Special Requests

Isn't this the most adorable vintage picture? Perfect for the parents of a new baby boy. Born on Mother's Day. When my sister saw the baby card I posted yesterday  (pictured on the right) she requested one for a boy. It's so much easier to recreate a card then to design a new one.

Baby love is on ivory card stock with tiny blushed pink pearls. Baby Nolan is on white card stock with smoky blue pearls. It's really fun when creating a personalized card. I printed his birth date and his parents name on velum with blue ink and a welcome to the world message. I think the blue satin bow is a nice pop of color. I'll bet it goes in a scrapbook.

I've had several more requests for wedding cards and white on white is the theme. Here I used my new SB dies to do a reverse embossing. I placed the dies cut side down on the card stock layered with the rubber mat and B plate top and bottom. Wow it really does a deeply etched embossing. I cut the same corner pieces to embellish the oval frame, then rounded the corners for the finishing touch. Simple and elegant.

Next up is a one layer card with 5 little pendant cuts  from the Fleur De Lis shapeabilities collection. Satin and pearls inspired by a splitcoast stamper.
Simplicity at it's finest.


The cancer awareness card I posted yesterday is now complete. My sister approved of the sentiment "Embrace Life" to appear on the front and a personal message printed on velum for the inside. I used glossy accents on the framed sentiment for some depth and shine. This card was inspired by another splitcoast stamper. Check it out she made it in 2009. Her card has sewn stitches and a stamped image. I don't have very many stamps so I used die cuts and punches. That's all for today.

I continue to be inspired by all I see out here in blog land and on Pinterest. Be well and I'd love to hear some feed back, so leave a comment and I'll return to visit you.

Carole

Breast Cancer Card

 When we think of breast cancer we think pink. So when my sister asked me to make a card for a friend that is facing the shock of a mastectomy I pulled out this lovely shade of pink and started putting this card together.

 I embossed the white layer with Swiss dots then used MS border punch for the pink layer. The next white rectangle I pierced the scallop edging as I was praying for all the women facing breast cancer. Doing the delicate piercing is so repetitive that it's the perfect space to direct your thoughts to loving prayers.



I added the greens and tiny flowers with pearl centers, then attached a butterfly to complete the focal image. Next the focal image is placed over a horizontal pink and white rectangle, and the polka dotted ribbon gathers them together.

 I'm not sure what sentiment my sister wants to add but I stamped this "Embrace Life" as a possibility.

The next card was inspired by Pinterest and some vintage prints. I just fell in love with this baby and had to make a card. I don't even know any one that's expecting...but I'll be ready.

Well the day has flown by and it's time to start dinner.
Be well and thanks for visiting.
Carole

Baby Girl Dress Cards

Do you remember playing with paper dolls. I loved cutting out the little dolls, then their clothes with the tabs to hold them on. I'm thinking they came with "Toni girl " home permanent kits. I guess that's why I associate the smell of perms with paper dolls.

 It's funny that our mom gave us home permanents as young girls. We all grew up to have naturally curly hair...that is unless the perms were really permanent. Any way I had a lot of fun with these shaped cards. Lynn Pratt offers a template for free.

After I hand cut one I created a svg file to cut with my cricut. To do that I simply cut a very precise template on black card stock, than scanned it and saved it to my computer. When I opened  the SCAL program I clicked on the trace feature, browsed for the file, previewed it and hit okay. There it was already to size and cut. Then I cut the black template at the fold and scanned the front of the little dress so that I could 

re-size it for the inside of the card and to create the little overlay, shown in white and velum. 

4 yards of  lace at A C Moore's for $1.00 so cute and tiny enough for this dress. It's impossible for me to do the exact same card twice so I played around with the colors and the embossing folders and the embellishments. I think it could be used as an invitation or a birthday card for a young girl or even a welcome to the world baby girl card. Too fun.

  He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.  Aristotle 

Thanks for visiting 

Be well Carole 

Celebrating a shared birthday

Top of the Morn' to ya.  

Tis' a fine St. Patrick's Day here in Limerick, PA. 

Today I'm posting shaped cards made for my birthday twins...yes that's right, I had male-female twins born on my 25th birthday March 19th... 40 years ago. 
I called it family planning? 

Well it was a wonderful experience, watching the differences in their development, motor skills and speech. I could talk about all that for hours, but there are things to be done.

Named after their father and myself, we call them by their middle names. Anne and Brent. Jump ahead several years-first born-Anne was a stay at home Mom. When her daughter, Laney (my first granddaughter) started school Anne chose to drive a school bus. She figured that would work out well, they'd always have the same days off.  I made her this bus shaped card and wrote on the bumper 

"This bus driver ROCKS". Anne is a fun and energetic Mom always laughing and playing music...loud.


 Lynn Pratt is the designer of these vehicle shaped cards. She offers dozens of tutorials for amazing projects- just click on her name to find the link.

                                                                                                             

Born 6 minutes after Anne, Brent has had to deal with having 3 sisters picking on him all his life. I think that had a lot to do with his sense of humor. 

Brent served with the 82nd Air Borne division at Fort Bragg, NC. He traveled far and wide often escorting high ranking  military officers through Europe. After serving for 4 years and breaking his leg, unable to jump out of airplanes he returned home. 

Fast forward several years. Brent became an apprentice for an electric company. He got married and is now a foreman, and the  father of my 2 youngest grandchildren- Rylee-6  and Wyatt-5.  I made his card to look like a military jeep. You know they are twins... so the cards had to have similarities. The twins remain very close and live just 5 miles apart. Anne is hosting a party for us today at her new home.

 Here's the baby card I made for the Godmother of Scott- born March 12th. I'm really enjoying working with baby cards. It's like playing paper dolls.I can play and play all day!

"So long as you are learning, you are not growing old. It's when a man stops learning that he begins to grow old." Joseph Hergesheimer

I'm still learning.  Thanks for stopping by.

I'll be back soon to post some photos of the beautiful gifts my sister Deborah made 
just for me.
 Be well, Carole

Anniversary and Baby Cards

I was asked by my daughter and a friend to make an anniversary card and some baby cards. And of course I was delighted to create a few unique cards for them. First up is the anniversary card. Cute and simple yet the black and silver are elegant and classy.
  

Next  are the baby cards pink and blue for first birthdays. Again cute and simple but clearly one candle for a first birthday. Striped background in an oval for him...pink gingham and scalloped oval for her. Sweet.


 

 On the next card I had so much trouble trying to get the sentiment stamp straight. I'm sure I tried a dozen times. First on the card then on card stock to cover up the wonky stamped sentiment. Finally I just cut around the words with a ruler and blade. 

The onesies are from the newborn shapes library in SCAL. The basic shapes and other shapes in the library are so often forgotten yet they are very useful. I welded 2 onesies together at the shoulder, then folded them over the clothes line. I used water color paper and colored them with sharpies. This was fun to make. Tooth picks for poles and some plastic greens from a pine sprig are held on with glue dots, my favorite adhesive. No wait, no drying time or sticky fingers... if I can't use a glue runner, I use dots were ever I can.

Three primary color balloons attached with dimensional dots. Embellished with stickels and trims, tied together with a bow.
I was able to create 4 cards today because 3 of them are sweet and simple. The other one took more time but was fun.

That's all folks...

"The value of a man's advise is the way he applies it to himself." Barry Cornwall 

Be well my friends and thanks for looking.