More Fresh Cut Florals (2 cards)

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (White)

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Fresh Cut Florals, Very Vintage Florals)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, Certainly Celery), Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (Linen & Canvas impression plate), corner rounder

Other:  Zig Wink of Stella clear glitter brush

Today was (finally) my daughter's last day of school.  She asked if I could make a set of cards as a gift for her teacher, and when she spotted a card I made previously with WPlus9's Fresh Cut Florals, she wanted me to use it for this set.

The hardest part of designing this set was deciding on the colors.  I finally settled on making three each of the two designs you see here:  a birthday version using warm pinks, oranges, and yellows, and a thank you version with aqua, purple, and yellow.  I added some glitter to the flower centers and used the linen & canvas impression plate from PTI to give the panel some subtle texture.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (White)

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Fresh Cut Florals, Very Vintage Florals)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Wisteria Wonder, Pool Party, So Saffron, Certainly Celery), Hero Arts (Ocean), Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (Linen & Canvas impression plate), corner rounder

Other:  Zig Wink of Stella clear glitter brush

I have several projects keeping me busy at the moment, but I hope to be back soon!  Thanks for stopping by.

Little girl's stationery set--Sweets & Treats

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! (Wisteria Wonder), WPlus9 Design Studio (White)

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Sweets & Treats, Sweets & Treats Fillers), Papertrey Ink (Just for You)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral), Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (Tag Sale #3 die), WPlus9 Design Studio (Sweets & Treats dies)

Other:  ribbon, baker's twine

One of my daughter's best friends moved to our street last summer from California.  She's headed back to southern CA for most of the summer to visit family, and I know she and my daughter will miss playing together.  So I decided to make a simple stationery set to help them keep in touch.

Using WPlus9's Sweets & Treats, I stamped the cupcakes in aqua, coral, and purple on flat notecards, rounding the corners to give them a polished look.  The sentiments are from Paper Smooches' Chit Chat.

Cardstock:  Michaels (White)

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Sweets & Treats), Paper Smooches (Chit Chat)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral), Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Tools:  corner rounder

I came up with 5 simple designs and made 4 of each for a set of 20 cards.

Cardstock:  Michaels (White)

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Sweets & Treats), Paper Smooches (Chit Chat)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral), Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Tools:  corner rounder

Since the girls are only 7, I thought it would help to label the envelopes so they know where everything should go.

Cardstock:  Michaels (White)

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Sweets & Treats), Paper Smooches (Chit Chat), Papertrey Ink (Label Basics, Boxes, Bags, & Tags, Postmarks)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder), Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Tools:  corner rounder

I bought sheets of blank address labels, printed the return address, and stamped each with a cupcake.  I also included a sheet of postage stamps and a purple gel pen.

Address labels:  Avery

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Sweets & Treats)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral)

This turned out so cute, and now my daughter is asking for her own set.  I have some ideas for making hers unique, so I'll be sure to share it when it's finished!

Thanks for visiting!  Have a wonderful start to your weekend!

Rainbow card set for teachers

My son's last day of pre-K was a couple of weeks ago (sniff, sniff), and I made a colorful but simple set of cards for each of his teachers.

All of the cards use the pencil image from Papertrey Ink's Happy Trails.  Three of the cards have the sentiment "just a note" from Ribbon Tails.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (White), Stampin' Up! (Real Red, Lucky Limeade, Tangerine Tango)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Happy Trails, Ribbon Tails)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Real Red, Lucky Limeade, Tangerine Tango)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (Double Ended Banner die, Linen & Canvas impression plate), corner rounder

The other three cards use the "thank you" sentiment from Papertrey's Vintage Picnic.  I added texture to each card base with the Linen & Canvas impression plate.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (White), Stampin' Up! (Not Quite Navy, Pool Party, Rich Razzleberry)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Happy Trails, Vintage Picnic)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Not Quite Navy, Pool Party, Rich Razzleberry)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (Double Ended Banner die, Linen & Canvas impression plate), corner rounder

I wrapped the stack of cards and envelopes with some baker's twine and slipped them into a kraft bag, which went into a gift basket with flowers picked out by my little guy.

