Welcome Jack - Vintage Baby card

One of the attorneys in my office commissioned me to make "the most beautiful baby card, customized with the name Jack". I actually gave this a try one night and came up with a result that I didn't care for at all. It certainly didn't qualify as the most beautiful baby card. I found a vintage carriage an decided to go that route. My style is decidedly not vintage, so I did some blog hopping and took some inspiration and a sketch from the Just Give Me Stamps blog where Julie does beautiful vintage work.



My card uses "solid" paper from the My Mind's Eye, 29th Street Market paper collection (Peaceful Dream - Consciousness/Dreamy paper pattern), and patterned paper from Heidi Grace Designs', Shimmer Glitter Paper, Tendril Vines. The baby carriage is Hampton Art's Carriage stamp, stamped in Burnt Umber Palette ink, and the image panel is sponged with Ballet Blue Palette ink. Because I don't usually do vintage, I had to spray some white lace, and cream ribbon with Tattered Angel's Crushed Shells spray. I stamped the ribbon with "welcome" from The Angel Company's Laughter Hostess set. I added a flower and button from Making Memories' Ava Buttons and Blossoms collection and cut out the word "Jack" from the Cricuit Platin Schoolbook cartridge.

Flower Pattern Kindness Card

In my endeavors to clean up the desk by using scraps, I got side tracked. I still had the pad of Bo Bunny paper out that I used in the "Treasured Friends" posts from July. As I flipped through the pad, I saw this basically white pattern with little flowers that had been one of my favorites when I got the paper pack. I found that the perfect accents for it were black, and a light green paper that I'd never used before. This is my result. I love how the black pops the pattern right off the light green, making this one of my favorite cards in a while.



This card uses a Martha Stewart border punch on either side of the patterned paper panels. The sentiment comes from The Angel Company's Kindness stamp set. The flower was cut from Spellbindeers' Flower Creations Shapeabilities die, embossed and inked with Claret Palette ink and outlined with Crystal Stickles. The black swirl behind the flower is a partial image cut on the Cricuit using the Damask Decor cartridge.

Best Wishes in Burgundy

I was doing some web surfing recently and saw a card that really inspired me, both in color and sketch. I played around with it a little bit and created something a little different.



This card uses Core'dinations cardstock with the core being lighter than the surface. I cut out two shapes on the Cricuit from the Lacy Labels cartridge (one for the panel and one for the mat), changing the size and dimension with the Gypsy. I ran the smaller piece through the Big Shot in the Cuttlebug Swirls folder and then sanded to bring out the lighter color. The scalloped circle is Nestabilities Heart Circle. The sentiment panel is stamped with a solid circle with swirl from Raisin BOAT's Symphony for the Soul stamp set, and the Best Wishes Sentiment is from The Angel Company's Rejoicing With You stamp set in Maulted Mauve Versa Magic Ink. The swirl is highlighted with a clear glitter pen and some butterflies were punched to bring the eye to the right.

A Little Whimsy Birthday

I was trying to use up some scraps that were laying on my desk, in an effort to actually see the surface. One of the things I had laying on the desk was the scalloped panel I created in the spring as part of my trade for Rita's gathering. These were the ones that were made to go with the ice cream punch design I was demoing, and there were some extras left over. After looking in my collection, I thought it would be fun to match it up with some other scraps of paper from TAC's A Little Whimsy paper collection. This is what I came up with.



The cake is from TAC's Let's Party set, colored with Copic markers. The cake is E57, and E59 with frosting in R83 and R85. The candles are YG11 and YG61, and YR32 and YR38 with a hint of Orange Peel Stickles. The scalloped panel comes from the Preserves Cricuit cartridge, amended in size on the Gypsy and then run through the Cuttlebug for embossing. The right side of the card was scored on the Scor-Pal.

Black and White Wedding Card

Tom and I went to one of his co-worker's wedding this weekend. This is the card I made for her and her new husband.



This card is simple black and white. The border punch at the bottom is a Martha Stewart punch. The medallion comes from the Cricuit Damask Decor cartridge and the swirls are the from the Monarch set that doesn't have a company name on the packaging. The bling at the top was added last minute, which I guess was a good addition, because it was what my husband said he liked when he saw the card.

50th Anniversary

Last week my husband and I were lucky enough to attend his Aunt and Uncle's 50th Anniversary. It's such an inspiration to see couples that have been together for 50 years and have weathered the bad patches and celebrate the good. We had a great time. This is the card I made for them.



This card uses off-white linen paper embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder with Encore Gold Ink brushed around the edges. The medallion is from the Cricuit Damask Decor cartridge laid on a background of gold paper and stamped and heat embossed with a gold 50. There is a further band of off-white linen cut with a large Martha Stewart border punch wrapped with a shear gold ribbon.

