Please Don't Give Up On Me

I feel like the queen of excuses when I seem to always have something interfere with my being able to blog.  Even I am tired of listening to me!!  So this time I am simply going to beg for your forgiveness, thank you for your patience and move this posting along. 

Remember this card:

 

Well today we are going to start with the tutorial on how I made it.  Today I will focus on the words and on of the minion characters as I promised in my last blog.  Let's get the ball rolling, shall we?!

 

For the lettering on this card I turned to the retired big shot decorative strip called billboard.  I cut the letters out of glittery red card stock and adhered them onto the sections with liquid glue.  The hyphen was made using a scrap piece of the card stock.

 

Here you see the word Minion made the same way as above.

 

And last is the Avengers.  My son in law to be is really into comics and this was one movie I watched with him.  I chose the entire theme for the card based on the night we watched the movie.

 

For the happy birthday greeting, I actually used and embossing folder and my big shot to emboss the words onto a piece of Whisper White card stock.  I then cut them out free handed and attached them to Night of Navy card stock using runner adhesive.  I followed the outline of the word to trim the navy to the same shape.

 

Since the words were embossed, they had not "stand out" feature to them to make them easy to read.  I wanted to highlight them and did so by using my Real Red stampin' marker and tracing over the words.  This allowed them to "pop" off the page and be seen.  I also sponged a bit of red ink onto the white area to differentiate it from the card.  Red rhinestones completed my look for the panels.

 

Now let's begin meeting our super hero minions!!  The first I want to introduce you to is Captain America Minion.  He is on the center panel of my card.  Now I know these characters may not be the best you have ever seen but I enjoyed making them and was happy with the turnout.  

I used Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White and Basic Black card stock to make this little guy.  The body was punched using the retired key tag punch.  Now I also used this punch to make the pieces of the suit.  If you do not have this punch, you can use an oval punch and trim the sides down.  The eyes and the little things off his helmet are from the owl builder punch.  I made the feet using the small heart from the retired heart to heart punch.  His arm is a scrap of card stock while his hand is an owl foot.  The shield was made using the 1" circle, 3/4" circle, 1/2" circle and the large medium circle from the owl builder.  They are layered together and adhered with liquid glue.  The mouth is the end of the large oval.  For teeth, I used the same punch and punched a piece of white.  I trimmed it free hand.  The tongue is a 3/4 inch circle trimmed to fit.  

All pieces were adhered together using a liquid glue.  The shield was attached to the card with a dimensional.

Well that's it for this time.  Next blog post I will the photos and information about the other little minions on the card.  Thanks again for sticking with me.  I will be back soon.  Have a great day!!

It's A New Year!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone and happy new year to you!!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

I must say this was a very special Christmas for us.  Our youngest daughter, Kaitlyn, was proposed to on Christmas morning by her boyfriend, Robert.  I am happy to say she accepted his proposal.  She has already started the wedding planning.  While no date is set yet, she is working to ensure the details will be exactly what she wants.  I could not be more happy for her.  Robert is a wonderful young man and we are looking forward to having him as a son-in-law.

Our oldest daughter, Heather, also had wonderful news to share with us.  She has gone back to school and made a 4.0 gpa for this past semester!  She received a formal letter of congratulations from the school.  We are so proud of her achievement!!

As promised, I am going to share with you a birthday card I made for Robert's birthday.  I took lots of photos of this card and am going to share it with you for a few days in order to break down the components.  Now as I am typing this for you, I am also preparing to begin keeping my nephew once again as his mommy goes back to teaching.  I am going to try to get 2 to 3 blogs in per week so it may take a week or so to show you all the components of this card.  Let's begin, shall we.

 

I think last year was my year for tri-fold cards.  I made quite a few of them for my relatives.  This one has to be one of my favorites.  I love the Minions and since Robert is a fan of the Avengers, I chose to pair them together in this awesome card.  The color scheme I went with is Real Red, Night of Navy and Whisper White.  To start this card, you will need a 5 1/2" x 12" piece of red card stock.  You will need to score it from top to bottom at 2", 4", 8" and 10".  Then you will turn it lengthwise.  You will measure 1 1/2" from each side and mark it on the 2" score line and the 10" score line.  Using a ruler to help you, take your craft knife an cut from the 2" to the 10" line.  This is what creates the panels for you to fold.  The panels were made using the navy and white card stock.  I measure the panels one by one and then cut my card stock.  The panels were run through my big shot using the honeycomb textured impression folder.  Panels are attached with runner adhesive.  

