Tag Archives: mailable

Proud of You

Posted on by

My nephew, a rising senior in high school, is currently at boot camp. He is joining the National Guard to become an MP. Obviously I have mixed emotions about this, but I am undoubtedly proud of him. He’s allowed to receive post, so I wanted to send him a card to remind him that we’re thinking about him.

I don’t have many “service” type stamps (guess I’ll need to remedy that 🙂 ), but this ribbon from CTMH certainly does work (I originally bought it to make cancer ribbons, so I don’t always remember it when thinking military). To do the two toned ribbon, I stamped the image twice – once in blue, once in red – and cut out the “front” piece from the red image and glued it onto the blue one.

I kept the card very simple – apparently any cards that are over the top (mushy or frou-frou) earn the receiver a few extra push-ups! I just used lots of dimensionals to give it depth. And the blue mat is textured paper.

I am entering this in the “Krafts-men” challenge at CAS-ual Fridays (cfc9). CAS-ual Fridays is a new challenge blog dedicated to clean and simple stamping. CAS is definitely the style I prefer. I heard about their challenge before they even started – because I was already following a few of their design team members – but this is the first challenge I’ve managed to complete. I still have a text flower I created for their first challenge!! Maybe I’ll get it on a card one of these days, lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

Proud of You
Stamps: Remember (CTMH); Fresh & Simple alphabets (PTI); Sanded background (SU);
Colors: Poppy, White, Kraft (PTI); Crumb Cake ink, Not Quite Navy (SU);
Other: dimensionals;

Thanks to the PE Teacher

Posted on by

This card is for the physical education teacher at our school.

I don’t have any sports stamps, so when it came time to make a card for the PE teacher, I thought I would have to do quite a bit of improvising. After lots of failed attempts, I went back to looking through my stamp collection for inspiration. I decided to use the Simple Circle die and use punches to create the different sports balls.

I went looking for layout inspiration to use the die and found, of course, an awesome card on Maile’s blog (last card).

I ended up finding a font to make the soccer ball – doing your own is much harder than it looks! I did make the basketball, baseball, tennis ball (yellow paper and white gel pen), hockey puck (in case you didn’t know what the small black circle was for), and a red kick ball (embossed with the canvas impression plate!!).

I didn’t have high hopes when starting this card, but I’m really happy how it finished!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks
Stamps: Background Basics: Text, Fillable Frames Additions 1 (PTI); sentiment (old All Night Media);
Paper: Black, Kraft, White, Harvest Gold (PTI); Pumpkin, Riding Hood (SU);
Ink: Crumb Cake (SU); Black (PTI);
Other: 0.5 Pen (CTMH); Fillable Frame 1 die, Simple Circles die (PTI);

VSN Swabbie

Posted on by

So this weekend was VSN at Splitcoast. The theme was pirates – hence my post title (swabbie because I only managed 5 challenges, so definitely not “captain” material and I figured “VSN wench” wouldn’t go over well with my family 😉 )

I wasn’t actually going to participate – I have stamping chores to do (and they don’t really work well with challenges). But I got a couple chore cards done earlier today and then I saw a post by Carly (here) and was completely inspired by her cards and figured I had to give it a shot.

First up was a color challenge – aqua, light green, and kraft. I snuck in the craft as the color for the sentiment. The card stock is Aqua Mist and Spring Moss from PTI.

Since the stamps I chose to work with were small, I made a small square card. I really like this card and I can use it to fill one of my stamping chores – bonus!
 
 
 
 

Next up, a challenge to use colorful birds. Of course, there was another part to the challenge which I neglected – making a square card. So this card is already walking the plank!

At least I can use it as one of my stamping chore cards!
 
 
 
 
 

Moving on, another challenge was to use bling. That should be an easy task, you can add a rhinestone just about anywhere! I got the idea to use this dragonfly image because the wings have little open spots on them – perfect for placing rhinestones. The dragonfly has smooch spritz on it too, though the photo doesn’t show that bit very well.

