Joel's 40!!

My dear friend Joel is 40 today!! This is his birthday card. I really like it - a maculine feeling cards! I was inspired by this card http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/623301?si=teacher%20authenticity . It was made by atomicbutterfly - everything she makes is gorgeous!!


Ingredients:

Basic Black, Creamy Caramel, Ruby Red, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla - card stock; Basic Black, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, VersaMark - ink; Stamp of Authenticity, Rough Edges Mini Alphabet, Define your Life - stamp sets; Ribbon Originals, White embossing powder, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch

Happy Day to everyone!!

Cards, Cards... Oh, lovely cards...

I keep staying up too late, but I've been having fun making cards. Here's a couple from last night.

The January Stampin' Success magazine had a pretty card with three butterflies down the center. Here's my version of it :)

Ingredients:

Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Very Vanilla, Ginger
Blossom DSP - paper; Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Groovy
Guava - ink; One Touch of Nature, All Holiday - stamp
sets; Hodgepodge Hardware, Sherbet Ribbon Originals,
1/2"circle punch (rounding the ends of the tags), ivory
                                                        crochet cotton - accessories;

I tried to make a masculine coffee card with this one. Not sure if I like it or not... The cup is embossed with Ultra Thick embossing powder, but it's kind of hard to tell in the scan. Brad says it's too bland, but I told him it's a little dirty-looking & slightly messy like most males.

Ingredients:

Boardering Blue, Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa Prints DSP - paper; Close to Cocoa, Boardering Blue - ink; Like it a Latte (discontinued) - stamp set; gold brad, Theater Ribbon Originals, 1 3/8" circle punch, emboss enamel, Versa Marker, Stampin' dimensionals (under the sentiment) - accessories;


Happy stamping everyone :)

Mr. Bean

Now I'm not really sure how my projects today will relate to Mr. Bean... but my day yesterday could have been a Mr. Bean skit!! Everything went wrong and, in retrospect, was like a comedy of errors! I think I'm going to make a more concentrated effort to find humour in the regular annoying things that happen everyday. My most favorite Mr. Bean skit was the one where he went to the beach & tried to change his clothes in front of the blind guy... The body contortions always make me snort :)

So for projects, I thought I'd share some cards I've CASE'd:

This card was CASE'd from: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/762754?cat=12238 I loved this card! I needed some samples for my Open House. This card was made by cutting an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of Rose Red in half length-wise. I folded this in half and then folded down the top inch to make the envelope. Next I stamped the butterfly & flower image from the Happy Heart Day set over the bottom of the envelope in Rose Red ink. I made a scalloped edge on a piece of Wild Wasabi with a slit punch, embossed it with my Crop-a-dile and adhered it to the bottom of the envelope flap. Next I cut a 1/2" strip of Regal Rose and stapled it all the way through to finish the envelope. I inked just the sentiment, stamped it on the top of the envelope flap and rounded the top corners of the envelope.
The little mouse embelishment was created by stamping the mouse on Whisper White and then punching out just his head with the 1" circle. Next I punched out a Regal Rose scalloped circle, a 1 3/8" Rose Red circle & a 1 1/4" Wild Wasabi circle. I coloured the mouse with ink & blender pen then stamped the butterfly on a scrap piece of Whisper White. I cut out one wing to make the heart in the mouse's hand. After colouring the heart, I cut a slit & just around the mouse's hand to insert the heart so it would look like she's holding it.
The card insert was created by cutting a 4 x 5 1/4" piece of Whisper White and rounding the corners. Next I punched a 1" circle from Regal Rose and folded it over the top. I set a Jumbo eyelet in the top & threaded it with Wild Wasabi dbl-stitched ribbon. The ribbon was tied off with a piece of linen thread to complete it. I stamped and coloured the elephant on the bottom. Voila!

This second card was CASE'd from:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/754842?cat=12238 I didn't have the 5/8" grograin ribbon, so I replace it with two strips of the 1/4" ribbon :) I love how the cut out butterfly's wings pop off the card!

Wishing you all a pleasant & restful day :)

Open House Party

This Saturday is my Open House for the new Spring/Summer 2008 catalogue. I've been madly working away to design Make & Takes, new samples, party favors, etc. Here's a few of the things I've been working on.

Guest Gifts

The little Valentine's cards were made from the Gift Card & Mini Envelope package that I ordered by accident a few months ago and the scalloped circles cover York mint patties. I just love this Happy Heart Day set.

Ingredients:

Gift Cards & Mini Envelopes, Real Red textured CS, Regal Rose CS, Whisper White CS, 1/4" circle punch, Happy Heart Day stamp set, Basic Black ink, Regal Rose ink, Wild Wasabi ink, Real Red ink, Going Grey ink, Blender Pen

Scallop Punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, Happy Heart Day, Real Red marker, Regal Rose maker, York mint patties


Make & Take
I'm absolutely crazy about this Easter/Spring card!! It looks great & it's so easy to make. I think I'll enter it into the Stampin' Up! Easter contest, so I may need to take this card down soon... I'll let you see it first though :)

Ingredients:
Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Whisper White cardstock; Certainly Celery Prints Designer Series Paper; Garden Whimsy, All Holiday stamp sets; Scallop, 1 3/8" punches; Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue ink

This 2nd Make & Take is a little cello bag of cinnemon hearts.

