Monday 30 April 2012

Dog Beers

Last week I mentioned making a couple of dog themed cards, based on a tee shirt saying? Well they fit in for my Masculine Card Monday, so I wanted to share them today. That play on words STILL cracks me up.



I made two birthday cards using the same stamp and words; one for our son and one for our nephew. Both love dogs, and ... beer!


The words were computer generated, matted and one layer was popped up onto the black base with foam tape.


This is not one of my new dog stamps. I actually have a drawer full of dog stamps, and this one was a gift from a long ago friend. (Thanks Karen!).  It is "Dash" by Mostly Animals and I thought he was a pretty good match for the words.  The grass stamp is one of my new ones, from Stamps By Judith. The card is 5x7, and the patterned paper is by DCWV. Colouring was added with pencils blended with mineral spirits.

This 2nd card is a 5.25" square card but otherwise is pretty much identical.


I didn't use a grass stamp on this one, just the pencils.


It's hard to see in the photo, but there is a tiny bit of Crystal Effects on Dash's nose, to add a little somthin' somthin'.


 Dog Beers - ahahahahahahaha.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sunday 29 April 2012

Baby Girl Photo Holders

Our first grandchild is going to be a year old next month, and I still have not posted the little photo holders I made to celebrate her birth!


I made one for us, one for her new Aunt, one for her other Grandparents and one for her Great Grandparents.  I mean, we were all going to have pictures up of that sweet bundle of happiness - so why not have a suitable stand for them!



Not a new idea for sure, they are all over the web. But they were appreciated and well used. In fact, I know a couple are still in use! 

I simply covered 'bulldog' clips (Staples) with patterned paper (DCWV), stamped and punched the scalloped label (stamp AND punch by SU), and added glitter glue and ribbon. The photograph sits in between the 'arms' of the clip, above the bow. You can even add a couple of pictures and fan them out.

It's been fun swapping out the pictures and watching her grow this first year. She certainly managed to have everyone fall madly in love with her. Madly.  :-)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday 28 April 2012

Sewing Themed Birthday Card

This is the birthday card I made for my friend J, who is a whiz with a sewing machine. She loved it!


I only have a couple of these lovely card bases left - something else from my studio that I've had for years and years. They are about 5x7, and they are called "French Folded Deckle Edged Cards".  Which means, beautiful paper has been folded in half then in half again to form the note card, and the one edge is deckled. The matching envelope also has a deckle edge on the flap. Beautiful stuff.


I cut the scalloped panel and sewing machine with my Cricut (Heritage cartridge, I believe) and the little spools are a Tim Holtz Die that I got for Christmas.


I wrapped the kraft cut spools with cotton thread and popped them up for dimension. The word stamp inside is by Fiskars. I found a really fun birthday word stamp set when we were in Arizona and have been putting it to good use.

Thanks for stopping by today - have a great weekend.



Friday 27 April 2012

Butterflies Sketch Card

There is a new sketch up at the Clean And Simple Stamping Blog, and I actually had a chance to play along this morning. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the sketch, AND what papers I wanted to use. That always makes the process a fast one!

Here is my card followed by the sketch:



You can see I stayed pretty close to the sketch, even adding words (Hero Arts) to the front. The scalloped border (Sizzix) was a scrap sitting on my stamping table, so that worked out well!


You know how I love my foam tape, so I popped up the cream grid patterned panel with foam tape, and the 2nd butterfly layer has the wings curved and poped up as well.  I punched the butterflies (SU) out of 2 different patterned papers (SU) and then used a narrow scrap to create the body/antenna. 


I added a cream, rounded corner panel inside the kraft card stock A2 base.  What a fun sketch, and I can see so many uses for it!

Happy Friday, everyone - thanks for stopping by today.


