Celebrate - Birthday Card

I seem to have a thing for flamingos lately - ever since we bought our winter home in Florida :). More on that another time!!

I had to have this Stamping Up clear stamp set Fabulous Flamingo!  It uses a 3 step process to stamp the body.  I've always wanted to try a set like this.  This card was for my MIL who also loves our winter home.  

Maka A Wish

I had to come up with a quick birthday card this week for my niece and I just happened to have these backgrounds laying around.

A while back I made some shaving cream backgrounds using watercolour paper - that was fun!!  What a cool technique!!!  I used my Studio Calico ink refills for the colours.  If you haven't tried this you should, but try to find scent free shaving cream :)

I used CTMH stamps Doodled Designs Flair and Wish Occasions then I added a few Doodlebug sequins and some Platinum Stickles and that was it!!  Quick 5 minute card :)

Here you see the shaving cream backgrounds I created last month.  I turned a couple into project life cards for my album using Studio Calico's Palm Tree stamp set.  

I'm entering my card in Seize the Birthday's Challenge - Anything Goes.

Enjoy the Little Things

This is my second post today!!  Go me!!  To see the sneak peek of my art journal pages click here.

I just love how this turned out.  One evening I stamped some images and coloured them with copics for use later.  This is one of the images from Taylored Expressions.  Although it doesn't say it, it is a birthday card for my BF in Minneapolis.  I better get it in the mail too!!

You might be able to see here that I used Clear Wink of Stella on the tiny bees' wings.  I love those coloured pearls and they matched the paper ribbon perfectly!!

I am joining in the following challenges with my card:

Simon Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #146 - Anything Goes

Seize the Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes

Stamps:  Taylored Expressions The Little Things
Paper:  Basic Grey Hello Luscious, CC Designs Copic Quality cs, Stampin Up Baked Brown Sugar cs
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, copics, Stampin Up Melon Mambo
Accessories:  Taylored Expressions Label Stacklets 2 die; Basic Grey Hello Luscious paper ribbon, Wink of Stella Clear, Hero Arts Pearls and Gems, 

Laugh A Little Louder

I have a friend who is having a 'milestone' birthday next week, so I thought I'd think about making her card.  I knew I wanted to do some watercoloring again, but this time I just wanted to play with a background, not colour an image.  So I decided on two colours, I used my Distress Inks and smooshed them on my craft mat and then added some water with my brush.  Before adding the watercolour to my card, I made sure to saturate it with clean water first.  I loved how the ink spread when I touched the paper with the brush!!  This was fun, and I can't wait to play some more.

I added a tiny bit of sparkle with my Wink of Stella pen and flicked a bit of my new Hero Arts Silver Metallic Spray onto my background.

I used another Unity Stamp, this one is from the Far Better Things Ahead grab bag of stamps.  It's one of a bundle of 5 stamps that I received free with one of my Unity orders :)  Gotta love that!!!!  And I loved this sentiment.  I think it's perfect for her, we've been friends a long time.  The flower and stem is from the KOM - Warmth of Winter.

Turns out I can enter this as well in Unity's 'be inspired' Challenge #24 since my colours fit again.  That really wasn't intentional this time :)

I'm also entering my card in today's Friends With Flair on the Unity Blog

and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Stamps:  Unity Far Better Things Ahead grab bag, Unity KOM December 2014 - Warmth of Winter
Paper:  Simple Stories The Story of Us, SU watercolour paper and Pool Party cs
Ink:  Picked Raspberry and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks, Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories:  Hero Arts Silver Metallic Shimmer Spray, Wink of Stella Clear, SU Pool Party twine, CTMH double sided tape

Sweet 16

Here is a card I made for my niece's 16th birthday.  I really enjoyed playing with the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Ephemera packs.   I loved layering everything, this card has a lot of dimension.

I was inspired by this card I saw on Pinterest.  It just so happened I had the same Bo Bunny Stamp so I stamped it (second generation) on the card stock with Stampin Up Craft White ink.

