Going Away

Hey Guys! I am going up to St. Louis in the a.m. to Six Flags and then to see some stuff in the city until Sunday. I have a bunch of great posts scheduled, but sometimes that doesn't work for me, so I hope they go through!

I will 'leave' you with this sweet little card I made. I stamped the owl on patterned paper with versamark, heat embossed him, cut him out, punched out the eyes, and added him to white cardstock over top of the same image, I cut that out and popped it off a craft card. The flourish on the left was stamped with clear embossing powder and the letters are Foam Thickers.

Coffee in July

Yahooooo! I am drinking coffee....and that is exciting. I don't know what the weather has been like for you, but the past few weeks in Missouri have been extremely hot. I gave up my morning coffee and replaced it with an ice cold Pepsi!!! Today it is raining and cool, so I am enjoying a nice, hot cup of joe. And, the lighting on my porch is perfect for photographing cards! Yay!! I have several new cards to show you!

First, I don't know what your desk looks like....but no matter what I do, mine is always a crazy jumbled mess of paper scraps, loose embellishments, my favorite tools, stamped images, pieces of ribbon, and piles of junk!


This week I challenged myself to use a couple of 4X4 card bases and create as many little cards as possible with the things I found laying on my desk. Aside from a couple of sentiments, I didn't have to stamp any of the images, they were already stamped, they just needed a home!




Finally, a masculine thank you card!! This stamp set (Alfresco) is new to me, but I ordered off my website in June just to get a free set of rubons...I was super excited to use it! It came in the mail yesterday!

Finally, some play time!

Wow! My blog candy prize arrived on Friday and I am just now getting to play around with it. Lisa sent me the most wonderful package of ribbon and an awesome stamp set. I remember seeing a great tutorial using the stamp set featuring embossing and a brayer...I will have to look around for it...hopefully I can find it and make something equally as beautiful. My favorite part of the prize is the ribbon! A girl can never have enough. This wonderful stash found a home in this cute little jar!



Lisa also sent me this great card!! I love it, the layers are beautiful!!




Tonight was one of my first nights in my craft room in almost 2 weeks so I made a sweet little card using some of the ribbon. I also spent some time getting ready for my swap club on Thursday. I will be posting my cards and projects for that soon.




I decided to post a couple of fun little butterfly cards and make this one ginormous post with tons of goodies. These are great because I stamped on some watercolor paper.


HEADS UP ABOUT A PHOTO TUTORIAL

And by the way....seriously check out this tutorial on white balance. I figured out that I can do the same maneuvers in my iPhoto program....it is super easy and I don't even have to open Photoshop! It has made a huge difference in my photos already!!

I hope that you notice the difference and it will improve the quality of my blog overall. All of the photos in this post have been altered...because they were almost all taken tonight!

This is a pair of my favorite spring/summer shoes. I used it as a practice picture. The one on the bottom is the one that has the white balance adjusted...the one on the top is a normal photo that I probably would've used on my blog.



OOh!! And before I forget, I am a winner over at Simply Creating! Krista chose my card for the May challenge!! I just love the Treetops stamp set and I used it on this card for the challenge.

Okay, that is enough for tonight. I have been feeling pretty inspired lately. I think we are going camping this weekend so I will have to try to get some crafting in this week!

I may not have said this lately, but thank you for all the sweet comments on my blog. Every time I get a compliment it pushes me to work harder and do more. My 'one little word' for this year is INSPIRE. You inspire me with your comments, thank you...I hope that I can inspire you with my ideas and information. Also, I haven't forgotten about the blog awards....just been busy! Thanks for the sweet awards girls!!

Spring Thank you Card

I got a new stamp set last week and I was excited to use it over the weekend while trying out some new techniques I learned.

The first one is from scrapbook.com. In the video, I watched someone used the reverse side of a clear stamp. Hmmm....cool. First, I used Versamark, sweet leaf ink and clear embossing powder for the green stems and leaves. Then I stamped the reverse side of flower with 2nd generation blush ink and then the normal side, I used full ink. I added tulip ink for the smaller flower in the center. I wiped off the embossed green areas because they resisted the ink, keeping the green and pink from mixing.



The second one is from the Cosmo Cricket blog. I learned how to wrap embroidery thread around a 'snot dot' to make the middle of a flower. I also added a button, but I covered it with the little butterfly in the middle. I used a punch for the flower, and curled the petals up with my fingernail. I 'grounded' the flowers by using a blending pen in some brown ink. I also used a 1" circle punch on the edge of the colonial white cardstock to add some visual interest.

The paper, stamps and ink are Close to My heart. The butterfly punch is Martha Stewart.

Baby Shower Gift for Jill

I decided to make a baby gift for a friend. She is not into scrapbooking or card making at all. I invited her to a workshop at my house and she actually said, "I don't really want to come make something because I will probably just throw it away..." Eeeek!! I cannot imagine throwing away something that is handmade, especially if I made it. I would rather give it away!! I make LOTS of cards.

Last weekend I woke up feeling generous so I put out a bunch of cards in a basket at a crop and only charged for them at a donation...some people gave me a dollar or two for each card...I know I could've sold them on Etsy for at least $4 a card, but I donated all the money to a local children's organization. It felt good to give the money to a charity and give the cards to people who appreciate handmade things.

You might be wondering why I would make a handmade gift for a friend who may or may not appreciate it...well, I can't knit and I can't sew, but I want to do something from the heart.....This is my best bet. I made her a memory keeper box with the baby's name on the top. She isn't super sentimental, but she may have little things from his birth that she wants to save. I also covered a chipboard peek-a-boo album with matching paper so she could stick some pictures in it.

Finally, I stamped a few thank you cards and envelopes for her to use after all the baby showers.


All of the paper, inks and stamps are Close to My Heart. I used a few buttons and chipboard letters from my stash. I tried to distress and ink the book to make it look like it would be perfect for a rough and tumble boy....I also went with colors that might match her house. This is the perfect memory keeper box because it will slide right into a bookshelf and she can write his name on the back edge as a label.

** EDITED: By the way, yes my friend's name is Jill and her husband is Jack...and their baby will be Jack Eugene IV.....SOOO CUTE!!

Baby Shower Gift

I've been working on a baby shower gift all weekend! This gift is for a teacher at school, she is expecting her first baby. This is a set of 12 thank you cards with envelopes, seals and a gift box. I got the box template here.

This paper is from Close to My Heart, it is the Aspen paper pack. I used mostly Twilight ink and the stamp set is 'Into the Wild'. I really wanted to stamp the little lion to match the outfit and shoes that I got for her, but the lion is missing!! I searched all over the house, but he is totally lost. I decided to use the elephant and the monkey instead. I stamped the leaves, monkey's head, and elephant head, cut it out and used pop dots to raise it up.