Ham it Up Birthday card (testing)

Just testing to see if I can somehow transfer my instagram posts to here without too much trouble.

A post shared by Gale (@gale65) on Nov 17, 2016 at 8:04pm PST

stamps: My Favorite Things
markers: Copic
patterned paper: Unknown
cardstock: Stampin Up
dies: Spellbinders and Simon Says Stamp

Happy to be Stuck With You

stamps: My Favorite Things Sweet Succulents

paint: Peerless Watercolors

patterned paper: My Mind's Eye

cardstock: Gina K (kraft), Stampin Up (green and red)

dies: My Favorite Things

card sketch: Freshly Made Sketches

Hello Beautiful

stamps: Simon Says Stamp Spring Flowers, Hero Arts Hello Stamp and Cut
markers: copic
stitched rectangle die: lil inkers designs
patterned paper: Imaginisce
cardstock: Stampin Up

Wedding card

I made this wedding card for my nephew and his new wife. The design is loosely based on the one shown in this blog post.

The dress shape was cut from a Silhouette store file and then put through an embossing folder (I think it's called Plum Blossom). The pink background was embossed with an embossing plate.

Ingredients:
Black and Blushing Bride card stock from Stampin' Up
Curious Metallic Cryogen White card stock from cutcardstock.com
Pearls (unknown)
Punches and ribbon from Stampin' Up

Manatee Love

I made this card for a friend that likes fish and manatees.



ingredients
digital stamp: mermaid with manatee by Paper Nest
white card stock: Paper Trey Ink
blue card stock: Stampin' Up
patterned paper: Stampin' Up
pearls: recollections (??) from Michaels
copic markers: E00, E11, E13, E21, E25, E27, E29,  G14, Y26, Y08, YG01, R30, BG45, BG49, BG45, BG000, V000, V15, V17, W000, W1, W3, W5, W7
punch: ek success
nestabilities

Baby Gear - Animal Style

A family member told us last year that she was expecting, so of course, a baby quilt and some baby gear were put on my project list. I found out through her pinterest page that she liked zebra stripes and black and pink, and eventually, it was revealed that they were expecting a little girl. So I made her a few zebra themed things. A quilt, a bib, some burp cloths, some tiny shoes, and of course, a card (not zebra themed). I've had these things done for a couple of weeks now but was waiting for the baby to arrive to post them. She had her Friday night! A perfect and beautiful little girl.

the quilt:


the back-very wild!


My usual curved corners-here's a close-up. I did my binding a little differently this time. Normally I sew it to the back, fold it to the front, and zig zag the edge-not really caring how it looks on the back. This time I accepted a challenge from my sister and sewed it to the front, folded it to the back, and sewed in the ditch on the front, catching the back. It was a little slower but I like how it turned out!


a close-up of the label, which I made on my new embroidery machine using EQ Stitch to trace my signature. You can also see the serpentine stitch I used for the quilting. I love this stitch and learned how to program it into my Janome 6600 on the Janome 6500/6600 yahoo group.


The shoes, made from a pattern by Lena's Patterns on Etsy


The bib, made from this tutorial


from the back-it has little armholes and gives pretty good coverage


Half a dozen burp cloths made from cloth diapers-using this tutorial (with a few changes):


And the card-another clothespin card.

ingredients:
kraft and pink card stock, patterned paper, clothespins, and cloud embossing folder: Stampin' Up
white card stock: Georgia Pacific
dies: nestabilities
twine: Divine twine
onesie shape: Lettering Delights Baby Simple Shapes set
font: Hipster Script

Thanks, Girlfriend!

A few weeks ago my friend Jin sent me the most amazing Hello Kitty care package. If you didn't know this, I do love me some Hello Kitty. I asked her to pick up the Hello Kitty date stamp at Michaels for me, since I have no Michaels nearby, and she picked up a bunch more! Journals, tapes, embellishments, bookmarks and MORE. I'm a grown-up for the most part, but it's still fun to get a surprise in the mail! So I wanted to make her something special to show my appreciation. Since Jin isn't a quilter, I felt somewhat confident making her a quilted pillow. I had my doubts through the whole thing, like I do with pretty much every project, but I sent it anyway and she loves it! Here's the pillow I made using simple 4-patches and a heart patch from EQ, plus some white sashing. Fabrics are all from my stash and some were leftovers from other quilts.



