Mermaizing

Sometimes a party theme really inspires me. Mermaids screamed out to me "shaker card." I haven't made too many of them but I'm glad I attempted this one. The birthday girl LOVES glitter but her mom not so much so this was a way to make them both happy and let me play in my craft room. The photo doesn't do the shimmer and bling justice. Just trust me, it's so much more mermaizing in person.

Shake your booty shaker card

It has been a long time since I made a shaker card. I always found them rather... fussy. But this one actually worked out well for me. I knew I wanted a black and purple color scheme for this card. I ended up being inspired by this purple strip of cardstock that I found on my desk, which I had used to punch a circle for another project.

I wrapped a piece of wide black polka dotted washi tape around the card. I like how it is kind of translucent. Then I stamped the sentiment above the tape and embossed with silver powder.

I attached a piece of clear plastic that I cut from some packaging (I'm always up for upcycling). Then I added pieces of foam tape around the circle on the back side and filled it with large silver and iridescent glitter. After deciding that I would use a black panel on the white card base, I attached a piece of black cardstock slightly larger than the circle opening with the foam tape. I think this is where I have always gone wrong in the past -- I had tried to attach the shaker panel directly to the card instead of closing it off with another piece of paper.

I dry embossed another piece of black cardstock and attached it to a folded card. I punched a border from white cardstock and attached it across the bottom of the card. Then I adhered the purple panel using foam tape all around the edges. I stamped the letters onto white cardstock and embossed with silver powder, ran them through my Xyron, cut them out freehand and layered them on the card (one of my favorite easy personalization techniques).

Finally I found the perfect paper flower to attach with a glue dot and topped it off with a large gem that I had purchased for a decorating supply at my daughter's birthday party.

Tutu cute!

It's that time of year again -- teacher present time! I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do for my daughter's preschool teachers (thankfully there's still a week of school left), but I did have to scramble for the dance teacher last week. I ran to Target for a gift card and plunked it inside of this card I made that reflects this year's dance recital costume:

It was actually pretty easy to make, once I saw the idea for a cupcake paper tutu on Pinterest. I could only find an aqua cupcake paper with white polka dots in my stash of baking goodies and I needed light blue. So I turned it inside out and sprayed it with my new Heidi Swap Color Mist in Ocean. If you haven't used these mists, try them out! I think they may be my favorite brand of spray ink as the color is predictable and consistent. I ordered them from www.joann.com when they had 50% off of all papercrafting supplies.

I freehand cut out a leotard and sprayed that with the same ink. Then I used Stickles around the the top to mimic tiny sequins. The bow and rose came from my stash  -- I've had them for years and finally found a use for them! I adhered with Zots glue dots. I really like the singles as opposed to the rolls -- much easier to apply in the right spot. 

The background is embossed with a butterfly embossing folder -- I think it's made by Darice. The card is 5 by 7 so and the embossing folder only 4.24 by 5.5 so I had to trim the panel in width and allow the bottom inch or so to remain unembossed. It left a perfect place to add my daughter's teacher's name, which I stamped with mini lettters using Colorbox Chalk Ink in Pink Pastel, ran through my Xyron, cut out invididually, inked the edges and then adhered. Then I used the Tim Holz ink blending tool with the sponge pad and the same ink to lightly apply pink to highlight the butterflies.

 
 I wrapped a piece of butterfly washi tape around the butterfly panel between the end of the embossing and the stamped name. Finally I mounted the butterfly panel onto a purple panel and then onto a white 5 by 7 card.

It came out so cute that I'm wishing I had made another tutu to use as an embellishment on the scrapbook page I'll make of my daughter's dance recital!

Bold Ballerina thank you card

It's the end of the school year. It's thank you season. Teachers, coaches, babysitters, you name it, whatever your child is moving on from, you need to give a thank you. I didn't want to spend a ton on thanks yous this year so I decided to include a handmade card. I made the outsides and my daughter scribbled all over decorated the insides.

First up was a card for my daughter's dance teacher. I wanted to create a special card because she was so patient with my hesitant daughter, even buying her special stickers to entice her to go on stage at the recital and holding her her entire time they were backstage. I decided to make something that reflected their recital costume.

 

I made the leotard by freehand cutting the shape out of yellow cardstock and running it through my Texture Boutique to emboss the swirls. Then I experimented with a few different ways to make the tutu (folding a doily, overlapping scalloped circles cut from vellum) and then I remembered I had crepe paper left from my daughter's birthday party. It took a few minutes to pleat and gather the tops to form a half circle but I think the effect really works. I used glue dots to adhere. Dressed it up with some gems, a strip of glittery patterned paper, a yellow border made with the EK Success Moroccan Lace border punch and pink gingham ribbon tied in a knot. Stamped the sentiment (which was harder that I expected because it's a wood mount stamp and I have gotten so used to using clear stamps) and it was ready to go.

Valentine, You Make My Heart Glow

Well Valentine's Day was almost two weeks ago but I'm just getting around to looking at our photos from that week and it occurred to me that I should share the super cute valentines that I made for my daughter to hand out to her schoolmates. I thought she would want to paint or draw something but that didn't seem to be happening so instead I had her help me make these.

