Birthday card

I came to my blog and realized that several scheduled posts did not publish!  Oops.

But that's okay.  One of the scheduled posts was a birthday card that I decided not to give out to my nephew, because I've made another one more awesome!

The new Lawn Fawn goodies are so popular that it took a long time for my order to arrive.  I'm glad that I finally get to play with them and it is literally just in time for my nephew's birthday.

The pop-up card is certainly fun to make, and it's just as fun to color the astronaut and planets.  I hope my nephew likes it as much as I like making it.

Did you know that Lawn Fawn has started its own challenge? You can find the details here.  I look forward to participating in more of its challenges!

My card is linking up to the following:

Lawn Fawnatics - Happy Birthday

A gem of a challenge - boy's birthday

Polka Doodles - Anything Goes

Crafting with Friends - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday card again

This time I'm sharing a birthday card for a one-year old.  Little James turned one!  Time flies.

The stamp set Party Animal from Lawn Fawn is always a wonderful helper in making birthday cards.  Here, I only needed this one stamp set that has all images to make this card.  I like that I could use the small images to create a subtle background like it is some patterned paper.  I added a star shaped die cut as the focal point for the bear and the birdy.  Finally I cut out a banner for the greeting.

This card came together at no time, which was awesome as I was running late to his party. :p

My card is entering the following:
Jo's Scrap Shack - anything goes
Cut it up - birthday cards
Come and get it - cards for kids
The Paper Players - cut it out

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday card

I have a few birthday parties to go to in March so I'm whipping up birthday cards.  Many of them are guys so they will challenge my creativity!

I started making one for Carlos, a soon-to-be 89 years old.  Wow.  I have seen him many times over the years at parties or celebration but I never knew his age.  I couldn't believe he is approaching 89!  He is definitely young at heart!

I decided to make a cute card for him, using some new Lawn Fawn goodies!  I love pinked circles so I have to have this new zig zag circle stackables.  The Happy die is fun and super versatile too!  And I just can't get enough the birdies from love letters.  Absolutely fun and easy for making quick cards.

So I got one done.  Tomorrow I'm going to my friend's son's 1 year old party.  Need to make another one now!

My card is entering the following:
Seize the Birthday - Birthday
Inky Chicks - birthday
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Anything Goes

Have a great weekend and happy crafting!

Happy Birthday

Sharing a masculine birthday card today:

I was fortunate to have snatched the new Lawn Fawn love letters stamp set soon after it was released.  I wasn't too big on V day cards but this set is great all year round too!  The cute envelope image is so fun!

I can see that I can easily change it to a card for a different occasion - use a heart or circle instead of a star; put other sentiments beneath it, etc.

This card will go to a supportive friend.  Hope he will like it.

It is entering the following:
Seize the Birthday - anything goes
CCEE stampers - bird day
Dragonfly journeys - birthday bash
Cardz 4 Guyz - Birthday

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Wishes

Happy Friday!

How's your National Stamping Month so far?

I'm glad that I have been having some good time stamping and crafting!  Yay!

I'm sharing a masculine birthday card today.  I did play with watercoloring.  How fun!

This is a retired Close to My Heart stamp set.  When I bought it I had in mind how I wanted to create a card and it turned out exactly I wanted.  Time for happy dance!  You know, this only happens once in a blue moon.

I'm entering my card to
Heart 2 Heart Challenges - CTMH stamps
Seize the Birthday - birthday + frmes
Craftaholics R Us - Guys + Birthdays

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Homework

Today I'm sharing the homework I did for Clear and Sheer from Online Card Classes.

Sadly, I am a bad student.  I have not even finished watching all the videos and today's already the last day of class!  Oh no!

My two cards today involve embossing.  Have you tried embossing on acetate cards or vellum cards?  The results are stunning!

I turned them into two masculine cards.  First up, a Thank You card:

Then a card for my dad:

If you are wondering what happened to the orange stars in the Thank You card, rest assured that your eyes are fine.  It's just that I've put glossy accent over it but it has not completed dried.  (Gotta take a picture of it before the end of the class..........)

