MojoMonday 245: Graduation card

 

It’s been quite a while since I played along with Mojo Monday, but when I saw the sketch, I knew it was perfect for a graduation card a friend had asked me to make. 

 

The graduation cap stamp I have is small, so sometimes I can be hard to incorporate a smaller image as the main focal point.  MojoMonday 245 had two small circles that I knew would be perfect!

 

 

 

I grabbed some Bo Bunny Sweet tooth paper; it’s so bright and cheerful and girly- just what my friend wanted.

 

Card Recipe:

Base- SU Crumb Cake

Matting and Ink- SU Pool Party

DP- Bo Bunny Sweet Tooth

Baker’s twine- SU Pool Party

Ribbon and stamps- from my stash

 

The card came together quite quickly- don’t you love when that happens?  I think it’s mostly due to the paper, sometimes it all just ‘clicks’.

 

 

Happy Tuesday!

Technorati Tags: A Paper Buffet,Mojo Monday 245,Graduation handmade card

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Cheers to 2012!

Happy New Year!  We’re a week into 2012 and so far it’s very looking promising. I have some great ideas, and hopefully I’ll be share them with you soon.  Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? {have you broken them already?}.  I only made two this year; one was to complete a Project 365.  I’ve committed to taking a photo every day for a year.  I started a  Project 365 set on my flickr page . I’m trying really hard not to only use my cell phone, but it’s just so much easier to upload it that way. 

My other resolution was to “do what makes me happy”.   Today, what makes me happy is playing with some new stamps and paper and making Valentine’s day cards for the store.

When I saw the Mojo Monday 222 sketch, I knew I had to play along.  Here’s my card following that sketch.

From time to time I make a card that I love so much, I have a hard time putting it in the store.  This is one of those cards.  I love how it came together. 

I love the black, red and ivory combination.

 

 

I also love how well it photographed. 

 

 

Fear not, I did put this card in the A Paper Buffet Etsy shop (and I have two available).

I’ll be adding some other great Valentine’s day cards to the shop this week using more of this gorgeous paper pack, so stay tuned!

Happy Sunday!

 

Card details:

Cardstock- SU Basic Black, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla

DP- SU Love Letter

Black grosgrain ribbon, heart brad, black rhinestones

Stamp: You and Moi

Technorati Tags: Valentines Day Cards,Project 365,A Paper Buffet,Mojo Monday

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Melon Mambo Mojo Monday

Mojo Monday is a great source for inspiration, with a weekly sketch released each Monday.  When I saw the Mojo Monday 186 sketch I knew it would work well for a milestone birthday card I was making for my mom to give to a co-worker.

I love this Kaiser Kraft paper, and it was perfect for this feminine 50th birthday card.  I used SU Melon Mambo for the base, a really great and vibrant pink.  Pear Pizzaz matched quite well with the green in the Kaiser Kraft paper, and I found some green ribbon in my stash.

The sentiment is from SU- although the name of the set escapes me at the moment.  I printed out the number “50” on the computer and covered it in Martha Stewart glitter, then sealed it with acrylic sealer.

I love using glitter, and the acrylic sealer helps it from shaking off and getting everywhere- a definite ‘must-have’ in your supplies.  You should be able to find it at the craft store, or at a hardware store with the spray paint.

I distressed the edges of all the paper with Tim Holtz Walnut distressing ink, and added some green adhesive rhinestones.  The original sketch had twine or another ribbon at the top section, but I thought it was a bit too much given the paper that I used, so I left it out.  

This card is bright and cheery…unlike the rainy weather we’re currently having.  I’m at my parent’s house for the Easter weekend and enjoying some time with family, catching up on some projects, and eating chocolate of course!

 

I hope you all have a great Easter weekend!

Technorati Tags: greeting card,birthday,Kaiser Kraft paper,Stampin Up,A Paper Buffet

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Green and Grey and oh so sweet

Last week I received a call from a local customer (I highly recommend registering your business with Google places) who needed a Congratulations card for a best friend who is expecting her first baby.  My customer told me her friend’s favourite colour is green, and she loves trees.  They don’t know if the baby is a boy or a girl, and I had free reign to make this card as heavy and bulky as I wanted because it was being shipped Fed-Ex.

