Elegant Reflections

Christmas Cards 2011

2011-12-18T15:50:00.000-08:00

These are the Christmas cards I made this year, using designer scrapbook paper and some embellishments on certain ones. I wanted the cards to be clean and simple with a minimum of stamping. I did stamp sentiments inside of each one.

On this first one, the tree was first stamped with Versamark, then gold embossing powder was poured on, shaking the excess off and using the heat gun. A tiny clear rhinestone sticker was used on the star. I made 8 of these cards, 2 of each design. There is a tiny strip of gold shiny paper between the 2 layers and the tree is popped up.This is a 5 1/2 inch square card. The image was cut from one of the pages in this paper pad and popped up.

A very simple card. I used a retired Stampin Up set for this card. It is white on white with a layer of red shiny cardstock. The image was stamped in black ink and left uncolored...nothing else was added to the card other than a sentiment on the inside from the same stamp set. I made 20 of these. It was a perfect card for mass production.

The image was cut from the paper pad I used for this card and popped up. I used a red spica glitter pen on the red in the image. There is a layer of the gold paper behind it, and a thin gold strip between the 2 layers.

This is another 5 1/2 inch square card...ivory card base, paper, another ivory layer, a gold layer and the image was cut from the paper pad.

Different paper with the embossed tree. The paper used on these cards is from a My Minds Eye pad called "Lost & Found Christmas". The colors of the papers are browns and burgundys with some red. I love this pad and used a lot from it.

There is a strip of crocheted ribbon underneath the image which is popped up. This turned out really nice. I tried to make 2 cards of each image and layout.

The image is a clipboard tag that I popped up and added a ribbon on the corner.

Another image cut from the paper pad and popped up.

I love this card...probably my favorite...I used a tag from the paper pad and added ribbon.

A clipboard tag was used with some ribbon.

This is so precious.

Another tag...love this one too.

I made a total of 47 cards, far less than I have made in previous years. I also reduced the list significantly. I used these paper pads: Kaiser Craft "December 25th", Melissa Frances "Deck the Halls", My Mind's Eye "Lost & Found Christmas", Graphic 45 "Christmas Emporium" and Christmas Past. These papers are Victorian Christmas papers and clipboard tags. I really love these papers. I also used some paper and tags from K&Company "Elizabeth Brownd's Vision of Christmas", and tags from Kaiser Craft "December 25th".

I am glad I decided to try something different for cards this year. They all turned out fantastic and hope those that received any of these like them too. :)

Birthday Cards and a Wedding Card

2011-12-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

Denise's card for her birthday in November. The only stamping is the "happy birthday" in the right bottom corner. My new interest in card making is to use designer scrapbook paper and embellishments with very little stamping...if any, at all. Click on the card to see a larger view of the card. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out and Denise liked it, as well. I got the paper I used from the Green Tangerine Scapbook store in Rocklin. I don't remember who it is made by.

The youngest daughter of some friends of ours got married in November. This is the card I made for she and her Marine husband...no stamping on the front...just paper and some tags I cut out from the paper pad I used. I punched out the butterflies using a Martha Stewart punch and embellished them with tiny pearl stickers...then used some larger pearl stickers on the die cut flourish. The flourish I used is from some that Denise made for me using her Cricut machine. I used another Martha Stewart border punch on the strip at the bottom. The paper I used is from a Graphic 45 pad called "Le Romantique".

This is a birthday card that I made for my older sister, Nani. Her birthday is in September. She loves butterflies. I used only paper and punched out the butterflies with the Martha Stewart punch. I used a clear rhinestone sticker on the butterflies and there are a few pearl stickers above the "happy birthday". I love this stamp and tend to use it a lot for birthday cards. The paper I used on this card is from a Basic Grey pad called "Kioshi".

My SCS Fancy Folds Hosted Card Swap

2011-12-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

I have not posted to this blog since August...where has the time gone?? I am all done with projects so I thought I would get caught up on posting to my blogs.

This is a card swap that I hosted on Splitcoast Stampers this past summer. It was a huge swap and had several catagories: Gatefold, Waterfall, Easel and Pocket cards.

Gatefold CardGatefold Card

Inside of above card

Gatefold card

Inside of above card

Gatefold card

Inside of above card. This stamper combined the Gatefold with a Pocket card on the inside. Very clever!

Gatefold card

Inside of card

Gatefold...this is a super cute card.

Gatefold card

Inside of above card...a pocket card on the inside.

Gatefold card

Waterfall card

Waterfall card...super cute!

Waterfall card

Easel card

Easel card...this is a sweet baby card

Easel card

Twisted Easel card

Twisted Easel card...this is absolutely beautiful...love it!!

Easel card...this stamper lives in Australia...her cards are elaborate and beautiful. This is a 6 inch square with lots of embellishments.

Easel card...a triple...I've never seen one like this...it is amazing...a rather large card. This stamper made the Gatefold cards incorporating pockets on the inside of her cards. I have visited her blog and her cards are amazing.

Pocket card

Pocket card...love the die that she used...on my wish list to purchase someday...

Pocket card

Double Pocket card

Pocket card with opening on the side of the card

Pocket card

Pocket card with opening on the side

Pocket card

This was the last swap that I hosted...as much fun it is to get some awesome cards...it is a lot of work. I've decided to not participate in any SCS swaps for awhile...I will continue to participate with my stamp group here in Sacramento.

I have so many cards that I need to use before I think about doing anymore SCS swaps.

Card Swaps - Shoebox Card Swap

2011-08-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

I spent some time this afternoon taking pictures of cards I've received from swaps I've participated in. I'm not finished, there are more to take pictures of. This card was for a swap that is being hosted in Australia. Lauren participated in a swap I hosted so I wanted to do her swap. I made the crochet lace trim flower. It was so easy to do. I sewed a button in the middle to finish it off.
The next 7 cards are from a Shoebox Card Swap last year.

Karen stamped and embossed the roses in white on vellum. She then added some glitter. It is a wedding card and gorgeous IRL!

The spider web on this card was embossed in black.

A waterfall card.

The next 3 cards are from a Sympathy card swap.

Hat Pins Splitcoast Stampers Swap

2011-08-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

I made these hat pins for a Splitcoast Stampers swap. I had 5 spots, 6 were made and I got 5 back...so I got a total of 25 pins back. I just realized that I haven't taken pictures of the ones I got back. I'll have to do that. I went to Michael's and Joann's to get the beads. The pins I used are corsage pins from the wedding section. They are topped with glass pearls.

This was a fun swap and I've signed up to do a second round, 5 spots again.

SCS Card Swaps

2011-05-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

This first card is my submission for a Happy Kids Birthday SCS swap. The birthday cake is a Stampin' Up image that I colored with Copics. This was time-consuming. The card base is pink, then a layer of a very colorful Happy Birthday designer paper. I put a clear rhinestone sticker on the candle flame. Added the ribbon and prima flowers. The next four cards are ones that I got from the "My Favorite Things" swap. All of them are really great.

These next 3 were from a "Background Card Swap". The backgrounds had to be embossed in some way, whether using dry embossing with a machine such as a Cuttlebug, or dry embossing with embossing powder. I chose dry embossing with a machine so the cards I got back were in the same category.

This card with the butterflies is similar to the one I did.

Here's a close-up of some of the detail that was done on the card.

This is a really neat card. Loved the way it was done.

The hostess of the Background swap also did an "Extra Card" swap. Those that joined this swap had to submit 10 cards that were either extras from other projects or cards that were received from other swaps. So here's the one's I got back. Some of them are really nice.

This card is really nice.

Here's the inside of the card.

This one is nice too.

This is a beautiful card. The top portion inside the envelope was even covered with paper.

Here's the inside of the envelope.

This last card is one that I made for Peg. I bought my ladybug card holder from her that she made especially for me. I had purchased a couple of others that were too small. It a simple layout...I liked how it turned out...and she enjoyed it.

Hat Pins

2011-05-03T20:47:00.001-07:00

This could be a new hobby. I signed up for a Hat Pin swap on Splitcoast Stampers. They are made using different beads that are used in making jewelry and corsage pins. I'm not sure if it is new to cardmaking, however, they are being used as embellishments for cards. Michael's has all of their bead strands on sale at 40% off. So yesterday I bought 4 strands of different beads and some findings to see what I could put together. There are lots of videos on You Tube showing how to make them. They are really easy, actually. Kind of a no-brainer.

For some reason it was difficult to get a clear picture so the beads could be seen. The corsage pins have a pearl at the top. One of the videos I watched, the crafter used Copic markers to color the pearl. I didn't try that. On the one in front, I used a purple crystal, then a flower spacer, the purple flat bead, another spacer and another purple crystal. On the one in back...there's a clear crystal, an oval purple bead that is varigated with some brown and purple, a purple pearl, and another clear crystal. An earring clutch is holding the beads together, for now. In most of the videos I watched the beads were glued together using Crystal Effects. Crystal Effects is used in card making to adhere different embellishments to a card. It dries clear so it can't be seen. Another crafter used a hot glue gun. And another used a product called E-6000. I've not seen that product.

I'm not sure if I really like these so that is why I haven't glued the beads yet. So tell me what you think.

Background Card Swap/Cards Received from Four Legged Animals Swap

2011-04-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

I made this card for a Background Card Swap. I used an embossing folder that has a bird sitting on the tip of some grass. I used my Cuttlebug embossing machine to do it. The card base is a gray blue. I added the lavender band for some color. The white punched circle strip was done with a EK Success border punch. I had some trouble using the punch. Then the butterflies were punched with a Martha Stewart punch, popped up with foam tape and pearl stickers in the middle of them. Added the blue rhinestone stickers on the bottom to finish off the card.

I received the next 3 cards from a swap called "Four Legged Animals". This was a huge swap, 29 categories with over 200 people participating. I signed up in the hedgehog category. The cards I received are really adorable. I love all three of them.

I used my new card holder to prop the cards up. I have been looking for something to hold my card when we do our Shoebox swaps. I saw several web sites that had place card holders. I found a shop on Etsy that had these clay figures. So I ordered a lady bug and a ladybug with flowers on a leaf. I got them and was so disappointed. They were too small to use...the card just toppled over. I sent an email to the lady I bought them from and long story short...she designed this one especially for me. I didn't read the descriptions very well on the first two...I was totally frustrated with myself. The leaf is a little larger with a larger clothespin on the back that holds the card. On the leaf are sitting 2 adorable ladybugs and 2 flowers. I love them...and as you can see, it works fine.

Retired Stampin' Up Stamp Sets for Sale

2011-04-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

Background Basics - $5

Happy Birthday Frame - SOLD

Around/About - $5

Bitty Bouquets - $5 - SOLD

Simple Somethings - SOLD

Beyond the Basics - $5

A Tree for all Seasons - $5 - SOLD

Birthday Best - $5 - SOLD

Itty Bitty Backgrounds - $5

Simple Wishes - $5 - SOLD

Little Shapes - $5

Best Blossoms - $5 - SOLD

Happiest of Holidays - $5 - SOLD

Daisy Days - 2 step - SOLD

Just Journaling - $7 -SOLD

Fun Filled - $7 - SOLD

Little Layers - $7 - SOLD

Simple Florals - $7 - SOLD

Fun Phrases - $7 - SOLD

Simple Sayings - $7 - SOLD

Figures of Speech - $10 - SOLD

Occasionally - SOLD

Flower Factory - $10 - SOLD

Border Builders - $10 - SOLD

All Occasions - $10 - SOLD

Fresh Flowers - $10 - SOLD

The Shape of Things - $10

Do the Hula - $10 SOLD

All Around Alphabet/Upper - $14

Headline Alphabet - $14 - SOLD

I am motivated to dispose of these sets. I will accept all reasonable offers.

My Hosted SCS Swap "Spring Is In The Air" Card Kits & Shoebox Card Swap, April 2, 2011

2011-04-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

I hosted my third swap on Splitcoast Stampers which ended on March 31st. I was finally able to swap these cards out yesterday and finished getting them mailed today. This was a card kit swap. So here's a few pictures of the kits spread out on the dining room table. There were 12 ladies that participated so it didn't take long to swap them out.

Nor Cal Paper Crafters Shoebox Card Swap, April 2, 2011.
I hosted this swap here at our mobile home park. We met in our clubhouse and had a potluck too. There were 13 of us enjoying the day. Our theme was Mother's Day and Birthday cards. Our group was started in April of 2009 so we were celebrating our 2nd anniversary as a group.

This is my Mother's Day card. I had all intentions of making a birthday card, however, it seemed like I was being encouraged to make a Mother's Day card instead. I struggle with Mother's Day every year, especially since my mother passed away. And Denise, my daughter, lives so far away. So I decided to make the card very "girly". I was proud of myself that I used paper and card stock I had and didn't have to go buy anything. In fact, I have been hoarding this paper. It is by Basic Grey and difficult to find...I think it has been discontinued. Anyway, I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Tyana did 2 cards, this is her birthday card.

And her Mother's Day card. Both are so adorable IRL (in real life).

Bonnie's card.

Linda's Mother's Day card.

Jenni did 2 cards...this is her birthday card. I love this SU stamp set. I think its been retired.

Her Mother's Day...she used the same paper that I did on my card. She said she found hers at a Michael's in Woodland.

Rhonda's birthday card.

Karen's card. I messed up on placing the leaves for the flowers... :(

Rhonda's second card. Love the colors she used.

