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A Birthday Duo

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We'll be driving home today from my brother's. I'll be anxious to see what kind of progress has been made on the kitchen while we've been away. I nearly finished editing photos from our walks here, but Tracy and I decided to get our Alaska photo book finished while we were here and that took care of yesterday. Whew! Those photos are finally edited, and the book is ordered. I think I'm going to like it a lot, and although it took us the better part of a day working together on it, it is considerably faster than scrapping all those photos. I'll still be doing some scrapbook pages, but I'm excited to have something to share much more quickly.

Before we left I needed a couple of birthday cards. The first one is a "lift" of one I saw on the Papercraft site (not the blog). The very day I saw it, my Studio Calico kit arrived with the perfect stamp.

OhSnap

The inside sentiment was generated on the computer and says "I missed your birthday!"

BirthdayTag

This was another super simple card that I made with a tag that was laying on my desk for another project and didn't get used. I changed the ribbon and stamped a sentiment and it was done!

Supplies:
Oh, Snap:
Cardstock:  Select White, True Black, & Hawaiian Shores (PTI)
Stamps:  Studio Calico

Birthday Tag:
Cardstock:  Paper Source card
Patterned Paper:  Six by Six "Vanity Fair" (MME)
Slice: Vintage Findings design card (Making Memories)
Border Punch:  Martha Stewart
Ribbon from stash

Christmas Card Class

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Saturday, my friend and I drove to Buffalo to take a Memory Box Christmas card class. The class is taught by the store owner, but the card designs are Dave Brethaeur's, the owner and designer of Memory Box. I always like his stamps and designs, and we usually learn a technique or two while we're there. We completed (for the most part) six cards in about an hour and a half. Dave has created some terrific new dies, and we learned some tricks for cutting a stamped image precisely. That alone was worth the trip, although Dave's dies have some great little additions that you can mark with a pencil and line up for exact placement.

BirdStar

All the coloring on the cards was done with colored pencils. The star is one of the dies, and the background is a Memory Box patterned paper.

BirdCape

Now that I've taken a photo of this, I'm wondering if I assembled it incorrectly. Whatever, I don't like the orientation of the bird, so I'll be taking this one apart and putting it back together.

PolarBear

It's impossible to tell, but the cardstock is a beautiful, shimmery brown. The polar bear was punched from a 12X12 sheet of patterned paper, and distressed around the edges.

SnowflakeBorder

Also hard to tell from the photo is the fact that the ribbon on this card is a thick velvet, and that beautiful border is a die cut.

  Ornament

I liked the addition of the rhinestones to the ornament. Just the right amount of bling.

Reindeer

I love the way this one was created. We die cut the leaves from the stamped and die cut journaling card, and put a green piece of paper behind it. The antlers were die cut from the same shimmery brown paper we used in the earlier card. Then the stamped and die cut reindeer was "popped up" on the card. Here's a close-up:

ReindeerClose

After our class, we met my niece, Grace, at a new restaurant called Mezza for lunch. The food was wonderful, and we had a lovely time. I totally forgot to take photos!!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Garden Glory

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This week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World gave me an opportunity to use my new Bloom Builders #3 die. As soon as I saw this delightful image, I knew what I wanted to do.

Garden Glory

I used Papertrey's Background Basics: Retro stamped in Brilliance Thyme to mimic the pattern in the chair cover and the color from the gorgeous flower pillow for the flower on the card. The center of the flower is an old button from La-Di-Dah. I often struggle to line up the background images, but this time it lined up perfectly the first time. A sentiment from Teresa Collins Celebrate finished it off.

TuesdayTrigger

Card Making

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I'm not getting as much crafting time as I like these days. I seem so busy, but at the end of the day there doesn't seem to be a lot of concrete evidence. I have, however, gotten some cards in the mail.

AnniversaryBJ

This was inspired by a much-more detailed card on Debbie Olsen's blog.

HarvestBerries

I'm really happy with this card. I don't often overstamp images, but I like how this came out. After I stamped the sentiment and the leaves, I overstamped with a background text stamp in Dazzle Versamark.

HarvestBerriesInside

I love how the sentiments from two different sets seem to complement one another.

HomeCard

I recently got the Teresa Collins' World Traveler 6X6 pad and couldn't wait to use the gorgeous papers.

Notepad

An accompanying notepad.

Dreams

I finally inked up my new "Happy Trails" set for this quick and easy birthday card for a friend.

