Have a Moo-tiful Birthday!

I love that hockey season is back in full swing:  last night the home opener and tonight the first game at home in my easy chair watching on the big screen.  Yes, this is the life.

The only big dilemma in my life right now is whether to drive to Seattle on Thursday night to take Sandy Allnock's class on coloring funny people at Impress.  I so want to go, but it's a long trip and I'm a bit of a introvert.  I have a hard time sometimes convincing myself to go do new things even when I know I will enjoy it.  So in the next couple of days, I have to make up my mind.

In the meantime, I've finished up with the last of the Birthday Farm Animals stamp set she designed for Simon Says Stamp.  I've had so much fun coloring these cuties.  Today's card came together pretty quickly too.  There's a flag shaped die in the My Favorite Things Blueprints #13 that I had been looking at and thought would be perfect for the cow stamp, so I had already cut it out the other day.  Then it was just a matter of picking only two of the fun patterns in the Sunny Side 6x6 paper pad from Pebbles to build my card.  I added some baker's twine I found in my stash, a little Wink of Stella to the banner, and the now almost required Pretty Pink Posh sequins and Glossy Accents. 

Enjoy Your Day Card Two Featuring Newton's Nook

Today's card is another image from the delightful Newton's Summer Vacation set from Newton's Nook.  I actually fussy cut this image after coloring it with my copics.  I hate fussy cutting, but it was the perfect thing for this card.  I used two sheets of paper from the Echo Park 6x6 pad A Perfect Summer.  I love that paper pad and it seemed the perfect one to go with this stamp set.  I die cut the wave paper using the largest die from the Avery Elle Pinked die set.  I then stamped my sentiment on a scrap piece of white paper and cut it out with the banner die from the Avery Elle set.  I then ran it through again with the large die to pink the other end to match the background.  I cut the polka dot/pie chart paper to cover the entire card base.  I adhered my wave paper and then tied it with some Martha Stewart baker's twine, adhered it my card base and then added a few Doodlebug sequins to finish it off.  It was cute, but still needed something.  So I covered the floatie with some Glossy Accents and called it good.

Happy Birthday Card Inspired by Watercolor for Card Makers

Yes, another card from things I learned in my Watercolor for Card Makers class over at onlinecardclasses.com.  For today's card, I used a technique using an acrylic block to make stripes of watercolor using Distress Ink and blend them together.  It was loads of fun to do.  But then I needed something to put on top.  The Lawn Fawn Admit One set I recently purchased was still sitting on top of my craft desk and it called my name.  So I stamped the balloon on watercolor paper, "colored" it with some Wink of Stella to give it some shine and then fussy cut a cluster of balloons for the focal point.  I used the happy birthday sentiment from the Sophie's Sentiments set also from Lawn Fawn and finished it off with some baker's twine from Queen & Co. 

Birthday Wishes Inspired by Watercolor for Card Makers

I made this background the other day after watching the lessons from the Onlinecardclasses.com Watercolor for Card Makers class.  I hadn't used this stamp from the Crafter's Meow set Potted Garden and it was calling my name.  I used Distress Ink markers and I learned a bit doing it that I put into practice the next time, but I though this was one was good enough for a card anyway.  I added the sentiment and cut it out with my Stitched Journaling Card die from Lawn Fawn.  I then used a little watered ink to brush the edges.

For the card background, I used some pretty paper from the Polka Dot Party 6x6 paper pad and some Queen & Co. baker's twine with some pop dots for my watercolored picture. 

Get Well Soon Inspired by the Lawn Fawn Blog

I had a headache (darn weather change) and yet I needed a card for a co-worker who just had surgery.  So, I scoped out the Lawn Fawn blog where I fell in love with this cute turtle card.  It was the perfect opportunity to break out my On the Mend set (with a few extra stamps from Critters in the 'Burbs, Sunny Skies and Bon Voyage) plus my new Grassy Border die.  After stamping out my selections with the Momento Tuxedo Black ink and coloring with my Copics (love them), I cut out my grass with some green paper and the sky from some blue paper in my stash.  I added some clouds with Hero Arts Unicorn white ink and the cloud from the Bon Voyage set.  I added some Hemptique baker's twine and a button from my stash, but it still seemed to need something.  So I cut out a black mat to bring it all together and adhered it to my card base.  Simple, easy and quick to let me crawl off to bed and see if I can sleep off this headache.

