Helping Friends Gruffies Valentine Card

Hello!  Today I'm sharing a card for a few challenges.  Honestly, I'm not a big Valentine fan, but I do my best to be festive for my girls for most holidays - including this day of "love."

This year I made a card for my bestie (who is also single) and I plan to surprise her at work with a  box of chocolates.  With her kids all grown up...well, I have a feeling they are so into their lives right now that they might forget their mama.  So hopefully I will put a smile on her face.  Of course I'm not going all lovey-dovey, but I have the required red, heart, and inside reads "happy valentine's day."  Sentiments are from a Stampin' Up Paper Pumpkin kit and that scribble heart is a Sizzix die cut.

This Gruffies stamp is SO us.  We might not see each other often, but we are there for each other in times of need....or when we really need a margarita!

So, this will be entered in the following challenges: House-Mouse and Friends: Love, Dragonfly Journeys: Red, and CardzTV Challenge #31: Anything Goes.

A Couple Little Goodies

I think it was last Monday that I posted a couple cards from the last Stamp Camp I attended. Well, here are two non-cards we made as well:

So this little milk carton is just adorable! It's a little smaller than I thought from the catalog, but I wanted it anyway.

I can see using this for the kids especially. I planned to make them for Valentine's Day for the kids in Bean's class, but we were asked to not take candy...cards only. And guess what? I forgot to make cards! I'm such a bad Mommy.

Here's a nifty little card holder similar to the candy-pull holder. So you pull the ribbon:

and out pops the card. I haven't tested it yet, but you're supposed to be able to fit a regular sized gift card in here. Aren't these just cute? Thank you all for stopping by! I will have another AiFactory post for you tomorrow.

Stamp Camp

Last Saturday I thought I was going to one of Ruth's regular Stampin' Up classes, but was pleasantly surprised with a Stamp Camp. Here are a couple of creations:

I LOVE this little house set! Hopefully I'll get my set this week. You get one free with purchase...which means I spent way too much money! But that was the only way to get these stamps. I can rationalize anything ;)

Here's another card we made. OK, I'm not wild about the colors, but I like the layout and the scallop punch. We were supposed to color the image with chalks (or what the Stampin' Up people call "pastels"), but I took mine home to color with copics instead. I went with a birthday card since my Auntie Lena's birthday is Friday, so I'll be sending this out to her today.

Thank You

I just got this pack of flowers at Michael's this weekend and HAD to use them. I thought something CAS would be great.

Of course there are so many ways to change this up. I thought of drawing a box around the flowers, putting them on squares, or even putting them on a panel. BTW, this was made in under 5 minutes. Paper is PTI kraft, sentiment is Short and Sweet from Stampin' Up (can you tell I LOVE this set yet?), flowers from Michaels. The only challenge this fits is Cute Card Thursday who's challenge is "Something New" and my new are the flower!

Card for 1st Birthday

Some friends of ours have a little girl named Anna Kate who will be turning 1 this month. I am so excited for them and Anna Kate is just a doll. I found an adorable outfit at Target (yes, I love Target and think their clothes are excellent) and here is the card I made to go with the gift:

This was a super simple card with a great layout from Pals Paper Arts. Paper is PTI and DP is DCSW. The lovely ribbon is from Michael's $1 bin (you never know what you'll find in those bins sometimes).

The image is AiFactory colored with copics (this digistamp is actually a FREEBIE that you can find HERE), and the sentiment is Short & Sweet from Stampin' Up (just LOVE that set). Unfortunately, we will have to miss the party do to prior plans, but I hope they will understand and I hope Anna Kate has a wonderful day!

This card meets the following challenges:

• Pals Paper Arts - Layout
• The Pink Elephant - Birthday
• Cupcake Craft Challenges - Something Girlie

October

There were three challanges for the CAS DT call over at Splitcoaststampers. One is to make a monochromatic card (thus the brown baby buggy card below). The other is to create a card for Autumn.

I used Papertrey Ink CS (the names are a lot more fancy than yellow and red). The stamps are Stampin' Ups Fancy Trees using Ranger inks (Ranger inks work really well with rubber stamps - not so well with acrylic).

"October" is a $1 stamp from Michaels using chalk inks.

I don't really use or sent out cards for Fall, but my Auntie Diane's birthday is in October - so this is made with her in mind.

Vintage Baby Buggy

Well that's what this card reminds me of.

