Baby thanks!

I'm making baby thank-you cards for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. She is due about 6 weeks before me, so our family is going to be busy with babies. I'm so excited that my little one will have a cousin that close in age. I grew up with a bunch of cousins that are all within 2-3 years in age difference so it made family gatherings all the more fun for us. Anywhooo, she "placed an order" for some cards but I rather make them and give them to her as a gift. This is my first niece or nephew after all-- have to spoil everyone involved!

I used Papertrey Ink's Bitty Baby Blessings elephant image stamped right on the white cardstock, and coloured it with my Copic markers. The bottom 1/4 is Spring Moss (PTI)cardstock with matching ribbon. I punched it with a Martha Stewart punch, and stamped on the sentiment from the Mixed Messages (PTI) set. I think I'll have to buy some more Spring Moss paper and ribbon to do these cards! The green Copic marker doesn't match completely so I'm going to have to mix and match shades until I come up with a close enough combo.

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

Isn't Thomas cute?? He's a personal favourite of my son's right now. This card was easy to make, but the image itself is a pain to colour! It took lots of time, and I think I'll stick to regular ol' pencil crayons instead of Copics next time. The 'official' name of the stamp is Thomas the Tank Engine 3/4 View, and it comes from Cornish Heritage Farms.

Thomas was stamped in Brilliance Graphite Black, and coloured in with Copics. The edges of the image are sponged with Pure Poppy ink, and is matted on Lemon Tart cardstock. Two Making Memories silver brads were added before gluing it down to the Pure Poppy cardstock. I ran the Pure Poppy through the Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug folder for added texture. It's matted on blue Bazzil cardstock and all edges were roughed up using my Heidi Swapp distressor.

Blog candy for a cause...

Can you believe this blog candy??!! It's by far the largest I've ever seen...and you only have until tomorrow at 8 p.m. to enter! See Cammie's blog for details. Over $1000 in stuff to be won....holy moly!! It's a great idea that sends love and thanks to the many people out there who are caregivers for those with Alzheimer's Disease.

This is my card that I will be sending to the address she has given...but if you have your own caregiver to acknowledge- then I'm sure they would LOVE to get a card from you!

I used White Stamper's Select and Plum Pudding cardstock from Papertrey Ink, along with coordinating Plum Pudding ribbon. The image is from Sunshine Designs and I embossed it with Silver Detail EP and then coloured it in with my Copic markers. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Women of Life set, and is also embossed with the Silver Detail EP. The little 'dots' in the image have a dab of Diamond Stickles added to it.

As you can see from the envelop, this is where I'm sending my card:

To the Staff at the Artman Home, 250 N. Bethlehem Pike, Ambler, PA 19002

A little Floral Whimsy on your anniversary!

This card uses Verve Visual's Floral Whimsy set, and a $1 Michael's stamp (I love it when I find a good one in their stamp bin!). The sketch comes from somewhere but I have forgotten now! This is for my husband's co-worker whose wedding we attended last year.

I stamped the vase in Dark Chocolate ink, and the stems in Spring Moss ink. The flowers I stamped in Dark Chocolate, then sprinkled on a sparkly brown embossing powder and heat set. I sponged Dark Chocolate ink around the edges and matted it to surprise, surprise...Dark Chocolate cardstock (betcha didn't see that coming!) Patterned papers are the Chocolate Remix 6x6 paper pack from Papertrey Ink. In fact, all ink and papers come from Papertrey Ink on this card. The sentiment follows along the same lines, except I used my pale pink Liquid Pearls to add to the heart on the "happy anniversary" sentiment.

Baby news: At my last appointment the doctor did not have my ultrasound results back yet so I'm still in the dark as to if this is a boy or girl kicking my guts out regularly! :) It's driving me crazy because I realllly want to know! :)

Falling into a Thank You

This card is CASED from the Lucky Clucker and uses Kim Hughes' Making the Grade set from Cornish Heritage Farms.
I coloured in the images with my Copic markers after stamping them in Pinecone Versacolor ink. I used Vintage Cream cardstock and designer paper by K & Company (their fall harvest mat pad). Ribbon is misc. from my stash, and the sentiment was cut out using my Nestabilities.

A pretty easy card to put together, and nice fall colours at that! I think I'll save this for the hostess of one of my upcoming family Thanksgiving celebrations.

Stella turns 50!

