Tutorial, how I decorate my buttons.

Masculine Handmade birthday card for my Uncle

 My Uncle, Tim is an original cowboy.  He grew up with his father being President of the Saddle Club here in the small country town of Summerville.  If you're ever down here in North west Ga. make sure to ride thru there but don't blink or you might miss it. lol.  Speaking of his dad, my Granddad, I can remember my child hood was full of horses.  I was riding a horse by myself from the time I was able to sit up on it by myself seems like.  Granddad had me training at the Saddle club to barrel race around the age of 7 or 8.  It was around that time that I turned severely allergic to the horses and could not only no longer ride but I couldn't even stand to be near a saddle that had been on a horse.  Alto dreams were dashed of being able to ride the rodeo and I had to send back the horse I had been given to ride at my home and when ever they would bring the horses into the yard at Granny's house I would have to run and hide inside, I still have fond memories of the family spending time with horses and the Saddle Club.  I can still remember Granddad and Tim working to break in the new horses.  Can you believe my mom used to help break the horses too when she was growing up? Isn't that great!  How's that for empowering women?  You go Mom!

Tim is the youngest of all my aunts and uncles from that side of the family and he's only 13 years older than me so he and I kinda grew up together in a way being that I am the oldest grandchild.  I love him dearly and at one time I felt like he was kinda my big brother that I never had. So... like I started out saying, he is like the original cowboy to me and when I saw this designer paper by one of the Lost and Found collections from My Minds Eye, I thought it was perfect all on its on and that it didn't need a lot of extra embellishment. The sentiment was stamped from an Inkadinkado stamp set and the only other thing I did to this layered card was outline it with Martha Stewart glitter glues, kinda like stickles,  I know this is a simple one layered card but sometimes that's all that's called for when it comes to masculine cards especially. I hope you enjoyed today's card. and I will be back later with a video on how I decorate my buttons. Talk to you all again soon, hugs, amy k.

Feminine birthday card for my Aunt, Naomi

 I made this shabby chic card for my wonderful Aunt, Naomi.  She is my aunt by marriage but you would never know it.  She treats me like one of her own and I try and treat her the same.  I regret that I don't get down to see that part of my family more and I miss them all but they are always in my heart and prayers. 

To make this card I used designer paper from Prima called the Botanicals collections.  I used it for the base layer of my card front then used another sheet for a die cut that's layered in the back and you can't really see it from this picture, but I used a Spellbinders die for it. The little journaling card used for the sentiment is a cut apart from the designer paper.  I like to use the 6x6 paper pads for my card making so the cut aparts are also smaller and more scaled to fit the fronts of cards.  That's why I prefer that size paper pad for my cards, all the images that would be much too big for cards in the full 12x12 size paper pad is scaled down for the 6x6 pads and the images are thus smaller and a much better fit for cards.  The mulberry flower on the right is also from Prima. Remember they were known for their flowers long before they were known for their papers, which are gorgeous, and their embellishments which are equally gorgeous. For the floral image in the center I used a cricut cartridge called Botanicals as well, no connection to the paper pad.  To get that beautiful dark outline around the floral image I used my cricut markers to draw around the outline of the image before I cut it out.  It's been a long time sense I've gotten out my cricut markers and I was glad that I did because I just love the outcome for this card.  The red lace is vintage lace from my stash. I just love it too!

This is a shot of the inside of the card, I used another sheet of the designer paper for the base layer, then another sheet that was border punched I believe with a fiskars punch. The sentiment was stamped with a stamp set from Hot off the Press.  I'm not sure of the color I used in the ink pad but I know I used a colorbox fluid chalk ink pad.  I also used that stamp pad to distress around the edges of the papers.

That's all for this post, I hope you enjoyed it.  I'll be back tomorrow morning with another card.  I am beginning to get caught up in my blog posting but I also just finished another four cards that have to go out in the mail today so look for them in the upcoming weeks. Till then, I hope you all are blessed in your daily life. Hugs to you all, Amy k

Welcome baby "New Addition" card

 

Baby Phoebe Lou Parker was born on Aug, 12, 3013 to parents, Jennifer Kittle and Andrew Parker. We were all there for the birth and I can tell you the room was absolutely full of excitement and anticipation.  We were there at the hospital all day as we waited for them to induce her labor and finally sometime around midnight we all got to come in and see the baby.  She's so beautiful and absolutely perfect.  I would show you a picture but I haven't gotten permission from the parents and that's something I firmly believe in doing.  I do not show a child online at all without first getting the parents permission.  So I made this card to congratulate the parents, by the way, Jennifer is my sis in law, on their new bundle of joy. 

For the front of the card I used designer paper from My Minds Eye called "In Bloom" and I got the sentiment from the Graphically Speaking cartridge for the cricut. I also used a scalloped circle punch from Recollections and the smaller scalloped circle was part of the sentiment from the cartridge. The pink flower is from Prima and I colored it with my homemade color sprays, and I used two velvet finished flowers from imaginese and a brad from Memory Makers, The little elephant stamp is from Hero Arts and I also used Hero arts shadow ink to stamp it and the sentiment that went along with it. I used my Viva Decor pen to make the pearl drops across the bottom and I used my copic markers to do a little coloring on the elephant stamp.  The grey chevron paper is also from the collection.  I believe this was a  5x7 card and I used a 6x6 paper pad so the paper was a tad too short so I had to add that piece to make it long enough.  It turned out to be one of those happy accidents that I think made the card cuter. 