Sue's Mother's Day card. Sue's daughter Renee is one of the original members of our group. Sue is a sewer....this was the 2nd swap she has participated in with our group. She was so proud of herself that she did this all by herself without help from Renee. She did a great job.

Wendy's card.

Alex's card. I did my card a little differently than Alex's sample. She tied the ribbon in bows on the right side. I don't do bows very well so I put one ribbon on top of the other and placed it across the panel. I think it looks really cute. Alex and Wendy live in Oroville so they had quite a drive into Sacramento. This was the second swap that they've attended.

Joyce's card.

And Julie's card. The cards were all fantastic. We have a great group of ladies that participate in our Shoebox swaps and we always look forward to getting together. We'll get together again the end of June.

Along with this swap, we had a sale/trade of stamping goodies. Karen has wanted to do this. So since we were using the clubhouse this time, we decided to have one. Karen, Renee, Linda and I participated in the sale. We had 2 round tables full with all kinds of stamp sets and other goodies. It was a huge success and we all did real good in unloading some of our goodies. We will do it again at some future date.

Well, now that these two swaps are over, I can work on some other SCS swaps that I've committed to. It is never ending...its a good thing I love my stamping projects...it is time consuming. It gives me something to do since I am by myself so much of the time.

Two Splitcoast Stampers Swaps

2011-03-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Lighthouse SCS Swap:

The first 4 cards are ones I got back from this swap. This one has an assortment of rhinestone stickers at the bottom. It is very bright and colorful.

Very simply stamped...yet it is very nice.

Of the 4 cards, this one is my favorite.

This last card is my card for a "My Favorite Things" stamp company swap. I don't have any of these stamps so bought a couple of them. This particular stamp is from their "Pure Innocence" line. I actually CASE'd the layout and color scheme. I loved everything about the CASE'd card. It is very "girly" looking...I love it! This swap is not due until the end of April. Since I was without a computer for a week or so, I worked on several projects and this was one of them.

It is Raining....Again

2011-03-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a nice day and then today it started raining again. It should continue through the weekend.

Since it was so ugly outside, I worked at my craft table all day. Finished up a Splitcoast Stampers swap. It is ready to be mailed. Then I started working on a couple of card samples for our Shoebox card swap on the 2nd of April. The first sample I worked on didn't quite come out like I saw in my mind. The second sample I worked on turned out a whole lot better. I've got all the layers cut out, punched out 24 butterflies and used a border punch on two different layers. I need to die cut 2 different layers and then stamp a sentiment on one of them. Oh, still have to cut out some ribbon too. Then I just need to get the kits together (12 of them) and I'll be all done. I may try to see if I can rework the first sample I put together.

Back to my craft table for a little while longer.

Short Note

2011-03-17T20:00:00.001-07:00

Hi! Just wanted to pop in and leave a short note.

My laptop died last Friday. We took it to a repair shop and it appears the motherboard is the problem. So now have to figure out what to do about another computer. My laptop is only 4 years old...I would have thought it would have lasted a little longer.

I've been working on swaps and got some swap cards in the mail. It will be a while before I can share them on my blog.

Thank You Card/SCS Swap Card

2011-03-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

I made this "Thank You" card to send to Jalna, my Hawaii blogger friend who sent me the box of "goodies" from home. She made up some cards a while ago using some scraps. This particular stamp was used for one of her cards. I've had this set for a few years, however, haven't done anything with it. Mainly because I couldn't think of anything to do with it. I actually wanted to CASE her card...found and bought the ink pad she used. My version didn't come out too well. So then I was looking through my paper stash and found this paper. I loved the color combination...a little out of my comfort zone because I don't like orange. Anyway, here's what I came up with. I really like how it turned out and Jalna liked it too. Sometimes trying something different really works together. :) This next card is for a SCS card swap called "Four Legged Friends" and one of the available catagories is hedgehogs. I love these little critters and knew I had a stamp set to use. I did something different by cutting the two designer papers diagonally. The ribbon is covering where the paper joins up. I cut the two top layers using one of my Nestability dies. I needed an embellishment so used the buttons. I don't like to leave the buttons "naked" yet I didn't have anything that worked...tried embroidery thread, hemp string and some yarn...didn't like how any of it looked.

Hopefully in a week or so I'll get back cards from this swap. Can't wait to see what I get.

SCS Card Swaps

2011-02-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

This first card is my submission for a Lighthouse swap on Splitcoast Stampers. This card was included in a card order I did a couple of weeks or so ago. I changed it up a little with a different sentiment and I paper pierced the bottom right corner. There are other lighthouse stamps in this Stampin' Up set. I am drawn to this particular one because it depicts the Cape Hatteras lighthouse located on the North Carolina Outer Banks.

The next three cards are what I received in a SCS swap called "Lovely as a Tree". All three of these are really great.

This last card is my submission for this particular swap. I didn't do much for my card...its rather plain compared to what I received. :)

I drove out to Green Tangerines scrapbook store in Rocklin this afternoon to get some paper for another swap. It's called "Four Legged Friends" and I'm using a hedgehog stamp. It isn't due until the 1st of April, however, I want to get it done early. Our next Shoebox swap is the 2nd of April so I want to be caught up with my SCS swaps. Also, the swap I am hosting on SCS is due the 31st of March.

Gerry's Valentine Card

2011-02-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

This card had 3 revisions before I finally decided on this one. I've had the stamp for awhile. In thinking about a Valentine card for Gerry, I remembered I had this stamp. To make it a Valentine's Day, I added the red punched out heart and popped it up for some dimension. He liked his card!!

Four Seasons SCS Card Swap

2011-02-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

I signed up for Spring and Summer in this card swap and thought I would get the same cards back. Instead I got an assortment. The cards are all gorgeous! A fall pumpkin.

This is probably a summer card. Love to have this stamp.

Beautiful card!!

Winter. Adorable card!

Love the colors used on this card.

Another gorgeous card.

When I saw this card I was so amazed. It is so beautiful IRL!!!

Another gorgeous card!!

Shoebox Card Swap - 2/5/11

2011-02-18T17:40:00.000-08:00

The theme for our February Shoebox Card Swap was St. Patrick's Day, Easter and Spring. This is Julie's card. I may have placed the shamrocks the wrong way. Its a gorgeous card anyway. :)

Here's Renee's card. So cute!!

The inside of her card.

Karen's card. I'm challenged in paper tearing. Karen actually tore the 2 bottom layers for me. We were sitting at the same table. LOL!

Joyce made 2 cards. This is her St. Patrick's Day card. Love it!!

And her Easter card. Adorable!!

This is Rhonda's Easter card.

Linda's card. The flower has a few layers and I popped them all up with foam tape.

I am not sure who exactly made this card and the 2 following. Jenni and Tyana were late getting to the swap so I'm sure they made them...just don't know who made what card...

The greens used on this card are fantastic!

This bunny card is gorgeous.

This is Candice's card. Love it!

I didn't get a picture of this card and didn't get it finished at the swap. I had to email Bonnie to find out how to put it together. I hope this is what she intented. I must remember to get pictures of all the cards so if I don't finish, I'll know how they go together. :)

Lastly, this is my Easter card. The colors are pretty vivid...almost need sunglasses on. LOL!

Our next swap is April 2 here at the mobile park. I've reserved the clubhouse. We're going to have a potluck and celebrate the 2nd year of being a group. The theme is "Happy Birthday" and "Mother's Day" cards.

Technique SCS Card Swap

2011-02-18T17:32:00.000-08:00

These 5 cards were what I got in a Techniques SCS Card Swap. All of them are gorgeous. On this first card, the giraffes were embossed with copper embossing powder. An African mask brad was added on the right corner. Beautiful card IRL (in real life).

The technique used on this card is called spotlighting. Enlarge the picture to see what parts of the card were "spotlighted". It may be hard to tell. It is another gorgeous card.

Another beautiful card.

This card has embossing on it.

This card has stitching on it.

As I mentioned, these all were gorgeous cards. These ladies did outstanding work on their cards. When gorgeous cards are received, it is worthwhile spending the time and effort in participating in card swaps.

Card Order

2011-02-18T17:07:00.000-08:00

A friend of Denise's asked me to make some birthday cards for her. She wanted 4 each for kids, guys and gals.This first card is for a boy. I used some Stampin' Up sets for most of the cards.

Here's another one for a boy. The birthday hat is an AMuse stamp, the Happy Birthday is from a Stampin' Up set.

Then I made a couple for a girl. This is a Stampin' Up set.

I've used this princess stamp many times. Its from the same set as the one above.

I struggle with making guy cards. I'm not sure where I got this sailing ship stamp. I've used it before for a guy card. The dp background is from a Basic Grey paper pad.

This stamp is from a Stampin' Up set that I've used many times for a guy card. The dp background paper is from another Basic Grey paper pad.

This is another Stampin' Up stamp set. This is the Cape Hatteras lighthouse located on the outer banks of North Carolina. I'm going to use this layout for a lighthouse card swap on SCS.

The fourth guy card. I really like the way this one turned out. I CASED this card from one I found in SCS 's gallery.

This is the first gal card. I'm not sure I really care for this one. I used a piece of dp from a Memory Box paper pad. The stamp is from a Stampin' Up set.

On this card I allowed the layer of dp to be the focal point for the card and added the "Happy Birthday" and a bird punched out from a piece of dp. I love the simplicity of the card.

I did this same card for a SCS card swap.

Lastly, I used the same layout as the card I made for Denise's birthday card and a SCS card swap. I used a black and ivory color scheme. The large butterfly is a sticker, part of a set that I found at a warehouse sale I went to. The smaller butterflies were punched out using dp and a Martha Stewart punch.

Card Swaps

2011-01-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

I am back to participating in card swaps. I've done 4 so far. This first card was for a "Techniques" swap. I chose dry embossing and used my Cuttlebug. The card base and the one layer is the same color. The Cuttlebug folder I used is called "Birds & Swirl". It is hard to see...I used my Scor Pal and put a line just under the ribbon and 2 lines at the very bottom of the layer. I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and punched the butterflies out of a scrap piece of DP and mounted them with foam tape. The ribbon is from Michael's and the sentiment is from SU. The next 2 cards are for a "Four Seasons" swap. I chose Summer and Spring. This first card is my summer card. Its done in greens. The ribbon is from May Arts and I used a buckle slider on it. I'm not real pleased with the colors I chose to color the girls. The stamp set is a retired SU set.

This is my Spring card. The card base is pink with a piece of DP. The tulip is from a SU retired set. I put a strip of green cardstock under the DP and then used a Martha Stewart border punch for both the green and DP. The ribbon is SU, the sentiment is AMuse and the crystal stickers are from Hero Arts. It seems lately I'm using a lot of pinks with various shades of green.

These next cards are ones I've received from swaps I've participated in. The first three cards are from a "Happy Birthday" swap.

I love the way the cupcakes were done.

The yellow layer was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The daisy really finishes off the card nicely. Love it!

I participated in a Memory Box card swap that was due in November. The hostess lives in Alaska and I guess the weather really dictated as to how soon she was able to swap these cards out. I just received these a few days ago. There are 6 cards that I received from this swap. Memory Box did a whole series of penguin images. Here's some of them:

Very soft looking card.

Memory Box has done several collage images. This is one of them. Very beautiful card and an excellent job in coloring.

This last swap was called "Flowers for You". On this card the larger white layer has been embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. Simple card yet very nice.

I absolutely love this card. I put a comment on the thread asking the swapper if the center medallion was done with a Nestability die cut. It looks like a paper doily. Then on the bottom there are two strips that look like they are also Nestability die cuts. Looks like fine lace borders. At the top of the card there's a row of tiny punched out flowers with a pearl sticker in the middle of each one. The prima flowers in the center of the medallion are held together with a brad then a pearl sticker placed on top of the brad. I need to remember this...love the look.

The last one is really nice too. I love the daisy.

I'm waiting to receive cards from the Technique swap and the Four Seasons swap. I've got 4 swaps to work on between now and the end of April. I am also hosting another card kit swap on SplitcoastStampers and that is due in my hands the end of March. I really enjoy swapping and have "met" some neat ladies. A lot of the ladies on SCS are Christians too and that makes it nice. I really enjoy doing these swaps...they are alot of fun!

Right now I am working on a card order for a friend of Denise's. The friend is in Korea right now with her family; her husband is stationed there for a couple of years. She wanted birthday cards - 4 kids, 4 guys and 4 gals. I've got 2 more gal cards to make and then I'm done. I hope to get these in the mail by Monday.

December 2010 Shoebox Card Swap

2011-01-12T15:57:00.000-08:00

Well, better late than never...I am finally posting the cards from our stamp group's December Shoebox Card Swap. It was a Valentine's theme. I will label the ones that I remember... This is a magnet post-it note holder that was made by Candice.

Bonnie's card.

Bonnie's second card. There are 3 hearts that are held together with a brad.

I love this card...the elephant is paper pieced.

I think this was made by Linda.

This might have been made by Karen. She likes to use the googly eyes. :)

This one is so adorable!

This is a gift card holder. Rhonda made it...she said these were left overs from another project she did. The green portion slides out from the red part. Very cute.

There is a peppermint paddy sandwiched between 2 scalloped circles. A neat idea for favors.

We did a cookie exchange too and Karen made up these pocket cards to hold the recipes for her cookies and frosted oranges. So cute!

Our next swap is February 5th with an Easter, Spring and St. Patrick's Day theme.

