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!

A Birthday Party

Ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of being a event planner.  I’ve always wanted to have big, glamorous dinner parties that would we be written about in flashy magazines.  Now that I’ve reached adult maturity (at least somewhat…), I realized that life’s dreams are not always attainable and that sometimes we need to scale them back a bit, but, our new dreams are still fabulous in their own way.  For example I’m not a ever-so-popular event planner but I am a crafter, blogger and learning DIY-er who still gets to share her creations with others.  And the big, glamorous dinner party turns into something I can make, even with a tiny budget, if I just use my creative skills and some imagination. 

Which is exactly what I did for my hubby’s party this year.  I used Photoshop, the dollar store and my own ideas to make his party this year.  Now would be when I show you my fabulous party with pictures that make you drool, except that being that I had some 25+ people over and I was trying to finish setting up before hubby came home (it was a surprise party) that I forgot to take pictures of everything finished…yes I did cry a little when I realized that…but I will share with you the photos I do have and some free printables at the end of this post…

I have a lack of tables in my home.  I would love to have a buffet table that I could set up and decorate but until that day comes I grab what ever little tables I can find and hide and decorate them.  For this party I covered that tables with a white with green polk-a-dot fabric that I had from my own baby shower from 3 years ago.


I cut the fabric up and gave it a swag which I held in place with pinned tissue paper flowers.  I made them like my Napkin Flowers which you can find here. 




I made a birthday subway art and put it into a $3.00 frame that I found at Wal-Mart and set it on the table with my bright green plates and cutlery.

I wrapped my cutlery in a napkin and put the napkin in a napkin ring.  I made the napkin rings by wrapping paper towel holder cardboard tubes in white contact paper.  I then splotched them with green sparkly acrylic paint and glued on a tag that I made in Photoshop and finally added a little jeweled flower.

 As some accents on the tables I had yellow flowers in stemless wine goblets, which also had a tissue paper flower attached to a toothpick all floating in green water.  For another accent I had little flowers inside a small glass jar.  It doesn't seem like much, but it added a bit of color and dimension to my tables.

One my juice table I had put my mini champagne glasses which had more little labels that I had made in Photoshop.  As you can tell I really like to use Photoshop!  I didn’t get a finished picture with my punch bowl and the glasses filled up but hopefully you can imagine what it looked like from this picture…


A combination of the tags on the right were on the stems of the glasses on the left.  Sorry it’s so hard to see.




Above the juice table I had my Happy Birthday Banner which I had also done up in Photoshop.  I added a paper flower I made too.  It’s a 12”x12” sheet of cardstock cut into 1” wide strips with the ends folded into the center and pinned together with a brad.


Above the other tables I had more decorations that I had made from cardstock.





This was such a fun and easy party to create. It was a great basis for more parties. Check out my Facebook Page for some FREE Printables!  Look under my Exclusive Content tab!

Happy Partying!

Thank You!

 Something that seems to have been lost in life is the “Thank You” Card.  We’ve become such an “on demand” society where we just expect the world on a platter that we've forgotten to appreciate the people in our lives.  Sure we might say a verbal “thanks” now and then or send a text message “thanx”, and it is nice that we’re not totally neglectful of others;  but, how much nicer is it to give a “Thank You” card, to show that you've put a little bit extra of yourself into it because that person or their gesture were worth it.  Anyways, I’ll get off my soap box now and show you a couple cards.


This one was so quick to make.  First I just border punched the one edge and inked it white to stand out against the back side of the card.  Then I lightly inked the other edges of the card too;  gives it a more aged look and sort of frames the card.  Then I cut a paper strip and a ribbon strip and glued them to the card.  I stamped the “Thank You” Sentiment and embossed it in clear and then inked the piece of cardstock around the edges.  I then glued my accordion flower on top (click here to see the tutorial for it).  Voila!  A joyous note of appreciation.


This card was also pretty quick to make.  It’s just layers of patterned cardstock, a silky ribbon, a stamped and embossed sentiment, paper flowers.  The image is printed out in black and white and then softly shaded in by me.  I then cut out a blue cardstock frame which I stamped and embossed as well.  I made this card as a thank you to a dinner invitation.
I used mini clothes hangers to attach this card to the front of a basket that I had filled with homemade muffins.  A cute idea for a hostess gift. 
 
