Sending a Smile Sketch Card

The new sketch (FTL172) is up at the Clean And Simple Stamping Blog, and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. Gotta love it when that happens.  :-)

Below is the sketch - you can see I stayed fairly close to it this time, although my circle is larger and the sentiment placed differently. I didn't want to make a VALENTINE card with my new heart punch, or a Thinking Of You ... so I had to pick through my sentiment stamp to find one that made me happy.

 

I also used lots of foam tape (who, ME?) and am happy with how it turned out. It was a very quick and easy card, as everything went together ticketyboo.   Such a fun sketch, I have more ideas to use it than time.

The heart punch was in the Stampin' Up Clearance Rack Blitz and I am so glad to have it. I've had my eye on it since it was released, but your total can add up pretty fast when you are adding punches to it.  Anyhow, I rarely use the negative piece so that was fun to do with this card.

More Supplies:
Nestabilities dies for the circles and rectangles.
Dotted Paper by Prima
Baja Breeze card stock by Stampin' Up, as is the heart punch.
Word stamp by Hero Arts
Aqua Mist ribbon by Papertrey Ink
oh, and I also used foam tape.  ;-)

We had VERY exciting news yesterday evening- our middle daughter got engaged! We don't know too many details other than it was a surprise, he asked and she said yes. And he had picked out a lovely ring -- all on his own.  They are in the mountains on a ski trip which she gave him for Christmas, but they will stop by our cabin later today so we can congratulate them in person (and see the ring).

If I had known about the engagement before I made this card, I would have added CONGRATULATIONS instead of 'sending a smile' and popped it in the mail to them.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Bird Cage Card

The first of each month, my friend Sue (who lives in a city 2.5 hours away from me) and I pop something in the mail to each other. It's wonderful having someone who really appreciates the work that goes into a hand made card, and knows that the other person feels the same. I haven't yet posted the card I made for her for November (we agreed to skip December as we were both swamped with holiday preparations) so here it is.

This is also my first 'Fancy" card for the first Friday of the new year. Hmmm ... sounds like "Fancy Card Friday" could be another fun theme day once in awhile!  ;-)  Now I know there are some stampers that do Really Fancy cards, and may not think mine are all that 'fancy'. But they certainly involve a lot more steps and supplies than I generally do on my cards, so I get to use the term in my own way.

All papers are by K&Co, natch.  I covered the front of a top-fold A2 card with patterned paper, then tied a silk ribbon (Stampin' Up) near the fold.  One of the things I like about Sizzix dies, is that you can cut thick chipboard. I used a UHU glue stick to adhere a different piece of patterned paper to chipboard, then cut it out with a Tim Holtz baroque die. I outlined it with my Sakura sparkly gel pen for some subtle shimmer, then popped it up onto the card with thick foam tape.

The birdcage was cut out the same way ... patterned paper glued to chipboard and cut it out with the Tim Holtz birdcage die. The butterflies were cut with a Stampin' Up Embosslet die, and I added a small gem to the center of the top butterfly.

 

A couple of neat layers inside the card as well as a couple more butterfly layers. With all the chipboard and foam tape, this was a fairly heavy card!

Thanks for stopping by today.

***EDITED:  I forgot to mention the vine which the birdcage is attached to! I used Tim Holtz' Regal Crest die -- I bought the die mostly FOR the vine.  I also used it HERE.

Just One Word ... challenge card

The latest challenge at "Less Is More" is a 2 week challenge which started on December 24th. The challenge is to create a Clean And Simple card with the sentiment on the front using only ONE WORD.  I decided to supersize my one word (ENJOY) and make it the focal point of my card!

This was kind of an intriguing challenge as I could think of all kinds of words to use. However, I had to narrow it down and thought this would make a fun gift card holder for my stash.  I cut the word ENJOY from the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge,  twice at 4.25" from white card stock.

  The card is 5.25" square (to fit in my 5.5" square envelopes) and layered with pink subtly patterned paper (Prima). Some stippling with pink and green on one of the cuts, then I popped them both up with foam tape. The green looks really yellow on my screen, but it IS green in real life.

Inside, I used another piece of patterned paper from the same stack, and a 4" white square. To form the gift card holder section, I used my "Rolodex" die (picked it up from the Stampin' Up Clearance Rack Blitz recently). Fun!  I embossed it  with a Sizzix embossing folder and lightly sponged the edges with pink. Then it was attached at the bottom edge, to the white square panel. I wrote on the panel ... A Little Shopping Spree On Me! with a brown fine point marker.

 I thought about adding buttons or brads to hide the little holes at the bottom, but decided that it was more fun to leave them exposed -- otherwise the piece is just a rectangle with rounded corners! I left an unadorned one in the photo to give you a better look in case you haven't seen this die before.

Both scallop punches were on the same Stampin' Up Clearance Rack order.  :-)))  The glass embellishment is from my stash.

