Vintage Birthday

The Create A Bunch at Lunch group asked me for more feminine birthday cards, so this month, we did the one from my last post, and this pink and green one.



This card uses some old Basic Grey paper from the SweetPea Jack Collection that I had in my stash. I used my Cricut Gypsy to amend a label from the Lacy Labels cartridge to fit the size I wanted for the card, and cut some flowers from the Walk in My Garden cartridge as well. The sentiment panel, with the Happy Birthday greeting from The Angel Company's Trendy Greetings stamp set, is layered over a pretty pink ribbon I got from Michael's on Black Friday last year when they were all 75% off.

More Tulips

In a prior post, I had submitted a purple and green tulip card that I made for a friend's birthday, and said it might amend it a little bit for my Create A Bunch at Lunch group. Well, here is the amended card.



This card uses cheery red and yellow. The white background panel is sprayed with a yellow watercolor mist. The flowers are stamped with The Angel Company's retired Dancing Tulips stamp. The flowers are stamped in Pearlescent Poppy Brilliance ink, and the leaves are Pearlescent Thyme Brilliance ink. This time I stamped them more in the middle of the card, and placed a ribbon directly below the flowers. Stamping the flowers in the middle left room at the bottom for the Happy Birthday sentiment from The Angel Company's Ordinary Greetings stamp set.

What's Up Chick?

This chick notecard was the second project we made at my Create-A-Bunch-At-Lunch class in May, and was one of the items on my display board at Rita's gathering. I saw it on Splitcoast Stampers around Easter time, but thought it would be fun with sayings like "Shake Those Tail Feathers", "Chick, Chick Hooray" or "Honey, You're No Spring Chicken" from The Angel Company's Tail Feathers stamp set.



The note card is made with two large scalloped circles stapled together in the upper right corner, and two 5-point flowers. One covers the staple, and the other is cut to make the feet and beak. The eyes are made from two white 5/8 inch circles and one yellow 5/8 inch circle cut in half for the eyelids. The pupils are from one of those old hand punches that were once considered "office supplies".

Masculine Birthday Card

This is a masculine card I prepared for our Create-A-Bunch club. I found the paper at Pat Catan's in Ohio when I visited in April and thought it would be perfect with large eyelets. This is also the card that uses the oval from the George and Basic Shapes Cricut cartridge amended with the Gyspy that I mentioned in my post on Saturday so that it would fit into the Spellbinders Fancy Tags die.



The ribbon is from Michael's, the eyelets are Antique Brass that I got through The Angel Company and the sentiment is from The Angel Company's Thinking of You stamp set.

In case you were wondering, this is what the unaltered oval from George and Basic Shapes looked like.

We all Punch? for Ice Cream!

Last month, I went to Rita Kegg's awesome Angelic Impressions gathering. Rita created all kinds of projects for us to do, from simple and quick cards, to things that took a little more time, but were still easy enough. We spent two creative days at beautiful Punderson Manor in Ohio, and this was the first time I've ever attended any gathering where I finished all the projects before I left!

Before the gathering, I told Rita that I would do a demonstration on punch art. I created a display board of several ideas, and then demonstrated three things. One of the things I demonstrated was an ice cream sundae in a bowl. I made an ATC card to be traded that was blank, and after the demonstration, everyone made their own ice cream to put on it, and Rita incorporated the ATC into one of the cards we made.

But even before that, I created this card that my Create-A-Bunch-At-Lunch class made.



Here are the pieces you need to punch out to make the ice cream sundae: a 1 1/2 inch circle with a crescent punched out of it by the same punch for the bowl, 2 pink 5/8 inch circles, 2 white 5/8 inch circles, 1 light brown 5/8 inch circle and 1 dark brown 5/8 inch circle. The toppings are made by putting three of the 5/8 inch circles a little more than half way into a scalloped square punch and punching. Chirstmas Red Stickles were used to make the cherries.



