More Anniversary Cards

I know, I know, I'm getting a little repetitive...I've had a lot of anniversary's and romance lately!  I wanted to try my new Sizzix die that I picked up at the Scrapbook Expo a couple of weeks ago.  I hadn't seen it in the local stores and was excited to get it.  It is a Card w/Floating Frames 3-D (Pop-Up) die.  It is way cool and gives a different look for the inside of your card.  I decided to make a couple of anniversary cards with it.  Sorry for the background color, my light box and available lighting is a little off right now.

  The first one uses some of my paper from KandCompany's Susan Branch collection.  I used it for the background of the card and added my sentiment on top of solid paper in purple hues cut out with my Spellbinder's dies.  I added some bling and a sparkly ribbon in pinks to coordinate with the background paper of pinks, orangish-yellows and purple.  For the inside I used the Sizzix die to cut the floating frame out of the paper that matches the card stock used for the back of the card.  What I love about this die is the floating frames in the middle of the cut.  It folds in when the card is closed.  The die has score lines to show you where to fold the frame and you use the middle score lined up with the middle of the card as your center for mounting the floating frame inside the card.     I added solid colored lavender paper that matches the front of the card and cut it in the shape of the two floating sections.  I stamped my sentiments on them, added some bling and stamped Happy Anniversary in the lower right corner of the card.

The shot below shows a little better definition of how the floating frame part of the card works and folds in on itself. 

So I did a second card with a patterned outside and a solid inside instead of a pattern as seen above.  This one turned out nicely too!  With the solid paper on the inside of the card I think you can see the floating frame more easily.  I did it in a pearlized pink paper that matched what is on the front and stamped in purple on the floating frames.  On the front I used pearlized white on pink and stamped in purple there.



On this inside floating frame I stamped on the frame itself a little butterfly and added some bling to make it stand out.  I stamped Happy Anniversary in the lower corner of the card.

I can't wait to make some more cards with this handy little die.  It makes a unique card.  Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

More Romance

I posted some romantic cards earlier and promised a view of some more of what I sent off.  For the background of this card I used a solid red glitter card stock I had picked up to go with the craft paper from this Recollections Love Letters pad.  It is another 6 x 9 card.  For the card mounted on the front I used the corner of one of the 12 x 12 sheets from the pad with a beautifully glitter embossed flower and some swirls overlaid on music stanzas.  To make the sentiment block on the front of the card I inked up my Cuttlebug frames die and cut the block. This was my first try at inking up the die/embossing folder and I really like how it turned out.  I used Tim Holtz' Fired Brick ink.  I added the sentiment on the front along with some matching red bling on the schwoopie's.  Some of the cards I left blank inside so the sender could write their own note inside.

The next 12 x 12 sheet had this beautifully embossed word Love in the lower corner.  I used that section of the card stock and cut another 6 x 9 card.  Since the card had the word taking up the majority of the front of it I felt like it didn't require much added embellishment.  I added one large crystal bling to the end of the L schwoop and then used my SU! butterfly embosslets die to add a couple of embossed butterflies.

For this card I used the rest of the red glitter card stock for the back and the other section of the music notes paper from above.  I wrapped a gold satin ribbon threaded with a bejeweled red heart around the top of the craft card and affixed it on the back side.  I used the thank you stamp and stamped it in the small block on the faux sewn line.  It fit perfectly in the space provided!  I love it when that happens.  I then mounted the craft card on the glitter card stock.

I am really enjoying this paper stack and thoroughly loved making these cards.  I hope the recipients enjoy receiving them as much as I've enjoyed making them. 

Once again, Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

Anniversary Cards

Needed some anniversary cards this month.  I had some papers from Valentine's Day so set about making a card for my BFF.  Becky and Ed celebrate their 35th anniversary this year.  I had picked up a Martha Stewart butterfly border punch and had not yet tried it out.  I started playing with it and decided that the border turned out so well that I wanted to use it on the anniversary card.  I used some pearly white card stock by Gemstones and cut it to a 6 x 9 size, scored at 4.5 inches and folded in half.  I cut the patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle called Love Story to fit on the 6 x 4.5 front of the card stock.  The paper had come out around Valentine's Day.  I punched the beautiful butterfly border using a pearly pink from the Gemstones paper.  I cut the tag from the Spellbinder's Nestabilities die and used my little stamp about true love stories...I added pink pearls at the top and bottom of the sentiment.  I mounted the sentiment using pop dots then cut more pop dots to mount on the butterfly border to make it stand up over the edge of the sentiment block.  To finish it off I stamped Happy Anniversary in the inside of the card and added a pretty matching pink bow with some satin edged organza ribbon from the dollar bin at Michael's.

