Hi there,

Today’s sweet butterfly card is just what I needed to cling to what’s left of my summer.  Back to school/work for me in just over a week!

I get all giddy and girly when I play with vintage book paper things, like these butterflies.  I just adore them!  I did the centres with some bright and cheerful brads, and added some shine to their trails with a glittery gel pen.

This card’s from the sketch below – over at Unscripted Sketches.  Simple and pretty.  Thanks, ladies!

Hiya!

Ummmm.. apologies for no cards in the last forever?  Yes, I do think I’ve fallen off that wagon a bit.  I’m trying to scramble back on; have no fear!

Today’s card is a mostly digital one that I made for the latest sketch challenge over at Everything But the Kitchen Sink.  Like usual, I had just acquired these papers and needed to put them to use!

I just adore the colours, and those birdies – oh my! 

Materials:

Stamps – ‘Hugs’ – Hero Arts
Inks – Memories (Momento) – Artprint Brown, Tim Holtz Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink
Paper – All from Digital House Design Studio – April Papers by Jen Allyson
Accessories- Buttons – Basic Gray, hemp string, Border punch – Martha Stewart

And the sketch (I rotated and flipped it a bit.. artistic license?)

Have a fabulous weekend!

Heyya and happy Friday!

This has been quite the week.  I taught grade 2 yesterday, which was quite the experience since I’m generally a high school teacher!  Let’s just say that they all went home in a fairly normal ‘happy and healthy’ state, so I did OK, right?

Some fun fun goodies came in the mail today.. drum roll…  Japanese masking tape! I got this fancy and beautiful stuff from cu-te-ta-pe.  I’m so in love with it.. I couldn’t not use it in a card today!

Today’s card is for Sketch 89 over at Clean and Simple Stamping.  OK, so my card sort of went beyond the whole CAS idea.. oops.  But I was experimenting and trying to work quickly.. sometimes things go awry.  And hey, I worked in some of the insanely cute green polka dot masking tape.

Stamps are by AMuse and Basic Grey.  Here’s the original sketch:

Have a good one,

Hi there, and happy Sunday!  Wait.. that means Monday is tomorrow.. well, I hope it’s a good week.

Today I’ve made another sketch card for Unscripted Sketches  sketch #51.

I’m loving the colours and, of course, the vintage book paper.. Don’t you love the little birdie too? Squishably cute, I think. Thank goodness for Verve Stamps!

I picked up this raspberry cardstock at a shop somewhere near Washington DC when I was there.  I’m going to be sad when it’s gone, as I don’t know if I can get it again.

Les instructions

• Make a card from a 4 1/4” x 11” piece of raspberry cardstock, then cut a strip of patterned paper and punch out a scalloped piece to match (2 1/2”).
• Tear a strip of vintage book paper, then cut a square (2” diag) from a blank spot in the book.
• Make a flower from 5 punched book pieces, attach with a brad and crumple.
• Stamp birdie in Black on white cardstock, and again on patterned paper.  Cut out wing and attach with pop dots.
• Stamp sentiment (AMuse) in black.
• Edge everything with Antique Linen distress ink (I love it!), and attach together.  Voilà!

And here’s the sketch

Did anyone notice how sunny it is here today?  Blue sky, no clouds, sun, sun, sun!  We get a lot of rain in general this time of year, so this sunshine is very much appreciated!  Not to mention the fact that we’ve had very little winter.  Some of the Japanese Cherry Trees are already in full blossom. Crazy? yes. Beautiful? Definitely.

So now you know why I’m inspired to use colour and things that remind me of spring and sunshine, like this little butterfly card here.

I used a scalloped paper shaper punch and cut a smaller white square to fit inside.  The butterflies are actually from a kids set that I found somewhere (by PSX back in the day?).  I painted them in with Twinkling H2Os, added some Hero Arts gems and a bit of knotted ribbon.  Happy Spring? Yes please!

