possibly the silliest card i've ever made...

...so OBVIOUSLY it's my favorite!!! :)

i'm ashamed to say that last week, in the flurry of sketchfest and a massive project at work, i suddenly realized on the morning of my wedding anniversary that i had forgotten to make lovely husband jeff a card! i grabbed a pre-made card base and some paper scraps and took them to work with me, an during lunch, i made this:

(patterned paper: mustard moon, basic grey, my mind's eye, sei; cardstock: hobby lobby; vinyl letter stickers: staples pens: sharpie, uniball signo)

the monsta is based on my favorite from the paperchase monsta giftwrap i love so much. he's become sort of a mascot in our house; i often draw him on notes i put in lhj's lunch. :) like all monstas, he speaks in beeps. in this case he is thanking my dearest darling for the happiest and most wonderful 24 years of marriage any woman...or MONSTA...could imagine.

i'm thrilled to report that lhj loved this card. (in fact, to get this photo, i had to steal it back from the frame of his dresser mirror where he displays his "treasures"!) but my favorite thing about it was the expression on the faces of the two co-workers who saw me making it: i considered explaining the occasion, the monsta-mascot connection, and the text translation, but then i thought, "naaaahhhh...let 'em wonder!" i'm pretty sure no one will try to steal my diet sodas from the communal fridge for a while! :)

christmas is JustRite around the corner

so isn't it lucky i have a cool new JustRite christmas set to inspire my holiday cards? i chose the 3.25" christmas stamp ensemble. it comes with 6 center icons and 6 round borders that can all be mixed and matched together. i tend to work kind of biiiiiiiiig, so i like that i can make it the centerpiece of a card. it's a great size to make tags for packages, too! another great thing is, it comes with the wood mounting block included, so it'll work with any other 3.25" JustRite items i acquire later! ;)

on my first card i've used the snowflake center and border, to stamp in vivid blue on some basic grey holiday paper. i punched a few nice big snowflakes out of the same pattern and had a blast inking, distressing, and adorning them with little pearls before affixing them to my card:

(justrite 3.25" christmas stamp ensemble; patterned paper: basic grey, ki/love elsie; cardstock: core'dinations; pearls: kaiser: inks: psx, colorbox; other: vintage silver metallic ribbon; adhesives: tombow mono runner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

for my second card i only used the center element, to stamp "merry christmas", then i cut out the circle and mounted it onto a slightly expanded snowflake punch... (it's cut & taped at the back so my greeting would fit in the center!) ...i used the custom embellishment as an accent to this fun vintage santa illustration:

(justrite 3.25" christmas stamp ensemble; patterned paper: ki/love elsie, we r memorykeepers, k&co, plus an illustration from a vintage children's book and some red glitter giftwrap; inks: staz-on, bazzinks; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

ok, so clearly i am going to need to make a few MORE of these...which i will show you as they are completed, but can i just say how very *PSYCHED* i am to be working on christmas cards at the end of september?!! thank you JustRite and thank you mr. christmas mojo!!! :)

oh mr. schroedinger, i think i found your cat!

like many of his brethren at i can has cheezburger,
this kitteh made me laugh.

of course, no matter what anyone does to
my quantums & grabbities & stuffs...

monday morning always feels like monday morning. in a way, it's sort of weirdly reassuring, actually.

hope YOUR monday morning

is better than average!!!

♥

au revoir et adieu, mon petite sketchfest

can you believe an entire week has passed already in the whirlwind of color and pattern and fabulous inspiration we CAARDVARKS were pleased and proud to call SKETCHFEST?! what on earth will we do now??!?! i think the amazing heidi van laar should just show up EVERY DAY with a sketch for us, don't you? i wouldn't mind if she also told me what to wear to work, and perhaps gave ideas for a nutritious dinner; in fact, i'd hasten to do her bidding! :) but until i can swing that...here's a final, fabulous sketch:

it's nice, dontcha think? and super-flexible, as well. i think we'll see some AMAZING creations based on this baby, and i can't wait to get surfing around to them all. but in the meantime, here is my card:

it's got the last of that fun making memories decorative masking tape on it...mmmmmmmm...i ♥LOVE♥ that stuff! it inspired me to want to put a hibiscus on the card, actually. i was briefly hampered by the fact that i cannot draw...until i remembered that i had some rather fab heidi swapp hibiscus ghost shapes, that is! i traced one of those babies onto the orangey red paper from the kit, went crazy with some ink pads and glitter glue and i was a happy hibiscus-based camper! i used a 3" punch for my circle and cut the "hi" from a bit of "great escape" patterned paper which originally read, "hit the road" and that was the end of another fun challenge!

