Farm fresh: barn box & gift tag set.

A sweet little barn-box, filled with 8 farm-fresh, 100% certified pure country tags :)

I used the PTI shape up series: barn die to create my box.  First, I die-cut a barn shape and stamped it with the barn-board image from "background basics: farm & barn." I think I squealed in delight after that step :)  I die-cut the barn again in black cardstock and used that to fussy-cut the strip for the roof-top, added a white framing around the doors, and sewed the barnyard "X" onto each door.

To create my little box, I die-cut another barn and used the 2 pieces to sandwich a simple box shape.  (To make the box between the barns, I cut a sheet of red cardstock down to 5 inches by 8 inches.  On the 5 inch side, I scored at 1" and again at 4".  On the 8 inch side, I scored at 3.5" and again at 4.5".)

Well hello there, little chicken!

Inside the barn, I tucked 8 gift tags in 4 different designs, held together by the red-checked border at the bottom, the kraft-y colored sunburst, and the black-inked sentiments & farm images.

 Oh, and thank you Ikea, for providing the plush farm animals, perfect for my little photoshoot.  And thank you Maia, for letting me borrow them for 5 minutes... albeit begrudgingly...

MIM #68 - pocket cards.

Hi peeps!  When it rains, it pours - literally!  We got so much rain in and around Montreal that in some parts the sewers are backed up - ew, ew, EW!

From something icky to something pretty (I did that so my card would look that much nicer after you've just pictured floods and sewer water - kidding!):

I made this one for the current MIM challenge: pocket cards.  My pocket is made out of vellum, the front panel embossed with the woodgrain impression plate, and with a peek-a-boo cut-out for the sentiment to show through.

Here's the pocket without the card.... and with the flower and leaves from "Rosie Posie"...

The card is a one-layer, folded card.  I first stamped my large greeting where I wanted it, and then layered the roses and leaves all around.  I sponged the edges all around with antique linen distress ink.  I know it makes the red bleed a tiny bit, but I don't mind the softness that gives...

The rest of the sentiment is inside...

Hope you liked it!

Keep it casual, man!

If the title of my post sounds a little old school, it's just the theme of this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge: making a masculine card with patterned paper.

If you've been following my blog for awhile, and have a super-amazing memory, these patterned papers will look like a re-run.  They're the scraps that are left from my Father's day projects last year :)

I spent some time organizing my scraps and decided it was time to use up the last of this pack (such a crafty hoarder!)

After adhering the strips to a white mat (for more stability), I grabbed a "tag sale 5" die cut (PTI), folded the top over, and was left with the perfect fish-tailed banner.  I die-cut the letters and black-embossed the folded glasses image (from Lawn Fawn).

The glasses were propped up with foam dots, as was the patterned paper mat, to give some extra dimension to the card.

I'm also entering this into the current lawnscaping challenge: embossing.

Thanks for peeking!

Retro-sketch #13

Happy Monday morning!  I usually drag my feet on Mondays, but today I woke up with a spring in my step.  I'm having coffee with a friend, and then bringing my son for a visit of his soon-to-be new school.  How do they grow up so fast?  eeek!

Before I'm off, I thought I'd share a card I made using this fantastic sketch from the retro sketches blog:

Honestly, I think the retro sketch blog is my new favorite challenge of the week - it's so fun to see what everyone creates with the same, specific sketch!  If you've never played along, give it a try!

For my take, I turned the sketch sideways and inked up some lawn fawn stamps.  I stamped the postcard image 3 times, and stamped other images from "you've got mail" and "admit one" onto each before sponging the edges and adding some copic coloring.

Instead of the scallop border, I stamped the "air mail" image 3 times onto adhesive paper and hung them off the edge of each postcard.... kind of like a post-it note tab :)

The strip of navy blue/white paper was created by cutting strips of navy cardstock (half an inch wide each) and adhering them to a white cardstock mat.  The over-hanging strips just got trimmed away at the end.

Thanks for peeking!

May PTI blog hop

Yesterday, I showed you the set of cards I made for Thomas' teachers on his last day of preschool.

But his main teacher deserved a little special attention.  I was inspired by the PTI blog hop photo:

When I saw that fancy place setting, I immediately thought of the fancy treat that might be served on one of those plates.  Actually, I thought the cupcake card would make a cute place-card, with the person's name written on the hanging tag instead of "merci"... but that's for another day :)  I needed a french thank you card right now.

In addition to the card, I made a gift-card holder using the Clear and Simple Stamps "mini tri-fold 1" die.  (It's larger than the PTI lunchbox note and the giftcard holder, in case you're wondering.)  I thought it would be fun to decorate it to match the main card.  The cupcake wrapper, the same swirl of frosting - we're seeing a cupcake here, right?

(When we delivered the present yesterday, there was a gift-card in there, I promise...just showing my level of procrastination again here... hee!)

Here's the set.  For both, I stamped the cupcake wrappers with PTI's gingham background in black, and stamped flowers from "in bloom" onto some scraps of lime green paper (I know it's SU papers, and I think the color is kiwi kiss.)  The "frosting" was embossed with an SU folder and sprayed with a studio calico shine mist.

I wanted the flowers at the top to look like whimsical, edible flowers, so I cut in between the petals and curled the blooms a bit.  That made all the difference in giving the card some movement.

Hope you like my set - and I hope Thomas' teacher was a bit wowed too :)

Thanks for hopping over here - have a great weekend!

Card set in a hurry.

