My third (and final for the moment) 2009 Mother’s Day card.  I do have to come up with one or two more but won’t get a chance until this weekend.  Here’s hoping I have just as productive a Sunday as I did last week!

This little guy is a Penny Black stamp that I got over a year ago.  The flowers look like a mother and two children to me.  I also used some vintage-style K&Co paper that I got at Michael’s a little while ago.  The paper had a band of lace pattern along the bottom so I cut the pieces so the band would be at the bottom of my card and used a piece of celery coloured ribbon to separate the two patterns:

I inked up the edges of all the paper to add to the vintage style of the pattern.  The “Happy Mother’s Day” is computer generated as I don’t have a stamp with that sentiment (yet!).

A couple of prima flowers from my ever-growing stash (I need some larger ones and more of the celery coloured ones – I’ve pretty much used them up) completes the card (and saves me from having to add a bow to that ribbon!)

I’ve got a non-Mother’s Day card to show you tomorrow and there will probably be a dry spell until the weekend!

I’m sure I’ve mentioned once or twice how much I love Whipper Snapper stamps.  They’re a bit pricey and the shipping is waaaay too much but the images are fantastic and are designed to be coloured.  Whether you use regular markers, watercolouring, Copics, etc.  these images are perfect for colouring. (I am not a Copic owner – these were coloured with an aquapainter and SU markers)

I purposely ordered this particular stamp with Mother’s Day in mind.  The card didn’t quite turn out the way I’d envisioned (I was going to try to make something a little frillier than my normal tailored style) but it’s cute, colourful and cheerful so I’m rolling with it.

Pretty cute, hey?  Think your Mom would like it?

Back tomorrow with card number three!

It’s that time of year again…one of my busiest “seasons” is Mother’s Day and every year I vow I will start earlier so I don’t feel rushed but it hasn’t happened so far.

However, I had a VERY productive day on Sunday and managed to design three cards (and actually make 8) so I’ve got a good start.  I just need to keep the momentum going.

Here is design number one (and my favourite so far):

I used the SU DP from sell-a-bration (that stuff has come in handy!) and went with colours pulled from the pattern on the paper.  I added a touch of pink because I wanted pink and yellow flowers.  Each tulip is dusted with some doodlebug glitter and the little bird is also coated in glitter.

I dug out my heat gun and white embossing powder for this project.  I don’t have a “happy mother’s day” stamp so “love you” will have to do!

Back tomorrow with card number two!

The stomach ‘flu (gross!) has been making the rounds lately so I was inspired to make a get well card.  Of course the fact that I just got an adorable new stamp illustrated by Anna Wight (again, she is a goddess!) didn’t hurt.  I was dying to ink it up and colour it.  I don’t even make get well cards but her image was waaaayyyy to cute not to buy!

I used some fairly bright colours which is unusual for me.  The strip of patterned paper was the inspiration for the colour choices.  Guess this bug is a tropical one!

All in all, this was a very easy and fun image to colour.  I stamped it on watercolour paper rather than regular cardstock to make it easier for me to colour the jar the bug is in.  I’m still learning the whole watercolouring thing so anything that makes the results a little more idiot-proof is a good thing.

I think I’ll make his eyes glossy and add some glitter to his wings the next time I ink this image up.  I’ve got to come up with a few ideas on when to use this other than for a get well card or he’ll get neglected!

P.S.  The sentiment was typed in Word and printed on cardstock.

So, my dad’s birthday was yesterday (need to edit yesterday’s post as I wrote it the night before so my 2.5 readers might get confused.) and, naturally, I had to quickly whip up a card the night before along with an order for a client.  I don’t know why I don’t keep a supply of cards on hand for myself.  I know a year in advance that I need a card for a particular friend or relative but it’s always a last-minute thing (I sometimes think I need the pressure to find any creativity)

I’m not thrilled with it – I like the card but I don’t think it “goes” with my dad if you know what I mean.  It’s not quite masculine enough.  Oh well, he’s a guy…he only cares about the gift, right?  The card is just that annoying thing you have to open and read first if you don’t want to be rude.

Here ya go:

Seeing the dotted paper reminds me that I need to beg Anna Wight to tell me what patterned paper she’s been using lately.  The dots are the right scale for a card. 

At least I got to ink my Trendy Trees stamps (I only bought one stamp set in my last order…I’m straying big time from the SU! stamps.  They’re great but I can’t take all the wasted wood blocks and plastic cases.  I wish they’d go unmounted).  I didn’t use a SAMJ to place the leaves on the trees.  I just eyeballed it.  I like the look.

Oh, and the sentiment is an SU rub-on from last year’s SAB…I had them out to take to work for decorating swipe cards. 

Later!

KB

I’m so behind on posting projects on my neglected blog!  I was hoping to catch up over the long weekend but that didn’t happen.  I did, however, have a good weekend – supper with some family on Friday and we moved offices over the weekend so I spent a few hours sorting out my desk and some of the common areas at our new building.  It’s nice to move into a modern, functional building after 10.5 years in an older downtown location.  The old office was actually pretty nice on the inside but it was getting a little crowded.  The new building has lots of windows (parking!) and everything is shiny and new.

