Six For Six

Six Valentine cards for six grandchildren! For Christmas I made them each a different card, but this time, in the interest of ease and time, I did an assembly line card with slight variations.

In reorganizing my craftroom, I came across several leftover card kits from classes I had taught in 2010. Amongst them were three kits to create heart shaped cards. If I cut the white scalloped heart base at their fold (upper left of heart) and then cut each heart in half, I would have enough for six cards. You see when I taught this class, I borrowed Dana's Spellbinders Hearts and Scalloped Hearts. So since I no longer have access to those Heart dies, if I cut them in half, I would have enough for the cards.

Here are some close ups.

You can see that I stamped tiny little hearts, cut them out, and attached them where I wanted.

The cute little hedgehogs were coloured with Prismacolor pencils, cut out and popped up with dimensionals.

I don't know if you can see the popped up layers in this next photo, but here it is.

I had great fun making these cards for my grandchildren. I look forward to hearing what they have to say about their cards. :) After I put together the layers for each piece and began assembling the cards I started to get the feeling that the design I came up with was something I had seen from somewhere. Maybe, I didn't have such a great idea after all. Maybe in the back of my mind someone elses card came out as my idea. If this is someone elses design, I can't remember who and where to give you the credit. My appologies... I truly thought the idea was mine until I assembled them and seemed to recognise the layout somehow.

Hope that you too are having fun creating your Valentine cards. Happy crafting, and thank you for stopping by and leaving your comment. We love hearing from you.

TOOLS & SUPPLIES

SPELLBINDERS: Hearts, Scalloped Hearts, Labels Four
STAMPS:Hero Arts-Old Lettering woodblock, Hero Arts-February ClearDesign, Pennyblack-Tiny Wishes
INKS: Memento-Black Tuxedo, VersaFine-Vintage Sepia, Colorbox-Cranberry, Versa Color-White
EMBOSSING FOLDERS: (forgot the name of the large dot folder- Dana's too)
Prismacolor Pencils

Do-Over Do-Over

Okay, so I wasn't happy with my first do-over.

I'm not sure if we're allowed to have more than one entry to Amber's Do-over blog hop, but I decided to use the decorative fabric tape to redo my do-over piece.

Original:

2nd Redo:

I'm much happier with this. I feel like I can keep my head up! ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Kraft
• Stamps: Think Big Favorites #3
• Ink: Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate (Tsukineko)
• Other Tools: decorative fabric tape (Martha Stewart), adhesive pearls (dollar store)

Damask Love Do-Over: Think Spring

I thought Amber had a terrific idea when I read about her Do-Over Blog Hop. Until I tried a do-over. Uh, there was probably a reason that my card didn't work out the first time!

I started out by searching through my card posts. Yes, I could redo this one. Or maybe this one. Then, I found IT. The most craptastic card that I've ever made.

It was made in too much of a hurry for a challenge.

Well, I wanted my redo to use the same sentiment, since I still had one leftover. I don't think I should've put that kind of restriction on it because, while my redo is better, I'm not happy with the result.

Too busy and no real style to it.

Meh, whatever. I love having a stash of cards for little girl birthday parties! ;)

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Hibiscus Burst, Hawaiian Shores
• Stamps: Turning a New Leaf, Baby Button Bits, Polka Dot Basics II
• Ink: Versamagic Tea Leaves, Memento Desert Sand (both Tsukineko)
• Dies: Big Scalloped Circles and Standard Circles (Spellbinders), Beautiful Blooms II #3 (smallest)
• Other Tools: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), felt embellishments (unknown), glitter (Prisma), iRock/Glam Rocks: Color Fusion (Imaginisce)

Damask Love Do-Over Blog Hop

This is so exciting! Amber at Damask Love came up with a great idea! This is what she wrote on her blog.

We all have a few of those "what was I thinking" projects - and now it's time to make things right by recreating them in a way that makes you happy!

On January 31st , I'll randomly select THREE blog hop participants to receive a prize package full of papercrafting goodies! I can't wait to see your makeovers!

