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.

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.  

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!!

Let's Take A Side Trip

Hi everyone and happy Wednesday.  I thought I would take a side trip today away from cards and share with you a tip for scrapbooking.  Now if you are like me, you like to scrapbook your family vacations and include different items you picked up along the journey.  I am a sucker for a good pamphlet.  I always pick those up.  So I felt the need to include them in my scrapbook.  Let me share a few pages of a 2007 trip we took with you to show how I added these pamphlets into the book.

 

The 2007 trip was a dual purpose trip.  First we traveled to my home state of North Carolina to bury my mom and second we took time coming back to visit some of the other states and see the sights.  One state we went to was Virginia.  Now I love history so this was a cool state to go to for me.  We went to Williamsburg and had a ball.  On our way to visit one of the sights, we spotted these giant heads of presidents off the freeway through some trees.  Well of course we had to go see what it was.  It is a place called Presidents Park.  The giant heads of all the presidents are there.  Each one tells a piece of history as you tour them.  You also get to see a replica of Air Force 1 and the presidential limo.  There were lots of pamphlets to get and I did.  

I used one of them as part of the background of this page by opening it up.  Now I know you may be thinking the other pamphlet covers part of the information but that pamphlet can be removed allowing you access to the info behind it.  

 

Here you can see the pocket I created to put this pamphlet in.  I wanted to be sure it could be removed and looked at in the future and a pocket was the best way to do this.  Now I would recommend you use sticky strip to attach your pockets to the page.  It seems to hold up really well.  I made this one simple and just included the date we were there on it.

 

Here is another page of that same journey.  Again I created a pocket to include.  I added some of the photos we took as well as some presidential quotes to the page.

 

I added the name of the park to this pocket.  I used punches and stickers to decorate it and slid the pamphlet inside.  

Pockets are a wonderful way to hold your keepsakes.  There are lots of variations you can do to make these.  I simply share a couple of the more simple ones with you today.

I will return with another share for you on Friday.  Since today is my first day keeping my wonderful nephew again, I plan on playing all day and will probably not have time to get into the craft room to make anything.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and do come to visit again.  See you later!!

Another Wedding Invitation

Hi everyone.  Well we have made it through a very sad week and I am hoping we are coming out of the darkness finally.  My heart is still broken for all the families and I send lots of prayers out to all of them. 

I thought I would start this week by sharing with you an invitation to a wedding.  I think I might have mentioned I have been working on a sample wedding invitation for one of my daughter's friends.  I think I will just jump in and start.

 

I went with the square card for this one.  I started with a piece of Night of Navy card stock cut at 5 1/4" x 10 1/2", scored at 5 1/4".  I added a layer of Old Olive to this cut to be 5" x 5".   The final layer on the front is a 4 3/4" square of Whisper White.  I stamped this image from the retired stamp set called Wedding Sweet onto the white using VersaMark ink and Night of Navy ink.  First ink the stamp with the VersaMark and then the navy.  Once the image is stamped, I added clear embossing powder to it and heat embossed it.  I took a 4 3/4" strip of navy and used my eyelet lace punch to punch both sides of it.  I attached it and all the layers together using runner adhesive.  I added a few pearls to the eyelet lace for added effect.  For the final touch, I typed the saying on my computer and printed it out onto white card stock.  I punched this out using the full heart punch, sponged the edges with olive ink and layered it onto a navy scallop heart made using my big shot and an embosslit.   It was adhered with runner adhesive to the scallop heart.  The finished heart was attached to the card using dimensionals.

 

This would be the left hand side of the inside of the card.  I created a pocket on this side with a strip of navy card stock.  I used sticky strip to attach this so it was really secure.  I put a layer of olive and then white card stock onto this to keep the theme.  I added the stamp from Wedding Sweet (retired) to this using olive ink.   The pocket will hold the RSVP card and an envelope for it to be returned,  It will also contain the reception information and a map.  The words on the front let recipients know when to return the RSVP card by to the couple.  I always have my brides include the return envelope and encourage them to address them and add the stamp.  You have a better chance of people actually returning these if you make it easy for them.