 

Here's a top view of the card.  I love how this one looks when it is open.  Whoever came up with this nifty fold is a genius!!

 

Here is a flat view of the card.  I forgot to take a photo of it folded up but I think that's okay.  I know I took folded ones of some of the other tri-fold cards.   

In my next blog, I will share the words on the cards and one of the Minion characters with you.  I hope you will return to see them.  Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you will continue to visit with me throughout this year.   See you next time!!!!

Another Thank You Card Idea

Hi everyone.  I certainly hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are all ready for a visit from St. Nick.  I have been so busy myself with decorating and baking that I have not seen my craft room for weeks.  Of course, it is also covered in Christmas decor.  My tables are filled with snowy villages or presents that are wrapped and waiting to go under the tree.  Usually I place them under it as I go but since I keep little Jackson, now 15 months, I cannot do that unless I want to re-wrap the gifts over and over.  He is talented at tearing the paper off!  I have so much fun with him.  It is really nice to have a little one around to see all the decorations.  His eyes light up and a big smile comes upon his face.  Too cute!!!

I did realize that I never shared the thank you cards I made for my husband's charity sponsors.  I mailed these out after taking lots of photographs but forgot to do the blog about them.  For today, I wanted to post the photo of the card so you can see what it looks like.

Many of the techniques used on this card are ones I really enjoy using.  The fireman and girl were made with the owl punch.  I have to tell you I punched so many of them as well as all the owl figures that I made before that my punch wore out.  It sticks now when I use it.  While I am going to continue to use it some and work it on some wax paper to help, I went ahead and ordered another one so that I would be ready for the next owl card.  

I chose to make the people for this one but about half way through I decided I was absolutely out of my mind.  There were so many little pieces to be put together I thought I would never finish.  I also decided it just took way too long to complete the 85 I had to do.  Next year I will have to start the thank you's prior to the event, especially if I want to do such a detailed one.  

I want to wish you all a very happy holiday season.  I am going to try to get my craft room organized and back in order for the new year.  That's my hope.  I have a really cool card to share with you in January that I made for my youngest daughter's boyfriend for his birthday.  I think you will really like it.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  See you on January 6, 2014!

2 Weeks To Thanksgiving - Oh My!!

How did it get to be so close to Thanksgiving so fast?  I love the holiday time and always want it to last forever.  For some reason this year seems to be passing by so quickly.  I hope things slow down a little.

Are you ready for Thanksgiving?  I know I am not.  I haven't even bought a turkey yet!!  I cook every year and really do enjoy it.  I just feel so unprepared this year.  I finally sat down yesterday and went through my recipes to put the menu together.  I guess that now I will just need to put the grocery list together and get to the store.  I also need to put the guest list together and invite everyone to come.  I don't know about you but sometimes the "to do" list seems endless to me.  There are not enough hours in the day.  That's when I have to remind myself that the holidays are to be enjoyed and not a chore.  I need to modify my list and just do the basics - the things I love and the traditions that are so important to me.  Well that's my holiday advice.  Sure hope I follow it.

Today I wanted to share a simple thank you card with you that I made for a bride recently.  She wanted a basic design to send to those who gave her and her new husband a wedding gift.  So I came up with the following card. 

 

I started with a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" Old Olive card and scored it at 4 1/4".  I added only one layer to this.  It is a 4" x 5 1/4" Night of Navy piece of card stock.  I ran this through my big shot using the retired Lacy Brocade impression folder.  I attached it to the base card using runner adhesive.  

