My latest card swap, just for men

A card just for men... hmmm could not be anything frilly or pretty, this was going to be a challenge! Again, I used the web to spark inspiration and I found this GREAT tutorial :)
http://ustamp4fun.com/mens-vest-card/
Unfortunately downloading the pattern would not work for me so I had to make my own template. These cards required A LOT of hand cutting... no cricut for these cards.  I do like the results though... let me know what you think.

I can't wait to see what I get back in this swap!

March Card Swap... getting a little better :)

I am not huge on scrapbooking, for now, but I do love to make cards! I got the cutest cards from the February card swap and I was able to use them for... Card Making 102 Teresa's Card Improvement Class :) I really got wonderful ideas on making adorable cards from the ladies I swapped with!

Here are the cards I sent in for the March Swap... I like them so much more than what I made for the February swap :))

I printed the bunny image off the computer, then I colored him in using chalk, and colored in the carrot and flower  with a marker to make them really stand out. I used the chalk to age the edges a little. My favorite part was coloring, lol, as an adult coloring is so relaxing!

Flower Power Card Swap

Flower Power theme, a heart, and any sentiment...those were the requirements for this swap. I am not the best at coming up with a card layout, I guess it is because I do not have that much experience with it. I looked around the web for ideas and got overwhelmed :/  I decided to just go for it, and this is what I came up with.  I like the cards... had to make 9... but I am not wowed by them. I think I am unhappy with the blue lettering, it just kind of clashes with the other colors to me.  I don't know... what do you think??

Sometimes simple is best... and this is how to make it

Sometimes we need a simple card to just say hi, to just let someone we know we are thinking of them. Nothing fancy, keep it simple and small. Sometimes simple is best.

Simple and super easy... here are the steps, and I will reveal one

 of my stamping secrets!!

First start with a cream colored card stock that measures 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 ... I buy a Pre- cut packet of them at Hobby Lobby... so easy!

Fold it in half

Now gather a few supplies for stamping on the image...

You will need crayola washable markers (part 1 of my stamping secret) the adorable bird stamp with shout out, can be purchased here  http://www.etsy.com/listing/76412431/hand-carved-rubber-stamp-bird-with-shout

and a Q-tip

After lots of playing with stamps I have discovered a few tricks to inking and image transfer that I am going to share with you all :-)

Washable children's markers work GREAT for inking a stamp you want multi colored.They are cheap, they wipe right off of the stamp, come in all the basic colors and transfer beautifully onto paper. A little note of caution though.... I use the markers for cards and things that do not include photos... I am sure they are not photo safe. Also, if you are working on something that you do not want to last for a very long time these may not be your ink of choice. I am not sure how long the true color will last, not sure how much fading they will do over time.

Next, use the colors you choose to color right on the stamp. I colored the bird blue, the shout out black, the branch brown and the leaf green.

These markers are very wet, you should have plenty of time to color the stamp with out the ink drying.

If you were to stamp the image now you would end up with streaked uneven color, after trying a few different ways to make the color look just like a stamp pad was used I came up with a trick... step 2 of my secret :-)

Take a Q-tip and pat over the stamp, being sure to slightly turn the tip with each color so you do not transfer colors.

Line the stamp to the edge of the paper and transfer the image... just beautiful!! :-)

How cool is that!! I am so proud of my technique :-) A versatile and cheap way to stamp :-)

Next, I stamped the "hi" in the shout out. I have a set of very tiny letters that work great, but you can always hand write the "hi" and that would be great as well.

Because I am just using one color for the letters I used a black ink pad.

Next I broke out the cricut.

I used the song bird cartridge. I cut out the bird house with the flower cut out of the middle.

Now, if you do not have a cricut you can always cut out a house shape, I think that would look good also.

The next step is tearing off a light orange/yellow piece of paper and gluing it to the back of the bird house  so it shows through the flower. Add a little dab of glitter glue to the center of the flower, I used a copper color.  Then, use some thin ribbon and tie a bow leaving long enough ends to fit the card. Adhere the ribbon to the card, and adhere the bird house to the card just slightly over the ribbon. Finally, I colored in the birds belly with a colored pencil and dotted the birds eye with a fine black marker.