The circle surrounding the sundae is a Nestability die, the background is embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, and the sentiment is from Taylored Expressions, stamped in Noir Palette ink.

This is the card Rita created for the gathering made from my ATC trading card.



Check back later for more punch art ideas from my display board.

Mother's Day Flowers

This is the card I created for my Create-A-Bunch Club to make for Mother's Day. My sample also used the Rock 'N Roll technique, but because we were running short on time, they didn't bother re-inking the edges with darker colors. My inspiration for this card came from a t-shirt I saw at Kohl's.



All stamped supplies on this card are made with products from The Angel Company and all ink is Versa Magic. The lightest layer of the card background is the Damask Backgrounder stamp using Wheat ink with Sage as the edging; the second background layer uses Script Background inked with Perfect Plumeria ink; the greenery below the flowers is from the Be of Good retired hostess set, stamped in Hint of Pesto and the flowers are from the retired Fanciful Flowers set inked with Maulted Mauve with the edges rolled in Perfect Plumeria. The Happy Mother's Day sentiment is from the Trendy Greetings stamp set and is inked in Hint of Pesto.

I think this card has the most stamping layers of any card I've ever done, and is the closest I'll get to collage, since I usually don't pull collage off very well.

Rock 'N Roll Technique on Thank You Card

This is a card I made using the rock 'n roll technique, where you load up your stamp with a lighter colored ink, and then use a second, darker, ink around the edges. This card shows the technique particularly well since I used a light blue ink for the interior and a brow ink for the edge.

This card did double duty. I used it as my project for the Madison Mingle in March and then again with my Create-A-Bunch Club in April.



The card uses The Angel Company's Damask Backgrounder stamp and the sentiment is from the Thinking of You set. The ink is Versa Magic Sea Breeze and Gingerbread.

Another Simple Sympathy

I like making simple sympathy cards because that just seems to be what's called for. This is the second card we made in the Create-A-Bunch Club in February to offset the more elaborate wine card. Unfortunately, I needed to use this card right away when my boss lost his mother.




All of the components of this card use The Angel Company products. The paper on the left border is from the Maggie paper collection, the leaves on the lower right are from the Deco Designs stamp set, stamped in Versa Magic Aloe Vera ink and the sentiment is from Savvy Sayings.

Friends are Like Wine

I got the inspiration for this card while blog hopping. It's completely different from the card I originally saw except for the colors and loosely, the sketch. The card I saw used flowers, but I immediately thought wine, so I played around and came up with this.

I used the card for the Create-A-Bunch Club and it's been one of the most popular to date.



The purple and green panels of the card use some old double-sided Paper Adventures paper and the brown strip is from The Angel Company's Amberly Grace collection. The grapes are from The Angel Company's retired Fancy Fruit two-step stamping set, using Versa Magic Concord Grape (what else?) ink and Palette Jardin Moss. The sentiment is from Stamping Sensations' Thoughts Just for You #1 set stamped in Palette Noir and Charcoal ink. The purple background is textured with the Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug embossing folder and the ovals use both the Nestabilities Large and Small Oval sets combined to make the border layer smaller.

Bring on the Purses

To kick off the year for my Create-A-Bunch at Lunch club, we made purses to hold all the cards that we would be making during the year. Initially we were going to do this in January, but since the January date snuck up on me, we pushed it back until February's class.

I learned how to make these purses from Rita Kegg last spring. They're nice and sturdy, and are perfect for holding a bunch of cards.

This time, instead of showing you my sample, we decided to take pictures of the completed projects the club made. Everyone chose their paper ahead of time and I cut it for them and brought it in on the day of the class. All of the purses have unique personalities, and the girls were pretty excited to have their work featured on the blog. Unfortunately, the initial class was a small one, and when I did the repeat for the others, I forgot to take pictures. So you're only getting to see the creativity of about a third of my group.

