Snow Bird

This is the first new Christmas card I've made this fall :)  I had such a good afternoon making it, I love this time of year. 

The card is a 6x6" card of red Bazzill cardstock.  I actually made it 1/4" smaller so that it will fit in a 6" envelope.  There is a layer of blue Bazzill too - sorry I don't have the names of the colours.  The red plaid is Recollections - Frosty Cabin.  This is a beautiful pad of paper.  I attached a red satin ribbon diagonally across the front of the card, this was just some ribbon that I had in my collection.

I saw this little bird on Kristy's facebook page - ScrapbookingCafe and had to have it.  He's so cute!  He's made by Stampendous - Snow Bird.  If you haven't seen Kristy's online store - check it out.  Great stuff and good prices.

So, I stamped him on Recollections - Shimmer paper with Stazon - Jet Black.  I cut this out with SU - Labels Framelits.  Using an aqua painter, I painted the bird with SU - Watercolour Crayons and used Marina Mist and Cherry Cobbler.  His beak is Daffodil Delight and his legs are Tangerine Tango.  The branch is painted with Soft Suede.  I always use Ink Potion #9 in my aqua painter, it works just like water but doesn't warp the paper.  I coloured the berries with a red Tombo marker - #856.

For the background I used SU - Marina Mist and Real Red ink and a finger dauber.  I kept these colours very soft and just rubbed them in. 

To make the snow on the branches, I used a Snow Marker.  It's hard to see in the picture, but the snow is puffed up and this adds really nice dimension to the picture!  If you haven't used one of these markers, you should try to find one because they are so cool.  The marker puts a white liquid on the paper where you want it and then you just heat it with a heating tool and it dries and expands, so easy and such a great effect.

The red frame around the bird was cut and embossed using the same SU - Label Framelits that I cut the bird out with and the next size smaller.  The frame was glued to the bird picture and this was popped up on the card.

The sentiment is Inkadinado - Ornate Christmas and is stamped with Stazon - Jet Black.  This was also stamped on the white Shimmer paper and die cut with Spellbinders - Labels Twenty.  Before I took the die off of the paper, I sponged SU - Marina Mist around the edge.  I coloured the little poinsettia with the red Tombo and added a small half pearl to the center.  I sponged Real Red around the edges and popped this up on the card. 

I stung two small red bells on some red and white baker's twine and attached them to the back of the popped up sentiment.

This is the inside.  Used the same colours as the front.  The verse is my own and generated on the computer.

Hope you like the card.  Thanks for taking a look :)





Audrey

A dear friend turned 101 years old in August, she is such a sweet and lovely lady and I wanted something special for her so this is the card I made for her. 

I love Kittie Caracciolo's cards and this is one of her cards that inspired mine - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2032734?&limit=last1

This is a 6x6 card, but I cut it 1/4" smaller so it would go into a 6" envelope.  I used a medium pink Bazzill cardstock.  The next layer is a 4" square of white cardstock embossed with SU - Square Lattice folder.  This was attached directly to the center of the pink card. 

The designer paper is some from my stash, sorry I don't know the company name.  I started with a 5" square and used Martha Stewart's punch around the page - Eyelet Lace.  I then cut and embossed the center opening with Spellbinders - Classic Scalloped Circles.  I added pop ups to this but it didn't give enough height, so I put a second layer of pop ups right on the first ones and attached this to center of the card.

Then the decorating :)

I used one Tammy Beaver's flowers.  I think they are so beautiful and they come in many colours.   You can get them from Tammy, check out her website at http://www.dcands.ca/ and you can also get them at Scrapbooking Cafe Online, http://www.scrapbookingcafeonline.ca.  I attach these flowers to the cards with a little dab of hot glue. 

The leaves are a combination of things.  I used SU - Little Leaves (I love this sizzlet! ) and SU - Build A Blossom Punch.  The punch is to build flowers but many of them look like leaves too.  I used SU - Old Olive, Wild Wasabi, and Pear Pizzaz.  Then I did a lot of sponging on them.  They are shaded at the base and along the edges with a variety of colours - SU - Garden Green, Always Artichoke, and Old Olive.  The shading at the base is heavier than the edges.  Then I blushed the leaves here and there with SU - Cherry Cobbler.  There's a little bit on each leaf but in different places.  I love using finger daubers for this shading, it gives you nice control of how much colour you're putting on and lets you put it just where you want it.  I shaped the bigger leaves by rolling them around the handle of a small paint brush.  The leaves were arranged around the flower and the open circle and glued in place.

I cut the little banner out by hand and the "Happy Birthday" is SU - Something to Celebrate and is stamped in SU - Garden Green.  I sponged the same colour around the edges and glued this just under the edge of the flower.  I added some pink half pearls in each corner.

This is the inside.

A square of white cardstock, a square of the same designer paper used on the front ( this was also punched with MS - Eyelet Lace), and a scalloped circle of white cardstock.  I added a few leaves to make it pretty.  I didn't add a verse to this card because I wanted to write my own words.

