Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Mother's Day

As I make Mother's Day cards, I've been looking to Pinterest for inspiration.  I found a card I loved.  {Here is the original blog post.} I loved the rips and the color scheme so I tweaked a few things and here is my card:

I'm entering this card in the following two challenges:
The Paper Players have a Mother's Day theme.
And Annabelle Stamps has an Anything goes them.

How it's made:
I stamped the grass and stems with a set from Annabelle Stamps.
The flowers are from a punch with a touch of glitter in the center.
The green ribbon is from Michael's.
And the text is from Stampin Up!  This was my first time stamping on ribbon and I love how it turned out!

Thanks for swinging by!

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Pet sympathy card

I had a request to make a sympathy card for someone who recently lost their pet cat.  I went to one of my favorite blog challenges, The Paper Players for inspiration and really liked this layout:


And here is my card:

The base is pink cardstock.
The brown layer is embossed in a wood pattern. (LOVE this embossing folder!)
The pink strip is embossed with leaves.
I printed: "Faithful friends like Madison leave paw prints on our hearts." from my computer.
I stamped the cat and colored it in.
"So sorry for your loss" is a Hero Arts clear stamp and I LOVE how they stamp.
Finished with a flower and a pearl.

Thanks for swinging by!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Airplane Birthday

Entering this card in the following two challenges:
Allsorts: Things With Wings
Less is More: Up in the Air

How perfect!!!
I had a card order for a little boy who was turning 7 and loves jets.
To start, I went through my stash and found this cute airplane diecut so built the card around that.

The base is blue card stock.
The white layer is embossed with dots that I rubbed ink over.
I stamped "Happy Birthday" directly on that.  (It's an acrylic set I got at Michael's.)
I put stickers on the airplane to look like windows and they have the birthday boy's name.
I added his age on the tail.  
The big cloud was traced from a stencil.  The small cloud I cut free hand.  I dabbed ink on them too and I used pop dots under them to make them stand out.
That's it for a nice personalized birthday card.

Thanks for swinging by!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

15 years of service

Freshly Made Sketches has a layout that I loved so used it for inspiration today.  I had an order from someone who wanted a card for her amazing husband.  He is celebrating 15 years in the Navy!  Congrats to him!  

Here is the template to use:
I am also thrilled to show off my first card using one of my Dad's sketches!  I live near a Navy town and knew I would have orders for those hard working sailors!  I asked my Dad to help me out because of copyright issues and he really delivered!  I super love this fun "hat's off to you" sketch!  How perfect for this occasion!

How it's made:
I printed the bowing submarine on white paper. 
I used watercolor pencils for the water then used a big circle punch to cut it out.
The "THANKS..." text is from Stampin Up!   
"15" are Creative Memories stickers and I printed "years" from my computer.  I used a circle punch afterwards and then a a slightly bigger circle in blue.  A metal brad holds them in place on the red strip.
Hard to see in the pic, but there are black dots running up along the left side of the circles too.

Thanks for swinging by!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day

Three of my favorite cardmaking challenge blogs have nice Valentine's Day themes so I wanted to submit my card to these great sites towards their fun themes:

Sentimental Sundays... Love is in the Air
Gingerloft wants to see the color red.
Allsorts has a Valentine's Day challenge. 

Here is a card I made for someone to give to her husband:

The base is a light brown.
I stamped "I love you" in red ink for the background.
I punched a heart in the red paper, layering it on black.
The red layer has distressed edges.
I used a gel pen to make the stitching and initials on the heart.
"be my Valentine" is from a new to me block magnetic set of many words that I recently bought.  I stamped it on the same red paper.  Then cut it out and glued on the red layer just to give it some dimension.
Tied it together with twine before gluing down to the base.

Sometimes my cards seems simple but they can have many steps!  I enjoyed putting this one together.
Thanks for swinging by!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Welcome new baby!

I had two friends give birth to their baby girls today.  I had been limiting my time on Facebook til today when I trolled their profiles waiting for news and pictures!  haha!  How fitting that "Celebrating the new" is the theme over at Sentimental Sundays.  I made their cards the same, just tweaking the specifics of course.

I was inspired by this amazing design that I originally saw on Pinterest.  It's a gorgeous wall hanging but I thought it'd be nice for a card.  I don't have a design background so just did this is a Word doc and played around with it til it was sized the way I wanted.

From there I layered it on green paper, then on patterned paper and finally onto the purple card base.  I love the simplicity of this card and hope the mommas do too.

Thanks for swinging by!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

With Sympathy card

The Paper Players have a sympathy card challenge so I wanted to submit this card. 

