A Bunch of Daisies

Hello Friends, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  I have a lovely card to share today that I hope will inspire you to make a few cards of your own for the upcoming holidays.

I started this card with a lovely piece of red and gold Christmas paper from the Teresa Collins "Noel" Christmas paper pad.  I used the A 2 Card Creator- Tranquil Moments Die Set from Spellbinder's to cut the details in the background. I then held a piece of Neenah white card stock under the opening and traced in pencil around the opening.  I took the Daisy Bouquet stamp from Sweet Stamps and stamped it within the pencil lines, and colored the image with my Pitt Artist Pens by Faber Castell.

I then cut around the image leaving a small border around it which I then colored in with a #R27 red Copic marker.  I then put the marker in my Perfect Airbrush and spritzed over the image with tiny red dots.  I then mounted the colored image on top of the die-cut and centered  my sentiment banner with my "hello" die from The Crafters' Workshop on top.  The banner was made from the center portion of the background die that was removed.  I trimmed the detailed flourished ends from the tag and used them inside the card for decoration. 

I hope you have enjoyed this card, and that you enjoy your weekend wherever you may be. Please visit again soon.

Kate's Garden Tag

Happy Hump Day!  The week is just speeding along. Today I am featuring a tag using one of the New Julie Nutting Doll Stamps from Prima.  Her name is Kate, and this tag reminds me of a garden scene.

I started this tag by adhering various printed papers on a Prima Doll large tag. I also did a little stamping on top of the papers with Ranger Archival Inks. Decorative ribbons were also attached after the collage papers were dried. I stamped the doll stamp on Julie Nutting "Buff" paper pad by Prima, and colored with Copic markers. This paper pad consists of perfect colors to use with Julie Nutting's popular doll stamps. After coloring and shading, I fussy cut around the doll and set aside for the next step.  I then ran the New Spellbinder's Card Creator die called "Tranquil Moments" through my Cuttlebug and die cut the frame from primitive white card stock. After adhering the frame to the tag with foam tape, I adhered the doll figure to the side, and a Prima Natural Flower next to it.  To complete the tag I embellished it with two Maya Road resin flowers, some cotton cluny lace trim across the bottom of the tag, and a ribbon bow at the top.

These tags are so much fun to decorate with Prima products, and my favorite Julie Nutting Doll Stamps.  I hope you purchase a stamp-or-two and give it a try!

Friend, you are Amazing!

Hello, friends! It is a New week, and Spring is just one day away. I am so happy that the weather has been sunny and warm for the last few days, it makes me want to get outdoors and work in the yard, planting flowers that will draw butterflies and birds into "my space"! But, according to the weatherman this evening, there is more cold weather and rain ahead in the forecast.

The Classy Cards N' Such Challenge of the Week this week is "Flutterbys", and I just love butterflies! I started this card with a piece of printed paper from the Spring Market Collection from Websters Pages, that has small butterflies on it. I cut two larger butterfly dies from Mandarin Curious Metallic and Onyx Stardream Metallic card stock, available in the Classy Cards N' Such Online Store.  I used my Copic markers and Wink of Stella glitter pens to color in various areas of the dies to make them seem more realistic.  I then cut the word "Friend" die from a scrap of the Mandarin Metallic paper and stamped "you are amazing" below it.  I tied a length of twine three times around the card spine before tying a square knot, which finished off the card front. 

The supplies used from the Classy Cards online store were:

WP-WPK-31 Webster Pages Spring Market Collection Combo Pack,

TPC-577 Pluto-Onyx Stardream Metallic,

TPC-772 Mandarin Curious Metallic Card Stock

I hope you enjoy the final days of Winter, it has been such a long, cold, and devastating time, the hot, dry, 100 degree days of drought cannot be far behind.  

Mindy

Snowflakes and Reindeer in July

Merry Christmas in July!  Snowflakes and Reindeer are closer than you think! All over "bloggy-land" in the paper arts region there are Christmas goodies galore all over the web. It is so hot here, it's hard to imagine snowflakes and Christmas when the temps are over 100 degrees.  But what the hay, let's imagine the snow drifts and snowmen, icicles and peppermint, and start dreaming of the fat little man with his jelly-belly and reindeer.

