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!!

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!!

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!

1st Birthday Already!!!!!!

Hi everyone.  We are ending the month of August with great speed and September will be here in just a few days.  In our family, we have several birthdays in the month of September.  There's mine, my oldest daughter's, my nephew named Daniel, my mother in law, my brother Chris, my aunt and our newest family member Jackson.  Yes little Jackson will be turning 1 on September 2nd.  It is hard to remember our family without him as a part of it but it is just as hard to believe that he is turning 1 already.  We will be celebrating his birthday with him on the first.  I can hardly wait. 

My daughter and I went shopping for his presents this past weekend.  His mom asked that instead of cards which tend to get tossed aside that we all bring him a book instead.  I was so excited to shop for books for him.  I love to read and think it is great that his mom is already teaching him about the joy of reading.  Now being a card enthusiast, this was also kind of hard for me.  So instead of a card I decided I would make a tag for his present.  Ready to see what I made?  Here we go!!!!

 

It's Elmo!!!!!  One of our favorite shows to watch when Jackson comes over is Sesame Street.  He loves Elmo.  So I thought this cute little guy would be perfect for a tag.  Of course I also got wrapping paper that will go with it.  It started as a piece of Pacific Point cut at 5 1/2" x 5 1/2".  Yes that is a bit large for a tag but Elmo's head had to fit!

 

For the "Happy Birthday" down the side of the tag, I used an alphabet stamp set that I have.  I stamped the letters using VersaMark ink and then heat embossed it using Gumball Green embossing powder.  While you can see it on the tag, it did not show up in the photo as well as it could have.  

 

To make his name, I used my big shot and an alphabet set of sizzlit dies.  I cut all the letters out of Basic Black and Gumball Green card stock.  This alphabet set has a shadow piece to go with each letter which helps those letters to stand out.  I attached the green letters to the black using a 2 way glue pen.  The finished letters were attached to the card using the same 2 way glue pen.  I added dots of a blue glitter glue to the attached letters.

  

Now for the star of the tag.  To make his face, I started by sketching on a piece of white paper.  I did this for a while until I was finally happy.  I then cut out the shape to use as a template.   I traced this onto my Real Red card stock and cut it out.  Next, I used a Sharpie marker and drew the mouth onto the face.  The eyes were made using Whisper White and Basic Black card stock.  I punched out 2 white circles using the 1 3/4" circle punch.  Next I punched 2 black circles using the 3/4" punch.  Using the 2 way glue pen, I added black glitter to the black of the eyes.  I then attached the white to the face with a liquid glue and then attached the black with the same liquid glue.  For the nose, I chose Tangerine Tango card stock.  I punched out a 1 3/4" circle and trimmed the sides down to make it more of an oval.  Now I could have used the large oval for this but when I tried it, the nose was too long.  I could have just cut off and rounded an end of it but the circle seemed easier to me.  I added orange glitter to it with the 2 way glue pen and attached it to the card with liquid glue.  

I added dots of glitter glue all around the letters and the face using a blue and a green glitter glue.  It just completed the look.  

I hope my niece and her husband get a kick out of the tag.  I do believe she is scrapbooking Jackson's life and the tag could be used an the scrapbook page if she would like to use it.  I can't wait until the party!!!!

That is all I have for you today.  I will return with another share so please stop by to visit again!!  See you later!!

Up Close with a Tree

Hi everyone!  It is hard for me to believe that schools are once again in session here in Arizona.  It seems they start earlier every year.  For me, it marks not only the beginning of the school year but the beginning of the holiday season and more importantly the beginning of my spending time with my favorite great nephew, Jackson.  I can hardly wait to spend days playing with him and watching him grow.  He will be 1 year old in September.  Hard to imagine almost a year has gone by since his arrival.  Since you can expect to hear lots about him in future posts, I will not bore you anymore right now.  So let's get back to holidays.

I am sticking with my Halloween theme for now since it is the first holiday we will encounter.  I saw a card similar to the one I am going to share today on Pinterest months ago.  It stuck with me and I really wanted to give it a try.  Ready to see it?  Let's go.