 

The right hand side contains the wedding info itself.  Again I added a layer of olive to the base using runner adhesive.  I then took a piece of white and stamped the image of the tree from the set Thoughts and Prayers using olive ink.  The heart is from the retired set called Tiny Tags.  They are stamped using navy and olive ink.  The information for the wedding is printed out onto vellum.  The vellum is cut to match this white layer.  I attached it to the white using brads.  It softened the look of the stamps underneath.  The white is attached to the olive using the same runner adhesive.  

Well that's it for today.  My plan is to be here every day this week.  Thanks for all your understanding and thanks for stopping by today to visit.  I will see you all tomorrow.

Time For A Big Bang!

Here we are at Wednesday!!!  I feel like I have not had a lot of time with my hubby this week.  He worked and then went camping.  He was home for a day and is now at work once again.  I miss him and hope we get some much needed together time soon.

Today's card is a very simple card.  I thought it was time to share just a basic card again and remind all of us that we do not always have to go so big on a card for it to look good.  This is a 4th of July card.  I guess you could say my hubby inspired it.  He use to shoot off fireworks for a firework company.  Now I love to watch fireworks but we usually do not go anywhere to see them.  We just watch from our home.  Neither one of us is big on crowds and snuggling at home is a lot more fun anyway.  So let's get going on today's share.

 

Ta Da!!!!!  This was an easy card to make and put together.  I started with a base card of Real Red cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I added a layer to this of Whisper White measuring 4 1/8" x 5 3/8".  The final layer is Night of Navy which was cut at 4" x 5 1/4".  Prior to attaching it with runner adhesive to the other layers, I pulled out a retired stamp set called July Fourth and using VersaMark ink, I stamped the fireworks images onto the navy and then heat embossed them using red and white embossing powder.  

 

The greeting is from the same stamp set.  This time I stamped it using VersaMark ink onto white.  I heat embossed it with an embossing powder actually named Fireworks.  I punched it out using my 1 3/4" scallop circle punch.  I then layered it using runner adhesive on top of a Read Red scallop circle that was punched using my 2 3/8" scallop circle punch.  It  was attached to the card using dimensionals.  I then added the small pearls to the red scallops to give a little more decoration to the card.

That's all I have for today.  I will return with another cute card for you to see tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by today!!

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!

Here's Goofy !!!!!

Hi everyone.  I can't believe it is Thursday already.  Yesterday I shared with you my punch art Goofy.  Today I have the finished card.  I am not going to go through how to make Goofy again so this post will be fairly short.  Let's get started.

 

Ta Da!!!!!!  I started with a base card of 7" x 10", scored at 5".  I then but a piece of Basic Black card stock measuring 4 7/8" x 6 7/8".  I cut a piece of Whisper White at 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" and a piece of Pumpkin Pie at 3 3/8" x 4 3/4".  I took out my 1", 3/4" and 1/2" circle punches and punched circles from scraps of Basic Black, Whisper White, Gumball Green and Pumpkin Pie.  Now I was ready to start the background.

 

For the top half of the Whisper White, I attached circles using runner adhesive.  Knowing that I was going to cover the bottom half of the white with the pumpkin, I only attached circles to the top half.  I then ran that through the big shot using the perfect polka dots folder.  Again, the bottom half will be covered so it does not need to be impressed.  I attached the white to the black with runner adhesive.

 

For the bottom half, I again decorated it with circles and then ran it through the big shot with the same impression folder.  I attached it to the white with the runner adhesive.  For the final touch, I added a piece of 1/4" black grosgrain ribbon across the middle of the card with runner adhesive.  I then attached the black to the base card with the same adhesive, added the Goofy using dimensionals and was finished.  I have not decided what I am using this card for yet so I chose not to add the greeting. 

I hope you liked the card.  Tomorrow I will share the birthday card I made for my daughter.  I hope you come by to see it.  Thanks for stopping by today.  

Playing With Punches

Hi everyone.  Today I thought I would share with you a new character for me.  I made this guy using punches.  This is my first attempt so please be kind.  My inspiration for this one came from 2 places: the first is a card I saw on Pinterest by Kay Sha and the second was from a visit to the comic book store.  Now I know that the comic book store might seem like an odd place to some but for me, I love comic books and the characters in them.  I have to admit I shop more in the kids section because those are the comics that interest me.  So it should come as no surprise that I can be inspired to make a punch art character based on one of the cute characters.  This one is also a Disney character which I love.  Let's get started.

