Bravo

Here's a card I made for the music teacher at work. She's been with the school for 20 years!

This is the front of the card.

This is the inside of the card.

Supplies Used: (C1400) Encore stamp set, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2141) Pansy Purple stamp pad, (X5669) Textured Cardstock Autumn Harvest, (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Z1104) Clear Sparkles, (retired) Just Blooms Autumn Daisy, nestabilities

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Pink Owl Card

Whenever I look at my daughter's comforter, I think of stamping! I love all of the adorable nature images on it so I thought I would try to make a card inspired by these images. I normally don't work with these colors so it was a good challenge for me...and it took me a good long while!

Here's a picture of the comforter above.

And here's the card it inspired:

Supplies used: (C1323) Whooo Loves You stamp set, (C1362) You're a Hoot stamp set, (D1372) Grown With Love stamp set, (X7121B) Caboodle Level 2 paper pack, (Z2117) (Z2138) Crystal Blue stamp pad, Orange stamp pad, (Z2108) Brown Bag stamp pad, (Z2338) Orange marker, (X5745) Textured Paper Summer Celebration palette, (Z578) Corner rounder, hole puncher, nestabilities, black acid free pen

By the way, this is a 5" x 7" card. Most of the cards on my blog are standard size, 4.25" x 5.5" but I couldn't fit the tree on a smaller card!

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Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Well, I had my shaker card workshop yesterday and I had such a great time with the wonderful ladies who attended. It was the perfect cure for a somewhat strange week (lots of ups and downs). Anyway, I am so grateful to know such nice people and to be able to spend time with them. Thank you ladies! Time really does fly when you're having fun. This card has a slightly different take on that saying!

Supplies used: (B1309) Fun Times, (X5669) Textured Cardstock Autumn Harvest Palette, (X5643) Chocolate cardstock, (1273) Desert Sand cardstock, (1388) Colonial White cardstock, (X5639) Sweet Leaf cardstock, (Z2153) Sweet Leaf stamp pad, (Z2137) Olive stamp pad, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2108) Brown Bag stamp pad, (Z2111) Chocolate stamp pad,  (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Z1217) Brads Metal Assortment, (Z1151) 3-D Foam tape, Mini scallop scissors

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Shaker Cards

I have a Shaker Card workshop coming up so here are a couple of examples. Each frame around each image is popped up to allow room for the shaker ingredients so the scan of the image isn't quite as clear as I'd like but I hope you can get the idea.

Supplies Used: (X7122B) You Rock Level 2 paper pack, (D1244) Snow Friends stamp set, (D1407) Piece of Cake stamp set, (Z2330) Indian Corn Blue marker, (Z2317) Crystal Blue marker, (Z2338) Orange marker, (Z2350) Sunflower marker, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2130) Indian Corn Blue stamp pad, (Z1151) 3-D Foam tape, (4110) Memory protector, kosher salt, nestabilities

Supplies Used: (X5754) Creme Brulee cardstock, (1385) White Daisy cardstock, (X5670) Textured Cardstock Winter Cozy palette, (D1407) Piece of Cake stamp set, (Z2310) Buttercup marker, (Z2317) Crystal Blue marker, (Z2353) Sweet Leaf marker, (Z2350) Sunflower marker, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z1151) 3-D Foam tape, (Z578) Corner rounder, (4110) Memory protector, micro beads, nestabilitiesPin It

Overall Card

The following card was inspired by some amazing cards by Deneen Treble. You can find the template for these cute overall cards on Deneen's blog here along with her beautiful artwork. I used textured paper so the lighter blue is just the reverse side of the darker blue paper (Outdoor Denim). I sanded the dark blue to give it more of a denim look.

Supplies used: (X5669) Textured Cardstock Autumn Harvest Palette, (B1309) Fun Times stamp set, (Z2334) Moonstruck marker, (Z2316) Cranberry marker, (Z2137) Olive stamp pad, Outdoor Denim stamp pad, (Z697) Round sponge, (Retired) Pewter My Accents, White Sakura Gelly Roll Pen, Googly eyes, sandpaperPin It

Soccer Card with Textured Paper

This is a card I made a while back after getting my first pack of textured paper. I was happy to see how nice the paper was for stamping, despite the "bumpiness." All of the paper, except for the stamped soccer ball, is textured and you can really see how the texture shows up in the areas that I sanded. The lighter green is just the reverse of the darker green. The bottom of the front of the card is cut shorter in the front with a deckled edge scissors and shows off just a bit of the lighter side of the green card base which is on the inside of the card.

Supplies Used: (x5669) Textured Cardstock Autumn Harvest Palette, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2124) Grey Flannel stamp pad, (Z534) Micro-Tip Scissors, (Retired) Best Shot stamp set, sandpaper, deckled edge scissors, Coluzzle cutting systemPin It

Close To My Heart's February Campaign: Hearts for Haiti

For the month of February, all 12" x 12" Close To My Heart textured cardstock combo packs are buy one, get one free. Plus, with every textured cardstock pack, Close To My Heart will donate $2 to Operation Smile’s Haiti relief efforts. So for $14.95, you get two packs of textured cardstock which works out to be about 30 cents for each sheet. There are five combo packs available: Basic, Spring Harmony, Summer Celebration, Autumn Harvest, and Winter Cozy. Click here to go to the online shopping portion of my website and see the available textured paper packs.

Operation Smile is always a fantastic charitable partner—offering free facial reconstruction surgeries to needy children throughout the world. They are currently providing emergency relief in Haiti, and the donations given as part of Hearts for Haiti will be used exclusively for Operation Smile’s efforts there. To read about their work in Haiti, you can visit www.operationsmile.org/haiti.Pin It

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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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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