 

I am sure you have seen those cute Halloween decorations that people put on doors and trees that depict a witch who had a slight mishap while flying around on her broom.  I have always enjoyed this decoration so when I saw it on a card, I knew I wanted to try to make one myself.  

I started with a base card of Tangerine Tango card stock cut at 5" x 10", scored at 5".   I added a layer of Basic Black to this which measures 4 7/8" x 4 7/8".  The final top layer is Smoky Slate cut at 4 3/4" x 4 3/4".  All layers were attached using runner adhesive.  I chose to do this card as a square because the witch would fit better.  On this top layer of slate, I took a sponge with black ink on it and brushed it over the top of it.  I then took a piece of Early Espresso card stock and cut it to be 2" x 4 3/4".  I ran it through the big shot using the woodgrain impression folder and then adhered it to the card with runner adhesive. 

 

To start the witch, I took a piece of black card stock that I had run through the big shot using a swirl impression folder.  I punched out a 1 3/4" circle for the round piece and a small pennant from the pennant punch.  I added a piece of Elegant Eggplant to the pennant to form a band for the hat.  I attached the pieces together using liquid glue and added purple glitter glue to the band.  

The hands of the witch are from the boho blossom punch.  It's the large flower trimmed down.  The "hand" is attached with liquid glue to a word window that I trimmed a bit to fit the wrist.  I set these aside to attach to the witch in a bit.  I did go ahead and make the hair using a scrap of Gumball Green card stock and cutting strips in it.  It is attached to the hat using the liquid glue.

 

For the cape,  I again used the black card stock and punched out several of the larger scallop pennants from the pennant punch.  I layered them together with liquid glue and attached them to the hair is the same glue.  I then added the arms to it as were as orange glitter glue dots.  

 

For the legs, I used the modern label punch.  I started by punching out the label in black and then punched a second one for each leg in Gumball Green.  I cut pieces off the green and glued it with a 2 way glue pen to the black.  I added green glitter glue and attached them to the cape with liquid glue.  The shoes were made using the full heart punch.  I punched 2 out of black, cut a notch for the heel, and trimmed the rest to make the boot.  These are attached to the legs using liquid glue.  I then added crystal effects to them to make them look glossy.  

Now for the broom, I glued a scrap of espresso to the underside of the witch.  I then took the retired jewelry tag punch and punched 2 out of Daffodil Delight.  I layered them so that the top knobs would be next to each other.  I then punched a small oval out of the daffodil and flattened on side.  I attached this to the tags with the glue pen and cut strips to form the bristles.  I added some yellow glitter glue to the top portion of the bristles and attached it to the broom pole with the 2 way glue pen.  

Once all pieces of the witch were complete and dry, it was time to attach her to the card.  I decided to use dimensionals to do this.  I like the depth it adds to the card.

Well that's all I have for today.  I am off to clean the house and work on the invitations for the charity banquet my hubby is hosting in September.  I will return with another share for you so please stop by to see me again.  Thanks for dropping by today!

Complicated Is Not Necessarily Better

Today I thought I would return to a simple card design.  Sometimes it is just nice to do something that looks pretty when finished but is not so hard to complete.  I don't know about you but I don't always have a lot of time to sit down to work on a card so I turn to some of the simple ones so that I can complete my task easily.  I hope you can find some inspiration from this one.

 

Isn't it pretty?!!!!  Now I know I poppies are red but I decided to make them blue.  It's a nice and easy card to make that requires few supplies.  So let me share with you what I used to make this one.

I started with a base card of Gumball Green cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I added a layer of 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" Midnight Muse and attached it to the base using runner adhesive.  For the final top layer, I took a piece of Whisper White and cut it at 4" x 5 1/4".  Using the Pleasant Poppies stamp, I stamped the image onto the white using Midnight Muse ink.  I then pulled out my favorite colored pencils and colored in the stems and flowers.  Once they were colored, I attached the white piece to the base card with the runner adhesive.

