A Beautiful Wedding

After the memorial on Saturday, the hubby and I attended my boss', although I really consider him a friend, wedding.  This one has been a long time coming and I was delighted to attend (even though I'm really not a fan of social events and get really anxious about them).  It was an Episcopalian ceremony.  I've never attended one and it was quite beautiful (although the incense was a little much for my head).  It was an amazing sight to see him so happy and so in love. 

The reception was nice.  It was a beautiful night outside.  I tried the pear cider (delicious) and chatted with some co-workers.  Kids ran around playing with a basket of balls that David brought out for them.  It was such a beautiful night and the best part was seeing David so very happy.  I can't think of a more deserving person.

I decided to make a card for him (he very specifically said no gifts).  I thought about doing something whimsical, but then changed my mind for something more formal.  I don't have many traditional wedding stamps, but I did find this delightful silhouette in an Inkadinkado wedding set.  I used some Verafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed it with some clear embossing powder.  I used a dies from my new My Favorite Things Blueprints #13 set for the flag.  I embossed the vellum with a Victorian folder from Cuttlebug and then used the large stitched die from the Blueprints set to cut it down to size.  I stamped the sentiment on the card base using a stamp from the Simply Sentimental set from Newton's Nook.  Then it was a matter of laying it together, added a little Lawn Trimmings in Silver Sparkle to finish it off. 

Hello Card Inspired by Jennifer McGuire

As I posted before, I was completely enthralled watching Jennifer McGuire use Distress Inks with embossing folders.  You can see her beautiful work and check out her video here.  I immediately knew I had to give it a try by making several panels.  For this card, I used the Cuttlebug Script Texture with several colors of Distress Ink (Tea Dye, Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain I believe). I cut the finished piece down and matted it on some cream card stock. I used a piece of brown linen card stock for the base of the card and then cut the hello several times using the die from the That Arrow Card die set from Technique Tuesday with some left over paper.  I stacked the hello cuts to give it a bit of thickness.  I also die the banner from the same cream card stock as the mat using Avery Elle's Pinked Elle-ments that I just picked up around the holiday.  I decided to the leave the card as it was without any extra embellishment. 

Off to Denver - Card One

Well I know I've been away from the blog for a bit again.  It's been a rough time at work.  As I mentioned before, one the management team I'm on passed away.  He was a heck of a nice guy and I have to walk by his office is the one next to mine so I'm reminded of the loss every day.  Then I'm short staffed but also need to get my staff out for vacations before the end of year craziness begins so we are REALLY short staffed.  By the time I get home every night, I'm just completely wiped out mentally.  It was even worse this last week when there were a few days were there were only two of us managers for several weeks and the big boss (great guy that I have worked with for more than a decade) asked me to be the go-to manager for any issues.  Fortunately there were few issues, but it was a long, tiring week.  Now I'm off for a different type of long tiring week - it's time for one of the annual conferences I attend.  This time I'm in Denver, but I started at 2:30 a.m. today and I suspect it will be 11:30 p.m. or so before I finally call it a day.  Since I never sleep well on these trips and I find myself spending all day at the conference, a few hours socializing with my cohorts and a few hours trying to keep up with the work back home, it's likely to be a week of a bunch of 16 to 18 hour days of go-go-go all away from the hubster.

So, like I've been doing for many trips now, I have made a series of cards to leave behind to remind him how much I love him even when I'm away.

For today's card, I found inspiration on Stampin' Pretty in the form of a card done by Tracy Casil that you can find here.  It was super fund and easy to do.  Of course, I didn't have the stamp that she used, so I created my own word art in Word then printed it out.  I used my score board to emboss a border.  I found a heart shape in my Silhouette library of downloads.  I cut it out in various colors of scraps from the never ending scrap bin.  For texture, I used the Candy Cane Stripes embossing folder from Cuttlebug.  One I had the card put together, I thought the sentiment and hearts still needed something.  So I used the cute little heart from the Lawn Fawn Home Sweet Home set filled in with some Glossy Accents on the sentiment and some Stickles on the cut out hearts to add a little something something.

Happy Birthday Card

Last week was my mother-in-law's birthday so I went trolling on Pinterest for some inspiration and found a lovely birthday card pinned from Jaydekay on Splitcoaststampers.com.  I just loved the look of this card.  Of course, I don't have the lovely retired Sizzix die, but I do have a Cameo and lots of 3rd flowers.  I finally selected this 3rd layered flower, which is Design ID #38042, from Patty Young/MODKID.  I cut it out of a random piece of card stock from my stashed then inked the flower with Spun Sugar Distress Ink.  I finished inking all the edges of the flower, center and leaf in Tea Dye Distress Ink.  Then it was just a matter of running the white card stock through the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug embossing folder and tied it all together with some Hemptique baker's twine.  I decided it all needed matting with black before I adhered it all to my purple card stock card base. 

Love Card

It's a busy week so I needed a little "down" time and when I saw this card on Pinterest, I knew it was the perfect way to wind down and I loved the non-traditional colors for a love card.  So I checked out Allison Ohran's blog Sweet Impressions.   She's got a lot of cute inspiration there.  Tonight, I think being tired probably hurt my creativity.  I started with stamping some hearts, but I didn't have my heart in it (okay so I'm so tired I'm making puns now).  So I switched over to some super cute paper from the Love Me 6x6 pad from My Mind's Eye.  I actually love this set so much that I bought two of them (it didn't hurt that they were a super good buy too).  So I cut the hearts and heart shadows out with my Cameo.  I found a cute little tag to cut too.  Then I stamped the word love from my Inkadinkado Heart Full of Love set.  Then I finished it off with some scrap paper for the base, mat and background and ran the background through my Honeycomb Cuttlebug folder and put it all together with some sparkly crochet thread since I didn't have the right baker's twine. 

