Inspired by Vintage Cards

I've been hosting the Papertrey Pals blog this month! This month I posted a blog post about how I've been inspired lately by the lovely and vibrant vintage cards from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I collect them and love them!

Here's an example...

And another one...

You can check out the post I wrote about vintage cards HERE! Thanks for taking a peek and hope you enjoy! :)

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You...

Today's card is a card I made to encourage someone and to cheer them up. I heat embossed in gold a beautiful sentiment from the PTI stamp set, Everyday Blessings. It's my favorite scripture sentiment from that set, there's something very hopeful and encouraging about it. It says: "May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he smile upon you. Numbers 6:24-25"

The base is a gold shimmer paper, the same type of paper I used in yesterday's post. I usually don't use patterned paper on my cards and projects, but lately I've been using it quite a bit! I cropped it from a 12x12 Mariposa DCWV stack and matted it with Ocean Tides  cardstock.

Here's a closeup of the shimmer of the gold embossing, cardstock and butterfly (I added sparkles to the butterfly with a spica glitter pen).

Thanks for taking a look and I hope you have a sunny and great day!

Papertrey Pals May Card: Birthday Card for My Mom

I am hosting this month's Papertrey Pals May Challenge. The challenge is to make a card for your mom and to include some handcoloring on your project! Anyone may play along so feel free to join in! :)

My mom's birthday is one week after mother's day. I made her a birthday card using her favorite bird, the cardinal.

I stamped dogwoods to the front of the card with Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I diecut the front of the card with the sending you die, so you could see the cardinal inside the card. I tied Pure Poppy ribbon across the front and then I attached vellum to the back of the diecut opening.

Vellum can be a nice way to disguise your coloring if you want the look of hand coloring, but don't want to show all of the close up details (aka: hard lines, blending, etc.). It softens the coloring and helps to blend the colors!

And here's the inside of the card with the Cardinal colored in colored pencil. I originally colored him with chalks and loved the look, but it smeared slightly and I wasn't sure how to set it. I'm still happy with how it turned out!

The base of the card is a beautiful gold shimmer paper that I've been using a lot of lately. I will have another card tomorrow using more shimmer paper!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a sunshine-filled day!

New Challenge: Make a Card for Your Mom!

It's my turn to host a Papertrey Pals challenge! The challenge for May is to make a card for your mom and to include something hand colored in your project! :)

For all the details, please see the Papertrey Pals challenge blog. Everyone is free to join in and we would love for you to play along! :) You can link up any mother's card that you have already posted to your blog in May too!

Have a sunny day!

Card for My Grandma

So glad that Blogger is up and running again! I've missed seeing everyone's new posts and I'm glad I'm able to post now too. It looks like things may have been worked out, although my comments are still missing from my last post!

Today's card is a card I made for my Grandma for Mother's Day. She is one of the kindest, most gentle people I know and I'm so glad to have her influence in my life. Here's the card.

The patterned paper is from the DCWV 12x12 Botanicals stack, which I really love. The papers are so gorgeous! The pearls are by Zva Creative.

And here's the inside, stamped with the Wplus9 stamp set, A Special Lady, which is the same set I used in my mom's card from my last post.

A couple more things before I go! I've been taking a Wilton cake decorating class and thought I'd share with you some flowers I have made using royal icing. The flowers are roses, daffodils and violets. It's such a fun class and I recommend it if you've ever thought about getting into cake decorating!

Also, our pretty cat, Ashley, just recently turned 15 years old! Her favorite toys are mice, so we bought a whole bunch of toy mice to celebrate her birthday and now they're scattered all over our home. :) She's the sweetest cat, always following us around and jumping on the couch to cuddle with us. Love her! Happy birthday, Ashley!

Thanks for stopping by! I always love reading your comments. Have a great day and hope you are able to get some sunshine today!

