Blow out the Candles!

Howdy! I made a new card with beautiful Birthday papers and clip art from lettering delights (get 60% off your order with coupon code: firecracker, hurry offer ends 7/9/2010!) I simply printed the paper, mat, sentiment and border together on cardstock then I cut it out with scallop scissors and glued it to a pink card base and added one of my new digital stamps from the Sweet Treats 2 collection from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff over the printed mat and I was good to go! Quick, cute and easy, gotta love it!

Digital Stamp: Lindsay's stamp Stuff, Markers: Copic, Paper&Embellisments: Lettering Delights

I colored the cupcakes and cake stand with my Copics. The cool thing about the new Sweet Treats 2 set is that there are 3 empty covered cake plates that you can fill with whatever goodies you like including stamps from the set or any other digital or rubber stamp you have, it so versatile, the cupcake in the plate are actually from the Sweet Stuff set. It is a really fun set 😉

This card qualifies for the sketch challenge at Card Patterns.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Lovely Bamboo & Butterflies

It’s Monday, yep, it sure is. I woke up with a headache (which rarely happens) and it is raining and the headache is still with me despite Advil, coffee and food. So to take my mind off my head I made a card. I used the sketch from 2sketches for you, stamps from About Art Accents and digital papers and accents from Lettering Delights to make this:

Stop the presses! here is a coupon to save 60% off your entire order at Lettering Delights, at checkout enter the code: Firecracker

Stamps: About Art Accents, Papers and embellishments (digital): Lettering Delights, Ink SU!

This weeks theme at Oriental Stamp Art is Silk painting so I wanted my stamping to look like soft blurry silk painting, I stamped the butterflies in burgundy ink then while they were wet I used a q-tip to apply blue and caramel ink, I got the soft fuzzy result I wanted. I stamped the frame with olive ink, then masked it with post-its then colored the rubber stamp of the plant with red and green markers and stamped then added the butterfly in the corner. I sponged in some ink before I remove the mask and cut it out. Also I stamped bamboo in the green squares of the card paper.

Stamps: About Art Accents, Ink: SU!, All other Elements: Lettering Delights

This card was easy because I arranged of the paper and embellishments together on my computer before printing. That way I don’t waste any ink or paper and I can save the design to use again later. I mixed paper and elements from several Asian themed kids from Lettering Delights, actually I think the best part of arranging a cad base digitally is not having to clean up bit and scraps of my craft table! Now by now you know that I don’t make a card without an envelope, right? A little stamping dresses up this store-bought envie:

This bamboo stamp is my all time fave, I use it on EVERY Asian card I make, Love it!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

More melon!

Happy Sunday! We spent the morning strawberry picking, the pickens were slim but we managed to get 4 quarts so I have plenty to make a pie or two and a batch of Jam, I’m not much of a cook but Jam I excel at! Speaking of strawberries I used my ne Strawberries and Watermelon digital stamp set to make this card (with a matching envie of course!)

I cleaned up my scrap pile for this card, the chipboard tag and slide were from a colorbok pack I got ages ago and the paper on the envie is from GSD (I think). I colored the image with copics, a quick and easy card!

I cut the cute ruler strip for a piece of pattern paper from the Inch By Inch collection from Lettering Delights, isn’t is sweet? I simply use a sheet of 8″ square pattern paper to make an envelope with my score pal to fit the card. I think the card and envie took 20 minutes to make, not counting the coloring because I like to color a bunch of digis in the evening while I watch TV 🙂

Reminder: Two cool sales are ending tonight! Summer products are $1 at Lettering Delights AND the Retirement sale at MyGrafico, all retired products are $1 until midnight and then they are gone so don’t wait!

This card qualifies for the following challenges: Crafty Catz (digital), Delightful Sketches (summer), Digi Doodle (anything goes),  Doodle Palace (red, green, white & summer), Handful of Stamps (summer), Little Paper Shop (bright & colorful), and Scrappekammeret (Love.)

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Christmas in July…well sort of:)

Howdy folks, just a quick post today to let you know about the retirement sale happening at MyGrafico today and tomorrow, all retiring products are a dollar!

