A Year of Weddings

My sister-in law was here from Vancouver last week, and we worked on her wedding invitations. She is getting married in August in Vancouver; another Canadian "destination" wedding for us! She brought the dress my daughter will be wearing as the flower girl, and when Kaitlyn tried it on, she said "Princess!" and ran to Grandma. SO cute!!! She now has both flower girl dresses, one for my sister-in-law's wedding, and one for my brother's in June. What a lucky girl! Now I just have to figure out how to keep those pretty hair pieces in her hair and out of her mouth.... ;)

Here is a picture of my sister-in-law's wedding invitation. It has a pocket along the left side when you open it, and is in her wedding colors, navy and burnt orange. She wanted simple and elegant, and I think we achieved it! She loved the "Love" stamp when she saw it, and really liked the retired Soft Swirls. I embossed the background stamp in copper, and we're thinking of embossing the "Love" too in Navy, but haven't decided yet. My husband teases her that she's still an Oiler fan at heart, because she chose their colors for her wedding! She wasn't impressed. While they are not "usual" wedding colors, I do love them together, and think the invitations turned out very beautiful - simple, elegant and warm, with a touch of drama. I'd love to hear what you think of them!

A Sad Note

The last couple of weeks have been very busy for me, and I've been grateful for the distractions. My Aunt Madge passed away two weekends ago; she was one of those people that when you think of her, you can only remember good things. All of my memories of her are happy ones; I hope that someone can say that about me one day. She was a wonderful lady; a very fun Aunt who always had a story to tell. I'll never forget her, and will continue to speak of her often, as she has had much impact on my life.

I made a card for her daughter and son (my Aunt is actually my Great-Aunt; I suppose her children are still my cousins, just "great" cousins!), to express how much I loved their mom, and how much we all will miss her. This is what I made:














I actually had a lot of fun making this card, and did something that I NEVER usually do - I actually used my designer paper!!! *Gasp!* I find it VERY hard to bring myself to use those beautiful papers, not because I don't like them, or they don't inspire me, but because they are in limited supply (some of them even retired and no longer available), and I am afraid to make a mistake. What if I cut the paper too small for my project, or maybe I decide after cutting it, that I don't want to use it for that project? Now I've cut the paper, and may have ruined it for another (unknown) project! Yikes!!! Anyway, I've decided to try to break out of my "Phobia", and actually use the stuff. Hopefully you will see a few more examples in the next few weeks of projects using my beautiful, precious paper. :)

After I made the card, I wondered what to write in it. In fact I am still avoiding that task, as I love making the cards, but hate writing in them! I never know what to say, in ANY situation (I even have trouble with birthday cards!). I wonder if there's a class I could take, or better yet, a website I could visit that would help? If anyone knows, please let me in on it! I have imposed a deadline for myself to write in that card by the end of tonight. Wish me luck; I'm sure I will write it out 10+ times before I send it!

March Stamp Club

I had a TONNE of fun on Friday at our last stamp club! I had 9 ladies here, and since I only have one table that sits 6 downstairs, we had to sit in the kitchen and livingroom upstairs! My husband was LESS than impressed, saying "Great; now your stamps have invaded the Entire house!" Heehee :)

So, here are the cards and techniques we did. No worries ladies (and husband!), I am getting another table for downstairs for next month!

The first card we made was using Pearl Ex. We stamped the card in Versamark, then dusted the Pearl Ex powder on the image with a stipple brush (the ladies could choose whatever color they wanted from the Assortment III box). I gave them a white paper to make an example for their book, and also a black paper to see the difference in how the Pearl Ex looks! The butterfly on this card is from a retired set, I think "Ageless Adornment", so we used the butterfly from our current hostess set "Measure of A Life". It worked really well, and I love how it looks! It's not often I make a card out of black and white, and really enjoyed doing this one.

The second card we made using a brayer and spectrum pad. This card is similar to the one I made for my father-in-law (a few posts down from this one), and was a big hit with the club ladies! It was a pretty easy card to do, even for newer stampers. We used the Pumpkin Patch Spectrum Pad on glossy cardstock, then stamped the trees, birds and bear in Classic Black ink. I used a Stamp-A-Majig to stamp the bear a second time, to make him more solid. To make the "ground", I tore a sheet of paper and laid it over the top of the image, then brayered Classic Black ink over the bottom. Voila! The image is complete! Then I just used a Simplicity Corner Slot punch and inserted the bear image, and tied on a small tag with linen thread, stamped with a word from Everyday Flexible Phrases. I used "brother" because it's a masculine card, and I haven't made one yet for my brother, so - there it is! :)

My Brother's Getting Married!