 This is a shot of the inside of the card.  As you can see I used a couple different washi tapes  to the bottom left, and another stamp from that same Hero Arts stamp set.  I also used my copic markers to color the image.  The color has been enhanced to be brighter so I didn't want you to think it really looked this bright. lol.  I used a yellow chevron paper from the collection to back the sentiment on the inside and I have several books which contain sentiments, poems and quotes for the inside of cards and I can use them as long as the card is not for sale.  no worries, I don''t sell any of my cards anymore they are all made for family and friends. So, I distressed around the edge of the sentiment with a couple of colors of distress ink from Ranger.  I used the Ali Edwards font for the main part of the sentiment after I had cut it down to size and then added it to the inside of the card.  I also distressed the edges of the yellow chevron paper with Gathered twigs distress ink.  Well, that's all for this card, hope you enjoyed it.  I'll be back soon with yet anothr card. lol.  Till then, great big Hugs, amy k

Happy Birthday card for Father inlaw

This is the card that I made for my Father inlaw, Dale this year for his birthday.  Sorry that this isn't the best picture but I was in a rush to get it into the mail (anyone who gets cards from me will tell you they are always late.lol) so I didn't have time to get out my big camera and set up a back drop so I just grabbed the camera on my phone and snapped a quick pic.  For the background I used a burgundy coordination's card stock and distressed the edges with my Prima distressing tool. I cut the designer paper just a bit smaller and then did the same thing to the edges.  I can't recall what brand of designer paper that I used tho. Sorry.  If someone really wants to know they can just email me or leave a comment letting me know and I will try my very best to find out for you.  The Polaroid frame with the arrow cut out is a die cut that I designed on my gypsy  handheld device using a couple of cricut cartridges.  I just used green patterned washi tape on a strip of white card stock and layered it behind the cut out of the arrow. For the #1 Dad die cut I used the Phrases cartridge for the cricut and used some of the same Coordination's paper on it.  I distressed all the edges with Gathered Twigs distress ink from Tim Holtz for Ranger. I think that is becoming my go to color for distress ink lately. lol.  I stamped the sentiment using a Close to my Heart stamp in onyx black versa fine ink.  Then, finally, I added the thin rick rack trim.  It's from my vintage stash so I have no man. for you.  Well, that's it for this post, hope you liked my card. Next time I will try and do better with the picture taking. hehe. I hope you all are having a great Columbus Day. And those of you with the day off are enjoying it.  I'll be back soon with another card as I am still behind on my post and have plenty to share. Talk to you all soon. Hugs, amy k

Happy Birthday card for an old friend

I made this birthday card for my long time friend, Sara.  She lives in another town and seems like she is always on the move so needless to say, we don't get to see one another very much, but we do talk on the phone and text pretty regularly.  

To make this card I first used one of the 5.5 x 5.5 inch corrugated card bases by Recollections.  I used the 6x6 pad of the Gabrielle collection by BoBunny for the designer paper.  I cut the paper down to fit the card base, then used some flourish stamps by Autumn Leaves and some Color Box chalk ink and stamped the flourishes around the page.  The chipboard piece at the top is by Close to my Heart and the sentiment stamped there is made by them as well to fit their chipboard shapes. I used the same chalk ink to stamp that. I also used that same chalk ink to highlight the white flowers(Prima).  I added a stick pin made by me behind a Spare Parts flower. The sentiment in the middle of the card was stamped on a piece of the paper collections journaling pages. I believe that stamp is also from Close to my Heart.  I distressed the edges of the designer paper with Gathered Twigs distress ink by Tim Holtz for Ranger.  I then added the mixed color lace to the bottom of the card and you can just see a bit of the washi tape I used peaking out from underneath.

 

This is a shot of the inside of the card.  I've just layered a couple of the designer papers and another journaling page along with another strip of that same pink washi tape from the front of the card.

That's it for this post, I hope you liked it and I'm choosing to go ahead and post it eventho I know Sara hasn't seen the card yet in person.  She's having issues with her mail.  (I told you she moves alot lol).  I hope she enjoys it too. I'll be back soon with another post as I am still behind on my post, so if you haven't seen your card here or on google+ or on face book, just know it's because I'm running behind and I will get it up as soon as possible.. Thank you for being patient with me. Much love to you all. Hope you have a wonderful Sunday. AmyK

A Handmade birthday card for our Nannie (Mrs.. Kinsey)

 

This is the card that I made for Nannie Kinsey.  She's actually my hubby's grandmother but she is so warm and welcomes all extended members of the family with open arms, so I honestly feel like she's my adopted grandmother.  I love her so much and I believe she turned 88 this year.  Such an amazing woman.  I love that she's still around for all the up and coming young ladies to learn from her.  She could definitely teach the younger generation (and I'm not speaking about members of her own family, they are great smart and beautiful young ladies) a thing or two about how to be a lady.  I've spend many a night with her in the past playing games into the night just talking and enjoying each others company.  I do love her so.

On to the card, for this card I tried something new, I got these digital papers from a lady I met thru You Tube, I can't remember her first name right at the moment but her shop is called Kittylicious11.blogspot.com..  Here's the link http://kittylicious11.blogspot.com/p/printable-kits.html. You are going to love her store, It's called Kittys scrap post.  She has some beautiful kits and I've recently bought at least four kits from her and a couple of single cut apart sheets of ephemera.  You are also going to love her prices.  She makes the files, usually, in two different sizes, one in a size just right for a mini album and the other may be either 8x8 or 81/2 x11 but you get your downloads just as soon as you place your order and pay thru pay pal. So there's no waiting for the mail to bring you anything, you have every thing you need right there in that one download.  I believe I paid $12 for this kit and it includes like 20 something printable sheets plus about 3 sheets, (I've not counted them) of just cutout ephemera and envelopes and tags. Everything that I've used here on this card was from that one digital kit that I got from her.  I did do a little additional  stamping on the front sheet but you can do that.  It's just like the store bought paper pads only you get to choose which pages you want to print and you can even open the image in a Word document and change the size there. and you can print it as many times as you need, so if there is just one page you really love you don't have to hoard it any longer cause you can print more. I really love the site and check it regularly to see what's new.  I think you should head over there once you get thru with this post and just see for yourself what she has to offer. You may find yourself happily surprised.

So I used two pieces of the designer paper to layer on the front of this card. I did some flourish stamping with my Colorbox chalk inks on the front of the pink layer.  The focal image in white was cut from the ephemera page along with all the butterflies. The image of the little girl is also from one of the ephemera pages and  I shrunk it down by telling my printer to print in 4x6 and to fit to page. I also used one of her tags from the set and it came with the butterfly on it already. But I fussy cut out the larger butterfly from an ephemera sheet. I then colored some seam binding with one of my shimmer sprays and tied it onto the top of the tag, other than that I just added some crochet trim from Recollections .   I also did a little distressing with distress ink from Tim Holtz.