I received the Reindeer and Snowflakes die from the Paper Wishes/Hot off the Press monthly Die Club, so I had to give it a try. I had the brown and teal card stock out at the time, and thought I would try my die's out in a different color scheme than typical Christmas colors. Luckily the printed stock I wanted to use was a double sided paper, so I had coordinating prints that worked well together. I die cut the deer and three of the swirls, and three of each of the sizes of snowflakes.  I then layered the snowflakes, and attached them together with a turquoise brad. I also reversed every other layer so the printed side showed in between the solids. 

The backgrounds are layered 1/2" to 1/4" apart, and then adhered to the stock card base. The snowflakes and swirls are glued directly to the background with Tombow liquid glue, and adhered the deer with foam tape to pop it off the surface to give dimension.  I stamped the Merry Christmas from the Bows and Holly clear set from Lawn Fawn and  Rich Cocoa Memento Ink from Tsukineko. I highlighted the words and embellishments with my gold glitter Gelly Roll pen from Sakura. 

I am entering this card in the DLArt, Thankful Thursday Challenge-#114 Christmas in July ,

 and the Little Scrap Pieces, Fun Friday Challenge- Christmas in July.

Thank you for stopping by today, I really enjoyed sharing this card with you. I hope you will start thinking about making handmade cards for your holiday cards this year. Although, it is still months away, start enjoying all the card ideas presented in our favorite blogs. You may find something you want to try for the season. Happy Card Making!

Card Full of Dreams

Today's card represents a "Card Full of Dreams".  A friend of mine has always dreamed of owning his own business. When I found this package of stickers that I had purchased back in my "scrapbooking days", I figured now was a good time to send him a little encouragement about his "field of Dreams."

To start with, I took a sheet of 12 X 12 scrap book paper from the PinkPaislee Portfolio line of papers, and cut a 4 1/2" X 11" strip of paper for my A2 (4 1/2X 5 1/2) size card background. After folding it in half, lengthwise, as I mentioned before, found this package of Vintage Peel & Stick Labels that I had purchased back in the days when I was making scrapbooks. The label was from the vintage Country Company Collection from Melissa Frances, and was a picture of a storefront named the Porter Bakery.  I hunted through my pages of printed vintage photos and came across a piece of a photo, a small boy standing in a doorway, that fit perfectly in the doorway of the bakery. After gluing the photo into the doorway, I cut out three numbers from a scrap of scrapbook paper and adhered them to the awning of the bakery.

To finish off the front of the card, I added a strip of polka dot ribbon with a scrap tied in a knot, and then added a key tag to the knot with the word  "Dream" punched out of paper and attached to the tag.

I hope you have enjoyed this very simple and quick card that can be used to remind a friend to "Follow their Dreams". Without dreams there would be nothing to look forward to in our lives. Have a Great Day!

Mindy

HATS OFF TO YOU!

Happy Sunday to all out there! Here is another Graduation card I made in my quest to find a design I like,  to send to a sweet girl who is graduating from college.

Here is how I did it! I started with a black card stock base card and added a sheet of background paper from the "Almanac" 6 X 6 pad by Prima.  I then added a strip of  black & white polka dot washi tape across the paper, about 1/2" from the bottom of the card.  I then stamped my Pure Inocence-"Freckles" girl stamp from My Favorite Things on a sheet of ivory card stock and colored her in with my Copic Markers.  Like the card before, I wanted her dressed in the traditional cap & gown, so I drew on the outline of the gown, and colored it in with my black copic marker, right over the clothes that were on the stamp. The mortarboard "hat's" were all stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento ink from my Lawn Fan set,"Hats Off to You". I cut each out leaving a small ivory border around each. Then I used foam tape to adhere the graduate and the flying hats to the front of the card.  The sentiment, "hats off to you" came from the same Lawn Fawn set as the mortarboard, and I just stuck it to the card right above the washi tape.

