Our Daily Bread Designs Patriotic Card

I joined Lori's sketch challenge swap over on SCS--you can read about it HERE. I decided to do Sketch # 26, a pocket card. I love these--it's like "Hey, kids, surprise inside!" Since the 4th of July is a little over a month away, I decided to use my new ODBD patriotic stamps. I just couldn't resist them. I am very patriotic--I love my country and think it is the best in the world! All products are SU except for flag, eagle, and Pledge stamps, those are all ODBD. I stamped the flag on confetti tan (SU retired--I am running out, need to find a new source as I like it better than kraft) in Palette Burnt Umber ink and colored with my good ol' Stampin Pastels. They are the first coloring medium I ever bought from SU, and they are so quick and easy to use, they are good for shading. I don't use them much anymore as my ink pads are right in front of me so I just watercolor most of the time. But I should! You can use them with blender pens or Q-tips (as I did here), and I have heard of people using them with Aqua Painters, though I have never tried it. Eagle head is done the same way.

Card base is Riding Hood Red, wheeled with a retired SU wheel in Night of Navy ink. Focal point is Spellbinders (Label 2 I think), layered on Night of Navy. Flag and Eagle are popped up on foam tape. For the inside piece I took a quarter sheet of confetti tan and put my die on one end, just cut the end, then moved it down to the other end and cut that, then freehand cut down the sides to connect the top and bottom. I made a mask with the next size down die and sponged a navy frame around the Pledge, added a punched star and a piece of Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware (retired).

This is a side view to show how I made the pocket. I didn't do it the way Sketch # 26 suggests but rather just scored a piece of 4.25" x 11" CS at 5.5" and 1", folded over the 1" flap and tied it with a Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon. It is open at the sides but you could use adhesive if you wanted. By the way that's ink on my thumbnail, NOT dirt!

I am really pleased with the way this turned out. I've got lots of ideas for these sets! Hope you enjoyed looking!

Elzybells-a-palooza!

Hi everyone! I have recently fallen in love with Elzybells stamps. They are sooo cute! So I joined an Elzybells swap too. This first card is stamped on PTI white with Palette Noir ink and watercolored with Twinkling H2O's. They were all the rage a couple years ago sort of like Copics are now, and I just HAD to have them. I really do like them, just don't use them that much. Hence my decision NOT to invest in Copics! Anyway I thought they'd be perfect for this card. The sentiment is a mixture of two--"you're my Prince Charming" and "my knight in shining armour"--I used a marker and Stamp-a-ma-Jig to fix it like I wanted it.

This view is the outside. It is a gate-fold card. I was going for the look of a castle door. Closure is those wonderful (and very strong!) magnets by Basic Grey.

This is my other EB swap--just watercolored with SU pads. Stickles on the snowdrops and pink flower centers. Card base is Gina K Luxury CS 120 lb. and Luxury is right! It is to die for.

This last card is one that I made for DH for our anniversary. This is a pic of it closed. The castle and dragon are Lizzie Anne Designs, others are Elzybells. Again colored with Twinkling H2O's.

This is the card opened. I was going for a 3-D effect. You start with a piece of CS 4.25" x 11". Score at 1", 2", 3.75", 5.5", and 8.25". Accordian fold and embellish as desired. Examples: snowy hills, sand dunes, grassy hills, etc.

Tomorrow I will share the card I made for the sketch challenge swap. I used my new Our Daily Bread Designs for that one. Until then, have a great day!

Build a Bear Birthday

Emily's birthday party at Build a Bear Workshop yesterday was really fun! We had 11 kids, and let me tell you the young woman in charge deserves a medal LOL! Bet she went home and had a margarita! But the kids were really well behaved and seemed to have a great time. Most had never been to a b-day party at BAB. Here are Ems and me. My name tag says "Party Mama". I really like that--I want a license plate that says that! Do you think it might attract the wrong sort of attention?



Here are the cupcakes. I don't do cake decorating, so we got these from Dillon's, our local grocery store. Surprisingly enough BAB doesn't have any sort of cake kits available, so they did them in primary colors with bear faces. I think they are so cute! We had 11 chocolate and 1 vanilla, because Ems has a friend who doesn't like chocolate!







