Good News ! My Etsy Shop Is Open

I have some great news! My Etsy shop VJBcards is now open.  So, please check it out.  There are two things I am very passionate about - sharing my cardmaking and pugs.  More importantly helping rescued pugs.  The non profit Pug Rescue of Florida is a terrific organization of many, many compassionate and dedicated volunteers trying to help rescued pugs. And so I am combining my two loves with my Etsy shop.  For each and every card sold that features a pug I will donate $2 to Pug Rescue of Florida.  I am really hoping to help raise money to help the pugs!  So, please visit my Etsy shop. Click on this link VJBcards or go to Etsy.com and enter VJBcards under search.

Today I'm sharing just a couple of the cards that are for sale on my Etsy shop  VJBcards.  Please check it out. I have many cards available to purchase, and will be adding more in often.

 Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!

Thanks in cork

Today I'm sharing a card with no stamping, only diecuts, using cork for the sentiment.

I began with a piece of diecut patterned paper, layered onto a pink mat and onto my card front.  I diecut the sentiment twice, out of cork and pink cardstock and slightly offset one on top of the other.  A few pink flowers were added and black gem centers.  These were mounted on top of a white fishtailed flag piece and onto the card.  I do love the pop of pink with all the neutrals (white, kraft and black).

My tip today - Try cork for instant texture.  You can find cork sheets, cork ribbon, cork with adhesive backing, cork dots for embellishing, etc.

Supplies used include:
Paper (Recollections adhesive backed cork sheet, unknown patterned paper)
Dies (My Favorite Things Fishtail Flags, Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles, Painted Thanks and Mini Flowers & Leaves)
Other (BBP Blackbird Gems)

Avery Elle Floral Frame

Today's card was made for my sister-in-law's birthday, and uses a very beautiful floral stamp set from Avery Elle.

I started with a watercolor paper panel, gold embossed the flower frame and colored with zigs.  I also embossed a few individual flowers, and fussy cut after coloring them.  The sentiment was also embossed in gold - the embossing shows more in this detail photo.  In real life it's very beautiful.

 

After die cutting the panel with stitched edging, I foam mounted the individual flowers for a bit of dimension. I then added a gold glitter strip to the edge, layered onto some pretty patterned paper and onto my card front.  Simple, beautiful, elegant.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!

Supplies used include:
Paper (Canson Watercolor paper, My Favorite Things Tranquil Textures 6x6, DCWV Gold Glitter paper)
Stamps (Avery Elle Floral Frames, Simon Says Stamp Birthday Flowers for the sentiment)
Dies (Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles)
Ink (Versamark)
Coloring (Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers)
Other  (Wow Metallic Gold Rich Pale Embossing Powder, Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D foam squares)

A modern butterfly birthday

Today I'm sharing a card made for a friend (who makes beautiful cards herself) who once said butterfly cards remind her of "old lady cards".  So I wanted to do a more modern take on a butterfly card.

  

I started by applying embossing paste through a stencil onto a diecut cardstock panel.  While waiting for this to dry I diecut two happy panels, layered black cardstock between, and stamped birthday below the happy.  After the embossing paste dried I mounted the happy panel on top with foam squares for dimension, and added a rainbow of tiny diecut butterflies.

My tip today - Embossing paste adds great dimension, comes in both matte and glossy and can be colored with many inks.  Just always wash your stencil and work surface immediately, once dry it's really hard to remove.  Painter's tape works great to secure both your cardstock and stencil in place.  Removing a bit of the tapes stickiness first (by sticking it to your arm and then remove) will keep it from tearing your paper.  When removing the tape, pull it back onto itself at a 45 degree angle. This  will also help to prevent tearing. And using a "heavier" cardstock helps to prevent warping when using embossing paste.

Thanks for visiting, and Happy Birthday Dee!

Supplies used include:

Paper (Neenah Solar White 80 and 110 lb cardstock, scraps of colored cardstock)

Stamps (Mama Elephant Happy Everything, for "birthday")

Dies (Reverse Confetti Happy Pretty Panels Confetti Cuts, Impression Obsession butterflies dies, Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles)

Ink (Hero Arts Black Dye Ink)

Other (Heidi Swap Stencil stripes, Dreamweaver White matte embossing paste, Scrapbook Adhesives thin 3D foam squares)

remembering nana, with flowers

Today I'm sharing a card made to remember "nana" (my mother-in-law), one of  the kindest persons I've known.  Flowers will always remind me of her.  Every year for our birthdays she would always give us each a small check.  I would put mine aside and throughout the year I would buy myself fresh flowers (because I LOVE flowers) - just an inexpensive bouquet from the grocery. And I would always tell her "thank you nana".  My husband would joke when he saw the flowers "are those thank you nana flowers?"  I would think of her throughout the year and she would also know throughout the year that her gift made me happy.  With her passing I still find myself occasionally buying flowers and saying to myself "thank you nana".  So today's card is to remember her.  It's been a year, and she is greatly missed.

I folded a scalloped edge circle die to form a flower cone, tied with a ribbon scrap and mounted onto a piece of die cut patterned paper.  The flowers were saved and dried from nana's service. 

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies used include:
Paper (patterned paper from Chickaniddy crafts)
Dies (Sizzix scalloped edge circles, Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles)
Other (multi-medium matte to attach the flowers)

Two Love Birds

Today I'm sharing an anniversary card made using a borrowed stamp (thanks Jan!) called "Two Love Birds".

I stamped the image onto watercolor paper and colored with Zigs.  I also stamped the image onto several different scraps of patterned paper and fussy cut the rose, leaves, birds and wings.  All pieces were colored with a black marker to hide imperfections in the fussy cutting.  These were then paper pieced onto the watercolored piece.  Since this image was longer than would fit onto a standard A2 card front, I needed to make my card longer and narrower also, resulting in a card 3 3/4 by 7 3/4 inches.  Using both a rectangle and scalloped border die I partially cut the watercolored piece from each end resulting in a piece that was long and narrow.  This was then layered onto a patterned paper rectangle and then the card front. I added a bit of Wink of Stella to the rose and small hearts for shimmer and some red Stickles to the dots of the large heart.  Finished!

My tip today - Using the partial die cutting technique you can create pieces to fit custom size cards.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Supplies used include:
Paper (Canson Watercolor paper, unknown patterned paper)
Stamps (Woodware Two Love Birds)
Ink (Hero Arts Black Dye Ink)
Dies (Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle, Lawn Fawn Scalloped Borders)
Coloring (Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers)
Other  (Wink of Stella, Ranger Stickles)