November Birthdays!

Hi all.  I hope you had a nice pre-Thanksgiving weekend.  Ours was great fun!  We celebrated Thanksgiving early along with a GINORMOUS family birthday party!  I wanted to share some of the cards I made for this event.  Peace.

I was unsure about this Tim Holtz butterfly die ("Fanciful Flight") at first, but now I LOVE IT!  Also, his "Tattered Banners" really rock!  After this card was all put together, I misted it with turquoise Perfect Pearls mist.

I had so much fun making this card for my nephew.  It features the Tim Holtz' "Regal Crest" die and the "Bricked" embossing folder.  The brick background really adds to the theme (whatever the theme is, that is!)

I don't use my Copic markers nearly as much as I should.  Since Copics are so easy to use, I almost feel like a real artist when I use them.  Hee hee!

I love the way this card turned out.  Again, this is classic Tim Holtz goodness through and through.  It features Timmy's "Old Jalopy" die.  After assembling the car, I covered it in Clear Rock Candy crackle paint.  Pure awesomeness!  I even used some of that plastic packaging stuff for the car windows.  You probably can't see that in the photo, so just trust me on this, 'k?

What?  More Tim Holtz?  Yeah, that guy just makes me smile.  For this card, I used the "Weathered Clock" die with some crackle paint.

Any other Twi-Hards out there?  Wasn't Breaking Dawn Part 1 awesome?  After seeing it last weekend at midnight with my Super-Twi-Hard sister-in-law, I made this card for her.  I found the SVG chess pieces online here (http://mytimetocraft.com/2010/06/02/chess-pieces-svg/) and downloaded them and cut them with my Cricut Expression.  (In case you are curious, I am TEAM EDWARD, but really, could you go wrong either way?  I don't think so!)  ;-)

Tag Card Times Two

Howdy y'all.  It sure is hot out this summer.  I am patiently waiting for the fall temps to kick in, but in the meantime, I guess I'll stay inside and make some cards.  Here are two cards I made for two of my nieces' birthdays.  I really love the way these both turned out!  What do y'all think?  Peace.

Mother's Day

Here is the Mother's Day card I made for my amazing Mom who is 94 years wise!  Yes, that is a picture of my Mom and me!  The flowers were colored by inking the tag with appropriate colors keeping in mind how I was going to position the flower stamp.  Then I stamped the flowers with Versamark ink and embossed the stamped images with clear embossing powder.  Once the embossing was done, I went over the entire tag with the darker ink and the embossing acted as a resist to allow the first layer of color to pop out.  Pretty cool technique!  Thanks to Jane and T!m for the inspiration.  Peace.

Celtic Cross

Hi everyone!  Here is a card I made for our nephew's Confirmation.  I found and downloaded the free svg file of the cross here (http://www.svgcuts.com/blog/2010/11/01/free-svg-file-sure-cuts-a-lot-11-01-10-celtic-cross/).  I used my Cricut Expression and the "Sure Cuts A Lot" program to cut it out.  This was a manual-intensive card, because of all the tiny little pieces that make up the cross.  Thank goodness for my Xyron!  Peace.

Foil Tag Technique

Howdy bloggers!  Well, Fiesta is over in San Antonio.  Maybe you've heard the saying, "Ain't Gonna Resta 'til After Fiesta."  I took that a little too literally this year!  We worked or attended too many events.  I, for one, am glad it's over!  I think next year we will take it a little easier.  OK, enough about that.  Today I am showing you a tag card using heavy duty aluminum foil.  I started with one of my homemade tags and adhered the foil to it.  I used liquid Scotch Quick Dry adhesive, but since then I have bought some spray adhesive for the next time.  I think that may be a better choice.  I trimmed the foil to the size of the tag.  Then I ran it through my Sizzix Big Kick with the Tim Holtz "Patchwork" embossing folder.  After that, I pounced on it with some alcohol inks.  To make sure the foil didn't separate from the tag, I alcohol-inked some aluminum tape and applied it to the edges of the tag.  The stamped butterflies along the right side are painted with Perfect Pearls powder mixed with water.  I colored the large butterfly with Copic markers.  I should credit my teacher Inky Jane for the design.  I shamelessly stole it from a card we made in class recently.  Thanks, Jane!!  Peace.

How to Make Inexpensive Tags for your Tim Holtz-i-ness

Greetings!  Today I want to share with you how I made some tags SOOO much cheaper than buying them ready-made.  I bought some manila folders and cut them myself.  I used "heavy weight 3-tab file folders" that I found at Staples.  I should stress that the heavy weight variety makes all the difference here.  I should be able to cut at least 10 #5 tags from one folder.  I paid $2.00 for a pack of 12 folders, so I can make at least 120 tags (4 3/4 x 2 3/8 inches) from this pack.  That comes out to less than 2 cents per tag, instead of 20 cents per tag.  Wowza!  To make the tags, I just used my paper trimmer and then snipped off the corners and punched the hole with my hole punch.  Super easy.  If you want the hole reinforcers, you can find them at Target, or Tim Holtz has his own super-cute ones (of course!).  Peace.

the journey is the destination

I made this card for my nephew's 16th birthday.  Last summer, he went to Philmont Scout Ranch for a scouting trip, and he brought back a map of Philmont for his uncle Phil.  I copied a portion of this map onto matte photo paper for the card background.  I stamped the ticket using the Tim Holtz "Odds and Ends" stamp set and inked it with distress inks.  I created the compass at the top of the card using a Tim Holtz Fragment charm.  I used alcohol inks to add color to the charm then stamped a compass image on white cardstock and glued it the charm using Glossy Accents and then trimmed the cardstock to fit the fragment.  I fastened the compass fragment to the card with a brad.  Finally, I stamped a botanical stamp at the bottom of the map to add a bit of interest.  I really like the way this card came out!  Peace.

