A Birthday card for my Mom

I wanted to make a pretty card for my beautiful Mother for her birthday.  She's such a wonderful lady who does so much for so many people around her.  I just wanted to let her know just how special she is to me and I do that best thru my craft. So here's the card.
For the card base I used a 5x7 pre-made card from K & co, for the background I used designer paper from Websters pages from the "life's portrait" line.  I used my Martha Stewart lace (I don't know what it's called) punch for the boarder strip and the distress inks I've used for this card are scattered straw and vintage photo.  I used that on the boarder punch piece and sentiment label and vintage photo all around the patterned paper and the card base.  I was really trying to highlight the yellow color from the patterned paper.  The flowers at the top left are layered primas and I've used glimmer mist on them to get that color.  I think they turned out pretty cool. the brown flower is from Wild orchid crafts and the yellow ones are from an unknown source.  I used some of my vintage buttons for this card.  The sentiment label die cut is from the Sentimentals cricut cartridge and I made it with my gypsy.  I used a stamp from Hot off the Press and archival ink in black.  Hope you enjoy this card and don't forget to leave a comment, I love hearing from you guys.

another birthday card=> this one for the father inlaw

This is what I've been working on today.  I totaly missed my father in-law's birthday back on the 11th of September and I was playing catch up today.  I wanted to get it in the mail by Monday.  I don't want it to be any later than it already is.  That's the problem with making each card esecially for each individaual, sometimes its hard to keep up.  Sometimes the birthdays come too fast and its hard to keep up and I guess I just haven't been able to get ahead with my card making this year.  I promise to do beter and try to be on time with the cards for next year's birthdays and anniversaries.

I made this card using the Kraft stack by My Minds Eye, and the Lost and Found stack from Tim Holtz,  I wanted to make the flower match the ribbon so I used my glimmer mist by Tattered angels in sapphire and sunflower.  I used a button for the center that I attached to a brad.  I cut the label out using Lacy Labels cartridge for the cricut and the stamps are from Inkadinkado.  I used burnt sienna chalk ink from Clear Snap for the sentiment and I distressed it with antique linen all over and used brushed corduroy distress inks from Ranger for the edges of the label, then I sprayed the whole top piece of the label with glimmer mist in wheatfields.  I used walnut stain distress ink for all other pieces of the back ground. I distressed the edges of the dark red back ground piece using my dremel tool, it works pretty good. lol.  I have to also mention that this is not a regular sized card.  This one measures 81/4 x 5 inches.  I wanted to make a bigger card sense I was so late with it. lol.  Sorry Dale.  I didn't mean to be so late with it. lol.  Hope you enjoy this card. please remember that if you have any questions or would like to see me do a technique to just leave me a comment or you can email me, it's posted here on the blog.  Happy scrappin', ya'll

Tags for the September tag swap

This is my tag for the September tag swap hosted by Carlene, (pinkscrapper99 on YouTube).  The theme for this month's swap was "music to my ears" and the optional challenge was to use black and white only.  I must say it was a real challenge to only use black and white and no color.  I think they turned out pretty well tho.  I hope the ladies who receive my tags in the swap enjoy them.  That is all that really matters to me.  The ladies who I have been swapping with are such a talented group and do beautiful work. 

To make this tag I first used a crackle medium on the back ground with white paint. I then used tuxedo black ink from Memento to color a sizzix die cut that I then stamped with a sheet music stamp from Stampabilities with versa mark ink and heat embossed in white embossing powder from stampendous.  For sentiment piece I first sprayed a piece of white card stock with silver glimmer mist and then stamped the sentiment with a stamp from Inkadinkado and heat embossed it with Hematite embossing powder from stampendous.  I attached it with dimensional foam tape. The stamp of the lady's face is from Hampton art stamped in tuxedo black ink.  For the flower centers I punched a piece of sheet music paper with a circle punch then used glossy accents to glue it to the back of the glass pebbles.  The black velvet flower is from Bazzill basics and I layered it with a white silk flower, source unknown. The beaded charms are made by me.  I just set an eyelet in the sentiment piece and attached the charms with a jump ring.  I added some black bling pieces to the top right and that's about all for this tag.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Don't forget to leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have you done something crafty today?

Birthday card for Sara - 2010

I made this card for my dear friend, Sara.  She is my oldest friend.  She and I met years ago when I lived in Calhoun, Ga and we have kept in touch all these years.  I was late with her birthday card, just like I have been with just about all my cards this year, but I hope she still enjoys it. 