For the inside I cut a darker blue piece of designer paper and layered the white on top to give a place to sign the card.  I added the sentiment with my computer and printer and fussy cut out that butterfly too. and added some washi tape to the bottom corner.  I also want to mention that the kit I used was called "Spring Collection" if you want to look for it in her shop. Hope you all enjoyed today's card, and I do hope you will check out Kitty's scrap post.  It's a wonderful way to get beautiful papers at a great price and her images are always right on trend and she gives great customer service. See you all tomorrow with another card. Till then, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Lots of hugs, amy k

Masculine handmade birthday card for Chris A.

 I know, I'm a little behind on my blog post.  This card was made for Christopher back in August. lol.  Sooo far behind.  Anyway, Chris is my hubby, Brian's first cousin, he's also engaged to my BFF, Wendy and we all like to hang out so he's more like my cousin too, you know?  So to make this card I started with designer paper from Recollections.  The hexagons are a Spellbinders die cut and the piece of designer paper at the bottom that looks like arrows is cut from the same collection.  I used my Lacy Labels cartridge for the Cricut to cut the label shape and all its layers. I then stamped the sentiment with Versa Fine ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  The only other thing I did was a little distressing using my distress inks from Tim Holtz, and layered it onto a kraft card base.

That's it for this card, hope you liked it. I'm keeping this post short and sweet:).  I'll be back soon with another card as I have many to post to catch up.  Hope you all are doing well and hope everyone is looking forward to Saturday, World card making day.  Hope to see some of your projects.  Talk to you all soon. Hugs and lots of Love, AmyK.

Thinking of You Card

 

Hello again, I'm back today with another card to share with you.  I made this card instead of a get well card when my dear great Aunt was diagnosed with several cancers in her body recently.  I didn't want to make a get well card thinking it would be maybe somehow insensitive to her situation.  We have sense learned that she luckily has only one cancer that's in her prostate.  She now stands a much better chance of recovering and I may yet make her another card this time a get well card.   We are all praying that she pulls thru this. 

Above you see the flower cluster with a pink Prima flower and a button from Tim Holtz, The music note flower was made using a Martha Stewart punch and the leaf punch is one of hers too.  The rose buds are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I layered it all on a piece of black lace.  I just cut it apart and used it like an applique.  I added a page pebble from the floral department and then I added a punched circle of patterned paper with glossy accents.  The tiny cameo is a button that I've removed the back from so it will lay flat.  I larger cameo with the rose in it is from Recollections.

 

 Here you can see the whole card.  I've used Prima's "Lyric" paper pad, I added the two vintage boots are also buttons with the backs removed.  The "Thinking Of  You" sentiment is from Hero Arts on a label die cut from the Cricut.  The lacy die cut at the top is also a Cricut cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge.  I also added a wood veneer bird that I copic colored and added to the bottom of the card.

 Here is a shot of the inside of the card.  I also used the cricut to cut out the label shape from the patterned paper and I distressed it with black soot distress ink.  I also die cut the small label shape from a Tim Holtz label die from Sizzix.  I distressed it with worn lipstick distress ink.  The sentiment is from the same Hero Arts stamp set.  I added a small flower bundle from Wild Orchid Crafts tied in the center with seam binding and a couple of punched flowers from Martha Stewart and a black bling center.

This is the envelope. The stamp at the top is from Autumn Leaves, the sentiment is from the same Hero  Arts stamp set and the dress form is a wood mount stamp from Stampabillities.  That's all for this card.  I hope you all enjoyed it.  I really had fun making this card.  It was a pure delight.  I'll be back tomorrow with another card.  The next one will be a masculine card so stay tuned for that.  I hope you all have a great weekend. Talk to you soon, Hugs, AmyK

Happy Birthday for my 3 year old Niece and God child

I made this little card for my beautiful little 3 year old niece and she's also my God baby.  She's such a delight. Both her and her big brother Dylan are.  We get so much joy out of spending time with them.  They really are great kids.  

So I wanted to make her a card this year that was more toward the big girl side because she's not so much a baby any more no matter how much we may want her to be. lol.   She's as cute as a button and such a little girly girl, always has been.  So I used pinks in her card and pink stickles (glitter glue) and purple.  I used the hexagons because they are so trendy right now and the sentiment shape comes from the Cricut, not sure which cartridge tho.  It's been sense August that I made this card. So I forget. lol. The paper is from Making Memories and its an older line called Cheeky Embellishment paper in the 8x8 pad.  I used the hexagon dies from Spellbinders to cut out the patterned paper.  The sentiment stamp is heat embossed in white and the stamp set is called Whimsical Words & Doodles from Hot off the Press.  The butterfly and bird and all the epoxy stickers are from Sticko by ek success.  I'm not sure where I got the make a wish stickers but they were some I had in my stash. I distressed the edges of all the patterned paper with Gathered twigs distress ink from Tim Holtz to tie in the brown from the Sentiment die cut.  I think she really liked it. It's so cute because some times she runs around with the card in her hand instead of the gift we give her.  lol.  Like I said, Cute as a button. 

That's all for now, I'll be back soon with another card to share with you soon, Till then keep crafting. Ttys, Hugs, amyk

Sara's Graduation card

When my long time bestie, Sara graduated from her online collage classes.  I am SO proud of her for getting a degree and this program will stay with her and help her find a job and I love that Idea.  I want so much for Sara to be able to work at a job she loves and one that will pay her what she's worth.

This is the front of the card that I made for her.  I've told you before that I don't really like to make traditional graduation cards full of cap and gown images.  So I made a card that I thought was pretty and added the "Great Job" sentiment and then went over it with Stickles glitter glue from Ranger.