New SCS Card Swaps - 2011

2011-01-05T22:08:00.000-08:00

I completed 2 new SCS card swaps today...one is due on the 11th and the other on the 15th.

The first one is a Happy Birthday swap. I used the same layout that I used for Denise's birthday card with different colors. I really like how this turned out...the black flourish is from some that Denise made for me with her Cricut. The prima flower is from a pack of flowers I got in a goodie bag from our December Shoebox swap. This card is for a Flowers for a Friend SCS swap. The main stamp image is from a retired Stampin' Up set. I used the sentiment stamp from this set and stamped just the "Friends" from the stamp. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch and the crystal stickers are from Michael's. I really like this card too. Its so "girly"!

I purchased the designer scrapbook paper from the Green Tangerines Scrapbook store in Rocklin. I love that store! The selection of paper is fantastic!!

Now that the holidays are over I will be gearing up to participate in more SCS swaps. Last year I participated in 19 SCS swaps from May to November and 6 Shoebox card swaps for a total of 25 swaps. I haven't counted how many cards I made for all those swaps...I'll just say "lots"!!

Cards

2010-12-03T20:56:00.001-08:00

Its been a few months since I've updated this blog. I have no excuses...so to catch up I uploaded some cards that I've either made or received in card swaps. I've participated in over 25 Splitcoast Stampers card swaps and hosted two swaps on Splitcoast. I've also participated in our NorCal Card Swappers Shoebox swaps this year. They are held every 2 months.

Tomorrow (Saturday) my NorCal Card Swappers group is having a Shoebox Swap. The theme is Valentine's Day. The following 2 cards are my cards for the swap. Both of them are simple. I'm not real pleased with the coloring on this first card. I used a clear glitter pen on this one to give it some bling. On this card I used a clear stamp set by Bo Bunny. Bo Bunny makes some gorgeous designer scrap paper and in fact the paper I've used on this is from Bo Bunny. I'm not real impressed with the stamps in the way they stamp. Also, I masked this one...stamped the birds first then stamped the cage over the birds. Some of the cage imagine didn't stamp so I used a silver glitter pen and traced the whole cage with the pen. I also traced over the sentiment.

This is the birthday card that I made for Denise for her recent birthday. I saw the "happy birthday" on a blog called "No Time to Stamp" and knew I had to have it. I know I will use it often. I used some designer scrap paper, a little bit of lace, prima flowers with a flower brad and then the die cut flourish behind the flowers are from some flourishes that Denise cut for me using her Cricut. I'm participating in a "Happy Birthday" swap on SCS, due in January. I'm going to use the same layout as this card with some other designer paper.

I used a strip of the paper on the inside of the card.

These next 2 cards are ones I submitted for a Memory Box card swap. We had to use all Memory Box products. These stamps are part of their Christmas 2010 release. I kept both very simple.

This card was for another SCS swap. I made a gatefold card. I thought this came out pretty good. That's a paper doily I used and there are pearl stickers in all 4 corners. I used velcro to keep the card closed.

The inside.

A pocket card for the same swap. Both cards turned out to be "pretty girly". :)

This was my Christmas card for our NorCal Card Swappers October Shoebox swap. The stamp is from Memory Box. Very simple. I haven't taken pictures of the cards we made yet.

A friend of ours celebrated his 50th birthday with a huge party. It was a beach theme. I wanted to use some sandpaper for the sand...Gerry didn't have any so I used some kraft cardstock. I added 3 brads on the side for some added interest. Can't use ribbon on guys cards. :)

This was for a fall themed SCS swap. I colored the image with pencils instead of using Copic markers.

This was my second card for the same swap. I didn't notice until I uploaded the card to my computer that I forgot to color in the grapes and the corn. And it got sent to the swap hostess that way. Mercy, how absent-minded can a person be. The hostess didn't say a thing...hope she kept it for herself and didn't swap it. I colored the whole image with pencils.

This was for a Christmas swap. Simple yet kind of fun.

Another SCS swap I participated in. This is an easel card.

Cards I received in SCS Sympathy swap. I need to use one of these on Sunday for a memorial service we're attending. A friend of ours passed away last week Friday.

Wow, this is a long post. If you are still with me, thanks for hanging in. I need to take pictures of other cards I have and will do that sometime soon. There just aren't enough hours in the day. :)

Two SCS Card Swaps & Card Order

2010-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here are projects I've worked on the last few days. The first two cards are for two different Sympathy card swaps. The cardbase on this first one is Always Artichoke and then a layer of Confetti Cream. I used a Nestability die cut for the Perfect Plum layer and Confetti Cream. I used 2 different purple markers for the flowers and a dark green for the leaves. I found the ribbon at The Paper Garden and it has 2 shades of purple in it and small olive green. It matches so perfectly. I also used two different oval punches for the saying and finished that off with 2 tiny pearl stickers. This card I went simple and clean. The colors are 2 shades of lavender and a soft turquoise. I stamped the image using small lime green and lavendar ink pads. I've discovered that Q-tips are a handy item to have on my craft table. They help to remove ink from spots where I don't want the ink. :) The card was finished off with 3 lavender gem stickers.

The next 5 cards are thank you cards that I made for Kazumi Akamine who owns Yui Marlu Japanese restaurant. This is the Japanese restaurant where I go every week, it was called "Sushi Masa". Masa-san sold the restaurant to Kazumi-san last year in October. I have made cards for her before and for one of her nieces who sometimes works in the restaurant. Last week Kazumi-san asked if I would make her 5 thank you cards. She wanted floral and an Asian design. I took them to her today. She said she liked them...we didn't really have a chance to talk because for a nice change, it was busy.

On this card I used some decorator paper. It is double sided so I used both sides.

The next 3 cards I used some origami paper as a layer. I really like this blue combination. It is the same stamp as the previous one.

The butterfly has a tiny pearl sticker in the middle.

I love this one. It is hard to see in the picture. The cardbase is some Japanese cardstock in a wheat color that I've had for some time. The company I got this from was based in Hawaii; unfortunately they are no longer in business. Then I used a dark purple layer and the image is stamped on ivory rather than white. I colored the flower purple. Then the ribbon is a dark (Hunter) green. I stamped the thank you inside the card since I thought if I put it on the outside, it would take away from the design.

I'm quite pleased with the way these all turned out. All of the stamps used are the Stampin Up Asian sets that I have. And I used Copics to color.

Nor Cal Shoebox Card Swap - August 14th

2010-08-27T16:20:00.001-07:00

On August 14th, 8 of us from our Shoebox Swap group got together to make cards and socialize. We met at a Round Table Pizza Place over in Fair Oaks. It is the same one where daughter Elizabeth has her girls' birthday parties. They have a huge room that can be closed off and then there's a smaller section off to itself. We had reserved the huge room, however, since there was just 8 of us, we decided to use the smaller section. It worked out fine.

This first card is Tyana's. She lives in West Sacramento and is a friend of Jenni's. This was her second swap of ours to come to. Anyway, this is a gatefold card. Very nice...except don't look too closely...I've got my image upside down. :) The colors are black, a brownish red and gold. Very Fall. The inside of the card, a layer of ivory cardstock and a leaf brad.

This is Tyana's second project...a little treat holder. So cute.

Karen did 2 projects...this first one is a gift card holder. I am not very good at tying bows.

Here's the inside. The middle part is where the gift card would go. Super neat idea.

For Karen's 2nd project, she did a Valentine's card. I'm not sure that this is how it is suppose to go together. I didn't finish this at the swap so guessed and read her instructions that she included. A message was suppose to be written in the crossword puzzle.

On the inside of the front, she punched a heart so the red shows through....

Then on the back she punched out another heart. A piece of white cardstock was put in the inside so it shows through the heart. Clever idea.

This is Joyce's Christmas card. It is another type of gate fold card. Very adorable...love the snowman.

Jenni's card. The inside layer slides out. The card base is a dark purple. The orange looks really great with it. Jenni lives in Vacaville.

Here's Bonnie's card. Her cards are always so nice.

Julie's card. She was our hostess for this swap. She had to leave to help her sister with her one-year-0ld niece's birthday party so she couldn't stay. She did come back later. Anyway on her card, we used watercolor crayons on the pumpkin. Then used a blender pen to shade. This is not something I do very well. It looks ok though, I think.

Rhonda's card. This was her second swap and I do believe she is going to be one of our regulars. She lives in Antelope, not too far from me. Its been fun getting to know her.

And lastly, here are my cards. I think I did a little bit too much sponging around the buck.

And my second card. I'm not sure that I got what I was trying to do on the dove. Everyone thought it looked great.

Our next swap is sometime in October. We don't have a date yet or where it will be held. These sure are fun and the ladies are all so neat. I thoroughly enjoy being around them.

SCS Card Swap-Whipper Snapper & Penny Black Stamps

2010-08-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

I received my cards from the hostess of this Whipper Snapper & Penny Black Stamps swap the other day. I finally got the pictures taken.

I signed up for one Penny Black spot so I got 5 cards back. This first one was made by Gay. It is all sparkly. I love it! Loretta. So cute.

This is a square easel card made by Jean. Another cute card.

Leslie's hedgehog. I have this stamp. I love the color scheme she used.

Carol. Sweet Sheltie being led by a hedgehog. The whole image was cut out and popped up.

I signed up for 2 spots of the Whipper Snapper stamps so I got back 10 cards. This first one is by Carol. The turtles are adorable.

Here's the inside of the card.

Laurie. The sweetest scarecrow I've ever seen. :) It's a larger card so she included an envelope.

Lisa. She left some space for a sentiment. So cute!

Loretta. I got 2 Whipper Snapper cards and 1 Penny Black card from her. The image is completely cut out. Love the goggly eyes! :)

This is the other Whipper Snapper one from Loretta. The head of the cow was cut out and popped up. This is a seriously cute card...makes me smile. :)

Terry. I absolutely adore this card. Need to figure out how she made the flower.

Evelyn. She cut the image out and added a bbq fork brad. So cute!

Laura. Another adorable card.

Heather. Love the colors she used and the nesties she used to cut the layers.

Adelle. Another adorable card. That little pup is the cutest thing.

Another great swap.

Blog Candy

2010-08-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Visit Korin's blog Rejoicing Every Moment http://rejoicingeverymoment.blogspot.com. She is offering some awesome blog candy.

Korin has a small stamp company, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, located in Pennsylvania. I found her blog/company after finding her sister's blog. Both she and her sister are Christians.

Whipper Snapper Stamps & Penny Black Stamps SCS Card Swap

2010-08-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

I finally got these cards finished. They have been in different stages of completion. Today I was determined to sit at my craft table and finish them. They are for one of the card swaps on Splitcoast Stampers that I am participating in. I signed up for 2 Whipper Snapper Stamp spots and 1 Penny Black Stamps spot. Each spot was 6 cards so I made a total of 18 cards.

This card is for the Penny Black spot. It is the first time I have tried an oversize card, this is a 5 1/2 square card. I saw this image online and fell in love with it. I just had to order it. I love her, she is so innocent. The card base is yellow, then the striped designer paper. The next layer is one of the two turquoiseteal cardstocks that SU makes. I used Copics to color the image. The color I used for her dress has quite a bit of green in it, however it was the closest marker I have to teal or turquoise. I could have used a SU marker, I don't like them as well as I like the Copic markers. The ribbon is from AMuse Art Stamps. I thought she turned out rather cute.The next two cards are my Whipper Snapper stamps cards. I saw this cute image at Stampers Corner in Elk Grove. That is another stamp store that I go to once in awhile. Because there's so much color in the image, I didn't think it needed much added to it. The card base is SU's brillant blue. I backed the white layer with black and added the blue checked ribbon which I think I found at Michael's. I think its another cute card.

This is for the second Whipper Snapper spot. The tulip started off being red. I cut around the petals and was going to back it with black. I was going to use a black and red color scheme. Then I saw this paper at Michael's and wanted to use it. The red tulip looked okay with the pink cardbase and this paper, however, I didn't like how I had cut out around the petals. Doing "fussy cutting" is not something I do very well. So I decided to stamp the tulip over and color it pink. The pink ribbon I had in my stash. So, I like the new design. It looks very girly. :)

I need to package these up tomorrow and get them mailed. The cards are due to the hostess by the 11th so I'll send them priority mail and they should reach her by the 11th.

My stamp group has another shoebox card swap on the 14th so I need to get my cards done for that swap. The theme is holiday so I'm going to use a card I made in the AMuse class I took last month. I'll share the cards I get in return from this swap soon as I get them. :)

SCS Card Swap - Adorable & Cute

2010-07-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

My first card swap to host on Splitcoast Stampers has ended. I've sorted out all the cards I received and mailed them to the ladies that participated in the swap. A total of 19 ladies signed up and 16 actually completed the swap. Unfortunately I did not receive cards from 3 of the ladies that signed up. I believe, for some reason or another, their cards have gotten "lost" in the postal system. I understand from other ladies who do a lot of hosting on SCS that this does sometimes happen. I feel really bad for these ladies.

The ladies could sign up for more than 1 spot. They had to make a total of 4 cards, 1 card was for me, the hostess, and the other 3 were to be swapped with the others who signed up. The cards had to be different for each spot that they signed up for. Quite a few signed up for 2 spots and one signed up for 3 spots. All of the cards are fantastic.

The first two cards are from Candice. She leads our Shoebox Card Swap group here in Sacramento. She used "Bella" images.

