Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Birthday Masculine

Hi guys. Today I have a masculine birthday card to share. Masculine cards, in general, seem to be everyone's most challenging cards to create. I find little boys' cards to be pretty simple, cause you can add a cute animal image and it works. But when you start making cards for adults, it gets a lot harder. Especially when you try a card without a coloured image (which isn't really my style in the first place).

So when I set out to make masculine cards (for older guys)...I like to keep them Clean and Simple for starters. I often look if I can find a sketch online to use, which I did in this case. And when I finally do find something that turns out really really really well, well I mass  produce! :p LOL Different colours, different stamps, etc.  -- but a great sketch is dying to be mass produced! And when it comes to masculine cards -- a GREAT card is hard to come by, so why not?!!!

On to my card:



The cardstock is from a Michael's pack. The border is from a Colorbok paper pack I won awhile back. I love all shades of brown and this Paper pack was my favourite from Colorbok so far! Beautiful papers!!! (I only have scraps left, but that was perfect for this card, as all I needed was a scrap). :) The square stamp is from the Dollarama -- I haven't found a whole lot of uses for it yet, but I do love it for Masculine cards. And finally the two sentiments are from the Upsy Daisy stampset I borrowed from a friend.

I love how all these different products work together. :) And yes, I am definitely mass producing this card!! I love it! :)


Just Tracy's Crafts Challenge -- Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge -- Father's Day/ For a Special Male
Sweet Stamps -- Anything goes
Mojo Monday -- Sketch
Creative Inspirations -- Anything Goes

Sunday, May 13, 2012

My Card for Mom

Hi guys. Today I want to show you my first-ever all white card. I must admit, making this card was a slow process for me -- mostly because of the ribbon. The rest of the card came together so nicely, but when it was time to tie off the ribbon and create a bow, I found I had a BIG problem on my hands.

I think I won this ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon. It's absolutely gorgeous ribbon -- sheer, with a sparkle to it that really shows off the ribbon well , even when it's on an all white card. I had an idea in mind of what the bow should look like but no matter what I tried, I just couldn't get it right.

Now I know I have a few ribbon tying tutorials (#1, #2 & #3) on my blog's righ-sidebar, but those ribbons weren't 1" wide. It does get more complicated with wider ribbons, that's for sure. So I went on www.youtube.com and tried to find easy bow making tricks. And yes, there are some great ones out there -- like the Bow Maker, which is awesome! You can improvise and make your own version of the Bow Maker with just a few supplies (that are probably lying on your crafting table right now)...but my bow still didn't turn out like I'd envisioned. (this card is for my mom, so it had to be Perfect -- or as close to perfect as I could get it!)

So I asked the expert (in my opinion) -- Jacque. Her cards always have the most beautiful bows -- no matter what size or the width of the ribbons. She gets it right every time! She told me she uses a tool called the Bow Easy, not the Bow Maker. Jacque -- you're the best! :) Thanks for all the help with this. :) It truly does make a difference.

So anyways, enough about the ribbon...moving on to my card.

First off, I just have to add that I used a sketch I found online. Something about it make me think that it would look good as an all-white card, so I decided to give it a try. It's something I've been wanting to do forever, but just never really had a clue how to get started. After this one, (despite the length of time I had to put into it) I'll definitely be making more -- now I know all the "not to do's!" LOL

A friend of mine made the word art that I used for my sentiment. It's a lovely quote by Julia Summers -- perfect for a Mother's Day card. :)
I used my Cuttlebug to add the texture to the background paper. The folder is called "Victorian" -- it's one of the more elegant folders I've seen...and I love it! I cut the Spellbinder on a Cuttlebug (dies are definitely awesome!) and blinged it up with tiny white bling from the Dollarama. Finally I added some recently won white Pearls (from RRR) to my corners just so they wouldnt' be so bare. I must say, I am now officially hooked on the pearls! Like wow! I love bling, but these pearls look amazing! I especially love the extra tiny ones -- they add an elegance. :) Love love love! :)



And of course I finished my card off with a bow. Tied with a Bow Easy -- and looks just like I'd envisioned it from the start. :D


Here's the final product:  (bad quality pics, but that's all I could do at the time)




Card Recipe:

Cuttlebug "Victorian"Folder
Spellbinder: Scallopped Circles
RRR White Sheer Ribbon
RRR Pearls
White Bling

Monday, May 7, 2012

What a Giveaway!




Check out this awesome blog candy:


Friday, May 4, 2012

Blog Candy Winner

Hi guys! It's time to choose the winner of the stamp set I'm giving away. As I mentioned before, last month -- April -- I celebrated my blog getting it's 100th follower (and they've just kept on coming since then!!! really cool!!!) :) and I celebrated my own birthday on the 23rd. :)

Both great reasons to celebrate! :)



So on to the giveaway....



I used True Random Number Generator to choose the winner....



and


the


winner


of


the 


stamp


is


.....


....


....

#2!!!!!!!

 That's you AmyJ!!!! 

Congrats!!! :)


Please send me your info via my email so I can get it mailed off to you.


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

CAS Gift Set

Hi guys. Today I want to show you a card gift set I made. I wanted to make something for a friend of mine's birthday...and I thought a set of blank cards is always a nice gift to get, so why not? :) I hope she likes them. :)

They are very plain and simple. Basically I used one of the ribbons from the spring collection from Really Reasonable Ribbons...and used some metal embellishments and some bling to spice them up a bit.


I must say, I find adding the charms a bit of a challenge (mostly 'cause I don't use a whole lot of bows on my projects). but I love this simple way of adding the charms to the ribbons...so I tried it here....



supplies used:

Cuttlebug folders:
"Victorian" and "Just My Type"
Upsy Daisy Stamp Set
Really Reasonable Ribbon
Metal Embellishments from stash
Pearls from stash


Challenges:

Anything Goes Challenge Blog -- Things with Wings
Paper Playtime -- Anything Goes
>> butterflies represent "spring" to me -- as well as the ribbon from RRR "spring" bundle.

Aud Sentiments -- Anything Goes