And there you have it! How easy is that? You may want to adhere you ribbon a little straighter  than I did though, lol :-)

Been playing around with my stamps and cricut!

Just a few cards I made with my stamps... you can find them in my etsy shop, just look to your right :-)

This is a letterboxing log book I made, I am sending this stamp to a letterboxer in another state for a letterboxing swap! The other boxer will plant this box in her state and I will plant the stamp she sends me in my state! Very Cool :-)

My latest swap, fun in the sun, Cricut

As I mentioned before, I am new to this swap thing... but so far I am loving it, and am pretty well hooked!
The swap group I have joined is called Paper Crafting Diva's and is organized by a sweet person who takes a lot of time to make these swaps happen... you can see her blog here... http://marie97-lotlot.blogspot.com/
This swap was for  4 sets of Cricut cut images that can be used for cards. They had to be embellished in a minimum of two ways, and a sentiment needed to be included . 
This was a great reason to get more familiar with my Cricut. I really have wanted to use this cool cutting machine more often, and this was a perfect opportunity to do so. I really had a lot of fun with this! Take a look at what I came up with, and the card I made from the cut outs...

embellished with glitter glue polka dots

Also dotted the sun with glitter glue, and added glitter cheeks to the crab :-)

And this is the card I made with the same cut-outs. I just used a plain white card, and  colored the back ground with pastels... (I am hooked on pastels :-)

Makes me want to go out and play!!

The making of a wedding invitation

A very special young lady is getting married this fall. She is someone my family has known since she was 13 and she has become a special part of my family. She calls me mama T, my husband daddy K  and we call her our adopted daughter, and my kids call her sis :-)

Her wedding will be in a small chapel (adorable) in the country, so we have decided on a country/rustic theme. We could have just ordered the standard computer generated invitations.... BUT no way!! Homemade is best!! :-)

I put my crafty thinking cap on (it must have been my night cap because I stayed up until all hours trying to come up with an idea for the invitations) and got busy, this is what I came up with...

I had this idea of a sweet little tree with their initials carved into it so I drew it out and transferred the drawing onto the rubber

Next, I carved and mounted the stamp

Then I gave the stamp a test run in the colors that we are using for the wedding

Because I liked the way the stamp looked in ink, I was ready to take the next step and try it embossed.

These are the supplies I used for the embossing and gluing the layers of card stock together

Started with embossing the tree trunk... yea, I was getting excited!! I really liked how it turned out!

I carefully embossed the flowers next, then went back and embossed the buds. I tried to stamp them at the same time but some would dry by the time I got to the powder, so I just did it in stages

Now it was time to layer the card stock that was all pre cut to size

(did it earlier)

And here it is... all put together! :-)

And after making over 30... time to put the night cap back on, but this time I may sleep :-)

There are many more homemade projects that will be going into this special day, I will be sure to keep you all posted :-)

When life gives you lemons

Chris Rice sings this amazingly fun song called Lemonade. This is a song that makes me smile when I sing it... even though I can not sing at all :-)
Anyway, this song inspired me to carve these stamps to make this card.....
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2-rKgGnx34

Another card thanks to the help of cricut :-)

I had to make a whopping 25 invitations for a baby shower! That is  a lot of invitations :-) I used water color paint for the background, then used my nifty cricut to make the moon and cow shapes with all of the layers ( 25 times 3 layers for each animal = a lot :-), and used my own hand carved stamps to embellish the inside of the cards.

The theme is nursery rhymes. I like them, the only thing I am not really happy about is that the water in the water color paint made the card curl a bit, but I have them sitting under a heavy book now so I hope that will take care of it.

Valentine cards using my own hand carved stamps ;-)

My dear little porcupine was begging me to use him in a project of some kind. He looks so unsure that his heart will be excepted by the love of his life... so I thought of the check yes or no idea from years back. Such a great idea it was! :-) No need for face to face rejection, just see where the check is placed :-)

My Kiss and Pucker stamp designs are my personal favorite!

I am frequently sealing letters to my husband with these stamps! He is often out serving our country and away from home.