The base is turquoise cardstock with a layer of patterned paper.
I printed "With Sympathy" from my computer.
The flowers are from a new Nestability die I bought.  I attached two together with a brad.  A touch of ribbon and the card is complete.

Thanks for swinging by!



Sunday, January 27, 2013

Anchor love

"Love is in the air" is the challenge over at GingerloftChallenge

Here's a card I made for someone who calls her Navy husband "Baby".


I printed the inside from my computer and it says: "You are my anchor and my love!  Happy Valentine's Day".

The card is made on red cardstock.
The white layer is embossed.
The anchor was a die cut in my stash.
The hearts were from a Stampin Up! punch.
'Baby' and 'I love you' are two different stamps I own.
Put it all together for a lovely personalized Valentine's Day card.

Thanks for swinging by!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

A helicopter owned by Mary

Allsorts is having a challenge to make a masculine card.  I am so excited to share one that I made this week!

I received an order to make cards with helicopters on them from one of my husband's coworkers.  One of the problems with shifting from making cards for personal use to selling them, is that I can not use many online graphics because of their terms of use.  (can't sell)

I am VERY excited to share this card.  My husband TOOK this photo with his iPhone.  I then edited it in a free online program called PicMonkey to make it look like a painting!  I am thrilled with the results.  This makes it easier to print on my inkjet printer.  I own this photo and therefore can tweak it anyway I want.  Glorious!

Photo owned by Mary Newman. 
I layered it on blue cardstock.  Stamped "Thinking of You" on brown paper and ripped the edges.  I then stapled it to that layer of paper before gluing it to my grey base.  Staples are a great way to make a card look more masculine.

The inside has a layer of white with blue edging to coordinate with the front and make the card heavier.  I like the feel of a card with substance.  I love this card!!

Thanks for swinging by!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Baby elephant

A friend of mine just had a baby on Monday and here is her card:


I printed the sentiment from my computer.  I added lace around that paper then mounted it on a pink base.  I fed ribbon through the buttons and tied them.  Glue dots work great to hold buttons in place.

The elephant was made from punches.  I searched online for ideas but didn't see any that I wanted to use so I came up with my own style.  Many people use circle punches for the body and head.  The butterfly punch is great for ears.  I trimmed an oval, also from a punch for the legs.  I added liquid pearls for the toes.  The trunk is cut from a large circle and then trimmed up a bit.  I finished it off with some googly eyes and a simple mouth.

This is for a very special girl and I am praying for her health and for her Momma's quick recovery.  I am entering it in a challenge over at "Our Daily Bread Designs".  It's my first time playing with them and this week's challenge is to make a card for child.  How perfect!

Thank you for swinging by!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Get well soon

I love Pinterest for getting ideas for cards!  I saw this great tissue box linked from this cardmaker:

I loved the idea of real tissue peeking out so I did a very simple version.  Mine isn't 3D but gives the same effect.  I cut a simple rectangle from a pretty patterned paper.  I used a knife to cut a slit, folded a small square of tissue and tucked it in.


I stamped "Get Well Soon" in Stampin Up! ink - Not Quite Navy (one of my most used colors).
The base of the card is a nice linen paper.  I did the simple inside to match the front.


The lighting isn't great but it should be white, not pink.  
I really love the feel of this card. Simple and to the point.  I'm submitting it to the challenge over at The Paper Players per this sketch below.  



Thanks for swinging by!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Yoda birthday

My little cardmaking business is picking up and although I am still in shock that people like my cards, I am super flattered at the same time!  I have 6 customers and 36 cards for this month alone!  So fun!  (For more samples of my cards, you can visit my Facebook page.  The link is on the right column of my blog.)

One of my orders was for a Star Wars birthday card for a 7-year old boy.  Here is the card I made.  Notice the 7's in the background.  (My daughter thought they were arrows.)


I searched Google and Pinterest for inspiration.
I got the cloak idea from here.
I used this nose and mouth as a guide.
And the rest I came up with on my own or from various sources.
I cut the light saber freehand from fluorescent and black paper.  Added a couple lines on the handle too with a silver pen.
Circle punch for the head and window punch for the arms was pretty common in my searches.
But I thought of punching a small heart for the ears.  I just cut it in half.


I looked at my son's Star Wars book for Yoda's hands.  He only has three fingers so I trimmed a flower made from this punch!

The inside was printed from my computer and says: 
Happy Birthday Jedi Daniel
Good one it will be...  Yes!


Time to get back to crafting but I wanted to share this cute little guy!
I am entering it in the challenge "Dies & Punches" at Allsorts.

Thanks for swinging by!