Elegant Thank You

For my second card for the Create-A-Bunch group in January, I also used an idea I saw on Eva's blog, but this time, I made several changes to it, so that it hardly resembles the original except for the initial sketch.



This card uses the Damask Backgrounder and Running Stitches stamp sets from The Angel Company and the retired Great Greetings set. The paper is from Paper Pizazz.

Eva Costigan to the rescue

I've been working A LOT recently. We've had projects going non-stop since November that have had me at work until late almost every night. During this time, I was also still hosting my Create-A-Bunch Lunch with the girls. In January, the date snuck up on me, and I had to put something together quickly. I did some blog hopping and found a quick and easy card done by Eva. I unabashedly stamp-lifted it completely for the class.



This card used C'ordinations cardstock and The Angel Company's Linear Sentiments stamp set for the heart, and the retired Wishing You set for the sentiment.

Once things calmed down a little bit, I went back and used the leftovers from the class to make a set of four cards using the same stamp set (for the most part - the "You Rock" is from The Angel Company's retired Kid Praises set), card sketch and pieces. But, I used different border punches and punched elements to make them all different. Then I took the set into work to show everyone how the same idea can be used to make cards for different occasions. Hopefully this redeems me for copying the original.

Elegant Core'dinations Cards

In keeping with the theme of sanding at my recent Create A Bunch at Lunch group, we made this elegant cards using Core'dinations new Core Amour collection. It already has the embossing printed on it, so you can use it as texture, or you can sand it to show the pattern in the core color. This made for exceptionally fast and easy cards. We simply sanded the paper to show the core color, stamped the sentiment using The Angel Company's retired Elegant Greetings stamp set, added a ribbon and some gems colored brown with Copic markers.

Core'dinations Thinking of You Card

Core'dinations is one of my favorite paper companies for solid (sort of) papers. They are one color on the surface, and a different color at the core. Kind of like white core paper, but with color instead.

I love using dry embossing techniques on my Core'dinations papers to get texture and then sanding to see the core color, but this time I tried something different. I used my Nestabilities Labels 8 to cut a panel out of a piece of Core'dinations' Pie Safe paper from the White Wash collection. Then I lightly sanded around the edge to bring out the core color and stamped the flowers and leaves from The Angel Company's Watercolor Plants stamp set using Tea Leaves and Perfect Plumeria VersaMagic ink. The sentiment, from Great Greetings, was added with Jumbo Java VersaMagic ink and a small dragonfly was punched out for the corner. The whole panel was laid on top of a white texturized card.



My Create a Bunch group made this as one of two cards featuring Core'dinations paper this month.

August Create A Bunch at Lunch Baby Card

Even though I haven't posted as much as usual about it, my lunchtime classes are still going strong. Last month, we created web books, just like the ones I posted last year that we made at the Tinley Park Expo, and these super simple baby cards.

I got the idea for the card from an ATC I got from Angi Healy at Rita's spring gathering. I used the Scor-Pal to create lines around the panel of striped paper from the The Angel Company's Lilly Anna paper collection. Then we punched the bib from the Giga Scalloped Circle Clever Lever Punch and punched a smaller 1" punch out of the scalloped circle. We pierced each scallop and tied a ribbon to the top. The sentiment is from The Angel Company's retired Savvy Sayings set, that was one of last year's hostess sets.



Amazingly, everyone finished the cards and web book in record time. This class was about 20 minutes shorter than usual, so everyone had time to chat as well.

May Create A Bunch At Lunch Club - Graduation Card

This month, my CBL group made a Father's Day card that I posted last year. They loved using the "blasting box" so much in the January class, that they were asking to do it again, so we made the Ship Collage Father's Day card where we made a spray from Perfect Pearls and used the Tim Holtz compass mask. You can find it by choosing the Father's Day label on the right side-bar if you missed it before.

The other card for today was a graduation card made with The Angel Company's retired Keep Smilin' stamp set and the current Hostess Level C Thinking of You set that will be retiring in June. The solid green and yellow paper is Die Cuts With a View and the patterned paper came from JoAnn's open paper stock.



