Busy Weekend

Happy Monday! I'm still recovering from a long weekend (but feels like a very short one). We were super busy this weekend, but it was a lot of fun visiting family and friends.. My weekend started on Friday since we had furlough... I had to make a quick wedding card for my cousin who's getting married. Since I couldn't attend the ceremony, I had to make it this week to give to my mom who was planning on going. I guess the reason why I procrastinated so long was because I haven't made a wedding card in such a long time. I think I'm out of practice! I guess we are at the point in our lives where most of our friends are married, so weddings have slowed down. Anyway, I remembered a Dandelion image that I had and decided to use that as my focal point. Tracy reminded me of some cool striped satin paper at Island Scrapbooking that looks great on wedding cards, so I picked some up on Friday and got to work. Since I was giving $$, I decided to make a pocket to hold the gift. Here's a close up of the front of the card... And the reason for the rush rush on making the card is because we were headed to Honolulu for a very special event! Can you guess what we did by looking at the next picture?? OK- so that wasn't the best photo, but they wouldn't let us take pictures. Did you guess? We took Akemi to see Beauty and the Beast! I think I wanted to go more than she did! It was really good- better than I expected. Akemi really got into it- she was laughing and even cried (talking uncontrollably) during the performance. She said it was because Belle left the Beast. When we started talking about it again she said... "Stop talking about it or I'll start crying again!!". In addition to other numerous errands, we also stopped by to see our friend's new baby. Sigh... hard to believe Akemi used to be that small! Here's Akemi, Uncle Dayne and baby.. And here's the proud papa! Darn- forgot to take a photo of the new Mama! Next time. Hope you have a great week!

More Sympathy Cards

I hate making sympathy cards, but I've had to make a handful over the last month. It really sucks to have to make these types of cards, so I don't normally post them. Just wanted to share my favorite stamp which makes making sympathy cards quick, easy and painless. The sentiment is by Paper Inspirations and is a great focal point for the card. I distressed both cards using my Ranger Distress Inks and then just accented the cards using my fern stamps. Don't know if you can tell, but images were stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder then distressed. Just stamped the sentiment directly over the embossed image and it seemed to work fine. Paper Inspirations makes all different types of sentiments using this layout. I love them all since it makes making a card fast and easy.

Tiddlyinks Challenge #23- Diamond Glaze/Crackle

This is my second post for today- please scroll down for my other post. When I first saw this image by Tiddlyinks called "Donna" (named after Donna Mikasa), I knew I had to get it. She's so cute! And I love her little frog friend with matching umbrella. Thanks Donna for requesting this image! Now we can all enjoy using it too. This week's Tiddlyinks Challenge is to use diamond glaze or Crackle on your project. Don't know if you can tell, but I used glaze on Donna's umbrella, raincoat and rubber boots. I guess glaze doesn't photograph well, so its hard to see on my photo. I also tried out this cool technique I found on Color Me Copic. It teaches you how to make a grassy background for your image. This was really fun and gave my card some life. I then added some distress ink for the sky using my blender and just dabbing the ink on. And for the inside of my card, I used this cute kids sentiment. I thought it matched the image perfectly! Supplies:

• Donna image- Tiddlyinks
• Diamond Glaze
• Lacey Circle die- Spellbinders
• Scallop border punch- Fiskars
• Daisy chain punch- EK success
• Sending Sunshine sentiment- Hero Arts
• Kids quotes- Inkadinkado
• Cherry blossoms- Wild Orchid Crafts
• Swirl punch- EK Success
• Crystals- Kaisercrafts
• DP- Bo Bunny
• Cardstock- Bazzil

Last of the Acetate Card Class Samples

I know, junk photo- the reflection totally takes away from the card. I used the same technique that I've used in other diamond glaze/acetate cards but this time used gold tissue. I love how dramatic it looks! Thanks Aunty for the advice! Guess I was going for an asain look to this card, so naturally I chose red to go with the gold. Finally picked up this Hero Arts cling stamp I've been wanting since I got into distressing. I think it nicely shows off the technique. Here's a close up of the butterfly. Well, that was the last of the cards for my upcoming class. Who knows if I'll ever work with acetate again after this class! Wish me luck! Supplies:

• Acetate
• Butterfly stamp- Hero Arts
• Diamond Glaze
• Glitter
• Tissue paper
• Cardstock- Bazzil