 I have older ones that I'd love to do-over, but the one that bothers me the most is a more recent one I did as a guest designer yet. To the right is the original.  For the do-over, I thought I'd make a valentine card, since it's soon upon us. I decided to keep close to the colours and to use the idea of a cut-out on the front of the card.

I stamped the hearts and cut them out. With the die cut leaves, I ink distressed the edges and then using my stylus tool, with the leaves on a mouse pad, I created the leaf veins as the process slightly curved the leaves. It's the first time I've done this. I like the result very much and will remember to use it again in the future.

So here is my re-do. I'm afraid the flash may have washed out the colour a little.

Here's a close up. (Without flash but fuzzy)

From the inside, below, you can see the cut-out window a little better.

You'll see that I smudged the ink a little. With all the layers showing in the cut-out, I used some blue ink to hide the colours of the layers, and my fingers smudged the ink a little.

 So there you have my do-over! Happy crafting everyone, and thank you for stopping by. I had fun checking out all the do-overs, and will check them out until the end.

TOOLS & SUPPLIES

STAMPS:Craft Smart-Floral Heart, Inkadinkado-Hearts, Inkadinkado-Chelsea Sentiments
INKS: Versa Magic-Night Sky, Versa Magic-Tea Leaves, Memento-Tuxedo Black
SPELLBINDERS: Standard Circles Large, Crown Circles
TOOLS: Stylus & Mouse Pad

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

For my CAS-ual Fridays/Simon Says Stamp post, scroll down or click here.
For my Papertrey Playhouse challenge post, scroll down or click here.

This month's Papertrey Ink blog hop invites us to pick our favorite project from last year and create a new version of it.

I chose this gift decor project from last year:

Here is my re-creation:

Using the tree stamp from 2009 Autumn Tags, I heat embossed in clear powder. I then stamped the circle from Modern Wood Mats over top in Dark Chocolate ink. After letting it dry, I used a damp wipe to smudge the ink around the circle a bit (got a little carried away in spots ;)  ). The sentiment is also from 2009 Autumn Tags and was stamped in Scarlet Jewel.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Rustic Cream
• Stamps: 2009 Autumn Tags, Modern Wood Mats
• Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko), Dark Chocolate, Scarlet Jewel
• Other Tools: clear embossing powder (Filigree)

CAS-ual Fridays: Black & White + Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

For my Papertrey Playhouse challenge post, scroll down or click here.
For my Papertrey Ink blog hop post, scroll up or click here.

I guess I haven't been able to resist the craft room since creating yesterday's cards...

It took me a little bit of time to fall asleep last night and so I pondered CAS-ual Fridays Penguin Suit challenge. Black and white is such a classic color template... I really should fall back onto it more often.

Fortunately for me, my card turned out just as I pictured in my mind last night!

Of course, cutting out the "thanks" took a bit of time but nothing compared to what Chan had to do here!

I'm also entering this into the Simon Says Stamp challenge, which is "Anything Goes" this week.

Thanks for peeking!

{Supplies}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, True Black (both Papertrey Ink)
• Stamps: Chit Chat (Paper Smooches)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
• Dies: Double-Ended Banners (Papertrey Ink)
• Other Tools: Cinder Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels)

Papertrey Playhouse: My CAS Challenge

I recently took the Clean and Simple course at OnlineCardClasses.com, though I haven't had a chance to participate in any of the "challenges." I thought I would carry the theme over to the new Papertrey Playhouse challenge.

The Challenge:  Create a card using only 3 decorative elements, not including the card base (or sentiment, if applicable).

For my card, I used a strip of patterned paper, a Spellbinders die and a pearl heart.

Hope you'll play along! You can link up at the Papertrey Playhouse blog or below. A new challenge will be up in two weeks.

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select White
• Patterned Paper: Simply Valentine
• Stamps: Fillable Frames #10
• Ink: Pure Poppy
• Dies: Labels 4 (Spellbinders)
• Other Tools: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), pearl heart (dollar store)

Papertrey Playhouse: Mary's Die Cut Negative Challenge

I realized that I'm supposed to be posting Papertrey Playhouse's next challenge tomorrow... That means that, technically, Mary's die cut negative challenge ends today! I really wanted to play along and so whipped up this card while whipping up tomorrow's challenge card.

