Card for a knitter ...

I bought a new stamp set at Joann's the other day. Okay, that's a half-truth--I bought four new stamp sets at Joann's the other day. And that's my sister's fault. She was with me and was VERY encouraging as I contemplated my purchases. I love that about her!!!!

One of the stamp sets that fell into my basket was the TPC set called Yarn Crafts. I bought this set because I have a daughter who is a terrific knitter. I thought she might like some knitting-themed cards, just for fun. This is my first crack at making a simple card for her. I sent it to her and she loved it, so I plan to make some more for her to have on hand.

I colored the knitting basket image with ProMarkers and cut it out with a Lifestyle Crafts die. I also cut a slightly larger mat in a coordinating color. You can see in the picture that I inked the edges of the image a bit. I added a couple of buttons, tied with embroidery floss, and some seam binding tied across the center of the mat. A bit of faux stitching around the edge of the mat finished the front of the card.

I used the fun stamp "Knit happens" for the inside sentiment. I used my remaining bit of patterned cardstock to finish off the inside.

This is a simple card, but since my daughter has several friends who also knit, I thought she could find a reason to give it to one of them.

Thanks for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Sugar and spice and everything nice ...

... that's what little girls are made of!

My daughter needed a baby card for a friend who is having a little girl. I was so pleased that she asked me to make one for her. I immediately pulled out my Kate's ABCs cartridge, remembering that it had the cutest image of little girl shoes. Here's what I came up with:

I cut the shoes at 2 1/2" as I didn't want them to take up the entire face of the card. I've seen them cut much larger, but I really like this smaller version.  They are both popped up on foam tape for a little extra dimension. 

I also cut the letter blocks at 1" from the same cartridge and backed them with some of the same darker pink cardstock that I used for the shoes. They are also adhered with foam tape, and I think they add so much to the design!

The pink patterned mat was edged on the bottom with a Martha Stewart "doily lace" border punch and finished with a length of off-white satin ribbon across the center.

I decorated the pink envelope with a small heart stamped twice in the bottom right corner. I also stamped the same heart on the back of the card where you might put your "Made by" stamp.

I used a small pink pearl in the center of each little flower on the shoes and also as a sort of "button" on each strap. I also used a pink pearl flourish by Zva Creative to add some bling - this card is in celebration of a little GIRL, after all!

The inside of the card was decorated with just a strip of the pretty pink card stock, edged with the MS border punch.  The sentiment was computer generated. It is similar to one I found online, but I changed it to be more my style.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my little baby girl card. It was so much fun to make, and I know I'll use those little shoes again whenever I have the opportunity to make another card for a tiny miss.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl 

 

Easter card #1...

I send quite a few Easter cards to family and friends, so it is high time that I get started making them. Even though we had several inches of snow today, spring--and Easter--will be here before we know it.

Here's my first card--simple, but definitely indicative of warmer weather when my spring bulbs will break through in the front flower garden. I love daffodils, tulips, narcissus, and all the other spring flowers. Two falls ago I planted 200 bulbs in front of my house. It was such a joy to cut bouquets of them last spring to bring inside the house. This card reminds me of those beautiful bouquets.

The pretty daffodils were cut at 3.5" from the Art Nouveau cartridge. I did a little shading on the flowers with some ProMarkers to give them a bit more depth and definition.  The Happy Easter sentiment was heat embossed.

 I love the elegance of these daffodils. You can find daffodils on a number of other cartridges, but I think this particular image is the prettiest. I only wish I actually owned this cartridge! Luckily, my sister has it and is happy to let me use it when we are able to get together.

I always scour the internet for Easter greeting ideas to put inside my cards. I often find suggestions that I change to fit my own style. This particular sentiment will work well for most of my family members, as they live hundreds of miles away, some even thousands!  To keep the look the same as the card front, I left a significant bit of the blue mat showing at the bottom. I heat-embossed a little flourish to add some interest,

Have you started your Easter cards yet? I know they are beginning to show up on many cardmaking blogs across the internet. I find that Pinterest is a good place to find some cardmaking inspriation.

 

Thanks for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

 

A quick card just to say "Hi"...

I needed a quick card to send to an elderly family member, and this is what I came up with:

The "Hi" was cut from the white cardstock using the font from Nate's ABCs. It's a wonderfully simple font that cuts beautifully. I backed it with the deep pink paper for contrast.