Pat's (Patriciae) card.

The inside of Pat's card.

Heather's (darloudasha) card. This is Mimosa, a Bildmalarna stamp. These stamps come from Sweden. I ordered a couple of these stamps today. :)

Debbie's (B&D) card. I think it is called a step card and could be considered a fancy fold card.

The next 2 are Renee's (Handmadebyme) cards. I could see this as a card for a baby shower. So cute.

The next 2 are by Genie (sissymama2). The images are by Sugar Nellie which are from Scotland. I love these images and have gotten quite a few.

This is Diane's (Glamour) card. She signed up for 1 spot and she made all 4 cards different. I had a hard time trying to decide which one I wanted because they all were fantastic. Her use of Copic markers was so good on this image. This is probably my most favorite Sugar Nellie image.

The next 2 are Joani's (joeknee) cards. The images are from The Angel Company. She is the friend of one of the ladies that belongs to our Shoebox Card Swap group and lives in Tennessee.

She used Diamond Glaze on the sunglasses which is so cute. Diamond Glaze gives an image a raised glossy look. It can also be used to adhere jewels or other embellishments to cards.

Zavi's (mahoganygirl) card. Another Bella image. She decorated the inside of her card and included an envelope with the head of this image stamped on the envelope.

Jamie (Dandylionslayer) made 3 sets of cards. Here's her first one.

She also sent me some goodies. This is a snowglobe card. So clever!

Michelle's card. She's a sweet friend. The image she used on her card is by Gillian Roberts, another European stamp company.

Alex's (stampinalex) 2 cards. She actually made card fronts. She is a Stampin' Up demonstrator so she used all SU products. She has participated in our Shoebox Card Swaps and did an all day Stamp 'n Scrap Fest in Oroville the end of May. Candice and I attended and had a great time. I love the colors...they are all so bright and cheerful.

The next 2 are by Evelyn (scrap2bhappync). This first one is another Bella.

This may be The Angel Company image.

Julie (love-2-stamp) did the next 2. She is also a SU demonstrator and a part of our Shoebox Card Swap group. She is hosting our August 14th card swap.

Nancy's (jeanstamping2) 2 cards. These are The Angel Company images. She is a demonstrator for TAC.

McCine's (procrstnationiskey) 2 cards. She's been calling me Tutu. My SCS screen name is tutu1960. Tutu of course means grandmother in Hawaiian. She is from Guam and spent some time growing up in Hawaii. Its been fun talking "island slang" with her.

This is the cutest mermaid I've ever seen. The waves at the bottom of the card were probably done with a punch.

This is the inside of this card. Notice the fish paper clip.

To make it 20 ladies, I took 2 spots. Here's my first card...the image is by Rachelle Ann Miller.

And a Sugar Nellie image. I used a small paper doily behind the image layer. I cut it in half and sponged it with some blue ink. I found the crochet flower on Etsy...bought 10 of them for $3 and finished it off with a blue brad.

This is a very long post and I commend you if you stayed until the very end. I've thoroughly enjoyed hosting this SCS swap and "meeting" some awesome stampers via cyberspace. All of these cards are just awesome. Well, I hope they enjoy the cards they get in return. I'm hosting another swap on SCS which is due in November. It is card kits so it should be fun. A few of the ladies from this swap have joined me on the new swap.

Birthday Cards I Received

2010-07-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

Wednesday I celebrated my 68th birthday. Here are the cards I received in the mail. Several friends sent Facebook greetings and a couple of e-cards.

This sweet card was from Patricia from SCS. She participated in my card swap that I hosted on SCS and just completed the mailing. I love these Magnolia images. The color scheme that she used is aqua and cream. She also sent this card kit with the same color scheme. She included 4 pieces of designer paper, a strip of white stamped with a border punch, two kinds of ribbon (one of them is stretchy with the middle of the ribbon being fuzzy), a Magnolia image and a Sugar Nellie image, some buttons and a charm and different sizes of embossed butterflies.

This card was sent to me by the Williams family...Michelle, Andrew and Liberty. Michelle made the card. "Hau'oli La Hanau" means "Happy Birthday" in Hawaiian.

This sweet card was from someone who belongs to one of the Birthday Racks that I belong to.

This is another birthday rack card from someone on the AMuse birthday rack list. Lovely card.

One of my nieces, Amy and her husband Joe sent this card. It is super neat. The candle flames are beads and the decorations on the cake are all beads.

My step-daughter, Jenni and family sent this card. She loves cats. So sweet.

Jenni does all kinds of crafts including crocheting and knitting. I've been wanting some crochet flowers to use on my cards. She made these for me. There is a pink and red rose, some that have frilly petals, some singles and some doubles. I'm excited to be able to use them on my cards.

Gerry's Birthday Card

2010-07-29T20:58:00.001-07:00

Here is the birthday card that I made for Gerry last Saturday night. His birthday was on Sunday, the 25th.

I found this stamp at Stampers Corner, a stamp store in Elk Grove a few months ago and have been saving it to use for Gerry's birthday card. He is an avid cyclist so I try to find bicycle images for him.

The card base is kraft (tan), then there's a brown layer, a piece of Basic Grey designer cardstock that has browns, greens and tan stripes. The bicycle was stamped with brown ink on a piece of white cardstock. I paper pierced the left and right corners of the white layer. And that's it, very basic...its the kind of card he likes. I was going to stamp the bike in blue to go along with his new bike which is blue. I didn't like it so decided to go all brown. This is the inside of the card...a layer of white cardstock with a strip of the patterned card stock.

He posted a picture of his card on his Facebook so I guess he liked it. :) I will do a post on my Betty's Ramblings blog to tell you about our birthdays.

AMuseapalooza 2010

2010-07-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

In July of every year, AMuse Art Stamps releases their line of Christmas stamps. The Paper Garden Boutique hosts classes. Julie Ebersole of AMuse has come to Sacramento for the past 4 years to hold these classes at The Paper Garden. I've taken her classes for the past 3 years. We have a slight connection in that our mothers were born on the island of Kauai. Julie is part Filipino.

I took 2 of her classes last Saturday. She actually taught 4 classes on Friday and 3 on Saturday. One of the Saturday classes was using Copic markers. I took a class with Linda, the owner of AMuse stamps in April and didn't want to do another class. Actually, I had to think hard and long about taking classes this year. They are rather expensive, although there is a slight savings if more than 1 class is taken. I really wanted to see Julie so I decided to do it. The first class she taught on Saturday was using the different floral images that AMuse has.

This first card was cut with a circle cutter. We used a green ink pad to ink the stems and then inked the flower with Versamark. Then using a white embossing powder and a heat gun, embossed the flowers. There is a butterfly stamped on the inside. The ribbon is holding the two circles together. This card was fun to make. Three different inks were used, a green for the stems, a blue for the middle of the flower and then the edges were lightly inked with a darker blue. Julie didn't want to bring her Xyron machine with her so she found some wide sticky tape. We put that over the flowers and then dipped it in glitter. It is really pretty in real life. :)

On this card, we punched out 5 flowers using a scallop circle punch. Then we scrunched up each one and then took an emery board and roughed up the first blossom. The daisy center was punched out with a different punch. After they were all smoothed out, we stacked them and using a pin, make a hole in the middle of all 6 layers. I actually broke off the head of the pin we were using to make the hole in the center. After we got the hole made, we used a brad to hold it all together and with a glue dot, adhered to the card base. We had already stamped a leaf frond on the card base. The punched border on the green layer was done with a Fiskars border punched.

This next card is so awesome. Julie's sample was absolutely beautiful. First we stamped the leaves on a piece of white cardstock. Then we took some very sheer ribbon that is 5 inches wide and covered the white layer, adhering it to the back. Then we inserted a piece of white vellum behind the ribbon and stamped the rose on the ribbon. I did not ink up the stamp enough so I didn't get a clear image. The pearl sticker were then adhered onto the ribbon as was the sentiment. The pearls have a pink shimmer to them. The Paper Garden is suppose to be carrying this wide ribbon. I would love to make another one of these cards.

The next set of cards were made with some of the new Christmas stamps. The gingerbread boy and girl was stamped with Versamark ink and then embossed with white embossing powder. They were cut out and then popped up with foam tape. I don't like to "fussy cut" so don't look too closely at my handiwork. :) The sentiment was also popped up with foam tape. The strip of donuts was made using a border punch.

The snow people are new. I actually cut the curve on the white cardstock freehand. I was amazed at myself. We used a glue pen and put a glue line on the edge and used flower flock to look like snow on the edge. Copics were used to color the snow people.

The holly branch and sentiment is part of the new Christmas stamps. We stamped the holly on the branch and then stamped some of the holly on a separate piece of cardstock and punched them out. Those few are popped up with foam tape.

I realized that I didn't finish this card. There is suppose to be glitter on the snowflake, around the roof line of the house and along the ridges. I'll do it later.

I really like this card. We stamped the trees on white cardstock with Versamark and then embossed them with clear embossing powder. Then we took a piece of post it note, tore off a tiny bit of the top of the post it where the adhesive is and put the post it on the card. Then using a blue ink and a gray ink, sponged in the winter sky. When the post it was removed, there was a snow line. So elegant looking. I bought this stamp which comes with a leaf stamp on the side of it. I didn't get the sentiment, will have to get it later. The sentiment was stamped using the gray ink. I could easily do this for Christmas cards this year.

I wasn't going to post this card and then decided to do it anyway. It is made with a piece of clear acrylic. We stamped a large blossom on it with white Stazon ink. The layers are crooked, one of the reasons I wasn't going to post it.

Close up of the flowers.

There was a reception at The Paper Garden after the last class. It is by private invitation and given to those who have spent a certain amount of money during the year. I was surprised to get one this year. They have food to enjoy, this year there was chow mein, gyoza, won tons, fresh fruit, veggie tray, mochi and pieces of cake. This was all homemade by Stephanie's mother and aunts. Stephanie (the owner) is Japanese. Some really good deals are offered. I didn't partake of much of it, I was so tired and it was very warm in the store so I just wanted to get home. They also do make 'n takes so I did get the templates for those. All of this week there have been make 'n takes, however haven't been down to do any of them.

More SCS Card Swaps

2010-07-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

I received several card swaps in the mail this past week.

WEDDING/ANNIVERSARY CARD SWAP This card stamper makes the most awesome cards. I've gotten a card of her's in another swap. Enlarge the card to see how she made the little bit of liquid at the bottom of the glass shine.

The inside of the card.

This card has the Love Chapter from the Bible as its focal point.

WHIPPER SNAPPER STAMPS SWAP

Love this inch worm.

THE ANGEL COMPANY STAMPS CARD SWAP

This stamp company has been around for a long time. I have some cling stamps that I purchased several years ago. I don't use them so participating in this swap caused me to get them out and ink them up. Notice the small red buttons that were used on the scarecrow's pockets. Too cute!

A MUSE ART STAMPS CARD SWAP

I signed up for 2 spots in this swap.

On this card the black scalloped layer is the card base. The green patterned layer opens up to reveal the inside of the card.

A clear button was used over the sun. I have this stamp and the sentiment stamp and use it a lot. I love the color combination that was used on this card.

THROUGH THE YEAR CARD SWAP

I signed up for 3 different catagories in this swap. The first one was anniversary cards. I love this love bird stamp. Would love to find out what stamp company this is from.

These monkeys are adorable.

These cards are from the Sympathy card category. This is a beautiful card. The butterfly has 3 layers to it.

I love this card too although the different layers are a little crooked. Still it is very serene and elegant looking.

Another simple yet elegant card.

MALE CATEGORY CARDS

Cards for guys are difficult to make as stamp images are rather limited. This first card is actually one that I made for this category. It sometimes happens that you will receive one of own cards back. When that happens it means that there were not enough stampers that signed up for that particular category.

I want to try this style of a card sometime. That brad keeping the dark green layer closed, opens up to reveal the inside of the card.

Here's the inside of the card.

And the last card in that category. Pretty cute.

The number of cards required for any particular card swap is determined by the hostess in the initial setting up of the swap. It can be 4 cards total or 6 cards total, etc. One of the cards is always for the hostess so in the example above, a swapper would either receive 3 cards back or 5 cards back. I participated in an image swap where I had to stamp 12 images of the same stamp and I'll get back 10 images. Usually image swaps are images from one particular stamp company or stamps that are similar in design.

SCS Pocket Cards Card Swap

2010-07-02T22:26:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday I received the cards from the Pocket Cards Card Swap on Splitcoast Stampers. I signed up for 2 spots so I got 10 cards. We had to make 6 cards, 1 for the hostess and then 5 to swap. All of the cards are really nice. The next two cards were made by the same person. I almost did this pattern of pocket card.

This one is really sweet. It could be used for a baby shower invitation or baby thank you.

When the tag was pulled out, a tea bag was attached. Love it. I love the teapot stamp too.

This is an interesting card. When the ribbon is pulled out...

...a package of flower seeds came out. Very clever. The ribbon is around the seed package in the pocket.

This one was very different and smaller.

This is a flower pot pocket card. The flowers pull out.

I got a prize for signing up for 2 spots. Most swap hostesses give a prize for taking more than 1 spot in a swap. This is a clear stamp.

She also included a couple of stamped images.

The hostess for this swap lives in the north eastern section of Alabama.

