Feelin a Little Patriotic

It's starting to creep up on me. Canada Day, that is. In the small town in which I live, this day is a 'big deal'. We have tons of community stuff going on around that day. I'm not going to bore you with the list of events. My kids favorite though is the parade. I bought a new countryfied (is that even a word?) hat to wear at said parade. I love having a little fun once in a while ;)

I think that I was feeling a little of the patriotic vibe when I made this card. It however is a south of the border vibe slightly based on the colors. Nonetheless, it still made me start to anticipate the coming events.

Flowers on the Brain

It is my oldest daughter's 7th birthday on June 13th. I have decided to go with a garden party theme. Now I'm trying to think of all the details to make it the "perfect" birthday party. Cuz that's what we do right? Go all super mom crazy trying to throw our kids the best birthday's ever.......Or maybe this is just me, hmmm. Anyways, it should be fun and different from princesses, which I think I will just have to die rather than throw another princess party. She's turning 7, she should be over princesses by now right? I sure hope so. I will post some pictures of some of the decorations after the party. In the mean time, I am open to any suggestions you may have regarding the decorations, or games and all that good stuff. ;)
For now I leave you with a flowery card. And I do hope you have a wonderful day.

Peace........

........This is something that is hard to come by at the moment, LOL. Summer is almost here, it stays lighter much later and it seems the kids will never go to sleep at night. Which makes it harder for me to find time to create. On the flip side it is beautiful outside so if they will play outside "nicely" without tormenting each other too much, I should be able to squeeze some creative time in somewhere. It was by such means that I was able to create this card the other day. I hope you enjoy it and don't have to feel the sorrow of losing someone.

If however you have lost someone dear to you then I hope someone will make you a special card from their heart, to help ease that pain.

Similar......Yet Different

Spring has sprung around here for me and I couldn't be more pleased. I have planted my seedlings to start growing indoors, and I can't wait to get my garden planted outside. I put together two cards that were very bright and fun. They use similar concepts and paper but are different. I like doing this sometimes because it's nice for my brain to only have to come up with one type of card and then tweak it a little so that it's different. Thinking of You

and a Thank you card.

I can't wait to sample some real cherries soon. Delish!

Back in The Saddle Again

I haven't quite found a place for everything in my new craft room. My hubby put up some shelves in the closet and I used some crates stacked for my material and yarn. I hope to get it totally organized soon. Then I will show you a picture. I have a card to share with you that I made the other day. It was quite fun. I got the inspiration from Heather's blog (click the Ustamp button on my sidebar to find her)

The stamp set is from Rachelle Anne Miller and the Papers are SU. I used watercolor paper to stamp the image on with Staz-on Black ink and colored her in using my ink pads and waterbrush. The ricrac ribbon is CTMH. The sentiment is a rub-on.

I hope you enjoy her she made me feel very much like spring.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sorry this is kinda late, it's been a crazy day. Here is the Valentine that I made for my hubby this year. It's pretty simple, because I made it in between putting my sick daughter back to bed like 3 times. Poor girl. I stamped the vine image on the cs and then used some red stickles glitter glue to highlight some spots. I used my clear glitter glue around the edge of the heart that was stamped and popped off.
The inside was kinda fun. It is an accordian fold and I added a couple elements to the folds that stuck out. Simple and fun, just what my hubby needs. He brought me breakfast in bed this morning. What a sweety.

Valentine Wrap Up

On the first card I used the same corner rounder to make the scallop edge, but I inked the edges up to make it stand out. On the second card, I had some die cut flowers that I stamped some images on the petals and then layered them to give the flower dimension. I distressed around the edges with ink as well.
I hope you've enjoyed two weeks worth of Valentine Cards, that will hopefully give you some inspiration of fun techniques to add to your own cards. Tomorrow I will share the Valentine that I made for my hubby this year.

Dress it up

Some simple Valentines for you. The first one I random stamped the background using the flourish stamp. I used some of our shimmer paint with re-inker to paint the paper flower to match. The second card I stamped the image in one color and chalked the inside of the heart to add a pop of color. I used my corner rounder with the guard off to make the scalloped edge and my hole punch to make it look like an eyelet border.
Fun techniques and tools can really add a little something extra to your cards.

Another Masculine Valentine

Here is a simple yet neat looking card that can be given to a man. In fact I gave this to my hubby last year. You could also switch up the colors and use ribbon instead of hemp to tie the pieces together.
I know some of you may be thinking, my husband won't really like a card, but my hubby has kept every one I've ever given him. He has them stashed in his dresser with his other "treasures".

Be My Valentine

Once again these are some cards from last year. I hope you don't mind. :)

On the first one I used my embossing folder with the Chocolate CS and then lightly sanded the raised image to bring out the white core. I stamped my sentiment on the twill ribbon. The fairy couple card uses a lot of tearing which is fun, and I added glitter to their wings with a glue pen and glitter.

Valentine's Cards

I've been feeling under the weather, so I am posting some cards that I made last year at Valentine's Day. I hope to be feeling better and up to creating again soon.
I think these cards are pretty self explanatory as to how I made them. On the love card I used an edge distessor to rough up the edges and I had the polka dot patterned paper in stock and I added the hearts to it with my stamps. It's an easy way to spruce up some basic paper. I used a glue pen and superfine glitter to add the red sparkle to the heart on the other card.

