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!

Hey there!

A card? Say what? I have a paper crafting blog and I actually made a card?!? It was bound to happen at some point ;-)

I was given the sweetest clear set of cupcakes for my birthday, and today’s the first time I put them to use.  They’ve even been sitting on my desk this whole time.  I thought I’d add glitter, because it’s a cupcake.. and a birthday card.. and both just need glitter.  I also used one of my favourite techniques – paper piecing.

This card’s for this week’s sketch (#103) over at Clean and Simple Stamping (actually sketch shown below).  They’re the first blog I wanted to check when I was feeling like I needed a challenge and some inspiration.

Materials:

Cardstock: Amuse shimmer paper, and Basil Basics
Stamps: Stampendous cupcakes, and Hero Arts polka dots
Accessories: Glitter glue and some chunky clear glitter I had.  The ribbon’s from Amuse.  Oh, and some lovely vintage book paper :-)

The sketch:

Hiya,

Last night I hosted my very first Stampin’ Up! workshop, with friends and family.  Not many were stampers or had ever stamped anything in the past, so it was a fun new experience.  Here are the cards I demo-ed

I heart this owl card.  I didn’t have the right colour of blue paper to go with my little button and owl, but that’s ok for now.  Isn’t he cute?  And everyone loves embossing :D

This was our make and take.  Some people had some pretty creative variations!  I always like using chalk on Versamark ink.  It’s like magic.

This was a fun little box that I came up with.  Glue dots galore.. and look what’s inside………………………………….

Cherry candies of deliciousness.  I gave this little guy away as a door prize.

All in all, a fun evening.  Thanks for joining me, everyone!

To order anything from me, including custom made cards or materials, or to book your own workshop, contact away.  You can check out my Stampin’ Up! Website or email me.

Hello again!

Today I had some time to participate in challenge 98 over at Clean and Simple Stamping.  The sketch was a lovely little window frame type of thing.

I had just printed off some digital papers from Design House Digital and had to use them.  So here we are, bright pink all over again.

I hope everyone’s enjoying summer.  I’m looking forward to splashing around in some refreshingly cool water on Sunday, as we tube down the river.  Divine.

Materials:
Cardstock – Melon Mambo (Stampin’ Up!) and digital papers (Design House Digital)
Stamps – Hero Arts and Amuse
Inks – Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories – corner rounder punch

And here’s the lovely sketch:

Enjoy the sun!

Help! I’ve been sucked into the land of all things digital.  And it’s actually not so bad over here.. OK, it’s amazing.  I could waste happily spend my entire day (and many others) playing with digital papers and designs.  It’s making me so happy!  Bonus?  This card is totally my style.  So often my own style can get lost, but here it is. Clean and simple with colours I love… and glitter.

This is my very favourite digi kit.. watercolour amazingness!Well, it’s actually called Watercolor DigiKit, but I like to think my name’s much more creative.

This card’s for the latest challenge over at Everything But the Kitchen Sink (see sketch below).  I’m just so happy with how it turned out.  Those papers are all kinds of pretty.

I started with a cute little 4”x4” card.  The circle window is just from a Paper Shaper punch.  I added some glitter to the flower and some pearls to the sentiment.  That sentiment’s just a cute font that I got at the most amazing website ever.  They make fonts out of people’s handwriting and let everyone download them for free.  Some people have very cute handwriting, and let’s just say, this one isn’t my own! I could go on. I’m so addicted!

The Sketch:

• Cardstock: Blue grid, green and beige dots printed onto white cardstock
• Accessories: Pearls by AMuse, Prisma Glitter, Paper Shapers circle punch 1 1/2”

Check out others’ projects for this challenge.

Cheers,

Heyya!

Well, it’s nearly my birthday (in 3 hours), so I’m celebrating a bit early.   I was perusing the Moxie Fab website and came across the latest trigger.  It is trigger Tuesday, after all!  Well, I fell in love.. let’s just say that all things wedding make me want to get all crafty and creative.

I feel like this card could easily be birthday appropriate too.. how clever ;-)  But anyways, about the wedding bits..  You should see the trigger:

I loved the green, the pink, the orange… and the crisp, crisp white!  I also adore the stencilled mr & mrs.  That’s where I got my inspiration for the subtle swirly background in psychedelic embossing powder.

