Number One Dad

Today is my husband's birthday, and instead of making one card for both me and my son to give I decided to make one for each of us.  This is the card I made to be from Zach:

I started with the patterned paper, which is a 6x6 pad from Crate Paper called Toy Box.  I've been saving this as it reminds me of '70s-'80s ish kid stuff.  My husband and I were both born in the late '70s with older siblings, so we had lots of books and toys handed down.  Thats why I thought this paper would be perfect for his birthday. :)  Once I chose coordinating card stock, I stamped the images, added eyelets and ribbon, and assembled everything.

BTW, my husband's name is not Jimmy.  The background paper looks like a stack of books, and I didn't notice until I photographed the card that the way the pattern was cut makes it seems like the card says "No. 1 Dad Jimmy", lol.  Oh well, I explained to my husband when he opened it and we had a bit of a laugh about it. 

Even though the card was for my husband who is not as into glitter as I am, I couldn't resist adding some Clear Stardust Sakura pen to the images.  I love these Sakura pens!

I used my smallest Nestabilities circle to cut circles from some of the leftover patterned paper and used them to decorate the inside of the card.  I really liked how it turned out.  All set for our son to add a bit of scribble before giving to daddy!  :)

I've decided to enter this card in the following challenges:

1. Catered Crop - Ravenous for Ribbon Quickfire
2. Daring Cardmakers - Tessellation
3. Color Throwdown - Ridinghood Red, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
4. Creative Craft Challenges - Boys will be boys
5. Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
6. Craft Your Passion - 100th Challenge Celebration - Anything Goes
7. The Pink Elephant - Lets See Those Layers

These are the supplies I used:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up!  Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze.  Crate Paper Toybox Collection 6x6 pad.

Ink:  Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan, Creamy Brown.

Markers and Pens:  Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write Markers Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise.  Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Stardust pen.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Eight Great Greetings, On Your Birthday.  My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Acrylic Stamps.

Dies:  Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Standard Circles.

Embellishments:  Recollections Eyelets, hemp twine from stash, red ribbon from stash.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Crop-a-dile,  Cuttlebug.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Adhesive Runner permanent, foam squares.

I won! I won!

So first of all I should say that I looooooove scrapbooksteals.com.  They are a site that offers two deals per day on scrap booking supplies a first come first serve basis.  They have great deals and I have gotten a lot of my supplies from them.  (I also love babysteals.com and kidsteals.com which are sister sites)

They also have a blog where they do giveaways.  Now normally I don't get excited over giveaways/draws since I rarely win anything (for example I played the 50/50 draw at work almost every Friday for four years before they canceled it and I never won once) but I will enter my name into  random contests on occasion  'just in case', and then usually I forget about it because I figure nothing will come of it.

A few weeks ago scrapbooksteals.com was having a draw for Snake Adhesive prize packs and on a whim I entered my name.  And this time I was chosen as a runner up!  Yayy!  Apparently I will be getting 2  of each type of runner, and there are three different runners. I can't wait to them out!

Its kind of funny because just the other day I was thinking that I was running low on my usual brand, lol.

More You Tube Inspiration

One of the You Tube channels I visit often is Stamp TV which features videos with instruction by Gina Krupsky of Gina K Designs.  I was going through past videos the other day, seeing if there was anything I missed, when I came across her video on sponging a layer.  I've seen this technique before, but for some reason it stuck in my head this time and I wanted to try it.

 

I loved Gina`s colour scheme so mine is quite similar,  but I don't have the same stamps so I used what I had.  I'm really pleased with the result.  I followed her process almost exactly, except I couldn't resist adding some Sakura glitter pen to the center of the flowers.

 

Since I hadn't added any layers to the front of the card, I didn't want to add layers to the center of the card like I usually do, so instead I stamped with a birthday sentiment, and some smaller flowers from the same set the big flowers came from.

 

I love how this card turned out.  Considering all of the stamping, inking, and colouring it was a pretty quick card to put together so I think I will try this again soon with some different colour schemes and shades of card stock. 

Here is the video that inspired this card:

I'm entering this card to the following challenges:

1. Catered Crop - Use Ribbon
2. Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Spring
3. Stampin' for the Weekend - Bingo - Ribbon, Glitter, Flowers
4. Simon Says Stampin Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

The supplies I used are as follows:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up!  Whisper White.  

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! On Your Birthday.  KI Memories Enchanting Icons.

Ink:  Staz On Jet Black, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink Olive Pastel.