Denver Cards - Day Three

I found the inspiration for today's card all on my own.  I had this lovely card from Project Life Cinnamon Edition on my desk that I really loved and thought would make a great card.  But I knew it was going to need something else, but not too much else since I really prefer a very simple style.  A while back, Simon Says Stamp had a fabulous stamp sale and I bought the Happy Sentiments set with the happy die.  I decided to try a double cut of the happy using the coordinating card stock from Project Life with some pop dots (cut really, really small) to pop it on top of the happy in the Project Life card.  Instead of putting it in the middle, I decided to right justify it with a kraft card stock mat.  I used my Stampin' Up paper piercing guide to add a border of dots and finished it off with some Martha Stewart baker's twine.  Love this one!

Denver Cards - Day Two

For today's card, I visited Tracy Casil's blog Learn to Stamp after being inspired to scraftlift the card she made that was shown on Stampin' Pretty the other day.  For this card, I used a 6x6 pad from My Mind's Eye called Love Me, plus some scrap pink card stock and a white card stock base.  I again used Word to create my sentiment and the Silhouette to cut the hearts out of my patterned paper and the card stock.  I used my Martha Stewart border punch on the edge of the pink card stock then layered my pattern paper on top of it.  Then all I had to do was layer the hearts then adhere them to the card.  I found a cute sparkly button in my stash and tied some Queen & Co. bakers twine through it.  I punched the little pink heart out from a Fiskars (I think) heart punch.  Finally I layered my sentiment on the pink card stock with the pennant edges cut before adhering it to my card.  I found the cute little heart in my stash (I think it's from Queen & Co. too if I recall correctly) to finish it.  Fun!

Meow Watercolor

In a follow up to the watercolor thank you card I did inspired by Jennifer Maguire's video on watercolor, I made another in the same style using a We R Memory Keepers cat stamp set I've had for a while.  I really love using the Distress Inks as watercolors.  It's so much fun!

 

 

And here's a fun shot of Smoke who was napping with the hubster in the afternoon.  He's so cute, but I don't think he was very happy to have his nap interrupted by my photo shoot.

 

 

Happy Father's Day

Before I show the card I made, I've been lucky to have a fabulous father and I'm grateful for everything he has done for me over the years and the memories we've gotten to make together.  Happy Father's Day Dad!   I want to take a moment to wish my father-in-law a happy Father's Day.  We're grateful that he's still with us and finally out of the hospital!  Also, happy Father's Day to my Uncle Jim, Uncle Louis, Uncle Gordon, Cousin Pat, and Brother-in-Law Mike.  Finally, to my wonderful husband, I'm sorry you never got to the be the fabulous father I know you would have been, but we have four great fur babies who are awfully lucky to have you. 

So now on to the card of the day.  A while back I found this cute card from The Sweetest Thing pinned on Pinterest.  It wasn't a Father's Day card per se, but I loved the masculine look of the card and decided I would scraplift it into a Father's Day card.  I used kraft card stock and some white linen paper for the sentiment and mat, but everything else was from the Swagger 6x6 pad from Fancy Pants.  It's the perfect paper set for a masculine card.  It simply cut two 1 1/2 inch strips and one 1 1/4 inch strips from paper selected from the pad.  I cut the edges into a banner then taped them together offsetting a little.  I cut a background piece to 4 inch square and poked holes all the way around it using my handy Stampin' Up paper piercer and eyelet placing tool.  I hardly ever stitch on my layouts cards.  I love the look but never take the time, so thing time I didn't a faux stitching with a white pen. I then adhered that to a mat cut from the linen paper at 4 1/8. 

