I Love You Watts

I was so inspired by last week’s Unscripted Sketches that I made two cards. This one was for hubby; he’s been behaving himself lately so I needed to let him know. ;)

It’s hard to see but I coloured the backside of the vellum bulb bright yellow in the center of the heart and lighter yellow just outside of it. I love colouring hte back of vellum; such an awesome look. I wish it showed up more. The hearts are coloured with a Copic and then I added Glossy Accents to the top.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Watts and Watts-SSS
Ink: black Archival-Ranger 
Paper: SSS card kit, scraps white CS
Accessories: holiday shapes die-SSS, Copic R27, Glossy Accents

Fresh Florals Thank You Card

I love the WPlus9 stamp set called Fresh Florals so when I got a SSS card kit with similar leaf and flower stamps, I was so happy!

This card is so simple, I don’t think there’s much to say about it. I must admit the rhinestones are a bit oddly placed; I stamped the three dot stamp in a bright/darkish purple and it totally ruined it! Not being one to throw away a project that can be saved, I added the rhinestones to cover my mistake! The edging is done with a Pilot silver paint pen.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SSS Life is a Journey
Ink: various hero arts, SU! and PTI
Paper: cardstock-SSS card kit, DP-MME
Accessories: pilot paint pen, oval Nesties, foam dots-Jody Morrow, silver EP-SU!, Tiny Twinkles-TE

School Magnet Board for Moxie Fab Fall Challenge

I wanted to enter the Fall Home Decor Challenge in the Moxie Fab World but I couldn’t decide what to make. Fall is my least favourite season as far as decor goes and my second least favourite season as far as weather goes; I’m a fair weather lover. So a school themed project seemed perfect! Be sure to visit and play along.

The base is a plaque which I painted black on the edges and covered with the black DP. The metallic part which hte magnets stick to is under the lighter DP. I wasn't sure how to cover it up but it was pretty ugly metal so it needed some kind of covering. I might have painted it but I wasn’t sure my paint would stick since it wasn’t specially formulated for metal and wasn’t the new MS paint for any surface. It all came as a kit from my favourite cheap online store, ScrapbookSteals.com and included a stand in case you want to table mount it.

I will eventually cover or paint the magnets, I was just short on inspiration tonight. I added my children’s initials to the top so I can use this for school photos or inspirational back-to-school messages. That button isn’t orange, no idea why it looks that way!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Ink: Vintage Photo Distress
Paper: black CS-SU!, DP-Graphic 45
Accessories: red baker’s twine-Masterstroke ribbon, buttons-PTI, SU!, other twine-PTI, Glossy Accents-Ranger

Pet Sympathy Card

A sweet lady has been coming to support me and help handle my autistic son. It’s her job to help parents of children with mental illness but she’s a parent too. She has an autistic daughter herself so when I found out her daughter’s cat died, I had to make a sympathy card for her.

I took the photos during the day so the colours are a bit off; the orange is darker and the DP is brighter so they match better, sigh… oh well. Daylight mixed with my photo lights confuse my camera’s sensor. I made this as she was arriving and she had to take it with her so there was no time to rephotograph it later.

I used the CASE study 129 but since my kids dumped water on my computer, thankfully it is fine, I missed the chance to enter. Grrrrr…… I might have added some more embellishments to match the original but when I asked her mom if she would notice them she said probably not so I went with just the one cat. The style of this cat suits a teenager so I thought it was perfect.

This is the card I was CASEing. I hope you like my take on it. I really liked the twine bits from each embellie. Thought is was cute and very clever. I was working from memory so I didn’t notice the one rounded corner; wish I had done that. oh well.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: sympathy sent-MFT, flourish Vintage labels-PTI
Ink: archival black-Ranger
Paper: Max and Whiskers-Basic Grey
Accessories: twine-PTI, cat-Jesse James buttons

PTI Sketch Challenge–Masculine Get Well

I have made cards for several of PTI’s challenges only to find that each challenge only runs for one day! Bummer! I was SURE that the Linky said there were 9 days to go but either I was wrong or they are closing it much earlier than that. Yeah, I guess I didn’t read the challenges themselves correctly. Ugh.

