Girlie Birthday

Yesterday I posted a couple of 'man' cards -- so today I thought I would share something girlie. As luck would have it, I recently had ocassion to create a birthday card for my cousin's 10 year old daughter....and it wound up being totally fun. Because I hadn't had a chance yet to play with them, I chose to use the Be Yourself stamp set by CTMH which unfortunately is no longer available (it was a May 2009 Stamp of the Month). Here's the finished product:
Inside the cards reads.....'everyone else is taken'. I stamped the silhouette twice, once in black and once in pink and then trimmed out the pink dress and glued it on top. I just love the way it turned out!

Just a Quick Update

Happy Monday Everyone! I just wanted to pop in this morning and share one of the other Father's Day cards that I did indeed manage to create in time for the occasion. I took the no frills approach on this one and based my design on this card on Kathi's Corner, which in turn was inspired by this card on the Cards Blog. Now because I was going for something masculine - as you can see my card looks significantly different than either of those two, but I sure you'll agree that the basic structure is the same.

Sorry that the pic isn't the best --- I am in search of some instructions for improving my art photography.

Father's Day

So I'm a little late (as usual) getting crafty for Sunday's celebrations, but I thought I'd share what is the first of four cards that need to be made.

I have to admit that this did NOT start out any way that it ended up and I think that's part of the reason it took so long. When I initially sat down to create, I intended to use a more traditional masculine stamp set -- but this set (Alfresco by CTMH) was nearby and was calling my name. I have probably owned this set for more than 6 months, and it had never seen ink believe it or not, until now!

I was a little hesitant to use it at first since the centre of the medallion was a small flower and not very masucline, but I decided quickly that covering it was my answer - so I used a small blue nail head. When I inserted it it slipped a bit and so the edges of the flower are still visible on the one side, but it wasn't a big enough boo-boo to warrant doing it again so I left it.

I hope that I you'll agree that it looks masucline enough for Father's Day. I'm still not 100% convinced, but it will have to do. I find it really tricky some times to make cards for men.

Here's the full view.

Now I just need to get busy making the rest of them. Wish me luck.

I finally did it!

played with paper and glue that is. This weekend, I was lucky enough to have a few hours to myself so I took advantage of it. I started working on a set of 20 cards based on patterns from the book Wishes by Jeanette Lynton. There will be 2 each of 10 designs, although I'm pretty sure that these will wind up as gifts and the set split in 2. I'm not ready to share a bunch yet, but here's a sneak peak of what I've been up to. Once I the rest done, I'll load them up as a set.

Happy {Canadian} Thanksgiving and Happy Tuesday to Everyone Else!

Well, I'm a bit late in posting my holiday wishes, but I couldn't resist trying to make the holiday weekend last just one more day. It's always soooo hard to get back into the swing of things after having an extra day off, but the good news is, it makes for a short week at the office. So put a smile on your face......the weekend is closer than you think!

Lucky for me, I actually got a fair bit of crafting time in this weekend too! All in between visits with family and lots and lots of food!

I can't post pics of them all, since there are a few loose ends to tie up on most of them, but I am proud to report that I created (3) double page scrapbook layouts - that's 6 whole pages (yay me!). Plus (6) standard size cards, (4) 3x3 cards, and (4) gift card holders. The cards and stuff are a gift for Christmas for a family member (shhhh!) -- and they're all packaged up in this little stationary box that I saw on splitcoast. If you'd like to try to make one for yourself, a printable tutorial can be found at here at Addicted to Stamping.

I did very little stamping - basically only card sentiments. The rest of the card elements are stickers that coordinate with the papers. All supplies are Close To My Heart - and the product is called Boom-Di-Ada. It's very fun!

The stationary box was a lot easier to put together than I had anticipated, and the whole project came together pretty quickly. I guess that's one of the benefits of using stickers instead of stamps. The downside is of course that in order to duplicate the cards I need to buy the stickers again......but, so long as I can get them, that's not a horrible thing I guess.

I had a lot of fun pulling this together, and honestly, I am soooo shocked that it's only October and I'm already able to cross 2 recipients off my gift-giving list. If I can keep up this pace, I'll be doing alright I think - and avoiding the December crunch.

Happy Tuesday!!!

Rock The Cover

Remember a couple of days ago, I mentioned the Rock the Cover Challenge on the You Know You Rock Blog? Well I finally grabbed a few minutes -- and completed it.

My album inspiration was: "All That We Needed" by the Plain White T's. and here's my card (all stamps Close To My Heart)

I think it's pretty obvious that the colour and the torn yellow panel was my inspiration for this, but I'm the first to admit that it has a totally different 'feel' than the album cover - but oh well, I suppose that's okay too.

This was a fun challenge, making me remember that inspiration to create can (and should) be found in the everyday. I can't wait until next month to see what kind of challenge the gals at 'You Know You Rock' will come up with.

If you haven't already done so, you still have time to participate in July's challenge too since voting doesn't begin until August 6th -- what are you waiting for? Go! Get creating! Do be sure to pop over to the blog, check out their gallery and vote for your favourite even if you don't manage to make an entry for yourself.

