Congratulations Grad

I have one last graduation card to share.  My niece graduated from grade school last week and I wanted to do something to make it seem a little special for her.  I found this great card on Pinterest.  The original source comes from the Stampin' Connection, which I don't have access to so I can't share it. 

The card itself was super easy to put together.  I simply stamped the graduation cap from my TPC Studio's Graduation set on some blue paper using Momento black ink. I cut it out and then stamped the word "Congratulations" from my Cloud 9 Design Wedding set on some white card stock using StazOn ink in midnight blue.  I then cut out the word grad using the Aharoni font on my Silhouette using some Best Occasions glitter paper I've had for years.  I finished the card of with a little yellow cardstock from DCWV's Pastel Mat Stack and some blue cardstock from my stash.

With Sympathy, a Design Principles Card

Today, I'm sharing the second card from the first lesson in the Design Principals class I'm taking.  I really deviated quite a bit from the card she showed, but at the same time tried to stay true to the concepts she showed.  This one was fun because I got to use a lot of supplies I haven't used in a long time or even ever.  The background is an old Rubber Stampede stamp (probably the first background stamp I ever bought) and I stamped it on the card with Old Paper Distress Ink.  I then cut the "shield" out with my Cameo.  The sentiment is one I picked up when Boxer Scrapbooks was going out of business and the butterfly is from the Teresa Collins Spring Fling Stamps.  It's the first time I've used either of those sets.  I used Timber Brown StazOn ink then colored the butterfly with my colored pencils.  I added a little more Old Paper ink to the edge of the shield and then used pop dots so I could run some Hemptique twine behind it.  It was a fun card to make and I really like how it turned out.   

 

 

Rain or Shine card

As you probably know, I follow quite a few blogs and I particularly love some of the challenge blogs, such as the Paper Players.  I fell in love with Jaydee's card from challenge #141.  It was so sweet and, best yet, used an umbrella so I could use my new Umbrella4You set from the Stamps of Life and the matching die.  I used a heart from a different stamp set from them called Sympathy4You to emboss my "rain."  I used some StazOn ink for the umbrella and was really pleased with how well it stamped.  I used a Color Box pad for the sentiment.  I was a little concerned about how well it would stamp because it's quite old, but I was really impressed at how well it stamped even after all these years.   I wish now I had added a little blue to the ink or to the embossing powder heart "rain" to make it stand out more, but that's the beauty of making cards, every time is an opportunity to learn.

Birthday Wishes...

Wow there are a lot of birthdays this week.  For instance, my boss celebrates a milestone tomorrow.  So tonight I looked for a great card for him and loved the inspiration I found in this card pinned from somewhere on the Paper Crafts Connection blog.  It was a fun way to use some washi tape from my growing collection, a favorite Diamonds and Dots embossing folder from Quick Kutz, my new StazOn ink in Timber Brown and whole host of random stamps including the "today" stamp from Heidi Swapp's Memory File, the "celebrate" stamp from TPC Studio's Graduation set, a "is" and "about" built from the Ginger alphabet set from American Crafts and the "you" from the "Hugs to you" stamp in the Sympathy4U set from The Stamps of Life.  Lots of different products came together into one colorful birthday card.