The simple tree was stamped and a few flat-backed gems were added for sparkle. The ribbon looks quite red in the photo but it's actually a deep pink silky seam binding.

It's such a simple card, but I think the colors make it very cheery, and I hope it makes the receiver smile.

Sometimes the simplest cards are the most fun to make and even the most effective.  Thanks for stopping by today, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

I know that Valentine's Day has come and gone...

...but I just had to share one more Valentine that my sister made for her friend, Connie.

Connie has a little Chihuahua dog that she loves, so my sister wanted to feature this little cutie on a Valentine  to make it extra special. The Chihuahua was cut from the Four-legged Friends cartridge. It is one of the sweetest cuts featured on the cartridge and I used it for me granddaughter's birthday card here.  I love the retro Valentine CS my sister chose for the card base and the coordinating patterned paper behind the heart.

She used another Chihuahua on the inside plong with a little heart. I also love the way she matted the sentiment and put it somewhere other than dead center.  I have a hard time not centering my sentiments, and I need to get better at that!!

Thank you, Michelle, for letting me share your card. It's a wonderful Valentine and I am so glad that Connie loved it!

 

Thanks for stopping by today, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day!

Cheryl

Valentine treats...

I made a few Valentine treat boxes and candy bar wrappers this year, and I thought I'd share them with you.

These are some yummy dark chocolate candy bars. I like to get the ones that are at least 70% cacao.

This treat box held a few truffles. I actually won several of these treat boxes from an online drawing so I'm not sure what cartridge or software they were cut with. I only added some pretty paper, a label and a little twine. A pretty and quick treat container!

I made three of these treat boxes for some of my co-workers and filled them with some yummy truffles. I found some directions online to make this treat box from one 8 1/2" X 11" sheet of cardstock. They were really quick and fun to make.  If anyone would like the directions for them, please email me (see "Contact" link on my sidebar) and I'd be happy to send them to you.

I hope you were able to get all of your Valentines and treat containers finished in time. Thanks for stopping by today, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

A Valentine for my husband...

When I began thinking about what kind of Valentine to make for my husband, the thought that kept coming to mind was "Life is Good." It's his favorite saying and he says it regularly. He loves life, loves his job and loves our blended family. He especially loves the grandkids. He often says "Life is Good" in reference to them.

Here is the Valentine that I came up with for this kind and loving man of mine:

The music paper was made with a music background stamp, the hearts were cut from George and the border was made with a Fiskars border punch. In order to get my computer to print the words on the hearts, I first printed the words on a piece of standard paper, then centered my hearts over the words on the paper, adhering them with a little low-tack tape and ran the paper through the printer again.

Here's a close-up look at those hearts. I think you can see here that I also popped them up on pop dots for a little dimension.

The inside of the card is a couple more hearts, one plain and one scalloped (cut from Gypsy Wanderings).  I added a little hat (like my husband often wears) to the male heart and a little pink bow to the female heart. I added some fun faces with Peachy Keen face stamps and Stazon ink.  These hearts are also popped up on pop dots.

Here's a little closer look. Aren't these heart faces fun? I think he'll really like his card.

Thanks for stopping by today, and remember to laugh--a little or alot--every day.

Cheryl

 

 

Happy birthday, son...

Today is my son's birthday. He is the oldest of four and the only boy. Spoiled? Absolutely! Charming? Very. He was a darling little boy, walking when he was only nine months old - albeit with his hands held high for balance. He also got into lots and lots of mischief, from the time he could crawl until...well, he still does. And he is 39 years old today! Hard to believe that I have a child that age. It seems only a week ago that I was changing his diapers, then hauling him to piano lessons and hockey practice and birthday parties. Then came college, a dream job, and a beautiful wedding in an Oregon vineyard. Life seems to happen at warp speed, but I wouldn't change a thing. When life gives you four of the most beautiful people you could ever know, you can only say a heartfelt thank you for blessings received.

Here is the card I made for his birthday.

The hot air balloon image is cut from the Victorian Romance cartridge. A second layer for the flags on either side of the balloon was not offered, but it's easy enough to trace and hand cut two little red flags.

The original balloon also had a heart cutout on the basket. I decided to use the basket's under-layer as the top layer to hide the heart cut out and help it look a bit more masculine. I embossed this layer with the Herringbone  Cuttlebug folder and simply adhered it on top.  The striped paper at the bottom of the card is simply the back side of the cloud paper, so it coordinates perfectly.

