4th Anniversary

Just a quick post with the anniversary card I made for DH. Today was our 4th anniversary. I didn’t have much time during one of my little one’s naps, so I’m glad my idea for the card came together as quickly as it did. I’ve had to buy some cards recently (I know – the horror of actually stopping in the card aisle at the store instead of just passing through), and I was glad to finally be able to make one.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Anniversary Birds (Verve Visual), Define Your Life, Baroque Motifs
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, River Rock
Ink: Riding Hood Red, River Rock
Accessories: Riding Hood Red Taffeta, Linen Thread, Basic Grey Button

Our little one turned two months old today, so I’ve included a picture of her from today also. I can't believe it's been 2 months already! She is growing so fast!

Altered Journals

These altered journals are a couple of additional items I'll be including in the gift basket I've been working on. The notebooks are from Target and come packaged together.

I covered both the outside and inside covers with Cutie Pie DSP. I used one side of the DSP for the outside front and back and the other side of the DSP for the insides. I used a pre-colored chipboard "n" for the notebook on the left. I don't think you can tell in the picture, but it has some glitter in it as well. The little tag on the side says "notes" and was stamped with the small Karen Foster snap stamps. The scallops on the edge were created with the smallest scalloped rectangle Nestabilities die. The whole rectange was too large for the space I had, so I just cut off the sides. For the notebook on the right, I used the "memories" definition from Define Your Life and stamped the letter "m" from Jumbo Outline Alpha in the background.

Recipe:
Stamps: Karen Foster Snap Stamps, Define Your Life, Jumbo Outline Alpha
CS: Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Whisper White
DSP: Cutie Pie
Ink: Basic Black, Purely Pomegranate, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Chipboard (unknown source), Green Grosgrain (unknown source), Black Gingham, Purely Pomegranate Double-Stitched Ribbon, Basic Black Grosgrain, Prima Flowers

Priceless 2,5,7,10 Box

As I've mentioned before, there is a different challenge on splitcoaststampers just about every day. I tend to do the color and sketch challenges, but I check out the others from time to time as well. The Technique Lover's Challenge this week was to create a 2,5,7,10 box. If you're not familiar with them, they are adorable little boxes/bags that are perfect to hold a small gift, treat, or party favor.

I made one of these boxes for a workshop last week, so it fit perfectly with the challenge. I won't go into detail of how I created the box since there is a great tutorial available, but I will share the stamps, ink, etc. that I used.

I started with an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of Whisper White cardstock and stamped the large swirl from Priceless in Purely Pomegranate ink. I added a few of the small flowers to fill in any gaps. For the focal image on the front, I stamped the butterfly from Priceless also in Purely Pomegranate. I then inked the butterfly again, this time in Groovy Guava and rock-and-rolled it in Purely Pomegranate. I stamped it on a scrap of Whisper White, cut out the body, and adhered just the middle to give it some dimension. I also added the smaller swirl from Priceless in 2nd generation Purely Pomegranate for the butterfly trail and the Wish defintion from Define Your Life in Basic Black. Finally, I added the For You from Happy Everything as a tag on the side and matted it all on Purely Pomegranate.

Once I assembled the box, I scalloped the lid with my corner rounder, sponged the edges, and added Purely Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon.

These are such cute boxes/bags. The girls at the workshop loved them.

Recipe:
Stamps: Priceless, Define Your Life, Happy Everything
Cardstock: Whisper White, Purely Pomegranate
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava, Basic Black
Other: Purely Pomegranate Double-Stitched Ribbon

Weekend Sketch Challenge

One of the blogs I like to visit on a regular basis is Fresh & Fun by Beate Johns. She has a great style, and I love to see how she uses Stampin' Up! sets and designer paper in such creative ways. She also has a weekend sketch challenge with some fun layouts. I've followed the sketches for a few weeks now, but this is the first one I've actually been able to complete. My card is based on her sketch challenge #14.

I used my three newest sets for this card - Priceless, Define Your Life, and It's All Good. For the focal image, I used the butterfly stamp from Priceless, stamped it first in Groovy Guava, and then rock-and-rolled it in Purely Pomegranate. After stamping all of the butterflies, I randomly stamped the small Priceless swirl stamp in Groovy Guava, stamped off once for a lighter tone. The Delightful stamp from It's All Good was stamped in Purely Pomegranate, punched out with the 1 1/4 in circle punch and layered on a Pomegranate Scallop. Finally, I added the Delight definition from Define Your Life and the small row of dots, also from Define Your Life.

The photo corner was an afterthought. I don't have the new photo corner punch yet from Stampin' Up!, so I still have to create them the "old-fashioned" way. I cut a small square of cardstock and then cut it in half diagonally. I then took the 2 triangles, laid them on top of each other, cut off the "pointy" section, and arranged them into a photo corner. I almost always add a brad to my photo corners - they just seem naked without one.

Recipe:
Stamps: Priceless, Define Your Life, It's All Good
Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black
Other: Black Gingham Ribbon, Black Brad, 1 1/4 in Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch

ETA: I realized this morning (8/14) that my focal image is upside down! I don't think it matters a whole lot, but I intended the majority of the butterflies to be facing upwards. Oh well - I still like the card! (And I hope you do too!)

Definition of Kindness

I just got my September Creating Keepsakes magazine today and saw a really cute card using the definition of kind and two other thank you stamps. Here is my version. Mine is a little simpler than theirs, but I wasn't getting it to work quite right so I went with this (and I had to pack all of my stuff for a crop tomorrow and needed to get moving on that instead of creating new things - I just couldn't help myself). Anyway, even though it's a very simple card, I like the way it turned out. I've always liked doing color blocks and Iove the Purely Pomegranate and Groovy Guava together.

I stamped the K from Headline Alphabet in Purely Pomegranate and then stamped the kindness definition from Define Your Life over it in Basic Black. The other two thank you stamps are from Much Appreciated. The card measures 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 square.

Recipe:
Stamps: Define Your Life, Headline Alphabet, Much Appreciated
Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava, River Rock, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black
Other: Black Brads