Anyway, I had an order to fill for tomorrow so I had no choice but to spend time in my craft room this evening.  This was a fairly quick project (because it’s for a boy and there aren’t that many embellishments in my craft room that are boy-friendly) and I’m glad it came together so quickly. 

This is a journal/notebook for a very sports-oriented young man.  It’s good that I asked his Dad if he had a particular favourite hockey team because this was almost a red, white and blue journal and Kyle is NOT a fan of the Canadiens.  Close call!

To make the background paper a little more hockey-themed I stamped my MVP stamp randomly over some blue striped paper I had in my stash (an ancient pack of paper I bought at Wal-Mart when I first started this hobby).  I also used my colour-spritzer to add a little interest to the image and the name as the white was a little stark (I need my third colour!)

The colouring was done with a combination of aqua painter and plain old markers. (in the interest of time)  The name was cut out using my Cricut (Don Juan font) and the image and mat were cut using Nesties.  The photocorners were an SU punch and I used a Making Memories star brad for each corner.  The binding was done using my trusty old Rubicoil.  I love that thing!  I’ve recycled so much paper by making notebooks with my Rubicoil (we have a lot of perfectly good paper at work now and then and our Facilities guy knows that I’m interested in repurposing it rather than just having it sent to the recycling bin!)

Must dash…I still have to crank out a birthday card for my father (birthday is tomorrow!  Are all card-makers as bad at making cards for their own use as I am?)

Still trying to catch up on posting the things I’ve made lately.  This is the Easter treat I made for my co-workers.  They’re not actually peeps – you can get peeps in Canada but I don’t think they are as popular as they are in the US and I’m fairly sure we can’t get them in all the varieties you see in the States.  (NOTE: If anyone wants to hook me up with the chocolate mousse flavour, bring it on!)  I found chick and bunny shaped marshmallow treats at Sobey’s for a reasonable price and tweaked the peek-a-boo treat holder that was popular on SCS last year.  This is kind of a cross between a matchbook and the treat holder

Here’s the finished product:

…and here’s a shot of the inside (the hippity hop treats had bunnies inside and the happy easter ones had the chickens):

They looked really cute in person and they went over well.  It was actually a bitter-sweet hand out this time around as it was the last time I was making holiday treats for my department before our move to our new building.  We moved over the weekend to our brand-new offices and we are now combined with another department and are the “Operations” group (instead of Imports and Freight).  I have no problem with the combining the groups but I don’t know if I can make little gifts for so many people for every holiday like I always used to.  I don’t think I could make them for my group and leave the other people out.  Hmmm…maybe I can get an allowance from my employer and make things for EVERYONE! (I would need an assistant!)

Very briefly, I used some yellow cardstock I got at Costco a couple of years ago (I use it for most of my mass-produced office treats as I go through a lot of cardstock on these projects) and some K&Co patterned paper from the seasonal pad I bought a couple of months ago.  It’s double-sided so I used the back side of the Easter papers as the print was smaller and these little holders are only 3 inches wide. (I got 4 to a sheet of 12X12 paper so I deliberately used a 3″ width to minimize cardstock waste)  To make the purple scallop around each window I first punched circles in the cardstock and then lined the scallop punch around the circle to make a frame.  It was a little fiddly to glue the frame to the window but they didn’t look as cute without the frames.  I used my ATG gun to adhere the treats to the inside of the matchbook so they stayed in place but were easy to remove from the holder. 

Happy (Belated) Easter!

If you haven’t purchased anything from the line of stamps by Justrite Stampers, you should!  They have an amazing line of products that are great for making personalized gifts.  They had a special just before Christmas where you bought one of a selection of sets and you got a second of that same set for free.  Perfect for going halves with a friend.  Karen and I took advantage of the special and bought a couple of sets each.  We even split the shipping which made it much more affordable to buy from Canada.

I used a few of the stamps to make the shower favour bags for Chrissy (see last post) and decided to make her a little coordinating shower gift.  I made a small coaster photo album and a set of notecards using her soon-to-be married name.  Most brides are very excited about seeing their married name in print so I thought this would be a fun gift for Chrissy.

Here’s a shot of the album (you can see the notecards to the left):

…and here’s a shot of the album and the cards all packaged up (glare warning! – if you look closely you can see my tiny camera and my hand in the reflection on the box):

I had lots of scraps of paper left from the shower bags so I used the along the side of each notecard.  The
“From the Desk of” border actually repeats on top and bottom so I cut off the bottom portion and added letters spelling out Chrissy’s name (using her “professional” name!). 

The cards were really quick to make once the stamp was personalized – I think I’ll be making these for gifts in the future.

I believe I mentioned this before but I was busily working on a large project with a co-worker who is getting married in June (hi, Chrissy!).  She asked me if I’d help her with some bridal shower favours and I was more than happy to get involved.  (face it, I’m a papercrafter – it’s no hardship to design a project and then “endure” a shopping trip to Michael’s to pick up supplies)

We made 70 of these babies.  I did the stamping and cutting out of paper and cardstock at home and brought my Cuttlebug into the office so Chrissy could do the die cuts for the medallions.

They look really cute in real life and are filled with chocolate.  Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? (I managed to eat just one piece of chocolate…the smell was driving me crazy so it’s not my fault!)

Excuse the angle of the shot…it was taken from my desk at work (and the light there is way better than my craft room):

Glad they’re done!