 

I wanted to add a little something more to my card and chose to add butterflies.  I used the Beautiful Wings embosslit and my big shot.  I cut butterflies out using all of the 2012-2014 in colors:  Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, and Summer Starfruit.  I used only the ones with the polka dots on them.  They are attached to the card using glue dots.  I then add rhinestones to form their bodies and added one to each wing also.  To the flowers whose centers showed, I added a yellow rhinestone.

I did not put a greeting on this one yet.  I will when I decide who is receiving it and for what occasion.  I do hope the ease of making this card came through to you.  I know there are lots of samples that are intricate and take lots of time.  Trust me I do some of those too.  They are beautiful but the more simple ones are beautiful too.  

I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday.  I plan on spending some much needed time with my husband.  He has been working a lot lately and I have been missing him.  I will be back with a new share for you though so be sure to stop by to see me tomorrow.  Thanks for visiting today!!!!

Should A Birthday Card Ever Be Despicable?

Hi everyone and happy Monday.  I hope you all had a nice weekend.  I tried to get a bit of rest myself.  I woke up Saturday feeling a little bit odd.  I felt feverish and like I was coming down with something.  I decided to rest as much as possible so that I hopefully would not get sick.  Thankfully I feel better now.

As for my question about the birthday cards, my answer is yes.  In fact I made my sister's birthday card a bit despicable.  Want to see it?  Here we go.

 

How's this for despicable?  Yes it's the minions from Despicable Me.  I am so excited to go see the second one coming out next month.  I really think the minions are hysterical.  But let's talk about the card shall we?

I started with a piece of Daffodil Delight cut at 5" x 10", scored at 5",  I ran this through the big shot using the largest framelit from the floral framelits set.  As you can see, the top two petals are flat.  This is where I kept the fold of the card off the framelit so that it would not be cut all the way through.  I then added a second layer using the 2nd largest framelit from that set.  I made this one out of Night of Navy.  I actually cut 2 of these.  The other one is used inside the card. (You will see that in a minute.)  To add sparkle and decoration to the front  I added some blue and yellow rhinestones to the flower points.  The minions themselves are on another flower cut using the 2nd smallest framelit from the floral set.  I cut these 2 out of Whisper White card stock.  I ran these through the big shot using the cloudy day impression folder.  I then edged both of these using Daffodil Delight and Night of Navy ink with my sponges.  Both the navy and white layers are attached using runner adhesive. 

 

Here is my first minion.  Since both were made using the same punches, I will just describe the process once.  The only difference is that this one has only one eye while the other has two.

 

Here the second minion.  To make these guys, you will need the following:

card stock:  Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy, Basic Black, Whisper White and Shimmery Silver

punches:  owl builder, 1/4" and 1/2" circle punches

accessories:  2 way glue pen, fine tip black marker and white gel pen

Now I used the retired horizontal slot punch for the straps of the overall but you can just use a scrap of card stock to make these.  I used a scrap of daffodil to make the arms.  The finished minions are attached to the card using dimensionals.  I am not spending a lot of time going through every step because they are kind of self explanatory.  However, if you have questions please contact me.

 

For the inside of the card, I put the 2nd navy flower in here using runner adhesive.  I then used a birthday stamp I have and stamped the greeting onto Whisper White.  Using the 3rd largest flower from the framelits set to cut this out.  I sponged the edges with the daffodil and navy ink.  I used my colored pencils and colored in the greeting.  Once colored, I attached it using the runner adhesive also.  I added pearls to the navy and the same blue and yellow rhinestones to the white that were used on the front.  

Well that's all I have for today.  I hope you enjoyed this card.  I had a lot of fun making it and my sister loved it.  I will do my best to come up with something cute to share for tomorrow.  I do hope you drop in to see me then.  Thanks for stopping by today!!! 

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It's Birthday Card Day - Finally!!!!

We have once again made it to Friday.  I can not believe the week is already gone.  I am looking forward to craft time this weekend and playing with a few ideas that are running around in my head.  Some days all the ideas overwhelm me but I am hoping I will sort through them this weekend and be able to focus on just a few a them. 

