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.

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.

Happily Ever After

When I made the civil union card from my prior post, I actually created two cards, since I wasn't sure what kind of look my friend was going for. This was the second card I made for her to choose from (except this card originally had a blue circle cut from the same Circle Hearts Nestabilities die, and the white panel I ultimately put on the pink card, could have been layered onto the circle hearts, had it been her choice). When she chose the other one, I brought this one home, and kept thinking that it needed a castle to go with the happily ever after theme. I found this castle in a set of Disney stamps someone had given me and changed up the card to match the theme.

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.

Purple Wedding Card

One of my co-workers got married recently, so I made this card. It's a little strange to me, because I usually use wedding images, or black and white for weddings, but this one seemed to need something very quick, with color.



The background is stamped with The Angel Company's Damask Backgrounder stamp in Lavender Sachet Palette ink, and the sentiment panel uses my new Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2 dies that I got for my birthday. The sentiment is from TAC's retired Elegant Greetings set.

I made the card the night before I needed it, and took the picture in the copy room at work, so the lighting is horrible.

Magnolia Wedding Card

This card is the wedding card I made for the bride and groom from one of my earlier posts. We were supposed to attend the wedding, but there was a perfect storm of things happening that night. It was a Friday, and there was a big storm that delayed all the trains home from work. Once that passed, and we got home, our car broke down on the way to the reception. Fortunately, the bride was able to move from place to place between storms and didn't get wet; we just didn't get to see her in her beautiful gown, and had to give her her card later.

This card wasn't nearly as fast as the one from my previous post, but it is one I'm really proud of. This is my first time coloring a black image, and for that matter, a white image, with Copic markers.



The tux was colored using C1, 3, 5, 7 & 9, and the Ivory on the wedding dress is E40 and 41.

The stamp is the wedding couple from Magnolia.

What Could Be Simpler Wedding Card

Recently, well in June actually, one of the girls at work got married. I made this 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 wedding card for the whole department to sign, and it couldn't have been simpler. The base is an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper folded in half, with a 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 piece of black and white patterned paper adhered to the top. I used a large sheer black ribbon to knot on the front, with a smaller white bow tied into it and two small heart charms stuck together with glue dots. It's a great, elegant card that literally took longer to pull out the supplies for than it did to make. And it was a big hit.

Watercolor Fun

This card is one that I did a watercolor class on a few years back. The background is done with acrylic blocks and watercolor crayons. We took the watercolor crayons and scribbled some complimentary colors on an acrylic block, then spritzed the block and wiped it across our paper to make the background.

The image panel uses The Angel Company's retired Blissfully Ever After Stamp set colored with watercolor crayons applied with a water brush.

Brown and Ivory Wedding Card and Tag

This is the card and tag I made for the bridal shower I attended on the 10th; the one where I gave the brown and ivory towel cake. The card was quick and easy. I used Ivory cardstock scored in a harlequin pattern using the Scor-Pal and put Cinnamon Stickles on each intersecting line. Then I stamped the champagne glasses from The Angel Company's retired Blissfully Ever After stamp set and colored the "champagne" with Yellow Stickles and the ribbon with watercolor crayons and a water brush. The sentiment is from the Growing Love set. The bottom of the panel uses cinnamon glitter bubble stickers.



The tag was cut from the Wedding/Marriage Cricuit Cartridge. The sentiment came from the same Blissfully Ever After set and was accented with more Cinnamon Stickles. The ivory ribbon is a remnant from the cake and is tied with a smaller brown ribbon.

Elegant Wedding Card

This is the wedding card I made to go with the cream, black and silver towel cake for my co-worker.

This card uses Heather Scott's Monday sketch from a few Monday's ago. I had it all ready to go, but didn't want to post it until after the shower, because the bride is a blog follower and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. So here it is now.

The background is black cardstock covered with Pewter Perfect Pearls, and using the Angel Company's Victorian Elements stamps to remove the perfect pearls in spots revealing the black underneath. The image panel takes the champagne glasses from TAC's retired Wedding Wishes set, and the Contratulations from the Growing Love stamp set.

I colored the ribbons around the glasses with Silver Smooch, and filled the glasses with Illuminate Smooch. The silver ribbon is a scrap left over from decorating the cake.

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.

Wedding Day!

Today is the day my sister is getting married. It's a small, low-key, family affair and we did a lot of the stuff ourselves.

Here are the invitations we created for the wedding.



The picture doesn't really show up well; her colors are pale pink and white and the pink of the stamping just didn't scan well. The invitations are 4 1/4 x 8 1/2 and use a couple of Cuttlebug folders as well as The Angel Company's Forever Family stamp set.

NEW Perfect Pearls to Love!