I used die cuts to create the flowers/leaves. I added a bit of sponging to the flower centers before adding the bling. Before I glued it all down, I wasn’t sure whether to leave it on a white card base or not. I tried a few light colors but none of it looked quite right. I need something to anchor the images, so I pulled out a large label stamp. I am quite happy with how that turned out!

I had to do the next challenge because it was hosted by my friend Patty! It was an awesome challenge – and I actually tackled it first because I got an idea immediately.

I’ll be giving my hubby this card on father’s day (if I remember to take it with us on vacation, lol).

Oh, I have to tell you how I did the label – I’m feeling a bit genius about it (not an ounce of humility in me, lol). I don’t own PTI angled labels (yet), but I do have Fillable Frames #9 – which is a cool tag shape. Well, if you cut the tag, then turn the die cut around and put it back in the die, you can trim both ends with the tag shape!! As you can see lining up the stamp image is a bit trickier, but a stamp-a-ma-jig would make it much easier.

This is the last card I did tonight. You can tell my mojo was wanning. One day I *will* find a black ink that stamps perfectly. Until then, I’ll just deal with my meager results.

This challenge was to use sponging. I was going to do a “ray” type sponging, but was just too lazy to cut the masks I would need. I am definitely in awe of Theresa Momber who can work a sponge so amazingly!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thanks to the Music Teacher

Posted on by

I created this card for the music teacher at our school. We have a male teacher, so I stayed away from the frou-frou.

I was very inspired by Maile’s card during the recent PTI countdown (last card). She oriented her cardstock and impression plate so that a piece of the card base at the top and bottom went un-embossed. I did the same thing. The rest of the layout I sorta cased as well, but I used a real die cut instead of an impression for the label.

The instruments were stamped from the wheel, watercolored, and then cut out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks
Stamps: Symphony wheel (SU); Fillable Frames 4 (PTI); Trendy Greetings (TAC);
Colors: Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa (SU); Black, Cream (PTI);
Other: Fillable Frame 4 die, Music impression plate (PTI);
Technique: watercoloring

Artful Thanks

Posted on by

I’m working on teacher projects again. This time for the local/current teachers. It is so nice to be back in a system that has music, art, and PE in the regular schedule with a dedicated and knowledgeable teacher!

I created this card for, can you guess? 😀 Yes, the art teacher. My girls both love doing art projects. And now they are getting real instruction.

The idea for this card is actually due to the current sketch at Waltzingmouse (wmsc48). I originally pulled out my Teeny Trees set (new to me – and loving it!!) to use the circle stamp as I’ve seen others do, but then the other tree tops caught my eye and this idea just popped right in my head. I had to go for it!

I hand drew and cut out the palette. Then I stamped a rainbow using 3 different tree tops. I finished it off with a sentiment from Say it Loudly which is probably one of my favorite sentiment sets now!

Thanks
Stamps: Teeny Trees, Say it Loudly (WMS);
Colors: Pure Poppy (PTI), Pumpkin Pie (SU); Daffodil Delight (SU); Landscape (Palette); Pacific Point (SU); Lovely Lilac (SU); True Black (PTI)
Other: Scissors 🙂

Waltz with the Mouse

Posted on by

Not THAT mouse – a better one: Waltzingmouse Stamps 🙂

I so want that little guy from the logo as a stamp!

This month’s theme is masculine. This is always a tough category for me. Thankfully I have the Free Spirit Boy stamp set. There are a ton of images in this set.
 

The medallion was created using Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel. I’ve used this stuff before and even done this technique before, but it has been years…and boy it showed. I’m pretty certain I will be finding granules of this powder on my desk for months to come! The idea is to start with a card stock shape and ink it with Versamark. Then you add UTEE and heat it, once it melts, add more powder, and so on until you have a few layers. Then you take a Versamark-inked stamp and press into the goo; wait a minute a pull it out.