Today as promised I am going to share the card I made for my daughter with you.  Now you may think this is a strange card to make for a girl because it is based on a super hero.  However, my daughter and her boyfriend are both into toy collecting and comics and they go see all the super hero movies that come out about characters they like.  For me, this was a natural one to make.  A couple of weeks ago I made a super hero card using owls.  I focused on the Hulk, Batman, Superman, and Spiderman.  When I showed it to my daughter, she said "Mom, you should have made Ironman too".  Now I know she was referring to an owl Ironman but I thought I would take it a step further and make an Ironman.  I had no idea how hard this was going to be, and I will be the first to tell you that it probably needs more work and could look better.  So without further ado, I will share this card with you.

 

Well what do you think?  Be honest.  It took a lot of trial and error for me to even get him to look like this.  This card is a fancy fold card called a Tri-fold Shutter card.  I will explain how to make it a little bit later.  For now we will focus on the man himself.

 

The color scheme for Ironman himself is Real Red and Brushed Gold.  Basically the entire body of this hero uses oval punches.  I used the wide oval for the body and the chest plate.  The plate is trimmed and repunched on one side with the large oval.  I used the large oval on the arms and the center of the body.  The arms are trimmed down a bit.  The current small oval was used for the neck and head area.  The retired small oval was used as part of the center of the body.  The hands come from the boho blossom punch.  There are scrap pieces of gold that I used to make the gold patches on the arms and at the neck area.  The center triangle is a piece of Shimmer Silver card stock that I cut and it is sponged with Tempting Turquoise ink.  The lines were drawn on using the Real Red marker.  For eyes, I used small scraps of the silver and outlined them with black marker. 

 

Again for the legs, I used the large ovals.  The gold thighs are large ovals that I have trimmed down and scrap pieces of gold.  This is one area I would like to work on to improve.  The feet are the wide heart from the heart to heart punch.  Again I trimmed pieces to achieve the look I wanted and added lines with the red marker.  The finished Ironman was attached to the card using dimensionals.  I do apologize for the hair in the photo.  I did not realize it was there until I sat down to do the blog.   Of course I do not have the card anymore so I could not take another photo for you.  Oh well.  

I also realize the instructions for him are fairly cryptic.  I think I made him too difficult and need to figure out how to simplify him.  I will work on that and if I am successful, I will certainly share it with you.  Now on to the card.

 

Here you can see the card lying "flat" on the counter.  This was a card that once it was all put together, I actually weighted it down so it would collapse and fit in the envelope.  To start this card, you will need a 5 1/2" x 12" piece of 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.  I did add Basic Black and Brushed Gold layers to each panel.  I measure the panels one by one and then cut my card stock.  Panels are added with runner adhesive.  

I added a label to the center panel using the labels framelits.  I cut one in black and the next size down out of white.  I ran the white one through the big shot using the fancy fan impression folder.  I layered these together and attached them to the panel using runner adhesive.   I cut out the numbers with the retired billboard decorative strip and the big shot.  I cut them out of black and champagne shimmer.  The ones on the center panel are layered together with the two way glue pen and attached to the panel using dimensionals.  All other numbers are attached using the two way glue pen.  

The greeting on the back panel is a DeNami stamp.  The top center comes from the Create A Cupcake stamp set and the bottom center is from the retired Word Play stamp set.  The side panel greeting is from Express Yourself.  All of these were stamped originally in VersaMark ink and then heat embossed using black embossing powder.  I added rhinestones all over the card for glitz.

 

This is the card when it is standing up.  As you can see it gets a lot of dimension.  I like the way you can decorate it and it will just look cool instead of too busy.  

 

This is the top view of the card.  You can really see all the open panels and how the tri-fold works.  I love this card.  It is really fairly easy to make and the finished look is amazing!!!!!

So now you have seen the infamous card.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as my daughter.  I will be back on Monday to share another card with all of you.  Until then I wish you all a wonderful weekend.  Stay cool and be safe.  See you next week and thanks for visiting today!

It's Dress Up Time Once More

Woo Hoo!!!!  It's Tuesday!!!  It is always so surprising how quickly the days go by sometimes.  Now I am not sure how excited I should be about the rest of the week but I would rather look forward to it than not.