As soon as my customer mentioned trees, I thought of one of my favourite Inkadinkadoo stamps, with three small birds in a tree.  I thought it fit perfectly because the three little birds are a little family.  I used markers to ink up the tree and the birds, added a layer with my Spica glitter pen (it’s hard to capture in the picture), then coloured the leaves with two shades of green marker.  I used a blender pen to pull in some of the brown colour from the outline of the tree; I didn’t want to colour it completely. You can click on the picture to see it close up.

I used the MojoMonday 176 sketch for the layout and made the card 5.5” by 5.5”.

I love these little ivory flowers, they were a Christmas gift from a fellow stamping friend, and they worked great with the BoBunny paper I used.  A simple “Congratulations” was stamped in grey ink and added some balance to the bottom corner.  Of course, I had to add rhinestones, but I think it pulls it together quite well.

I love being able to do custom work, and my customer was very happy with the results!

Happy Saturday!

Ciao for now,

Technorati Tags: handmade greeting cards,Bo Bunny,Inkadinkadoo,A Paper Buffet,custom order,baby card,Mojo Monday 176

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“Everybody loves Mango!” err…I mean Morgan!

 

 

Remember Chris Kattan’s character Mango from SNL? he just cracked me up!

 

Ok, so onto the real topic of the day; everyone seems to heart Morgan from Stamp Insanity stamps as much as I do.  I’ve had two custom orders from friends who want a set of Morgan cards.

The first set I used the Basic Grey Challenge sketch with BG Eskimo kiss paper.

Here’s a look at all three; you still can’t see the back card, but trust me, it’s cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next set only needed 2 cards, since my friend wanted the red “Dear Santa” card from a few weeks ago.

 

 

 

 

I used the Mojo Monday layout for the next two cards of the set; the green and blue card uses some more Basic Grey Eskimo Kiss paper, and the blue and red card is made with  Imaginisence paper, I love those snowflakes!

The BG holly print paper was really white, and since I had stamped Morgan out on SU Very Vanilla, it really clashed.   So I used some TH Vintage Tea Dye ink and a kleenex and it added the perfect tint to soften the white and it almost matches Very Vanilla now.

You can see the tint on the left side (or top of the paper) and how the bottom right corner is the original white.

Happy Tuesday!

Ciao for now,

 

Technorati Tags: Basic Grey,Mojo Monday,Stamp Insanity,Morgan,SNL,Mango,Chris Kattan,Stampin Up,A Paper Buffet,Christmas Cards

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4 Morgans; 2 sketches; and a whole lotta Sassy Christmas cards!

Dear Beth, creator and owner of Stamp Insanity Stamps. I heart you. I heart Morgan and I heart the Naughty and Nice set.

I took some non-traditional Christmas colours and went to town, using first the MojoMonday sketch and, this will qualify for the Basic Grey Challenge this week too.

I heart Morgan so much, I made another card, switching the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper.

I heart her even more, I found Jen Del Muro’s SFYTT and made another, using more BG Eskimo Kisses, and the very last of my coveted SU Purely Pomegranate paper.

“who you callin’ a Ho Ho Ho”

Beth, you are a genius. Did I tell you I heart you?

I switched the papers and the location of the snowflake, but kept the sentiment, because, you know, I heart it.

Matching snowflakes on the inside.

I heart snowflakes too.

Do you heart Morgan as much as I do? Show Beth you love her, and visit Stamp Happens, the ONLY place to buy Stamp Insanity stamps.

Happy Tuesday,

Ciao for now,

Technorati Tags: Mojo Monday,SFYTT,Basic Grey,Eskimo Kisses,Stamp Insanity,Stamp Happens,snowflakes,Christmas cards,a Paper Buffet

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Mojo (111) on a Thursday

 

It’s been so long since I participated in the MojoMonday sketch,  but after seeing Donna’s incredible take on the sketch, I was inspired!

 

I had a completely different vision for this card, a different main image in fact.  But it wasn’t working with the distressed look of the card.  So I switched it up at the last second.

I apologize for the dark pictures…I’m still awaiting my delivery of Photoshop and I’m counting the days!

The DP is Cosmo Cricket, and I’m totally in love with it!

 

I distressed the edges with TH Frayed Burlap ink; the image panel is SU Very Vanilla with some Frayed Burlap rubbed on to match the distressing on the DP.  I think I’m thrown off by the Taken with Teal I used to mat the DP, but it’s the perfect match and I needed another layer…be honest- what do you think?

I love! this wide SU Old Olive ribbon, but have been limited so far in using it.  I think it works pretty good as the second panel in the sketch…although to mail this card, I think you’d need extra postage because of the thickness.  Maybe in the spirit of Christmas the post man would let it slide ;)

I haven’t chosen a sentiment for this card yet, although I’m thinking “Season’s Greetings” over “Merry Christmas”.