...UNTIL...

i was putting away all the leftover bits of the kit and realized i had not used even one of the little decorative pins...OR...the fun custom rubber stamp which says, "just be"! well, that just seemed SO WRONG...and since i still had a bunch of paper scraps, and loads of thickers, and the masking tape flourishes i used to illustrate the technique from my first card of this event, i figured i should make just one more. so i did:

the heart is yet another piece of fancy pants chipboard that i used as a template...the butterflies were made with my trust martha punch...and the kraft cardstock is from hobby lobby.

now THAT really is the last of my sketchfest cards, which is perfect timing because i'm dying to get out there and see what everyone else has made!!! ♥

sketchfest friday!

holy moly, it's been one heck of a week, hasn't it? we CAARDVARKS have been busier than one-armed paperhangers trying to get round and see allllllll the gorgeous sketchfest cards! i'm slightly sad to say, for the first time EVER, i've been unable to keep up with commenting on every single card...well heck, there have been 100+ each day!...i've compromised by commenting on each card for every other sketch.

speaking of sketches, here's the one m'colleague and sketch-idol miss heidi devised for today:

i like it: it's bold, it's simple, it's linear, and i just happened to have three more little maya road leather flowers to pop into those little boxes. woohoo!

you can't really tell from the photo, but that making memories patterned paper with the letters on is shiny, and so is the black cardstock i've used for the mats. the tan paper has very subtle ridged lines, the thickers are made of spongy foam, and the kraft cardstock (which the divine stef got me at hobby lobby) is the REAL DEAL with lots of speckles and spots. it's your basic cavalcade of texture, really!!! :)

sadly, tomorrow is the last day of sketchfest, but i can tell you in confidence that the sketch is particular superb. so much so, in fact, that i've made *TWO* cards for it. hasta manana, darlings!!!

i don't like to play favorites...

...with my cards. i mean, they're kind of a bit like children-- (all right, not really, but go with me, ok?) --so of course i love them all equally. however, if i *DID* like to play favorites...today's sketchfest card might well be my pick.

but i'm getting ahead of myself! i haven't even shown you heidi's fantastic sketch yet, have i? ok, here you go:


is that wonderful, or what? look at that beautiful curved line...and the three little accents that hang over it. niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. when i saw that lovely curve i immediately knew i wanted it to be the opening of my card. and logistically this was a great idea because i had sort of weird shaped pieces left of this fun passport-y making memories paper from my studio calico kit. but then, how...and where...would i attach the fab maya road leather flowers i wanted to use in the three spaces? well obviously i needed an element to overhang, and somehow a butterfly seemed like a good idea. i traced a tattered angels chipboard one onto a scrap of patterned paper, et voila: a flight of fancy!

there are LOADS more gorgeous sketch cards from the design team over at CAARDVARKS, not to mention links to all of the amazing readers' cards from every sketch this week. if you have a few minutes, or need a bit of inspiration, i seriously do not believe there's a better place to find card-making mojo in the whole wide world!!! ENJOY!

wednesday: after tuesday...before thursday...

...but equally

sketch-fest-y!!!

(yes, yes, i know, titles are not my strong suit at the moment.

IOU some snappy nomenclature next week, for sure!)

nonetheless today IS equally sketchfesty...and to prove it, here's another massively cool heidi van laar scheme from which we can make our next lot of fabulous cards:

one of the things i liked about working with the wonderful studio calico add-on kit, "director's cut" is that it gave me a chance to try out supplies i would probably *not* have chosen on my own. these little yellow bicycle journaling cards, for instance, are VERY cool...but if they hadn't just ARRIVED in the kit, i don't think i'd've sought them out. which would've been a shame, really, because i like the result of grouping them together!

you can see i've used super-duper-thin black mats on *everything* again...i apologize if you're getting sick of them, but having stumbled upon this technique when i made the cupcake gift-set for jeff's mom recently, i just love how it sets multiple layers apart from each other while having a cleaner look than inking or outlining. the sunburst medallion is cut from one of the pieces of making memories' "great escape" patterned paper that came in the kit, the hearts were more chipboard pieces i traced onto patterned paper, and i used part of the shaped bit of the diecut background paper as a sort of pediment at the top of my card. a few minutes with the manual typewriter and a couple of aqua thickers later, i had a sort of fun & funky "guy" birthday card to replenish my stocks.

i hope you are enjoying sketchfest as much as we CAARDVARKS are! it certainly seems as if people are having fun, we've had RECORD numbers of cards so far, which is *AWESOME* if a bit daunting!!! back tomorrow with more sketchy goodness!

if it's tuesday, it must be SKETCHFEST!!!

this week has been a BLAST so far! i cannot *believe* how many entries we have had already at CAARDVARKS for the first two studio calico sketch cards! it's hard to keep up with the comments...but i'm PSYCHED to see so many awesome cards!!!

moving on to today's sketch...which is wonderful, naturally, being a heidi van laar original:



i don't think i've *QUITE* done this one justice, but i did my best. of course it doesn't help that i could not get a good picture of it for anything! ah well. here it is anyway:

i've used the "little stickers on a shape" trick again, this time it's an arrow. i cut the letters from the making memories paper in the kit, and used two of the little yellow bicycle journaling cards. you can't really see it in the main photo, but here's a closeup that shows the "moods" on the round card...i've circled "happy" since it's a birthday card, and then down on the date card i've circled my cousin tom's birthday.

