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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Kick Start Day 1

I think the latest Online Card Class, called Kick Start, couldn’t have come at a better time.  Not being home during the day anymore, and having limited time to craft, I’ve sorta lost a bit of my mojo.  Kick Start is a class that is focused on getting the creativity going, and different ways of finding inspiration.

Day 1’s focus was all about Organizing Ideas.  I am not an organizer of my ideas.  I love to organize everything else around me – my fellow coworkers are always saying how organized I am… although, funny enough, my husband and mother would beg to differ.  Still, never have I been one to write things down.  Instead, I choose the much less effective method of “oh, I’ll have to remember that” – and I never do.  Funny how that works.  So, in the interest of “organizing my ideas”, I created a card sketch book:

Card Sketch Book

Isn’t it pretty.  I made it following Kristina Werner’s instructions here.  I even used it to sketch out the following card:

Day 1

Yay me!  (sidenote: this isn’t an original sketch, it’s based off of one from a previous Online Card Class – Clean and Simple Cardmaking).  Nonetheless, there is a sketch! 

This card was created using Paper Smooches “Healthy Vibes” stamp set and some twinery twine (which I coloured with an E53 copic to tone down the white).  I coloured the band aids with copics (E53, 55, and R22).  The sentiment was stamped with versamark and white heat embossed. 

There we go!  Day 1 homework done.  Off to work on day 2 now!

Until next time!

Steph

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Ah, to blog again!

Phew!  That was a crazy few weeks!  Becoming a working mom was quite an adjustment.  I finally feel as though I am getting my head slightly above water.  I have definitely gained a whole new appreciation for all my mom did for my brother and I – working all day, getting groceries or running other errands, picking us up, and getting dinner on the table for when my dad walked in the door.  Of course, with wanting to spend as much time as I can with the little man, and having to plan all of my lessons for school, cook, and clean up at the end of the day, I haven’t had any time for crafting – which is sad, but ok.  I was fortunate enough though to get a few minutes in the old cabana last weekend to make a card for my brother-in-law’s 30th birthday.  This year was the year that he finally got older than my hubby and I.  See, we stopped having birthdays at 29.  :)

For this card, I reworked the case I did of a Kristina Werner card.  My first version is found here, and this is my second version:

Gord's 30th

The papers are all from a Recollections stack, and the dies and stamps used are from Papertrey ink.  I embossed the 30 with ultra thick embossing enamel and popped it up with some dimensional adhesive.  I used some Twinery twine (in real life, the twine colour and the cardstock colour for the 30 are much closer).

Well that’s all for now.  I will definitely pop back in tomorrow to share with you a card I made for the first lesson in the new Online Card Class called Kick Start.

Thanks for stopping in!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

One Pad, Four More Cards

Greetings everyone, and happy Labour Day!

I’ve been loving DCWV’s “Hittin’ the Books” paper pad lately, already having made 2 cards, so I decided to put it to more use and created 4 more cards from it. I plan on giving these cards to some fellow coworkers to begin the year.

Card 1

DCWV Hittin' The Books 2_thumb[1]_thumb

One of the papers had all of these squares and rectangles that I just chopped up and glued onto kraft cardstock. Simple!

Card 2

DCWV Hittin' The Books 3_thumb[1]_thumb

For this one, I used one of the rectangles with the “back to school” message on it, mounted it on a piece of turquoise patterned paper, and used an EK Success slot punch to punch the slot for the ribbon to run through.

Card 3

DCWV Hittin' The Books 4_thumb[1]_thumb

More squares and rectangles Smile

Card 4

DCWV Hittin' The Books 5_thumb[1]_thumb

And again…

Well, I’m off to enjoy my last day of vacation with my little man. Back to work tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Steph

Sunday, September 2, 2012

The Long Weekend

Hello all!  What a gorgeous long weekend we’ve been having here in Southern Ontario!  This weekend is the weekend for “Canada’s Largest” Ribfest, and instead of heading down to the lake in Burlington to stand in huge crowds and spend a lot of money on overpriced ribs, our friends group decided to hold our own.  We’ve done this for the past couple of years already, and it’s been a great time.  This year was no exception.  Each couple brings a rack of ribs done up in their own special sauce, and we all sample the offerings and vote on our favourite.  We have yet to win the event, but have had a great time eating those ribs.  I am feeling like I need a good workout today though. 

