Mom

It was my Mom's Birthday on Wednesday.  She must be coming up on 30 now ;). We sure miss her and we're looking forward to seeing her in about 4 weeks, when she comes for a visit. It's been way too long! The kids are really excited to see their Grandma.

Have a great birthday, Mom! We love you!

 

Papers:

• Three Bugs in a Rug - Color me Pink, Blush
• The Paper Company - Flocked Stripes with Flowers
• Basil Cardstock (frame insert, upper right cir. & inside)

Rub-Ons:

• Sticker King (flower border)

• Little Yellow Bicycle (It's Your Birthday, Time to Celebrate + Swirls)

Embellishments:

• Ranger - Inksentials Memory Frames

• Making Memories - Vintage Hip Trinket Pins

• Making Memories - Shaped Clips (Swirl)

• Prima Flowers

• Baby Blue Embroidery Floss

• Small Red Button

• Translucent Baby Blue Ribbon

Knot Tree Cards

I made some ornaments for an ornament exchange a few years back by tying knots in some fabric strips and then hot gluing them onto cinnamon sticks in the form of Christmas trees. The ornaments had little wooden stars at the top, and a hanging loop made of floss. I thought they turned out cute, and they smelled quite nice.

This past Christmas, as we were decorating our tree it dawned on me that those little trees just might look just as darling on the front of a card. Cinnamon sticks were a bit bulkier than I like to put on cards that will be traveling through the mail system. I wasn't sure how well they'd hold up, and thought they might crumble (at least a little) so I decided to use flat craft sticks in their place for the cards. I stained each stick using a Dew Drop Pigment ink pad. Instead of stars for the toppers, I used the yellow buttons I had laying around.

I embossed some using my Cuttlebug embossing folders. I doodled a border on some, and others I simply stitched around the edges using my sewing machine (without thread) to make a border.

For the sentiments I used a few different products. Mrs. Grossman's stickers: Card Captions Christmas adorn the inside of quite a few of the cards. The cards with sentiments on the outside were made with rub-ons. I used both Mrs. Grossman's and S.E.I. rub-ons for those.



A closer look at the details:

A Blooming Artist

My mom has recently decided to spend some time developing a hidden talent. She's been painting, and she's quite good at it. She Made these very pretty hand-painted stationary cards for me a while ago. I love them so much, I have only actually sent one of them off. I love that each one is slighty different. Handmade items are wonderful that way!

My Beautiful Sister

I actually made this card before I made the Thank you cards previously posted, but since my sister is one of the handful of people that regularly check this blog, I couldn't post it until she received it. Happy Birthday Sis! I wish we could be there to celebrate with you!




The front of the card: Prima flowers; I just can't say enough how much I love these tin flowers. The black and white pp is Classic Black, Chick flick by Luxe Designs. I can't recall who did the pink and black pp, but I really, really like it. I used Rusty Pickle rub-on for the Happy Birthday sentiment. Making Memories eyelet, and then finished it off with some complimenting pink bubble dots I had on hand.



The inside of the card: I used Kaiser Craft sentiments for the inside of the card. Where these rub-ons take more effort to get on the card, once they're there, they feel like they're part of the paper. They're completely smooth.

The envelope: I want to say the pp is from My Mind's Eye, but to be honest with you, I'm not completely sure. It came from a block stack of pp I purchased quite a while ago. The stickers for Rachel's name are from Mrs. Grossman's.

Prompt, I Am Not

I've been meaning to get these out for a bit now. They're some well-deserved and overdue thank yous. Time seems to slip so easily once school starts and the hustle of shuffling kids comes back into play.

I love how, when I'm making cards, each one transforms just slightly and I learn something new with each one. Simple things such as what attaches where and in what order to give the best presentation.





The materials for these cards were all in stash, so I'm only going to mention the ones I'm certain of.

Rub Ons: LOVE Rusty Pickle rub-ons. Kaiser Craft rub-ons, not so much. Both of the sentiments seen here are Rusty Pickle. I used a Kaiser Craft sentiment on the inside of one of the cards. They were just not as good of a quality, in my opinion. The Rusty Pickle ones were easier to keep in position and apply. I didn't have to guess if it was burnished on well enough, it was obvious. With the Kaiser ones, I got to burnish good and hard and long before they adhered to the card, and it wasn't obvious when they had released from their original sheet. Both brands look great once you get them on.