I am entering this card in the Little Scrap Pieces Fun Friday Challenge- "Congradulations Graduates"!

Can't you just imagine seeing all the "hat's" flying in the air at the end of the graduation ceremony? I remember years ago when I graduated, the Principal told us that if we "flung our hats into the air" at the end of the ceremony we would be severely punished!  What was he gonna do?  We HAD just graduated!
I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend, the first weekend of summer! (Yikes!)  Where does the time go?  See you soon!
Mindy

A Pocket Book or Money Holder for Graduation

Hello Everyone! Hope you are having a wonderful week. Today's post and project is called a Pocket Book, but I have adapted it to be a Money Holder for a gentleman's Graduation gift. I'm not sure who the original creator of this mini pocket book is, but it has been around for awhile and I have seen different versions of it in Mini Book magazines and books.  All I know is, it is fun and easy to make, and only uses one sheet of double sided 12 X 12 scrapbook paper.

I started out with pictures showing a smaller version, because I use my computer's scanner to scan my images. (I couldn't fit the 12 X 12 page on the scanner bed.)

1.  Fold sheet in quarters;  first fold in half, then fold each side to the middle.(you don't need to mark with white, I just did so on the dark side to show where to fold.)



 2.  Fold in 1/4" from left and right edges of the page. (I'm sorry you can't see the fold here, it is lost in the design of the paper.)

 3.  Fold each corner to the first fold line. DO NOT place over the fold! Up to the fold line ONLY! (do this on all four corners)

4.  When your 1/4" edges and all corners are folded, fold each side into the center of the paper.
(on the next step I will be showing the full size 12 X 12 sheet.)

 5.  Flip the entire unit over and fold 1/2" down towards you from the top of the unit. You will notice that you have created two tiny corner pockets at the top of the fold. (in my picture they are black)

 6.  Bring the bottom of the unit to the top, folding the paper in half, and then tuck the bottom corners into those two little pockets at the top of the card. (in this picture you will see two diagonal pockets, one on the left and one on the right) If you have a bone folder or creasing tool, use it now to set all of the folds in the card.

7.  Fold the unit in half and crease again with your bone folder or creasing tool. Now you have a pocket book with four pockets; one on the front, two inside, and one on the back.( I have placed a sheet of paper in the front pocket just to show you how big the pocket is.)

Now you can decorate the front with a graduation theme, as I did, or you can decorate it with any theme you wish. You can even leave it blank if you want to. I decorated mine with the Marcel stamp from Paper Wings Productions, stamping him on a sheet of Art Angel Element Deck Tags with Tuxedo black Memento ink and coloring him with my Copic Markers. I wanted to dress him in a black graduation gown, so I took my copic and drew the gown outline and then filled it in over the clothing of the stamp. I used the mortarboard hat from the Lawn Fawn "Hats Off to You" set and the sentiment "hat's off to you" from the Marcel set from Paper Wings. The hat was a little large, so I had to alter it a bit to fit his head. The sentiments inside on the various elements, are from the set "About New Beginnings" from My Favorite Things, and "Happiness Messages" from Hero Arts.

You can also decorate the pockets inside, and they can hold pictures of the graduate, a nice size check to get them started out in the work-a-day world, a gift card to their favorite coffee house, a list of things that they have done to make you proud of them. . . . . . . and on and on! Of course, depending on how much decorating you do, depends on if you can mail it or not. It will fit inside a letter size envelope, but since it is such a special gift that will be treasured a lifetime, you may just want to hand it to them in person at their graduation ceremony.  Whatever you decide to do, I'm sure you will be thrilled with the way it turned out, and know that it is a special gift that was made with LOVE;  From you to Someone Special!

Thanks for stopping by today. I would appreciate any comments you would like to leave on this post. Have a great day, and I will see you again soon.