Here's a closer look at the tag, made with Papertrey's Tag Sale #3 die and Vintage Picnic.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (White), Stampin' Up! (Concord Crush)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Vintage Picnic)

Ink:  Memento (Tuxedo Black), Copic markers

Tool:  Papertrey Ink (Tag Sale #3 die)

Other:  The Twinery (baker's twine)

My daughter is still in school until June 26, so I may be doing another set of cards for her teacher later this month.  I'll be sure to share if I do.

Thanks for visiting today!

Iron Craft Challenge!

Hi everyone!  I have such a fun post to share with you today.  A couple of weeks ago I got the sweetest email from a fellow crafter, Chaitali, of Cuts Crops and Creativity.  She explained that she's a big fan of the show Iron Chef and had an idea to create a crafting challenge inspired by it.  You can read all about it and see the first Iron Craft guest HERE.

Now, while I'm blushing at the thought of being called a "celebrity" crafter, I was completely honored to be asked to participate in what will become a weekly feature on Chaitali's blog.  Ready to see our challenge "ingredients"?

For this week's Iron Craft challenge, we used this color board from Design Seeds and stamps from Papertrey Ink's Happy Trails.

These colors definitely have a masculine vibe to me, and I've been wanting to make a simple set of notecards that would be appropriate for the men in our lives.  Think teachers, coaches, and co-workers.  For a set like this, it's best to keep things flat for mailing and no-frills.

Each card is stamped with one of my all-time favorite borders from PTI's Background Basics:  Retro in two shades of brown and two shades of blue onto an Oatmeal card base.  Then I simply added a sentiment and one or more accent images from Happy Trails.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Oatmeal)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Happy Trails, Background Basics:  Retro)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist, Baja Breeze), ColorBox (Dune)

I can't wait to see what Chaitali created for the Iron Craft challenge, and I hope you'll pay her a visit, too!  Many thanks to her for including me this week!

Have a great start to your week, and thanks for stopping by!

Card sets for teachers 2012

Hey there, friends!  Happy Memorial Day to those of you in the U.S.--I hope you enjoyed a relaxing day and found some time to remember those who have served or are serving in the military, especially those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep us safe.

I promised to share the card sets I made for my son's teachers this year, and chances are I'll be making a third set for my daughter's teacher in a few weeks.  They're super easy and came together in no time, though the folders I put them in took a little longer.  The folders are a slightly larger version of the one in my tutorial HERE, larger because I included 8 cards in each.

I chose 4 images from PTI's Year of Flowers Collection and stamped them in 4 of Stampin' Up!'s 2011 In Colors:  Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade, and Pool Party.  I added a strip of coordinating cardstock to each card front for balance and stamped one of 2 sentiments from PTI's Happy Trails in black.

Card supplies

Cardstock:  Papertrey Ink (White), Stampin' Up! (Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Year of Flowers Collection, Happy Trails)

Ink:  Memento (Tuxedo Black), Stampin' Up! (Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade)

Here's the inside of the folder, with pockets that have been debossed with PTI's diamond impression plate.  I wrapped each one with some of this pretty ruffled ribbon from SU!

Folder supplies

Cardstock:  Papertrey Ink (Aqua Mist, White)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Year of Flowers Collection, Happy Trails)

Ink:  Memento (Tuxedo Black), Stampin' Up! (Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (Linen & Canvas, Diamond impression plates), Martha Stewart (Scoring Board), We R Memory Keepers (Corner Chomper)

Accessories:  Stampin' Up! (ruffled ribbon)

My little guy and I went to pick out some flowers and a candle, then nestled everything into a basket.  I made tags that read "Thanks for helping me grow" using PTI's Simple Alphabet and Outline Alphabet.  I masked the letters before stamping the morning glory image, then colored the letters with a Copic marker.

Tag supplies (All Papertrey Ink unless noted)

Cardstock:  White

Stamps:  Year of Flowers Collection, Simple Alphabet, Outline Alphabet, Happy Trails

Ink:  Tuxedo Black (Memento), Calypso Coral (Stampin' Up!)

Tool:  Tag die

Accessories:  Aqua Mist ribbon, DMC floss

If you're looking for a last-minute teacher gift, this is a really versatile card design that would work with lots of images, not just florals.  If you're pressed for time, just bundle them up with some pretty ribbon or baker's twine rather than packaging them in a folder.