Graduation card 2

This time the card is for my cousin, Joey, so it was a little harder for me not to make it too girly/crafty for an 18 year old boy-man, but it was husband-approved so this is it:

Basically I used the same papers I had rolled up for the graduation scrolls card to create a small pattern as the main portion of this card. After I had adhered each of these postage stamp cuts, I realized it majorly needed contrast because it was starting to look bland. Even though I know the papers are not bland themselves, on the Kraft cardstock they looked a bit dull. So I knew I needed some black in there, and decided on the same black photo corners I've used previously, along with some black writing and black letter stickers - I think it came out pretty nicely! I glossed over the red part of the apple in the center, so it's a bit shinier than the rest of the card too.

HOW-TO:

• Using Creative Memories Postage Stamp Punch, I punched out 9 shapes from Studio Calico's Elementary paper and adhered centrally on the card
• Lifted up the 4 corner pieces and added black photo corners
• Using my favorite scrapbooking pen, PIGMA Micron 005 black (this one has 0.20mm line width so you can write the tiniest ever), I wrote "Congratulations" around the edge of the pattern
• I carefully applied Inkessentials Glossy Accents to just the red portion of the apple in the middle, being careful to cover it completely but not outside the lines (I let this dry overnight instead of trying to heat it because sometimes the heat causes it to bubble up and then you can't get rid of the bubbles in there)
• Finally, I used Creative Memories Black Swirly letter stickers at the bottom

Yet another card!

This is a special thank you card that didn't really have a theme so I just made it cheerful-y.

I had been dying to use the Studio Calico paper from May's Lawn Party kit, so finally indulged myself and started hacking away at it haha! I wasn't like wowed by this card, until I showed my husband and he was more excited about it than I was (yes, we are still newlyweds and still in honeymoon phase), so now he has convinced me that I love it too :)

Here is a close-up of the little popped up flowers and butterflies and single dragonfly:

HOW-TO:

• Cut the butterfly paper from Studio Calico, I think it's called "Fly Away," at 6.5x4.5" then cut that in "half" except I cut it so the top piece is 3.5" and the bottom piece, which is just the same paper flipped over to show the polkadot pattern on the back, is 3"
• The white trim was actually a "mistake" as I was doing a test cut on a piece of white cardstock - I had used the Postage Stamp blade from Creative Memories on one side and a Fiskars border punch on the other and loved how it looked so I just used that
• The rest of the punches are all from Creative Memories as well - the Blossom Place 'n Punch, butterfly pocket punch and dragonfly pocket punch
• I used white and Bazzill Kraft cardstock to first punch 4 blossoms, then adhere the opposite color bug, and glued another bug on top just at the middle, after shaping around my rounded pencil to get them to lift at the edges (p.s. I have def seen this technique used on other layouts and blogs, but don't have a specific link on hand since I just stored it my memory for later use)
• Popped up the blossoms and added Chipboard Alpha letters from Studio Calico

Graduation/scrolls card

I made this graduation card for my niece:

Idea lifted/altered from: Studio Calico weekly challenge by Jen Jockisch (couldn't find the link on the SC blog, but did find it posted here on the Two Peas in a Bucket website).

It was a little painful to cut up so many sheets of high quality cardstock to make the little scrolls, but it was definitely worth it! Here's a nice little close up of the scrolls:

HOW-TO:

• Cut the green ledger looking cardstock from Cosmo Cricket at 6.5x4.5" (fyi, most of my cards lately have been mounted on Bazzill Kraft cardstock trimmed to around 10x7" and folded in half to make a 5x7" card since I have an extra set of A7 envelopes which are 5.25x7.25")
• The papers for the scrolls were all from the Elementary collection by Studio Calico and I cut them into varying size strips from 1.75" to 3"
• I wrapped the strips around a rounded pencil first, then tightened the wrap after removing the pencil and adhered with zots as well as a piece of regular scotch tape! Wow, I never use scotch tape anymore...
• Zotted(?) them to the paper
• I actually remembered to chalk the edges of the background sheet of paper (using Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink - usually I don't remember this step till the very end of a project)
• Originally planned to write my niece's name down the side in little banners but realized it might become too busy and banners didn't really fit the scrolls theme, so added a Tim Holtz stamp and embossed in black
• Of course, after adding that stamp with the words on there, the letter stickers I had planned to use, were a different font/look than the stamp, and would've made dueling titles - yes, fighting titles, so I decided to print some smaller words on paper and cut a strip to put at the top, so it wouldn't compete with the stamped title
• I might be overusing twine lately, but it's so easy and is always out from my last project...
• Added little black photo corners since they fit a graduation theme, for my finishing touch

Baptism Baby card

I made this card for our friend's daughter Samantha's baptism. Unfortunately, the pink letters in the name on the banner seem to blend into the banner background a bit too much... perhaps I'll go back and try to darken them with some chalking or something.

Here are some side shots to see the 3-d-ness of this card!

HOW-TO:

• I used a Martha Stewart Around the Page punch on a 5x6.75" piece of paper cut from the Girls' Paperie patterned paper
• I cut the banner pieces on the Cricut using the Birthday Bash cartridge, cutting at relative size 1.1" from Chiffon Vellum, and the leftover back side of the same patterned paper
• I had to punch bigger holes into the banner pieces, so I used my Fiskars 1/4" punch then threaded generic twine through each piece and squished them together so they'd all fit
• I used two flower brads from Pebbles and wrapped the ends of the twine around them tightly
• The pink chipboard letters are also from the Girls' Paperie and the other chipboard letters that say "God Bless" are from Studio Calico

SMASH'ed a truck

First of all, if you don't know what a SMASH book is, def watch this video or head to their blog, where they featured my first few pages of my SMASHbook here!