For the designer paper, I used the Blush pad from My Minds Eye, For the sentiment I used a stamp set from Close to My Heart called "Casual Expressions" and it corresponds with a cricut cut for the Artiste cartridge. I used Hero Arts shadow inks in tide pool.  I distressed all the edges of the patterned paper with "Berrylicious" chalk ink from Clear Snap.  I used my Martha Stewart boarder punch for the scallops at the bottom of the card.  I used some blingy trim and then three layers of the antique lace that Wendy gave me that she got from her grandmother.

For the inside of the card I used a stamp set from TPC Studio called "Valedictorian".  I stamped the sentiment with black onyx Versa fine ink and the rest of the various stamps were stamped with various Hero Arts Shadow inks.

Well, that's all I got for now, I've got to run and try and get some house cleaning done.  Congratulations Sara, I'm so proud of you! I love you girl.  I hope the rest of you guys have a great weekend and I'll be back soon with another post soon. ttys Hugs. amy k

Birthday card for my Sis In Law, Mel

I am lucky enough to have two wonderful sisters in law  and Mel is one of them, I love them just like they are my real sisters and I consider Mel and Jennifer to also be good friends of mine.  Of course they both have children now and don't have so much time to hang out but we keep in touch regularly, I love both these women truly and love having them in my life,
Now on to the card, it's got a lot going on. The paper line is from Authentique, called "Essentials Collection".  I layered the designer papers onto a yellow back ground sheet of card stock.  I glimmer misted a doily and then used the heat gun to dry it. It gave great color and shine. In the upper left hand corner, I have the heart and wings, they are grunge board from Tim Holtz and I painted the wings with the pearl paint dauber also from Ranger, I believe I used a copic marker to color the heart red then topped it off with glossy accents, also by Ranger. It's layered on a fancy bracket and oval that's a McGill punch.  I punched them from the paper line. I believe the oval was punched from white card stock and then colored using vintage Photo Distress ink by Tim Holtz and Ranger. The Wish Big sentiment was stamped on manila card stock using Papertry Ink's "Big and Bold Wishes" stamp set and stamped with Versa Color ink in Raspberry. I also sprayed that piece with some glimmer spray in gold, To the left of that you see a mini Library pocket that was punched from the designer paper with a McGill punch and then I made a tiny tag to add inside using the cricut and using distress ink to color it. I used spun sugar to color the tag then worn lipstick to distress the edges and to stamp a birthday wish to her inside. The stamp on the outside of the pocket says, "so Fairy pretty" and that's a Prima stamp.The flowers were fussy cut from the designer paper and adhered with foam dots.  I added a piece of vintage lace to trim out the middle where the two paper lines meet. then added some vintage buttons that are threaded with some brown yarn.  I went around the edges of all the base layers of designer paper with gathered twigs distress ink from Ranger. whew! that was a lot! I hope I didn't leave anything out. If you see anything that you would like to know about that I didn't cover here then please feel free to leave me a comment and ask any question you would like. Make sure to leave an email addy so that I can respond to your question.  For the rest of you Please feel free to just leave me a comment and let me know what you think about today's card. I love to get feed back from you. till next time, Hugs, amyk

Graduation card for Judy Owens to give to Cody Hughes

 I 've known Cody just about as long as I've know Brian.  I watched him grow into a fine young man, not to mention that I went to school with his mom so It was a real honor when Judy said she needed a graduation card for him and if I would be interested in doing it.  Of course I was, why wouldn't I be.  I jumped at the chance to make the card for him.  I just hope he liked it, I tried to make it something that a young man would like but who knows what they like now days lol.  I knew he was graduation from Armuchee High and their school colors were blue and silver or white or maybe both.  I knew it was something like that.  I started off layering the background with a music sheet of designer paper and I edged it in brown distress ink and then added the white graph piece and edged it with blue distress ink.  The Polaroid frame was one I made on my gypsy handheld design device.  I added the arrow cut out and then backed it with black and white washi tape.  I used blue ink to stamp the "way to go" and the stars and then stamped the diploma scroll and cap and tassel and then fussy cut those stamps out and added them to the Polaroid frame. To finish it off i added a piece of navy Chinese braid across the bottom.

I added these stamps across the bottom of the envelope for a little added interest.  I'm enjoying decoration the envelopes more these days.  I think it just gives a hint of what's to come inside. I hope you enjoyed my card and envelope today and hope you will join me back here maybe later today or definitely tomorrow for more cards, as I am trying to catch them all up. lots of hugs, and love to you all have a wonderful day. hugs, amyk

A Baby Shower for my SIL Jennifer Kittle and her boyfriend, Andrew Parker

So My Mother in Law, Judy, who is also Jennifer's mother, she and I decided we were going to be giving the shower for the happy couple and Judy totally did all the food and I did the decorations.  The shower was June 22.2013 and yes I am Just Now getting around to getting these photos up, please forgive me.  I have been going thru some trials of my own for like the past 6 weeks or so and so the blog had to be put on hold but I think I'm back in full swing now and hope to have it caught up soon.  So without further adgue, here's the pictures of the invitations that I made first then I will show you pictures from the decorations around the fellowship hall at Fishers Chapel, all that I made and sent home with them to decorate the babies room with.

So here are some of the baby shower invitations:

 

On the invitations I basically used just K & Co. paper all from the same line even tho it's been out for a while.  It was really cute for a baby girl and some of it even had glitter. The your invited and welcome little one stamps are from a Close to my Heart set. I think I cut that label shape out with the cricut. Each card had ribbon and some of them were different as I didn't buy enough of just one style to do all the cards.  Each card also had a baby themed chipboard piece.  The Hey diddle diddle... stamp was from inkadinkado. I believe. oh, and each invitation also had either a white or a yellow bow on the ribbon. These are just two examples. I also used my butterfly punch from Recollections and added that to the top of the invited sentiment, The Hey diddle diddle... sentiment was punched out with my ek success punch.

 

this last picture is of a little stamp that I stamped on the outside of each envelope, all of which I had to hand make because the invitations were such an odd size. I just thought the baby girl in her little diaper was too cute not to include on the envelopes.  I just stamped the whole thing in pink ink to make it easier.