For the center focal point, I used a retired stamp set called Ain't Love Grand.  I stamped the little car using Basic Black ink onto Whisper White card stock.  I used my color pencils to color it in.  Now there is a greeting that stamped with the car image too but when I punched out the car I deliberately did not include the greeting.  I just did not want to use it.  I punched the car out using the wide oval punch and layered it onto an Old Olive oval which was cut using the oval framelits set and the big shot.  The ovals are attached together using runner adhesive and the final oval is attached to the card using dimensionals.  I them added a pearl to the top and bottom of the oval for added decor.

 

The greeting I chose to use is from the stamp set (retired also I think) called Curly Cute.  I stamped it using Old Olive ink and punched it out with the modern label punch.  I then punched out an Old Olive modern label and layered the greeting onto it using runner adhesive.  The completed greeting is attached to the card with dimensionals.  

Once the card had had plenty of time to sit so the ink was dried completely, I sprayed the entire front with champagne shimmer spray.  For the inside, I put a blank 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Whisper White card stock which allowed the bride plenty of room to write her notes.  

Remember that cards do not have to be complicated to be elegant.  At this busy time of year the last thing you need to do is stress yourself out trying to do really intricate holiday cards.  Just do a design that you are comfortable with and your family and friends will love it.

Thanks for dropping by today to visit.  I will return again with another card to share with you.  See you all later.

Finally Back To Normal - Well Almost

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have blogged.  I had these thank you cards to make to send to the sponsors of the charity my husband is president of and boy did they take a while to finish.  On top of that I also was making thank you cards for my daughter's friend who just got married.  I don't know if it was just me being slow at doing them or maybe they really were that intricate.  Oh well.  All I know is they are finished now and I can once again relax a bit and blog more often.

I am still keeping my nephew Jackson 3 days a week.  He is so much fun!  He is 14 months now and walking a bit.  He prefers to have you assist him with walking but he'll get more independent in time.  My hubby is still battling his sinus issues and we will find out if the medicine he is on is working at all on Thursday.  I sure hope it is.  He has been ill for almost 3 months.  He needs a break and so do I!

Today I thought I would share with you the birthday card I made for my hubby this year.  I used a sticker set as the main focus points on the card but did a fancy fold for it called a tri-shutter.  Let me show it and get us going.

 

My hubby is a huge Nightmare Before Christmas fan so I went with that theme for this ear.  This is a view from the front of the card.  I used Pumpkin Pie card stock for this one and added layers of Basic Black and Whisper White to the panels.  I ran the white through my big shot using the spider web impression folder and lightly brushed the web with black ink to make it pop.

 

This is a look from the top down.  You can see how the card bends.  I love the fact that you can see all of it when it is standing up.

 

This gives you a view of all the panels.  I used the small heart punch for two of the panels as well as for with Sally.  The cupcake punch allowed me to create cute cupcakes for two panels.  I stuck with the black and white theme for these but added Pool Party card stock dots to the cupcakes as well as for the candle.  Believe it or not, this color matched the tone used on the Sally sticker for her skin.  The letters were cut out using the retired decorative strip called Billboard and my big shot.  I used runner adhesive and a two way glue pen to all all the embellishments.  The bats were part of the sticker set.

 

This photo allows you to see how the card looks when folded flat.  It fits in a regular A2 envelope and is easy to mail.  The recipient will be in for a surprise when they unfold it and see all the work you have put into it.  

I know I have made this type of card before and believe I have put the how to instructions up also.  Check my June 14, 2013 birthday card post.  They should be in it.  However if you cannot locate them, please let me know and I will do a tutorial on how to make the base card.  

I cannot tell you how good it feels to be visiting with all of you again.  I have really missed this.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.  I look forward to sitting down and crafting again soon.  While I may not get back to posting every day (I run short of time on my Jackson days) I will try my best to post 2 to 3 times a week.  

Thanks for stopping by to visit me today.  See you again soon!!!

A Different Themed Card

Hi everyone!!  Did you miss me????  I know I have been absent from my blog for a bit.  This October seemed to get really busy really fast.  I have been busily preparing for our annual pumpkin carving day coming up this Sunday.  We invite our children and close friends with kids to come and spend an afternoon/evening having fun, eating good food and just relaxing.  This year we have invited more people than we have ever had before.  It's going to be busy!!!!!!!!