*fun*ky!

Hey y'all.  Here's a card that is a little funky, but fun too.  I used the "Tattered Florals" Tim Holtz Sizzix die.  I cut out the flower pieces with some printed vellum, and again with some heavy duty aluminum foil (yeah, like from the kitchen).  I actually cut it a third time with plain white card stock and adhered that to the foil pieces to give them some substance.  Then I dry-embossed and cut some foil leaves out of the same kitchen foil using my new Walnut Hollow metal embossing kit.  This kit was a semi-impulse buy at Hobby Lobby.  (My 40% off coupon was burning a hole in my pocket and I have been wanting to try this for a while anyway.)  I assembled the flower alternating the foil and vellum pieces and finished it with a shiny silver brad.  Then I stained the leaves with some alcohol inks, put it all together and added the stamped sentiment.  Like I said, FUNKY FUN!  Peace.

Baby Shower

What a great day to be in SA!  Today the weather here was just stunning.  I love these blue-sky-bird-chirpy days.  Anyway, here is a card commissioned by my sis-in-law Cindy for a co-worker's baby shower.  She has chosen the "Team Safari" theme for the nursery, which consists of cute jungle animals who are into sports!  Peace.

Aloha and Mahalo!

Here is a card I made using a fabulous stamp that my BFF Debbie gave me.  It's from the Rubber Stamp Plantation company in Hawaii (http://www.rubberstampplantation.com/store/quiltstamps.htm).  The stamp is from their quilt collection and is called "Large Ulu Quilt."  I wanted to use it right away so I made her this Mahalo (Hawaiian for Thank You) card.  I created the background using glossy cardstock and Tim Holtz Adirondack alcohol inks.  The technique is to put a little of the inks and some alcohol ink blending solution on the felt applicator, then tap the applicator on the glossy cardstock until you are happy with the look.  Then I took some additional blending solution and dropped it directly on the cardstock.  For this background, I chose Sail Boat Blue, Sunshine Yellow, and Citrus.  I love how you never know what your alcohol inked background will look like, but it always looks really cool!  I stamped the "thank you" swirly stamp with Archival ink.  Because I am a sloppy stamper, I had a little bit of a smeared image.  Ergo, I punched out a butterfly, and voila, You would never know there was a smear under it.  Hee hee.  Peace.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had so much fun making Valentine's Day cards this year!  I used art from the Tim Holtz Seasonal paper stack as the focal point.  Other elements include paper doilies, and die-cut hearts (Sizzix Hearts - Tipsy), and Tim Holtz tissue tape.  The card background is inked with Antique Linen and Worn Lipstick distress inks.  First I applied the Antique Linen using the ink pad directly on the cardstock.  Then I used the foam applicator to add in the Worn Lipstick.  I inked the white paper doily, the die-cut hearts, and the tissue tape with Tea Dye distress ink.  For the hearts, I copied some text from Romeo and Juliet and printed it in a nice script font on my printer and then ran it through my Sizzix Big Kick.  I inked the edges of the hearts and the vintage clip art with Vintage Photo distress ink.  Finally, I used a Tim Holtz flourish stamp with Versamark ink and embossed it with Zing Gold metallic embossing powder.  I love the collage look.  It's so forgiving!  And as Tim says, "Embrace Imperfection!"  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  Peace.

Copic Froggie

Hi everyone!  Today I wanted to share this Froggie birthday card with you.  It features a kraft card base, some Nestabilities label dies, a Copic colored image, and a bow made with the Bow-Easy.  Also, I finally broke down recently when Hobby Lobby had their punches on sale for 50% off and bought circle punches.  Now I own circle punches in quarter-inch increments from 1 to 2 inches.  It makes my life much easier than cutting them with the Cricut.  I really love the color combination here.  It just makes me happy!  Peace.

Card for Deb

What a great rainy day it was in SA today!  For this card, I used my Nestabilities dies (Love Them!) in my Sizzix Big Shot machine.  Did you know that inside the Nestabilities package, it has directions on how to use the dies with all the major die cutting machines?  Very cool.  Also, I was able to ink the stamp with two colors easily with my tear-drop-shaped Memento ink pads.  Peace.

Howdy! Today I thought I would share some of my creations with you, so here goes! This Christmas I made a ton of tags. It was so much fun! Here are some of them:

Welcome 2011!

...and welcome to my blog!  I will use this blog to show some of my paper crafting and card-making projects.  I hope you like it.  Peace.