Nor-Cal Paper Crafters Shoebox Card Swap-Saturday June 26th

2010-06-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, the 26th, 13 ladies from Shoebox Card Swap group got together and made cards and ate some yummy food. The theme for the swap was "Summer Fun, 4th of July, etc." The first two cards are the ones I made. The images are from AMuse on both cards. I put clear twinkle stickers on the sparklers and red stickers in the "God Bless America". The designer cardstock was purchased at Michael's. This is one of the cards I did for Elizabeth only it is a bigger size. I also cut a strip of blue cardstock for the ocean which I didn't do for the card I made for her. That card base was from AMuse and it had a strip of blue at the bottom as part of the card. I drew in some waves on my card. The ladies actually had to stamp the sailboat and clouds as it is basically a one layer card. I provided the Copic markers for them to do the coloring.

Julie submitted this card sample with kits for everyone. She was the one that was going to host June's swap and then had a conflict. She wanted to still play so she dropped off her card and kits to me on Friday night.

Michelle's card. She also couldn't come but wanted to play. I loved this card and thought it was quite clever the way she has the ribbon going diagonally across the card.

Linda did two cards also. On this one, she stamped the fish and circles around it on white cardstock, colored the fish, then enclosed some hair gel in a small plastic bag and glued that on top of the fish image. How clever is that!!

Linda's second card.

Karen's card. Another neat card. I didn't get my cards finished so I hope I can figure out how to put this one together.

Joyce's card. She just returned from a five week trip to Kentucky and made her cards while she was visiting there. A side note, her friend that she visited, joined my card swap that I am hosting on Splitcoast Stampers and made the cutest cards.

This is Jenni's super cute card. This is the second shoebox swap Jenni came to, her first one was the one I hosted last year in August. Jenni lives in Vacaville.

Tyana's card. She and Jenni are bestest friends and this was her first Shoebox card swap of ours that she attended.

Renee's card. The popsicle slides out of the card. Renee lives in Woodland. Another cute card.

Renee brought her mom, Sue, and this is her card. She said Renee helped her. She is a quilter and does other sewing. I went to Renee's last year for a workshop she had and met Sue there. So it was nice to see her again. She is a really sweet lady and lives in Lincoln.

The next two cards were made by Rhonda. This was Rhonda's first shoebox card swap with us. She happened to be lurking on SCS and saw the thread for our swap and decided to sign up. Her husband was not sure that she should do that because she didn't know "those people". She assured her husband we were good people because we're "stampers". She lives in Antelope, not too very far from me and shops at the same Bel Air as I do.

Lisa's card. This was her first time also. She and Candice, our fearless leader, are good friends and the two of them hosted a Stamp Retreat earlier this year. They are planning another one in September.

Pat did this adorable card...a popiscle on a stick. So clever!

The next two cards were made by Bonnie. Bonnie is such a neat person. She has had an overflowing plate with dealing with health issues of her husband. He is home now after being in the hospital having surgery and in a nursing facility. She works full time too. I was so happy to see her name on the sign up list and she mentioned that she really needed to play.

An adorable card!

And this last one is Candice's card. I love the color combination on her card. So very nice!!

L to R: Pat, Joyce and Linda.

L to R: Rhonda, Lisa and Candice.

L to R: Bonnie, in purple, and Karen.

Sue, Renee's mom.

L to R: Renee, Tyana and Jenni.

Well, we can't make awesome cards without yummy food to enjoy. This is Karen's chicken salad. YUM!!

Bonnie brought 2 salads. This is cole slaw with raisins. YUM!!

And her fruit salad.

Joyce's macaroni salad.

Tyana's pasta salad. This was so good!!

Jenni brought brownies. Gotta have chocolate! YUM!

My sliced fresh strawberries...

And pound cake slices from Bel Air to put the strawberries on top. I also had some Cool Whip.

Lisa's banana bread. I wanted to have some of this, however by the time I finished what I had on my plate, I had no room for dessert. It looked so moist and smelt incredible.

This is an oops. Didn't realize I had two pictures of Jenni's brownies. She left a few pieces and I brought them home to enjoy. Very good!!

Linda's pulled pork. She put root beer in with the pork when it was cooking then pours in a whole bottle of bbq sauce after it is cooked. She had rolls to put it on. This was incredible!!

Renee's incredible pasta casserole. It had sausage in it. She was driving us all crazy while she had it in the oven cooking. It was very good.

I realized that I forgot to get a picture of Sue's pulled pork dish, which was also wonderful; Rhonda brought a veggie tray with dip and Candice brought salsa with chips. We did not leave hungry.

We all had an amazing time. Our next shoebox swap is in August and Julie will be hosting.

I want to thank everyone who stayed to help clean up, put the tables back and the chairs around them, put the table cloths and centerpieces back on the tables and helped me carry all my stuff out to the van and made sure we left the clubhouse as we found it. We have an awesome group of ladies.

Palm Trees, Pina Colada's - SCS Card Swap

2010-06-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

These are the cards I received for participating in the Palm Trees, Pina Colada's SCS Card Swap. This card was made by Janet. Her origami swim suit is quite clever.

There was no name with this card so I don't know who made it. However, the card is adorable. I love the hula girl image. This one was made by Kathleen. She used sand paper for the sand. How clever!! She cut out all of her images and popped them up.

This is Diane's card. So very relaxing. Love this card.

Jess's card. The top of the coconut tree and the flamingo were stamped twice with the second one being popped up for dimension. The sentiment is popped up too.

This last card was made by Pam.

These ladies did a great job with their cards.

I Have A Winner!!

2010-06-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

On one of my previous posts, I shared a picture of a card kit that I purchased at the Scrap & Stamp Fest I attended the end of May. I said if anyone was interested in the kit to leave a comment on my blog.

Elizabeth, Amy, Michelle, Florence, Jalna and Yvonne left comments. I finally got around to writing every one's name on a slip of paper and a few minutes ago went outside and asked my friend Sherry to pick a slip of paper out of the basket I had the slips in. And she picked .... YVONNE! Congratulations, Yvonne, you've won the card kit I purchased at the Scrap & Stamp Fest.

Thank you to all of you for leaving a comment. I loved reading what you all had to say. So, Yvonne...send me an email message on Facebook with your address and I will send the card kit to you. If you would like to see what the cards look like again, check out this link: http://elegantreflections.blogspot.com/2010/06/playing-catch-up-on-here-too.html
Scroll down half way through that post to see the pictures. The colors used in the cards are golden yellows, orange, turquoise, yellow, some green.

I am happy to put the cards together for you. There is a box that comes with the kit and I would leave that for you to put together. There are pieces of sticky tape where the box needs to be taped down. An informational sheet comes with the kit with pictures of the cards and box if you'd like to put the cards together yourself. It might be easier if I put them together for you, however you are more than welcome to do it.

Look at the pictures and let me know. Thanks again, Yvonne!! :)

Two SCS Card Swaps Mailed Today

2010-06-18T22:50:00.001-07:00

I got the "Through the Year" and "Wedding Anniversary" card swaps mailed today. So I am up to date through July. I have one swap due in August, 2 due in September and 2 in October. So I can probably look in the threads and see if there is any others I want to join.

I got my first card and kits done for the Shoebox Card Swap next week Saturday. I'm going to do a second card for that swap. Then I can take a break for a little while. I need to take an inventory of my cardstock and see what colors I should think about replenishing. I use a lot of cardstock for these swaps. I need to find another source for purchasing cardstock besides Stampin' Up. Green Tangerines, a scrapbook store that was in Rocklin had a nice variety of colors. They closed several months ago. The stamp stores around town don't have as nice a variety of colors as Green Tangerines.

For the Shoebox card swap the theme is "Summer Fun - picnics, 4th of July etc.". For the card I finished tonight, I'm using one of the cards I made for Elizabeth, the one with the sailboat. The second card is going to be patriotic, something simple. I'll probably work on that tomorrow. I need to come up with something for favors. Any ideas?

Two SCS Card Swaps

2010-06-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the SCS Card Swaps I signed up for. These two swaps are due the first part of July. This first one is called "Through the Year" and there were different categories to sign up for. I chose Sympathy, Male Cards and Anniversary. Two of the cards for this swap are ones that I've made before. On this Sympathy card I changed the color scheme from the previous card I made using this layout and stamp. The base card is a dark peach, then a soft green that I used the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug embossing on, a layer of brown, peach and ivory. The stamp is from Stampin' Up's Artfully Asian stamp set. I used the yellow Marvy scallop oval punch for the sentiment and popped it up with foam tape. I used brown chalk ink to stamp and rolled the scallop oval through the ink. Also, Copics to color the image. The ribbon is a generic sheer ribbon edged in peach. This card is for the Male category. The stamps are Stampin' Up. I don't remember if I used Stampin' Up cardstock for the card base or not. The striped paper is some paper I have in my stash. I used a soft blue, black and then white that I stamped the bear on using brown chalk ink.

I've used this design so many times. It can be birthday or anything you would want to celebrate. This is my Anniversary card. The card base is dark teal, with a layer of black and then kraft. I used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder on this and then scored lines under the embossing on the top and bottom. The ribbon is from AMuse. I love this color combination. I need to find more of this teal, I think I used all I had for this card. The lady hosting this swap lives in Indiana where they've been having some really bad weather.

The next swap that is due in July is one for Wedding Anniversary cards. Again I've used this design before, I just changed the paper used for the butterflies and the ribbon. The card base is white as is the layer which I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on. I then scored lines under the embossing and at the bottom of the card. Its a little difficult to see that it is white on white. I cut the butterflies from a sheet of Basic Grey designer cardstock. It looks black, it's actually navy blue. The ribbon is navy blue also. I put some tiny pearl stickers down the middle of the butterflies and popped them up with foam tape. The hostess for this swap lives in Maryland.

I'll put these in the mail tomorrow. The next SCS swaps are due in August so I can take a little bit of a break. Although, I now need to get ready for another Shoebox Card Swap which I am hosting here at the park next week Saturday. We'll be using the clubhouse. Fourteen ladies have signed up so it should be a fun time. I was going to host in August, however, Julie who was going to host this month had an unexpected conflict so we are switching. She'll host the August shoebox swap.

The theme for this month's swap is Summer Time Fun or Patriotic. I don't know if I have anything that will work. I need to look and see what I might have, I don't want to have to go buy something. :) Yeah, right!!

SCS Card Swap - Whipper Snapper Stamps

2010-06-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

Scrapinnut620 is hosting a few swaps on Splitcoast Stampers. I signed up for 3 of them. This is the third one. The requirement was to use stamps from Whipper Snapper Stamps. I don't have any of them so ordered 3 stamps from this company.

Here's the card I came up with, the turtle's name is Tyson. I used Copics to color him. The card base is a dark teal. I've been hoarding this cardstock because I am not sure that I can get any more of this color. The layer of designer cardstock is from Basic Grey. Recently I purchased a set of Cuttlebug corner die cuts. This is the first time I've used them. I cut them using the reverse side of this piece of designer cardstock. I added some pearl stickers at the top right corner and bottom left corner. Here's a closeup of the die cut flourish. I've seen these used on cards when I've been surfing SCS or card blogs.

Inside of card.

Another of the die cuts from the Cuttlebug set. I flipped sides to cut these out. Since my card base is a dark color, I wanted to put a layer inside the card so something could be written inside and some sort of embellishment so it wasn't plain.

I'm pleased with the way the card turned out. Now to get all three swaps packaged and mailed out. I was going to do that today, it may be tomorrow or Monday. All three are due on 6/30.

Elizabeth's Cards

2010-06-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I finally finished the 12 cards Elizabeth asked me to make for her. I made 7 of them on Monday and then did the other 5 this afternoon. She came by to pick them up around 7pm this evening.

On the first one, I used the sketch of another card I made sometime ago. I used a stamp from Stampin' Up and colored the image with Copic markers and put pearl stickers in the center of the flowers. I used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder on the green layer and the print is from a Basic Grey paper pack. I got the decorative trim at Hancock Fabrics last week and wanted to see how it would work on a card. On the white layer I cut it out using a Nestability die and then popped it up with some foam tape. The card base is a dark pink. I'm not sure if I really like this card. I guess it looks okay. The card base on this one is a light aqua. I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder again on the large white layer. Then a piece of black and another piece of white that I stamped an image from Sassy Stamps. I used Copic markers to color the Dahlia in two shades of purple and green for the leaves. The little butterfly is a die cut that I received in my prize package from one of the swaps I participated in.

The other 10 cards were made using mostly A Muse products. She wanted 2 nicer ones and the rest to be simple. The butterfly was punched out using some paper from a Basic Grey paper pack. I used a thin piece of foam tape to adhere the butterfly and then pressed the wings towards the middle so it would look like the butterfly was in flight.

The note card I used for this card has the blue strip at the bottom of a white card. I thought it was perfect for water and decided to use this A Muse sailboat. I stamped the sun first then used a small round punch to punch it out. I used a Copic marker called Cool Shadow to outline the clouds.

On this card I used a pearl sticker in the middle of the flower to give it some dimension.

I love this card. The note card is a light aqua. Then there's a black checked cardstock layer and then the white. This particular A Muse stamp has the tiny bird on the end of the stamp. I was so proud of myself that I actually stamped the bird so it is sitting on the branch. The image was colored with Copics and a piece of sheer lavender ribbon finishes it off.

Another cute card. I used 2 different ink colors for the tiny flowers.

