Valentine's Day

Guess it was two days ago, but I really haven't had a chance to load these until now. Anastasia told me I need to update my blog, so I thought now would be a good time to do that.

Just a quick list of the Valentine cards & boxes I made this year:

For Anastasia, who announced that she's "liking the shabby vintage look" this year.

For Sophia, who probably likes vintage, but I have to make something deliciously pink for someone, and she is the lucky (!) recipient.

For Ziggy, who can care less about the actual card, because he just wants to eat the 2 Ghiradelli chocolates that are in the envelope.



For Peter. This one is actually from Pippin and me. It was inspired by this stamp from Unity: the look on the dog's eyes is just like the one Pippin gives us when she's being miffly.For Abby, our neighbor. Just a little goody bag with candy.

And these didn't go to anyone (yet). Kathryn showed us how to make a drawer-style box and rolled flowers.



I'm not sure if Anastasia thought this one was cute or not. I was in a kraft and pink mood, so made this. The flowers add a bit of height to the card, so I don't think it can be mailed.

Guess it's time to put all the Valentine's Day card stuff away now. I might color a few more images first, though.

Happy Birthday

Sunshine again today! I thought I'd post a happy card today in honor of our 2 days of sunshine (it's a big deal out here in the Northwest). It's also a cause to photograph some cards without artificial light.

I made this one with Whiff of Joy's "Henry with Muffin." Something about Henry just makes me smile. And he is also super fun to color.


Had to add some stickles to the cupcake top, for Anastasia.


SUPPLIES:
Paper.....Solar White (Neenah), Sunflower (Prism), Teal (Unknown), Thrift Shop (October Afternoon)
Stamps.....Henry with Muffin (Whiff of Joy), Birthday Wishers (Amuse)
Ink..........Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Misc........Classic and Scalloped circle nestabilities (Spellbinders), border punch (EK Success), Diamond Stickles, Copic markers

It's Been A While....

....since I last posted. Actually, it's been over a year.Too much happened to explain in a short space, so I think I'll just move on, and start with today:

A Good Day, even for a Monday :)

It's a bit cloudy today, and there is Monday Night Football tonight, so that puts me in a Fall mood. Here are a few Fall cards I made with my PTI "Vintage Picnic" stamps; I {heart} this set!


SUPPLIES:
Paper....Kraft (Speckletone), Solar White, Natural White (Neenah), Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado (PTI), Jack Stripe (Reminisce), Mellow (BasicGrey)
Stamps.....Vintage Picnic & Vintage Picnic Sentiments (PTI)
Ink.....Tuxedo Black (Memnto)
Misc....Classic & Scalloped square nestabilities (Spellbinders), Jute (May Arts), yellow satin (Michaels), Copics

Quick Notes

Every year around this time, my husband and I have the same conversation:

Me: "What should we have for Easter Dinner?"
Steve: "I don't know, what did we have last year?"
Me: "I don't know...was it ham and something else?"
Steve: "I don't know...probably..."

So, a couple of years ago, I started writing down the "menu." Nothing fancy, just a hand-written list of foods we ate for Easter, plus the days that I started preparing them, and other newsy tidbits. I wanted to write on something other than plain, white paper, so I used some cute note cards I got from Target. These cards really make me smile: pinks and greens, flowers, mixed patterns.

Then I put the card, plus the recipes in a page protector. I guess it could go in a binder (what my mom would want me to do), but I just stuff this packet in one of our 4 Easter Decoration boxes. It's just what I do because it works for me.
I was looking at the notecards this year, and realized that I could actually make a cute one with some of my new Making Memories "Flower Patch" papers and my Fiskars lace border punch. No stamping on this one. These patterned papers are so springy and really make me smile!
I put some DP on the inside, too, just like my pre-printed ones...
I suppose that if I wanted everything tidy, I would use a fancy computer font and print out our menu for the inside of the card. But I don't like everything tidy (just come visit our house sometime, and you'll know what I mean). So, I just quickly hand-write it. Here's the inside of this year's notecard:
Then I put all the cards and recipes in a new page protector, and it went in the Easter Decoration Box. It's like a little bouquet, waiting to give me a blast of springtime smiles next year.

