1/29/09

Teen Valentine

Remember my last Valentine set of cards? Well, I also needed to make some valentine cards for this client's teenage daughter - eek!! LOL

Ah, can't be that bad; we'll have a teenager in 10 days...then you'll hear me scream EEK!!

I wanted to do something totally different than her mother's (obviously) and I wanted them to be cool. So I made them like a postcard (meaning they don't open; just flip from front to back) and used one of the BC Dzyns sets (And Then I Said) from My Favorite Things. Have you seen these sets? They are so girly and the sentiments are perfect for all tweenager/teenagers!

The teen I was designing for is blonde and blue-eyed so that's exactly what I did. The DP is more paper from My Mind's Eye; can you tell I love their Valentine papers? Everything is layered on SU! Bravo Burgundy and the base card is SU! Pink Piroutte. I colored the girl from BC Dzyns with Copics - lots of Copics! But I'm still convinced I need more. Free Smiley Courtesy of www.millan.net

The sentiment "you totally get me" was stamped with SU! Craft Black and embossed with SU! Iridiscent Ice, so you get that great sparkle! The heart in the lower left-hand corner is from Verve Visual's Hundred Hearts set and is stamped in SU! Bravo Burgundy and then painted with Pink Poinsettia Shimmerz also from My Favorite Things. Not sure you can see it in the picture; but man, that stuff has fabulous shimmer! Hmmm...guess that's why they call it Shimmerz eh?

So, not much fancy about the cards; but I still love the way they turned out...I hope the young lady does too!

Thanks for stopping by; I always love when you visit...seriously!! Hugs, ~M.

1/25/09

Among the things you can give and still keep...

"Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart."

I was asked to create 25 Valentine's Day cards for a friend's business; I wanted to keep them simple, yet very fun and colorful. Here's my final card. Can you see the Shimmerz I used on the word "heart"; isn't that stuff fab? I purchased mine at My Favorite Things.

All papers, except for DP, is from Papertreyink - I'm telling you; if you haven't tried their paper, you need too. It cuts just like but-tah...and I say this every single time I use it! :D

The base card is Pure Poppy layered with Dark Chocolate layered with Sweet Blush that I embossed with the Cuttlebug's Heart Blocks. The DP is by My Mind's Eye; their valentine set is just dee-lish!

I cut a small strip and layered onto Dark Chocolate before adhering to the main card. The main sentiment is from Papertreyink's Heart Prints Sentiment set and is stamped in Pure Poppy and layered onto Pure Poppy card stock. The hearts are by Verve Visual Hearts on Fire set stamped in Dark Chocolate.

I just love the rich colors; put together they look scrumptious! Valentine's Day is just around the corner; do you have a special treat picked out for your loved one? My loved one gets jilted on Valentine's Day as our anniversary is just 8 days later! :D

SmileyCentral.com

I'm glad you stopped by! Hope you had a great weekend. Hugs, ~M.

1/23/09

Award

I received this lovely, Marie Antoinette Award from a dear friend, Stephanie of Stipple Shapes.

I'm horrible about following all the rules - LOL; but if you're reading this and YOU have a blog; then TAG, YOU ARE IT! I'm passing the award along to you. I'm just delighted you stopped by!

Hope you have a great weekend! Hugs, ~M.

1/22/09

Hot Diggity Dog!

WOW; I haven't been able to post in ages! We've been very busy but I've also been very ill! :(

I've finished some Valentine card requests, but needed to take a moment (while I felt decent) to whip up a card for the Penny Black "Let's Get Dotty" challenge. We'll see if you think I met the requirements...dots!

Well..that dog has dots...even on her cheeks!! I don't know if it's a he or she...can't see those parts, but for us tonight...it's a girl! This is also a b-day card for a party our teenage daughter is going to this weekend.

This flower and dots are on the inside of the card. I made the flower with a Sizzix Die then colored it pink with SU! Chalks. The top flower was yellow and I made it green using my Copics to match the ribbon on the outside of the card.

