Paper Sunshine

Pretty Pattern Paper

2012-02-09T16:59:00.001-05:00

I was looking at a blog the other day and the card was just fabulous and I really liked the paper she used. So I asked her and she was so gracious and immediately emailed me with the name of the paper - Crate Paper- Paper Hearts collection. So I had to use this as soon as I got it in. What a nice pack of papers! (6x6) I do so love Crate paper. I have made cards with this stamp before but it is so lovely - and it seemed to work well with this paper so here it is. I also used the Sizzix/Tim Holtz border die and some SU ribbon, Stickles on the flower centers and clear on the beaks and eyes. The main image is a Spellbinders die. So this is a nice mix of almost every company I love!

New Goodies and last (?!) CAS

2012-02-08T16:50:00.000-05:00

Here is my order from Simon Says Stamps - oh my I went all out here! Lots of goodies - that Hero Arts blog hop got me too. So I should be making some things coming up with these stamps and supplies. Today's card is another cutie pie, they just make me happy coloring them. With all the boys in my house some girlie things are just necessary! I like how she is giggling about the bird on her head. Embrace life - that just fits. See how nicely this card stands up? I have ordered more of this paper (I only had a free sample) for these type of cards. It is 120 pound weight. I think I am using 80 pound right now. Its fine for layered cards but not so much for this. Have a nice day!

Tilda with Kitty

2012-02-07T16:31:00.003-05:00

I dont think this qualifies for CAS but I have seen a lot lately that have more than this and they call them clean and simple. Depends on what you consider NOT CAS! So this image is CAS but maybe the rest is too much... This is Tilda from Magnolia, when I saw this stamp with her holding the kitty like that I just loved it! Dont all little kids just sort of hold their pets hanging like that?! I always try to explain to mine that they need to support them on the bottom too but anyway its cute :) The next card I have planned to show you is on the firmer card stock.

Puppy and Friends

2012-02-05T17:05:00.000-05:00

Isn't this just the cutest image? OK one of the cutest?! It is from Stampavie. There are a lot of great artists under this brand and I love them all. This card is also shaped with the SU die and then I added some twine and two bows because I so need things to be symmetrical in some way LOL! I love the little blue birds, they look so happy. Not much else to say - I used water colors again and yes, this one curled too. I am learning!

CAS

2012-02-04T04:53:00.001-05:00

This is my first card in the CAS series. I fail at leaving things alone! I made the card and felt it needed something so I added the butterflies you see in the second image. I dont know, just hard cards for me to love :) I do however like the shaped card, it is the new SU die set - love the shape and so nice of SU to come out with it. I know a lot of demos are happy about that with all the competition from Spellbinders. One thing I learned after making my first two cards like this, I need heavier card stock. After I use the water colors on the image the card curls and no amount of flattening will stop it. The third one you will see I used Gina K's heavy card stock, I am going to order more of that unless someone knows of another brand that's less expensive and as thick. I don't like the Neenah white stuff and don't need it since I don't use Copics. It held up very well :) This image is a Hedgie by, you guessed it, Penny Black. I will use other stamps for the next few cards! I have a Stampavie and a Magnolia coming up.

More Pretty Paper

2012-02-03T16:44:00.002-05:00

Here is another card I made with paper I wanted to use. It is SU also. The image is from Penny Black, yeah got a theme going here lol! My attempt at using markers didn't go as well as planned but I like it anyway. Funny thing is this was a birthday card that I sent about 6 months early! I don't know how I read it but I got an email notice saying it was her birthday and after she got it she told me it was a little early :) Oh well it's the thought that counts, right? My next few cards are a series in CAS. Very clean and simple as in one layer even for a couple of them! I wonder if CAS is defined by no designer paper also? Hmmm. Until then, have a great day!

Blue Bird

2012-02-02T04:04:00.001-05:00

Just a pretty card I enjoyed making, wanted to use this SU designer paper and this stamp and this is what I came up with! I am pretty sure the stamp is Penny Black, if you want to get it let me know and I will look it up :) I used some adhesive blue faux pearls, SU ribbon and some miscellaneous ribbon I had around. The main image is die cut with a Spellbinder's die and the sentiment is a SU punch. The card stock is soft suede, it's a nice neutral kind of like Kraft to me (oh it's called crumb cake now...) but darker, I need more of this so I can use it a lot more often. Not much more to tell ya!

Brushstrokes by Penny Black

2012-01-30T11:11:00.001-05:00

So here we go, back to mixing up my stamps and papers etc. When most people think of Penny Black stamps they think of Mimi and the Hedgies (hedgehogs) and all of the cute character stamps. I first found PB from the brushstroke flowers! I saw a beautiful calendar made with them and had to make it (btw never did though, tried but mine wasn't quite good enough). I ordered the stamps and then realized I had a cute little clear stamp set from the same company when I saw the logo! Anyway this is one of those stamps and I saw a card made with it that is clean and simple and gave it a go (ie. this is a case). The background is Hero Arts Envelope pattern bg stamp. I like it, might make another one actually! Hope you like it too :)

Last Stampin Up Survivor Card

2012-01-28T11:22:00.006-05:00

Last card from the Survivor Stampin Up series. I made this card in a whole different color scheme a while back and just really like how easy yet pretty this card is. I used the new purple color from SU (can't remember what it is and too lazy to look it up lol) but the green is pear pizzazz :) The stamp set and punches are SU of course. Thus concludes my series. Now back to mixing all my stamps together! Hope you enjoyed or got inspired by at least one of them!

CASEd Card

2012-01-24T22:35:00.001-05:00

I have to say CASE and CAS are confusing. CASE is copy and share everything and CAS is clean and simple. This is a CASE of a card that just "hit me right". When looking for clean and simple (CAS) ideas I always find things I like but when I make them I am not so sure. It is hard to pull of one of these cards. I really liked the line around the edge, I thought it was just the right touch. The colors are calypso coral and old olive - all SU of course (still on the swap).

Bird Punch Again

2012-01-23T22:28:00.004-05:00

This is using the same bird punch along with the stamp set that goes with it. I think it gives it a nice touch. Same colors with the addition of early espresso (I think that is the "new" brown). I did use Spellbinders dies but the rest is SU. Thanks for looking!

Flap Fold Card

2012-01-22T14:22:00.001-05:00

This card is a fun one to make, I love this bird punch almost as much as the owl! Once again this is for the Survivor pool and all products are from Stampin Up. The colors are old olive and baja breeze. It's pretty simple so not much to say other than I really like this card! I think this could qualify as clean and simple. Does designer paper disqualify it for that I wonder? Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine Card

2012-01-20T13:24:00.000-05:00

So I decided to show the masculine card next. This one is not quite clean and simple, is it now? It is one of the other of my favorites of this group of cards though. Except the words, this is all one stamp set (Stampin Up). I stamped the background with the ledger stamp in the set, it is smaller so I had to stamp 4 times to fill the paper but it lines up super easy and lends itself to repeated stamping. The compass images are stamped and punched with a circle punch, the ship once again stamped in night of navy on white card stock and then everything was distress sponged on the edges with crumb cake ink. I did add some crumb cake on more areas to give it an old look. The twine just seemed to be the right thing to use with the nautical theme.

I don't know if you can tell and now that I mention it you will be able to tell but I got a new paper trimmer and am having a heck of a time getting straight edges with it! I had to re-cut and fuss with the background piece and it still isn't straight but I did what I could and adhered it. I don't know if I am going to like this trimmer! It's just that the arm type cutter is too big for me to use at the table with me and I don't want to get up and down 50 times to use it (Ok I exaggerate a tad) and this is a rolling blade type trimmer and it just goes curvy or at an angle as it goes down. I try really hard to hold my hand steady and use the same amount of pressure but it still messes up. If I could return it I would but Archivers told me once I open it I can't return it. I am now starting at the bottom and going up to cut the paper and it seems to be better, I have my fingers crossed I will get the hang of it. I don't want to waste the money! OK enough blabbering :) Only a few more to go in this series, thanks for looking!

Owl Punch Card

2012-01-19T16:23:00.002-05:00

Here is my owl card! Of course I had to do one for this group. When making 10 cards together I had to make them more or less clean and simple (CAS). The less coloring the better so this owl fits right in. I believe it is purely pomegranate card stock and pretty in pink. The image panel is mounted on dimensionals and the pink is embossed with a polka dots embossing folder. So next shall I post the masculine card or one of the flower cards? We'll see!

