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.

Anniversary - Laura's Sketch 52

My husband and I celebrated our 21st anniversary on Thursday so I made this card for him using Laura's Sketch 52 at 2 Sketches 4 You. I almost forgot to post it in time. The stamps are Studio G and were from a rak I won at Cuppas and Cards. TFL

Card Details: Stamps - Studio G; Ribbon - Offray; Metal corners - dollar store; Spellbinders Circle/Scalloped Nesties; CS - Recollections; Ink - Memories black, Walnut Distress (Tim Holtz).

50th Anniversary Cards

Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge asked us to make a card with a large oval. These two cards are quite similar, but still are quite different. I made them for a friend to choose from to give her parents who are celebrating their 50th anniversary. I think that being together for 50 years is truly something special to celebrate given that nowadays 1/3 marriages ends in divorce. So I tried to make the cards look as special as I could. The cardstock I used is a mix between shiny gold, metalic gold, and metalic ivory. Pearls and roses to me are elegant and timeless so I thought they would be perfect for a 50th anniversary card.

Card Details: Rose Stamp - Judikins, 50th stamp - unknown; Spellbinders Fancy Tags die; Oval Curvy Cutter; MS leaf, Fiskars, and Marvy punches; Kaiser Scrapbook pearls; Bazill and Recollections cs; Versamark ink; and Ranger Fine Gold EB powder.

Bridal Shower

My friend's son is all grown up and getting married, and this past Sunday was the bridal shower for his fiance. I made this card to go with the gift I bought. I like the whole thing, but almost think it would have been fine with just the centre card, especially since it was a gift card. TFL

Card Details: Vellum - HOTP; Punches - Fiskars, Dollar Store, MS Lace Border Punch; Pearls - Recollection; Stamps - Inkadinkado; Ink - Versamark; EB Powder - Ranger Seafoam White.

Centre Step Fold Card

Well Nyoka, I finally did it! Thanks so much for the instructions. I have finally made a centre step fold card! And I must say I really liked making this kind of a card. It's actually easier for me to make a card covering lots of smaller panels than one big panel. I don't know why, it just is. Maybe because it makes it easier to place matching patterned papers. I guess I'll have to try a side step card next!

Card Details: Heidi Grace pps; Hero Arts bling; Memories ink, Offray ribbon, Fiskars border punch; Inkadinkado - sentiment stamp; Cake stamp - unknown; embellie - dollar store.

Mother's Day Card

I finally got around to making a Mother's Day card for my mil. This style of card is one of my favourites because there are so many panels to cover and have fun with. I hope my mil doesn't mind that I cheaped out on it though. The pp and glitter are from the dollar store, the pearl on the front was from an old necklace of my daughter's that she was going to throw away, and the wide ribbon was from a rak. Not bad eh?

Card Details: Stamps - Say It With Stamps (sentiment), Artemio (roses, leaves), Studio G (enjoy); MS butterfly punch; Versamark and Colourbox ink; Ranger Seafoam White EB powder; Recollections CS; pp and glitter - dollar store; ribbon - rak (wide), Ruban (blue), Oval Curvy Cutter, tag punch - unknown.

Thank You Card

I made this clean and simple card for a neighbour who did something nice for my youngest DS. I used the CB thank you die cut, and embossed the flowers with Spellbinders Impressibilities. I brushed Liquid Pearls on the embossed area to help it stand out, then distressed the edges, and voila...done! CS is Recollections (white) and Cricut Rainbow (blue). TFL

Sooo Disappointed

Unfortunately I won't be posting any more pictures of our robin family. We were gone to my daughter's track meet yesterday, and just as we arrived home my oldest son was watching the female carry away the last of the eggs. I'm not sure what she did with them, but one of them dropped and broke in the driveway. The man delivering my youngest son's papers had dropped the bundle right under her nest so I'm thinking the thud and commotion may have terrified the poor thing.

I am so disappointed as I was really looking forward to watching the eggs hatch one by one. Nature can be very entertaining and interesting, but it can be sad too.

Mating Season!

IT'S MATING SEASON!
Days 1-3: A robin spent 3 days building a nest in the planter next to
my front door (on the left side). Notice how close it is to the door?

The completed nest. I just have to stand in my doorway
and reach my hand out with my camera to take a picture!

Day 4 - Just before noon we watched through the window as the robin laid her first egg.

Day 5 - 2 eggs! Same again...she laid it right around noon time.

Day 6 - 3 eggs, same time of day!

Day 7 - 4 eggs! Again, same time of day!

Here is momma robin sitting on her eggs.
I'm only about 4 feet away from her!
I guess it's going to be awhile before I can replace my planter!

So, now the waiting begins! It takes about 12 days or so before the chicks hatch. Then it will take another 13-16 days for them to leave the nest. I will be posting more pics as I can, so keep checking in. In the meantime, we continue to use our side entrance as much as possible to keep from disturbing her. She sits on the nest for close to an hour, then takes off for a short time, and then returns again. After all the work she's done so far, she now has lots of sitting time! Although, I've read that as the chicks hatch, she will start building a new nest for another clutch. She will do this again probably one more time after that until August. So I guess it's good for her to sit as long as she can, when she can! The male robin helped a little bit with the nest building, and will eventually help with some of the feeding, but so far he has been best at keeping guard! He likes to stay close and keep an eye on things.

Congratulations!

