It's Your Birthday

I made this card for my friend, Kim, last month. January was a busy birthday month for my friends and family. It's terrible that I can't even find time to post cards on this blog. Well, at least I posted this card on Instagram last month.

The stamps are from Lawn Fawn and Papertrey Ink. The patterned paper is from Amy Tangerine for American Crafts. The baker's twine is from The Twinery.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday to You

Hi there! There's something very appealing to the heavy use of black in card design. When I saw this month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop - Black challenge, I had to participate.

Here's my card. Using my Big Shot, I die cut the Leafy Vine Border Die  several times in different colors of cardstock. I glued them onto black cardstock. I die cut a scalloped circle from black cardstock and then white embossed the birthday sentiment (from the Signature Greetings II stamp set) onto a scallop circle die cut. As a final touch, I added some bling.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday, Norma!

I made this birthday card for my friend, Norma, who celebrated her birthday today.

I also made this card for the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge since it's a chalkboard challenge. I like the look of a Plum Pudding chalkboard, how about you? I used stamps from the Birthday Bash Sentiments set, Holiday Photo Finishers set, and the Little Labels stamp set.

Two cards made for a challenge; I've never done that until now. I was very inspired! If I had more time, I was going to make another chalkboard-inspired card.

A quick note...these last two blog entries were partially done on my iPhone; photography, adding watermarks to the photo using the Phonto app, and the Blogger app.

Have a great day!

Happy Birthday, Judy!

I recently spied this cool Silhouette design in the Silhouette Online Store. Now that all the designs are 50% off until Nov 30th, I decided to download several.

Today we had an impromptu birthday celebration at school for my friend, Judy. I made this card for her.

The cardstock is from Stampin' Up and the rhinestones are from Michael's.

Thanks for stopping by...especially, my sweet blogging friend, Amy, who always manages go leave a kind word. Woman, you were up in the middle of the night just like me!

Simple Tag Using An Instagram Photo

I love Instagram! It's got to be my favorite app on my iPhone.

Last month, Kalino went to a birthday party for Lillie, my friend Nadja's daughter. A while back, Nadja posted an awesome photo of Lillie dressed as an Jedi. I love girls that love Star Wars. I loved the photo so much, I used it to make the tag for her gift bag. I love that Nadja has a chalkboard wall in her house. I didn't add "Jedi" and the arrow, that was on their wall. I wish I had a chalkboard wall. So cool!

I used the editing tools in Picasa to add the Happy Birthday text. Before I could add any text, I had to "erase" their light switches in the photo because it was right where I wanted to put the happy birthday sentiment. I downloaded a free Star Wars font. I glued the photo onto a plain shipping tag and I was done. Very simple! Thanks for stopping by.

Happy World Card Making Day!

My dear card-making friends,

I hope you had a great World Card Making Day today and found time to make some cards. I didn't get time to make anything, so I'm actually showing you a card I made for my friend, Lutex, back in August. The design is completely based on this great card by Nichole Heady.

The floral stamps all come from the Natural Beauties set from Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is from Birthday Bash Sentiments stamp set (also from Papertrey Ink). The papers used are also from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 9th Birthday Kalino!

Yesterday was the Little Guy's 9th birthday. This is the card I made for him.

The card started with this Silhouette design. Instead of using a number in the middle, I used the same photo I used on his Evite.

This kid loves his birthday. For example, on New Years Day he said "8 more months until my birthday." And he's been counting down every 1st of the month ever since. He also loves to have his party on his actual birthday, and since it's summer time, we have been able to accommodate his request. He invited 8 friends from school to play laser tag at Laser Quest in Mountain View. He attended a birthday party there last month and was totally excited to have his party there. Since they didn't open until 2PM, we took all the kids out for burgers at In N Out before driving to the party location. He had a great time. Here's a collage I posted yesterday on Instagram.

I did very little crafting for his party. Kalino and I decorated small water bottles with By the Numbers Papertrey Ink patterned paper. My friend Judy added numbers to the bottles so the kids could keep track of their own bottle. I also wrapped the same Papertrey Ink paper on jars that I up-cycled to hold the spoons and forks (didn't include a picture).

