Inspired by Card Magazines

One of my presents for my birthday was a gift certificate to Borders and my first thought was to go and buy an updated street atlas for Northern Virginia since our old one is all tattered and somewhat outdated. I talked myself out of it! With mapquest and google maps, I thought, "Do we really need one?" We don't have a GPS right now but we might get one in the future...so I talked myself into getting two card magazines. Okay, so it wasn't a tough sell! I bought, "Take Ten," from Stampers Sampler and, "Card Creations," from Papercrafts. Both magazines have a lot of great card ideas so I'm glad I didn't get the street atlas!

This card was inspired by the design challenge featured in the, "Take Ten" issue I got. The card is folded in a way that the outside or front is a bit shorter (about an inch) than the inside.  And the corners are rounded, even though my scanner kept cutting off the top corner, grrrr! I used CTMH's textured cardstock (one side is slightly lighter than the other side) as my card base so that's why the extended inside edge looks lighter. I made this card after having worked on another complicated one for a VERY long time. I just didn't like how the first came out so I went on to this one which ended up having no stamping and coming together much more quickly! I needed to do something simple after all that.

Supplies used: (X5670) Textured cardstock Winter Cozy Palette, (Z822) Just Blooms Summer Posies, (Z1104) Clear Sparkles, (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Retired) Sassy Strands Autumn Harvest

The next card does have stamping and wasn't necessarily inspired by a card I saw in one of the magazines but I used the same textured paper for the card base that I used in the no stamping card. I also used a stamp set that I've recently gotten (I love the little ducks in Springtime).  The top of the umbrella is popped up for dimension.

Supplies Used: (X5670) Textured cardstock Winter Cozy Palette, (D1415) Springtime stamp set, (C1257), Happy Birthday stamp set, (X7114B) Bella Level 2 paper pack, (Z2111) Chocolate stamp pad, (Z2161) Petal stamp pad, (Z2367) Creme Brulee marker, (Z2301) Autumn Terracotta marker, (Z1151) 3-D Foam Tape, nestabilities

I've always admired those who can make simple yet elegant artwork. It seems that when I try to do this, something is just a bit off. I don't have quite the same graphic design sense. Anyway, here's my attempt at a simple card which also uses up some scraps and it was inspired by a card I saw in, "Card Creations."

Supplies Used: (D1187) For Every Occasion stamp set, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, scraps from my scrap drawer (black cardstock, Emporium papers)

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Tag Album Journal - Part 2

Here's a continuation of the tag album I'm working on.

Fourth page, front and back

Fifth page, front and back

Sixth page, front and back

Supplies used: (X7105B) Emporium Level 2 paper pack, (Z2114) Cocoa stamp pad, (D1331) Dream Wishes stamp set, (D1222) Tiny Typewriter Alphabet stamp set, (C1401) Friendship Alphabet Small stamp set, (1301) Bamboo cardstock, Nestabilities

Hmmm...so do you think I can complete three of these types of albums (including this one, another which I've started and another which I have not even touched yet) by February 13th? Yikes! I'm hoping that once this one is all done, I'll start moving more quickly since I'll have my template. Wish me luck!

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Lucky Girl

My birthday was last Tuesday and I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family and so many amazing friends who made it a special day for me. Since we all had Monday off, my family and I celebrated on Monday, with some pampering and a special cake from Tivoli (an awesome bakery in Ballston). We also saw, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and went out for lunch. I had many nice cards, calls, and emails too. At work the next day, there was even more cake, specifically yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting (simple, but my absolute favorite type of cake). It motivated me to walk on the treadmill yesterday! And I think I'll have time to do some walking today too! Here's a picture of some of the fun stuff I received as presents.

So I have a lot of people to thank and need to get going on making some thank you cards! Here's one design I came up with (I love using the plaid paper from Felicity as "clothing").

