Masculine card with antique sailing ship

Created for the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - check it out!

Most of the cards that I've seen using the Nautical Expedition DSP are small prints; the backs of these papers have very large images, mostly more suitable for scrapbooking, which has been typical of Stampin' Up! DSP - small pattern on one side, large pattern on the other.  For this quickie card, I used this lovely cutter ship from the "back" side of the paper, and embellished with a sanded and inked strip cut from a Kleenex box, a strip from the Cherry Cobbler red side of the paper and some Linen Thread.  The Cherry Cobbler sentiment is from Vintage Labels, and I stamped just the edges of one of the images in the That's the Ticket set in Sahara Sand to form the background.  Thanks for stopping by!

Another Banner Day, another masculine birthday card!

This card uses some self-adhesive banners that came in a kit from Stampin' Up!  The white heat-embossed sentiment is from Happiest of Birthdays.  So much nicer in person, I think I should start using my proper camera again instead of my phone, don't you think?

Made for the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - check it out!

Book-style Card Box Measurements

Feel free to download / print these directions and measurements and use them.

Link back to the full tutorial...

Did you make one?  Share it here on the Linky!

How to make a book-style card storage box

First, I have to give credit to The Efficient Crafter for the idea.  She made her box a little differently because she used patterned paper.  I used cardstock, so I didn't need as many layers for the box to be strong enough.  Also, to make my version you'll only need one 8.5"x11" sheet of Whisper White or Very Vanilla, and a half sheet of 12"x 12" of whatever color you choose for the outside, plus whatever you'd like to embellish with.

Score your 6"x 12" cardstock at 4 7/8 and 7 1/8.  This will form the outside.

To create the two inner pockets, cut a 3/4" strip off of the long side of a sheet of 8.5"x11", then cut the remaining piece in half to get two 7 3/4" by 5 1/2" pieces. 

You're going to make a slanted pocket that looks like this from the outside.  If you want the pocket to reach the top (it would look tidier), you'll need to cut two pieces that are 7 3/4" x 7" instead, but I thought this way would use less CS and once it's full of cards, it won't matter so much.

Score each inside piece at 1/2" and 1 1/2" in from two short sides and one long side...

Cut away the 1 1/2" squares at the bottom corners.

Measure up two inches from the bottom of one side flap on each piece and mark it.  If you're using paper that is the same on both sides, you don't need to worry about making the two pockets mirror images of each other, but I've shown it that way in case you're using a textured or patterned cardstock for yours.

At the 2" mark , make a cut straight across to the second score line.

Now comes the tricky bit... cutting the diagonal.  Turn your card stock along the cutting line from the top of your 2" flap to the top of the card stock where the next score line is... you can just make out the top one in my photo:

You should end up with something like this:

Red liner tape is a strong adhesive, put it (or something similar) along the inner edge of all the 1/2" tabs, like this:     

(Hint: If you're going to use Fast Fuse or an ATG, then you should wait until you're ready to assemble everything before putting adhesive on the tabs.)

Vintage Book Card Case

I made one of these card-carriers full of note cards for my kid's teacher last month, and liked it so much I wanted to make some more, so this is for a special someone who never forgets a birthday or special occasion.  Going to fill it with a little bit of everything; it will fit up to EIGHTEEN cards and envelopes if they are CAS, fewer if they have more embellishments.  I just LOVE how this came out!!!  

Colors:  Night of Navy, Very Vanilla
Framelits:  Apothecary and Timeless Tags
The embossed kraft card stock is Natural’s Composition Specialty Paper (retired).

Click here for a detailed photo tutorial. (better for beginners)

Click here for quickie printable directions & measurements. (for more experienced crafters)

Vintage Vanilla & Blushing Pink Bride All-Occasion Cards

These laser-cut cards were in the Stampin' Up! Occasions catalog a few years back and I finally opened the package!

This first one was embellished with Blushing Bride DSP and pleated ribbon as well as some Venetian Lace Crochet Trim.  I don't think it could get any more feminine if it tried!  I had to cut the card apart and trim it down a bit, then I used the die-cut panel as a card front and popped it up with lots of dimensionals.  I think the shadow of the die cut on the DSP creates lovely depth to this card, don't you?

This set of cards had some with floral die-cut hearts, and others with a lacy die-cut edge.   

I put a DSP behind the border with a pattern of Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip showing through the lace.  Inside there's a pattern of pink glitter on an ivory background.  The pink satin ribbon is held together with Fast Fuse, giving the front a little more interest and covering the seam between the papers on the inside.  One piece of ribbon goes all the way around the front of the card, then a second smaller piece is folded in half and adhered to line up with one edge.

