Boy Cards Rock!

....not really but I did have fun making more boy cards with the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit for May.
:)

Here are a couple more I made.  The first one is just a simple birthday card done with strips of paper.

And a little heat embossing with some white powder for the sentiment.  I love the cute little monsters.  The big red one was cut out of some of the Fancy Pants printed paper.

The second card is actually NOT a boy card but was made with the same stamp set.  I think it is gender-less.  :)

The kit came with a star stencil and I used it to make the background with some Hero Arts Ink.  I love the red, white and blue theme I have going here, too. :)

The tennis shoes were inked and colored with a few Copics and then cut out .  I stamped the sentiment with Memento Luxe ink and then threw some clear embossing powder over it and heated it.  I love clear embossing powder...one of my favorite things to use!  I added some neutral twine over some red strips of cardstock that I cut sort of randomly.

I am actually sending this to a friend who runs all the time.  I think she will like it very much.  I do not run.  In fact when I play tennis my favorite word is "YOURS!" (said with great gusto and enthusiasm) so that my partner will run down the ball.  Of course, my tennis partners use the same favorite word with me.  It's a mutual give and take....and run...


Happy Crafting!  I'm hoping to do a bit today myself....I have several birthdays coming up and need to get some cards going!!! :)

I entered the Cuttin and Stampin Challenge Little Monsters HERE.

Boy, Oh Boy!

Yesterday I wrote about the difficulty I have making non girly cards.  Girly just seems to come a bit easier for me...is it that there is such a plethora of more feminine things in paper crafting?  Or is that must my imagination and really just an opportunity for me to use the word "plethora"?  :)

Anyway, I did make a few cards with the Simon Says Stamp May kit which you can see here but is, of course, already out of stock!  You can get the product individually, though...

and I do love the cute stamp set!

Here is another card I made:

I used a Lawn Fawn journaling card die which has the cute perforated edge that I cut out of vellum.  The little game controller was stamped on another piece of vellum with VersaFine ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then colored on the underside with some Copics.  I cut it out and then added some black cording for the wire.  The sentiment was also stamped with black VersaFine Ink and then heat embossed with clear powder.  And....That's it!

Actually this is a non gender specific card.  It's not really just for boys, is it?  We girls can rock a game controller, too!
(When we first got Nintendo back in the early 90s and we had Super Mario Brothers...when my kids would go to bed I would play by myself.  And I loved Tetris! More than once my kids busted me!  And I still hear the story which begins with "Remember when Mom used to play Super Mario Brothers late at night?"  LOL!!!  Those kids fergit nuthin'!)

Happy Crafting!

Hey Dude!

I struggle making boy cards.  I like flowers.  I like lace.  I like girly stuff.  But those male cards...wow...I'm always looking at them thinking I'd like to girl them up a bit.

Anywho....I spent a few hours yesterday making more boy type cards.  The Simon Says Stamp kit for May was boy-ish.  See?

When I first saw it I thought..."Oh, no!"....but then I saw some really cute cards made with it so it gave me a little hope.

And I was happy with the results.  :)  Big smile here.

They were fun to make!

The first one I'll share is one I made for my son who recently gave me some gifts for Mother's Day and my birthday.  He asked me tongue in cheek if those gifts would warrant a card.  Not only was he tongue in cheek but I also detected a sure note of sarcasm.  I know he secretly likes the cards but oh my....he will never admit it much!  That would be too girly of him he thinks.  LOL!  We do use a lot of sarcasm in our household.  I use sarcasm in my blog.  I feel perfectly at home with a bit of sarcasm.  I'm good with it.  So. There.

Anyway, here is my card:

I should have made a card that said "Hey Dude! Be nice to your mother!"

But instead I put this on the inside:

I used the Lawn Fawn Borders 1 die to make that cool curve.  The papers came with the kit and are Fancy Pants and really cute!  I used white embossing powder by Zing to heat emboss the sentiments.

And because I couldn't leave it alone I had to add some white pen stitching.  My pen stitching looks like my machine stitching....uneven and crooked.  LOL!

And what is better than getting handmade card?  Well, getting $ in it.  I slipped in some cash and told my son to buy some treats for his dog or something nice for his new wife.  Sarcasm.  I love it!