They were totally inspired by several that I saw on Pinterest. None of them were quite what I had in mind so I designed my own printable. This really couldn't have been any easier or inexpensive -- print, cut, punch holes, poke glow stick through. I bought the glow bracelets at Michaels, last summer I believe. I think there were 15 in the tube and it cost $1.

We decided to write the kids names and use some pink glitter glue on the heart, but neither is really necessary. You or your kids could color in the letters or decorate in some other way. My daughter chose to make a few half-hearted scribbles on the back.

I made a printable that you and your child can personalize -- feel free to download it and use it for your valentines next year!

Download valentine printable

Kids' birthday cards

My daughter has also been invited to a lot of birthday parties lately and I've been trying to make a quick card for each kid. I've really been loving making strips of patterned paper into banners. It's fast, colorful and uses up those scraps that I always feel guilty about throwing away.

TIP: I used a square punch to make the triangular portion of the banner. You can use any size square punch as long as it's bigger than your paper strip. Just feed end of the strip through the punch, held diagonally, so you cut off a symmetrical triangle shape. So much easier than using scissors or a craft knife!


Please pardon my photography -- my scanner has been on the fritz so I photographed the cards and I don't have any kind of professional setup for card photography.

A cute first birthday card using primary colors:

I stamped the elephant directly onto the card using Charcoal Colorbox chalk ink, then drew the string of the balloon. The hat I cut freehand from patterned paper and for the balloon I used a circle punch, then inked the edges. I cut out the 1 using my Cricut and used that ever-popular Fiskars scallop sentiment punch to make the ground the elephant stands on. After cutting and assembling the banner strips, I stamped the birthday boy's name.

A horizontal variation, this one totally girlie. I'm sure you can see the influence of the first card on this one! Instead of the elephant I stamped with Charcoal chalk ink (as you can see, it's one of my favorite inks!) a large sentiment that I decorated with dots of clear Stickles. Instead of stamping directly on the card, I used a white panel and attached that to an aqua card base. I was able to wrap a piece of pink ribbon around the white panel this way (I hate for the ribbon ends to be seen in the inside of the card -- pet peeve). I stamped the birthday girl's name on white card stock and punched out the letters with a small circle punch, then attached them with pop dots. I added a Prima flower and of course a gem because this was for a very girlie two-year-old. I also embellished the designs on the patterned papers with additional Stickles, because you can never have too much glitter, right?!

"Beautiful" layout

Well the Ikea cabinet buying went better than expected although what I didn't expect was to not have time to post again until after they were already delivered! They haven't been put together by my contractor yet though so it's a ways away as to when I'll see my new kitchen completed.

Meanwhile, my parents came to town, which took away from my creating and blogging time, but I did finish more pages than I anticipated. Warning: pink, girly baby pages to come in the next few posts!

I finally was able to finish the page that I talked about awhile back, when I was making this starburst card for my co-worker as practice. The technique wasn't as time-consuming as I feared but I am glad I practiced it on a smaller scale first.

The journaling captures the first time I saw my daughter and I think this page does that moment justice. I got to use up a bunch of scraps that I really like. The title didn't work out as I originally planned but I love how glittery the letters are in person and how they curve around the photo. I love it!

Quick Girly Card

Today's card was such a rush job and I thought I was going to hate it but I think the Making Memories Glitter Glaze turned it around in the end! I read to a public school student once a week at lunchtime through the Everybody Wins! Power Lunch program. I had my session with her this morning and realized last night at like 8:00 that her birthday was yesterday. We are not supposed to buy the students presents as they are supposed to learn to value the time we spend together reading but we are encouraged to give them cards so I like to make her a little something pretty. I know I would have loved this when I was 10!

This card was an inexpensive endeavor for me since the white CS was leftover from my wedding invitations and the pink, lavender and flowered papers were from a scrapbook page that I am still finishing up. The flower center and sentiment embellishments are just a circle punch from the pink CS with one of the many purple gems I got at the Christmas Tree shop for like $1. The letters in the name aren't stickers as they appear but the same letter stamps I used on the last cards I made. The Glitter Glaze I brushed onto the cardstock was an after-thought but I love it! Really hard to see in the scan but it looks go nice and girly in person.

Directions: Trim cardstock to 4.25 by 5.5 inch bottom-opening card. Brush with glitter glaze and let dry. Scallop the edge of pp and pink strips. Trim pp to cover about 1/3 of the card and pink CS to matte underneath. Stamp letters on lavender CS with Wisteria ink and cut each one out. Glue top edges to back of bottom of layered papers. Adhere entire piece to card. Punch lavender CS with word tag punch and stamp top tag with birthday sentiment (save other tags for future project). Attach to card and trim excess. Layer flowers and attach to card with glue dots. Punch two 1/4 circles from hot pink CS. Layer with gems and attach to flower center and edge of sentiment tag.

Supplies: White & lavender cardstock, DCWV Spring Glitter Stack hot pink CS and flowered pp, Studio G birthday stamp, small alpha stamps, Prima flowers, adhesive gems, Fiskars Scallop Sentiment border punch, circle hole punch, McGill retro word tags punch, Wisteria chalk ink, Making Memories Glitter Glaze, Zots glue dots