Lace Doily Meets Cards

Just playing around ... with paper lace circles and some pretty papers. This set of cards is so so so so simple, yet so so so so elegant. That is four (4) so's! Of course, Papertrey stamps and dies make everything easier, matchy matchy-ier, and funner (I'm sure those are real words!). I did mix in a few Walzingmouse Stamps too. Love love love.

The Get Well Wishes sentiment is from Fancy Phrases by Walzingmouse - it's a real "go to" stamp set. I used Papertrey's Fillable Frames #4 die and matching stamp border, then overstamped the entire label with a misc. french script background stamp, using Smokey Grey ink by Papertry. So soft and pretty, especially with the button accents!

Have you tried Papertrey's Mat Stack collection of matching dies and coordinating stamp sets? They make e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g better! This card uses Mat Stack 1 (my personal fav)! Looks great on the lace doily!

Oh be still my heart --- this flower says love all over it! I used Beautiful Blooms II #1 and die cut several flowers, and once again I overstamped it with french script using smokey grey ink. Subtle. Nice. Leaves are from the Dahlia die and I simply hand-drew some lines on the leaves once they were cut out. The nice little squiggles are from Waltzingmouse Fancy Phrases (didn't I tell you it's a great go-to set!?) These cards are bigger than normal (5x5) and they fit perfectly inside the plastic box that your Papertrey Stamps are packaged and delivered to you in (save them!). I made two of each card, and put them with coordinating envelopes all inside the pretty case, for a great gift set. Have a great day!

Cry With Me, Mr. Butterfly

I have a friend, Debbie, who is way more than a friend. A sister, really. We've gone through LIFE together. Ups & downs & all arounds. Not enough room on the ole' blogeroonie, or time in the day if I got started on the travels we've traveled together. The most recent season of life we've traveled together is the death of her husband, George, at the early age of 66. Cancer claimed his body. God claimed his soul. We are claiming His promises and, girlfriend, that alone makes ALL the difference in moving on! Hard as it is. Heart-breaking as it is. One step at a time.

I made these cards for Deb to write special notes to special people who shared their sympathies in so many loving ways. Perfect butterfly, don't you think?

I am l-o-v-i-n-g the hand-dyed crinkled seam binding. Here's a great video that's worth your time. The crinkled effect adds a vintage feel, not to mention how you can paint the rainbow with your choice of colors! And the best part ... in my humble opinion ... is how the bow goes through the mail. It's all nice and crinkly in the first place, and it's a thin material that smooshes into the envelope very well, and since it's already crinkly - it just gets better en route! :)

George Proctor -- enjoying heaven!

A Little Bit of Unity Fun

So Stella is really getting her stamping groove on now-a-days! I thought it would be fun to play with a pack of cute note cards that I picked up at the Dollar Tree (gotta love those bargains!). The scalloped cards were pre-cut, and included envelopes. Since they came in such fun, funky colors, I decided to find fun, funky papers to line the envelopes in order to tie it all together. I thought it odd that they give you such an unusual color scheme: deep red scallop note cards, blue inserts, and lime green envelopes --- are we talking funky colors or what! (I guess you gotta remember that they were only $1.00!)

But let's look at the transformation. So here are the envelopes after I lined them. Stinkin' cute! The cute little flower pot stamp is from a past Unity KOM. It just seemed logical to make a grab for Unity Stamps when I was headed for fun and funky!

I packaged the whole shebang as a gift set, clipped with a wooden clothespin and some felt flowers. Since I'm giving it as a gift, I'll leave the note cards blank (no sentiment). But since there are 7 cards total, I think I'll stamp something on the bottom of one of them (near the flower pot) and use that one to write a personal note to the recipient. Then she can have the remaining 6 note cards to use as she pleases! I love the Dollar Tree! I love gift sets! I love making something into something special!

Gift Ensemble

I had the most thankful Thanksgiving - ever! We were blessed to enjoy some extended travel time amidst the holiday. I love treasured time with my family! Re-entry is tough, but I'm back in my craft room. Today's post is a gift ensemble, inspired by Michael's dollar bin! I started by stamping an ornamental filigree design onto diamond patterned paper. The medallions shown in the first two pictures did not ultimately go on these cards, but you get the idea!

