BIRTHDAY POCKET CARD

Today is my cousin's birthday, and this is the pocket card that I made for her:

This card also features Stampin' Up!'s gorgeous Share What You Love designer paper, Rich Razzleberry velvet ribbon, circle and Starburst punches, glimmer paper, and sentiment from Perennial Birthday stamp set.  

"OH SNAP!"

Yesterday, we celebrated Easter, my daddy's birthday, and my nephew's birthday.  Since my nephew enjoys film photography, I thought Chalk Couture's Oh Snap! chalk transfer (February 2019 Club Couture) would be perfect for a chalkboard and wooden base to include with his gift!

My son, who also has a keen interest in photography (both digital and film), used some of his equipment and effects to stage and shoot this photograph.  When I asked him to take a photo, I thought it would just be a photo, so this blew me away!

The chalkboard project probably took all of 5 minutes to create, and that includes drying time.  

If you are interested in learning more about Chalk Couture products or if I can be of assistance, please let me know.  You can view all available products HERE.

MY EASTER/SPRING CREATIONS

I don't know what it is about holidays.  They come around every year, but some of them sneak up on me.  That happened with Easter.  I had been busy working in my stamp room, moving some furniture from one side to the other and filling a lot of garbage bags, when it dawned on me that it was time to put Easter cards in the mail if I planned to send any.  As is usual when time is of the essence, I didn't have any idea what kind of card to make, so I started looking at my stamp sets.  It was Lawn Fawn's How You Bean? set that screamed "use me!".  Coloring the candy was so much fun, and the process went quicker than you might think once I was happy with the selected colors.  

When the cards were finished, I knew that the jelly beans didn't really capture the spirit of Easter so I stamped "Happy Spring" on the front and "Happy Easter" on the inside.  Soooooo . . . my Easter cards weren't at all what I might have designed if I had worked on them earlier, but I think they still brightened the day of those who received them.

But then, in keeping with the true spirit of Easter, I saw an adorable cross-shaped Hershey's nugget holder that Birgit Seidler created, and I just had to make a few.  She speaks German, and I don't.  She measures in cm, and I don't.  Fortunately, this was an easy enough project to figure out, and aren't these little gems adorable???

I cut two strips of cardstock at 1" x 8.5" for each cross.  The strips were scored at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 inches from one end, and then at 1.25" from the other end.  After folding into shape, I adhered two strips together at the top.  

For the three pinched "joints", I started with the left, then the right, and then adhered the left and right at the center which created the three triangle shapes at the top part of the cross.  

Lastly, I glued the bottom two pieces together.

I chose Stampin' Up!'s Gorgeous Grape, Pineapple Punch, and Grapefruit Grove cardstock for my crosses, and I used strips of Gingham Gala designer paper to wrap the Hershey's nugget candy.  I used one of the Bitty Blooms punches and the Butterfly Duet punch to decorate the crosses, as well as Baker's Twine.  The sentiment is from His Grace stamp set.

And then . . . I decided to make a box for some of the nugget crosses . . .

Thank you for visiting my blog today!  I wish YOU a Happy Easter and a Happy Spring! 

"GRACEFUL GARDEN" FUN FOLD

Sharing today a fun fold card that I made recently.  I don't know if there's a name for this card style, but it is definitely an easy one to make.  I even decorated a coordinating envelope, although the color doesn't show up very well.

It's a fun one, right?

TRIANGLE POP-UP CARD FOR DADDY'S BIRTHDAY

Just a quick post today--one that I meant to share last week on daddy's birthday.  

It's always a bit of a challenge to make a masculine card, but the Triangle Pop-Up isn't one that can be sent to just anyone because they might pull it out of the envelope, flip it all around, and not know what to do with it.  My friend, Laura, sent me one of these cards recently--beautifully decorated for Easter--and she was also sweet enough to tell me how to make it.  I must admit that when I removed it from the envelope, I kind of scratched my head because I had no idea how to display it.  She included a photo, though, and that made all the difference.  Actually, I was able to figure out how the card displayed but, until I studied her photo, I hadn't realized that the center had it's own kickstand (of sorts).  I was anxious to make one of these cards, and that's how daddy got lucky enough to get one for his birthday . . . with a photo of how to display it.  Ha!

Isn't it a fun card design?  You might be surprised to learn that this cardgolds nearly flat for mailing. My mother sent a text message on daddy's birthday showing a picture of him with his card--and it was perfectly prepped for display!  

CABINET FACELIFT

Yesterday, I turned my craft room upside-down, inside-out.  A new TV came in, and I decided I wanted it on a different wall.  That, of course, meant moving furniture.  In my craft room, the "furniture" mainly consists of storage cubes, bookshelves, cabinets, etc.  You know they're all FULL, so it's a job to flip the room.  It's still quite chaotic in here but, as I looked at the tall pantry-style cabinet (which is now across the room), it looked much more plain (and ugly).  And so I decided to add a subtle decoration to the doors.

I think I'm off to a pretty good start, don't you?  Two things that I've learned already:

(1)  Starting at the bottom was an excellent idea!

(2)  I definitely need to rotate the image transfer so it won't appear that I'm trying to line up/match any portion of the design.

