A Birthday Wish

I made this for my friend who asked me to make a bunch of cards for her. I had to try out a new CB embossing folder I recently got. I like how clean and simple cards are with these little folders. They are great when you don't have lots of time to work on a card.

Wedding Table Set - Placecards and More

A close friend's son got married last month, and I was asked to make some items for the wedding tables. The tables were covered with black and white damask table cloths and had a vase of red flowers in the centre of each one. This is a sample of the placecard I made to match. What's with the fish name you ask? Well, the groom is an avid fisherman, so they decided to give each of the tables a fish name instead of a number. The placecards were pretty time consuming given all the layers on the flowers plus all the layers of the card, and I had to make 128 of them! Thankfully it wasn't a very big wedding reception.

Here is a close-up of of the menu. Sounds like a yummy meal doesn't it?

This picture shows you how many menus I had to make. There are 17 of them there which means lots and lots of layers, especially including the layers on the flowers too!

And of course...a sample of the table number, uhh I mean fish!

This picture shows how I did 17 different fish, each one printed by computer, but painstakingly cut out by hand and then mounted with 3D foam tape. Each card is the same on both sides, so technically I had to do 34 of them altogether.

Monochromatic Thankyou

This is just a simple thank you card that I made for a friend who treated me to a "ladies only" weekend at her family cottage. We had such a wonderful and relaxing time. I found some wonderful textured cs in the dollar store and just loved this colour so I had to use it. The sentiment is embossed in white to stand out over the pink. It's not like me to not put any butterflies or flowers on a card, but this just seemed to be fine without them. Sometimes, simple is nice too!

51 Years, Wow!

My in-laws celebrated their 51st anniversary yesterday, which to me is an amazing feat. We invited them over for dinner as we often do on a Sunday, only this time we used all the good china and silverware and tried to make it a little more special than usual. I made this card for them using the SCS300 sketch challenge. The papers are a real mix - Anna Griffin, MME, K&Co, and even one from the dollar store. I had to try out my new MS combo scroll punch set as well. TFL!

Pink, Purple & Green, But Still Out of the Blue!

I bought these stickers a long time ago, and had only used a couple out of the package. Somehow, the idea struck me to pull them out again and use them. I was pretty happy with the result. Funny how an idea just hits you out of the blue like that! The embellie and the cs are all from the dollar store. The flowers are coloured with pencil crayons and gamsol. TFL

Butterflies and a Rose

I made this card just for fun and ended up using it for a bridal shower. I had some wrapping paper that surprisingly matched it quite well. The butterflies are embossed with the CB textiles folder, and the image is coloured with pencil crayons and gamsol. TFL!

Hershey - Our New Puppy!

Introducing Hershey, our new Shih Tzu puppy. This picture was taken the day we brought her home when she was 7 1/2 weeks old. She was only 2 1/2 pounds and will grow to be about 14-16 pounds. Our four kids as well as myself were just ecstatic to have a new dog. My DH is happy too, just not as excited as the rest of us as he didn't grow up with a dog. He is gradually becoming quite fond of her though.
Here I am with our new little rascal! The pictures make her look black and white, but she is actually tri-colour. Her face mask and the tips of her ears are black, but the coloured patches are brown with black streaks. One side has more colour than the other. The white side has a big brown spot on it and it looks like a Hershey kiss or a chocolate chip.
The Shih tzu is a very social breed as it was originally bred to be a lap dog for Tibetan/Chinese royalty. They typically love everyone and have to be near you all the time as this picture clearly shows. Hershey's new favourite spot is right at my feet where I work!

We definitely picked a smart one. It took me only 3 days to teach Hershey to sit, stay, come, shake a paw, lay down, and speak! My daughter has since taught her to sit pretty. It's amazing how quickly they learn when they are so young. Now if we can get her totally toilet trained we'll be all set!

Finally - A Chance to Post Some Cards!

I can't believe it has been more than a month since I have had the time to post something! I'm going to make up for lost time though, because I have lots of items to post over the next few days. I have been a very busy girl!

This card, to start with is a spring card I whipped up quickly for a party my son went to back in the summer. He needed a card for his friend's birthday. Nothing fancy, just a quick and simple card. Gotta love those once in awhile!

Thank You for Some Kind Friends

A pastor of mine once said, "God gives you what someone else needs, and gives someone else what you need". Some Christian friends recently proved that to be true. We haven't seen or spoken to them in a long while and yet, out of the blue, they provided an answer to prayer for us and they didn't even know that we had been praying for it! Certainly God had something to do with that!

So I made this thank you card for our very kind friends. I stamped the images with permanent ink, and then coloured them with pencil crayons and gamsol. Simple, but it allowed me to have enough room inside to write a nice note of thanks.

