Graduation Card #1

I had two graduations to make cards for this year – a light year :). Normally I would probably post them both on the same day, but since I’m a little short of cards to post, I will spread them out over two days!

This first one is for the son of a good friend, who is graduating from high school. As you can probably guess, his school colors are black and yellow. I used the Cuttlebug Congratulations embossing folder on yellow cardstock. I sponged black lightly pretty much over the whole thing to highlight the embossing. The sentiment was stamped with a JustRite Stamper with Versafine Onyx Black ink on white and sponged with yellow around the edge. The white and the black circles were punched with Marvy punches, and the yellow was cut with a Nestability. It is mounted on Pop Dots. The yellow is matted with black and mounted on a white card base.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Another Butterfly Birthday

I got a new corner punch and thought I’d do something a little different with it.

I started with Stampin’ Up!’s Pink Pirouette cardstock, punched the corners with the corner punch, which is by EK Success and embossed it with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. I put a little bit of Kiwi Kiss cardstock behind them but cut out what was behind the flowers and put Riding Hood Red behind them. Then I matted it with more Riding Hood Red. I cut the right side of it with a Fiskars rotary cutter. The sentiment stamp is by PSX and is stamped in Riding Hood Red ink. The sentiment and its matting are cut and embossed with Nestabilities Long Ovals. The butterfly was in my 'card parts' box and is stamped with Versamark on vellum, embossed with Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder, cut out, and mounted just on the body with Pop Dots scraps. The card base is Whisper White and it opens on the side.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

May Calendar Page - a Day Late!

Oops – a day late, but here is my May calendar page!

It’s extremely self-explanatory, but here are the details: stamps by Verve except for the yellow “Happy Mother’s Day” stamp which is from Studio G. The ink I used was all Versamagic chalk ink. As always, if you would like my Excel file with the calendar bases, just email me at LJNeus@hotmail.com:)

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Another Simple Mother's Day Card

A simple, simple Mother’s Day card for today.

The stamps are all separate and are from Studio G from JoAnn’s. Again, I drew in the stems. I did the coloring with Stampin’ Up! markers in Soft Subtles colors. The butterfly is punched with a Martha Stewart punch from Stampin’ Up! vellum which had been embossed with my Sizzix Three Dots embossing folder. I added two tiny pearls to the butterfly body and one larger one to the center of the tallest flower. I think I would have liked it better if I had stamped the sentiment on the bottom left instead of the right, but it'll do! The card base is Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

CAS Challenge - Just a Tiny Ribbon

This card is for Monday’s Clean and Simple challenge #12 - to use just a little piece of ribbon. You can find the challenge here.

I started with a piece of 'Friends' embossed white cardstock by Die Cuts With a View. I sponged it lightly with Stampin’ Up!’s Pink Pirouette - both around the edges and over the embossing. Then I mounted it on Pink Pirouette cardstock. I printed the sentiment from the computer, and added the clip and ribbon and the pearls. I found this chart on SCS that I have used several times. It gives you the settings to print colors to match all of the Stampin’ Up! colors – it’s awesome! Hope it can help someone.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

SCS Color Challenge - Two Cards

Another double card day today. I made these cards for the Color Challenge on SplitCoastStampers - #216 – Real Red, Old Olive and Basic Black. Naturally, if there’s green in the challenge, my mind goes toward flowers. I had also recently seen this card, and wanted to copy the idea.

I stamped the rose on the card front and again on white cardstock. I colored both of them with Stampin’ Up! markers in Real Red and Old Olive. I cut the rose out with a circle Nestability, then cut just the rose and the leaves and stem out of that circle. I cut the Old Olive mat to fit, then cut the circle out with a smaller nestability, then embossed it with a Sizzix embossing folder. I mounted the rose and leaves that I had cut out, and the frame matting, with Pop Dots. I hope that makes sense. I’m writing this at night and I’m getting sleepy!
I made another card, too, so I’ll share that one with you. I didn’t even upload it to SCS :) It starts out the same – with the rose stamped on the card and colored. For this one, I used my oval Nestability on some vellum – cutting an opening for the rose. I saw this here on Barb’s blog. I embossed the vellum with the Sizzix embossing folder. I also cut a “frame” with Nestabilities out of Old Olive. I punched a butterfly out of vellum and used the folder on it, too. The sentiment on both is from Stampin’ Up’s Sincere Salutations and the flower is by Inkadinkado.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Gate Fold Mother's Day

My card for today’s post is a Gate Fold card. It opens in the middle. To do this, score at two and one eighth inches from each side.

I found the stamps in the dollar section at JoAnn's and had to have them – like I need more flowers! I stamped them with Versafine Onyx Black ink on shimmery white paper and colored them with Bold Brights markers. The stems are drawn by hand. The corners are punched and embossed with a Fiskars punch. The background paper is from Die Cuts With a View Summer matstack and I used a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder on it before attaching it to the card. The butterflies are punched with my new Martha Stewart punch, and I added three tiny pearls to each of them and one larger one to the largest flower. I also put a couple butterflies on the inside of the card.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Striped Flap Card

This card is for the 2 Red Bananas challenge for this week – “Wearing Stripes.” You can find the challenge here. For some reason, I was in the mood to do a Flap Card:) The finished card measures about five inches by four inches. There is a tutorial for Flap Cards on SplitCoastStampers, but here is how I did mine.