Happy Crafting and Happy Sunday (no sarcasm there!)!

You Are Loved

Valentine's Day is just around the corner!  I need to get making cards! 
Actually, I did make this card yesterday with items from the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit for January which you can see here:

Here is a card I made inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Vicky Papaioannou at Clips-n-Cuts HERE.  I loved the confetti heart die she used (a Simon Says Stamp exclusive) which I don't have so I used a file from the Silhouette Online store and cut it with my Cameo.

I found a coin envelope file at the Silhouette Online store, too which I thought was really cute.  One thing I've learned (a Susan tip) is to get rid of score lines which are cut on the Silhouettes (Cricut does it, too) as I find that when you fold you often get a torn look.  It's because the "score" lines are really perforated and I think the cuts are too deep and go through the entire paper.  I just cut my shape and then score them with a regular manual scorer.  Those of you not into paper crafting (Becky, Niki, Donna) may have no idea what I'm talking about and that's ok! LOL!

But those of you who are into the paper arts...well, you will know what I'm talking about!

The "you" is cut with red cardstock from a metal die from a Simon Says Stamp Exclusive which also comes with some great stamps.  I added a few crystal sequins and a heart punched from cardstock.  I also used a red Wink of Stella to go over the heart and the die cut to give it a little non-messy sheen.

The little tickets came with the kit and are made by Fancy Pants.  They are so cute and slid right in the coin envelope! 

I liked this card so much I think I'll make another!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 43

Well, there you go!  I was able to take my butchered foot and hobble down 14 stairs yesterday to work on my Project Life! Woohoo!  I even got a shoe on today.  Ten days post op and I'm in a shoe.  Ok, I will admit I only had the shoe on for about an hour but it's a start, right?

:)

So on to Project Life and Week 43....
Here is my left side:

 I usually make full "week cards" with no pictures but I like how Donna Gibson at 365 Days of Donna incorporated a picture as her week card.  (If you click on the link you'll see what I mean.)  Donna does her Project Life digitally which we know is a lot easier and less time consuming and less expensive as compared to THE REAL DEAL paper....  Just kidding.  She will slap me for that!  HAHA!  Anyway, she does do the digital version and her pages are always sooooo waaaaay cool.  Check her out if you're thinking about doing Project Life.  Even though she does the easier difficult digital version her pages are such an inspiration to me each week.

Anyway, I added a little flair button to cover an ink spot mistake spruce up my card:

 The papers and flair are from Fancy Pants and the Trendsetter line.  The "week" was stamped with a Hero Arts alpha set and the 43 was stamped with a Memories stamp set I have had for a very long time and is oh-so-versatile!

The journaling card below was done with the Fancy Pants papers...the stamps are from KI and I decided to distress and curl the edges a bit...and use a few little staples to adhere it.  Why?  Because I wanted to! :)

Here is the right side:

Whoopsie...a little glare on the top but you get the idea...look at those cute little feet!
And here is my journaling card...again...same line of papers with the KI stamp "remember this" at the top.

And that's it for Week 43. 

Stay tuned for Week 44....! Halloween WEEK!!!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 36

Oh my goodness!  I am officially behind.  I worked on Project Life yesterday and thought I was just 1 week behind but when I looked at the dates I am 2 weeks behind! Yikes.  And with my daughter about to give birth ANY day I just know I am going to get even further behind.  Time to just slap some photos in that album and get caught up!

Anyway, here is Week 36....I used Fancy Pants papers and a few flair buttons and pretty much made all my journaling and filler cards.  Well, I didn't "pretty much"....I did!

I began the week in NYC and went to see Kinky Boots on Broadway.  (Bucket list item check off, by the way!).  It was the most fabulous show I have ever seen!  The show won the Tony for Best Musical for 2013 and the actor who starred won best actor in a musical.  He was awesome and it was such a fun show!  I was able to snag that photo off the WWW and was happy that I found such a great picture to always remind me of that fun day!
My "week" card shown below was done with an arrow image from the Silhouette Online store that I cut out with my Cameo...the font I used was called "Broadway" which I thought was just perfect and a bit different from the usual block style fonts I seem to gravitate to!

I love how big and bold it looked!

