Summer Card Class

Remember when you were a kid and went to summer camp?  I didn't do it often (three times only as a matter of fact), but those three weeks are some of the more vivid memories from my childhood.  That and riding my bike into a parked trailer, don't ask.  I usually went everywhere with my sister, so two years of church camp were with my sister by my side, but one year I went to Girl Scout camp all on my own.  We crafted, we hiked, we sang songs by the campfire.  We slept in raised platform "tents" which to me was very much like living in the wild, especially considering we used portable pottys- yech!  Not really "roughing it" by any stretch of the imagination, but for me it was a stretch to my sensibilities and one I thoroughly enjoyed.  Well, this summer, Brandy and I decided to go to camp together.  Well, o.k. it's not really camp, but somehow my mind associates the feeling with those long summer days at camp.  Since neither of us could afford to take the time off for a proper camp in the woods, we signed up for an online Summer Card Class offered by Paper Crafts Connections Go-To-Gals.  Each week we receive a color challenge to create a card with a specified color combination.  During the following few days, ideas and techniques are shared to inspire our creativity.  This means that we will be attempting to create and post cards made for the challenges.  Today, I'm sharing my creation for this week's challenge.

Let Sweet Moments Fill Your Day Card by Andie

 
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics

Patterned Paper: Imaginisce

Stamps: Close to My Heart, Hero Arts
Ink: Close to My Heart Buttercup and Cranberry, Brilliance Dew Drop Pearlescent Sky Blue
Rhinestones: Studio 18
Baker's Twine: Boxer Scrapbook Productions









Just for You Card by Andie

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce
Stamps: Close to My Heart
Ink: Close to My Heart Cranberry
Rhinestones: Studio 18
Ribbon: Boxer Scrapbook Productions




















Andie

Homemade Father's Day Card

I put together this Father's Day card for my father-in-law.  It's simple, but I keep looking for opportunities to use the burlap in my cards.  This seemed like just the right card- those Man Cards being so tricky to design.  Here I used a blue plaid printed paper from the Stash.  I probably have owned this paper for more than 5 years.  The card itself is cut from a piece of brown cardstock and inked with a brown chalk ink.  The timepiece also comes from a printed paper that I've had in the Stash.  I fussy cut two different stopwatches out and layered them one on top of the other.  The stop watches are mounted with a pop dot. 

 A quick cut of the D*a*d from Cricut's Nifty Fifties cart and Dad has concrete evidence that we love and appreciate him.  I have the great pleasure of being able to celebrate four separate men (my dad, Dan's dad, my grandpa, and, of course, Dan- the best dad of the bunch) on Father's Day and even though I couldn't be with them all, I do love and appreciate each of them.

Andie

Finally- Cards From the Prize Pack

Earlier this year I was surprised and pleased to find my name on the Paper Crafts Connections blog as having won a random drawing to receive a prize package.  You can see the prize package in this previous post.  It took me a while, but I finally finished some cards from the supplies provided.  I tried to vary the uses just to play around and see what I could do.   

 

The first pair of cards



The You Always Lift My Spirits card combined a coordinating teal cardstock card with a paper from the American Crafts City Park paper line.  This checkered print was one of my favorite, so I quickly pulled it out first to create a card. 

The hot air balloons are stamped using the smaller of the two different Practicing Creativity Designs stamp.  The stamp was made on a coordinating piece of the City Park paper- teal pooka dots!  I used (by this I mean borrowed) the Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pens to add color and dimension to the image.  It's tough to get a good picture of the dimension, but really provides a nice effect in person.  I combined three different colors of the bakers twine from the handouts at our Boxer Palooza class at the Mesa CK Scrapbook convention.  A piece of netting found on one of my packages from the convention was tied to create a visual accent.

The Thank You card was made using the Thickers cardstock letters.  The original color of the Thickers was too bright and created too much contrast for the paper I selected.  So I covered them with

pieces of the Sweet Threads paper from Basic Grey.  I first glued the Thicker to a small piece of the patterned paper and then used my file to shape the patterened paper around the edge of the Thicker.  

