A Lovely Anniversary

I honestly don't know "why" I wanted to use this image for this couple as they live on the outskirts of a large city and have never lived in the country. I guess my mind works in mysterious ways LOL!

I think the true inspiration for this card was actually on High Hopes website for use of the release but I had to go to the maker's site to find it again! http://6wackywomen.blogspot.com/2009/03/down-on-farm.html How gorgeous is that card! I just wish I had read her blog entry about time consuming before I attempted mine! LOL - I know mine isn't even a patch on the original but that was my inspiration. I did think about doing a stair step card, however as this was going in the international postal system I thought it would probably make it too uneven for the journey. Because I put a little bitty bow on it I already had to put bubble wrap on it! - so I hope it gets to its destination relatively undestroyed.


Ingredients

• Card size - 8.5in x 5.5 in
• Cardstock - base and mat HobbyLobby textured; Neenah Solar White; Georgia Pacific
• Stamps - High Hopes Stamps; Clear Dollar Stamps (crayon alphabet also used for internal greeting)
• Ink - Palette noir; Memento Lady bug, Rose bud ; Copic multiliner black
• Color - Copics (0, B00, B12, B93, B95, B97, C-1, C-3, C-5, E00, E02, E29, E31, E33, E35, E37, G000, G17, G21, G28, G85, G94, G99, R22, R27, R29, RV000, RV02, RV21, RV28, Y11, Y15, Y17, Y21, Y28)

Erin's Baby Shower decorations, "cake" and card

I have had loads of fun recently with a baby shower my aunts were hosting. One of my aunts said that they had divided up the jobs and she was doing food and decorations - I said "well, for goodness sake don't buy anything without checking with me because I have loads of paper/cardstock and I have a Cricut so I can probably make something more personal than what you can buy. So she just left me to it. The directions were it had to be "pink"!!!! Cue big smilie face and the cobwebs being blown off my creative brain!!!

My biggest concern with the space is that we had a wall of mirrors to contend with. I don't know about you but most people I know don't like to look at themselves THAT much so I cut decorations to cover the mirrors! The pink shamrocks are because Daddy is very proud of his Irish heritage so it just had to be done with a bit of creative license. Personally though I am really happy with "thinking" about doing baby blocks for the name - I haven't seen it done before though I'm sure I'm not the first.

Ingredients - decorations

• 2 packs of 11 x8.5 cardstock from Michaels collection - I wanted 12x12 but they didn't have it in the colors I needed.
• Hobby Lobby textures white cardstock for blocks
• Pearlescent Wassau cardstock for blocks
• Cartridges - Home Decor, Plantin Schoolbook and PaperDolls
  

I also had to think about my card and present.

I decided to do a diaper cake from watching several tutorials on YouTube but changed things up a bit - I love this tutorial because it uses clothes pins to hold the diapers together and rolled so I didn't have to go source a lot of rubber bands and after you got the hang of it, it was pretty simple to put together this is the video I used for my main source of inspiration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfwaaNjxUhY . I also only used a pack of 48 diapers as I had purchased a receiving blanket 4 pack off the mother's baby list and used one for the inside of the base and then the rest around the outside. Then I thought what is a Baby Girl Cake without loads of roses so I put loads of little sock roses all over the cake too! and then added a some teething rings, rattle, bath toy and the top layer is a onesie I printed with my Cricut using these instructions http://cleversomeday.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/freezer-paper-shirt-video/

Ingredients - cake

• 48 size 2 Huggies diapers
• 4 receiving blankets
• 6 diaper pins
• 8 pairs of girl socks individually made into "roses"
• Ribbon from Michaels
• Teething ring
• Bath "duck" that measures water temperature
• baby rattle that attaches to stroller/carseat

Now for the main purpose - my card!

I really bought this High Hopes stamp to use for Baby Showers because I like to have multi-function stamps. So I just had to use it and as it turn out one of the shower games was animals and what their babies are called - at least I got the Kangaroo one right!

The inside reads "can't wait to meet your Bouncing Baby Girl"

Ingredients - card

• DCWV - prescored card and envelope, cardstock for mat
• Neenah Solar White for stamping
• High Hopes stamp
• Memento rose bud ink, Palette Noir
• Copics - didn't get the numbers sorry folks but I will say I am thinking they were E29, E31, E33, E35, E37 and RV00, RV21, RV23 though I really that is really a guess from what I put away yesterday!
• Nestabilities - rectangles and scallop rectangles
• Small brad "buttons"

I have a few more projects I'm just getting done but wanted to share this one. Hope you like!