A friend of mine has been working very hard for about 2 years toward passing an important test for her job. She works in a bank and passing this test meant a promotion and a raise. I'm very proud of her for hanging in there and working so hard as she has had a lot of difficult things going on in her personal life during this time as well. I made this card to congratulate her.

Labels: MS (punch), Kaiser Craft (pearls), Bazill (yellow & blue CS), Spellbinders Labels 1; stamps - Artemio and unknown; Fiskars flower punches; pp was a rak won at Cuppas & Cards.

5 Easter Cards - Better Late Than Never

I made these 5 cards for my family for Easter this year, but unfortunately haven't been able to post them until now. I guess it's better to post them now, than not all though. They're all self-explanatory except the bottom one. For it, I used white CS and my swirls CB folder, then inked it with the different Easter colours. On the 3rd card I added a Maya Road bird, but unfortunately the glue at the bottom of the bottle had turned brown and showed through. I didn't know it could do that, did you?

Product Labels: Fiskars, MS, Cuddlebug, Recollections, Spellbinders, Maya Road, and the rest are dollar store or rak items.

Nintendo DS Card

This post is for Anonymous. You have left me several comments with requests for clues about how to make the Nintendo DS card, but I have not been able to reply to you because I don't have any contact information for you. I have contact information in my profile if you would like to reach me directly so I can send you the information you have been asking about.

Thanks for your interest in my card.

Sad Day For Me

I'm really missing my shadow and my faithful friend. Today we had to put down our Shihtzu, Pepper. She was only 8 1/2 years old, but had cancer and woke up today not doing so well. She was the smartest and sweetest dog I have ever had, and was a real family dog. Some dogs tend to stick closest to one person, but she loved all 4 of my kids. I think my oldest son is going to find it hardest tonight when he heads to bed and she isn't with him as she has slept on his bed for most of her life.

Cuddlebug Flowers

I've been playing around with making my own paper flowers still. These were made using the CB flower die cuts. I've curled up the edges of each of the petals to give it more of a 3D look. I'm amazed at how much it changes the look of the flower just by curling or bending the petals a little bit. I'm not sure if it shows up well enough in the photo, but I really like it better than just leaving them flat.

Card Details:
Top - CB flowers die cut; CS & Pearls - Recollections; Memories ink; Fiskars threading water border punch; Stamp - unknown.
Bottom - CB flowers die cut; CS & bling - Recollections; MS lace border punch; Pamass ink; Stamp - unknown.

2Sketches4Y - Bonus Sketch

This card was made using the bonus sketch at 2Sketches4Y. I turned the sketch on it's side because I wanted to fit the flower I made as well as a larger oval. I received the pp in a prize I won through an anniversary challenge over at Cuppas and Cards. TFL!

Card Details: Marvy flower punches, centre punch unknown; Oval Curvy Cutter by EK Success; CS - Recollections, Cricut Rainbow, pp unknown (RAK); Scrappy Cat stamp; Memories ink; Kaiser pearls.

Birthday Cards

My sister asked me to make a card for her to give to a friend, so I made a couple to give her a choice. I had also been wanting to try making a card using some flowers I made. I've been experimenting with flower making so you will be seeing lots of flowers on my upcoming cards!

Card Details:
Top - Inkadinkado Stamps; Fiskars Border Punch; Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle Nesties; Colourbox, Versamark and MS Inks; Ranger Seafoam White EB Powder; Diamond Stickles; Recollections CS.
Bottom - Inkadinkado Stamps; Fiskars Border Punch; Marvy flower punches; MS leaf punch; Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle Nesties; Memories and Colourbox ink; Recollections CS and bling; White Opal Liquid Pearls.

Bridal Shower Invitation Samples

As you can tell these are just rough samples of some invitations I made. In fact, they aren't even taped down and the crafty tack that I used to hold the paper in place even shows through. I used paper for the printed part, rather than cardstock since it is just a sample. The actual invitation the bride chose to go with is posted below. TFL

Tying the Knot!

Bridal shower invitation which is actually a pocket card.

The pocket card with the envelope.

The invitation out of the pocket.

The whole ensemble.

Someone is tying the knot! Actually my friend's son is, and I was asked to make the bridal shower invitations so I was thrilled! I love big projects like that. The bridesmaids will be in black, carrying red flowers (fall wedding) so I used the colours the bride asked for...black and white with a hint of red. The wedding invitations have flourishes on them so I tried to keep with that theme. The mother of the groom who is co-hosting the event asked for "swirly hearts". I think I did okay meeting all the requirements! Actually, I showed the bride and the groom's mother several sample ideas and this is the one they liked the most. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I had to make 40 in total so it has kept me busy lately.

I've been asked to make the wedding placecards next so I've already started working on some samples for that. I will be sure and post them when they're done, but that won't be for awhile.

Card Details: CS - Bazill (shiny grey), Recollections (black and white); Colourbox silver ink; Fiskars border punch; Stamp - Artemio; Emagination heart punch; Swirls CB EB folder. Invite was computer generated.

Cuppas Anniversary Challenge "One"

For one of the anniversary challenges at Cuppas and Cards, we had to use the word "one" on our card. This is my take on this challenge. The black strip has an embossed line on each of the longer edges that doesn't show up well in the picture.

Card Details: CS - Recollections; Fiskars Border Punch; Spellbinders Labels 1; Stickers - Miss Elizabeths; Gelly Roll Pen - Diamond Dust.