Anyway, I thought I’d share another Kraftin’ Kimmie challenge card for this week’s challenge which is to use kraft cardstock in the “kreation”. 

Challenge 144

Once again, I used DCWV’s “Hittin’ the Books” paper pad, which I believe is from last year.  I paired it with Kraftin’ Kimmie’s lovely Lucy who is currently enjoying re-reading Harry Potter and the Half Blooded Prince… : )  She was stamped onto Neenah cardstock with memento ink and coloured in with copics.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches. 

Well, thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope you are enjoying your weekend wherever you are!

Steph

Friday, August 31, 2012

It’s Been a Long Week!

Oh the joys of late August for a teacher.  The week before the labour day weekend means head in to the school and get the classroom ready.  I spent all week in my new portable *cringe*, trying to beautify it.  I think I did an excellent job and look forward to greeting my students next week.  I took today off to spend one last non-holiday weekday with my little man.  It was lovely.  I’m certainly going to miss all the mommy-little man time, however I know that he is going to be just fine going to daycare… I hope : )

I also got in a few minutes of crafty time today so I spent it working on a card for this week’s Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge.  This week we are to create a “scene”.  So, in the theme of back to school, I created this card:

Challenge 143

This card reminds me of that new Old Navy commercial with Andrea and Brandon from 90210 – with the “new girl”…  Anyway, featured here are Joanie and Richie – stamped in memento ink and coloured with copics.  The papers are from a DCWV stack called “Hittin’ The Books”.  The sentiment was typed on the computer and printed out.  Phew!  Got this one done in the nick of time! 


Well, thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

Steph

Friday, August 24, 2012

First Birthday Princess

Hello!

Today’s card is one that I made for my cousin’s little one who is turning one in a couple of weeks.  The party was last week, and well to make a long story short, I finished the card at my parent’s house and didn’t have the camera with me, so I took a picture with my phone instead – hence the terrible quality.

Hadleigh's Birthday

 

The image is from My Favorite Things.  She originally had three candles on her cake, but since it was for a first birthday, I simply used a baby wipe to wipe the ink off the outside two candles and filled it in with my copic multiliner.  She is coloured up with copics.  The patterned paper is from My Mind’s Eye – Fine and Dandy, Tickled Pink pad.  The sentiment was typed on the computer.  The twine is from The Twinery.  And that is it! 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Grandpa’s 85th

Good day!  Today I’d like to share with you a card I made for my husband’s grandfather’s 85th birthday.  The layout is case’d from a card that Kristina Werner made for the Summer Bootcamp card class last year.  I loved what she did, so I used it as the inspiration for mine.

Grandpa F's Birthday

There are so many supplies used on this card!  The sentiment is from a Papertrek Ink stamp set, I also used the Hero Arts Birthday Definition stamp on the blue cardstock.  The 85 was cut with  my silhouette and embossed with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel.  The patterned paper is from a Recollections stack, Twine is from The Twinery, the die used on the yellow cardstock is from Memory Box.

 

Thanks for stopping in!  Have a great day!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

I’m Baaack!

Hello!  Once, again, it’s been a little while since I’ve posted.  Got busy last week getting all of my school stuff gathered and packed to bring back with me next week.  My parents had the little one for a few days, so I was down in the basement sorting, packing, organizing, and doing some inventory on my supplies.  Thus, no crafty time in the cabana :(  I didn’t even get a chance to enter last week’s KK challenge, even though I had started a card.  Oh well, I do have a card for this week’s sketch challenge.  Here it is:

Challenge 142

For my 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 card, I used the adorable Witchypoo.  I coloured her with copics and paired her with some K&Company papers from last year.  I used 2 different Martha Stewart punches for the fence and the gravestones, and used my silhouette for the moon and bats.  I added some stickles stars in the background too.  The sentiment is from Kraftin’ Kimmie as well, and was stamped with versamark and embossed with black embossing powder. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Steph

Friday, August 10, 2012

Paper Pad Storage

Hello! 

Boy am I on a roll today!  I had a couple of minutes to snap a few pictures of how I store my peper pads.  I have a whack of 6x6 pads, and 12x12 pads, and I’ve used a couple of different ways to store them however this is the one that I like best. 

