Vintage 21st birthday

Hello Friends!
Welcome back to another post!  It seems I have been absent for quite some time, mostly haven't had any "me" time to create anything to share.  I am quite proud of this card (my fiance says it is the best card I have done yet ;)).  I was trying to get inspired to make the perfect card for a friend of mine that just turned 21.  She is such a fabulous person, so I wanted to wow her and make her feel as special as she really is.  I spent lots of time trying to come up with the perfect color combination and with the right touch.  I finally decided to try my hand at vintage, and this is what I came up with.  For the background, I used the acrylic distress technique (I have been dying to try this for months and I'm glad I finally had an excuse!), using Pool Party card stock, I ran it through my Big Shot using the Lacy Brocade embossing folder.  Next, I painted the entire piece with off white acrylic paint and let it dry completely.  I sanded it, trying to be careful not to bend the card stock, to get off some of the paint from the raised parts on the pattern.  After brushing off the paint dust, I used a distress ink in frayed burlap (similar to Soft Suede) to cover the card stock to fill in the sanded areas.  I then wet a paper towel and went over the card stock to remove any excess distress ink.  I layered scalloped tulle ribbon in Crumb Cake on top of the acrylic distress background.  Using the Everything Eleanor stamp set I stamped the tag background for the number in Pool Party, and added some Crochet Trim Victoria lace ribbon with an Antique Brad to it.  For the flowers, I stamped each flower on Very Vanilla card stock twice so I could make them 3-dimensional using dimensionals, and finished each one with a pearl in the center.  I stamped the 21 with Memorable Moments set and cut them out by hand (note: I had a really hard time with this and I am thinking about investing in an Exacto knife).

Well, that is it for now.  I wish everyone a very Happy Holiday season and a wonderful and prosperous New Year!

Another Pintrest CASEing

Hello Everyone!  It has been a nice, relaxing Sunday for me and I am excited to have had time to create another card to share with you today.  Since I have been working a lot and trying to get ready for my new job (Yay!!), I have not had much time to do anything creative.  I did spend some time on Pintrest this past weekend and found a beautiful card, and the easy tutorial at http://www.frenchiestamps.com/ .  Frenchie makes such beautiful cards and she really is great at teaching you her techniques! 

My take on this card is...

I used Raspberry Ripple as the base and mattes for the card, and Very Vanilla card stock for the stamped parts of the card.  The rose and leaves were stamped in Raspberry Ripple and Crumb Cake, respectively, and are from the stamp set Papaya Collage.  I have to admit, this is the first time I have used this set because I have been waiting for inspiration.  The sentiment 'happy birthday' is stamped in Raspberry Ripple and is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.  I felt that my card was missing something, so I added a little bling by attaching rhinestones to the center of each of the roses. 

Thank you for stopping by today!  I wish you a fantastic day and hope you have time to craft and spend time with the ones you love!

Pintrest CASEing for a birthday

Good afternoon everyone!  It is Saturday afternoon and I am being lazy since I have this weekend off.  I am posting this a little later than planned, but these days I am lucky to get my posting in when I can.  It was a friend's birthday this past Tuesday and I thought I would make her a birthday card to brighten her day since she had to work.  I found a card with a bookmark on Pintrest and the original card and tutorial are here.  I absolutely loved this card combo with a bookmark and wanted to make a million of them! 
For this bookmark I used 2012-2014 In Color Primrose Petals card stock matted with First Edition Specialty card stock.  I stamped the flower using the Mixed Bunch stamp set, then used the matching punch to cut it out.  I attached 5/8" Crochet Trim ribbon to the back of the flower using an Antique Brad, and used the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack to punch some scrap Primrose Petals card stock to layer under the Bitty Buttons matching shapes to attach to the bookmark.
The card was a bit more simple.  The card base was Soft Suede card stock cut to 4 1/4" by 11" then folded in half.  The second layer was Primrose Petals card stock cut to 4 1/8" by 5 1/4", and the final layer was from the DSP Fan Fair cut to 4" by 5 1/8".  Using the same Crochet Trim ribbon, I used a piece to wrap the last two layers together, then used some to make a bow.  I attached the wrap and the bow using Snail adhesive. 
Thank you for stopping by today!  I hope you have a wonderful day and find time to craft!

