Special Order and Everyday Note Cards

College boy texted me the other day asking if I would mind making a card for a friend of his. LOL.  Me? Mind making a card? Especially one that's a special order from my son in another state? HA.  His friend’s academic adviser had undergone some major surgery so I wanted to make it extra special.

I used a sheet of paper  from Pink Paislee and a coordinating torn scrap as the background, and added torn corners from an embossed scrap I had from a previous project. The paper is heavily patterned so I decided to accent what was already there with Stickles Liquid Pearls.

The wood spiral flower and grey paper roses were from some bargain finds at Michaels. To finish, I layered alphabet sticker letters to make the word “HI” onto punched squares of scrap cardstock and added a strip of washi tape.

Since I was mailing this to CB, I decided I’d send him some notecards that he could use as thank yous or whatever. I’ve always been a stickler about thank you cards, and despite some resistance along the way, now that he’s an adult he actually appreciates why.

I used this paper pad from Basic Grey ( busting my paper hoarding stash) and these oversized We R Memory Keepers eyelets as my focals.

Each card has a flattened bottlecap with a sentiment sticker in the middle. “Enjoy”, “Live”, “Smile” , “Laugh”.

I finished each card off with a strip of printed washi tape. He's doing a Summer research project at school and has some opportunities to do some extra things via his Professors so these will come in handy.

It's A Bird It's A Plane It's Super Hero Father's Day Cards

I’ve been on a paper diet lately, resisting the temptations of all the paper stacks calling my name. However, I couldn’t resist one stack I saw at Michaels…the Comic Heroes stack from Recollections.

SInce College Boy is a self described comic geek, it went without saying that this had to be part of my collection. Then I started thinking about Father’s Day cards and what a perfect match!

Supplies Needed:

• Comic Heros paper stack
• Cardstock
• Computer generated image
• Washi Tape
• Rhinestones

For the card focal , I created an image in PicMonkey and then printed on plain white cardstock. I thought the could shaped comic bubble worked with the papers. Trimmed, matted with black and then again with another scrap of cardstock.

The papers are so detailed that I didn’t need to embellish a lot. I punched stars from another sheet from the stack.

I had some washi tape that coordinated with the paper I used for the stars and reminded me of the dots you often see in comics.  I used foam dots to adhere some of the stars and others I trimmed and laid flat with tape.

To finish, I added a few tiny red self adhesive rhinestones around the cloud bubble.

Up up and away!

Masculine Thank You Cards

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

I had an early Mother’s Day weekend. College Boy flew home from school to attend a symposium at the University of Washington. He wanted to thank both the Professor from his school who selected him to attend,  as well as the Professor who hosted the event. 

He’s so cute…”would you mind making a couple of cards?”

"Oh no. Me make cards? I would hate that!"

I chose a muted teal metallic cardstock, kraft cardstock and some of the cards from the Project Life Vintage Travel kit. Who better for masculine cards than Tim Holtz, so I used one of his grunge embossing folders and Tim Holtz stamp.

Make a 5x7 card from the teal cardstock. Cut a 4.75 x 6.75 panel from black card stock and layer.

Cut a 5x6 panel from the kraft cardstock and run through your Cuttlebug or equivalent using the embossing folder. Layer panels at an angle (corners will hang over the card, trim flush with card when all panels are adhered)

Stamp image on kraft scrap and trim with black panel. I double stamped this image to get the slightly blurred effect.  Apply washi tape strip and baker’s twine . Layer on top of card . embellish with vintage buttons and done!

The “Dream” card is the same basic card  construction except join two coordinating papers together then cut to 4.75 x 6.75 panel. For this card I used a grey card stock and coordinating Basic Grey ( "Perphery") papers.  Use a leftover piece of the teal cardstock and run through the embosssing panel. Adhere across the front as shown. Apply “dream” sticker to flattened bottlecap and adhere to panel.

Spring Cards Using What's On Hand

My creative process is usually to survey what supplies I have on hand and then kind of “feel” a project. Sometimes I look at things, take them out, put them back. Sometimes it's instant. Other times it takes a while.

Right now half of my craft room is packed up  (  Mr.  Chocolate says “How can you tell” ).  I still used that process but could feel the absence of other stuff. ( I really can Mr. C.)


Still, I needed to make some cards so used what I had . All my dies and embossing folders are packed up. I have my neutral papers , a bin with miscellaneous embellishments and some stamps on hand.

For these cards, I used a combination of silver, gray and white papers. Stamped the floral medallion on white paper with grey chalk ink, and layered with torn silver paper circles. Embellished with rhinestones and self adhesive sticker borders.

For this card, I used a natural color scheme with fossilized leaves and a metal frame and tree as the focal.

For the last card, I used gray and white with a splash of color from  fern and 3D Iris stickers and a metal butterfly I found in the $1.50 bin at Michaels.

Happy Spring ! 

Fashionista Birthday Card : Pink Paislee Secret Crush

I made this birthday card for a very stylish friend. Who can’t use a pair of fabulous high heels even if they’re made of paper?