and I made this super simple card for her too. I always want to use these cute mini clothespins from SU but they don't fit well in an envelope so this was the perfect opportunity.



ingredients:
white card stock: neenah
blue card stock: stampin' up
baker's twine: martha stewart
clothespins: stampin' up
stamp and ink: stampin' up
cloud embossing folder: stampin' up

A Simple Thanks

These are the cards I made for Christmas thank-yous. I wanted to keep it simple but still kinda nice, know what I mean? So I decided an embossing folder and a cut out shape would be perfect.



ingredients:
cardstock: Bazzill (blue) and Neenah (white)
embossing folder: unknown
"thanks" shape: Silhouette store

Happy Birthday, Girlfriend

***I wanted to answer a couple of the questions in the comments. I definitely used a pattern for the pillow. The signature is my actual signature though. I wrote it and scanned it and had a stamp made of it. So for this, I stamped it and then stitched over the stamping. The pillow didn't take long. I probably worked on it for about 5 days but only a couple hours a day. This includes starting it and changing my mind on the colors and starting over. It took me longer to find all of the fabrics I wanted to use. The original pattern was in the July/August 2007 issue of Quiltmaker magazine. They don't sell that issue anymore, but a very helpful commenter left a link to this site which is selling the pattern: Silver Linings Quilting. Thanks, Regina!! And thanks for everyone else's comments too. I appreciate each and every one. :) ***

I have a friend from high school who recently had a birthday. When we were in HS we were close but had a falling out (we laugh about it now). Shortly after HS we made up and became practically inseparable. Now we live 2000 miles apart and thanks to facebook, can keep in touch easily. She recently lost her dog so I decided to make her this cute paper pieced puppy pillow that I saw in a magazine a while back. She has had a rough time of it lately, so I was happy to send her something to lift her spirits. Here's the pillow:



Here is the back. I used this tutorial to put the zipper on it. When you use a full pillow form like I did, the front seems like it looks better with a zipped back and I liked the look of a hidden zipper. The tutorial was very easy to follow.



I decided to embroider my name on the back. I used my usual name stamp to stamp the image, and then just did a simple backstitch to embroider it.



Here is a simple card I made for her. I knew she would probably get it late (although she got it later than I was hoping) so the inside says "oops! It's a hare past your birthday". I didn't think to take a picture of the inside.


ingredients:
Stampin' Up Birthday Banter stamp set
Stampin' Up Cloud embossing folder
Copic Markers
EK Success border punch
Kraft cardstock: Stampin' Up
White cardstock: Neenah Paper
Green Cardstock: Bazzill

Christmas cards part 2

Here are the other two cards I made for Christmas. I used the new style ink pads with these and boy, are they nice! Much easier to get a good solid image than with the old pads.



Ingredients:
Stampin' Up Word Play and Ornament Keepsakes
Stampin' Up Holiday Ornaments Framelits dies 
Embossing folder
Ink: Stampin' Up
Marker: Copic
Red cardstock: Stampin' Up
White cardstock: Neenah
Silver cord: Stampin' Up


Ingredients:
Stampin' Up Merry Messages and Christmas Lodge
Stampin' Up Top Note Die
Ink: Stampin' Up
Kraft cardstock: Stampin' Up
Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up
White cardstock: Neenah

Christmas cards, part 1

Here are 3 of the cards I made. I used my silhouette for all 3 of these, along with some other tools.



For the one above, I used the following:
The tree from the Lettering Delights Feliz Navidog SVG Set.
Madison Window die from Poppy Stamps
Stampin' Up scalloped border punch
Stampin' Up Merry Messages set
Ink: Stampin' Up
Patterned paper: Stampin' Up
Green and yellow solid cardstock: Stampin' Up
Blue solid cardstock: Bazzill
White cardstock: Neenah 



For the one above I used the following:
Presents from the Lettering Delights Tannenbaum SVG set
EK Success scalloped punch
Red cardstock: Stampin' Up
Green cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Die Cuts with a View
White cardstock: Neenah  
Stampin' Up Seasonal Sayings set
Ink: Stampin' Up 


For the one above I used the following:
Shapes from the Silhouette store
Colored cardstock: Stampin' Up
White cardstock: Neenah  
Glitter: Art Institute
Embossing folder
The picture below shows the glitter a little better :)



Tomorrow I'll post the other cards I made.

