MOJO127 - Not a Moment Too Late

Well, I've officially made the transition to St. Patrick's Day.  I used the latest MOJO127 sketch as my inspiration for this card.  This has been a very busy week (although if pressed, I couldn't possibly tell you what I've been doing), so today was the first day I had to spend any amount of quality time in my stamp room.  I really wanted to get the MOJO sketch in because really liked it, so here it is.  It occurs to me that the sentiment on this card could easily be adapted to a different "go green" campaign (as in re-use, recycle etc.).  I'm sure we could all do with a little bit less trash!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

On Your Birthday

I recently bought Photoshop and I'm trying to figure it out.  I've been taking a digital photography class and part of the class is learning the basic stuff that Photoshop does.  As you can probably guess from this photo, I've learned to "feather" the edge of my photo.  It makes a nice soft look.  One thing I discovered is that when I saved this photo in the .psd format it took forever to try to upload to blogger.  I ended up canceling the upload and re-saving the image as a .jpg.  I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if blogger just doesn't like the .psd format.  Right now, I'm going to assume it's me, since I know the whole world uses Photoshop and tons of people use blogger too.

On to the card. I recently made a nice set of cards, gift card holders and favors that I'm donating to a local charity auction. I had such fun making all that stuff that I decided to do it again for another charity auction. This particular one is not quite complete yet, but here is a birthday card that I'm including. I just love this card layout. The bottom square part is 4 1/4" square then I use the Sizzix scallop circle for the top portion. I just lay it over an A2 envelope so that I'm sure it fits and attach. Easy peasy.

I will also be including some matchbook favor boxes and on the right is an awesome post it note holder that I {think} I saw somewhere.  At least I saw something similar and decided it could be adapted to a post it note holder.  I've been using my Walk in the Park designer paper so once I'm done everything will be color-coordinated using Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray and whatever other colors go with that dp.  I'll probably include some gift card holders and other cool things as I think of them.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

SSSC57, Fifth Avenue Floral

When I saw the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge this week, my first reaction was to run as fast as my little feet could take me in the opposite direction.  After all, it was a lazy Sunday morning when I checked Karen's blog and THIS is what I find:

Am I right or what?  Sundays are about reading the funnies and making a cool card inspired by Karen's sweet design.  Not about layers, and stripes and circles and who knows what else!  Then I saw a card that really got my creative juices flowing.  (I'd show it to you but Mr. Linky seems to have disappeared from the sweet sunday blog and I don't remember whose blog it was :(.  Basically each layer was a slightly different color pink that was sponged around the edges.  A really cool effect).  Anyway I decided to try the same idea, so I stamped my French Script background stamp onto Very Vanilla with Close to Cocoa then cut each strip and sponged Close to Cocoa around the edge of each strip.  I was so pleased with the look, then I decided to add the big rose from Fifth Avenue Floral, which I colored with my aqua painter and Close to Cocoa ink.  I thought it was looking good, then I put a big circle behind the rose and I think I wrecked it. 

But that's my card and I'm sticking to it.  Don't let this challenge get away.  Try it yourself!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Keep It Simple Sweetie

The Pals Paper Arts challenge this week was a KISS:  keep it simple sweetie.  I was pondereing what my card would be when along came Saturday and the Stampin 411 sketch challenge.  It just screamed KISS to me.  So off to my stamp room I went and this is what I came up with.

I've got a lot of birthdays coming up and the more birthday cards I make the better off I am!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Gift Card Tutorial

Last week I posted some gift card holders.  Some very kind visitors to my blog wondered how I made them.  So without further ado, may I present my very first tutorial!  As this if my first, there are bound to be mistakes and confusion, so if there is something here that makes no sense, please email me and I will try to clarify.

First I would like to say that I did not "invent" this gift card holder.  I think that the first time I made this was at a workshop of the uber talented Donna.  I really liked the design so I made sure that I jotted down the dimensions.  Since then I've discovered many different variations of the theme, but this seems to be the one that I turn to most often.