For this card I used:

• Bordered A-7 card ( Pop Tone)
• Pink Paislee “Secret Crush” papers
• Black and White Cardstock
• Cricut Wall Décor and More cartridge
• Cricut Expression
• Ribbon
• Rhinestones and Liquid Pearls

Start with a pre-scored A-7 card.  I used a white bordered invitation by Pop Tone. Layer with a panel of paper from the Pink Paislee “Secret Crush” collection.

The shoes were cut from black cardstock using the Wall Décor and More cartridge by Cricut and my Cricut Expression.

I glammed these up with self adhesive rhinestones on the toes and the heels, dots of pink Liquid Pearls and organza ribbon bows.

Finished the card  with a scrap of pink washi tape, wrapping white organza ribbon around the top of the card  and adding a sentiment sticker.

Sharing At: 

21: Vegas Style Birthday Card

My BFF and I have done everything together including getting married and then a few years later, having kids within days of each other. We even went to the same Ob/Gyn and delivered in the same hospital. So 10 days after celebrating my baby’s 21st, it was time to celebrate her baby’s 21st.

Since she’ll be celebrating in Vegas, I wanted the card to match so when I saw dice brads at Impress I had to get them and based the card around them.

I went with a red / white / black scheme to play off of the roulette wheel. Used Canvas Corp diamond patterned paper , layered with an embossed panel using a Cuttlebug embossing folder with a crown at the top.

I used my Cricut Expression to cut the numbers 21 out of the diamond patterned paper and layered them with foam dots ( cut 2 sets for each number) and added some glittered gold paper and ribbon to give the card some glitz.  Layered the dice brads onto black and gold papers and embellished the crown with gold rhinestones.

I hope the birthday girl has a great time!

50 Shades of Birthdays : 50th Birthday Cards

Or, 150 years of birthdays but that seems excessive. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had several January birthdays so I’d be posting lots of cards. Three of those happen to be 50th birthdays so here are three different cards made for three different but individually special people.

Card #1 uses Anna Griffin black and white paper and a music score embossed panel (Darice). I cut two sets of the numbers “50” from the patterned paper and layered them using foam dots to give some depth. Kept things simple with gold glitter tape ( American Crafts) , gold washi tape, and a black organza ribbon.  The fleur-de-lis metal piece is one of a pack I picked up at Michaels in the $1 bin.

Card #2:

This is another Anna Griffin paper. I used it in combination with a gold glitter cardstock and cut the panels using Spellbinders dies. Layered with foam dots and the focal number is American Crafts glitter Thickers stickers. Embellished with coordinating rhinestones and Stickles.

Card #3 also keeps the gold theme but is more casual in keeping with the recipient:

I used papers from a vintage pack by Recollections along with Thickers, metal stickers, and washi tape.

For each of these cards, I kept it simple using only one or two strong graphic papers for each.

Anna Griffin and Coco Chanel: Black and White Birthday Card

My first project of the New Year and no surprise, it’s a card. In fact you’ll see a few coming because I have a bunch of January birthdays to celebrate.

First up is a card for a girlfriend who is “crazy for Coco” as in Chanel. Like the style icon ( and yours truly) she is a huge fan of classic black and white (although I added a tiny swatch of pink in here).

While out and about this weekend, I found these gorgeous Anna Griffin papers at a little boutique that surprisingly had a scrapbooking section. On sale even! The paper is reversible with a bolder print on one side and the lighter print on the other.

The card is 5x7 white cardstock, layered with panels of the Anna Griffin papers and a pink patterned scrap from my stash. The black and white polka dot ribbon is American crafts.

I computer generated the quote using mixed fonts, printed on white card stock, trimmed, and matted on black paper. Added a little black and white washi tape and rhinestones. 

This card is also a pop up. I’ve never made a pop up card before and what took me so long I don’t know! I cut a crown from the black and white paper using my Cricut Expression and Wall Décor and More Cartridge and just kept the inside simple:

And voila, a card fit for a queen !

Sharing At: 

Christmas Card Making Made Easy with Coordinating Papers

Products in this post were supplied to me by Oriental Trading Company. Project ideas and opinions are my own.

I love making cards and some of my favorite cards to make are Christmas cards. Since I make a lot of Christmas cards, I look for ways to make them unique but not too time consuming. One way to do that is to use coordinated papers like the Bright Christmas pack from Oriental Trading Company. 100 sheets of light cardstock weight scrapbook paper in coordinating patterns for $16.

I chose 5 different papers from the pack and since all of the colors coordinate, I just went with a combination of patterns and prints. A couple of the sheets had images perfect to use as focals for the cards. This is a great way to make cards if you don’t have a lot of cardmaking supplies and you don’t even need to be a stamper since you’re using the images from the papers.

Santa was in the corner of this green polka dot paper so I cut out a panel, and layered him to a slightly larger piece of black paper. Using coordinating embellishments ( also from OTC) I added a little candy cane brad to Santa and finished him off with a couple of dabs of glitter glue on his hat and holly berry.

For other cards, I combined papers using some as borders ( top and bottom here) and then as the focal point of the card.  I used more glitter glue in places to give the pieces more dimension.

I made 8 cards with combinations of the 5 papers. I did some stamping on a couple of the cards but used one stamp and one ink to keep things simple. I had so much fun playing with the papers I can’t wait to sit down with them some more.

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