Mindy

Happy Graduation 2013

Happy Graduation 2013!  School is out, and many students are graduating. Now is the time to complete a few of those graduation cards, so they can be sent out in a timely fashion.

I need to send out several cards this year, so I have been trying out a few designs, both for male and female.  Here I am using the little Pure Inocence clear stamp  from My Favorite Things, titled "Freckles." Since I decided to put her in a black graduation robe, I stamped her out on Neneh white card stock in Tuexdo black Memento ink, and drew a robe shape around her and colored over her stamped clothes with the black Copic marker. For her mortarboard, I stamped it from the Lawn Fawn clear stamp set, "Hats Off to You" and also used the sentiment from that set also.

The card itself, is a black A2 size card base and I used a black and cream damask printed paper from the Teresa Collins 6X6 paper pad- "Noel" for the background. I rolled a strip of the cream card stock into a diploma like shape and  tied a tiny black grosgrain ribbon around it, before adhering it to the background.  For the sentiment tag, I cut a circular scalloped die from a piece of the damask background. It was double sided paper, and the other side was red, with a small design on it. I stamped "happy graduation" on a scrap of the cream stock and cut it from a smaller scalloped die. I added three small adhesive pearls below the wording, and then used foam tape between both layers to pop it up to the level of the rolled diploma.

I will be entering this card in the following challenge:
DL Art- Thankful Thursday-May Linky Party Challenge


I hope you are all having a wonderful week. My schedule is all messed up because of the holiday on Monday. My work week is one day shorter, and I always have to stop and think, "Is today Tuesday or Wednesday?   See you again soon, and keep on stampin!

Mindy

Blog-aversary Give Away Winner

A giant Thank You! goes out to all my bloggie friends out there who stopped by and posted a comment on my blog during my One Year Blog-aversary Celebration this past week. The winning entry was randomly selected by the generator at Random.org and that winning entry is: 
#16 Joanie, with your comment on "Good Things come in Small Packages".

Please email me at mindykSA@aol.com with your mailing address, so I can get your package out to you.

I also hope everyone out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. I spent the afternoon watching "My San Antonio Spurs" play basketball on T.V. while working in my art journal.  Unfortunatly the team came up a little short today, but there is always the next game. They will be back in San Antonio for that one! Go Spurs Go!

OK, now on to the card of the day! 

I started with a kraft colored card base and added a Crackle Core-card stock background from Tim Holtz and Co-ordinations papers.  I then cut a printed card base from Prima  printed stock and used my Spellbinders Nestabilities Card Creator, A2 size with Distressed Edges. On top of the printed stock I attached two die cuts from the Die-namics Well Worn Greetings die from My Favorite Things. The woman's picture was then cut from printed card stock and adhered to the oval die cut.

Below the dies, I tied a single loop bow from gingham brown ribbon and attached a small tag with the phrase "Surprise!" stamped on it and attached it to the bow with a piece of hemp twine and a knot.  This card had so many layers, I decided it didn't need more dimension, other than the bow and tag.  A very simple card, that turned out to have a very vintage feel.

Thanks again for stopping by, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! 

Time to Celebrate Mothers



Greetings fellow bloggers! It's time to celebrate our Mothers.  Mother's Day is just two weeks away, and depending on how many Mom's you send cards to, you'd better get started creating so you can get yours in the mail in time for the holiday.  I have this problem, getting cards in the mail in time for the holidays. Even though I think I know how long it takes to get mail to my friends and relatives, something always happens to throw a monkey wrench into my plans. So lets get started on today's card.