The cardbase on this card is Bordering Blue from Stampin' Up. The yellow check layer and the girl bear stamp is A Muse. The checker ribbon is from my ribbon stash.

Another cute card. The note card and stamp is A Muse.

I struggled with making this card. I used a sample I did from an A Muse class I took. I couldn't decide on the color scheme. The piece of cardstock that was used for the Sweet Shop stamp was scored at the top so an awning could be formed for the shop. Its the same cardstock as the strip behind it.

This is probably my favorite of all of them. I forgot to take a picture of this one so I called Elizabeth and asked her if she would take a picture and email it to me. I want to use this same layout again. I again surprised myself by getting the bird right on top of the mushroom. I used a fine point black pen to draw the little dots up to the bee and then used Crystal Stickles to highlight it. The dots on the mushrooms also have Crystal Stickles on them. I also outlined the bee with the Cool Shadow Copic marker.

So that was the last of the cards for Elizabeth.

This next card is one that I did for a SCS card swap. Stamps from The Angel Company had to be used. I've had this particular TAC stamp for several years. I didn't know for sure how it would stamp since it was so old. I thought it came out pretty good. There are some clear round stickers on the right side of the flower and used the same blue checked ribbon on this card as I did for one of Elizabeth's cards.

I joined 3 different swaps all being hosted by the same person. The above set is one of them. I have one more swap to do for this same hostess and then I can mail them all off together. This particular swap ends June 30th.

Tomorrow I need to get back to working on my swaps. I'll also be deciding on who will get the gift of the card set I mentioned on a previous post. There is still time to put your name in. Look at the "Catching Up" post to see the card set. To be considered, a comment needs to be left on the blog, either this post or either of the two previous posts. It can't be an email comment, it has to be left on the blog!

Clarification on Gifting the Card Kit

2010-06-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that I will gift the card kit I purchased at the Scrap & Stamp Fest to someone who leaves a comment.

It needs to be a comment left on the blog itself. It can't be an email reply to those of you who receive an email when I post something new and it can't be a Facebook post unless it is on the Facebook Elegant Reflections page itself.

So play and let's see if anyone wants it. Thanks!!

Playing Catch-Up on Here Too!

2010-06-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

I made these two cards in an A Muse class last month with Linda Carnell, owner of A Muse. So I decided to use these designs for an A Muse card swap I signed up for on Splitcoast Stampers. I used my stamp positioner on this card so I would get the flower center in the center and to stamp the leaves around the flower. There are 2 flowers joined together with a brad. I used my finger nails to curl the petals up. Love the colors on this card and think it turned out pretty nice. On this one, I used a Martha Stewart punch to punch the butterflies out then used my Xyron machine to put adhesive on one side of the butterfly. After I did that, I put the sticky side of the butterfly into some glitter then used some foam tape to pop the butterfly up. The layer that I used a wood block stamp on is also popped up.

These next two cards are for a SCS pocket card swap. The card base on this one is purple with designer paper used as layers. The base of the insert is ivory with a layer of designer paper. The birds were punched out with a Martha Stewart punch using the same paper as the one used on the bottom of the card. They were popped up with foam tape as was the sentiment layer. The ribbon is holding the card together. I really like this one. Love the colors even though there are several being used.

This card I really struggled with putting together. I found a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers that I followed. I started with a piece of 5x11 white cardstock. After scoring the cardstock as shown, I used my paper cutter to cut the sections out for the pockets. I ended up using a scissors to cut some of it after wasting several pieces of white cardstock. The layers on the white piece are from a Creative Memories paper pack that I got at the stamp garage sale I went to last month. After the white piece was all put together, it is layered to a piece of Always Artichoke cardstock from Stampin Up, then the card base is Confetti Cream also from Stampin Up. The sentiment on the tag is from A Muse. Ignore my uneven cuts on the tag! :) I wasn't sure how to embellish the card so at the Scrap & Stamp Fest last Saturday, I asked Alex what she thought. She suggested the circles, button and ribbon to complete the vintage look of the card. I cut 3 circles - brown, always artichoke and confetti cream. I found the buttons and ribbon at Hancock Fabrics. I knotted a piece of cording through the button and the ribbon is satin. When I started this card, I wasn't liking it at all, however, the finished project is quite nice.

This is a make 'n take card we did at the Scrap & Stamp Fest with a technique which is creating faux leather. The silver piece of cardstock first had Versamark ink smeared all over it; it started off as gray. Then silver embossing powder was put all over it, the excess shaken off and then a heat gun used on it. A few of us had to do some spots over. The last step was running it through a Big Shot with an embossing folder. It is pretty cool looking in real life. The other technique used on this card was to use a color spritzer tool with a color marker. The spritzer holds a marker and then squeezing the ball part of the spritzer, color is applied to your project. You can see it on the piece with the motorcycle. Pretty cool!! Love the colors on this card too.

This next card is the graduation card I made for Shane Anderson who graduated from Roseville High School last Friday night. There's a post of the night on my Betty's Ramblings blog. His school colors are black, orange and white. The card is very simple and quick. I made it in just a few minutes Friday afternoon. I used the Smooch in gold on the diplomas. This is a paint that when dried has a pearlized look. It comes in several colors. I have it in gold, black, red, green and blue.

Alex had a few projects for sale and this is the one I purchased. It was the only card related one. It is four cards with a box to hold them in. So this is another project to work on. I don't know if I will keep it or give it to someone. Umm...I just thought of an idea. If anyone out there in blogland that reads my blog, would love to have it, leave a comment and I will gift it to someone.

I think that is all for right now that's been happening with my cards. I have another card swap almost finished and 6 more swaps to do. Besides those, I have cards to make for our June Shoebox Card Swap coming up on the 26th of this month. I was going to do the August Shoebox card swap, however I switched with Julie who was the hostess for June. She had an unexpected conflict so I said I'd do June. She'll do August.

Birthday Cards

2010-05-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Another Tilda Card Kit Swap Card & a Card From Jalna

2010-04-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

Here's another Tilda card kit swap card that I received last summer. I worked on it last week and finally finished it yesterday. This is the card I used Stampin Up markers to color Tilda. I am not happy with the way it turned out. I should have used my Copics. At any rate, overall, I think she turned out pretty cute. The two pieces of designer paper fit perfectly the "Tilda in the Rain" image. My blogger buddy, Jalna, sent me a CD of the pictures she took at Kaimuki High School's Class of 1960 50th Reunion banquet. I blogged about her doing this for me on my "Betty's Ramblings" blog. Anyway she included this card with the CD that she made some time ago. The card base is a light gray and then the off white layer is paper that she made. She mentioned she might do a post on her blog how to make handmade paper. I'd love to learn how. I think it would look really great on Asian cards. I love the image she used and she cut around part of the image.

It is a beautiful card!! Thank you, Jalna!!

A Muse Art Stamps Classes

2010-04-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

Linda Carnell, the owner of A Muse Art Stamps in Seattle, WA, was in Sacramento this past weekend. She taught a few classes at The Paper Garden Boutique located in Town & Country Village. This is the stamp store that I purchase a lot of my stamp supplies from and have taken several classes here too.

I signed up for two classes to be held on Saturday. There was an opening in the third class she was teaching so I decided to take it also. I've actually gotten the pictures out of order. The first group of pictures was actually the second class she taught entitled Linda's Favorites. I will say that the cards have a lot of mistakes on them. They are samples so I'm not too concerned about it. On this first card, the butterfly was punched out using a piece of vellum paper. Then we put the butterfly through a Xyron Adhesive machine so it was sticky on one side and then we dipped the butterfly in glitter. I think this machine is going to be my next toy. On this card, we stamped the leaves on the card base first. Then stamped them again on the white square and punched that out using a fancy square punch by Marvy. Then we stamped the flower and sprinkled Simple Stick liberally on the flower, took the powder off and heat set it from the back just until it started to turn. I used the heat gun just a second too long on the center of the flower. Then we dipped the flower in glitter and shook a little of the glitter off. When the card is turned sideways, it is glittery all over, looking at it right side up, the center looks like there is no glitter on it. We used a Fiskars border punch on the pink checked strip.

This card would have been so pretty if I had done it correctly. The huge flower was stamped first. Then using some sticky tape, we stamped just a part of the petals on the sticky tape. We were suppose to cut around the petals, put the tape over the flower and stamp the other three images. I forgot to cut my mask. :( Then we used a chalk pencil and colored in the petals a little, then using a finger tip, we pulled some of the chalk down over the rest of the petals. It depended on the amount of chalk used on the petals as to how light or dark the flower would be. These chalk pencils are rather expensive so I am going to check out Michael's and see if they carry them and then use a 40% coupon. The Paper Garden sells them for about $30 for a set of 12 pencils.

On this card, the whale was paper pieced. We stamped the wave first, stamped the whale on a separate piece of cardstock and then cut it out. The waves at the top were done with a Fiskars border punch. Then we used 2 different Copic markers to color in the wave.

On this card, we stamped the center first and punched out the flower with a Marvy flower punch. There are 2 flowers, punched a small hole in the middle and used a brad to join the 2 flowers together. The ends of the flower are curled up; we were instrusted to use the end of our scissors to curl the petals up. A bone folder could also be used. I did it by using my finger nails. The leaves were stamped first on the white.

The last card of this class was made with 3 different colors of cardstock and three different border punches. Two of them were by Fiskars and one was a Martha Stewart border punch. After we punched out the edges, we cut between the scallops and curled up the ends. We made 6 cards in this class.

This next group of pictures was actually the first class called Fabulous Folds. The first card is an easel card. The color scheme is a light lavender with green. Um, I thought I took a front view of this card. I probably forgot to upload it. :)

The next one is a tri-fold. The cardstock was scored at 3 inches for two panels with the third panel being 3 and a half inches. We used a tag punch to punch out the shape in the middle panel. The grass was stamped through the opening and then opened up to stamp the flowers. The little snail is one of the new A Muse stamps for spring. A Fiskars border punch was used on the bottom edge. This is not a very good picture, hopefully you get the idea.

And here's the card opened up.

On this card, there is a strip of pink checked card stock that we scored at 1/2 inch and 1 inch across the length of the strip. Then it was folded to form pleats, taped all together and used a pinking shears to finish off the edge. It would have been better to pink the edges before folding it and taping it together. The edge looks really rough. I tried to take a side view so you could see how it looks, however it didn't work real well.

This last card was a little difficult to do and in fact, Linda did some surgery on my card. We had 2 strips of cardstock 1 1/2 inches by 11 inches. We used a Fiskars border punch to punch the edges of both strips. Then we folded the strips between the scallops and taped the strips together. We had 2 orange circles. One orange circle was used on the back of the strips after they were gathered together to form a circle. Then the top orange circle and white circle were taped to the top of this circle. We had to use lots of score tape to hold everything together. Oh, we stamped a flower on the base first so we'd have a stem. This is a clever idea, don't know if I'd want to attempt doing this again.

Here's a closeup of that folded circle flower.

The last class Linda taught on Saturday was a class using the Copic markers. I wasn't going to take it, however she had a cancellation and decided to go ahead and do it. She had this little booklet all made up for us.

She had some general information included in the booklet.

Then a few pages of images to practice using the Copics. This first practice page was using a light color to highlight an image like the clouds and buildings. I do this on some of my cards.

This was using one color to do blending and shading. The green dress is close to what it should be using this application. You are suppose to figure out where the light source is coming from and the area away from the light source is darker. I didn't do very well with the rest of the images.

This is 2 color blending. The first birdhouse is a good example.

The next practice was using a blender pen which is filled with alcohol. If two or more classes were taken, we received a free blender pen. For those that had a blender pen already, they could pick out another color pen from the store. We took a dark color and made a large rectangle and then using the broad end of the blender pen, made bricks. The picture will have to be enlarged to see it. On the next one, we made circles and then held the blender pen in the middle of the circle. I don't have a good example; this method can be used for do rain drops. And the last one, we used two different colors, a blue and a green. One mermaid's tail was first colored with green and the other with blue. Then we used the blue over the green and the green over the blue. Then using the blender pen drew through the scales on her tail. It was suppose to change to different colors. I didn't see any difference and it bled out of the image.

This last practice was pretty cool. Using two different colors, 1 a dark and the other a light. Taking the tip of the dark, we held it over the broad tip of the light and color was transferred from the dark to the light. This method is a good way to make grass or fire from a camp fire or even rays from the sun. It just takes a little bit of ink to do this and it doesn't hurt either marker.

She then went over the different types of Copics of which I have all three. The first one is called Ciao, its round and is the least expensive of the three. The next one is a sketch marker, oval in shape and has the most colors, over 300. The third one is an Original, square in shape and is the only one of the 3 with a fine nib on one end. This one also has the most interchangeable nibs, 10 I think she said.

The original has a small nib on one side and a broad nib on the other with a point on one side of the nib.

The original and ciao markers have the same type of nibs on both ends.

This is the ciao.

And to compare the looks of the Copic markers, here is a Stampin' Up marker. They have a brush nib on one side and a really small nib on the other.

The Copic markers are alcohol based and the Stampin' Up markers are water based. I prefer the Copic markers over the Stampin' Up markers because when color is laid down on an image, it does not streak and the paper does not pill up. Not all inks will work with the Copic markers so if the correct ink is used, it won't bleed out of the lines of the image. It will bleed through the paper to the back of the image. That doesn't matter since it will be covered with another layer of cardstock. I will do another post tomorrow with a card that I used Stampin Up markers on showing that the results were not as good.