Markers:  Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write markers Bravo Burgundy, Summer Sun, Cameo Coral.  Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Stardust.

Ribbon:  Burgundy ribbon from my stash.

Adhesive:  Skor Tape.

Tools:  Stamp-a-ma-jig, Ranger Inksentials blending tool.

Butterflies and Dragonflies

The card I'm posting tonight I`ve been thinking about for a while.  I started with K&C Company paper pack, and one of the main reasons I bought the pad is for a sheet filled with butterflies and dragonflies.  I bought the pack around Christmas time, however, so I kind of forgot of the idea I had until recently.

Originally I was going to cut out the dragonfly and butterfly completely, but I really like the background, so instead I decided to just cut out the wings with my Cutterbee craft knife.  The bee was on the same sheet, so I included it, but the paper encompassing all three bugs was slightly bigger than I wanted it to be.  For this reason once the wings were cut I folded over the bee's left wing and trimmed off the edge with my trimmer.  I really like the effect of the bee's wing over the edge, so I'm glad I kept the bee.  :)

Once I decided to keep the background I choose some cardstock to coordinate, and because of the vintage feeling of the paper I decided on using just hemp twine instead of ribbon. Once everything was inked and assembled I popped up each of the wings with foam squares, and added the sentiment.  This card seems so different from what I usually do but its just so pretty!

Since this is another thank-you card I didn't want to put a sentiment inside, but I didn't want to leave it plain either.  For this reason after adhering some kraft and cream cardstock I cut out another dragonfly and been and glued them inside.  

I really enjoyed making this card so I think I will try similar techniques with some of my other favourite papers.  :)

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

1. Allsorts Challenge - Spread Your Wings 
2. Daring Cardmakers - Colour Combo Challenge 
3. Scrap-Creations - Pop it Up 
4. Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes 

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up!  Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla.  Recollections Kraft.  K&C Company Tim Coffey Blossomwood 12 x 12  Designer paper pad.

Stamp Set:  Stampin' Up! Pocket Silhouettes

Ink:  Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan.

Embellishment:  Hemp twine from my stash.

Adhesives:  Tombo Mono permanent adhesive runner,  foam squares, generic glue stick.

Tools:  Cutterbee craft knife, scissors, paper trimmer.

Love Bugs

So I was labeling my pictures for tonight's post and I just realized that its March already.  I marked all of my pictures as 'February' yesterday, lol.  I guess I'm in denial that the year is going by so quickly!  :)

With the card I made today I thought I would try some paper piecing.  I've been seeing this on a bunch of blogs and videos lately and I love the look but for some reason I never try it.  Tonight I thought I would try and as I was going through my stamps I realized the reason I don't paper piece that often is because I don't have a lot of stamps that can easily be paper pieced.  I guess thats something to keep in mind the next time I go stamp shopping, but for the time being I found a cute one to try the technique out with.

Once I chose the cute stamp set from Stampin' Up! I chose some pattern papers from Lily Bee Design, and some coordinating solid card stock.  I stamped my images in black, and coloured what I didn't paper piece with my SU  Stampin' Write markers, and a gray Copic marker.  After gluing down the pieces I added some Sakura glitter pen, and inked all of the papers I was using with some brown around the edges.  After assembling everything the way I wanted I decided the card needed a bit more colour so I added the blue ribbon.

I love how the glitter pen turned out as you can still see the pattern paper underneath but it defines some of the details of the stamp.  Here is a closeup:

I used some leftover scraps and another stamp from the same set for the inside, leaving a blank space for a handwritten sentiment:

The colour scheme I used here, and the layout, are not normally what I go to, and I think thats why I love this card so much.  I will definitely be paper piecing in the future, hopefully with some larger images.  :)

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

1. The Pink Elephant - Challenge Sketch #137
2. Craft Your Passion - Paper Piecing
3. Creative Card Crew - Humour

The supplies I used are as follows:

Card stock:  Stampin' Up!  Dusty Durango textured, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake.  Lily Bee Design Head Over Heels 6x6 Tiny Tablet.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Love Bug.

Ink:  Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan, Memories Black

Markers:  Stampin' Up! Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, Real Red.  Copic W3.  Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Stardust.

Embellishments:  American Crafts satin ribbon, Recollections brads.

Adhesive:  Tombo Mono permanent adhesive runner, Glue Dots, foam squares, generic glue stick.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Stamp-a-ma-jig.