I had made a whole shwack of these cute little bug cards.  I think they’re pretty elegant in a simple sort of way.  I’m super fond of the  Thank You! stamp.  You can’t see, but the two at the back say ‘happy birthday!’ and ‘best wishes’

I used the Denami Designs swirl stamp along with some cute little bugs from various companies.  I painted them in with Twinkling H2Os and added some glitter here and there.

Who doesn’t love cupcakes?  They’re my favourite.  In fact, I made them instead of a cake for my wedding.  Yep, 120 cupcakes later and I still might make them again!  I even hand made little gumpaste flowers for each one.  Check it out.

Here’s a sweet and simple cupcake card.  I really like the sentiment in the middle “hey cupcake.” It’s a wee bit cheeky!

The card comes with the circles – by AMuse.  The cupcake stamp and the sentiment are also both by AMuse.  I just stamped everything in black ink and added a touch of sparkle with some red glitter glue on the cherries.

Excited much?  I finally got to use my flower that I made.  I think it turned out pretty cute, and it adds a nice bit of dimension to the card.  Did I mention I like tags? 

The purple background flowers are just stamped in VersaMark Dazzle – Frost.. so they’re a bit sparkly.  Very pretty.  I did the scalloped polka-dot border with a Martha punch.

I was recently reminded about my Etsy store that has been sort of neglected.  OK, to be honest, I’ve only ever put one card up there.  So today I decided to dust it off a bit.  It’s hard to expect things to sell without marketing them, and that’s not something I’m good at.  I just finished posting this card there.

So if you haven’t looked at it, check it out!  And tell others about it.  Tell them about my blog if you think they’d be interested too.. and don’t be afraid to comment.  I like comments :-)

Also, today was a very happy morning in my books.  I visited my favourite stamp store and got some fun things like brads, distress ink, and stick-on pearls.  Next, I looked around Michaels a bit and managed to get out of there with some ribbon and a few stamps that were on sale.  Who doesn’t like sales?  And finally I went to Staples where I found some foam tape (for half the price of Michaels!) and their glue tape roller that I love.  It’s like whiteout tape but is double sided tape that rolls on easily and sticks really well.  Now can it be play time?

News! I survived my first ever ultimate game today and we won by a big margin… not that I helped much.  Anyways, this afternoon, in order to try to minimize my nerves about the upcoming game, I decided to create. This is another first for me.  My first ‘peek-a-boo’ card. 

This is the view from the front and…

Madame fishy is on the inside.

I stamped some seaweed in light green ink, cut out the hole in the front with a paper punch (1”).. then on a 1.5” punched out circle, I stamped the fish and painted in with Twinkling H2Os.  Add some bubbles, some glitter, and a message.

I have now gotten together a little gift for a cousin-in-law who did something nice for me.  Here’s to hoping she likes it!

Ok, that title is cheesy.. but I’m leaving it.  I got this lovely own stamp at a stamping retreat about a year ago, and this is the first time I’ve used him. I’m pretty fond of the brown and green combination, and the mix of simplicity with details like that ribbon-ey twine stuff.. is there a better word for it?

Nothing fancy here.. the tag punch is a Martha product.. the two stamped images are in VersaFine Vintage Sepia.

And the story behind my most recent card-making times? Well, my cousin-in-law had given me a curling iron for Christmas.  Said iron ended up not working, and the store was all out of that model.. sooo she paid the difference to upgrade. So nice. I wanted to do something nice in return, so I’m trying to get together a little set of cards to give to her.. Everyone likes cards, hopefully? Yes?  I don’t know.  Not everyone gives cards, and some people really enjoy scoping out the card aisle to find the one with the most hilariously perfect message.  Oh well, some hand-made ones will hopefully be appreciated.

I see glitter, punched out flowers, and a pretty little blend of blue inks.  I used this as a birthday card for one of my aunts.  It could easily be used for many other occasions.. probably not Halloween though ;-)   Much too flowery for that.

Materials

• Cardstock cut to size
• Flower stamp (Hero Arts)
• Best Wishes stamp (Hero Arts)
• Small flower punch
• Patterned paper
• Versacolor ink pads
• Blue glitter glue

How-to

1. Ink the flower stamp blending different colours of Versacolor inks (use the ink cubes) and stamp on white cardstock
2. Stamp sentiment in turquoise ink
3. Punch out 4 flower pieces from the patterned paper
4. Adhere flowers to the card
5. Add a little dallop of glitter glue to the centre of each flower and smoosh a bit.

