No time....

For a {real} post. So here is a quick shot of something cool.

This is a butterfly collage, card and necklace I made for a birthday gift this weekend. The collage will be framed. The chipboard butterflies are K&Co, mixed with a variety of Basic Grey stickers, CTMH paper and an Hero Arts woodgrain stamp. Enjoy!

A birthday gift

Okay, when it comes to birthdays, sometimes I like to go all out and make a card, a gift bag and a gift that match!

My cousin's daughter had a birthday this month and she is actually one of my students too! It is a fact that she loves owls as much as I do so I decided to make her an owl necklace.



I thought it would be cool if we both had matching necklaces so I made us both the same one.



I also made myself some earrings (her ears are not pierced!).


Here is the matching card and gift box for the present!

Did Somebody Say 80's Card?

Well I wish I could say that this is part of an inspiration challenge, but I actually just watched a Finally Friday video over at kwerner design and couldn't get the idea of creating an 80s card out of my head...in fact, I made TWO!



My sister's birthday is next week so I thought I would be proactive (ya know, not wait until the day of) and create a special card just for her. I had a lot of fun using these glitter thickers and some bright green card bases. I even threw on some flowers with skulls (don't know how 80s those are, but whatev)



These were super fun to make, enjoy!!

Simply Paper card base
Prima Flower Embellishments
Ribbon FX
Anna Griffin flocked, patterned zebra paper
AC Thickers
Brad, black card stock
From Me to You 'happy' CTMH

Color Inspiration Challenge # 56

I haven't participated in one of these challenges in a while, but this one HAD to be done. I have the perfect patterned paper for the challenge colors this week over at KwernerDesign Bolg!


My card features B&T paper from CTMH, Animal Cookies Level 2 paper packet. It also has some really great Badge Buttons from the Tinkerin' collection. On top of the hand-stamped lettering 'A BIG Birthday' I placed a Hambly transparent overlay. It gave me a lay-out for the card. I really like how it turned out!

Enjoy!!

Brithday card for a friend

So....I went to the post office on Monday afternoon. I made some postcards over the weekend to drum up some business and let people know I am still out there doing the whole Close to My Heart thing. Most of my loyal customers I see once a month or more, but there are a few that I haven't seen or heard from in months. I wanted to give them a little 'birthday' gift. I sent out a coupon for 10% off any one item in April since it is my birthday month!

Anyway, I needed to drop those off and buy a book of stamps and mail a couple of packages to the Pay it Forward winners. When I walked in, the line was nearly out the door so I decided to go through the 'help-yourself' line and do the automated machine. There was a little line for that too so I decided to drop my postcards and one of my letters into the bin. I accidentally dropped the wrong letter into the bin. One letter was to a friend with some money to pay her back for some adhesive we bought in bulk. The other letter was to another friend....it was a bereavement card, her father just passed away. Once that letter was gone, it was GONE! I couldn't get it back. How embarrassing!! I just sent off a bereavement card with no stamp on it. It is bad enough that it will be stamped: "return to sender" but my biggest fear is that she will get it and have to pay the postage herself! EEEEK! Have you ever had anything like that happen to you?

This card is for a different friend's birthday. Hers is the day before mine! I took multiple photos so you can see that it is a clear card. I actually traced the craft sticker to get more than one piece of the same shape so I could cover the adhesive on the opposite side.



There actually wasn't any stamping on this card. The cardstock and ribbon are from CTMH and everything else is Hambly. I used my handwriting for the sentiment and the note inside. I kept it pretty simple.

50 is rounding a big corner....

For Tuesday's 365 card Challenge: I'm Rounding a Corner I decided to make a card for my boss. She is 50 this week and she is also retiring this year!!

This card features some stamping in the background. I tried to put use words that would encourage her to relax and lighten up as she looks forward to retirement. She is so young!!

The stamps are from Close to My Heart and the ink color is Tulip. (One of my new faves.) I also stamped some swirls in the background with Versamark and rubbed chalk over the entire area so that the stamped images would be a little darker than the softer pink of the cardstock. This is a really fun technique that I taught at a crop this weekend.

For the '50' I did some embossing on vellum. I used my coluzzle to cut out the circle and then paper pierced the edge. The crocheted ribbon, ric rac and velvet are from Making Memories. I love, love adding a hat pin to my cards. I also added a fancy silver brad from CTMH.



One really cool feature of this card is the clear embellishment. I used a heat tool to soften the plastic so that I could bend the petals and make them stick up. This was soo fun!! Other details include a button, a punched flower and corner rounded edges...since this is supposed to be part of the challenge...lol....

Enjoy!

Cute Bird Card

This is going to be my last post today! I made a card for Our Creative Corner's newest challenge. This week all we have to do is pick our favorite embellishment and make a card. While I love rhinestones and ribbon, this card is super simple. It features a few colorful brads and hand cut flowers layered under a bird. All of the stamps are Close to My Heart. This was a fun card to make, it could be for a birthday, Mother's Day or 'just because!

Sketch Challenge, Papercraft planet and Cupcakes

I haven't really done a sketch challenge before, I like to follow sketches, but I prefer color challenges. This was a great sketch, perfect for my new Close to my Heart cupcake stamp set and my new Martha Stewart lace edge punch. Thanks Lisa for giving me the link, this was great for me!! Lisa and I met on Paper Craft Planet, she made a few comments on my cards and then realized that she visits Roaring River every summer even though she lives in Texas she is very familiar with this area. If you haven't checked out Paper Craft Planet yet, it is so awesome!! You can have a page, kind of like Facebook for crafters. It is perfect for viewing cards, doing challenges and you can even link your blog to your profile page. There is a group for Close to My Heart and you can make friends with new people who share your same love for all things paper and craftilicious.

Back to the cards. I had to make 2 cards, and I decided to use this blue and green paper so that the cards could be a birthday card for a guy.

While I was at it, I decided to make a few more cards with this set.

My First Owl Stamp....

But I am sure it will not be my last. I love owls!! I know that some people think they are kinda creepy, but I was loving owls before they ever came on the design scene....it was sort of a coincidence when they became popular and my friends were shocked that there could be so many owl accessories, purses, and stamps that were all tailored to me! Now, they are just as freaked about owl stuff as I am when they hit antique malls! Anyway, I attended a birthday party this weekend for my cousin's daughter. She is also one of my students and she really loves art. I decided that she needed her own set of chalk pastels and oil pastels and fancy art paper like we use at school. Here is the card and gift bag that I made for her. She knows that I love owls too!! When I arrived at the birthday party, (late) she was so excited to make me jealous with her new OWL t-shirt....and I was so excited to finally show off my owl stamp!