Well I did manage to finish a card for you all to see.  My hubby was gone for part of the day which allowed me the time I needed to craft.  Let's just jump right in and get started.

 

Hard to believe I used a flash to take this photo.   It looks a little dark.  I apologize for that.  I started with a base card of Pumpkin Pie cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" , scored at 4 1/4".    I then cut a piece of Whisper White at 4" x 5".  I ran this through the big shot using the fancy fan impression folder.  I then took the top note frame that was left from the quilt I made for my baby card yesterday and attached it to this piece of white using runner adhesive.  I attached the entire piece to the card using the same runner adhesive. 

 

Next I pulled out my retired designer series paper and chose a piece to use for the dress.  I used the dress up framelits and cut the stand out of Basic Black and the dress out of the dsp.  I attached the dress to the stand using liquid glue.  I took a piece of white ribbon and attached it to the dress as a belt using glue dots.  I wanted to dress up my outfit a bit so I added a pearl "necklace" and larger pearls to the dress.  I also made a belt using light green rhinestones.  I added a few other rhinestones in various colors that complimented the frame to the white background for added decoration.  The dress stand with the dress is attached to the card using dimensionals.

 

My greeting comes from a new hostess stamp set called Express Yourself.  I stamped it using Pumpkin Pie ink onto Whisper White and punched it out using the word window punch.  I layered this onto a Tempting Turquoise modern label with runner adhesive.  I added a rhinestone to each end and attached the finished greeting to the card with dimensionals.  

Now it is time for me to work on another card for all of you to see.  Thanks for stopping by to visit today!!!!!  See you all tomorrow.

Back To Babies

Hi everyone.  It's Tuesday and it is hot hot hot here in Phoenix.  We have definitely reach summer temperatures meaning we are over 100 degrees every day.  It will only get hotter as the summer days go by.  While I do enjoy swimming and the lazy days, I will be ready for the autumn season with the holidays, busy days and cooler temperatures. 

Today I decided to make a baby card.  No idea why I chose this.  I do not know anyone who is pregnant right now but since I seemed inspired to do this I thought why not!!!  Let's just jump in and get started.

 

I started with a base card of Tempting Turquoise cut at 4 1/4" x 11", scored at 5 1/2".  I then added a layer of 4 1/8 x 5 3/8" Whisper White.  I ran this through my big shot using the perfect polka dots impression folder.  Once impressed, I used sponges and Pumpkin Pie and Tempting Turquoise ink and brushed over the dots to add color to it.  I attached it using runner adhesive.  

The top layer is a quilt I made using left over designer series paper.   I started with a 4" x 5" piece of Whisper White.  Using my 1" square punch, I punched out squares from the dsp and attached them to the white using runner adhesive.  Once covered, I ran this through the big shot using the top note die. 

I attached a piece of retired 1/4" grosgrain Tempting Turquoise ribbon to it and attached it to the card using the runner adhesive.

 

The stamped image on this one is from a stamp set called Best of Brides and Babies.  This is a special set offered by Stampin' Up! in celebration of their 25 years in business.  I stamped the image using Chocolate Chip ink onto Whisper White.  I colored the image using colored pencils and cut it out free hand.  It is attached to the card with runner adhesive.  I tucked it behind the ribbon just a bit.  I added some colored rhinestones to the ribbon for dazzle.

The word was made using my big shot and an alphabet set of sizzlits called Girls are Weird.  I cut the skinny part of the letters out of Pumpkin Pie card stock and the shadow letter from Basic Black. I layered the letters using a 2 way glue pen and attached them to the card with the same glue pen.  I added some dazzling details glitter glue to the letters for added pizzazz.

Well that's it for today.  I am going to go finish my laundry and take a nap.  The worst part of the summer heat for me is that it increases my migraines greatly and I spend a lot of days hurting.  Oh well, I have survived for many years so I am sure I will be fine this summer too.  

Please stop by tomorrow to see what I will have to share with you then.  I am so happy you chose to spend some time with me today.  Thanks for dropping in and I will see you tomorrow.