The Copic markers are expensive, the Ciao about $4.00 each and the Sketch and Original markers about $6 or $7. I look for them on sale on the internet.

I am finishing up this post on Tuesday, 4/27. I started it last night and was too tired to proof read and post.

Two A Muse Classes Today

2010-04-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

Linda, the owner of A Muse Art Stamps in Seattle, WA is at The Paper Garden boutique this weekend teaching a few classes. I signed up for two of them today. The first one is at 10 am and the second one at 1 pm.

Her classes are always fun and she always has a wealth of information to share. So I am ready, packed up and ready to go. We have to take our own tool kits for classes which is no problem since we do the same for our Shoebox Card Swaps. I did get me a new tote to use. I'll take a picture of it later and show you. It is bigger and so much nicer than the actual tool box Gerry got me.

I will take pictures of the cards we make and post them later.

Have a great weekend. Oh, I do have another card kit swap card to show you later too. :))

Tilda

2010-04-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

I spend a lot of time at night looking at the blogs of different stampers, the galleries of card company websites and the gallery at Splitcoast Stampers. One night while cruising, I found this card and really liked it. I have this Tilda image by Magnolia Stamps. I had gotten a pad of black and white scrapbook paper at our last Nor-Cal Shoebox Card Swap with a container of yellow Prima flowers and thought the combination would be great. I went up to Joann's today to look for some eyelet lace trim to use on my cards and saw this pad of cardstock. It is cream and black and all the paper pads were 40% off. Some of the cardstock has flocking on it. So I got the pad.

And I got 3 yards of this ivory cotton eyelet lace. I also got a couple of spools of white eyelet lace. This particular one was sold by the yard.

And here's the card I put together this afternoon. It is not an exact CASE of the other card. I'm not sure if it really works. I used my Copic markers to color her and I'm not real thrilled with the way it turned out. I probably should have used some other colors. The cardstock I used has flocking on the images. I used a Fiskars border punch on the edge, however it is hard to see it. The eyelet lace was probably too heavy to use. The edges started to fray after I cut it so I folded a tiny piece on the ends and glued it down. I actually stamped 2 images and was going to pop up one of them, then decided not to. I don't do a good job in cutting images out, mainly because I can't see well enough to do it. I guess it looks alright. And on the rectangle, I used a Nestabilities and used my Cuttlebug to cut and emboss it.

Then I sponged the rectangle with VersaMagic Gingerbread ink to cover the white a little. The card base is black.

So what do you think?

Card Kit Swap

2010-04-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

Last summer one of the card swaps that I participated in on Splitcoast Stampers was making up card kits. I received 5 kits in the swap and they've been laying around waiting for me to put them together. One of the instructions for the swap was to include a recipe for putting the kit together or a picture of a finished card using the items in the kit. Well, none of the kits I received did either.

I decided to play with this particular one yesterday and finished it up this afternoon. I loved the colors that were included in the kit. I wasn't too crazy about the image yet I thought I would see what I could come up with. So here's my finished card. The layout is not something I would normally do. I attempted to do some shading with the Copic markers I used. Not the greatest attempt, yet it looks okay. I am pleased with the finished card. I need to find some of the slider charms that was included with the ribbon. I like how that looks. Now I'll see what I can do with the other kits I have. Oh, I wanted to say, this layout is completely my own. I did not take it from any other source, Splitcoast Stampers included. That is usually what I do, look on Splitcoast, find something I like then try to change it a little so it is not an exact CASE (copying and sharing with eveyone). :))

I've been wanting to host a card swap on Splitcoast so yesterday I put up a new thread for a swap. It is called "Adorable and Cute Cards" Here's a link for it if you want to go look. My friend Candice is the only one that has signed up so far. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=488359

So, if you are reading my blog and would like to join in, please do so. These swaps are a lot of fun and the cards are amazing. I'm back to my craft table to try and do another kit.

A Guy Card, Cards for SCS Card Swap

2010-04-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

I've been busy at my craft table this week. I needed to make a guy birthday card. As a lot of stampers do, I struggle with trying to come up with an idea for a guy card. I remembered I had this sailing ship stamp. I think I've used it before for either my son-in-law or my grandson. :) So I inked it up with a grayish blue ink pad. I don't even remember which one I used. :) The card base is navy blue. I used a strip of pattern cardstock from a Memory Box paper pack. The ship is backed with a piece of gray and I used SU's ticket corner punch. It is not all that exciting. The card is for Dave Arnold whose birthday was Thursday, April 15th. Kazumi, the owner of the Japanese restaurant where I eat every week, wanted another card made with the same sentiment that I used on one of the cards she bought last week. And she wanted flowers. So I put this together. The card base is lavender. I think the border punch is one by Fiskars. I colored the daffodil with Copics and tried to do some shading. As you can see, I did not do a very good job. I've seen cards on other stampers' blogs where they've done shading and blending with the Copics and they are gorgeous. I'll take the card to her this next week and see if she likes it. I used some sheer, polka dot ribbon and purple crystal sticker to finish the card.

I've signed up for more card swaps on Splitcoast Stampers. The first one is due May 6th and the cards are "Ladybugs, Butterflies and Dragonflies". I signed up for Butterflies. The card base is SU's Handsome Hunter, then a black layer and the white is SU Ultrasmooth White. I used Cuttlebug's embossing folder called Leaves on the white layer. I inked up the EF with a dark green ink and ran the card stock through the Cuttlebug. I didn't like the results so I just did it plain. I had the hardest time getting the EF clean again. LOL! I used card stock from two Basic Gray pads called Infuse and Blush for the butterflies. The large butterfly was cut with Cuttlebug's Butterfly Die Cut and Embossing Folder. There are 4 EF's in the set and the one I used is the Swiss Dots. Each butterfly looks a little different depending on what part of the cardstock I used. I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots EF for the small butterflies and used Martha Stewarts butterfly punch. The pearl stickers were part of my prize package I got at our Nor Cal Card Swap a couple of weeks ago.

Since I finished my butterfly cards, I decided to sign up for a spot doing a dragonfly card. I CASED a layout on SCS for this card. The SCS card used butterflies and a similar color for the card base. I used SU's Cool Carribean for the card base, Mellow Moss for the next layer and a new Martha Stewart border punch I just got at "Tuesday Morning" for $4.00. The white is Neenah Solar White that I stamped a flourish stamp on with Colorbox Chalk ink in Blue Lagoon. I think the flourish stamp is a Hero Arts stamp. I'm not sure because I got it in a set that was on clearance at The Paper Garden. The dragonflies were punched out with a Marvy punch using a piece from Basic Gray's Perhaps paper pad. Ribbon from A Muse, crystal stickers from Hero Arts and sentiment from A Muse finish off the card.

I will put these in the mail the first of next week. The other swaps are "Palm Trees & Pina Colada's" due June 1st, "All Kinds of Pocket Cards" due June 18th and "Wedding and Anniversary Cards" due July 6th. I'm thinking about hosting a swap on SCS. Its not hard, just have to think of a theme, post it on SCS and wait for stampers to sign up. The requirements are pretty simple: no vendor required, either 4 cards or 6 cards to make, and at least 2 layers and 1 or 2 embellishments, and good quality cardstock.

A stamping friend who lives in Oroville is hosting an all day stamp and scrap workday. The cost is $55 which includes lunch, dinner, snacks and soft drinks. There will be make 'n takes during the day, demonstrations of different techniques and stamping or scrapbooking all day. I am thinking of going with my other stamping friend, Candice. It will be a great time to work on swaps.

Next week Saturday I am taking two classes at The Paper Garden with Linda, who is the owner of A Muse Art Stamps in Seattle, WA. I have taken classes from her before when she's come to town so am looking forward to seeing her next Saturday.

Cards & Other Goodies From Card Swap Today

2010-04-10T16:46:00.001-07:00

Our card swap group had another swap today. Karen hosted this swap at her home in Folsom. In attendance were Candice, Linda, Joyce, Bonnie and myself. Karen was an excellent hostess. These items are the favors she had for each one of us, an assortment of CHOCOLATE, a stamp, a post-it note holder and some "S" curve clips. There were 4 gold ones and 4 silver ones. I've seen these at different places, however have not known how to use them. I'll have to play with them and see what I can do.Oops, I didn't mean to post a second picture. :)

She also made each of us this easel calendar. At our last swap Candice made an easel St. Patrick's Day card and Karen used the same dimensions to make this calendar. So super cute. That is a small post it note pad on the right hand corner.

Instead of voting on each other's card, she got prizes for each of us. She and Bonnie drew names. This is what I got. A container of different size yellow Prima flowers, a package of pearl and crystal twinkle stickers, a package of decorative paper clips, a small roll of black ribbon with white dots, a clear stamp and package of scrapbook decorative paper. The theme of the package I picked was black and white. Even the gift bag was black and white.

This is the pad of scrapbook decorative paper.

Each of us except for Joyce made up two card samples. This is Joyce's card sample. All of the cards were simple yet so very nice. Joyce used watercolor pencils and an aqua painter brush to color her images. I believe she said she used a Stampin' Up stamp. So very nice!!

This is one of Candice's cards. It is the size of a gift enclosure card. The color combination was great. This is all Stampin' Up products.

Candice's second card. Again, beautiful color combination. She brushed ink on the top of the card and I forgot to do that. I'll fix it later.One of Linda's cards. The grape vine stamp is an older Stampin' Up set that has been retired for a long time. She used the SU crackle background stamp. I don't know if it is noticeable or not, on the white layer that has "Birthday Wishes" on, we crumbled the cardstock and then smoothed it out before layering it to the black layer. It is a very nice effect. Love this card, could be used as a guy card.

Linda's first card sample. I used dimensionals for the stars so they are raised. I can't remember if she did that on her sample. Great card!!

One of Bonnie's card samples. Another great color combination. So cute!!

Bonnie's first card sample. This is a new SU stamp set. Cute card! We were glad Bonnie had a chance to join us today. Her husband is in the hospital, he had surgery a couple of weeks ago and is having some serious issues. So, remember she and her husband in prayer. She told us today that the prayers of a lot of people have been so very much appreciated and felt.

Karen's first card. I had my mouth hanging open when she showed us her sample. This card is so super fantastic. I don't know if you can see the gold piece sticking out from under the black layer. She used a Fiskar's border punch to do that. It is actually a Greek key punch yet it looks so Asian. I have the stamps she used for this card. Just need to find the border punch and I will be casing this card. So beautiful!!

Karen participated in another swap a couple of weeks ago and this is the card sample she did for that swap. I was taking a picture of it and she told me I could have the card. I had a turkey stamp she wanted to borrow so she said this card was for letting her use my stamp. I am so grateful for having the card. She used a clear acetate card and stamped the bamboo on the acetate with Stazon black ink which is a permanent ink. It takes a long time to dry. The small red card is on the inside and to cover the glue on the back of the red piece, she glued a black piece on the back of the card. The red and black circles are glued to the front of the card, then a gold piece is glued on the inside, again to hide the glue. She strung some beads on gold thread, punched a hole on the top left corner and adhered the beads there. I am definitely going to CASE this card. I absolutely love it!

Here's a closer view of the beads.

This is Karen's second card, definitely a guy card for Father's Day. The card itself is white. She cut the white cardstock on the top so a collar could be formed. The ends were folded down and some glue put on the inside to hold it down, then brads at each point. The striped piece is scrapbook paper which was glued to the white to form the shirt body, the tie and pocket are separate pieces. The tie tack is a brad. The card opens up at the bottom and Happy Father's Day is stamped inside. This is so clever!!

Here are my card samples. The white card on the left is one that I did in a Fabulous Folds class that Julie Ebersole from A Muse Art Stamps in Seattle, WA taught last summer. She has been coming to The Paper Garden the last two years in July during Amuseapalooza. This is A Muse's promotion for their new winter stamps. Julie will be here again this year in July and I will be taking her classes again.

I was going to do my sample just like the class card and had everything already cut out. Then I thought about using scrapbook paper and doing a completely different color combination. So I came up with this. I believe Julie called this a ladder card. The top piece of designer cardstock is scored and folded at different places. When folded you have 4 pockets. I cut out a tag using Julie's example, stamped it with a flower, added a twinkle sticker in the center of the flower and added the ribbon. I really like how it turned out. My husband even commented that he really liked the card. So a big Mondo thank you and hug to Julie. Your cards, Julie, are the greatest! See you soon!!

This is my second card. I pulled this sample out of my card stash. I love the color combination and by using this card, I didn't have to come up with another design. :) Using my Cuttlebug and the Swiss Dot embossing folder, I embossed a strip at the top and botton and then scored two lines. You will probably have to enlarge the picture to see the embossing and score lines. In the past, I've made this card and added punched out butterflies as embellishments. Twinkle stickers would look good too.

Our next swap is in June. I am looking forward to that one and more great cards!!

Two New Cards

2010-03-30T15:59:00.001-07:00

I shared on my "Betty's Ramblings" blog last week that I bought myself a new toy, a mini sewing machine made by Janome. A blogger friend of mine has one and uses it on most of her cards. I like the way her cards look when she adds stitching to them and wanted to do the same on my cards.

Unfortunately, the machine had a problem with the tension. Regardless of where I set the tension, the stitching was not correct. So yesterday, after spending a good part of the day and watching a couple of tutorials, I asked Gerry to box the machine up for me. This morning we returned it to Hancock Fabrics where I had purchased it. I took a sample of the stitching with me so they could see what the machine was doing.

