Quick & Easy Envelope Cards

It's finally the end of the school year for me! Yaaaayyyy!!! I adapted the traditional envelope album into Retirement Cards for the three teachers leaving our school this year. I needed something that included my wishes for them, but also a handful of pictures from their time at our school. These use two envelopes leaving me with two pockets - one to hide a booklet of photos and the other to hide my journalling. I apologize for all the retired elements in these samples, but I thought it was a good time to use my stash!

I covered the picture on the inside of the first one, but you still get the idea. This one uses some of the brand new Designer Series Paper and In Color line.

The top pocket contains my journalling and the bottom contains a pull out accordion fold booklet with more pictures.

The second and third cards have the same cover (which I CASED from something I saw on Splitcoaststampers, but can't remember where). I kept these very simple - mostly because I'm not very good at making manly cards!

Again, the same pull-out journalling and booklet of pictures. This one is for the retiring Principal, so I couldn't resist using the photo I found of him on the school roof taken not long after the school was built.

This one now contains a photo on the brown photo mat. I didn't have a lot of pictures of this teacher, so I kept it really simple and included an extra pull-out of simple journalling instead of the photo books.

Pop Up Wedding Card

We were at a wedding on the weekend, so I thought it was an excellent excuse to try out my brand new Sizzix Pop-Up Cake Die. Keep in mind that this was my first attempt with it, but it is much easier to use than I anticipated. While I don't love this card (the bride loves purple and I do not), I do love the die and have already seen some amazing things created with it and posted online.

I also had a chance to use my Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions Die for the first time. I embossed vellum and added glitter to the raised edges of the flowers. This die coordinates with the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set (seen inside) and makes it effortless to create WOW cards!

The Pop Up Cake die is currently available through Stampin' UP! and sells for $47.95 (CAD). Contact me to try it out for yourself and to place your own order, or order it online through my business website. The die comes with easy to follow instructions for assembly, which can also be found here.

Supplies:

Big Shot Machine & Pop Up Cake and Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions Dies

Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Almost Amethyst, Whisper White, Cardstock Vellum

Ink: Versamark, Elegant Eggplant, Almost Amethyst

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Oval All (Best Wishes), All Holidays (Mr. & Mrs.)

Accessories: Large and Scallop oval punch, dazzling diamonds, Eyelet Border Punch

Heart Charm from A Charming Place

Heritage Photo Frame

It's been a long time since I've had time to play in my Stampin' Studio. Last weekend we were at the lake and work has been hectic. I did, however, squeeze in some time to make a Mother's Day gift for my mom. I just haven't found time to post it until now! There are very few early pictures of my grandparents on my mom's side of the family. This is one of the few that I have, so I decided to scan and print it for my mom. Even though it's somewhat blurry, I still love it. I envy those people with enough old photos to create page after page for their heritage albums. Maybe my lack of photos of my ancestors is part of what drives me to take hundreds of pictures in one photo shoot!

The frame is one of those wooden frames from Michaels. I attached the Bella Rose Paper to the frame with a glue stick - my favourite method of adhering patterned paper to wood or paper. I coat the entire surface of the paper with the glue stick, making sure to get the edges and lay it over the wooden piece burnishing it well with my bone folder.

Other than the flower from the Pretties Kit, the flowers are all cut using my Big Shot and the Birds and Blooms die or created by punching scallop circles and cutting them into petals. To create the texture, I spritz the die cuts with water and scrunch them. Next I use my stylus to give them more dimension. The leaves were cut using the Little Leaves die and the chipboard flourishes were cut from the Tulipe die.

Everything is Stampin' UP! except for the heart charm from A Charming Place.

Petal Pizzazz - Color Inspiration Challenge

I fell in love with this color combination on kwerner's blog. It's been too long since I've scrapbooked anything, so I made this to sit on my desk at school. The colors make me happy!

I love how the black makes the bright colors pop. I used lots of glitter to give the flowers a little extra pizazz. To create the flat flower centres, I heated a white jumbo brad with my heat tool and dipped it in irridescent ice embossing powder while it was still hot; then used the heat tool to melt the powder completely.


To create the rounded flower centres, I covered half pearls from the Pretties Kit with Crystal Effects, dripped a drop of reinker over top, and dipped the whole thing in Dazzling Diamonds. I also used a two way glue pen to outline the flowers and sprinkled them with Dazzling Diamonds.

Supplies:
Stamp Set: Petal Pizzazz
Ink: Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Basic Black
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories: Jumbo Grommets, Pretties Pearls, Jumbo Brads, Dazzling Diamonds, Iridescent Ice, Kiwi Kiss Carousel Note

Happy Easter!

Yesterday my baby turned six! To go with her Easter themed party, I made her birthday card using the same An Egg-cellent Easter set that I used for her invitations. I was inspired by a card I saw in the new mini catalogue. The bunny is attached to a brad, allowing the white circle with the eggs to turn so it looks like the bunny is juggling the eggs.

For party favours, I was short on time. I picked up some egg shaped sidewalk chalk on sale and tied a pink ribbon with a simple tag around each package. Quick and easy!

Part of the table centre included this altered Starbucks bottle filled with a boquet of suckers. Again, I thought of this last minute, so I kept it quick and easy. I embossed the flowers with hologram highlights embossing powder and used one of the new Jumbo Grommets with a Pretties Half Pearl centre. To fill the bottle, I literally pulled out a bunch of thin scraps of paper from my garbage bin that sits on the table while I scrap and rolled them up. I didn't spend much time preparing the party and yet it was one of the most fun we've had.

Scrappin' With the Kids!

I spent part of last week scrapping with my kids - in a good way! First, my youngest needed 100 of something displayed in a creative way for her Kindergarten class's 100th Day Party. We came up with a long list of possibilities before settling on 100 of the pieces of "Pixie Dust" (Mickey shaped confetti) which the girls collected on our Disney Cruise. She had the idea of putting them on a Mickey Mouse. I think she was thinking of glue, but I had a different idea in mind! Together we came up with a page, complete with a shaker box Mickey and a picture of her on the cruise, that can be put into the scrapbook album when it comes home from school. She was so pleased!

My oldest daughter also had a project to make. One of her best school friends was having a birthday and she wanted to make a special card. The two of them dream of playing in a band together some day (despite the fact that neither can play an instrument, but who's to argue with 8 year old logic), so she begged to use my "Rock Star" stamp from the A Little Somethin' set. I helped her a bit with the general layout and suggested black to go with her very pink colour scheme, but she did a great job of putting everything together on the card. She definitely knew exactly what she wanted on the inside too (although please forget that her mom is an English teacher - I guess they don't cover the difference between "your" and "you're" in Grade 3, or more likely Grade 3 kids are like Grade 12 kids, and they just don't remember)!

Hinged Birthday Invitation

My youngest daughter is turning six this week -where did the time go? For her birthday party, she wanted an Easter party, so I made her invitations using the brand new An Egg-cellent Easter set in the Occasions Mini . The top flips open to reveal the party details underneath. I kept the design simple to keep things quick and easy.