My poor hubby got sick with his annual sinus infection.  Now he has had 4 surgeries on his sinuses so we are use to dealing with this.  This year was worse than the last few.  He went to the doctor and was diagnosed and put on antibiotics.  After 7 days he was no better.  We then went to his specialist.  He agreed with the diagnosis but said the infection was so bad we had to increase the dose of the medication he was on and add another one.  Now any of you out there that have husbands or significant others who are male know how much work men can be when they are ill.  I was happy when he finally started feeling better so that he could be up and moving again and able to get out of the house. 

Today I am going to share a card a made for one of my sister's coworkers.  She needed it for her grandchild's baptism.  I had never made a card for this type of event but was up for the challenge.  Let me get started.

 

I made this card as a square in order to fit the words and center piece onto it easily.  My base card is Whisper White card stock measuring 5" x 10", scored at 5".  I added a layer of Soft Sky to this cut at 4 3/4" x 4 3/4".  The final full layer is a 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" piece of Whisper White.  I ran this through my big shot using the perfect polka dots impression folder.   The center piece is a 3" square ( I think - it has been several weeks since I made this one ) and it was run through the big shot using the brocade impression folder.  All of these pieces are attached together using runner adhesive.

 

For the wording, I used the retired billboard decorative strip for the big shot.  I cut the letters out of Soft Sky card stock.  They are attached to the card using a 2 way glue pen.  I added some dazzling diamond glitter glue dots to each of the letters.  I added little rhinestones to the white area of the card. 

 

For the center piece of the card front, I used a beautiful sticker of a cross.  I placed this in the center of the of the diamond and added more rhinestones to add a bit of glimmer to it.

The inside of the card was personalized for her grandchild so I chose not of photograph it.  I was pleased with the way it turned out.  I thought it looked very nice.  

I am truly going to try to get back to regular blogs.  My guess is it will be next week before you hear from me again.  I just have a lot to do to get ready for the great pumpkin carving event.  

Thanks for dropping by today and be sure to keep stopping in to see what I come up with in the future.  Bye for now!!

It's Time for Halloween Decorations

I don't know about all of you but at our house, the Halloween decorations are out of the attic and finding their places in the house.  I have a lot of items that I put out at this time of year so I like to start early. 

Today I want to share with you a few medallions that I made for decoration purposes.  So let me share them now:

 

As you can see I made those beautiful medallions using left over Halloween paper from a few past years.  I added some elastic silver string to these by punching a small 1/8" hole in each medallion.  I mostly used the owl punch to decorate these.  I made lots of characters like the ones you see plus a few others.  I also used a Halloween tag stamp and punched it out with the retired small label punch.  If you remember, you always add a small circle to the center of the medallion on the front and on the back.  I attached the characters and tag to the front circle using glue dots.  Now you might wonder what I use these for in my decorations.  Well .........

 

I put them on my Halloween tree of course.  Yes we are one of "those" families.  Now I offered to leave my Christmas tree up all year and decorate it every month with items to represent the month.  My hubby said no to that idea.  However, when we found this tree a few years ago, he was all for getting it.  I know you cannot see the base but it is a 3 sided skull (face on each side).  The eyes are lit with green bulbs.  The branches of the tree are black and have orange lights.  As you can see, we have lots of decorations on it but you can see 2 of the medallions - one with an owl witch and the other with an owl devil.  

Well that's it for today.  I hope your home is filling with holiday things too.  I know it really makes me smile to be able to decorate my house.  I will be back in a day or two with a beautiful card to share with you.  Please come by to see it.  Thanks for dropping by today.  

Here Comes The Bride

Happy last Friday of September everyone.  I do hope your fall is cooling off and full of lots of fun plans.  I know as we move into October that our life gets very busy.  We have pumpkins to carve and turkeys to cook.  I have to say these last 3 months of the year are my favorite time. 

One of the projects that took up some of my craft time in September was making bridal shower cards for my daughter's friend who is getting married in October.  Since the shower is now over, I thought I would share these with you.  Let's get started.

 

I started with a base card of Old Olive card stock cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I added a layer of Night of Navy to this with runner adhesive.  The navy was cut at 4 1/8" x 5 3/8".  The final layer is a piece of Whisper White measuring 4" x 5 1/4".  I ran this through the big shot with an impression folder that made the trio of dots.  I attached this to the card with the runner adhesive.