I have been enjoying the lessons in this mini class.  I would love to finish the lessons this weekend, together with some serious scrapbooking tomorrow, because it's National Scrapbooking Day!  Yay!

I'm linking my Thank You card to the following:

Crafting by Designs - Anything Goes

Through the Purple Maze - Anything Goes

Cre8tive Hands Friends - Anything Goes

Crafting with an Attitude - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

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!

Birthday

I have made a birthday card for a soon-to-be one year old.  This is one of the types of cards I find difficult.  So I went with the cute critters from Lawn Fawn.  The one-year-old is a boy, so I thought I have to put those hearts and butterflies away.   I flipped through my stacks of stamp sets and thought that the dinosaur would be a nice choice:

I picked two dinosaurs in the set Critters from the past, then used the speech bubbles from A birdie told me to add the sentiments.  I had fun coloring them using Copic markers.

I'm linking my card to the following:

Crafting with Friends - Anything Goes

PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes

Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Live Laugh Stamp - Something colored

Scrapper's Delights - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

You're my TYPE of friend!

The February promotions at Close to My Heart end today, before which I'd like to share a card that I made out from the promotion set:

Inspired by the challenge at Always Playing with Paper, I wanted to make a masculine card.  To match with the theme of travelling I have used the Regatta paper packet which has a nautical theme. Do you see the tone-on-tone waves in the blue background paper?

I can't really explain why I used that floral patterned paper on a masculine card.  It was definitely something outside of my comfort zone but I'm glad I did it!  The floral pattern is not too over-powering and I like that some red complements with the dark blue background nicely.

The Stamp of the Month promotion also ends today.  Snatch it before it's gone!

This card is linking up to:
Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Always Playing with Paper - Masculine inspiration

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh Happy Day

It was my first time using the thin cuts from Close to My Heart when I was creating this card:

I've learned that when I make cards, it would be nice if it can serve as a multi-purpose one.  For instance, this one says "Oh Happy Day" could be used for a birthday card or other occasion for celebration.  And this one has the color scheme and patterns that's good for guys of various age groups.  Isn't that nice?  I should try making more cards like this one!

Guess what I used this card for?  It was a Valentine's Day card.  I wanted to make something other than the traditional red and hearts and the stamp set My Anchor from Close to My Heart inspired me to try something new!  It has sentiments that say "I love our adventures together", "I'd lost without you", "You're my anchor", which are all great form a V-day card, don't you think?  Click here to see the images of this set.

I also have the coordinating dies for this set.  I love that the dies come in the same package as the stamp set, so storage won't be a problem (uniform packaging makes organization much easier!).  The other thing I appreciate a lot is the magnetic sheet that comes with it.  So thoughtful!  Oh one more thing, the dies were already separated, so we don't need to cut them apart for use!  I have bought dies from other companies where the dies are attached together.  I don't mind cutting them apart, but just a bit concerned that the tiny little connecting pieces would go all over the place.  Close to My Heart has done an awesome job in packaging its dies!  Yay!

If you'd like to know more about its products, you can find more information here.

My card is entering the following:
Craft your passion - anything goes
Love to Scrap - Anything goes
Addicted to stamps - die cuts
Stamping Sensations - 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!

Masculine Thank You card

I'm on a masculine card kick and am sharing a masculine Thank Your card today.

I want to make it more playful so I used my Lawn Fawn goodies to make this card:

I was really hoping to use the "Float My Boat" set to make this card so I started with that.  The next thing I knew was that I have the Ocean Wave Borders die which should go well with this stamp set so I took that out as well.  Because of the wave borders I decided to use the boat image.  Then I thought different shades of blue would be great for masculine card so I gathered my blue cardstock sheets.  To give the boat more interest, I did some paper piecing.  I added red cardstock pieces to the sail of the boat.

It is a standard A2 size card but just the boat on different shades of blue waves would make the card bare.  So I used the stitched journaling card die to draw our attention to the center of the card.  I added a sun and two clouds from Spring Showers die, stamped "Thanks!" on one of the clouds and it's done!

