Day 121: Mother's Day Rose Heart Wreath Card in Blue

I made another Mother's Day card (see Day 115 for product information) in blue for my sister for Mother's Day.  Hope you aren't reading my blog today, Sis!!

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Day 120: Rooster Birthday Card

My husband's grandfather was a farmer and will be turning 92 in May.  I wanted to make a card using a tractor stamp I have, but I could not think of a good verse for the inside of the card. I got on the internet and googled  the phrase "farmer birthday", and I found a website with farm-themed cards. While they did have a tractor card, I found a cute card with a rooster on the front, and the inner verse read "Cockadoodledoo" "Turning 70 is something to crow about!".  I thought that was really cute, and I just bought a rooster stamp from Rubber Cottage, so that was my inspiration for my rooster birthday card.

Day 119: Birthday Pages

I had fun creating two birthday pages for my son's 6th birthday.  I used a blue paper with numbers on it as the background for a more serious pose.  Then I found lots of blue and white number "6" stickers and randomly stuck them on the page.  I used some flocked letters to spell out the word "six" across the bottom left corner of the photo.  I had to cut two oval shaped "o" letters to create an "s", and since I did not want the splice to show, I cut a piece of "celebrate" ribbon to go across the center of the word "six", hiding the splice. I also spelled out "six" in a couple of other spots on the page.  This page was kind of low-key, but still fun with all of the sixes. The second page was a little wilder because we had a collage of my son's photos, and in one of them he was being silly and stuck out his tongue.  I used a paper with a confetti birthday party background with paper hats and blow outs printed on it. I added some balloon brads across the top of the page, a "celebrate" ribbon across the bottom, and a "birthday boy" ribbon to make this fun page pop!

Day 118: Creating An Organized Work Area

Well, it is kind of hard to create something when your work area (including almost all of the floor!!) is covered in materials. On Day 70 I won a basket filled with stamping items, and most of it ended up living on my craft room floor until today.  I finally sorted into categories all the stamps I won on Day 70 and the stamps that I mounted on Days 105 & 106, got them into appropriately sized cases, and put them away on my shelf. I have also begun sorting my papers by color, as I generally try to coordinate with people's clothes when I scrapbook.So, while I did not create a scrapbook page or a card today, I did create a more organized stamp and scrapbook craft room!

Day 117: Mother Daughter Banquet Flower Pots

Today the Mom's Book and Bible Study group gathered together at church to paint and stamp flower pots for the United Methodist Women's Mother Daughter Banquet.  The theme this year is "A Night in Neverland". We used royal blue, teal, purple, fuchsia, and white paints to paint terra cotta planters.  Then we stamped the pots using paint daubers from Ranger and stamps and embossing powders from Stampin' Up!. We used double stick tape to attach ribbon around the rim of the flower pots.  It was fun to get together for a couple of hours of creativity and friendship.

Day 116: Mother's Day Card Inside Sentiments

Tonight I finished the interior of my mother's day card.  I used a Mother verse (unknown manufacturer) and Always Be Grateful from Repeat Impressions as my sentiments.  I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to place my stamps accurately. Some of my stamp did not get inked, so I decided to just go over all the text with a Stampin' Up! stamp and write marker.  It gives it a handwritten look, which on a card to my own mother is a nice touch.

Day 115: Mother's Day Card

I began designing my Mother's Day card for the most important mom in my life....mine!! I used Rose Heart Wreath Frame from Repeat Impressions as my focal image.  I stamped it on Pretty in Pink paper from Stampin' Up! and colored it with Copic markers.  I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to position the Happy Mother's Day sentiment from Stampin' Up! in the center of the Rose Heart Wreath Frame. I then layered it on a green lace paper from Basic Grey and a rose paper from Echo Park Paper Co. I cut a piece of Regal Rose card stock to use as my card base.    I added a pink ribbon from Big Lots and 3 rose embellishments from Stampin' Up! to pull it all together.

Day 114: A Visit With Santa Page: Day 2

After a weekend away, I finally got back home and back to my son's scrapbook page.  I cut a title from Santa words paper by October Afternoon.  I used the Curlie Girlie alphabet die set by Sizzix and my Big Shot machine to cut the letters for the first part of the title, "A Visit With".  I ran the letters through my Xyron and attached them to Cherry Cobbler card stock from Stampin' Up.  I used a "Santa" crystal embellishment from Me and My Big Eyes to finish my title.  In order to further decorate the page, I added a Santa metal sign embellishment by Tim Coffey and tied a scrap of ribbon to it.  I also added a Santa scene from Jolee's, and even wrote my son's name in the "nice" column.