Next Card

2012-01-18T16:11:00.000-05:00

This card looks better in person, it is one of my other favorites of the group! Baja breeze again along with old olive and a card base of crumb cake formerly known as kraft card stock. There are three layers of ovals for the image. the designer paper is from a new set I just love called Everyday Enchantment. It has that grungy sort of look so I sponged the edges of the image panel and the tag with crumb cake to match. I think I will share the owl card next. You know how I feel about that owl punch!

Butterflies Card

2012-01-17T16:03:00.001-05:00

I have often seen cards with butterflies lined up and thought I would give it a try. The good thing about this stamp set is it has the antennae stamp seperate so I could line those up with a ruler and then put my stamped and punched butterflies on. The stamp set is butterfly prints by Stampin Up of course (for these Survivor cards...) and they have a punch to match. The colors are calypso coral, lucky limeade and pool party. got to love those names! The ribbon is also SU as well as the pearls. Four down and six to go!

Next Card for the Group

2012-01-16T14:44:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorites of this group of Survivor cards. I used Baja Breeze and Calypso Coral colors to match the SU designer paper. The layout is a card I have done before which is a case of a catty card. I really love the use of negative space or white space, just enough color to balance. The ribbon is Stampin Up also as well as all the stamps and edge punch. I have to use all SU on these cards and sometimes it's hard to remember who makes what!

New Apothecary Art Stamps and Dies

2012-01-15T13:53:00.006-05:00

I am making 10 cards for my Survivor card pool I was in and I won this season! So I get 18 cards for winning the sole survivor and then a few more for some of the others that came in close. I had 6 survivors picked in all this season and it was the best I have ever done. Just lucky choices really :) So since this is an all Stampin Up group I pulled out my SU stamps and tools (I almost always use SU card stock) and got to it. The first two cards here are using the Apothecary Art stamp set and die set. I wanted to make the flip fold card (in red) and that inspired me to make the yellow card as a folded die cut card. The mat die for the large stamp in the set is so big it almost takes up a whole 4.25 x 5.5 card so my idea was to simply attach it to a piece of card stock as a backing and make it a card. Does that make sense? Another words the die cut opens, not the rectangular piece. I put a piece of designer paper on the yellow card stock for decoration. Cool idea?! I like it :) I think this could sell for SU demos workshops.

Penny Black Stamp - Good Friends Card

2012-01-07T10:05:00.001-05:00

These pictures were taken with my iPhone. I am still experimenting with getting the lighting right for my cards. These are actually as good as my regular camera and one is actually white for the white card stock background! Which is better the warmer picture or the one with the whiter background? Anyway this is one of my favorite stamps although I haven't used it yet! One card making blogger asked what our new years "craft" resolution was and I decided to ink up and make cards out of every stamp I haven't used yet. I don't have that many but I do have some and I just don't feel right about having not used them yet. Interestingly enough most people said organize their stuff. I do that about every week! It gets into chaos real quick with me :)

I used water color to color the image. It's my favorite method, cant you tell?! I used markers on the Penny Black stamp a few posts ago but its just to heavy and dark to me when I use them. I know lots of people love their Copics but well hey I love my watercolors. I used Spellbinders dies and a Stampin Up edge punch. Those cute bigger brads are Stampin Up too, aren't they perfect for this?! I used Stickles (my second favorite thing to use) on all of the hearts. It just makes it so pretty! The paper is Twitterpated by SU, love this set as you can tell. Here is a close-up to see the sparkle.

Beach Sand Framed Gift

2012-01-05T09:43:00.005-05:00

I saw one like this a while back and just loved it! My BFF's daughter collects sand from all the different beaches they go to so I immediately thought of her. I special ordered the vial because at the time I couldn't find them anywhere and filled it with sand that she shared with me from one of her trips. The shells are stamped onto creamy caramel card stock then embossed with white e.p. and cut out. The blue mat and the coral are both spellbinders dies. The frame is a plain frame from either AC Moore or Michael's that I painted blue then white washed. Right now I am dreaming of the beach and Summer :)

I really like this stamp and thought it was perfect for the tag: "My heart is at home by the sea".

Online Class

2012-01-03T13:35:00.005-05:00

Did you notice the new image to the right? Move More, Eat Well. It is an online class - I have never taken one before! I embarked upon the task of losing 70 pounds two years ago and did a good job of losing it. That was my first goal with another 10 pounds to go in the back of my mind. Technically I was good at the top part of my weight range because that gives me a BMI of less than 25. However I wanted to be in the middle of my weight range to look a little better in a bathing suit since I am in one for 4 months of the year. I have only been at the bottom of my weight range when I was much younger and actually was very ill and didnt know it and that is why I managed to be so thin! That is another conversation I will spare you :) Anyway I "know it all" when it comes to eating, food, diet and exercise. I have lost 50 pounds or more at least 6 times, worked for weight watchers for several years and I read articles every single day about all of the above. I can say this much, yoyo dieting does make it tricky to lose weight. That is why I want to break the cycle, stay fit and eat well. I have done that for the most part but I am finding a few pounds creeping back on so I must stop it now. The funny thing is I saw this on another blog, looked into it and because it is scrapbooking related decided it would be a good way to keep this front and center in my life this year. I watched her video and other than smoking (never have) we have the same story becoming a runner and all! So I ordered my notebook and page protectors, printed out the first steps and am really looking forward to this adventure. All except the measuring part :) (She did say this was optional!) The picture of the shoes is the first thing she had us do - take a picture of our exercise shoes. Why 4? Well three are the shoes I have worn out running and the other are my Zumba shoes so that's what I wanted in my notebook. I might share a bit of it here and there but for the most part, back to card making. Thanks for reading my little story! May you Move More and Eat Well this year.

Thank you Cards and Calendar

2012-01-02T09:11:00.008-05:00

Happy New Year! 2012, oh yeah! The years just tootle on by LOL! I changed my blog feed to only show the first part of the post because when I post several cards it makes a large email to people and if they get several feeds it's annoying. On the other hand some people only look at the feed and don't come to my blog to see the rest. So I'm not sure which way is best. Anyway here are the remaining cards and calendar I promised. These are once again cased or inspired from cards Ive seen, when I am in a hurry or want to make several cards I find it best to do this because creating my own design from start to finish takes me 3+ hours for one card! The owl calendar was just so darn cute I had to make them for myself and friends. I love the owl punch from Stampin Up and have used it many times with no plans of stopping! I have made a calendar of some kind every year now for 4 or 5 years so it's become a tradition.

Penny Black and Flower Soft Challenge

2011-12-31T14:18:00.007-05:00

Penny Black Stamps and Flower Soft are having a blog hop and challenge that I had to join! So my other thank you cards and owl calendar will have to wait for my next post :) I used Love Antennae and Make a Wish stamps by Penny Black and Sweet Pea by Flower Soft. The paper and ribbon are by Stampin Up and Basic Grey. There are fruit punch Stickles on her cute heart antennae and a Spellbinders Die set for the shape. I used Spica glitter pen on her stockings and on the flowers in the other image but the sparkle just didnt show on any of the picture I took of the cards. The second picture of the Make a Wish card is to show the cute little mouse is cut out and placed up on a pop dot, hard to tell in the first image. Thanks for looking, keep your fingers crossed I would love to guest design for them!

Thank You Cards Part 1

2011-12-30T19:07:00.004-05:00

Well it is almost a new year! 2011 gone, wow was that fast or what? I have some goals for next year but not resolutions. Resolutions don't work for me but goals do. As long as they are realistic. See that's what I think makes resolutions not work, they usually aren't realistic. Like lose 50 pounds or eat better or exercise regularly. All too vague and too unattainable on their own. Anyway here are some thank you cards I made in hopes to send out for some of the Christmas presents the family has received. Or I should make the boys write them for themselves! One of the cards is using the new Apothecary Art stamp and die set from the new Stampin Up Occasions Mini. Also there is paper there from either it or the SAB mini or possibly both. All I know is my friend who is a demo let us use all her stuff on Monday and we had a blast making cards! I made 8 cards in all and one owl punch calendar which I will post next time. My usual disclaimer of there are cards here cased from the web, the second and fourth ones. Although the little bee button idea was all my own :) the person who originally created that card probably just didn't have one!

