Star Baby and reception freebies, shown as promised!

     Let's start with the card, because I haven't posted one in awhile. Today's card is for my neighbor's newborn granddaughter. Her, (the baby), name is Stella, hence the theme of the card. I used the Imagine and Nursery Tales again, because I want to get as much use out of such a baby oriented cart, when I can, being the mother of a 20 year old son in college ;- ) All of the paper and images are from this cart, except for the shooting star, which is from Everyday Paper Dolls, accessories 2, shifted. It's the accessory for the astronaut. The paper for the star is from Core'dinations Couture line. I colored the star with a Copic marker and added detail with the Starlight Glitter pen. All the images were popped up with pop dots. The sentiment is from Clear Stamps Greetings and was embossed with gold metallic embossing powder. The rose is Prima.

     The papers on the inside are also from the Imagine Nursery Tales cart. The sentiment was done digitally, however the images were stamped. The star, under the word "star", was with Studio g pigment chalk ink and a stamp from Northwoods  and the ones on the bottom are with Mementos Angel Pink dye ink and an un-named stamp, that I got from a friend. The fonts are LD farfetched, (from Learning Delights)  Wizzard (free on the internet) and Storybook (also free on the internet - try Urban fonts). The blue paper was stamped with a stamp by The Stamping Bug and embossed with Kaleidoscope embossing powder. (The last names have been obscured in iPhoto to protect the innocent - ha, ha!)

     What would I have done differently? Well, there is the usual, stamp straighter, on the inside ;- ) Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out. The Imagine, didn't do a very good job cutting the the stripped part on the front and I could have made it do that again. I had re-calibrated it just the other day, so I don't know what it problem was. Maybe the heat and humidity.

     With the Prima flower on the front, I used my Ultimate Crafter's Companion to make and envelobox for the card. That's an envelope that has some depth to it. It still isn't quite deep enough but it's better.

     Here are the gifts in the goodie bags that  50 people received at the Splitcoaststampers "Cupcakes and Cocktails" at CHA.

Susan and I both got the same color of Flower Soft, but we got different stamps from Taylored Expressions.

Our stamps were different from Unity Stamps.

These were the same for both of us.

This was also the same.

This was the same.

This was a special stamp from Splitcoast themselves ;- ) Who dusts?

     I thought these were wonderful, generous gifts. Thanks so much to the sponsors! The cupcakes were great too. There were door prizes, but we were not the lucky ones. Now I said I'd share our return home story. Since we left from the hotel, instead of the convention center, we entered the parking garage a different way. In the morning we'd taken the pedestrian walkway to the convention center which was on the floor where we parked our car - color green. We got to the elevators, level G color red, get on and there is no color green. I said let's go up 1 floor, because we weren't up very high. We go up and there isn't a green there either. We walk to the edge to look for the walkway and see it below us, huh? Fortunately, I said we should walk down, instead of taking the elevator. There is a floor in-between, where the elevator doesn't go. Then we start to look for our car - D1. we can find Ramp D and Ramp C but no just D. God must have been guiding me, because I get another idea to go up and around and Ramp D is part of the interleave that makes parking garages work, which I've never understood, but knew must be cool. Once on the road we had no more troubles. She and I do go and pick up my son from college with no trouble, handling all of the mess of the downtown Chicago expressways. Somedays you have it and somedays you don't ;- )

     Thanks for dropping by a spending some time with me. Please, take a moment more, if you have it and leave a comment, so I have something to read from you. I'd love to know that you were here. Have a blessed Sunday!

First card of the New Year

     Ok, here is the card from yesterday. I had decided I wanted to do a shaped card and liked this postage stamp one from Cricut's Birthday Bash cart. It was one that I had chosen on my Gypsy when we took my son back to school. I had decided to make it 5x5. First problem, no 5x5 envelope. There was no square envelope on the cart, so I figured I'd use my Ultimate Crafter's Companion. Find info Here. DH insisted I get one at CHA in Chicago after he saw it demonstrated. Isn't he supportive ;- ) Second problem, there are directions for a 6x6 and a 4x4 envelope. Did I mention these were suppose to be quick cards? There is I line between those to make the 6x6 and the 4x4 envelopes so I decide to see if it will make the right size envelope. Through a bit of trial and error, I find that if you use a square of cardstock 8 1/16ths you will get an envelope 5 1/8. Perfect for a 5in square card. Easy peasy!
     As I mentioned yesterday, these cards I'm making are for our Church Youth Director to give to volunteers and teens as she needs them. I decided to go with the snail image that Birthday Bash uses with the stamp card base (snail mail) and to make it a thank-you card. I cut the snail and all it's layers at 2 inches. I then decided that although his face cut out well, I'd draw it on, rather than glue my fingers, or run it through the Zyron. The snail was made with misc. scraps from my scrap box and the background paper was from the Imagine More cart from the Cricut Imagine that I left over from another project. My snail is a snail and does leave a trail, ewww, with Viva Decor glitter liner. The "Thanks" is from Gypsy Wanderings on the Gypsy (also pre-compiled on the college trip) cut at 2 3/4 inches. The flower gems are from Kaiser scrapbook. The sentiment on the inside is from Church Chatter by Clear Dollar Stamps. I love these stamps for this type of cards and use them often.
     Now, there are some things I would have done differently about this easy card. I wouldn't have colored in the antenna on the snail (Statlightz Glitter Gel Pen). I just dont like the look, but sometimes what's done is done, move on. I also should have inked everything, esp. the card base. I thought of this after everything was put together, but I've learned from experience that if I do it at the end, I probably won't like it or will mess it up and then I've ruined the whole card. So I left it. I also question the color of those gems,  but I like them, so not sure. The snail should be placed farther to the right.

     So, today I was going to make it easier (wasn't that what I said about yesterdays' card)? I picked the Bird on the Branch image from the Imagine More cart on the Cricut Imagine. I cut in layers to glue it on an A2 blank. However, (were you ready for a however), the rectangle isn't A2. I trimmed off  the right and left sides to make it mat on the A2 blank (we're just going brut force today - EASY). Then layered the rest of the pieces and pop-dot the bird. The "Thanks" came from Cricut's Lyrical Letters cart filled with a pattern from Imagine More on the Imagine. On the inside, I printed just the bottom layer of the same image as the front and cut it down and also printed the bird on real dial size of 1 inch (bird only). The sentiment is also from Church Chatter by Clear Dollar Stamps. I placed the bird on an oval cut by the Imagine from it's installed shapes because otherwise the bird blended in.
     I also started another card, which I will finish and show next time. These aren't great cards, but my goal with these are to be relatively fast. See I've added a modifier now. But I do want them to have some level of detail or texture.  Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading my babbling.