Nautical Themed Baby Shower Card

Hello, hello! Today I'm sharing a card that I made recently for a nautical themed baby shower.  As soon as the word "nautical" came out of my friend's mouth, I knew exactly what I was going to do, and it turned out to be such a happy card....

Isn't that darling?!?!  The baby's name is going to be Liam, so it just made sense to name the cute little boat after him.  My initial plan was to use my Silhouette to cut out the sailboat, but it just wasn't turning out the way I wanted, so I decided to try using my dies and punches. First, to make the bottom of the boat, I used my printer to print "USS LIAM", cut the words out with a circle die, and trimmed about a third off before distressing it; I used a tiny circle punch for the little windows, and a 1" square punch for the sails, cut it in half, then trimmed until it looked the way I wanted.  The flag is the tail of a bow punch, and  I used a toothpick wrapped in twine (how's that for thinking out of the box?!?) to make the mast.  The mast was the trickiest thing on here. I had to glue like crazy to get the twine to stick to the toothpick, then let it dry overnight before gluing it on the card. Once it was glued to the card, I left it alone for a few hours to make sure it was really dry, then came back and put the rest of it together.  Because the mast stuck out farther than the rest of the boat, I used pop dots to make everything else line up with it.

I used a fun template from Kiwi Lane Designs to make the waves.  I just traced the lines on shimmery blue paper and fussy cut. The clouds and the sun are from one of my favorite manufacturers, Peachy Keen Stamps. They are adorable and so fun to work with!  The clouds are actually a background stamp, so that was the very first thing I did when making this card, then I added the waves just the way I wanted them, the sailboat, then the sun.

Here's my long list of products:

You Are My Sunshine by Peachy Keen Stamps

Cloudy Day by Peachy Keen Stamps

Robin's Egg by Colorbox Ink

Copics Markers (Y 02. 06, 08; R20)

Twine

Punch Ribbon Bow Medium by Martha Stewart Crafts

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Pumice Stone Distress Ink

Sponge

Assorted Cardstock

Mini Aspen Court Template by Kiwi Lane Designs

Tombo Mono Multi Glue

Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Mini Circle Punch

Spellbinders Standard Circles LG

Thanks so much for sharing part of your day with me!

Like My New Look?

Hello, hello!  I have been wanting to change my layout to something a little less busy and simpler, and finally got around to it.  I liked the ribbons that I had on my old layout because they were artsy but I just wasn't digging the font or colors, so I had to update it.  This is my first blog and I had no idea what I was doing, but now that I am a little more comfortable, I was able to figure out a little more.  I really love this layout even though I didn't have an option of choosing one with polka dots ;) Oh well! It's still pretty and not distracting, so I'm happy. I hope you like the new look! Talk to you soon!

What's in a Background?

Hi there! Thanks for taking a little time out of your day to check out what I've been up to :)

A lot of times when crafters are in a crafty rut, we feel the need to stack and tape and stack some more, adding a lot of weight and dimension to our cards.  Adding all the pizzazz can be very fun (and sometimes frustrating), and I have seen plenty of gorgeous cards that have so much going on visually, but sometimes it can also be disappointing because behind all that glitter and glue and Copic coloring, we are still left with wanting more because something just didn't look or feel right. Then we want to add even more to make it right and the whole cycle repeats itself LOL 

Anyway, I want to be clear that I am not referring to the card makers who create the gorgeous, fancy cards with lace and roses and layers upon layers.  They make those cards because that is their style, and it's so beautiful.  That however is not my style.  At least not yet.

I prefer to make CAS cards (cute and simple cards).   That's my style and although it may evolve, it suits me just fine :) They're cute, adorable, beautiful, happy, and completely ME!

When you don't have a lot of layers, ribbons, embellishments, pictures, etc, you need a nice, simple background.  While shopping at Hobby Lobby one day, I grabbed this flower stamp in hopes that I could find something to do with it. Little did I know how versatile it would be!  I used it to create the background by inking it with Versamark and stamping in random places on pink paper. I stamped it again on Neenah Solar White paper before coloring it with a variety of Copic markers, fussy cutting it and setting it aside.  I stamped the butterflies on vellum and used a handy punch to cut them out :)  I tried a number of times to figure out exactly where I wanted to place everything and had a really tough time deciding.  You'd think it would be easier because there isn't much going on, but it was probably more difficult because of that fact.  Ultimately, I am happy with the final placement of everything and think this one turned out quite cute :)

Here's my product list for this one:

Neenah Solar White cardstock

Stampin' Up Papillon Potpourri stamp set and Elegant Butterfly Punch

Recollections Black Embossing Powder

Versarmark Ink

Pink cardstock

Stampendous flower stamp

Stampin Up Sincere Salutations 

Copic Markers (RV 10, 13, 14; YG 03, 05)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fairy Silhouette

Hi everybody and thanks for stopping by today!  I normally don't buy card making magazines, but recently purchased Issue 107 of Papercraft Essentials magazine, mainly for the adorable fairy stamp set that came with it. I didn't have any silhouette stamps and I thought there were so many possibilities with this one, so I had to buy it! I couldn't wait to get home and try it out!  After I shared some pictures of projects, one of my friends said she wanted a card for her friend's daughter's birthday. Great! Here it is:

Isn't that so pretty?!  I used a few Distress Inks to make a watercolor background and added the little mountain using Distress Inks and a paintbrush. The fairy and mushrooms are embossed in black embossing powder and I used Stickles for the fairy dust. Adorable! The little girl loved it and one of her friends was completely mesmerized LOL Makes me feel good :)