This bouquet and patterned paper are both from a digi kit that I got from 2 peas in a bucket.  I added a wee bit of Twinkling H2Os to the flowers for some shimmer.

Oh weddings.. so much fun to get all creative for…

Happy crafting,

Heyya,

Butterflies and flowers.. two things that I’m addicted to I use all the time in my cards.  What can I say? It’s love!

Today’s card is for this week’s sketch challenge (#92) over at Clean and Simple Stamping.  I got to use my new solid butterflies stamp from AMuse.. Yep, still in love.

I used my vintage fairy tale book again for the background.  The flower is a template from lovely Martha.  Oooh, the bluey-turquoise and green paper (not the background 2) are both from a digi kit by Two Peas in a Bucket.  I’m pretty fond of this kit, so I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of the elements here soon.

Both the butterfly, middle strip, and tag (in blue) are Martha Stewart punches, and I added a wee gemstone to the butterfly.

*sigh*  Butterflies remind me of life’s simple pleasures.  They make me smile.  Maybe it’s a good addiction to have ;-)

Here’s the sketch I used

Cheers,

Heyya! Well, I had the day off, so I decided I could spend some time playing in the craft room.  Later today I’m hoping to attempt a new recipe – Mango Nut Bread.  Sounds super yummy!

Today’s card is for the challenge over at Everything but the Kitchen Sink.  I was inspired by the sketch, and it was the perfect opportunity to try out a technique I’d seen on Moxie Fab World using my new Japanese masking tape.

I cut out a shipping tag shape from some kraft paper and layered on my Japanese masking tape in strips.  Next, I stamped a Japanese cherry branch image using Satzon ink.  I added a sentiment and some twine to finish off the tag.

I stamped the little dragonflies on vintage book paper, cut them out, scrunched them up, and added some little pearl embellishments.  I also re-stamped the cherry blossom on white cardstock, painted in some of the blossoms, cut them out and tacked them on, finishing them off with some Diamond Glaze.

The image from EBTKS is here, along with my tape inspiration

I love these colours.. purples and pinks and browns, oh my!

Now wish me luck with this bread!

Hey there, and happy Monday! Today’s card is for the Challenge #55 over at Unscripted Sketches.  I decided to go with bold and bright.  It’s been pretty cloudy weather here.. maybe this’ll brighten things up a bit :-)

This is take two of the rosette.. and what do you think about the stamping on vintage book paper?  Does it make an ok background piece? 

The leaves I just cut free-hand, then stamped some leaf stamps over them using VersaMark ink, just for some texture.

Whew.. crafting is all kinds of work!

Hi there,

I got busy tonight and made a second card.  I just couldn’t stop playing with this fabulous Japanese masking tape.  This time around it’s the pink polka dot version.  I’m in love.

Tonight’s card is for a CAS Birthday challenge over at CAS-tastic Wednesday Challenges Blog. (thanks for pointing this site out to me, Karen!)  Maybe not my very very cleanest and simplest work (I like the bare minimum), but I think this still fits the bill.. agreed?

Pretty easy to make, overall.  Some stamping on patterned papers that I already had lying around, cutting out, and sticking it together.  Oh, and don’t forget the healthy does of cute masking tape!  Hmm.. I think I prefer jewels to pears as the centres of flowers.

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 Tuesday!

Today I’ve made a card for this week’s Clean and Simple Sketch 88.  Why oh why did I have to start making cards with 3D bits on them?  They don’t fit in envelopes properly.. they don’t mail well.. am I going to have to start buying bubble wrap packages and paying 5 times the cost to send a birthday card?  Sheesh!  But come on, flowers and butterflies and bows that jump off the page are just TOO CUTE!

This card took a total of about 15 minutes, and this is the first time I ever made this little rose flower.  Nina has a fabulous tutorial for these on her blog – Crafting in Croatia.  It’s definitely worth a wander over there!  I tore mine instead of using scalloped scissors, and I’m quite happy with the results. They’re SO EASY to make!

I stamped the leaves (Basic Grey) and ‘best wishes’ (Hero Arts) in some chalk inks, added the bow, rounded the corners with a punch, and edges the paper flower with a bit of purple ink.

Here’s the original sketch:

Hiya!

