Happy Day!

 I have quite a number of birthdays in August between family and friends.  I'm feeling behind already, so I got my thinking cap on and decided to get serious!  With some help from Splitcoaststamper challenges, I came up with a vintage design that I'm really pleased with! It will be for one of my husband's sisters, who moved to Florida in this last year to be closer to her oldest daughter. I'd better get it finished and off in the mail as she lives about as far from Washington state as she could be...kitty-corner across the U.S.!

I found this wonderful vintage paper in my paper stash from Michael's Craft Stores, "Recollections Signature Vintage Country Paper Stack. It got my vintage mojo going full speed ahead, which made me really excited to get started!  Vintage is one of my favorite card styles, yet I haven't made many cards in this style during the past several years.

I used five patterns from the paper pack that I cut into varying widths and distressed inked the edges before horizontally layering them one after the other, on  a pre-sized cardstock guide.  I also used one of the patterned tags provided in the paper stack as my sentiment rectangle centerpiece. I stamped my birthday sentiment onto it using my Misti stamp positioner, and I adhered the finished tag onto a black lattice frame for added interest.  I fussy cut several identical flowers from several of the tags and layered and distressed their edges to provide additional depth, finishing off with a sparkly gem. My last addition was to add a black-striped sheer ribbon horizontally with a two-loop side bow.  Take a look at my finished card. I'm pretty pleased with its outcome.

Ingredients: SU Cardstocks--Basic Black, Gold Foil. Patterned paper--Recollections Signature Stack--Vintage Country (12x12). SU Stamps--Itty Bitty Birthdays. Spellbinders dies--Lattice Rectangles. Ink--Memento Tuxedo Black. Colorbox--Chestnut Roan ink distressing. Offray--3/8" sheer black stripe ribbon. Jolee's Boutique--Black Circle Bling Gems. Chatterbox verse. Size--4-3/4" x 6."

I Love Me A Christmas Tree!

Here is a one of my 2019 Christmas cards that I am finally getting posted to my blog.   I check some of the SCS Challenges to see if it would fit as I knew there are usually categories in bling, paper tearing, Christmas themes, etc. 

I remember I was running up against a tight timeline to finish my cards and get them delivered on time.  I dug out some old Liz Thayer Christmas kits that I almost forgot about and decided I really should try to use at least one of them.  I decided on this Peaceful Pine beauty.  I was excited to use the die with the pop-out branches.  I tweaked the card a bit, adding a white cardbase and a Gold Glimmer layer between the base and the card front.  I also added a popped and ink distressed Merry Christmas die-cut to the inside.  I like the end result and made several more to add to my stash of cards to give.  Here is the result below:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--Garden Green, Cucumber Crush, Mint Macaron, Whisper White, Glimmer paper-Gold.  Stamps--Peaceful Pines (2016-17 annual/ verse), Perfectly Plaid (2019 Holiday/ Merry Christmas).  Dies--Perfect Pines Framelits (2016-17 annual).  Ink: Cucumber Crush (sponging), Garden Green (sentiment stamping), Crumb Cake (ink distressing).  Winter Wonderland Washi tape (2015 Holiday). Other:  Dies--Spellbinders Petite Labels One (inside).  Crystal Effects (clear droplets).  Size: 4-3/4" x 6".  (Thank you Liz Thayer for the original design, which I modified a bit).

Christmas - To You & Yours Re-design #2

I looked at the calendar and my heart took a big pitter patter...OMG..osh, it is only 21 days to Christmas and I am no where near even half way through making my Christmas cards!  I need to get BUSY, BUSY!!!

I brought out my Stampin' Up To You & Yours Card Kit again, and decided to fiddle with it just to see what creative mojo might seep into my being.  If you recall, I had cut all my cardbases in half, as one Pinterest video suggested, thus increasing my foil card fronts to 36 instead of the 18 if the kit was put together exactly as designed.  You know me, I can never follow directions exactly as it seems my creative mojo always tempts in lots of different directions other than what is right in front of me!  LOL

I love the paper with the diagonal red foil and white stripes, and decided to use it with one of the star window cutouts.  Next, I remembered the flat plastic glitter ornaments that I purchased at WalMart a month or more ago thinking they could be incorporated as an embellishment with Christmas cards.  I thought, "Gee, those white glittery snowflakes might be pretty peeking through my star window."

Then, I thought the star window needed to be framed as it is in the kit itself, but the kit provides a gold star frame, and I wanted red.  So, I pulled out by star dies, and found that if I used one of my Spellbinder Stars with one from the Stampin' Up Star framelits, I could replicate almost the exact cutout that the kit provided in any color I wanted.  Thumbs up...am I excited!  