I used my Cameo to cut the linen paper for my sentiment and then stamped in Vintage Photo Distress Ink using the Swanky Sentiments set from Technique Tuesday.  I added some Martha Stewart baker's twine then used pop dots to adhere the sentiment.  I found a button from my stash, tied it off with a scrap of baker's twine and glued it to the edge of my sentiment.

All that was left was to cut a 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 chunk of kraft card stock to make my card base and tape it all together.  I love how it all turned out. 

 

Another Birthday Card Inspired by the Technique Tuesday Blog

Since I my last try at the card inspired by Teri Anderson's card from the Technique Tuesday blog didn't turn out quite like what I originally had in mind, I thought I would give it another try.  This time, I really focused on the banner and the card came together very quickly.  I used some washi tape from my ever growing pile to create little pennants for the banner.  I strung them on some Martha Stewart baker's twine.  I hung the banner over some kraft card stock, backed it with white paper and used another DCWV card base from the Brights set.  Then, I stamped a sentiment from a set from Fiskars using Momento Espresso Truffle ink.  I still thought the card needed a little something so I added some Studio Calico veneer stars.  The Glossy Accents I used to glue them down were a little messy so I'm definitely going to have to work on my skills of attaching small embellishments.  But I do have to say that overall I really liked this card and I can't believe how one card can inspire so many looks. 

Happy Birthday Card Inspired by the Technique Tuesday Blog

I loved a beautiful card I saw by Teri Anderson on the Technique Tuesday blog.  I loved the banners and the simplicity of the card.  I had this idea of making it my own using a clear stamp set I've had forever and can longer remember who the manufacturer is, but it has this very large "happy" stamp and smaller word stamps to coordinate.  I thought I would use the happy to coordinate with the banners.  As I played around with different ideas, I finally decided to try the Stampin' Up Designer Typeset stamp set I bought a while back when they had the free shipping.  I stamped the banner with some Momento Tangelo ink on some yellow card stock from the DCWV Pastel mat stack.  I then filled in the letters and stamped the happy with Moment Espresso Truffle ink.  I mounted the kraft card stock on white and then a base card from the DCWV Brights box of cards. 

It definitely still needed something.  I used a spare bit of baker's twine I had on my desk that was left over from something I was sent.  I glued it to the top of the banner.  I then took my sister's suggestion to add some polka dots.  I didn't have the right color of paint, so I mixed a little yellow and antique white Apple Barrel acrylic paints together until I had a good shade of yellow to coordinate with the banner.  I then filled in the happy with some green glitter glue from Studio G and realized I actually was starting to really like the card.

Congrats Grad Layout

During Week 21 of Project Life, we celebrated my sister-in-law graduating from college.  While at her party, I took a great picture of her and my mother-in-law hugging.  I knew it needed to have it's own layout in the week.  I started my scrolling through my Pinterest board of scrapbook layout ideas where I pin pages and sketches that I think will inspire me.  That's were I found a page created by Rhonda of Scrappity Dappity Doo based upon a sketch posted by Quick Quotes.  I thought it was the perfect place to start.

I again used the Basic Grey Fact line I've been using for my Project Life pages for Week 21. For this layout, I used some of the paper to cut a tag and created a hidden envelope for it.  A bit of baker's twine makes it easy to slide it out of the hidden pocket.  I took a heart from the 11 Hearts by Lori Whitlock set in Silhouette (Design ID #24813) and opened the nodes.  I moved a few of the nodes around to get a more stylized heart.  I then duplicated it and move a bit of the nodes on the second one so they would be similar, but not exactly the same.  Then it was just cutting my scraps, layering them together until I had a layout I liked.  I added my favorite brown Thickers called Marquis and then finished it off with some Darice studs in a brown color.  This was my finished page:

Craft Room Upgrade Layout

For Week 21 of Project Life I knew I wanted to do a layout commemorating the work we've done on my craft room lately.  I had some video footage of our cat Chewie climbing the ladder we had in the room to replace the light fixture and a picture of another of our cats, Smoke, climbing the ladder that I wanted to include.  I saw this really great idea of using a QR code to access videos stored on YouTube that I thought I would give a try.  I simply uploaded my video to YouTube then fed the web address into a QR code generator program.  I then printed the QR Code it gave me onto paper (I used photo paper) and added it to my layout. Now all I have to do is open up my code reader app on my phone or iPad to watch Chewie climbing the ladder any time I want.  It was super easy to do so I'm pretty sure you are going to see a lot more QR Codes showing up in my layouts and in Project Life in the future.