The efffect is quite lovely, though it does take a bit of time.  If you haven't found or used a scrapbooking filing set, I would recommend Basic Grey's Precision Filing Set.  Especially for this purpose, the small round file works well.  I just poke my file into the rounded edges and pull across the extra paper back and forth until the edge is defined.  This job is messy as small paper dust is liberally generated, but the finished work is very satisfying.  The little butterfly came from the 7 Gypsies rub on set.  I adhered it to a scrap piece of the yellow cardstock used for the card and fussy cut the image to create the embellishment which I adhered with a pop dot.    The frame was cut using the Cricut cart.  The cut was made from solid green cardstock and the Sweet Threads paper to combine and make the frame for my sentiment.  I did ink the edges of the frames and the card to add a little dimension. 

My final creation was very simple.  I wanted to play with craft paper and color.  I used the same balloon stamp and a green Glaze pen.  The stitching and the dots on the stamped image are also the green Glaze pen.

The 3-D effect of the Glaze pen is better demonstrated in this close up.  A couple of the button brads in the American Crafts coordinating set provides a focal point on a piece of ribbon adhered to the green cardstock frame.  I can't say that I am overly pleased with the result- not my best outing.  However, I thought that I would share it just as an example of how I'm not always successful in my execution, but inspired by the attempt.  I definately won't use that green Glaze pen in the same way again.  Live and learn.  Maybe I'll give this card to our St. Bernard, Abby.  See, the sound of the hot air balloons firing to lift and stear the balloon carries a great distance.  We regularly have hot air balloons drift over our house as a popular landing space is a couple miles South of where we live.  Abby is very vocal- barking and hopping and generally alarming us- when the "danger from the skies" float over our house firing and stearing toward their descent.  One thing is for sure, I am thankful that I will never die unknowingly from a hot air balloon attack.  Thanking Abby might be a very good use for this card!

Andie

Another Name Banner with a Matching Card

Here's another name banner Katie made for a friend.  The letters were cut out with the Cricut cart Quarter Note (Font1) at 6 inches.  All four letters are the captial letter version.  The flowers are cut from the Mother's Day Bouquet in various sizes.

Katie made the ribbon herself using some Glimmer Mist and plain, white ribbon.  Glimmer Mist is a colored spray that adds a fine, glittery layer of color to a project.  As Katie demonstrates here, the Glimmer Mist looks great when combining multiple colors.

Jade enjoys the colors green and purple, hence the color selection.  Small half pearl embellishments were applied to the in the center of the flowers or as decorative accents on the card. 

The card was made from scraps of yellow and green cardstock inked with brown chalk ink to tie in the papers used to make the flowers.  Since a 12 year old is doing the decorating, the flowers were very simple- no inking, very little bending, etc.  However, it still made a lovely finish and I think Jade enjoyed her gift.

Andie

The Button Farm's Acryllic Mini-Book

It has taken me a bit, but I wanted to post pictures of The Button Farm's Mini-Book.  This mini-book is from a class we took at the CK Scrapbook Convention in Mesa, AZ in April.  We talked about the convention (if you've never been to one- I highly recommend it) in a recent post.  This cute book was a really fun class, moves fast and gave some good ideas how to use paper crafting collections by folks such as Basic Grey.  Here's a sample of what the finished product looks like.

One of the most charming parts of the kit was the specific detail that was designed into the final product.  You can see the layered flowers adhered over the sentiment on the front page.

Ribbon and sticker boarders were combined to create the decorative effect on this page.  Setting these boarders next to the scalloped edge of the acryllic page is especially charming.  The overlays are adhered over patterened paper to create a create place for journalling.

I hadn't yet finished the 1 inch loose leaf rings that hold the book together, but tying off bits of fibers and ribbon will finish the look.  The paper and embellishments are all Basic Grey's Marjolaine line.  If you are looking for a quick gift to make that provides a lovely style, please check out the Button Farm and their projects.

Andie

Cool Idea- Storing the Random Everyday

One of the blogs that Brandy and I follow (Just-a-Scrappin) posted this great video on Smash notebooks.  I just love the idea and want to bookmark the page.

Mother's Day Cards

I am much delayed in posting my Mother's Day cards.  I don't know how other bloggers do it. The debate- post before you give or after?- is not a one I feel I've conquered.  Those that might receive my efforts are not extremely likely to view the blog, but they might.  So, I've always sort of resolved to wait to post until after I've given the card or gift.  This delay causes me to get distracted and suddenly weeks have passed.  Still, sharing is sharing inspiration is inspiration nonetheless, so here goes.