Thanks for taking a look :)

Happy Thanksgiving

I love making cards for the holidays and seasons and it's so much fun to send them to family and friends.  Each year I collect different stamps, paper, and dies for each season and then try to use them all on the cards.  This card has the things I've collected for Thanksgiving over the last year.  Hope you like it :)

The card is made with Recollections - Kraft paper and the woodgrain paper is some that I had in my collection, sorry I don't have a company name. 

The pumpkin paper is K&Company - Tim Coffey Fall Pumpkins and it is such pretty paper.  It's layered over Bazzill - Espresso.

The beautiful pumpkin die is Cheery Lynn - Lacey Pumpkin Corner Flourish.  It's a rather intricate die and I had some difficulty getting it to cut, took lots of shims!  It comes out of the die really easy though.  I cut it out of the Espresso paper and glued it onto the card.

The leaves are SU - Autumn Splendor.  I stamped them with SU - Chocolate Chip on some pieces of scrap paper that I had here in nice fall colours.  I cut them out and popped them up on the card with dimensionals.  The double acorn is also from this set of stamps, stamped on Kraft paper with Chocolate Chip and cut out.
The single acorn is SU - Day of Gratitude.  Same thing, it's stamped on Kraft paper with Chocolate Chip, cut out, and glued in place.

The "Happy Thanksgiving" sentiment is SU - Thankful For, stamped on Kraft paper with Chocolate Chip.  I cut it into a small banner and layered it over a banner of Bazzill - Espresso.  This is also popped up.

The sentiment on the inside is computer generated on white cardstock.  The pumpkins are embossed with a Cuttlebug folder - Pumpkin Harvest on some soft orange cardstock that I had here in my collection.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, hope you've had a wonderful long weekend with family and friends.  Thanks for dropping by :)

Neighbourly Thanks!

It has been a while since I posted any cards, I've been making lots of them but just couldn't get them posted.  We have had a busy and very lovely end of summer and early fall here.  Got to visit our son in Newfoundland several times and spent time with our daughter in Halifax too, doesn't get any better.  So now I have lots of cards to post :)  I'll try to get a bunch of them on in the next couple of days.

We have wonderful neighbours on the quiet road where we live and we owed one of them a huge thanks for their generosity.  This is the card that I made for them.

The card itself is made with SU - Chocolate Chip and the designer paper is Echo Park - Victoria Gardens and I distressed the edges with a Tim Holtz tool.  The brown trim through the middle of this layer is EK - Medallion Chain double edge punch and Recollections - Kraft paper.

The next layer is SU - Chocolate Chip and SU - River Rock.  I love this colour, it's one of my favourites.  The embossing folder is a Craft Concept - Silver Fern.  These two are layered and popped up with dimensionals. 

The third layer is SU - Chocolate Chip and die cut with Spellbinders - Floral Ovals.  This is a great set of Spellbinders, I have used them a lot!  The inside image was first stamped on white cardstock with SU - River Rock and is from a SU - Nature's Pace stamps.  I cut and embossed the oval with Spellbinders - Classic Ovals Sm and left the die on when I was finished.  Using a little finger dauber and SU - Chocolate Chip, I very lightly sponged around the inside. This makes such a cool effect!  These two are layered and popped up.

Then the decorations, I used Cheery Lynn - Fanciful Flourish in SU - Garden Green and Memory Box - Gentle Leaf in a medium green Bazzill cardstock.  The flowers that I've used on this card are from Tammy Beaver and they come in the most beautiful range of colours and sizes.  You can get them from Tammy, check out her website at http://www.dcands.ca/ and you can also get them at Scrapbooking Cafe Online, http://www.scrapbookingcafeonline.ca/.  The daisy had a pretty flocked center but I accidentally rubbed most of it off, so I glued some yellow Flower Soft on to make a new center.

The little "thanks so much" is from SU.  I stamped it in SU - Garden Green and cut it into a little banner and sponged around the edges with Chocolate Chip.  I rolled it over a pencil to get it to curve and then glued each side down and added brown half pearls.

Here's the inside of the card.  A layer of SU - River Rock and a layer of white cardstock.  The thistles are SU - Nature's Pace and are stamped with SU - River Rock.  The edges are sponged with Chocolate Chip.  The message was computer generated.

Thanks for taking a peek and stay tuned for more cards :)

speedy recovery!

This is a card that I made for a friend recovering from hip surgery.  I didn't want it to be a get well card, but rather a speedy recovery card.  He loves to fish and was missing getting out so this is the card that I came up with.

The card base was made from SU - Cajun Craze with a mat of SU - Chocolate Chip.  The wood grain paper is from GCD Studios - Autumn Afternoon.  The fisherman is a picture of a stamp that I downloaded from a site and for the life of me I can't find it again, so I really have no info on what company makes it, sorry!  I thought it was just perfect for this card.  The fisherman is also matted with Chocolate Chip.  The fishing rod, fish, tackle box, and fishing hat and vest are a set of Jolee's dimensional stickers - Going Fishing.  I used Baker's Twine for the fishing line and the metal fish is K&Company - Seaglass Metal Art. 

The sentiment was generated on the computer, I cut it out and embossed with Spellbinders - Labels Twenty-Three and I sponged SU - Chocolate Chip around the piece before I removed the die.  This was attached to the card with pop ups.