Embossed Acetate Snowflake

Ta Da!!!! Michele at Island Scrapbooking told me never to heat acetate. Then I stumbled on a youtube video that shows you how to do emboss on acetate! I just had to try it and what do you know- it worked! Guess I lucked out and tried it out on some thicker acetate that I had. I love the look and dimension it gave this card. Sorry- I know its hard to see because the acetate reflects everything, so hopefully this next photo will help you to see it better. I added crystals to accent the rest of the card. Darn- forgot to show you the inside! When you open the acetate flap, it will then allow you to open the red card inside to reveal the sentiment. All I can say is that these photos don't make the card look too nice. Hopefully you can stop by the store and see them in person! Supplies:

• Snowflake stamps- Hero Arts
• Crystals- Kaisercrafts
• Queens gold embossing powder
• Ribbon
• Acetate
• Cardstock- Bazzil

Challenge Time!

What can I say?! I've been inspired by all those challenges out there lately... this card came together without that much effort and seems to qualify for a few challenges! Here's the challenges I'm entering:

• Tamiko's Challenge- Altered Anya
• All That Scraps Challenge #48- Clear Cards
• Flutterby Wednesday #124- Sparkle and Shimmer

How exciting! I've never entered the Flutterby Wednesday challenge before so this is really rare for me to have 3 for the price of one! So Tamiko's Creative Team is challenging everyone to alter an Anya. Normally I would do the head switcharoo, but I decided to be brave and try opening up the eyes. Let me explain a little about my altered Anya. I've been wanting to try this for AGES! Ever since I saw Amy (A thousand Sheets of Paper) do a tutorial on this I've been dying to try. Once you have all the right tools, its not that hard. I finally got my new light box (little problems with the batteries, but now works fine) and new Copic Multiliner pen so I was able to try this out. It was fun choosing which images to combine together. Can you guess which two images I used? Well, I think the Angel Anya is a dead giveaway, but I also used Fleur Anya's eyes. I guess you can't tell since their eyes are pretty much the same. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this technique again soon. Next, I've been playing around with acetate cards, so I wanted to practice a bit more and added Angel Anya to acetate instead of regular cardstock. I think this qualifies for the All that Scraps Challenge this week. Believe me- acetate cards are pretty challenging! Finally, I normally use bling on my cards, plus I used Angel Anya, so she qualifies me for Flutterby Wednesday! Not sure if you can tell, but she has stickles on her wings. Also added pearl bling and glittered sakura's as accents. Here's a close up of Angel Anya. I like her with her eyes open! I feel like a proud mama! Supplies:

• Angel Anya- TGF
• Sakura- Island Scrapbooking
• Pearl Bling- Kaisercrafts
• Sweet Wonderful You sentiment- Hero Arts
• Labels dies- Spellbinders
• DP- Best Creations
• Stickles

Love/Hate Relationship With Acetate

I'll admit it... I love the look of acetate cards! But on the other hand, there's so many challenges that come with see thru stuff. Like hiding the adhesive, knowing what will stamp on acetate, what to layer on the acetate and what to keep behind it, how to photograph it!, etc... So I'm planning on teaching a class using acetate so that I can teach others what not to do when working with acetate! Ha! OK- so this is one of the cards we will be making. Truthfully, I really struggled with this one- not sure why since its just plain stamping. Guess I had some difficulty pairing the colors of the DP- which I ended up changing to the backside anyway! Oh well- I like the end product. Also decided to do some embossing onto colored cardstock for a different look and less fuss for my students. My students have told me many times that they don't like coloring.... in class anyway. I guess its cause it takes much longer to color an image than to just stamp and cut it out... So I try to consider the feedback they give me and not do so much coloring. This new Hero Arts stamp set really helped since it had a lot of detail but did not have to be colored in- stamping on colored paper seemed to do the trick. As you can see from the first photo, I stamped Merry Christmas on the acetate- that's it. Nothing else was done on the acetate. Here's the card when its opened- you can see the Merry Christmas is missing. Here's a close up of those trees. I'll post the other two cards soon. Supplies:

• All stamps- Hero Arts
• DP- Basic Gray
• Labels Dies- Spellbinders
• Cardstock- Bazzil
• Queen's Gold Embossing Powder
• Acetate