This card was made on a 5" X 7" ivory card base. For the background black, I used an A2 card and cut it in half and rounded the corners with my Corner Chomper.  The next layer, the printed paper, was cut to 3" X 41/2" from the Sunshine paper collection by My Minds Eye. It had the beautiful scrolling background with the antique sewing machine and music already printed on it.(I also chomped the corners of this!)  The little girl stamp is from the Pure Innocence "Freckles" stamp set from My Favorite Things. She was stamped on white card stock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and colored in with my Copic markers. The "Happy Mother's Day" stamp is from the Fiskars Holiday Collection, and was also stamped with Tuxedo Black to match the antique coloring of the sewing machine on the paper.  The scallop border and the "she looked oh so French" border were from the Mixed Media Border Stamp Set from Prima. I attached the scallop border to the top of the black background with a gold 1/8" grosgrain ribbon glued on top. To complete the card, I stamped the phrase on each side of the landscape placement, attached the little freckled girl with foam tape to pop her up just a bit, and used glue dots to adhere three Blu Raspberry buttons from My Favorite Things to the right hand side of the card.

So whether you are sending or giving that "one special lady" a card for Mother's Day, or you have a whole list of  "stand-in Mother's" hand make a beautiful card for them, to show you really care.  They will appreciate it more than you will ever know! And until next time, "Happy Stamping!"

Peace, Love, and Margaritas

Fiesta in San Antonio is drawing to a close this weekend. The cards for today celebrate every day here in South Texas, not only during Fiesta. We have mariachis, sombreros, and margaritas that flow 365 days a year.

The backgrounds for these cards were made from the Firefly 6 X 6 paper pad from Prima, and the guitars were cut from the Folk Art Festival cartridge from Cricut. The phrase stamp, "Peace, Love, and Margaritas" the small sombrero, the margarita glass, and peace sign are all stamps from Mark at Deadbeat Designs.  The peace sign was stamped with the Blue Raspberry ink from ColorBox and the phrase, sombrero, and margarita were stamped with Tuxedo black ink from Memento. They were then colored in with my Copic markers and the margarita glass was highlighted with Icicle Stickles.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, whether you are out enjoying the great outdoors, or staying in. I personally, am staying in this weekend to work on some cards for next month, Mother's Day cards for the 12th of May, and a new project for a dear friend who is having a birthday near the end of May. Thank you for stopping by for a visit, and don't forget to leave a comment on my blog, to be registered for my 1 year Blog-aversary Give-Away.  See you soon.

Mindy 

We'll be Friends Forever!

Welcome Friends,

Today's card is a very simple card, that takes just a few moments to put together and color. It uses a Color Me tag and some Dazzle Borders from Paper Wishes/Hot Off the Press.

First of all I cut a rectangle of printed scrap book paper 1/2" smaller than the card base itself (3 3/4"x 5") and adhered it to the card base. Then I added a border of the Dazzles twinkly stickers to both the top and bottom edges.  I then took one of the Color Me tags, that are a pre-printed design that is already embossed in gold, and colored it with my copic markers. I then cut it out with my sharp scissors and then stamped my greeting from the Heart to Heart stamp set from HOTP.

I used foam tape to pop the tag off the front of the card, and adhered a scrap of the printed background paper to the inside of the card.

There you have it, it's DONE!  Another card that uses the same supplies, but a different shape of tag, is the Good Friends are Like the Stars card, below.

On this card I used the Dazzles Border stickers around the whole piece of background scrap book paper. The tag again, was colored with my copic markers and stamped with a sentiment from the Heart to Heart stamp set. This time I used a bit of scrap book paper for a decorated tab on the side of the tag, and tied a scrap of mesh ribbon through the hole in the tag. The Color Me tags come in a package of papers that contain 12" x 12" size scrap book pages along with a sheet of tags, with at least 8 - 10 tags on the page. Some of the Color Me sets also have borders that can be used on your cards or scrap book pages.

 For more information on these Color Me pages, cards, and papers check on the Paper Wishes web site. www.PaperWishes.com and search for the Color Me products.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and a creative and inspiring Spring Break. If you are travelling this Spring Break, have a safe and happy trip. See you soon. 

Decorated Notebook Journal

Hello fellow Paper Artists.
I have been under the weather for the last few days, and haven't felt like crafting or posting. Oh My! I am much better today and have a really cute journal to show you, that I made recently.

