Some "Flip-it" cards and a Scramble

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you're having a great weekend - I certainly am!!

I spent yesterday with most of my immediate family, celebrating my mom's 80th birthday. We had a wonderful day and she loved the card I made her:

I used a fabulous Sizzix die cut set called Circle Flip-its #2. Just love this set which comes with 11 dies, including the card base and layers. I made the 80 on the Silhouette; the happy and butterfly were die cuts from Hero Arts. I love their stamp & cut sets!! Papers came from Graphic45.

I had so much fun with the Flip-its set, I couldn't resist using it for a chorus friend's congrats card - she just graduated from Nursing School. I used stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn and from Hero Arts for this card. I just adore the Get Well Soon stamps and matching dies from Lawn Fawn; the little nurse bird was perfect for my RN grad! The congrats and sentiment stamps are from Hero Arts Congrats Stamp and Cut set.

And here's the card open with the flip:

I came home this morning so I'd be back in time for a noon Scramble on the Hero Arts Flickr Group. Our hostess, Magaly, invited us to use any kind of embossing. One of her examples used embossing paste which I've tried just once. Eager to try it again, I made this card using the Large Lotus stencil from Hero Arts. Because I was in a hurry for the 90 minute Scramble, the paste was still a bit tacky when I photographed the card!! I also messed part of the panel up so cut it down to a usable piece. After this photograph was taken, I ended up adding more Distress Ink (Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citron, and Tumbled Glass used) as the lower left flower wasn't well defined. Can you tell the blue butterfly (another one from the Butterflies Stamp & Cut set) has snowflake paper (Doodlebug)? I just loved the color so just ignored that it's winter paper (hope no one looks at the back of it!!

I still had 26 minutes til the Scramble's end so I whipped up this card using an older Hero Arts/Sizzix embossing folder, plus a new Fancy die Swallowtail Butterfly. 

Yay - now I'm ready for this week's birthdays - my auntie Marie and my niece Abby. Thanks for sticking with me through all these cards!!

Snowy Trees

Ahhhh - a gorgeous Friday (high in the 70s F) leading into the Memorial Day weekend! I'm glad to have a day off work and here I am thinking of snow and Christmas cards!!

Debbie's challenge over on Merry Monday:  use a non-evergreen tree on your card. I just got the cling stamp set Cherish Yesterday from Hero Arts. It came in the mail on Tuesday and, immediately, the tree stamp called to mind the challenge photo. I stamped it using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and added liquid applique for a snowy texture. I scored a frame and stamped the sentiment (from Family and Friends, a Hero Arts clear set) using Mermaid Lagoon ink. To finish it, I added some metallic accents.

Here's the card:

This card was such fun, I plan to make several more for my Christmas stash. And speaking of stash - I'm now up to 41 cards and working on #42. Woo, hoo - I have far exceeded my goal of a card per week.

Thanks for stopping and enjoy the holiday weekend! Be sure to stop at Merry Monday for inspiration with non-evergreen tree!

By the Numbers - My Scramble today

Hi everyone - hope you're having a great weekend! We had a gloomy start to the day but it got into the 70's F and cleared up beautifully! But again, I was inside most of the day and missed most of the sunshine!

This morning I hosted a Scramble over on the Hero Arts Flickr group. My theme "By the Numbers" and I asked the players to use a number or numbers on a card for any occasion. Lacking any numbers, I also let the players use a design of three (3 squares, 3 flowers, etc.) if they had absolutely no numbers around.

I made three inspiration cards - two of them over a month ago (I really wanted to be ready) and the third just this week with a new Hero Arts die. Here are my cards:

This was a birthday card for a friend we call the Queen Mum (hence the crown). I cut the numbers on the Silhouette and stamped them with the Hero Arts cling stamp called Notebook Paper. I die cut the crown with a special Spellbinder's die I got at the final ScrapFest - they were giving them out for free at their booth, so fun! The sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear set called Circles.

This was a birthday card for my brother; the numbers were stamped on both the background (very subtle tone on tone) and also on the star die, using a large cling background from Hero Arts called Number Pattern. The happy die and the birthday stamp are from a Hero Arts Stamp & Cut set called Happy.

I stamped the same Number Pattern on this background and the die too, but then I did a stencil pattern over the background for a bit of additional interest. I used the Large Lotus Pattern stencil from Hero Arts with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink. The large butterfly is a new Fancy Die from Hero Arts called Swallowtail Butterfly. I cut a backing for it using a piece of a vellum envelope that you get stamps in from the post office. I colored the back of the vellum with Copic markers, then I traced the die and cut a white frame for the butterfly. The sentiment is from a new set called Color Layering Butterflies. I can't wait to try the color layering stamps in this set!! The two little butterflies are punched, the small white vellum one is EK Success and the middle pink one I got from my friend Heather - thanks again, Heather!!