Since not everyone might need a graduation card, I made a variation that could be used for a birthday using the same stamp sets and supplies. Some of the girls in the club even used the same stamp set and supplies to make a baby card instead.

Mother's Day Card

Today was my Create a Bunch at Lunch group. For this meeting, we made the card I posted a few weeks ago with the girl and the umbrella and we also made this Mother's Day card.



The patterned paper is Brooke Paisley from Making Memories' Simply Fabulous collection with Coordinations' White Washed Green. I used my Labels One Nestabilities for the sentiment panel and the Flower Creations die and some punches to make the flower.

The sentiment is from The Angel Company's Trendy Greetings stamp set, and the swirl is from Fancy Curls. The stamped swirl and the flower are both accented with a Stardust Clear Gelly Pen, which is one of the groups favorite things to use.

When it rains it pours!

O.K., so the stamp isn't quite the Morton Salt girl, it's the Rainy Day set from Hanna Stamps. (I heard there was some rumor about Hanna Stamps being out of business, and I don't know whether it's true or not, but as of today, this set is available at Addicted To Rubber Stamps, which is where I purchased it originally.)

The layout came from Taylored Expressions' Friday's Cupcake Challenge. I love sketch challenges, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it in this card, but somehow it didn't turn out quite like I expected.

I'm thinking of using this as one of the cards for my Create A Bunch at Lunch group in April, but I haven't decided yet.



The image is colored with Copic Markers BG09, BG13, Y15 and RV19. The hair, skin and umbrella handle are Skin Tones pencils. The yellow DCWV paper is embossed with the Spots and Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, and the patterned paper is from the DCWV Holiday Collection - The Christmas Stack that I had leftover from the holidays. There are also some very faint blue rain drops on the image panel, but it looks like they didn't show up on the scan.

Birthday Candles and Cake

These are the birthday cards my Create-A-Bunch girls made on Tuesday. The combination of these cards plus the Easter cards I posted on Monday night took us just a hair over our lunch hour because I didn't time them out when I made them like I usually do (I created this one at the DeKalb Crop and cut all the pieces while I was there, and wasn't even thinking about the timing issue) All the same, the cards were a hit, and it's a testament to my new stampers that they could make these two cards plus to of the Easter card without going drastically over time. When we started in December, there would have been no way that could have happened.

The inspiration for this card initially came from the February 26th Cupcake Challenge posted on the Taylored Expressions blog, and while it follows the sketch dead-on, it's a little hard to see, because I used the candles as the left-hand panel.

The background used the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug embossing folder, the candles are cut from another Cuttlebug die, Birthday Wishes. The "happy" on the candles is from The Angel Company's "Family is Forever" stamp set, the "birthday" is from the "Marvelous Mottos" set, and the cake is from the retired "Let's Party" set.

I used Copic markers BG45, Y11 and Y15. The flames on all the candles are accented with Crystal Stickles, which all the girls go nuts over. They even added them to the Easter eggs on the Easter card, even though I didn't use them in the sample.

Easter Card

Tomorrow is my Create a Bunch at Lunch card group. We're making two cards, an Easter card and a birthday card. This is the Easter card we'll be doing.



We're making the backgrounds ourselves with paper scored with the Scor-Pal on a diagonal and dots using pencil erasers and VersaMagic Inks: Pink Grapefruit, Aquatic Splash, Spring Pansy and Key Lime. The yellow is DCWV and the pattern is part of a spring collection of double-sided paper by Heidi Swap I believe. The eggs were cut with the From My Kitchen cartridge of the Cricut and the sentiment is from The Angel Company's Trendy Greetings stamp set. The original image has the word Happy above Easter, but since they're cling mounted stamps, I was easily able to cut between the words so that I could use them lengthwise next to each other this way.

This card is also available in my Shop Handmade store.