Stellaaaaaaa!!!!! With an olive on top of course. :)

This is a birthday card for an upcoming 50th birthday...I hope she celebrates as hard as Stella is here! :)

This wonderful image comes from Stamping Bella. She's coloured in with Copic markers and I used my Spica glitter pen to colour in the martini glass. The olive is coloured using a Sakura gelly roll marker and her wand has Lemon Stickles added to it. I used a pale blue ink to sponge around the edges, and cut it and the scalloped circle out using my Nestabilities. Cardstock is White Stamper's Select and designer paper is from DCWV. The purple scalloped circle is Bazzil Bling I believe. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics set, and I cut it out using Nestabilites also, then sponged pale blue ink around its edges too. Ribbon is all misc. from my stash and was stapled right to the card using some colourful Making Memories staples.

I hope my mom...errrr, the anonymous person turing 50 on Saturday, likes it!

A little Lauren inspiration!

Lauren Meader gave me such great inspiration with this card. And by inspiration I mean that I shamelessly copied it. :) With a few of my own tweaks of course. The cute, cute main image is from Stamping Bella and is called Preggo Circle (how cute is that!?) and the sentiment comes from Penny Black. I love the combo of papers Lauren used, so I kept mine similar, using Basic Grey Sugared, and white cardstock. The white I ran through my Swiss Dots embossing folder before gluing it down. I used Nestabilities for the scalloped circle and rectangle and Copics to colour in the image. I sponged dark brown ink around the edges of the image and sentiment, and paper pierced around the edges of the scalloped circle. Flowers are from Prima and the pink brads are from my stash. For the sentiment I stamped it in Versamark, then sprinkle on white embossing powder and heat set it. Done!

Rain, rain, go away!

This is another stamp set I raided from my mom's stamp room...I'm missing her while she's on vacation, but my card collection is growing due to all those trips to her house to 'borrow' some more supplies...hehe. What she doesn't know won't hurt her! :)

I love the Everyday Blessings set by Papertrey Ink. It has a nice collection of religious/inspirational messages to go along with the main image of the cross.

In this card, I stamped the solid cross (hard to see in this picture) in a very pale blue, then added the outline image over top in a olive green. The sentiment is stamped in the same olive green. Papers are from Basic Grey Archaic, ribbon is misc. from my stash, and the brads are Making Memories. I used a SU! Slot punch (also my mom's!) for the ribbon instead of my usual Cropadile holes.

Holy moly- is anyone else getting rained on today!? Someone must have stepped on a lot of spiders to cause this downpour (Something my parent's told me when I was a kid...step on a spider and it will rain). I swear, I left the house looking like a normal person, and stepped into work looking more like a drowned rat...oh well.

Special Delivery

Special delivery anyone? A little "baby love" by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms. I love using yellow on a baby card. It's just classic, even if a bit overdone sometimes. Papers are from Papertrey Ink, images are from Baby Love set as mentioned above and the baubles are from Stamping Bella. I stamped the stork twice and coloured him, and then popped him out with dimensionals. I used Stardust Stickles on the baby bundle, and white flock on his wings.

I wish I knew if I was having a pink or blue!! I had my first ultrasound yesterday at 19 weeks and of course, no one tells you anymore when you ask. I have to wait a whole week before I see my doctor who might be able to tell me providing the baby cooperated during the ultrasound...but one funny thing was that he/she was sucking on their toes. Cute! :)

Happy Birthday Bella boy!

This is another one of those bright cards!

I used the little Bella boy image from Stamping Bella and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics set. Papers are White Stamper's Select cardstock, blue Bazzil cardstock and patterned paper from DCWV. Ribbon is from my stash, and the buttons (both green and airplane) are also from my stash. I coloured him in with my Copic markers, and sponged green ink around the edges of the cardstock before matting it. The final touch was a red Bella bauble.

Happy New House to you!

I have an extremely purple card to show you. Put your sunglasses on...it's really PURPLE :) I made this for my friend Tara who just moved into her very own house. She's excited, and I'm excited for her!

I used SC182 on SCS for my layout, and Papertrey Ink products for the rest. I loooove that big house image in the Boards and Beams set because you can colour it every which way. I used Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon and White Stamper's Select cardstock, paired with Guide Lines patterned paper from the 6x6 pack. The image I coloured with my Copic markers and sponged ink around the edges with Plum Pudding ink. I used my SU! Ticket Punch on the corners, and added some silver brads from Making Memories.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Grandparent's Day!

I always love Jen del Muro's sketches. They are fun and challenge you to be creative in ways you never knew you could be! You can see her sketch on this post.

