Simple Sunflower card

I have this pretty easy card to share with you today.  The card shape is cut from the Christmas Cards Cricut Cartridge.  I love the shape! I welded two of these together to form the shaped card base measuring 3 1/2" x 6" (I have an overabundance of this size envelopes).

I grabbed a spray of sunflowers at Craft Warehouse.  I got four flowers per bunch for 2/$1. I just cut off the head and a couple leaves and hot glued them to the card base after I added the sheer white ribbon and gel pen stitches.  Three little flat back pearls finish off the flower.

I embossed the sentiment (from Hero Arts, Big Hugs) onto the card.  Here you can see the white sheer ribbon (for Dollar Tree) and some more of the flat back pearls running over the ribbon.

As you can see I used some dark red card stock to cut the card base, I added a white layer of card stock, cut to fit the inside, so I'd have a place to write. The "happy birthday" sentiment stamp is from the same set. More gel pen stitches to match the front, and I am done.  Super simple... but with that HUGE sunflower head, it would have been really easy to go overboard. :)

Challenges:

Sentimental Sundays : Flowers

Birdhouse Thank You Card

My friend Carri over at Double Click Connections AKA A Busy Bee, is a proud DT member at both The Creative Cutter Room and Bitten By the Bug 2.  I love supporting my bloggy friends by entering in challenges where they are design team members.  

The challenge over at Creative Cutter Room, is to make a card that includes the following:

a thank you card, a stamp, at least 2 buttons and embossing.  

My card shapes comes from a tag on the Preserves cart, but you can use any tag from any other cart too.  I sized it to 4 1/4"tall x 5 1/2" wide. The coordinating layers are sized down by 1/4". The white and brown paper is generic card stock.  All the green is Heidi Grace paper (I love the pattern).

I embossed the Scrappy Mom's stamp in white embossing powder to coordinate with the white gel pen stitching. It got a little messy... I really need to get an embossing buddy. :(

The glittery white paper on the bird house is from DCWV's glitter stack (I think) and came from my scraps. I added a little Star Dust Stickles to the pink layer.  The birdhouse is mounted up on 1/4" pop dots.  The birdhouse is from Cindy Loo, cut at 3".

I laced the three little green button with some white craft twine. I inked all the green layers using forest green ink and my finger dauber. I also inked the white layer of the bird house and all the little leaves the same way.  When I attached the branch (Cindy Loo, cut at 4 3/4" wide), I glued the brown branch layer down directly to the card, the leave are all attached with 1/8" pop dots. I love the dimension this technique adds. :)

One last look at my Birdhouse Thank You Card.  I love it.  I'll have to come up with a really good reason to give this one away.

Challenges:

Creative Cutter Room : Thank you, embossing, stamp and three buttons

Sentimental Sunday : Garden party

Footprints at the Beach card

Here is a beautiful card I made today.  Using a picture of the beach and one lonely set of footprints, I found a sentiment online that I just fell in love with!

I cut out the sentiment and mounted it up on pop dots. The main photo is matted with both black and white and the sentiment block is matted in black.  I love the three buttons I added to the right hand side of the card. 

I printed the sentiment and the picture onto glossy photo paper, giving the card a wonderful shine (but making it pretty hard to photograph well).

This card measures 4" x 9" - it's a standard #10 business size.  That makes it super easy to find an envelope and it doesn't require any extra postage. The card base is craft colored card stock.

I printed a second picture onto white card stock, again, I reduced the opacity so I can write directly on the picture when I am ready to send this to someone. 

Here is the picture I started with... one I took during  our Oregon Coast Vacation in June...

... then I added the sentiment into a block.  Using Photoshop, I created this sentiment block shape and had to cut a piece of the background out so I could change the opacity behind the sentiment.  I wanted the beach to show, but not overwhelm the words.

 

I got this sentiment from Elegant WordArt2. Here you can see just the beach behind the sentiment.

Challenge: 

 Sentimental Sundays : Focus on the sentiment

CAS-ual Fridays : 4" x 9" card

Ford Truck Easel Card

No Cricut on my card today, but I had a fun time making this custom order card.

