A couple of cards that have been hiding in my camera

What happens when it's too hot to go into your stamp room and then you also can't find the cord that you use to upload pictures from your camera to your blog? It means you don't post anything for a very long time. I finally found my camera cord yesterday, (darn those kids!) so here are a few cards from the past few months.

This card is for my new friend Lilly, who just turned 4. Her dad is my "boss" and one of our new pastors at church, and Lilly's mom is a new friend that I really love hanging out with! Lilly is fun and smart and adorable, has blond hair and loves looking cute, so I made this card with my brand new "Cricuit" machine for her for her birthday. :)

This card was made for Karra and Craig for their engagement. I've known Karra for 10 years, and have watched her grow up from high schooler, to college student to young adult, from being my kids first babysitter here in California, to one of my day camp counselors, then one of my day camp directors, to now having her own classroom as a teacher.... and now I get to help celebrate her marriage to a great guy named Craig! This card is made on Basic Gray cardstock, with printed vellum on top of it. The black strip is punched with the Martha Stewart eyelet punch, then I added some rhinestones,buttons, and a few different kinds of ribbon. Congratulations you two! I am so happy for you!

And finally, this card is for my friend Chuck that lives in Atlanta. He and his wife (Pam my very best friend!) share the same birthday!!! I didn't have a guy card that looked like Chuck's personality, so I thought this goofy pair of monkeys said it all. The DP is called "East Coast Prep" from Stampin up! and the cardstock is More Mustard, Riding Hood Red, and Tempting Turquoise. The sentiment is a separate stamp, but made to coordinate. Cool huh! I think I'll get lots of use out of these 2 stamps. (From Stampendous!)

Happy STamping... hope you don't lose your camera card anytime soon. It's not a good thing!

TECC70

A fun layout for Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #70! Uses one of my standby favorite sets: All About U and one of the newer sets from saleabration. Colors are Bashful Blue and Celery. Twine is from PaperTreyInk.

Parisian Quilt Card

First of all, let me share something with you that was NOT made by me... a beautiful gorgeous, quilt given to me by a wonderful family at my church.

This was a thank you gift for working these past few years with their son in my children's choir program, our Wed. night club program, etc. They wanted to express their appreciation for my time and love. Wow! I was/am overwhelmed! I have made one quilt in my life, when I was in my 20's, and it didn't turn out too well. I was proud of it, but it was far from perfection. So I know how much time and energy this took. When I make cards for people, or small handmade paper-crafting gifts like photo frames, candy tins, etc, they might take 1-2 hours per item... 3 at the most, but a QUILT? Seriously? I can't even imagine how much time this took. Here's another view... every square is DIFFERENT! How amazing is that?

So now, here's my card, made with the Quilter's Sampler set from PaperTreyInk , which has been on my wish list for a very long time. I kept wavering back and forth, waiting for the wallet to cooperate. Well, obviously, when I received this quilt, I knew I had to have this set to make a thank you card, right? I know quite a few quilters, so I know I will get a lot of use out of this set. I also got the additional phrases, called "Quilters Sampler Sentiments," and boy, oh boy, are there a ton of sentiments in these 2 sets.

The base of the card is Kraft cardstock from Stampin Up, then a layer of Parisian Breeze designer paper. The quilt images are stamped on Vanilla paper, and then layered onto Baja Breeze, and colored with a combination of Copic makers and SU markers. Some piercing, some faux stitching, and a button (tied with PaperTreyInk's new rustic twine!) completes the project. I'm anxious to get this into the mail to this sweet family... and even though my card didn't take as many hours to make as their wonderful gift to me, it is still filled with love and appreciation!

A couple of challenge cards

Emily was away this weekend on a Carnival Cruise with her choir group (Madrigals) to Catalina (supposedly to Mexico, but that didn't happen!) so I had a very quiet house... TOO QUIET actually... but at least I was able to squeeze in a little stamping time. Here are two challenge cards: The Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge card and the "Sketch for You To Try" card.

Here is TECC69:

The base of the card is "Lovely Lilac" followed by a layer of Green Galore, and then the FUN paper from DCWV called "Nana's Kids." It's already covered with sparkle and texture, so it really packs a punch! This is for a couple at church who is expecting their first baby, and they don't know the sex of the baby yet, so I was going for "gender neutral." The buggy is colored with an SU marker, then highlighted with a glaze pen, some Tiny Twinkles from the Taylored Expressions store, & some blue star buttons. The green dotted ribbon adds some finishing fun!

The next card is for "A Sketch for You To Try" from iheart2stamp.com. This is the first time I've posted to this sketch, so I'm so happy that I had some extra time this weekend to play along. The "trick" was to do something unique with the right hand edge of the card, so I decided to use pearls along that edge and make this into a wedding card. I also used by brand new background stamp from StampinUp! called "Bella Toile." The BG is stamped once on white paper and once on Pink Pirouette paper, and then the layers are "matched up" and adhered on top of each other. The cake stamp is from "Fun and Fast Notes." (SU!) one of my favorite sets. There are also mini pearls on the scalloped oval punch (marvy), some glitter pen and stickles on the cake image, and a stick on flower (I think I got it at Big Lots.)

Hope you all had a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend! (even if it didn't include a Carnival Cruise!)

Dearest Friend

Here's a simple card using the new SU set "Forest Friends" from the Spring Mini. The deer is stamped with Sahara Sand, (I think the first time I've used this stamp pad) and one of the individual stamps from the back of the caty! It says, "So Glad You Are One of My Dearest Friends." A special family just recently got laid off (the dad) and I am really hurting for them, so this is just to give them a little extra encouragement. Thanks for stopping by!

Chocolate Sky!!!

Wouldn't that be awesome? (Remember the song, "If all the snowflakes were Hershey Bars and Milkshakes?") This is for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge, TECC68. Here's the original post so you can see the sketch first hand. It's a great sketch, and fun to work with. I love this beautiful loopy flower stamp from Stampendous, and thought it would be perfect for the circle image in the sketch. The paper used is Chocolate Chip, Vanilla, Soft Sky, and Baja Breeze. The chocolate layer is clear embossed using chocolate chip craft ink (SU!) and the Filigree Background Stamp (retired SU). Several layers are pierced and the scalloped Baja Breeze layer is made with a corner rounder.

Make it a Grande

As soon as I saw this new set "A Little Caffeine Set" from Just Rite Stampers I had to have it! I usually wait a long time and think about my stamp purchases for a while before jumping in, but not this one! I ran right over to Taylored Expressions and got me some adorable coffee stamps! I put some ink on it right away, even though I didn't have the right size of wooden mount. So what did I make? A gift card holder for a Starbucks card, of course!

I used Chocolate Chip and Groovy Guava paper, along with Vanilla from SU! The Designer Paper is called "Paisley & Petals" from SEI. A super simple layout, with just a few simple additions: ribbon, scalloped punch, corner elements, and scalloped scissors (for the circle around the main image on front of card. ) I'm really looking forward to getting ink on the rest of the images in this set!