Anniversary Swirl

     Well, I'm still behind but I do have 1 card done ;- ) It's an anniversary card for a dear friend's (who I've known since 2nd grade and is my son's godmother) son and daughter-in-law.  I used the oval card in Cricut's Wild Card cart  (6 1/4 in. if you cut the envelope to fit a 12 in pice of paper) for this card and welded my own Happy Anniversary from the Plantin SchoolBook cart on the Gypsy using the Wisteria paper from Basic Grey adding a gem from Hero Arts for the dot in the  i and a flower from Creative Charms. In the nothing comes easy category of my life lately,  my Xyron was jammed, but fortunately the LetraTac came through for attaching the sentiment (see posts here, if you want to know more about LetraTac.)  To cover the window, I cut the blackout option and cut it in half, using only 1 oval here.

     On the inside, I made a digital sentiment using LDJ Jilligraphy font from Lettering Delights. You can find them at the affiliate link on my side bar. I also added a line element from Print Shop, which is what I laid it out in. I cut the sentiment with an oval nestibility and inked it with Distress Inks Peeled Paint and Concord Grape. The swirls are from the same Oval card in Wild Card, under the icon button and I used the Gypsy to reverse one of them. I added pearls to the ends.

     I made the matching envelope as well. I used the remaining oval, cut in half, in place of the envelope liner (I had a mail carrier to beat and waste not, want not ;- ) I might have blinged it up some if I wasn't in a hurry, but I do like the simplicity of the way it turned out, so maybe all in all it was a good thing. The green paper is Bazzil from Archivers.

     I will probably make, the now belated anniversary card that is left, the same, possibly in different colors. It will depend on what I find when I dig through the mess I made in my studio. I also will have to make a belated birthday card. She is such a good friend, she will understand and will probably get a call and maybe that will just be all she wants. She isn't a card sender, herself. Then I'm on to my next crazy bunch. I'm sure that I'm already running behind. >.< I know I need to make 2 groups to go out to the college students I send to.  I wanted to get them out before Halloween and I haven't updated my total to include the new freshman, so I don't even know how many I need to make. Though, I do know what I'm making. For the ones I sent to last year I have a design picked out and the new ones will get the same design I sent last year, ha ha!

  Thanks, as always, for stopping by. I'm glad you came.  Please feed my ego with a comment or ask any questions you might have ;- ) Have a blessed and creative day!
     

Purple Wishes for a birthday

    Well, if it didn't happen again, sheeesh, but after the headache and the holiday, I now have a card to share. So, without any ado, here is a birthday card for a friend I've known since 2nd grade (I won't say how many years that is ;- ) She is also my son's Godmother. You might be able to guess, her favorite color is purple.  I loved the papers from Basic Grey's Wisteria stack for her from the minute I saw the stack and then I ran across some dimensional stickers from K & Company, that went well with some of the papers and also were purple and sparkly (Botanical.) So I took these and cut the sentiment from Cricut's Lyrical Letters cart to make the front.

     In order to attach the sentiment, I used a great product that I first learned about from Diane at Capadiadesigns who does a lot of wonderful creative cards. It's called LetraTac and it's sheets of adhesive dots. The dots are very small and I use them the same way Diane did here, by just putting the item I wish to glue on the sheet, burnishing it, then removing it from the sheet and attaching to the card. The item will pick up the very small dots of glue and the rest of the sheet will retain it's glue and can be used again. I got mine from Dick Blick's Art Supplies. I'm lucky and have one locally, but you can also get it online. I do have a Xyron, but find it works best on solid images. Here is a photo of the sheet showing how little I used for this card (I also used a bit to do the straps of the flip-flops, 5 posts ago.)

You can put the letters where you want to use the paper efficiently. The shiny white parts are the remaining glue dots that I can use next time. The "B" is right side up, the other pieces were done sideways. 

The smallest pack came with 10 sheets. It will last me forever, ha ha.

