Happy Birthday for My Man

I needed to make a birthday card for my hubby whose birthday is next month.  An extra day off is a perfect opportunity to let the creative juices flow.  I've even uploaded photos of cards from the scrapbook convention (my how time has flown).  I'm hoping to get to the blogging of those soon.  Additionally, Brandy forwarded a picture of a beautiful creation she made this weekend as well.  I'm telling you, creative juices baby!

This little card was inspired by the latest Mojo Monday sketch 295.  Given that round is just more feminine, I decided to go with the square look.  Additionally, since square envelopes are rare, I decided to alter the design and go rectangle.

I also decided to reach into the scrap pile and use up some of those scraps available to me.  This strip is quite old and there is little left, just the right fit for my card.


 I found a bunch of coordinating solids to fit the design.  Again, to make it a little more masculine I decided to forgo the flower and leaf motive.  Ms. Jessica over at Errant Scraps inspired the embellishment I finally decided on.  Her layout was just right and the rosette eye catcher fit perfectly- not to girly, not too plain and just the right depth for my design.  The pictures don't really capture the distressing done with my Vintage Photo and Faded Jeans Distress Ink.  The sentiment comes from my Titled Banners Sentiments stamp set.  The medallion is a 25 cent special in the bin at Michaels and the bird is from a Fiskars set, long stored in the Scrapbox.

I think I hit just the right note.  It will be a few weeks, but this one's ready and no rush will be needed.  He doesn't follow the blog, so it will still be a surprise.

Andie

Happy Father's Day- Early Peak

My grandparents were in town for a wedding celebration.  This is just one big excuse to celebrate Mother's Day (*late*) and Father's Day (*early*).  The way I look at it, celebrating at 43 years old with your grandparents is a good thing, no matter whether you've marked the right Hallmark day on the calendar or not!

This card was created using all scraps and the Mojo Monday Sketch- 293.  The striped patterned paper was a lonely 5 x 12 inch scrap that became the inspiration for the card.  I needed to make two versions (one for my dad and one for my grandpa) of the card, so I didn't have enough paper for any kind of layering.  The Mojo Monday sketch afforded the perfect use for small scraps.  Then it was a trip through the other paper scraps to find coordinating pieces of cardstock to embellish the remaining parts of the card.

The bow was a forgone conclusion- omit, omit, omit!  However, I'm very pleased with the final design, simple enough that my boys didn't immediately toss it away and nice enough to post on the blog- winner!  

The sentiment was printed on my printer and the circle distressed a little with some black Archival Ink.  I stamped the "enjoy" from one of my Fiskars cling stamp sets onto the paper that I embossed using my Scor-Pal.  I can't decide whether the "enjoy" is crooked or not.  Just when I've decided it is uniform I realize the stamp is probably crooked on purpose.  At least that's my story!

Even though I didn't get this post written (we've been celebrating, remember?!!), I did post the card over at Mojo Monday for their challenge.  For the design-challenged amongst us, check them out.  Their sketches are easy to follow and allow you enough input to make simple and/or complex cards with their designs.  Hey, if I can follow them then you can too!

Word Art Wednesday- Challenge #77

I thought I'd get in the mix over at Word Art Wednesday again this week and participate in their Challenge #77.  This is one more card using the fabulous Heartfelt Creations Posy stamp and dies along with my MME The Sweetest Thing- Tangerine paper pad.  The flowers were stamped and cut from white cardstock and colored using a Fantastik and my Peacock Feathers, Ripe Persimmons, Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks (from left to right on the card).

All layers of paper are edged in Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  What you can't see is my messed up printing job.  The sentiment comes from Word Art Wednesday and I printed onto white cardstock.  The first print job was to the wrong location, printed approximately over the teal flower.  So I ran it through again and it printed right over the location where the teal flower now sits.  This wasn't what I was looking for, so I tried a third time and got it right where you see it.  I've just hidden those two missteps under the patterned paper.

This card will be sent to the mother of one of my co-workers as a get well card.  She's scheduled for surgery this week and I thought the flowers might brighten her day and the verse would be an encouragement.

This card is a loose interpretation of the Mojo Monday 290 sketch.  I'm going to enter this into their challenge as well.  Time's almost up on this week's challenge, but they'll have another one up tomorrow.  I've also entered this card in the Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes! challenge.  Come join the fun.

Andie

A Little Bridal Shower Card

My cousin's kid is getting married in a couple of weeks.  I'm always so confused by the relationship phrases.  When I was growing up (in the Midwest) my grandma was very concerned that we know everyone we were related to.  She didn't want us to end up marrying a cousin or something.  This reality becomes humorous when you find out that I'm not biologically related to this grandma or her family :).  But, my dad is really my dad- though not biologically my dad- so I think she thought the bond (or perceived bond) so real she didn't want it to look bad around town.  Either way, I grew up hearing about my cousins once removed and my first and second cousins.  I never really got the clear connection.  

I think the daughter of my cousin is actually my first cousin once removed and my children's second cousin.  Either way, a bridal shower is definitely an occasion to make a card.  This one is made using MME's The Sweetest Thing Tangerine collection.  I am running out of the best/smallest patterns and that is going to make finishing strong difficult, but I've so loved this set that I am convinced to use it some more. 

The flowers were stamped using my Heartfelt Creations Posy stamps and brown Archival Ink.  I then cut the flowers using my Heartfelt Creations Posy dies on my Sizzix Tagalong.  I shaped the flowers and glued them together.  The rest of the card is simply cutting solid cardstock to size, inking the edges and gluing everything down.  

 

The sentiment was made using Word.  I commonly use text boxes to create these type of sentiments.  You can see that I've used three different text boxes leaving open spaces in the brown typeset to place the smaller "one" and "soul" text boxes which also have different font, font size and color.  Just make sure to set the text box settings to have no fill color and no line color.  I used the arrow keys to fine position the boxes until my eye was satisfied. 

Edited to add:  If you've not used text boxes before, these instructions can be a bit sketchy.  For a tutorial on text boxes, try this. Notice the options for "No line" and "No fill".  This is what I'm referring to above.  You can edit the font, font size, and font color just like any other part of your Word document.

I've included the jpegs of the sentiments inside and out.  If you can pick them up with enough resolution to be useful, have fun.  I just found the sentiment perfect for the occasion and thought I would share. 

For the inside I simply layered more paper with another computer generated sentiment printed on my printer.  I haven't decided on purchasing a gift and/or a gift card.  You might see a finely decorated package next or not.  We'll have to see.  Either way, my decision needs to be a fast one because the shower is now less than a week away.

I created this card using the Mojo Monday 290 sketch.  I think I'll post it over there and get in on the fun.  You should think about joining the fun too!  Just hurry as the Linky ends tomorrow at 8 pm Mountain time.

Andie