A nautical wedding

Last year, my sister-in-law married the love of her life in a ceremony set by the bay. It was so perfect, so fun, and so good to see the two of them get hitched!

I wanted to make their wedding card very personal and meaningful. I used the band that had held their wedding invitation pieces together, emblazoned with their names, as the focal point for the card.  I layered a pierced die-cut tag beneath it, and embellished it with a tiny bit of cotton twine tied in a knot:  not only does this have a nautical feel, but signifies their "tying the knot."

The patterned paper I chose is from the Netherlands, courtesy of my friend Stella. (thank you, Stella!) It has the perfect seaside feel, and already looks embellished. I just added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

I so love to make a card super-personal for the recipients(s)!

Fresh-Squeezed Birthday Wishes

Let's toast someone's birthday with...orange juice!

Had to play with a new-to-me set I bought at an online yard sale: Wplus9's Milk & Cookies.  I got the stamps PLUS the matching dies (love it).  I had already decided on a white card background, so doing a bottle filled with milk didn't seem like a colorful-enough idea. 

The sentiment is from Verve's Celebrating You.  May I just say, I rely upon those amazing Verve sentiments over and over and over. They are indispensable to me! 

Take a closer peek at the focal point, below.  Despite the clean and simple appearance of this card, stamping the diecuts of the bottle, straw and banner all took a bit of care. I had to stamp the straw with orange ink and line it up just right, and the straw also had to have the bottle top's ridges on it. It wasn't difficult, but it made me think. ;-)

Oh, and can you see the little beads of "condensation" on the slices of orange and on the bottle?  Good ol' Glossy Accents glue by Ranger!

Orange you glad you came by today?  OH, that's a terrible pun! I'm sorry!

I am VERY glad you came by! Thank you!

Bluebird of happiness

Sure was fun to play with punches and dies to create a scene for this "thinking of you" card!

It started when I laid eyes on my old Stampin' Up! Extra Large Bird punch. It had not been used in a while. The bird needed some nature to surround it, so out came the SU Itty Bitty flower punch, and a Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch to create flowers. The Madera Corner die by Memory Box seemed a good fit for the corners of this card, to serve as the greenery. 

I used a tiny seed bead for the bird's eye.  Can you see it?

The sentiment is from Hero Arts' Everyday Sayings. The curlicues of the font go well with the flourishes on this card, I think.

Many blessings to you!

Nighttime in the neighborhood

At the time I made this card, I had recently bought this lacy Dizzy Border die by My Favorite Things. When I looked closely at the diecut, I saw a unique 'street' for a little neighborhood.

I stamped three cute houses from Stampin' Up!'s Holiday Home set, trimmed them, and left them uncolored, except for the windows in one of the houses.  Hey, someone had to be home and awake in the neighborhood! 

They're propped up on dimensional foam tape, over the doily-like street. A simple sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Boards & Beams was heat-embossed in white.

Since the card is all black, I had to line it in white, as you can see above.

Thanks so much for joining me!

Golden bees buzzing

In last year's Stampin' Up! catalog & idea book, I found a terrific card that I wanted to CASE (copy and share everything).  Here's the result:

It's very eclectic, and I love it!  The Ton Stamps' Wild Peonies were stamped in Cameo Coral, and overstamped with black splatters from Inspired By Stamping's Create A Cupcake. 

Under the black striped patterned paper is a bit of page from a vintage book. The sentiment pairs Verve's Small Phrases with Everyday Tabs by Inspired By Stamping (stamped in Pool Party).

How about those shiny bees? Wow! They are from Stampotique's Big Bee with Medium Bee set, heat-embossed in gold.

This was a lot of fun to make. It's a wee bit different from my normal style, or maybe it's the color combo that felt different to me.

I appreciate your visit today! Be blessed!

Quick & Easy Monogrammed Gift Set

Our wonderful neighbors helped us out by

watching our cat while we were away last summer.  I made a set of monogrammed note cards for them, using patterned paper from K & Co., and a monogram stamp set from JustRite.  I'm not so sure this stamp set is available anymore, to be honest with you.

I like the fancy font of the monogram, surrounded by the flourishes. If I could do this set of cards over again, I'd stamp the monogram letter in black, to make it stand out more.

Thanks for taking a peek today!  Be blessed! 

Stamps: Special Occasions Stampers kit - JustRite Paper: Vintage Cream - Papertrey Ink; patterns - Julianne - K & Co.; Mellow Moss, Bordering Blue - Stampin' Up! Ink: Mellow Moss, Bordering Blue - Stampin' Up! Accessories & Tools: corner rounder punch - Fiskars; Fleur De Lis Motifs, circle dies - Spellbinders

A Graduation Rose

Our daughter graduated from high school in June (can I really be getting that old??) and I wanted to make a very special card to commemorate this occasion.

Here's what I came up with:

Golden stars - die-cut from gold glitter paper - mingle with a pink stamped rose (Altenew's Vintage Roses), stamped leaves and sparkling sequins. 

See that uber cool vintage book page in the background?  A fellow crafter, Maria from the rieslingmama blog, sent that paper to me years ago from Germany. I've used it veerrrrry sparingly, since it's very special! Thank you again, Maria!