     The inside of the card was matted with Core'dinations and done digitally in PrintShop. The font used is Chaucer, which is a free font and the closest I could had to the style of the sentiment on the front. I added more of the K & Company embellishments and a strip of the wisteria paper.

     The next card will be for her son. Yikes, he's going to be 30! Can't be. We were babies 30 years ago. 

     Remember, if you haven't checked out http://cutterfreebies.creativebusyhands.com you should. She has freebies from around the web each week and there are some really cute SVG's there this week. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my card. Please leave me a comment. They really mean so much to me - just knowing you were here : - >

Tiny Dancer!

     This card was made for the progressive challenge at Crafter's Digital Art Center (CDAC - find them here)  with the freebie image by WhoopsieDaisy Digital Stamps.  I colored the stamp using Photoshop Elements. I've never colored anything using Elements before and I like how she turned out. The scalloped mat is Core'dinations and the pattern paper is from Basic Grey's Wisteria Stack.  I colored the ribbon with a Copic because I didn't have any dark enough (the color matches better than it appears in the photo, sorry the camera I usually use is in Finland with my husband.) This was the first time I tried to make a pleated ribbon (another first, this is also my first challenge ;- ) All of the tutorials I've seen have you use a hot glue gun, but I decided to try it with Aileen's Tacky glue and it worked fine. The flower is from Creative Charms, just love them.  I stamped the sentiment with Dusty Concord from Ranger and a stamp from Clear Stamps.

     I haven't finished the inside like I usually do, because I'm not sure whom I'm giving this card to. I have a friend whose birthday is coming up, that this card would be great for (ok, now that's the 2nd time I dangled a preposition, it's beginning to annoy me), but I had a different card in mind for her, before I had to finish this image for the challenge. So, maybe I'll just finish this card up for her.

     What would I do differently? Well, I meant to corner round the card, but put the ribbon on the pattern paper, before I remembered and couldn't do it then. I think that would look nice with the ruffles and the flowers. I also thought this image might look nice on a round scalloped card.

     Thanks for stopping by and spending some time with me. Please, leave a comment so that I know you were here. Take some time to be creative today! Have a wonder-filled day.

Summer wedding

     If the days are longer, how come there isn't enough time to do all of the summer things I like to do? What about lazy, summer days? They seem to be busy, busy, busy and there always seems to be more that I wanted to get done. Today's card fought with me on design and papers and elements, but finally... I won, ha! I used digital stamps on the front and inside. That was my starting point. I've had the files for awhile, unfortunately the only thing it said was PINweddingcouple. I couldn't find it with a search and I don't know where I got them so, I'm afraid I can't properly give credit for these lovely images. I cut the image with nesties, inked it with Concord Distress ink, added clear glitter gel pen (flower centers and the word LOVE) and matted it with pearlized black Bazzill card stock. All the pattern papers are Basic Grey Wisteria. I took light lavender card stock and stamped it with flower stamps using Perfect Medium and brushed it with pearl Perfect Pearls, to give it some interest (I also added so Perfect Pearls to the oval with the Bride and Groom and gave the plain card stock a slightly pearlized finish - it doesn't really show in the photo). I stamped ribbon from Michaels with Fresh Snow ink from Paper Trey, the sentiment is from Clear Stamps and added flower brads from Recollections topped with black pearls.

Click photo to enlarge

     On the inside, is the second image and more papers from the Wisteria collection. I used Photo Shop to edit both images using replace color to make the image more purple (it was originally greyish-brown). I added the text here as well. I used a new font, for me, called Black Rose. This is the script font that the names are in. It is a bit fancy for the more modern look of the card, but I liked it and wanted to use it anyway ;- ) It is a free font and you can find it by doing an internet search. The other font is Brush Script MT which is a standard font.

Click photo to enlarge

     What would I do differently? I'm probably too close to this one now to answer that >.<  I am going to enjoy the wedding though ;- )

     Thanks so much for stopping by, using up some of your precious summer time. Please leave a comment before you run on to picnicking,  swimming, sailing, smelling the flowers and just enjoying the day with you kids. Your comments do mean a lot to me.