My 6x6 pads are stored in small cd boxes from Ikea:

paper pads 1

Here is a close up of my box of Basic Grey pads:

paper pads 2

As you can see here, I have the pad in behind a little baggy that contains scraps from that pad.  I’ve labelled the baggy with the company name and pad name to keep track.  The baggies are from the dollar store – they are only 4 inches wide, but that’s alright, anything bigger, I just tuck in behind the baggy, in front of the pad.

paper pads 3

This pictures shows the pad of paper and the baggy of scraps.  You can also see that on the pad itself, I’ve written the copic numbers that coordinate with that pad.  This way, I can easily grab the pad I want, the markers I need to coordinate, and get colouring the image.  It saves me a lot of time going through and selecting markers to match.  Anytime I buy a new pad, I hold it up to my copic colour chart that I’ve coloured in with all the markers I have, then put it in one of the boxes for storage.  I cannot take credit for this idea.  I found it on a blog somewhere and I apologize that I cannot credit the person who gave me the idea, I just have no idea where I got it!

Finally, here is how I store my 12x12 pads.

paper pads 4

So here I’ve used an Omni file box that I picked up at Canadian Tire to store the pads.  In front of the pad of paper, is a plastic page protector that holds the scraps for that pad.  I’ve labelled the page protector with the company name and pad name.  Unlike how I’ve done with the 6x6 pads, I haven’t matched these pads with copic colours.  I might do it in the future, but for right now, I don’t find that I use a lot of these papers with my stamped images.

 

Well, there you have it.  A peek into my patterned paper storage!  Thanks for stopping by!

Steph

One Pad, Four Cards

Hello! Sorry I’ve been MIA for a bit. We’ve just been busy around here lately, enjoying the summer life! Had a great long weekend spent with family and friends. I had spent a bunch of time over the past couple of weeks going through the craft cabana, organizing my cardstock, scraps, paper pads, dies, stamps, etc. It’s still not exactly how I’d like it to be – I think I need more shelving or storage devices, but that won’t be happening until we finish our basement and I take up a new space down there. I will take some pictures over the next little bit to share some of the ways that I organize my craft stuff.

In the meantime, as I was going through all of my pads of patterned paper, I decided that I need to use more of it! I have so many pads, that I hardly use. So, I’m forcing myself to start using some of the pads up. I’m starting a new feature on this blog (that I hope I can keep up) which involves my using one pad of paper to make several different cards. This week’s selection is the K&Company pad called “Lion Sleeps” by Suzy Ultman. Here are the cards:

Suzy-Ultman-Sweet-Baby-1_thumb1

This one here was inspired by the colour scheme from Week 1 of the Summer Card Camp from last year, and a card that Kristina Werner made for it. The letters were cut using a Memory Box die and the “wonderful” was stamped with a stamp from a Stampin’ Up set.

Suzy-Ultman-Sweet-Baby-2_thumb1

Love this card! I used the same Memory Box die for the letters, a Paper Smooches stamp for the rest of the sentiment, the three heart punch from Stampin’ Up for the hearts – which I decorated with Glossy Accents and Stickles. The orange cardstock is Pumpkin Pie from SU and the faux stitching is actually a stamp from the Belinda’s Borders set from Lawn Fawn.

Suzy-Ultman-Sweet-Baby-3_thumb2

and finally…

Suzy-Ultman-Sweet-Baby-4_thumb2

Thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Challenge 140

Hello! 

This week’s challenge over on the Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge blog was to use the “out of the box” technique – meaning to cut the image out with some pieces sticking out of the “box”.  I decided to use the amazing Arianna and her two little friends  in all their underwater glory. 

Challenge 140

This gorgeous underwater princess love bling, so I glitzed out her tail, earrings, and eyelids with stickles.  I used glossy accents on her eyes to help bring them out, but unfortunately, you can’t tell that from this picture.