Lockhart February Sketch

I finally finished this month's sketch over at "Fans of Karen Lockhart" on PCP. It was kind of fun, but a little difficult for me. The biggest hurdle for me was using blue...I just don't get happy with blue; I know a lot of people love it, but I really have a hard time with it.

I made this card with my kids' art teacher in mind. She loves blue, and most of her house has blue in it...so I just thought of her while I made it, and it made coloring so much easier....

For some fun, I stamped & colored 3 Itty Bitty apples and applied Glossy Accents to them. I cut them out, then glued them to the lower right of the card...you know, because teachers like apples? The sentiment was computer-generated and I wanted it to look like a tab on a file folder.
SUPPLIES:
Stamps...Pencils, IB apple (Lockhart)
Ink....Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper...Natural White (Neenah), Blue Awning (K & Co.), dark blue (Martha Stewart?)
Copics...YG03, YG91, E55
Prismacolor pencils...violet blue, lt. cerulean blue, cream
Misc....sentiment (AFL Nonmetric font), Glossy Accents (Ranger), dimensionals, rectangle & Labels 1 Nesties (Spellbinders)


I just realized that most of my posts start with a close-up of my card, followed by the entire card...that's getting a bit predictable, so I'll try to not do that next time :) Just for variety, you know...

CPS 104

This is the first time I've done a CPS sketch...I check their sketches every week, but I never seem to get any done.

This card was inspired by the gloomy weather we are having, and somehow, PTI's Summer Sunrise paper reminds me of a delicious, sunny day.

SUPPLIES:
Stamps...sun (Inkadinkado "Blossoms" mega pack from Costco)
Ink....Thatched Straw, Mango Madness, Persimmon (VersaMagic Chalk Ink)
Paper...Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart (PTI), Solar White (Neenah)
Misc....Clear (Atyou Spica), computer generated sentiment, Labels trio (Nestabilities), corner rounder punch, Scor-Pal

Anastasia's Baptism

Saturday was Anastasia's baptism! She's my yellow girl, so I wanted to make a card that was mostly yellow to celebrate the occasion.

I have to laugh at this one, because I originally intended to make a yellow card with black accents, because I think that combination is really striking...but I had this shimmery yellow-gold paper that was screaming to be used, so I just had to use it. I completely copied the card design from Debbie Olson's card here. Once again, I am so thankful that people are willing to share their designs online; it helps so much when I can't figure out what to make!

You can't really tell from the photo, but the paper is so shimmery! I added some Liquid Pearls to accent the ends of the cross, and a bling for the center (I didn't have enough rhinestones for the entire cross, so I just did the center)
SUPPLIES:
Stamps....Everyday Blessings (PTI)
Ink....Noir (Palette)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah), shimmery yellow gold (unknown manufacturer, from LSS)
Misc...Liquid Pearls, yellow bridal ribbon (Joann's), dimensionals
This photo was taken during the reception afterwards...her youth group leader gave her the prettiest rose...

Sparkle Makes the Heart Grow Fonder...

A few more Valentines...just some I made for my other kids. I found a neat website that has free! vintage images, so I just downloaded some of those and printed them out for cards. I was in a hurry, so I didn't make the images smaller, and ended up making fairly large Valentine cards (which isn't a huge deal, since I'm not mailing these guys).

These are really easy cards, that have a WOW effect just by adding glitter to the mat. It is best to glitter up the mats on like-colored cardstock (which I forgot to do this time, and it took so many coats of glitter to hide all the white paper)...it also is a good idea to do the glitter process the day before card assembly (to give the glue time to dry)...

Peter's card (5 x 7"):
SUPPLIES: Paper...Wild Cherry (PopTone); Glitter...Garnet (Martha Stewart); Misc...Embossed Floral Vines border sticker (K&Co.), red ribbon (stash)

Sophia's card ( 5.5 x 8")...
SUPPLIES: Paper...Rose Light (Prism), Solar White (Neenah); Ribbon...Pink Blush (PTI), Glitter...Rose Quartz (Martha Stewart); Ink...Pixe Dust on edge of border (Versamagic chalk); Misc...Lace Border punch (Martha Stewart), Wavy blade on my paper cutter

Finally, Anastasia's card...she LOVES yellow, and I found a vintage print that was yellow; too exciting!...
SUPPLIES (card size 5.25 x 7.5"): Paper...Sunflower Medium (Prism); Glitter...Yellow Barite (Martha Stewart); Ribbon...bridal ribbon Joann's)

They loved the sparkle. The layout of the cards is so basic and easy to put together, but by adding glitter, it makes it such a "Happy, Wow" card...