Graduations are like buses...

you seem to wait forever then three come at once . Yes, I know it is graduation season however, I didn't know "I" needed to make any graduation cards until last week. How do I miss these things. So anyone this one for my mother to send my cousin from "the family".


My thinking behind the card is that college graduations tend toward black mortar boards and tassels and then I used the school's colors which are supposed to be deep purple and gold... well this is my take on that.


I just want to know one thing... when will I ever learn to leave well enough alone. I was going for the nice crisp look but then I somehow decided that the embossing needed to be "highlighted" I wish I had stopped before I did it but I didn't and definitely didn't have time for a re-do - so lesson hopefully learnt this time. I'm not upset at what the card looks like just that I didn't stop to get the look I wanted to achieve. On a positive note, I have two more graduation cards to practice "stopping" at the right time.


Ingredients

• Card size - 5.5in x 8.5in
• Cardstock - Bazzill, Neenah,
• Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps
• Ink - Memento, Brilliance
• Cuttlebug and Scor-Pal embossing

Kitchen Sink Stamps Roses for Mother's Day

I love the multi-step stamps from Kitchen Sink Stamps. These are just no exception, once I stamp with them I can almost smell them. I love how subtle and elegant these stamps can be and I hope my card does them justice. In the past I used to send my mother flowers from half way around the world. Mom's present this year is a bigger project we are doing for her but I didn't want her to be without her flowers and to know we really love her.

Ingredients

• Card Size - 5.5 in by 8.5 in
• Cardstock - DCWV, Neenah Solar White, Michaels
• Stamps - 3 step Hearts & Roses and Whole Family
• Ink - Memento
• Border punch - Martha Stewart
• Ribbon - Michael's

British Invasion in a card!

I made this card for the Inkafriends gallery. I just had this image of using this stamp set to express my love of British Music from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen, Led Zepplin, Sparks, Duran Duran, Wham, Depeche Mode, Wet Wet Wet, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Blur, Oasis, Stereophonics, Robbie Williams, Radiohead, Gorillaz, Muse, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, and you will probably even find me singing along with the Ting Tings.

Well you get the idea LOL.

The card itself is a single layer with masking. First, I stamped the guitars and the "You Rock!" and colored with Copics. The next step was to create two guitar masks, one "You Rock!" mask and two long strips of paper masks to help make the Union Flag reference. I stamped the light blue winged skull images first and I eye-balled the placement. Then I stamped the darker blue stars to layer the look even more. Next it was time to take off the strips of paper masks and stamp the border to create the red lines.

I really enjoyed making this card and hope you like it and it inspires you to do something musical with your stamps!

Ingredients

• Card Size - 5.5 in x 8.5 in
• Stamps - Inkadinkado
• Inks - Palette, Memento
• Color - Copic markers
• Cardstock - Georgia Pacific, Archiver's

Cricut - Noah's Ark Name Frame

I'm a huge fan of Noah's Ark and pictures and trinkets. I love the animals. I love the boat. I love the story itself. So when I saw this post on the Cricut Message board I had to make something with the idea and then my mother told me about our friend's son "Noah" making his first communion. WooHoo! I had a project I wanted to make and reason to make it! The perfect storm!

The animals and waves are from the Animal Kingdom. The name is from Plantin Schoolbook. The house of the ark is from My Community and the boats are from Walk in My Garden (they are beehives turned upside down and stretched in DS).


Size is 20 in by 8 in.


Critical eye - the water in the goldfish bowl shouldn't be the same color as the wave it aligns with!


Ingredients

• Frame from Michaels
• Cardstock - Bazzill, DCWV
• Cartridges - Animal Kingdom, Printing 101, Walk In My Garden, My Community
• Penwork - Copic multiliner
• Twine

I have also posted this on the Cricut Messageboard and the picture has come out larger there if you want a closer look. http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=4567671

You Quack me up Birthday Girl!

We got the invite to the party in the late morning for a party that evening so I had to think/create/panic/think quick. If you know me, then you know that isn't my usual style at all. I think it came together ok, though I wish I could have just found some solid cardstock in the blue. I didn't want to run the risk of the blue on the orange looking horrible as I didn't have time for a "re-do" and wanted it to look fresh rather than distressed.

All the stamps are Clear Dollar Stamps. I just had a play with some of the images that were speaking to me and I thought I could put together quickly.

Hope you like.

Ingredients

• Size - 5.5 in x 8.5 in
• Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps
• Ink - Memento, Palette (black)
• Color - Copics
• Cardstock- Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Georgia Pacific, Bazzill
• Ribbon - Michael's