This is the card I wanted to put stitching on. I was going to straight stitch around the two pieces of designer scrapbook paper and then use a zigzag stitch around the image. I finished up the card last night and thought it came out okay. I used my Copics to color and then the flowers were part of my first prize that I won at our card swap in February. I put a pearl sticker in the middle of the flowers. Here is another card I just finished. The stamp is one that I have had for a while. I think it was among the first stamps I purchased when I first started making cards. I used Copics to color it and tried to use the same color scheme that is on the picture on the stamp itself. I think I should have used a lighter gray on the wheelbarrow or another color for it. I daubed VersaMagic Gingerbread chalk ink all around the image to cover the white cardstock. It doesn't really show up very well. Not real happy with the end result. I finished it off with some sheer black edged ribbon from A Muse.

I need to come up with card samples for our next card swap which is April 10th. I have some other new stamps that I will be playing with and will post whatever I come up later.

Two New Cards

2010-03-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

I made this card last week. I needed to mail a check to the person hosting our next Shoebox Card Swap. So made a quick card to send. It is all A Muse except for the scallop punch which is by Fiskars and the white cardstock is Neenah Solar White which is great to use when coloring with Copic markers. I stamped the images using Chalk ink. This is the card I made for my sister Eke's family. The products are all by Memory Box which I had just gotten in the mail. I used two different colors of Stickles glitter glue on the flowers. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Hannah's Birthday Card

2010-03-06T21:20:00.001-08:00

Hannah Marie Strempke celebrated her 16th birthday today with a pizza party at Round Table Pizza that is located close to their house. She is the middle daughter of our oldest daughter Elizabeth. Her actual birthday is March 4th.

Hannah loves pandas so I made this card for her. I've used the same image on cards for her on other birthdays.

I CASED the layout, sort of, from one I saw on Splitcoast Stampers. The CASE had a couple more layers and an inchie was used as the image. I stamped a bamboo stamp on the red layer using Versamark ink. I think I need a new pad because it does not show up very well. The only coloring I did was to color the bamboo the panda is holding. I used Copic G85 Verdigris (a dark green) for the bamboo and C1 Cool Gray to create a highlight around the panda. A chop stamp and some gold cord around the fold of the card finished it off. I will have pictures of her party on my other blog later, if not tonight then tomorrow.

Sympathy Card

2010-03-02T17:25:00.001-08:00

I made this Sympathy card this afternoon to send to Mrs. Hotoke, the widow of Mr. Shigero Hotoke who was my former choir director at Kailua High School. I've used this card layout before. I cut a piece of burgundy cardstock 5 1/2" by 4 1/4". It is just one layer. Then I cut the white layer 4" by 10 1/2 inches and scored that piece at 5 1/4". It is adhered to the top of the burgundy layer. The cherry blossom stamp is by Stampendous. I used Copic markers RV13 Tender Pink and R11 Pink to color the cherry blossoms; E15 Dark Suntan for the stems and YG23 New Leaf for the leaves. After I colored the flowers, I used a clear gel glitter pen and went over them for a little sparkle. It doesn't show up very well. The sentiment stamp is a generic one. I used a small Marvey scallop oval punch (yellow) for the sentiment and then edged it with Rouge Chalk ink. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch. I used a scrap of designer cardstock to punch it out. I used a pop dot for the sentiment and a tiny piece of foam tape for the butterfly to pop both of them up. The wings of the butterfly are folded up too so it looks like it is in flight. Then the ribbon is some that I got from Ellen Hudson LLC in Seattle, WA. Whenever an order is placed, she includes some ribbon. It is a beautiful burgundy satin ribbon.

I love the way the card came out and I hope Mrs. Hotoke likes it.

Nor-Cal Paper Crafters Shoebox Card Swap on Saturday

2010-02-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

Saturday started off as a stormy, ugly morning, however 9 of us gathered at Candice's house in Rancho Cordova to make cards.

In this picture is Karen, Candice and Joyce. Candice is the coordinator for Nor-Cal Paper Crafters group. Karen is hosting the next swap in April. She lives in Folsom. This is Pat. Pat does Dove Chocolate tasting parties. Yum!!

And Julie. She and Pat are close friends.

Unfortunately I neglected to get pictures of the other ladies. Sorry, ladies. Also attending was Michelle, Linda who lives in Galt and Joyce brought her daughter, Janet.

This is Julie's card. We used bleach on the center image, however I think I didn't get enough bleach on the image. It is suppose to turn white. So I will have to do it over. She used Versamark and stamped the image on the card. I really like this card.

This is Karen's card. The frog was done by using different punches. At the swap that we did in August of last year here at the mobile home park, Karen did a Frankenstein Halloween card and it had goggly eyes and lots of pieces. I think Karen likes cards with lots of pieces. Cute card!!

Candice's card is called an easel card. I loved the color scheme, kraft paper, olive green and white. Super card!

Here is a side view of her card.

Linda made this card. Another super card and great color scheme. Olive green, blue, black and white.

Michelle made 2 cards. This is her Mother's Day card. She used a clear gel glitter pen on the butterflies for a little sparkle. The butterfly punch is one of my Martha Stewart punches that she used. Absolutely love the card, told her I'm going to have to borrow the stamp.

This is her Easter card. She told everyone she used things from "Betty's store" to make her cards. :)) The card base is cardstock that I have, the ribbon is from my vast supply and the corner punch is one of mine. The card base has a little bit of sparkle in it. She used the clear gel glitter pen on the flowers surrounding the cross adding more sparkle. I think it is a very classic card and I love it even if she did visit "my store". :)

Joyce also made 2 cards. The color on this birthday card is brown, pink and white. I like this one too.

This is Joyce's Easter card. This card is so sweet. I can see this image being used for a baby shower, invitations or thank you cards.

Pat's Easter card. The Easter eggs were all punched out. She cut the basket using the Cricut die cut machine. There were other pieces to decorate the basket and I neglected to get them. Oh well, its okay. It looks fine as it is.

Everyone did an excellent job with their cards.

This bag of goodies was at each person's place. Reese's peanut butter pieces, Hershey kisses and a stamp. I got a butterfly.

I've included the cards I made again for a reason.

And the reason is because --- drum roll --- I won 1st place. I was totally shocked. I don't ever win anything. Here's what I won: 2 Martha Stewart punches and a tube of Prima flowers.

Thank you, ladies, for your votes. I don't have these 2 punches so I am happy to have them (I really need more punches). LOL!! The tub I have them in is overflowing.

So, in spite of the rain, we had a great time. The rain did stop by the time we all left. I forgot to take pictures of our potluck. Karen made chili, I had my hot dish and fruit salad, Pat and Michelle brought brownies, Joyce brought a tossed salad, Julie had a vegetable tray, Candice had a spinach dip with some bread. I'm not sure what Linda brought, although there was another vegetable tray and a bundt cake.

Can't wait for the next one in April!!

Nor-Cal Paper Crafters Shoebox Card Swap

2010-02-26T19:31:00.000-08:00

Nor-Cal Paper Crafters Shoebox Card Swap was originally known as Sacramento Area Shoebox Swap. A shoebox card swap is being held tomorrow, Saturday 2/27. Those attending could make a St. Patrick's Day card, an Easter card, a Mother's Day card or a Birthday card.

I chose to do a Mother's Day card and an Easter card. Here is my sample for my Mother's Day card. The stamp is by Savvy Stamps, the card base is SU and I used 2 different pieces of designer scrapbook paper. I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the bottom piece of scrapbook paper. Copic markers were used to do the coloring. I used Coral, R35 to color the flower on this sample, the center of the flower is YR21, Cream. The leaves are YG23, New Leaf. The ribbon is from A Muse Art Stamps.

The "Happy Mother's Day" stamp is also from A Muse. I used a piece of foam tape to pop it up. It was suggested to me that I use this blue, B34, Manganese Blue to color the flower. So I stamped the flower on a separate piece of white cardstock and colored it with the blue marker. I took this picture with the card laying on the table so I could place the blue flower over the Coral one. It has a completely different look. I did not color the stamped flower in the kits so the ladies could choose the color they wanted to use.

Here is my Easter card. The cardstock, stamps and ribbon are by A Muse. The grass was done with a Martha Stewart border punch. I used Copic markers to color: Y17, Golden Yellow for the scarf; YR07 Cadmium Orange for the carrot; G09 Veronese Green for the carrot top; 110 Special Black for the tires; C1, Cool Gray for inside the tires and BG10, Cool Shadow to outline the clouds and the bunny carrot car.

I believe there are 9 ladies signed up. We always have a potluck so I am taking a "Five Cup Salad" which is pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, coconut, miniature marshmellows and sour cream for the dressing. I'm also making a hot dish which I usually do as a casserole. I think tomorrow I am going to prepare it and put it in my crock pot.

There's really no recipe for it. Years ago my former sister-in-law made this dish. You brown hamburger meat, add half of a chopped onion then add corn kernels, sliced green olives, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce and season with salt, pepper, and oregano. Stir this all together and simmer for about 30 minutes or so. Then combine this mixture with noodles that have already been cooked. I use egg noodles sometimes, large macaroni or rotelle (the corkscrew looking pasta). Then I put it in an oblong Pyrex dish and sprinkle lots of cheese on top. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes or so until it is bubbly and the cheese has melted. It is yummy!!

Oh, I am also going to set up a Facebook page for both of my blogs. So look for that if you are on Facebook. I'll send an invitation to join to those that are my friends on Facebook.

Birthday Card for Liberty Grace Williams

2010-01-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

Liberty Grace Williams is the daughter of Andrew and Michelle Williams, very dear and special friends of ours. Liberty's birthday was on Wednesday, the 27th and she turned 4 years old. This afternoon Andrew and Michelle had an open house birthday party for Liberty from 1 pm to 5 pm. We didn't go over until almost 3 pm.

This is the birthday card I made for her. Michelle and I discovered later that last year I used the same stamp, only a different layout. Michelle said Liberty wouldn't realize it so it was okay. I thought it was so funny. I must say I love using this stamp set for little girls because little girls think they are a princess anyway. :) I used one of my Cuttlebug embossing folders on the light pink layer and the white piece. The border punch is one from Martha Stewart. The coloring was done with Copic markers. It is pretty girly girl!!

Tinker Bell - Thank You Cards

2010-01-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

It has been a few months since I've sat at my craft table and created. A friend wanted some thank you cards. She had a birthday celebration for her daughter's 1st birthday on Sunday and the theme of the party was Tinker Bell.

I went online to find some Disney stamps, specifically Tinker Bell. I did find some and ordered them.

The party colors were purple, yellow, green and blue. The card base is actually a plum, the only color I had close to purple. I was going to keep the card simple then decided to do something in the inside of the card. I used my Copic markers for the coloring.

I made a total of 12 cards. I think they came out pretty cute.
It was fun being back at my craft table. I have a birthday card to make for the daughter of another friend who is turning 4 years old.

New Look

2010-01-21T20:53:00.000-08:00

I gave my blogs a new look today. Both of them look a lot better than they did. I had to change the template on this blog. The template I had didn't look good at all with the background I picked out.

Tell me what you think. Check out my "Betty's Ramblings" blog too. Just click on it on my sidebar.

I'll be back to stamping very soon. I actually have a card order to do. It needs to be delivered the first of next week so I need to get busy. I appreciate all the hits on this blog!!

Wedding Card for Josh & Becca

2009-10-12T16:19:00.001-07:00

My grandson, Joshua William Kitamura was married on September 5, 2009 to Rebecca Pieprzyk in Grove City, PA where in May they had graduated from Grove City College. After a 2 week honeymoon in Maui, HI, they came back to San Luis Obispo, CA to live. This is where Joshua grew up. On October 3rd they had a reception for friends and family that couldn't make it to the wedding. This is the card I made for them. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. I think it took me all of about 10 minutes to make the card. It is white on white, the card base is white which opens on the bottom. I then cut a layer 4 inches by 5 1/4 inches and ran the top portion through my Cuttlebug with the Birds and Swirls embossing folder. Then using my ScorPal, I scored a line under the embossing and 3 lines at the very bottom. I stamped the Congratulations between the score lines, punched out 2 butterflies using one of Martha Stewarts punches using designer paper and a sheer blue ribbon. And I was done. Hope the kids liked the card!! :))

Another SCS Card Swap

2009-09-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

I mailed off the last SCS card swap I had to do. Actually it was a card kit. It had a long list of components to the kit. I hope I got most of them. I made up a sample, took a picture of it, made copies of the picture and included it in the kit.

I'm not sure if I am happy with the card. It is really not my style of cards. I think this is maybe the last SCS card swap I will do. I did 4 SCS card swaps, 1 for A Muse and then an image swap for a small stamp company in Pennsylvania. By the time you get everything put together and mailed, a lot of time is involved and then there's the expense of mailing them. You have to include a stamped return envelope with it too. The one I mailed today cost me over $5 in postage. That doesn't seem like a lot, however, if you're doing several, the postage adds up after awhile. They are fun. Now I just have to sit back and wait for the cards that will be mailed to me.

Here's a link to the card.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=714870&l=0115e99953&id=1040101927

Facebook Link

2009-09-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

I tried the link and it works. However, I had to copy and paste the link into my browser. Hope it works for you. :))