My card is entering the following:
Amusing Challenge - Shades of Blue
Addicted to Stamps - Masculine
613 Avenue - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - with a die
Fashionable Stamping - Thanks/Gratitude

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I have been having a lot of fun playing with the Close to my Heart Zoe paper.  Love the colors and the patterns!  They are easy to work with and very versatile.  Because of that I have been making layouts with it non-stop.  Thus far I have made 5-single page layouts and I'll be sharing them here on my blog and pinterest.  Stay tuned!

Today I am sharing a card that didn't make use of the Zoe paper.  Instead, I was inspired by the color scheme of it.  It's a birthday card for my dad:

I've used Pear cardstock as the background, then used the stamp from the Zoe Workshop on the Go to fill the background.  Tone on tone is one of my favorite stamping techniques!  It adds interest but doesn't make it too busy.

The sentiment was one that I designed on Cricut Design Space using the Cricut Artfully Sent fonts.  I first created an open circle, then lined up each letter to the circumference of it.  It was quite a bit of work but I totally love it!  Further, the designed shape can be scaled up or down and used for many many cards! I cut it first in Slate cardstock then three more times in White Daisy cardstock.  The cut outs are stacked to create some three dimensional effect.

"Dad" was created similarly, except it is a lot easier.  The font used was from Cricut Artbooking.  I like to weld the letters - it's much simpler to stick one word then one letter at a time.  This time I have two "Dads" stacked up.  I like that it is not on the same level as Happy Birthday.

Another source of inspiration was from Freshly Made Sketches.  I've used its sketch as a starting point:

I'm also linking up my card to:
Cards Und More - Clean and Simple
Ruby's Rainbow - It's a Man's World
Retarte - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

You are just plane awesome!

Happy Monday everyone!

I'm sharing a creation using the new Lawn Fawn goodies again!  I just can't help it.  Lawn Fawn goodies are fun and I like that I could mix and match the new goodies with my existing collection.

The card I'm sharing today is exactly a mix of the new Cloud border die with the older Bon Voyage stamp and the alphabet sets:

Many of us agree that masculine cards are more difficult to make than feminine cards.  I need to make a masculine Thank You card.  I could make one with colorful graphic designs but then when I saw the newly arrived Lawn Fawn goodies in the mail I wanted to play with them instead!

So I dug out the Bon Voyage stamp and die set and started playing with it.  I think no men could resist a plane image on a card, right?  Wait.  Oops.  I meant to do Copic coloring but I forgot to use the Copic-friendly cardstock.  At this point I had already cut out the clouds so I just used my trusty Prismacolor pencils and gamsol to color the plane.

Then I dug out my alphabet sets - Milo ABCs and Clark's ABCs.  Yet after I've stamped "You are just plane awesome" I realized that I have the Lawn Fawn So Much to Say set which includes a sentiment "You're Awesome."  Had I remembered it earlier, I would have just used that sentiment rather than lining up the letters from the Milo's ABC set.  Oh well, it's just fine.

It's my first time using the cloud border die and I like it a lot!  I used it both on top and the bottom of my card, so versatile!

My card is entering the following:
Come and Get it - It's a Guy Thing
One stitch at a time - anything goes with men
Stamping Sensations - Dies and Punches
Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Crafty Card Makers - For a Man

Thanks for stopping by!

Father's Day

I'm back with one more Father's Day card.  Yes, it is masking again - I just got to try out some of the techniques learned at the online class.

I pretty much CASed the teacher's card using my own supplies.  While Laura Bassen used a rainbow array of colors, I chose to stick with blues and greens.  I think they represent a safe color combo for a masculine card.  Don't you think?

My card is linking up to the following:
Double Click - Happy Father's Day
Crafting by Design - Anything Goes
Creative Moments - Anything Goes
Inky Impressions - Make it for a Man

Thanks for stopping by!

DAD

Have you started preparing Father's Day card?

I have!  Inspired by Kristina Werner at Maskerade, I created this one by stamping to create a plaid pattern:

The stamp set I used is one from Papertrey Ink.  I like that it has different stripe patterns in the set and each of them is more than 6 inches long (definitely quite a bit longer than 5.5 inches).  The inks used here are from Hero Arts:  Cup O' Joe, Navy, Tide Pool, Green Hills and Cornflower.  I like this color combo and I think I'll use it for future masculine cards. :)

My card is entering the following:
DL.art Thankful Thursday - Father's Day
CRAFT challenge - Father's Day/Male
Sweet Stampin' - Father's Day/Special Male

Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine Card Again!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Do you have any projects planned for this special day?