Light Purple Congratulations

This is the last of the cards I made playing with the handmade roses. I think I've done enough of these for awhile now. I kinda liked how this one turned out so I guess that's why I feel I can stop now. It's time to move on to other things. I'm working on some ideas for wedding placecards and table numbers, but I have a couple of other cards I've made I'll be posting first. TFL

New Job Card

A friend asked me to make a card for her bil who just got hired to start up a new mine in the Canadian north. My Lovely as a Tree set from SU and the bear stamp I got from the Michael's $1.50 bin came in handy for this one. I sponged a bit of colour on the background to complete it. I put "congratulations on your new job" on the inside.

Blog Background

I apologize for the look of my blog. I just discovered that my background has been deleted and I haven't been able to figure out yet how to fix it. Has anyone else had this problem? If you have any tips to help me please let me know. Please bear with me as I try to get this resolved.

Generic (or Masculine) Birthday Cards

Made these cards for my DH and DS. They celebrated their birthdays on the weekend, one Saturday and one Sunday. My DS turned 19! It is hard to believe how old he is getting to be...so fast!

The top card was made using dollar store stamps, and the candle on the bottom one is from Inkadinkado. The sentiment stamp is an unknown wood-mounted stamp that came in a kit. I used regular cheap old markers for the colouring!

Thinking of You

Had to try out the new i-cling rubber stamp set from Studio G that I got for my birthday. CS is Cricut Rainbow (this pink is one of my favourites) and glitter is Diamond Stickles. TFL

White Wedding

This was the last wedding card I was going to post for awhile, but I ended up making one more the other day. I just have to finish taking some pics so I can post it. I get these ideas in my head, and I just have to try them out while they're on my mind! However, I promise...I do have a couple of different cards I will also post. We have a couple of guy birthdays in the family this weekend so I will post some masculine cards soon as well.

For this card I wanted to go all white so I used my CB flowers die, and my Spellbinders Fancy Tags die and made another simple card. I added some pearls and embossing and I was done, as simple as that! TFL

Roses, Wedding and Contrast!

Trust me, only one or two more wedding cards to post and then I will move on to some masculine birthday cards...I promise! My DH and DS both have birthdays this weekend so I have to make a couple of cards for them and will post when I'm done.

This wedding card was made using a stamp set by Artemio. I embossed everything in silver and then cut along the top edge. I tacked on the shiny silver cardstock behind it for some contrast. The card opens on the right side. I think it could have used a little bit of clear glitter on the roses just to finish it off. Might just do that if I get the chance. TFL

Another Simple Wedding Card

For this card I used the wavy edge of a stencil template to cut and emboss the front side. I used a rose stamp from Inkadinkado, some Versamark ink, and some silver embossing powder for the image and sentiment. Then I added a little silver to the side on the inside so it would be seen on the front and voila...done!

Simple Congratulations

Made this simple congratulations card using silver embossing and a Fiskars border embossing punch. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Embossed Wedding Card

Another wedding card...this time with lots of roses and embossing. The centre strip has roses embossed in white, the base has roses stamped in a whitish pink colour (gives it a watermark look to it), and the edges of the centre strip were embossed and punched with a Fiskars border punch that also embosses. The sentiment and the shiny thin strips are stickers. Unfortunately you have to look really close to see all the details as they just aren't very visible in the picture.

Graduation Card

My niece just graduated from highschool and we are celebrating tonight. This is the card I made for her using her school colours. The centre panel is raised with 3D foam tape, and the 3 caps at the bottom are punched out.

Embossed Rose Wedding Card

And another wedding card....TFL!

Easel Wedding Card

Here's another wedding card that I made, this time an easel card. Someone asked me to make a wedding card for them to buy for an upcoming wedding, and so I have really gotten into making wedding cards lately. With all that I have made, and all that I have yet to post, she is going to have a big selection to choose from.

Tri-Shutter Wedding Card with Handmade Japanese Paper

My fil recently gave me a stack of handmade Japanese paper that he had to use for his calligraphy, but he no longer wants or needs. Jackpot for me! Of course it is gorgeous paper, and something I really wanted to try using for a wedding card. I decided to try it out on a tri-shutter card. I love the soft texture with the pearls, felt, and silver embossing.

Graduation Card

I made this card for a friend's graduation from the PSW course. I'm very proud of her for going back to school and getting her certificate. I cased the idea from this wonderful card on SCS. TFL

Birthday - 10 year old boy.

My son needed a card for his friend's 10th birthday. Gotta love the CB folders for a quick and easy card! I embossed Core'dinations black magic cs and then sanded the raised edges. The oval is raised off the page with 3D foam squares.

Dry Embossing on Vellum

Trying some different things I haven't done in awhile. This time - dry embossing on vellum using a brass stencil I got in the dollar store. There is an embossed rectangle around the roses but it doesn't show up very well because the colours are so light.