Birds are singing and I made a masculine birthday card.

     Have you ever gone into your craft room and thought, I'll use a Cricut cartridge that will make my card easy? Well, that was my plan. Only, I ended up choosing an image that had a number of cuts and it was also a  masculine card ;- ) Well, it wasn't that hard only a bit time consuming. The weather was nice enough to have the window open, so I could hear the robins singing. The Cubs were on TV. I could almost believe it was summer. So, it was a nice time crafting.
    
     I decided to use Basic Grey's Granola pack because it's one of my favorite for men. I decided to make the bird on the pennant banner, from Birthday Bash, for the front. To work out the colors, I numbered the cuts on the handbook and numbered the corresponding colors of paper in the paper pack. This made it easy to remember, what I'd decided to cut out in which color. I figured I needed to see it, to decide if I liked it. I'm not good at visualizing colors together. So here it is.

     I wrote on the pennants with a Sargent Liquid Metals marker. It matched the Distress Tumbled Glass Ink, I used with the Hero Arts sentiment, pretty well. I used Judikins  diamond glaze on the birds beak. The legs were so small, I decided to draw them on, but not much shows up well on black. Long ago, I had purchased some puffy fabric markers, that you heat to make them puff up. These worked very well, I will need to use this effect on more cards. Here is the bird detail.

     Someone had mentioned them on a blog, but it was over a year ago and I can't remember whom. I was never able to find them in a store. I finally found these on the internet. Here they are, if you are interested.

     The inside came from the same cart (Birthday Bash), but was the phrase from the image with 2 birds holding a ribbon type banner. The yellow paper was some pattern paper I had in scraps. I believe it's from Hobby Lobby. It's the same as the bird's beak on the front. I popped up this sentiment. All it needs is a signature. This is going to a male in his late teens.

     What would I do differently? I don't know. Right now, I'm pretty happy with it. What do you think? Now I just have to be sure to mail it on time. He has an April 1st birthday and I always miss the birthdays at the beginning of the month. Even when I've got the cards done. The new month just sneak up on me. Kind of like the weekends ;- ) Have a great one. Comments are very appreciated!

Friends are turning 65?!

     Having my son home is making  it hard to get a card done, every other day. I am soooo glad he is home. I'm just not getting as much done ;- )  I have to have this card done for a party, so I thought I'd better do it today. I used my Expression and Create a Critter. The background paper is from Basic Grey's Granola 12 x 12 paper pad. The bear is cut at 2 1/14 inches and popped up on the card. I used a bunch of scraps for the layers. I used a white gel pen to highlight his eyes. The pinwheel and hat are from the page with the cat from the same cartridge. I used Blueberry Pie paper from Archivers and some scrap yellow pattern paper with white swirls in it. They didn't show up well  in the picture and I was too tired to re-do them, sorry. I went over the swirls with the clear glitter gel pen and added a button with Martha Stewart twine. I also added yellow Viva Decor Pearl Pen to the ball at the top of the hat. The hat and pinwheel were popped up twice as high as the bear. The words were cut from the Phrase on the page with the cat at 2 inches with paper from Basic Grey's Granola and the Blueberry Pie. The top layer was run through the Big Shot with Swiss Dots and popped up. The dots have glitter added by the clear glitter pen as well.

     On the inside, I used the Blueberry Pie paper and a striped pattern from the Basic Grey Granola pad to form a mat for the computer generated sentiment. The fonts I used are SNF Jester Fool (from Scrap n Fonts), Rasp (for the word "age") and Tabitha. The embellishment at the center top, is from JoAnn Craft Essentials Birthday adhesive bubble icons. The candles on either side of it were give to me by a friend as part of a present with a number of other mixed embellishments.

     What would I do different? Maybe add some inking. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by and sharing some of your precious time with me. If you have a moment more, I'd really love to hear from you, so please leave a comment. Thanks!