 

It's Goofy!!!!  At this point, I have goofy made but have not put him onto a card.   I did not have a recipe for him and only had photos to look at of Kay's card and the comic book.  So I thought I would spend today on the tutorial of how to make him and then share the finished card with you tomorrow. 

The photo shows the punches that I used to make Goofy.  The only other item I used was my set of oval framelits and my big shot.  Otherwise what you see is what you get.

 

Here is one more photo of Goofy for you to see. He turned out really cute but big.  He will not fit on the normal size card I usually make.  I will have to go big for this one.  

 

Let me start at the top and work my way down.  The colors I used for Goofy are Gumball Green for the hat, Basic Black and Whisper White.  I also used Blushing Bride but that will come into play in the bottom half.  The hat is made using 3 green wide ovals and 2 green large ovals.  For the band, I used a black large oval.  They are layered together and attached to one another with runner adhesive.  For his hair, I punched a wide oval out of black and set it aside to use as an eye.  I then used the wide oval punch, offset it from the wide oval hole, and punched again 3 times.  His eyes consist of 2 wide ovals in black, 2 wide ovals in white and 2 small ovals trimmed down for the eyeballs.

 

Off to the sides of the eyes, I also placed a 1" circle on each side.  The snout area consists of 2 wide ovals, 1 large ovals and 2 3/4" circles in Blushing Bride.  The large oval goes behind the wide ones and the circles are for the cheeks.  His nose is a black large oval.  The teeth were fun to make.  I used a 1" circle for each one.  They are trimmed down into the shape I wanted.  The inside of the mouth is a black wide oval while the tongue was made using the retired heart to heart punch (not in the photo).  I used the wide heart and punched it from Primrose Petal card stock.  The blush part of the mouth and the ears were made using the framelits set of ovals.  

All pieces of Goofy were attached to one another using runner adhesive and liquid glue.  I had a lot of fun making this cute face.  It just turned out larger than I expected.  I do plan to try it once more and downsize it some.  If I manage to make it work, I will let you know.  For now, I am pretty sure I will have to use a 5" x 7" card.

That's it for today.  Please stop by tomorrow to see the finished Goofy card.  I will share my daughter's birthday card on Friday.  Thanks for visiting!!!

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.

Playing Dress Up Once Again

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY KAITLYN!!!!!!!

Hi everyone and happy Monday.  Well today is the day.  It's my daughter's 21st birthday.  It's hard to believe 21 years have gone by so fast.  I am tremendously proud of the young woman she has become.  She is absolutely wonderful.

Now even though today is her actual birthday, I will not be spending it with her.  Instead, we are going to spend the entire day Wednesday celebrating with her and her boyfriend.  Of course, that means that I cannot share her card with you just yet.  So I decided to go with another Disney star and share her dress, well kind of a dress.  Since she is actually a fairy, I am not sure if her outfit is a dress or not.  Oh well. Here we go.

 

I started with a base card of Daffodil Delight cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  To this base I added a piece of Whisper White.  It is cut at 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  I then used my eyelet lace punch to punch each side of the white.  It is attached to the center of the card front using runner adhesive.  I then added dots to the front of this using the Daffodil Delight marker.  I also added small yellow rhinestones to the center hole of each eyelet scallop.  

 

To begin the dress, I first used my dress up framelits and cut out the dress form from Basic Black.  Next, I took a piece of Garden Green card stock and cut out the sundress using the same framelits.  I cut the dress short using my scissors.  I then added green glitter to the entire dress using my 2 way glue pen.  I then took a piece of vellum paper and punched out 5 large ovals.  I cut a strip off of a piece of Champagne shimmer card stock for the belt and glued the ovals to it.  This was then attached to the dress as the belt.  Finally I cut out the butterfly wings from vellum paper using my big shot and the beautiful butterflies die.  I ran these through the big shot using a swirl impression folder and then edged them with silver glitter.  The glitter is attached using TomBow glue.  I set these aside to dry and worked on the background.

