Hanukkah Card and Tags

Ack. I've been without a computer for almost a week which is a lifetime in blogging years. Backup your stuff people because we always think it can't happen to us and then boom, new hard drive. 

In the meantime, made Hanukkah cards and tags for a couple of friends. I'm tickled that the tags I started making a few years ago for one friend get asked about by her relatives "Is she making any this year". 

I've always loved shiny and glittery things so I had a lot of fun working with gold foiled and glitter papers found at Michaels. The foiled papers are a combination of Recollections, Craft Smith, and DCWV stacks. Add to that my weakness when Michaels has their specialty papers 10 for $10 and I'm in paper hoarder heaven. 

For the card, I cut a menorah on my Cameo ( image found in the Silhouette Online Store) and then just hand cut the candles and flames freehand. I double cut the menorah and gave it depth using foam dots by layering one piece atop another. Blue and gold glitter papers were layered on top of a foiled piece. Simple but I am really happy with the outcome. 

For the tags, I just like to play around with bits and pieces with no particular plan. I just want the colors to work with each other so when I package them, they look like a set. 

My signature paper style is tearing things. I just can't not have some ragged edges! 

With freaking out over my computer crash, would  you believe I forgot to take pics of this year's Christmas cards? I did manage to take pics of a set of Christmas tags I made as a gift! Whew. 

Papers used here are from the Traditional Christmas paper pack from Oriental Trading Company along with some of my glitter and foil stash. 

Quick Card Project: Gardener's Birthday Card

I am hopelessly addicted to the 2 for $3 bins at Michaels. When I saw a packet of metal garden shapes, in the basket they went. I love the rustic nature of the metal plus my Father In Law's birthday was coming up so it was a no brainer since he's an avid gardener. 

Supplies: 

Coordinating papers: I used DCWVs Lemon Flower Stack and a scrap of white textured paper

Metal focal point

Ribbon ( previous 2 for $3 find at Michaels)

Flower brads

The card is 5x7. Cut papers in 4.75x5.75 , 4x6 and 3x5 and layer as shown. Wrap scrap piece of cardstock with ribbon ; adhere metal focal with strong tape or glue; adhere to ribboned scrap. Mat onto gold scrap and layer onto front of card. Easy peasy! 

I  debated about adding a scrap of paper to the watering can but decided I liked the scratched up rustic look of the metal. I also debated about replacing the twine that came on it with ribbon but went with the twine. 

Spring Cards ...$5 Goes A Long Way!

What's this? An actual post? You thought I stopped making things? I know it seems like it. I've actually been making stuff but just been kinda lazy about posting. Trying to get back in the groove.

Paper is my kryptonite. I am helpless around it. And when Michaels does their $5 "Hot Buy" deals on paper stacks well, game over.  You can pay $5 for one card these days! I did restrain myself to just one pad this time.

This is my current fave color palette. Neutrals with black and white and turquoise.

This card used one sheet of paper from the stack that coordinated with a sheet of sentiments. I cut one out, trimmed, and matted it.  Easy Peasy.  All I really had to do was accent it with some coordinating Stickles (Cool Mint)

I used the remainder of the floral sheet for this one along with some coordinating scraps. The sentiment was from my stash. Finished this one off w/ Stickles and coordinating glitter tape. 

This is one I made last month but never posted. Papers are from Michaels and the stamp is from Impress. How could I resist a Seattle stamp?! The umbrella image I cut using my Silhouette. 

Happy Spring! 

Pretty In Pink Valentine's Cards

I've never been a big pink person. Maybe it was because I was supposed to like it as a girl and being the contrarian that I am, I didn't.  But for this year's Valentine's cards I was kind of drawn to the idea of it, especially when I found pink glitter paper at Michaels. 

For these cards I combined the pink glitter paper with gold foiled paper I picked up during the holidays and used Paris themed stamps by Tim Holtz. What's more romantic than Paris?

Supplies: 

• Cardstock for base card ( I used Stardreams black metallic)
• Craftsmith Gold Foil Paper
• Pink and Black Metallic Glitter Papers
• French Themed Stamps ( I used Tim Holtz)
• White cardstock for stamping
• Black pigment ink ( I used Recollections)
• Pink and Gray Inks ( I used Fresh Ink)
• Punches, embellishments,stickers

I stamped the images in black pigment ink, set with a heat gun and then dusted pink and grey inks on top. Trimmed and mounted as shown on the black and pink glitter papers, then embellished with punched hearts and the black, white, and gold "LOVE" stickers ( Recollections, Michaels). 

I used foam dots to mount the focal images to the front of the card and embellished with self adhesive pink pearls. Also Michaels in their 2 for $3 section. My name is Carol and I spend too much time at Michaels. 

Harry Potter Birthday Card

I am a huge Harry Potter fan and have a couple of friends who are also so it was a no brainer to make this birthday card in the Gryffindor house colors. I modeled it on the scarves the characters wore in the films using gold glitter paper to make the stripes to alternate with the base card stock color. 

I found two fonts (free for personal use)  to use for the sentiment. "Lumos" and "Parry Hotter"  to create the sentiment and played around with them until I was happy. Then printed on white cardstock, trimmed, mouned on black and gold papers as shown and decorated with punched stars and rhinestones. 

As the huge fans we are, we all have the "adult" ( HA!) coloring book! I finished the card with some self adhesive star strips I had in my stash. 

I think the Sorting Hat put us all in the right house. 

Birthday Cards in Black and White and Gold

It’s no secret to anyone who’s read my blog that I LOVE black and white. Clothes, decor, photography…pretty much everything. So when I stumbled across this paper stack from DCWV while at Michaels recently, there was no doubt about whether to get it. It’s appropriately entitled “Decor Noir”. I couldn’t wait to get started with it and luckily I had three birthday cards to make for whom this color palette was perfect.

The black and white alone was enough for me but they added gold foil to many of the pages ! GOLD FOIL and black and white. Could I get any happier? Only if the pages were chocolate. I chose two papers to start. One with white mums that’s featured on the stack cover and has flecks of gold foil ramdomly placed and the other a distressed black background with gold foil dots.

For the first card I cut out a sentiment from a page of well, sentiments, trimmed and matted with black and gold papers. The papers in this stack are so elegant that I resisted my natural urge to embellish and went with less is more letting the papers speak for themselves.

The only embellishment I added was the piece of ribbon at the corner to which I added some gold glitter glue.

The black and gold dotted paper has the sentiment “Count your blessings each and every day” on the page in the lower right corner. I cut that out and matted with gold and black papers. I used a scrap from another stack to make the striped ribbon and layered it with a piece of the polka dot paper.

For the last card, I combined both sheets of paper from the stack and stamped the sentiment on black paper and heat embossed with gold powder.

I love them in color or in black and white photos!

Sharing At:

Happy Accident: Silver and White Wedding and Thank You Cards

I didn’t set out to use papers and embellishments from one company but that’s how these worked out. I needed to make a few cards and it wasn’t until after I’d chosen the papers and coordinating embellishments that I realized they were all Recollections from Michaels. Some might say that I spend too much time at a certain craft store because these were not all purchased together.

I used a silver polka dot glitter paper, a silver cardstock weight paper and a silver and white swirl. All papers are 12x12. Cards are all 5x7.

For the wedding card, layered the papers as shown and tied silver ribbon around the corners of the panels.

For the Thank You cards, I used a package of die cuts and unfinished wood embellishments, randomly placed.

Finished up some of the cards with dots of Liquid Pearls.

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 !