Happy Spring!

Ok so we are not quite there yet... but it's coming! With the sun breaking through our gray winter skys now and then we begin to look forward to Spring showing up.
Last Spring, one of my friend's Mom was visiting her, and knowing that she enjoyed crafting cards I suggested that she join myself and another friend to do a craft during her stay. Since she is more apt to do cards back home we decided to do a mini album for something different from her usual.

One day my friend and I planned out the design, then the next day we got together and all three of us worked on our own individual version of it. We each chose an element associated with Spring to use as our primary element in our mini... my friend picked birds, the Mom picked dragonflies, and I picked flowers. We each followed the basic design scketch with our differing elements and differing picks of colors, resulting in each one being quite unique.

I haven't put photos in mine yet; (there is a piece of blank cardstock in place of where each photo will be for now so I know what photo dimention I will need).
I wanted my mini to be bright and cheery, yet with a little softness. If you look close you'll see some basic principle scketch elements like: the background paper on each inner page goes...1/2 patterned top with 1/2 solid bottom, then opposite is full solid paper, next is full patterned paper, then opposite is 1/2 solid top with 1/2 patterned bottom and then it repeats. Also my 1/2 solid background piece was always alternating pink, then blue, then pink, etc. Along with using the flower element on every page in some way I also made sure that every page had some kind of sparkly aspect, from rhinestones to glitter. Some supplies and techeniqes used here are metal embelishments, glitter-stickers, (regular, foil, glitter & flock) rub-ons, punches, Glitter Ritz, brads, glitter-glue, stiching, stamping, heat-embossing, dry-embossing, paper edge distressing, different rhinestones, paper and fabric flowers.

Love is...

A couple who are sweet friends... always considerate of others, very warm and friendly to all, not to mention fun-loving... are having their 11th wedding anniversary. They invited me to go out of town with them for an event they wanted to share with me but I declined. this event would encompass the celebrating of their anniversary. Since I would miss it I decided to make a gift to send along for them to open on their special day. I made them a framed 8x10 digital photo collage. Of coarse I had to make them a personalized card too. So here they are...


The card is made using an Ivory colored cardstock for the base (supplier unknown), cut to a 5x7 size. I used Stampin' Up for the (Chocolate Chip) cardstock on the bottom, the (Sending Love) patterned paper on the top, (Rose Red) cardstock for one heart and the new Pinking Hearts Boarder Punch to make the detailed ivory cardstock strip in the center of the card. The ribbon is from Close To My Heart. I cut the hearts using the Cricut (George and Basic Shapes). The rose cardstock heart was also dry-embossed using a Fiskars embossing plate with the Big Shot Express. The verse was printed on the ivory cardstock heart using Word on my computer. Inside the card says "Happy Anniversary".

This is the digital layout that I put together on my computer using Photoshop Elements. I had found this photograph of the swans on the lake in an email someone sent me a while ago. I saved it in my photos but later noticed the resolution quality was not the best. So for this I used a special effect to make it look more like a colored pencil drawing, which made the photos pop a bit more than if the background had just been another photo. I loved the swans swimming towards each other amidst the beauty of color as my background.

Happy Valentine's Day Hubby!

This year my husband and I would be apart for Valentine's Day. I decided to make a card to send him, along with some other goodies. This is what I created...

I went with brown, light teal-blue and red for the colors. I achieved a masculine look by distressing the card with brown ink and by using this really cool red cardstock that looked and felt kind of like old leather for the big red heart on the front(Provo Craft - Texture Red Hot Pepper). I used Close To My Heart (Chocolate) Cardstock for the base of the card; K&Company patterned paper for the inside and one of the hearts; the distressed diamond pattern cardstock is from My Minds Eye; the Chipboard X and O are from Cosmo Cricket and the textured red cardstock to mat the inside hearts is BazzillBasics. I used Glitter Ritz to highlight the diamond paper heart and the smaller heart on the front under the XO. I used my Cricut to cut out the hearts with "George and Basic Shapes" cartridge and all the writing was done on my computer using Word.

I love how this card is a three way open... it reveals a little at a time, and then when fully opened it stands very nicely.

The heart inside has a quote on "Love" and the center of the card has a verse on "Marriage", quoted from Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet"... some of my favorites, and that were a part of our wedding ceremony as well. They apply perfectly to our marriage, so they were perfect to use for this card.