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!

Chalkboard Thank You - Papertrey Ink MIM Challenge

Happy New Year, everyone! 

I couldn't resist when I saw Papertey Ink's latest Make It Monday challenge was a chalkboard challenge. I just had to participate. I loved Betsy's tutorial in November; my Christmas card was inspired by her cards.

I embossed the Thank You sentiment with white embossing powder. The flourishes were stamped with white pigment ink. Besides Versamark Ink and white pigment ink, I also used colored pencils on my "chalkboard".

I paper pierced the perimeter of the die cut to give some visual interest to the edges. I added some buttons and some baker's twine and that's it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Belated Birthday

Hope you had a great weekend. Here's a belated birthday card I made for one of my sisters. I also made this card for the Embossing & Debossing Challenge on the Moxie Fab World blog challenge.

I used the In Bloom Impression Plate to emboss the Royal Velvet card front. I die cut the frame with Fillable Frames #12 die. I stamped and heat embossed the frame with the Fillable Frames #12 corresponding stamp set. The sentiment comes from the Birthday Bash sentiments set. I used the rickrack border die to cut a scrap of Simply Chartreuese paper.

The heart paper punch and stamp are from Stampin' Up. I finished off the card with a touch of bling and rounded one of the corners of the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fill This Day With Joy

Happy Earth Day! Today has not gone smoothly. My gmail account was hacked and spammed all my contacts during the middle of the night. A lot of you got a wacky email from me. Ugh!

I made this card for Kristina's 1-layer (no embellishment) challenge. I've never made a 1-layer card...ever!

We've been enjoying some days off for Spring Break. Today was a break in the rain, so I took a picture of my card near a sunny window.

When you were a kid, did you do this type of squiggly drawings on a piece of paper and then color them in with Crayons or markers? Well, I thought I was alone on this until I saw a YouTube video by Courtney and she mentioned the same. Well, instead of Crayons, I used my growing supply of Copic markers. I went to a stamping convention on Saturday and I tripled my collection! Well, that was easy to do since I only owned 3 Copics before. Haha!

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Ingredients

Stamps: Everyday Button Bits (Papertrey Ink), Look Up (Practicing Creativity)

Paper: white (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Black Sharpie, Copic markers

Tools: Corner Rounder (We R Memory Keepers)

Other: Gray colored pencil (Crayola)

Best Wishes

For Theresa's Challenge #12, she asked us to come with a wedding or anniversary card. This bride and groom stamp and swirl frame bring back fond memories. I used them on our wedding reception invitations. We were married in Maui in April 2001. A few months later, we had a party for family and friends in California. For this card, I CASEd my original silver "Just Married" card.

I've also used these stamps several times through the years to make cards for friends.
Everything on this card is embossed. The bride and groom are mounted on foam tape.

Card Ingredients
Stamps: bride & groom (DeNami Design), Swirl Frame, Sincere Salutations, Tagger's Dozen
Paper: Parchment Olde White (CA Paper Goods), gold floral embossed foil paper (don't remember who makes it)
Ink: Colorbox Gold pigment ink
Other: gold embossing powder, Making Memories gold eyelet and gold mini brads, foam tape, small Avery tag, white sheer ribbon, gold cording

Jenn's Crayon Challenge

Jenn, from Kiyomi Krafts, created a unique Crayon challenge yesterday and she used my son, Kalino for the inspiration. Thanks Jenn for the mention on your blog! Kalino was thrilled to recognize his name on your website.

What a coincidence... I was going to try the Crayon resist technique I saw on a Hero Arts YouTube video on Friday, but a bad headache kept me out of my craft area. I first stamped the image with Black Memories ink on white glossy paper. I let it dry for several minutes. I used a white Crayon to trace around the image. Using Stampin' Spots, I rubbed ink on the image. Using a paper towel, I rubbed off the excess ink. The white areas pop. I love this technique!

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Love Ya Bunches
Paper: white glossy Kromekote, white textured cardstock (my bad lighting changes the color of the white cardstock), Certainly Celery, Black
Ink: Black Memories, Certainly Celery, Brocade Blue
Other: White Crayola Crayon, black/white stitched ribbon (Michael's), corner rounder

Friendship - Theresa's Scrapalicious Challenge

This week's challenge from Theresa was to only use scrap paper for the layers on the base card. I should definitely force myself to use scraps more often.

I do save every bit of paper. The hardest part is organizing these bits and pieces. What I started doing recently is using my paper punches (scallop, circles, squares, tags, etc.) on smaller scraps of paper that are too small to be a layer on a card. Jenn at Kiyomi Krafts has a great tip about using her flower punch and ziploc bags to keep her scraps organized. This challenge forced me to separate my pre-punched papers into ziploc bags.

I started this card with Certainly Celery cardstock. A while back when I first got my Martha Stewart Circle Cutter, I cut a bunch of 2-inch circles out of a piece of cream textured cardstock. I was left with a sheet of paper full of holes. I attached the "holey" paper to the Celery cardstock and trimmed off the excess. I didn't stamp a single thing for this card and all these circles were already punched. I taped them into place and trimmed off the excess. The popped up friendship layer was already stamped and had mounting tape. I just added a crystal brad to it.

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts
Paper: Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie. The other cardstock is unknown scraps.
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Wild Wasabi
Other: SU brad (Thanks, Theresa!)

Happy Birthday (Designer Paper Challenge)

I made this card for Theresa's challenge to only use background/designer/patterned paper as our only embellishment. I loved this challenge! It's like Jen's purely white card challenge.

I used one sheet of designer paper from My Mind's Eye. It's got a bohemian chic look to it. I cut out the 3-inch circle and then trimmed the scallops. It's mounted on the card with foam tape. I layered a 1-inch band of paper through the middle. I cut 3/4" circles from the paper and used foam tape to mount them on the card.

Card Ingredients
Stamps: All Holidays
Paper: Kraft cardstock (CA Paper Goods), designer paper (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Basic Black
Other: corner rounder, 3/4" circle punch, foam tape, Martha Stewart circle cutter