This is a CAS card for Splitcoaststampers CAS Design Team call. Don't know if I have a chance - you should see all the talent over there, but thought I'd give it a try.

I started our with brown CS from PapertreyInk. I love their 110lb CS. Added a little ribbon, inked up some white CS with Ranger inks and splashed with a little water to create background, stamped buggy using Stampin' Ups Puns from the Past stamps, cut and embossed with my new Nestabilities in my Cuttlebug.

OK, now one part of the challenge is to add a little bit of red. Just a little. So, I used red embossing powder and put a little on the buggy handle and wheels. Can you see it? Wish me luck!

Celebrate the Earth

This super simple, CAS card uses a paint chip from Home Depot. I've actually made a few of these in different colors, but haven't shared them here yet.

Now I'm not saying go to Home Depot and take all their paint chip samples. But if you happen to have one laying around, here is an idea of how to save it from the landfill.

I stared out with 110lb heavyweight, bright white paper from PapertreyInk. Cut the paint chip down to appropriate size, punch out a couple designs, use 3D popdots to adhere, and stamp sentiment.

Another Quick Card

I just love these papers. This picture just doesn't show the true colors.

Again, I used a doodlebat from Scrapnfonts, used a scallop circle behind it with 3D dots in-between for dimension.

I made two, just placing the ribbon in different areas. The designer CS is "M" (Just Chillin). Stamp is Inkadinkado. The ribbon is $1 ribbon from Michael's and the orange paper is from the unknown stack.

Celebrate Plaid

Just a quick post.

I made this using a doodlebat from Scrapnfonts. I made the flowers in blue and knew I wanted to mat them in the same color, so I made a blue word box and filled it with the same color of blue.

I used paper from a new paper stack I love (I believe it's from M). I cut the squares with the doodlebat flowers at 1" and the blue boxes slightly larger. Used 3D dots for the dimension, added twine, and stamped a sentiment.

One Layout, Two Cards

Back to Clean and Simple....well, I'm attempting to do each layout. So, this is for FTL3 (Fall-to-Layout 3). I really like this one. Not just for the speed of putting together a card, but for the diversity.

My first card is made using the elephant from the ZooBalloo cricut cart. I cut this at 2 1/2" and again using the outline feature.

I used my cropadile for the eyes, using black cardstock and glaze.

The only inking/shading is on the outline. I used pop dots under the little guy, added ribbon, and the sentiment is from Inkadinkado.

My second card uses a stamp from Stampin' Ups Chic Boutique.

Same layout, but I think they look very different. I think the baby card looks much more whimsical than the thank you card.

A Little Bit of Bling

The CAS challenge over at Splitcoaststampers this week is to use bling. Well I can do that! So this is my creation for CAS27.

I attempted to do a 10 minute card since I had a few minutes before having to leave for an appointment, but this actually ended up taking around 20 minutes instead.

I used stamps from Stampin'Ups Garden Whimsy set. Stamped the butterfly and fussy cut around it. Then stamped the sentiment. I used my Nestabilities to cut and emboss the squares.

What took me so long was deciding just where I wanted to put the rhinestones. A little tacky glue goes a long way. And of course, lots of pop dots. I popped up the butterfly as well as the square.

Super Simple

Do you ever buy paper because it's just so pretty...then you don't want to cut it up...so it ends up in a pile unused? Well, maybe it's just me then.

I finally decided to try to break my "mine" pile of pretty papers. They need to be used. They need to be seen. They deserve to be on cards!

So these are super simple 10minute cards. I used lots of 3D dots on the sentiments.

I also wanted to make something more masculine and I think I've done just that. So I have Stampin' up cardstock, patterned paper from the unknown pile, ribbon, stazon ink, $1 stamps, 3D dots, and a corner rounder. I made 2 of each in under 20 minutes.

Simple Owl

I really like this stamp. I recently posted another take on this stamp, but I just can't get enough of it. I made two versions - since I'm needing to make lots of cards at the moment for different occasions.

So obviously these are the same exact cards, just different colors. I sewed the solid and patterned CS together, stamped the owl twice, once on solid and the other on the pattern. Cut out the solid owl and popped him up with 3D dots.