InsideDreams

The inside was inspired by this card.

Supplies:
Happy Anniversary:
Cardstock:  Spring Rain (PTI)
Patterned paper: from stash
Stamps: Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts); Iconic Images (PTI)
Dies: Garden Variety (PTI)
Twine and Button: PTI

Harvest Berries:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream & Dark Chocolate (PTI)
Stamps:  Harvest Berries, Birthday Basics, Background: Text Style (PTI)
Cord:  Beaux Arts

Home Is Where the Heart Is-Card and Notepad:
Cardstock: Fine Linen & True Black (PTI)
Patterned paper:  World Traveler (Teresa Collins)
Stamps:  Love Lives Here & Take Note (PTI)
Twill, twine, button, & felt (PTI)
Dies:  Inverted Square (Lifestyle Crafts) & Half and Half -trimmed lengthwise (PTI)

Let Your Dreams:
Cardstock:  Simply Chartreuse (PTI)
Stamps:  Happy Trails (PTI)
Copic markers, Sakura glitter pen, corner rounder

Wish Upon a Star

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It's been a long time since I've participated in a challenge. I really like the sketch on the Simon Says Challenge blog, so I decided to pull out some new papers as well as some new dies and give it a go. Here's the sketch:

Doc9

And here's my card, ready for a September 5th birthday:

WishUpon

I used the new Lifestyle Craft Nested Stars for the main image, creasing them from the points to the center to give them a bit of dimension. For the sentiment, I used the LSC nested scalloped rectangle, and trimmed it to fit the sketch. The papers are all from MME "Lost and Found: Rosy" 6X6 paper pad. The sentiment is PTI's "Star Prints," and the cool "pyramid stud" is from 7 Gypsies that came in a recent Studio Calico kit.

Happy Birthday

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A quick post of a birthday card I made last week for a friend. They invited us for dinner to help Bill celebrate his birthday. We're getting quite a few invitations for dinner now that we have just a sink in our kitchen. I'll be posting some photos of the kitchen redo later this week.

BillBD

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Kraft (PTI)
Patterned paper: Library Ledger (PTI); others from scrap drawer (Bo-Bunny and Simple Pages, I think)
Chipboard alpha:  American Crafts
Stamps: old wooden mount stamp (can't read the manufacturer's name)
Dies: Spiral Notebook Page (PTI)
Tab:  Basic Grey

Baby Album

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My son and his long-time friend, Betsy, are expecting a baby girl in October. Today was Betsy's baby shower. Her name will be Skyler Rose and I decided to make a first year baby album, based on the one I saw here on "pine is here." Most of the embellishments were stamped and cut out.I'm quite pleased with it, and I'm pretty sure Betsy is too.

I chose the papers based on the motif of the crib sheets and accessories Betsy chose on her registry:  brown with pink and green polka-dots. I'm a huge fan of polka-dots so I had lots of papers in my stash. The Nestability Label Eight is the perfect size for a wallet-size photo each month. I left the left-hand side empty so journaling or more photos can be added there. The pages that appear to be plain are actually white with tiny pink polka-dots. I didn't realize that they didn't show in the photos until I'd already put the album inside the gift box with the other presents.

Cover

1-2
3-4

5-6

7-8

  9-10
11-12

It's hard to tell from the double photos, but lots of little pink pearls were used as embellishments. I haven't had much luck recently with uploading bigger files so you can click on them for a closer look, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Here's the baby card that accompanied the album. The card base is a card from Impress Stamps that I've had for years and years. I love the pale pink vellum envelope that comes with them.

BabyCard

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Sweet Blush (PTI)
Patterned paper: Bitty Dots (PTI); others from SEI, Basic Grey, and a couple          unknowns
Chipboard alpha:  Basic Grey Chocolate
Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings & Baby Button Bits (PTI); Baby (Fiskars)
Dies: Small Scallop & Banner Builder (PTI); Labels Eight (Spellbinders)

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

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It's hard to believe I have a daughter who turns 31 today, but it's true. We'll be leaving the cruise ship and beginning the land portion of our Alaskan tour today, but I'm hoping I'll be able to get a phone call through to her. She knows I'm thinking of her, for sure! Here's the card she'll open today.

