Cards Galore!

So there have been a few events in my life in the past couple of months that all warranted a hand-made greeting card.  I thought you might like to see what I’ve been up too…


This was a birthday card for my brother-in-law.  I have a hard time with making male cards but I love how this turned out.  I printed out the ship and frame separately from Photoshop so I could have the 3D effect.  The tag I also designed in Photoshop but was inspired from Stamping Up.  You can see more of my “male” cards here.


This was a super easy Thank You card for a family friend.  I love purple and orange together.  Check out some other Thank You Cards.


I made this card for a baby shower.  I really enjoy hand coloring images, especially ones with kids or Precious Moments characters.  Download some free Precious Moments Boy images here.


Another Precious Moments card.  This one I had made for a special anniversary.  I love layering papers, it helps give a card more depth.

 
This card is one of my new favorites.  I had a different version of this card that I had made last year for a friends wedding but my new 2-1 border punch from EK Success really makes this version pop!  The image is a royalty free stock photo that I found and the tag is made by me through Photoshop.  You can’t tell in the photo but both are raised up to be 3D.


More Precious Moments…I think I have a slight obsession!  I made this card using a template from Wendy Bird Designs.  It was great fun to cut up the different papers and arrange them on the different sections of card. 


This was my card to my mother for Mother’s Day this year.  The card is stamped with Stampin’ Up’s “Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel Stamp”.  Love that stamp.  It provides such a great, aged look.  I cut the chick out and made her 3D with pop dot stickers;  embossed the “Oh My God” with my Versarmark Marker and Bronze embossing powder.  If you don’t own a Versamark Marker then get one—it has become my favorite embossing tool!  The half flower on the right side of the card is made like my Accordion Flowers post. 


And my last card for this post.  This was the card from my little guy to his Mamaie (that’s Grandma in Romanian).  Isn’t he sooo talented at just 2 & 1/2?!  LOL.  The image of the little fellow I printed out in Photoshop along with the surrounding frame.  The pretty punch is a 2-1 border and chain punch from eksuccess.  Watch for my next post to see how I used that punch for party décor…

So glad you stopped by to see what I’ve been up too…
Hope we can visit again soon and if you have any questions about how I made any of my cards leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to get back to you.

Happy Cardmaking!

Journal For Sale

I’ve got a new item in my Etsy shop, this pretty journal! 
This journal is the perfect place to write down all that you dream about, hope for, and believe in.

Read more about it by going to my shop here  or by  clicking my “shop” tab at the top of my page. 
And As Always,
Happy Crafting!

Wedding Time

I love summers, but it seems there’s always something that needs to be done, and always someplace that I need to be, with little to no time left just to relax and enjoy the summer.  And so here I am, on a chilly morning, a nice reminder that my glorious summer is coming to an end, and I’m given a chance to reflect on all that’s happened….and as it turns out this summer has actually been nice and long and we’ve done plenty.  Perhaps it wasn’t as relaxing as I would prefer but it was exciting.  Warm days started in May back in Michigan, and Hot days started in June so we’ve had plenty of sunshine, even got to the beach a few times (as you can tell from my last post);  we moved up to Alberta, Canada and we’ve had fantastic weather almost non-stop since we got here at the beginning of the month.  Our friends actually had a outdoor wedding, (which here in our city is somewhat unheard of, the weather is usually unpredictable) and it was a gorgeous day.  Which brings me to the subject of my post today.  Wedding Cards.


It’s not often that I get to make a wedding card and so I was really excited to get the chance to use some of my ideas. Most of my scrap stuff was still packed at this point so I used my computer and stuff my mom had such as the butterfly punch. I love that little punch, I may swipe it when she’s not looking!   You can’t really tell from the picture but I used a bit of flocking powder on a couple of the background butterflies.  I found the silhouette online at shutterstock.com. I thought it resembled the couple
  
The corners are punched with the scalloped ‘around the page’ punch set from Martha Stewart.  I inked the edges of the inside of the other half of the card to the punch would stand out more.  The little jewels that you see on the butterflies, and as accents of the card are actually silver Stickles.  I love Stickles!  Nothing else I’ve tried is like it.
I hope you enjoyed my card as much as I enjoyed making it!  I’d love to hear comments and see any projects that you’ve done.
Until Next Time, Happy Scrapping!

Favor Me!

So I wish they'd accomplish cloning humans already!  So far this summer has been busy and there are always so many things that I want to be doing that sometimes it would be really helpful if I could be in multiple places at once, hence the wish for cloning.  Anyways somehow I manged to finally get this post together and I'm pretty excited for it.  I’ve got a fun little project this week, favor boxes!

These precious little boxes are superb for sharing with guests at your latest soirée. Or make them as a gift for a friend, something a little different from a card.

Either way go to my Facebook page, and get the free templates for the boxes under the ‘Exclusive Content’ tab.  (Update: May 2012:  The templates are no longer on Facebook.  You can leave me a comment at the end of the post and I will share them with you personally) Then follow my tutorial below to learn how to make your own.












Now you can decorate your boxes any way you like.  I’ve made two.  One that would be so cute at a wedding reception;  one at each place setting as a thank you from the bride and groom.  The second one has a little window cut out where you can actually see the little goodies waiting for you inside.  Perfect as party favors or make a larger version and fill it with home made cookies for a friend.


Have fun with your boxes!

My Journal Makeover

My family and I love traveling.  Ever since I was a kid every year there was some place we’d get to go.  Sometimes it just took a days drive to get a warm lake, sometimes we’d get on a plane for a months visit with family in Europe, other times it was a road trip into the states and no matter where we went my mom always had her little journal.  Mom always had her little journal on her trips, still does actually, jotting down things down about our day, with notes on things to see and do, things to not do, and where all the money was going!  Then the next time we’d be planning a trip mom would pull out her journal and we’d have something to reference to make our next trip even better.

Well lucky me I married a man who has the travelling bug.  We love to take trips together and now I have taken on mom’s tradition of journal writing for our own little family.  We recently took a trip to the East Coast and I was in need of a journal.  I came across a hard cover notebook that my hubby bought for himself and never used.  It was rather plain and ugly but immediately I had a vision so I helped myself to it and turned it into my new journal.

Here’s my little project:
           
BEFORE


AFTER

I had so much fun with this.  It’s just different layers of cardstock (the first layer wraps around the cover to the inside to give a finished look), with stamps and embossing.  I added buttons, a stamped butterfly and an accordion flower (watch my blog for a tutorial) as my simple embellishments,but my proudest moment is how I covered the ugly spiral of the notebook.  The folded tissue paper was perfect to cover the spiral and was soft so that I can still open the notebook all the way around and not worry about wrecking it.  

I can’t wait to give a few more journals a makeover!  They’d make smashing gifts don’t ya think?

Lampshade

I've got a fantastic little project for you today. An adorable tea light lampshade! I'll be honest, I did not come up with this, but when I saw it on Bird's Party Blog I knew I had to make my own. What a simple and impressive way to jazz up a dinner table or add some fun to an evening garden party. So here is my version and I hope you enjoy making them as much as I did.

First you need the lampshade template. You can click on the image here and print it out for yourself.

Now for my brief tutorial.







My Finished Tea Light Lampshade!  I made a tissue flower and tied my butterfly to it and then glued it to my lampshade.  I put a tea light in a wine glass and Voila!