Prima Flowers: All the flowers here are Prima. I just ADORE the pixie tin flower brads(also Prima) used for the centers.

Brads and Eyelets: All the other brads and eyelets are from Making Memories.

Papers and Cardstock: EK Success and Basil cardstock. I'm not sure who made the other papers I used. I LOVE the fiber papers though.

Where Are All the Boys?

Another baby card. Baby girls are sooo cute, but with everyone I know that is expecting having a girl, I can't help but wonder where the boys are.








I made a template using Cricut Design Studio when I made the green baby card below. I used the same template on this card. I created the 3 windows on the right using the Mini Monograms cartridge. I just love the cute little baby embelies I had in my stash, which I nestled the windows of the cut outs. The paper is Marcella by Kay, which was also in my stash. Basil cardstock. The circles are cut using my Creative Memories circle cutter, and the sentiment is a cuttlebug embossing folder on white card cut with my cricut for the cute design around the edge.

A Couple More Baby Cards

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I used a bit of my stash, and played with my new Cuttlebug embossing folders on these two baby cards.

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...And Tomorrow Summer Vacation Begins

The last 2 thank you cards for my kids' fantastic teachers. I think it takes a special kind of person to teach children and honestly love it. And when they do, it really shows! I'm grateful to the teachers who taught my kids this year. They are all really wonderful ladies. I hope they enjoy these cards and the little gift that goes along with them.

Two Down, Two to Go

We're in the midst of the end-of-year bussiness at my house. It is fun, but it's also chaotic. At any given time I have at least 2 places to be, it seems. And next week it's officially summer break. WooHoo! I wonder if I can catch a nap...

You Can Never Have Too Many

I'm going to be whipping up some more thank you cards to keep on-hand. It seems there's always a chance to use them. This is one I made using some scraps I had, for the end-of-the-year card for one of my kids' teachers.

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

There are so many new babies coming into the world to people I have the privilege of knowing! You know what that means? More cards! Lots and lots of baby cards. I made these with a special someone in mind who I believe likes simple. So here they are, simple baby cards.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a great Mother's day, whether you are a mom, or just spent it thinking of your mom and the other wonderful ladies in your life. We've had a full house for the last couple weeks with nearly all of my siblings(only one of my sisters was missing) and their families, and my mom in town for a visit. It made for a great mother's day for me!









I altered a box for my Mom for her gift this year. The great thing about this box is that the flower on the lower left was made by my daughter in school a few years back. It was originally a pin. So it's actually got a touch of both her and me in it's creation. My mom tells me she's going to keep the photos she's working on in it. I also made her and my MIL both cards for the occasion. My mom's is the "You" card, and my MIL's is the "Mom" card.

We took a nice walk with the kids and saw a few wild flowers, and more than a few slugs. The last photos I leave you with today, show a glimpse of Seattle wildflowers in the spring time. Even on the sunny days, there are reminders of rain.

Birthday Wishes

It was my friend Holly’s birthday yesterday! Since “Happy” and”Holly” both start with H, I thought the occasion would make a perfect window/monogram card. The flower on the inside was a left over from a craft project my daughter did. I am so glad she let me use it!

Recipe:
Green cardstock
Pink pp; Daisy Bucket Designs
Yellow pp
Fiskars embossing system
Cricut machine and Alphalicious cart
Chipboard
Brads; JoAnn
Bubble stickers; Cloud 9 Design
Rub Ons; EK Success
Copper ink pad; Dew Drop
Button
Ribbon
White marker
Pink marker

Happy Birthday, Mom

My mom finally received her birthday present and card, so I can post it here now. I have a few porjects in the works. If I can actually focus enough to finish one of them, I'll have more to show you soon!

Yay! I’m using more stash!