Sarah'sBD

And the inside greeting:

S'sBDInside

I found the Melissa Francis crown at CKC in June, so I knew I wanted to use that as the focal point. Sarah's not a fan of fussy cards, so I tried to keep it pretty clean and simple.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Royal Velvet (PTI)
Patterned Paper: Kioshi (Basic Grey)
Stamps:  Mat Stack 1 & Mat Stack 3 (PTI)
Die:  Small Classic Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
Resin Crown: Melissa Francis
Pearls:  Hero Arts

Holiday Gift Exchange

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It's been a busy week. Aside from packing for a rather lengthy vacation, we're also packing up our kitchen so the contractor can begin to rip out the ceiling and old cupboards while we're away. We've been driving to Consesus Lake every day to visit with Tracy's family. His mom has rented a cottage, and all of us try to gather for dinner (at least) every day. It's been over 90° every day this week, so it's been great to be at the lake. The last several years, we've taken the opportunity to draw names for the Christmas gift exchange during this week since everyone is together. I make gift tags, and if they want, the family can save them for the packages come December. (Mine is in a little dish on my dresser so I don't lose it!)

Here is this year's version:

HolidayGiftTags

I kept it pretty simple this year. I colored some Avery tags with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Broken China), punched some snowflakes and outlined them with a glitter pen, and added a coordinating gem. The snowflakes are popped out with a 3-D adhesive. The back was stamped with WPlus9's "All Occasion Tags."

This is probably my last blog post before we leave for Vancouver, BC and Alaska. It appears internet connections will be iffy, so I doubt that I'll be able to do much blog reading or commenting (not that I expect to have much time for that), and I'm quite sure posting will be a challenge. I'm hoping to keep up with Project 64, but we'll see how it goes. I do have a few posts pre-scheduled, and I'll be catching up with you on my return. We're very excited to be going on our first cruise, and to be going with good friends of over 25 years. Should be fabulous!

Fanatical About Botanical Challenge in the Moxie Fab World

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I have a card for the new Moxie Fab World challenge, botanicals. The Garden Variety stamps by Papertrey seem a perfect match for the Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden papers. Edited to add this to the Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge.

GardenVarietyMercy

The butterfly is part of the patterned paper, but I added some stamped grass to the bottom of the frame and some gems for some dimension.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Rustic White (Papertrey)
Patterned Paper: Butterfly Garden (Pink Paislee)
Stamps:  Garden Variety (Papertrey)
Die:  Seed Packet Frame (Papertrey)
Ribbon: Paper Source
Gems from stash

Embellish Nautical Challenge and Summer Card Camp

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Earlier in the spring, I was the lucky winner of a new stamp set from Craft's Meow called "It's a Shore Thing." When I saw the Embellish Nautical Color Challenge, I knew I'd found a way to use these cute stamps.

Nautical_ColorTrends

Although someone named the colors as brown, red, navy, and light blue, the darker blue is not quite navy in my book. Fortunately, I found an Adirondack ink pad (Stream) that was exactly the right color.

FloatBoat

This is Week 3 of Summer Card Camp, and I'm actually on track with my first card with the new color combination which seemed perfect for my niece's son who is turning two.

Week3-colors

Here's my card. I was happy to get to use these fun Papertrey Ink products.

Two

It's a bit hard to see but both the red mat and the taupe circle are cut and embossed with Nestabilities.

InsideTwo

Supplies:

You Float My Boat
Cardstock:  Neeah Solar White, Memory Box light blue
Patterned Paper: Bitty Stars (Papertrey) & clouds cut from Quite Contrary (MME)
Stamps:  It's a Shore Thing (Craft's Meow) & Tiny Treats: Valentine (Papertrey)
Light Blue marker:  Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen

Look Who's Turning Two
Cardstock:  Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Kraft (Papertrey) & scrap from stash
Patterned Paper: "Night Light Jack" (October Afternoon)
Nestabilities: Classic Rectangles & Small Classic Circles (Spellbinders)
Die:  By the Numbers (Papertrey)
Impression Plate: By the Numbers (Papertrey)
Stamps:  Birthday Bash & Big Birthday Wishes (Papertrey)
Twine: Pure Poppy (Papertrey)
Star punch; McGill

Celebrate with New Shoes

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FotoFlexer_Photo-CFC10

I thought it would be fun to play along with Casual Friday's challenge this week. I quickly found a shaped card I could cut with my Silhouette, and I know just who will get this card in the fall for her birthday.