I have been hoarding some pretty paper and embellishments for pictures taken years ago during a family trip.  It is the time to put them to use, and what's better than starting this project today?

I'm concluding my week-long masculine card series today.  This is a card that I made with the specific intent to step outside my comfort zone:

I have always been making clean and simple cards and stamping is usually the star of the show.  But this card is one that is built with multiple layers of patterned paper while there isn't any stamping involved.

This card is made for someone very special to me.  He was a great mentor while I was in school.  He has the kindest and most generous heart and always ready to help you before you ask.  So every year I pour my heart to make a special birthday card for him. 

I'm off to start my scrapbooking projects.  Woo hoo! 

This card is linking up to
Simply papercrafts - lots of layers
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes
4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes
Craft Challenge - Charm/metal

Thanks for stopping by!

Another masculine birthday card

On Monday I shared a card for my friend B's birthday.  My creative juices were flowing and I made one more masculine birthday card.  This card is more geared towards younger gentlemen:

I made this card and will put it in my stash for now.  Just happy to play with my inktense color pencils.  Now that I think about it, I have acquired many coloring medium over the years:  regular color pencils, then regular watercolor pencils, inktense color pencils, distress markers and my latest addiction Copic markers.  Oh gamsol too!  Even though it is not technically a coloring medium I do use it with color pencils to help blend the colors.

I do feel guilty I have so many coloring medium but never seem to be able to master any one of them.  :P  At certain times I thought a new acquisition would make me abandon the old ones but every time I play with them I feel that our love is re-kindled.  They are all different and I love them all!

I'll share a secret with you:  I forgot to use watercolor paper when I colored the images with inktense color pencils.  Fortunately I used some 110lb cardstock and it didn't warp much.  I just added a lot of adhesive at the back to ensure that it will stay flat.

Do you have a favorite coloring medium?  Is that the only one you use or you play with others as well?

I'm linking up my card to:
Cardz 4 Guys - Flight  
Digi Choosday - CAS
Cuttlebug Mania - stamp
Die Cutting Divas - kids
Loves Rubber Stamps - use two dies
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine Birthday card

My friend M and I co-hosted a Mediterranean theme birthday party for B this past weekend.  I am a terrible host as I am a terrible cook.  And Mediterranean food?  OMG!   I had searched many many recipes and picked a few side dishes that seem to be not-too-difficult to make.  My friend M made great kebabs and I just hoped that my side dishes would not ruin her food.  I am glad that everyone liked the food I brought (or did they say they liked it out of politeness?)

Even though a lot of time was spent on searching for recipes and trials and errors, I couldn't go to this birthday party without a card.  I'm very happy that the card itself didn't take forever to make:

Thanks to the CTMH Artfully Sent cartridge, this card came together extremely easily.  It got the card front for me, then I cut the banners, stamped the sentiment and added some dots.  Easy peasy and I think I could easily transform it to become a feminine version. :)

My card is entering the following:
Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
Craft your passion - Anything Goes
Heart 2 Heart Challenges - Anything CTMH goes
Love to Scrap - Anything Goes
The Pink Elephant - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

New addiction

My latest addiction is spotlight stamping.  I heard that it has been around for a long time but for whatever reason I didn't bother trying it before and now I can't stop doing it.

It will be a lot easier if you have a solid stamp image for this technique but no worries if you don't have one.  As a matter of fact, I didn't have one either so I created my own.  The sentiment comes from three Lawn Fawn sets and guess what?  If you look at the two Ps in the word happy, you should notice some difference.  Got it?

I'll tell you this secret:  The second P is actually a D but to make it faster and easier to stamp out the word happy, I just flipped the D over and used it as a P.  It is really one of those happy a-ha moments!

My card is linking up to the following:
Lawnscaping challenge - dimension
Fresh Brewed Designs - Birthdays
Inspiration Destination - Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter - For the Boys
Simon Says Stamp - Make your Own Background

Thanks for stopping by!