Next up I worked on an anniversary card for my sweetie.  I used embossed craft paper from my Recollections Love Letters pad previously mentioned in my blog. I cut another 6 x 9 inch size card scored at 4.5 inches and folded in half.  I then cut one of the embossed papers from the collection to fit inside the 6 x 4.5 front of the card.  I used the Spellbinder's Nestabilities die mentioned above and stamped in horizontally with another one of my love stamps.  Since I was working with red embossing on the craft paper, I stamped the sentiment in red and then inked around the edges of the sentiment tag; at the top of the sentiment I added light grey pearls.  I used a pearly grey Gemstones paper and cut a butterfly border for the bottom of the sentiment.  I used pop dots to lift it over the bottom edge of the sentiment.  To finish it off, I added a sparkly red ribbon bow to the front and stamped Happy Anniversary inside the card.  Happy 30th Anniversary dear!

I think they both turned out very nicely.  Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

Romantic Kraft Cards

A few weekends ago I was browsing Michael's aisles and found this wonderful kraft card paper pad from Michael's Recollections line of supplies.  It is called Love Letters.  It has some beautifully embossed papers that are wonderful for making Valentine's cards or love notes for your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, well you get the idea.  I decided to make this as a gift for someone so will only share a couple of them here.  I'll share the rest once I've sent them off...so stay tuned.  This paper for the first card was patterned with writing and flowers, music, etc.  Additionally it had these two pretty birds perched on the front and they were overlaid with a burnished copper embossing.  I found the beautiful matching ribbon in the Thanksgiving decorations at Michaels on sale and knew it was a perfect match.  The other nice thing about the paper pad is it had two page of tags/embellishments in it.  The tag across the bottom is one of them.  It is kind of hard to see, but it is raised with foam stickies, it says For My Love in the same burnished copper and I stamped a love sentiment next to it in copper.

For the second card, I chose to highlight the perfect block on the left side of the page and use it as my sentiment location.  In the lower left corner there are two flowers that are embossed with a glittery red as is the word Love and the No. 206.  I used my Martha Stewart embossed heart punch and punched a small red glitter embossed heart for the upper right corner of the box and used the Butterflies Sizzlet from SU! to add a butterfly in the lower right corner.  Then to finish it off, I stamped the love sentiment you see in the box in red and added a glittery red ribbon from my Christmas ribbon stash.

I can't say enough about this paper pack.  It is really wonderful and has some beautiful patterns and embossing on it.  Check it out the next time you're in Michael's!  Great for making Love Notes for your sweetie!

See you next time.  Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

Gift Sets

Earlier this spring my co-worker Tamara asked me to make her a prayer journal gift set for the ladies retreat at her church.  She wanted to give it as a raffle gift at the retreat.  She wanted a really pretty prayer journal so we set off on a lunch hour for a Jo Ann's supply run.  She found this beautiful set of papers from KandCompany, their Susan Winget Botanical Speciality Paper Pad. I found the matching stickers and other dimensional embellishments so we were all set!  The first picture is the Prayer Journal.  I pulled two of the beautiful floral papers from this pad and trimmed them down to fit the journal.  On the top I added some of dimensional stickers including one of the word Faith.  I had some pretty pink satin ribbon in my stash and for the tag on the front I cut an oval shape on my Cricut.  I believe it was from Merry Tags cartridge.

I printed on an off-white piece of card stock the words Prayer Journal, cut it in a smaller oval shape using my Creative Memories oval shape cutter and mounted that on the pink tag and added some more of the dimensional stickers along with some pearl bling.  I then hooked a small heart clip through the tag opening and tied it on in a bow with the ribbon that was tied around the front cover of the prayer journal.
Since this was for a raffle gift I wanted to make a complete package so with the scraps I had left I made the small matching notebook that you see here.  I used the same matching satin ribbon and I punched a heart tag with my Creative Memories heart punch.  I punched a grommet hole and added a pink grommet, threaded it with white cotton cord, stamped the word notes and glittered it up.  I added a small butterfly sticker to mirror the one on the notebook and three pink pearls above the word notes.  I also added a little dimensional sticker to the bottom of the notebook.

And finally, with the remaining scraps from the two original 12 x 12 papers that I started with, I made some clothes pin magnets.  I originally saw this idea over at Scrappin Cat's blog here.  I loved the fact that it was such a great way to use up scraps from your paper projects.  In this instance it worked perfectly to complete this gift set. The embellishments I had for this project had some great small ones, butterflies and dragonflies that were the perfect size to fit on the magnets.  To showcase the magnets and keep them all together, I copied Cathy's idea of mounting them on card stock.  I used plain white for the background and embossed the paper with a pretty swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I then used some of the remaining scraps from the project and made a topper and the band that the pins are anchored on.  I then enclosed the whole thing in a cellophane envelope.  Here they are.

And finally, the complete set ready for the raffle. 