I started by taking out a set of scallop oval framelits I have and cut one out of Daffodil Delight and one size smaller out of Whisper White.  I ran each of these through the big shot using a couple of impression folders - the daffodil went through using an oval shaped folder while the white used the honeycomb folder.  I attached both the ovals to the card using runner adhesive.

By now the wings were dry so I attached them to the back of the dress form using glue dots.  I added dimensionals to the back of the dress form and attached it to the card.    

 

Finally it was time to add the greeting.  I used my Create a Cupcake stamp set and stamped the greeting using Daffodil Delight ink onto Whisper White card stock.  I punched this out using the word window.  I then punched a modern label out of Daffodil Delight card stock.  I attached the white greeting to it using runner adhesive and attached the entire greeting to the card using dimensionals.

Now I am off to finish a few things for my daughter's birthday.  I am not sure if I will share her card with you on Wednesday or Thursday but it will be one of those.  I just want her to see it first.  

I hope your week if off to a wonderful start.  I am so glad you stopped by to see me today.  I will be back tomorrow with another share for you.  Thanks for visiting.  

 

Let's Look at the New In-Colors

Hi everyone.  Welcome to Tuesday and to a new week.  I do hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend.  I spent mine with my hubby.  We attended a graduation party for one of his fire fighter's daughter on Saturday night and had a lot of fun.   On Sunday we decided to indulge a little for the long hot summer of Arizona and bought an inflatable pool.  Now this is not a big pool.  It is a smaller one we can get in to cool off and just relax.  We set it up and had a nice relaxing afternoon.  Monday was a work day for my hubby so I spent most of the day with my sister doing girl stuff!!

I went into my craft room to make a card to share with you today and decided I should showcase a few of the new items from the upcoming catalog as well as the new in-colors.  I also decided I would just make a card front instead of a whole card.  With the card front, I may choose to add it to a card in the future or I can just use it as an example.  So let's get started shall we.

 

Okay so I forgot to rotate the photo prior to uploading it to my blog.  Don't know why I cannot seem to remember to do this.  Oh well I can still talk you through my card.  Just pretend it is vertical.  Since I made just a card front, I started with a piece of Basic Black cut at 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  Next I cut a piece of Whisper White at 4" x 5 1/4".  I took this piece and ran it through my big shot using the new Modern Mosaic impression folder.  I attached the piece to the black with runner adhesive.

 

Next, I grabbed a half piece of each of the new in-colors:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush and Coastal Cabana.  I used the new mosaic punch and punched 2 out of each color.  I then randomly attached them to the card using runner adhesive.  As you can see from the photo, I used the side of the white where the mosaic is depressed and not raised.  That way my punched pieces would fit and look really nice.  I added crystal effects to these added on mosaic pieces and left them to dry.  Once dry, I attached a rhinestone to the top and bottom points of the punched shapes.  

 

My greeting is from a new hostess set called Sweetly Framed.  I stamped the frame, saying, and hearts using Basic Black ink onto Whisper White card stock and cut it out using my scissors.  I then took a scrap of black and used one of the frames from the Apothecary Accents framelits set to cut out the background for the white piece.  I added rhinestones to this and attached it to the card using dimensionals.  

Well that's all for today.  I will return tomorrow with another card to share with you.  Thanks for dropping by today.  See you all later!!

New Items!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone and welcome to Thursday!  As promised I am going to share some photos of new items and some info on the retiring colors and new colors which will be in the new catalog.  So I think we just jump right in and get started.

 

This is a new stamp set with a matching impression folder.  The stamp set is called Wildflower Meadow.  This is a background stamp.  You would stamp this onto your card stock and then run it through the big shot with the matching Wildflower Meadow impression folder.  You just need to be sure to line up the stamped image with the impression folder image.  

 

Here is the new mosaic punch, Modern Mosaic impression folder, and the artisan label punch.  There are coordinating stamp sets to go with each punch.  I did not preorder those so I cannot show them to you.  I may get them in the future but trust me I spent enough on my new items!!

 

These are 2 of the new hostess sets that will be in the new catalog.  During the preorder, demonstrators are allowed to order 2 of the hostess sets to share with our customers.   I chose to order these 2.  They are called Sweetly Framed (which can use the decorative label punch) and Express Yourself.  I am always looking for new stamps with sayings and thought this one would get a lot of use. 

