Positive Thoughts ATC Cards

My husband has been having a rough time lately and I wanted to make him a card to lift his spirits. I received a fabulous stamp set in the mail on Monday (which I won from Erika at Crafty Sprouts - Thanks, Erika!). It is the Positive Thoughts set from K Andrew. There are so many incredible sentiments in this set that I was having a hard time deciding which one to use on my card. I also wanted my husband to be able to carry these positive thoughts with him (and a standard card is not very convenient to carry around) so I decided to make some ATC-sized cards. These are the perfect size for him to carry in his wallet, or even his pocket. Then he can pull one out when he needs a little lift.



I cut out some ATC blanks from a light brown cardstock. Then I covered each of them with paper from my scrap bin. I used my CM Oval Template for some of the sentiments and the others I just cut by hand. Then I added some pen stitching around the sentiments. The cards still felt a little plain, but I didn't want to go overboard with the embellishments for 2 reasons. #1 - these are for my husband, a man, who doesn't appreciate a lot of frills and bling. #2 - the reason for these cards is the sentiment and I wanted to keep those the focus. So to add just a little something, I pulled out my Stickles and added some subtle bling. :-)

Here are some close-up shots so you can see the sentiments better.




I am really happy with how they turned out. And my husband can write notes on the back, or I can write him some messages. He was pleased with them and even said he would enjoy handing them out to people who looked like they could use some cheering up (my husband is such a good man). When he said that, it reminded me of Kristal's post about being aware of those who could use a kind word and her use of Post-It notes to give uplifting messages to people. I can't seem to find the post right now, but if you are a loyal follower of Kristal's, you will probably remember the post anyway. :) Also, this week's Simply Sunday challenge over at Getting Cricky is all about Positive Thoughts. So I am entering these cards into Kristal's challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Cupcake Shaker Card

Remember how I said I had another cupcake card to share with you? Well, here it is. :) I had so much fun going through my scraps to make the card for the Scrapalicious sketch challenge (you can see that card HERE if you missed it), that I thought I would make another card using my scraps. Plus, Becky over at Squirly Girl Creations is having a challenge right now to create a card using your scraps and a K Andrew Art Stamp. I really enjoyed the sketch that was provided for the sketch challenge, so I went over to Page Maps by Becky Fleck to find another sketch for inspiration. This is the sketch I used. It is from the March 2010 Card Maps section.



And here is my card.




For the background paper, I used Ruche textured cardstock in Khaki (Paper Temptress). This has such a great texture. I love all the paper that Patricia carries over there. For the blocks I used two different My Mind's Eye patterned papers. Love the colors on these papers, don't you? The blocks were made from a cutting file by FileKutz called Quilt Block Puzzler. The cut file had the dashed lines already and I just went over them with a black marker. The focal element on the card is a cupcake shaker. Erika over at Crafty Sprouts had a great tutorial on making shakers and is hosting a challenge to make a shaker card. My cupcake is made from a cute cupcake border file by Beloved Keepsakes. I modified it quite a bit to create my cupcake, but that was my starting point. The background of the cupcake was embossed with the Spots & Dots folder and I used green and orange micro beads inside the shaker. I gave my cupcake a cute face using a Peachy Keen face stamp (Wide Eyed Kids) and added some red Stickles to the cherry. Finally I stamped my sentiment using a K Andrew Art Stamp (Food for Thought).


Here are the challenges I am linking this card up to:

Shaker Card Challenge at Crafty Sprouts
Use Scraps and a K Andrew Stamp Challenge at Squirly Girl Creations
Made It Myself Mondays at You Had Me at Craft






Thanks for stopping by!

Another Cupcake Card

I am back again in the same day. Can you believe it? I have been trying to work in more crafty time, and this week seems to be going well so far. For today, I have a sweet cupcake card to share with you. It seems like I have been making a lot of cupcake cards lately, huh? Stay tuned because there will be yet another one in the next few days. :)

For this card, I used plain blue cardstock for the background. I did stipple on a couple shades of blue ink (French Blue & Faded Jeans) for added depth. The cupcake mesh is from My Scrap Chick. I cut the base from a yellow polka dot patterned paper. Then I cut the icing from white cardstock. Each of the cupcake's icing layer was embossed and then I went over the raised images with various ink pads. Then to give the cupcakes a little glitz, I added Stickles to several of them. I also added a brad to mimic a cherry to the top of one of the cupcakes. A colorful ribbon from American Crafts is along the bottom of the card and the Make a Wish sentiment is made from some EK Success vellum stickers. The final touch was some white pen stitching around the outside of the card. I think it turned out pretty cute.






