I {heart} Getting Paid to Make Cards!

Wow... it's been over a year since I posted anything crafty on this blog.... So Sad! And I really haven't done a lot of card making in the last year either, but I had a good reason to make some cards this time. I was getting paid!

The training program assistant in Michael's office saw some thank you notes I made for him to send out to instructors who had taught at a training event he had coordinated. They were very simple, single layer cards because I wanted them to look very professional. She asked Michael if I would make some for her. She wanted aviation themed thank you cards, some masculine birthday cards, and some feminine birthday cards. So... Here is what I came up with!

 This little airplane is just too cute! I used a scallop circle I punched out to sponge some clouds and my Zig markers to color everything. I really like the way it turned out. I wanted to keep it a single layer so that is didn't look too frilly and homemade. I wanted it to be fun but professional.

I really like how the soft shades of purple and the glitter in the center of the flowers makes this card girly and fun. It was my favorite of the three cards I made.

 

Something about this card still feels a little too plain, but every time I tried to add one more element, it just didn't work. So, in the end I decided that it really didn't want anything else. I do love the texture of the wood grain embossing, and the combination of the kraft cardstock and the dusty blue color. I heat embossed the sentiment first, and then dry embossed the wood grain with an impression plate using my original red Sizzix machine. I wasn't sure how well that would work, but I like the results. I did need to be a little careful not to touch the heat embossed area too much or it would flake off a little bit.

In the end, I think she will be pleased with they way the cards turned out. Thanks for stopping by. You can see a complete supply list below!

Thanks Little Airplane:

Paper: White cardstock

Stamps: Fly Away by Papertrey Ink, Thanks by American Crafts

Ink: Blackbird fluid chalk ink by Colorbox, Bashful Blue by Stampin Up, Markers by Zig

Tools: Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers, Scallop Circle Punch by Stampin Up

Girly Birthday:

Paper: Kraft cardstock and White cardstock  by the Paper Company

Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Happy Everything, and Itty Bitty Bits all by Stampin Up

Ink: Orchid Opulence, Perfect Plum, and Pale Plum all by Stampin Up, Olive Pastel and Chestnut Roan fluid chalk ink both by Colorbox.

Tools: Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers, Itty Bitty Bits punch set by Stampin Up

Other: Lime Green Stickles glitter glue by Ranger

Boy Birthday:

Paper: Kraft and Blue cardstock by the Paper company

Stamps: Alphabet Soup by Stampin Up

Ink: Versamark ink by Tsukineko

Tools: Woodgrain impression plate by Papertrey Ink, Original Red Sizzix Die Cutting Machine, Heat Gun by Darice

Other: Chestnut Zing! embossing powder by American Crafts

Kristina Werner's Color Ispiration Challenge

I haven't been feeling super creative lately, but when I saw the colors for Kristina Werner's challenge, I knew I wanted to take part. I had also seen a card online that inspired me and I thought I might be able to combine the idea of that card with the great colors of the challenge.

The card I was inspired by was made by Valerie Mangan for the Gallery Idol contest over at Paper Crafts Magazine's online gallery. It's a spin off of American Idol where they held open submissions for cards and from all those submissions the editors of Paper Crafts chose the top 20 cards. The top 20 were given a new theme and have made their next entries, and anyone can go online and vote for their favorite entry. The top vote getters will move on to the next round, etc... Anyway... this is the card I scraplifted.

And... here is my card made using the colors of the challenge...

I created a flower petal template out of cardstock and used it to cut out the petals from all the different papers. After I adhered the petals where I wanted them on the brown cardstock, I pierced stitching holes around each one and stitched with DMC floss. The butterflies are heat embossed, and the scallop square was cut out with my Cricut. Thanks for stopping by... and thanks to Kristina and Valerie for the inspiration.

Paper: Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip cardstock from Stampin Up, Certainly Celery DSP from Stampin Up,  Dark Plum and Olive Green cardstock from Bazzill, Lavendar carstock from Provo Craft, Stiped and Floral patterned paper from BoBunny.

Stamps: Fancy Flexible Phrases from Stampin Up, Butterfly from Sudio G.

Inks: Chestnut Roan and Olive Pastel fluid chalk ink from Colorbox, Versamark.

Tools and Accessories: Cricut (Accent Essentials cartridge), Clear embossing powder by Stampin Up, 1 inch circle punch by Marvy Uchida, cream floss by DMC, Stampin Dimensionals by Stampin Up.

Father's Day Thank You...

