Artful Avocations

Semper Fi

Tonight I made a congratulatory card for my cousin's son who graduated from Marine boot camp at Camp Pendleton today.  I am finding out it is better to take a picture and download it rather than scanning a card.  It looks so flat!

I used all Stampin' Up! cardstock and my Cricut to cut out everything.  It was just cut and glue tonight.  I used Base Camp to cut the letters and the USA dog tag;  George and Basic Shapes to cut the star.  The cardstock colors are Night of Navy, Ruby Red, Marigold Morning.  I used a gold star brad from Michael's.  The base card is white naturals cardstock.  The size of the card is 6-1/2 x 3-1/2 - a good size to enclose some moola or a check....something any new Marine would enjoy.  :D  Semper Fideles!

Delightful Happy Birthday

I was asked to make a birthday card by one of my sons for a dear friend of his who turned 25 today.  The card is an unconventional size, so I had to make an envelope for it as well.  I made a simple envelope out of SU! vellum.  Sorry, it's not pictured here.  The card stocks used are SU! Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, and Very Vanilla.  I used background paper and stickers from SU! Just Delightful.  The card background is stamped with in Versamark watermark ink with the large and small flowers from Delight in Life.  The tag is stamped in Bashful Blue ink with the Happy stamp and the Happy Birthday stamp from Happy Everything.  There is a pink mini brad from SU! as the flower center on the tag.  The light pink organdy ribbon is from Michael's and I punch the ribbon slots with a rectangle punch.  The stick-on pearls are from my stash - sorry I don't remember where I bought them.  I hope you like the card!

Hawaii Frame

This afternoon I played with the Simply Scrappin' kit Friends and Flowers and this is the result.  We went to Hawaii last summer and I'm a little slow at getting some of my pictures framed or scrapbooked.  I covered a frame I bought at Michael's with Chocolate Chip card stock and patterned papers and stickers from Friends and Flowers.  The Hawaii letters were cut using my Cricut and the Tear Drop font.  The handsome young man (if I do say so myself) in the picture is my youngest son at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. (See the pineapples growing on the plants next to him?)  He really gets into the Hawaiian lifestyle!  He wears shorts and flip-flops year-round even on our coldest Southern California days.  This was his second trip to Hawaii and like everyone else, he loves it there!

Blinged Birdhouse!

I got a little carried away with this!  I started out just wanting to cover a wooden birdhouse with patterned paper.  As you can see from the result, I kept adding and adding.  I think when I added the little rhinestone bling to the centers of the flowers it was definitely time to stop!  I used all Stampin' Up! papers and Onboard Accents and the "h" is from the alphabet chipboard set. 

Delight in Birthday Dioramas!

A friend of mine had been getting some lip from his sister-in-law about not getting "one of those really nice handmade cards that everyone else gets" for her birthday on March 15.  Wanting to be a good little brother-in-law, he asked me to make her a card.  A big card, something really special (to kind of make up for not sending her one on time - get him out of hot water, so to speak).  Okay.  Here it is and it's big!  It's 8" square when opened to display and 8" x 10" when flattened to mail.  I hope it helps in regaining his status with her!  :D

I used all Stampin' Up! products. 
Stamp Sets:  Happy Everything and Delight in Life
Classic Ink:  Bashful Blue, So Saffron
Simply Scrappin' Kit:  Just Delightful
Card Stocks:  Bashful Blue, Certainly  Celery, and print from Just Delightful kit
Soft Subtles Brads (two yellow)
Dimensionals
The overall dimensions to this diorama card when opened are 8" wide x 8" tall x 2" deep.

Easter Blessings

Here's another card I had the students make in my after school papercrafting class.  All Stampin' Up! products were used.  The card base and small layered piece are Sage Shadow cs, the larger layer is Blush Blossom cs.  The stamp set is Never-Ending Joy.  The inks used are Pretty In Pink and Sage Shadow.  The Wrought Iron punch was used on the corners.  The students found this one easy and thought stamping the stems, flowers, and bow was cool.  The punch was a little hard for them, but that might just be the characteristic of my punch...that particular punch is hard for me too!
I like coming up with really simple designs for the kids so they can easily duplicate my samples with a feeling of success.  :D

Embossed Bunny

It's hard to see the embossing on this card, but trust me, it's a bunny.  The stencil is from Lasting Impressions.  My after school papercrafting class made these cards yesterday as an introduction to dry embossing.  All other supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.  The base card is Green Galore cs, the layered piece is Gable Green cs stamped in Green Galore using the Aida Cloth background stamp.  The bunny was dry embossed, so the kids learned how to use a light box in addition to embossing.  The ears, eyes, nose, paws, and flower were watercolored using the inks from the inkpads.  The orange check ribbon is something I picked up at WalMart a while back.  This was an easy project for the students.  Most of the students are second and third graders and had no problem!

