Happy Mother's Day!

Well, I have to say, this weekend kind of snuck up on me. I had it in my head that next week was Mother's Day. At least I was set straight before today! I had 3 cards to make. I thought about being boring and making 3 that were at least the same layout, but I just couldn't do it. Each one was specifically made for the recipient.

The first one is for my mom. I wanted something cheerful, a bit summery and fun. Plus, I wanted to try out Beate's weekend sketch. This one actually has very minimal stamping, but it was still a bit of work with the all the cutting. I used some of the Summer Picnic papers for my flowers. The small flowers are all from one piece, and the larger flowers are from a different piece. I really like the look of the red, bashful, and olive with a kraft base. Inside the card it says "You're Amazing", because my mom is pretty amazing!

Supplies: Stamps by Verve Visual (Happy Thoughts), Papers by Stampin' Up!, Accessories: piercing tool, nestabilities, May Arts ribbon

Next up, this one started out because of a certain trip to Michaels on Friday... I have a soft spot for SEI papers, and they had paper pads on sale. This one is from Black Orchid. It's a fun mixture of celery, black, white, coral, and aqua. I looked through my floral stamps and found that these ones from PaperTrey's Beautiful Blooms were the best match. This card if for one of my grandmothers. She's got a bright, personality, and the coral reminded me of her.

Supplies: Stamps: PTI Beautiful Blooms, Verve Visual's Happy Thoughts, Paper: SEI Black Orchid, PTI Berry Sorbet, Accessories: American Crafts grosgrain

For my other grandmother, the first thing that came to mind was roses. She has the entire Country Roses china collection, and likes rose scents, and of course the actual live flowers too. So I had to use Kitchen Sink Stamps 3-Step Roses. I thought about doing the pink-red of the Country Roses china, but I thought yellow would be a nice choice too. I used So Saffron and More Mustard for the roses, and Celery, Wasabi, and Garden Green for the Leaves. This mother's day sentiment comes from one of the retired All Year Cheers. I wanted a bit of something one the saffron background, so I stamped some French Script.

Supplies: Stamps- Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Roses & Hearts, All Year Cheer, French Script, Ink and Paper by Stampin' Up!

Thanks for stopping by today! Happy Mother's Day!

Anniversary Time

Over the next few weeks I have several anniversary cards to make, and they're not for small anniversaries either. I have to make 2 cards for a 50th, and 2 or 3 more for 60th anniversaries. My dilemma is that these numbers are usually associated with specific themes and a specific style. I was trying a few different things out, but they just don't seem right for that age group. This is the third anniversary card I've made in 2 days, and I think I'll finally be able to use it for one of the upcoming events. I looked up the gem/metal for 60th anniversaries, it's a diamond jubilee. You know how hard it is to showcase diamonds on a card? I started with a shimmery white base, then I embossed some swirls on it with Pearly Sparkle EP. That really wasn't that strong of a look, so I needed to add in some other colour. The shimmer paper has a slight gloss so I thought I'd try some polished stone on it. I mixed gold, silver, and chocolate reinkers, and smeared it around. It ended up looking very much like marble. I wiped off the excess ink from the embossed parts. Finally, the swirls really stood out! The rest of the card was quite straight forward. I used nestabilities for the ovals. The floral images are made up of layered images from Baroque Motifs. The greeting comes from Kitchen Sink's 3-step roses.

Supplies:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, 3-Step Hearts and Roses
Ink: Burnt Umber, Versamark, Chocolate Chip, Silver, Gold
Paper: Shimmer White, Textured Brown
Accessories, etc.: 1/2'' circle punch, brads, pop dots, nestabilities, pearly sparkle EP, ribbon

More Roses!

I never really understood the appeal of Roses in Winter (a now retired multi-step stamping floral set), but now that I have this multi-step set, I get it. It's almost a different kind of stamping. You need to plan your colours from the base up and it's fun to experiment with what colours work out best.

My first card features pinks and reds. I started with a stamped of Rose Red, then Rose Red, Cranberry Crisp, and finally Bravo Burgundy. I went with the celery, wasabi, and garden greens for the leaves once again. I decided to just keep the main image to one rose, stamped a simple greeting, paired it with the Rose Red striped paper and some of the greens, and that was it!

Supplies:

Stamps: 3-Step Roses & Hearts, Borders & Corners Monogram ed.

Ink: Rose Red, Cranberry Crisp, Bravo Burgundy, Celery, Wasabi, Garden Green, Noir

Paper: White, Celery, Rose Red, Wasabi, Designer Series Rose Red

For my second card, I went with just red roses. I remember seeing a number of the clustered corners layouts with the multi-step flower sets. I decided to take a stab at my own version. I started with Real Red, stamped off once, then Real Red, Bravo Burgundy stamped off, and finally Bravo Burgundy. I wanted a different look to the leaves, so I went with Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke. I added a greeting in black, then stamped in some Moss splatters all around the edges.

Supplies:

Stamps: 3-step Roses & Hearts, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, It's Your Birthday

Ink: Real Red, Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke

Paper: White, Burgundy, Moss

Two Cards

I was feeling a lack of inspiration this morning, so I decided to browse some of my favorite blogs. This card by Valerie inspired me. I've certainly used this layout before, but sometimes you need that little spark to create something. I got out Eat Cake and some matching paper and whipped together this card. There are little bits of glitter on the candle flames.

Next up, I decided to use my new Kitchen Sink Stamps. This is my first experience with them. I kept looking at the site's selection, but when I saw the 3-step roses, I decided I had to give them a try. I hadn't seen such a realistic 3-step rose stamp before. (They are actually more like 4 steps, but I suppose the 4th step is optional)I've been making a lot of cards for my grandma's senior friends, so I thought this set would work really nicely for those. I wanted peachy roses. Here are the inks and steps I used:

Roses:

1) Blush Blossom

2) Groovy Guava (stamped off once)

3) Groovy Guava

4) Really Rust

Leaves:

1) Certainly Celery

2) Wild Wasabi

3) Garden Green

Card #1 Supplies:

Stamps: Eat Cake

Ink: Turquoise, Pumpkin, Olive, Black

Paper: Party Pieces Scrappin' Kit (retired), olive, pumpkin, turquoise, vanilla

Accessories, etc.: glitter, ribbon

Card #2 Supplies:

Stamps: 3-step Roses & Hearts (by Kitchen Sink Stamps), Paper Tray (by PaperTrey Ink)

Ink: Blush Blossom, Groovy Guava, Really Rust, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Black

Paper: White, Guava, Wasabi

Accessories, etc.: pop dots, stitched grosgrain

*this card measures 7-1/4 x3-3/4 and fits into a 7-3/8x3-7/8 envelope from Carlton Cards.