I recently had a birthday to go to.  A friend turned 30 (no one’s counting!), so I wanted to give her a nice little gift.  I made a pair of green dangly earrings (sorry, no pictures), and then needed a nice gift bag to put them in.

This is my first attempt at this bag, and I think it went pretty well.  There’s always room for improvement, right?  I definitely love the little butterflies!

I got the fabulous purse template over at Creations by AR.  It’s a bit finicky to glue together, but is super cute if you can get it all to stick and stay put!

Hello there!  Today I was inspired by colour, can ya tell?  This bright and cheerful card is for challenge 52 over at Unscripted Sketches.  I’m thrilled that the ladies chose me as the top 3 winner for last week’s challenge.  You can see my card here.  Back to this week’s card!

Part of the challenge was to use some form of recycled material in celebration of Earth Day.  I’m usually pretty careful at saving all of my little bits of paper, so maybe that counts.. but I also dug through my recycling bin in my craft room and found some white cardstock I had discarded, thinking it was too small for future use.  WRONG!  It was perfect  for my ribbon-ey banner and the ribbon flower pieces!

I got to use my fun paper by WPlus9 again, and check out these bright dragonflies!  They’re from an Inkadinkado clear set.  The flowers are by Stampendous, and I just stamped them in black on top of this ribbon stamp (by Magenta?)

I cut out the magenta coloured dragonfly to have it pop out a bit.  Ditto for the “Enjoy Your Birthday” banner, which I then added some hemp twine to.

And hey look, it’s momentarily sunny outside.  That perfectly emulates the mood that this card gives me!

Here’s the sketch I had to work with:

Have a lovely day!

One last card while I still have the joys of the weekend on my side.  This one’s for the kids (or the young at heart?)

This one’s for sketch challenge #13 over at Everything but the Kitchen Sink.  I flipped the sketch upside-down for my happy little train.

For next time, I think I’d put that button birthday banner up higher to balance the card out a bit.  I tried, but there was some ripping of paper going on, and that’s just not something I want to mess with ;-)

And here’s the original sketch

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

Heyya,  it’s been a little while.. and a busy work week for me, so I just had to do some card making today.

This is for this week’s Clean & Simple Stamping layout.. Sketch #86.  I’m still enjoying those vintage paper butterflies, but who wouldn’t be?  This time around I used brads in the centre.

And here’s the sketch I worked with.  I love how pretty their sketches always look.  It makes me want to try them!

Nathan’s birthday came around, as it usually does on April 8th.  His one request?  To have an “old school” birthday party, like back in grade 3.  The result?  Fun times, indeed!

These are the tops of the goodie bags I made.  I was so excited to get to make them and fill them up with delicious candy.  I made 14 in all using patterned paper, a circle punch, an Inkadinkado Thank you stamp and some versafine ink. 

Not super glamorous, but better than an old paper bag, non?

The rest of the birthday party involved hanging out with a whole bunch of friends, chatting, watching a hockey game, playing video games, drinking beer (and delicious martinis), and eating copious amounts of pizza and ice cream cake!  My boy was in heaven :-)

Hi there,

It’s soooooo sunny and beautiful today, and I didn’t have to work!  Who could ask for more?  So of course I’m inside crafting :p  (yes yes, I should go out and play in the sun).  This is the first card picture I’ve taken OUTSIDE, in the SUN! (yes, I’m super excited about this whole sunshine thing).

Today’s card is brought to you by a fabulous sketch (see below) that I’m absolutely in love with.  It’s from Paper Craft’s Go to Sketches, which I cannot wait to get my hands on!

I used one of those fantastic eyelet punched paper flowers and some beautiful ribbon that I picked up yesterday at Michaels.   I love this vintage book background.  I’m trying to find ways to use book text in all my cards.  I’m just that obsessed with it.

The sketch for this card I found over at Kim Kesti’s blog.  Don’t you love it?  I could play with this simple sketch all day long.

Oh and hey, for someone who never EVER used ribbon or buttons, I’ve sure done a 180!  I can’t get enough of either.

Hey there,  it’s taken me a while to make a card.. I’ve been staring at a whoooole bunch of challenges that I would have liked to have participated in this week, but just didn’t get to.  Woah, my French teacher brain is looking at the tenses there and going crazy!

So I chose one challenge that called my name the loudest.  It was from this week’s Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World.