Hope to see you again soon!  Until then, Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

Christmas Mini Clipboard

While in the Dollar Store over the weekend I was wandering around, after picking up what I'd gone in for, and happened upon these little 6" x 8" clipboards.  I thought it would make a really cute gift idea...didn't know what exactly but picked it up to give it a try.  Today I took a vacation day to extend the long weekend just to play and craft, and so decided to work on the clipboard.  I pulled out different paper pads, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it.  Well with Christmas approaching, my mind is on what to do for Christmas gifts.  So...I marched over to my paper stash and grabbed my Christmas paper pads from last year and started leafing through them.  I found this cute paper in my DCWV Winter Wonder paper pad and got started.  I chose the patterned paper with the polar bear because I thought it was cute and appropriate for the person I'm thinking of gifting this to.  I cut it down to size for the front of the board and on the back side I used one of the other silver and white sparkly snowflake papers from the same package cut down to size.  After adhering the paper to the front and back, I took 1/8" wide blue ribbon edge with silver that I picked up last Christmas from Michael's and adhered it all the way around the edge of the board.  When I had picked up the Winter Wonder paper at Jo Ann's, I had also found a package of matching stickers and embellishments to go with the paper.  I pulled some of those from the package and added to the back of the board.  I also added some Jolee's snowflake embellishments with bling and added some additional blue bling I had in my stash. At the top of the board on the clamp, I added two pieces of silver ribbon on each side of clamp.  To finish it up I added a small pad of plain card stock stamped with Christmas words in the lower right corner.  On top of that I tied a small framed Christmas sentiment "May the magic of Christmas be yours this season."  I cut the frame using my Cuttlebug fancy tags die and threaded it with 1/8" white with silver edges ribbon and tied it around the clamp, centering it over the small notes. 

Since I had leftover paper from the front and back of the clipboard, I used the other side of the polar bear paper to create a small matching photo book.  It it is very simple, I had two good corners of the original paper left with snowflakes, so cut those down to a 5 3/4" x 4" front and back cover.  For the inside pages of the book I used some matte silver card stock which I cut down to 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" wide.  I didn't add embellishments to the pages as I didn't want to limit what the recipient could do with the book.  On the outside I added the Let It Snow sticker and a Jolee's snowflake with some bling.  I punched two holes in the left side of the book and used snowflake brads for the holes.  I then added a couple of rings through the brads and covered them with ribbon in blue and silver.  To make the book a little more sturdy, I used my EKSuccess corner punch to punch some corner reinforcements from the silver snowflake paper used on the back of the board.  I then used them on all of the corners, front and back, inside and outside.  Once pictures are added to the book I'm sure it will stand up nicely.

Finally, the finished product with the plain stamped card stock in the middle of the clipboard under the framed sentiment.  All in all, I'm satisfied with the finished product and will probably pick up a few more of these dollar gems to do up some more Christmas gifts.

Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

Sizzix

Last Christmas I used some gift cards I received and purchased a Sizzix machine.  I've played with it here and there, but nothing serious until this past weekend.  I've been seeing a lot of cards with embossed layers and find they are beautiful, fun and unique!  I needed a birthday card for my friend so last Sunday my sole purpose was to use my Sizzix and come up with something pretty!  I think I've succeeded!!  This first card is my friends birthday card.  I used one of my Sizzix folders (didn't write the name on it and threw away the packaging!) and chose a pale blue for embossing.  I added a darker blue background as contrast.  I then pulled some ribbon from my stash.  It has wired edges and is actually a series of variegated purple hues, but I think it went quite well with the blue card stock.  I added a lavender butterfly with some bling in the upper right corner using my SU! Butterflies Embossing Sizzlet. On the bottom right I used my Cricut to cut my sentiment piece and background, then inked, stamped, blinged up and mounted my sentiment.  I added a matching sentiment inside on white card stock. 

Next I played with the Allegro Cuttlebug folder.  I love music, if there isn't a movie I'm watching while crafting, the music is on!  This card stock was a kind of rustic red or country red.  I mounted it on a cream card stock.  I liked the look and decided to make it a little elegant with some gold ribbon along the edge.  I cut a sentiment block with my Cricut out of cream and added a pretty sentiment with a butterfly in the corner from one of my stamp sets with a touch of bling on the butterfly and along the bottom of the sentiment.  I inked up the edges with the Tim Holtz Fired Brick ink pad.  I left the inside blank so the sender can write a personalized note.

This card is a birthday card, with the flowery look to it I'm thinking it's a girl's card.  I used the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug folder with a burgundy colored card stock mounted on white.  I add a sentiment square in white card stock in the lower right corner with a small stamped flower and some matching bling. I then added some flowers in the upper left corner with a heart brad in the middle and a little bling on top.  The inside is stamped with Happy Birthday.

Finally, I did a thank you card using the Thanks Cuttlebug folder and burgundy card stock, again on white.   Using the Tim Holtz small rosette die, I added a mini paper rosette on the front with a gold patterned paper from the DCWV Tradewinds paper stack.  I think it punches up the burgundy a little and gives it some dimension.  Inside I stamped "thanks a million and added a schwoopie in the lower right corner with a little bling.  I stamped it with Tim Holtz Fired Brick ink. 

I think I'll be using my Sizzix a lot more in the future!  Imagine, Create, Enjoy!