Last (Maybe) Christmas Card & Box

2011-12-20T14:46:00.006-05:00

This card I made last year or the year before at my friend's stamp a stack, it is embossed with iridescent ice glitter. I had to make it again this year. The stamp is by Hero Arts. It is so pretty in person! Just sparkles everywhere. Hope you can see a little bit of it in these two pictures. The rest are the Stampin Up Christmas box, my dear friend gave the kit to me to make for Christmas and brought it over for both of us to make together! What a great idea, we enjoy stamping together as often as possible. Merry Christmas!

Next set of Christmas cards

2011-12-11T19:22:00.005-05:00

Here are the cards I made Friday and Saturday with the new stamps. Didnt get to all of the stamps yet and didnt get as much done as I wanted that's for sure! Ended up spending hours fixing my son's Windows computer - ugh its why I bought a Mac and here I am still having to fix Windows issues. Anyway it ate up my time. I have to finish by Weds. night as I am going to visit my family for Christmas and I do need to mail these *before* Christmas! I am posting a picture of my work area chaos too, I dont know how I end up with such a huge mess! I did try to clean it up, I got a box and organized some stuff I needed out in it so it was handy. Plus I watch TV on my iPad while I craft - nice and convenient size to put wherever I need to on my table.

The first card I wanted to have it far more perfect than I should have and spent three hours trying different designer papers and embellishments and layouts and finally ended up with this. I do really like it but it should not have taken so long! The next ones I did in no time. They need more embellishing or something but I got to make cards a bit faster. Too much thinking!

2nd Batch of Christmas cards

2011-12-08T20:55:00.006-05:00

I was not happy with my card images looking yellow so I went hunting around the house for a desk lamp (which was on the floor of my son's closet...) and put a fluorescent bulb in it (no yellow with that!). Then shined it straight on my card and took the picture. Wow, what a difference, my images look so much better today don't you think?

I was very productive yesterday! Here is what I came up with, I wanted to color the girl, cat and snowman stamp a little differently so I did a couple more - I just like this stamp! I am using my Stampin Up water color crayons, they are so easy to use and since I am not good with blending or shading they do the trick. I am not real patient with coloring! I have a whole set of those brand new though that I need to sell, the set I have looks like its going to last forever so I don't need the new set. I love the reindeer stamp, even plain like this card it looks great. I got my order in from SimonSaysStamp - oh my gosh were they fast! I am so pleased with their service! So I have six (what was I thinking? Mrs. Scrooge herself bought six Christmas stamps!) so I hope to ink up at least two or three today. It's kind of hard with my son tracked out from school for four weeks but I'm trying :) Hope you like and thanks for looking!

Lori

Christmas cards so far

2011-12-07T10:05:00.006-05:00

I am going to quickly post what I've made so far, some of these are using ideas from designers you may see on the web and some are my own. I have a couple more done and need photographed but I am far from being done! I need to make at least 25 hand made cards every year and this year I did not have a "stamp a stack" to go to! Ugh! My Stampin Up friends are losing steam, can't blame them - busy lives and busy times. It takes an incredible amount of work to set up, cut the cardstock etc. and run those. Anyway for some reason I have made an individual card of each, I need to find one I can mass produce and stick with it! But that's no fun :) Ok here they are, will post more later this week. If I get more made LOL! I cant seem to get myself into my "crafting" (as my son says) room.

Challenge Card for Hero Arts Blog

2011-11-10T19:44:00.006-05:00

There are three challenges this month and this time I chose the color challenge. The colors are pink, blue, green and neutral. They are using pastel shades. I really wanted to make this a Christmas card and I wanted to use the new elegant saying stamp I ordered for making Christmas cards this year. I also used the envelope pattern stamp and the artistic fern stamp. I added snow and berries to turn it into a more Christmas theme. I used an embossing folder on the kraft scalloped mat that is a wood grain, it adds an interesting texture to the card. I like it, I am pretty pleased with how this turned out, I worked really hard on it :)

Halloween Digital Scrapbooking

2011-11-02T09:38:00.004-04:00

I have a friend who designs the most awesome digital scrapbooking things! She is really good and I am always in awe of what she comes up with, some people just have such a gift I'm so jealous! But I can buy her stuff so I cant complain :) She made three Halloween pages for me though that are so awesome I had to share them here. This is her creation, not mine. I cant take credit for her great work :) You can buy her kits here and she has many other kits, she also does awesome recipe books that make the cookbooks they sell in stores look so boring. Thank you so much Tracy!!!!

Magnolia and Basic Grey Halloween Card

2011-10-29T10:00:00.005-04:00

I've had this cute Tilda by Magnolia stamp for a couple years now and realized I haven't used it! I was looking through my papers to use for this card and found this Basic Grey pack of 6 x 6 papers and look at what I found! These spooky trees with bats hanging in them, how perfect! The moon and bat stamp behind Tilda is also a Magnolia stamp. I ended up making this card 5 1/2 square so I could use all of this piece of designer paper and not ruin the look of the trees and bats. Then I had to do something on the inside since I used black card stock and my son has this cute bat punch so I added it in. I love this card, it was soooo hard to part with but I made it for someone and told myself from the beginning I couldn't keep it. I could always make another one :)

Unity Challenge, Masculine Get Well Card

2011-10-26T11:32:00.005-04:00

Unity Stamp Company has a sketch challenge for October that I decided to join. This owl is from an older Unity kit of the month, I love this little guy and am currently on an owl kick :) The designer paper and card stock is Stampin Up, the sentiment is from Gina K. stamps and the dies are Spellbinders.Here is a link to their challenge Unity Blog. Thanks for looking!

Owl Card

2011-10-14T21:00:00.006-04:00

I saw this adorable card on the Hero Arts blog and I just had to make one like it! I made some changes as you can see but I just love this card! I used the same idea of the owl in the framed scalloped circle with a wood grain type stamp but the rest is somewhat different. I used a standard A2 sized card, some SU designer paper and the SU owl punch plus I added ribbon and a little tag to the bottom. The hello word stamp in the back of the owl is a Hero Arts stamp called Dictionary Greeting. I made it today and I was so excited about it I am going ahead and putting it on my blog right away - even using my iPhone to take the picture lol! I hope you like it too! Thanks for stopping by :)

Hero Arts Cards

2011-09-02T16:38:00.004-04:00

Since I am putting a blinkie link to Hero Arts on my Blog (they are one of my all time favorite stamp companies!) I thought I would post two cards that I CASEd using their stamps. I made these a while back so I dont remember the details but they were quick and fun to make! I made some subtle changes in the top one which is the CASEd one, the bottom one is my second take on the idea. Thanks for looking :)

A Quote, I love SparkPeople!

2011-08-30T22:29:00.000-04:00

Just a little something different today:

2011-08-29T05:56:00.000-04:00

This is a case of a card made with one of Gina K.'s new stamps. I had a different light house stamp but loved the other card's background! I sponged it the best I could, it doesn't look as smooth as theirs but I am really pleased with how it turned out :) I have never colored Hatteras light house with red before, looks nice! Hope you have a great day!

So it didnt come out the way I thought...

2011-08-27T11:04:00.001-04:00

I Cased this card from a beautiful card I found online. I knew I couldnt make That card but I thought I could make my own version of it and it would be ok. Not so much. I did keep messing with this and rearranging and adding things to zip it up a bit but ulitmately my birdcage is sorely lacking, it should be the focus but it doesnt look so hot. I tried to imitate the other card but didn't have the right stamp. Mind you this is a nice stamp just didn't work for this type of card. I added the polka dot white and yellow paper layer, the branches for the birds to sit on, the bands across for the buttons to sit on, polka dots around the edges of the bird cage piece, pearls also... Oh well thought I would show you what I meant when I said I am not so good on my own :)

Not Cased

2011-08-25T13:54:00.004-04:00

Here is a card I created all on my own! I Case a lot of cards due to my horrid lack of creativity and inability to space things right which I will show you in my next post.... but this one came out pretty well :) I sent it to my friend who loves cats and stamps too. The stamp is from Stampavie by Laurence. I colored with water color crayons and used diamond Stickles on the butterflies. The flowers are punched with designer paper and molded a bit with pink rhinestones in the centers. The leaves are an older SU punch. The white layer is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Have a nice day!