Now for some pictures of the shower decorations, sorry but I really didn't get good pictures of them till they were hung up for the shower, so some of them may look tiny on the large walls of that fellowship hall.

 These guys on the mini diaper cakes, I made on the cricut mostly using the create a critter cartridges. I used the mirrored image feature and made them to go on the back then run the dowel rod up between the two die cuts.  My cousin, Nicole, she rolled up the diaper cakes and Mama Judy had given me a couple of bunches of silk flowers so I bought the chevron, pink with white stripes ribbon and cut out a circle of white card stock to have something other than the diapers to glue to and then glued the ribbon and the flower arrangement on to that white circle.

 For allot of the die cuts I used a ton of glitter. both front and back.

I also made her a baby banner too but I usually give that at the shower with the babies name on it and they had not decided on the name at the time of the shower so I had to make it a little later and give to them at the hospital the the day of the birth.I was able to come up with some of the pictures of the banner and they look different because they were taken under different lighting and with my phone camera instead of my DSLR camera but I think you will get the pictures and be able to put it all together from the pictures. Its just a big picture of  the entire banner and then a close up of the first letter "P"  and a shot of the dangle that hangs from the first and last banner.

 This is the shot of the whole banner/ it says Phoebe.  I used the  new criut cartridge called "Pretty Pennants" I did the back ground in light lavender and the lat ice overlay in dark purple or plum and then I used a different kind of lace across the tops of each pennant . Then I used my dizzy dollies dies from MTF and memory box to create the layers for the alpha.   f0r each letter I used an ivory white layer from the larger die..And then did a smaller layer in green that matched back to the bedding that Judy and Frank had gotten them That's what I was trying to match the banner to, the bedding so that It would match the baby's room.. And the vintage lace that goes all the round the outside of each pennant was inherited from Wendy's grandmother Finster who has sense pasted and is no longer with us. I have to believe she's looking down from heaven on all the beautiful crafts we are making with her supplies and smiling down on us if she is pleased with our use of her supplies.  The whole banner is strung on a piece of purple silk ribbon and had tule tied bows on each end of the pennants.

I added these beaded and dangle chain bobbles to the first and last and one in the middle, I believe, and some smaller beaded dangles on all the other pennants. I thought they added just that girlie little flair that the banner needed.  I think Jennifer and Andrew seemed to like it and I hope baby Phoebe will too...

Remember that you can click on each picture to enlarge it so you can better see the details.  I hope you enjoyed my projects for today and maybe they will help you next time you have to throw a baby shower and need a few ideas. Lots of Hugs, amy k

Happy Anniversary card for my Brother and his wife, Mel

 

To make this card I started with a 51/2x51/2 square corrugated card base from Recollections.  I used designer paper pad in 6x6 from Prima called Nature Garden. I also used the Tim Holtz for Sizzix die, Hanging sign.  I don't own this die but I have a dear friend, Robin, who does and she so generously cut me out several of this die in chipboard along with a few other dies that I don't own.  She's so sweet to do that for me. I painted the hanging sign all over with white pearl paint from Ranger and once it was dry I used an Autumn Leaves stamp and some versa mark ink to stamp the image onto the sign and then I used Pearluster in Sapphire by stampendous to heat emboss it. I distressed the edges of my designer paper with a paper distresser and then I went along the edges with one of the purple distress inks.  To assemble the card I just layered my patterned papers and then glued down the hanging sign after I had added some jump rings to make it actually look like it was hanging. 

I added a flower cluster using different flowers from several different manufacturers including some from Micheal's and some from Hobby Lobby and even some from Wild Orchid Crafts.  The little bird brad on the sign is from Recollections and the metal hearts, I believe are from Making Memories. I forget because I've had them for so long and I don't keep them in the original packaging. lol. 

Well, That's it for this post, I hope you enjoyed my card share. I'll be back soon with some baby shower invitations and decorations. ttys, hugs, Amy k

Happy Birthday card for my Mother in law

I made this card for my wonderful Mother in law, Judy. She is such a kind and giving person.  She always has a kind word and is always willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in need. I really hope she likes this card.  I tried my hand at a couple of stamping techniques like masking and layering.  I started out with designer paper from Websters pages.  I liked the paper so much that I couldn't bear to cut it down to a regular card size to I kept it at 6 x 6 and just made the card base that size.  Sense it wouldn't fit into any of the standard size envelopes that I had on hand, I just used my cricut to cut an envelope big enough for the card.  Easy peasy. I also used the cricut for the focal piece.  I used the Artiste cartridge from Close to My Heart.  For the flowers on the focal piece I used a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and various inks from Hero arts and Color Box chalk inks. The sentiment stamp is also from Close To My Heart.  For the butterfly images on the designer paper I used a butterfly stamp set from Martha Stewart and for the smaller image I used a stamp set from Hot off the Press.   I used some of my treasured vintage lace for the dark purple on bottom and then layered a bloomer like trim on top of that in a lighter purple.

That's it for my card today, thank you for stopping by to take a look.  I will try and come back tomorrow with another card but I have alot on my calendar so we'll see. Hope you have a great afternoon. ttys, hugs, amyk

Two Father's Day cards for you all today

This first Father's Day card is for my Mother in law's husband, Frank.  Or as he's known to all of us, Papa Frank.  We love him just like he's always been in our lives.  I can't think of any one of us who at any time, ever treated him like he was a new comer or an outsider, because that's just not how we have ever thought of him.  He's been Papa Frank all along and he's always been good to Judy, my MIL, and to all us kids and he especially adores all the grand children.  He's a wonderful man and I'm so glad Judy found him.  He's good for her and she's good for him.  I think they will never split.  I hope they never do. 