The patterned paper is from an old Sassafras pad called “Sunshine Lollipops”.  I stamped Arianna with Memento Tuxedo Black ink of Neenah Solar White cardstock and coloured her with copics, using this tutorial to colour the water.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Well, that’s all for now!  Thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Thursday, August 2, 2012

First Birthday Thank You

Hello!  Just popping in quickly tonight – I’m in the middle of “Catching Fire” the second book in the Hunger Games series (yes, I know, I’m a bit behind the times), and it is getting good.  Today I’m sharing with you the simple Thank You cards I made to send out after my little man’s birthday party. 

Nathan's Thanks

This is his little piggy face.  He makes it all the time, just too cute!  I kept it simple since I was making a whack of them – just the picture and 3 mat layers.  The speech bubble was cut with my silhouette and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Steph

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Sweet Summertime

Kraftin’ Kimmie’s challenge this week is to use our “summer brights” colours.  So I pulled out a pad of paper that said “summer” to me, and that is Bo Bunny’s Sweet Tooth pad.  I paired it up with Kraftin’ Kimmie’s cutie pie, Judy from the Moonlight Whispers collection:

Summery Colours

Judy was stamped on Neenah Solar White with Memento ink and coloured with Copics.  I used my Lifestyle Crafts dies to cut the circle and scalloped circle and a Martha Stewart border punch for the fancy border on the background there.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Steph

Monday, July 30, 2012

Monday, Monday

Hello!  Just stopping in quickly to share a card I made for my husband’s grandparent’s 62nd wedding anniversary. 

Nana and Grandpa's Anniversary 2

This card was case’d from a Christmas Card that was made by Nichol Magouirk and can be found here.  For my card I used a Hero Arts/Studio Calico background stamp, which I stamped in versamark ink.  The hearts were cut from cardboard using a Tim Holtz die.  I covered them in purple distress ink (crushed concord, I believe), and scattered straw distress ink.  Then I smeared them with coordinating stickles.  I used a memory box die to cut the pattern in behind the hearts.

Here is another card I made using the same layout but different colours:

Thank You Dougie

Well, thanks for stopping by!  Hope you come back again!

Steph

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Stretch Your Stamps Day 11

I’m sorry, I lied.  I wasn’t working on SYS Day 10, I was working on Day 11 – silly me.  I can’t work on day 10 right now because I do not own a single border stamp.  At all.  Can’t even pretend.  So on to day 11 it is!  Reverse stamps.  Here it is:

Stretch Your Stamps Day 11

I stamped this Hero Arts image with Versamark and embossed it with gold embossing powder.  I then coloured it all in with copics (V000, V01, V12, V15, V17, G21, G24, G28).  I just noticed I forgot to colour the centre of the bottom flower here… oops.  Will go back and do that.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts, and it’s stamped with Versafine ink on Vellum.  I attempted to stamp it with a purple distress ink, but that turned out horribly.  Does anyone have any tips for stamping on vellum?  Does it have to be a permanent ink?  Please do leave a comment if you have any suggestions.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Steph

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Christmas in July… on Boxing Day… in July.

mmmhmm.  Confused yet?  Anyway, I never did post the Christmas card I sent out to family and friends this year, so here it is:

Christmas Card 2011

I had taken the Christmas version of the Online Card class, and one of the days focused on using photos on your card – a technique I (obviously) used here.  I created a template that allowed me to punch 4 holes in the green layer of the card, so each corner of the picture tucks into it, holding it in place.  This way, the recipient can just take the picture out and keep it.  The snowflakes were stamped with white craft ink using a Hero Arts stamp, the Merry was cut out with a Papertrey Ink letter die, and the Christmas stamp is from PTI as well.  I used circle punches to create the holly leaves, and some white little irock gems that I coloured red for the berries.

Thanks for stopping in!

Steph

Stretch Your Stamps Day 9

Well, I’m getting there!  Only one more day of SYS to go, and I’m only a week late.  Not bad.  The focus for day 9 was using outline stamps.  I decided to take Maile Belles’ inspiration of white embossing over a striped background, but give it a twist.  She had her stripes going horizontally, however I decided to have mine going vertically:

Stretch Your Stamps Day 9

The train stamp set and the houndstooth background is from Papertrey Ink, as is the die I used for the number 2.  The houndstooth pattern was clear embossed, the train, white embossed, and the number 2 was given several coats of ultra thick embossing enamel. 

