Thank you card...

Not long ago I was selected to receive the "Best of 2009" cartridge from Joy Tracey on her blog "Obsessed with Scrapbooking." I wanted to use the cartridge to make a thank you note to send to her.

I selected this cute bird cage image as the focal point of my card. The bird is also from the cartridge, although, because I cut it at such a small size, I didn't cut all of its layers.

The flourish is a Cheery Lynn die and the flowers are from Petaloo.

It's difficult to see in the photo, but I actually wound the flourish under parts of the bird cage before adhering it all together.

For the inside of the card, I cut the word "Thanks" using a Cuttlebug die. An easy, but fun card to make. Now I need to try a few more images from this cartridge.

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

Anything but a card...

Crimbo Crackers is one of the blogs I follow, and their current challenge (#55) is "Anything but a card." Since I needed some gift card holders for Christmas, I decided to join this challenge by making a few of those.

My husband and I buy gifts for one of the 80 families our church sponsors for Christmas. These families are low-income and have a difficult time buying gifts at Christmas time so we love to help out. We get a list of family members, their ages, genders and sometimes some ideas as to what they are interested in. The family that we selected actually suggested that gift cards for either Walmart or Target would be a welcomed gift, so along with a few other fun items for them to open, we did get them some gift cards.

I certainly didn't want to just put the cards in an envelope and add them to our box of gifts; I wanted to present the cards in a way befitting the occasion. Here's what I came up with:

 There's a great tutorial here on Splitcoaststampers for making this box. It's super easy and quick to put together. You can even add a little candy to the inside, which I haven't had a chance to do yet.



I used my new Cheery Lynn holly leaves die to create the poinsettia on each belly band. I think this die makes great poinsettias. Since the leaves are in 3 different sizes you can make different size flowers.

The flowers came together very quickly. I simply punched out a 1" circle as my base and began by gluing the largest leaves on first. I did ink the edges or add glitter and curl each leaf slightly before constructing my flowers.

Here's a peek at the inside so that you can see how the card is held in place and simply pops up when the box is opened. Isn't that fun?

Here's a little closer look at the pop-up portion of the liner. You can see how the card fits neatly into the slot. I did add a tiny little dimensional to the bottom of the card and adhered it to the front of the pop-up. It's such a tiny dimensional that it won't take much of a tug to pull the card free.

Here's one last look at these cute little boxes. I just need to pick up some candy kisses to add to the inside. If you check out the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers, you'll see exactly how that's done.

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at my little 3D project. Give it a try. It's such a great way to give a gift card!

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

Life's a beach when you're 60!

Today is my sister Michelle's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICHELLE!

Here's the card I made for her for this milestone occasion:

This image--from the Fun in the Sun cartridge--always makes me smile. I must have looked like that when I floated down the Rum River in Minnesota one summer with a couple of my girlfriends.

I think I cut the image at 3.5". I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's what I did. I need to start writing down what I do for each card. Do you do that? Or do you just remember what you've done when it comes time to post the details?

Here's an angled shot of the card. I've been having lots of fun with step cards lately. I was hoping the angle would show the sparkle I added to the polka dots on her swimsuit (with Stickles) and the sparkle (with a glitter pen) on the number 60 in the sentiment. No such luck, though. I'm a decidedly bad photographer and I really need to do something about that.

Here's a little closer shot of our mature femme fatale. You can see that I did some shading on her with my ProMarkers. I also defined the lenses on her glasses and the gray in her hair with some Letraset metallic markers. The gray lines in her hair look much more defined in the photo than they do in real life.

To dress up the inside just a bit, a cut a couple of the flowers out of the DSP and adhered them in a corner. Such a little embellishment really takes away the starkness of the white sentiment panel.











I hope my sister has a fantastic, relaxing, fun, interesting, love-filled, laughter-infused day! I'll drink a toast to you, today, Michelle! I love you and wish you that happiest birthday ever!

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

A final Thanksgiving card...

I think this is the last Thanksgiving card that I will make. I really need to write in them now and get them in the mail. I made several of this design because they came together so quickly.

 

The tree stamp is a Hero Arts stamp. It works so well for fall cards. I added some tiny yellow flat-backed gems to some of the tree's curliques for a little sparkle.

I was hoping you'd be able to see the sparkle of the gems if I took an angled shot of the card...but I guess not!

I inked around the image and the sentiment label with some distress ink and also added a couple of gems on either side of the sentiment.

The ribbon is some lovely, brown, felt-like ribbon that is actually quite thin, probably because it was in the dollar bin and is a cheaply made ribbon. But for card making purposes, it's perfect!

I used an embossing folder (from Sizzix, I think) on the top panel and then sanded the cardstock to highlight the embossed pattern. It really only took a short time to make this card--and a few more just like it.

I have begun to purchase all the food items I will need to prepare dinner for the 17 people who will be seated around our dining room table on Thanksgiving Day. I've even taken the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off from work so that I can get most of the prep work done that day. I still haven't found a turkey big enough, though. I may have to break down and buy two 12-pounders. That really isn't such a bad idea--as long as I can fit them both in my oven. I'll have to think about that.

Will you be preparing Thanksgiving dinner at your house? If so, what do you serve for dessert? We usually have three or four different kinds of pie: cherry, pumpkin, apple and, sometimes pecan.

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

Our very first Christmas card came in the mail...

...and it is more beautiful than any card I'll make this year!

This card was designed and created by our grandson Max, who is 8 years old. Don't you just love all the details? The Christmas tree with ornaments, the garland across the top, the brick fireplace and Santa's boots just inside the hearth. I think Santa is on his way down because I don't see any gifts under the tree yet.