Have a great weekend!

Template Tuesday - Overalls

Unfortunately I was away for the weekend, and didn't choose which template to load for Template Tuesday before I left so instead today, I'm going to direct you to a cute card template that I saw in the cyberworld recently. It's for these adorable overalls made by Deneen Treble. You can find her TEMPLATE here -- and the sample at the left is hers as well. Aren't they darling?

I could totally see using this for a birth announcement, a baby boy or toddler birthday card, shower invitations etc. I think that there are so many possibilities with this one, and Deneen has scads of samples on her blog too. Enjoy!

I know I'm Not Alone....

If you're a crafter, you've been there. You have a vision, you start to stamp, cut and glue -- and lo and behold, the end product turns out nothing like your original plan. This card is the result of one of these occasions for me.

All stamps are CTMH (Cottage Floral and Checklist) and the peachy coloured panel is embossed with the Cuttlebug. The green ribbon doesn't quite match, so I might actually re-piece the flower so that it does. To give you some idea of my original vision, the card was intended to be horizontal -- but I suppose sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

The Whole Enchilada

I've completed all three of the sets now and wow, are they cute! I think I'll send two to school with the kids for their teachers, to go alongside the cards and bags I made for them a while back. I have had those tucked away and even went and picked up some gift cards today to include. The third set I think I'll keep for me -- because it makes me smile. Here they are!

The picture is not the best, but I think you get the idea. The stamping is really really simple so it was easy to make multiple sets. If you'd like to see more samples of this same idea; cards, boxes and matching envies, check out this gallery at Splitcoast.

I'm in the process of preparing the Wishblade files for sharing (the envelope and box templates) and I'll post them later.

Have a great day!

Another Fun Card

I know I promised to share my whole Enchilada project (see this post), but it's not quite shareable yet if you know what I mean.....so for now, here's another fun card. A stamp set that hasn't seen ink in far too long is Lovely Buckles (CTMH). So when I stumbled on it in the drawer the other day -- I just had to whip up this cute card. I don't really know what I'll use it for, but I'll set is aside nonetheless. I suppose I could have chosen a more occasion specific sentiment, but I wanted something fun because it just seemed to suit my mood at that moment. I have a scrapbook layout in mind that uses the buckle as a page accent as well, but for some reason I'm just not in a scrappy mood right now. The card thing seems to be working for me (for the most part), so I think I'll stick with that for a bit longer. The kids have some birthday parties to attend this weekend, so perhaps I'll try my hand at some 'kid' cards next.

Getting my Groove Back

So June is looking to be a pretty productive month for me stamping wise. I've managed to make about 15 cards so far -- and this is awesome considering my stamping sessions have been few and far between to say the least until very recently.

Here's one inspired by the cover of the Close To My Heart Summer Idea Book. I thought the page accent on the featured scrapbook layout was just too darn cute not to duplicate! It's true there was a lot of fiddly cutting involved, but it was totally worth it -- or at least I think so.

A Quick Share as I Prepare a Donation Basket

I was sorting through my card file today, which contains both swap cards and those that I've made myself over the years and came across these two, which I thought I would share. (These are indeed made by me in case you were wondering). You see, I am taking the a basket of cards to my grandfather's retirement home and suggesting that they place it at the front desk for the residents to 'pilfer' when/if they need to give a card and perhaps can't get out on their own to buy one. So far the basket has about 80 cards in it, and I have only included those that are spring/summer like -- mostly Thank-Yous, Birthday and the all-occasion variety. If the residents adopt the idea, I will refill the basket for them come fall, and at that time of course will include some seasonal items too. I hope that none of my swap sisters are offended by my doing this as I do recognize that it takes a great deal of time and effort to create cards for swaps. I am taking no credit for the creation of the basket contents - and if your name was one the back of the card when I received it, it is still there today. I have not modified them in any way. I just thought that making these available to the aged was a nice way of clearing some of them from my space. As I said, so far the basket contains about 80 cards, and that is not even close to the amount that I have made, collected, and saved over the last few years. If you are distraught by my decision, accept my apologies and please email me and will exclude your creations from my next basket fill.

It's okay to be fickle isn't it?

After only a few moments looking at it on screen, I changed my mind & took off the paper strip and buckle from the bottom of the card. I was finding it distracting --- perhaps the pattern was just too busy, or not the right mood or something. So for now, I'll leave it blank - and maybe later on I'll find a simple sentiment to stamp there directly on the green dotted paper. The sentiments in the Summer By The Sea set are great, but they are not the right shape to add in the space I have (they are multi-line & rather skinny). I think I might try for a single word that spans the width of the card or something like that.

Simple Father's Day

Before I cleaned up my desk, I decided to use some of the bits leftover from my scrapbook layouts to create a couple of cards. This one is my favourite of the bunch despite the fact that it is incredibly simple. As I have said before and as I'm sure you know, it is for some reason more difficult to create masculine cards. Now, I just need to come up with 3 more --- wish me luck!