So, CAS on the outside, somewhat fancier on the inside.  And I got it done in time for the challenge!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Loom Knit Scarflet

I have several loom knit pieces to share, so I'm thinking I will devote the occasional Wednesday to "warm and wooly" loom knitting.  ;-)  Considering that I keep buying yarns and have several projects on my looms at any given time, I should be able to keep up with "Warm And Wooly Wednesday's" for quite a while!

I made my Mom and my cousin each a scarflet for Christmas, and this is my Mom's. I whipped these up after I took them Christmas shopping, and I saw that my cousin had purchased a cream crochet hat at a recent craft sale, and my Mom was wearing one that she had bought at our November craft sale. Each scarflet matches their hats perfectly!

The pattern for this Lacey Scarflet is by Brenda Myers and I just love it. It keeps you warm and cozy, without the long dangling edges of a regular scarf. (When you are walking three dogs, long dangling edges are a PITA as you have to bend over to pick up after them).

 

I like that you can fold down the top edges for a lacy collar, or keep it turned up to keep out the wind.

I had more than enough of this yarn and since my mom is frequently cold I doubled the yarn. Good idea, but AWFULLY hard to loom knit. It took me over 3 times as long to finish this one as it did any of the others I have done, and then I had to come up with a creative way to close it up. It was too bulky to close the way the pattern indicates ...  however the two buttons work really well, as it can be buttoned up tight or just the bottom one will hold it in place under her coat.

The stitch gives the edges a lovely picot look and I haven't had to block any that I have made so far. Bonus!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Masculine Scenic Birthday Card

Well here I am with another masculine card. I could have waited until next Monday to post it, but I wanted to enter it into the "Anything Goes" challenge at the new Craft A Scene blog.

I haven't done a scene card in a L-O-N-G time, and it felt good. I need a card for my Brother In Law's upcoming birthday so I hope he likes it as much as I liked making it.

Once the scene was stamped (Momento Rich Cocoa ink) and coloured (Copics, & pencil crayons blended with mineral spirits) I cut it out with a Spellbinders die.  The card base is 5x7", from a package of them I found at Wal-Mart. Since the background paper is from a 6x6" paper pack (Prima), I trimmed the 7" side of the card to measure 6.25" so the borders around each side of the patterned paper would be even. The card still fits into the matching envelope without looking like it's too small.  :-)

I used my large crimper on the 2nd label shape, a tool I haven't had out of the drawer in ages. Years, probably. I inked the edges and added foam tape to the label shapes, and then I had to decide where to add the words. I know I don't usually add words to the front of my cards, but I wanted to on this one.

The word stamp and label punch are both by Stampin' Up. The scene stamps are from my collection: house from Stampendous; ground by PrintWorks; pebbles and foreground trees by Stampscapes; sky by Graphic; others unknown.

Since the card stock base is rather wimpy, I added several panels to the inside as well which made it nice and sturdy.

I will hand write the words and a note inside - I only have so many birthday verse stamps and I'm pretty sure I have used all of them over the years  -- especially with men's cards.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Masculine Square Card

It's Monday and I have a masculine card to share today ... maybe I should start doing 'Masculine Card Monday'? Well maybe not EVERY Monday, but it might be a fun goal for some Monday's.

 

I saw a similar card in one of my (many) stamping magazines and I thought it would be perfect for some striped patterned paper and a square card.

The sparkly striped paper is from a Christmas paper stack and I since I am still on a kraft card stock kick I continued with it for this large 6" card.

The dies are by My Favourite Things,  and I cut the pieces out of scraps from my bin. The green layer was stamped with a Stampin' Up grid background and the edges of each of the labels were inked with brown ink. I clear embossed the words as well.

I used my Score Pal to emboss a straight line above and below the striped paper but it still seemed to need something. A small punched kraft star seemed to finished it off.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Tall Narrow Card

Today's share has a stamped sentiment on the front that is a good thing for me to keep in mind as we start into a brand new year. If you remember, I love quote stamps. Since one of my New Years resolutions is to STAMP MORE - I thought this card from my 'unpublished blog cards' folder would be a good one to start 2012. 

All papers by K&Co**, and I used Nesties to cut out the labels. Edges were inked and then everything was attached to a 4x9" card made from kraft card stock. I have some lovely linen business envelopes that work perfectly for this size of card, and I like that it's a change from the standard A2. In fact, another one of my resolutions is to make more NON-A2 cards this year. 

I lightly smeared some glitter glue on the birds breast - just enough to catch the light a little when the card is turned.

** I have so many paper stacks - most of them by K&Co - that another one of my resolutions is to not buy any more papers until I have used at least HALF of what I have in the studio now. Last year I only had one resolution and that was to STOP HOARDING my stash and enjoy using it. Well I certainly did that, but managed to accumulate an embarrassing amount of new stash as well. It would appear I just can't pass up a pretty stack of papers or embellishments that are on sale so I'm thinking I'd better avoid the shops for a few months.

So there you have it ... 3 of my New Years Resolutions for 2012 AND a pretty card.

Happy New Year!