Day 113: Lisa Bearnson Thank You Cards

While riding in the car today, I made these two thank you cards from a kit by Lisa Bearnson.

Day 112: Hello There and I Adore You Cards

I made these two cards from a Lisa Bearnson card kit in the hotel tonight.  I even ironed the ribbon for the I Adore You card in the hotel room!

Day 111: Family Card

We are traveling again, so I made a card while in the car.  I made this Family card from one of Lisa Bearnson's card kits. I really like this card. I could do a similar design with any four coordinating scraps of paper from my stash, and overlay an acetate sheet with a saying for a great card. This will translate to all types of occasions and may become one of my favorite new ways to create cards.

Day 110: A Visit With Santa Page: Day 1

Tonight I began laying out a page for a photo of my son visiting Santa Claus.  I used vintage-look Santa paper titled "Virginia" by Melissa Frances as the background.  I used a polished stone background paper that I made with re-inkers from Stampin' Up! as a layer behind the photo. I used Cherry Cobbler from Stampin' Up! as another layer behind the photo.  I put a sprig of holly and a present in opposing corners of the photo. I love 3 Birds; they are the manufacturer of those two cute little embellishments.

Day 109: Awanas Thank You Cards

My children attend Awanas club at our church.  Tonight I helped them to stamp their own thank you cards to give to their leaders.  My son used  a stamp of a little boy holding puppies from Little Boys by Stampin' Up! for the main image on his cards.  My daughter used the reverse floral cross from the Crosses of Hope stamp set by Stampin' Up!  They signed them and got them into the envelopes before I could even take photos, but they were very sweet looking.

Day 108: O Little Town of Bethlehem Card

I used the Way to the Manger from Darcie's U-Cuts to make this card. All card stock is from Stampin' Up.  I used my Big Shot machine from Sizzix and Cuttlebug embossing folders to make the dot and snowflake pattern on the white paper.  I used Tempting Turquoise ink from Stampin' Up! to color the snowflakes.  I copied Christmas sheet music onto a piece of vellum, cut a section, crumpled it and inked it with So Saffron ink from Stampin' Up!. The silver photo corners are by Pioneer. I used Gelly Roll Clear Star to add some sparkle to the star in the 3-D ornament.

Day 107: Lovely as a Tree Sympathy Card

Unfortunately, the husband of my friend and Stampin' Up! demonstrator died, so I needed to make her a sympathy card.  One of her favorite Stampin' Up! stamp sets is Lovely as a Tree, so I decided to use one of the images from that stamp set on the front of the card.  I used a paper that gradually changed tones from Anna Griffin as the background for the tree image and for the background for the inside sentiment.  I heat embossed the image of the trees using VersaMark and clear embossing powder from Stampin' Up. The sentiment "Remembering with you the life of someone dear." is from Repeat Impressions, and was stamped with Old Olive ink from Stampin' Up!.  I used one of the labels from Cuttlebug's Fanciful Labels Embossing Folder Plus and my Sizzix Big Shot machine to make the label for the sentiment.  I added gold brads to the label, highlighted the raised parts of the label with Old Olive ink from Stampin' Up!,  and ran a sheer green ribbon behind the label to dress up the front of the card.  I layered the stamped image and the label on top of a striped paper from a Stampin' Up! designer paper collection, and then layered all of that onto a piece of  Stampin' Up! Old Olive card stock. On the inside of the card, I stamped a sentiment from Great Impressions: "What a beautiful difference a single life made." I then die cut and embossed two more labels on Old Olive card stock from Stampin' Up! to frame out the sentiment on the inside of the card.

Day 106: Mounting Unmounted Rubber Stamps On Wood Mounts How To

Most stamp companies charge about half price for their stamps if you purchase them unmounted.  And that will save you money not only with regards to the cost of the stamp, but also on how much it costs to send you that stamp if you order it online.  Wood is heavy, so if you can mount your own rubber stamp, it results in cheaper shipping costs for you.  As I stated yesterday, I purchased my wood mounts on ebay; however, you might be able to get wood blocks from a carpenter or hardware store for free if you don't mind imperfections or having to cut them down to the size you need.  I purchased double-sided sticky cushion from Jim Stephan on ebay.  (Jim also makes his own stamps.Check out his store on ebay:  Jim Stephan's Rubber Art Ink Stamps.)  I simply cut any excess rubber away from the edge of my image, peel back the protective covering on one side of the cushion, get my image as close to the edge of the cushion as possible to use only the amount I need, cut around the image while it is mounted to the cushion, then peel off the covering on the other side of the cushion and attach it to my indexed wood mount.