This one however, is on time! My hexagons were a bit too small for the sketch so naturally, I made the card smaller! It ended up WAY simpler than I normally like but guy cards are hard! I needed one for my FIL and didn’t have one (I made him another I’ll show you later) so it made sense to add to my stash.

I used harvest gold, moss, chartreuse, avocado, navy and blueberry sky. I cut out the navy one since stamping it on the die cut made it smaller than the others. And its pretty easy to cut out anyway. Click on the sketch to see the blog post.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Healing Touch Sentiments, Hexagons-PTI
Ink: see above, Archival black-Ranger
Paper: white CS
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow

10 Minute Craft Dash–Hearts n Washi

Make a card in under 10 minutes? WOW! But I had to try it. I went with a very easy layout and minimal stamping.

I adhered my white CS to my grid mat first so I could easily line everything up without measuring. I started with the thanks and worked out each way from there. I started with the Thanks up too high so when I got to the bottom, I created a row of hearts. I had already planned on incorporating them but not this way. Even with a 10 minute card, plans can change in a second, LITERALLY!

I’m entering this in the Simon Says Stamp challenge to use hearts.

Need Proof? It was a close one!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps:  PTI Thanks all Ways
Ink: Memento black
Paper: white, raspberry, hibiscus CS-PTI
Accessories: Heat die-PTI, dotted, striped washi-Queen and Co, other washi WRMK??, Copics

PTI Year Of Flowers Challenge

This challenge was to use one of the Year of Flower sets. Since I only have one, it was an easy choice!

I CASEd a card by Dawn McVey for her sympathy card Make it Monday last year. It’s a very quick and easy card to copy which I need right now because I’m working on 260 wedding favours for my sister!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Stamps: flower, sentiment-PTI, frame-SU!
Ink: hibiscus burst, chocolate-PTI
Paper: sweet blush, natural white-PTI
Accessories: ribbon-PTI, foam dots-Jody Morrow

Interactive Card Zipper Card for PTI Challenge

Nichole challenged us to make an interactive card in honour of their 6th anniversary. We were to be inspired by one of the team’s projects. Seeing Jessica’s fridge magnet with a photo of her son on it made me think of my son whose 12th birthday is today.  And I loved how Heather used die cut letters on one of her projects. While we don’t celebrate birthdays, this rather important milestone was on my mind. I guess the inspiration is a rather loose interpretation but still…

So I made this card for him. Inside it has the following words. Energetic Fun Silly Caring Friendly Amazing. I won’t give it to him for a while so it doesn’t seem like a b-day card. It isn’t easy to line up the stamping underneath the tear strip unless you plan ahead so I’ve got a tutorial below showing you how I do it. It isn’t too hard but I have a couple of tips.

The grey keyboard keys are actually off a flexible keyboard. The kind you can roll up. My 5 yo tore it apart so I saved the keys for embellishments! At least something good came of it. The numbers at the bottom are from Boy Basics-Out of this World. I taped off most of the numbers so I count just ink some numbers individually and stamped the additional numbers to create an 11 and a 12.

So here’s how to line up whatever you hide beneath the tear strip.

1. Die cut your tear strip die (aka zipper die) and choose a scrap to use underneath the tear strip. Using a pencil, draw two parallel lines just less than 1\2” apart. Using slightly less than the width of the tear strip will ensure your stamping doesn’t touch the edges of the zipper opening on the finished card since they won’t be smooth and straight. Place the paper with the lines on it under the die cut, line it up with the tear strip and trace the notched end. Slide the paper so your notched pencil line disappears slightly under the die cut. Trace the other side of the die. Again, by making your pencil marks slightly smaller than the die cut opening, you ensure you leave space where the zipper strip attaches in case the recipient doesn’t tear it off completely.

2. Stamp your choice of images or sentiments within the pencil lines. Then erase your pencil lines so you can barely see them. I didn’t trim the notched end now because it makes it hard to line up later.

3. Add Scor-Tape or other strong adhesive to the back of the die cut close to the tear strip. As close as you can place it. Remove the backing except for the small portions shown.

4. Line up the stamped scrap using the faint pencil lines. Make sure no stamping shows from either end and you need to leave enough room to trim your notch.

5. Trim off the straight side flush with the die cut and trim out the notched end while looking at the back. Because you left the backing on close to the notched end, it is easy to get your scissors in. When you are satisfied with the trimming, remove the last bits of backing. You could cut the notched end in advance but it would be hard to line up the scrap. If you wish to cut it ahead of time, I recommend you use a larger scrap and when you draw the lines, mark another where the bottom of the die cut would be so you can use that to line it up. (Next time I’ll be more careful and cut it smoother.)

6. Add more Scor-Tape. You want to be sure that tugging the strip doesn’t pull the die cut off the card! For the top portion, I just used my usual adhesive. Burnish the adhesive well. Apply to your card or project!

I hope this helps you line up your die cuts!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: tag and words (inside) CTMH, countdown numbers, ink splotches-PTI
Ink: Walnut Stain, Vintage photo Distress, Teal Zeal-Memento, pumpkin pie-SU!
Paper: kraft, natural white, chocolate CS-PTI, DP-MME
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow, stencil letter dies-Sizzix, interactive die-PTI,

Game On for Jameson

My 11 yo son came home with a relatively good report card last week so I wanted to congratulate him with a card. Poor kid really struggles with ADD and we are reluctant to medicate him so this means a lot. He got all Bs and Cs (though without ADD he’d get As and Bs) when last report he got some Ds so this is a big improvement.

I am sooo happy with how this turned out! I didn’t use a sketch which is rare and even though it is a CAS card, I like the simplicity. Usually when I make a CAS card I feel like it needs more or that it is boring. funny because I LOVE other people’s CAS cards!

It is pretty simple so really not much to say. The recipe will explain most of it. This card is 3.5 high x7.5” long. This means the whole thing wouldn't fit into my Cuttlebug without being folded. EMBOSSING TIPS: If you are trying to emboss a card and it must be folded, cut off the excess plastic border from around the pattern on lower portion your embossing folder only. Don’t cut off both. That allows you to get very close to the fold line. And I needed to emboss twice to get the whole thing. On the second pass, line up your plates so that the edges exactly match the patterned part of the embossing folder (not the edge of the plastic). That way the plates and the folder won’t crush the part which was already embossed. You will get a tiny faint line where the folder ends but very little and no crushing of the design. You could also cut off the excess plastic but trust me, never cut off both pieces or the line will be even worse that uncut.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Boy Basics: Simple Circles, Game On-PTI
Ink: saffron, sahara sand-SU!, Memento black
Paper: DP-Boyfriend Cosmo Cricket, white, saffron, black CS-SU!
Accessories: circle die-PTI, foam dots-Jody Morrow,
Cuttlebug embossing folder, Circle Nestabilities

Baby Girl Card–Pinterest and PTI Inspired

Today, well, technically yesterday, Nichole challenged us to use Pinterest inspiration to make a card. The DT made their card and showed us their pinned inspiration. We needed to use their inspiration or something from Pinterest of our choice.

In case you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, Pinterest is an online bulletin style inspiration board. Instead of bookmarks on your computer, you save the photos and the link to the origin is automatically saved. YOu can save under multiple categories to keep everything organized; it is awesome!!

I used the stripes and monochromatic colour scheme, white with one other colour, from this photo.

I used the typography and one tilted letter from this photo.

I used Jessica's card layout and instead of embossing across the paper strips, I used stitching and buttons.

Sorry the photo sucks, I took another with more contrast in the background but my computer won’t read my camera card. For some weird reason, when I eject my camera card using the little ‘Remove Hardware Safely’ button, it ejects the whole program! When the computer is turned off first, it works fine next time. So I’ll replace the photo after hubby gets up and fixes it.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamp: PTI Hanging Out
Ink: pink-SU!
Paper: Sweet blush CS-PTI, confetti white, pink CS-SU!
Accessories: silk ribbon-May Arts, Baker’s Twine, buttons-PTI, thread, cotton twine-Dollarama, flower button-SU!, alpha dies-Sizzix, foam dots-Jody Morrow

Super Simple Sympathy

Try and say that 10 times fast! Sharon Johnson posted a super simple sympathy card this week using Webster’s Pages paper as a background. Those papers have so much going on, you don’t need to add much else. What a great idea as I hate spending time making sympathy cards; I care but it’s a bit morbid especially when you make them in advance.

