Birthdays Galore...

Well another weekend has quickly gone by. I spent some time in the craft room to relax and wind down after the busy work week. My new AR clerk has 6 days off so now I am wearing 3 hats again. I can't belive how busy I am but of course this is our busy season... I get lucky to only have a three day work week coming up as we are heading back to NY again on Wednesday evening. Daughter Jessica will be heading home as well and I look forward to seeing her - it seems like ages have gone by since we were last together.

I'm sharing a few birthday cards that I made this weekend. The first is a simple and elegant black, white,teal combo. I love it. I actually made another version as well but I thought it was a little darker than this one because it had a black accent strip but the DH thought it would be scarry to get such a dark card. He usually has some sound advise so I listened and lightened it up to the card below.



I started with a balck card base and added a black and white grid pattern from a specialty cardstock pack by me & my Big ideas. I love, love, love it. It reminds me a lot of the grid pattern stamps by Papertrey Ink. I topped it with a Nestabilities label 4 panel. Now most of you know that these don't nest to 1/8 inch like much of the other dies so I had to cut my DP (also from the me & my Big ideas pack) and then trim it to be 1/8 inch smaller than the black. This is a tedious task but I love the result and am glad I made the effort. Next I added a sentiment panel using the Nestabilities classic large ovals and large oval scallops. The sentiment is from SU's Sincere Salutations. I stamped the image on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock using the Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I am a firm believer that your images will improve using the right combo of paper and ink and this one works great for me.

Of course a card wouldn't be finished without some Swarkovski crystals to bring the sentiment center stage. I like the way it makes this feel classy. I repeated the background and label 4 panel inside for my greeting and this card is a wrap.

Ketto Bella

Next up, I colored one of my new Stamping Bella images called Phoebe Ketto. I loved her bouquet of hearts and her angelic wings. I have a story to share about the Shimmerz Angel Wings I used to color these wings. I have wanted these shimmery paint accents for some time now but couldn't find them locally. The only way to get them was to order them on-line. I'm trying to be a little frugal and hate to pay shipping charges so I patiently held back adding these to my stash (and believe me my stash is growing - the DH loves to remind me of that!). Anyway - you probably think that I caved in but nope - as luck would have it, I entered a contest on "Life One Layout at a Time" and had my name pulled for the free Shimmerz and Spritz. I think I directed you all there in March and again in May. I patiently waited for my new items to arrive and I was so thrilled to get the package you should have heard the squeal of delight when I found the Angel Wings white bottle inside. There were also three other colors, Sunflower, Pumpkin (which I can't wait to use for fall) and Hottie Pink (I think this would be great on cards for Lisa, the girlies, Stephanie - gosh I can't wait to get creating!) I also received two colors of Spritz, Saphire and Concrete. I used the Saphire to color a plain silk flower and loved how it came out. Ok, sorry for the chatter but I was so happy to have won these and Danielle couldn't have picked better colors for me if she knew me. You wouldn't belive how hard it was to wait for their arrival. Sissy Linda (Scrappy Lin) won the Bind-It-All from the same site in early March - just in time for her 40th! She was equally as excited since she does the scrapbooking. She made a gorgeous book of the girls from their birthday party and her pictures and journalling make you feel like you were there dancing along. Ok ok on to the picture...




I started with a Neenah Solar White card base and added red cardstock and a cute strawberry pattern from Out & About by My Minds Eye. I used the Nesties large classic circle dies to make the sentiment panel and the classic large square and scalloped square for the main image panel. I colored Phoebe with my Copics and had fun trying a new hair coloring technique. Linda Heavens was a great starting point for this challenge and I was pleased with the result. The sentiment is a Stampabilities wood stamp I picked up from Hobby Lobby. I added a satin ribbon and tied it off with a silk flower, button combo. I even pulled out the Sunflower Shimmerz to make the flower sparkle. Loved it!

I kept the same background for the inside of the card and added a compter generated sentiment. That that.

Have a great week everyone and I'll catch up with you again soon.

Thanks for looking!

Cath

Our work is never done...

Hello everyone and hapy Sunday, again! We were quite content to be home this weekend and work in our gardens, relax on the back veranda, or in my case run to my craft room to create. Of course there is always the laundry that needed changing, food that needed preparing and an errand or two at the mall but I am pleased to say that I also had plenty of time to set about finishing some cards that needed to be made.

First up is a baby card...