I think you could use these cards for feminine birthdays, weddings or valentines; what would you use them for?

These cards were created for the Feminine Anything Goes Watercooler Challenge.  Check out the other great submissions here.

Clean & Simple Birthday Card

CAS cards are really my favorite sort to make.  Not a million things to coordinate and arrange, just let the designs of the stamps or papers shine and show their awesomeness!  I love monochromatic cards for this same reason; I won't struggle to get the color combination just so, because it's all blue and white, like Delft china or Wedgewood.

Remember the Top Note Die?  The original stitched edge die by Stampin' Up! Now they're all the rage again, but as Thinlets.  I heat-embossed the flowers from Just Believe in Whisper White, stamped the sentiment from Express Yourself in Night of Navy onto the classic shape cut from Marina Mist card stock.  Of course I used the MISTI to get everything where I wanted it... then a couple of glue dots and white butterflies from the Beautiful Wings embosslit all topped off with two tiny self-adhesive pearls.

This card was created for the Happy Little Stampers July CAS challenge.  Click  to see all the fab creations!

Teacher-themed Card Carrier

I love my kids' schools. So. Much.  Their teachers are just wonderful and I love it when I can find time to make them a gift.   This year, instead of a plain-Jane box of note cards, I wanted to make a case that was just as cute and useful.  I'm glad I stocked up on this Fruits and Flowers DSP while it was still available; the apples with heart-shaped cores are so perfect for elementary-school teachers, don't you think?

Just a little bow to keep the holder closed provides a little embellishment 

without covering too many apples!

Rather than cover any of that adorable pattern, I put an inspirational quote from the Pursuit of Happiness stamp set on the spine of the "book".  I put some sticky strip on the seam between the white and patterned paper so the ribbon would stay covering it.

Inside I made some matching thank you cards and monogrammed note cards.

Also included a few that weren't so teacher-y...

The DSP coordinates with Calypso Coral and Gumball Green, the colored cards are Kiwi Kiss stamped in Old Olive.

Stamp sets:

     Thanks from Perfect Punches

     Swirls from Everything Eleanor

     Thank you from Lacy & Lovely

     Hello from Fresh Vintage

     Monogram from Lovely Letters

I'm going to post a tutorial for the card holder in a day or two.  Pretty quick to put together once I figured all the measurements.  Who would you make one for?

Edited: Click here to go to the full tutorial!

Father's Day Cards That Kids Can Make

Last night I finally found time to craft up some ideas for Father's Day cards that are simple enough for grade-school children to make, and that don't use the Big Shot, since this class is happening in my garage!!  Whenever I'm making cards with kids, I always pull out the long-retired Pun Fun stamp set... cute, colorable, and well-suited to CAS (clean & simple) card designs.  

First, a card for coffee-loving Dads:

Love you a Latte from Pun Fun, cups from Every Little Bit, the largest Circle Punch and Window Frames Framelits (I'll just cut a few before class!)

Next, for the father who is fun:

Pun Fun rocket & Every Little Bit star.

Then I found this adorable dinosaur in a sandbox, and I bought it online, but can't remember the company:

Does Dad brighten your day?

Sun from Every Little Bit and sentiment from a Sale-a-bration set: You Brighten My Day.

Does he mean the world to you?

Uses Chalk Talk, Chalk Borders & Open Sea stamp sets.

Thanks for stopping by!  Please let me know in the comments which one of these ideas you think the dad in your life would really love.

Links to previous Father's Day cards, maybe not as kid-friendly...

Lawnmower Punch Art

Golf Punch Art

Love those tools, handy dad?

Birthday Rocket Boy

I love the old Pun Fun stamp set.  Between myself and my kids, I think it's gotten more use than any other stamp set I own!   Every time I've used the rocket ship stamp, I use a little of this DCWV paper with stars on it, but this time I stamped the "You're a Blast!" greeting as a background on the other half of the card front, and added some shine with a Silver Glimmer Paper star punch.  I'd have liked to have more smaller stars, I think, but I don't trust myself to cut them freehand.

Hope my nephew likes it!

BS&J Take it or Leave it Stamp Off Challenge

Today we're playing along with my talented friends: Buffy, Susan & Jackie (hence BS&J).  Be sure to click the links and check out their creations!  My daughter and I both managed to incorporate ribbon and doilies, but I stopped her before she added cupcake images to the gorgeous card she had made!!  I reminded her that it's Take it or Leave it, so if there was no food, she was okay!!