HighHeels

The Silhouette cards come together so quickly. The only challenge on this one was to figure out how to get the sentiment on the inside. I printed the sentiment on coordinating cardstock on my computer and then used the "stencil" that was left after cutting the card to trace around the shoe. I handcut it and adhered it to the inside. The shoe was cut with white cardstock and then covered with patterned paper on the outside. I hand cut the high heel from more textured cardstock. The Prima flower was colored with a BG11 Copic marker and distressed with chalk inks. Wish I could wear shoes that look like this!

Rinda asked what kinds of adhesive I use on intricate die cuts. On this card, I used the Xyron sticker maker with repositionable adhesive. Frequently I use permanent adhesive, but I knew positioning all these die cuts would take more than one try. On this card, I used my American Craft This to That dotted tape runner. I've never found a tape runner I like as much as this one, so I always have a supply of them in the closet. For the leaf border, I just applied adhesive selectively along the border so some of it appears three-dimensional.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  American Craft & Memory Box
Patterned Paper: "Home Grown" (3 Bugs in a Rug)
Flower:  Prima
Chalk inks: Quick Quotes
Copics

Moxie Fab Border Challenge

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I have a more shabby chic card than usual for the current Moxie Fab Border Challenge that ends tomorrow, but I'm quite happy with it. The challenge asks that you use a border in an innovative way. I usually think of borders as going across the card horizontally or vertically, but in this case running the die cut border diagonally proved to be much more pleasing.

JustANote

 I started with a cream card and die cut the Leaf Border by Lifestyle Crafts from textured cardstock. I decided it needed a dark mat and used my favoriet dotted patterned paper by Bo Bunny. The sentiment is from Just Rite’s “Charmed” die cut with the matching dies from Spellbinders. I  distressed the mat with some chalk ink as well as the three Prima flowers. The green ribbon is from my stash.

Summer Card Camp

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This  is week 2 of the Summer Card Camp, and I've barely had time to read the pdfs, to say nothing of watch the videos. Hopefully, I'll get to the videos this afternoon or tomorrow. I do love this week's colors, so I had to sit down and get a couple of cards made. I already have receipients for both cards, so I "killed two birds with one stone," so to speak. Here are this week's colors:

Week2

They translate into Papertrey Inks cardstock easily:  Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Pure Poppy, Simply Chartreuse, and New Leaf so I decided to use up some scraps and do some die cutting.

Happy

For the first card, I die cut five words from the Wonderful Words die from Papertrey. In the photo, it's a bit hard to see the bright colors of the words. Here's the inside, stamped with Wonderful Words Additions.

InsideHappy

For the next card, I die cut five little houses from Love Lives Here (Papertrey Ink). It's one of my favorite dies. The sentiment is from the coordinating stamp set.

MyHome

The twine is from Divine Twine and the button from my stash. Here's the inside, also stamped with Love Lives Here.

InsideMyHome

Back to the To Do List. Have a great day!

 

Summer Card Camp Take 2

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Week1-colorsOne of my former fifth graders graduated from high school a week ago. I'm missing her party because we're traveling this weekend, but I wanted to get her card and gift to her before we left. The high school colors are pretty boring for a delightful young woman full of energy and enthusiasm, so I decided to use this week's camp colors to create a card for her.

HoorayForYou

For those of you in the class, you can easily see my inspiration from Kristina's card sketch and video. I wanted to try the faux stitching with the white gel pen, and was very pleased with how easy it was. It's something I'll use again for sure. Here's a peek at the inside:

InsideAmy

We're in Hyde Park for the holiday weekend visiting my brother and nieces. Last night was the New Paltz fireworks display, and I hoped to have some awesome photos from it. We got there early, asked where the fireworks would be set off, and got the tripod and camera set up for a site beyond some trees in the distance. Imagine our surprise when the fireworks erupted right over our heads! It was an awesome display, but we were far too close for any great photos. One of my nieces works for a local credit union and had 3-D glasses for the fireworks. They were amazing, turning the fireworks into kaleidoscope displays. It was lots of fun, but I'll have to wait for another opportunity for my fireworks assignment in the Night Photography class.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Select White, Hawaiian Shores (PTI)
Patterned Paper: Lime Twist (MME)
Stamps: Wonderful Words Additions, Star Prints, For the Graduate (PTI)
Dies:  Stars, Wonderful Words (PTI)
Pearls (Hero Arts)
Ink: Brilliance