Okay, so today was Valentine's Day, and it being the weekend, seemed weird (we do more with it when it's during the week for some reason). I'm still kind of tired from surgery and wasn't sure what to do as far as celebrating goes. The kids made cards for everyone (including some stuffed animals), and people brought us dinner (with 2 desserts!). I wasn't sure what Ziggy wanted to do, since he is 15 now.

What he wanted most was to look through our Valentine collection, which is 2 boxes filled with different hearts (paper, wood, stone, boxes, etc). Hearts are his favorite shape, and even at 15, he still loves to took at them; so that's what he did...here's a photo of him looking at a heart book (I made it for him when he was 4 years old, and he still loves it)...

I guess that's all you really need on Valentine's Day: a box full of hearts to look at...

Although chocolate is good too...

Piano Teacher's Valentine

Quick post today, because I'm late...this morning I realized we hadn't made a valentine for the kids' piano teacher...not usually a big deal, but she is actually the person who got us interested in papercrafting, so it seemed appropriate to make her a card. Now, she's not really in to patterned paper cards, and she seems to like pastels. I thought it would be neat for each of us to decorate a heart and put it on the front of the card in a row...

Now, the hearts are made with my Martha Stewart punch, and 4 hearts in a row is kind of long, so this ended up being a non-standard sized card (not a big deal since we will hand deliver it today during piano lessons); finished size is 4.25" x 7"...

So, from left to right, we have a heart designed by Peter (red & pink w/ Sakura stardust pen), Sophia (diamond stickles), Anastasia (pearls, each one glued on individually), and me (tee hee, it's a leftover heart from previous projects). Ziggy doesn't take lessons from her, so he didn't have to make a heart :)

I think she'll like it, even thought the colors are a bit different. Yes, it kind of has a baby shower look to it, but she likes the lighter stuff, so there you go...Hope the Stickled heart dries quickly, because we have to go to piano lessons soon (please dry, Stickles, you can do it!)

SUPPLIES:
Paper...Razzleberry, Wild Cherry, Cotton Candy (PopTone), Pink Carnation (Martha Stewart), Solar White (Neenah), Yellow (stash)
Misc....swiss dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), Heart punch (Martha Stewart), threading water punch (Fiskars), Sakura stardust pen, diamond Stickles, string of pearls from Michael's, white paint pen, dimensionals, fuschia satin ribbon (stash)

Sweet Valentine Peas

I decided to try and make one more Valentine before the weekend...I used my Peapod of Hearts stamp again, but this time I tried to make it a bit more sparkly and sweet. I guess the sparkliest part is the matting behind the image: I cut out a Labels 1 mat, coated it with tacky glue, and drenched it in some Martha Stewart Rose Quartz glitter. That didn't seem sparkly enough, so I did a 2nd coat of glitter.

I wish you could see the ribbon in real life...it is really shimmery, and is made of green and raspberry fibers; the photo doesn't show the shimmer.

I wanted some bling, but am out of pink jewels, so I used some dew drops...

Had to do something for the inside, so used some leftover hearts from yesterday's card, paired with a $1 stamp I bought at Michael's last year:
Easy Peasy!!!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps...Peapod of Hearts, Sentiment (Lockhardt); inside sentiment (Michael's $1 bin), polka dot backgrounder (CHF)
Ink...Versamark, Tuxedo black (Memento)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah), RazzleBerry & Cotton Candy (PopTone)
Misc...Labels 1 (Spellbinders), heart punch (Martha Stewart), threading water punch (Fiskars), ribbon (May Arts), rose quartz & garnet glitter (Martha Stewart), clear dew drops, white paint pen

Valentine Peas, Country Style

Okay, finally got Mom & Dad's Valentine card done! I made it on Kraft so it wouldn't be too girly for Dad.

Mom & Dad love gardening (especially vegees in the summer), so I thought the Peapod of Hearts image was perfect for them! I kind of messed up on the polka dots, but they'll forgive me. Finally go a chance to use my Scor-Pal and Labels 1 Nesties on it (Christmas presents from dh!)...the vine ribbon is May Arts from a craft store, and I dressed it up by attaching punched hearts with jump rings (found in the beading section at Joann's).