I used heavyweight kraft for the base. Now here's my little secret: I stamped the owl on the solid colored piece of cardstock, but didn't have enough for both the card AND the owl, so I used my xacto to start the cut and finished with my scissors - without cutting up the entire piece of solid CS. So, basically, the solid colored CS under the patterned cardstock has a hole in it (from where the owl was and was cut out). But with the base being heavyweight, and the other CS being thick, you can't even tell anything is missing! Not even if you hold it up to the light. Well, there's no use in using TWO pieces of CS right when you can get away with using just one.

Target $1 Bins

You never know what you will find in those $1 bins. I usually look for little things for my girl and most times they have scrapbook items that don't really interest me too much

 Well, looking at the stamps, I noticed a really cute duck and adorable bear. They actually stamp quite well.

When I saw card sketch SC238 over at Splitcoaststampers, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. So this is my take on that sketch.

The ducks are stamped on 1" white squares, colored with my Bics (they are similar to Copics), glazed, and popped up from the teal squares. The Welcome Little One stamp is from the Michaels $1 bin, paper is from my unknown stack, and cardbase from Papertrey Ink (I LOVE their CS).

Thanks for stopping by! And feel free to leave a comment.

It's a Zoo

I found these little cuties on sale at Hobby Lobby this weekend. Using Zots, patterned papers, solid CS, and white inserts, I was able to make quite a few cards for different occasions.

I like Zots because they are super sticky...no one wants their card falling apart!
I made one like this a while back, but I think this background is much brighter. The inside reads: Happy Belated Birthday.

Well, they say an elephant never forgets, right? All DP's are from the unknown stack. Thanks for stopping by!

Stacked Presents

So this was made for me:

A stacked planter that inspired this card:

I used the stacked presents cut at 4 1/4" from the Celebrations cart. Once on shadow in black, and twice on DP (one orange and one purple) so I could have different color presents. I cut the "shift" for the orange strips, cut off the very top bow with my scissors and added a real ribbon bow instead.

Of course I used pop-dots, and added rhinestones at the tops of all the packages. The stamp is Stampin' Up using Ranger marmalade ink. The circle is George cut at 4 1/4" and zigzag stitched onto the orange background.

Can you believe we are already at the end of July? Don't be surprised if I start posting Christmas cards soon...yes, I'm already working on some now.

Flowers of Friendship

Made this card over the weekend. I used the Celebrations cart for the vase and flowers. First in blue on blackout feature - so the flowers would have blue centers, then shift in pink for just the flowers (without the vase). I used my chalk inks to shade the vase and flowers, then added glaze to the flowers for shine.

I don't remember the name of this paper pack, but it's really bright with lots of pinks, blues, browns, and greens. The card base is from the Stampin' Up "in colors" papers - I won it as a door prize at the last card class I went to. Woo-hoo, second time I've won!

I added a little ribbon (from the $1 bin at Michaels), the friendship stamp is Fiskars, and pop-dots of course!

Thanks for taking a peek.

Happy Birthday Owl Sketch

I got this cute Hero Arts stamp a while back at Michaels and have been dying to use it.

I stamped the background cardstock, added a piece of DP that looks like notebook paper, and the sentiment is computer generated. For the owl, first I used green Ranger Ink (it actually has a cooler name than "green") on plain white CS, then stamped the owl in black. I then stamped the owl once again on white, cut him out, and used marmalade Ranger Ink to color him in. Pop-dots are my favorite, so I used plenty of them. The center strip uses the same color Ranger Inks on white CS so they coordinate.

This card is for card sketch SC237 over at Splitcoaststampers. So I'm currently catching up on sketches at Clean and Simple AND at Splitcoaststampers. I'm having fun! What other cool sketch sites are there out there? If you got something you think I'd be interested in, please share.

Stampin' Up Creations

I went to a stamp class on Saturday, and Ruth (my demonstrator) was using all new stamps and the "in colors." I think it's so funny how everything, from ink color, to patterned paper, to punches all coordinate. It does make simple cards even easier since you don't have to go through your stack of DP to find just the right shade of pink.

These birds are too cute. They are stamped on velum, the ribbon is adorable but I have problems tying pretty bows, and I love the window word punch (got to get that)!

So this pretty stamp is done by coloring with markers, then breathing on the stamp to moisten what you've colored, then stamp. See what I mean about coordinating? The stamp ink colors match the paper perfectly. Oh, and this card features a darling pearl button on the flower.

Note: Dust in the Wind by Kansas just came on the Radio. It always reminds me of Highlander, when Tessa died.