That's right; my little (not so much anymore!) brother Ian is getting married this June to his fiance, Sara. I'm so excited! My daughter Kaitlyn will be a flower girl, so our whole family is flying out to Ontario for the event! When they started planning their wedding they asked if I would help with their invitations. This is what we came up with:

I think it's beautiful. We incorporated their wedding color "lilac" into the invitation using Almost Amethyst, and I love how it looks with the silver. We tried to use Lovely Lilac, but it seemed too bright; not soft enough for this project. I love that this invitation has a little pocket with dividers for all their information! Inside the dividers they have hotel information, a map to the wedding site, and dinner and reception information. I had a lot of fun creating this invitation, since embossing is my most favorite technique!

Well, my husband's sister is also getting married this August in Vancouver, and I'll be helping with her invitations too. I can't wait to see what we come up with for hers! :) We have a very busy summer ahead of us, with lots of travelling. We've booked a week off for each wedding, so we can spend some time visiting, site seeing and relaxing. I'm very much looking forward to it! :)

February's Techniques

I just realized that I forgot to post the techniques we did at my stamp club in February! Both were fun, although one was a little scary! ;) I saw a few raised eyebrows when I told my ladies we would be playing with fire that night. That's right, we did the Colored Soot Stamping technique! *Please use caution when attempting this technique!* This technique requires the use of glossy cardstock, a candle, and a laquer spray to set the image. The instructions are simple, but it did take a couple of times to get the look I wanted. First, sponge the preferred ink colors (I used Barely Banana and Certainly Celery) onto the glossy cardstock. Next, hold the cardstock directly over the flame of the candle (I used my tweezers from the Crafter's Tool Kit to hold the paper), taking care not to burn through the paper. You do need to get the paper very close to the flame. Once the glossy side has the desired amount of soot on it, lay paper on table and stamp your image directly into the soot. Spray with laquer and you're done! :)

The second technique we played with was Ghosting. I love this technique; it looks really neat, and is versatile with a lot of different stamps and projects! For this technique, we simply stamped our image onto glossy cardstock using Versamark, then sponged over the entire paper with our desired ink color (I used Tempting Turquoise). Buff cardstock with a paper towel, especially over your images, and they will "pop"; the Versamark keeps the image the color of the cardstock, even when an ink color is applied over top! We finished this card using the Delight In Life Sell-A-Bration stamp set on Shimmering White cardstock (very pretty paper!), the Daisy and 1 3/8" Circle punches, some hardware, ribbon and the crimper! This is one of my favorite color combinations, and I found it on the SU color wheel. I love that wheel! I have become severely addicted to it; in a pinch, I can always find the perfect color combination for any project!

Quarter-fold Card Instructions

Thank you for your emails and responses to my blog posts; it's nice to know someone is actually out there reading this! :) I've had a few emails asking for directions on how to make the Quarter-fold Valentine's Day card that I made for my husband, so I decided to post the directions for anyone else who might like to try it.

It's actually a very easy card to do: Using a full sheet of 8 1/2x 11 cardstock, I scored the 11" side at 2 3/4 on each end (leaving 5 1/2" in the middle of the card) and on the 8 1/2" side, I scored at 2 1/8" on each end (leaving 4 1/4" in the middle). This made the card, when closed, measure 5 1/2 x 4 1/4", like a regular card. Then I cut out the 4 corners, leaving "flaps" on each side, and folded!

I hope you have fun making this card. It was kind of a "wow" card for me; simple to make, after I figured it out, but something a little different for my husband, who has seen A Lot of my cards! :)

Finally Finished!

My Father-in-law is turning 60 in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to make him a really nice card. I struggled with ideas for quite awhile, until I stumbled on two beautiful cards on Splitcoast (one made by "Rascal", the other by "Qbee"). They were similar cards, with different layouts, and I thought they were both gorgeous! So, filled with inspiration from these ladies, I set out to design my card. This is what I came up with:

This is of course the finished card; the one I'll give to my Father-in-law. It is NOT the card I stared at for hours yesterday, trying to figure out how to finish it! Well okay, it's mostly the card I stared at ;) In the end, I added a small piece of linen thread at the bottom of the card, and tied a knot. I can't believe I agonized over such a small detail; sad but true that I did.

Anyway, I hope he likes it! It was actually a really easy card to make, using one of my now favorite techniques. The "sunset" background is made using the Pumpkin Patch spectrum pad, and brayering it on glossy cardstock. After that, I simply stamped all the images using SU's Classic Black ink, and re-stamped the bear (after waiting for him to dry first) using a Stamp-A-Majig. After all the images were dry, I ripped a piece of paper and placed it over the images, and brayered black over the bottom. That's it! Just make sure each step is totally dry before going on. I'm so glad I got the "Lovely As A Tree" stamp set; it's turning into one of my favorites! And for a masculine card, who can resist using a little piece of hardware? I have to say, I think this is my favorite card (of the ones I've made, anyway); even my husband was impressed (a major feat - he just doesn't "get" this whole homemade card thing)!