Instead of giving a traditional party favor bag, I bought gift cards at Baskin Robbins and made these gift card holders (Kristina's pattern). I added a photo of Kalino with a speech bubble that says "Thanks for making my day sweet." I used the Phonto app on my iPhone to create the speech bubble on the photo; I love my iPhone!

I researched laser tag cake ideas on Pinterest. I found several that all had glow sticks. I found several packs of them at Big Lots for $.60 for a pack of 4. Just stick the glow sticks in and "break" them to start the glowing effect. I had Costco customize their All American chocolate cake. I asked them not to put chocolate shavings on the perimeter. I also asked for neon-colored frosting. Did you know that Costco customizes more than just their sheet cakes? You can even take swatches of color and they will color-match the frosting to your color(s).

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Sweetie

Hi there! Today I made a birthday card for my hubby. We happen to share the same birthday. It's been a great day already: lunch with friends, hugs, flowers, gifts, red velvet cakepops, and a red velvet cake. Oh my...such sweet friends!

I love this Happy Birthday design from the Silhouette Online Store. It felt like a perfect design to use on a masculine card. The patterned paper is from Stampin' Up and the heart was cut from an older piece of Cosmo Cricket paper (I think). The letter stickers are from Cosmo Cricket.

The guys and I are off to dinner this evening to continue the celebration. When the principal at school asked me if I had any philosophical thoughts on my birthday, I remember saying I didn't have anything profound to say. But, I really do believe that age is just a number. It doesn't define us unless we let it.

Life is good. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Botday Dante!

I've said it before, but I love robots! And nothing says young boys birthday more than a birthday card with a robot on it.

We went to a birthday party for 6 year old cousin Dante this past weekend. Here's the card I made for him.

Here's a closeup of the Best Bots Forever stamps from Stampin' Up.

The embossed background was created with an embossing plate from Papertrey Ink.

It's been a busy week here, so I'll make this short and sweet. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Mr. G.!

Hi there! I made this card for my son's principal who celebrated a birthday this week. He is a huge proponent of up-cycling. Last year he took apart an old broken laminating machine and converted it into a piece of metal art. His home and outdoor living spaces should be featured in a home decor magazine; his house is that amazing!

I couldn't make him a card without using some recycled element. The "happy birthday" on the card is die cut letters from some Starbucks "java jackets". I used the Block Alphabet Die Collection from Papertrey Ink and my Big Shot machine. I love how the corrugated paper actually came out looking look wood.

The star is also recycled paper from another project with chunky glitter glued to the front.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 1st Birthday - A Gift Bag and Tag

Hi everyone!


I made this gift bag and tag for my niece who celebrated her 1st birthday party yesterday. The inspiration for the gift bag design was a photo I took with my iPhone and ran through the Instagram app. She is the cutest little thing. I get to babysit her once in a while. She's pretty good when her mom drops her off.


The patterned papers are from the Martha Stewart Valentine's Day collection and the larger paper is an older piece of paper from My Mind's Eye. The stamps and rickrack border die are from Papertrey Ink. I used VersaMark ink (the most versatile ink on the planet) and I embossed the words with white embossing powder. I cut the number "1" with my Silhouette SD. The light blue paper and button are from Stampin' Up. The twine is from The Twinery.

Here's the matching tag I made for the gift bag. The white tag is from the office supply store. I just added scraps of rickrack and patterned paper. The felt butterfly is from and older pack of Making Memories felt shapes.


Thanks for stopping by! 

Happy Happy Birthday Kim

Hi there! I was just watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Oh my goodness...what crazy drama and arguing! I had to change the channel.

Here's a card I made earlier this month for my friend Kim. 

In my rush out of the house, I didn't have time to photograph the card until we were all at El Torito's for Kim's lunch. Thanks to my friend, Nancy, for holding up a white napkin as the backdrop of the photo while I took a picture with my iPhone. Crazy!

The papers and stamps are all from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by!

Look Who's Turning 5

Hey there!

We went to a party today for little Ms. M who turned 5 today. She is one of my best friend's daughters and so cute! I love that she is bilingual in English and Spanish and she has the cutest voice.