The sunset and road sign images are from a Google image search, but I had a custom order come in for a birthday card for a guy that is nearing retirement.  The customer wanted a Ford truck from 1949 (the birth year of the recipient) and a road sign for the birthday sentiment.  The sunset is to represent leaving the work force and entering retirement.  This is the card I came up with.

I printed the images onto Glossy photo paper and matted it with a black frame.  I then, printed out a second image and hand cut the truck and road sign and added them to the completed card front with pop dots.  It really give the card some wonderful dimension.  I ran the silver metallic paper through the Diamond Plate embossing folder and set some screw head brads (from Recollections) on the four corners of the card layer and on the bottom two corners on the easel support.

The inside of the card is finished off with some more metallic paper and a second sunset layer - this time I turned the opacity down to 70% using Photoshop so it can be used for the message spot.

The silver metallic paper sure adds wonderful shine to the card. The frame around the card front reminds me of those Diamond Plate licence plate frames. The font on the road sign are "license plate." On the truck, I personalized the license plate to say the recipient's name using "Ford Script." 

Here is the image if you'd like to make one of these cards too.  I took off the personalized licence plate and changed it to read the truck's year.  The road sign now says "happy birthday" only.  Feel free to click on the photo to save it to your computer. I love how it looks with the truck and road sign up on pop dots, but feel free to complete your card however you'd like.

Here is just the sunset layer.  I love this image.  

Challenges: Sentimental Sundays : For the Man in your life

Queen of my Craftroom : Fall Colors

Tuesday Throwdown : Something Metallic

Flower Birthday Card

Here is a super fun shaped card I made.  I adore shaped cards and make them quite often... I may have to make some more of these to add to my card stash.

All the paper is from my stash. I cut the card shape using the flower on Simply Charmed (page 39) and used my Gypsy to size it to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and weld the shadow layer to form the card base. The entire flower head is popped up on a layer of pop dots.

I inked all the edges of this card, the orange layers using orange ink and the green layer using green ink. I curved this stamp from Hero Arts : Big Hugs set to fit the shape of the flower head.

I used a green button from my stash and some lace to add an adorable stamen to the flower head. I popped the center of the flower up on a second layer of pop dots to accommodate the thickness of the button. I ran a length of lace around the bottom edge of the flower head too.

Here you can see how cute the shaped card base is.  I love how well it stands up.  It opens from the top, I cut the card base in white and cut an additional top layer in black (for the shadow) and the extra layer covers the folded edge on top.  Lastly, I added some doodling using my Gelly Roll white gel pen.

Challenges:MAG Challenges : Simply Charmed pg 39

Birthday Sundaes : Orange, Green and White + a birthday sentiment

Sentimental Sundays : Inky Fingers + a sentiment

Cute Card Thursday : Lace

Sand Pail card

All these pieces are cut from scraps! :)  I know the background yellow and red layer is from the DCWV summer stack from last year.  I thought it fit the summery/beach feel of this card well.

The sentiment is from Hero Arts "Big Hugs" stamp set.  I added a ribbon along the top and bottom of the sentiment box using my ATG tape. Two self stick black gems and a Prima Itty Bitty flower (with matching ribbon tail) finish off the sentiment block.

The sand pail is from Simply Charmed. I cut all layers at 2 1/2". The sea shells are from Stretch Your Imagination. I cut two sets of them at 1" out of white shimmery paper, giving them a lovely shiny fresh-from-the-ocean look. I added the shells to the sand pail layer and matched the shadows behind the shells where they came beyond the sand layer.

Here is a close up of the shells, sitting neatly on the sand layer (DCWV photo stack). I added white gel pen stitches and doodles through out the card. I use a Gelly Roll brand pen.

 The inside of the card also got some of the matching scraps.

Challenges:

Bitten by the Bug 2: Starfish

Sentimental Sundays : Anything goes + a sentiment

Getting Cricky : Summer fun

Father's Day Recliner Card

I received a special request for a "take it easy on Father's Day" card. The first thing that popped into my head was a recliner! :)  So here is the custom card I made today.

