February Christmas cards and tags...

Well, I've managed to keep my commitment for two whole months now. In case you're not sure what I'm talking about--I made a resolution for 2014 to make 4-5 Christmas cards and tags each month so that its not such a BIG job come November and December.

Here are my cards for this month:

For this month's batch of cards, I used a Christmas house stamp and coordinating die. I'm not sure who the manufacturer is. It was a gently used stamp and coordinating die set that I purchased at Archiver's during their going-out-of-business sale. The packaging was not all intact, but I got it at a very good price, and you can see that it makes a cute Christmas card.

On each of the cards, I added an embossed strip with a contrasting scalloped edge across the center. On the two cards above, I also added some red Card Candi in the corners. I thought the Card Candi helped brighten up the darker paper and fill in some empty areas on the portrait-style card. I ended up liking the landscape look best, so I made three more like that.

Here are the other three cards for a total of five. I didn't add any Card Candi to these, thinking that the papers were busy enough without it. To get the red and white candies on each of the houses, I stamped the bottom half of the house with red ink on white cardstock and fussy cut them out so that I could paper-piece them onto the house.

The houses were stamped on kraft cardstock and then portions were colored with my ProMarkers.  As a last step, I added some snow with a Marvy Snow Marker. When I applied the liquid applique with the Snow Marker, I sprinkled on a little white glitter to add just a little bit of sparkle. I know you can't see it in the photos, but it does add a nice touch in real life.

I kept the inside of the card nice and simple. I used some red Stazon ink for the greeting. I just haven't found another red ink that stamps as clean and crisp as Stazon.









One of the most fun things to make with this stamp and die set is Christmas gift tags.

I love how these turned out. I cut the same shape out of white cardstock and adhered it to the back of the little house. Then I used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the peak of the roof, add a ribbon and voila!--a cute little Christmas tag.

I used all the same products and techniques on the tags that I used on the cards. These tags turned out so darn cute, I think I'll need to make some more of them. They're fun to make and go together fairly quickly.














So now I'm already thinking about what kind of Christmas cards I'll make in March. It's a good feeling to know that I already have 10 Christmas cards done, and there are still 10 months to go until the holidays!

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

Mostly white sympathy card...

Sadly, I needed a sympathy card for a co-worker whose father-in-law had passed away. I always like to use "quiet" colors for my sympathy cards, so here is what I came up with for this one.

The pretty embossed cardstock was some that I got in a pack from Costco several years ago. I only have a couple of sheets left, so I tend to use it sparingly. It's wonderful, luxurious paper that looks beautiful on cards.

The butterfly was stamped and heat-embossed on white vellum, then cut out by hand.  I used a gray-blue cardstock for my mats and for the bottom layer of the butterfly.

The flourish is cut with a Cheery Lynn Fanciful Flourish die. I tucked one end behind the rectangle and then adhered the rest to the front. Three small flat-backed pearls accent the sentiment.

I cut another flourish and added it to the inside, too.

I'm hoping to get a couple of other sympathy cards made to add to my own card supply. It's so much more difficult to make them on short notice.

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

Cheryl

Hats off to you! masculine card...

Today is my son-in-law's birthday and this is the card I made for him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROB!

I cut the hat from the Create a Critter cartridge and used some paper from a wonderful masculine paper stack that I've had for a couple of years. I think it's from DCWV. My husband actually gave it to me a couple of Christmases ago, and I've used it for quite a few masculine cards since then. 

The sentiment is computer-generated. The little ribbon loops started out as white ribbon with black polka dots. I just colored it with one of my brown ProMarkers to get a nice brown/black color combo that coordinated well with the hat.

I think you can see in this angled photo that I've added some black flocking to the hat. I love to put flocking on my embellishments whenever I can. I think it adds such a special touch.

To adhere the flocking to the hat, I simply spray the item with spray adhesive and then put the sticky side into the flocking. I burnish the flocking into the adhesive with my fingers to make sure it sticks in an even coating. It's a bit messy, but I love the finished result.

This is the inside of the card. I just used a strip of the hat paper, a black mat and some faux brads to tie into the look on the front of the card.

I hope my son-in-law has a great day and an even better year. I also hope he enjoys his card.