I am retiring some of last years Christmas sets to make room for the new Christmas sets I am working on. You can get these Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff digital stamps, papers, cupcake wrappers, tag, toppers and calendar headers for $1 each, cool! Nothing in these sets are dated so they are good to use as long as you like;) Commercial use OK, please see terms of use. Click the pic to go the the set:

Remember these are retiring from my MyGrafico shop only, don’t miss the chance to grab these items for $1!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Strawberries and Watermelon

Today I decided to use up a bit of my paper stash and make a card with my new stamps from the Strawberries and Watermelon Stamp Set from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff:

Digital Stamps: Lindsay's stamp Stuff, Rubber Stamps (sentiments) SU!, Digital pattern paper: Lettering Delights (inch by inch collection) Other: twine, brads, crochet flower

I colored the image with my copics. Yesterday a few people asked me what colors I used for the strawberries and watermelon. For the melon I used Lipstick Red, Coral and Peach. For the berries I used Cardinal, Lipstick Red and Coral. To color I started with the darkest color, then the medium color overlapping ad blending over the darkest then the lightest (also blending it back into the medium color.) I used Neenah super smooth cardstock, I find that working dark to light works well on that, if you are using GP you might want to “prime” the area with the lightest color then color as I mentioned, it keeps the paper moist and bendable it seems.

Also I used cute papers from the inch by inch collection from Lettering Delights. The collection bundle is 50% off right now and there are cute papers, frames, alphabets and clip art in the set, cute! Also Lettering delights has all of their summer products on sale for $1 each! I just stocked up on some Summer Treats like popsicle papers and ice cream elements and best of all they are calorie free;) The summer dollar sale ends Sunday so don’t wait!

Doesn't this scream summer!

The above card qualifies for the following challenges: Aly’s Sunday Challenge (flower power: hand crochet flowers), ColorQ (color Challenge),  Cowgirls SSC (anything goes), Donna’s Den (happy birthday), Fresh Brewed (anything goes) and KL Stampin (get Shabby).

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Strawberries, Watermelons and a freebie!

Happy Thursday folks! What a week, rain, fog and humidity, I was so hoping to get out and pick strawberries but I guess this card will have to suffice:

Template (envelope bonanza), Digital Stamps (Strawberries & Watermelon) both from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff

I used my new Strawberries and Watermelon set to make this card, I printed the berry basket on Neenah and colored it with Copics. The decorative edge was done with a SU punch (love how it goes around corners, it is seriously one of the only 2 edge punches I own, are you sick of seeing it yet?)  I used My Envelope Bonanza set to cut the petal envelope using SCAL software and my Cricut, Easy Peasy! This card qualifies for the following challenges: ABC, Annebelle Stamps (pink & Green), Bee crafty (pink & girly), Bunny Zoe’s Crafts (girly), Cupcake Craft Challenges (strawberries & cream), Everybody Art Challenge (pink & green) and Little C’s (photo inspiration).

The background paper is from the inch by inch collection at Lettering Delights. It is so summery! Here is a look at the complete Strawberries and Watermelon digital stamp set:

You get 7 highly detailed digital stamps for $5! Perfect for summer!

Now for the freebie, There was a discussion at MyGrafico on where to find the popular shipping tags the Tim Holtz uses and I explained how to make some from manilla folders (incase you did not want to buy a bulk box of 1,000) and I thought, Hey, why not make a SVG file so we can cut them with our Cricuts and SCAL software! In the example I have glued on the hole re-enforcers but I recommend inking and decorating the tag first then gluing on the re-enforcers so it looks neater 😉 Click the picture to download.

Enjoy this handy freebie, it's the perfect project for a scal/cricut newbie 🙂

Now let’s see what the DT has in store for us today:

Cheryl Gorka DT Coordinator

Shannon Neparko

Margie Visnick

Lisa Jurecek

Leanne Garner

Tamara Bennett

Cindi Hooks

Micki Harper

Rebekah Doak

Karin Martin

Rhonda Walker

Diane Bove

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Meow!

This weeks challenge in the Oriental stamp art Yahoo group is Oriental brush painting. I did not have a chance to dig out my inks and paints but I had this cute brush style cat stamp from About Art Accents and I quickly made this card:

Stamp: About Art Accents, PAttern PAper: Nicecrane Designs, Clip Art: Lettering Delights, Charm: Around the block, EB folder: Cuttlebug

I had the rubber mouse charm FOREVER it came in a grab bag and I thought I would never use it but couldn’t part with it either so I am glad it has a home now;) The strips of luscious paper is from the Grunge Flowers collage sheet from Nicecrane Designs, I love this sheet, it has 9 beautiful swatches of paper that are ATC size but if you need them a bit larger you can crop the pattern you like and print it larger and it still looks pretty good!

The “fun” tag is from the Garden Meditation set from Lettering Delights, I print up sheets of the clip art at different sizes then cut them out as I need them, they are the perfect touch to ma Asian cards and they go well with the cards made with the PAgoda cricut cartridge because it came from the Lettering Delights font Asian Serenity, unfortunately they removed that font after the cartridge came out (I’m so glad I bought it before that!) They have lots of cut Asian style clipart perfect for cards that you don’t want to miss;)

In additon to the OSA challenge this card also qualifies for: CArdvarks (embossing), Crafty Ann (embossing), Creative Craft (stamping), Flourishes (embossing) and Tuesday Throwdown (dry embossing).

