Sweet Pea Baby!

Marie Shaughnessy originally posted this card on stampinconnection.com.  I loved it just the way she made it, so it really is a direct Case!  There's ALOT of detail here, but oh so much fun and such a cute result:

and the inside:

I embossed, punched, sponged and stamped to my heart's content!  I put in to play the Orchid Opulence and Lovely Lilac with Old Olive and Always Artichoke for anything green.  Blush Blossom was used for the baby face.  Stamps used are the flourish from Baroque Motifs, outside sentiments are from Tiny Tags and the flowers were stamped with Itty Bitty Bits.  The punch is from the Itty Bitty Bits punch set, along with the word window and medium oval punches.  3/4" and 1/2" punches were used for the peas and face, and the leaves were trimmed down from the two-step bird punch.  The flourish was clear embossed and the butterflies are all from the butterfly embosslit.  A white gel pen (Stampin' Up! really does sell the best one I've ever found) was used for all the highlights.  So cute!  Thanks for looking!

Brayered Father's Day

Oops!  I forgot to post this one before Father's Day!  Ah well, thought you might like to check it out, and then case this card to a masculine birthday, get well or sympathy card:

I know, forgive me - it's not 100% Stampin' Up products... however there are many sentiments that fit the curly label punch perfectly!  So here's he details:  I used an Early Espresso base card, with a Marina Mist mat.  I used very vanilla, and brayered Crumb Cake and then a little Early Espresso, being careful to not cover all of the Crumb Cake.  I turned the card around, and brayered Bashful Blue with Marina Mist on top.  I used my grass stamp from Inspired By Nature and used Old Olive to stamp it at a slight angle.  I used my ever handy slot punch (love that thing) to make the cattails.  The little birds are optional and could be substituted with the solid small butterfly in the Charming set (which I currently do not have.)  Here's the inside of the card:

The left side is stamped directly on to Marina Mist, using the same techniques as the front of the card, except for brayering the blue inks.  I used Crumb Cake for a computer generated sentiment, compliments of a quote from Bill Cosby.  Hope you can take this Father's Day card and turn it into something you can use for Birthdays, Sympathy, Get Well, or well, anything!

Masculine Birthday, Medallion Style!

My friend invited me to participate in a card swap. 20 masculine cards, 20 feminine cards, and each participant gets one of each. Sounds easy and fun to me!

These are my masculine cards. The top left corner is stamped in old olive and NOT heat embossed. The other three are heat embossed with versamark only. I played with the old olive design paper pack, and stamped across both vertical and horizontal lines, just to see what I liked better. I think I like the upper right better. Which do you prefer? 

The ribbon, I believe, is Garden Green or Mellow Moss.  I wanted to go all monochrome, but couldn't find my Old Olive ribbon, lol!  The Vintage Labels were also heat embossed with versamark and old olive, and then punched out with the large scallop punched and popped up with dimensionals.  The card front was attached to textured whisper white cardstock, and sponged with Close to Cocoa around the edges. 

This is the last of my week of masculine cards!  Coming up are some feminine graduation cards, simple 3 x 3 thank you notes inspired by Dawn Griffith, and the set of feminine cards for the above referenced card swap.

Happy Stamping!

Hello, Stampers and Crafters!

I just got back from teaching a spin class and want to get today's card posted before I volunteer at Utah's Bikes for Kids cycling event.  We give away 1,000 bikes to 1,000 underpriviliged children.  It always proves to be a rewarding day!

I cased this (yet another) graduation card from Michele Reynold's site here:

http://inspirationink.typepad.com/inspiration-ink/2010/05/more-one-layout-and-color-scheme-ideas.html

I needed something quick and masculine and her idea was awesome.  That's the Tip of the Day:  Don't be afraid to case, just give credit where credit is due!  You don't have to re-invent the wheel, or 'card' as it were.  It's an honor to have someone think enough of your ideas to want to share them with their friends and loved ones.  So Michele, thanks for the card idea and on a side note (thanks for the stamps - they came in the mail yesterday!) 

I'm using these cards as money-holders, so here's what I did for the inside: 

Did you know that money/bills are 6 1/8 inches long and 2 5/8" wide?  Well, they are!  For this 5 x 7 card, I used a pencil to  mark 1/4" in from the top and bottom, and 1 1/2" from the left.  That's where I punched each hole using a standard hole punch.  Then I used my x-acto craft knife and cut a slit from hole to hole.  I moved my metal rule over just a smidge (I know, so technical) and cut again, creating a thin 'slot.'  I then used SU's snail adhesive for a full inch wide on the long edges and 1 adhesive length on the short edges.  This creates a strong bond and a 6 1/2 " by  3" pocket for cash!  Perfect!  Other products used are:  Baroque DP available at the Clearance Rack (see the banner above), Chocolate Chip card stock, Happy Grad stamp, Chocolate Chip 5/8" ribbon and classic ink, and misc. brads and edge punch.  Any of SU's edge punches will work beautifully here!  Thanks for checking out today's card!  Tomorrow I'll post my masculine card from my upcoming card swap.  Hope you've liked this week's Masculine Cards!