The snowflakes are punched from THE most gorgeous sparkly paper I found at Scrapping Great Deals on the weekend.  You will be seeing lots of sparkly snowflakes!!

Main image is from SU- Season of Joy- which is quickly becoming my favourite Christmas stamp set.

Happy Thursday!

Ciao for now,

Technorati Tags: Mojo Monday,sketch,snowflakes,handmade cards,Stampin Up,SU,ScrappinGreatDeals,A Paper Buffet,Cosmo Cricket Paper

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Found my Mojo on the Butterfly Bandwagon

I received some incredible butterfly stampies from the lovely and uber talented Donna for my birthday last month.  I’ve been spying so many butterflies lately, that I’ve been saving them for some special cards.  I have no idea who makes this stamp, but I need to find out, so Donna be prepared!

The stampies were embossed in black and were the perfect images to colour with my almost-never used MS markers.  They don’t seem to blend, even with a blender pen, so I’ve felt limited with using them.  They were perfect for this job though, (and they’re great for inking stamps).

For the first butterfly, I created a mono-chromatic card using the Mojo103 layout from MojoMonday.  This is for a birthday card for my friend D, and I wanted it to have a little extra bling, so I used my new Lilac Shimmerz from Tonya at Stamp Happens.

 

Here’s a close-up of the Shimmerz on the light purple parts.

 

To colour this image I used MS Markers in Hyacinth; Purple Helitrope and Hydrangea.  SU cardstock is Almost Amethyst, Orchid Opulence and Perfect Plum. The buttons on the bottom are beautiful shell buttons with glass beads threaded on the the string.  This card is not for mailing, the shell buttons are gorgeous, but extremely fragile. Yes, I found that out the hard way, sheesh!

I had another stampie to colour and needed an Anniversary card for my best friends C and K (Ethan’s parents).  I wanted to highlight the black embossing, so I chose SU cardstock in Tempting Turquoise and Taken with Teal,

 

I coloured the image with MS Markers in Turquoise and Aloe.

I used the layout for Mojo102 on MojoMonday for this card.  I finally broke down and bought the MS Butterfly punches (on sale at Michaels for 30% off, I couldn’t say no). I’m so happy I did! I’ve seen this layering around and finally have some way to use up my glass beads!

I used floral wire to make the antennae and to hold the beads. I will be doing this over and over again, so get used to it!

I decorated the inside, using the MS markers to ink my stamp and the tiny butterflies from the MS punch.

 

 

I’m taking a little break from stamping and going to do some cleaning, and hopefully tonight I’ll be starting on my L.A. Scrapbook.

Happy {holiday} Monday!

Ciao for now,

Technorati Tags: handmade cards,A Paper Buffet,butterflies,birthday,anniversary cards,Martha Stewart Crafts,Stampin UP,Mojo Monday

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Work it Wednesday Challenge

Today is another Work it Wednesday over at The Character Cafe Blog.  This week, it’s hosted by Tesa, who created a tutorial about stitching on your cards

I created this card using the MojoMonday layout and the stitching technique Tesa taught us.

I used my new favourite Cosmo Cricket paper, SU Mellow Moss and SU Old olive cardstock.  Sentiment is from SU Full of Life set and the ribbon is from Michaels, but matches quite well!

I also used this paper for a card I made for my mom; she needed a thank you card for her French teacher.

I created this card last week, it’s already on the way to the French teacher.  It’s very French-country, n’est pas?

I sent it along with a note to my mom in French..and realized how much I’m losing by not speaking it.  I grew up in a city with a very large Francophone population, and here in London, it’s almost strange to hear French.  I must keep using it!

Don’t forget to visit The Character Cafe Blog to check out Tesa’s tutorial and enter the challenge.  You can win TWO Character Cafe images!  If you’re uploading your card to SCS, you can use the keyword TCCWIW4 so we can all see them together.

Happy Wednesday!

Ciao for now,

Technorati Tags: The Character Cafe,Work it Wednesday,Digital stamps,A Paper Buffet,Mojo Monday,handmade cards

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The Character Cafe- Feature Friday

TGIF!

If you hop around the TCC DT blogs, you will get a sneak peek of July releases, as we get ready for another blog hop on Monday, July 20th---but here you get to see the whole thing.