I made this card using the Life's Journey paper from K and co.  It's one of my favorite all time paper lines.  I used the Cindy Loo cartridge for the Cricut to cut out the frame and the green vines.  I used bazzill card stock for the brown base, and the sentiment stamp is from Hampton Art.  I stamped it with Versa mark and then covered it with Pearl Ex in supper russet.  One thing  you should remember when working with Pearl Ex is that it doesn't have a binder in it.  One of the ways I solve this problem is to simply spray my project with a coat of hair spray.  That's what I've done here and you cant notice it on your project, not other than it smelling nice=>  The flowers on the top right are prima's in white that I've glimmer misted with Burnt Red and Sunflower.  I attached a pearl button to the center. I also added one of the stick pins I've been embellishing with beads lately to the flower.  The flower on the bottom left is from Recollections.  I used pearl paint for the little pearl drops along the frame corner and the vine is finished off with some self adhesive half pearls, no source, the pearl swirl up in the left corner is some Prima bling. I also distressed the edges of the paper and used some walnut stain distress ink from Tim Holtz and Ranger.  I was really happy with this card once I was finished with it.  I hope Sara enjoys it and that you do too.  Thanks for stopping by. Now go do something crafty today=>

Vintage Birthday card for Dad, AKA- Pops

This is the card I came up with for my Dad's birthday this year.  I love the way it turned out.  I know that some people have a plan when they start out to create something like a card or a layout, but not me.  I usually start a project with a product that I want to use and I just build on it.  I have no idea what the finished product will look like when I begin so when it's finished its as much of a surprise to me how it looks as it is to anyone. lol. I am really happy with this card.  I just love the way it looks.  I started out with a card shape from the Sentimental cricut cartridge.  I cut it out then I used one of the vintage bags that my friend, Robin sent to me for the background layer.  I just put it into the cricut as well and cut the card shape out again and then cut it in two.  I put the front layer on the card base then I used some heavy fabric for the next layer.  I frayed the edges by pulling the strings till it looked the way I liked. The sentiment is a Close to my heart stamp and heat embossed with gold embossing powder, the shape is a cricut cut from the Home Accents cart.  I used some ribbon and some lace from my stash and the clock face and spinner is from Tim Holtz.  Finally, I used the little flowers that I've been making,  Two mini rosettes in black and the red one that has been glimmer misted in candy apple red and the leaves are a Martha Stewart punch.  That's all for the card. 

This is the envelope front for that card.  I use a lot of the Tim Holtz stamps from the Life's Possibilities set from Stampers Anonymous.  I used chalk ink from Clear snap in dark brown and and warm red and the ruler is a photocopy of a vintage paper ruler I had.  I also used distress inks in various colors for the background.  That's about it I think,  I sure hope you enjoy this card.  I am just venturing into the world of shabby chic design and I am really loving it.  I made clean and cute cards for so long that sometimes its a challenge to just be messy and go with the flow but I am really loving the results.  I hope it inspires you too.  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my card.=> Have a great day!!!

A Best Friend Birthday Card

I made this card for, you guessed it, my best friend, Wendy Brown.  I wanted to come up with a card that had lots of texture on it.  I started off with the brown paper that is very textured by a company called Canson.  It's something I found at my local Micheals a while back.   I think its especially made for card making, but I don't know. lol.  I then used my sizzix texture boutique and a cuttle bug texture plate in  textile to emboss white card stock that I ripped down the right hand side and sprayed with peach delight glimmer mist and then rubbed the top of the texture with walnut stain distress ink from Tim Holtz.  I made the flower out of book pages that was cut out of the tattered florals die from sizzix and Tim Holtz and covered with the gold shimmer modge podge and layered together and an antique button, one of my very favorites in fact, was used for the center.  I used green hand made paper for the back ground on the right hand side and the brown strip at the bottom is a border sticker from Anna Griffin's Flora collection.  The sentiment is a stamp set from inkadinkado and it is heat embossed with Zing metallic finish embossing powder in copper.  I also used it along the sides of the sentiment piece.  I'm really happy with the way this card turned out and I was so happy to put the work into it, like I am with all the cards I do now days.    Im not making cards to sell anymore and so I only make them for the people I love now.  Im happier that way;)  It brings me joy to know that the people I give them to actually have come to look forward to getting on of my cards on their birthdays, anniversaries, or other special occasions.  I love to hear how much they look forward to them coming in the mail, even tho they are mostly late getting to them, and how they enjoy them and never throw them away.  I would never be mad at anyone of them for throwing one of my cards away.  I know how those kinds of things can accumulate.  Wendy does have special instructions, however,  to give that button back to me should she ever decide to discard of that card. lol  Hope you enjoy!! Hugs. amy k