I hope you’ve been inspired to appreciate the loved ones in your life!
Happy Scrapping!

My Beach Baby

It’s been a long time since I’ve had any new posts.  My hubby, son and I just moved from the US to Canada this last week and my scrapping and paper crafting life was put on hold and as a result my blog was neglected.  My scrapping things are still packed up (quite sad) but I did have a little bit of time to get a ‘digi’ page done.
I put together this page of pictures of my little guy enjoying the beach for the last time before we moved.  He was having a fabulous time exploring the shore and my hubby got some pretty good pics of him. 

I took these page elements from all over the place.  Just as with paper scrapping, I take bits and pieces from different sources and mix them all together.  I’ll list them here and try to be as accurate as possible so you can make some pages too.

• Papers: J Baechtold from “Essence” found at scrapbook.com
  
• Brad: J Baechtold from “Essence” found at scrapbook.com
  
• Lace Ribbon: Coreen Silke from “Sweet Success” found at scrapbook.com
  
• Frame: Brutcher Vintage Frame Freebie 3
  
• Flowers: Carrie Stephens from “Spontaneous Delight” found at Fish Scraps Jeanelle Paige from “September Element Pack Flowers” found at Jeanell Paige Designs
  
• Button: Shabby Princess from “Plentiful” found  at Shabby Princess
  
• Twine Bow: Shabby Princess from “Plentiful” found at Shabby Princess
  
• Tag: Rebekah Jennings from “What I Really Learned In School” at Scrapbook.com
  
• Flourish: Carrie Stephens from “Glitter Swirls” found at  Fish Scraps
  
• Glass Dots: Carrie Stephens from “Spontaneous Delight” found at Fish Scraps
  
• Staple: Shabby Princess from “Plentiful” found at Shabby Princess
  
• Words: R. Dickson from “Soleil” found at Scrapbook.com

Happy Scrapping!

Digital Scrapping

So I love cutting, gluing, tearing, stamping and heating just as much as the next scrapper but there is something so enticing about Digital Scrapping that it just can not be ignored!

I’ll admit I was a skeptic when I was first introduced to the idea, but Digital Scrapping really has so many advantages.  Where else can you constantly play with product without worrying about ruining it, or wasting it; plus digital files are cheaper then the real thing from a craft store and with many generous artists you can download complete digi kits for free (more on that a bit later). You can cut it, paste it, delete it, but you’ll still have it safely in a file on your computer.  Talk about easy storage for tons of paper, flowers, buttons, flourishes, stamps.  And if you have a lap top, you can take your scrapping with you where ever you go!

Now I am by no means suggesting we get rid of the traditional, because I would be lost without my hands on scrapping, but I am saying that if you haven’t tried Digital Scrapping before, you must!

Here are two pages I have made recently.

The first page is made with a free digital scrap kit from Carrie Stephens.  All is from her except for my “two peas in a pod” title.  This kit is ‘Spontaneous Delight’ and it contains 8-12*12 papers in it, plus many elements such as the ones you see on my page.  You have endless possibilities for designing your own pages with her stuff.  She has a website which has quite a few free samples of her fabulous work.  Check it out!

My second page is put together from multiple sources.  I’ll do my best to explain and to connect you with the artists.  The papers and the purple petals I used for my flower are from the ‘Crisp Mornings’ kit by Sherri Tierney.  Her free kit can be found at A Cherry On Top.  The leaves and stitching are from the ‘Harvest Spice’ kit, the two vine stamps and the button on the flower are from the ‘Plentiful’ kit, the word cute is from the ‘Happy Go Lucky’ kit, and the golden ribbon with bookplate is from the ‘Shabby Fall’ kit all of which are free from Shabby Princess.  The brads used are designed by Amy Teets but you can download her kit ‘Sun Porch’ from Shabby Princess. Finally, the purple, sparkly, flourish is from the ‘Glitter Swirls’ kit (free) from Carrie Stephens.
*Just a note* Shabby Princess also has tutorials on how to work with Digital Scrapping just incase you are unsure of how to go about it!

So you’re on your computer now, what are you waiting for….go get Digi Scrappin’!