A Special Card for a Special Lady

Today I thought I'd share with you the card I made for my mom for Mother's Day. I really worked hard on this card, I wanted it to be extra special for her this year! You will see why further down in the post! :) I never ever use patterned paper, but wanted to give it a try!  My mom loves flowers and the color fuchsia, so thought she would like the Raspberry Fizz paper, ribbon and patterned paper.

I rearranged the swirls of the pearls, so they would be swirling across the front of the card and forming a heart. The sentiments are from the Wplus9 set, A Special Lady. I really love the font and it's a beautiful stamp set! The patterned paper is from the DCWV Botanicals stack. It is the 12x12 stack trimmed down to fit a card. I think that I prefer the larger papers, so I have more options to trim it and crop it how I like!

And here is the inside...

I included a picture of my sonogram, showing that we are having a BOY! :) :) :) She was really surprised and happy to find out the gender!

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!! Have a beautiful and sunny day!

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms!

Source: indyeahforever.wordpress.com via Monica on Pinterest

Source: rantsfrommommyland.com via Monica on Pinterest

Source: triciawilson.tumblr.com via Monica on Pinterest

Source: vanessagrayson.deviantart.com via Monica on Pinterest

Source: joannagoddard.blogspot.com via Monica on Pinterest

Source: miloissweet.blogspot.com via Monica on Pinterest

Wishing all mothers a truly wonderful Mother's Day today! Thanks for all that you do! :) As a mother-to-be, I'm looking forward to sharing this very special bond one day with my child.

Hope you have a wonderful and sunshine-filled Mother's Day!

Just a Note: More Mini Cards! :)

I sold a few things recently and I like to include a small note when I mail the package out! So I thought I'd share with you some mini notes I made using the PTI Lunchbox Note die (my favorite PTI die at the moment!). I love to make mini cards, I think it's my favorite kind of card. :)

The PTI Postmarks set is a wonderful set, full of so many great little images that you can mix and match! It also works really well with the Button Boutique set.

And the inside of the notecard...

I also decorated the back of the notes using the woman's silhouette stamp (from Postmarks) and the handmade stamp (from Button Boutique). It's a sort of way to "sign" the back of the notecard. :)

And one more thing! Some of the stamps in the PTI Postmarks set work great on the packages themselves. It's a way to decorate the package, but also make sure it arrives safe and sound! :)

Here are all of the notecards together!

And my apologies that I have not updated over the past month. We were having some work done in our home, so it was a little hard to find room to craft. I plan to do many more posts over the coming weeks. Thanks so much for stopping by! :) Have a sunny day!!

Gift Set for my Aunt

Awhile ago I posted a patterned paper calendar I made for my Aunt. The calendar is here. I realized that I never posted on my blog the rest of the set that I made for her. So I thought I would share it with you today. :) 

I made her a coordinating set of goodies for her to keep on her desk.

It included a PTI notebook and RSVP pen with matching paper.

A desk calendar...

And a set of magnets. 

Using a circle punch, I punched out some circles and attached them to epoxy circles. Then I glued these epoxy stickers to strong earth magnets. I needed a way to secure them, so I attached the mini magnets to a long magnet strip and glued that to a bookmark diecut. It kept everything in place so they didn't go sliding around.

Here's the whole set! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great sunny day! :)

ETA: I was emailed a few questions so thought I'd add some details about how I made some of this! The basic dimensions for the notebook and RSVP pen are on Kim's blog here. I bought the magnets from this ebay seller here and attached them with E-6000 glue. HTH!

Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop: Embroidery Floss

I've been using PTI products for awhile, but this is my first PTI Blog Hop. I'm so happy to be finally playing along! :) And I can't wait to hop through and see all of your projects!

This month's challenge was to use embroidery floss on our projects (the details are here).

I recently got my new PTI order and this project uses the new stamps I got from the new release. I love the new PTI mini envelope die. It would be great if they also released one for a gift card too (PTI are you listening?) :)

So for the Blog Hop project I thought I'd decorate one of the new mini envelopes. I stamped one of the new mini tags to look almost like a thought bubble coming from the bird. I stamped it on the CS then stamped on a tag diecut and raised it on a pop dot, then added some aqua mist colored floss.