By indexing my wood mounts yesterday, and then cutting the cushion today, I mounted 23 stamps!

Day 105: Indexing Unmounted Rubber Stamps on Wood Mounts How To

I have several unmounted rubber stamp images that I need to mount on wood blocks, so I decided to work on that project today.  I began mounting images when I was on the design team for Repeat Impressions.  Wendy would send us unmounted stamps to use in our designs because she could send us several images for a low rate of postage.  I do not like using acrylic blocks, however, so I found someone on ebay who sold wood mounts and bought a box of assorted sizes.  By using a dot runner adhesive on the back side of the unmounted rubber stamp image, I can attach the unmounted rubber onto a wood mount, ink up the image with StazOn ink, and then stamp on top of another wood mount, thus making an index on the front side of the stamp. I got all of my index images stamped today and will attach the cushion and rubber to the wood mounts tomorrow.

Day 104: Rose Fairy Card

I used Anna Griffin and Stampin' Up! papers and some lace to create this Rose Fairy Card.  My daughter had assembled the fairy while we were on our vacation and then I selected the papers for the card tonight.

Day 103: Orange and Blue Fairy Card Completed

Tonight I put together this orange and blue fairy card using the fairy 3-D image from Dufex Crafts and Stampin' Up! papers.  I die cut the oval using the Sizzix machine and the oval frame die and added some pretty lace.

Day 102: Roses and Dragonfly Card Assembled

Tonight I assembled the Roses and Dragonfly Card.

Day 101: Roses and Dragonfly Card

Tonight I selected the papers I wanted to use for the Rose and Dragonfly Card.  I chose Anna Griffin papers because the soft muted tones really accented the delicate beauty of the 3-D image.  I used the Sizzix machine and the oval frame die as well.

Day 100: Putting the Dufex Crafts 3-D Cards Together

While I have already posted the pictures of the 3-D bouquet cards from Dufex Crafts in my previous posts, I have to say that I only put the layered bouquets together while on my trip; I didn't assemble the cards until we returned home from our trip. I put them together tonight, and it took me an hour!! The oval domes provided by Dufex Crafts were not very deep, and they were not all cut straight, which meant that I needed to use lots of tape to attach them to the inside of the card. I ended up using double-stick tape to adhere the inside front cover to the back inside cover of each card because I was afraid everything would come undone.  So now they do not open up like cards. As a result, I will have to make card bases and attach the 3-D bouquets to the card bases, or I will frame each bouquet and use them as art.

While I really liked these 3-D kits, I think Dufex Crafts either needs to make the oval domes deeper or else provide very thin pop dots in their kits so that the 3-D bouquets fit well.  I just used some pop dots I had, and while I didn't think they were overly thick, when there were 5 layers of flowers on these cards, it was hard to make the bouquets fit in those ovals.  I also think Dufex Crafts needs to provide matching card stock to cover up the inside front of the card once you get your ovals attached, so that the card looks nice once you open it up.  No one wants to see a mass of tape holding the dome onto the inside of the card.

Day 99: Roses and Dragonfly in 3-D

I put this pretty roses and dragonfly from Dufex Crafts together today.  Happy Easter!

Day 98: Orange and Blue Fairy

Today in the car, I put together this orange and blue fairy from Dufex Crafts.

Day 97: 3-D floral card by Dufex Crafts

We are travelling again, so I am working on the last 3-D bouquet card from the kit by Dufex Crafts.  The pieces are pre-cut, so I just have to punch them out, put a pop dot on the back of each piece, and layer on top of the base to make a beautiful 3-D card.

Day 96: Bird Song U-Cuts by Darcie

Tonight I worked on these Bird Song U-Cuts by Darcie (UC508).

Day 95: Darcie's U-Cuts UC526

Last night I made the blue bird ornament.  Today I made the brown bird ornament from Darcie's U-Cuts (UC526).

Day 94: Believe Bird Ornament

Today I worked on a Believe Bird Oranment from Darcie's U-Cuts (UC526) and made another Way to the Manger card topper.  (pictures coming soon)

Day 93:The Way 3-D U-Cut; Rose Fairy Card

In the hotel room tonight, I worked on making this 3-D The Way [to the Manger] ornament from Darcie's U-Cuts (UC527). It required a lot of cutting, so I wanted to wait to work on it when I wasn't in a moving vehicle!!

I also helped my daughter to make the rose fairy from Dufex Crafts.

Day 92: Hanging Flowers 3-D Card

Another day travelling in the van...made another card from Dufex Crafts card kit.