I used one of the black and white cover writing notebooks that you can get almost everywhere now a days, grocery store, pharmacy, or office supply store.  I covered the front and back with scrapbook paper (a very pretty oriental print) using red-line tape (double stick craft tape) and a little bit of dot adhesive.  I put the red line tape around all of the edges so they would really stick well, and a little of the dot adhesive in the middle of the paper, all to make sure it didn't buckle the paper. When I got the paper positioned like I wanted it, I left a 1/2"  to 3/4" border all around the three open edges to fold inside the cover and anchor there.

Next, I stamped one of the Oriental Ladies stamp from Stamp Zia, and colored the image in with my copic markers. I then attached this to the top right corner of my journal with some of the red-line tape.(It is called red-line or magic tape because it has a red liner of plastic attached to one side of the sticky tape, so you only have to adhere one side at a time then pull off the "red liner" to expose the other sticky side of the tape. I hope that made sense.)

Sometimes I also cover the inside of the cover with a paper, just to finish it off and keep the raw edges from getting loose. But when I used the red-line tape I have no fear of it coming loose, because the red-line tape is very strong and is NOT repositionable. Sorry, that is the only downfall of the product. You'd better be sure where you want it before you glue it down with the red-line tape. Once it is stuck. . . . it's STUCK! 

I hope you have enjoyed this project today. It is something a little different from card making, but it does fall within the boundaries of my blog, Paper & Ink. Have a good evening, and I will see you again soon.

Party Hearty . . . It's Your Birthday!

Greetings fellow stampers and paper artists!  The card for today is titled "Party Hearty" it's your birthday, and is a paper pieced card that is similar to one I saw on a Paper Wishes blog post. I am a huge Paper Wishes Fan, and love their projects and supplies. This card is made using one of their Design Template tools kit #2.

Background paper #1 purple with lt. blue polka dots is cut from "A Beautiful Life" 6 X 6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye with the Vintage Label Stencil.  Layer #2 floral print is also from "A Beautiful Life and the Vintage Sign stencil. Layer #3 is a chipboard tag covered in a yellow print from "Sunshine" 6 X 6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye, and has the sentiment "Party Hearty" stamped in Versacolor black ink from the Birthday Greetings clear stamp set from Hot Off the Press. Each end of the tag was punched with a small hole punch, and a crinkled purple ribbon was looped through the holes around the edge of the design stack of printed papers.

The stacked flower was made by punching several layers from the scraps of paper I used, and then arranged with foam tape between the layers to give the flower depth. A single bow was tied with the same ribbon used in the tag and placed behind the flower.  Finally, to add some bling to the card, I added pink Stickles to the outside edge of the tag, and small coordinating stones and pearls in among the stamped letters of the sentiment.

If you have any questions on how this card was done, or any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a message. I would love to hear from you. See you again soon.

Finally Finished: My Cards that is. . . . . .

Seasons Greetings fellow stampers! I finally finished my Christmas cards, now into the mail, and off they go. Hopefully they will get to their appointed locations before Christmas.

Luckily, I didn't have too many to make, and all the paper  piecing didn't take too long to assemble and to dry. The card was made from a template I got from the Stampington.com website. They have many templates there that have been used in previous issues of their magazines.  I got out my assortment of 8" X 8" Christmas paper pads and tore out several sheets that seemed to go together.  Then I started cutting out pieces of paper that would fit the various parts of the birdhouse template. I used a kraft colored base card trimmed to fit the template, and then glued the decorative papers to the base card. Then using an 11/2" hole punch, punched the hole in the house for the opening. I then punched a replacement hole using a dark colored stock to glue into the opening. Using Lawn Fawn's Christmas wreath stamp, I stamped out the wreath and colored it with my Copic markers, and then cut it out and glued it over the punched out replacement piece. That then held the punched out piece in.  I then die cut the small Memory Box bird out of brown felt and glued it to the front of the house and accented it with a half pearl eye. Inside I stamped "Merry Christmas" using the Christmas Greeting clear stamp set from Hot Off the Press.