I used a Stampin' Up! doily Thinlet on So Saffron CS, and glued a couple dozen scraps of Certainly Celery, Midnight Muse and Real Red behind it.  The center is embellished with a retired In-Color Adornment that I have always thought looked like candies, so that is my "food" element!!  The Chocolate Chip card base is embossed with a contraband folder by Tim Holtz and the little sentiment is from Lovely Little Labels (retired).  Most of my colors have food names, though celery with chocolate and saffron probably looks better than it tastes!

DD's card uses Papillion Potpourri and coordinating punch, doily stamp from Petal Potpourri, and sentiment from Chalk Talk (retired).  We both used the same Certainly Celery twill ribbon (retired).  Sorry for the shadows on her card... I'm going to say it's the screen, not that my windows need cleaning!

 Buffy

 Susan 

 Jackie 

Friends 4 Sketch Challenge

Darling Daughter played along with me again today because we ARE Crazy 4 Challenges!  What a great sketch this is!  I notice that the cards I've been making this week seem to use stamps from many sets, so I added the "challenge" that the card I made could only use ONE stamp set!   

Spring inspired me to choose Storybook Friends and this lovely Lost Lagoon DSP from the All Abloom stack.  The mat, ink and ribbon are Soft Suede and the card base is Crumb Cake.

DD liked the sparkle of this retired DSP and we paired it up with some Raspberry Ripple CS.

Serene Lagoon

You know that rare and wonderful feeling when you make a card and it looks just as good in your hand as it did in your imagination?  This is one of those cards for me.  I liked this week's sketch at Mojo Monday, and thought it would look great with the butterfly circle stamp from Serene Silhouettes.  Found a sweet little sentiment in the You're a Gem set that fit inside a circle stamp from Collage Curios... but what about a color scheme?  I had just gotten some cute paper from My Mind's Eye, and it is a near-perfect match to SU! Lost Lagoon and Calypso Coral... and here is the result.  Now to find a worthy recipient!!

Ribbon is Whisper White Taffeta, also from Stampin' Up!

Vintage Nature Walk

I couldn't resist this sketch I found in the Splitcoast Challenge Forum.  I used the Elegant Tag Punch and the Nature Walk, French Foliage & Flower Shop stamp sets.  Embellished with Rich Razzleberry ribbon and a gold-embossed R.R circle with a sentiment from Posy Punch.  Inks used: Stazon Timber Brown, SU! Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Early Expresso & Soft Suede.  Images colored with Stampin' Up! markers.  Happy spring Hello to my friends at Watercooler Wednesday!

A Big Spring Thank You

My 10-year old is really getting on the card-making bandwagon this week!  She loves the idea of a challenge, I think that's helping!  She started with a sketch we found from MyPaperCrafting and Melon Mambo ink, with Daffodil Delight DSP, some Pretty in Pink (I think) cardstock, and an edge punch from American Girl Crafts.  Retired Stampin' Up! stamps (Beautiful Bunch & Perfect Punches) and punches for the flower and sentiment.

Be sure to check out the other lovely submissions to the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - this week the theme is Spring!

Butterfly Thank You

I love this new two-layer buttterfly die I got on Amazon!  This time it turned into a vintage thank you card.

The embossing folder, ribbons, pearl and hardware are all retired Stampin' Up!.  Sentiment from the Postage Collection stamp set.  Embellishment on the right is layered Cuttlebug die cut, Basic Black on top of Very Vanilla.  The green CS is Mellow Moss.

CAS(e) 217 & LIM 324

This was a fun one!   I colored the flowers from Beautiful Bunch (retired) with SU!'s chalk pastels (also retired); why did they discontinue those?  I love the soft look, even if they are a little messy.  I used the coordinating Fun Flower punch (retiring soon!) to make a mask so the chalk didn't end up all over the front of the card.   Finally, MISTI to the rescue for that nice, straight sentiment! I never could get the Stamp-a-ma-jig to work for me.  Yes, it took a little patience, but without the MISTI it wouldn't have mattered HOW long or how careful I was, that sentiment would have been crooked and my card would have looked yuck.  Now, it's YILM!!

Created for the CAS(e) this Sketch and Less is More Challenges!

CAS Throwdown

Made this card for CAS Colours and Sketches #218 and this week's Color Throwdown...  All Stampin' Up! papers and embellishments, but no stamps!  gasp!  Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral and Green Galore.

My daughter wanted to try the Color Throwdown as well, so here is her card...