I cut the height of the white star window layer smaller at both the top and the bottom, because I wanted to fit a separated Christmas sentiment underneath.  I added white glitter paper as a trim next to the foil stripe at the sides and adhered it all to a Real Red cardbase.   And thus, with NO shaker on this one, my very modified To You & Yours card was created!!

Recipe:  Stampin' Up cardstock: Real Red, Whisper White; Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer; Red Foil (2015 Holiday); To You & Yours kit: Red Foil stripe.  SU Stamps: Versatile Christmas (2015 Holiday).  SU Ink: Real Red.  Holiday Time: Glitter Ornaments (WalMart).  Craft Medley: red sequins.

First Card - First Birthday Card for 2015!

My first two cards and first birthdays for the 2015 year will be masculine cards!  My husband's two brothers celebrate their birthday on the same day ~ January 5th ~ though one has been celebrating his birthday several years longer than the other.  No, they are not twins!

For the first card, I will be using a stamp set that is one of the first that I ever purchased from Stampin' Up and is four years old, is now retired, and I have never used it!  Wow. . .now that is terrible, because I actually really like this set called Totally Tools.  It, however, was only available in wood stamps, and I do not like to work with wood stamps, because I have a terrible time getting my image lined up exactly where I want it.  Do you suppose this is why I took so long to use it?

I was going to make a antique automobile card for Joe, because he builds antique cars, but I could not find the right image to fit his 1949 Chevy Business Coupe, so I just couldn't get my creative mojo going.  As you can tell, this gentleman is very handy with tools, so my mind went in that direction when I remembered the Totally Tools stamp set. 

I pulled out the set, and then I promptly looked for some Pinterest directions on how to unmount your wood block stamps to turn them into clear-mount stamps.  There are several different directions out there, but I went with the one that microwaves the stamp/block for about 10 seconds.  This loosens the glue on both the foam mounting and the acrylic images that are mounted on either side of your wooden block.  After peeling both off, gently, there is still enough sticky to adhere the acrylic to the stamp foam and trim off the excess acrylic that probably is hanging over the edges of the foam.  No need to separate the rubber from the foam and then have to remount the rubber onto new (and expensive) foam.  To get your now foam stamp to adhere to your acrylic block, the directions I found indicated to sparingly use Tombow glue on the acrylic, smoothing with a foam brush or your finger and let dry for one to two hours.  Then, tap it on your jean-covered leg to remove the excess stickiness, and you are now ready to use your new foam-mounted clear stamp.  I did not follow these glue instructions, as I usually place two-side, removable poster tape on my clear stamps to keep them from falling off the acrylic block when used.

My card uses mustache paper as Joe has that bit of facial hair.  I used a dotted embossing folder on the circle which holds the tools to represent pegboard, which is often used on a garage wall to hang tools from.  I thought that made it a bit more authentic.  I colored my tools with Copic markers to coordinate with the copper-colored foil paper used and fussy-cut them out when finished.  I'm pretty please with my results, and I hope Joe enjoys his card.

  

Recipe:  SU Basic Black cs (base), Kraft cs. Echo Park Times & Seasons/ Spiffy Mustache.  DCWV Cardstock Stack: Foiled/ Copper.  DCWV Everyday Essentials/ Gold Grid.  SU stamps: Totally Tools.  TPC Studio stamps: Greetings.  Memento Tuxedo Black Ink.  Dies: Spellbinders/ Circles LG; Lifestyles/ Nesting Circles. Sizzix Medium Dot Embossing Folder.  Copic markers.  Colorbox Chestnut Roam distressing/ sponging.  Size:  5-1/2" square.

An October 2010 Birthday for a Son

There were a lot of first in 2010 as that was my first full year of making cards.  Now, it was time to make my youngest son, Mark's, first birthday card.  

Mark loved his first vehicle...his the little white truck...thus the idea for his birthday card!  Mark was always working on his truck...doing something to it, making it better!  He learned a lot on this first motor with his Dad as his motor and mechanical mentor.  Flash forward 12 years to the present...the little white truck still resides on our property awaiting some tender-loving care that Mark is determined to give it one day...LOL

Ingredients:  Paper: Fancy Pants pattern dsp, Bazzil cardbase, Michael's open-stock plaid, Georgia Pacific white cs, Accu-Cut die: Truck.  Spellbinders die: Labels 8.  Zutter: Corner Rounder.  May Arts: Twine.  Button: stash.  Computer sentiment/ verse (inside).