This is another Amy Sheffer - yes I can do it too! I have changed the image and added a sentiment tag but the paper and layout are hers. I had more of the DCWV Nana's Nursery Boy paper and thought it would be good to use it up. All four design papers come from this pack. The colored cardstock is AC textured cardstock and the white is Neenah Classic Crest Solar White - I love how crisp and white it is. The silver brads and ribbon holders are from Close to my Heart - the ribbon is Martha Stewart twill tape in silver sage. This was a bargain I found at AC Moore last weekend when we were home and it just goes to show that although the DH thinks that I have enough ribbon to wrap the world I can always find something that I know I'll use and that I don't already own!


The image and sentiment were stamped in Mememto Tuxedo Black ink. I used Copics to color the lamb and highlighted with my Copic Multiliners. The lamb stamp came from Hobby Lobby and is by Stampabilities title "Lambie Pie". I thought he was just too cute and could work for baby and Easter cards. The sentiment is from Lizzie's shop and is A Muse Artstamps...a tiny little wooden stamp that I thought would be perfect for tags. I used the Cuttlebug Tiny Tag die to cut it out.

Of course it wouldn't be a card unless I used my Nesties and in this case I used the Circle and Scalloped Circles as well as the Classic Squares. I found a neat tutorial on how to emboss a smaller square die onto the first without cutting through the paper and I used it on the top white square for this card. Here's a tip, make sure you lightly tape your die to the paper or it will move and the lines won't be stratight. It took me three times to get this and I was getting a little testy by the time I was done.

Here's a look at the inside because I link it's as pretty and colorful as the front...



I used scraps from the front paper and used the Nestabilities Large Deckled Rectangles to back the sentiment panel. The sentiment was computer generated. I used a Martha Stewart Border punch to make the row of hearts. I added an old button to finished it off.

Baby Card number two...




So I was in the baby card mode and found a card layout that I thought would work perfectly for the image I wanted to use. Again, I used the DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy pack of design papers and AC textured cardstock for the colored paper. The image is from Stampin'Up! titled Buggies and Booties. I again used Mememto Tuxedo Black ink and added some Swarkovski turquoise crystals to the top edge of the buggy basket. The ribbon is single faced satin I picked up when Mary Maxim's put it all on clearance. Of course, I got it for a steal...and yes I have about 100 yards of it which is why the DH thinks I can wrap the world with all the ribbon I have. The sentiment is from the Inkadinkado clear Baby Boy set.

Here's a peek inside...




I kept the colors from the front of the card and added a big sentiment panel. I borrowed this verse from the American Greetings online card selection and generated it on the computer using the LD Quick Note font. I cut it out with my Large Circle Nesties and backed it with a Large Scalloped Circle that I paper pierced in each scallop. I didn't want to add too much height inside so I didn't use dimensionals but I did on the front. That's it - easy peasy.

Here's number three and I still have one more to make before the weekend ends...





I know, you are probably thinking this might be a little late and it is. I told you that I have great intentions but don't always get to follow through. This has been in pieces on my craft desk and I finally set out to finish it off since we are heading back to NY again this coming weekend. Travelling every other weekend means that I don't get enough time to play in the craft room and complete the necessary cards. It would be easy to pick one up at the store but as a card maker, I just can't justify it. I make cards. I have tons of supplies and that's it. It just might take me a little time to get them done. I digress so on to the card...

For this I started with Bazzil cardstock. I then added some world map and blue ship masts design paper from Close to my Heart. The red DP is some scrap paper I have from a huge jumbo pack I bought eons ago from JoAnn's. I have barely touched it since my tastes have grown but I thought it would work wonderfully as a backdrop to my DAD chip board letters. The letters are K&Compay and the blue and beige were slightly off in color from what I needed so I added some distress Stickles in Faded Jeans and Scattered Straw. They did just the trick to make this look better.

I haven't caved to get the Spellbinders Star dies as I'm trying to be a little frugal here so I cut them out from a stencil I had from my early scrapbooking days. I topped them off with a button and some hemp cording. The top blue Dew Drops were actually silver that I colored with my Copic Marker. I love how easy these take color and how quick they are to dry.

The last tool I used was the Friskars Rope Border punch. With the nautical feel of the papers, I thought it would fit beautifully.

That's it. Phew... I'm off to do some dinner prep work and then I have to work on the next card.

Hope you all a great week. Thanks for looking and I'll be back before you know it.

Cathy