Happy Birthday!

A special little boy in my life, JP,  is having a big 5 year birthday in a few days and I wanted to make him a card with a big old 5 on it.

I used some Cosmo Cricket paper from a stash I had.....I'm wondering if I used this same paper on a card for him last year?  LOL!

I cut the "5" window on my Silhouette with the Arial Bold font.  So easy and so fast and I could size it exactly the way I wanted.  I just created a rectangle in my Silhouette Studio software and positioned my 5 where I wanted it and cut it out.  Easy peasy as they say.

The birthday cake was made with a Lawn Fawn set.  I know I should have put 5 candles on top but they were just so teeny and tedious to cut out and I took the easy way out!
The "turning" stamp is from Paper Smooches.

Here is the inside and was done with Penny Black and Paper Smooches stamps:

And lastly, I decorated the envelope with a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and some Stampin' Up inks:

Not that JP will care but I thought it was a cute touch and since it will travel in my daughter's purse to the destination I think there is a less likely chance that it will get tossed or lost!

(thinking ahead....)

And now that I look at it I think it's calling for some Glossy Accents on the cake.  Off I go!

Big day today...tennis in an hour, hair cut and time with the grandkids later in the day.  Life is good!

Happy Crafting!

So Proud of You!

Disclaimer:  This does not have the same meaning as "You must be so proud" which we southerners say and is not necessarily the most sincere thing and is basically used to shut you up.
As in:
Conversant #1: My daughter, who graduated from high school at 12 and went to Harvard and graduated from law school at 16, just married the brilliant brain surgeon/bank vice president and pro golfer and moved into a million dollar mansion on the beach in Tahiti which they now own.
Southern Belle Coversant #2:  You must be so proud.  (Which really means, "shut up, I'm sick of hearing your mouth".)


I'm so mean.  Crafters are generally nice people....but we southerners can have a little streak hidden behind sweetness! Beware of the southerner!  LOL!


Now...onto my card.  "So Proud of You".  Not the same...trust me.


I just placed an order to There She Goes Stamps...placed the order on Saturday (a week ago) and received it on Wednesday!  Wow...fast shipping.  The stamps are just awesome quality...they stamp beautifully!


I used the World's Best set to make this card:

 I used Cosmo Cricket papers "Joy Ride" which is an older line but I still have some scraps from a 6x6 pad...I think this works so well for another hard for me to do masculine card!  
This stamp set also has coordinating dies.  The ribbon was embossed with some black embossing powder...the banner was cut with the die. and I just looped the ends over the Papertrey Ink twine and used my little Tiny Attacher by Tim Holtz to secure the little flags.  A small Fiskars thumb punch was used for the little stars.

The center of the ribbon was punched out with a Martha Stewart punch.

 And below you can see the little pinking shear look which was done with a Papertrey Ink die.

And what am I proud of??? My son found a full time job and started work last Monday!  Yay!


Today I am off to crop with some friends.  I went down to my craftroom last night to pack up for my day with the ladies and ended up getting distracted and made this card instead.  LOL! So now I am unprepared and disorganized!  Definitely not proud of that!

I entered this in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.


Happy Crafting!

Birthday Card

This will be a quick post today...why?  Because I am leaving shortly to help my daughter out with the little kiddos.

Her husband's nephew is celebrating a birthday soon (he'll be 13) and she asked me if I had a card.  No problem...it gave me an excuse to get out this set of Unity stamps that are well loved in this household (well, by me....my husband probably doesn't know they exist!)...but he loves that I have a hobby that keeps me happy and so indirectly he loves these Unity stamps, too.

I used Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride which is a very boyish line of papers....and very cute if I say so myself!  I used a Kraft paper as the card base.  The ribbon is from Paper Trey Ink.  Edges were distressed with Antique Linen Distress Ink and I also used Memento Tuxedo Black.

I love all the combinations of colors and prints.  So much fun for me to mix like this! 

I just finished the card and used some Glossy Accents which haven't dried so the stars and birthday candle look a bit cloudy but they should clear up in no time AS LONG AS I DON'T TOUCH IT!  :)

and a bit of a closeup....

On the run!

Happy Crafting!!!

