Prickley Pear March Challenge Card

I recently purchased a set of clear stamps and matching die on clearance and had fun playing with them. The die is itsy bitsy and quite honestly I was stumped as to how to use it, so went in search of ideas. Well so far I haven’t found a tutorial or examples for this particular set called Tree Shapes, so the card below is my way of just winging it. I did manage to find the Prickley Pear blog containing some awesome cards using their products. While there I noticed they have a challenge going on and decided to use their sketch to finish my card. This card will be entered in their March challenge. If anyone has this stamp set and matching die or you know where I can find a tutorial for using the tiny die please let me know. The pieces are so small that it was tricky matching up the small stamps to the cutouts.

Ingredients:

Cardstock:  Buff cardstock is from an upcycled file folder (no kidding folks, these were being sent out for shredding until a coworker and I rescued them!). Kraft and red are from my stash.

Diecuts:  Prickley Pear Tree Shapes (aka Four Seasons), EK Success Slim Edger Punch Large Lattice Chain. Spellbinders Lacey Ovals, Leaves from my stash (possibly cut on my Cricut using the Home Accents cart)

Embossing: Designer Frames Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folders from Stampin Up!

Stamp: Prickley Pear Four Seasons

Ink:  Riding Hood Red by Stampin Up!

Lace from my stash

Wedding Shower Card

This card was made for my niece's wedding shower this month. I was so happy when my prize package from Cathy Lynn over at Ink, Thread and Paper arrived just in time to add some embossing and the perfect embellies. I was having fun playing with my new Spellbinders Nestabilities Lattice Rectangles dies from Stamping Scrapping and needed something to cover up a little boo boo at the bottom. Well combine half of a scalloped square die cut from the clear Bigz die I got from my best Stampin Up! gal Shelly May. The sentiment is from a retired Stampin Up! hostess set Occasional Quotes. The big red heart is cut using a Sizzix die called Tipsy Hearts. I made the pin with red and black beads. (Note to self:  make a list of everything while making the cards so you don't have to keep jumping up and running to the next room to find out what it is!) Ok, I promise to get more organized in the future and make those really nice lists at the end of my posts showing all the ingredients, but hey, I'm lucky to get this far after making 150 cards for my whirlwind Operation Write Home project while working full time outside the home, taking care of four dogs and three cats, a husband (well actually HE is the one who does most of the work around here while I play!) Oh and one last thing..... I won another prize from Market Street Stamps! I can't wait to play with the fun products in the kit! Ok, now you can look at the wedding shower card...

OWH March ODBD Challenge

I had so much fun creating this card for the Operation Write Home Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge! This wonderful company makes a shipping donation for every 25 cards entered in the challenge. This is in addition to their generous gift of two $25 gift certificates. You can check out their online shop here. I've got  a huge wish list from their site that I hope to get purchased one of these days.

The card below is being entered in the category of brads, layers and ribbon, although it could also be entered in the stripes, embossing and ribbon category. The challenge was to pick three squares from a 9-square matrix, kind of like bingo, either vertical, horizontal or diagonal. Fun, huh!

Oh I almost forgot to tell you that I made a total of 150 cards that will ship out tomorrow, half of them for Mother's Day. Now on to my next project....

Christmas Cards I've Made

I'm just about done making Christmas cards and wanted to share a couple of them with you. The first one is extremely clean and simple (CAS) using only one piece of cardstock embossed using my Cuttlebug, a bow and a brad and some tape to adhere it to the front of the folded cardstock. The second got a little more involved and took much more time to punch all those little branches and get them lined up, but I love the way it turned out. The last one is super fun because it's in three parts. I got the instructions for it on Julie Davison's site and found all kinds of tutorials that I want to go back and try. The snowman stamps and the sentiment are from Stampin Up. What really makes this card special is the custom die that I used for the outer circles. It's called Embroidery Anglaise Circle and can be purchased here by itself or with matching stamps. Cindy at StampingScrapping has some awesome custom-designed matching stamps and dies and also has a TON of other products in her store. The Merry Christmas sentiment on the white card with the branches is from the matching set of stamps. She even gives discounts to subscribers of her Yahoo group. Disclaimer:  I am not getting any compensation for telling you about her store, I just personally LOVE it and wanted to share the love! Ok, back to the cards.... enjoy!

Upcycled Envelope Mini Albums

Here's a sneak peak of what I've been working on the past couple of weeks. They are all made out of junk mail envelopes and decorative paper from my stash. No two are alike and they were a blast to make. There are more than what you see in the picture, but I'm having brain freeze about getting the flash to stay on while taking closeups. The one closeup is of a double-embossed cover that's made to look like leather. First it's embossed on the Cuttlebug, then with extra thick embossing enamel powder. What do you think? I saw a tutorial somewhere using this technique to make wallets and thought it would work equally well as an album cover.

My project is featured on Scrapbook News and Reviews today!!!

This is such an honor to have my embossing folder holder featured today on Scrapbook News and Reviews! This site is a great place for tutorials and reviews of all things scrapbooking and paper-crafting. If you haven't been there yet please go take a look and I'd really love some lovin. Who said public displays of affection were a bad thing? Not me! :-)

Challenging challenge card

I came home from work totally exhausted AGAIN yesterday and made this card for the Latte Lounge Beach Party challenge. Even though it's certainly not my best work it was a fun challenge.  You should hop over there just to see the amazing cards and tags made by the other talented artists! Oh btw... that is supposed to be embossed clouds, not blue dust flying through the sky. The basket, ice cream cone and castle are all brand new, not-yet-released digis from Fresh Brewed Designs.  I'm determined to try this again after running errands this morning with DH and DD. The riding mower broke AGAIN, so we're replacing it with a new one, then WATCH OUT GRASS cuz this old gal is ON A MISSION!!! lol! Hmm, wonder if there's a stamp for that one? I've seen the fluffy gal on a bicycle, but haven't seen her on a riding mower yet (hint, hint to all you designers out there!). If anyone has seen a stamp or digi like that please send me the link. Thanks!

Pet sympathy card using my very own SVG cut file!

What's a girl to do when she's got a totally cute stamp set by Clear Dollar Stamps, but not the perfect embellishment to go along with it? Well, she gets on her computer and starts designing her own! I made an awesome svg file using Sure Cuts A Lot 2 and cut it out on my Cricut Expression. I also created cut files for the stamps to save my arthritic fingers from that pain that comes from too much fine detailed cutting with scissors. There are still some adjustments to be made to the cut files matching the stamps, but for now I'll use  the ones that turned out ok. Don't you love the cloud embossing on this card? That has got to be one of my favorite roller/embossing combinations!



This card is currently listed in my Etsy Shop, Eco Chique Boutique along with a bunch of other pet cards. My daughter and I are donating a portion of the proceeds from all the pet cards to our local animal shelter, Helping Hands Humane Society where we have both adopted dogs and cats.

Homemade Embossing Folder Holder

As promised, here are pictures of my finished holder for my embossing folders. It is made out of rescued interoffice envelopes destined for the trash bin. I embossed sheets of envelope paper, ran an ink pad over them to show the patterns, then glued on to the pages. The pages are stapled to form individual pockets customized to fit each folder.

I used a 2 inch circle punch for the cut-outs that make it easier to get folders out, then used the punched pieces to make tabs for each folder.

The smaller sets with dies have their own page. The die slips in to the plastic that it came in, cut to size and held shut by stick on velcro dots.