This card was inspired by a card pictured in the March/April issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  I love my Paper Crafts magazine and often are inspired by them.  The central point that I liked about the card was the use of burlap combined with an elegant style, so I tried to capture that here.

The flowers are from a gift pack given to me.  They've been sprayed with Glimmer Mist to give them the shiny finish and the apparent texture you see on the large pink flower.  The sentiment on the outside was stamped with a Martha Stewart stamp using yellow ink stamped under a red ink. The frame was cut using the Cricut, though for the life of me I can't remember which cart.  The stems come from a pack of 3 ft. long decorative reeds that I purchased for my office.  Some of the smaller pieces broke off during the assembly of the display and I saved them for cards.  I think this is a perfect use, don't you?

Hopefully, this card can inspire you.  Both Brandy and I rarely recreate a project exactly from a recipe.  This is one reason you don't see highly detailed recipes on our blog.  We would rather encourage your own creativity.  Find what you like about a design and try to recreate it.  Give yourself a lot of forgiveness for not getting it perfect- I have to.  Be amazed that your design might even result in something you like more than the original.  I think I can say that I accomplished this in my replication of that original design.

Andie

Dynamite!

My daughter, Katie, is a pitcher on a recreation fast pitch softball team.  My husband, Dan, has been coaching her for the past couple of seasons.  It is a beautiful thing to watch dad and daughter together.  They truly enjoy the time together in a way that is visibly joyful.  The other fun part of the whole experience is getting to interact with ten other lovely young ladies who are also on the team.  Twelve-year-olds are entertaining!  Since I help by keeping score in the dugout each game, it is my pleasure to participate in generating thank you gifts to the girls. 

In one of our first seasons, we had the pleasure of being a part of a team coached by Joe Strazz.  Coach Joe has a kind, giving disposition and Katie enjoyed her time on his teams. Coach Joe and his wife Lisa started a tradition that we keep moving forward to this day.  Joe would take pictures from the dugout and put them together into small photo albums.  Lisa would Cricut a lovely cover and the girls received an instant memory of the season.  Additionally, Lisa would get the girls on the team to sign a picture matting and give the coaches a signed, framed photo of the team. 

Coach Joe has retired from coaching (come back, Coach Joe, come back).  Since Dan has taken up the reigns, we have continued Joe's tradition.  Our season ended last week and I had the pleasure of generating the coaches gifts. 

The Dynamite title was cut using the Nifty Fifties Cricut font.  I used the Design Studio software to nudge the letters together.  I can't say I'm anywhere close to an expert on the Design Studio, but for cutting out single words, it works great.  I also cut the matting out of blue paper.  I sized the opening to match the picture and then cut the rectangle on the Cricut.  I trimmed the edges until it fit into the picture frame.  The girls then sign the frame and each coach (there are four on our current team) received one.

Each girl is also given a photo album.  This year the girls had softball knee socks with blue stars on white, so I used the shooting star from Cricut's Home Accents to decorate the page front using blue cardstock with a black cardstock shadow cut of the image.  Each girl is assigned a team nickname (again, thank you Coach Joe).  Katie's nickname, Sting, was assigned by Coach Joe because when her bat connected with the ball the bat would ring with a "stiiiiinnnggg".  Their jersey number is also on the page.  Each image letter image is outlined using a black Sharpie (you have to simplify when you're making 11 of these). 

The album is filled with photos taken at the games and practices.  I try to get shots of each girl individually as well as with her teammates.  When the season is over and all is said and done, the photo album is left to be flipped through and remember the good times.  The back cover was made using Cricut's Sports Mania cart.  I used the Batter Up image with black cardstock shadow, white cardstock blackout, and a brown cardstock image.  The blue cardstock "Batter Up" was cut from the image where I trimmed the diamond and bat off and glued it down on top of the brown cardstock version to give the words a pop.  I also didn't use the entire white blackout image, but trimmed out just the diamond portion to glue under the brown cardstock image.

Each one of these girls is precious and lovely and the album is our gift to honor that effort.  This season, we were blessed to actually compete in the championship game for the season tournament.  To our great joy, we won the game in an 11-10 squeaker when Gator (Ali- get it?), pitching a great game, picked up a ground ball short of the mound and tossed it to Mack Attack (Mackenzie) who was standing on 1st base.  Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the CGS 12U Girls Fast Pitch Spring 2011 Softball Champions.