Ornaments card

I have officially started on Christmas cards! Only I just made one and have a lot to go. Hopefully I can keep up this momentum. ha.

The ornaments are from the Lettering Delights Christmas Dee-Licious svg set and I cut them out with my Silhouette SD using Silhouette Studio. All of the paper is from Stampin' Up except for the white, which is from Paper Trey Ink. I think the twine is from Divine Twine. I also used my little sewing machine to sew around the red patterned paper. The white squares are embossed with the Sizzix stars and swirls embossing folder and punched with a 1.5" square from Creative Memories. One ornament is hanging crooked but I'm leaving it. I used a sketch from Retro Sketches.


In case anyone is wondering, these are the settings I use for cutting out Stampin' Up cardstock: blade 5 (4 might be enough), speed 5, pressure 33, double cut (it will cut through with a single cut but some sharp corners do better with a double cut).

Make a Cake

I've been wanting to try paper piecing and now I can say I did. I really liked making it! I won this set from a contest at Patty's Stampin' Spot and it is perfect for paper piecing. I used an older Mojo Monday sketch.


stamps: stampin' up make a cake
markers (for the pinwheel): copic
paper: echo park
blue card stock: stampin' up
ink: memento
dies: stampin' up and nestabilities

Here's to you, Dad!

At first I wasn't sure if a pin-up girl card was appropriate for Father's Day. But then I figured with this sentiment, it works. Plus my dad has an amazing sense of humor and he loves to look at pin-up girls so why not? I used an older sketch from The Sweetest Thing sketch challenge blog.

 

image from Victoria Case
markers: copic (colors C1 B000 B91 B93 B95 B97 E00 E11 E13 E53 E55 E57 Y15 Y17 R02 )
card stock: stampin' up
patterned paper: echo park
background stamp: stampin' up
ink: stampin' up
word window punch: stampin' up
stickles (for the foam and her necklace)

Snappy Birthday

I made this for the deconstructed sketch challenge #53. I just got this paper pack in the mail and it wasn't quite what I was expecting but it's still pretty cute and goes well with the crab & company set.
stamps: stampin' up crab & company
markers: copic
ink: memento, stampin' up (for sponging)
card stock: stampin' up
patterned paper: echo park paradise beach
border punch: ek success
circle and scallop circle dies: nestabilities

ps-thanks for telling me about feline playful's blog!

Cards & Things Sketch Challenge #119

I made this for the Cards & Things Sketch Challenge. I got the idea for the rest of it on the way home from dropping my kids off at the library. I'm trying to do more challenges, so if anyone knows of any other favorite challenge blogs, please feel free to leave a comment with a link. I started off using Make-the-Cut. I used the Mahalo set from Lettering Delights to make the coconut drink. When I make a shape to go on a card, I make a card-sized rectangle in Make-the-Cut first and then I can resize the shape to the right size for the card front. Then I just delete the rectangle or turn off that layer when I cut. For the letters I used a font called Grilled Cheese. I added the letters to the mat, then I used the bezier warp thing to make them curve the way I wanted them. This was done mostly through trial and error since I don't really know how all the controls on the bezier warp thing works. I added some tiny rectangles to some letters and used boolean join so that I wouldn't have to deal with putting the center parts on separately, but I made a couple of them too small and had to deal with it anyway. Once I got the word all done and sized, I found that the lines on the virtual mat in Make-the-Cut don't match up with the lines on my silhouette mat. So I exported the svg and opened it up in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition to do the cutting-it was a little easier to make sure the text was in the right spot for my card front. Before I cut, I did a test sketch on some white paper to make sure I had it in the right spot. The card stock is all from Stampin' Up and Bazzill. I used a Sakura Gelly Roll pen to make a little shiny spot on the cherry. The bottom border was done with a Martha Stewart border punch. I made the blue card base about an inch short on the front, then I added the orange card stock (after punching the border) so that it could be seen through the cut-out letters and on the bottom. I could have sworn I had it centered when I punched it but maybe that punch doesn't center as easily as my other ones do. Or maybe I just messed up.

