Springy Day

So this is not the best picture, but I'm too lazy to take another picture. I used some SU! incentive stamps. I was feeling like Spring today now that I'm on the downward slope of my sickness. I got the flu about 9 days ago, got really sick and thought I was going to die (such the drama queen I can be), and then got a bad sinus infection that made me feel like I had 10 rotten molars. Only for the past two days have I been able to do more than shower and feed the kids.

And today I felt like stamping. It's been too long. The darker green paper is textured--which never seems to stick to anything. So I tried Alene's tacky glue and it seems to have worked. I colored using blender pens and ink pads. I used dimensionals to make the little chick and flower images pop. The flowers and umbrella and boots are glazed with glitter. It makes me smile. Hopefully it will make someone else smile when I figure out who to give it to.

Sew Thankful

I have a few friends who have helped me out recently that I needed to make Thank You cards for. I think these monochromatic cards will work great.

The photos are a little washed out, but if you look closely you can see that I machine-stitched my first two cards ever! I loved it. It adds such a nice touch. The first card is zigzagged and the second has a straight stitch, both with thread that matches my cardstock.

I also sponged Cool Caribbean around the edges of the cards and the cut-out flowers.

Recipe
Stamps: Delight in Life, Much Appreciated
CS: Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal, and CS from my LCS
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Craft White
Accessories: Circle Cutter, White Gel Pen, Sewing Machine, Antique Copper Brad

Recipe
Stamps: Delight in Life, Much Appreciated
CS: Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal, and CS from my LCS
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Craft White
Accessories: Circle Cutter, White Gel Pen, Sewing Machine, Antique Copper Brads, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter

PS I'm still sick, but I force myself to do a few things each day, like shovel the driveway, post on my blog, and take a prenatal vitamin. I have heartburn so bad I feel like someone has their hand around my neck. So I just tell myself that there will eventually be an end to this, right?

More Scalloped Circles

So when the scallops don't meet up well, I turn them into flowers with a stem, like so.

This first card is done in pinks, but I didn't think there was enough contrast, nor layers. I used the grosgrain ribbon to camouflage the awkward space. What a fun way to hide the flaw! This one is a wedding card, with the images from $1 Michael's clear stamps. The cake stamped clean using basic black, but the hearts looked pretty fuzzy. I'm sure a little glitter will cover that right up. (I even tried erasing the surface of the stamp. No luck. Does craft ink work better, anyone?)

Recipe
Stamps: $1 Michael's clear
CS: Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, DP from Joann's
Ink: Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Basic Black
Accessories: Watercolor Pen, Grosgrain Ribbon, Fiskars circle cutter, slit punch

The second card is similar to yesterday's post, but it's on a standard size card with a different layout. I sponged ruby red and chocolate chip on the white papers (the white strip is actually the red DP folded up), and chocolate chip around the edges of the bottom red DP layer.

Recipe
Stamps: $1 Michael's clear
CS: Handsome Hunter, White, DP from Dollar Store
Ink: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Linen Thread, Sponge, MM Antique Copper Brads, Fiskars circle cutter, slit punch

Square Card

This is one of my first square cards that I've ever made. I got the idea from my SBS sister Lesa's recent post. Anyways, I got a fiskars circle cutter (see 2nd photo) for Christmas and wanted to see just what it could do.

I cut out a 4" circle and then remembered Sarah's tutorial on using the slit punch to create a scalloped circle (she uses the coluzzle). I cut out a 2" circle in the middle and began scalloping. It didn't match up perfectly each time (you'll see that card on my next post), but I was thrilled to have my first scalloped circle! I need to make some thank you cards for Christmas, so I thought a flower with rich colors would work well.

The trick seems to be having a 1" border left intact on the large circle. The card measures 4-1/4" square. The green circle is 3" in diameter, and the red one is 2-3/4" in diameter. I just used the gold circle that I cut out of the larger circle in the first step, and the white circle is 1-3/4". I used DP from the Dollar Store and $1 Michael's clear stamps (series 7, I believe). The "Thank You" image didn't stamp too crisply, so I re-stamped (I guess that's the beauty of clear) and then went over the letters with a brown glitter pen. Overall, I'm tickled with my circle cutter and the cute cards it made.

Recipe
Stamps: $1 Michael's clear
CS: More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, White, DP from Dollar Store
Ink: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Fiskars circle cutter, a brown glitter pen, slit punch, sponge

Cards by the Inchies

Let the "Inchies" Obsession begin!
I am newly acquainted with the term "Inchies," but I have used them on my cards before.

What are inchies?
Where can I see more inchies? 1 2 3 4 5 6
(Visit 1 2 3 4 5 6 for some really cute ideas, even if you're familiar. Did you know Quilters make fabric inchies that are quite splendid?)

Unfortunately, these cards don't use true inchies. They are more like inchies x one-and-a quarter inchies. I embossed the red leaves on the black cardstock with Red Dragon EP, and they are exceptionally sparkly.

I usually use my inchies images to decorate gift cards or card fronts (1 2). The more creative bunch from SCS has made Christmas decorations, necklaces, magnets, and more.

Do you do inchies? I'd love to see yours--leave me a comment.

Paper Poinsettias

Over Thanksgiving break, I had a hankering for Poinsettias. Luckily, I had brought along my SAB "Delight in Life" stamp set. I just stamped the flower image on a redish paper and greenish paper (I think Real Red and Garden Green would be perfect) and adhered the two flower images with a dimensional. Then I added some Stickles. (However, I noticed that anything stamped with red or pink ink bleached out from the Stickles. Anyone else have this problem?)