To make this card I just cut my card base to 81/2 x5.5 and that makes a folded card of 4.25 x 5.5. I did the base layer in black card stock and then used designer papers from the Teresa Collins "World Traveler" 6 x6 pad. I layered a map pattern on the top portion of the card then another layer of black with cream card stock layered on top of that.  I stamped the sentiment on that layer with Versa Mark embossing ink and then heat embossed it using "Red Dragon" opaque powder by Stampendous,  It's a really cool embossing powder in this awesome red that also contains some glitter too,  So when you heat set it you get the red and the glitter (that wont rub off) and it has all these other colors in it like orange and different hues of red that make it really look like you are looking at fire.  So cool. I had that glitter everywhere! It was totally worth it tho.  I used a bunch of the designer papers to make the fish tail flag shapes at different widths and lengths. I really was going for a layered effect here.  Once I had all the flags in place I glued the sentiment block on top to secure them in place.  Then I took the handle of a paint brush and curled the tails up to give the card some dimension

This second card was made for Brian's Dad, Dale.  We love him dearly too despite the fact that he now lives so far away.  We always look forward to seeing him and all of us getting together when he comes into town.  I know that Dale works allot. He's a Turban engineer with a very big Power Plant.  He works a lot of over time and he's really great because no matter how hard he is having to work, if Brian calls him, he may have to call back at a less hectic moment but he always does call back and he doesn't just make short calls to Brian, No, when they get on the phone they talk for hours. (it seams that way anyway)  I know they love to catch up and now that Brian is a Journeyman wielder/Pipe fitter. and he works a lot out at the power plants in our area so they now have that in common and they love to talk shop.  I think it's just great that  they have that in common and it gives them stuff to talk about. Brian values the  advice that Dale gives him and he loves the opportunity to talk things over with Dale and get his opinion on what he thinks would be good ideas for Brian to follow and Brian does look up to his father, no matter how old Brian gets, and his dad does impart some great wisdom on Brian.  And Brian looks up to him for that wisdom and guidance.  I'm so glad that Brian still has both his parents in his life, I think it's good for him.  I do love Dale too.  He's always been kind to me and shows interest in my scrap booking and card making. He always asks what I've been working on when ever he comes into town and we get together. It's nice to have people who show interest in what I do and give me complements on what they have seen off projects that I've completed.  I don't think he reads my blog or anything but he has seen allot of my work..  Frank and Judy have always both shown great interest in my work too and they keep all the cards I've ever made them., so they say anyway. and I've got no reason to doubt them. lol. I'm surrounded by lot of wonderful people who love my work and they love getting hand made projects by me, including cards and mini albums and they all promise that they keep every card I've ever given them. I love all of the support and inspiration that I get from all these wonderful people.

ON with the card.  I used the same designer paper for this card as I did for the first one and just added a few different twist.  I used a piece of Bazzill basics patterned paper from the antiques line for the ledger sheet in the back ground.  Like the first card I used black for the base layer.  Them I took several sheets of the designer paper and cut it out with one of my Spellbinders Hexagons dies.  I edged everything in black soot distress ink and the sentiment shape was cut from red card stock using the Sweet hearts cricut cartridge and I stamped it using Versa Color on onxy black with a Close to My Heart stamp.  To finish off the card I added a few bling in several places,  I also added a couple strips of washi tape behind the hexagon die cuts and I cut the washi tape into fish tail banner shapes on the end,.  Well, that was a long post.  I'm going to go for now, If you hung around till the end , thank you for sticking with me.  Most of the cards I make these days are just for my friends and family  and just loved ones in general for their birthdays and anniversary's and I can't show you the cards I made for these special people without telling you a little about the recipient, the people I love so much.  Thanks for stopping by today I hope you will come back tomorrow and I hope to have a new post for you then. ttyl, hugs, amy k

Summer themed Junk Journal swap and a card share

Here's a video showing the Summer themed Junk Journal Swap that I was in this month hosted by kayluvs2scrap on You tube.  I hope you enjoy the video.  This was my first time making a "Junk Journal" and I didn't even know what the term really meant till I signed up for the swap. lol.  I really enjoyed making the journal and I guess they call it Junk Journal because anything goes as for what you can put in it.  Lots of fun. Now I have to make one for my BFF, Wendy after she saw this one.  I hope to get that done soon and I will, of course, share that with you once I get it completed. That's all for now, talk to you again tomorrow. Hugs, amyk

Wedding Card for Tony and Heather

 Tony has been a good friend of my husband and I for several years now.  This past Saturday he married the love of his life, Heather.  I have never seen Tony so happy as he is now that she's in his life.  Brian and I regretted that we couldn't make the trip up to Tenn. to see them married but I did things just didn't work out to allow us to go.  This is the card that I made them to celebrate their special day.  I used a pearlized designer paper from DCWV called the Luxury stack.  I took pictures with and without the flash to help you get a better idea of how the paper looked.  I know the picture without the flash didn't turn out too good but it's hard to take pictures in low light and have them turn out clear.  I thought you could better see the design in the paper tho so I included it in this post.  I also used some purple metallic paper that I used on the left side punched out with my Martha Stewart punch and then one the right side where I used the ek success boarder punch on the top and bottom sides.  I stamped the sentiment and then heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I placed a white dolly in the back and a hand made flower that included a feather and some pearl spray.  I added the black and clear bling from Recollections.

I hope you can see the card clear enough in this picture. I apologize for the blurry ness.  I hope Tony and Heather like their card and I wish them all the happiness in the world on their new life together.  They really seem to be happy together.  

Ok, that's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow to show you my recent Junk Journal swap in a video.  Till then, I hope you all have a wonderful night. ttys, hugs, amyk

Masculine Birthday Card

I made this card for my awesome Father In-law, Frank.  He's my husband's step father but you would never know it.  He's just Pop to all of us and we love him dearly, the whole family.  He seems to really appreciate the craft that I do and always tells me how much he enjoys my cards, him and my Mother in-law, Judy.  I just love it because it gives me such a big head, you know?  To get all that praise. I'm just kidding, but they do make me feel good about the projects I've created for them.