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Make this “Sweet” tag!

Happy Monday folks! I took the kids to a birthday party yesterday. I have been friends with the little boy’s mom for many years and she always saves the cards and tags I make to use as embellishments in her scrapbooks so I always make sure to make some thing special for their cards, in this case a sweet tag:

Stamps, Ink and treat cup: Stampin Up!, Cardstock: Bazzil, GP, tab sticker: DCWV, Ribbon: Target

I love this stamp set for making quick kids birthday cards (what kid wouldn’t love real gum or candy in his card?) and usually you need to destroy the card to get to the goods but since I know his mom will save the tag I made a drop slot in the back so he can get the gum and mom can still have a cute scrapbook page embellishment. Here’s how:

You need 3 tags the same size, I cut three 3"x5 1/2" rectangles then cut off the top corners to make my tag. cut a 2" circle from the top tag and a 1" circle from the middle and back tag (be sure the 1" circles are lined up and in the center of the tag as shown.

Also you need a scrap of cardstock that is about 2″ square and some sort of pull tab, I used a happy Birthday tab sticker but a rectangle of paper folded in half would work just as well. Stamp gum balls around the cut hole on the middle tag and all over the slider piece then stack them up line this: Top tag with the big hole, under that the stamped middle tag with the 1″ hole, the slider behind that and the un-stamped back tag. If all goes well it should look like this:

Here is what it looks like when all 4 tags and slider are lined up. you may need to trim the slider panel if it sticks out at the top.

REmove the top 2 tags. With the slider in place run double-sided adhesive above, below and to the left of the slider (Trim the slider if needed), this makes the trace for the slider to move on.

Now place the middle tag on the back tag and they will be adhered together.  Remove the line on the treat cup and place it inside (from the back) of the top tag and carefully line both up on the middle tag, once the cup touches the tag it will be stuck for good so line it up carefully! then remove the top tag, ad adhesive to the back and adhere it to the tag stack. It will look like this:

You finished the hard part!

Now flip it over and see:

Viola! Now decorate the front and you are done!

I prefer making a tag with this set because when I make a card it wants to fall over due to the weight of the gum balls. I put the finished tag in a clear plastic envelop and tape it to the gift so it is a decoration too. I hope you give this a try, it is really fun and the kids get a kick out of it, and if your lucky the moms will too!

This tag qualifies for the following challenges: Clearly I stamp (birthday), Donna’s Den (happy birthday), Robyn’s Fetish (open),  One Stop Craft Challenge (for the boys), SirStampsaLot (punch it-my only TAG entry, I punched the gumballs on the tag front, first photo)

Thanks for stopping by, thil next time happy crafting!

Freebies, Freebies Everywhere!

Howdy folks, I hope you are having an excellent weekend. I have a new freebie for you today but first I want to show you two cards I made with thursday’s freebie and mention the Fathers Day sale going on at MyGrafico, Save 25% on everything at Lindsays Stamp Stuff including the new sets I added this week!

Stamps: Lindsay's stamp Stuff, Papers: Lilybimble all available at mygrafico.com

I use the stick dog and cat freebie that coordinated with the People Mix  & Match set for the focal point of the card. The adorable papers are from the Maribelle collection form Lilybimble, a talented new designer at MG. I simply chose to print the papers in my photo software selecting 4 to a page, that shrunk the pattern making it perfect scale for cards.

BTW the cards here qualify for the following challenges: Creative Card Crew (thank you) and Creative Cottage (it takes two: Card and a matching envelope).

Stamps: Lindsay's stamp Stuff, Paper: Autumn Leaves, Font: LD Noodge

Aren’t they fun! I’m not sure if I like using the digital stamps of the SVG designs better, they are both a lot of fun! Now the stamps I used in the cards a free in my shop but I had a customer request for faces with curly hair to match the people in the mix & match set so here they are, click to download:

this coordinates with the people mix & match set from Lindsay's stamp stuff, you get 2 stamps (png & jpg) and SVG cutting files for your Cricut machine!

Speaking of NEW I just released this digital stamp set in the shop Yesterday, it is called Strawberries and Watermelon:

This set is 25% off this weekend along with everything else!

What are you waiting for, get shopping at save 25% off all Digital stamps. papers and SVG templates at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff. The sale ends Sunday at Midnight so don’t wait!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!