I made each birdhouse different, using all the scraps from the few pages of paper I originally tore out.  Of course, they look really cute together in a group, but no one but you will see them this way once they get mailed out.

Here's hoping you all have a wonderful Christmas, and a Happy New Year!  Seasons Greetings and  Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy 2013. Thank you for visiting, see you again soon.

Christmas Possibilities!

Hello fellow stampers! I have been working on samples for my Christmas cards, putting bits and pieces together to try and finally find an arrangement I like for my holiday cards.

This one takes awhile to make, so if I don't hurry along and decide soon, I won't get any cards done at all. I stamped the image of the Jolly Snowman from Stampabilities on kraft card stock with StazOn black ink. I am using watercolor pencils to color the image, so I didn't want the outline ink to bleed. I used the new Inktense colored pencils from Derwent, and they are a watercolor like pencil, but has very intense colored pigment.  You can see how intense the color is on kraft stock, so you can imagine how bold it is on white stock.  You can color the image with the pencils directly, and then use a brush with water applied over it to blend the colors together. Or, you can use a water brush (paintbrush that holds water in it) to just drag over the point of the pencil to pick up color, and then paint directly on the paper.  It doesn't take a lot of water to blend out the colors of these Inktense pencils, so you can use them on any type of papers, watercolor to cardstock. It says they can even be used on canvas and fabric!  I haven't tried it on those surfaces yet.

After coloring the image, I matted it on polka dot printed paper, and wrapped some Peppermint colored twine around and knotted it. Then I mounted it on the gray snowflake paper, and then the kraft colored card base.  The sentiment and peppermint twine are from Lawn Fawn, the sentiment from the Bows & Holly set. For the final step, I inked around the entire card with navy blue chalk ink to distress it a bit.

Well, off to try my hand at a few more designs. Stick around and see what I come up with, I will share them as I go.  Have a wonderful day, and Happy Holidays!

Hats Off to You! Paper Wings Productions

Hats Off to You! fellow stampers,
Here is card #2 of my Melange Women cards made on World Card Making Day this past weekend.

As I mentioned yesterday, I love this set of cling mounted rubber stamps from Paper Wings Productions, click here to see all of their wonderful stamps. This beautiful woman is Claudette.

I started with a piece of antique lace I got in a goody bag at an antique store years ago. (I'm sorry it is so hard to see in this photo.) It was a shaped applique of a flower, and I thought it would look lovely as a hat. I covered my card base with a sheet of A Ladies Diary paper from Graphic 45 and made a rectangular accent square with other bits from this same line. I adhered them to the front of the card, and then using a thin layer of tacky glue adhered the lace applique in the top right corner. I then stamped the focal image, face and body with Tuxedo black memento ink, and colored in with my Copic markers. I wanted the head to really stand out, so I adhered a 1" button between the lace and the cardstock head. To the button I attached some looped ribbon, the cut-out, more small bits of lace and some sparkly gemstones.

Then using my Cuttlebug I die cut 2 fancy flourishes from Die-Namics. I accented the paper strip on the side with a piece of ribbon and glued the two flourishes down, one on each side of the figure.  I then stamped the banner from Bannerific by Lawn Fawn stamps and the phrase "hats off to you!"

I had been dreaming about this card for quite awhile, picturing how I would put it together in my mind. I finally found the stamp I wanted to use, and practiced coloring the image many times before I finally got it like I wanted it to look. I am so glad I could finally share it with you, and say "hats off to you" my friends.

Happy Birthday Card with Paper Wings Productions Stamps

Hello friends,
Happy Tuesday!  By the time you read this it may be Wednesday though. I want to share with you the rest of the cards I made on World Card Making Day this year.

I used a set of cling mounted rubber stamps from Paper Wings Productions.
www.paperwingsproductions.com
called Melange Women. I have just found out that they are also selling the individual women stamps,  and this is Heather.