These cards will find homes with my son’s teachers. They’d make good any occasion cards, but this time they’ll be valentines. I used Daisy Bucket Designs patterned paper, Making Memories glitter letters and prima flowers on both cards. The squares on the smile card were from Cock-a-doodle Designs and have been in my stash for years (literally). I attached the rick-rack to the squares and hand-stitched floss around the edges. The peridot flower centers are from Dress It Up. For the Enjoy card I added faux stitching to opposing corners to balance it a bit, and made white dots in a circle around the center. Added matching glitter dots from the same stickers the sentiment came in to the upper left. The prima flower is nesting on top of heart-shaped cardstock arranged to look like petals. The center gem is Me and My Big Ideas. I really like the feel of the smile card. There are so many different textures. It’s just fun to touch.
TFL

Chinese New Year

These are some invitations I did for my son's Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. The theme this year is Chinese New year. They had to be simple so I could do a lot of them quickly. It's customary for red envelopes with money in them to be given to bring good luck, so I tucked some fake money into these "envelopes". The "Fu" symbol is printed out and then cut and mounted with my circle cutter. Gold paint around the edges of the front, and also used to distress the insert. I found the back picture on another pack's website and stuck it to the back. Tied the symbol and the pull-out insert with rafia.

An Elephant Never Forgets

This is a tri-fold card I made for my daughter's teacher for Valentine's day. My daughter is a big animal lover, and her teacher is well aware of this, so the elephant theme is perfect for her. The kids had a lot of fun making the elephants (one of which is the center of this card). They're cut with hearts for the ears, and a heart for the head with a "J" welded to it using my cricut. The papers are all from stash. The card is kept closed using magnetic snaps from Basic Grey. These things are great! The heart brads are Making Memories, and the ribbon is Martha Stewart. It was fun to do a card with my kids. They like how it turned out, and I hope my daughter's teacher does as well.

"Foiled" Challenge - Shine Like the Star U R !

I decided to try my hand at the challenge over at http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/ this week. The theme is "Foiled" and the challenge was to use some plain old aluminum foil from your kitchen on your card. This is what I came up with, and let me just say, it was indeed a challenge. Foil is hard to work with- It's so thin! I also had trouble getting it to photograph well.

The paper background is Karen Foster Design, and I used my Cricut to cut out the stars, tag and words. My Cricut didn't want to cut the foil (even after mounting it onto cardsotck) without tearing it, so I added the foil afterward and hand trimmed it. The eyelets are Making Memories, and the ribbon is bulk from my local craft store. I just love this ribbon. It's got an opalescent look to it, and it's not very wide. I like the delicate touch it adds. I added dimension with some dots used under the main star.

Thanks for the challenge!

Simple Thank You

I'm recovering well from my surgery. I had a handful of really wonderful friends bring over meals, send flower, and other acts of kindness to assist me with various things while I was down, which of course warrants some "Thank You" cards. These are nothing complicated, since I made them rather quickly while I was still not able to do much but lay down. I also wanted to get them out quickly. I found this cute little card in my Provo Craft Style book, and scraplifted it for my cards, with very minor changes.

The flowers were cut with my Cricut and Accent Essentials. The snaps for the center are some I've had kicking around for some time. I believe they are Making Memories, but I could be wrong. "Thank you" was cut from All Mixed Up. The ribbon is Making Memories.

Christina's Card

This is a card I made for my friend who is moving out of state. The finished card is about 5x8”.

The Letters were all cut using my Cricut, and the Jasmine cartridge. The large C is the charm function cut at 4.5”. For this charm I made chip board using a piece of cardboard that came with some scrapbook sheet protectors that I had, with a colored paper mounted to it. “My friend” was cut at 1 ½ ”. The tag was cut at 2” and 1 ¾” from the Plantin SchoolBook cartridge. The paper is all “Magnolia” from My Mind’s Eye. The ribbon was bulk ribbon from Ben Franklin Craft that I had left over from a card I made my mother-in-law for her birthday. The brad is Making Memories. I believe the flower charm is also, although I’m not sure. I used Walnut Ink from Tsukinek for the antiquing around the edges.

The sentiment on the inside of the card was printed on my printer. I cut out some of the shapes from one of the coordinating papers used on the front of the card, and spiced up the inside a bit. I also made an envelope for the card with this same paper.