I was happy to be able to use my eyelet flowers that I had made.. When I saw the trigger photo, I immediately thought of these little guys.  Also, I love using white embossing powder because of the way it just pops off the page.  It works perfectly for that bright white egg background look!

Note that the inspiration below was sent in by Alicia Thelin.

I stumbled across a fun card sketch challenge over at the Just Us Girls site.  You can see the specific challenge here.  They’ve teamed up with Dawn from Wplus9, and the winner of this fun challenge gets 2 stamp sets from Wplus9!  Fun times!

I love challenges like this because they force me to do some creative thinking and play with all my supplies.  I never know what I might come up with.

And now for my take on the sketch – I wanted something springy and fun but not all yellows and purples and greens. Brown, turquoise and dusty rose?  Sure.

The border piece is from one of my favourite Martha punches.  For the flower, I used a punch to punch out 5 layers from an old book.  The “happy birthday” sentiment is also stamped on that book paper.  I really had fun with this card!  And I love love love making those book-paper flowers.  I’m sorry to say that I don’t have any WPlus9 stamps yet, so I couldn’t work with any in this card.

This is the great sketch that I got to work with and interpret to my heart’s content

Have a go at it and see what you can come up with.  There’s a spot to link to your creation on the JUGS site.  The deadline is at 9pm EST on Thursday March 11th, 2010.

One of my besties had a birthday coming up, so I tried to think of things that I really love to do with her.  I couldn’t think of any one thing, but wanted to give her something that would keep us spending time together, since it’s sometimes hard with all of our commitments these days.  So I came up with a date book.

This is it before I got the ribbon tied.. I somehow failed to get a picture of the final product :-(  Anyways, what I did was give a 2-week time period for each date.  For example, sometime between April 12th -25th, we’re going to try a new recipe to make together (and this comes with money for ingredients).  All we have to do is find a time to book our “date,” then follow the instructions.  She received it really well and I’m definitely looking forward to the dates!

I cut my pages a few inches longer than the book size so I could fold the bottom up to create  a pocket.  Also, the cover pages are slightly bigger than the rest, with rounded corners.

I attached eyelets to the holes to keep them from ripping and make it easy to tie them with ribbon.

I slipped “date cards” inside the pockets along with anything needed for the dates, like gift cards.

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.

I was still feeling pretty inspired by my purple and brown combination, so I decided to branch out a bit.  I also wanted to try the new stamp set I got for a very nice price… After playing around with layouts and paper punches, here’s what I came up with:

The second picture is without a flash, so you can see the depth a bit better – the largest flower circles is raised up a bit.

I used lots of fun things.. Clear stamps, punches: tag punch, Martha Stewart border punch, and 2 Paper Shapers circle punches.  Purple cloth ribbon from the dollar store, and some pearl stickers from Hero Arts.  I used VersaMark ink for the flower stems to get a subtle look.

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.

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!

I spent hours playing around with cards and ideas.  I had some pre-scored cards by Amuse that I wanted to use up. Well, it didn’t go so well.  I ended up throwing out 3 cards.. ugh.. they were just so hideous!  You can’t see them because they hit the recycling bin and away they went.

Here’s the first “good” one that came of my day of failed craftiness.. well, I guess it wasn’t a total failure after all.

I like the colours, and I was searching for a way to use a Martha Stewart punch that I recently acquired.  We can pretend that the white strip it made is bubbles! or.. water!

So as per my usual, the fish is painted with Twinkling H2Os to get a nice touch of shimmer.  “best fishes” is by Amuse and the fish/hat combo are from a clear set by Stampendous.

This stamp’s beauty captured me from the beginning.  The butterflies and overlapping textures… I think they pair perfectly with the fern-like pattern on the background paper.. and the little butterfly in the top right corner is… devine, non?

Materials

White and blue cardstock, and a matching pattern paper of choice
Inkadinkado butterfly set (clear)
VersaMark Ink
Detail White Embossing Powder
Detail Scissors
Embossing tool/Heat gun
Pop dots

How-to

1. Cut out your papers to the right size.  Save a scrap of blue for the cut-out butterfly
2. Stamp the main butterfly image on the patterned paper in VersaMark
3. Sprinkle on the embossing powder and melt with your embossing tool
4. Affix to blue background and then to white card
5. stamp other butterfly image on blue cardstock and emboss in detail white
6. cut out, bend, and attach to card using foam pop dots.