 

The hat for the bride was made using a 1 1/4" circle and a wide oval both punched out of Whisper White.  They were run through the big shot using the square lattice impression folder.  I attached the circle to the oval with a bit of runner adhesive.  I then punched a 1 1/4" circle from Night of Navy.  I set this aside to be used later.  I then punched the 1 1/4" circle again just offset from the hole.  This piece is the hat band.  It is attached using a 2 way glue pen.  I then took a piece of Old Olive card stock and punched out a large oval.  I offset the punch from the hole and punched again.  This makes the ribbon for the bow.  The actual bow itself was made using the retired heart to heart punch.  It is the smallest heart from this punch.  I added a 1/4" circle to the center of the bow and placed a pearl on it.  All bow pieces are attached using a 2 way glue pen.  The hair is a scallop oval punched from Chocolate Chip card stock.  It is attached to the hat using a bit of runner adhesive.   I always try to use a color to match the actual bride's hair if I can.

 

The bride's back is the wide heart from the retired heart to heart punch.  It is punched out of Blushing Bride.  To make the arms of the bride, just off set the wide heart punch from the wide heart hole and punch again.  Do this one more time so you have 2 arms.  The dress is make using the Whisper White card stock and the retired butterfly punch.  I ran all the pieces for the dress through my big shot using an impression folder I have.  The main part of the dress remains a whole butterfly.  Turn it sideways and adhere the heart back to the top portion using runner adhesive.  Take your other butterfly pieces and cut them in half.  You will layer these making each row a little bigger than the one before to get that full dress look.  The arms were attached using the 2 way glue pen.  The finished bride was attached to the card using dimensionals.  

 

Remember the 1 1/4" navy circles I set aside before?  Well now it is time to use them.  That is what I build my bouquet on.  The flowers for this are from a retired punch that punched a trio of flowers.  You can use the scallop flower from the itty bitty punch pack as well to make these.  I start by covering the 1 1/4" circle with runner adhesive and layering flowers on it.  I added more adhesive on the flowers as needed.  The leaves are from the bird builder punch.  I cut them off the stem and placed them in the bouquet with my 2 way glue pen.  The final touch for it is a pearl in the middle.  The finished bouquet is attached using dimensionals.

I learned to make this from Ellen Kemper.  She referred to this girl as little miss backside.  I have used it for other girls and not just a bride.  It is really easy to make and goes together quickly.

Well that's it for today.  I will see you all next week.  Have a wonderful weekend - the last weekend in September.  Thanks for dropping by today.   

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Heather!!!!

Today I am celebrating my daughter Heather's birthday.  She is turning 25.  I can hardly believe it.  Where does the time go?  I hope she has a wonderful day and spends it laughing and doing things she loves.

Well by now you probably have been wondering if I fell off the Earth completely.  I entered the month of September with high hopes of crafting and blogging.  I had no idea what was waiting around the corner.  I ended up coming down with a throat virus.  Now I have had sore throats over the years but nothing like this one.  It felt like someone had taken sand paper and scratched my throat all up.  Since it was a virus, there was nothing the doctors could do to help.  It kept me in bed for a while and the overall tiredness was horrible.  Then my hubby got a sinus infection.  He has suffered with sinus problems all his life and has had 4 surgeries on his sinuses over the years.  When he gets sick with an infection he really gets sick.  The first round of antibiotics did nothing to help.  He is currently taking a second round and we are hoping for the best. 

While all the illness was going on, I did manage to do a couple of special order cards and of course the birthday card I made for my daughter.  Therefore, I am happy to say I am going to be sharing these with you finally.

 

Since her favorite Disney princess is Cinderella, I decided to make a card with her dress on it.  I started with a base card of Daffodil Delight cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I added a layer of Night of Navy measuring 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" using runner adhesive.  For the final layer I used a piece of Whisper White cut to be 4" x 5 1/4".  I ran this through my big shot using the Beautifully Brocade impression folder.  Once it was impressed, I attached it using the same runner adhesive.