On the right is the most embellished one I made. It has the little flowers and a button in addition to the die cut sentiment panel and the ribbon. The one on the left has no embellishments other than ribbon but it has some patterned paper on the die cut.

The best part is that I made two of the purple cards; all I used for paper was a single sheet of vintage violet cardstock (cut in half), two sheets of DP and scraps of ivory cardstock as the purple die cut used the remainder of the paper I cut off from the 6x6 sheet.

The button was threaded with a tiny strip of paper! I raised the die cuts on foam dots. I couldn’t find a tiny leaf to add to the small flowers so I used a green button instead.

This one is the simplest card. No embellishements with a style and colour combo which are definitely more masculine. Yeah, it has flowers on it and I would never usually send a card with flowers on it to a guy but have you ever looked at store-bought sympathy cards? Mostly flowers or landscapes so I think it’s OK. This one is going to the Renz family. So sad. The others are for my stash. I am going to make up a small folder of thank you, sympathy and get well cards to keep in my car. I am ALWAYS forgetting to write out cards ahead of time and as I drive to visit someone or get close to church, I remember then. So this will let me still give cards despite my terrible memory!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamp: Out on a Limb Sentiments-PTI
Ink: Memento black, chocolate-SU!
Paper: DP-Webster’s Pages, vanilla, violet CS-SU!, artichoke, scarlet CS-PTI
Accessories: Prima flowers, button-PTI, ribbon-stash, foam dots, Labels 6 Nesties

This must be the shortest recipe ever! I love CAS cards… sometimes.

Hero Arts Thinking of You Card

I bought one of the new Hero Arts sets that includes stamps and matching dies. The dies are unique in that they cut right at the very inner edge so no guessing where it is going to cut like dies with the cutting edge in the middle. Of course, then there is no way to stencil or emboss so it’s a trade off.


I sincerely apologize for the icky colour cast. I have come to realize that photographing my cards in the daytime in my light box is never going to work. The lights I use have a very yellow cast and the light in my room is daylight so quite blue. The mix seems to confuse my camera sensor in a very nasty way. I don’t have software that will auto correct and the manual adjustments I made didn’t help much. I’d take another photo but I already gave the card away. Sigh… I hope you can use your imagination to get rid of the bluishness.

The authentic colours are celery, banana and apricot in the background, pretty in pink and regal rose for the flower and celery and olive for the leaves, all from SU! I used markers to colour the flower and then spritzed the stamp lightly with pearlized water I made from Perfect Pearls. Next time, I’ll use a bit more water as I wish it had blended a bit better. I was inspired by a card I found by Melissa Bickford posted Jan 14th on Just Dandy. Thanks Melissa!

This card says Thinking of You but I used it as a sympathy card. I stamped a sentiment from JustRite stamps inside. A dear friend lost a brother and sister within the space of a month. Sadly, I didn’t know about the brother so the card only says sister inside but they get the idea.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Hero Arts-Floral set and dot stamp from some other HA set
Ink: celery, rose, banana, apricot, olive, pink-SU!
Paper: doily-Wilton, white, banana, celery CS-SU!
Accessories: Ribbon-May Arts, dies-HA

Mojo Moments Card

I needed a bunch of thank you cards for the lovely professionals who cared for Teddy and me in the hospital. I had several great nurses and my OB was great too so I did an assembly line.

I used Mojo Monday 222 sketch for this card. I really like this layout and I’m certain I’ll use this again.

Such a simple card, I think I’ll leave it at that!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: PTI-Out on a Limb Sentiments
Ink: Memento black, celery-SU!
Paper: pink CS-PTI, white CS-Taylored Expressions, DP-Echo Park Country Drive, doily-Wilton
Accessories: button-PTI, Divine Twine, foam dots-Jody Morrow, square punch-SU! (used to create banner ends on sentiment)

Super Simple Card Gift Set for World Card Making Day

This should be an awesome, stamping-filled, paper-loving card making day. Sadly, I have recently learned that a sweet friend of mine has been diagnosed with Stage 4 bone cancer. She isn’t a super close friend but I am still really upset. OK, part of that is because I am pregnant, maybe I am just more likely to cry, I imagine I’d still feel as upset no matter what. I am planning a gift basket for her (Becca, if you already did your own, no prob, I will either do my own or if not, I will include this in it) and figured she’ll need a bunch of thank you cards in the coming months. So instead of rockin’ a few online challenges, I decided to make this set.

It is a set of 8 cards all the same, just different colours of card bases. They are all stamped with a background stamp in the same colour as the base. The branch is done with PTI Out on a Limb which was stamped twice, once in full and once below just partially.  Ditto with the matching flower image. This was very quick to do! I added the leaves individually, coloured with a Copic and hand drew in the flower centers. It took a lot less time than you might think!

I wanted glitter along the top edge of the main panel but glitter is so messy so I used Scor-Tape and glittered EP. The butterflies are only adhered in the middles so the wings can be lifted if she is giving them in person. The mail will just squish them back down of course!

Here are all the colours I used. They look good together right? I deliberately chose them so they would look good as a set and still all go with the flower and butterfly colours. I wish I’d had something more formal than the twine at the bottom but I don’t have much ribbon in white that I liked that was also in sufficient quantity for 8 cards. Sheer white with a gold edge would have been nice. Oh, well.

I got a new macro lens. I am thrilled with it! I went to a larger camera store than the one near my house and they had several lenses that were lower priced than the ones stocked locally! Yeah! I entered expecting to pay $649 and left with a lens for $449! WooHoo!! I love that you can actually see the sparkle of the glitter!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Out on a Limb and OOAL sents-PTI, background-SU!
Ink: rose red, regal rose, banana, celery, artichoke, amethyst, eggplant, cocoa, brocade blue, pink pirouette-SU!
Paper: natural white CS-PTI, rose red, regal rose, banana, celery, amethyst, eggplant, cocoa, brocade blue CS-SU!
Accessories: pearls-Dollarama, twine-PTI, iridescent ice EP-SU!, butterfly punch-MS, Scor-Tape 1/8”, white taffeta ribbon-SU!, card box-Clear Boxes of Canada

Back to School Cards

I can’t believe my little one is already in school. He’s only 4, still says his ‘L’s like ‘Y’s, as in yunch instead of lunch, and still seems like a baby in some ways. One of my favourite things he said was when he talked about the 'yady in the yine’ at a store. So cute!

He was totally fine on the first day of school, so confident, never looked back! I did OK, I made it through the drop off, stayed to help the teacher with a kid who was practically hysterical after her mother left (the teacher was directing parents to their kid’s teachers so was busy) and made it to the car before I started to cry. Even then it wasn’t too bad. I think it is because he really isn’t my youngest child anymore. When the baby I’m pregnant with goes to school, that will be really hard.

Anyway, I made the kids each a card for the first day of school. I also made the older one a bookmark. Apparently I did OK, this one was a hit. Hard to make something cool for a 10 year old boy!

I cut apart the sentiment that said Hope your Birthday Rocks and removed the ‘birth’. Then I wrote in ‘first’ with and embossing ink pen. The embossing is a cool colour called Medieval Metals. It is a mix of gold, bronze, copper and silver. Very masculine. The star is made from a coaster cut with a Sizzix die which is also covered in the same EP. The main image is black embossed. I sure gave my heat gun a workout on this card.

This card is for the little one. He doesn’t really care much about what I make him and he will probably trash it first chance he gets so I didn’t spend too much time on it. The image was coloured with Copics and raised up on foam dots. Except the little lines joining the balloon and basket. They were stamped on the background. I threaded the buttons with Divine Twine. The right one looks like plain white twine but it is really yellow twist.

