Give-Aways!

Melissa over at Creating From the Heart has some wonderful Christmas presents to offer! All you have to do is comment and spread the word! Go visit her! :-)

Click HERE.

Bake Me a BIGGER Cake

Once again you're seeing "Bake Me a Cake" from Lawn Fawn. Instead of paper piecing, I decided to color it with Copics this time. It's REALLY hard to see, but the cake layers are a very light purple.
After I posted the pictures I realized the Stickles don't look dry yet. Sigh...maybe I'll come back later and post another picture with dry Stickles so you can see what it really looks like.

I was going to add a big white bow, but it just didn't look right. Ended up leaving the ribbon and removing the bow. Not sure what I think, but it does look better than with the bow! It was just too much.

I Baked Another Cake

It never ceases to amaze me how much different paper/colors can totally change the feel of a card! Yesterday's post used Catelynne and had a more casual look. Today's uses Genevieve and has a more formal look. Once again I used the "Bake Me a Cake" set from Lawn Fawn.

The twine isn't exactly twine, but I'm not sure what it is. It came wrapped around the stamp package when I got it in the mail. After I put the cake together I realized that it matched the twine pefectly!!!

I hadn't planned to add the pearls either, but after I dedided to put one at the top I just kept going! These pearl strips were EXACTLY the right length for each of the cake layers! Who would've thought?!?!?!

Bake Me a Cake!

Yesterday Lawn Fawn's "Bake Me a Cake" set arrived in the mail so today I headed to my craft room. Fun times! I'd been wanting this set for a while and kept my eye on it. On Black Friday I noticed that Lawn Fawn was offering free shipping so I ordered it. :-)
It's probably the most versatile set that I own! It has 35 bits and pieces to make cakes and cupcakes and all the decorations to go with. This is the first time I've ever done "surgery" on clear stamps by cutting words apart, but I got brave and did it. The sentiment came with Happy on top of Birthday, but I wanted it to be versatile too. :-)

The paper is from The Angel Company's Catelynn collection. The flames are Stickles.

More Bundles of Joy

After making such light-skinned babies on the image in my last post, I knew I needed some babies with darker skin. So...here they are!

The paper is Kaiser double-sided. I wanted to add a touch of whimsy with the safety pin to represent a diaper pin. They boy card is obviously boy, but I decided the reddish-colored one could go either way so it just says BABY instead of "boy" or "girl."

I need to color more with those Copics to stay in practice! :-)

More Baby Cards

Since I needed more baby cards, AND I felt like using my Copics, I decided to pull out this image from a retired TAC set. Again, I paired it with sentiments from PTI's Inside & Out: Baby.

I decided to stamp the girl's image in gray Momento (London Fog) to make it softer and a bit more subtle. The twine is from my friend Diana at Latina Crafter.

Not sure what the paper is on the boy's card. I had one or two sheets of it in my stash. The yellow is Scrapper's Floss.

Smallish Things

TAC + PTI = Baby Cards. I always need baby cards so I recently bought Papertrey's Inside & Out: Baby set. I combined those with some little Onesies from two different retired TAC sets, and the results are below.
Those scalloped ovals are frames around the Onesies. I thought that gave it a more interesting look than just layering ovals.

On the boy card I colored the duck with a glitter pen, and on the girl card I used Stickles on the flower.

Ppaer for the boy card is TAC's Toodle Loo, and the girl card uses TAC's Catelynne.

More of Verve's New Mercies

When I decided to CASE another Verve New Mercies card, I decided to go with a color scheme that I don't normally use. I'm not thrilled with my outcome, but I'll post the card anyway.Now that I look back at the original card, I see that I used WAAAAY toooooo much of the tangerine color! I wasn't thrilled with the effect, and now I know why! I guess sometimes less is best, and this would have been one of those times. sigh...
I really like her patterned paper and color combo sooo much better! This was the closest patterned paper I had, though. Since it didn't have any yellow, I just couldn't make myself think I should add yellow cardstock. The tiny little pearls are from Amuse Studio and are a GREAT size!

Maybe I'll try this one again...

CASEd Sympathy

I've been busy with my college classes lately--doing lots of detailed lesson planning and teaching. That has kind of messed with my stamping mojo, but I wanted to take time for some cardmaking. What to do? CASE, of course!
These stamps are from the Verve set New Mercies--same set as this post. The card I CASEd is this one on the Verve website.

Mine is much plainer, but that's okay. I tend to stay on the simpler side of things. This close-up doesn't look like the ribbon matches the ink, but I promise it does in real life! :-) Embossing folder is Tim Holtz.

Encouraging Words

I made this card with a special friend in mind. She has undergone treatment for colon cancer and is now waiting to heal a bit before having surgery.
The pocket is made from TAC's Natalee Accordian Album kit, and the Scripture stamps are all from Verve. I'm loving those!

I kept the inside blank so I could write her a little note.

After she received it, she told me she's going to put the tags where she will see them often. What a great idea! I hadn't even thought of that!

Pretty Twine!

My sample pack of Twine arrived today from my friend Diana of Latina Crafter. It looked so pretty all rolled up with the colors laying side by side. It inspired me to make the card below. Now that I look at it, I realize that I have the twine panel upside down. :-( I wanted the teal on the left and gray on the right. Oh well...

I decided that "Celebrate" would let me put something else inside later and customize it for the occasion.