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

Cheryl

Nadine's beautiful cards and tags...

Our son-in-law is from Germany, and we have come to know and love his family there. He has a lovely sister named Nadine who is a wonderful seamstress and paper crafter. Yay! I'm so glad Nadine and I share a love for this hobby, even though we're an ocean apart!

She was so kind to send me some samples of the things she has made. Following are a few of the items she sent, and I'll be showing more of them to you in another blog post.

Nadine made this beautiful card, and one of my favorite parts of this card is the scalloped oval mat cut from vellum. Everything is so perfectly placed and adhered, and the bird/branch silhouette is so striking against the white and red.

Here's a little closer look at the central image of the card. I'm not sure what she used to cut the bird image, but I really love it!

Here's a look at the inside of the card. You can see that the liner has a deckle edge. The greeting means something akin to "A loving greeting."

Here are three adorable note cards that Nadine made. I think she must have a kitten punch. So cute! These cards are blank inside, so there is room to write a personal note. Wouldn't a set of these make a fun gift for a friend?

These lovely tags will make any gift more special. The ones Nadine stamped with brown ink are also heat embossed. Here, you also see the bird image again - perfect for a tag, too! And don't you love the big eyes on those owls?

Here's a little closer look at the owls. They make me smile, just to look at them.

And a little closer look at this winter scene. This would also look great on a masculine card. We all seem to have more trouble making cards for men, and stamps like this are the perfect solution.






As I mentioned at the top of this post, these are just some of the items Nadine sent. I'll be sharing more in another post.

Isn't Nadine a wonderful paper crafter? Please leave her a note, if you can, and let her know that even though we may live in different countries, we're all part of the same craft-loving community!

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

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you are all having a Valentine's Day filled with love and lots of hugs. Here are some of the final Valentines that I made for my own kids:

I just let the pretty paper do the talking on this one. The double ribbon at the bottom added a nice touch, I think. I colored the two little hearts to match the darker ribbon, colored them with a Sakura glitter pen and added a pink heart gem (which had been clear, but I colored them with a ProMarker).

For this card I used Spellbinders Majestic Elements/Marvelous Squares dies. I managed to pick them up for less than half price! They are so intricate and cut some lovely elements for cards. I just need to work with them a little more and figure out how best to use them.

I just love the Memory Box Precious Hearts dies that I used on this card. I cut the white paper lace with a Lifestyle Crafts die and added some gems to the heat-embossed sentiment and the bows. I always love me a little bling!

For this card, I cut a heart border from the Cindy Loo cartridge. The border image only has two hearts, but I pulled up 3 of these 2-heart borders on my Gypsy and welded them together to make a longer 6-heart border. I was then able to trim away one of the hearts with a scissors, and it fit perfectly across the front of my card. I love this border and will use it again, I'm sure. The red "pearls" look a little wonky. I used a Viva pearl pen and didn't get them quite all the same size. Oh well...it's the thought that counts, right?

The insides of these cards were all pretty simple.

This one just mimicked the front of the card, but left room for me to write a personal note.

Do you make Valentines for your grown kids or other adults? I think Valentines are fun to make. There's not nearly as much pressure to get them "just right" as there can be with birthday cards and Christmas cards.

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

Easy Valentine treats for the kids...

I bought some Hershey's Kisses with caramel and some Rolo candies to make some special Valentine treats for my grandchildren













Here's what I turned them into:

These were really fun and fairly quick to make. After adhering a Hershey's kiss to the top of the Rolos, I cut some cardstock to fit around each roll, using my pinking shears on one end. I scored the cardstock at 1/2" intervals to make it look like the sides of a pencil, wrapped it around the Rolos and adhered (I had cut it so it overlapped about 1/4").

The erasers were made by first cutting a circle that was approximately 1/4" larger in diameter than the end of the Rolos. I snipped about 1/8" in at 1/8" intervals all the way around the edge of the circle. This created little tabs which I bent down over the end of the Rolos and adhered with 1/8" sticky tape. I covered these little tabs with a little strip of pink cardstock and then added another strip of self-adhesive metal duct tape.

As a final touch, I added these little tags which I had cut out with a Cuttlebug die.

