Sparkly Butterfly Card

We got home late last evening, and while my company sat relaxing and watching a bit of TV, I managed to get a card uploaded and today's post done!

I had several 'odds and sods' sitting on my stamping table, so I assembled them together to make this embellishment.

The white base label is a Cricut cut, the yellow base layer is from the Tim Holtz Regal Crest die, the butterfly is a Tim Holtz die, and the small white label is a Verve stamp. The word stamp is from Stampin' Up.

Lots of bling, some stickles, some inking and - surprise - foam tape!  I think this A2 card will have to be hand delivered because of the gems so into my stash with this one!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Dynamic Duo's Challenge 19

We will probably not be able to join our daughter and family for Thanksgiving this year, so I decided instead of a card for the Dynamic Duo challenge this week I would make a wine bottle hanger. They can hang it on their dinner wine and know that we are with them in spirit.

I don't have any Cajun Craze, but I did get a package of Canyon Clay back when I placed my Papertrey Ink order and it seems pretty close. I usually have some Always Artichoke - it's one of those go-to-greens in my studio. These colours just say AUTUMN to me! 

I used the Papertrey Ink wine bottle die as the base, cutting it out of Canyon Clay. I cut it again out of Always Artichoke, lining up the edge of the green with the fold line on the die. Then I trimmed a little off the top and each side so the orange would show through on the base.

Almost everything on this project is by Stampin' Up!  (I'm such a fan, ha ha).  The pretty fabric brad is from my stash, and I added a little Stickles (spread with a brush).

The flower was made by punching a piece of the Canyon Clay, running it through a crimper several times to break down the fibres, then pulling the card stock apart. It reveals a lovely suede like texture!  (Thanks Vicky for reminding me about this technique - see her post HERE).

I see in the photos that the words are stamped crooked! Sheesh - I even used a stamp positioner. I will be popping that off and replacing it with one that is straight. I should have stamped first THEN punched it out around the words.  

Be sure to check out the wonderful submissions from the Dynamic Duo Design Team, as well as the other two Guest Designers for September!

The Dynamic Duos Challenge Blog

Allisa Chilton

Allyson Andersen (GD)

Anne Marie Hile

Anika Lerche

Karen Aicken (GD)   That's me!!

Kim Singdahlsen

Lesley Croghan

Lisa Elton

Michelle Bala (GD)

Melissa Chipperfield

Paige Grabau
Sue Joyce

Bright And Cheery Card Duo

It's been even busier than I thought - we have out of town guests and other out of town family have been dropping in. I am sure hoping to get some studio time tomorrow but it isn't looking good for that. I would sigh, but I'm enjoying our guests. 

So today I have another bright and cheery couple of cards to share.  I used the paper stack talked about in THIS blog post.

For the first card, I used the Stampin' Up butterfly punch and a couple of layers - one of card stock and one of patterned paper. They are joined together with Stampin' Up dimensionals, and the body is tied with Bakers Twine.  

The words are by Cornish Farms.

This 2nd card uses the Stampin' Up Butterfly die - one of my very favourites. The patterned paper on the blue butterfly card is by K & Co though, and not from the bright paper stack.

Once again, foam tape and bakers twine were used on the butterfly layers.

Ok - off to bed as we have another busy day tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Singing Angels ATC

I have a really busy week preparing for out of town guests, and I don't know how much time I am going get in my studio. So today's share is a quickie with an older photo from my files.

This was in a file for me to post on my old blog, and still bears the watermark! It is an ATC that I sent along to Sue with one of her mailings.

I don't keep track of items when I'm doing ATC's - I just pull things from my stash and have fun creating.

Have a good week everyone, and thanks for stopping by.

80th Birthday Goodies

My Mom celebrated her 80th birthday last month and we had a family party for her at our house. I made a few little goodies for her that I thought I'd share today.

First up, were the decorated "York Peppermint Patties".  I love these things, ha ha.  I used a digital scrapbook kit called "Sprout" from The Shabby Shoppe for these and the nuggets below. I added an '80' to each one, then printed out a sheet on regular white card stock. I punched them out with the Stampin' Up scalloped punch, then sandwiched the York Patties between one of those and a yellow, pink or blue punched scalloped piece. Easy Peasy and enjoyed by everyone at the party.

For the Hershey Nuggets, I used the same kit - this time added an '80' on either side of the circle in the center. I printed them out on address labels and attached them to the Nuggets. I can't find these yummy little chocolate bars in Calgary anymore - but a friend brought me some home from Idaho.  (Thanks Jane!!).  Oh, I added some glitter to the flower centers with Stickles for a bit of party sparkle.

I packaged up a few of the decorated chocolates into two glassine bags and added them to Mom's gift bag. I figured that we might eat all the chocolates at the party and I wanted her to have some to take home with her.

The package toppers were cut from white card stock and a pattterned paper from my stash. Those cute banners are why I bought that sheet of paper - so fun!  I also finished up the package of felt stickers that I've had for awhile.  They were in the children's section at Michaels.

Here is the little gift bag I tucked Mom's small gifts into. If you remember I also gave her eighty cards, so they were in a different bag -- a much larger one  :-)   I covered the front and back of a white gift bag (Michaels) with sparkly cupcake paper then tied a bunch of coordinating yarn fibres around one of the handles. The fibres also have some sparkle and shine to them and they matched the sparkle in the papers.