This card combines some of my favorite things:

• Using my Silhouette SD to cut the number 5
• A cute heart
• My iPhone and the Instagram App
• Some great Papertrey Ink stamps
• My Corner Chomper

Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by.

A Happy Birthday Tag

(Edited to Add: I already posted this tag in October; sorry!)
Long time no see! Sorry for the lack of blog posts. There were none in November; oh my...that's never happened before. Nadja, this blog post is for you! Thanks for reminding me that it was Halloween since my last post.

I find it hard to purge smaller pieces of paper, so I find a perfect way to use up scraps is to create gift tags. The kraft tag was cut with my Silhouette SD digital cutter. How many of you have purchased the new Silhouette Cameo? Lucky!

The papers, stamps, and button are all from Papertrey Ink. The baker's twine is from The Twinery.

Canvas Covered Chipboard - Make It Monday #34 Challenge

I'm back today to finally participate in a Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge. This week we were challenged to create our own chipboard accents. I LOVE creating my own chipboard. I do it all the time.

I used the Fillable Frames #4 die to cut some kraft cardstock 5 times. I also used the die to cut some canvas.

I stamped the canvas with the stamps from Fillable Frames #4 set using Chestnut Roan chalk ink. I glued the layers together and punched holes with the Crop-a-Dile. I attached the chipboard to the card front with linen thread.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday

Hi everyone, hope you are doing well in your part of the world.

Here's a simple card I made a few weeks ago when my friend Ericka was visiting. This card was made with these Hero Arts stamps: Life of the Party Words and Hip Hip Hurray. I love the quality of Hero Arts stamps!

I added a Prima flower and colored the sentiment with Copic markers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday

Last weekend I had so much fun since one of my best friends, Ericka, was in town for the weekend. We made cards and tags for hours on end. We stayed up way past midnight. I moved a lot of the crafting stuff to the dining room table (which I added both leafs to) so we had space to work.

Here's one of the cards I made using the Little Labels stamps and die from Papertrey Ink.

I also used my Silhouette SD to cut this design. I couldn't resist adding some baker's twine too. Thanks for stopping by; have a good one!

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3/14/11

Have a Delicious Day

Thanks for stopping by today. I'm a little sad that Summer Card Camp 2011 is ending this week; it's been a great class. This week these are the colors we are working with.

For my card, I used one of Kristina's sketches. I love using geometric shapes and repetition in my designs.

I stamped various images from the Yummy Treats set by Hero Arts using VersaMark ink and I heat embossed them with white embossing powder. I used a 3/4" square punch to punch our various parts of the images. I also used a VersaMark pen to darken areas on the cakes and cupcakes.

Finally, I added some Diamond Sparkles by PSX and mounted the images with foam tape. I also added a little bling around the sentiment.

Card Ingredients

Stamps: Yummy Treats (Hero Arts)

Paper: Simply Chartreuse, white (Papertrey Ink), Taken with Teal, Tempting Turqoise, Soft Sky (Stampin' Up)

Ink: VersaMark, Taken with Teal

Tools: 3/4" square punch (EK Success)

Other: white embossing powder, VersaMark Pen, rhinestones (Michael's), Diamond Sparles (PSX)

Happy Birthday

Hi there! Today I'm posting a card for week 2 of Summer Card Camp. Here are the colors this week that I'm working with.

For my card I used this large Hero Arts background stamp and I heat embossed it on kraft cardstock with white embossing powder. (This stamp happens to be the Stamp of the Week on the Hero Arts website.)

I then stamped the same background stamp on the colored cardstock and also heat embossed them with white embossing powder. I cut out different words and added them to the card base with dimensional tape.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Lucia - June Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Hi there! I wanted to join the Papertrey Ink June Blog Hop today. I was in such a rush earlier that I had to photograph my card on the dashboard of the card while we drove to drop off the Little Guy at a party and meet up with Lucia. The card was inspired by this beautiful image. I loved the stripes of color and choose to use that as my main inspiration.

I made this card for Lucia, one of my favorite people. Her birthday is today. She is my husband's first cousin, but I love her like a sister. Such a sweetie!

I used the Birthday Bash Sentiments stamp set for the sentiment and the butterfly image comes from the Butterfly Wishes 
stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great one.

Anthonette