Friend Frame - Diorama

Last weekend I attended the quarterly SU! meeting held by my upline.  Amongst the make-and-takes, we made a little diorama card.  In February, I had assigned a diorama book report for my second grade class.  Kind of sensing a diorama theme going on, I decided to make a diorama piece - not really a card, although it does collapse and can be put in an envelope.  I'll just call it a Friend Frame for lack of a better term right now.  The frame is 2" deep, although it's kind of hard to tell the depth in the photo.  I used the stickers from the Friends and Flowers Simply Scrappin' Kit which is a Level One Hostess gift.  The overall dimensions of this   
diorama are 6" wide x 6" tall x 2" deep.  A nice size to decorate an empty spot on a bookshelf or dresser.

The second picture shows the back section.  The front and the back card stock pieces are cut to 6" x 10" and scored at 2" from each end along the 10" length to create the sides.  I used Very Vanilla cs and stamped the  flower from Polka Dots & Paisleys in Versamark watermark ink.

The middle section is shown in the next picture.  The card stock is cut to 6" x 8" and scored 1" from each end along the 8" length to create the sides. 

I used Certainly Celery cs and stamped the paisley from Polka Dots & Paisleys in Versamark watermark ink.

The front section shown in the last picture was stamped on Bashful Blue cs using the Polka Dots & Paisley background stamp inked with Tempting Turquoise ink.

The windows were punched out with the 1-3/8" circle punch.  I cut out a square window in the middle section first to allow room to manipulate the punch.

Some of the flower stickers are raised with dimensionals.  I put baby powder on the backs after applying the dimensionals to neutralize the adhesive on the stickers so they won't stick where I don't want them to....for instance, the big orange flower is raised on dimensionals and I don't want the back of it sticky, so I put baby powder on the back.  The "Friend" and smaller orange and yellow flower stickers on the front section overhang the frame cut-out, so I baby powder the parts that are hanging over so they're not sticky.

To assemble the three sections, adhere the middle section to the back section first with the ends of the middle section flush with the score lines on the back section.  Then, adhere the back section with middle section attached to the front section, making sure the ends of the back section's card stock are flush with the score lines on the front section.  I sure hope this makes sense and I hope looking at the pictures may help.  E-mail me sharonsrivera@aol.com  if you have any questions and I'll try to explain the directions better.

Thanks for looking!

Smile

Smile!  It's another quick one this evening.  I've had a long week at work and just wanted to get home and stamp something.  Ever feel that way?  Of course you have - I know I'm not alone!  Well, as it turned out, I didn't stamp anything, but stuck things together.  I used only the Sellabration Simply Scrappin' kit Just Delightful to create this quick card.  I added dimenstionals for depth and brads to the flower centers.  I used a marvy scalloped square punch to punch out the blue behind the Smile element.  Baby powder was used on the back of the stickers after adhering Dimensionals to neutralize the excess adhesive.  I hope this card makes you Smile!

Swirly Happy Easter

I've started another session of after school papercrafting this week and here is one of the cards the kids made yesterday.  This session is focusing on embossing.  We used the Cuttlegbug swirly backgroundon SU! Pretty in Pink card stock.  The Happy Easter from All Year Cheer I is stamped in Gable Green on Very Vanilla cs and mounted on Gable Green cs.  The corners of the Very Vanilla are punched with the ticket corner punch.  The flowers are punch from Barely Banana and Cool Caribbean cs.  Soft Subtles brads are used on the flowers and light pink 3/8" organdy ribbon is used for the bow.  This card is quite simple to make.  The kids in the class range from 2nd to 6th grade and they had no problem making this card.  They love cranking the embossing plates through the Cuttlebug!  Hope you like it!