Save the Date Card

In addition to making my brother's wedding invitations, I also offered to make their save the date cards. This is one of the "prototype" cards I made for them. I printed the wording on a sheet of pink vellum paper. The daisies are dry embossed using a Lasting Impressions template. They're having an outdoor wedding and his fiance chose a daisy theme so I thought this would be perfect for them. Have a great weekend!

Lisa's Blog Candy

Lisa is offering some great blog candy. Check it out here!

All you have to do is leave a comment on her blog candy post. On June 3 she will randomly generate the names and the first three will get some candy. (1) Stampin’ Up! Top Note die $ 21.95(2) New 2009-2010 Stampin’ Up! Idea book and catalog $9.95 (3) 1 pack of blender pens $9.95( 3 in a pack ) She will generate the names Wednesday June 3 at 7:00 pm EST.

Pink Hippo (Not a Pig!)

I've shown this card to a few people and the first thing they've ALL said is "Oh that's a cute pig." Just because it's pink doesn't mean it's a pig! Can't a hippo be pink? And doesn't its sign give it away!? Truth be told I don't own any grey cardstock... at least that I can find off hand anyway! It is possible I don't own any, I can't think of a single card I've made using grey paper. Anyway, this is a card I made from punches, partly from ideas I got from Heather's class and partly from ideas I got online. I can't remember all the sites I've been to looking for punch art now. This is my last punch art card for awhile. I have some others I'm working on but I'm going to get back to showing some embossed cards later this week!!

Snappy Birthday!

I am loving these punch art cards. So quick and easy and they make such cute cards. I was asked to make a set of flat cards so they can be mailed for "just 44 cents" and these cards fit the bill. This one was super quick to make. I got the idea from Heather's punch art class. The Snappy Birthday sentiment is by Stampin Up. I'm working on a few more punch cards this week so look for more to be posted in the next couple days!

Merry Go Round Card Swap

I recently joined Judy's "Merry Go Round Card Swap". I love these types of swaps. They are a little different from normal card swaps. Each participant chooses a stamp that either they haven't used before or just don't know what to do with, and stamps it several times. Then those stamped images are sent to the swap hostess. The hostess sends each participant images from others, and we have to make cards using those images. Once the cards are completed, they are mailed back to the swap hostess and she sends the participants the cards made with the images they originally sent in. Hope that makes sense!! These two are my favorite of all the cards that I made for the swap. The image of the girl I would have never bought in a million years, it's not my style, but after coloring it and making the card, I am really pleased with how it turned out. Once the completed cards arrive using my stamped image, I'll be sure to scan them and share them with you.

Punch Art

I was blog surfing and came across this blog. Heather does incredible work with Stampin Up's paper punches. She currently has two online classes offered on how to make animals and cards using punches. I signed up for both and I highly recommend them! I searched & searched online for instructions on how to create punch animals, and there really aren't that many good detailed directions available out there, or they're all for smaller scale animals. I wanted to create something big & eye catching. Heather's classes are wonderful, each class has instructions for making 20 different animals, and she has videos and PDF files for each one. The class was $20 Canadian which turns out to be about $17 US. I thought that was kind of high at first, but I think for 20 detailed instructions and they are unique - not like punch animals you find on other blogs, it's a decent price. She's coming out with a 3rd class starting June 1st and I've already signed up for it.

One of the classes had the instructions for creating this Panda. Everything on the panda is cut with a punch. The bamboo shoots & leaves are all hand cut. Have a great weekend!

Lollipop!

I made this lollipop card using only stuff I already had on hand. I came across a bag of craft (popsicle) sticks I bought at Michael's years ago. It was my inspiration for this card. I used my circle templates from Lasting Impressions to emboss several circles for the lollipop. I attached one circle with a brad so it will swing open. I wrote "You're Sweet" on the stick with a Stampin Up white pen that was given to me by Lisa. Hope you're having a great week and that it's warming up where you are!

Golf Card

I was asked to make a golf themed card for a man who was returning to work after being away for several weeks. I dry embossed the golf ball with a Lasting Impressions template. I wish I had the swiss dots cuttlebug embossing folder, but I don't! It would have made it a lot easier. My lasting impressions template only had one row of the dots, so I had to emboss them over & over before using my circle punch to punch out the golf ball. I outlined the golf ball in black ink to make it stand out a little bit and then turned it over before attaching it to the card, so the reverse embossing would show up. It looked more like a golf ball that way! I used the edge of the Lasting Impressions template to hand emboss the golf tee. I cut some green paper to make it look like grass. The sentiment was printed from my computer. (Thanks to Chrisi for the idea on the sentiment!) This card took less than 10 minutes to make and I am really pleased with the results!

Wedding Invitation

My brother is getting married next year. I offered to make their wedding invitations. It's going to be a huge job, they are inviting over 200 people. I am looking forward to it though, I think it will be fun. His fiancee is going to help me work on them, and I've had other offers to help too. (Thanks Chrisi!) My brother's fiancee hasn't been able to pin down an invitation that she likes yet, so I decided to make a few samples and send them to her. I thought if she saw a few, she could choose her favorite and I could get started working on them. This is one of the invites I made, and it is my favorite. I hope she chooses this one, although I think it will be the most work out of all the samples I sent to her. I dry embossed the daisy on the front & inside using my favorite Lasting Impressions template. I'm sure by the time I dry emboss 400 daisies (2 for each invite), that template won't be my fav anymore! Her colors are going to be brown/pink and she'll be carrying daisies. It's going to be an outdoor wedding. (The wording on the invite is just a rough draft, and yes I am aware accommodations is spelled incorrectly! I'll get it all figured out before I actually start mass producing them!) Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it!

Monogram Card Set

While I was at the Stamp Convention in Ohio a few weeks ago, I signed up for a class to make this monogrammed card set in a box using JustRite stamps. I love the look of the stamps, but was confused by all the different stamps they have... different sizes, some that mount on a wood block, some to use in a self-inking stamper. The instructor sorted it all out for us, and now I am hooked. I am sad, no, excited to say I bought almost the entire line of stamps that work with the wood mount in all the various sizes. So be sure to look for future JustRite projects from me. Hopefully I will actually use them once they arrive. I made this gift set with my friend Julie in mind. She's celebrating her 40th birthday this weekend. There are 6 cards with envelopes in the box. I stamped them all the same with her initial. I'm not sure who makes the patterned paper since it was given to us in class.

Hope you have a great weekend! I'm cheering on the Caps tonight, please do the same! They need all the help they can get!

Ooh la la!

It's my turn for hosting the "same game challenge" on the Yahoo dry embossing group I belong to. Each month one person chooses a template, and embosses pieces from that template, and mails them out to the participants. Each person makes a card using the pieces, and it is so neat seeing how they all turn out differently, despite all using the same dry embossed images (and the same color of pieces too!). I chose this poodle template for my challenge. I've never used it before making this card and am anxious to see what everyone else does with it. Hope you're having a great week!

Pics from the Caps Game

I wanted to share some of my favorite pics from our recent Caps games.

VW has a huge display inside the arena. They have a VW that you can write on with dry erase markers. It was me and a bunch of little kids writing on it. I circled what I wrote (I heart Varly (he's our star goaltender and my new crush)) since it's kind of hard to see.



This is a pic of a little boy who sits in front of us at the games. He is the most adorable little boy ever!! He is so well behaved during the games, it's amazing. His mom gave him a mohawk for the game, since during the Playoffs, you're supposed to "Rock the Hawk!"



And here's a pic of the ice just before our most recent home game. They dimmed the lights and put the "Rock the Red" slogan in white on the ice. I loved the way it looked.

Go Caps!!

Today starts the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs. My local team, the Capitals have made it into the 2nd round! It's been an incredible, exciting year for them. Our first playoff round went to the full 7 games and the game was tied with about 4 minutes to go when the Capitals scored. The crowd went nuts! I have never heard it so loud in the arena. I jumped up when they scored and almost fell on the people in front of me. The guy next to me grabbed me and kissed me! We have our first of seven games today against the Pittsburgh Penguins and I am so excited to go to the game.

I think this stamp of the moose playing hockey is so adorable. I colored him with my copic markers and used basic grey paper for the card. I hand wrote the Go Caps on a 1 1/4" circle punch and layered it with a piece of blue paper punched from a 1 1/2" circle punch and made it so just the sentiment would stick out from the bottom of the layered pieces. I followed Taylor's Cupcake Challenge sketch to make this card. Let's go Caps!!