Better late than never....

So today's card is late in a couple of ways. First, I made it for my nephew whose birthday was at the end of July. It's mid-August.... so yeah, it's late. I also got the design inspiration from last week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Ummm...yeah...it's now too late to link up. Still, I enjoyed making it, so thought I'd post it. And after all...better late than never, right?

The card base is White Daisy cardstock cut at 5 x 10 inches and scored at 5 inches. (FYI: square cards need extra postage.) The three colored cardstocks are from the May National Scrapbooking Month special paper pack: Free To Be. All three have very subtle geometric resist patterns on them. The sentiment is stamped on White Daisy cardstock in Lagoon and Chocolate Exclusive Inks. For the boarder I used a retired back ground stamp and stamped it in multiple directions. The other sentiments are from the Reel Life stamp set and some other retired stamps that I have in my stash.

Here are some close-ups:

For the envelope, I cut a 5x7-inch envelope down to 5x5 size and added a flap in matching patterned paper so that the card would have a nice square envelope to match. (This is when I found out that square cards require more postage...) Here's the card with its envelope:

And here is one more look:

Hope you enjoyed my belated little card. I'm sure my nephew will like it and that all will be forgiven when he pulls out the plastic gift card that's inside....

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Thankful Thursday

Hi All! Happy May Day!

The sun is shining! Just one of many things to be thankful for on this Thankful Thursday! Today's project combines two special, May-only releases by Close To My Heart.  First, we have the Free To Be paper pack that was just released to celebrate National Scrapbooking Month.

Isn't that an amazing pack??? You get two of each of the double-sided patterned papers and the cardstocks (which have fun patterns in a glossy resist on one side) and one of each of the vellum papers. So throughout the month of may, a $50 order lets you purchase Free To Be for $5 and the Stamp Of The Month: You've Got A Friend also for $5! Speaking of the Stamp Of The Month, take a look at this:

Isn't that a fantastic set?! Check it out on today's project:

This was such a fun and simple card to make. I used a White Daisy card base and layered it with the gold and teal cardstocks from Free To Be. I added a little gold polka dot vellum and a small piece of Free To Be patterned paper. I stamped the sentiment in Sorbet Exclusive Ink using the "second generation" or "stamping off" technique. I layered the sentiment on the patterned paper and popped it up with dimensional adhesive. I then cut out the mustache from the "first generation" stamp and popped it up on the sentiment with a little more dimensional adhesive.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

And here is one more look at the card:

I hope you've enjoyed my little thank you! Have a wonderful and Gratitude-filled day!

A Little Rainy Day Mojo

Hi All! April's handing out its showers today (with a little bit of thunder for emphasis), so I'm inside crafting. No complaints here!

I thought I'd share a card I made for Mojo Monday's Tall & Skinny challenge. 

This paper really seems retro to me, so I decided to take some photos with my fun and funky vintage elephants. They just make me smile on this rainy day....

For this card, I used papers from the Free To Be paper pack that will be released by Close To My Heart TOMORROW! (I don't know if the sun'll come out, but tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow...) But I digress....

The card base is cut from Kraft Cardstock and measures 3 1/2 x 8 inches. The cardstock, patterned paper and Feather vellum (yep, VELLUM) are all from the Free To Be pack. I cut the feathers out of the patterned paper. Alternatively, you could use Close To My Heart's Feathers stamp set for a fun look as well. I added a little White Daisy cardstock behind the patterned paper to set the patterns off just a bit. The sentiment is from the April Stamp Of The Month: Balloon Talk. Today's the last day for this fun and versatile set, so if you haven't ordered it yet, you definitely want to hurry! I stamped it in Juniper Exclusive Ink and popped it up with dimensional adhesive.

Here are some close-ups:

And here is the card once again, but without the pachyderms:

I hope you've enjoyed a little rainy day mojo. Remember, if you want to get Balloon Talk, you need to order it today: $5 with any qualifying $50 purchase, or you can purchase by itself it for $17.95. You can order it here.

Kraft-y Hearts Blog Share: Just sayin'....

Hi All! Welcome to the Kraft-y Hearts April Blog Share. Today's project features the Close To My Heart April Stamp Of The Month: Balloon Talk. (If you are loving the speech bubble trend, this is YOUR stamp set!)

I'm also giving you a little sneak peek at some of next month's goodies that CTMH has created to celebrate National Scrapbooking Month.

Now for the projects! When I first saw the Balloon Talk set, I knew it would make great sentiments for little notes of encouragement for my family and friends. So with that in mind, I came up with this set of 3x3 note cards. Let's take a look at one and then I'll show you all of them.

The card base is cut at 6 x 3 inches from Kraft cardstock. I scored at 3 inches and folded it in half. The gold cardstock and patterned paper are both from the new Free To Be paper pack that is being released next month to celebrate National Scrapbooking month. (Read on to learn how you can get this in your hot little hands early if you'd like!). I layered the gold cardstock (cut at 2 3/4 inches square) with a 2 1/2 inches square of White Daisey. The frame is folded from a 3-inch square piece of pattern paper. (Go here for a great tutorial on how to make the frame.) I added a 1 1/4-inch square of gold cardstock in the middle of the frame and layered it with a 1-inch square piece of White Daisey for the sentiment. I stamped the sentiment in Cashmere Exclusive ink. "Awesomeness" is from the Balloon Talk stamp set. "NOTE" and "THE" are from a retired stamp set. I dug out all my word and font stamp sets just for fun and added to the sentiments.

Here's a look at the other cards:

So is this Free To Be paper pack fabulous or what?!? (And there's even more to it than you see here... I didn't want to completely spoil the surprise!) If you want to get your hands on Free To Be a little early, all you have to do is join my team as a Close To My Heart consultant. One of the perks of being a consultant is getting in on the goodies before they hit the general public. (Gotta admit, I love that!) And this month you can get an even better deal! By joining my Close To My Heart team in April, not only do you get all the fabulous goodness in the consultant kit, BUT you also get your choice of Close To My Heart Cricut Collections! Each collection comes with your cartridge, chipboard elements that match, and THREE matching stamp sets! It's a sweet deal any time, but this month it is yours for FREE when you become a consultant. 

If you want to sign up or are interested in the fantastic Stamp Of The Month (which, remember, is yours for $5 with a $35 purchase, or $17.95 if purchased alone), just stop by and see me here!

Meanwhile, hop on over to the ever-talented Lynn Darda's Bungalow to be inspired by her Kraft-y Hearted Goodness!