I am entering this into the Birthday Sundaes Blog Hop Challenge.


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Scrapalicious Challenge #13

I recently came across the site Scrapalicious USA. What a great site this is! This week's challenge was to create a card using this sketch.


So I dug into my scraps and found a bunch of K & Company paper leftovers from recent projects. This card was so quick and easy. I cut a few strips of paper with my paper trimmer, inked around the edges, stamped a sentiment, punched it out, adhered it with pop dots and added a few pearls. Done! :) This was so simple and yet I love how it turned out. And I managed to use up some of my scraps. Woohoo!





If you have never checked out the Scrapalicious site, head on over and take a look.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monogram Tile

Just a quick post today. I wanted to share this tile I made using a fabulous file from Visual Designs by Chris. She has the entire alphabet included in the file. The tile I used is a 6x6 ceramic tile. I wanted to use a larger tile (like maybe 8x8) but I live in a small city and my choices were limited. Luckily we have a Lowe's opening this month so I won't have to drive 30 minutes to shop the home improvement store.





Wouldn't this make a great gift? I plan on making some for Christmas gifts this year. It is so simple to make, and yet it looks so elegant. All you need is a ceramic tile, some vinyl, and the cutter file. Easy peasy. :-)

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Make a Wish Cupcake Card

Today I have a birthday card I would like to share with you. It is based on an inspiration photo for the Birthday Sundaes challenge this week. I don't usually make cards in this fashion. I typically either use a sketch or just make whatever my imagination leads me to. So this was a bit of a challenge, but a thoroughly enjoyable one. Anyway, on to the card . . .





This card features 3 files from the super talented Shelly of Shelly's Art (I will list the specific files below). For the background, I used my Scallops & Lines embossing folder from Sizzix. The folder is an A2 size and my card is 5x7 so I wasn't able to emboss the entire background. But I really like how it looks just partially embossed. I inked over the raised image with a French Blue inkpad. The two blue cupcakes are embossed with the D'vine Swirls folder and I used the French Blue ink on them as well. The brown cupcake is embossed with the Mesh folder and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I added a blue rhinestone to the tag. There is also lots of pen stitching added to the card. The Make a Wish sentiment is cut from vinyl. The rest of the sentiments are from K Andrew's Food for Thought stamp set. What other sentiments you ask? Take a look at the second photo. The cupcakes all pull out of their wrappers and have sentiments stamped on them. The cupcake file was originally intended as a card where the wrapper acted as the envelope. It works great that way as well, but I also love reducing it in size and using it as a card embellishment.


Here is the card with the cupcakes pulled out of their wrappers.




Cutter Files Used (all from Shelly's Art):

Cupcake Card (SS00029)
Pennant Border Set (SS00227)
Tags Galore (SS00115)



Other Supplies Used:

Assorted paper from my stash
Embossing folders (Scallops & Lines, D'vine Swirls, Mesh)
Ink Pads (French Blue, Vintage Photo Distress)
White Gelly Roll Pen
Sentiment Stamps (K Andrew's Food for Thought Stamp Set - you can find all of Kristal's stamp sets HERE)

I am entering this card for Challenge #19 (Inspiration Photo) over at Birthday Sundaes.


Thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly Gift Box

Over at the VDBC forum, Sue is running a challenge this month to create something 3D. I decided to make a little gift box using a file from ArtiCrafts. For those of you who don't own digital cutters (or who can't use cutter files), Rebecca includes a JPG image with instructions that you can print and then cut the box out by hand. For my box, I used double-sided paper from K & Company (Classic K Margo). I added some black wire for the butterfly's antenna. His body is made out of green rhinestones and I added some white rub-ons (American Crafts) to his wings for added dimension. More white rub-ons were added to the closure of the box and I put a couple of blue rhinestones in the centers of the flowers.


Here is the front view.





And here is the top view.



This is the perfect sized box for a small gift, or even a few pieces of candy. You could even fold up some money and tuck it inside - a more unique way to give the gift of money instead of just putting it inside the card. I hope you enjoyed seeing my 3D project today.

Thanks for stopping by!