Birthday Cards

Here are two birthday cards I made last week. The first one is for Wendi, our youngest daughter. I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the two layers of designer cardstock. The square was made with a Nestability die cut. Wendi's birthday was the 20th so hopefully she's gotten her card by now. I was late in getting it mailed. This is the birthday card I made for Ashley, granddaughter. She celebrates her 18th birthday on the 27th. She had her birthday party this past Saturday. I used my Xyron machine on the butterflies, punching them out first, running both of them through the Xyron then sprinkling glitter on the side with the adhesive. I thought the card needed more so I added the ribbon. It still didn't look finished so I added the pearl stickers. The paisley print is a piece of designer cardstock and also the scalloped oval is a stripe pattern that coordinates with the paisley print.

I was rather pleased with the way both of these cards turned out. :)

Ladybugs, Butterflies & Dragonflies Card Swap

I received these cards yesterday from Taryn, the hostess of the above card swap. There were 3 butterfly cards and 3 dragonfly cards. This card was made by Nancy. The colors are red and white. The scalloped circle, plain circle and butterfly are Nestibilities die cuts. The red check designer paper was embossed with the Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots embossing folder and the border punch is by EK Success. Beautiful card!!! This next butterfly card was made by Lashawnda. The sentiment and butterfly were embossed in gold and there is a little bit of gold stickles on the butterfly. Another beautiful card!

This last butterfly card is another beautiful card. The strip of pink cardstock has glitter all over it. It was made by Cheryl.

Then there were 3 dragonfly cards. I had signed up for 1 spot in each category. This card is gorgeous. The colors are kraft and burgundy. The dragonflies were stamped, cut out and raised with foam tape. It is a perfect Mother's Day card.

The person who made this card didn't include her name. I love how she did the dragonfly. There is a clear round sticker on the scalloped circle and she stamped the blade of grass so it lines up with the grass on the card itself. A simple card yet so very pretty.

This last card is an oversized card so an envelope was included. Both the card and envelope are made from the Stardream cardstock which has a shimmer to it. There is a lot of sparkle on this card. And then the dragonfly is actually 3 pieces put together. This card was made by Connie. So, so pretty!!!

And lastly, here is the prize I received for signing up for 2 spots. There are different size gems, buttons, some die cut flowers and butterflies. Some pretty sheer bright pink ribbon with a couple of stripes through it was also included.

This was a fun swap and am glad I participated in it. The cards are so beautiful!! Thank you Ladies!!

Craft Garage Sale

I went to a craft garage sale this morning. It was put on by a few Stampin Up demonstrators at the home of their upline. It started at 9 am. I got there about 8:40 am and there were already ladies waiting to shop. I was only there for 20 minutes or so, was home by 9:45 am.


It wasn't just Stampin Up products. There were other vendor products. In fact, I got 2 8x8 paper kits from Creative Memories for far less than what they are priced through Creative Memories. I got some other paper packs that were generic scrapbook paper all cut in 5"x 8" sheets and packaged 20 sheets per pack. I'll use them for cards. Got a couple of packages of die cuts too. I was really interested in double sided scrapbook paper. The paper was packaged too and they didn't want people to open up the packages so it was hard to tell what was in them other than the one on top.


I worked on my next card swap after I got home. And in fact, used some the CM paper I got today for layers. My next swap is pocket cards. I signed up for 2 spots so I need to make a total of 12 cards, 6 per spot and they have to be different. One of the ones I want to make is a double pocket. I'm using a tutorial I found on Splitcoast Stampers. It is not hard, just a little tricky in getting the pocket part cut out. I messed up a couple of them so I gave up and decided to work on it tomorrow. The other one I'm going to make is really easy. I've made a few of them so I'll be able to whip those out with no problems.


The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I'm going up to Oroville with my friend Candice. Another stamp friend of ours who lives in Oroville is hosting an all day workshop. We can bring things to work on so I thought I would prep some of my cards for the swaps I'm doing and put them together up there. Alex is a SU supervisor so she is going to have some make 'n takes and teach some techniques. I'm looking forward to it although it will be a long day.

Palm Trees, Pina Coladas, Tropical Card Swap - SCS

I finished another Splitcoast Stampers card swap. This one is called "Palm Trees, Pina Coladas, Tropical". I signed up for 2 spots. This is the card I finished tonight. I actually started it this afternoon and it evolved from what I originally thought about doing. Here is the link for the card I saw in the SCS gallery: http://images.splitcoaststampers.com/data/gallery/4731/scan0007_by_StampinAK.jpg?ts=
The recipe: Stampin Up stamp set "Do the Hula", card stock from The Paper Garden, designer paper from Michael's, Memento ink Rich Cocoa and Tangelo, Sakura clear glitter gel pen on hibiscus and SU ribbon.


This card also evolved from what I first envisoned. I saw a card at a scrapbook/stamp store in Elk Grove called Scrap & Stamp. It just had the coconut tree and hammock on it. I decided to add the hula dancer, clouds and sun. I'm not sure that I like it very well.

The recipe: Kraft cardstock from SU, the blue layer is generic. I ran it through the Cuttlebug with one of my embossing folders. I used Copics to color and added a tiny crystal gem sticker to the center of the flower in her hair. The stamps are all A Muse. I used a small Fiskars circle punch for the sun and popped it up with foam tape. The ribbon is SU.

So I will put these in the mail tomorrow. The hostess of this swap lives in New Jersey. The swap doesn't close until June 1st. My next swap that is due June 18th is pocket cards. I signed up for 2 spots in that swap.

Card with Handmade Paper

I've been thinking about making a card with some handmade paper since I received a card from my blogger buddy, Jalna. I knew I had some, I just needed to find it. Here is the card I made this afternoon. The red layer is handmade paper, I tore around the edges. The cardbase is gray. I had the black layer already cut out. I was going to use it on another project. I cut it out with one of my Nestibilities die cuts and then I ran it through the crimper. The stamp image is a SU set. I'm not sure if I like the card or not.Here again is the card Jalna made and sent to me. The off-white layer is handmade paper she made. I like her card a whole lot better.

I have signed up for several card swaps on Splitcoast Stampers and need to be working on them. I am also hosting a swap myself on SCS. I signed up for 8 swaps all together, I've completed one of them. It was due today so the hostess should be swapping out the cards in the next few days. The theme was Ladybugs, Butterflies and Dragonflies. In some of the swaps I've signed up for more than 1 spot. I may have bit off more than I can handle. Oh well, they are fun to do and some how they'll get done. :))

Xyron Sticker Machine

Here's a new toy I got last week. It is a Xyron used to make stickers. We used one of these in the A Muse classes I took last weekend. I got it at Michael's and used a 40% coupon so instead of paying $25, I paid $15. I haven't used it yet, I will though. Here's the front of it. Gerry was taking the pictures for me. He had bought me some carnations a couple of weeks ago and so he thought the picture needed some color. :)

The back of the machine.

Whatever you want to make a sticker out of it is fed through the opening in the front, then you crank the handle and the machine puts the image on adhesive paper and comes out the back. The paper is peeled off and one side of the image has adhesive on it. So cool!!

There are some other things I want so I need to remember to use the coupons. I want some chalk pencils and some pencils made by Koh-I-Noor. The whole pencil is color and a very soft lead so you get even color when using them. They break easily which is a bad thing about them. Both the chalk pencils and the Koh-I-Noor pencils are expensive so need to use the coupons. Oh, and watercolor pencils too.