Sweet baby cards by Nadine...

I am so lucky to have a special person in my life who lives in Germany and shares my love of cardmaking. Nadine makes gorgeous cards that are perfectly detailed. Recently she shared with me that she has been suffering from "baby card fever." I was delighted when she sent me some pictures of her beautiful cards (made during the course of her "affliction") and gave me permission to share them on my blog.

  Aren't these cards precious? I love the stork and baby image. She used a Spellbinders Floral Oval die for the card on the right.

Here's another photo of the two cards that were in the first photo plus an additional card with a red mat and a red scalloped oval mat. Really love that one!

 Here are some similar cards in blue.

Nadine made the inside as delicate looking as the outside, using a pretty border punch and a pale-colored mat to match the color on the front.

For these cards, Nadine used a Marianne Creatables baby carriage die. This die is so intricate, even incorporating some embossing on the bottom portion of the baby carriage. The sentiment, herzlichen Glückwunsch, means "congratulations."

Thank you, Nadine, for allowing me to share your cards! They are really wonderful, and I know that the new mothers who receive them will be thrilled.

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

Cheryl

Happy Easter with a Cadbury egg holder...

No Easter card in this post, but a quick little Cadbury egg holder. At the last minute, I decided to make these for my grandkids who will be spending part of Easter Sunday with us.

They are super easy and quick to make. Here are the instructions:

1. Cut a 2" X 11" piece of cardstock and score at 4 1/2" and 6 1/2". Use a punch or a die to create a decorative end at each end of the 11" piece. I used one of my label dies to create this look and then punched a hole through which I could thread a short piece of ribbon and tie a single knot.  Use a 1 1/2" circle die or punch to create a hole about 1" up from one of the score lines. This is the hole through which you will be able to see the Cadbury egg.

2. Cut a 3.5" X 3.5" piece of cardstock and score at 3/4" on all sides. Die cut or punch a 1 1/4" circle in the center of the square. This is the circle in which the egg will sit. Cut the short score lines on two opposite sides to create tabs so that you can form the square into what looks like the lid for a box. You should end up with a "lid" that is 2" X 2" X 3/4" and has a hole in the center. This "lid" will be adhered open-side-down to create a little platform for the egg.

3. Put double-sided tapes on two opposite 3/4" sides of the lid. Set the lid (open side down) on the 11" piece of cardstock so that it is centered between the two score lines and the adhesive ends are to the inside. Lift up the front piece of the 11" strip and adhere it to the front of the lid. Do the same with the back piece.

4. Tie the two ends together with a short piece of ribbon. Add a glue dot or dimensional to the bottom of the egg to help it stay in place when you place it in the hole. You can certainly add other embellishments to make these much cuter. Since I did this as a last minute thing, mine are kind of plain. At least the cardstock is brightly patterned! Next time I'll set aside some time to do a better job.

You could change these up a bit by using scalloped punches or dies, or even using an oval punch for the front hole, rather than a circle one. Some little bunnies, chicks or die-cut Easter eggs would look cute on the outside.  Maybe next year...

I hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday. Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Happy Easter...

Here's another Easter card with some flowery DSP and butterflies. The vine underneath the butterflies was made with the Martha Stewart Vine Trim punch. I inked the edges of the leaves to give it a little more dimension and to help it stand out against the DSP. The sentiment is a circle stamp from one of the dollar bins at Michael's. I stamped it with Versamark and then embossed it with purple embossing powder and layered it on a doily die-cut.

I used some liquid pearls for the butterflies' bodies, and I also dotted some of it around the vine. The butterflies were cut twice with a Martha Stewart punch and layered. The top layer is actually punched out of pink vellum. It's hard to see that it's vellum in the photos, but I thought it looked quite nice IRL.

There was so much happening on the front of the card, that I decided to keep the inside simple. Just a purple mat and a butterfly stamp. I stamped the butterfly on scratch paper first and then stamped it above my sentiment without re-inking.