To my dear friend Laura, Happy bar passing to you! This card I made for my soon-to-be lawyer friend because she’s oh-so special.  My husband took a look at it and wondered what it would look like with a slightly different layout.. Let’s ponder this… what do YOU think?

Woah, card overkill! Well, the rounded corner edge would have to change, but I think the other layouts would work. He thought I should have the patterned paper part on the right hand side so that the card could be used horizontally instead (if used horizontally, it looks far better with the brown at the bottom). Oh husband, you’re so clever.  I still prefer my original though!

Materials

• Brown cardstock
• Beautiful patterned paper
• Martha Stewart edging paper punch (so cool!)
• Paper flowers (red and green)
• 2 yellow brads
• 3 gold jewels
• Corner rounding punch

How-to

1. Cut cardstock and paper to the right sizes. Estimate, mate.
2. Trim the bottom of the patterned paper using the Martha punch, then trim the piece to the right length
3. Attach flowers to paper using brads (I pierced the paper first to make it easier)
4. Stick on your jewels
5. Glue down patterned sheet to cardstock.
6. Use corner punch  on bottom right corner. Purdy.

I was thumbing through some scraps of pretty papers and couldn’t resist.. I’ve also really wanted to use this thistle stamp.  I’ve had it for months and never even stamped it to test it out.  I like how there’s writing on the paper, and writing on the stamp that’s different enough to still work.

Materials

Your favourite beautiful patterned paper (you don’t want white in the paper, or anything too busy.. and darker shades work best)
Brown Cardstock
White cardstock
VersaMark ink
Detail White embossing powder and heat gun
Clear thistle stamp by Magenta

How-to

1. Cut all the papers to the right sizes
2. Stamp the thistle in VersaMark ink
3. Add embossing powder and melt with heat gun
4. Glue it all together

I have to admit that I didn’t come up with the concept for this card on my own.  I had a little help from my friends at the local stamp store.  I hope they don’t mind when I feed off their creative energy.. I did spend a good 6+ years working there!  Anyways, I didn’t steal everything from the original.  I used purple instead of light blue, went for a different image, and opted out of some brads, cuz hey, I’ve got to make it my own somehow.  As for the cute critters, I’ve had that set for quite some time.  I think it was a birthday present.  But is that a porcupine, or a guinea pig?  Beats me!  Thoughts?

I think it’s a pretty cute card for a lot of different occasions.  You can give it to a friend as a “just saying hi” or “thinking of you” type of thing, or birthdays, thank yous, you name it.

Materials

Brown, purple, and white cardstock
Brown ribbon by Amuse
Critters clear stamp set by Hero Arts
Pop dot
Water color pencil crayons
Paintbrush and water (I like to use the brushes with the chamber for water, so I don’t have to have a dangerous spilly cup next to me)
Memories Artprint Brown ink
Diamond glaze

How-to

1. Cut out your cardstocks to the right sizes.. Approximate, it eases some stress of getting it “perfect” since there isn’t a perfect.
2. Stamp the little porcupine pig guy in artprint brown
3. Stamp the butterfly on a scrap of white cardstock in artprint brown
4. Colour in both images with water colour pencil crayons (dry – don’t wet anything yet).  Shade a bit, or blend colours.. don’t worry, they’ll blend a lot more when you add the water.
5. Carefully blend the colours together (light to dark) with a wet paintbrush.  Don’t make the paper too wet or it will warp or start to melt away
6. Cut out butterfly and attach to piece with porcupine guy, using a pop dot
7. stick your other cardstock pieces down on the brown background card
8. Cut a length of ribbon to about 3 or 4 inches and tie a double knot
9. Trim the ribbon until you’re happy with the length (trim on an angle), then attach to card using your favourite adhesive.  I like to use Diamond Glaze for extra sticking power.