(3)  It would be kind of nice if that right door didn't hang a bit lower than the left.

I don't believe I've ever attempted to do a furniture facelift, and I can't promise that this one won't end up being a disaster.  So far, I'm excited about this project and am sooooooo anxious to be finished.  I can't hurry it along, though.  I'm using Chalk Couture's Modern Floral transfer and Fawn Couture Ink and, after two uses of the transfer, I'll be washing it and waiting for it to dry.  I guess that will give me time to work on getting my room back in order--and saying goodbye to many items that have been taking up valuable real estate in this room.  Wish me luck!!!

PLAYING CATCH-UP . . . CLASS SWAPS FROM FEBRUARY

The Decorative Corner card was the theme for our February class swap.

I had received this fantastic Christmas card from my talented friend, Laura:

Because I liked Laura's card so much, I designed this one for one of our January class projects:

And because it was such a fun and easy one to make--and well-liked by all--we decided to each make a Decorative Corner card for our February swap.  Just look at the variety of these awesome creations!

For my card, I used the Country Road stamp set:

"HIGH TIDE" NAUTICAL DOUBLE Z-FOLD CARD + ENVELOPE

I was recently commissioned to design a masculine birthday card that would be hand-delivered.  The fun thing about a hand-delivered card is that the sky's the limit since size and bulk won't be an issue.  However, making a masculine card never seems to be an easy task.  I literally had no idea what I wanted to make, but my first step in the process was to look at each of my stamp sets and start bringing some of them to my desk.  Nautical was it!  Stampin' Up!'s High Tide stamp set appeared to have all that I needed, and I chose to make a Double Z-Fold design . . . with a coordinating envelope, of course.

The Envelope Punch Board was very handy for making the envelope!  I used the Happy Birthday Thinlits die to cut the shape from Very Vanilla cardstock, and it was the perfect size to decorate the envelope.

The anchor image was borrowed from The Open Sea stamp set, which retired a while back.  I used VersaMark ink to stamp the image on the envelope flap and then embossed it with gold embossing powder.  Don't you agree that a shiny heat-embossed image takes a project to a higher level?

In case you're wondering, this card was 5-1/2" x 5-1/2".  The cardstock colors used throughout this project are Very Vanilla and Night of Navy.  Other products used include Stampin' Dimensionals, twine, and non-Stampin' Up! designer paper that was found in my stash.  Tear & Tape adhesive was placed on the flap so that once the card has been signed and placed in the envelope, it will be ready to seal.

SPINNER POP-UP CARD

When I plan projects for my monthly class, I often end up with rejects because of this little rule of mine . . . I must LOVE the project, or it doesn't make the cut.  What ends up as a "reject" may not necessarily be a bad project, but rather it might just need a little something more loveable added or changed.  The project that I'm sharing today was one of my March class projects, and I LOVE it!  It's a Spinner Pop-up Card:

When the card is closed, the layer with the candles attached to it rests behind the "cue the confetti" layer.  When the card is opened, the "cue the confetti" layer pops up while the candle layer spins out to the right.  Really. Cool.

Not gonna lie.  There's a learning curve to the mechanism for this card, and not everyone at class enjoyed it.  That is kind of disappointing, and maybe my teaching method was to blame.  I had to make a couple of these cards before I got comfortable with the three-part mechanism, but I thought it was worth the effort.  Before some genius came up with a way to cut and score three pieces for the interactive mechanism, I had purchased and used Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop-Up dies, one of which cuts a one-part spinner mechanism.  I think there's actually less room for error when working with the non-die three-part mechanism, but maybe that's because I've used it the most.  

Stampin' Up! products featured on my card include:

Stamp Sets:  Birthday Banners, Picture Perfect Birthday

Cardstock:  Thick Whisper White, Highland Heather, Granny Apple Green

DSP:  Botanical Butterfly (Sale-a-Bration product)

Ink:  Highland Heather, Granny Apple Green, Crushed Curry, Black

Sizzix:  Basket Weave embossing folder, Bunch of Banners Framelits

Accessories:  Rhinestone Jewels, Old Olive Stitched Edge Ribbon (purchased from the Clearance Rack, Mini Glue Dots, Stampin' Dimensionals

FIREWOOD CRATE: ANOTHER CHALK COUTURE HOME DECOR PROJECT

Although we haven't had a fire in the fireplace for a few weeks, a few logs in my living room were really needing a more compact and visually appealing storage solution.  When I found this crate, I thought it would be perfect . . . AND . . . I could decorate it!  The exterior is smoother than you'd expect, and it was soooooooo easy to apply Chalkology Paste to transfer the designs.  

Didn't it turn out great?  I should have made a video of the process to show how quick and easy it was, but I was too anxious to see the end result.

The following Chalk Couture products were used to decorate the crate:

Bright White Chalkology Paste

Multi-Tool

Squeegee

Corner Market Collection - Sheep

Corner Market Collection - Mercantile

If you have any questions about the fantastic Chalk Couture products, how to use them, etc., let me know.  I would love it if you would like my Facebook page.  Feel free to share any of the videos or posts that you find there!