Faux Pleated Ribbon Card

I think this technique looks so neat on a card. I took a strip of patterned paper 1"x12" and pleat folded it until it was the width of the card. I then sewed across the paper to hold all the pleats in place. I added my image and a small sentiment stamped in white pigment ink. Then mounted the card front on my card base that way the stitches cannot be seen on the inside of the card.
A little tip - I took the pieces of thread that were hanging over the paper and taped them to the back, that way nothing will come unraveled as I didn't do any backstitching.

A Heart For You

I had fun making this Valentine Card. This image is just so cute. I stamped her in Chocolate and the solid heart was stamped in Blush. I colored her dress and shoes using my Blush marker. I added a heart and the sentiment from these & these rub-ons. I've been having tons of fun with rub-ons lately, love em. I then added some Chocolate brads to balance out the heart.
I think this Valentine is just so sweet, don't you think??

Masculine Valentine

I like to give my husband a card on Valentine's Day, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't want one that is all pinks and reds with hearts and Cupid's on it. So for today's card I created one that is worthy to give to that special man in your life, that he won't turn his nose up at.....hopefully. I took some Desert Sand CS and placed it over top of one of these metal bookplates. Then using my embossing stylus, I rubbed around the texture to make the image stand out on the CS. I then sanded the raised image lightly with 220 grit sandpaper. I used the same technique on the score lines on my base. This reveals the white core in the cardstock. I took my stipple brush and distressed using Cocoa ink on the base and the bookplate, then stamped the sentiment in the box. I attached the bookplate piece using some Antique copper brads. I know my hubby wouldn't be disappointed with this Valentine. I hope your would like it too.

Shaker Valentine

I created this card around the shaker box. I had my daughter punch out a bunch of little red hearts. She always wants to creat cards with me so I thought this would be a good thing for her to help me with. I added some sparkle jewels in red to the shaker box to give it some bling, as well as a little 'love' rub-on. I mounted it on the patterned paper which was mounted on black (kinda hard to see against the black background ) Wrapped some red grosgrain ribbon around that to finish it off.
Shaker boxes are so fun to make and add a little something special to your card.

Ms. Sweetheart

I just love this stamp set, it has images that would totally be good for Engagement, Wedding, Valentines and Love. Once again I used some patterned paper that I've had kicking around forever. Very fitting for a Valentine card I must say. I mounted the image on Hollyhock CS and punched out some circles in Hollyhock and Blush CS. I added some brads to the circles and a sentiment from the same stamp set. I could have colored in the whole image (which I was really tempted to do), but I wanted the heart to really pop out so I left the rest monochromatic.

Purple Love

I have had this patterned paper for quite some time now. It actually came in a Halloween themed paper pack. In my efforts to seriously reduce the amount of paper I have in my stash, I decided it would be perfect for this Valentine Card. I stamped the Heart image and the Valentine Sentiment using black pigment ink. I covered it with clear embossing powder, and embossed the images. (This technique works when you are in a pinch and don't have the right color of embossing powder) I mounted the image on a black scalloped square and popped it up using dimensional foam adhesive. I tied a ribbon on and attached a charm using White Hemp.

What are some ways that you have used items that are "outside the box" ? I would love to hear of ways that you have used items that didn' t normally go together.

Stitched Valentine Card

I saw a card similar to this one out in blog land and I really loved the simplicity of it. I first drew a heart on my white CS using a pencil. Then using my paper piercer, I made the holes for the embroidery thread. I erased my heart guide and stitched using red embroidery thread. To finish it off I used the ticket corner punch and a Love rub-on for the sentiment.

I hope you like todays card. Check back tomorrow for another V-Day card

Valentine's Countdown and a tutorial

Today I have a tutorial for you making a heart using eyelets. I got the inspiration for this card from the Jan/Feb issue of Papercrafts Magazine. First I drew a heart on my cardstock and arranged my eyelets on the heart how I wanted them to look. I was sitting there thinking....."this is great my eyelets are all set out, now how am I going to remember where on earth they go after I've punched holes". Well I decided to take my paper piercer and pokes holes inside the eyelets as they sat with a varying pattern per eyelet. I poked three little holes for the flower eyelets, two for the stars and small, medium and large holes for the different shades of regular eyelets. I hope i'm making sense. Take a look at the picture and you should be able to see what i'm talking about.
Erase your heart guide with a white eraser. Then I started with one style of eyelets at a time. I made the holes for the stars and then set them. Then I made the holes for the flowers and set them, and so on.

Now I have all my eyelets set in the exact place that I wanted them to be.

Here is my finished card. I feathered the edges with some red ink and a sponge. Added some ribbon, and some rub-ons for the sentiment and accent. There you have it, a cute eyelet heart card worthy of much praise from the recipient.

I am going to be posting a card a day counting down to Valentine's Day. I hope it will give you some inspiration for your own Valentine cards. So check back each day to see the new card.

Thinking of You

I had a lady call me the other day looking for a vase stamp, so that led me to making this card with some springy (springish? springlike?) Oh well you get what I mean. I'm looking forward to spring, I'm kinda sick of winter and there's still a couple months to go. I stamped the flowers twice on White Daisy CS and cut them out. The vase is stamped, cut out and pop dotted on. I wanted the flowers to have dimension so I layered them & curled the petals up a little.
Here's a close up shot of the flowers. Looking at this picture now, I see that I took it before I added little sparkles to the centers of the flowers. LOL I'm a deep rooted blonde, I guess. So just imagine cute little sparkles in the centers of the flowers. There you go....I think this would make a nice little pick me up for one of these soon to be colder dreary winter days.

Have a daisy of a day. :)