Here's the full card using Junkitz Salsa Celebration paper; I have a 6x6 pack that I love to turn to for b-day cards; it's so fun and colorful.

My base card was made using Gina K Designs 120 lb. Pure Luxury white; WOW; this is some serious white card stock. I bought it as they say you can color on it with Copics and it won't bleed through the paper - WOO HOO...of course, I forgot to look at the back side of my doggy to see if the markers bled through; but that's okay. More reason to stamp and test it out! LOL I used SU! Pixie Pink, then the Junkitz paper which I ran through with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot folder. The wide green polka dot is actually ribbon from a gift I received at Christmas!

I added some bling (Dazzling Diamonds) to the dog's collar and to the flower; hard to see, but nice IRL.

Here's the inside of the card - I dressed it up too - that's becoming so popular! We're going to buy a gift card and tuck it in under the flower with some removal adhesive - what a great girly card, don't you think?

It's so good to see you again; I hope you're having a great week. Hope to see you again soon. Hugs, ~M.

1/11/09

hey dude

This little monster is from one of Kim Hughes sets, Little Guy; isn't he cute? :D

My dear, dear friend CW purchased the Basic Grey Granola 6x6 paper pack for me; I LOVE that pack of paper. I've got a few more things up my sleeve with this paper pack. I had used some of the paper on some other cards; but just had to use these crazy polka dots with my little monster friend. One of our DD's wanted me to make his teeth like purple or pink...like he was drinking Kool-Aid; that so made me laugh!

I stamped the hey dude next to my monster and traced the left side of the letters with a light blue Copic marker. I also colored my monster with Copics.

Here's the full card.

The base card is SU! More Mustard layered with SU! Night of Navy; the remaining papers are all Basic Grey Granola DP. I added the hemp on the left-hand side for some fun...no bow since it's a boy card.

The inside says "happy birthday". A quick, fun, but cute card. I hope you like it!

Thanks for popping in, hope you had a great weekend! Hugs, ~M.

1/9/09

Upsy Daisy...AGAIN!

Tired of seeing the Upsy Daisy stamp set yet? LOL I know...3 times in a row...I like it, I like it!

I made this card for the Viva la Verve! week one challenge; this is a new challenge with a twist offered up each week over at SCS. Check it out and join the fun - its worth it!!

The base card is Sweet Blush by PTI; I truly *heart* their paper; it cuts like buttah! I used mainly DP from the Basic Grey Sultry pack...can you tell I love Basic Grey paper too? Lots of chocolate and Sweet Blush. I added 3 chocolate brads in the upper right-hand corner; two flowers in the lower left-hand corner with a chocolate brad in the center. The base flower was a light pink; I made it chocolate by using my Copics - oh yes, I love those too. Sheesh, I think I have an addiction!

The chocolate ribbon is from Michael's; I stamped the main image in Chocolate Chip on SU! Whisper White and punched the portion I wanted; then edged with Chocolate Chip. I layered the main image on Sweet Blush and Dark Chocolate (also by PTI) and added polka dots to each scalloped layer. The main image is also mounted with dimensionals. I have one more card almost identical to this...its sitting on my desk waiting to be finished...I got stuck so I set it aside to finish later. :D

I hope you've had a great week; thanks for stopping by! Hugs, ~M.

1/8/09

Upsy Daisy in Black & Red

Remember THIS card? Well, I decided I wanted to use the sketch and stamp set again but use a splash of color. I like it...but not as well as the black and white one. What do you think? Its still a GREAT stamp set with so much potential...I just need more time to play! :D

The base card is SU! Real Red layered with lots of different Scarlett's Letter DP from Basic Grey. I also used SU! Black and SU! Very Vanilla. I'm loving Very Vanilla; I find myself reaching for it more and more.

The layout is Sketch Challenge #208 from SCS; very easy, but fun. I embossed the flowers and sentiment again and added two prima flowers. The larger flower was originally light pink and the smaller one was originally a peach color; I changed both with my Copics. I *heart* doing that! Added a pearl to the center of the flowers and also added 3 pearls in the bottom right-hand corner to tie it together.