On that note, I always try to put just a little more craftyness into their cards.  For this card I used a Tim Holtz technique, one from his book, where you take white card stock and heat emboss it with clear ink, then you color the card stock with whatever distress ink you like and use some water to really get the ink moving around the paper.  I used watercolor paper for this card, it helps with the warping from all the water.  Then you heat set and dry your inks and then lastly, you take an iron (one just for crafts) and a sheet of newsprint paper or I just used copy paper and it worked fine, and you place the paper over the image and use the hot iron to "remove" the embossing powder.  What happens is when you heat up the image that has been heat embossed the embossing powder will transfer to the copy paper and it leaves the white card stock behind, no more shine from embossing powder and the whole reason for using embossing powder is because it preserves the color of card stock underneath and resist the distress ink. once you are done adding all that distress ink and water and then drying it all you have to do is use a dry towel or baby wipe to wipe away any stray ink.  It's really cool and I really should use the technique more than I do.  I always like the results.  I didn't use any designer paper on this card just stamps and inks.  The background is faux letterpress.  You just take any embossing folder, (I used one from the Paper Studio) and ink up one side using dye based ink and a brayer, then CAREFULLY place your paper inside the folder trying not to move it any once you've closed the folder or the ink will smear. Then run it thru your cutting or embossing machine like usual and when it comes out the ink has transferred to the debossed areas of your paper.  It's totally cool too.  Then to finish off the card I stamped the sentiment and star from a Hero Arts stamp set in black and yellow for the star and cut it into a banner shape.  I let it hang off the right side of the card a little so I had to use an envelope that was slightly larger or you could just cut a little off one side of your card if you were going to do this. That's it for today.  I really hope Frank enjoys this card.  I certainly had fun creating it.  As my friend, Robin says, "You know you've done a good job when you don't want to let your project go".  Sometimes I find I just like a card so much I want to keep it myself. lol.  When I create a card using all these cool techniques I've learned I usually just sit back and think to myself, "I really made this!" It's like I can't believe I made it. lol.  I hope you all have a really great day and I'll see you back here again tomorrow with a wedding card. ttys, Hugs, amyk

Get Well Card for Maddy Justice

  One morning while reading my blogs I came across a post about a young lady whose story just touched my heart.  I regret to say that I do not recall the blog which contained that original post so I can not refer you back to it.  I just jotted down her name and information that day.  The blog post was about this young lady named Maddy Justice. She is battling Acute Myeloid Leukemia at St. Jude's Children's hospital.  At the time of that blog post Maddy was waiting to receive stem cell from her father.  That post was encouraging people to make and send Maddy cards and they include her address and a web site where you can check on Maddy's progress and leave personal messages for her.  I was moved by her story because she is such a brave young lady.  I believe she's 13 and she's been battling this horrible disease for a long time now.  This will be the second time that she's received stem cells from members of her family and she's so positive in her attitude.  She doesn't want anyone to worry about her.  She says things like, "it doesn't hurt that bad" and constantly assures her mother that she's feeling OK. No matter what the hospital has to do or procedures that she has to undergo she never complains and just remains a strong little solder.  I wanted to send her a card and a positive message to encourage her so I made her this card.  If you would like to send Maddy a card you may send it her at:

 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Maddy Justice - Patient
262 Danny Thomas Place
Memphis, Tn 38105

If you would like to check on Maddy's progress daily you can log on to caringbridge.org/maddyjustice and see her daily journal and you can leave her a positive message and send her some encouraging words. I think she's a pretty amazing little girl.

Masculine Birthday Card

Good Morning All, Hope your day is off to a great start. Yesterday I got up feeling like I was coming down with something and as the day wore on I just felt worse and worse.  I was hopeful that a good night's sleep would leave me feeling better in the morning and I did wake up this morning feeling almost normal but now that I've been up for an hour an had breakfast and a little time to get woke up, I can tell that whatever it is it's still with me. I just feel like I have the flu all over my body and I haven't found any medicine to help it yet. Maybe today wont be as bad as yesterday was anyway.  I've got to drive out of town today and will be on the road and in traffic for the larger part of the morning.  I hate to drive knowing I'm feeling under the weather. I don't even think it's flu season, is it? Plus I've had my flu shot. I don't know what's going on but I hope it passes soon.

On with the card for today.  How about I show you something crafty and stop whining  OK. So Here's my card.

 