I had a brilliant idea for the party. I ordered a photo printer (an Epson PictureMate Charm) that was SUPPOSED to be here for her birthday. I thought I would take a picure of my Mom with each of the family, some fun party pictures and print them out right there. So I decorated a little photo album for her to put the pictures in. She would then be able to take home sort of a souvenir of the party, and be able to share the photos with her friends the following week.  Well it took an extra three weeks for the printer to arrive, but eventually I did get the photos printed and into her album. 

I used some more of that cute banner patterned paper, a Tim Holtz label die, an Art Impression image (love their funny people stamps), word stamp and number die by Papertrey Ink.  The spine of the album was wrapped with the same sparkly fibres that were on the gift bag.

Another glassine bag was used to package up some circle stickers I made for her. My Mom writes letters, and likes to decorate the envelopes with a sticker. So I printed off some clip art (Lettering Delights), punched them out with a 1" Stampin' Up circle punch then ran the circles through my Xyron. A little bit of glitter and they were done. The label stamp is by Stampin' Up.

Since the fibres were still sitting on my stamping area, I cut down a couple of pieces of patterned paper into bookmarks, layered them with white card stock for stability and added more of the pretty fibres.

I was able to stamp on the white card stock side.  :-)  Stamps from Michaels, in the bargain bins. I've had SUCH good luck with those this year!

Everything fit perfectly into the decorated gift bag, and it was fun to watch her pull out all the little gifts. And she loved everything - so I was happy too!!

Now that I have the printer, I am able to keep everyone supplied with printed pictures - mostly of the Grandkids. In this age of digital, one easily forgets how meaningful it is to actually HOLD a photo. To be able to look at it over and over, take it with you to pass around at a coffee party, and eventually slide it into a photo album. Because there are more pictures on their way!

Thanks for stopping by today.

2nd Card for the Dynamic Duo Challenge 18

As mentioned yesterday, as soon as I saw that the Dynamic Duo colours this week were going to be red and green, I immediately thought CHRISTMAS.  The words, holly and green (lightly) patterned paper came from a paper stack by Recollections that I talk about in THIS post. 

The trouble was, the words were a very country (ahem - muddy) red and that didn't work for the challenge. So I coloured the letters over with a red Copic marker. No change!!  So I coloured over them again with a red Prismacolor pencil crayon and that gave me the bright red I was looking for. Since they were printed on Kraft coloured paper, I also outlined them with a white pencil to brighten them up a bit.  The heart was already foiled. 

I used the Stampin' Up fancy label die for the white layer, and ran it through the Big Shot with the Stampin' Up snowflake embossing folder. Then I attached the felt mittens, also from Stampin' Up.  As mentioned above, the holly was fussy cut from one of the papers in the stack.

I used a 5 x 6.5" white card base, and also decorated the inside. Here is the thing about hoarding. I finally used up all my hoarded large white card bases and cracked open a new package. Well these new cards are quite 'wimpy' compared to the ones I had in my cupboard!  Now I wish I'd bought more way back when ... but meanwhile, I added some layers to the inside to give the card some stability. The front is pretty heavy with all the layers and foam tape.

I didn't colour over the red on these words, but did highlight areas with the white pencil.

So there you have it - a CHRISTMAS card made using red and green. Go figure!  Please go check out the wonderful Design Team samples - it's such an honour to be grouped with these talented ladies this month!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Card for Dynamic Duo Challenge 18

Here we are, welcoming September and today is my first post as a Guest Designer on the Dynamic Duo Challenge Blog. Wow!

Call it what you want - the colours this week are red and green and that always makes me think of Christmas. So I made a Christmas card.  BUT - I knew I could come up with something that was not Christmas too - and remembered this fun leaf stamp by Uptown Stamps. It's been in my collection for years and I always enjoy using it.

My Lucky Limeade card stock (and ink pad!) are on-order so instead I went with the retired Pear Pizzazz. I love that shade of green and was so disappointed that it was being replaced. Hopefully I'll enjoy the Lucky Limeade just as much.

The leaf was stamped with brown Momento ink, coloured with Copic markers and then I added Crystal Effects to the little Ladybugs.

I used the new Stampin' Up label dies, cutting two same sized ones out of red card stock and white. The red one was cut apart and layered behind the white one, to bring in a bit more red without being another full mat. I like the look and will be doing this again!

I stamped the words (Cornish Farms) in green onto a strip of white card stock, used a square punch to nip the corners and then added some red Bakers Twine.

I used white and kraft as the allowed neutrals in the challenge, and the Sizzix woodgrain embossing folder. I really waffled on buying it as I already had a couple of woodsy type folders. I figured they would work in a pinch - but every time I use this woodgrain one I'm happy I splurged.  :-)

Finally, a peek at the inside:

The dotted trail is a Stamps By Judith - stamped in Real Red ink.

I had so much fun making this card, and thinking outside the Christmas colour box. That being said, I will share my Christmas card tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to check out all the wonderful samples from the Design Team at the Dynamic Duo's blog!  (Hopefully the links worked in the copy & paste)

The Dynamic Duos Challenge Blog

Allisa Chilton

Allyson Andersen (GD)

Anne Marie Hile

Anika Lerche

Karen Aicken (GD)   That's me!!

Kim Singdahlsen

Lesley Croghan

Lisa Elton

Michelle Bala (GD)

Melissa Chipperfield

Paige Grabau
Sue Joyce