I stamped a sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Tiny Tags on a star-shaped tiny tag, and tied on a slender golden bow.

My graduate did like the card, and I'm glad. It was made with so much love! We're very proud of her!

Freesias for you

I'm fairly sure these pretty flowers - a stamp by La Blanche called simply "Spray Flower" - are freesias. Not quite sure...anyone have any other guesses?

I stamped them on a rounded rectangle diecut (Wplus9), and colored the image with Copic markers. And then, oh so carefully, I added a pale yellow background with the help from a Copic, and then Antique Linen distress ink was sponged around the edges while the die was still in place.

I set the panel over top of a Spellbinders Fancy Tags Three die cut, and topped it with a Tiny Tag die cut (Papertrey Ink). A little vintage thread bow was threaded through the hole at the top.

I've added some pearls, and a tied on a Colleen Bow using Hug Snug seam binding in Danish Blue.

By the way, I hang all of my Hug Snug seam binding rolls (plus a few smaller American Crafts ribbon rolls) on one of these pant hangers from The Container Store:

This hanger happens to be on sale right now, too! 

A quartet of cards

Hey there!  I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your summer. It's been a hot one, hasn't it??

I'm dropping in to share some cards tonight, and I'd be glad to have you take a peek.

I really like the look of Altenew's Label Love.  Looks like the real deal, doesn't it? Show of hands: how many of you had a label maker when you were a kid (the original kind, not the fancy ones we have to choose from these days)? I had one, and played around with it a lot. Labeled many toys, and goodness knows what else.

Love this Psalm 94:18 stamp from Verve. So many times I can slip, and I am comforted to know that our Heavenly Father cares enough to support each of us, in good times and in bad.

The little cross charm has a hole at the top, because it is meant to go on a piece of jewelry.  I added a fancy jeweled brad through that hole, in light green. 

This mother's day card, below, really shimmers and sparkles in real life. The matted oval layers were die-cut from white glitter paper.  SO.PRETTY.  Too bad it can't really be seen here, but I'm sure you can imagine it.

The sentiment (love it!) is from an old Flourishes set, Spring Bouquets.  This card went to my own stepmom, who has been in my life since I was 12 (!).

Last but not least, a congrats card using some bits and pieces from an old Stampin' Up! kit, plus a Colleen bow, and a sentiment from Hero Arts.

Thanks a bunch for joining me tonight!  Have a wonderful weekend!

And as always, if you have a question about any of the supplies I've used, please feel free to email me.  You can find the link at the top of my blog when you click on the "Contact Me" tab.

A Star Is Born

We recently welcomed a new little niece into our family!  My brother-in-law and his wife have a precious little bundle, and we couldn't be more happy for them. :-)

The new parents chose to be surprised about whether the baby was a boy or a girl.  

I made this card before Baby was born, and was inspired by the patterns and colors of the nursery. Had to keep the card gender-neutral!

The Positively Chevron Background stamp (Stampin' Up!) was just right as the backdrop for this little paper-pieced gray onesie (Inspired By Stamping). The sentiment is from Verve's Shining Star. Then I added some wooden stars and Sparkling Clear sequins (I have an addiction to those!).

I made a simple quilt for our niece, too. I used a chevron-design fabric for the binding. :-)

Happy Birthday Heart

This birthday card was inspired by Spring itself....which is when I created it!  It's taken a while to get it up on the blog.

Lots of fresh white, and a dose of spring green....You see what I mean? :-)

The heart doily die is from Top Dog Dies (they went out of business earlier this year, I believe), the sentiment banner is from Spellbinders, the sentiment from Power Poppy, and those sparkly clear sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh. 

Glad you came by today; have a terrific, blessed day!

Blessed is the man

Although this card was created for Father's Day for the shop  - it can certainly stand in as a birthday card for any wonderful guy in your life.

I used a beautiful verse stamp from Verve:  Jeremiah 17:7 on a scalloped journal card die cut from Papertrey Ink. 

Some hemp twine was wrapped around the card, and tied off with a brown corduroy button from Stampin' Up! - older, of course, almost every supply I have is older. ;-)

My cup of tea

I've got a cute stamp set from Inspired By Stamping called Tea Party, and I recently inked up the dotted cup on a happy piece of floral patterned paper.

The cup is layered on a Cross Stitch Circle die cut (My Favorite Things) and has a tiny gold charm of - what else? - tea bags on the side!

The rest of the card was created to look like a daintily-set table with a doily topper.  Hope you got that impression when you looked at it!

Thanks so much for coming by. :-)

A nautical card for my love

For my husband's birthday this year, I went with a nautical theme - 

I used a denim-look patterned paper as the backdrop, and layered on many things:  golden stars, an anchor stamp, trimmed out, a bronze button, a stamped compass, and a really cool little "rope" that came with a clothing tag on it.

I like the eclectic, collage feel to it, but I'm not so sure he did.

His reaction was, "Wow, there are a lot of things on here."

Um, yes, yes there are. :-)

Thanks for dropping by today!