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