Supplies used: (CC1008) Felicity Collection, (D1345) Ms. Sweetheart stamp set, (D1361) Thank You stamp set, (Z1104) Clear Sparkles, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2342) Parchment marker, (Z2302) Baby Pink marker, (Z2305) Black marker, (Z1126) Designer Ribbon Rounds Colonial White Collection, (Z1300) Just Blooms White Daisy, (1388) Colonial White cardstockPin It

Suspension Card Workshop

Here's a sneak peek at one of the cards we will be making at my next card workshop. I used (C1396) Love Birds stamp set and (X5809) Creative Basics Veranda Collection. Contact me to sign up!

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Felicity Layout

I never thought I would use these colors to make a scrapbook layout about a snowstorm but since the kids have orange and yellow coats, it just seemed to work.

Supplies used: (CC1008) Felicity collection, (1301) Bamboo cardstock, (X5643) Chocolate cardstock,  (X5646) Vanilla Cream cardstock, (Z2103) Bamboo stamp pad,  (Z2111) Chocolate stamp pad, (Z1210) Heartfelt Wonder Die Cuts, (Z1269) Filigree Charms, (Z1213) Brads Spring Blossom Assortment, (D1329) Noteworthy stamp set, (B1269) Journaling Jots, (Z1098) Love Letters Rub-Ons, (X5749) Color-Ready Alphabets Oxford, (Z1261) Color-Ready Irresistables Lots of Dots, (retired) Calendar stamp set

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Going Through My Stash (Sonata and My Heart)

The music teacher at the preschool where I work turned 61 today and in honor of her birthday, I wanted to give her a set of notecards with a musical theme. I also had promised myself to use up more of my hoard of paper so I decided to use a retired paper pack I have called, Sonata. I really do like this paper and since it's retired, it was even more difficult to let go of my hoarding tendencies...but I did! I also used a retired stamp set, My Heart. It may be difficult to see in the picture but I used Clear Sparkles on the stamped musical notes (it looks nice in real life) and the music book is popped up with 3-D adhesive.

Supplies: (Z1104) Clear Sparkles, (X5747) Basic Textured Cardstock, (Z2111) Chocolate stamp pad, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2311) Chocolate marker, (Z1151) 3-D Foam Tape, Nestabilities

Retired items: Sonata paper, My Heart stamp set, Chocolate grosgrain

I like using the textured cardstock as a card base because it is two toned. So if you have a dark color like the Chocolate shown here, once it is folded the inside of the card is lighter and easy to write on with a regular pen. Here's a picture of the inside:

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Tag Album Journal - Part 1

I'm working on a tag album journal that I'm hoping to replicate with different papers. My goal is to make at least three that I can give as gifts to some college friends of mine who are turning 40 this year. I came up with this idea almost a year ago...I'm either a big time planner or a big time procrastinator! Luckily, I bought the tag albums before they were retired! It's still a work in progess so here are the first series of pages I have completed.

First page, front and back

Second page, front and back

Third page, front and back

Supplies used: (D1201) Frame of Mind, (D1329) Noteworthy, (D1378) Notice the Details - December 2009 Stamp of the Month, (X7105B) Emporium Level 2 paper pack, (Z2114) Cocoa stamp pad, (44751) Archival Black stamp pad

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Just Ink and Paper

very once in awhile, I like to try to come up with cards that just use ink and paper...no layering at all. There are a lot of beautiful examples online of making art using a brayer that inspired me (check out Michelle Zindorf's blog) but with these cards, I used paper masks with repositionable adhesive and applied ink with sponges.