Ingredients:
Regal Rose, Bashful Blue, Whisper White card stock; Basic Black ink; Coluzzle, silver brads, 5/8" Real Red grograin, staples, crochet cotton, Slit punch, 1/4" circle punch, sm & lg tag punch, Stampin' Pastels, blender pen, small cello bags;

I've been working like crazy this week on samples I'll share with you too. We've been busy renovating our kitchen so I've left everything to the last minute!

So Christmas is over...

Well, it's been busy, but I'm sure others have had busier Christmases. The boys were sick for almost the whole last two weeks... That sucked. I've been on vacation from my blog as well as work, so I'll add more samples to this post to make up for it :)

Hot Chocolate Snowmen

I really liked the hot chocolate holder from the Fall-Winter catalogue that was displayed with the It's Snow Time set. I made this card to go with it. I really like how it turned out.

Mellow Moss card base, topped with a Real Red background piece. The red was random stamped with the snowflakes in white ink, then pierce & faux stitched with the white gel pen. The snowman & the juggling snowballs were stamped on white with black ink and colored using the blender pen & ink pads. Next I used the VersaMarker to color the edges of the snowman and the snowballs & embossed them with iridescent ice. The snowman was matted on a piece of Soft Sky that was slightly longer & tied black gingham ribbon around the bottom. Final step was to punch out a Mellow Moss scalloped circle, a Soft Sky 1 3/8" circle and punch out the "Cold twigs - warm hearts!" with the 1 1/4" circle. Last was you color in the enclosed parts of the words with red ink & blender pen :)

These made such cute combos with the little hot chocolate packages and a candy cane!

Jumbo Snowflake

We also started a card exchange here in town. This is what I made for our "Winter" themed exchange. Card base is Basic Grey, topped with Bashful blue. I used a piece of patterned paper from the Wintergreen DSP and stamped the Supersize Snowflake in VersaMark & embossed with silver. Next I used my 1/2" circle to clip the corners (I still don't have the ticket corner punch...). Next I stamped the "Wishes" from the All Holiday set & embossed it with black. I punched out the word "Winter" using the Alphabits set and the 1/4" circle punch. I adhered them to a small strip of Bashful Blue, matted on another piece of Basic Grey. I rounded the ends of both of these pieces with my 3/4" circle punch. Last step was to add two rhinestone brads in the top right hand corner. So snowy!!

Mom & Dad's Anniversary card

This as my parent's anniversary card. I think this is a really cool card, but I'm not sure how much I like it.... Somehow seems very 70's. I used Sahara Sand for the card base & stamped it with En Francais in Chocolate Chip. I cut a partial circle from my Brocade Background DSP and matted it with a piece of Regal Rose. Next I embossed the flowers from Garden Silhouettes in white. The flowers were colored with Stampin' Pastels & a blender pen. (Regal Rose & Old Olive) Finishing touches were the word "Love" stamped in Regal Rose on Sahara Sand, punch out with the small oval punch and framed with a piece of HodgePodge Hardware and two white half pearls in the top left of the circle. My mom really likes it...

Happy New Year, everyone!

More Snow :)

Yes, there's lots of snow here!! I was also looking at my discontinued stamps and samples. I'm sad that almost all my wheels are now discontinued... I love this snowman wheel. Here's one of my favorite cards made with it...

The card base is Going Gray and the snowmen are done in Night of Navy ink. I used the Letterpress Alphabet to spell out SNOW on Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue CS. I rolled the snowmen on white CS too and cut a couple of them out. I stapled on a couple pieces of blue gingham ribbon & adhered all the elements. Ta da! All done :)

Wintergreen Again :)

Phew! I think we've been buried in snow!! My shoulder is very sore today! We got about 2 feet of snow yesterday and with drifts, there was some serious shoveling to do!! The schools & daycares are closed today and the snowbank outside my window is level with the sill. We've started kitchen reno too, so things are getting hairy!

I have another Wintergreen card to share today. I wanted to used the snowflake pattern from the set but I only had a little left. My personal challenge was to design a card with just a little strip of it. Here's the result. I think it's a little plain but I still like it.

The card base is Always Artichoke. The two pieces of Wintergreen DSP are matted on Soft Sky and the square piece has faux stitching around the edge. I distressed the edges of both pieces. The snowflakes, from All Through the Year, are stamped in Soft Sky on Whisper White. They're punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and matted with a 1 3/8" circle of Soft Sky. Matted again on a scalloped circle punched from Always Artichoke. I stamped "winter wish" from Everyday Flexible Phrases in Always Artichoke on Whisper White and punched it out with the small oval. This was matted on a large oval of Always Artichoke. A piece of double-stitched Soft Sky ribbon, hodgepodge hardware buckle and two brads finish off the card. I'm liking the subtly of this card.