Need a bright and cheerful birthday card?  I think this one fits the bill, especially for the boys of this world.  I think I got those balloons as a dollar stamp from Michaels Craft store.  On that note, I really do need to avoid Michaels.  I can’t go in there without spending way more money than I had intended.. there are just too many fun things to see everywhere!

Materials

• Cardstock cut to sizes
• Clear Balloon stamp, candles stamp and birthday stamp
• VersaFine Ink (Onyx Black)
• VersaMark Ink
• Watercolour Pencil Crayons
• Pop dots
• Clear StarDust pen
• Paintbrush and water
• Corner Punch

How-to

1. Stamp balloons in VersaFine Ink
2. Colour in with Watercolour pencil Crayons
3. Blend pencil crayon with wet paintbrush and allow to dry
4. Add a bit of glitter to the balloons with the StarDust pen
5. Stamp candles on background with VersaMark ink
6. Stamp ‘Happy Birthday’ in VersaFine Ink
7. Cut corners of white cardstock and the middle piece that you’re laying behind it
8. Stick everything together :-)

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.

Interesting.. this scan dulled the green out a whoooole lot.  It’s a pretty darned bright green sitting here in front of me.  And that background liney stamp is really messing with me.  I’m a big fan of this little kitty “Fluffles.” I can use him in so many different cards for all different occasions. He likes to be cut out so he can jump through the air.

Materials

• Cardstock cut to size
• Fluffles stamp set
• Happy Birthday stamp
• VersaFine Ink (Onyx Black)
• Twinkling H2Os and paintbrush
• Corner Punch
• Pop dots

How-to

Do some painting and some cutting out et voila :-)

I’m always on the lookout for cards that I can give to guys.  Birthdays are definitely no exception!  Keeping a fairly neutral theme (candles!) seems to work, especially if I avoid using pink and purple, or any swirly flowers.  So today I was playing with my VersaMark ink pad (so useful!) and chalks.  It’s quick, easy, and looks pretty neat.  The biggest task is cutting out the cardstock and sticking everything together.

Materials

• Coloured Cardstock cut to size
• Candles stamp (Inkadinkado) and birthday stamp
• VersaMark Ink
• VersaFine Ink (Onyx Black)
• Coloured chalks and a stiff paintbrush
• Craft fixative spray (or aerosol hairspray – not so “memory safe”)
• 2 way glue pen
• Prisma Glitter

How-to

1. Stamp the candles on white cardstock with VersaMark ink.
2. While the ink’s still wet, brush coloured chalks over the image.  The stiff brush works well here to pick up chalk powder.  I like to use a brush meant for acrylic paint.
3. Spray lightly with the craft fixative and allow to dry.
4. Stamp the birthday sentiment in Versafine Ink
5. Glue everything together
6. Brush some lines of glue on the candle flames with the 2-way pen, and sprinkle on a bit of Prisma Glitter.

My grandpa’s turning 87, so I wanted to send him a fun card to celebrate the long life he’s had so far.  This little Chihuahua  is definitely up for a fun time, just like my dear grandpa hopefully still is!

Materials

Cardstock and patterned paper
VersaFine Onyx Black
Oval Scalloped Punch
Corner rounding punch
Chihuahua stamp set
Hero Arts Life is Fun stamp
Water Colour Pencil Crayons
Water and a paintbrush

How-to

1. Cut cardstock to the sizes you want.  Round corners with corner punch, and punch out oval scallop
2. Stamp Chihuahua and cactus on the white pieces
3. Colour in using water colour pencil crayons, and blend with water and paintbrush
4. Stamp “Life is Fun” in onyx black
5. Glue it all together.  Use foam dots to pop cactus out.

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.

First Attempt

Happy Saturday!
I got the inspiration for this card from some cute notepaper I had seen online (Don’t ask where, I can’t find it again for the life of me!).  It just didn’t turn out the way I’d wanted.. It started out with just a plain white background.. I added the message – still not good.  So then I added the swirl in fun new VersaMark Dazzle ink.  It didn’t show up very well and still looked like a very boring and blank card :(  What to do?  Well, I sort of fixed it going over the swirl in Prisma Glitter.. at least it looks a bit better!

Revamp Time!