For the inside I punched out some Martha Stewart hearts, and doodled on some dots and dashes for fun:

Peter said he's glad I used Kraft paper on it because" it's like dirt, you know, and the bean is like growing in the garden in the dirt."

SUPPLIES: Stamps...Peapod of Hearts, Peas Be Mine (Lockhart); "valentine" (Inkadinkado mega pack from Costco); Polka Dot BG (CHF)
Ink...Tuxedo black (Memento), New Canvas (Palette)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah); Kraft (PTI);RazzleBerry, Cotton Candy (PopTone); green (stash)
Misc...Labels 1 (Spellbinders), ScorPal, Heart punch for inside hearts (Martha Stewart); vine ribbon (May Arts); jump rings (Darice), Copics (R81, R83, YG13, YG21), Pen-Touch white pen

Stamp Something Valentine Challenge

This week at Stamp Something, the challenge is to make something for your Valentine...so I thought I'd show the one I made for my daughter, Anastasia. She loves yellow and dogs, so that's where I got the color scheme. The DP was just scraps I had, and the stamps are from Amuse.

This is the first time I've done the challenge at Stamp Something, so I hope I'm doing it correctly...

Thanks for stopping by!

PTI Bitty Dot Sketch challenge

Well, I'm still recovering from surgery, so can't do much in the way of papercrafting, but I couldn't resist this one from PaperTrey...after I took the photo, I realized I cut the base for the hearts crooked, but I'm too sore to do it over; hope that's okay...

I just had to put the 3 brads at the top left...Ziggy likes them there, and when they are arranged that way, they form a Braille "L"...for "Love"...

SUPPLIES: Stamps...Mixed Messages (PTI), Polka Dot BG (CHF); Ink...Moonlight White (Brilliance); Paper...Kraft, Berry Sorbet (PTI), Wild cherry, Razzle Berry (PopTone), Black Small Dots (MM); Misc...heart punch (Martha Stewart), Threading water border punch (Fiskars), white brads (LSS)

Christmas Remnants

I haven't been able to make any cards this week, so thought I'd post one that I made last month for my son's bus driver...I must have been in a scalloped border/image lower right mood, because it looks like the same layout as yesterday's card...oh well, I still like it, and made a few more to have ready for next year...


SUPPLIES: Stamps...Mouse (Art Impressions); Ink...Noir (palette); Paper...Solar white (Neenah), red (stash), Vellum (PTI); Misc...ribbon (KI Memories), snowflake punches (green Marvy, Martha Stewart), Stickles (Stardust & Diamond), Copics, Prismacolor pencils, OMS, blending stumps, Classic square Nesties, threading water border punch (Fiskars), Snowflakes folder (Cuttlebug),

December Birthdays...

Okay, so this card was obviously done last month, but I didn't want to post it until I was absolutely sure my sister-in-law received it...she has a mid-December birthday, so thought I'd do a holly-type card for her. I used Ellen Hutson's stamp-of-the-month (for December 2008) idea. Really easy and fun card to make...


And for the inside, I printed this using Curlz MT font on my computer:


SUPPLIES: Stamps....Holly Cupcake (Lockhart), Pretty Pattern BG (CHF); Paper...Meadow, Chili Pepper (Memory Box), Solar White (Neenah), Jonquil (Martha Stewart); Ink...Noir (Palette), Versamark; Ribbon (May Arts); Classic circle Nesties; Threading Water border punch (Fiskars); Clear EP...COPICS: YG21,YG63, YG67, YG91, R20, R27 (basically the ones recommended by Ellen here )

My Little Chickadees....

Anastasia informed me that I have not posted to my blog in a few days, and that instead of playing a mindless video game, I should spend my time in a more productive way...Okay, my little chickadee, here we go:


This was a fun and easy card made with my Inkadinkado Christmas birds. I used versamark and sparkly gold embossing powder for the image (regular gold gives better coverage, though). Image was cut with Labels 2 nesties and I used a gold paint pen along the edges. DP is Basic Grey Wassail. The snowflakes were punched with Martha Stewart punch, using leftover "messed up" paper from my parents' 50th anniversary card (I had embossed it and put gold perfect pearls on it, and it looked BAAD).