Thanks for popping in; it's always great to see you! Hugs, ~M.

1/6/09

A few fun gifts!

Before Christmas I made lots of the candles in a box sets; these were not for Christmas, just any occasion, so I chose some fun My Mind's Eye paper mixed and matched. Aren't those colors scrumptious? The tags were also a mix & match from My Mind's Eye - such fun to make; I LOVE doing these! I got the recipe from No Time To Stamp (she has an option for Boxes on the left-hand side of her blog - she has GREAT tutorials!).

Next I made this Jr. Legal Notepad for one of the teacher's; nothing fancy, just using bits and pieces leftover form THESE Christmas Cards.

The word "NOTES" on the front was added using a Just Rite round stamper and Curlz font. I edged all the paper in Close to Cocoa to give it a bit more depth. As you can see, the inside of the note pad has a pocket for receipts, lists or whatever you might need. I added some decorative paper on the inside to dress it up just a bit too.


And last is a Christmas Card remake I did. Gina K issued a challenge to take a Christmas card you had received and recycle it in some way. This is the card I chose; it had this great floral picture on the front of the card. I just cut it out; adhered it to some Very Vanilla paper layered on Real Red. I added some pearls in the upper left-hand corner to dress it up a bit.

I actually received the very same Christmas card Gina did in her sample, but chose not to use it since she already had. LOL

Thanks for stopping by; I love when you visit! Hugs, ~M.

1/5/09

Our Prayers are with You!

Sympathy cards; I don't like when I need them...bet you don't either huh? Losing loved ones is so very hard. The hubby of my parents best friends when I was growing up passed away this weekend; a co-worker's grandfather passed away unexpectedly this weekend too...death is never easy.

I knew I needed to make a couple sympathy cards; I never seem to have sympathy cards in my stash and I knew I wanted to use silver - not sure why, just knew I did. I've seen some really pretty cards recently with silver embossing. Both cards are identical and use Verve's Notes of Sympathy stamp set; so simple, yet elegant I think.

The base card is PTI's Select White layered with SU! Basic Black and then SU! Silver which I dry embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. I added another strip of SU! Basic Black also dry embossed with the Swiss Dots for the base of the card. The main image was stamped in VersaMark and embossed with Silver Embossing powder. I used the ticket punch from SU for the corners and added tiny pearls to each corner. I then added a larger pearl to the center of the cross. The main image was layered on SU! Basic Black, SU! Silver and then finally PTI's Select White and mounted with dimensionals.

The inside says "Our prayers are with you". The cards were very simple to make, but I think they are elegant.

Thanks for popping in; it's always good to see you!

BTW, have any of you seen Marley & Me? If so, let me know what you thought! Hugs, ~M.

1/1/09

Shoes...Sales...Shoes...ah, Christmas is over!

My BFF loves blue...and shoes...take her to a Dillard's shoe department and she briefly becomes someone I don't know. LOL

I purchased MFT's Window Shopping stamp set knowing how I would use it immediately. But I first made a red shoe card with the set; then it all came together in my head - make a blue set of cards just like the red card for my BFF; she'll be thrilled. Then when I saw Beate's tutorial on SCS for the box to hold A2 cards; I was all fired up and had a Christmas item ready for my BFF.

Here is the box I made; the base is SU! Brilliant Blue; the lid is SU! Very Vanilla stamped with Baroque Motifs in Vintage Creme from Papertreyink. I used the threading water punch on the lid and also accented the edges with SU! Close to Cocoa. I think the Close to Cocoa was a little dark; but overall, I was pleased with the box.

I then added 5 cards, all with various sayings from MFT's Window Shopping set. The black and ivory paper is handmade and was left over from some wedding invitations I did.

I colored the shoe with my Copics and Colorless Blender and the stand was colored with a silver pen I have - don't know the make....I have a few of these things just laying around. LOL

But I love the way the silver looks; almost as if the shoe is sitting on a mirror.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to stop by SCS to check out the A2 box tutorial. Hugs, ~M.