Cheerful Card

2011-08-19T01:16:00.001-04:00

Here is another more or less simple card. Not tons of layers of different designer papers anyway :) This stamp is also from Stampavie called Cottage Mouse. The look is similar to yesterday's water color crayon card but this time I used Distress Inks with a water color brush. I used fired brick, weathered wood, wild honey, frayed burlap, crushed olive and tattered rose. I love both products, for me it is easier to blend and get shades with water than with the alcohol pens - Copic type. You don't get the bright vivid look though unless you put on a ton of layers, so it is a softer look. It is also very quick which is just my style. Thanks for looking once again! Have a nice day :)

Simple Sarah Kay Card

2011-08-16T21:34:00.000-04:00

I made this card at my friend's house, she is on semester break from college and getting ready to go back so we had a nice stamping day before all the studying begins! Anyway this is a Sarah Kay image, pretty little girl, huh? It was fun to color and since it is so detailed I thought I would just make the card simple and clean. Thanks for stopping by!

Cards

2011-08-15T13:43:00.002-04:00

This is a pretty new stamp from Stampavie called Blossom Birds by Penny Johnson. I had to have it as soon as I saw it :) This is all I have made so far but it gives you a good idea how pretty this stamp is. Thanks for looking!

Tri-Shutter Birthday Card

2011-07-23T13:42:00.002-04:00

Made this card for a dear friend, she and I both love this set of paper by Stampin Up and I used their punches and stamps so it is a true SU card :) have a nice day!

2011-07-07T21:01:00.003-04:00

Just sharing a few cards I have made recently.

A case of a card online.

A case of a card in the Stampin' Up! catalog. This was very easy and I just love how it looks!

2 More Father's Day cards

2011-06-10T19:29:00.003-04:00

One of these is similar to yesterday's card but I added the stamped and cut out anchor. The other one is an idea I saw made by someone where they sponged in the sun and sky. It is so pretty with this ship stamp!

Father's Day cards

2011-06-08T20:51:00.002-04:00

These are some very quickly made cards! No fuss and no extras. They are not fancy that's for sure! I realize two of them say happy birthday but they could be Father's Day just as easily :) I had a swap to get these out to. This is a neat stamp set and paper from Stampin Up!

2011-05-14T18:51:00.003-04:00

On Mother's Day I got a chance to do something for myself :) So I made this card for... ME! I saw a card on Hero Arts blog that I loved and knew I had stamps close enough to copy it so I printed out a picture and hunted through my supplies and this is what I came up with. I love it, It's just a pretty card that I enjoy looking at on my desk. The Queen Anne's Lace stamp is from Great Impressions stamps, the white embossed script background is French script by Stampin Up, the ink is Distress inks by Ranger, the butterfly is a stamp by SU and the matching SU punch. I used various background stamps for the mustard and kraft card stock. I used Stickles and faux pearls on the butterfly and drew in antennae. I think that's it. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for stopping by!

Teacher's Gift

2011-05-06T20:59:00.008-04:00

I made this file folder card box, (I previously posted the link to the person who created it) and 6 cards for Teacher Appreciation week. My son had to change teacher's mid-year and she has been so good for him. We are fortunate and I wanted to do a few things for her this week. Here is the box and a few of the cards. I hope she liked it!

Mother's Day Card #2

2011-05-04T20:37:00.003-04:00

This is the other card I made the other day, It turned out really nice I think! I wanted to use the Spellbinder's dies that are different than each other nested. I really like the results you can get with different combinations! The patterned paper is Basic Grey and the stamp is Stampin Up. The bird punch is SU also, I shaded it a bit with sponging on some ink. Hope you enjoy Mother's Day either with your mom or as a mom, or even remembering a mom :)

Mother's Day Card

2011-05-02T21:01:00.002-04:00

Here is one of my Mother's Day cards that I made today. The flower stamp is from Gina K Designs, the mother stamp and the paper is Stampin Up, the shapes are all Spellbinders dies and the butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch. The colors are daffodil delight and pixie pink. I think that about sums it up! Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine Birthday Card

2011-04-28T15:34:00.003-04:00

I made this card at a friends house which I CASE'd from a card I saw on SCS. So this is not my creativity just my production :) I think it is a great use of this stamp set and such an awesome masculine card! I did two and varied them only slightly with the sentiment location. I am going to work on Mother's Day cards tomorrow and get them posted soon, thanks for looking! Have a great day :)
Lori

Easter Cards - 2

2011-04-19T20:35:00.001-04:00

These are the other three Easter Cards I made Monday. I did use one of my Easter Tilda images from last year but I still have a sour taste from an issue I had last Spring with ordering Magnolia stamps that I wont go into detail but it kind of made me not want to use those stamps. Stupid I know and in the end it worked out even though I had to buy stamps I didn't want, I do have the stamps to use. This is the first time I have used it. I stamped the lamb again on another piece of white card stock and cut it out and put it on with pop dots in her arms, looks nice in person but doesn't show on the image. It is a cute stamp, she has on some cute shoes but the image was too big for my new Spellbinder die so you see half of her :) I love this new die! It is so pretty and I went ahead and did the embossing part of it too, really nice. The paper is Basic Grey. The other cards are Stampin Up, stamps and paper.

Easter Cards - 1

2011-04-18T16:18:00.003-04:00

I am posting the Easter Cards I made today in two posts. I am not going to give all the details, if you want any information at all feel free to ask in a comment and I will answer! Some of these started as CASE's and went from there :) Happy Easter!

Cute Penny Black Stamp!

2011-04-14T11:50:00.002-04:00

Isnt this too adorable?! I love this stamp, not sure what to use it for but made this card for it! It is from Penny Black stamps. I used Stampin Up papers and a set of flower punches for the flowers, they are two punches that the two different flowers fit together. From EK Success I think, I wrinkled them up and put orange colored faux jewels in the centers. To conserve ribbon I used one white satin one and then for the knot I used a yellow satin one on top of the white in a different width. I dont have but two feet of the yellow! The green border is a die I used in my Cuttlebug. I "painted" the image with distress inks and a water color brush. This sits on my desk and looks so bright and cheery :) Have a nice day!

Patterned- Paper Card

2011-04-03T13:16:00.002-04:00

This card displays this gorgeous patterned paper. I love all these pretty papers so much (don't all of us paper crafters/hoarders?! LOL) and most of the time they get covered up by the image and sentiment. This is one time I let the paper be the "star" :) I CASE'd the card mostly, made a few changes as usual. I needed to make some quick thank you cards and thats another bonus to a card like this, easy to mass produce! The stamp and card are from Stampin' Up. Thanks for looking!

CASE of a Hero Arts Card

2011-03-24T13:17:00.003-04:00

This card is a CASE of a Hero Arts card I saw recently, the stamps are all Hero Arts. The fence and bird I added extra, my take on it. This a real quick one!

Birthday Tilda and her Kitty

2011-03-19T10:29:00.002-04:00

Just a quick one today, This is a Magnolia Tilda stamp, I sent this card to my BFF's daughter who loves kitties. She is not a little girl, all grown up so I hope she doesn't mind the little girl on the card! It's just cute :) The paper is Stampin Up's Ice Cream Parlor, I used a Spellbinders die for the main image and then I traced the outer edge of it on the pink paper to cut out and make a mat for it. The dies are too far apart in size otherwise. Then I used various punches for the flowers and the sentiment. Have a great day!