For the layout, I was inspired by a sketch from the Sketch Savvy blog from April.  I used paper from the Basic Grey Fact line to match my Project Life layouts for the week since this page would be inserted into that part of my book.  I used the Eric Thickers for my title (I just got these at Michaels earlier this week and I was excited to use them).  The little tab above the middle picture and the chevrons on either side of the title were cut from files I bought for my cameo and I finished it off with some hand stitching across the bottom using some Hemptique baker's twine.  It was super easy to do because I was able to easily poke evenly spaced holes using my new Tim Holtz Ideology rule (that I also picked up at Michaels this week with a coupon so I could replace my beloved E K Success ruler that I've used so much that the markings are starting to disappear).  I wasn't completely happy with it but then I added a few Darice gems and it all just seemed to look right.

 

So here's what it looks like now that it's in the book:

Your Fortune Is... Love

For National Scrapbooking Day, I did a little shopping and picked up a cute Lawn Fawn stamp set called Good Fortune with matching dies.  Coincidentally, that night I was trolling through the blog posts from the week when I found this cute card using the set on the Lawn Fawn blog.  So I was inspired to pull out the set this week and try my hand at a card using this set. 

I stamped the carton and thought it needed a little sprucing up.  So I took the solid heart from the set and jazzed it up.  I then stamped, colored and cut the chopsticks to go with it.  I finished it off by cutting and coloring two of the cookies and made sentiments to fill them using the little stamps included.  I used more of the Love Me 6x6 pad paper from My Mind's Eye to mat it and added some Martha Stewart baker's twine.  But I still thought it needed a little something, so I cut another cute little tag on my Cameo and stamped the love stamp from Inkadinkado Heartful of Love set.  Fun and cute!

Fly High

Today I'm sharing another card I made from inspiration found while browsing through older posts on Rita's Creations. She made this delightful kite card that I just loved.  I don't have the stamp set she used, but I did have a kite shape to cut on my Cameo.  I used my french curves to draw the hills out of a piece of paper from the Sunny Side 6 by 6 pad by Pebbles.  I couldn't draw a straight or curved line to save my life without a straight edge or a french curve.  I used a Darice embossing folder called Cloudy Sky for the background.  The blue and white papers are from my scraps stash.  The brown cardstock has a linen texture and is from the Paper Company. The green background paper is from the 6 by 6 paper pad called Vanity Fair by My Mind's Eye.  I used some baker's twine from Hemptique to finish it off.  I haven't added a sentiment yet.  I think I'll probably save that for the inside only on this card. 

So Wild ... About You

I had some time to play in my craft room this week as I listened to hockey playoffs.  I usually hate fussy cutting things because, well, I'm impatient. Since I had lots of time on my hands in my room this week, I did spend some time fussy cutting for this card inspired by one I saw on the Lawn Fawn blog a few weeks ago.  I love their Critters on the Savannah set, but it's one I don't own (yet) so I had to settle for using the Quinn's ABCs set for the inside sentiment on my card.  Thankfully I have a Recollections set I bought on clearance at Michael's a while back that I thought would make a decent substitute for the animals.  I used some cute Love Me paper from My Mind's Eye for the background.  I pulled some polka dot paper from my scraps bin that I'm pretty sure is DCWV from an old (really old, but still very useful) Spring Stack.  I finally had a really good reason to use my animal print embossing folder from Sizzix that I bought several years ago on a trip to St. Louis where I went way out of my way to visit an Archiver's. Despite my loathing of fussy cutting, I'm really surprised t how quickly it all came together.