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!
     

A Painted Garden Using Embossed Resist.

     Today's card is for my dear friend and neighbor.  I had purchased the stamp Flower Bird Garden by Hero Arts a number of months ago and hadn't even opened it yet. I thought it would be perfect for Linda, because she always has beautiful flowers around her house and I often visit while she gardens and I sometimes help pull weeds. We also water each others plants when the other travels ;- ) I was feeling a bit artistic, so I stamped it with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and clear embossed it. Then I hand painted in the flowers and hummingbirds with Distress Inks. Yes, I did get out my Field Guide to do the painting on the hummingbirds ;- ) I colored in the light color washes first then added the darker details with a fine brush after it dried a bit. I created an embossed border with Cuttlebug's Frills Embossing Borders, then hand cut a pennant shape for the sentiment. The sentiment is from Clear Stamps (stamped with Marvey Brush markers)  and the shape was inked with Tumbled Glass.

     On the inside, I used a PhotoShop brush from Japanese Brush Pack 3 by darkgarden, to stamp the branch with the bird. You can find the brush set free here . The font for the text is LDJ Jilligraphy from Lettering Delights. You can find the link to Lettering Delights on my side bar.

     I zoomed to finish this up before her birthday because I've had a crazy week. I did get it delivered tonight though, phew!

Entered in the Sunday CAS Challenge at The Outlawz. Join us for the 1000 member Party going on this week!


     Many blogs are reminding you to schedule your mammogram, I'd like to remind you to have a colonoscopy, if you have a family history of colon cancer or are over 50. It's a screening test that can prevent cancer, though no one likes to think about the actual procedure >.< I finally had mine done and my husband goes next week, so if the shoe fits... so to speak ;- ) It can save your life or the life of someone you love <3 I have scheduled my mammogram too ;- ) 

An Adventure Birthday Card

     Today's card is for a friend's husband. Don't I ever get to make cards for women? He bought kayaks this summer, so I thought I'd use that as a focal point for his card. I went through the Life's a Beach cart and found a photo card with waves on it (page 45). I decided to use the Gypsy to weld a sun, from the page before, to the upper left corner of the frame and give it more of a scenic look. I then cut it out on my Expression. The sun was 2 inches, so I also cut out a 2 inch sun in yellow from Core'dinations paper and enhanced it with yellow gel pen (the circle outline) and Copic markers (the nose and lips) and added it with pop dots. I added small black pearls for eyes. I backed the frame with a lighter blue paper to make a sky. I edged the waves with Puffy Appliqué Markers that puff up when you heat them. The heat and humidity made them a bit runny, but they still worked ok. I attached the kayak, which was from Jolee. The sentiment is from Hero Arts' Big Hugs and was stamped with Tsukineko Rocket Red Gold.

  Click to enlarge to see details.

     I cut the inside papers with a wavy blade, on my paper cutter and the sentiment was made digitally in Print Shop. The fonts are Aloe,  Carlisle and LDJ Jilligraphy ( the first two are free fonts and the last is from Lettering Delights - see link in my side bar.) The lifejacket came on the sticker sheet with the kayak and the balloon is from Jolee's All That Bling, available at my Walmart.

     What would I do differently? Well, the light blue background could be embossed, maybe with divine swirls? I'd have to try it, to see if I'd like it or not. Fairly simple, but I think it's a nice card all of the same. A friend of mine wondered, if guys really appreciated a hand-made card and all of the time that goes in to it. I think it might depend on the guy. Some, I'd put a lot more work into it, and they would.  I don't think he'd appreciate the time it would take me to do a lot of hand coloring though. 

This card came together pretty easily. I learned that if you have some tearing, while you are cutting with your Cricut, it might not be your blade. It might be time for a new mat. The places where my mat was less sticky, was where the waves were tearing, everything else cut fine. Using a new mat, caused it to cut perfectly, all with the same settings. 

     Thanks for coming by. Please leave me a few words in the comments, so that I know you were here and that I'm not writing to myself ;- ) Have a super week.