I'm not sure how new these colors are, but they're new to me, and my love of Perfect Pearls has deepened! Good thing I have a friend that can feed my addiction at a discount! She surprised me last week with two new colors of Perfect Pearls. The first ones are "Aged Patina". Awesome colors! Heirloom Gold, Blue Patina, Pewter and Green Patina. I played with them late one night and immediately e-mailed my friend to say that the Pewter was absolutely gorgeous!

For this card, I used my pearls in several ways. First I ran the background through the Big Shot with my Flourish Impressabilities template. Then I rubbed the Perfect Medium (that comes with the Perfect Pearls) all over the card. I brushed on the Blue Patina and set with a mist of water. Talk about a perfect match for The Angel Company's Amberly Grace paper collection, which I also admit is my favorite of the bunch!

The stamp set I used is TAC's retired Wedding Wishes. The bride and groom are colored with Copic markers, but highlighted with the Blue Patina and Pewter (separately) mixed with water to form a thin paint. It gives a nice shimmer to the bodice of her dress and tiara, and to the lapels on his tux and band on his hat.



My friend got us some Perfect Pearls for our booth at the Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo this weekend in Tinley Park. We should be able to offer them at a deal. So come on out and feed YOUR addiction!

Beautiful Bride

One of my nicest customers has a son who is getting married this fall. She contacted me for a new catalogue and told me when the wedding and shower were, and asked for some stamp ideas.

This is the card I made for her using the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder on ivory paper, inked with Wheat VersaMagic ink. I used my Scor-Pal to make more embossed lines in the beige mat. The bride is from the Growing Love set in Serendipity. She is colored with Skin Tones pencils and watercolor pencils and accented with a ribbon from Angelee.

Quick and Shimmery Wedding Card

This is another card I made when I was creating my Perfect Pearls display board. The white background is made from mixing Gold Perfect Pearls and water in a Mini Mister and spritzing. It doesn't show up very well in the photo, but there's just a very light gold splatter on the white paper. The blue pieces were also created with Perfect Pearls using the shimmer paper technique that I demoed at the Milwaukee Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo.



The stamp is from the soon to be retired Blissfully Ever After stamp set. This is a set I turn to over and over when making wedding cards. The wedding rings from this set are the ones I used in the Same Card, Two Looks post.

If you're interested in ordering any retiring stamp sets, I will be available to place orders with until Tuesday, June 23rd. After that, I will be away at Seminar. Orders can also be placed directly on my website until June 26th.

Stamping Withdrawals!

While I had a good time with my husband at Kohler, I did have a small period of time where I went through some stamping withdrawal (which was quickly overcome by an infusion of chocolate and caramel!)

However, as soon as I got home, Tom needed to run an errand, and I got to make one card while I moved clothes from the washer to the dryer.

Here is the card I made at a co-worker's request for a wedding she is attending soon. She likes cards that have movement of some type to them, so I decided to make a shaker card. I used a 12 x 5 1/2 piece of paper and scored it every 4 inches. I embossed the middle panel (that would end up being the front of the card) with the Love Language Cuttlebug embossing template. I punched a hole out with my scalloped square and stamped some doves from The Angel Company's retired Wedding Wishes set on acetate. I colored the doves with Souffle pens and filled the shaker section with wedding confetti that I picked up in Target's dollar spot last year. I ran a ribbon around the card and tied a heart shaped tag with "It's Your Day" stamped on it into the ribbon. Then I folded the left panel (with a piece of paper that matched the ribbon adhered to it) behind the center to cover the ribbon and foam for the shaker part of the card. I added some Stickles to the wings of the Doves to give them a little sparkle.

I'm hoping my co-worker will like it.

Same Card, Two Looks

One of my stamp sisters is getting married today, so I made her a card. I've made the card before in black and white for one of the company's contests and really loved the elegant look of it. But her colors are hot pink and orange, so I decided I'd make the card using her colors in celebration. The pink and orange give the card such a different fun look, so I thought I'd post both to really emphasize how different a card can look when you change the color scheme.





Both cards are made using patterned paper from The Angel Company's Designer Collection paper packs. The black and white came from the retired Metropolis collection, and the pink and orange came from the current Brighten My Day collection. The stamp sets are Blissfully Ever After and one of my old favorites, Express Yourself. The rings are colored with a gold paint pen, and the diamond is accented with Crystal Stickles.

Next time you're in a slump, try making an old card with a new color palette. Give "something old" a new twist.

Star Wedding Book

Recently I've been making star books with various themes. This is a wedding themed one that I'm taking to the Madison Mingle Angel Gathering to show off. It's got 7 different pannels, with various embelllishments.

I used a pack of Mulberry Meadow paper and coordinating ribbon and hardware, with Yellow 1 Cardstock. The stamp sets are: Wedding Wishes, BlissfullyEver After, Elegant Sentiments, More Elegant Sentiments and Rejoicing With You. All of them combined to make every page different.

I'll also be teaching a class in April where we'll be making this book.









Hopefully it will give you some ideas.