Well, thanks for checking it out, and I should have day 10 ready for tomorrow!  Have a great day,

Steph

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Stretch Your Stamps Day 8

Hello!  Sorry I’ve been away the last couple of days.  A bit of a blog break while I did a massive tidy/reorganization of the craft cabana.  Today is mine and Dan’s 5th anniversary, and he was such a sweetie and bought me the domain name for my blog!  (yes, he is a computer nerd, and I am computer nerd enough to truly appreciate this very thoughtful gift)

We just got back from a very big dinner at the Keg – one of our favourite restaurants, and are now extremely bloated and lazy.  So, I’ve settled in to watch Big Brother (one of my summer guilty pleasures), So You Think You Can Dance, and to continue reading The Hunger Games (I’m a little behind on the times… it’s so good).  I just thought I’d stop in to post my card for Day 8 of Stretch Your Stamps class.   Talk about behind the times… class did end on Friday.  As I told Dan, I had trouble with day 8.  It was all about using label stamps, of which, I own 0.  So I had to get a bit creative…

Stretch Your Stamps Day 8

 

decided to use the Tag You’re It die and stamp set that I own from My Favorite Things.  I combined my “label” with the sultry “Sohpia” from Kraftin’ Kimmie stamps.  She was stamped on Neenah paper with memento tuxedo black ink, and coloured with Copics.  I actually coloured her ages ago – and, well, for lack of a better word, pretty much copied what Melanie Holtz did with her here.  I am a huge fan of Melanie’s work with copics, and often practice colouring images the way she does in order to work on my own colouring ability. What I was working on here was getting the shading on a black dress.  I also added glossy accents over Sophia’s eyes, and on the martini glass to give them a nice sheen. The sentiment is from the Tag You’re It set, and the flourish was cut with a MFT die. 

Well, that’s all for now, thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Cooking Up a Little Something

Good morning!  I was just checking the stats on my blog, and saw that about 1/4 of my all time visitors visited yesterday from the shout out on Stretch Your Stamps!  Wow, that was cool!  And if you visited, thank you, I appreciate it! 

Now, on to today’s card.  This card was created to thank my mom and dad for all the running around they did to pick up food for Nathan’s birthday party. 

Cooking Thanks

Sweet Agnes (from Kraftin’ Kimmie’s Moonlight Whispers line) was stamped on Neenah with memento ink and coloured with copics.  I absolutely adore this image – love the pear shaped body!   The papers are Echo Park, and I believe it’s from the “Happy Days” pad.  The bottle cap cutout for the sentiment was done with my Silhouette, and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches. 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Steph

Saturday, July 21, 2012

WHOA!!!

This card got a shout out from Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire on Online Card Classes!  Most exciting bloggy thing that’s happened to me!

*day made*

Smile Steph

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Hello!  Today I’m sharing with you the wrap job I did on a gift for Nathan’s buddy, James, who is turning 1 today!  I can’t believe these little ones are already a year!  It’s been nice being off with my friend Kristen, going for walks, shopping, eating, and just hanging out.  Unfortunately though, all our maternity leave fun will come to an end shortly… sigh…

Kristen let me know a couple of weeks ago that she was planning on doing a bit of a “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle – themed party.  And me, I’m all about creating something to tie in with a theme (although, I guess that’s only when it’s someone else’s theme.  Poor Nathan didn’t really have a theme for his party).  So… I got crafty when wrapping sweet baby James’ gift, and this is what I came up with:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

Cute, eh?  I just wrapped the gift in Kraft Paper (which I picked up at the post office), and decorated.  To create the “Eric Carle” style of paper, I took coloured cardstock and a whole whack of distress inks and swiped them over the paper.  I then punched out what I needed – I used a circle die for the head, and two sizes of oval Stampin’ Up punches for the body.  To get the more “organic” shape of the pieces, I went around them with scissors, loosely chopping the sides.  I glued it all on piece by piece with Tombow multi glue.  The eyes, nose, antennae, and feet were all free handed as was the apple on the tag. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar 2

I used my Martha Stewart hole punchy tool to cut the circle from the middle of the apple.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar 3

And those little splotches you can see on the tag, that was a mistake completely planned Smile  I had “cleaned up” my craft sheet with a baby wipe from all the distress inks, then went ahead and placed my tag face down over it to write the “to and from” on the back of it.  When I turned it over I had this lovely little speckled design, which I love.  Gotta love those stupid mistakes that end up being brilliant!