The supplies you will need:
4 1/4 x 11 card stock
2 7/8 X 4 1/8 patterned paper
1 1/4  7 card stock (for belly band)
1 1/8 X 7 patterned paper (for belly band)
Word Window punch
3/4 -inch circle punch
Adhesive
Strong Adhesive

For the sentiment:
scallop circle
1 3/8 circle
1 1/4 circle

Score the 4 1/4 x 11 piece of cardstock on the long side at 3, 5 1/2, and 8.

Fold it at the 5 1/2 score line then flip it over to fold in the opposite direction at the 3 and 8 score lines.  You will then have an "M" as shown.

Apply a strong adhesive to the inside of the "M" as shown.  Try to keep the adhesive as close to the edge as possible.  Remove the liner and adhere.

This is what it should look like.  Notice that I also used my corner rounder punch to round the corners of the gift card holder.  This is completely optional and depends upon your preference.

On the vertical piece in the last photo, I take an old gift card or credit card (or whatever you have that is the same size) and use it as a guide to mark the size of the opening that I will need.

I then use my Word Window punch inserted about half-way to make a slot for the gift card.  You can see the pencil lines I made to mark the size of the gift card.  I make sure that that punch is just slightly to the right of that line.  I repeat the same on the left side of the gift card holder.

Once you have punched with the Word Window punch on the left and right side, there is a little bit left in the center.  I use a 3/4-inch circle punch to make a little half-round slot.

Adhere your patterned paper to the front and back of the gift card holder.

For the belly band, I take the  1 1/4 x 7 piece of cardstock and beginning at about half-way on the gift card holder, I fold it around and adhere it with strong adhesive in the front.  Just remember that you want it to be somewhat loose so that you can slip it on and off easily, but not so loose that it slides off by itself. 

Once you have adhered the cardstock belly band, you can adhere the 1 1/8 X 7 patterned paper to the cardstock belly band.  I then attach a sentiment and place it over the seams of the belly band.

Easy Peasy!  I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial.  Once you get the hang of it, it is really easy and I'm sure you'll find  yourself making it for lots of different occasions.  Please let me know if you have any questions about this.  Thanks for stopping by.

Butterfly Accent

Butterflies are so popular right now.  They're showing up on cards and gifts all over the place.  I wonder what it is about them that fascinates us?  They are awfully pretty and I've been to a butterfly conservatory and it's really something to see.  If you have the chance to visit one, I recommend it.  There's something very calming and elegant about seeing lots of them together in one place.  Anyway, on to my card. Today was the first time all week I had the opportunity to spend some time in my stamp room and I really wanted to make a card using Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge.  But when I got there I had no idea what I wanted to do.  So I randomly picked up the Nouveau Chic paper and started cutting.  Sometimes you just have to dig right in!  I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but on the butterfly I used the technique where you ink up a background stamp then stamp your image on that rather than on an ink pad.  I used Canvas and it actually looks pretty neat in real life.  The image is a little light but I decided to mat the butterfly on some Sage Shadow and I think it shows it up a little better.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

SSSC56 Any Occasion Card

I have to admit that when I saw Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge I was a little intimidated.

I usually have very bad luck trying to fit small squares onto big ones and then I get aggravated trying and I just give up.  But this time I wanted to give it a go.  I've been trying to do Karen's sketches every week because they are just so darn "sweet" so I didn't want to let myself down by skipping one that I might find difficult.  After all, isn't that what a challenge is all about?  Challenging ourselves to do something that may be out of our comfort zone.

So with my trusty ruler in hand (really, it was more like a death grip) I attempted this sketch challenge.  And I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the result.  I hope you like it too.

And because I usually do something to the inside of a card made with dark cardstock so that regular folk can use it, may I present the inside as well.  (And by regular folk, I mean those who see no need to own a white gel pen).

 Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Gift Card Holders

I decided that I have an awful lot of retired designer paper in my stash and that I was going to begin a serious campaign to use it up.  These gift card holders are a start.  Who doesn't need a supply of gift card holders?

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

PPA29 Black and White and No Stamps!

Once in a while I make a card then I realize that I haven't used any stamps on it.  This is one of those cards.  To be honest, it didn't start out that way.  I had a couple of versions of this card using some stamps that will remain un-named (lest you think I'm crazy for even thinking about using them on this card).  Then I spied a box I had made a while ago and there was this really cool, mulit-colored, multi-layored daisy flower on it as an embellishment.  Never one to turn down an easy fix, I jumped at the chance to cut a few daisies with my sizzix flower daisies #2 die in black and white and then layer them on this card.  I held it all together with a build-a-brad.  I bent the petals of the daisies up a little bit so they kind of stick out from the card.  Nice effect, if I do say so myself.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MTSC60 Mother's Day

I'm not sure I've ever made a card in this size before.  I had these long, narrow envelopes in my stash and I decided Mercy's latest sketch challenge was perfect to use them up.  And in the meantime I figured it would be a good time to make some Mother's Day cards. 

And a big THANK YOU to Gretchen Barron for taking what I am assuming is a tremendous amount of time to figure out the optimal cardstock sizes to get a perfect square using the scallop trim border punch.  What an invaluable service.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MOJO125

Well, it is a snowy night here in Massachusetts.  The weathermen were predicting about a foot of snow and that it would start snowing around noon today.  Well, it started about 9:00 this morning, but it didn't stick!  It snowed all day while I was at work but there was no snow on the ground.  It was like rain!  Then around 4:00 this afternoon it started to stick and I think by morning we'll have about 7 inches or so.  Which means I have to be up early so that I can shovel.  Fun.

I took this snowy night as an opportunity to make my card for the latest MOJO challenge.  When I saw the sketch, with its very intimidating curved piece, I was a little nervous.  But as it turns out, I still have a small plate in my stamp room that I use to make curved edges so it was no trouble at all.  I just love challenging myself with something out of my comfort zone!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

SSSC55, PPA28, Oh My!

I've been busy this weekend!  Not only did I make cards for the MOJO challenge and Mercy's challenge, I did another combo and made a card for the sweet sunday sketch challenge and the PPA color challenge.  Sheesh, I'm exhausted!  Hopefully, I can stay awake for the super bowl!

As soon as I saw the PPA color challenge I knew I wanted to do it.  The colors look so awesome together and I used similar ones not too long ago, so I was raring to go.  For this card I broke out the Welcome Neighbor dp and I think I like it just as much as the Sweet Pea dp.  It has similar colors and a similar feel.  I didn't take a picture of the inside of the card, but as I usually do with a dark card base, I put a lighter color on the inside so that it can be written on.  I think you can just see it peeking here, but I used some more of the dp and punched it with the swiss cheese border punch - so cute!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MTSC59

I decided to combine a couple of challenges here.  Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge and a color challenge (256) on Splitcoast.  A few weeks ago I saw a color challenge somewhere that used crushed curry and a gray and something else and I saw a few cards that really "spoke" to me.  I realized that it was the crushed curry that caught my attention, so I decided to try and use it more often.  (When will I stop coming up with these "new year" resolutions?!?!?)  So when I saw this color challenge I thought that it was a sign from the stamping cosmos!  I used crushed curry, basic gray and bravo burgundy (another color that I haven't used in a while).

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MOJO124

Whew!  I was able to make the MOJO challenge this week before Mr. Linky closed (with some time to spare).  I don't know where the time went this week.  It seemed like I was busy every night this week and had no time to spend in my stamp room.  So once the weekend got here, I rolled up my sleeves, went into the stamp room and didn't emerge until I had created something.  This is what I came up with.

I love this Sweet Pea dp and I'm happy to let the paper guide my colors.  I think this is a really unusual combination (pumpkin pie and taken with teal), but it's very dramatic and interesting in real life.  Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!