And that envelope!!  I love that I have this option now :)

I'm entering this over at the Seize the Birthday's Challenge - Anything Goes.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Bo Bunny Distressed Textures, Sentiment
Paper:  Crate Paper Flea Market 6x6 paper, Crate Paper Maggie Holmes 12 x 12 Collection, SU cs
Ink:  SU Craft White, Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories:  Crate Paper MH Resin Flowers, Crate Paper MH Ephemera packs and sticker sheets, Heirloom foil letter Thickers, Doodlebug Sequins, SU Envelope Punch Board, SU Season of Style Washi Tape

Happy Life

OH MY GOSH!!  Can this be any cuter??!!  I am so happy with how this turned out.  My daughter asked me to make a birthday card for her best friend and I knew I would use one of the Uptown Girls from Stamping Bella.  I have recently purchased a few of them, but of course I had to borrow this one from my friend Nancy.  I stamped and coloured the image last weekend at Crop & Create and finally got around to putting it all together.  I wanted warm fall colours and the paper from Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 were perfect.

I'll tell you a little story - see that canvas frame?  That is covering up a booboo :)  When I stamped my image I also stamped two other images.  One of them, was a bit too close to this one and I really wanted to stamp this out as square as possible.  Well, I couldn't do that without having some of the other image in the top corner.  I was trying to figure what frame dies I had that would accommodate and then I remembered these:  Crate Paper Designed Frames from the Maggie Holmes collection.  It's coloured canvas and they're adorable and I managed to find one that went will with the papers I had decided to use.  PERFECT, love when things come together like that.

And I finally used the Graphic 45 flowers I've had for so long.  I think I bought them at Dat's (local scrapbooking store) before it closed.

The Bellarific Friday Challenge at Stamping Bella this week is to use Buttons and/or Bows.  I decided to use buttons from my Basic Grey stash.  And no card is complete without a little bling right?  I had to add some Diamond Stickles.

I also used Mojo Monday's Sketch 368 for my card.

I'm also entering in the Simon Monday Challenge:  Anything Goes and the Simon Wednesday Challenge:  Get Crafty, Use Kraft!!

Stamps:  Stamping Bella Uptown Girls Belinda and Bernadette Bench Buddies
Paper:  Crate Paper Circa 1934 6 x 6 paper, CC Designs Copic Quality white cs, kraft and black cs
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, copics
Accessories:  Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Designed Frames, Graphic 45 flowers, Basic Grey buttons, Stampin Up twine, Diamond Stickles

Friendship Has Its Perks

For the last several months I've been subscribing to the Simon Says Stamp Monthly Card Kit, you get lots of fun goodies - coordinating stamps, paper, embellishments, ink etc and for a great price.  I made a birthday card for my friend Donna and I used October's Card Kit featuring the Simon Says Stamp set 'What's Brewing' and die.

I don't know about you, but I hope she has good eyesight cause you can barely read the inside sentiment, it's so small!!!

I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches #157

and I'm also entering my card in the Seize the Birthday 'Anything Goes' Birthday Challenge.

And the Simon Monday Challenge - Falling in Love With....  - I think these Basic Grey papers are perfect warm fall colours :)


Simon Says Kit items:
SSS Khaki Ink, SSS "What's Brewing" stamp set, SSS coffee cup die, Basic Grey Grand Bazaar paper, mocha sequins
Additional items:  SSS Birthday Messages stamp set, Glossy Accents

You Make Me Smile

Today I'm sharing some of my favourite techniques - as requested at Heart 2 Heart last week :)

One technique I love is die cutting or cutting with my Cricut or Silhouette (yes I'm spoiled and have both).  And the icing on the cake is having coordinating stamps!!  LOVE that about CTMH and Cricut.

Another fav technique is adding glitter/sparkle/shimmer to an image.  That's the frou frou in me.

One more technique (if you want to call it that) I almost always do when creating cards is decorate the inside of the card.  It doesn't feel complete unless I do - I love coming up with new ideas to match the inside to the front.

For this card I used Mojo Monday's Sketch 363.