 

In-colors in the catalog are good for 2 years and then they retire.  Each year 5 retire and 5 new ones are introduced.  These are the new in-colors for 2013-2015.  They are (from left to right):  Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Baked Brown Sugar and Coastal Cabana.  As you can see I ordered the stamp pads, a pack of 8 1/2" x 11" card stock of each color and  the in-color cards.  I really like these colors.

 

Besides the new in-colors, Stampin' Up! is refreshing their color families so that means new colors are introduces while others are retired.  Most of the new colors are actually returning in-colors from previous years.  The returning colors are Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Blushing Bride, Crushed Curry, Island Indigo and Soft Sky.  Now I have most of the stamp pads as well as some left over card stock of each of these so I did not need to order them.  I did not have Sky Blue (on the right) so I did order it.  The only new colors is Smoky Slate.  Of course I ordered a pack of card stock and stamp pad.  

The colors that are retiring from the color groups are:  Regal Rose, Pretty In Pink, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Bravo Burgundy, Not Quite Navy, More Mustard and River Rock.  If you want any of those colors be sure to order them before the end of the month.

Well that's it for today.  Tomorrow I am going to share some cards that have inspired me.  I am doing that because we have a funeral to attend.  I hope you understand.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Going Simple Again

Hi everyone and happy Wednesday.  Well the nice UPS man came and delivered my new SU! items.  I have not yet taken time to really go through them so I cannot wait to get into them today.  I think that for tomorrow's blog, I will share some the new items with you.

Our week started with the loss of 2 public safety officers - 1 firefighter and 1 police officer.  I wish I could say the week has leveled out and things were at least calm right now.  However, my aunt called the other day to tell us that my uncle is in the hospital.  We are still waiting for test results to find out exactly what is going on but his blood pressure was so elevated from the pain he was in that they actually were afraid he was going to have a stroke.  We are praying for him and hope his hospital stay will not be a long one.

With everything going on, I decided to keep today's card simple.  I went back to basics in order to keep myself calm.  So let's get started.

 

As you can see, I really did keep it simple.  I started with a base card of Daffodil Delight cut at 4 1/4" x 11", scored at 5 1/2".  I added a layer of Whisper White measuring 4 1/8" x 5 3/8".  I sponged the edges of this piece with Daffodil Delight ink and attached it to the base with runner adhesive.  For the top layer I used a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Daffodil Delight.  I ran this through the big shot using the Elegant Lines impression folder.

 

Here is a closer shot of the Elegant Lines impression folder design.  When I run this one through the big shot I do it a little different than other folder.  I use the base platform (no tab on this one) instead of tab 1 on the platform.  I place a shim on the the bottom cutting pad and then the folder with the card stock in it and finally the top cutting pad.  When I run this folder through on the tab 1 like all the others it tends to cut through the card stock.  I found by doing it this way, it does just the impression and leaves the card stock intact.  I added little pearls into all the open circle areas for added glitz.  

 

For my butterfly, I started by punching it out of Whisper White card stock using the Elegant Butterfly punch.  I added a line of liquid glue to the center of the body and put green glitter onto it.  Next, using a 2 way glue pen, I added some white glitter all over the wings.  For the final accent I added 3 dots to each wing of liquid glue and put yellow glitter onto the dots.  I attached the butterfly to the card using a glue dot.

 

I must have taken a photo of the greeting at least 3 times and every time it came out blurry.  So I do apologize for that.  I chose the greeting from the stamp set Teeny Tiny Wishes.  I stamped it using Daffodil Delight ink onto Whisper White card stock.  I then stamped a small butterfly under the greeting using a stamp from the set Fitting Occasion using the same ink.  I punched this out with the 1" circle punch.  I layered it onto a 1 1/4" Daffodil Delight circle with runner adhesive.  I then layered this onto a 1 3/8" circle of Whisper White.  Prior to layering the circles onto this one, I added some Dazzling Diamond glitter tot he edges with a 2 way glue pen.  For the final touch I used added a yellow rhinestone and then attached the greeting to the card using a dimensional.  

Well that's it for today.  I will be back tomorrow to share some of my new stuff with you.  I hope you stop by to see it.  Thanks for dropping by today to visit.