Birthday card

2011-03-09T14:51:00.001-05:00

This is that Hero Arts stamp that I bought from Archiver's - the card technique class I mentioned in a post a while back. I did the same technique but this time used mostly red (fired brick distress ink). I embossed the stamp with white e.p., colored in the flowers and then stamped the french script stamp over top with vintage photo distress ink. I also stamped the same red paper with a floral stamp and punched out the bird. The script idea with this stamp came from another card I saw :) I made this for my sister's birthday - I always make cards in blue for her since she likes the color and it's my favorite color but I thought I would switch it up this time and do something different for her. I just love this stamp! Thanks for looking :)

St. Patrick's Day Card

2011-03-07T17:40:00.004-05:00

Isn't this a perfect St. Patrick's Day card?! The heart punch I have is well actually a die for my Cuttlebug but anyway it is an uneven shaped heart, not the perfect symmetrical heart shape so I put the shamrock on an angle and I think it works quite well. I looked up shamrocks and they are not 4 leaf clovers! Different things, a shamrock has 3 leaves not to be mistaken with a "good luck" four leaf clover. They have been getting blended together over time I think because you see a lot of 4 leaf clovers for St. Patrick's Day. So anyway I am not sure it really matters but I needed to know what to do to make this card :) I used my new lattice border punch and a nice Cuttlebug embossing folder that seemed sort of "Irish" looking and am real happy with the results. Inside is the sentiment "Happy St. Patrick's Day". Hope this gives you an idea for yourself!

A Sketch Challenge CCMC-OM4

2011-02-24T20:58:00.005-05:00

This first card is for the Create with Connie and Mary's Sketch Challenge open to subscribers of their Occasions Edition newsletter. It is week four's sketch, I meant to do all of these but just have not been able to do it all. Some weeks I am crazy busy with house and family stuff and some weeks not so much. Since my son is home from school sick with Strep throat I have had time today to make a couple of cards between Popsicles and naps :) This is made with Stampin Up products, paper punches, stamps and ribbon. I used the paper from the sale a bration mini, the owl stamp is from the mini too and the punch is in the catalog I believe. (I am not a demo so I don't keep track of this stuff). It was a great sketch to work with and I had no idea this is what I was going to come up with before I started but it kind of fell together once I saw the sentiment sitting on my shelf. It sits in front of my stamp boxes because I loaned it out once and now I have no idea what stamp set it came from! So it sits there but see, I got to use it because of that! So there you have it and I hope I win!

While I had this paper out I made another little card to use my new bird punch. I love this bird and branch! I have another bird die but it wasn't as cute as this one so I finally got it. I think it's been out a while! Anyway just a card I put together by myself, no sketch. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Lori

2011-02-20T19:47:00.002-05:00

This is just a sweet card I made using my new Penny Black stamp. The challenge last week was to use vellum on your card. I used it for the sentiment tag. Vellum die cuts well and also embosses nicely as it makes a white line where it embosses so it shows up more. On top of that I colored the embossed areas to make it have even more depth. I colored the image with distress inks and water color brush. That about all on this one, it's simple :)

A couple random cards

2011-02-16T01:15:00.000-05:00

This first card is using that color combo I like so much from the card I made the other day for a color challenge - grape, hot pink and bright green on Kraft. Just a pretty card I made for a friend :)

This second card is something I made real quick for my husband for one of his coworkers. I really like the white on white look. I will be making more cards with the white on white look for sure. That's all for today!

Last Valentine's Day card

2011-02-14T01:06:00.001-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! I sure do appreciate you checking out my blog and I hope you feel some love today :) This is the card I made for my hubby. We both enjoy our dogs and cats (even if hubby doesn't want to admit he likes a CAT LOL!) so when I saw this stamp I thought it would be great for us. It is from Taylored Expressions. I purchased it last year at the Craft and Hobby Show in Anaheim, CA before the CHA started. I really enjoyed it, I thought it was very well attended so I don't know why they didn't do it again this year. Anyway the gals at the booth were very nice and had lot's of great things going on.

I cased this card pretty much. There you have it. I used different paper and put my ribbon in a different spot but it was just such a cool card I wanted to do it :) I wanted to make it more masculine too. I thought this paper was cool for it, it is a 6 x 6 Stampin Up designer paper pad my friend gave me and it has lots of houses, clouds and hearts in it. Double sided paper too so lots of patterns. The house is "paper pieced" as well as the little heart above the doggies. I dont know if you can see it but I put glossy accents on their noses because we all know dogs have {cold} wet noses! I hope he likes it :)

Here is the inside of the card before I write my gushy note :) Hope you have a great day!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-12T14:52:00.001-05:00

Here is another cute Penny Black stamp! She is called "Love Antennae". This is also for the Penny Black blog challenge, winter white. I had fun making this card, she was fun and easy to color and then I put some really cool glitter on her wings, some glossy accents on her antennae and put her on the Spellbinder lacey circle because I wanted the red of the circle underneath to show through the loops :) I had this red ribbon with white dots, if I had some with black dots that would have really been perfect but this looks fine. The background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder with candy conversation hearts. I have one more Valentine's card to post, the one I made for my hubby :) coming up soon!

Close-up of the glitter

I WON!

2011-02-11T22:32:00.004-05:00

I made this card for a sketch challenge, pretty neat sketch I thought. I had a lot of fun making this, distressing the edges, coloring in these cute little mice and coming up with a new tag idea. I put glossy accents on the hearts which gives it a little more shine. I have had these heart buttons for a while and finally got to use one :) So, guess what? I WON, I WON, I WON! The Penny Black blog challenge last week. I get to choose three free stamps! How cool is that? I haven't won anything in a long time so I am super excited and honored. This stamp is called "Snuggle" it is so cute it is edible LOL! I will be back tomorrow with more :)

Challenge card

2011-02-10T13:18:00.001-05:00

This is for the weekly MFT sketch challenge. I know, it is the same Pure Innocence stamp, since I only have two.. but I plan on getting another one! I saw a color challenge for grape, hot pink and green and loved the combo. The designer paper is Basic Grey and the rest is Stampin Up. I colored her with watercolor crayons and then cut her out. The oval under her is watercolored blue to be like the sky and then that is on Spellbinders die cut. The flower is three punched flowers wet and wrinkled up. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on the green and also an edge punch then placed two rhinestone flowers on it. I keep entering these challenges in hopes to win some stamps! Keep your fingers crossed :)

Third card

2011-02-08T05:35:00.000-05:00

This is the third card from my Hero Arts inspiration. They are having a challenge to use the kissing technique so I used a stamp I already had of theirs and one of the news ones (the "hello" writing background). I stamped the poppy stamp in baja breeze and then the hello stamp in navy ink. I stamped the hello stamp onto the already inked poppy stamp then stamped the poppy stamp onto the white cardstock. That is the kissing technique. I had to giggle though, because it is one stamp stamped onto another the second stamp is backwards when done. So the words are backwards! I don't think you would be reading them on this type of flower anyway but it says things like thinking of you etc.

If you look close you can see sort of stripes on the lines in the poppy of where the navy ink ran across the baja color, it made stripes! I think that is kinda funky and cool :) I love this card, the designer paper and the colors are my favorite. The paper is from Stampin Up (of course, makes my life easy to use their stuff since everything matches and I don't have to hunt down the right shade from a store). Oh and the ribbon is from Martha Stewart, I picked it up when she first put out her line of products at Michael's and it matches baja breeze so well! Have a great day :)

The second card

2011-02-07T02:26:00.000-05:00

I made three cards from being inspired by that class I mentioned in my previous post, two were the new stamps from the class and the third is kind of my own idea from a stamp I already had. Hero Arts blog is having a challenge of using the kissing technique so the third card I will post tomorrow will show that.

I just love these colors done like this! The stamp is made the same as the class. I must say over a year ago I did this same technique with a Stampin Up stamp so it wasn't new to me but I just had to do these colors like this. So here is that one. I believe the name of the SU stamp is 5th Avenue Floral. I can't remember what colors I used back then.

Such a pretty way to color flowers! It is distress ink and the colors for the Hero Arts stamp are fired brick, rusty hinge and weathered wood. They used broken china for the blue but I didn't have that color (thought I did or I would have bought it!). I believe they also used wild honey but I didn't feel I needed that. You stamp using the heat embossing technique with Versamark and white embossing powder or you can stamp with white pigment ink and use clear embossing powder if you like. Then you just use your watercolor pen and pick up the ink and color it in. I also died the ribbon to match using the same inks, however I learned a trick at the store that you wet your ribbon first. No wonder it came out funky whenI did it before! Love hints so I always try to pass them along.

So the class was full...