The clapboard below was also an image from the Silhouette Online store.  I also added a little arrow that I inked a bit from Pink Paislee. 

Here's the right side:

 I used templates from Jessica Sprague and from the Lily Pad.
My grandkids started back to "school" last week (preschool for David and Mother's Morning Out for Taylor).  I think they look so cute with their bags!
David started playing on a little soccer league and just had the best time running, running, running!

And lastly, the card below was also cut with an image from the Silhouette store...and is by Lori Whitlock, I believe.

I love how well it cut with my Cameo.  What a great machine...couldn't be happier with it. 

And that's it for today my little chickadees....need to get some photos ordered so I can get on with week 37 and 38!  That baby will be here before I know it!!!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 20

(For you Project Lifers out there...if you want to take a look at all my pages to date you can go to the Project Life 2013 tab just above this post.  It will take you to photos of all my pages.) 

Uh, Yeah.....I'm up to date!  (She brags...)

I decided to be a bit lazy and photograph THROUGH my page protectors this week.  Mostly because I wanted to give you a glimpse of how impressive my book is looking.  I mean...it is just so thick and meaty! Love it!

Here are my Week 20 layouts side by side:

This was a week for the kids....they had lots of fun things going on including a trip with Omie to Stone Mountain.

Here is the left side:

My week card was done with a Silhouette cut from the online store with some Thickers stickers (for the numbers) and a sticker from a Fancy Pants kit that was LEFTOVER!  I am loving using leftover stuff for my Project Life.  

We took the skylift to the top of Stone Mountain and David loved it.  He kept saying "This is awesome!".  Love that 3 1/2 year old.  I used a Lily Pad template for my photo and then just added part of a journaling card to the edge.

Here is the right side:

This card was included with my leftover kit and I just added some rub-ons to the card.  Simple and DONE!

Sometimes it's nice to add a little memorabilia so I added in our Skyride tickets.

The following two photos were also done with templates from Lilypad.  I use Photoshop Elements to drop my photos into the templates.  It's pretty easy and I love that it helps you get more photos on your layout.  Let your photos do the talking, I say!

I added a few stickers to this one:
 

I loved the Who, What, When, Where approach to this card.  And I added a few rub-ons to this as well.  

And that's it for today....

Happy Crafting!

A Totally Cased (Well, Not Totally...) Card

A quick card here today...a quick post here today...you can do that when you CASE something.
And I CASED a card from one of my favorite bloggers, Creations With Christine, all the way! Well, actually it isn't totally copied because I made mine A2 sized and I used a Hero Arts stamp and a different banner set (mine came from Simon Says Stamp).
But otherwise they are pretty close!  I love CASING cute! :)

 And that is it for today, my friends!

Happy Crafting and may you find a great little project to CASE!


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Valentine Wishes

Here is a little Valentine Card made with a "LOVE" stamp cut from the Silhouette store.  It cut so well on this printed paper called "Love Note" by Fancy Pants....love this little paper pad!
This card worked up very quickly....I used some Papertrey Ink ribbon for a little tie at the bottom.  Very simple and really very fast.  Including the cutting....less than 10 minutes, I'd say.  (Read: more like 20.)

Don't you just love those love stamps? 
Also I wanted to share my insert page for my Project Life album.  Last week we celebrated my son's birthday and I had a few pages I wanted to use so I inserted an 8 1/2 by 11-ish We R Memory Keepers page protector.  It has slots for a large photo across the top which I just mounted to some printed paper and then two 4x6's.
Here it is with some white paper behind so you can see it.  Not a great photo but you get the idea.

And here is the reverse side:

And how it looks without the white paper behind it inserted in Week 3:

And here is a little closeup of the journaling box.  I used some Recollection puffy dimensional stickers to dress it up a bit:

And that's it for today!  Off to play some tennis!

And hopefully some....

HAPPY CRAFTING!

later....

Sometimes You Get a Shot...Or How NOT TO TAKE A PICTURE!

