Happy Wedding Day

My mom asked me for two wedding cards and I'm happy to oblige.

But I must say that I don't make that many wedding cards........ so I need to get some inspiration.  As usual, I went to my stash and checked those items that are love-themed.  I found an older set of Close to My Heart paper called Veranda (still love this paper although it is rather old).  That's perfect!

I used a sketch from Make it from Your Heart to create this card:

Guess what?  I've spent more time looking for the right products than making the card itself.  Well, it happens very often but this time, search for the products look at least 5 times as long as making the card. :P  Is that a sign that I should purge more?

My card is entering the following:
Craftaholics R Us - love
Crafty Purple Frog - Love is all around
Paper Creator - Love is in the air

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

SMILE!

It has been a long time since I could play and relax at my craft desk.  How I miss my craft goodies!

I started playing with coloring the flowers in the Hawaiian Hibiscus set.  I've tried different coloring mediums and I like this one done with watercoloring the best.  I've turned the images into a card:

It took me quite a while to arrange the flowers and the leaves.  Guess why?  There's a boo-boo in the lower left on the big hibiscus and I have to use the small one to cover that up.  Oops.

The pattern paper comes from the Florence paper pack.  It will retire after the end of this month.  Grab it while it's still available!  I purposefully wanted to use a more generic sentiment so I used Jennifer's Hand, an alphabet set to create my own sentiment.  We could always use more smiles on our face, right?  I used one of the card sketches in Make it from Your Heart - those patterns make my life A LOT easier.

I'm entering the card to the following challenges:
H2H - Florence
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Stempegarten - flowers/garden

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Celebrate

I hope everyone had a great crafty National Scrapbooking Day, and a great Mother's Day!

I did spend some time crafting, despite the fact that I should focus on a million other things.  I told myself I had to carve out as little as 15 minutes on crafting because hey, it's National Scrapbooking Day!

A few layouts were made.  The most happy part was to re-live the memories of those little moments.  I am the kind of scrapper who likes to tell everyday stories rather than documenting events.  Certainly birthday parties, vacation, trips to Disney are worth documenting, but if my album shows these bigger events only, I'm afraid I might forget my everyday life, which constitutes a much bigger part of my life.

I also tried to make a few cards.  I said "tried" because I didn't finish them over the weekend.  Oops.  But I'm happy to report that I finished one today.  It's a birthday card:

This card looks familiar to you?  It's very similar to one of the cards in the Kaleidoscope Workshop except I'm using Celebrate with Cake, this month's Stamp of the Month. :)

This card will go to a Taurus girl by the end of this month.  I mentioned that I have many cards to send out this month and I'm still catching up!

My card is linking up to the following:
Seize the Birthday - birthday and/or coloring
Fussy and Fancy - birthday
Coloring in Scrapland - Celebrations
Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Our Crafty Corner - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Seriously Thanks for Everything

Happy Friday!

I'm sharing a quick and easy masculine Thank You card today.  In general I think the most difficult part on a masculine card is to strike the balance that it is simple and clean enough for a guy card but at the same time interesting and fun enough as a handmade card.

For this one I'm using patterned paper from the Regatta collection:

The Regatta collection has a nautical theme but it can be used in so many other themed projects.  I have made scrapbook layouts that are in no way related to the sea, beach, or even summer.

For this masculine card, I used one of the card sketches from Make it from Your Heart Vol. I.  I used the wavy background stamp in the Jumping Geometrics set to create my own patterned paper for the background.  Tone-on-tone stamping is one of my faves and I just couldn't resist it for this card.  The sentiment comes from the set Stamps of Approval, which will retire end of this month. This set has five badge-like images that are great for card-makers.  I'm sad to see it go but happy to make room for new products. :)

To add a finishing touch, I included a strip of silver shimmer tape.  These shimmer tapes last forever (I'm not complaining!). :)  They are a great helper to add a little something to any projects.  I like that they last forever and are easy to use.

My card is entering the following challenges:
Inky Impressions - All about boys
The Paper Shelter - For the Boys
Crafty Girls Creations - Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Birdies

Have you seen Sunshine Birdies, stamp of the Month at Close to My Heart?