2011-02-05T14:01:00.003-05:00

I am bummed. I wanted to take this new Hero Arts card making class at Archiver's but they were full and are booked all the way into the end of March! So I bought the stamps and made them myself at home. It's just fun to do it there with everyone. My cards turned out totally different than the cards in the class but the stamp and coloring are the same. I used a sketch I had printed out but I didn't make note of where it came from.

I colored white cardstock to match the stamped image with distress ink and a watercolor pen then punched out the flower, butterflies and tag.

On the butterflies I used the the new Stickles I bought yesterday- Rock Candy but it didn't sparkle enough for me (LOL!) so I dumped some very fine glitter on top. I think that color Stickles will work fine, it is actually just like use a Spica glitter pen in that the color is clear but has the sparkle. I think the ink wash on it was just too strong.

Anyway I am very happy with how it turned out.

Magazine Folder Card Box

2011-02-03T18:48:00.000-05:00

This card box was proudly displayed on this blog and she even posted the directions and dimensions to share! I made a few changes, not much - used different designer paper and ribbon plus I used a Cuttlebug folder. I love it, of course - I love to make all of these boxes and things as you know :) Anyway the paper and stamp are all Stampin Up, I am trying to use my supplies instead of saving them for "someday". So this is short and sweet, you can make one yourself by going to her blog!

Valentine's Day Card

2011-02-02T06:58:00.000-05:00

I got a new stamp and thought I would post another Valentine's Day card. I love this new to me stamp by Penny Black, so sweet. It is called Snuggle. I used a Cuttlebug folder my friend has with the candy hearts background (how perfect is that?) , the sentiment is part of a $1 stamp that I colored only the words to stamp out, it has a bunch of large hearts too but I didn't want that for this card. The paper is all Stampin Up. I punched out some hearts to decorate the gray strip at the bottom and mounted the sentiment and stamped image on pop dots. The layout is a Splitcoast Stamper's sketch challenge. Yes, you see Stickles on the hearts above the mice :)

I also remade my February calendar page with this stamp because it is so cute!

Simple Little Card

2011-01-31T14:29:00.001-05:00

This card idea was posted in one of my yahoo groups (my as in I am in it, not owner of it) - Scor-pals. It is really quick and easy and actually only 3 x 4.25 in size! I made it pretty simple. Using the coordinating designer paper made it easy, I die cut the flowers and just flipped them over for the different designs. All the supplies are SU. Cute :)

Box with Cards

2011-01-28T19:28:00.001-05:00

So I was searching through Connie and Mary's site a little and found this freebie. Man they are talented! I am very tempted to buy the subscription. Looks like there are projects for 5 weeks. Hmmmmm. well anyway this is a card gift box, there are 4 cards inside and I made the design of the cards and lid different than hers but you get the idea. I had to guess at the score lines, I simply put an envelope about where I figured the bottom of the box would be and figured it out from there. I am handy like that LOL! However I didn't write it down :( I didn't do much stamping and coloring as I wanted this to be short and sweet. The cover actually fits the MFT sketch challenge of this week so I will put it up for that too. So check that blog out, all kinds of goodies there!

Box and Basket

2011-01-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

Here is the box I told you about the other day. The box is going to have Hershey's Kisses in it (like the example) when I find the package in the store that has the red, pink and silver ones for Valentine's Day. So that will fit with the "hugs and kisses" stamp on top! I made the box from a freebie on "Connie and Mary's" Blog. I am not real familiar with them but I saw a blog that posted this box and she was the guest designer and had a link to the directions, which is here. It was pretty easy to make but I think it could be made using less paper. Almost the entire box has double walls. Which I suppose is a good thing if you need it to support something heavier. I only did two layers for the lid, she did three - I think it is a way to sell more SU paper LOL! I don't like to waste :) but then again I tend to be too skimpy so choose your poison as they say. I made this for my hubby so I tried to not make it too feminine or with too many hearts etc. That is about all on the box, I suppose you could decorate the front and sides, maybe put some more designer paper, flowers, die cuts, you know embellish it :) This was my first attempt and it went pretty quick and easy. So there you have it, a nice box you can use for many different types of gifts!

This is another basket like the one I posted a few days ago, made the same way but using some Valentine's paper. I die cut some hearts and flowers and decorated it with them, just wanted to show you another one.

A Challenge Card

2011-01-26T09:45:00.004-05:00

This card was made for the Friday Inspiration Challenge on the Hero Arts Blog. It was a picture of hues of green and blue which looked more or less teal and turquoise to me so that is what I went with. The flower is a stamp set by Hero Arts and I used water color paper and ink with a water brush. Really quite easy. The layout is from Verve, I am not sure if it was a challenge or not but it is an older layout I had in my files. The bird is a Sizzix die that I believe I got from Stampin Up. The paper is all SU. I really like how the black makes the flower stand out and look so bright, I wasn't sure whether to use it or not but it works well I think. I have another project to show you next, a neat little box for Valentines or anything really! Stay tuned :)

Last Calendar Box but different again

2011-01-19T19:02:00.001-05:00

This box has just the little calendar pages inside. I really like this one because of the picture. I made it specially for my friend who loves to go picking shells like I do. I masked the image of the gal and stamped the lighthouse in the background, it is hard to get the right perspective but I think it turned out pretty good. I also used a little shell charm for the drawer pull. That's the last one of these I am sharing, each just a little different :)

Tilda and Her Pets Basket

2011-01-19T17:12:00.004-05:00

Isn't this the cutest little basket? I saw this basket made a while back and recently someone on one of my yahoo card making groups posted hers and I decided to give it a try. Oh my what an easy thing to make! I have seen these with candy in them and I originally saw one that the person put pens and scissors and stuff in it as a desk caddy (no handle on that one). The other thing I am so thrilled about with this is I used my Magnolia Tilda's! I really do not like making cards bigger than A2 sized. I also am not fond of square envelope issues. So that being said the Magnolia stamps are so large you cant do any decorating unless you go bigger on the card size which by the way is what most people do. We know by now I am not most people LOL! So anyway I stamped my images on a piece of paper, put them in my All-In-One printer and copied them at 50%. Printed them out and colored with my Stampin' Up markers. So I stamped them and then shrunk them! I love it! I used Spellbinders dies, Prima flowers, pearls (faux), Stampin' Up paper and the handle- oh! I bought this Martha Stewart punch specifically to do handles on things so I got to use it for this :)

Tilda with a heart

2011-01-17T10:50:00.001-05:00

I am so happy with how this card turned out. I really like the white on white look, I see a lot of cards made that way and I think I will incorporate it more in my cards. I just got this Spellbinder's die - lacey circle and love it! I stamped Tilda on a piece of card stock and then cut out her legs and then put her in the Cuttlebug with a Nesties circle die. Easy peasy :) It used to be called "out of the box" method so that is what I will refer to it as. The tag die is an older Cuttlebug die and the circle stamp is circle of friendship from Stampin Up. I used Stickles on the heart and here is a closeup below. Thanks for stopping by!

Calendar Box for Me

2011-01-16T04:37:00.000-05:00

I made another calendar box, this one for myself! I saw on Becca's blog that she made a different page for each month so I though I would do that this time. So each month has a page that you clip on the box, keeping the rest in the drawer. I tried to keep them all one layer so they would fit in the box, with the exception of my birthday month June :) They aren't my favorite work, just didnt seem to have the right mojo flowing but I picked a couple of the better ones to show here. The ink for the calendar pages are matching the colors in the paper on the box as much as possible. I like making these boxes.

Pretty and Her Puppy

2011-01-14T05:50:00.000-05:00

I kind of went on a splurge and bought several stamps last week. Some stamps I have always wanted and thought impractical for the most part. I dont have girls or have friends who have girls (my BFF does have a girl but she is an adult now..) so I guess these are for me LOL! I just think this one is so pretty, picking flowers (yes, doing the loves me - loves me not thing) and walking along with her puppy. The layout is last week's MFT sketch - I didnt use a MFT stamp because I didnt have one last week. So I didnt join the challenge but still used the sketch because it is kind of cool. It's hard to tell but there is a felt button on the right side and the flower on the left is an idea I got from one of the DT's (design team) card. I used chalks to color this one, some days I like to switch from the water color crayons. Can you see the sparkle on her wing? Yep, you got it, Stickles. It really looks good on this card! I took a close up of it and here is the picture below but it came out blurry, I retook it several times and this is the best one. Hope you like!