That’s entirely because I hosted the Work it Wednesday over the TCC blog and already previewed the card :)

Here’s another look at my Ziggy the Bee card, using the Mojo Monday sketch from this week

Make sure to check out the  rest of the DT blogs for a sneak peek, play along with our Work It Wednesday challenge for a chance to win two digital images from The Character Cafe.

And Monday will be our July release blog hop!

Happy Friday!

Ciao for now,

 

Technorati Tags: digital stamps,The Character Cafe Design Team,handmade cards,A Paper Buffet,Work it Wednesday,Mojo Monday

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Mojo Monday on a Friday

I decided to skip Foto Friday this week and post a card.  This is an up cycled anniversary card for my great friends Alison & Jamie, who will be celebrating their first wedding anniversary this month.  I stood as a bridesmaid for Alison and kept the ribbon from my bouquet.  I knew I wanted to use it on their card somehow.  The ribbon is very wide, so I made a 6x6 card using MojoMonday89 sketch:

 

 

 

I knew I was going to have to use more than one stamp to mail it, so I decided to go big (or go home!)

The DP and flowers are from the goodies I won from Jen Del Muro at {iheart2stamp}.  Green was the colour of our bridesmaid dresses, and with the ivory satin ribbon from the bridesmaid bouquet it went perfectly!

I decided to use the same stamp I used for their wedding card:

 

 

 

 

See the Green Galore polka dot ribbon in the corner?  That’s from Alison and Jamie’s wedding invitation!

 

 

June is a very busy month and I’ve got 2 more anniversary and 2 birthday cards to make this weekend(not to mention catch up on the twilighttuesday.com challenges), I’ll be back to post my progress :)

Happy Friday

Ciao for now,

Technorati Tags: Mojo Monday,Twilighttuesday.com,anniversary cards,iheart2stamp

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Sketchy

Sketches are my blueprints.  They allow me to get out of my comfort zone and grow.  I haven’t been great at keeping up with playing along for the last little while, but I’m hoping things will change.

I have quite a few cards I want to make over the next few days, and turned to some sketches for some inspiration.

I  wanted to make a Congratulations card for my friend H, who called me this week to tell me she was engaged! How exciting!! Both her and her fiancé are pilots, so earlier in the week I picked up my first EK punch- an airplane.

I used Taylor’s sketch for this card, and it also qualifies for the  A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge 49- blue and green.

I flipped the sketch and did change it a little bit, the airplanes just didn’t look right grouped in the left corner, so I used some more on the inside. Cardstock is Bazzil, Ribbon is American Crafts stamp is SU and the DP is from my stash.

 

I needed some birthday cards and thank you cards, and turned to the WSC sketch which is hosted by Jen Balcer this weekend.

 

I used my paper from my $1.50 Michaels loot to make this card, and I really liked the layout.  I liked it so much, I made another as a thank you card, and then made 4 more to add to my Etsy store and to the hair salon here in town where I sell my cards. Both sentiments are SU.

Next up was a MojoMonday sketch for my mom’s Mother’s Day card.  She saw another card I made with the SU Fifth Ave rose stamp and loved it, so I knew I wanted to use that for her card.

This card took more work to put together, and I really wasn’t sure if the rose was such a good idea because it was so large.  Overall, I am happy with how this one turned out.  The card base is SU Sahara Sand, DP is double sided S.E.I Chocolate Nougat, Bazzil Raspberry Dream, and Bazzil Grey ( I’m sure it has some fancy name, but I can’t remember).  The ribbon is SU Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon and the sentiment is from Stampendous Sunny Flowers set.  If you click on the picture, I softened the edges of the rose (stamped in SU Basic Gray) with my blender pen. 

I made one more card, but surprisingly didn’t follow a sketch for this one.  While making my Godson’s Christening card a few weeks ago, I realized I really liked the way white ink looks on SU Sahara Sand, and went from there.   Another birthday card using SU Birthday Whimsy set, it’s definitely one of my favourite sets of all time.

I stamped the present in white ink on Sahara Sand to create my own dp, and stamped the cake in SU Chocolate Chip.  It’s making me crave some chocolate cake!

 

I struggle making neutral cards, and simple cards as well.  But I really like the clean lines of this one and didn’t feel it needed any embellishments.

 

It’s a sunny Saturday here and I’m off this afternoon to watch my friend D in a charity wheelchair basketball tournament.

Make sure to check out all the sites above for some great sketches!

Happy Saturday!

Ciao for now,

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