Here is a view of the cupcake box with a cupcake in it. I used Lauren Meader's My Timeless Templates "Get a Handle on It" box template. Lauren is an amazing person (she recently helped out a friend of mine) and her templates are extremely well thought out, very versatile, and VERY easy to put together! Of course, when you're making a dozen of them...well, it was a little time consuming, but I LOVE this template. The only thing I would do differently is I should have made some sort of little base to keep the cupcakes upright because of course they all tipped over as soon as I handed them to the kids and the cute decorated tops ended up all over the inside of the boxes! Live and learn. I printed out my boxes on Pacific Point CS, cut them out and scored them, cut a window in the front panel, and punched oval "handles". I stamped the paw print from PTI's With Sympathy Pet addition in Pac. Point ink. Trim around window is Real Red CS die cut with Nestabilities.

Here is a view of the left side of the box. I went to the BAB site where you can print off invites and thank you notes, printed off 12 of these guys and CUT THEM OUT--what is wrong with me?!?!?--popped them up and mounted them on white on Real Red punched out with a Marvy punch. The site has lots of cute designs for invites and ty's, and on this particular one you can change the colors, so I could match to my primary color scheme. VERY handy!

This last pic shows the other side, I used a retired SU set, Alphabet Soup, one of my favorites. I used markers to color the individual letters (12 TIMES, can you say "glutton for punishment"?) in Real Red, Summer Sun, and Brilliant Blue, which it turns out is a reasonable match for Pac. Point.

I absolutely love how these turned out. Hope you do too, and maybe you'll get some ideas for your own kids' birthdays. Thanks for stopping by!

Card and present for a little princess

Hi everyone quick post today--I need to make a salad for our choir's end of the year party! This is a card I made for a friend of Emily's birthday party. The stamp is Elzybells (watercolored with SU inks), the stamp company I am currently in love with LOL! Card base is PTI white, layers are Pink Pirouette and Certainly Celery from SU. Celery layer is embossed with Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls, and I outlined the embossed part with a sparkly metallic gell pen. DP is Imaginisce die cut with SU's Top Note die, and crocheted lace was sent to me by Latisha.

I made this gift bag to go with the card, it is Imaginisce layered with Pink Pir. and Cert. Cel. CS. The party was at a place called Pump It Up, they have huge inflatable slides, bouncing things, and obstacle courses. The kids love it, and Emily had a blast.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Cards I Sent to my Secret Sister--2nd Post Today, Scroll Down!

This is the first card I sent to JoAnn, my PTI secret sister. It uses Spiral Bouquet and Tags for Spring. Colors are Sweet Blush and Dark Chocolate. DP is Dark Chocolate Remix. Sketch is an old Mojo Monday one (MM74)--see it HERE. Ribbon is narrow organdy from SU--retired.



























This was the last card I sent her. It is a pocket card. I just love this DP, it is Parisian Breeze by SU and it uses one of my all-time fave colors, Baja Breeze. This paper is very heavy and textured. In fact all supplies used on this card were SU. Hope that wasn't cheating TOO much since it was a PTI swap!



Set is Oval All, in the Occasions Mini catalog from SU, coordinates with their new oval scallop punch. Eyelets are Bordering Blue (SU retired) but I thought they were a close enough match for the Baja Breeze.









Here is the insert inside the pocket. It uses the Top Note Sizzix die from SU and a retired set, Sage Advice which I love. Little flower is from an old Sale-a-Bration set, Noteworthy. I trimmed around the main layer on the pierced line so my DP layer would show. Ribbon is SU retired.

Hope you enjoyed looking at some of the things I have been working on--I didn't want to show them until after JoAnn had received them.

Package I sent to my PTI Secret Sister

On our last round of PTI swapping, we had a Secret Sister part of the swap. My SS was JoAnn. Here is the package I sent to her. This is the little enclosure card--the envelope is made with the SU scallop envelope die by Sizzix out of Raspberry Fizz Mix DP. Stamp sets are one of the Borders and Corners sets (forget which) and Spiral Bouquet.

This box I made from the For Keepsake template from My Timeless Templates. I used the Spellbinders Oval Nesties for the "windows" and embossed some plastic from the PTI stamp boxes with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I shredded some Rasp. Fizz CS and put it in the box along with some yummy Hershey's Nuggets.

Here is a detail shot of the box lid. I used a Maya Road flower coated with Doodlebug Designs glitter, RF ribbon and one of PTI's vintage buttons (the prettiest one IMHO). Glitter matches better IRL, though not perfect.

Here is the tag tin I made. JoAnn listed some of her likes/dislikes as pink and brown colors and PTI tins. So I cased THIS IDEA from Nichole's blog. I love my Tags for Spring set, and I thought JoAnn might be able to use these for card candy or just tags.

I cut a small dowel to fit in the box and the divider template is given in the post above.

Below are just a few of the tags I made. Some are made with other sets besides Tags for Spring. Most use either the Marvy punches or Spellbinders dies.