MFT Sketch Challenge, MFTWSC2

2011-01-12T14:48:00.004-05:00

Oh I am rockin' these images now! Woo Hoo! I saw a sketch challenge for MFT stamps (My Favorite Things) so I thought I would give it a go and I love how this turned out! I used a 6 x 6 Basic Grey paper pack, spellbinders dies and water color crayons. Stickles in the flowers again :) I love butterflies so I thought for the three in a row I would use my smallest butterfly punch by Martha Stewart. Thanks for looking!

2011-01-11T18:03:00.002-05:00

Isn't she a cutie? This little gal is from My Favorite Things, the first time I have gotten a stamp from them and I ordered two. She is just too cute! Same paper as yesterday's card and I added some heart brads to the bottom. She is colored with water color crayons. As usual I used Stickles, on the hearts on her clothes and the center of her flowers. Today was an "ice" day, no school and the roads too icey to drive on, so I made some cards. I have another one I will share tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by! Be safe out there :)

Lilith and her friends

2011-01-09T20:08:00.002-05:00

I absolutely loved this stamp from the first time I saw it! I finally got it, I didn't before because I couldn't justify a use for it but after still wanting it for more than a year I decided to go for it :) I am not sure what to use it for still but she just cracks me up so much! This is my first card with Lilith. In case you are wondering she is from Kraftin Kimmie. The paper is I think from SU's last year's Sell-a-Bration. The button and ribbon are Stampin Up also. I put Stickles on the frogs, they just seemed like they should be glittery. That's about it! Hope ya like ;)

Calendar Drawer Box

2011-01-02T18:53:00.003-05:00

Isn't this adorable? I just love it, almost didn't give it away. I must make one for myself when I get a chance :) This is for my BFF for her birthday which is near the end of December. I made her birthday card to match. There are little 3x3 cards and envelopes in the drawer as well as a post it note pad and then the calendar on top is held on by a "library" clip (from Tim Holtz but I believe Stampin Up has them also) so you can easily get to the next month. I am sure you have seen these little boxes around, I made this from the Technique Junkies CD I mentioned in one of my recent posts. Very easy and quick to make. The top part of the box where the "F" is lays flat then it props up - it is an easel card on top of the box basically. Thanks for stopping by!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Christmas Card

2010-12-16T10:46:00.003-05:00

Here is a simple Christmas card I made this week. The designer paper is Stampin Up (from last Christmas) and the stamps are those clear Inkadinkadoo ones you see at Michaels and AC Moore. This stamp set has some nice designs in it! It has a beautiful large snowflake, a beautiful Noel word, a neat christmas tree etc. I also used four different spellbinders dies! You can't see it but I used an Atyou Spica glitter pen on the reindeer so it sparkles just a little. The snowflake is punched out of vellum and covered with glitter. I put a rhinestone in the center of it and the ribbon off to the side and done! The layout is a case of this gorgeous card from one of my favorite card makers Denise :) but totally different papers, stamps etc. It doesn't do her card justice! Christmas is only a little over a week away! I better get these in the mail.

Card Organizer Box

2010-12-10T09:09:00.004-05:00

Well these three are done! Wow, it took me 8 hours EACH to make! I had no idea it would take so long, I really love them and thought it was a cool project. The card organizer itself was easy, really! The instructions were clear and straight forward with nice pictures. The details were hard for me. Coming up with 4 different cards, 4 note cards, 4 tags and decorating took me 7 of the 8 hours LOL! As a side note my friend did it in half the time. (Yes, I take too long!) The template and instructions are from Technique Junkies, it is on this CD and I love it! It is full of ideas of different types of cards and such to make, different folds for cards etc. I am a big fan of Pat's CD's, techniques and tutorials she puts together so if you ever need (and who doesnt?) them go to her web-site and subscribe to the Technique Junkies newsletter and or buy one of these CD's! They are great gifts for your crafting friends too :) Yes, that is a plug but no one asked me to do that and I'm not getting anything free for it :) Anyway if you want to make a nice gift for Christmas this is an idea. You could fill it with hot cocoa and tea too. Just a thought. Anyway I am off - sorry it took so long to post but I had no idea I was going to be working on these on and off for over a week! (Creative juices must flow for me to work LOL!)

Cards and note cards

Inside with note cards

A look at the inside opened up

4 cards for set 1

Completed outside

Snowflakes!

2010-12-02T12:40:00.002-05:00

This card is inspired by this card on the Hero Arts blog. That's two I have done! This one is quite a bit different though, I started with the snowflake idea and went from there. I love these colors together, in person the ribbon does match the paper, I don't like how the picture I took made it look different. I am sure it has to do with lighting and such and I haven't really wanted to do the whole light box thing. If I were submitting these for publication (but I won't since they are "cased") then I would be more "professional" about it :) Anyway the die for the big snowflake is from Spellbinders and the small ones are a Martha Stewart punch. I used my new "bow easy" to make this bow, wow it came out good! I am not thrilled with the tool yet, I like the results but I have to fiddle with it a lot. The paper and ribbon, oh and the stamp are Stampin Up.

I am working on a fun little project today, I will post it later this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Lori

Magnolia-licious Christmas Year Round

2010-11-25T02:46:00.004-05:00

First off to the US viewers, Happy Thanksgiving! I have many, many things to be thankful for and one of the things is my blog visitors - I appreciate your viewing my blog!

Welcome to the Magnolia-licious Group Christmas Year Round Blog Hop! If you came from Leonie's blog you are in the right place and next on the hop is Martina's blog. I hope you enjoy all these wonderful Christmas cards! The start of the hop is here.

For this card I was searching for a smaller Tilda stamp and found this one from last year's collection. She looks like she is waiting to open her Christmas presents! I wanted to color her jammies to match the paper using chalks. The paper is Stampin Up and the snowflake punch is from Martha Stewart. The circle and scallop circle are Nestabilities. I used Stickles on the snowflakes and her "wings".

This picture shows the sparkle a bit better -

I love how this ribbon sparkles! It is iridescent ribbon and comes in different colors.

I also love how these snowflakes sparkle too! I punched the snowflake out of the designer paper and then applied the stickles.

Thanks for visiting my little blog, I hope you enjoy the hop and have a Merry Christmas!
Lori

Snow Globe Card

2010-11-22T16:00:00.002-05:00

First I want to apologize for changing my blog again, the green grass just wasn't working with these Christmas cards! Hopefully this is more neutral. Anyway, I made this card about a month ago and forgot to post it! I have these cup things for cards and never used them. I was thinking it would work as a snow globe though. So I hunted for a stamp small enough to fit under it and found this cute older Stampin Up snowman in my stuff. I put some snow crystals in it so you can shake it, no water in this one! The color isn't quite right on my monitor, I hope it doesn't look yellowish on yours. Later I removed the bow, just didn't like it. I will be back on Thursday, Thanksgiving with the Magnolia Christmas card blog hop. See you then, thanks for stopping by!

Love this card!

2010-11-11T11:48:00.002-05:00

The title says it all. My inspiration was this card by Claudia Rosa (the card making genius!) and I just went from there! The paper is Basic Grey Jovial, which I was surprisingly disappointed with this year but if used right it does come out real nice. I just don't like the dark colors and the burgundy etc. just not my taste. However I do love how some of the lighter papers worked on this card! So you just never know :) I was trying to figure out what to do with the wide outer circle around the image, I don't have those circle stamps that make a nice image around like hers so I thought well how about I stamp the other stamp in this Stampin Up stamp in a neutral color and see how the edges of it show under the image. I did have to stamp it a couple times to get it to the edge but I am really happy with how it turned out. Then I used one of the Spellbinders tag dies and it didn't look right the way the curved end stuck out on the paper edge so I cut off the end that stuck out and sort of came up with the ribbon idea :) The button was kind of what do I do with that area down there that she used such a nice bow in sort of thing. My creative process is kind of immature as I have never had any formal training in Art but hey it works, I just struggle so! Off to make more Christmas cards :)

Henry and his Ornament

2010-11-08T15:38:00.001-05:00

My sweet boy, he wanted to make a card just like Mommy's :) So here is my card which I cased the layout and his card below. He wanted it exactly like mine but the scalloped edge was enough to drive me nuts and I didn't want to subject him to it so his is straight-edged. I think he did a great job and I was thrilled to have him make something with me. This stamp is another cutie pie, my dear friend Paula gave it to me, thank you again gal!