The sentiment is computer generated and popped up on foam tape with three red eyelets below it. I certainly hope my son enjoys this next journey around the son. I'm pretty confident that he will. He seems to enoy his job and his life, in general.

The inside of the card mimicked the front. I used a cloud stamp from Hampton Art, along with the same striped paper and red border.

Thinking ahead to next year, it will be even  harder to believe when I have a son who is 40! Wasn't I 40 just a year or two ago?

Thanks for stopping by today, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day!

Cheryl

Valentines for girls...

Papercrafting doesn't get more fun than when you're making Valentines for girls. I already shared one with you in this post. Here's another one that was so much fun.

This sweet little bear was cut from Create a Critter 2. The little heart frame behind her was cut from Gypsy Wanderings. 

 
I inked the edges of the bear and the heart and then added some liquid pearls to the scallops of the heart and the bottom edge of the card.

The eyes were made with some dimensional paint and I added Diamond Glaze to the nose. For the XO on the heart, I simply used my VersaMarker, hand-lettered the XO and heat embossed it with red embossing powder.

Here's another quick Valentine that was fun to make. The scalloped and plain hearts were cut from Gypsy Wanderings.

The bottom edge of the card was shaped with a border punch, and a couple of hearts were stamped on either side.

The face on the heart was stamped with a Peachy Keen stamp. I colored the whites of the eyes with a white gel pen and added a little pink chalk to the cheeks.

The only embellishement was a little ribbon bow.


I also have a nearly 17-year-old granddaughter for whom I wanted to make a more grown up Valentine.

 For this card I used a heart and flourish image from the Tie the Knot cartridge and embellished it with some flat-backed gems.  The rose trim that I adhered just beneath it was purchased at my local sewing shop, just a few blocks from my house. I love this trim for cards. It's very soft so really doesn't add much thickness, but still has a lot of dimension.



You can see some of that dimension in the smaller photo.

The inside was fairly plain so that I can write her a quick note.



Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed my girly Valentines. Don't forget to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Valentines for boys...

Boys over the age of 6 can be a little tricky when it comes to Valentines. They begin to shy away from the hugs and kisses and "girly" stuff. We have 3 grandsons who are between 7 and 10, so I needed to come up with some Valentine ideas that would work for them.

                                                             Here's one that I think they'll like. I actually made two cards like this.

No hearts, no X's and O's. Just a simple message on the front of the card that lets them know we're proud of them and love them.  The inside is stamped with "Happy Valentine's Day." The guitar-playing fox is cut from the Birthday Bash cartridge and the card and plaid mat were cut with Art Philosophy. I used George to cut out five 1/2" circles and stamped them with the letters for "U ROCK," then adhered them with pop dots. The edges were inked on the fox and the circles, and I also added a little sparkle around the circles with a glitter pen. The same pen was used to draw the strings of the guitar.

 

Now, here's another card that does have a few hearts on the front, but it has a very masculine bi-plane image to counteract the girly hearts.

 

The bi-plane was cut from the Heritage cartridge. I also cut a 1" heart shape (from George) to trace around for the airplane's path.  The cloud paper is some great paper I purchased online. I'm not even sure of the brand, but I love it! Thank goodness I ordered more than one sheet. The three little hearts were punched with a hand-held hole punch that happens to be heart-shaped. It's a really old punch, but it's surprising how often I use these tiny little hearts on cards.

The inside, once again, says "Happy Valentine's Day." 

 

For our two younger grandsons (5 and 3), I made this cute little card.

 

This little dog was cut from the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge, which my daughter gave me for Christmas. The image was actaully one layer, but it was easy enough to cut two images and then cut one of them apart by hand for the extra layers. There also was no heart included with the image, but again, it was easy to cut one to size and then carefully cut the puppy's mouth line and slip the heart inside. I added a pop dot under the outer edge of the heart to give it a little dimension.

 

Notice how I used those little punched hearts again.  The sentiment was computer generated and the thought bubble was cut from George. I inked up the puppy, gave him a few whiskers and added some black dimensional paint for his eyes and nose.

 

These will be going into the mail soon along with some Valentine treats.

 

Thanks for stopping by today, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl