You Rock My Heart!

Hello again! Today I have an anniversary card that I made for my husband to share with you! It uses a number of adorable MFT products including the sweet Jungle Vibes stamp set that features sweet musical jungle animals. I love the fun sayings included in the set and thought this was a perfect playful set to use for my card as my husband loves to play guitar.

I started out by using some distress oxide inks to create a blended background. I then used the large dot stencil and went over it again using the same colors. Finally I spritzed the background with a water and perfect pearl shimmer to give it some shine.

After die-cutting all of my pieces for both the outside and inside with the stitched borders, I stamped out that sweet zebra and colored him with copic markers before die cutting him out. I also die cut the zebra shape out of fun foam for some added dimension (which you can see in the picture below)

After finishing off the Zebra with some details to the eyes with a black glaze pen and then a white gel pen, I stamped out the musical notes and then stamped all the sentiments and die cut the one for the front to make it stand out. For the inside panel, it was a little too white, so I added a blue distressed background, just to give it a pop of color.

How can you finish such a sweet card without a matching envelope? LOL! Just had to have an excuse to stamp out the other sweet zebra. Love how this turned out!

Here is the finished card and envelope together.

I would like to enter this card into the Simon Say's Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Welcome Baby Shaker Card!

Today I am sharing a sweet baby shaker card. I haven't had the chance to make a shaker card in awhile and I had gems and bling just screaming to be used! A friend and colleague just became a Grandma and so I thought this was the perfect time to indulge in some bling filled crafty time.

I used a variety of products that are listed at the bottom of the post for your convenience.

The stencil that used for the inked background (MFT Graduated Dots stencil) is unfortunately no longer available, but here is a picture in case you have it in your stash or something similar.

I ink blended my three distress ink colors on the background and then redid the same blending with the stencil over top. Love the effect that this creates. I then spritzed some water over top to give it a bit of texture. I then used a die to cut it out for the front card panel and give it that great stitched detail.

After doing my stamping and die cutting for both the inside and the front of the card, I inked the inside of the card to match the front. I used raspberry distress ink to create the paper to die cut the shaker window and the greeting strip on the front. I added some shimmer to the onesie and on the heart and a few of the dots on the inside of the card for some added interest. You can never have too much sparkle . . . right??

I stacked up the middle fancy frame die 9 times to make my shaker focal piece. I wanted lots of room for all of that gorgeous bling to move around in. I used a variety of items in my shaker window (listed below) and sealed it all off with some acetate. I used the Hero Arts liquid adhesive to put this all together and loved how easy it was to work with.

At this point, I decided that I needed to tie in some of the white on the onesie and I added tiny white dots with a gel pen to the background, greeting strip and shaker frame. I then added a sprinkling of gems over the front panel. Again, I used the Hero Arts glue -- really love how easy it came out. Finally, I added a matching cute onesie to the envelope to make it all coordinate.

I would like to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes Challenge.

I hope you have enjoyed my project today! Thanks for visiting!

Happy Easter and Happy Crafting,

Happy 60th Birthday

Hello fellow crafters,

As I hibernate on this truly cold, but oh so bright Sunday morning, I thought I would take a few minutes to upload a card. Goodness knows my school life is taking over my crafty life and I rarely get to post anymore. Anyhoo, I thought if perhaps I keep my blog posts to a minimum as far as explanation goes, then I can focus on at least getting my pictures up as I do miss having this record of my crafting.

Today's card is a 60th birthday card. I did some ink blending in the background and then used Versamark Ink to subtly add in the number 60 on the bottom bubbles. The sentiment is from one of my favourite Mama Elephant Stamp sets: Make a Wish. I added some dimension by die cutting the top panel and adding foam tape to pop it up, while keeping the focus on the sentiment by having it show through the window. I couldn't resist adding some clear drops and some cute tiny star confetti.

Here is a close up so you can see the dimension: 

Of course a matching envelope had to be added!

I would like to enter this card in the Simon Says Stamp anything goes challenge.

Thanks for stopping in,

More Sympathy Cards

Hello everyone,

The last 6 months have been overly crazy and busy in my already too busy world. I made 10 sympathy cards in the fall when I found a design I liked (Thanks Lou Lou!) and went crazy making backgrounds. I decided to turn them all into sympathy or "prayers" cards as I thought that could cover a few occasions. As it turns out I have used every one of those cards. The staff at my school have lost many loved ones this fall and that continues on into January. I am not sure I have ever made this many bereavement cards, but here I am adding to my stash again as two more colleagues have lost loved ones. Perhaps I am getting older and that is just the point I am at in my life as I also lost my Baba this fall. She was the first of this domino effect. Anyhoo, my card design is simple and I am following two of my favourite previous designs that I have not ever posted on my blog. Of course I am using one of my most used stamp set and matching die from Hero Arts (was originally a Stamptember set with Simon Says Stamp) called Prayers. I used distress inks and an MFT background stamp called Garden Flourish and some embellishments from Pretty Pink Posh. The silver cardstock is also from MFT as is the one set of rectangle frame dies. The other set of dies is from Simon Says Stamp and is one of my most utilized dies sets. ** Sorry about the photos . . . winter photography and poor lighting.

Thanks for stopping in,

Friendship Stencil Card

Hello everyone! This card was inspired and totally lifted from Laura Bassen. The card was so beautiful, I didn't want to change much. This card was made for a dear friend. Stamp and stencil are MFT. Hope you like my version.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge: (I am also uploading it to the Stretch Your Stamps 2 pre-class Gallery - can't wait for this class to start!)

Craft Your Passion - citrus / tropical colours 

Have a fabulous day,

Buzzzzing by with 2 cards

I love this sweet little bee from stamps of life. I used a similar design on both cards using a technique with distress inks that I learned in the Stenciled card class. Stencils really are soooo much fun. These cards were made for colleagues who are away on medical leave. Hope the cheery design adds some sunshine to their day!

Have a fantabulous day,

More bubble stencil cards . . .

Quick post today . . .  I love this design so much, I just had to do it again for a couple of thank you cards. Loving the stencil technique with the distress inks. I really like the variety of stencils available and all the cool patterns.

THANKS for stopping by,

Sunshines and Smiles

Hello again . . . I am back today with another catch up card from last week for Week 1, Day 2 of Summer Card Camp 2. I was inspired to try watercolor stripes by Shari Carroll. She is a fabulous artist. I had to substitute distress inks for gelatos (as I only have 4 and they weren't the right colours); however, I am very happy with how this turned out using the same technique. I used a heavy water color paper with the heavy texture side up. **The hearts in the picture look really intense orange and red, however, they are actually a deeper shade of pink and a slightly less intense orange.

I will be back with a full supply list later . . . my goal was to get both cards I made today posted, so I can get back to work.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown - anything goes
Anything Goes Challenge - anything goes
Created with Love - anything goes
Make It Monday #149 - anything goes
One Stop Craft Challenge - summer colours

Thanks so much for stopping in,