hello sweet baby

Here is a baby card I made as part of a class I'm teaching called "Strictly Business", which features cards that fit in a business-size envelope (or A10). The stamp is by Technique Tuesday and reads "hello sweet baby: the world is a bit brighter now that you are here". The elephant die cut is from the Cricut Holiday Cakes cartridge. Cardstocks are Bazzill and Georgia Pacific, patterned paper is My Mind's Eye Lush Collection, ink is Staz-On Jet Black, buttons are Creative Imaginations, floss is DMC, scallop border punch is EK Success, ribbon is American Crafts, flocking on the elephant's ear is Fun Flock by Stampendous and is adhered with Glossy Accents by Ranger, corner rounder is We-R-Memory Keepers Corner Chomper. Thanks for looking!

***Edited to add the measurements*** This card measures 9 inches long by 4 inches wide, so the base cardstock was cut at 9 x 8 and folded in half. Thanks to Victoria for the comment :)

sweet baby boy card

So, a few posts back (titled "i'm not lion"), I showed a set of Sandylion stamps that are just too cute. I said I had made some more cards using other stamps in that set, and that I would post pics later. Well...later has arrived. This card uses the monkey stamp, and I LOVE HIM! I stamped him onto white Georgia Pacific cardstock using Black Staz-On ink, and then colored him in with Prismacolor markers. I stamped him again onto the striped paper, and cut out only the belly part (which I thought would be cute as a bib), and paper-pieced the "bib" onto the monkey. I then cut around the image with my Cutterbee scissors. The striped paper is by Three Bugs in a Rug, the blue dotted paper is Bo Bunny, and the kraft colored cardstock is Bazzill. The loopy punch is Martha Stewart, and the large scalloped punch along the bottom is EK Success. I used some letter stamps by KI Memories to stamp the word "sweet" in white ink, then I covered the letters with white Fun Flock by Stampendous, using Glossy Accents as my adhesive for the flocking. Ribbons are by American Crafts and Offray, and they are stapled to the card. Pearls are from Kaiser Craft, and the brown pen for the dots is American Crafts. Isn't he SWEET???

Here you can kinda see where I layered the "bib" using a pop dot to make it stand out a bit.

Here's a close-up of the Fun Flock. For those who've never used flocking, it's basically the same concept as using glitter, but instead of a sparkly look, it gives you a fuzzy look and feel. You can see the fuzziness here:

Welcome baby

Here is a cute baby card I made, using Coredinations cardstock for the first time. Gotta say, I love it! The kraft cardstock and green cardstock are Bazzill. Pink cardstock is Coredinations (from the whitewash collection), patterned paper is Three Bugs in a Rug. The chipboard elephant is KI Memories. The white cardstock behind the elephant is Georgia Pacific, and it's cut with Provo Craft scalloped scissors. The green oval is a punch, and I pierced holes around it. Border punches used on the bottom are Martha Stewart, Fiskars, and EK Success. The ribbon is from Michael's $1 bin. The white rub-on letters are American Crafts. Thanks for looking!
Here is a close-up of the elephant. I used foam tape behind the green oval to pop it up.

Wedding invitation samples

So, one of the guys I work with is getting married next August, and I'm making their wedding invitations. So I made up a little display to give them some ideas of what I can do. This is a 12x12 piece of kraft colored cardstock. I stamped their names with KI Memories stamps using black Staz-On ink and Joann's white pigment. I went over the ink with Black Diamond Stickles and Frosted Lace Stickles. Below that, I put a little swatch of the 3 colors they will be using, which are dark purple, white, and pear green. Below the swatches are strips of matching ribbons. To the right are some cute font samples (all free downloads from http://www.kevinandamanda.com/). On the bottom are some border strips I punched that can be used on invitations, programs, favors, etc. The punches are by Martha Stewart and Fiskars.To the right, I stamped a little wedding cake (KI Memories) in white ink and topped it with more Frosted Lace Stickles. The cake stand is a Cuttlebug die, and I drew the heart on top of the cake with a purple Gelly Roll pen.
This first sample is very simple, and could be used as invitation or a program. Both pieces are AccuCuts dies, and I rounded the corners of the green piece. I don't know if it shows up in the picture, but I embossed a row of dots at the top and bottom using a Cuttlebug border embossing folder. I don't know the exact measurements, but it fits in a business size envelope.

The next sample features a purple base with white cardstock on top. I punched a strip of green paper with a Martha Stewart punch, and put some purple ribbon above that. Finished size is 5"x7".

The third sample is another AccuCuts die, cut out of the green paper. It has a white cardstock piece on the inside, and is wrapped with a purple strip that I punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch. I topped it off with some green polka-dot ribbon. Finished size is 5"x7".

Here's a picture of everything I made to give to them. I think everything turned out pretty darn cute, and they really liked it too.

"Hoppy holidays" spring card

In my most recent card class, I taught various types of pop-up cards. I knew I wanted to include a "spring" card, the name of which has nothing to do with the season, and everything to do with the fact that when you take these babies out of their envelopes, the top part "springs" upward. I wasn't sure what I wanted to put on my card...until I found this cutie-patootie frog. He's part of a very cute set by Hero Arts, but I immediately knew he was the one for my card. I used Bo Bunny Double Dot papers in red and green, plain white cardstock, Staz-On black ink, Stickles, ribbon, computer-generated text, Rain Dots, and the word window punch from Stampin' Up! I cut the white circle behind the froggy with my Cricut Expression and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. I cut the red scalloped circle using the Mini Monograms cartridge. I also tried my hand at paper piercing. It was my first time doing both paper piecing and paper piercing. I think I like them both...

Here's the card:



Here is a close-up of the adorable little froggy. I love him! I stamped him onto the green double dot and onto the red double dot, then paper-pieced the red scarf onto the green frog. I then used Black Diamond Stickles on his eyes and on the black dots on the scarf:

Close-up of the "hoppy holidays". I printed the computer-generated words onto the red double dot paper, then used the word window punch. I used two little red Rain Dots on each word.

Here's a close-up of my first attempt at paper piercing. Not too shabby... :)

Happy Halloween pop-up

So, I love Halloween, and I can't get enough of it right now. I'd been wanting to make a free-standing pop-up card ever since I saw one of Dawn Griffith's YouTube tutorials. They are so easy, but produce such a great result! One of my Cricut secret sisters sent me this cute spider stamp, and I was so excited to get to use it. I embossed the background with the Cuttlebug spider web embossing folder. I made sure to use a white-core paper; when I embossed it, I placed a piece of carbon paper on top of the orange paper inside the embossing folder. The black carbon transferred onto the orange paper, then I sanded all the raised parts to reveal the white core. Papers are Making Memories, spider stamp is Stampendous, happy halloween stamp is Studio G, ribbon is American Crafts, white gel pen for doodle dots, Staz-on black ink.

Here's what it looks like closed and ready for mailing:
Here it is free-standing:
Close-up of the happy halloween stamp: