Inlaid Butterflies

Today's card is simple, but I really liked the way it came out.  And it's already in the mail to a good friend's mother and should brighten her day.

I simply cut the die (DoCrafts Wildflower Beauty) four times, first out of black cardstock then out of three different color paper from an old 6x6 Recollections paper pad (Michaels).  I just inlaid all the colored pieces back into the black frame.  It did take a bit of time, but was easy to do.  I then layered it over a stitched rectangle and vellum and onto a grey card.

Thanks for visiting!

A Dress Die? No Way!

Many online papercraft supply companies will sometimes send a "freebie" along with your order.  Sometimes this is something cool and useful, sometimes not so much.  My friend Jan recently received this dress die as a "freebie".

We got a real chuckle because it seemed like such a strange die.  We just couldn't imagine that many people felt the need to purchase this - maybe that's why it was a "freebie".  But I do love a good challenge when it comes to card making, so I thought I'd try to use it in non-conventional ways.  I was able to make two cards.

For this first card I cut several "dresses" from two different yellow colored cardstock, inked the edges just a bit with distress inks and combined with some leaves and a brown scribble diecut to create a big flower.

For my second card I diecut the dress from both black and a multi colored glittery cardstock, layered together and tied with black twine around the middle to create a couple of butterflies.

For both cards I layered my "faux-dress" elements over patterned paper and added a hello diecut from Impression Obsessions.  Maybe they're not my favorite cards ever, but I DID meet the challenge to use this die in a very different way.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Crafters for a Cause and My Favorite Things Summer School

Several weeks ago two of my cardmaking friends and I each purchased a box of goodies from "Crafters for a Cause".  This was a hurricane relief fund raiser through Simon Says Stamp.  For making a $50 donation, you received a box of goodies valued at $100, and your entire donation went to hurricane relief.  Living here in Florida hurricanes are a big part of our life.  Last year we dealt with evacuating and power outages that lasted nearly a week.  So, this seemed like such a great idea.

My friends and I get together about once a month and have started participating in our own "challenges".  One of us comes up with a challenge, and we each need to make a card putting our own spin on that particular idea.

Earlier this summer My Favorite Things Stamps had what they called "summer school".  This was an online explanation of 5 different card design concepts and a call for participants to make cards using these concepts and post them online.  The 5 concepts were white space, repetition, symmetry, primary colors and complimentary colors.

We were too late to participate in "summer school", but my friends and I decided to combine these concepts with our challenge and our Crafters for a Cause boxes.  So, our challenge was to make 5 cards using these concepts but each one also had to use something from our boxes.  This turned out to be harder than we first thought.  Some of our boxes were WAY better than others.  Dee was lucky, her box was the best.  Poor Jan, her box was definitely the least desirable.  Mine, was sort of in between.  But, we did have a lot of fun, and each made a donation for hurricane relief.

Here are the cards we made.  I'm sorry the picture quality isn't good.

First up, Dee's cards.

And here are Jan's cards.

And here's mine.  Of course I had to sneak a few pugs onto my cards.  I actually made 6 of each of the pug cards because they will be sold at Pugsgiving (in the fall) to raise money for Pug Rescue of Florida.

Now, lets just hope for a very quiet remainder of the hurricane season.

Thanks for visiting today!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th!  I have two simple cards to share today, both the same design, just using different patterned papers.

Both the stamps and the dies are from PaperTrey Ink.  Here's a close up so you can see the sparkle of the glitter paper peeking out all those tiny holes.

Have a great day!

Penny Black, Beach Day

Today I have a fun card to share using the Penny Black Beach Day stamp set.  This card was made for my sister who loves the beach more than just about anything.  I think she did love this card.

And here's the inside of the card.

This card was so much fun to make.  All the images were stamped on Neenah solar white and colored with Copics.  I used real sandpaper (from the hardware store) for the beach and a die from My Favorite Things.  I've found that if you use a fine grit sand paper it die cuts great.  It does leave a little sand residue on your cutting plates, but that cleans up with a baby wipe.  I also used some handmade paper (very old, in my stash) for the water.  The inside sentiment was computer generated.

Thanks for visiting today!

Alcohol Inks and Gold Foil

Today's card was kept simple to show off the beautiful background paper made with Alcohol inks and Gold Foil.

A few weeks ago my friend Jan and I got together and played around with a technique using alcohol inks on Yupo paper and adding gold accents with gold foils.  We did create some beautiful backgrounds.  Each one was so unique.  I haven't had a chance to turn any of them into cards yet but I will definitely share them in the future.  This card uses a background Jan had made previously using the same technique.  When I first saw it I thought it was so beautiful and really needed to be the focus of the card.  I added a happy birthday and balloon diecut from shiny gold metallic paper and a little gold thread and that was it.  Simple, but I really liked it.

In the second picture you can see a little more of the shine from the gold foil.  It really is stunning in real life.  I also used a PaperTrey Ink envelope liner die to add coordinating gold to the inside of my envelope.  I really, really LOVE this envelope liner die and think all of my cards will now have lined envelopes. 

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day.

One More Father's Day Card

I have one more father's day card to share.  This one was made for my husband who really is the best dad ever.  I know I'm a bit late in posting this, but life has been very crazy lately.  And this post will need to be really short, or I'm afraid it might not get posted at all.

This card uses two dies from Paper Trey Ink.  The "dad" die was cut from Barc real wood paper.  This wood paper die cuts great and gives so much texture to simple or last minute cards.  I confess, I didn't make this until the night before Father's Day.  I'm usually way more on top of things, but I think I have a good excuse - our daughter is getting married next week.  I do have a few more cards that I've done recently.  With a little luck I'll get them posted in the next couple days, but no promises.

Hope you have a great day!