I embossed Papertrey's Edger #2 along the bottom of the card base and then used the same Edger to cut out a decorative edge on the Simply Valentine patterned paper. I die-cut out the Fillable Frames #3, stamped the frame in Sweet Blush and then used selective inking to add the sentiment from Happy Trails in Pure Poppy and Raspberry Fizz.

Thanks for peeking! Be sure to check out Papertrey Playhouse's new challenge tomorrow!

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select White
• Patterned Paper: Simply Valentine
• Stamps: Fillable Frames #3, Happy Trails
• Ink: Sweet Blush, Pure Poppy, Raspberry Fizz
• Dies: Edgers #2, Fillable Frames #3
• Other Tools: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), rhinestones/iRock (Imaginisce)

Baby Blanket Tags

I've been somewhat MIA and it's not due to me moving on from papercrafting.

I've been keeping busy organizing my house. My craft room has desperately cried for a makeover and while it is definitely in the works, I am also occupied with 3 little ones and other projects, so it's been rather slow-going.

After weeding through my linen closet, I decided it was time to retire the baby blankets. While I have a fabulous memory, I wanted to be sure that I would be able to remember who each blanket was for and from.

As my first baby, Taylor received the most baby blankets. After weeding out ones that weren't sentimental, I was left with these.

 As my first daughter, Averi also received several lovely baby blankets. Noticeably absent (to family!), is Averi's beloved "blankie" (adopted from Taylor, who received it from Omi) which is on vacation in Idaho.

My last child, Ella, didn't receive any baby blankets since we obviously had plenty left over from the other two children. Instead, Ella adopted one of Taylor's blankets and so I made a tag that indicated as much.

Thanks for taking a peek! Feel free to check out some of my organizing projects here, or my organizing inspiration here and here on Pinterest.

{Supplies}

• Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Rustic Cream, Rustic White (all Papertrey Ink)
• Stamps: Harold's ABCs & Sally's ABCs (Lawn Fawn), Baby (Impression Obsession)
• Ink: Old Paper, Brushed Corduroy, Weathered Wood & Milled Lavender Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Ranger)
• Dies: Tag Sale #4 (Papertrey Ink)
• Other Tools: twine, safety pins

Guest Designer For Scrapbooker's Playing in Paradise |Challenge #50

I am honoured and excited to be invited as a Guest Designer for Challenge #50 at Scrapbooker's Paradise Playing in Paradise.  I chose to go with the colours of this challenge. When the colours were sent to me I knew right away I had to make a card using them for an elderly lady I know that just came out of the hospital after 3 weeks of being there. She just loves these colours! She also likes frou-frou stuff, so that's what I tried to create for her.

In this first photo I have it leaning up against the back so that you can see the tiny stamped images in the cut out ovals better than when free standing as we normally take photos of cards.

Here it is free standing so you can see the oval cut-outs at the bottom.

And here is a close-up.

A lot of Liquid Pearl was used as I know the receiver will love it. In a future project, I may try the cut outs at the bottom again and weave ribbon through them.

 I hope that you will check out the challenge and join in on the fun here. Happy crafting!

TOOLS & SUPPLIES

PAPER: all scraps
SPELLBINDERS: Classic Ovals Large, Labels Thirteen, Labels Fourteen
PUNCH: Corner punch to create scalloped edge
STAMPS: Hot Off The Press-Botanicals, Waltzingmouse - Holiday Labels Fourteen, FLourishes - Tag Lines
INK: Versa Magic Key Lime, Versa Magic Turquoise Gem
Liquid Pearls White Opal

Colour Create Challenge 88 - Pink, Green & a Neutral

 Suzie picked the bright and cheerful colours of pink and green along with a neutral for Colour Create Challenge #88,  with the option of hand made flowers. Such fun colours! I was very excited about the hand made flower idea.

I have many jars with handmade paper flowers I've made with scraps, in a variety of colours. However, my excitement is due to the fact that for Christmas I bought myself  an EKTool Dimensional Flower Punch and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to break it in.