 

To begin the dress, I first cut out a dress mannequin using Basic Gray and the dress up framelits set.  Now I wanted to get as close as I could to the color of Cinderella's dress.  I chose to use the retired Bashful Blue card stock to make it.  I cut a dress using the same framelits set.  I cut out the one with the little sleeves.  I attached it to the dress form using runner adhesive.  Next I used the retired build a blossom punch and punched out 2 of the smallest petals.  I added those at the top of the dress with the tips meeting in the middle.  I then punched out two 3/4" circles and two 1/2" circles.  I flattened one side of the 1/2" circles and attached them to the back of the 3/4" circles using a 2 way glue pen.  I then attached the 3/4" circle to the dress with the same 2 way glue pen to make the sleeves.  Pearls for the necklace and blue rhinestones at the center of the dress top complete the look.

 

The bottom half of the dress is made using the retired build a blossom punch and the wide oval punch.  You will also need to use the oval framelits set for the inside piece of the skirt.  I first cut the oval using the framelits out of Bashful Blue and vellum.  I glued the vellum to the blue using a glue stick.  I attached this to the bottom portion of the dress and built the rest of the skirt onto it.  I punched out 10 wide ovals.  4 of them are layered across the bottom of the dress.  The other 6 makes up the sides of the skirt.  I started at the bottom and went up being sure to have the top 2 meet in the middle.  I added the small wide petals to this to form the waist. Again I added blue rhinestones to the waist of the dress to enhance it.  

I will tell you that I started this dress by punching all my pieces and sponging the edges using Bashful Blue ink.  It gives the dress a depth but is not necessary.  I attached all the skirt pieces using runner adhesive.  The completed dress is attached to the card using dimensionals. 

 

The greeting for this comes from the Create A Cupcake stamp set.  I stamped it using Night of Navy ink onto Whisper White card stock.  I punched it out using the word window punch.  I layered this onto a Night of Navy modern label punch using runner adhesive.  I added a blue rhinestone to the ends of the greeting as well as one to the letter "i".  The completed greeting is attached using dimensionals.  

Once I had the greeting and the dress attached, I sprayed the card lightly with my champagne shimmer spray.  You can kind of see the sparkle to the dress in the photos.  I also added blue rhinestones to the white background of the card.  

I truly appreciate your patience and the fact that you have continued to come by to see if I am breathing or not.  I have started a new schedule with my favorite little man, Jackson, and will be seeing him several times a week while mommy and daddy are at work.  I cannot promise to post every day but I am hoping to post more than once a week.  

Thanks again for stopping by to visit.  I will have another post up on Friday so drop in to see it.  See you all later!

Why Are Weekends So Busy????

Hi everyone and happy Monday.  I hope you had a relaxing weekend.  If it was like mine, you were busy but still did some fun things.  I spent the first part of mine working on tickets for the charity banquet my hubby is hosting at the end of this month.  These tickets are for the VIP's who will be attending.  I also spent some time with my sister who has been super busy lately.  It was so nice to see her and have lunch with her.  Sunday was my mother in law's birthday.  We went to lunch with her and had a chance to just visit and catch up.  Sometimes you really just need that time to talk and catch up.  Life goes by so fast.


Since the tickets took up most of my time, I thought I would show you what they look like.

 

The bottom layer is a 2 1/2" x 6" piece of Night of Navy card stock.  I added a 2 1/4" x 5 3/4" layer of Real Red to this.  The top layer is a 2" x 5 1/2" piece of Whisper White.  I punched the 4 corners of each piece with my ticket corner punch and attached them together using runner adhesive.  I added the logo for the charity which was punched out using the decorative label punch and framed with the same punch to the ticket.  I cut the letters for ADMIT 2 out using my Cricut machine and a Storybook cartridge.  The rest of the information I wrote by hand using the Night of Navy and Real Red markers.  Usually I would print this info out on my printer but my printer decided not to work so I improvised.   All in all I think they turned out fairly nice.

 

This is the card I gave my mother in law for her birthday.  I have posted it before so I will not bore you with the details again.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by to visit.  Be sure to come back and see what I have next.  See you all later!