Products used: (Z2120) Garden Green ink pad, (Z2145) Ponderosa Pine stamp pad, and (D1375) Treasures, the September 2009 stamp of the month, (Z687) Round Sponge

Products used: (D1306) Treasure Life stamp set, (D1283) Say It In Style stamp set, (Z2126) Heavenly Blue stamp pad, (Z2119) Dutch Blue stamp pad, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z687) Round Sponge

Products used: (D1306) Treasure Life stamp set, (Z2150) Sunflower stamp pad, (Z2104) Barn Red stamp pad, (Z2137) Olive ink pad, (Z2114) Cocoa ink pad, (Z687) Round Sponge

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Using up Scraps

As you can imagine, after making all the SnowFriends cards, I had quite a few scraps of Stardust paper left over. I tried to be good and put usable scraps in a baggie so that I could go back and see what I could do with them. Here are two designs what I came up with.

Both cards have some dimension to them so my scanner had a hard time getting everything in focus, but these images are still better than the photos I took of them. Please forgive the blurry Happy Birthday sentiment on the second card. The sentiment is from (C1257) Happy Birthday, which I use a lot! Most of the scraps are from (X7109B) Stardust . I also used (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Z1223) Dimensional Elements Booksmart, (Z2308) Brown Bag Marker, the stamp of the month from last August (D1352) It's Your Day, (1242) Sunflower cardstock, brads from my stash, and Nestabilities.

Thanks for looking!

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Spring 2010 Idea Book

The Spring 2010 Idea Book is live!

 One of my favorite new stamp sets is Love Birds on page 48. I also really love the new Filigree Charms on page 92 and the new letter stickers that have a polka dot resist design, on page 96. Well, my list goes on and on! Click here to check out the catalog for yourself!

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Happy 2010!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a great start to 2010!

I've been thinking about starting a blog for awhile and thought that it might be appropriate to start it at the beginning of the year. I'm hoping that it will be a good way to share card and scrapbooking ideas and also to catalog these ideas for myself! Most of the items I use will be from Close To My Heart, since I'm a consultant, but I will branch out every so often. I'm also hoping that this will motivate me to use up my ever growing stash of crafting items!

I've had a fun vacation from my day job as a preschool aide and one of the things I did was come up with a thank you card design to send to my students for the presents they gave me during the end of the year holiday party. This stamp set, Snow Friends, is one of my favorites so here's what I came up with, only I changed the sentiment here. With the thank you cards, I just stamped a, "Thank You," directly onto the light blue patterned paper from the Stardust pack. After making 15 of these, I needed a change and made a few New Year's cards!

Supplies used: (X7109B) Stardust Level 2 paper, (X5643) Chocolate cardstock, (D1244) Snowfriends stamp set, (D1283) Say It In Style stamp set, (Z2134) Moonstruck stamp pad, (Z2317) Crystal Blue marker, (Z2324) Grey Flannel marker, (Z2338) Orange marker, (Z2301) Autumn Terracota marker, (Z2310) Buttercup marker, (Z2316) Cranberry marker, (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Z534) Micro-tip scissors, (Z553) Bonding Memories Glue Pen, Nestabilities Labels One, blue brad (I just had this in my stash but it matches Moonstruck well!)

In case you want directions for the paper piecing part, here they are:

Stamp snowman image onto star patterned paper from Stardust paper pack. Stamp snowman image onto White Daisy cardstock and cut out snowman and snowflakes (don't cut around the arms or hat). Stamp same snowman image onto beige patterned paper (with blue dots and "stitched circles). Cut out the hat only.

Assemble all snowman pieces together. Glue White Daisy snowman image and beige hat onto the blue star patterned paper. Trim White Daisy cardstock as needed. Use markers to color in stamped image.

Attach blue star patterned paper to standard sized (4.25" x 5.5") card base on the upper left side. Attach a piece of beige patterened paper to upper right. Attach a strip of 1" x 5.5" light blue striped patterned paper along the bottom. Use corner rounder to add a scalloped design along one edge of a piece of .5" x 5.5" Chocolate cardstock.

Attach Chocolate cardstock strip, green patterned strip, and Moonstruck strip right over the top of the light blue striped patterned paper. Glue "snowflakes" from White Daisy cardstock (stamp and add more if desired). Assemble rest of card as shown.

Enjoy!

Lubna

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