Birthday in Razzleberry

Good Morning!  I am finally able to post this birthday card I made for Stephen's mom (my soon-to-be mother-in-law!) that I created Sunday.  I sent out this card with her gift for her birthday yesterday which should arrive at her house today.  This is pretty amazing because I am always late sending gifts/cards out, and her birthday is actually on Thursday!  I really had fun with this card, not only because it is for a special person, but also because I got to use so much of my new stuff!

The base of this card is Soft Suede card stock, an 8 1/2" by 11" piece of card stock cut in half width wise.  I used River Rock card stock as my second layer or matte for my main card area cut 1/8" shorter on each side.  My third layer is Rich Razzleberry cut 1/8" smaller than my second layer of River Rock card stock.  I used International Bazaar DSP for the fourth layer (more like half layer) cut to the same length and half of the width of the Razzleberry layer.  I used my Big Shot and Labels Collection Framelits to cut the frame design out of River Rock card stock.  I stamped the sentiment using Elementary Elegance (a stamp set from Sale-A-Bration 2012) and Rich Razzleberry Classic Ink, then used one of the circle stamps from the Mixed Bunch stamp set in VersaMark ink all over the frame.  Next, I used a sponge and more Rich Razzleberry Classic Ink to accentuate the edge of the frame.  Before attaching the frame to the card, I used 5/8" Crochet Trim (the lace-looking ribbon) to cover the seam and 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon in Rich Razzleberry (a now retired ribbon).  I attached the frame using Stampin' Dimensionals and also used them to attach the butterflies.  For both butterflies, I used the Papillon Potpourri stamp set.  The top butterfly was stamped with Rich Razzleberry ink, punched out with the new Elegant Butterfly punch (an immediate must-have for me), and I added three rhinestones down the middle.  The bottom butterfly was stamped with VersaMark ink and I put gold embossing powder, then applied heat using a heat gun to get the pretty gold shiny (which you can't really see from the photo) effect.  I added some ribbon to this butterfly to pull it into the scheme and added a rhinestone just for some extra oompf. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today!  I hope you have an excellent rest of your day, and wish you a fun and creative day!

Hard to say good bye.

Okay! I know, as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I am supposed to let go of the old and move onto the new. But I am having such a hard time this year since so many of my favorites got put on the retired list :( One of my absolute favorites, because I am such an animal lover, was the D is for Dog stamp set. This was a great stamp set because so many people I know have beloved animals, especially dogs, and it was versatile since you could use it for many occasions including sympathy. This card I designed for a friend who recently lost her beloved Baloo. He was a beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback who had cancer. He was 10 years old! The card base is Crumb Cake, which I stamped the paws and bones onto using Versamark ink. I used a piece of DSP from Comfort Café that used Cajun Craze and Soft Suede, and used Crumb Cake seam binding and crumpled it before tying it around the DSP, and finishing it with a poor man's bow. The dog image was stamped in Cajun Craze, not just because it matched, but also because Rhodesian Ridgebacks are reddish brown. I used a sponge with Cajun Craze to make a border around the image then attached it to the card. I punched a heart then sponged it with All-Purpose Ink in Champagne Mist to give it a "heart of gold" which is what Baloo had :) and attached it with a safety pin. I hope you have a wonderful day! And get to enjoy it with your loved ones!