...and sometimes you just don't!
I am sitting here all by myself (well, the dog is here) laughing out loud at how bad these photos are.  The problem is that my layout has a clear overlay and despite all attempts I kept getting a reflection.  The layout is so way cute in real life but looks just plain awful here!  Oh well...what can ya do?!
OK, this first one was done after I tried taking it the usual way...which was standing over it on the floor.  That didn't work because all you got was a photo of me taking a picture of the layout.  It looked like I was looking in a mirror! LOL!
So then I propped it in a chair.  and the flash accidentally wen off so huge light throwback!...

So then I took the flash off and got another great picture of me taking a picture of the layout! LOL! Great job, Susan!

 

Then I decided to try holding it in my hand and moving it so there would be no reflection.  Uh...obviously didn't work!
I put it back in the chair and tried from a different angle:

 Well, that's a great picture...LOL!  You can see everything so clearly! ;)
So then I just took the overlay off and put it back in the chair but now it looks nekkid (as we say in the south!) because the overlay is what makes the layout!
Oh well...maybe  you can use your imagination and dream up what it really looks like in person...or better yet, come over for a cup of coffee and I'll show you!

Anyway, this layout has to do with this past summer where every Tuesday David and I had a date to the $1 movie.  We would go to the mall, go to the movie which he would watch anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes but when he was done he was done!  Then we'd ride the carousel, eat pizza (which is what he's doing here) and get a cookie and then head home.  It was so much fun for both of us and I look forward to date Tuesday again this summer!
I used products from Fancy Pants to complete this way cuter in real life than on your computer layout.

Happy Crafting!

Scary? Or Too Cute to Spook?

I scrapbooked yesterday!  Woohooo!!!  And I loved every single second of it.  Hours and hours of fun.  What do I have to show for my time in my room?  Two very simple 12x12 layouts.  LOL! Yep, it took me forever to do these pages.  I tried a whole bunch of things that I didn't end up using but like I've said before...it's the process that is fun and therapeutic for me...not the result.

My daughter took these photos of David with her iPhone.  She had ordered his Halloween costume for him and it had arrived so she tried it on him to see how it fit.  He did not like it and was just plain crabby about the whole thing.  I just LOVE the expression on his face.  He's just so totally annoyed that she made him put the costume on AND then made him stand still to snap his pictures.  It reminds me of the scene from one of my FAVORITE Christmas movies, A Christmas Story where Ralphie is made to wear the ridiculous pink bunny costume! 
Anyway here is the first page of the 2 page layout:

I just love his face! :)

But then...some magic happened!  David saw himself in the mirror and decided he looked pretty cool afterall! 

Love it!

I used Fancy Pants papers, some basic ribbon and cardstock I had around. The bat was cut from the Simply Charmed Simply Charmed and the SCARY title from Happy Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridges.  I put a couple of little wiggly eyes on the bat.

I often use larger prints on my scrapbook pages like on these pages where I used 8x10 photos....I just like bold looking photos and I think sometimes 4x6 photos can get lost on a page.  And Costco has such good prices on enlargements...

HAHA! When I look back at these layouts I think WHAT ON EARTH TOOK HOURS TO DO HERE???  HAHA....well, you don't see all the mistakes and things I tried that I didn't love (like punched edges, different ribbons, etc.) in my trash can! 

Well, I was hoping my use of Simply Charmed would count on my personal Cricut Challenge to use all my cartridges but DANG...I've already used it! :)

Happy Crafting!!!

Don'tcha Just Despise...

....when you get a whole bunch of new toys but are just too tired to try them out?!  I did a little shopping today at Archiver's where there was a 40% off sale on all stamps and when I got home about 8pm there was my order from Paper Trey Ink! I ate a bit of dinner and now it's 8:30 and I am just toooooo tired to play!  Sad...

But the good news is that there is tomorrow...and I'll get going on something tomorrow. 

So I will just put up another layout I did recently of my daughter's annual trip to the beach.

I will tell you that I'm really proud of this 2 page spread because it was done almost entirely with Fancy Pants and Unity stamps. I did all the background stamping with it...the edges under the photos were stamped and then cut out.  I put a little bling on some of the little stamped images...a button here and there and a journaling block on foam tape.  I really loved the way it turned out.  I don't mean to toot my own horn (well, maybe I do...I am the Queen of my Blog, remember)...but it is much cuter in person! I rarely do a ton of stamping on a layout so this was particularly fun!