Happy Earth Day and 1 More Happy Birthday to my First Born, Along with a Useful Tip for Stamping

Well, that is a long title, but that's what I have to share today --- so get ready!  First of all, Happy Earth Day.  I have another all green card for you, in honor of Earth Day.

This is one of the cards I made for my free kits during our free shipping promotion.  Most of the cards full size and a few were made with our cute little note cards.  I like the clean, crisp look of the green and white color story.  My green is Lucky Limeade.

As for the kits, I did have a lot.  They've all been picked up now and are being enjoyed by the lucky recipients.  These are just the last of those ready to be picked up.  As I said, I made a lot!

Now, for the birthday.  Yesterday was my daughter's birthday.  I made this card in honor of her birthday.

I knew I was hand delivering it (with a fun gift card inside) so I decided to make an over-sized card.  My colors are Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Island Indigo and Lucky Limeade.

... and here's my tip:
Whenever I am designing a card, layout or projects, I often go in a different direction than from where I first start.  This means that sometimes I have really nice (stamped) pieces that I do not use right then.  I keep these in a little case together.  When I get ready to start a new project, I keep these pieces in mind so I can pull them out and most of my work is already completed.  I added the 'Happy Birthday' and then chose my card base and a mat for the Crumb Cake layer.  As in all darker card bases, I added a lighter piece inside so I could write on it.

... and there you have it... a really nice card for a very special someone who has blessed my life for several years now.  I won't tell how many.  That would make her mad and make me look bad:)

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Sneak Peek for More Cardmaking Fun

I love the look of crisp, clean, black and white cards.  They are so elegant and sophisticated.  I've been busy in my studio making some fun cards for my class this Thursday night (3rd Thursday Class) we are going to be making 20 cards --- 4 each of 5 designs.  The categories will be:
Birthday
Wedding/Anniversary
Sympathy
Get Well / Thinking of You
Thank You

Today, I'll show you 2 of the cards.  These 2 are for the categories of sympathy and wedding.  The wedding card my be adapted for an anniversary (or even an engagement card) with just a quick change of sentiments.

I used an embossing folder on the larger white layer on the front of each card.  It adds so much to a card and really bumps up the elegance factor.

It's difficult to see it in a photo, but I've added a spritzing of shimmer to the embossed layer of the card.  I added a couple of red hearts to the inside, for a fun little pop of color.

The 'Mr. and Mrs.' stamp is one of our single stamps.  I've actually used it quite a bit already.  The flourish on the envelope is one of my favorite stamps, from the Everything Eleanor stamp set. 

The Love and Sympathy stamp set is another of my very favorite stamp sets.  The flower image lends itself to lots more than just sympathy cards, too.

I always try to make my sympathy cards as elegant as possible because, when you make a sympathy card, you're sending a message of caring at a difficult time for the recipient and you want it to really be special.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Hello, stranger!

After being really sick for a very long time, I'm finally back in action.  Unfortunately, I'll have to divide my catch-up time between stamping, finishing taxes, and catching up laundry and cleaning.  Such is the reward for being sick in the Spring.
As for my plans to feature a portion of each section of the big catalog between now and the end of May, we'll just have to see how that plays out.  Sometime, no matter how great our plans may be, illness or family priorities get in the way.  Rest assured, I will continue to use as many of my stamps as possible for the next few weeks.
The boys are coming back for Easter break and my DIL and I continue to work on our projects for Olive Jane's first birthday, so I will be busy doing LOTS of stamping and family activities.  I will share, I promise.
For today, here's a look at the card design I came up with for our church cards for the April birthdays:

I tried to capture the scoring details on the left side of the Whisper White top layer, but it just doesn't show up well in the photo.  I scored 3 little lines --- from the back --- so it would show as a raised detail on the front of the card.  This is a super simple card, but so elegant.  Again, I paired Concord Crush with Pear Pizzazz and used the 'huffing' technique with Stampin' Write Markers ----- so fun and easy.  The greeting is from Sincere Salutations and the flower image is from Love and Sympathy.

I made a few extra for us to use for friends' birthdays.  Here's hoping that I can continue playing catch up until I can actually get there!

The Whole Thing

Remember the sneak peek I gave you of some of my cards for my Friday 3-4-5 class?  Would you like to see one of the entire cards?  I think this one is my favorite:

This one uses 2 embossing folders, a sizzlit, a bitty punch and a border punch.  Because there's nothing to cut by hand, it makes it go pretty quickly.  The flower is done with the huffing technique, using markers.  You saw this image on a previous post and, as you can see, I keep finding more ways to use it while still enjoying the Concord Crush.

Here's a closer look.  As you can see, it has a lot of dimension and texture to it.

We had so much fun at class last night.  I hope you'll try a Friday 3-4-5 class.  We had a full house.  A couple of people needed to make just the 3 cards and everyone else stayed to make 6 cards.  We all had a great time and everyone did a super job.

Gotta run now.  I have my Saturday Morning Brunch Bunch today.  Can't wait for more fun!

My Next classes:
Mar. 19:   Monday Morning Brunch Bunch  (9:30-1:00)
April 2:    Hostess Scrapbook Club  (6:00-8:30)
April 9:    Scraps and Prayers  (6:00-8:00)
April 16:  Monday Morning Brunch Bunch  (9:30-1:00)
April 20:  Friday 3-4-5  (6:00-8:00)
April 21:  Saturday Morning Brunch Bunch  (9:30-1:00)