Thursday 26 April 2012

Puffy Tree and Bird Sticker Cards

I made a couple of dog themed cards yesterday, but I don't have time to photograph and get them uploaded yet. Hopefully I will for my next Masculine Card Monday. I was so happy with how they turned out! Nothing like having a tee shirt saying stuck in your head to inspire you.  ;-)

For today's share I have another couple of CAS cards made with those puffy felt stickers.






Easy Peasy - the pieces of patterned paper that we had determined the layout of the cards, as my friend D and I were sharing. I believe we managed to use up every scrap, too! See THIS link for additional cards made using the same supplies.

No sentiment on the fronts, which is how I like them. BUT - should I need one when I go to send the card, it would be easy to stamp out on a scrap of coordinating card stock, punch it out and add it to the front.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Baby Gift Bags

I decided to decorate a white gift bag to add our gifts for our daughter's baby shower. I got the bag/bow/tag finished, and when I went to put the gifts in ... it didn't all fit!!  So I had to make a 2nd gift bag, bow and tag.  :-)   I used a paper stack by DCWV as I love the little bit of sparkle on the papers.


Isn't this paper bow cute? I loved the die (PTI) as soon as I saw it on their pre-release, and I am so happy with it. I've used it a couple of times and every time I'm pleased with the results.  The tags were decorated with images cut out of the background paper, and I used orange/white bakers twine as well.


The tags were cut using the Tim Holtz tag die - it is such a great size for decorating.  The labels were cut with a MFT label die, and the little birds were punched out of the paper with a SU 3/4" circle punch.





It's a photo heavy post today for sure!  Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Puffy Bird Sticker Cards

I have a couple of CAS (Clean And Simple) cards to share today - that I made last summer and never did get posted. I loved these puffy felt stickers with their sweet details.





My friend D liked them so much that she went and bought a package as well, then we combined our papers and dies to make our cards.

Easy Peasy - but still fun and cheerful!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday 23 April 2012

Cactus Silhouette Card

You can enter the challenge at the Craft A Scene Blog up to three times, so I have another one today that also fits into my Masculine Card Monday:


While it looks larger in the photo, this is an A2 card with a kraft card stock base.  The blue (Baja Breeze by SU) was embossed with a SU texture embossing folder.

The scene image (Ink Blocks) was stamped with Momento Rick Cocoa ink onto white card stock, then I placed a punched circle mask in the area I wanted the setting sun to be.  The sky was created by dragging inks with a sponge across the panel and when I removed the paper mask the sun remained white. I've been doing this 'swooshing' technique for many many years, and never get tired of it's effect.

'Swooshing' (her term) always reminds of my pen pal Impi Sawchuck, who not only taught me this technique - she was featured in rubber stamping magazines back in the day. She was spectacular at 'swooshing' and one of the first stampers to do it. She passed several years ago, but her techniques live on.


The words (SU) were stamped with brown ink on a white card stock scrap, the bookplate (Tim Holtz) was die cut out of kraft card stock, inked then the words attached behind it. The waxed string was a piece recycled from something I purchased and there was just enough to tie onto the embossed panel.

This is one of the cards that I made for Father's Day, and I know my hubby will appreciate it.  :-)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday 22 April 2012

Pastel Puppy Card

 Here is another card for my 'Puppy Parade'


Isn't that background cool? I bought two of these solid stamps at the Rubber Stamp Show in Mesa and I introduced one of them to ink for this card. I will update the post with the manufacturer of the stamp later as the name escapes me and we are at our cabin this morning. 

I inked the background stamp with a rainbow ink pad, spritzed it with water and stamped it on a panel of water colour paper. Then I spritzed it again - without reinking - and stamped it a 2nd time on another piece of water colour paper. This card uses that 2nd (lighter) background.  


The puppy - Stamps by Judith - was stamped with Momento Rich Cocoa ink and colour was added with Stampin' Up's Water Color Wonder crayons and a damp paintbrush.

Additional supplies:  Patterned paper - K&Co;  Butterfly punch - Martha Stewart;  Button, aqua card stock and ribbon - Papertrey Ink;  Word stamp - Gina K;
EDITED:  The solid 'blotch' stamp is by B&J's Art Stamps.