I don't know what kind of bird it is, but it reminds me of a chickadee...

And here are my other chickadees, basking in the glory of springtime flowers (okay, flower garlands at Michael's the other day, but we can pretend).


Was this post okay, Anastasia? Now to get back to my video game...I'm almost to level 6, then I get absolutely nothing for winning!

Mom & Dad's 50th Anniversary

Last month was Mom & Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. It seems like I did this project forever ago, and can't believe it took me so long to post it...

I wanted to do something fun for their anniversary gift, since they've been a bit run-down with my Dad's cancer treatments. I knew I couldn't visit them until after Christmas, so thought I'd send sort of an "anniversary care package" filled with gold & wedding-ish things.

First, the card...didn't turn out like I wanted, and looks kind of like a typical card after all that work. I did make it as big as I could, so the finished size is 5.75" x 8.5". Construction is pretty straight-forward. The ivory paper is actually a pearlized paper that I embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and it has a cute shimmer to it.

Sorry about the photo: I finished this project up late at night and had to get it out in the mail the next day, so I couldn't get a great picture...


Next, Anastasia and I made a little remembrance gift: For the last 18 months, this quote from C.S. Lewis has been floating thru my head. Ever since Dad got sick again, I realized how absolutely precious each event with someone is. A few months ago, my dad said that he didn't want a big anniversary celebration because "fifty years is pretty commonplace, and not really a big deal." HA! It is a big deal to me, and wanted him to see what 50 years is, and each year's anniversary is the sum of the previous ones.

So we made this jar full of 50 wedding rings. On each ring is a tag with a year written on it (by Anastasia). Then a label on the outside. Really simple project. The hardest part was finding a jar that looked acceptable. After shopping all afternoon for one, I told Anastasia that it was a dumb idea, and we should forget it. She said, "No, let's get the heart bottle because anniversaries are about love." How cool is it to have your 12 year old daughter help you out like that?
Here's a close-up of the inside, because I can see Anastasia's cute printing of all the 50 years:
I wanted Mom to get giddy, like a new bride might be, so I made her a bouquet. I know it's not like her actual wedding bouquet, but I'm not too talented in the flower arranging department, so this is it. White roses, white tulle, and gold ribbon.
I also put some silly stuff in the care package: Anastasia and I found two old 50th anniversary plates at a thrift store, so I thought those would be fun. Then I got a 50th wedding cake topper and adhered it to a revolving/lighted base (from Michael's, with a coupon on 2 separate weeks, oh yeah). My parents are both diabetic, so I didn't want to send a cake, but at least they could have the fun topper!

All these were wrapped pretty, and put in a box that I had lined with a few yards of shiny gold fabric. I made a bunch of tulle bows (like the kind you would put on the ends of aisles in the church for the wedding) to fluff up the box. I threw in a few handfuls of Bride's ivory flower confetti, then carefully covered it all with the remaining fabric. I just wanted it to be an outburst of sparkly wishes when they opened the package. Before I sealed the box, I printed out "Happy Anniversary" in Chopin Script on ivory cardstock in the largest sized font on my computer, and put this on top of all fabric."This moment contains all moments." I still get teary-eyed when I read that. From 18 months ago, when they said he wouldn't live 6 more months, to now, when he and his bride celebrated 50 years together...December 13, 2008 contains those moments, and so many more...it is a big deal; a HUGE deal.

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

The Big One-Oh

No way: my baby is 10? How did that happen? It seems like just yesterday that I was holding this little one...


Well, December 18 came, and this year it meant that Peter was turning 10 years old...he's in the double digits now; very exciting. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to make a very exciting card for him.

Peter has always been my Mighty Warrior, ready to defend me, so I thought I'd make him a knight-ish kind of card. Since I didn't need to mail it, I was free to make whatever card size I wanted...yay!! This one is 5.25 x 6.25, and single layer...sorry, Peter.

I used a cute Amuse stamp for the front:



The Inside was printed with Old English Text font, then I drew in the pole and flag with a black pen. I just had to add something sparkly, so I used a glitter gold gel pen for the flag fringe, and outlined the card with my Sakura glitter pen.
Happy 10th birthday, Peter!!!