As a treat for my adult kids, I made these:

This little boxes hold 4 Ghirardelli squares perfectly.

I only added some quick hearts to the front, which helped to hold the box closed, and a tag to the top of each box. Simple!

Here you can see how the box closes. It was made from one piece of cardstock and is super easy to put together. There is a great tutorial here on the Splitcoaststampers site.

Obviously, you can do a lot more decorating of this little box, but I decided to keep it quick and easy. I'm thinking these little candy treats will disappear quickly, anyway. Who doesn't love Ghirardelli chocolate?






Are you doing something special with your significant other on Valentine's Day? We don't have anything planned....yet. Maybe I'll try to make a special dinner since all the restaurants get so crowded, especially when this day falls on a weekend.

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

More Valentines for my grandchildren...

I created this Valentine for one of my grandsons using the Dude! cartridge (for the motorcyclist) and the Elegant Edges cartridge for the white mat with its heart cutouts. The motorcycle image is a little fiddly to put together, but I know my grandson will like it. They're all getting to that age when they like the "tough-guy" images.

I added one glittery heart on the inside above the computer-generated sentiment. I think boys need a little glitter, too!

This is one of the Valentines I made for my granddaughters. The perfume atomizer is from the Forever Young cartridge and the purse and nail polish are from Mickey and Friends. I created my own layers for the purse, as it was a single-layer image, and added a couple of flat-backed pearls as the clasp. The atomizer and nail polish are popped up on foam squares, and my sentiment is computer-generated.

You wouldn't think that a Disney cartridge would be the place to find the purse and nail polish images, but when I looked for those items on mycutsearch.com, I found exactly what I wanted on this one, which I happened to have in my collection.

If you've never used mycutsearch.com to find the image you want, I'd suggest giving it a try. It's a great help and so much quicker than paging through your manuals. It's not perfect, because some images may not be linked to the keyword you're using. I usually try different keywords if I'm not finding what I'm looking for. It's still a great help, and I use it often.

The inside for this one is simple again - the mat from Elegant Edges, a sentiment from my computer and one glittery hearty sticker for bling.











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

Happy Birthday, Deb...

It is my sister Deb's birthday today. I hope she has a wonderful day and is treated like a queen!

Here is the card I made for her:

I embossed the turquoise panel with a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder. I love this particular one that came in a set of two called "Classic." I think you can see that I also slightly inked the raised parts of the embossed image to give it a bit more dimension.

The doily was cut with a Lifestyle Crafts die out of some sparkly turquoise paper. Luckily, I just happened to have some turquoise glitter paper that matched my turquoise cardstock. The banner was made from 1" satin ribbon.

Because I didn't exactly tell the truth on the front of the card (shhhhh - my sister is a "little" older than 29), I decided  I might as well embellish the truth on the inside of the card, too. I really don't weigh 110 lbs. I mean, I REALLY don't weigh 110 lbs!

I did a little more embossing on the inside, added a little ribbon and a couple of decorative corners cut with a Cuttlebug die.

This card was a lot of fun. I just hope it makes my sister smile on her big day.

Once again....

Happy Birthday, Deb!

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

Cheryl

Happy Birthday to my son...

Today is my son's {gulp} 40th birthday!! I can hardly believe that my little boy is 40 years old. I must have given birth when I was about 5 years old. Surely I'm not over 45 myself. Ha ha!!

Anyway, 40 is a milestone and needed a special card to let him know how much we love and admire the wonderful man he has become. Here is what I came up with:

I got this idea from Helen over at It's All Fiddlefart. She's done a number of these cards and if you search through her blog, I'm sure you'll find more of them plus a lot of other great ideas.

I created the basic design of the card in Microsoft Publisher. I cut two layers of the word "Exclusive" so that I could pop this up on foam squares.

This photo is of my son when he was a year old. He really is eating his birthday cake here. Do you see the balloons I added with real thread and tied to the spindle on his high chair? I did end up trimming that long thread before I sent him the card. I pierced a hole on either side of the spindle, used a needle to pull the thread to the back and then up again on the other side, and finally tied them together in a bow.