I actually got a little studio time this week, and got several cards made. Well, the outsides. I'm waiting for my PTI order to arrive with the word stamps for the insides, then I can take pictures and share a couple of the cards. A couple are for Mother's Day, and also I'm ahead of the game for Father's Day - so those cards will have to wait awhile before I can post them. But, OH - I had FUN with my new stamps this week.  :-)))))

Thanks for stopping by today!

Saturday 21 April 2012

Songbird Cards - 1st group

A couple of summers ago, I found this 'Songbird' paper stack on clearance at Winners. I immediately cut down a few of the shimmery pages to make a big set of cards for my stash, and here are the first ones:


The cards are all an A2 size, and I added ribbons, foam tape (wink), Stickles and Crystal Effects to embellish them.



The word panels were cut down from one of the sheets in the paper stack - and made the perfect embellishments for the cards!  In fact, without seeing those sheets in the stack I doubt I would have purchased it.




Unfortunately it is hard to see the shimmer and shine on these cheerful cards, but they really do shimmer and shine.  :-)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Friday 20 April 2012

Fancy Bird and Branch Card

I think it's time for 'Fancy Card Friday', so here is the card I sent to Sue for her April First mailing.  {For those that are new to my blog, my friend Sue lives in a city 2 hours away from me and the first of each month we pop something in the mail to each other}.


I started with a white 6" card base, and some pretty papers by Prima. These are in a 6" paper stack that I got in my Christmas stocking (thanks, Mom!).


 I used a 6.5" square envelope, and attached another patterned paper to the front. I usually put my mailings into a letter sized envelope, so the card/envelope wasn't going through the mail as is.  I added some stamping and die cut letters for her name.  (Bird - Tim Holtz; birdcage - Michaels; letter die - PTI).


I die cut and punched some flowers out of card stock scraps, a leafy branch, and a scalloped border, and the kraft panel is the negative piece from THIS card.  The kraft piece was embossed with a new embossing folder, one I picked up at the Mesa Rubber Stamp Show in March.



Finally, I attached the flower pieces together with a rose brad and used Tim's Tiny Attacher to attach the SU elastic ribbon and I used lots of foam tape on this card!


Here is a peek at the inside:


Both the stamp and the bird die are by Tim Holtz, MFT makes the scalloped border and fancy label dies. I LOVE the words on the stamp:

"What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it."

I do love inspirational quotes and stamps.  :-)

That is it for me today - Happy Friday, everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Little Lamb Baby Card

I did it. I tried not to, I really did. But I placed a Papertrey Ink order. Sigh. The dies and stamps I've had my eyes on - some for MONTHS - are finally back in stock. Occasionally I swing by their site to see if they are available yet and usually they are not and I quickly close out the window. This time, however ... I lucked out. My pocketbook, not so much.

However, the snowman face stamp set was one of those long awaited sets (See? I told you I've been waiting months) as I had bought the snowman die and then had to pen his face in. I'm not as talented as the designers over at PTI.

Anyhow, I am SO excited - my head is spinning with the ideas I have for their new interactive dies. Woo Hoo!

**Edited:  I didn't mean that PTI has been out of stock of all the items on my wish list for months. Shipping to Canada is REALLY expensive, so if I'm going to place an order - it's going to include all the items on my wish list. It has taken months for everything on my list to become available. I check each week, and one or more items will be out of stock. Then the next week, those ones might be in stock but other items are now out of stock.

Meanwhile, here is another baby card I made using one of those SWEET felt lamb stickers I found in the US last month. Also, I am SO loving making large square cards these days!


The green plaid panel is popped up with foam tape, as is the little lamb.  The grass die is by MFT; I just used a small portion of it. The words are by Stampin' Up.


This is  5.5" square card, and the inside has a layer of the same green plaid paper matted with a white square all ready for me to add the words when I need the card.

Thanks for stopping by today!