Then I simply embellished a notebook and magnets from the dollar bin, and then I made a set of cards and a bookmark to match. I love how this gift set turned out! It was easy and really makes a impression. Most of the vanilla cardstock is embossed with a cuttlebug folder, then I lightly sprayed it with Iridescent Gold glimmer mist (LOVE that stuff!). It adds a hint of sparkle and really makes your project pop!

This picture shows the card design ... the medallion "hangs" off the edge of the card front, so much of the inside card is exposed. Doesn't the scallop edge on the inside look pretty!? You can see the medallions that I ultimately ended up using ... because they match the paper I stamped. I'll use the others in a future project!

The above picture shows the Prayer Journal (computer generated), but it also shows the embossed and glimmer misted vanilla cardstock. The below picture shows the matching bookmark in detail. Since it is to be used in the Prayer Journal, I chose three sentiments that I thought might be inspirational. The bookmark is a bit oversized so it matches the length of the notebook Prayer Journal.

I SO love Michael's dollar bin. I SO love black, vanilla, and pink. I SO love lacy beautiful vintage feeling projects. I SO hope you enjoyed this project! Have a beautiful day!

Flower Girl

I didn't feel like coloring today, instead I felt like clean and simple lines. My Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder got a little workout with this bunch! It sure packs a great design punch, especially when mixed with an art stamp like this one! My camera didn't capture the colors well, so be sure to check out the Papertrey cardstock colors of Aquamist, Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet, and Enchanted Evening. Yummy!

This gift set has an assortment of different sentiments, taken from Papertrey Vintage Picnic Sentiments and Kim Hughes Silhouette Blooms II. So many cute ones to choose from! I bagged this set and clipped with a decorative wooden clothespin, and will be delivering it to one of my dearest friends for her b-day this week. We are both AUGUST b-day girls! And we are both turning 29 again!

The Good Life

What does one do when you retire? Some good friends of ours threw themselves a retirement party! About 100 peoples had fun in the sun, got wet in their swimming pool, and ate hot dogs and hamburgers until it was time to stuff ourselves with frozen fruit salad. I wanted to make a gift set of cards for HER and a separate gift for HIM - what do ya get the couple who has everything? So I made three additional cards to match up with this set and it was the perfect HER gift!

If you don't have a stash of Papertrey Clearly Creative Card Boxes, you are missing out on a clearly easy peasy way to package your talents! Tie with a pretty bow and wa-la! I knew that I wanted these three cards to say "The Good Life" so I computer generated it using word art shapes, inspired by the Karen Lockhart sentiment on this post.

The HE gift didn't get photographed -- sorry! I separately wrapped three of Rick's favorite candy (Neapolitan coconut bars) and paper crimped the ends before tying the entire stack with a bow and a "Good Life" tag. But wait! The good part is that I stamped black and orange cardstock with little motor cycles and the words "Happy Place" and then wrapped and crimped them. Did I mention we ride cycles together? :) It was cute! As cute as Harley coconut bars could be!

Baby Gift Set

1. My very good friend Eleanore is going to be a first-time grandma in August. Today is the baby shower so I stamped a set of baby thank you cards for the sweet mommy-to-be, Molly. Very simply cute! Sentiment says "it was so nice of you to be so nice to me" which I curved onto my glass block before stamping. Isn't Karen Lockhart's Sweet Pea stamp adorable? Vintage button and sweet blush Swiss polka dot ribbon by Papertrey.
   
   Inside of card has a matching strip of SU dessigner paper, thank you stamp is from Vintage Picnic Basket, Papertrey. Baby shoes stamp by Stampabilities, is stamped with versamark ink and I love the way it looks like a simple water-mark!
   
   
   
   Baby Bottle stamp is one of those great $1 bin finds, and it made the envelopes so stinkin' cute! Grandma Eleanore, Mommy-to-be Molly, and Aunt Kay were tickled pink with the results! I bagged the set of cards and clipped to the outside of the gift box with a decorated clip clothespin. Aren't babies fun!?
   
