Baby Boy Cards

I made a couple of cards this weekend to congratulate new parents and grandparents on the arrival of a new bundle of joy. I decided to keep things fairly monochromatic in hues of blue . 

Supplies Used: 

• White Cardstock (Recollections, Michaels 110 lb)
• Pale Blue 12x12 Glitter Paper ( Recollections, Michaels,  Holiday Glitz and Glitter Stack)
• Light and Medium Blue 12x12 Cardstock (Craft Smith, Michaels Blues Stack) 
• Baby Boy cut file (Silhouette Online Store Design ID #17765)
• Onesie cut file (Silhouette Online Store Design ID # 59708

Misc: 

• Gold paper scrap
• Heart punch
• Washi Tape
• Adhesive ( I live for my tape gun)
• Paper Cutter
• Silhouette Cameo 3
• Foam tape

Instructions: 

• Using paper cutter, cut and score white cardstock to 5x7  card
• Cut blue glitter paper panel to 4.75 x 6.75
• Cut pale blue cardstock to 4.25 x 6.25
• Layer glitter and pale blue panels as shown. 
• Add washi tape to opposite corners as shown
• Download, size, cut "Baby Boy" and "Onesie" images. 
• I cut sets of images from the glitter paper and from the medium blue paper. I like giving images a little bit of a shadow by layering them. I find this gives them some depth. 
• Mount cut  images to card panels using foam tape
• Punch heart from gold scrap and mount to center of onesie

I made matching panels for the inside of the card but forgot to take a pic when they were blank. You can see a little peeking out from the card that's laying down. 

2018 Cards: No Stamps Needed. Two Birthdays and a Retirement

While I started my cardmaking journey by stamping, there are so many more paper options now that have great textures and images that I often just use the papers and diecuts in my cards. Don't get me wrong, I will always love my stamps! 

For the Dream Big card ( for my son's 25th birthday which I still can't believe!) I used a paper from the DCWV "Confetti" stack, a diecut I cut using the "Graphically Speaking" cartridge from Cricut, and a foiled transparency from Michaels as my main pieces. 

I cut the "Dream Big" die from gold metallic paper and layered in on a black printed scrap. The card is Onyx metallic Stardreams, layered with the foiled transparency and a panel from the birthday sentiment page of the "Confetti" stack. 

I used the same birthday sentiment paper and the foiled transparency on this Crown Card. 

I layered the crown using the printed paper and a solid pink paper.

Bad lighting I know. I layered a scrap of the transparency on a panel of the pink paper, added a torn scrap and strips of gold scraps. 

You need neither stamps nor a cutting machine though if you want to make cards! For this Retirement card, I simply cut the sentiment out of a page of sentiments in a stack by Craft Smith ( $5 Hot Buy at Michaels!) which coordinated with papers from the "Eclectic" stack by DCWV. I cut the foiled base panel to size and then trimmed and layered the sentiment panel as shown. Finished with oversized self adhesive rhinestones. 

Cards can get expensive. Have you priced them lately?! But between the $5 Hot Buy stacks which Michaels has regularly, 40-50% off coupons and/or sales on stacks at Michaels and JoAnn's, you can easily whip up a LOT of cards for a fraction of the cost. 

2017 Cards: Life Is Great Birthday

I have a few January birthdays to celebrate so this is the first of the cards I'll be making for them. For this one I went with foiled black white and gold papers, along with a wintry blue glitter scrap and black glitter paper. 

The focal sentiments were straight off the page. Literally. The DCWV Decor Noir  Stack they came from includes a couple pages of them so I chose two and put them together. 

Supplies: 

• DCWV Decor Noir Stack
• Craft Smith Gold Foil Stack (Numbers Sheet)
• Cordenons Cover Weight Cardstock: Crystal
• Gold Mirror, Blue, and Black Glitter Scraps
• Strong Double Sided Tape ( I used Scor Pal / Sookwang)
• Foam Dots 

Cut card base (5x7) from cover weight card cardstock. Score, fold. Cut base panel from gold and white Numbers paper. Layer onto card.

Trim sentiments and layer as shown. Adhere top sentiment to card using foam dots. Adhere bottom sentiment to card. 

The ScorPal / Sookwang brand of tape is great for glitter papers which can be a challenge to get things to stick to. Love this stuff. Most scrapbook and stamp stores sell it or of course there's Amazon! 

Easy, clean, fast! My kind of card. 

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. 

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. 

Bright and Shiny Cards for The New Year

Happy New Year! Little slow getting started but have some cards to share. Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas I picked up a steal deal at Michaels. Their "Hot Buy" paper pads were on sale for $5 and of course I couldn't resist. I picked up two gorgeous metallic 12x12 pads ; one in gold and one in silver. These papers are so gorgeous that I let them stand alone and didn't do a lot of embellishing. 

January brings several occasions so this week it's a Birthday, a Retirement, and a Thank You note. 

I was able to make all three cards using two sheets from the deck. One was an embossed quatrefoil pattern that I used as the background and the other was a sheet with sentiments (12 on one page) that  you can cut down and use for multiple projects. For the Birthday card I chose this one that says "Happy" and mounted on dark silver metallic and glitter paper before adhering to the card using foam dots. I love love love metallics. I hate hate hate photographing them. Things to work on in 2016!

For the Retirment card, I used the same idea, choosing this sentiment "Live A Beautiful Life" . I did embellish this one a bit with some silver glitter washi tape , sequins, and buttons. 

The Birthday and Retirement cards are 5x7. With the paper I had left, I made a Thank You card (5.5x 4.25) using another sentiment "My Favorite Things"...perfect since this was a Thank You for a chocolate gift basket I received! 

For my big $5 investment, I still have 29 more sheets of paper and 9 more sentiments from this one page to play with ! 

Supplies Used 

• Craft Smith Silver Foil Paper Pad 12x12
• Cardstock
• Double Sided Adhesive
• Foam Dots
• Misc. Embellishments