Thanks for looking :)

Merry Kiss-Mas

2010-11-05T20:23:00.002-04:00

Before

After

I took a whole day (on and off) to make this card. I kept looking at the card and thinking there was something I didn't like about it. (The first picture, ignore the cut part of the paper, I did that after I removed it to try to still use the paper!) So after going back to it throughout the day I decided it was the blue paper with the red dots that was throwing me off. I actually colored her little shirt to match the paper! So I removed the paper and ended up with the second picture's card. I changed the layer under the image from red to white and added Stickles glitter glue in little dots all around the border. I also used white Stickles on the berries as I realized that Mistletoe berries are white not red! I am happy with it now :) This is such an adorable stamp! I really can only give it to my hubby I guess but I just had to have these cutie pies. So what do you think? Do you like the before card? Just curious, thanks for looking!

Christmas Cardinal

2010-10-31T10:54:00.000-04:00

This card was made using Basic Grey's Wassail paper, still one of my all time favorites. The stamp is Christmas Cardinal, the older of the two cardinal sets Stampin Up came out with in the last few years. The nestabilities frame (cut from two different dies) is on pop dots, the image is colored with chalks or "pastels". I made a mistake though, I used a sponge that apparently had black left on it and I was trying to sponge crumb cake around the cardinal to give it an old paper sort of look and the black came off and ended up making it look more like soot! Other than that I am really happy with this card. I came up with gathering the ribbon width in some because it was too wide and covered my cardinal and it made such a nice look! I think the ribbon is 1 1/4 inches wide. Anyway I taped it down on the back to scrunch it up some. The branches on the bow are sprayed with gold mist which is sparkly and I just couldnt get a good picture to show it. I splurged this time and used a whole bunch of gold beads along the trim on the bottom. Not sure how I am going to get this one in an envelope though! As always, thanks for looking!
Lori

More Pink Christmas

2010-10-25T03:42:00.001-04:00

I made this for the Magnolia-licious all year long Christmas Card Blog Hop, I had to use the pink theme again! I happen to love this shade of pink and since one of Stampin Up's Christmas paper sets has this color it makes me a happy camper :) The layout is a case, not my original design, just wanted y'all to know! The stamp is by Magnolia and I purchased her from Magnolia-licious online store. Isn't she precious?! I used one of the Spellbinder dies for the snowflakes and I usually use wax paper between the die and the paper to help remove the paper with these more intricate designs and it stuck to the pink snowflake. I thought it made a great look! So I adhered the wax paper to the snowflake die cut and it mutes the pink but at the same time it makes it sparkle and catches the light real well. You know I am all about sparkle LOL! I also used Stickles for the snow on the ground and the little spots around the tree in her hands. She is colored with water color crayons. The pink snowflake background is a Cuttlebug folder and the sentiment is on a Nestabilities die. The card is finished off with three pink rhinestone jewels on the bottom. The next stop on the blog hop is here. If you would like to see the the entire list please go to the official blog. Thanks for looking! May you create beautiful things :)

5 Minute Halloween Card

2010-10-22T15:08:00.001-04:00

Spur of the moment I decided to send my oldest son at college a little spare cash and needed to make a Halloween card for him real quick. Like 10 minutes before the mailman got here! So looking back on this now I can see where I would have liked to put another layer but hey, he isn't going to care about the card! I wonder if he will even look at it LOL! Used the Basic Grey Halloween paper, my younger son's bat punch again and a Spellbinders tag die.I just drew in the lines on both to give them a little more oomph. This paper is hand picked for him because it has skulls and cats! He has a black cat well because he likes all this stuff. Not me but this paper is kind of cool. Sponged some of the kiwi kiss ink on the Happy part of the sentiment. That's about it, quick and simple!

Happy Halloween "Batty Bat" Tilda

2010-10-20T20:37:00.004-04:00

I purchased several cute Halloween Magnolia stamps last year in thoughts of making some cute cards this year. I haven't done it! Ugh! So I pulled out this one, haven't used it before and well she is kind of cute :) I used the Magnolia moon with bats stamp first and then ended up (rather than masking and that whole mess) I stamped her, colored and cut her out and put the image on pop-dots. I used chalks to color but felt that the purple just needed some pizzazz so I pulled out my twinkling H2O's and colored the purple in with them. Very sparkly! It really added the life this card needed. The paper is my favorite Halloween paper set and it is by Nikki Sivils. The ribbon is actually glittery, in black and it looks good in person but here it doesnt show the sparkle. Oh and I cant forget, I used my son's "batty bat" (his name for bats!) punch for the bats behind the main image. I think I have now used it more than him, lol! Thanks for looking and Happy Halloween!

Pink Christmas Tree

2010-10-15T13:13:00.001-04:00

OH my gosh I LOVE this card!!! It is a full on case of a card posted on the Hero Arts blog today (Hero Arts card here) that I just loved and then had to make it. I didn't have the pink polka dot paper so I used the Stampin' Up Christmas paper from the mini of which I happen to have a pink button and pink hemp string so rather than making the tree green, I made it pink! I used a Stampin' Up Christmas tree stamp but I really like the Hero Arts one, might have to get it. I didn't have the white lacy frame stamp (but may just have to get it also, my list is growing!) that she used on her card so I punched the edge of the pink card stock and used it instead. Actually I added a pink cardstock layer under the polka dot paper too because it just needed it :) Anyway I bought this paper set because I love the shades of pink and blue it has in it but am not super-fond of the little characters it has. I mean they are cute but they don't match most of my stamps and I don't want to buy that stamp set that goes with it. Looks like I might find uses for the paper otherwise. We will see, I might make at least one card showing the little guys. (To see what I am talking about click here and then go to page 32: Stampin' Up mini I am not a demo but if you need one I know of one you can order from of course. Hope you are inspired by the Hero Arts card and maybe mine ;)

Halloween Card

2010-10-15T06:35:00.000-04:00

Just a simple Halloween card. I wanted to use this spooky tree since I have never used this stamp before (yeah I do have a few of those!) I had the basic idea of what I wanted to use and had it just about put together but couldn't quite get the arrangement to my liking so I asked my good friend Beth and she had a great solution! She came up with cutting the mustard piece into a circle. It amazes me how something so simple just makes the whole thing look put together properly. I never would have thought of that. It was a fun card to make. The rest of the stamps are dollar stamps - you know those clear acrylic stamps you get in the bin at the check out at JoAnn's or some place. I picked up several Halloween ones last year for my son who loves to stamp and make Halloween cards and find I use them a lot myself! Happy Fall :)

Finished Card

2010-10-11T09:21:00.002-04:00

Remember this card? It is now finished! I stamped an older Stampin' Up butterfly stamp with Versamark and used Perfect Pearls powder to color it. I love this stuff, it's been around for years but I don't see it used too much. It is so sparkly and I like how it has two shades to it depending on how the light hits it. It is super easy to use too, no water or mixing with water or anything like that, just a dry brush dipped in the powder and swiped over the versamarked image. It stays on pretty well unless you rub it a lot which you can spray with hairspray or clear acrylic spray if you seriously feel the need, I never have. I like how it came out but boy it took me an hour to find a stamp to use with it! I think I need to decide what stamp to use first then pick the paper LOL! Have a great day!

Masculine card

2010-09-28T07:45:00.001-04:00

I saw this card on either Splitcoast or a blog and thought now that is a perfect masculine birthday card! I had a similar map stamp and some ribbon close enough and a button and birthday stamp similar so here it is almost an exact CASE! Very fast card to make and I just think it is cool :) Oh and yes, that is a stamp, I used crumb cake ink on crumb cake card stock and it almost looks like a picture I just adhered to the card front. I think it is a cool effect. The brown card stock layer and the birthday ink is early espresso. The card base is vanilla.

Work in Progress

2010-09-24T19:42:00.000-04:00

Here is a card I started today, worked on it on and off as I had a minute here and there. I just can't decide what stamp to use for the image! So here it sits, a work in progress. Nothing is glued down, just cut. Hmmmm. Come on back when I post the finished card!