Feeling Very Non-Creative Lately

The title says it all, doesn't it? I suppose it doesn't help that I'm suffering from terrible pains in my arms. I think it's a simple repetitive strain injury from working at the computer all day -- but yikes! it sure does impede my ability to stamp! Since I moved into my new house last year, I've been working (temporarily) at a small desk in my kitchen - with no keyboard tray, and I think it is finally taking it's toll. I have been waiting for my office to be built downstairs but I think this weekend I'm going to have to make some changes and get myself a more ergonomicly correct workstation. I don't want to invest a ton of money at this point, since whatever I buy will likely be temporary, but I don't think at this point that I have much choice. So for now, here's another one from the archives to freshen up the page a bit. I needed a masculine card for a swap I was participating in, and it needed to be fairly simple. The images are from "Off Road" by CTMH and the ATV'er is coloured lightly with watercolour pencils. If I was to do this again, I think I would change the colours up since I'm not really a lover of orange and green - but when I made it, I had a bunch of this cardstock laying around that needed to be used up. So for now, I'm off to get the kids skates sharpened.....I hope the break away from the computer will do my some good.

Simplicity

I haven't spent much time stamping this week, but I did manage to sneak a few minutes to create this quick card using one of my new sets from Gina K Designs. The stamps actually arrived quite some time ago - but on top of being generally busy with other things, I have been plagued with an unshakeable headache for a couple of days. A headache which unfortunately doesn't allow me to concentrate and get creative. It seems to have passed now, so perhaps I can get back to the crafting table later today or this evening. For now though, I'll thought I'd post this one to freshen things up a bit. The floral stamp and sentiment are both from Gina K's "Simple Pleasures" set and the designer paper is an old one I had stashed from 7 Gypsies. The card design is simple and based yet again on Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge at Fresh and Fun (Oh how I love sketches!). In light of the fact that I was feeling generally unwell and pressed for time, I resisted the urge to mess it all up with ink and sandpaper as is normally my habit but I quite like it this way -- so all is good. Have a fantastic Wednesday -- I'm off to Splitcoast to see what today's sketch challenge is all about. Perhaps I'll post later with my response. Ciao!

I haven't had much time

to scramp lately (no pun intended), but thought I would post this quick card just to keep my page fresh. Again, I used the Make It Count set from CTMH and the Silhouete papers. The card was based, albeit loosely, on this sketch at Fresh & Fun. Although the sketch is not square, modifying it to be square seemed to work with my choice of stamps. Hopefully I'll get some time later this afternoon to pull something else together.

Not quite the way I intended

Have you ever sat down to make something and had a fabulous idea in your head (or so you thought), and then things just didn't go as planned? Well that's exactly what happened here. Here's the summary:

1. The card started out 5" x 7" --- now it is 4" x 4" (enough said?)
2. The plan was to use at least 2 different patterned papers --- now there is only 1.
3. The pink that you see is actually the THIRD pink that I tried to match to these papers, and I'm still not 100% satisfied with the result.
4. The flower started out as a whole flower --- that is until I sliced it.
5. I started out making a card for my daughter's birthday, and well, it's not.

Let's just say that this took WAY too long, and I'm not overly pleased with the result. Several times during this process, I told myself to just give it up, but I had so much time invested that I needed to carry on so I could at least say that I accomplished something more than basic frustration.

Part of the problem I think is that I don't work well with bright colours. I tend to be more comfortable with a more muted/subtle palette. Funky and fun (which I often associate with the brights) is not typically my style. But, since this was for my daughter (initially), those colours would speak to her so I was willing to give it a try. Would I do it again? In a word, undecided.

Another One From Yesterday's Creative Session

Just a little something I made for my Mom....although I admit, I saw a similar card somewhere using the flourishes in my travels, just not sure where or I would give the appropriate credit.

(Oh and can you tell I haven't cleaned off my stamp desk in a bit....I tend to keep using the same paper/colour combinations until I'm tired of them. I suppose in some ways that's a good thing!)

It's a criss cross card, and you can find the instructions to make

your own in the SCS Resources section (click here to jump there). These cards are pretty cool to make, but be prepared, you will use a lot of paper! One of the things on my to-do list though is to figure out how to modify the pattern so that I could make the whole thing stand up for display......has anyone got a template for something like that? The criss-cross envelope is just too cute not to show off!

Starting to Cross Things Off The List

So I'm slowly making some progress, starting to cross items off my holiday to-do list. Tonight I managed to finish up the first of the three sets of cards. Since I wanted them to have a common theme like a traditional stationary set, I began by stamping a standard letter size sheet of cardstock with images from CTMH Simple Blossoms. I then cut it up using a cutting template that I pre-designed, and I had enough pieces to embellish 12 different cards. If you haven't tried this yet, it's a great way to make a variety of cards all at one time. The stationary holder isn't designed yet, but I will try to post it and a picture of the other 11 cards once complete.