First I stamped Heather on white card stock with potter's clay Memento ink. I then colored her with Copic Markers or you could use colored pencils if you don't have the markers. I then cut out around the image and put aside. I had a small piece of scrapbook paper that had fruit on it in soft colors. Apples, peaches, and pears, along with some flowers and leaves and three flourish squares. I fussy cut all of the images and matted the squares. I cut a piece of printed cardstock for the background of the card and positioned the face and fruit around it before I glued it all down. I tried to adhere it in different layers so it would have some depth in it. For my ribbon embellishment I took the three matted squares and attached them to a double length of ribbon using my Tiny Attacher from Tim Holtz. Then I used foam tape to adhere the sections to the card front.

The Birthday medallion was punched from a 3" scalloped oval, and 2 1/2" solid oval, then stamped with a birthday greeting from Hot Off the Press.

I Love this Melange of Women and made a card with each stamp. I will show the other three women this week, so stay tuned.  "Same Bat Channel" as they say on ME TV! See you soon.

Steampunk Luc at Halloween!

Hello friends,

Halloween is about a month away, and I love decorating and dressing up for the holiday. I have been lucky, the 30+ years I have been working, the other employees and I have always worn costumes for Halloween. I have worked retail sales, and every Halloween we would dress in costume, and customers would come in just to see our costumes.  Of course, by the time I got off work and headed home, I was ready to rip off the costume and wipe off the make-up. After my bath it was into my jammies and off to read or watch TV.  Especially in my later years, there were no trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood to hand out candy to.

This card was made with papers from the Graphic 45 Halloween collection, bits and pieces of ribbon, and the Luc stamp from Paper Wings Productions.  I also found a breastplate "costume" for Luc in the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutant paper collection that fit him just fine.   I also stamped three pumpkins on a tag, colored them in with Copics, and made one to look like a carved Halloween pumpkin.  Then the embellishments were just adhered to the card in different layers with foam tape, some popped up, and others not, so it wouldn't be so flat. Then glitter and gemstones made it sparkly and blingy to boot!  I have a few more Halloween type cards started, and will post in a few days if I get them done this weekend.

The weather is predicted to "cool off" this weekend, with a cold front on Sunday.  I wish it would cool off some, I am ready for me some winter!  Not slushy, snowy winter, just temperatures a lot cooler than 90 degrees!  See you again soon.

Two Projects to Share

 Hello friends,
I have two projects to share with you today. The first is an Artist Trading Card that I made for a special friend. She is always been one for adventure, and she is about to embark on another great one. So I made this tiny 21/2" X 31/2"  decorated pocket with card to send her, and she can even take it with her if she likes.
I started out with a 3" X 7" piece of printed scrap book paper, and folded it to within 1" of the top and stapled it with my tiny attacher by Tim Holtz.  I punched the top corners with a corner decorative punch, and stamped a beautiful butterfly stamp on a scrap of stock, colored it with copic markers, cut it out, used Stickles glitter to glam it up, then let it dry and cut it out!  I then attached the butterfly to the pocket with foam tape to make it pop out just a bit.

To make the card, I spritzed the background  (21/2" X 31/2") with Dylusions spray from Ranger, in several colors to really make it colorful. Then I attached the card which is a print itself from the Travel Travelogue paper collection from Graphic 45 papers.  It just slips in the little pocket for a greeting-to-go! You can also write a special message on the pocket front, or on the back of the ATC card like I did.  Janice, have a nice Trip!

The second project for today is a greeting card made from a deco arts mannequin stamp that I just love. I stamped it out on white card stock with black memento ink. The base stand of the mannequin was too large for the front of the card, so I just cut it off and stamped out a flat daisy to use as the base. All of the coloring was done with Copic markers and I accented the center of the flower and the star on her chest with Sepia crystal accents, just to give it a little texture. I found a lovely tiny rose print scrap book paper for the background, and stamped the cancellation stamp from the Tropical Travelogue Stamp Set from Graphic 45 in the empty space. It needed just a touch more to complete the card, so I added a ribbon with knot lengthwise around the card.

I love the phrase on her skirt that says; "Nothing is more important than this day!" So go out there and make it a good one.  See you again soon.