I was so unhappy with my first attempt at a “cute” birthday card that I just had to start all over again.  It’s like a breath of fresh air compared to the first one.. and unmistakably a “Shauna card.”  My thought process in the changes?  First, and most obvious, change was to get rid of all that unecessary white space.  It looks a whole lot better when the “blankness” is an inked up background colour rather than boring white!  Next, I wanted to add in my accent colour to help tie the card together with the image.  And you can’t tell from the scan, but there’s glitter in them swirls!

Materials

Stampendous clear cake stamp (from Fluffles set)
Twinkling H2Os
Yellow glitter glue
Foam pop dots
’Make a wish!’ by A Muse
Dot Flourish by  Inkadinkado
Versafine Onyx Black
VersaMark Dazzle – frost
Corner rounding punch

How-to

1. Stamp the Dot Flourish on the background pink card in VersaMark Dazzle – Frost.. yay sparklyyyyy…
2. Stamp ‘Make a wish!’ in Versafine Onyx Black
3. Stamp birthday cake on white cardstock in onyx black
4. Paint in cake with Twinkling H2Os and cut out
5. Cut out blue and white cardstock and round the corners with your corner punch
6. Mount the cake using pop dots
7. Add a wee touch of yellow glitter glue to the candles and the dot on the i in ‘wish’

These cards make me so happy.  They’re bright and cheerful, making me *almost* want to dance (I’ll get back to you when I’m a better dancer).  I absolutely love how versatile the swirl stamp is.  I can add any little critter I want and watch him soar.

Materials

Cardstock
Twirly stamp
Butterfly or Bumblebee stamps
Twinkling H2Os
Glitter Glue
Versafine Onyx Black Ink

How-to

1. Cut out all your cardstock to the desired sizes (Base card is 4 1/4” x 5 1/2”when folded)
2. Stamp twirly stamp in black ink
3. Stamp critter of your choice in black ink
4. pain in critter with Twinkling H2Os.  Get it niiiice and thick.  You might have to wet it and let it sit for a bit.
5. Add some glitter if you like.  You can’t go wrong by adding it to the bumble bee’s wings.
6. Glue it all together et voilà!

This Card is one of my summer favourites, but I can imagine using it in the middle of winter when I want to feel a bit of summer cheer on a rainy day.  I love the colours and the glitter and how it jumps out at me with cheerful exuberance.  My inspiration was the ribbon.  I started with it and found some colours and things that I thought might work.  And of course I wanted to have a cherry that looked shiny and almost real!

Materials

Stampendous clear sunday stamp
Stampendous clear ‘enjoy’ stamp
Swirly background stamp of your choice
Versafine Onyx Black ink
Versamark Ink
Twinkling H2Os
Ribbon
Prisma Glitter
Diamond Glaze
Corner Punch
Double sided tape
Glue Pen
Double sided foam tape

How-to

1. Cut cardstock to desired size and use corner rounder on all the edges except for the background card
2. Stamp background  middle layer in Versamark ink
3. Stamp sunday in Versafine on white cardstock
4. Stamp ‘enjoy’ in Versafine over background middle layer
5. Attach ribbon over middle background layer using double sided tape
6. Paint Sunday with Twinkling H2Os
7. Use a glue pen when you want the Prisma Glitter, then add glitter
8. Put a dot of Diamond Glaze on the cherry and let dry (30min)
9. Glue everything together – use double sided foam tape for the Sunday + its background layer et voilà!

This is one of my favourite cards.  It’s quick, simple, and elegant.  The other day I made a whole big batch of them and they sure look pretty sitting on my desk.  I’d say one card would take around 10min.   My inspiration came from a friend who mentioned how the swirl looked like a bug’s flying path.  How cute!  A sweet little message can be added to the bottom, or inside.  I always like to add glitter, so I would add some to the swirl with my glitter pen.

Materials

Denami stamps – N24 (swirl) and A76 (ladybug)
Versafine Ink in Onyx Black
Twinkling H2O
Diamond Glaze

How-to

1. Cut cardstocks to a size that looks about right (we don’t do precise measurements in my world)
2. Stamp swirl stamp in black, going over the edge of the cardstock
3. Stamp ladybug in black
4. Paint in ladybug using Twinkling H2Os
5. Add a dallop of Diamond Glaze and allow to dry
6. Assemble the card using double sided tape