didn’t have cable TV or Internet service for more than 24 hours so I couldn’t read or write e-mails, couldn’t post my blog, and couldn’t read the blogs that I follow. I contacted our provider and was told that more than 4000 people didn’t have service. Happily everything is working again.

Sometimes, when you want to give someone a gift, it’s hard to know what they may want or need so you might decide to give them a gift card to a store or to their favorite restaurant. To personalize that gift card it’s nice to create a special holder for it. Today I thought I’d share some gift card holders that I recently created.

I found the template for this holiday stocking gift card holder on the Splitcoast Stampers web site. It was created by waltzingmouse. I adapted the template just a little to transform the stocking into a sock. I trimmed the sides of the stocking’s cuff to make it look more like the cuff on a sock. I crimped some scrapbook tag and glued it onto the cuff and also used it for the sock’s heel and toe. I used paper from the dcwv "Guy Paper Stack" for this sock. If you study the template you will see where the gift card is placed. When you lift up the sock’s cuff you will see the gift card. A greeting can be stamped on the inside of the cuff. This card will fit in a 4.75" x 6.5’’ standard envelope.

When I read the Hero Arts blog on Monday, I realized that it’s been a while (last one I made was on May 7 for a friend’s birthday) since I created a gift card holder with a pocket. To make this card I cut a sheet of 8.5" x 11" white tag so that it measured 4.25’" x 11". I used my Scor-Pal and scored a line at 1.75" and at 6.25". I folded the paper at the 1.75" line and put some Scor-Pal tape on the edges to create a pocket. I folded the paper along the 6.25" line to create the card. I used one of my Martha Stewart edger punches to create a decorative edge. I stamped the heart bouquet image from a Heartfelt Creations stamp onto some dcwv sky paper. I used my Marvy Twinklette markers to color the balloons. Then I filled in the balloons with Glossy Accents to give them dimension. The "Thanks a Bunch" stamp is from Stamp of Excellence. The gift card is placed in the pocket. It can be seen when you lift up the front of the card. This card will fit in an A2 envelope.


It’s not too early to be thinking about the holidays so why not give these ideas a try and turn them into gift card holders for the holidays. Talk to you soon!
Carol

Happy Friday!

Good Morning Everyone!

I often purchase stamps that have specific messages such as "Happy Birthday", "Congratulations" or "Get Well", but the stamps I want to share with you today are just for fun. I’ve learned that humor works as well in cards as it does in life. We smile, we laugh, sometimes we nod our heads in agreement when we read a humorous card or one that "plays with words".

I order many of my stamps from http://www.addictedtorubberstamps.com/ which is one of my favorite sources for stamps. I think their search engine is fantastic. Sometimes I get an idea for a card and think I’d like a stamp for it so I search on their web site and more often than not I find exactly what I wanted. They ship quickly and protect the stamps by placing them on corrugated cardboard and shrink wrapping them. The stamps arrive with a couple of pieces of hard candy and a sample sheet of scrapbook paper. If you are a member of their "Red Carpet Club" your order gets priority shipping and arrives with a surprise in it. Sometimes the surprise is a stamp or some ink. I ordered all of the stamps that I am writing about in today’s blog through addictedtorubberstamps.

First up, "I like you better than flies!" This stamp is manufactured by Penny Black and is called "better than flies!" "Inky the Frog" is manufactured by Inkadinkado. I didn’t have any "flies" handy, so I substituted some dragonfly gems from Favorite Findings. I figured the frogs wouldn’t mind. I used my Twinkling H20s to paint my frogs

Next up, "Life’s a beach" from A Country Welcome stamps. I’ve had that stamp for a while, but hadn’t used it recently. I picked up some Jolee’s "Beach Bikini" dimensional stickers in the clearance section of Michaels the other day, and thought they’d work well with my stamp. I threaded the clothesline onto the "pebbles" paper before I attached it to the card. The clothespins are just strips of adhesive labels. I know that there are mini clothespins, but decided that the other embellishments added enough dimension to the card.

Now that I am creating more and more cards when I am stamping an image, I stamp extras, emboss them, and set them aside so I can "grab" one when I need it. I have extra images of "Life’s a Beach" so I decided to use one for the next card.

My July/August 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine arrived in the mail the other day. I love the sandcastle idea that is shown on pages 27 and 28 of that issue. You can print out the template for free on the Creating Keepsakes website. The sandcastle is created from sandpaper. I’ve used sandpaper on other cards so I store some sheets of it with my scrapbook paper. The different grades of paper have different shades and textures. You can pick up packages of sandpaper at the dollar stores. There will be several grades of paper in each package. To create the sand on the beach just tear strips of sandpaper. Don’t try to tear it straight...just tear it!

I used Cloud9Design rub ons on my card. I was amazed that they stuck so easily to the sandpaper. I backed some scraps of red and blue paper with Scor-Pal tape and then cut out the flags for the castle. The backing for the tape peeled off easily and then I attached the flags to the card.
And that’s it for today! Have a great day!
Carol