Everything used is CTMH except where noted:

Stamps:  Frame Flair, Hooray Bouquet and Ariana Workshop on the Go stamp set
Paper:  Ariana paper pack
Ink:  Outdoor Denim
Accessories:  Bow from Ariana Accessory pack, Cricut, Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Smooch Pearl Top Coat

Happy Camper

Hello :)

This is the card I made for hubby's 49th birthday.  Although we don't have a trailer anymore, we do have a motorhome and we love to get away in it when we can.  The plan is to retire early and travel more.  That's 'the plan' anyway :)  He's still such a boy, he gets so excited every time we're planning a road trip so I thought this stamp set from CTMH was absolutely perfect for him.  I love the whole Timberline set also and made sure to stock up before it was retired.

I'm entering my card over at Seize the Birthday 'Anything Goes' Birthday Challenge, even though I didn't use the black and white toppings :)

I'm also entering this in the Shopping Our Stash Challenge - ABC's.  My ABC's are:

A - Aqua Dots, B - Birthday, C - Camper

All products CMTH (except for the dies)

Stamps:  Camper Crazy

Paper:  Timberline paper pack, Chocolate and Colonial White cs

Ink:  Chocolate and Ponderosa Pine Ink, Lagoon, Twilight and Goldrush marker sets

Accessories:  Aqua Dots, Timberline Complements and Assortment, MFT circle dies

Quick side note:  I wanted to give a shoutout to Tiffany Kuehl who created my new blog design.  She was very patient with me and I love what we came up with!  Thank you :)  Tiffany has a link on my sidebar if you want to check out her other designs.

Happy 17th Birthday

This is my daughter's card for her 17th birthday card!!  The camera was perfect for her since she's quite the little photographer.  I used a bunch of new stuff on here.  The 17 numbers were inked up with my new Delicata Golden Glitz Pigment Ink by Tsunkineko.  It's a metalic ink and there was no embossing required.  You can see in the second photo how rich and metalic the colour is, LOVE it!!

The papers and embellishments (camera and tag) are from the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes collections.  

I used some of my new Heidi Swapp Gold Lame Color Shine as well on the papers.  The alpaphabet stamp set and inside sentiment are from Paper Smooches.

I'm entering this in the Challenge at Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge Blog this week - Anything Goes.

I'm also entering in Simon's Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes and Seize The Birthday: Anything Goes.

Stamps:  Paper Smooches Mini Monograms and Birthday Sampler

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Delicata Golden Glitz

Paper:  Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Flea Market, SU Baked Brown Sugar

Accessories:  Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Ephemera pack, Heidi Swapp Gold Lame Color Shine, Tim Holtz Edge Distresser

 

Happy Birthday - Simon Style

Sharing my most recent birthday card today, which is for my girlfriend.  Simon Says Stamps had a 20% off sale a little while back, so I took advantage and got the Birthday Balloon package which consists of the Balloons and Happy Birthday dies and the Birthday Balloons and Birthday Messages stamp sets.  Love, Love, Love these :)

I was inspired by this card, loved the sparkle added to the balloon and I just happened to have some of that paper :)  When I first saw this particular paper (in my Simon Says Card Kit) I wasn't too impressed, but when I saw the sparkle added then I was impressed.  And I really wanted to try the angled panel on my card so this is what I came up with.  Another technicque I've recently learned is that you can use some Multi Medium Matte glue on the baker's twine to hold it in a shape that you want.  I didn't have any yet (it's been ordered) so instead I put a tiny dot of glue where the twine touched the paper and adhered that piece of the twine, the rest just lays in it's natural shape (see example here).

You'll notice I used a small wooden star above the i in the 'Birthday' die - that's because I lost the dot, lol, so that led to a couple more stars which led to some enamel dots.  Love how it turned out.  

I'm entering this in Simon's Wednesday Challenge - You've Gotta Have Friends since this card is for my all time bestie :) and Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes.  

Stamps:  Simon Says Birthday Messages and Birthday Balloons
Paper:Simple Stories DIY patterned paper, SU Tempting Turquoise and Brown Sugar cs
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories:  Simon Says Happy Birthday and Balloons dies, MME Charmed enamel dots, Star Dust and Mermaid Stickles, Freckled Fawn Stars & Such wood chips, The Twinery baker's twine