 

Well, that’s all for now folks, thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Thursday, July 19, 2012

More Kraftin’ Kimmie

I am a little behind on my homework for Stretch Your Stamps, and my little man did not nap long enough for me to work on anything today!  Oh well.  I did get an itty bitty block of time to finish off a card I started yesterday.  Here is the super cute Mae:

Beachin Birthday

This gorgeous girl is layered over some sand and surf.  I used the Hero Arts cloud background stamp and some soft pool ink, then added waves cut with a fiskars punch, then ripped some paper to make the sand.  The window was cut with a nestability, and the sun was cut with a My Favorite Things die.  The sentiment is from a Kraftin’ Kimmie set.  Mae was stamped on Neenah with Memento Ink and coloured with copics.

Well, that’s all for now!  Thanks for stopping in!

Steph

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Krafty Guest???

I am a huge fan of Kraftin’ Kimmie stamps – especially the Moonlight Whispers line.  I just love the adorable images - so cute and whimsical and so much fun to colour up with Copic markers.  So, when I heard that Kimmie was having a Krafty Guest contest, I figured I would try my hand at it.  I would love to be a Krafty Guest for a month, so, here goes. 

Today I am sharing two cards that I made using two different KK images.  This first one here is using sweet Julie.  She is off to celebrate her good friend’s birthday in style:

Happy Birthday To You!

Julie was stamped on Neenah Solar White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Then I coloured her up with copics and layered her over some My Mind’s Eye Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink papers (that was a mouthful!).  The sentiment is from a Paper Smooches set.

 

For my second card, I used the lovely Caroline:

Congratulations

She too was stamped on Neenah with Memento ink and coloured with copics.  I used K&Company Sweet Nectar paper from a mat pack.  The sentiment is from a Paper Smooches set. 

 

Well, wish me luck Smile 

Thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Stretch Your Stamps Day 7

Hello again!  Here is my card for SYS Day 7:

Stretch Your Stamps Day 7

Today’s theme, florals.  I took out the Dots and Flowers (I think that’s what it’s called) stamp set from Hero Arts and inked it up.  In addition, I stamped a bunch of extra flowers and leaves.  I coloured everything on the base level of the card, then added the leaves with some SU dimensionals and the flowers with some other dimensional adhesive that is a bit thicker than the dimensionals.  That way, the leaves are behind the flowers.  Everything was coloured with copics.  The card base is 4x4.  The sentiment is also from Hero Arts.

 

Well, thank you so much for stopping by!

Steph

Stretch Your Stamps Day 6

Happy Wednesday to you!  Today’s focus for card class was on using stamp and die sets.  Of course, I don’t own any, so instead, I simply used a couple of coordinating Memory Box dies to create a beautiful and sparkly butterfly. 

Stretch Your Stamps Day 6

The butterfly was glittered up with Glitter Ritz glitter, an amazing fine glitter that is so beautiful and creates a velvety look when burnished with your finger.  I pretty much case’d the card Jennifer McGuire made for class, just changing a couple of details.  The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set; it was stamped in Evergreen Bough distress ink and embossed with a sparkly embossing powder, which, unfortunately you can’t see all that well in the picture.  The gems are from Imaginisce, stuck on with my irock tool. 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Steph

Monday, July 16, 2012

Stretch Your Stamps Day 5

Wow!  2 posts in one day, craziness I tell you – well actually not craziness at all, I was just super lucky in that Nathan took a nice, looooong afternoon nap, so mommy got to craft!  Day 5’s focus was using sentiments.  I basically case’d Kristina Werner’s card for this one since I loved absolutely everything about what she did.  I did of course, use different papers, and sentiments.  I made this card to give to my hubby (who reads this blog, so I guess it won’t be a surprise, eh?) when we celebrate our 5th anniversary on July 25th.