   
   
   

Coral Funky Monogrammed B-Day Cards

Sara B. is having a B-day! {the "B" is not for B-day, but it works, yes?} Sara B. is my son's strong girlfriend. So I made Sara B. a gift set of monogrammed note cards. Sara B's favorite color is coral. This rockin paper is the Blue Hill Collection by Crate Paper. It really gets me that they call it Blue Hill when it oozes of these wonderful shades of coral! I'm re-naming it Coral Hill, okay?

The "S" Monograms were made with JustRite Borders and Times New Roman Font. Notice those funky squiggly lines? I was inspired by the oh-so-uber-cool squiggles on this card made by Lauren. No sense making traditional monograms traditional!

I wanted to add a little funk to these cards since Sara B. is a trendy DC gal. Thus all the polka dots and squiggles. The funky bird on the matching envelopes is from a past Unity KOM Stamp set, colored with copics to match the Coral Hill (new name!) paper collection.

More funky squiggle stamps! Are we thinking that trendy Sara B. is gonna like these Coral Funky Monograms?

Pottery Garden

How about one of my finds from the Heirloom Rubber Stamp Show that I attended yesterday? After hours of strolling the booths {and spending money!}, my girlfriends and I stopped for a quick bite to eat ... and then I came home ready to CREATE! The message was clear to Kevin when I said "I'm going upstairs to change into my stamping clothes!" Here's what I made:

These are 5x7 sheets of stationery --- in other words it is not a card that opens up. The message is intended to be written on the front, short and sweet! This is a 5-piece stamp set made by a most fascinating company, Rubber Stamp Tapestry. They had so many beautiful sets it was hard to choose just one! I know that I am going to use this set over and over again.

Here is a close up of my first notecard. I used my long rectangle nesties to frame the stamped Pottery Garden, and added a nice sentiment at the bottom separated by a thin piece of cardstock. Note the flower clusters on both sides of the sentiment? You can do so much with this stamp set!

Here is a close up of my second notecard. This time, I cut my card a bit smaller so the oval nestie could be adhered as a card-topper (hangs off the edge of the card). I then created a custom 1" strip of stamped DP using the Pottery Garden stamps and adhered it across the bottom. I really like this look!

I stamped the Pottery Garden directly onto the top of my third notecard, separated by a thin strip of DP, rounded the top edges only, and added a sweet sentiment at the bottom. I did a lot of aging with a stipple brush, because I think it lends itself well to the Pottery Garden. Since these stamps are so unique, I prepared a step-by-step tutorial to demonstrate. Here we go!

To start, I stamped a row of pots in Chocolate Chip on watercolor paper, but any good quality cardstock will do. This is one stamp - five pots, but you could easily mask your stamp if you did not want all five pots.

All of the flower and leaves stamps in this set are mounted on a wood pencil. How cool is that? To build my flowers, I first stamped the itsy bitsy pinwheel flower in Perfect Plum. Stamp 2 or 3 times to get a lighter color with the second impressions.

Next, stamp itsy petal flower in Night of Navy, stamping in clusters. The pencil stamps are so quick and easy!

Next, I stamped the itsy accent leaf in Mellow Moss. The stamp company provides a placement line on the pencil stamp indicating the direction of the leaf, so it is very easy to position the image however you want your leaves to fall.

Finally, I stamped the Tiny Evergreen Branch in Always Artichoke. This is a good filler branch and really makes your image take shape! At this point, if you feel you need more flowers, you can add more color -- or not! It's up to you.

I then used two copic markers that added so much! I added a little bit of color to the pots (Y26-Mustard) and shaded the bottom of the pots with W1-Warm Gray, which added depth so the pots don't look like they are floating in air.

After centering and cutting my stamped image with a nestie, I left it in the nestie and stippled it. {this is where I would use an airbrush system if Santa ever brought one to me!} But the stipple brush trick is easy and I encourage you to try it! Nesties lend themselves so well to stenciling! On this particular stamped image, I stippled the top half with Soft Sky and the bottom half with River Rock. You can scroll back up to the finished cards to see the effect - so pretty!

I hope you enjoyed the Pottery Garden as much as I did! What a beautiful bang for your buck, in my opinion!

It's Just Right!