I stamped the back of the envelope with the airmail border stamp from Postmarks.

By the way, I also recently got these new goodies in the mail. It's a Sew Easy kit which is great to use for hand stitching with floss on cards. This kit is used for impressing dotted patterns into your paper to act as a guide for your stitching. It's been a lot of fun to try them out!

I used one of the Sew Easy patterns to stitch an airmail border to the inside mini card that I made so it would coordinate.

Here's a closeup of the mini card. I left just enough room to write out a small personalized message. I attached another piece of CS to hide the back of the stitching.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you enjoy the hop. I will be hopping along to see everything that you all make. :) Have a sunny day!

All supplies are PTI unless otherwise listed.

Stamps: Tiny Tags, Label Basics, Postmarks, Tag It #1, Tag It #2
Paper: SS white
Ink: Red Magic, Sea Breeze, Mango Madness (Versamagic)
Other: Mini envelope die, Tiny Tags die, aqua floss, red floss

Mini Thank You notes

Thanks so much for all the well wishes over the past few days. We're very excited! I'm due mid-September and yes, we are going to find out if it's a boy or girl. :)

Today I thought I'd share with you a few mini thank you notes I made recently. I sold a few items in my Etsy shop so wanted to include thank you notes with the orders. I was super excited when I found out that I'd sold a couple of bookmarks. It's kind of a fun to sell something that you handmade yourself! :) But it made me realize that I needed to make some more thank you notes to have on hand.

My shop (like my blog) has sunshine in the title so I wanted to make something bright, happy and sunny. I decided to use the PTI Daily Designs set--the images are so versatile and I love the designs. I held off on ordering this set for the longest time and am so glad I finally ordered it! I used the PTI Lunchbox note die which is the perfect die to make mini thank you cards.

I stamped the tag in Versamagic Mango Madness and the sentiment in a dark blue Ocean Depth.

I also stamped a little hidden sentiment under the flap that the recipient won't see until they open it.

It's kind of fun to add little extra details and "surprises" especially when it's a simple card.

On the inside, I added the tree stamp from Daily Designs to accent the little message I'll personalize for each card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Hope you have a beautiful, sunshine-filled St. Patrick's day! :)

All are PTI unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Daily Designs, Mat Stack 4 Collection (sentiments)
Paper: SS white
Ink: Versamagic Mango Madness, Ocean Depth
Other: Lunchbox note die

Heat Embossing and Dry Embossing on Coasters

When I saw that PTI was selling coasters I was super excited. It seemed like it would be so fun to experiment with different coaster designs. It's also great to use for diecutting, but I wanted to see what I could come up with using them as actual coasters!

I ended up using some impression plates to create some gold embossed coaster designs. 

I stamped Versamark ink onto the impression plate then ran the coaster through my Cuttlebug. Then I heat embossed the dry embossed design with gold embossing powder. It created a vibrant and rustic coaster design. These coasters are still resistant to water, since heated embossing powder is waterproof. It has dimension and color but it's still practical.

My favorite design was the Sunshine impression plate. I love this pattern embossed! There were a few spots that didn't emboss, but I liked the rustic look of it. If you wanted to fix it, you could use a Versamark pen to color in the missing spots and then heat emboss again.

The coaster will slightly warp when you heat emboss it, but you can just place a heavy cup on it and it will smooth right out.

I also inked up the Music impression plate with waterproof brown ink and then ran it through my Cuttlebug. I love the rustic look it provides and the music notes are a fun and unusual theme on a dinner table.

Dry embossing and heat embossing the coasters can be a fun and simple way to dress up the table. You can emboss them in whichever colors will match your decor and change them very cheaply for the different seasons.

What things have you made with PTI coasters? Would love to see it! Thanks for stopping by and have a sunny day!!

Supplies (All Papertrey Ink.)

Impression Plates: Woodgrain, Sunshine, Music Sheet

Ink: Versamark

Embossing Powder: PTI Filigree gold

Other: Coasters