I made this fun card for a great Uncle of mine, goes by the name of Harvey.  In the early stages, this didn't look like a card at all.  I took a small piece of white watercolor paper and first added some distress inks with the ink blending tool, in shabby shutters and broken china. Then I got out my Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Amethyst and Mint Green and sprayed that in different areas of the water color paper. Now, mind you, at this point I was just having some creative play time and didn't have anything in particular in mind that I wanted my finished product to be.  So, I continued to play.  I used my heat tool to dry the Color Shine.  Then I looked at what I had created and decided that I didn't really like it yet.  I knew the distress inks would activate and move around if I sprayed it with water and I kinda thought I would be playing with water and that's why I used the water color paper.  I didn't know what the color shine would do, if anything, with water so I thought I would try it and find out.  Boy, was I surprised!  You can see how much movement I got out of the Amethyst color and this was me spraying it with water AFTER I had dried it.  It came right back to life and all that beautiful color moved all around the page. I just let it go where it wanted to go and moved and tilted my paper to keep them moving .  I didn't have to use a ton of water either.  It was totally meant to be. lol.  I used a towel to blot up some of the bigger droplets of water and then used the heat tool again and just let it blow the color all around as it dried.  It was like the color shine moved on top of the paper and distress ink.  When you wet an area of distress ink. It reacts with water but it also kinda melts into the paper at the same time. Not the color shine, it just moved around the top of everything.  That's how I got that wonderful swirlish pattern.  When it was dry, I absolutely loved the look it gave.  All that shimmer was still there and you have this wonderful water color effect that you normally don't get from a spray.   I still had a Masculine card that I needed to make so I thought I would pair these colors with black to ground it some.  I used the old car stamp from Prima and I tried for the first time some of my new embossing powder from Recollections called "Aged Black". I had no idea what "Aged" meant or how it would look but it sounded distressed so I embossed the car with it.  When I started to heat it up to melt it alot of the bigger chunks of black in the embossing powder kinda blew all around the page or away all together.  So I was thinking, "Okay, this must be like distress embossing powder from Ranger,. or something similar" But under the black I could also see a finer powder of gold and even finer powder of silver, but the black was really chunky.  I thought before I was done with it it would look awful. Recollections usually makes pretty good products even tho they are the "House Brand" at Micheal's so I didn't know what to expect.  When I was done melting all of it I was very pleasantly surprised.   Well, You can see the final result.  It looks SO COOL! I added a couple more stamps from a Close to My Heart stamp set called, "It's your Day",  for the sentiments in Versa Fine black. Then added a few sequins and bling to match on top. I mounted it on black card stock and then again on a sheet of this metallic green paper I found in my stash.  I thought one of our vintage bags would look great on this card so I cut one up and added strips to the top and bottom before I added the watercolor paper with its layers. The "Happy Birthday" stamp is another from Close to My Heart called, "Casual Expressions" and this stamp set also coordinates with the Circut Artiste cartridge.  So I used it to cut out the oval. Then I wanted to heat emboss the sentiment and I didn't have the right color in green that I wanted to use and I wanted to pull in some of the other colors from the focal piece to tie it all together and not just focus on that purple.  So I took my Pearl Ex in a green I thought would match and mixed a little bit in a small container (that I could put a lid on afterwards) and a little bit of Ultra fine clear embossing powder and mixed them all together and ta da, you have your own, custom made embossing powder! Isn't that great!  I love it.  One thing to note, if you try this technique out, is that when you sprinkle the new embossing mixture on your card stock, the mica powder in the Pearl ex will stick all over your paper.  Not to worry, just flick off as much as you can and all the heaver embossing powder will fall off and just leave the mica powder left behind.  Go ahead and heat emboss like usual and once it's cooled off take a fluffy brush and just dust the mica powder away. Oh, and make sure you use an embossing buddy or powder tool prior to stamping your embossing ink. That way you are sure not to have any stray embossing powder stuck to your project.  Well, I hope you liked today's card. I know it was a long post and I hope you stayed till the end.  I promise one day I will do some process pictures to show you how to do these techniques I keep telling you about lol. Well, I'm off to see the Doctor who lives so far away it may as well be the land of Oz, lol,. I hope you all have a wonderful day and I'll see you back here again tomorrow with another Masculine card.  Till then, Hugs,

Graduation card

 I made this card for my good friend, Cassidy.  She is my best friend, Wendy's daughter and she just graduated from High school with honors.  We are all so very proud of Cass. I know she worked hard for it and now she has plans to take the summer off from school and then go on to college full force in the fall. I missed her graduation because there was a mishap with my invitation and I didn't know anything about it till very last minute and I will always hate that but I didn't want her to feel like I wasn't thinking of her so I made her this card to acknowledge her accomplishments and to let her know how proud of her that we are.

I made this card using a 6x6 pad of designer paper from My Minds Eye called "Dolled up". I used several of the papers just layering them on for a shabby chic feel. This is the style of creating cards that I enjoy the most. I die cut the frame from a Spellbinders die set using the designer paper and then I embossed it with the die and stenciled the blue in with distress ink in broken china. For the rosette and ribbon I used a Close to My Heart bundle of the cricut Artiste cartridge and the Kudos stamp set. This bundle is really cool because the stamps have coordinating die cuts that are found on that Cricut cartridge. The stamp set even tells you what size to make your die cuts and then you can stamp the image on the cut outs and they fit perfectly. I used a Recollections 51/2x51/2" corrugated card base from Michael's. After adhering all the designer papers to the card base I went around the out side distressing with white paint from Ranger.

This is a peak into the inside of the card.  You know, I used to never decorate the inside of my cards.  I would just add the sentiment, usually matted on a coordinating color of card stock but then I decided the inside was just an extension of the front of the card and more real estate to decorate. Why not? I think the cards look much better this way and much more finished. I just added more of the designer paper.  I cut the edges of the background piece cleanly but tore and distressed the pink patterned paper on top for interest.  I believe that label shape is also from the Artiste cartridge.  I used some pink pigment ink by Martha Stewart for the edges and added my sentiment verse with my printer.  It's so easy to print on these die cut shapes. All you have to do is create your sentiment in Word and print it out on regular copy paper. Then take your die cut or what ever you want to print your final sentiment on and add removable adhesive to the back, now use a lamp to back light your copy paper and use it to line up where you want the sentiment to print on your die cut and stick it down.  Now, put the copy paper right back in the printer just the exact way it was when you printed on it the first time.  Now hit Print and watch the magic happen.  If you don't touch any of your computer settings and you make sure to put the paper back just the way it printed the first time, then your printer will duplicate the print now on your die cut.  Pretty awesome, huh?  I learned that trick along time ago when I first started scrapbooking and I still use it today. you can even use that technique to print on ribbon.  That's right, actual ribbon.  I would go for a lighter color of ribbon, of course.

Well, that's all I've got for today. Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with another card for you. Till then I hope you have a wonderful night. Hugs to you all and thanks for stopping by. Amyk

Happy Anniversary to Judy and Frank

 

I made this card for my Mother in law, Judy and her husband Frank for their 7th wedding anniversary.  I truely believe those two were meant for each other.  They are so good together.  I love them both dearly and that's why I wanted to make them this card,. I wanted it to be extra special to them.

I used designer paper from Die cuts With A View, it's an older line but I still like it and they didn't seem to mind. lol..I die cut the heart shape on the cricut mini machine using GCD'S Paris Nights paper line. I like that paper because it's flocked. I die cut the flourish from black card stock using a Cherry Lynn Design's die and the sentiment die cut is from Sizzix and I colored it with some color shine and stamped it with a sentiment from Autumn Leave. The vellum piece is from the paper line and I addheared it by using my sewing machine to a piece of red that is also from the paper line. I had to glue the bling on one by one but it wasn't too much work and I think it paid off in the end.  The card base is a 5.5 x 5.5'' corrugated card base from Recollections.  Well, that's all from me for today, I've got to get busy working on some things for a wedding and then I will have to get busy working on a baby shower for my SIL. Lots to do, I love it! I'll keep you posted.