Aren't those yummy colors? :-)

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack

October 22 was my annual Christmas Stamp-a-Stack. Even though The Angel Company is no longer in existence and I'm not with another company at this point, my customers still wanted some Christmas fun. It was almost 80 degrees outside, but inside we were in the Christmas spirit with Christmas music, snacks, prizes, and my Santa earrings.

Every year at the end of the afternoon I ask the ladies which card was their favorite. Usually one card is the obvious winner. This year the gals said they had a hard time choosing because they liked them all. When I *did* make them choose, though, they were really divided on a winner.
This card was inspired by the sample in the Amuse Catalog using this set. I changed it up quite a bit, but it is still obvious that it was the inspiration. The background stamp is Bit of Burlap from Market Street Stamps, and the trees/sentiment are Amuse Studio's Cool Yule. It's hard to see, but the red tree has glitter pen on the swirlies.

It was tought getting a photo to show the Stickles on the peppermint, but still show the red coloring! Oh well... This is a very old TAC set, but there are peppermint stamps everywhere so I went ahead and used it. Paper is from TAC's Reece collection.

Another TAC oldie is Mini Wreath. Since there are so many wreath stamps available, though, I figured I'd go ahead with this one too. It's actually three different stamps layered. The twine is from The Twinery. MUCH thanks to Jennifer for sending me a few more yards when I ran short! :-)

Card #4 was the purple version of the card in this post. I always try to do one card in non-traditional colors.

New Mercies

This card is a little unusual for me because I normally don't create "scenes." When I started on this, though, it just sorta took on a life of its own!

I started with the Verve sentiment and knew I wanted to use the sun but I wasn't sure how. Then I realized that the colors of TAC's Miss Moxie were just what I wanted. First I realized the round tag would work, then I discovered that my circle punch was exactly the size of the sun if I'd stamp it on patterned paper. I found the blue/green piece (part of a Rockin' Roxie Matchbook Kit) in my scraps and thought it looked like grass and sky. The rest just sort of happened!

The rays of the sun have glitter pen, and I used Orange Peel Stickles for the insides of the paper-pieced flowers.

Elegant Birthday

After making the card for yesterday's post, I got the idea to change it up a bit and make this card.
The sentiment is another new stamp from Verve. The black carstock looks shiny in the photos, but it's not. After I made it and thought I had changed it up from yesterday's card, I realized that it actually looks more like the original card that inspired me in the first place! LOL

It's not an exact CASE, but I'm sure I must have still had that card in my mind. :-)

Give Thanks

As I was just dozing off for my nap, this card just sort of came to me. No, I didn't get up and make it right then, but later that day. To be honest, I realized later that the inspiration must have come from this card that I had seen earlier in the day.
I'm wishing now that I had snipped of those little bits sticking off the end of some of the points on the doily. Oh well... The Scripture stamp is one of my new Verve stamps! :-)

Butterflies and Leaves

Yesterday was my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack. You'll see those cards later. For now, you get this one. :-) These leaves from Amuse were just begging me to emboss them. First I tried copper on yellow--UGLY!! I ended up using white embossing powder, then Cognac Palette ink over that. I used a cosmetic swab to go from the center out, then I used a rag to wipe the ink off the leaves themselves. I must have been in a yellow/green mood because I designed this card the same day I did the one in the previous post. :-)

The paper is from The Angel Company's Emma collection, and the butterfly is a Tim Holz die called Mini Butterflies.

Happy Anniversary

When I designed this card, I had my other two cards (this one and this one) in mind, figuring I'd sort of combine the two.

Overall I like the result, but now that I really look at it, I'm thinking I should have lowered the flower down into that bare spot of leaves instead of having it stick way out the top. I may do it again--maybe not. We'll see...

I'm LOVING the Vintage Labels and coordinating dies from Amuse!!!!!! So easy to use, and they look so fantastic. :-)

More Holly Jolly

This card is from the same set as yesterday's post, but the ornaments are bigger this time. I sorta CASEd this card in designing mine.

It was tough for me to use such bold paper. I'm just not used to that!

Too bad my punch was just a hair too big to use on these ornaments! I ended up cutting by hand. sigh...

Holly Jolly

Holly Jolly from Verve is SUCH a FUN set to play with!!!! I have to also admit that the clear stamps make it even easier to line things up than if they were rubber. (I do think I still like rubber better, though!) These two cards were inspired by this card.
In the photo below you can kinda see the sparkle on the sentiment. I used Brilliance black that almost looks like silver over black. Very cool.

New color scheme for the card below. Not sure which one I like better. What do you think?!!??!

New Stamps from Verve

My Verve order arrived Saturday so I just HAD to play! Here's a quickie card that I colored with Copics and a red Stardust Glitter Gel pen.


The red piece is embossed with an Impressie--don't know if you can see it very well.
This was quick and easy. I'm thinking I'll keep it even cleaner and simpler the next time!

Market Street Block Party

These cards are for Market Street Stamps Anniversary Block Party. That's a mouthful...all you basically need to know is that I used Market Street Stamps on these cards. :-)
I stamped the main image in Momento Rich Cocoa and colored with Copics. For the background, I used Bit of Burlap and stamped off before stamping my "real one." After embossing the die cut, I saded lightly to bring out the white core of the paper from The Angel Company.
None of my twine matched so I used Sew Easy floss and twisted one of the aquas and one of the browns together! Voila--two-toned twine! :-)