3D Lilly

It's been a busy week, so no posts, but here's something to make the wait worth while. A co-worker has had a 3D Lily card on her bulletin board for a long time, and every time I saw it, I thought, I should figure out how to do it. I finally asked her if I could borrow it, and brought it home to play with. 4 hours later, I came up with a reasonable likeness. Nothing as commercial as hers was, but still pretty cool.








The flowers and leaves are cut from the Cricuit. The leaves are from Walk in My Garden and welded together on the Gypsy. I don't remember if I picked a flower from Walk in My Garden or another cartridge. I spent a lot of time looking for the one that would work best. The flower is stippled with Sunflower and Iris Palette ink, and the leaves are Water Lilly Green. There are three flowers, one folded in half and two that are folded more and taped so they spring open when the leaves are pulled. The funny thing about it is that although it's basically the same fold, every flower ended up different, so it wasn't something I could duplicate over and over (which is part of the reason why the CBL won't be making this card).

Overall, it's still a really neat card, and I have a friend that has a penchant for cards that fold or have moving parts, so I gave it to her for her birthday.

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.

Civil Union Card

One of my friends from the office commissioned me to create a civil union card for a ceremony she was attending this week. She figured it would give me a challenge and it would provide her with a card she was unlikely to find in a shop. The one qualification I had was that it had to be sized properly to hold money.



This is the card I came up with. It uses both sides of some double-sided K & Co. paper I had in my stash. I also got a chance to use one of my newer Martha Stewart border punches, and the Heart Circles Nestabilities dies. I used my Cricut to cut two engagement rings from the Wedding/Marriage cartridge.

Just A Note

I had some fun just playing a little and came up with this card that uses the Quarter Note Cricut cartridge and music note border punch I got for my birthday. I layered these on top of a grey panel that was embossed with the Allegro Cuttlebug embossing folder and a sentiment panel cut from Spellbinders Labels 2 dies which I stippled with Malted Mauve Versa Magic ink and stamped with The Angel Company's Flourishes stamp set and Just a Note from their Trendy Greetings stamp set.

Happy 4th of July!

This is a card I made from a sketch on Heather Scott's blog, Oz-somestamps.



The card uses the same American flag paper that I used in the Kindergarten graduation card. Truth be told, I made this card first, and then used the scraps to make the graduation card. This one was quick and easy to put together with the accent of the stars and oval left over from my gypsy cutting a while back ago.

Floral Stripe Birthday

Once I played with the sketch of the thrifty stripe masculine birthday card, I decided to use the same technique to use up some floral scraps and make a birthday card.



This one uses scraps from The Angel Company's Whimsy Blossom paper collection, with a flower cut on the Cricut from the Walk In My Garden cartridge out of TAC's Mia's Cottage paper. The sentiment is from the retired Wishing You stamp set.

Rock Star Card for Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dad's out there.

This is another masculine card that we created during the Create-A-Bunch club this month. This card uses strips of paper from The Angel Company's Just Like Dad paper collection surrounded by various sized stars cut with the Cricut. Both of the solid green stars are scored and popped up for some dimension and interest. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions My Hero stamp set.

Thrifty Masculine Stripe Card

This card came from the idea I saw on the Poetic Artistry blog, which in turn came from Verve's Mojo Monday sketch challenge. I thought it was a great way to use up extra scraps, and since I've been using a lot of The Angel Company's Just Like Dad paper, had lots of scraps.



This card uses four 1-inch wide strips of paper rounded at the end and edged with Spanish Olive Versa Magic Ink. I used one of the extra stars I cut with the Gypsy for the focal point, and I scored the star so that it would look popped up (which it is). The sentiment is from The Angel Company's retired Wishing You stamp set.

Best Dad

This is a card I made for the Taylored Expressions sketch challenge this week.



My card uses The Angel Company's Just Like Dad paper collection, and Taylored Expression's Boys Will Be Boys stamp set.

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.

Pot of Gold

This is the St. Patrick's Day card my Create a Bunch girls made last month. It was super simple to put together, but finding the pot was a bit of a challenge.



The background on the front of the card uses the retired set Mini Sampler set from The Angel Company. Inside is the "Happy St. Patrick's Day" from Trendy Greetings.

I never though it would be as difficult to find a die-cut pot as it was. You would think someone would have one for St. Pat's and Halloween, but I couldn't find one in the stores, or at any scrapbook store the had die-cuts you could use on the premises. I was finally able to get a die-cut that looked like a pot in the From My Kitchen Cricut cartridge. It's the shadow for the sieve. We placed plastic gold coins that I found in Jo-Ann's dollar section in the pot for some dimension.

Wedding Card

This is the card that I made for my sister and her new husband for their wedding yesterday.

I got the idea from my friend Rita when we were up at the cottage.

The background is pink paper embossed with the Flourish Impressabilities template and the bride and groom were cut on the Cricut using the Wedding Mariage cartridge. The pink "ribbon" tied into the black netting is actually a piece of fabric from the bridesmaid dress my Mom made.