Here is a picture of the inside of the card.  The dancing fish I found using a Google image search, they were printed on white and matted with Chocolate Chip.  The sentiment inside the card is something I did on the computer.

Thanks for taking a look :)



just peachy!

Hi everyone!  This is the card that I made this week with "the girls".  Once a week five of us get together and spend the day making cards - it's so much fun.  Everyone had such great ideas.  This is what I came up with this week.

I bought some older cards at our neighbour's yard sale this spring.  They were all beautiful flowers or scenes done in the nicest colours, some of them had originally been purchased in Europe.  I thought they were delightful and I wanted to incorporate some of the pictures into my cards.

The base of the card is a bone coloured Bazzill cardstock.  The flower image is from one of the cards, sorry I don't know the name of the company.  I matted it on a piece of SU - Chocolate Chip and then on a piece of medium green Bazzill.  The flourish behind the oval is Cheery Lynn - Fanciful Flourish and the paper is Michael's textured cardstock from the Earth and Sky collection.  The oval behind the bird was also cut from this medium green Bazzill using Spellbinders - Floral Ovals and I popped this up with dimensionals.  The branch was cut using Memory Box die - Woodland Branch with SU - Early Espresso paper.  The little bird is a dimensional sticker from K&Company - Susan Winget Robin Botanicals, I thought it was so cute!

The flowers were cut with Spellbinders - Rose Creations and a peach Bazzill cardstock.  I shaped these using a soft mouse pad and glued them to create a scene around the bird.  The smaller flowers were punched with EK - Small Daisy punch and the bone coloured cardstock.  These were also shaped just a bit and a white pearl was added to the center of each flower.  The finishing touch is the little bumblebee.  It is also a dimensional sticker from K&Company - Tim Coffey White Floral.  I Love K&Company, their products add such nice little details to cards.

Thanks so much for taking a look at my cards, hope you'll come back :)

Nautical Thank You

Hi everyone, this has been a good but busy day for me.  I was off making cards today with the girls, we always get together once a week and today was the day!  This is always a lovely day that we all look forward to.  I wanted to work on this card today and didn't have the original, so I posted a picture on SCS this morning so that I could have something to work from lol.  However, I didn't post any instructions and I hate doing that but today it was unavoidable. 

This is another thank you card that I designed for someone looking to purchase a number of cards to give to employees throughout the province of Nova Scotia so I wanted to make sure that this card said "Nova Scotia".  The paper in the background is the Nova Scotia tartan and it despicts the ocean which surrounds the province and the livelyhood that it provides to the people of Nova Scotia.  The ligthhouse is a Close To My Heart stamp called Perfect Day.  I'm really enjoying these stamps, they are clear and very easy to position and have beautiful detail. 

First I cut out a mask of the lighthouse stamp and placed it on white cardstock, I then brayed Hero Arts Shadow Ink - Pool blue for the water.  I lifted the mask and stamped the lighthouse using Stazon - Jet Black.  I sponged some yellow in the sky and some of the same Pool blue, keeping the colours light and soft.  A finger dabber workers really well for doing skies, I like the control it gives you.  I added a little bit of colour to the stamped image with watercolour pencils and an aqua pen.  I always use Ink Potion #9 in my pen instead of water.  It keeps the paper flat, no warping.  This is a fantastic product!  Kristy who owns Scrapbooking Cafe told me about it, she is wonderful!  Always introducing us to great new things.  Check her out at http://www.scrapbookingcafeonline.ca/

I cut out around the top of the lighthouse by hand and then placed the Spellbinders - Labels Twenty-Three with the cutting edge next to the image.  The cut out section is lifted over to the non cutting side of the Spellbinder and a small piece of tape on the SB holds everything in position while it's run through the Cuttlebug or whatever machine you use.  I love this technique, I think it gives the picture a really great dimension!  This cut out was adhered to the card with a tape runner.

The little frame for the thank you was stamped with SU - Four Frames, I thought the little shore bird was just right for the Nova Scotia theme.  I cut it out using the co-ordinating SU punch - Decorative Label.  The "Thank You" is SU - Thank You Kindly.  Both of these were stamped with Stazon - Jet Black.  I sponged a little Pool Blue for a background and added some brown to the little bird with the watercolour pencils.  I added pop ups to it and placed it on the card.

The knot is called Lors knot and it's so cool and really easy to do.  I saw it on one of Trina Kuriger's beautiful cards and she had a really great tutorial on how to tie it.  Check it out -
http://mnfroggie.blogspot.ca/2011/05/tutorial-for-sailors-knot.html.  I used some twine that I had laying around to make the knot and ran a line of hot glue diagonally across the card and positioned the knot over it and then I cut the twine flush with the edges of the card.  I don't usually use hot glue on cards but the twine was too heavy to tuck under the edge of the paper to hide the cut edges so I thought this would be a good alternative.  I had these little sand dollars left over from another project and they worked perfect on this card.  They are real sand dollars, but very small, only about an inch across.  I added this with hot glue too.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog, hope you enjoy this card.  I love to hear comments that people leave, so please add your comments too :)