Wasn't he an adorable little boy? His bib says "Today I am a li'l stinker." He could definitely be a little stinker at times, but he always had so much charm that he could melt my heart in no time flat.

I don't know if you've noticed but when you see those blank spaces in the text, it's because I've erased his last name using Photoshop, just to give him some anonymity here.

The little gifts were punched out with the Martha Stewart deep-edge "Gifts" punch. One of my daughters gave me this punch for Christmas. It makes the perfect little gifts and I can see adding them along with all kinds of images on my cards. With their simple shapes, they are so easy to back with a contrasting color of cardstock.

You can see on Scott's card that I punched a gift out of blue paper and one out of a gold glitter paper. Then I backed them with a contrasting color and popped them up on some foam squares.

On the inside, I added a black mat to mirror the one on the front of the card, and I also added a couple more balloons (Cuttlebug die). For these balloons, I just drew on the strings.

This card was so much fun to make, even though it's kind of tough to admit that I have a 40-year-old child. He'll always be about 4 or 5 in my mind and ageless in my heart!

Happy Birthday, Scott!  I love you!

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

Another boy Valentine...

Little boys are never a problem when it comes to cardmaking.  But when they get to be 9, 10 and beyond, they don't want those "cute" cards anymore. They're much too "tough" for little cars, trucks and trains or even puppy dogs or other pets.

Because I like to make my cards as personal as possible, I always think long and hard about the design and content of the card, especially when it comes to my older grandsons. One of them is taking snowboarding lessons this year, so here's the Valentine I made for him:

This image was cut from the "Dude!" cartridge. I think you can see that the snowboarder is popped up on some foam squares for a little added dimension. I did add one little heart up in the corner and used lots of red cardstock. It is a Valentine, after all.

I had to go online to look up some snowboarding lingo for the sentiment, which is computer generated. Gnar-shredding??? Have you ever heard of that?? I sure hadn't until I worked on this card.

For the inside of the card, I added a little strip of the DSP, another strip of the punched border and a couple more hearts.

I sure hope my grandson likes it. I think he'll be surprised to see a snowboarder on his card.

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

A Valentine for my husband...

The cards I make for my husband are usually simple in design...and this one is no exception. I used the "Birds on a Wire" Martha Stewart punch for the birds. I received this punch as a Christmas gift from one of my daughters.



I am so loving this punch! It's easy to just trim the birds' tails from the cardstock or even trim away most of the birds, as I have done for this card.

Here's a peek at the folded banner that I created for my sentiment. I inked the edges just a bit to make it stand out a little more.

Just yesterday, I received some La La Land folded banner dies in the mail that I had ordered.  I'm excited to use them in the future, rather than making my own.

The sparkly little hearts that I used above the birds and near the sentiment were some dimensional stickers that I got at a big discount last year after Valentine's day. They have really been coming in handy this year.

I don't recall who makes the cloud patterned paper. What I do remember is that when I found it online a couple of years ago, I ordered quite a few pieces. I've been using--and loving--it ever since.

I still have more Valentines to share with you, and I'll try to get them all up and on the blog before the big day.

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

Special handmade birthday cards...

It was my birthday on January 27th, and I received several beautiful cards. Some were purchased and some were handmade, and I loved all of them!

Because I focus on handmade cards on this blog, however, I thought I'd share the two I received that were crafted by two dear people - one by my sister Michelle and the other by Nadine, the sister of my son-in-law who lives in Germany.

This beautiful card was made by Nadine. I believe the sentiment translates as "Take time to be happy!"  The two-tone ribbon you see across the center of the card is actually three 1/8" ribbons adhered side-by-side. I'm not sure what punch she used for the butterflies, but I love the shape of their wings and the embossing that gives them extra definition.

This card was made by my sister Michelle. She used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the white mat and the Quickutz "Floral Doily" die for the focal point. The sentiment is on a self-adhesive dimensionl sticker that is encased in a metal form (also self-adhesive).

My favorite embellishments on this card are the two fancy little heart brads in the corner. Aren't they pretty? And they just add a special touch to the whole card.











I hope you enjoyed seeing Michelle's and Nadine's cards. Thank you again, Nadine and Michelle, for sending me these lovely cards. I appreciate them and will be using them for inspiration for the cards I make.

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