We are thrilled that Max and his family will be able to spend some time with us at Christmas this year, because they recently moved to a new home just 200 miles away. Hurray! Max has a younger brother and sister, so I'm not sure if the three faces he drew are the three of them, or if they're just indications of a happy little boy who has just finished making a wonderful card.

There was even a special message for us on the back. Now how sweet is that! It always brings tears to my eyes to hear the grandchildren say, "I love you." WE LOVE YOU, TOO MAX!

If you feel so inclined, please leave a note of encouragement for Max. I know his mom will show him this blog post and it would be wonderful if there were some comments just for him.

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

Thanksgiving card with Art Philosophy...

I made this card using my Art Philosophy cartridge. It's such a great cartridge with really useful, even elegant, images. This card was inspired by a card that Mary made on Cardz TV. You can see her video about making her card here.

I cut my acorns at 1 1/2". I think I cut my label at 1 3/4". It didn't have a shadow on the cartridge, but it's easy enough to create one using my Gypsy.

Here you can see that I inked around the bottom section of each acorn, embossed the brown tops with a herringbone embossing folder and then popped each acorn up on one layer of foam tape.

The little bows are made out of embroidery floss and attached with one of my tiny homemade glue dots. I love making my own glue dots, because I can make them as small or as big as I want.

The ribbon is some pretty felt-like ribbon that has a gold edging. I found it in the dollar bin at Michaels.

Here's the inside of my card with an extra acorn that I added to dress it up a bit.

I'm entering this card in the CARDZ TV GO-TO GALZ LINKY PARTY CHALLENGE #8 "HAPPY HARVEST".

We will be having 17 people for dinner on Thanksgiving Day. It is going to be a ton of fun...with a ton of food! I'm hoping to find a 24 lb. turkey to feed all these people. We'll have 9 extra people staying with us through at least Saturday so I'm hoping for a few leftovers so that I don't have to do too much more cooking beyond the big meal on Thursday.

I've done a little baking already and put it in the freezer - breakfast breads and cookies - but I need to add to that during the next two weeks. We're not only having Thanksgiving dinner here, but on Friday we're also having a birthday party for one of my granddaughters. I haven't even really thought about that yet! Yikes! I'd better get on the ball.

Have you started your Thanksgiving Day preparations yet? Will you be having people to a meal at your house, or are you invited elsewhere? Whatever your plans, I hope you have a fantastic holiday!

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

Excited about my new button dies...

I always like to use woodsy elements on my Thanksgiving cards, and here's an example of just such a card:

I used my wood grain embossing folder by Sizzix to emboss some kraft cardstock. Then I inked it up with some Frayed Burlap distress ink to give more of an appearance of real wood. Before I did all that, however, I die cut an oval where I wanted my sentiment to appear.  Then I stamped the sentiment (a Lawn Fawn stamp) with Versamark ink onto the brown mat and embossed it with some off white embossing powder. It looks pretty bright white in this photo, though, doesn't it?

The leaves were cut with my Cricut from the Art Philosophy cartridge and then stamped with the coordinating stamp that came with that bundle.

The little button is what I was most excited about on this card. It's actually made with a little Impression Obsession button die that I purchased on www.diesrus.com. The set contains six little button dies. Now I just have to make sure I don't lose any of them!

Here's what the dies look like, along with a couple extra buttons that I have made:

You can see in the above photo that the buttons have some dimension to them (note the shadow they cast because of their thickness!).  That's because I cut at least four little button shapes and glued them together to form a little thicker button. I think the little pink button actually has five layers. They honestly look like real buttons, but they're still thin enough to easily go through the mail--no extra postage needed, no rigid bumps to tear the envelope. I love that!

The photo above and the one below show the dimension of the buttons. Isn't that cool? When you glue four layers together, they become very sturdy, too.

I've always been reluctant to put buttons on my cards because of the extra postage/hassle to mail them. No more! And now I'll have just the right color of button every time!

 

Here's a look at the inside of the card and the sentiment, which was computer-generated. Please excuse the bad shadow. It has been a dark and dreary day today - no sun at all. It's so hard to get good pictures on a day like this. One of these days I'm going to invest in a little light box for taking photos. If you've got a light box and love it, please leave me a comment about what brand it is. I'd really love to know!!

 

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

Cheryl

An all occasion card...

I often need a blank, all-occasion card to send a note to a friend or family member. Here's one I made not long ago. I actually sent this card to a friend, and I wrote my note on a Post-It and stuck it inside the card. That way, my friend could pull out my note and send the card to someone else. Since this card was enclosed in a box with some other items, I didn't write anything on the envelope, either, so that it could be re-used, as well.

The flowers were made with a MS hydrangea punch. I shaped the petals with a stylus and added them to the Cheery Lynn Fanciful Flourish die cut. The corner cuts are by Lifestyle Crafts and the bottom border was made with a Fiskars punch. Oh yes, the scalloped oval is a Spellbinders die.

The inside was kept very simple with just the border at the bottom to add some interest. I didn't add any sentiment to the front or the inside so that the card can be tailored to any occasion with a hand-written note.

I've started making my Christmas cards, but haven't gotten very far. Right now I'm working on a few Thanksgiving cards. I'll be sharing those over the next week or two. Once they're done, I'll be diving headlong into the Christmas card-making frenzy!

Have you started your holiday shopping yet? I have only bought a few gifts - like maybe 4 or 5. We have 6 kids and their spouses plus 10 grandkids to buy for. We also usually get a small something for a couple of brothers. All told, that's a lot of shopping--and wrapping! But I love doing it.


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