Since the medallion is so shiny and I opted for a busy pattern for the “tails” (they started as tails, as you see, they migrated up and out), I kept the rest of the card very simple.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bravo
Stamps: Free Spirit Boy, Off Beat Backgrounds, Bitty Banners, Fancy Phrases (WMS);
Colors: Not Quite Navy (SU); White, Kraft (PTI);
Other: Limitless Layers 1 3/4″ dies (PTI); Gold UTEE; Versamark;

VSN Cards

Posted on by

As my previous post stated, there was a mini-VSN at SCS. I wanted to do a few more challenges, so on Sunday I stamped, stamped, stamped. Upload deadline is today, so I’m posting them all at once.

First up is my card for the third challenge which was an inspiration challenge (may11vsnmini3). The photo was a beach scene – very calming. I wanted to keep the relaxing feel, so I went with subdued colors and a “relax” sentiment.

Next up is the fourth challenge (may11vsnmini4) – a color challenge . I always have a hard time with color challenges, so my normal attack method is to find pattern paper that has the required colors and then let the paper determine the “theme” of the card. This paper screamed fun to me, so I went with a cupcake and sprinkles. I even broke into my stash of baker’s twine finally!

The fifth and final challenge (may11vsnmini5) was to use wood on a card – either as an image or a material. I wasn’t sure what I’d do, so I looked through my stamp index and saw the ruler image. Perfect – this week is Teacher Appreciation week. The ruler is stamped on a thin wood.

Thanks for stopping by!

Relax
Stamps: Day at the Beach (PTI), Sensational Scenery (SU);
Colors: Bashful Blue (textured), Barely Banana, Crumb Cake, River Rock (SU);
Other: dimensionals (SU);
Thank You
Stamps: Cupcake Collection (PTI);
Colors: Apricot Appeal, Gable Green, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, White (SU);
Other: Rainbow Sherbert DSP (SU); baker’s twine (?); glitter (Doodlebug); cupcake dies (PTI); Border punch (Fiskars); machine stitching;
Teacher
Stamps: It’s Official, Teacher’s Apple (PTI); Stamp of Authenticity (SU);
Colors: Aqua Mist, Black, White (PTI); Ruby Red (SU);
Other: wood (SU);

Blue Bird

Posted on by

I created this card for the SCS CAS challenge – Rule of Thirds (cas116). The challenge was to use three – however you interpret that. I did colors (blue, white, black) and images (bird, wire, sentiment).

My hubby is going on a business trip next week, so I needed a “miss you” card. To do the bird was a bit tricky. I figured it would take a few iterations to get right, so I stamped it on another piece of paper and cut it out. I inked up the bird and then kissed a tiny heart stamp to the image (multiple times) to remove ink. The heart I used is NOT a clear stamp, so getting the heart into the same spot multiple times took a steady hand. I think it also helped that I used a pigment ink, so it sorta smooshed itself right. I’m just glad I got it to work!

Thanks for taking a peek!

missing you
Stamps: Birds of a Feather (PTI), Perfect Plaid (SU);
Colors: Not Quite Navy (SU); White (PTI);

Fancy Bird

Posted on by

I created this card for the Waltzingmouse sketch challenge (wmsc44).

I’ve been trying to use stuff I haven’t used ever or at least in a long time. I don’t think I’d used the Label 1 stamp set yet – and that would work well with the sketch. I decided to add the bird cage and then thought it still needed something, so I finished up with the leaf die.

I’ve been doing so many CAS cards, that this one isn’t sitting right with me. I can’t decide if it is too busy or too plain, lol. Any suggestions welcomed!

Thanks for stopping by.

Thinking of You
Stamps: Labels 1, Fancy Phrases, Asian Gardens (WMS);
Colors: Cranberry, Moss, Chocolate, Vanilla (SU);
Other: Recollections DSP, Leaf die, Choco ribbon (SU); Textile embossing folder (CB);

Inspired Bloom

Posted on by

During my blog perusing this month, I saw this post at a creative mint and thought it would make a great card.

So I made one 🙂 It is very simple (my favorite kind).

Thanks for taking a peek.

Friend
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: In Bloom, BB: Argyle;
Colors: Spring Rain, Berry Sorbet, White, True Black;