The first thing I did (after cutting the cardstock to 4 ¼ inches by 11 inches) was to cut one end with the largest scalloped Long Oval Nestability. Then I scored (using my Scor-Pal) at four inches from the straight end and two inches from the scalloped edge. The background paper is from a Die Cuts With a View black and white matstack. I cut a piece to 4 1/8 inches wide, and used a plain Long Oval Nestability to cut one end, then cut it to fit on the top flap, then cut a piece to fit on the bottom. I added a piece of ribbon to the bottom section, too. I finally bought a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, so of course I had to use it. The black and white circles are cut with Nestabilities, the flower is a punch, the flower center is a stamp from Hampton Arts which I stamped on scrap paper and cut out. I used Basic Gray magnets to hold the card shut (they are between the cardstock and the striped paper). I also added a couple pearls to each butterfly.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Birthday Wishes

Just another simple card for today. I’ve been pre-posting all my posts since Wednesday, and I’m getting ready to be finished!

With this card, I finally used up my whole two packages of stickers from Studio 18 from Michael’s. I don’t know why I was so obsessed with finishing these particular packages, as I have lots more stickers, but I was! I cut and embossed the hole in the card front with a Circle Nestability. I put the larger flower on the inside of the card, and the smaller one on the outside. The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s Sincere Salutations and is stamped in Kiwi Kiss. The inside flower is surrounded with a Kiwi Kiss scalloped circle border.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Birthday Daisies

Two cards again today, using the same stamp and sentiment, but quite different.

The stamp is another wood-mounted rubber one from the dollar section at Michael’s. For the first card, I stamped with white dye ink onto a piece of cardstock very similar to Stampin’ Up!’s Buckaroo Blue. I punched the top with a Martha Stewart border punch and scored a couple lines with my Scor-Pal. The sentiment is from SU’s Sincere Salutations (I love that set!) and is stamped in Buckaroo Blue. For the second card, I first colored the stems, leaves and flower centers with SU! markers and stamped them on white. Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig, I inked up the whole stamp with Versamark and stamped over the stems and centers, then embossed with clear embossing powder. Then I sponged Bliss Blue over the embossing. This gave me shiny stems and flower centers, and white shiny daisies. I matted the image with Ballet Blue and also stamped the sentiment with Ballet Blue.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

CAS Sympathy

Just a very simple sympathy card for today.

I was at Michael’s with a friend last Friday and looked a little bit at the wood-mounted rubber dollar stamps. I thought this sympathy stamp was quite nice. I stamped it with Versafine Onyx Black in and colored it with Mauve Mist, Summer Sun and Certainly Celery markers. I cut the image and the mat (Mauve Mist) using Rectangle Nestabilities, and also embossed the image. The background is embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and sponged on the edges with Mauve Mist. The card base is Papertrey Ink’s Stamper’s Select white.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

CAS Inspiration Challenge

This card is for Clean and Simple Challenge number 11. You can find it here. It’s an Inspiration Challenge using children’s bedding.

I'm really not much for Inspiration challenges, but I just looked quickly and found this picture and knew that I had some ladybug stickers that would be perfect. I had also just gotten some dotted swirl stamps from the dollar stamps at Michael's, and thought they would work, too. The flowers are punched with a tiny punch from Punch-a-Bunch and I used pearls for the centers instead of trying to punch a hole in them. The main image panel is mounted on shiny red paper. The lines above and below are stamped with Stampin’ Up!'s Perfect Plaids. The sentiment is from SU! All Occasions.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

A Sizzix Embossing Folders Birthday

My card for today uses some new Sizzix embossing folders I just got. I like them, and I don’t! They come in mixed sets. The set I got includes one large folder and four smaller ones.

I love the big one. I used it to do the background on this card. It’s big enough to emboss the whole front, top to bottom and side to side. Very cool! The folders emboss very deeply. The Happy Birthday is also embossed with a folder from this set. However, I think the embossing is too close to the edges of the small ones to really use directly on a card front, and I also think they should open from another direction. For example, this Happy Birthday one opens on the right side. So, to use it on a card front, it would have to be very close to the left side of the card, and I mean VERY close. But, maybe I’m just used to the Cuttlebug ones.

I’m happy with the way this card turned out, though. The butterflies are the last ones from my Studio 18 pack from Michael’s. The ribbon is from a local paper store. The sentiment is matted with Stampin’ Up!’s Pretty in Pink.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Five Cards - Same Stamps, Same Layout

OK – here they are, just like I promised yesterday. :) All five of these cards were made with the same stamp and the same layout. The flower image is by Paper Inspirations, and the sentiment is by Stampendous. (I made another one using Almost Amethyst and embossed the image with a Swiss Dots folder, but it’s so similar to the pink one that I didn’t include it.)

