Pinwheel Bouquets and Paper Egg Wreaths

Good Afternoon!

This is my second post of the day. I want to post it so I won't forget to do it!  In addition to cards I've been creating more and more crafts. The idea for this bouquet of pinwheels is from the April 2011 issue of Scrapbooks Etc. magazine. I've told you previously that although the focus of this magazine is scrapbooking, I have a subscription to it. I learn new techniques and ideas for cards and crafts each time a new issue arrives.

I used a Sizzix pinwheel die to cut the pinwheels. The yummy papers I used are from K and Company's Citronella collection. Last summer I shared many cards that I created from that same collection.

I love to create holiday and seasonal paper crafted wreaths. Here's the one I made for this Easter. I used an AccuCut egg die to cut the 2 different sizes of eggs. I hot glue gunned them to a wreath form and tied baby ric rac to some of them.

It was school vacation week here in Massachusetts. I had a week filled with friends, fun, and yummy lunches. Many of my friends are teachers or work in schools so they had the week off which means it was a good week to get together.


I remembered to take pictures on just one of those fun days. Amy, Angela, Martha, and Kathy each created an Easter wreath. Peggy worked on St. Patrick's Day cards for her nieces and nephews. All of us think it's fun to paper craft, talk and eat together.

Amy



Amy and Angela



Martha



Kathy



Peggy


Can't wait to get together again to do some more crafting!

Have a nice night!
Carol

Denami Color Challenge #6

Hello Everyone!



I created today's card for the Denami Designs Color Challenge #6. For this challenge participants were asked to create a card that uses the colors navy, lime, and white and at least one Denami stamp.

I decided to use the small side-view sheep #C71, the mini grass #B87, and the small Happy Easter #F160 stamps on my card. I chose a blank navy blue card and lime green tag for my layering paper. I ran the lime tag through a Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder and used a Martha Stewart edger punch to embellish one side of it. The embossed swirls make me think of the way sheep's wool is often illustrated in children's books. I added a strip of white tag behind the punched dots to draw more attention to them.


I stamped a sheep on each of four white 1.25" squares. Then I masked each sheep and stamped grass onto those same squares. I stamped 4 additional sheep, ran them through a Cuttlebug Small Dots embossing folder, and fussy cut them before I used foam tape to layer them on top of the other sheep. I mounted each white square onto a 1.5" navy square and ran those squares through the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder.


I stamped "Happy Easter" onto a scrap of white tag and mounted it onto a piece of navy tag. I added some tiny lime green brads to either side of the text.


I decided the card needed some bling so I added some navy and lime dimensional stickers to it.


The card "feels" like Easter to me. The colors make me think of the patent leather shoes, straw hats and white gloves I wore on Easter many years ago.


Have a great day!
Carol

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

Shamrocks and Butterflies

Good Morning Everyone!

A few weeks ago I shared this photograph of the hearts I made after I learned about them from Audrey Yeager's "Heart Garland Tutorial" on the SEI blog.  Those hearts were so easy to put together that I decided to use them to create other seasonal decorations.

I used some Marzipan paper from SEI's Christmas Mint collection to create this shamrock. I created 3 hearts to make the shamrock. For the center heart instead of having a 6" inch strip as the 4th strip I used a 12" one and then trimmed it after I assembled the shamrock.

This butterfly was created with some Butter Creams paper from SEI's Christmas Mint collection. I created 2 hearts to make the butterfly. I cut a 12" strip of paper that is 1/2" wide to make the anntennae. I wrapped each end of the strip around a pencil to curl it and then attached it to the butterfly.

By the way the Christmas Mint assortment pack is on clearance on the Shopsei shopping site. 

If you put 4 hearts together you could create a 4 leaf clover. Put 5 hearts together and you'll have a flower!

Thanks Audrey! Thanks SEI!

Enjoy!

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
 

It's a Cupcake Kind of Day

Hi Everyone!



To view today's card please visit Shirley's blog at http://www.impression-obsession.com/ and read her post for "It's a Cupcake Kind of Day". I had so much fun creating cards for that challenge.

The cupcake was created with an Impression Obsession "Sweet Toppings" rubber stamp and the text was created with an Impression Obsession
"You're Sweet" rubber stamp. The papers are from the American Crafts Abode collection.

I used White Enamel Accents from Ranger for the vanilla frosting and vanilla cake. I used a marker to color the chocolate frosting and chocolate cake and then added Glossy Accents from Ranger to them. Also put Glossy Accents on the cherries. There's a bit of green jewelry wire on the cherries for their stems. Sprinkled Doodlebug confetti on the frosting while it was still wet. Ran the muffin wrappers through a crimper to make them look realistic. That doesn't show so well in the photograph. The shiny frosting makes the cupcakes look good enough to eat! The cupcakes are added to the layering paper with dimensional tape.

Be sure to visit the Impression Obsession's Design Team's blogs to see their amazing cards for It's a Cupcake Kind of Day!

Have a great night!
Carol

Happy Day After Valentine's Day to You

Hi Everyone!

Happy Day After Valentine's Day! I hope that your holiday was as special as mine was. My children continue to amaze me. I did a teacher training from 3 PM to 5 PM yesterday and didn't arrive home until close to 6:30. Robbie was working and I offered to take Marie out to dinner, but she chose to cook our dinner. She cooked a yummy spiral ham, potatoes, and carrots. Then she went a step further and made whoopie pies and mini cherry cheesecakes from scratch. Rob arrived home in time for dessert. He commented that he thinks the real Marie was abducted by aliens!


Marie made this valentine. 


Marie worked feverishly at creating a valentine for me. She found the world map that she needed on Google images. She used stickers and rhinestones to embellish her card. The inside of the card reads, "Mi Madre, Happy Valentine's Day! Maybe later we can skip and hold hands. Love, Marie". "We can skip and hold hands" is a line from Gilmore Girls. Marie and I have watched every episode of that show together over and over again.


Rob chose to create his valentine for me on the computer. He asked if I'd show him how to use my Scor-Pal to create creases to help fold cardstock. He found the image that he wanted for his card in Google images. His card made all of his laugh because Marie is truly a choco-holic and can sniff it out when it's in the house.











The cards I am sharing with you today were created with papers from Cosmo Cricket's "DeLovely" Mini Deck. I LOVE the bright colors that Cosmo Cricket used to create this line. I turned to Paper Crafts "Go to Sketches" special issue magazine for inspiration for the cards. Both cards were completely inspired by two of Teri Anderson's sketches. I paper punched the flowers and circles on both cards. I only adhered the centers of the flowers to the layering papers so that I could bend their petals and raise them slightly off the cards. The text on the first card was stamped with an Impression Obsession wooden stamp. The text on the second card was stamped with a Northwoods wooden stamp.

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hope you have a great night!
Carol