We always have fun at the Scrambles, about every two weeks if you want to check one out sometime. I enjoyed being the host today and thank those who played along! You can see all the cards at the link I shared above. Thanks for stopping and have a great weekend!!

(photo source)

At Merry Monday this week, Deanne challenges us to use a stencil. See her post and all the gorgeous Design Team inspiration cards here. I had a Christmas stencil propped on my box of Stickles - a yummy Tim Holtz stencil, THS029 Festive. I decided I'd waiting long enough to try embossing paste so got out my jar from Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi and did the stencil on watercolor paper. Once dry I painted the raised images with Distress Stains and Paints and sprintzed with water, then added more layers of stain. The result - a strip of embossed water color paper that I didn't really like!! But, we have no mistakes in crafting, right? Just opportunities to repurpose! So....I punched two circles from the strip and used the one I liked best for this card. 

Here's the card:

The doily is a Silhouette cut from Lori Whitlock called 1 pc doily (ID #28268). I cut it from Hero Arts Grenadine layering paper (more red than the photo suggests) and I formed a 4.25" square card with another piece of it. The background paper is from Graphic 45's Twas the Night before Christmas 8x8 pad. I cut two Impression Obsession Pine Branch diecuts from two shades of Bazzill cardstock to add behind the doily. The ribbon is from May Arts and the metal accents on the berries are from Hero Arts.

That's it for today; thanks for stopping and have a great week!!

More embossing

What a beautiful May Saturday! Instead of enjoying the great outdoors, I was supposedly cleaning up the craft stuff strewn all over, just in time for Mother's Day!! Instead, while organizing some embossing folders, a Christmas tree caught my eye and off I went to make another card for this week's Merry Monday challenge. Oh well, I can clean up later....

I stamped the card with a Hero Arts/Basic Grey cling stamp called Notebook Paper. The embossing folder is from Sizzix - I used some Gemstones Core'dination card stock to dry emboss the tree, then swiped Distress Inks over it (Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles). After fussy cutting it, I dded some gems and string twine and popped it onto a card with foam tape. Then I put some Basic Grey Evergreen paper on the bottom edge and added a sentiment banner. The banner and sentiment stamps came from Hero Arts - a clear set called Banners and Messages. Here's the card: 

Well, I was glad to get another Christmas card done this week, even at the expense of my chores. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!!

Time to EMBOSS!!

Hi everyone - it's another Merry Monday challenge - this time from Bonnie. Bonnie wants us to use any kind of embossing on our cards. I just love embossing and have oodles of yummy Christmas folders for dry embossing. Heating embossing powder always gives me a thrill too - such fun to see the powder melt!! Here's my card:

I used a Hero Arts/Sizzix stamp and embossing folder set called Joy Merry. It's very subtle but the dry embossing is around the Joy & Merry. I highlighted it with a Copic and also clear embossed the Barn Door Distress ink on just the Joy & Merry. I finished the card with some May Arts ribbon and string twine, plus some Jolee holly.

Thanks for stopping and be sure to check out all the fun at Merry Monday!

Happy 60th Mom & Dad!

Just had to do a post for my parents' 60th wedding anniversary today - congrats, Mom & Dad!! Since the 60th is the diamond anniversary, I cut a diamond shape and then 2 mats for the card base using the Silhouette (design by Jamie Koay). The beauty of the Silhouette is the ability to resize and reshape as desired - it this case, I elongated the diamond and mats from the original. I used clear embossing ink and sparkly embossing powder on the diamond shape. The banner and birdies are from Lawn Fawn (bannerific clear set) and the sentiment and #s are by Hero Arts. I hand lettered the "th" for the 60th. Here's the card:

Besides sending happy wishes to my parents, I thank them for a loving home and for raising me and my siblings to be strong, independent people. Here's to many more years together!!

An inspiring Scramble!

Hi all - hope you're having a crafty weekend! I'm back home from AZ with all my crafty supplies around me, plus some new additions I brought home.

Today we had another Scramble over on the Hero Arts Flickr group. Kanan hosted and she had three lovely sample cards to provide inspiration. I chose the card where she made her own background with flower stamps, then added a sentiment label. Here's my card:

I started with a Shallows folded card by Hero Arts, then stamped all over the front using flowers and foliage from a Stamp & Cut set called Flowers - love this one! The label is from a Hero Arts for Archiver's exclusive Stamp & Cut set called Happy Greetings. It includes the label stamp, plus die, the word HAPPY and a few finishing phrases. I was working on Mother's Day cards today, so this worked perfectly! Oooo - and I got to use the April Tim Holtz Distress ink, Fossilized Amber, which arrived while I was in AZ. I used all the other new colors, plus some old faves too.

Hey Virginia - I got my MISTI finally!!!! What a fun product - I just LOOOOOVE it! It really made creating this background easy!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the weekend!!