For this challenge we are also each using an image from our sponsor, Kenny K. I chose to go with Maddison Attitude.  Check out all the downloads!

It was a lot of fun making this card, and I know a couple of granddaughters that might appreciate this card with these colours.

I don't have Copics, so for his image I used my Prismacolour pencils. I found that by going over my colouring with the white pencil it had the same effect as the Copic clear blender has with the coloured Copics. It smoothed out the pencil lines and blended the colours together better. ( I didn't use it on the bags)

Check out the DT inspirational designs at Colour Create Challenge.

TOOLS &  SUPPLIES

STAMPS: Hero Arts-Clear-Celebrate
SPELLBINDERS: Standard Oval Large, Scalloped Oval Small
Prisma Colour Pencils 
EKTools: Dimensional Flower Punch
PTI Button
Black Gel Pen

Visiting Teaching January 2012 Clipboard

Just a quick post for today.

I purchased a few small clipboards a while back at a $1 store. I also had downloaded some mini-calendars a couple of weeks ago and knew they would work well for this project. I made a card for each month with a few questions to keep in mind when going out to Visit Teach, contact info to fill in, and a mini-calendar. The back of the card is white for further information to be written down for each month, if needed.

I took this photo of the clipboard before, but forgot to take an after photo of a completely refabbed/repurposed clipboard. Oh well.

Here are all of the cards. I tried to find colours and patterns that would work well for that particular month. Because I was making six of these, I kept it pretty simple, with no embellishments.

Here are the assembled Clipboards.

So there you have it. All text was printed off of my computer generated files. Nothing fancy, but a fun project none the less.

Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving your comment. Happy crafting everyone!!

Guest Designer at Our Creative Corner - Paper Piecing With a Twist

I was greatly surprised and honored when Tui Nathan of Our Creative Corner contacted me and asked if I would be a Guest Designer for their upcoming Paper Piecing Challenge.

The challenge for this week is being hosted by Vicki Burdick with these guidelines:

 "Paper Piecing - Use some kind of paper piecing on your card or project this week. Stamp something and use DSP to piece an element of the stamp or paper piece you Background. In addition NO ribbon and only one embellishment is allowed"

I was in the mood to go soft and feminine with this project and had an idea of what I wanted to go with on the design. So after pulling out what I needed, I found that I had 9 different papers for the piecing of this card! Never used that many different papers on one card before! There are 5 alone for just the flower! This is definitely not a mailer by the way.

I used Flourishes Siberian Iris clear stamp for the flower, and Flourishes Gerber Daisy clear stamps for the butterfly and sentiment, all stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa. Then with Tim Holtz`s Distress Antique Linen ink pad and a Tsukineko Fantastix colouring tool, I dabbed the colouring stick on the pad and used it for a little shading as well as a wetted paintbrush for some blending. I cut out all 5 flowers and decided what order to place the coloured layers and which leaves and petals to cut away from each layer. I also wanted to create the flower to come out from under the die cut circle I was planning.

Unfortunately, you can`t see it in the photo, but the flower and butterfly were coloured over with a clear Atyou Spica pen by Too Marker. It really shimmers very nicely in real. Next time I do this I think I will be a little more creative and try to do some shaping for the petals and leaves rather than just flat layers.

Here is a partial side view to see the layers a little better. Apologies for the blurry image.

Below you will find a list of some of  the tools I used in the making of this card.

I would like to thank Our Creative Corner for the honor and opportunity of being a guest designer. If you have never been to their challenge blog I hope that you will check it out, see the wonderful DT inspirational creations and join in on the fun.

Happy crafting everyone!

TOOLS & SUPPLIES

STAMPS: Flourishes Siberian Iris & Gerber Daisy
INK: Memento Rich Cocoa, Tim Holtz`s Distress Antique Linen
SPELLBINDERS: Standard Circles Large, Petite Ovals Small, Classic Scalloped Ovals Small, Fleur de Lis Accents, Labels Four
Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool
Tsukineko Fantastix colouring tool
Scissors
Atyou Spica pen by Too Marker - Clear