Another set of monogrammed cards! Gee, I wonder who had a snow day this week and extra creative time? I chose to use designer paper entitled Perfect Day by CTMH, for my perfect snow day project. The colors are g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s. I had no problem finding a matching floral stamp and copics to color-coordinate the envelopes.

This double-sided paper is so stinkin' pretty that I spent more time coordinating which sides to pair up than I did in actual card assembly! Yes, playing with paper is such a difficult task, she said with a sigh. There are three cards without mats (above) and three card with mats (below).

The monograms were stamped using the JustRite Damask Border, and the font is from the JustRite Special Occasions set. I want to share a tip on using Nestabilities to cut and mat a stamped image. Place the die so that your stamped image is centered and simply place a small piece of scotch tape on the edge of the die prior to cutting. Wa-la ... a perfectly centered cut every time. I learned this the hard way, nuff said.

Now, on to the scalloped tag which is actually a mini-card adhered to the front of the stationery box. I learned this technique from Sharon Johnson's blog. The base of the tag opens like a card. Fold your paper just like you do for a card, then position your Nestie onto the the paper making sure that the top portion of the Nestie is OFF the paper. You end up with BASE CARD that has a nice fold. I then stamped and cut a SEPARATE decorative tag using the same size Nestie, which then fit perfectly on top of the card base.

My separate tag top is stamped using the JustRite Harmony Classic Circle Stamper III set. This is a big mamma stamp (3 1/4") and somewhat difficult to get a clean stamp with no messed up edges. Thus, my sister & I held a teleconference meeting to discuss every possible solution. {We do this a lot, and sometimes she lets me call the meeting to order.} The result? Place a soft push pad under your paper before stamping. I also learned to eliminate the unwanted inked edges by running a kleenex around the wood base after inking. Meetings really can be productive! I was happy with my separate tag top! So ultimately the card base went from looking plain ....

... to this! I will write a personalized message inside the scallop note card to my friend. Something like, "Hello dear friend of mine. "

So this picture shows how the stationery box looks with the scalloped tag/card attached. Detailed instructions for the box can be found here. Once you make this box, you'll find a gazillion reasons to make it again! And now for the big finale ...

My BIG HAPPY CREATIVE MESS! Snow days are JustRite!

Teal & Brown is so Downtown!

Tell me, is there any color that doesn't compliment SU Chocolate Brown? I think not! This set uses Sky Blue (my fav) and Bayou Blue designer papers. This time, I used my brand spanking new JustRite Damask Borders and added some beeeeutiful pearls to the design. I love the way this turned out! Elegant times two!

This picture shows the simple box that holds this set of six cards. The box directions can be found here. As I was making the card fronts, I simply made an extra one and used it for the box top.

Notice the matching envelope? When my friend, Tina, receives her gift set she will think I cared enough to send the very best! I think the Vine Border stamp (Hero Arts Clear) is a perfect compliment to these designer papers. All I did was add a touch of copic marker in two matching shades. I know that I've been "gift set" giddy the last few posts. Well, saddle up gang, because I've got a few more sets in mind! But Holy Moly, aren't they the berries!

Pink & Brown is so Downtown!

I enjoyed making the last gift set so much, why re-invent the wheel? This time, I packaged the gift set in a Clearly Creative Card Box by PaperTrey. This set will be going to a spunky pastor's wife in Florida, who is beautiful inside and out! Seriously, she's got it going on ... Alicia just drips of Pink & Brown ... she is SO downtown!

These designer papers are scrumptious! The SU brown pin-dot is a perfect compliment to the pink flowers from the Basic Gray InFuse collection. Once again, I simply used 2 inch strips of brown, and positioned them differently on each card. I admit, after using my JustRite stamper for these monogram sets, I went online and ordered the Harmony Classic Circle III stamp Ensemble and for only #3.95 extra, I was able to get a bonus buy on the Christmas Ensemble. What? A girl can't covet something?!?

The first three cards are matted in SU chocolate brown (above). The next three cards are cut to cover the card perfectly (below).

On the unmatted cards, there is a thin strip of SU chocolate brown which adds definition.

Finally, I added some pink rhinestones to each card for a little bling. I really love these colors! Now if only my name were Alicia!