Stretch Your Stamps Day 5

and the inside… wait for it… wait for it…

Stretch Your Stamps Day 5 b

The patterned papers are from a Recollections stack that is the exact same as a bunch of My Mind’s Eye papers (how is that possible?  I really don’t get it – they are the EXACT same!!!), along with some Basic Grey from SU.  The twine is from the Twinery.  The sentiment comes from the Big Birthday Wishes set from Papertrey Ink and the 5 was cut with their By The Numbers die set.  I coated the 5 in versamark and put A LOT of ultra thick embossing enamel on it to get it super duper glossy, then I adhered it to a piece of vellum.  The only thing I forgot to do before taking the picture was to round the top left and top right corners of the right paper (just at either end when unfolded) – I shall do that before I give away the card.

 

Thanks for stopping in today!

Steph

Stretch Your Stamps Day 4

Hello!  This card is inspired by Day 4 of the Stretch Your Stamps online card class.  The focus for Day 4 is using Graphic Stamps.  I don’t own many stamp sets that would be considered “graphic”, but I do have Modern Basics by Papertrey Ink.  Here is what I came up with:

Stretch Your Stamps Day 4

I stamped the strip of leaves on vellum with versamark, covered it with black embossing powder, and heat embossed.  Then I stamped the flower image on coral coloured cardstock with versamark, clear embossed them, and cut them out.  The green vine was cut on my silhouette, and the sentiment (which was embossed in white) is from a Hero Arts set – I made it curvy when I placed it on my block so that it followed the curve of the vine strip. 

 

Thanks for stopping in! 

Steph

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Stretch Your Stamps Day 3

Finally!  It took me so many tries to finally get the look I was going for.  I’m glad I persevered as I do really like the results.

Stretch Your Stamps Day 3

I first embossed the outside with a set of Lifestyle Crafts square dies, then stamped the “Thank You” with some white colourbox dye ink.  I embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder and heat set it.  Then, I created a mask to go over my letters with some Eclipse masking tape.  I stamped the Hero Arts background stamp with the same white dye ink and embossed it too.  All of the colouring was done with memento and distress markers.  I liked using these markers because it was super easy to go back with a baby wipe once I was done colouring and wipe the marker off the embossed parts.

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks for stopping in!

Steph

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Paper Smooch-y Thanks

Hello!  Well I had such an amazing Saturday.  Today is actually my hubby’s birthday (happy birthday babe!), and since he was spending his day helping his uncle build a deck, I decided to bring the little man with me and head down to visit my parents and attend the volunteer firefighter’s family picnic.  My dad has been a volunteer fireman for many years (30+)… longer than I’ve been alive, so that’s a lot.   I remember the family picnics from when I was young and how much fun I had, so of course I wanted to carry on the tradition with Nathan.  Here is a sweet little pic of Nathan and my dad:

Nathan and Grandpa

He really did like the helmet, and I missed a smile by a fraction of a second!  grr..

Anyway, the card I want to share with you today is just a quick one that I whipped up for a friend of mine:

Thanks smooches

The stamps are from a Paper Smooches set.  I stamped the “thanks” in black ink first, then cleaned my stamp (or so I thought) and stamped it in versamark to create a lighter watermark type of impression.  I guess the stamp wasn’t fully cleaned as you can see.  However, I liked the results so I left it.  The letters were coloured in with copics, and I popped the stamped layer up on the card base with some dimensional adhesive.

 

Update on Stretch Your Stamps – I am currently working on my day 3 course work (only 3 days behind…), and it is the most frustrating, but gorgeous, card.  I hopefully will get it done and share it with you tomorrow – along with days 4, 5, and 6. 

 

Thanks for stopping in!

Steph

Friday, July 13, 2012

First Birthday Invitation

My little man was born on the 4th of July, 2011.  He is the cutest baby toddler ever – if I do say so myself!  I love making cards and using his picture on the front of them.  I’ve made picture cards for Christmas, Easter, and now for the invitation to his first birthday party.  The picture was taken during our family trip to Florida in March, and is just too cute.

Nate's Birthday Invite

See what I mean?  Smile

I used paint.net to format my picture – I decreased the size to 4 inches wide x 3 inches tall so that I could print 2 pictures on one 4x6 print… make sense?  This way, the picture would also fit onto a standard size card without any creative cropping.  I matted it on some white and green cardstock.  The waves are punched with a fiskars punch.   The sentiment on the front was printed off on the computer. 

 

thanks for stopping by!

Steph