Masculine Birthday - Easel Card

My second easel card. These are so easy and fun to make. Made this for my fil.

Father's Day #3

Of course I had to make a card for my hubby who happens to be the best father in the world! This is my first time making a card with the grunge technique. I've distressed the edges on cards before, but not quite to this extent. I'm pretty happy with the results which means I will probably be trying this technique again sometime.

Father's Day #2

This Father's Day card will go to my father-in-law. I used pencil crayons and gamsol, as well as chalk to colour the image. This image is from the Lovely As a Tree set from SU and comes in very handy for masculine cards. The white cs in the bg has been embossed with a plaid stripe pattern, but doesn't show up too well in the picture.

Father's Day #1

This is a clean and simple Father's Day card that I made for my Dad. A couple of stamps and 3 layers of cs and voila...done!

Wedding Card

I was asked to make a wedding card for someone and have decided to make several for her to choose from. This is the second one so far, but I'm sure there will be a few more to come! The roses were coloured using pencil crayons and gamsol. I finished the blooms off with a fine white glitter.

This post and the last couple of days were all scheduled posts so that I have a new post every day for awhile. I've still got 3 Father's Day cards to post over the next 3 days, so stay tuned!

More Roses

I don't know why, but for some reason I am really enjoying making clean and simple cards lately. I coloured the image on this card with pencil crayons and gamsol, then finished it off with fine pink glitter. Aren't sparkles just the perfect finishing touch?

Smoosh Technique

I've been trying a couple of different techniques, and for this card I attempted the Smoosh Technique. I cut an oval out of white cs, then cut another oval the same size out of a transparency. I stamped the roses on the transparency with permanent ink. Once dry, I smeared the white oval with diamond stickles and placed the transparency over it smooshing the stickles! The diamond stickles is very sparkly under the transparency and unlike glitter, you don't have to worry about it flaking off. I completed it by matting it and gluing the silver cording around the edge. TFL!

Rose Tutorial

This picture shows the supplies I used. You can use any flower shaped punch or die cut similar to mine. If you have 3 different sizes it's easier, but I only had two. You could probably even get away with just one, and cut the edges to make the flowers 3 different sizes. I'm using a small dollar store punch, but you can make them whatever size your punches are. I showed the big pink punch because I used it to punch my smallest flower.
This picture shows how many flowers I punched and the sizes. As you can see, because I only had 2 different sized punches I used my scissors to cut the edges to make the one flower slightly smaller than the 2 bigger ones. The next step was to ink the edges. I inked both sides so the pink can be seen when the petals are bent up.

Then I bent the petals up on each one. The smaller the flower, the more I bent the petals up. You can see how the smallest flower looks pretty crumpled in.

The final step is to assemble and glue the flowers starting with the biggest on the bottom and ending with the smallest on top. The pearl is the finishing touch. Re-bend the petals as needed. The picture makes the smallest flower look flat, but it is really quite bent. It must look flat because I took the picture straight on.

As you can see the roses are pretty easy to make. You can use coloured cardstock or just white cardstock and ink it to match the ink on the card. If you have a leaf punch you can add leaves as I did in my card below. I inked them to match as well. I'm guessing if you make a bigger rose, you may need to add an extra layer or two to fill the flower out. The finished size of my flower is only about a 1/2" in diameter.

Clean and Simple Roses!

I continued to have fun making flowers the other night, and decided to try my hand at making a rose. Our town is called the Rose City and we celebrate a Rose Festival in June. That, as well as the fact that my sister's middle name is Rose and her birthday is in June, inspired me to make her this rose birthday card. She is also a cardmaker/scrapbooker so I think she will appreciate the fact that the roses are handmade. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, and really like that it was simple and easy to do. I definitely consider it one of my favourites that I've made lately. TFL

Flowers, Flowers and More Flowers!

The other night I was in the mood to play around with making flowers...can you tell? I used several of the punches I had and just went crazy making as many different kinds of flowers as I could come up with. Then I spent 3 days trying to figure out how to place many of them on a card and this is what I came up with. I really wanted to try it with a monocramatic scheme.

This card was going to be for my sister who is having a birthday soon, but I ended up making another card I liked even more (which I will post tomorrow hopefully). It has flowers, but not nearly as many! I was inspired to make a card using roses since Rose is one of her middle names. Check back in and you'll see a card I can certainly say I'm going to include among my favourites.

Bridal Shower Cards

I don't know about you, but sometimes I just don't like the final results of a card and so I keep on until I get one I'm happy with. I went to a bridal shower recently and made several gift cards because I just wasn't happy with the final results of each one I made. Obviously these are the cards I didn't use, but if you look below you will see the one I finally went with.

Note: The top card actually has an embossed square all the way around, but unfortunately the light in the picture only picked up the line on the top and bottom.