Anniversary or Valentine ;- )

     Today's card is an anniversary card for a dear friend's oldest daughter. I used the same love bird stamp that I used on the wedding card I showed on the last post (by Inkadinkado), but I wanted this one to have a different look. I decided to use the heart from the Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Cart. The pink cardstock in the back is Core'dinations Glitter cardstock. So, once I started in this direction, I found myself using pinks and reds. When the front was done, it looked like it could be a Valentine, but I basically decided that both celebrate the same thing... Love. So it's appropriate. The roses were ones I made with the Quilled Creations Quilled Roses quilling set, that I showed in this post here. I found this kit at Hobby Lobby. I frosted them with Martha Stewart fine glitter. The ribbon was on clearance at Michaels. I actually even remembered to round the corners this time. Woo Hoo!

     The inside was done digitally in Photoshop Elements. The font is LDWedding, for most of the writing,  LDJ Jilligraphy for the word "wonderful" and LDJ Revelry for the word "Romantic". All these fonts are from Lettering Delights. The heart flourish is from the brush set, Valentine-clip-art-3 from photoshopfreebrushes.com. The 3 red roses are from the brush set, inobscuro_roses. You can find it here. It says it works with Photoshop 7, but I use it with Elements 3, so if you like it try it. I used glitter pen around the hearts and on the rose details, but you can't tell in the photo.

  
     What would I do differently? I like how it turned out, maybe use purple to stamp the birds and in the ribbon, so it doesn't look so much like a Valentine, unless I was making a Valentine.

     Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment, I really appreciate hearing from you and knowing you were here. Have a Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy your families. 

A Fish Tale of a Card

     Well, I did finish the card I wanted to and I feel so ahead of schedule for a change. This is actually a March card. Woo Whoo! That won'd last long. I have 11 college students for whom I need to make cards. Anyway today's card is for a friend's husband who likes to fish. So on the front, I used a brown pattern paper from Paper Pizzaz and a blue watery print also from Paper Pizzaz. I crossed that with a piece of brown twine from Martha Stewart and added fish cut from Cricut's Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge (I think is image 43, which is the fisherman, with the accessory 3 Feature Key pressed for one and the accessory 3 Feature with the shift for the other).  I cut the at different sizes from about 1 1/2 inches to 3 1/2 inches out of  2 different patterned brown papers and 1 plain brown paper. I then inked these with Distress Tea Dye Ink to bring out the definition of the cuts and added some markings with glaze pens. I cut my digital sentiment, LDJ Noodge font from  Lettering Delights, and cut with my oval nestability. I then cut a brown mat with the next size nestability and the brown patten paper.

     Inside, I used the Life's A Beach cartridge and cut a 3 1/2 inch mermaid from page 11. The base was cut in flesh and I hid the contours of her face with the Gypsy. I also used the Gypsy to cut the layers. This allows you to cut her hair separately from her bikini top and her tail. I eliminated her flower, because I was going to use a flower from the Archiver mix as well as hiding the contours on her tail that made up her scales. I cut her hair from a brown scrap I had and used the pink glitter paper, that I used for the Valentine card on a past post, to make her bikini top. To cut her tail, I used Spellbinders Premium Foil. This is actual metal and was difficult to cut. I know my blade is close to needing to be replaced. I used glue dots to attach her tail.  I added a flower brad from Spare Parts to the flower in her hair. After the mermaid was assembled, I used a glaze pen to draw on her scales and a .05 mil pen to draw on her face. I used my Copic E25 to add depth to her hair. I used the same paper from the front, for the bottom mat and some sand-like patterned paper for the top mat. I made the digital sentiment with LDJ Jilligraphy from Lettering Delight Fonts. I added a wave border, cut from Life's A Beach (set at 3 inches wide on the Gypsy), to the bottom of the sentiment.

     I think she turned out very pretty. What would I change? Well, don't you just hate it, when you put the paper down and notice that it's crooked, just as it sticks and all the rest of the card is together? OK, I'd change that. I might have, or maybe still will add some glitter to the wave tops. Then again, this is a guy card. I don't like the squareness of the top, right, inside, sentiment corner. Tell me what you think.
Thanks for stopping by and spending some of your time here.