For all of them, I stamped the image in the middle first, then stamped again twice without re-inking the stamp. They each have a different little bit of “embellishing.” If anyone has any questions, feel free to email me. My email address is in the “About Me” section on the left.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Simple Birthday

Saturday morning, I woke up quite early and had an idea in my head. It was to make several cards with the same stamps and layout. They didn’t turn out as clever or nice as they were before they were made! :) I’ll share those with you tomorrow. When I was cleaning up Saturday’s mess on Sunday morning, I decided to make one more card with the image stamp before I put it away. That is the card for today.

The stamp is from Paper Inspirations. I colored it with Certainly Celery and Lavender Lace markers and mounted it with Lavender Lace cardstock. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from a retired Stampin’ Up! set called All Occasions. I’ve sure been using it a lot lately – it’s the perfect size so often. The background paper is from Die Cuts With a View – Nana’s Nursery Boy. I added a couple scored lines at the bottom. That's all there is to it! Clean and Simple all the way.

I truly appreciate you stopping by! Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Clean & Simple Layout Challenge

Today’s card is for Natasha Trupp’s “Fall-to Layout” challenge #38. Her blog is called Clean & Simple Stamping.

Both of the stamps I used are from a clear set by Stampendous. I stamped the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink on PaperTrey Ink’s Stamper's Select white cardstock. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. I stamped the image on scratch paper, cut out the image rectangle, and used it to mask off the area outside the image. I then dabbed a Versamark pad over the colored image and embossed it with Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder. Then I used Versamark on it again and embossed it with Deep Impressions embossing powder. I wish you could see the sparkle better, but I’m including a close-up so you can see it closer. I didn’t have a button the right color, and I’m not sure a button would have been the right embellishment, anyway. So I used a little “bling.”

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

CAS Challenge - Monochromatic Card

Today’s card was for the Clean and Simple Challenge on SplitCoastStampers - make a monochromatic card. Fun!!

I actually made a few of them. For this one I used a Romance wheel from Stampin’ Up! and Vintage Violet ink. The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s Oval All, from the new Occasions Mini catalog, also stamped with Vintage Violet and cut with a Petite Oval Nestability. The mats are Vintage Violet.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

SCS Ways to Use it Challenge - with Edgeabilities

Another SplitCoastStampers challenge card – the Ways to Use It challenge, this week to use a frame of some sort. It was inspired by Deb (who was asking me questions about Edgeabilities and just uploaded a beautiful project) and Harriet (whose immediate reaction to the “frame” challenge was to use Edgeabilities.) So, here’s mine.

I used Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select white cardstock to emboss my daisies. (I’ve had a few questions on embossing Edgeabilities. They are the only thing I emboss with my BIGkick that I have to add extra pieces of cardstock to, to make the embossing deep enough.) I colored them with chalk. I know Spellbinders suggests leaving the die in place while coloring, but I prefer to remove the die before carefully coloring. The sympathy stamp is from Paper Inspirations, and I stamped it with Baja Breeze on Soft Sky. The trim piece on the bottom is also Soft Sky, and I embossed it with a Cuttlebug border folder. The daisies towards the bottom of the card are on Pop Dots.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Sewing Tool Becomes a Stamping Tool :)

I read somewhere (can’t remember where!) about using a tracing wheel to make a cool pattern on paper. Then a friend reminded me of this (thanks Anne!), so I thought I would give it a try. Here is my second result. Heck, I guess I’ll add the first one, too!

For this card, I did the lines in a diagonal grid and put the “bumpiest” side up – the “wrong” side. I mounted it on Tangerine Tango – one of Stampin’ Up!’s “In Colors.” The butterflies are from a pack by Studio 18 that I got at Michael’s in the dollar section. The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s set called All Occasions. The strip towards the bottom is just a scrap from trimming the main image matting.

For this card, I made squares instead of diamonds, and I mounted it right-side (smoother side) up. The flower stickers are from the same Studio 18 pack and the matting is Soft Sky. I also added some scoring with my Scor-Pal. A little story about the sentiment. I had the card all done and didn’t want to mess it up by stamping the sentiment crooked, so I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig. I stamped on the plastic with Soft Sky, but it wasn’t very easy to see. So, I grabbed a darker color. I stamped it off really well (or so I thought!) before I inked it up with Soft Sky, but when I stamped on the card, it turned out kind of purple. Drat!!! So, I just tried stamping the Soft Sky a little off from the “purple” for kind of a shadow effect. Not what I wanted, but I didn’t want to scrap the whole card because of it! If it really bothers me later, I will stamp it on a separate piece of cardstock and use Pop Dots to mount it over the current stamping.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

SCS Color Challenge - Warm Wishes

This card was made for Color Challenge #214 on SplitCoastStampers (Bordering Blue, Pink Pirouette and So Saffron) and Natasha's Fall-To Layout #37.

Not much explanation necessary. The flowers are from the wedding section at Michael's and are colored with Stampin' Up! markers - using Pretty in Pink in place of Pink Pirouette. I highly recommend them – they color beautifully with markers and therefore perfectly match anything you make! The border punch is by Martha Stewart and the sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s Beautiful Borders set. I used a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and my Scor-Pal. I also sponged a little Bordering Blue on the edge of the sentiment panel and added pearls to the flower centers.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!