So, I made these cards for a card swap, and the challenge was to make a masculine card that could be used as a Father's Day card but could also be used for another occasion or purpose. Because let's face it, not many people need a dozen father's day cards all at once.  I decided to make thank you cards that could be used for Father's day but could also just be used as a regular thank you card.

I am obsessed with anything that has a woodgrain pattern right now, and the woodgrain background stamp from Stampin' Up was just the ticket for this card. I inked up the edges of the card base to make them look nice and grungy, and the letters were cut out using the Street Sign cartridge with my Cricket.. {chirp, chirp}.

It's a simple card, but I think it's perfect for a Dad.

This card has a few more frills with the ribbon and the grassy fringe, but I still think it's fun for a husband or anyone you would hold "deer"... ha ha... crackin' myself up... Anyway, I printed the sentiment directly on the card base with my handy dandy printer and Microsoft Word. A complete supply list for both cards is listed below. Thanks for stopping by!

Woodgrain Thanks:

Paper: craft card by American Crafts, "T" by Provo Craft, "H" by DCWV, "A" by Provo Craft, "N" by Provo Craft, "K" by Stampin' Up, "S" by Provo Craft, dark brown carstock for shadow by Bazzill.

Ink: Chestnut Roan fluid chalk ink by Colorbox, Chocolate Chip classic ink by Stampin' Up.

Stamps: Woodgrain background by Stampin' Up.

Tools & Accessories: Cricut machine with Street Sign cartridge, dimensional adhesive by Stampin' Up.

Thank You Deer:

Paper: Sahara Sand, Kiwi Kiss, and Very Vanilla carstock by Stampin' Up, patterned green plaid by Provo Craft.

Ink: chocolate chip, and green galore classic ink by Stampin' Up.

Stamps: Moose You and Loads of Love by Stampin Up.

Tools & Accessories: brown ribbon by Stampin' Up.

Single Layer Card

So... this little card today was for a challenge over at Kristina Werner's Blog to create a single layer card. This really is a challenge for me because I love love love layers... I love dimensional adhesive... I love the depth that layers bring to my work. So I decided to use a really beautiful stamp set and deep rich colors to add that kind of depth to a single layer card.

I think it turned out fun. I used the ticket corner punch by Stampin Up on the corners and inked the edges with chocolate chip ink. Below is a list of supplies. The "Beautiful" stamp set was a promotional set I received as a free gift for an order I made over at Two Peas In A Bucket, and unfortunately is not available for purchase, which is too bad because I have loved that little set. Thanks, Kristina, for such a fun challenge.

Stamps:

Dragonfly by Basic Grey

Beautiful by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday

Ink:

Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy, and Elegant Eggplant all by Stampin Up

Other:

Ticket Corner punch by Stampin Up

A New Blogging Adventure

So, I've been toying around with this idea for a while, and I decided to go ahead and start and just see where it goes. I wanted a blog to share my papercrafting, cardmaking, and scrapbooking projects that was separate from my family blog. Eventually I would like to start submitting some of my work for publication and possible even selling some items on Etsy, and I thought a blog might be helpful to just get some of my work out there. There are also a lot of online challenges I'd like to participate in, and this blog will be the avenue which I post my entries for those challenges. So... here we go with my first submission!

I made 20 of these cards as a baby shower gift. Not a typical shower gift, I know, but I hope Jessica will find them useful as she sends out thank you notes after her sweet Sadie Louise is born. Her nursery colors are pink and brown, so I wanted to follow that color scheme.

This card pattern is called the Big Buckle Card. Here is a link for the tutorial of this pattern on the resource page at Splitcoaststampers.com. You will see that my card varies a little from the tutorial, but it's a great pattern to play around with and make your own.

I need to have Michael help me with my photography as well, so my pictures look a little better, but hey... it is a work in progress.

Because the card base is such a dark brown, I included a white insert for the hand written message on the inside. I used a scallop punch to give the edge a fun finished look. I just LOVE this color combination.

Well, that wasn't so hard and I've now begun. So feel free to check back often for more, and I would also love comments and questions.

Supplies: Stamps; Lots of Thoughts by Stampin Up, Happiness Always by Stampin Up. Ink; Pretty in Pink by Stampin Up, Timber Brown StazOn by Tsukineko, Chestnut Roan fluid chalk ink by Clearsnap, water color wonder crayon in Pretty in Pink by Stampin Up. Paper; dark brown by Provo Craft, White by Georgia Pacific, pink and brown polka dot by Provo Craft. Tools and Accessories; brown ribbon by American Crafts, scallop edge punch by Stampin Up, scallop square punch by Stampin Up, word window punch by Stampin Up, corner rounder punch by EK Success, blender pen by Stampin Up.