OK, with that out of the way, I'm using my SMASHbook to throw things in that either I don't have enough pictures for a full scrapbook layout OR it doesn't really fit any theme of a particular scrapbook! This little home improvement project (getting a new retaining wall) fits the latter category:

Actually I should say, this was just the delivery of the bricks, but I had to get some pictures because my husband just loves trucks and engines and motors, etc. and I knew he'd ask me to get some pictures anyway (which he did).

SMASHing is so quick and easy, the longest part of putting this together was texting my husband to get the location of the receipt - in the trash! Luckily it was crumpled up and thrown into a new can otherwise I would not go fishing in garbage, yuck!

HOW-TO:

• Gather everything you want to SMASH
• The only extras I added were the old truck stamp at the bottom left (Tim Holtz stamp and Stampendous embossing powder) and the tag was from the Hopscotch Tag Pad by K&Company
• I used my Canon Selphy CP800 to print the pictures, one full 4x6 and the other added 8 pics to one print (love this feature!)
• The rest of the stuff on there, the tab, "makes me happy" sticky, "inspires me" clip, dotted tape are all part of the SMASH line from EK Success

Fathers' Day

Phew, finished my Fathers Day cards before waiting till the last minute and panicking at the thought of having to actually buy a card!

The one on the right is for my new father-in-law! He really enjoys playing pool and golf (but golf is so overdone, thought I'd go with a pool card, except hopefully I won't be eating my words next year). This card looks simpler than the other one but was much harder to come up with because I could not think of a Cricut cartridge with an image of a pool table top! Oh boy, I had to do this all by hand!

After a few drawings, a couple of failed prototypes with scrap paper and a seriously broken blood vessel in my hand from trying to punch through too many layers of heavy cardstock, I simplified it and still love how it came out!

HOW TO:

• Cut brown Bazzill paper 6.75"x4.75" (yes I'm crazy and will measure down to 3 decimals in some cases, this was only because I wanted that 1/4" border of the card to be shown)
• Cut one sheet each of black and green paper 6.25"x4.25" and then corner round all three sheets
• Using the smallest circle on the Creative Memories mini circle punch, I punched 6 circles on the green paper, making sure to go off the edge a bit
• Adhere green paper over black paper, and then adhere that over the brown paper
• I didn't have a small enough circle punch to do the letters in proportional size balls, so I just used Black & Cream Sticky Keys from October Afternoon letter stickers to arrange in a triangle
• Finally, it's a good thing I randomly bought a 1/4" Fiskars hole punch, to add that little white dot as a finishing touch!

This other card is for my stepdad, who's currently in India for the month, so had I really planned better, I would've done something India-themed. Instead I just started by picking out old newsprint paper that I liked from Tim Holtz Crowded Attic paper pack and using that as the main inspiration for this card, which came together pretty quickly when my friend Kara was over for dinner the other night.

HOW TO:

• I still had leftover dark green Bazzill dotted swiss from that other baby boy card, which only had a star punch taken out of a whole piece of 12x12 paper - that bothered me, so I decided to use more of it here!
• Punched, then cut the Tim Holtz newsprint paper
• I used a Tim Holtz clock stamp, and embossed it with Stampendous Winter Wonderland embossing powder (which is basically a sparkly white opaque color)
• Borrowed an unknown metal square brad from said friend Kara, and put it through the middle of the metal clock, also from Tim Holtz
• The letters and tabbed word stickers are from the collection called For the Record by Echo Park Paper Co

Hope everyone has a Happy Fathers Day!

Easy Bow

Idea lifted/altered from: this Pink Paislee blog entry

You can see the detailed pictures from that blog, but since she used a Cricut cartridge that I didn't have, I substituted it with a Fiskars border punch and used old Creative Memories double-sided paper (Rockin' Rainbow).

The original bow on the other blog looks better than mine, but this was my first bow, so hopefully I'll improve it as I go. This is great for me though, because now I don't have to run out to the store every time I have a present to wrap AND I get to use lots of old paper that's been laying around!

HOW-TO:

• The most important step was to punch the border first because you want your pieces to be 1" thick including the punched area (when I first cut the 1" strips, then punched, they were much smaller than an inch)
• Cut 5 of these 1" x 9" strips, and cut them all in half (to make them 4.5" long)
• Fold and adhere at the ends with a strong adhesive (I used Zots), then adhered 4 at the middle, and then 4 more around those
• I taped together the last two strips to have a border on each side, and folded and actually used the Tim Holtz mini stapler to hold it together then tape to the middle

Baby boy card

This is a card I made for my cousin's baby shower (this came after he was already born and given a name).

Idea lifted/altered from: I got the basic idea from the June issue of Scrapbook Trends magazine (page 87) called "I Want To Remember" by Patricia Kumfer

HOW-TO:

• The tape of numbers that run behind the tag are Tim Holtz Marketplace Tissue Tape
• The tag was punched using the Creative Memories tag maker, and the star was also from Creative Memories punch, on Bazzill dotted swiss paper
• The "folder" was cut using the From My Kitchen cartridge on the Cricut
• I used the EK Success border punch for the notebook looking border, from a page ripped from my drawing pad and chalked with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (colors: Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint)
• I copied an embellishment I had from October Afternoon's 5 and dime miscellany pack, to create the printed sentiment at the bottom; so I printed this on my own printer using the Editor font at 9pt
• The circle border at the bottom was done with an EK Success punch, but layered a piece of Chiffon Vellum on top of that from Creative Memories
• The silver ball border on top of the vellum was a rub-on from Hambly Screen Prints
• The tickets were from Tim Holtz and the letter stickers I found at Target are K&Company Animal Tales Pillow Stickers