I am including the file so you can download this project and make your own, but the puppy is not included in the file.  This adorable little doggy is from Paper Pups (cut at 1 3/4" x 3/4").

After I cut all the pieces of the recliner, I inked all the edges with a light brown ink. I assembled it in the following order: chair base, seat glue directly to the base, arms attached with thin pop dots, and then the foot rest attached with thicker pop dots. I added the brads to the arms and them attached the chair to the shaped card base. 

I used a clear Glaze Gel pen to add the stitching on the chair.  I cut all the pieces using a tan cardstock that has a wonderful linen texture! :)  The doggie's nose is accented with Glossy Accents and I used a black Glaze pen to add the eyes (with the size of the dog, the eyes were too tiny to piece).

I printed the sentiment directly on the chair base on the front and on the inside of the card.

Here is a shot of the cut file.  I cut a second card base so I would have it separate from the card.

Sure Cuts a Lot file via 4 Shared

Recliner Card : shaped card base plus layers

Challenges:

My Craft Spot : We Love you Dad!

Sentimental Sundays : Father's Day or Masculine Card
Scrappin with Cricut : Father's Day Linking Party

"I'm TNT, I'm Dynamite..."

I know I am super early, but thanks to a challenge over at Sentimental Sundays, here are some 4th of July cards.  The challenge is to make a card inspired by a song... my song is "TNT" by AC/DC.

I found these little firecrackers SVG file online.

Here is the link if you'd like to use them too! :)

I cut the file in red, white and blue and ended up with three sets of these cute little firecrackers.  The little fire/flames are from From my Kitchen.

I accented the firecrackers by mounting them on pop-dots onto this wonderful silver shimmer paper. I don't know how well it will show up on the picture but it's a terrific fit for the card. I added some Studio G glitter glue to the top set of sparks and the stars on the center firecracker.

The sentiment is a cute little stamp from Close to My Heart, Seasonal Celebrations. Of course I added gel pen stitches around the black layers of the card and matched it with the black gros grain ribbon that has matching stitches! :)

The background paper is called Game Day by American Traditional Designs.

Here is the inside of the card.  I just had to throw some song lyrics... I LOVE AC/DC.  My husband took me to my very first concert in 2001 to see AC/DC's Stiff Upper Lip tour.  :)

Challenge:

Sentimental Sundays: Inspired by a song

The Craft Spot : Add a ribbon or twine

Sunglasses card

I've been making these tall / long cards lately.  I love them because they fit in a standard business size envelope. This card measures just under 9" x 4" and is a very fun shaped card.

These are the sunglasses from the Paisley cartridge.  I sized the shadow layer to 9" wide using my Gypsy (the height ended up at 3.33") and it will fit into the business envelope just fine.  The sunglasses are cut out of DCWV paper from the summer stack I bought last year. I added some silver mirror paper for the lenses! :) The shadow is generic brick red cardstock.

Here is the sentiment on the front.  I cut the glasses out and then set my text in Photoshop.  I first print it on regular printer paper and then attach the cut layer with just a little strip of glue runner from my ATG . Then I run it back through the printer so it prints directly on the pattern paper just where I want it.  I used Jolt at 24 points for the "Happy Birthday!" sentiment. Of course I added some white gel pen stitches using my Gelly Roll pen.

Here is a close up of the hand pieced flower. 

Here you can see the dimension in the hand pieced paper flower.  I think there is a total of like 22 layers on this flower, 10 of the background flower (cut at 1" from Walk in my Garden) and 10 layers of the top flower (which is an EK Success punch) and a couple of layer of the green in between).  I added the set of three leaves (also cut at 1" from Walk in my Garden - border feature) and curled them just a little.

Here you can see I also added text to the inside of the card in the same way.  This is also Jolt at 36pt.  I like to take my text and add a small outline of coordinating colors - this one has a brick red border around the black text.

Challenges:

Bitten By the Bug 2 : Sunglasses

Sentimental Sundays : Handmade flower

Whimsical Wednesday : Take Shape