I've made a card with it using a sketch I've used a million times and am still in love with:

You may be thinking that the birdie on my card does not look the same as the one you see on the website.  No worries, your eyes are perfectly fine.  When I fussy cut it out, I realized that he is a tad bit too big on the card, so I trimmed off his tail.  And yes, I cut out his feather on his crown too.  I figured that it would look odd with just one feather after I've cut it out, so removing it would be the easiest thing to do.

I've used the music notes in the stamp set to create my own background.  Tone-on-tone technique is my favorite trick to add subtle interest to an otherwise plain cardstock.

In case you are wondering, the sketch came from Make it from Your Heart Part I.  There are many card and layout sketches on the internet, but this book is truly awesome.  It is affordable and jam-packed with pictures of beautiful projects.  Every time when my mojo is low I will be instantly inspired just by flipping it through.  Furthermore, I like that it has dimensions and cutting guides provided.  No guesswork at all!  I wll be honest that although sometimes I like the adventure to use sketches only as a reference guide, I do not always like the end product that I made because something seems unproportional.  There are moments that I did it right the first time and was extremely excited about it but I'm afraid it does not happen that often.  Thus I truly appreciate the dimension and cutting guide of the How-to books offered by Close to My Heart.

This card is going to a very dear friend of mine, who helped me a big time.  I can never thank her (and her family) enough.  I didn't want to send a thank you card, because a card like this will be more special.

I'm entering my card to the following:
Kitty Bee Designs - in the garden
Crafting with Dragonflies - Girly cards
Crafty Calendar - Special female

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Hip!  Hip!  Hooray!

I'm back today to share my card using Balloon Animals, Stamp of the Month of February of Close to My Heart.

I had many ideas in my head but I couldn't resist using another sketch from Make it from your Heart II.  These how-to programs are time-savers!   They are also my source of inspiration when I need it. :) I can't help but using the Zoe paper packet.  The fun and bright colors are perfect for this party/celebration themed stamp set.  It turned out cute and I hope you like it too!

My card is linking up to the following:
Creative Knockouts - Birthday wishes
Seize the Birthday - Birthday
QKR Stampede - One for the kids
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' - Add an animal
Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Addicted to stamps - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Friday!

I said I'm on a masculine card kick and it's still going strong!

Although I think this one would be just as nice for a girl.  Well, I might use Sorbet color for the sentiment and use hearts instead of stars for embellishment.

I've used one of the sketches from Make it from Your Heart for this card.  Love that the book even provides dimensions for each piece to be cut.  That makes it really quick and easy.

The Zoe paper packet was first released in August last year and I heard that it has been one of the top selling paper packets.  I am not surprised.  It is so versatile.  I like that it has patterns and color combination that work well for a wide variety of projects.

My card is linking up to the following:
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls - Anything Goes
Craft Rocket - Clean and Simple
Southern Girls - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

No stamping no problem

I'm sharing a card that doesn't involve stamping today.

"No stamping" was not part of the plan as I just wanted to play with the new Lawn Fawn Scripty Love die.  For sure I'd like to make it the focal point of the card!  I've flipped through many card sketches and found this from the Close to My Heart Make it from Your Heart Volume I.  I like that this book gives us clear cutting diagrams with dimensions and instructions, and samples.  Once I decided to use this sketch, I picked several pieces from the Let's Polka paper and Hello Sunshine paper to create this card.  The hearts were die cut from the Lawn Fawn hearts die, making great accents on the card.

At this point I felt that the card was complete, except that I'd like to line a thin ribbon along the large red polka panel to add some texture.  The final touch was to add some glitter using the Wink of Stella pen and glossy accent onto the scripty love die.  The card was finished that way without stamping.  Is there a problem?  I don't think so.  LOL.

My card is entering the following challenges:
Through the Purple Haze - Anything Goes
Card Mania - Make it Sparkle
Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
Crafty Boots - Out with the Old and In with the New
Love to Create - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!