Since today is Grandparent's Day (did you know that??) I decided to make a card for my mother-in-law who is a FANTASTIC grandmother to my son Jake. Not that my mother isn't...haha, she is gone on vacation so her card will be waiting for her when she gets back! No, my mother-in-law is the opposite of all those horror stories about in-laws that you hear. She is sweet, fun, kind and just plain ol' great. (She doesn't even read this blog so I don't really need to gush THAT much!) :)

I used Basic Grey Gypsy papers from the 6x6 pack for this card, paired with Papertrey Ink's Vintage Cream cardstock. You can see that I ran the Cream through my Swiss Dots embossing folder for a little extra texture. I roughed up all the edges of the papers with my Heidi Swapp distressor and sponged Dark Chocolate ink around everything as well. The sentiment comes from Little Paper Shop and was perfect for this card! I stamped it in Dark Chocolate ink and used Aqua Mist ink to sponge around those edges. Both it and the matted paper were cut out using my Nestabilties. As a finishing touch, I added brads from the Basic Grey Boxer collection and dabbed some Diamond Stickles on them. Viola! Finished!

I hope all you grandparents have a wonderful Grandparent's Day today!

Stamping and Shakespeare?!

I love casing the Lucky Clucker's cards...maybe it's because she has great taste...or because she's my mom :) See her card here.

Nic's Tuesday challenge on her blog was to make a card to do with friends, so here is my entry.

It's pretty self-explanatory so I'll just list the supplies used:

Summer Sunrise cardstock, White Stamper's Select cardstock, Father Knows Best patterned paper, Summer Sunrise ribbon, Summer Sunrise ink (all from Papertrey Ink); sentiment from Inky Antics; dimensionals.

Happy Birthday you Fancy Pants, you!

I loooooove when I find a piece of designer paper that just screams perfection :) That's how I feel about this Fancy Pants About a Boy- Rockin' paper... I L-O-V-E it. I used it as most of my focal point for this male birthday card. It's so 'busy' that the card really didn't need much of anything else.


The card itself measures 5 1/4" square and uses the reverse side of the patterned paper for the card base. Then comes the awesome designer paper! After that I pulled out a Technique Tuesday chipboard circle and coloured it blue with a Copic marker. The chipboard star is from my stash and was coloured yellow with a Copic marker before adding Lemon Stickles to it. It's glued to the blue circle. I used an Inkadinkado sentiment stamped in Pinecone Versacolor, sponged some orange ink around the edges and matted it to the same designer paper as the card base. It's popped up with dimensionals, with one side attached to the blue chipboard circle. Colourful and fun and hopefully semi-masculine! :)

IC143 with some Floral Whimsy!

This card was for last week's Inspiration Challenge on SCS. I love the hotel rooms that were chosen as the inspiration- and I picked the middle one. The green and white patterns really stood out to me, and I tried to incorporate a lot of it into my own card.

I used my new Argyle Cuttlebug folder for the green cardstock (this is a SU! shade but I'm afraid I can't remember what it's called right now!?) and brushed a white ink pad over it to emphasize the pattern. The green is matted on white and kraft cardstock (both from Papertrey Ink), and all corners are rounded with my corner punch. The sentiment comes from the Floral Whimsy stamp set by Verve Visual and was stamped in Graphite Black ink and cut out using a Marvy rectangle punch. It's matted on light blue that was also cut out using a punch. The ribbon is misc. from my stash, and the big white plastic flower is Queen & Co., while the others are Prima. The button is from my sewing basket :)

I'm sure you've read the little 'about me' blurb at the top of my blog that says I'm a librarian right? Well let me tell you- the BEST part of my job by far is all the books I get to read :) I just finished Clapton- the Autobiography by Eric Clapton and I highly recommend it! Next on my list is downloading more Clapton music :) Anyone else have a good book they'd like to share with me?

Bitty Baby Adoption

This is a quick and simple card that I plan on duplicating many times...I think I'll just go ahead and use this format for my baby thank-yous! I used Papertrey Ink's White Stamper's Select cardstock as my card base, and scored two lines along the bottom third using my Scor Pal. Then I stamped the image twice, once on the card base and once on a scrap piece of paper, cutting out the image and colouring it with my Copic markers. Then I stamped the sentiment and added the Bella Baubles. Both the image and sentiment come from the Bitty Baby Blessings stamp set by Papertrey Ink.
I love how this card looks IRL. I keep experimenting with easy baby cards because both myself and my sister-in-law will be in need of thank-yous come wintertime and I want them to be as quick and easy to make as possible!