Now, even though I love the way the card turned out, I'm not a big fan of the quality of the stamps; they seem very cheaply made. They're really flimsy and do not stick to an acrylic block AT ALL. I had to put a bit of glue on the backs of them in hopes that would help, but it barely did.  I stamped the images a couple of times to make sure I got a good impression, but I just couldn't get a good impression with other stamps in the set so I didn't use them.  Having said that, as I was creating the supply list for this post, I looked on Lavinia's website and saw that many people have complained about the quality of these stamps! They said that although they made the stamps, they used a different company to manufacture them and the quality was not up to par with what they usually put out. If this is the case, I'm really happy because their stamps are absolutely adorable and so unique, but since this first experience was not a great one, I had planned on not purchasing again. Anyway, the post continued by saying if we got a crappy set, like me, we are allowed to send them back for a replacement. I sent an email asking if I could do this because they are based out of the UK and I'm in the states, so I'm not sure if I would be allowed to.  We shall see!

Here's a list of supplies that I used:

Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Black Soot

Recollections Black Embossing Powder

Silver Stickles

110 pound cardstock 

small paintbrush

Strathmore Watercolor Paper

Lavinia stamps in Issue 107  of Papercraft Essentials Magazine (sorry, I can't find the name of it!!)

Versamark Ink

Thanks for spending part of your day with me!

Watercolor Hydrangeas CAN make a sick mama smile!

Hello, hello and thanks for joining me today!  I really love the support of my friends and family with this adventure.  One of my friends recently asked me to make a very personal card for her best friend who is pregnant and having a miserable time with hyperemesis gravidarum (AKA the most horrible morning sickness you could imagine!).  The only guideline I had was that she loved vintage things. Now, it just so happens that I too adore all that is vintage, so I was really excited to make something for her that would make her smile, even if it was only for a few seconds!   

Look at that!!  Now THIS project was a LOT of fun! OK, so really all of the cards that I make really are a lot of fun, but this one had so many fun elements in one little envelope: watercolor, pearls, vintage paper, vellum, embossing!  My friend was so happy with the final product and said it looked even better in person, and that the recipient absolutely loved it!

So, what did I use??

Hero Arts Hydrangea stamp

Strathmore Watercolor Paper

Stampin' Up Embossing Powder in Copper

Zing Embossing Powder in White

Koi Watercolors

Paint brush

Piano paper

Vellum

Pearl embellishments

Ivory ribbon

Vintage Photo Distress Ink

You're Simply Amazing stamp (unknown manufacturer)

Fiskar's 3-in-1 Corner Squeeze Punch "Dot to Dot"

Thanks for spending part of your day with me :) I hope you liked the card!

OWH Scarf Challenge!

I have been getting away from challenges lately and need to make a better effort to get inspired and involved!  Today's card is a beautiful pink and yellow scarf challenge that was presented by Operation Write Home.   I've been on a a background and distress ink kick, AND happen to be using a lot of pinks and yellows, so I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I also had a couple of stamp sets since I started making cards in 2012 (how did that happen??!!) and have never used, so now was the perfect time!  I hope you enjoy my take on the challenge :)

Soooo pretty!!!  These types of cards aren't incredibly difficult, they just take time. The iron method is such a fun technique and the results can be quite stunning....and some absolutely cannot LOL Thankfully this one turned out so beautiful :)

I used Distress Ink and water with a bit of Perfect Pearls and the iron method to create the background.  I wasn't too fired up about it at first because I absolutely loved the way the colors turned out and there was the perfect amount of shimmer, but I just didn't really care for the haphazard placement of the designs.  I stamped with Versamark and used clear embossing powder on white paper and it was difficult to see exactly where the images were.  After adding the black doily "ribbon" (it's really a stamp that I embossed), I felt it came together just right.  And I'm so so happy with it!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great weekend!

List of supplies used:

Distress Inks (Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey and Picked Raspberry)

Lost & Found 3 Ruby and Oliver Stamps

Clear and black embossing powder

"Love" Stamp (yard sale find!)

Black Sequins

Tombo Mono Multi Glue

Versamark Ink

Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper

Strathmore Watercolor Paper

110 lb Cardstock

Scotch brand adhesive

Spray bottle

Perfect Pearls in blush

Martha Stewart Heat T

ool

Unicorn Card--Paper Smooches Guest Designer Search (August)

Hi there! I cannot believe it's been a full month since my last post! We have had so much going on and our computer was broken, but now it's fixed, so I'm back in the swing of things!  Today's card is a sweet unicorn card that I made for my friend's daughter's birthday.  She turned six and I thought this would be fitting :)  The timing also happens to be perfect because Paper Smooches is having their monthly Guest Designer Search so I'm submitting this adorable card for that contest, too!  

I really haven't made too many cards with scenes, but I was so excited to use my new clouds background stamp that I couldn't wait! I thought for sure that I would have some stray blue ink in the clouds, but I was wrong! I am more than pleased with how cleanly it stamped!  I was a little concerned about the blue ink because I am not very good with knowing what the differences are between the different types of ink, so I grabbed the color I wanted and it turned out awesome! Very clean and smooth :)

I drew hills on paper, inked them using Distress Ink, then cut them out and adhered them to the card base. I positioned the unicorn where I thought it looked best and added my little word bubble and glitter on her horn for the finishing touch!  

Here are the supplies that I used:

Paper Smooches Spectrum Stamp Set

Mowed Lawn Distress Ink

ColorBox Pigment Ink in Robin's Egg

Paper Smooches Word Bubbles

Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Peachy Keen Stamps Cloudy Day background stamp

Copic Markers (R 81, 83, 85; E 25, 27; Y 06; V 15, 17)

Stickles in gold

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have an awesome day!