When you only remember at the last minute that you'll be needing cards to give out to the teachers at your son's preschool (since today is his graduation -sniff, sniff!), you don't mess around.  I found this post and used it as inspiration to bang out 4 cards in less than an hour.  The procrastination was so bad that I couldn't wait to photograph the set in natural light ;)

Using the apple from Paper Smooches' "falling for you" set and elements from PTI's "it's official," I created these very teacher-appropriate cards.

 All of the patterned papers are from Stampin' Up.  (Fun fact: the notebook-lined paper is from a Christmas pack!)

 I'm entering these into this week's MIM challenge: mixing patterned papers.

Thanks for looking!

happy birthday!

Hi peeps!

I have to admit that I'm dragging my heels a bit ... I'm going on almost 2 weeks of chesty coughing and now I think I've compounded the problem by catching another cold.  The runny nose and difficulty sleeping are not helping :)

So, to cheer myself up, I made this bright birthday card:

I first stamped the Hero Arts "radiant banner" background onto a sheet of cream cardstock.  Then, I sponged a baking doily with red ink (then paused to thoroughly wash my hands), and die-cut some funky blue grass and kraft-y dolls (love that MFT border!).  The focal tag was stamped with a honeycomb pattern from Clear & Simple Stamps, and the birthday tag (PTI) was stamped first with red ink, and again with aqua mist.  I snipped and layered the parts before adhering them to the kraft layer and then onto the tag.

 Thanks for peeking!

Well hello there, sir...

This one is for CAS-ual Fridays current challenge: using dies or punches.

My preppy mister is decked out in a plaid shirt (stamped using PTI's "distressed stripes") and dapper bow-tie.

I used a die from Lil' Inker Designs for the bow, and a label from Clear & Simple Stamps.  The sentiment is courtesy of Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for passing by!

retro-sketch #12

We will be enjoying a nothing-but-blue-skies-beautiful day off today - it's a Canadian holiday honoring Queen Victoria - but I thought I would pop in before anyone wakes up with a card I made over the weekend...

Here's another great sketch from the retro-sketches challenge blog:

and here is my take on it:

 I started out with a kraft cardstock base, and added a mat stamped with Wplus9's knit background (in autumn rose ink).

For the focal mat, I stamped the greeting first (from Paper Smooches' "pretty momma" set) and then stamped florals (from Lawn Fawn's "blissful botanicals") all around in a slightly lighter brown ink.  To tie it all into the knit background layer, I stamped a few solid flowers in the same autumn rose ink.  I also stamped my favorite Hero Arts' envelope pattern background over-top (I think if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you might faintly see the nice detail that it gives.)

Thanks for peeking!

What's black&white with a splash of yellow?

Happy Friday!

I've been a rogue card-maker all week, not creating anything for any challenge... time to join in some fun!  I'm entering this card into the current PDCC - black and white, with a splash of mustard yellow.  (I have 2 splashes, hope that's ok!)

I'm slowly making my way through all of these CSS critters.  The bee is so cute!  I couldn't help but combine a few CSS stamps to make this "way to BEE!" card.

 I used some background sets, black distress ink, and a sponge to create these faux-washi strips.

The cute critter was cut 1x out of vellum, and 1x out of cardstock.  I purposefully cut off his wings on the cardstock layer, so that the vellum ones could take center-stage.

Thanks for popping by!




Supply list: 
Stamps used: (all CSS): taglines: critters, background basics 1, flower garden, au naturel (for the word bee), PTI: simple alphabet

she wore an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny...

...yellow polka-dot bikni!

My mom is bravely jumping back onto the weight-watchers bandwagon, and while (right now) I'm lacking the motivation I need to join her, I wanted to encourage her with a fun card.  Isn't so hard to START the process of eating better and exercising when you haven't been doing it for a long time?  sigh.

And can we talk about the staging of this card for a second?  I was cracking myself up, with the blue martini glass, and the jar full of sea-shells... oh, the things I have lying around my house :)

I hope she'll get a kick out of the little yellow-polka-dotted Denami bikini - it was just the right size for this card.

I added my favorite accent of the moment, the Wplus9 sunburst, in back of the bikini (with some masking, of course, to avoid the bikini itself), and the sentiment was computer generated before I stamped the frame around it.

The card base was stamped with the "classified" section of the PTI newsprint background, and the tiny stars are leftovers from the star border die (mft.)

For a last, fun touch, I glazed the bikini with a layer of glossy accents.

Have a great day, all!

MIM #66: felt flowers from border dies

I taught a card class last night and stayed up past my bedtime, so today will be more show and less tell :)

Vine border, become flower:

 Nichole had posted a tutorial on her blog, and this isn't my first time trying it out.

I used my new script alpha dies and some pretty patterned paper peeking through from underneath (and, right after creating this card, I lost the "L" die, searched like a crazy-person last night with no success, only to find it this morning... yay!)

The autumn rose mat was stamped with florals from "rosie posie" and "larger than life" in fresh snow ink.

The rolled flower was accented with some mft leaf dies and some kraft/white twine.

Thanks for peeking!

One stamp, two ways.

 How to stretch your stamp dollar, 101.  

I used this little Denami stamp:

2 ways.  First, as pretty florals:

I stamped them onto patterned paper (dear lizzy "neapolitan") and cut them out.  I heat-embossed the sentiment (also Denami) and added some leaves (mft).  The simple touch of curling the flower petals with my fingers added some pretty dimension (and helped them to look like more of a flower and less of a frame.)

Then, second, I used it as a frame (with the adorable little bunnies from their bunnies border stamp inside):

The sentiment is Lawn Fawn, and the patterned paper is by Studio Calico.  The fluff on their tails is hand-glued by me :)

Thanks for peeking!