I know, why on earth did I photograph a black bookmark on a black background? Even brunettes have blonde moments is my only excuse! I had placed the bookmark on the back of the matching card and just photographed it there. This time I used silver EP since the bookmark will usually not be near the card. I used the rock n roll technique for the coloured area on the guitar. The neck of the guitar was coloured with Copics and I darkened the middle with a Copic multiliner. It is a very simple design, just a folded over piece of CS, like a long, skinny card. Inside, on each side, are magnets to help the bookmark stay in the book.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
ROCK Card and Bookmark
Stamps: Taylored Expressions
Ink: Versamark, not quite navy, banana, orange, red-SU!, embossing pen
Paper: black, white CS-SU!, DP-Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend
Accessories: foam dots- Jody Morrow, Sizzix die, coaster board, ticket corner punch-SU!, Copic R29, C5, Black, silver EP-SU!, Medieval Metals-Sweet Stamps, magnet tape-Michaels

BALLOON Card
Stamps: Taylored Expressions
Ink: Memento black
Paper: red CS-CDS, blue CS-SU!, white CS-X-Press It
Accessories: foam dots-Jody Morrow, EK Success punch, buttons-stash, Divine Twine, Copics (sorry, I forget the numbers especially since I rarely use these bright colours)

Clean and Simple? Really??? Cute Little Typewriters

OK, so I know I don’t do clean and simple much. But I just love the way it looks. I drink in everything Jennifer McGuire makes, most of which is pretty clean and simple, at least to me, shabby chic lover! So when I started making these 3x3” notecards, I knew not too much would fit on them so I needed to go pretty simple. Jennifer had an adorable  typewriter card on there recently so that was my inspiration.

It’s hard to see in this photo but there is a cute little box under the pink card. I had a card box sized to hold 3x3” cards but these are a bit taller with the tent topper style of the typewriter placement. So I created a bottom extension for the box, placing adhesive on the bottom and bottom flaps which are left untucked.

Now my cute little cards have enough room! I added a little label and some rick rack with button accents.

Each little card is embossed on one side only and the bottom row of dots have a tiny touch of Copic to accent them.

This one is much pinker IRL. Not sure why it looks so blotchy and washed out. Oh, and I made envelopes too but they are plain white with hello in a matching ink; they don’t fit in the box though (forgot about that when I designed the box).

I’m entering this set in the Moxie Fab World Card Set Challenge. Wanna play? See you there! The deadline is April 21.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Stamping Bella
Ink: Memento black 
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, kraft CS-SU!
Accessories:  foam dots- Jody Morrow, box-Clear Dollar Stamps, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Copics Y21,35,38,  R20,32,35,37,89, BG10,15, 19 (the darkest of each were used to colour the rhinestones) C1,3,7,100, Clear Spica pen,  rhinestones-K&Co, Dollarama

Glitter Masking Technique

I decided to do a cool technique I read about somewhere and since I can’t remember where it came from, I decided to show you the technique here.

Here is the finished product, a matchbox cover. The awesome snowflake pattern is all glitter. You need some wide, flat adhesive; I’ve used Scor-Tape. Then you need to die cut or punch your image from adhesive backing. If you don’t have any on hand, maybe you have some stickers you don’t like or some of those free address labels you can put on envelopes ahead of time. You also need two colours of glitter.

Here you can see how I’ve applied the Scor-Tape. Instead of ripping the edges, cut them so they are smooth and finished. You can also see the adhesive backing has been die cut. Ooops, how did my favourite flavour of Hershey’s Kisses get in there… LOL!

Here I’ve placed the adhesive backing die cut in place. Be careful to place it with the waxy, shiny side down. I started to do it wrong and while it came off, it might not if I’d left it longer.

Here I’ve added the first colour of glitter. TIP: Press down on the glitter to help it stick to the adhesive. You can see there is no glitter yet on the snowflake. The last step is to remove the snowflake and repeat with the last colour of glitter. Don’t forget to press it down too. This can be done with strips of various widths of adhesive. You could do multiple shapes and colours too. It’s a great technique for one layer cards!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Enjoy, Rebecca