Once again, I used a sentiment from Hannelie at Desert Diva. You'll find her Easter sentiments here.

Well, I did make a few more Easter cards, but I think I'll spare you from looking at more of them.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl

Sometimes pretty paper is almost all you need...

I've had this pretty patterned paper for quite a long time. Not even sure where or when I got it. When I looked at the fairly large flower design, I thought it looked like it could just stand alone, with one of the flowers framing my sentiment. To add just a bit more interest, I added some white ribbon and pierced a border around the edge of the card.

Here's a look at the inside of the card. I used a Spellbinders Labels 8 to cut the rectangle for the sentiment. I didn't want to add another black mat, but I did want the edges to be defined, so I ran a black Sharpie marker around them. I like the way that turned out. I also cut out one of the tulips on a scrap piece of the paper and added it as an embellishment.

I tried a little trick with my ribbon. I added a narrow band of Fray-Check to the ribbon at an angle where I wanted to cut it. I let that dry and then cut the ribbon through the Fray-Checked area. If you check closely, you'll see that the cuts look very clean. No fraying at all!

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

Yellow and blue together are perfect for an Easter card...

I really love  this color combo. It just seems so fresh and springlike to me. I used some Tim Holtz distress inks (Broken China and Mustard Seed Yellow) for the flowers. They were stamped with a Sizzix/Tim Holtz stamp and cut out with the matching die.

I added some liquid pearls to the centers for a little added dimension. I was actually surprised at what a difference this little bit of added dimension made to the look of the flower.

The flower stems were stamped directly onto the scalloped rectangle (cut with a Lifestyle Crafts die), and then the flowers were popped up on some foam squares.

A little more of that pretty gingham paper, another scalloped rectangle and a yellow flower with a couple of ribbon tails on the inside.

I actually didn't have any yellow ribbon other than some 1/8" stuff, so I colored a piece of 1/4" white ribbon with my yellow Spectrum Noir marker. It worked perfectly, and gave me the ribbon I needed in just the right color.

Have you ever colored ribbon with an alcohol marker? You can color white, of course, but you can actually color any ribbon as long as the marker you're using is a darker shade than the ribbon. I've even colored black and white patterned ribbon with markers.

The inside sentiment on my card is some lovely word art from Hannelie (Desert Diva). You'll find her blog here and her Easter sentiments here. I really love her work and have been using it a lot on my Easter cards.

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

Easter cards with pretty scallops...

Here are a couple of Easter cards that both have scallops as part of their design.

 This card is super simple in its design. The little bunch of flowers is a sticker and is adhered to an oval that has been cut and matted with Spellbinders dies. I couldn't resist using this cute dimensional sticker when I saw how perfectly it matched the patterned paper. I used my Fiskars scalloped border punch to add the scallops to the bottom of the  card base.

The little bouquet originally had a pink gem where you see the tiny bow. I decided that I wanted to bring out the small amount of lavendar in the paper, so I carefully removed the gem and replaced it with the bow.

The inside of the card is simple, as well. I used a little strip of the patterned paper to add some scallops at the bottom of the sentiment.

This card is a great way to use up some scraps of DSP. All three of these papers come from the same paper pad, so I knew they would coordinate perfectly. The only "putsy" part of this card was to make sure I had three pieces that covered the face of the card and were equal in width.

Another simple sentiment on the inside, decorated only with a scalloped strip  from one of the papers on the card front.

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

Beautiful wedding card...

My sister created this lovely wedding card using the Elegant Edges cartridge for the top mat, the Darice Argyle embossing folder for the center mat and the Perfect Bow die from Simon Says Stamp. I'm not sure if she cut the sentiment out on her Cricut or if it's a stamp or sticker. I forgot to ask her about that. Maybe she'll leave a comment and let us all know.

Isn't it pretty? The string of silver beads around the center panel is the perfect embellishment! I love how she added a short string to each tail of the bow, too.

Thanks, Michelle, for letting me share your lovely card.

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