Happy Birthday Dear Sis

Today is my sister's birthday so, of course, I needed a card.  I looked through my inspiration board on Pinterest and found a pin I just adored, but the person that pinned it, didn't track it back to the source, so I have no idea where it really came from.  So, whomever the artist is, thank you so much for the inspiration.

All the paper for the card comes from my never-empty scrap bin. The cupcake was cut with a design from the Silhouette Design Studio. I had some fun looking at all my embossing folders and finally settled on the Sizzix Dots and Flowers set for the background and two Cuttlebug folders:  Candy Cane Stripes for the "wrapper" and Musical Flourish for the "frosting."  Then I hand dotted the background with some acrylic paint.  It was pretty fun to make and I sure hope my sister loves it.

Birthdays, Birthdays Every Where

It just seems like there are a lot of birthdays this month and I find myself making a lot of cards for them.  Fortunately, there's a lot of inspiration on Pinterest, which is where I found the inspiration for this card.  The pin was from Clean and Simple Stamping, a style that I really appreciate.  I also loved that once again, it's a card that can be made with a masculine feel.  I also love that I was able to use paper from a Halloween line, the Lost and Found Halloween 6x6 pad from My Mind's Eye.  I'm always a little hesitant to buy holiday themed paper, but this particular pad had designs that I thought I could transcend the holiday, such as this beautiful plaid.  I also was able to use the Argyle embossing folder from Cuttlebug and I always love when I get the use argyle.  It turns out that my Martha Stewart baker's twine was the perfect color to go with the scrap paper I used to mat the card and I finally got to use the circle stamp from the Fiskar's Happy Birthday stamp set.  I just love how the card turned out.  Clean and simple and just way I like it. 

Another Happy Birthday

Here's another in my quest to finish off my card list.  This time, I'm inspired from another find on Pinterest that led me to Arlene of Waterdots.  This simple and elegant card was easy to make.  I immediately recognized the Spots and Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug.  I rounded the corners with my Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper.  The sentiment is again from the All Occasions set from Inkadinkado.  I added some Martha Stewart Crafts baker's twine and a few metal dots from Darice to finish it off.  Fun and fast.  Just the way I like them.

Ponderings About a Card...

Why is it that sometimes such a simple card takes so long?  I had this idea in my head since Friday for a card.  My vision was so strong, but today when I finally had the time to sit down to make it, I've been so frustrated.  First I don't have the wood grain embossing folder that I envisioned in the card (I guess I'll have to order that).  Then I wanted some gladiolus, but there wasn't a pattern to be found in the Silhouette Design Studio or anyone else.  So I had to compromise my ideas, and it just didn't work out the way I wanted, but it's still a pretty card and I still think my co-worker will appreciate it.

I found this beautiful sunflower in the Silhouette Design Studio store and added a little more texture by using tea dye Distress Ink and running the center of the flower through the Sizzix dotted flower ringers embossing folder.  The leaves are from the set I downloaded last week and are also inked with the Distress Ink.  The background was embossed with the Cuttlebug script texture folder.  Then I finished it off with a scrap of ribbon from my drawer and some scrap paper as a mat.

Inspired by Karen Thomas - Again!

A friend of mine is going through a rough patch and I wanted to make a card to let her know I'm thinking of her, but I'm not feeling very creative tonight.  I decided I needed to find something I could make my own.  So, of course, I turned to Pinterest and immediately seized upon a card I had pinned from the amazing Karen Thomas' blog Luv to Stamp. I have pinned a number of her cards because her style really speaks to me. 

So after shooing Zoey off my craft table, I made this card using scraps from my scrap bin and a half of a sheet of craft cardstock.  The sentiment is from the Fiskars' All Year Greetings set, which I find myself using all the time, with Chocolate Chip ink from Stampin' Up!  The leaves are a set from the Silhouette Design Studio and are inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink.  I ran the background paper through the Forest Branches embossing folder from Cuttlebug and tied it off with a scrap of ribbon from my drawer and some baker's twine from Hemptique.

It's not as cute as the inspiration piece, but I hope it will brighten my friend's day.  Now I have to pop off to bed because I've decided to work a half-day tomorrow instead of the vacation day I was planning:  too much to get done to take the whole day.

Inspired by Studio Calico and Kelly Marie Alvarez

I received a little sad news at work today.  One of the people that I work with on regular basis and really like is leaving her company.  So I knew immediately I needed to make a little card to thank you her for all the good times working together these last few years.

I'm also trying to break out of my usual style and do something a little different too.  That's hard for me because I'm pretty set in my plain style and stepping out of my comfort zone is really hard.  But when I saw this card made by Kelly Marie Alvarez on Studio Calico's blog today, I knew it was just the card for me to make tonight.

I picked about three different papers but finally settled with the chevron print (so hot right now) from the Vanity Fair 6x6 pad from My Mind's Eye.  That's it.  One sheet of double-sided paper.  Everything else is plain old white cardstock, which is where I really pushed myself.  The tag, butterflies and bird are all cut on the Cameo, with the butterfly and bird from a lovely Echo Park design.  Rather than all the layers on the butterfly, I just used the base layer.  Then I started playing with my distress inks.  Once I had color the way I liked it, I ran the butterflies through my Big Kick with the Cuttlebug Script Texture embossing folder and the background using the Sizzix Dots and Flowers set.  I didn't emboss the bird, but I did add some Glossy Accents to give it some shine. 

The sentiment is stamped from the Inkadinkado set "All Occasions" and I finished it all with some grosgrain ribbon and some Recollections adhesive faux pearls.  So there's still bits of my usual style, but I pushed it a little more and it was kind of fun.