Class of 2012

My nephews are graduating from high school tomorrow!!! I can not believe they are graduating already! Since they are twins and absolutely nothing alike, I made them each grad cards that are similar but a little different. I am so very proud of both of them! Caden joined the Army and will be headed out to boot camp in a week. Brennan will be attending a community college. I wish them both the BEST of luck! Each card base is Crumb Cake card stock with Summer Starfruit and Gumball Green layered and torn onto the base. I stamped an image of a graduation cap in Soft Suede and the year numbers are from Memorable Moments stamped in the same color. Inside the card, I used "Happy Graduation" from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set in Soft Suede. I realize that these are very simple and don't have much pazazz, but they are supposed to be masculine. I know, I know. I am working on getting better with the masculine style. Just bear with me ;)

PDCC129

Hello! Welcome to today's post. My inspiration for this card comes from the wonderful ladies at The Play Date Cafe and their challenge PDCC129. They picked some really beautiful colors, "Dusk, Magenta, and Seedling". The colors I used were Night of Navy, Rich Razzleberry, and Certainly Celery. I used the emboss resist technique with markers instead of rubbing the card stock with a sponge and ink. I embossed the image from Elements of Style using clear embossing powder. As I said, I used markers instead of ink pads to add color to the embossed image, then used a sponge to sweep away the excess. I matted the sentiment with Night of Navy and Rich Razzleberry, and used those two ink pads and the rock n' roll technique to stamp the sentiment. I hope you have enjoyed your visit and enjoy your day!

Wow! April is more than half way over, and here I am trying to catch up, again! I haven't posted anything in awhile, because life has been very busy for me. I made this simple card this morning for a friend of mine whose birthday is today--she turns 26 today ;) This simple card starts with a base of So Saffron card stock, with a mat of Melon Mambo (one of my favorite pinks), and the DSP is retired (the only one I had that matched!) Razzleberry Lemonade. I used two different stamp sets, Mixed Bunch for the flower and Elementary Elegance for the Happy Birthday sentiment. I used a brad for the center of the flower in Brights, and used dimensionals to make the flower and sentiment "pop". Hope you enjoy your day and find time to enjoy the little things in life!!!

SFF Sketch challenge 021712

Wow! How time flies when you are working! I can't believe this month is coming to a close. Yesterday was my first day off in three weeks and I finally had time to do some paper crafting. I came across this weeks challenge from the lovely ladies at Sketch Frenzy Friday: http://sketchfrenzyfriday.blogspot.com

This week's sketch was by Kim Innis:


And this was my take on it:

The base is Island Indigo card stock, the background for the butterflies and the sentiment are on Pool Party and were also stamped with Pool Party ink. I used En Francais background stamp, the Teeny Tiny Wishes for the sentiment, and Butterfly Prints. And the inks used for the butterflies were Tempting Turquoise, Island Indigo, and Night of Navy stamped onto Whisper White card stock. I used Hemp Twine for the "ribbon" accents and an antique brad.

I love blue and having so many different shades of blue to play with made this really fun for me! Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Sketch challenge SFF012012

Alright, here is another attempt at a sketch challenge from the wonderful ladies of Sketch Frenzy Friday! I am really enjoying their sketches and enjoying the time I am taking to paper craft!

Here is the template Tina gave us:






And this is what I came up with:




I used River Rock as my base, Melon Mambo as my main background color, Early Espresso cut out with the Bigz Top Note die, Twitterpated DSP, Melon Mambo embossing powder with Versa Mark ink for the flower, pleated ribbon in Blushing Bride along with a Blushing Bride button, and hemp twine.

I have really enjoyed this challenge! To say the least it was very challenging for me as I had trouble picturing what I could do with this sketch. Thank you for viewing my card!

Breast Cancer support

Good morning! As my second post to this blog, I would like to start off by thanking everyone, family and friends, for being a constant support in my life! I am dedicating this post to Alli Parkey, a very bright and strong young woman who recently found out she has breast cancer. Needless to say I am praying very hard for her recovery and healing from her surgeries and chemotherapy. Since she lives in a different state, Texas, I have made a card for her to express our support. Here is what I designed from her inspiration.