Paper craft flowers for Mom

Did you remember mom today?  I'm sure you did! 

I had several mothers that are getting cards I made this year, including some special requests, like the card above that needed to feature pink carnations.  For the best looking carnation image, I browsed the internet and printed the best pictures I could.  To make my card more interesting, I covered the image with some Distress crackle paint and hand cut a couple flowers and popped them up with dimensionals.  This gave the image a 3D quality, take a look at the close up & see what you think....

My personal favorite flower for paper crafts is a die cut felt flower.

This card I made on request features some felt flowers cut using Stampin' Up! Floral Fusion dies and uses some retired Stampin' Up! DSP and sentiment stamp.  I love how bright & cheerful this card looks.

Happy Crafting and Happy Mother's Day!

Starburst Birthday

Sharing a birthday card I made today as this weekend I celebrate my birthday! Woo hoo!  I love having a "personal holiday"!  I'm getting old though, 'cuz if you ask me what I want to do most, it's SLEEP IN!

For the card I made, I chose to sacrifice some of my favorite DSP, Stampin' Up! Print Poetry. I'm trying to break my hoarding habit and use the papers I like.  Fortunately, it's easier than I thought to make a starburst design in patterned paper so after I cut the pieces I was pleased that they did not go into the waste bin.  Check out some simple instructions on how to do this at a fellow crafter's blog link here.

Have a great day, everyone and Happy Stamping!

My Paper Pumpkin - Alterations

Sharing a couple cards I made using kits from Stampin' Up!'s  My Paper Pumpkin. 

Pre-designed card kits can be fun, but I'm really bad at following any type of directions to the letter (call it creative rebellion, if you will).   Sometimes I think I just want to hoard the fun stickers or embellishments for other projects... and sometimes it may just be because what shows up in the kit begs to use something else I have on hand.  The card above just begged me to use this cute little boot eyelet from the Eyelet Outlet.  The funky sentiment is not one I'd use for anyone I know, but the 'booty' boot was a fun pun to play with.

The card below uses some of the pieces from my first month's kit, just the card base & patterned paper layer.   I used Jenni Bowlin Designs stamp & Papertrey Ink sentiment for a super simple any occasion card...

Have fun playing with your card kits!  I cannot wait to see what you come up with this month.  Happy stamping, everyone!

Chores, hate 'em!

The stamp set I used for this card, "Tight Jeans, Dirty Floors," from Unity Stamp Co. sums up how I feel today... I'll try NOT to look at my floors while I continue to procrastinate & post here...

I felt I had to make things look "weary" on this card, so I distressed and tore some edges of the pattern paper (paper is from Farm House Paper Company), and the wonky tilted images, I tried to coordinate with the tilted words (it also relieved me from trying to get anything straight, which isn't my greatest talent).  

The silhouettes I like, only I'm not sure why at least one of the ladies is not wearing jeans...?  I have been intrigued by silhouette stamps ever since I posted my Portrait Silhouette article for Paper Crafters Library, you can check out that post here.  

Here's a close-up of the sentiment...

I think that this is a great card to share with a friend and to send using a re-Smile inserts so that friend can send it back my way whenever they are feeling the same way.  If you are not familar with re-Smile post-its, check them out at re-Smile.com.  This is a great way to recycle and share cards that you know deserve to take on a life of their own and not just end up thrown away.  

Here's a look at the interior of my card with the ready to re-send sheets inside.  I also include instructions for my friend to understand that the intention is to re-use the card...

Now, to consider either getting onto that treadmill or cleaning the floors... hmmm... I think I'll just sit & drink some coffee and think about that for a little while... :)

Happy stamping, everyone!

Make It Monday - Collage Elements

This week's challenge over at Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday (#110) is a fun one, Collage Elements.  Essentially this technique is simple, layering different stamps to create a very unique background with sentiment.  However, I have to say it's not easy one for me.   I cannot wait to take more time to play with this technique and improve my stamping skills.   It is really fun to pull out a variety of sets to use at the same time.  

For my rather subtle version of a collage card, I used  three different stamp sets, Papertrey Ink's Rosie Posie combined with two holiday sets, Peaceful Pinecones and Happiest Holidays.  Yeah, I'm still getting a very early start on holiday cards!  The large round flower from Rosie Posie gave me a little sense of spring that I hope will cheer someone up during a drearier December day later this year.

Hope you have time to play this weekend. Enjoy & happy stamping!