I know these aren't the best color combos, but I was running out of paper away from home. So I just made do.

It's a fun way to make a Christmas card, embellish a gift tag, or even a Christmas Thank You--heaven knows we'll need plenty of Thank You cards after the Holidays.

If you have made paper poinsettias before, leave me a comment with the stamp set and a picture! I'd love to check it out.

Looking for a Stamp Designer?

That's right! I'm looking to sell my designs to a Stamping Company. I don't necessarily want to design the cards and projects themselves (although I can do that, too)...I want to design the actual stamps. That is my strength--and your potential asset!

I have two stamp sets that I have already created. I will post a demo card that showcases 6 of the 11 stamps in the Friendship Forecast stamp set. The set has 2-step stamping images and 5 sentiments. Please remember that all of these images are original designs by Alana Lee and I own the copyright. For now. Unless you want me on your team. If you know someone who could use me, please pass on the link. Let me know what you think! Thanks.

Flowers & Coffee

This one has bling, flowers, and lots of dimension. I promise the bling has lots of zing in real life. I used SU! colors. The bling and flowers I bought at Craft Warehouse in Meridian, ID. The flowers match pretty well.

Stamp sets: Treat Yourself & Greetings Galore.

Another Batch

A Note from the Queen

I've been making some cards for my sister, and I remembered that I had created a crown graphic for Courtney's birthday invitations. So I did a little bit of changing, and ended up with some cute crown cards that say "A note from the Queen" and "A Royal Thanks."

And since it's Fall, I had to play around with leaves and pumpkins.

Playing with Papers

Some simple thank-you cards.






Last week I finally had the opportunity to make cards for the first time in a month, it seems like. I went to the dollar store and bought some scrapbooking stickers (Miss Elizabeth's), and I bought some designer paper from JoAnn Fabrics a while back. So I played with my new stuff. Here's what happened. (I'm forced to use my RAZR camera because of the fatal rebellion of my Fuji digicam. Thus, the picture quality is lacking. For more info, read here.)

Flowers for the Glitter Lovers

I needed to make a gift for someone last minute, so I found some floral stamps, ink, glitter, vellum squares, and other embellishments and came up with these cards. I took pictures so that I could make some for myself when I got home--since I had given them all away.

Thank You Cards

I've had to make lots of Thank You cards recently. Since I won't be able to attend my baby sister's baby shower, I made her a stack of thank you cards for all the gifts she'll receive.

The first card looks awesome using Regal Rose, Bashful Blue, or even Gable Green. I just used white craft and a white gel pen. So simple, but still such a beautiful thank you card.

If you want the recipes, leave a comment.

Friendship Flowers

This will be brief. Stamp sets: Friendship Flowers and Heartfelt Thanks. I used real red, regal rose, green galore, yoyo yellow and whisper white cardstock. I used yoyo yellow, regal rose, green galore, and real red classic inks, and white craft ink. I am going to make another version of this card using flowers in the background that match the focal image. The flower uses the rock 'n roll technique, and has a green galore button tied with linen thread. Very easy card.

Spring Mini Catalog Must-Haves

Okay, for those of you who have the Spring Mini already, you know how irresistible some of the new products are. My first pick is the round tab punch. It makes fabulous faux-folder cards.

The top card is a card we made at Margo's Stampadelicious Achiever's Club in February. It uses the Round Tab Punch, Office Accoutrement set, and the Notations designer paper. The one beneath the Office Accoutrement card uses Polka Dots & Paisley (I got the flower idea from SCS—cards by: bdrew, indyemmert, cynthia_wilson, and nancyruth). The paisley petals are actually a pain to set in a circle. I trimmed the paisley's points off to prevent the center of the flower from becoming too thick (and to avoid cutting around the curled tail). Then I cut out a circle of white cardstock, and adhered each petal to the circle, trying to space the petals evenly, and then adhered the whole flower to the card.

The Hello doodle card also came from Margo's Achiever's Club. It showcases the Doodle Alphabet and Doodle This set. I loved how we colored the dots around the tendrils with a white gel pen to make the images really pop. I should have left a slightly larger white margin around the flower when cutting it out. The other is just another variation I made using lighter colors and the Delight in Life SAB set.

This beautiful card was a M&T from the Margo's Stampadelicious group meeting in February. She adapted it from a long note on the SU! Demo site. The awesome thing is that it uses ALL of the products offered in the Spring Fever Bundle promotion. It was my first time using the white craft ink cartridge for a stampin' around wheel...and I'm a fan! Such a fun set of products. Just a note: the Spring Mini does not do the Petals & Paisley designer paper justice. They are soooo beautiful in real life. You just have to see it for yourself. And what a fun combo of colors!

These last to sets of cards used Polka Dots & Paisleys. The first set is what I like to call "Tabbed Faux-Folders" (again the idea came from Margo's card above). They're like little file folders that you can stick pictures in, gift certificates, a pressed flower, or just a plain old note. They make a great card to send to co-workers, especially given that they are not extremely feminine. I would highly recommend the Office Accoutrement set and Round Tab Punch to any business women.

And the last set of cards uses faux stitching. The flowers on the left were stamped, and the flowers on the right were water colored. I prefer the stamped flowers when using this set. This is a great card to show off a lot of accessories, like the Word Window Punch, Eyelets, Crafter's Toolkit, White Gel Pen, etc.). I love these cards not only because of the Springy colors, but because they show off every stamp in the Polka Dots & Paisley set.

And now I'm sure you just found one more thing to add to your wishlist. Happy Stamping!