Sometimes It's a Struggle!

I don't know why but masculine cards are a struggle for me to make.  I'm not talking about little boy stuff...I'm talking about cards for grown men!  I love ribbon, lace, bling....I'm quite the girly-girl when it comes to cards but those elements don't often work well on cards for men!

I needed a birthday card for a man so sat down to see what I could come up with.  I really had fun doing this...I did have to tweak a few things but was happy with the result.

And here it is:

BTW, I scanned this.  I never scan.  I barely even know how to scan but thought I'd give it a try tonight.  I'm not certain the colors are true but then they don't always show up accurately in photos either.  Anyway, this gives you a good idea of what the card looked like but it IS cuter in real life!

OK, I went ahead and took a photo of it this morning...this is straight out of the camera.  And in the background is my cute little dog, Isabella, who turned 2 yesterday!  Happy Birthday, Izzie....but now that you are technically 14 years old can you CALM DOWN A BIT????

Well, the colors look much better than in the scanned image AND you get to see Isabella!

I used Joy Ride paper by Cosmo Cricket and a piece of Papertrey Ink cardstock for the base.  Most of the stamps I used were from the Oh Happy Day set by Unity Stamps but I did use the star stamps from the Everyday Life set by Close to My Heart. I used Archival Ink: Jet Black.   Edges were scuffed up with the Tim Hotlz distresser and inked with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  I also used a little Distress Stickles (Rock Candy) on the little candle to jazz it up a bit.  I also used a Fiskars border punch as well as an EK success one.  I also used a little twine that I picked up in the jewelry section at Michaels. I also used a good bit of foam tape to pop up some of the items on the card.

I think this looks manly enough...don't you?

Happy Crafting!

Cricut Challenge 10: Country Life

I LOVE THIS CARD!  You know how it is...sometimes you just make something and just love it!  I loved this finished card so much that when I showed it to my husband I asked him if I should just send it to him so that we could keep it in the family!!!  I have issues...I know...I know...

Today's cartridge is the really cute Country Life.  The more I look at it the more I see some really cute things on this cartridge.  First of all there are some really cute country images...farmers, farm animals, foods, vintage looking images, as well as a great fonts, a banner and other nice features. 

I did another card from this cartridge back in April....you can see it here if you'd like.

For this SEW SWEET card I used papers from DCWV Linen Closet (including the cardstock stack)

and a sheet of chocolate brown cardstock I happened to have on hand.  I always love when I can find things to use I have on hand! 

I used my Gypsy and my Expression 2 and cut all images and layers at 4 inches (this card is actually a 5x7 card).  It assembled nicely...I just used my Zig 2 Way glue pen (the greatest)

 and all those little babies just adhered nicely!

The measuring tape and the Sew Sweet sentiment are Unity Stamps (love that brand...those stamps are such great quality!)...and are cobranded stamps with Cosmo Cricket and are from the Material Girl sets.  The top label is an EK Success punch and the label that I used as a mat is the Fillable Frame Die from Paper Trey Ink.

I added some metal flat head beads and did a little pen work on the sewing machine as well as a little dark brown satin ribbon I picked up at JoAnn, etc.

and that's it.  It really is SEW cute!  I don't think the picture does it justice but trust me....it is adorable if I say so myself.   Don't you just love that vintage sewing machine?  It reminds me of my grandmother.... :)

Happy Crafting!

I LOVE Unity Stamps!

I just love Unity Stamps.  They are cling red rubber stamps that you place on any acrylic block.  They are so nicely manufactured...you get wonderful sharp images with this line of stamps!  I have way too many already but love adding to my "collection".
This card was made with the Material Girl set which was done in coordination with Cosmo Cricket (another favorite line of papers and embellishments!).

You can see the full stamp set here: 

I also used this really cute mini deck from Cosmo Cricket:

Which has the cutest papers in it as you can see from my card!
I stamped the cute little girl image on some printed paper and then cut it out to adhere to another stamped image done directly on a piece of kraft cardstock.
I punched a scalloped edge to the mat to give it something extra, colored in the girls hair with a brown marker and her shoes with red.  Stamped the sentiment...plopped it on some foam tape and there you have it...a cute card!