Resist Emboss Technique Challenge

I made this card in response to the technique challenge at Patty's Stampin' Spot. I don't do cards like this often and to be honest, I'm not so sure how much I like this one, but here it is anyway. I used the Stampin' Up Upsy Daisy set and stamped it with black pigment ink and clear embossed. Then I sponged ink on it (Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Cool Caribbean). The sentiment is from the same set, stamped and inked with Not Quite Navy ink and punched with a tag punch. The patterned paper is from a couple of Stampin' Up mini paper packs. The sun is punched from Summer Sun card stock. The sun was my son's idea-I wasn't happy with the card and he thought maybe it needed a sun. It does look better with the sun.

2011 Christmas Cards

Yep it's been a while. So anyway, these are the cards I made for Christmas this year.



This first one I made with a freebie file from the Silhouette store. I used my new favorite embossing folder, which is the stars & swirls from Sizzix. The baker's twine is Martha Stewart brand, the white card stock is Neenah and the red card stock and green patterned paper are both from Stampin' Up.



The next one was made with a file from Lettering Delights and cut out with the Silhouette SD. The embossing folder is from the evil Provo Craft. White card stock is Neenah and the rest of the card stock and the patterned paper is from Stampin' Up.



This is almost all from Stampin' Up. The off white card stock is Bazzill, the border punch is Martha Stewart and the baker's twine is Divine Twine from Whisker Graphics. I cased this card from Wrestlermomx2 on Split Coast Stampers. Thanks Wrestlermomx2!




This is a card I made to hold a gift card for my nephew. I used a tutorial from Jennifer McGuire. White card stock is Paper Trey Ink and colored card stock and stamp from Stampin' Up. I'm not sure about the patterned paper. The inside card stock is Bazzill. The image is stamped with memento ink and colored with copic markers. The inside scallop is from a Stampin' Up punch and the outside shapes were cut with nestabilities.

pin-up girl

My dad is currently in the hospital and his birthday is this Saturday. I made this card and am hoping it cheers him up.



digital image: ginger beer from blue butterfly stamps
markers: copic
cardstock: stampin' up (blue and red) and paper trey ink (white)
patterned paper: stampin' up
border punch: ek success
greeting punch: stampin' up
greeting: close to my heart
brown ink: stampin' up
round clip: unknown
glitter: stickles
sewing machine

MTC Blog Hop-MY TURN!

It's finally my turn for the Make-the-Cut Blog Hop. If you've gotten lost, just click the blog hop button on the right to find the main page with the list of all the participating blogs. Also be sure to read to the end of this post for the blog candy info! As many know, MTC does not work with the cricut anymore. But fear not! It works with plenty of other cutters, including the Black Cat Cougar, Black Cat Lynx, Bosskut Gazelle, Silhouette, Craft Robo, US cutter MH/Laser point series, ECraft, Pazzle, KNK, and any cutter using an HPGL printing support feature.

So on to my projects. I have the Silhouette SD and although it's not yet a native plotter in Make-the-Cut, it is possible to cut with it through the print menu. It works perfectly and I wanted to focus on using both a graphic and an svg file.

My first project is this summer card. I made it for my daughter to give her speech therapist since she only goes to speech therapy during the regular public school year. So it'll be a nice 'Have a Great Summer' type card. I used the pixel trace function in MTC to trace some images from the Sunshine Fun graphic set. I had to trace some of the images more than once, but usually only twice, to get all of the shapes I needed. (For tutorials see the end of this post-I will post links to them.) Patterned papers are from KI Memories and Stampin' Up. Cardstock from Bazzill and Stampin' Up.


For my next project I wanted to use an svg set. So I imported some shapes from the Doug's Outer Space svg set and cut them out for this cute boyish spaceman card. Using svg files in MTC is so easy and I love that Lettering Delights has so many to choose from. Cardstock is all from Bazzill, Neenah and Stampin' Up. I also wanted to mention that despite popular belief, the Silhouette SD does cut heavier cardstock without any problems whatsoever. I used Stampin' Up, Bazzill and Neenah paper on both of my projects and did not do any multi-cuts. All of the cuts came out perfect and clean, even in the corners and on the smallest shapes. Both cards here are 4.25 x 5.5 so you can just imagine how tiny some of these cutouts are!


And now for the blog candy. I'm offering a $10 gift certificate to Lettering Delights!! To enter, just leave a comment-that's it! If you want to follow my blog I'd be grateful but it's not necessary to be eligible for the gc. I will draw a name a week after the hop ends. And be sure to check the main hop page every day to see whose blog to visit next!!

Here are the tutorials I promised:
How to use pixel trace in mtc
How to import svg files in mtc