and that's about it for today, i'll be back tomorrow with the midpoint of sketchfest! and i can't wait to see all the cards in the gallery!

sketchfest, day two!*

are you having fun yet??! because i sure am! i have to say that this might well be my very favorite CAARDVARKS event ever! i loooooooooove heidi's sketches, i LOVE the studio calico kit we were given to make our cards, and i especially love seeing all the different & brilliantly original interpretations our readers devise for their own creations!

but enough intro, let's get to the sketch!

isn't it excellent?! well no duh, i mean it's another heidi van laar design, and she only does FABULOUS!!! i am fairly happy with my card, too, as a matter of fact:

(all materials are from studio calico's "director's cut" add-on kit; sadly it has sold out so i don't have a link or photo to show you; it's amongst the sketchfest prizes, though, so get over to 'varks and post your own card for a shot at one!)

i'm rather proud of having used some bits of *packaging* on this one: the panel with the compass and the word "travel" come from the making memories tiny words stickers; the word "love" and the row of tiny hearts come from the studio calico packing card; and the scalloppy orange border is the negative bit from cutting out a cute shape from a pack of decorative pins!

for the heart shape i used a piece of fancy pants chipboard as a template on a piece of scrap cardstock, and filled in the shape using the tiny "great escape" wordfetti stickers. (this is very similar to how i used the decorative tape to make yesterday's flourishes; see a mini-tutorial here.) the rest is just regular supplies from the kit, it had a very nice selection of travel-themed items, but you will see from the rest of my cards (& the other gorgeous dt examples!) that they're adaptable to all sorts of other themes!

i have to say that one of the main things i learned from working with this fun selection of products is i really, REALLY like decorative masking tape (♥♥♥!) and i can completely understand how people get utterly addicted to collecting it!!! it's just lucky i don't have any OCD tendencies, then, eh??! ;)

more tomorrow, but in the meantime:

♥ HAPPY MONDAY, DARLINGS!!! ♥

*because some days i ROCK at thinkin' up creative blogpost titles...and some days...not-so-much. guess which one *today* was??! (sorry!) :)

hello and welcome to...

♥ sketchfest! ♥

i do hope you're rested and rarin' to go, because this is going to be an action-packed, fun-filled, sketch-based week!!! the caardvarks have got a brand new 24-hour sketch challenge every single day, and there are loads of lovely studio calico goodies up for grabs, as well as... are you ready for this?! hold onto your hat, ok? ...for our grand prize at the end of the week, one very special cardmaker who's completed ALL SEVEN sketches by the deadlines will be offered a spot on the caardvarks crew!!! uh-huh, you read that right. how cool is THAT??!

the 'varks were each given a luscious studio calico add-on kit with which to create our cards for this week. i've never worked with a kit before... (despite lusting over MANY, particularly the SC ones) ...so i wanted to see if i could budget the supplies and do ALL SEVEN sketches without adding in any additional supplies except neutral cardstock. it was a bit of a challenge...but i'm proud to report that i succeeded; i even made an extra card, and i have leftovers!

i absolutley LOVE all of m'colleague heidi van laar's gorgeous sketches for this event,but secretly... (shhhhh!) ...this one *might* be my favorite. i mean, just look at that lovely oval focal point, not to mention the gorgeous swirly bits! yeah, this one kinda has "lauren" written all overit, dontcha think?!


i wound up rotating the sketch 90 degrees so that i could fit a festive birthday greeting into the oval,but other than that i stuck quite strictly to the sketch. i used maya road chipboard flourishes as a template to make my swirls, which are composed of the kit's decorative tape (see photos below). i used a stencil to trace the inner oval, cut it out and mounted it on a second piece of paper from the kit and cut out again leaving about an 1/8" border all around. super-thin, high-contrast mats are my new favorite technique...a bit rough on the old carpal tunnels, but hard to beat for a dramatic look!

all primary materials are from the studio calico "director's cut" add-on kit; other items: hobby lobby kraft cardstock, colorbox inks, zig pen, marvy & martha stewart butterflypunches, fiskars border punch

and now a quick photostory of how to make decorative tape into patterned paper...and use it to create fun flourishes!

TRACE your desired shape on a scrap of cardstock

COVER the traced shape with tape

RE-TRACE the shape on top of the tape

CUT OUT the shape and use it like any other embellishment!

be sure to stop over at CAARDVARKS to read all the details of this week's festivities, see the design team's gorgeous cards, and learn how to link up your own gorgeous creations. i'll be back tomorrow with my card for day two!

at this rate he will be 16 times *MORE* adorable by 2025

nephew matthew, i mean. basing my calculations on the fact that he is EASILY twice as cute on his second birthday as he was on his first... (which is saying something, because he was pretty darned appealing to start with!) ...and extrapolating that out to his eighteenth birthday...well...it would seem that the young ladies of the midatlantic states just don't stand a chance!

his party is this afternoon. you've already seen the minibook i made for him, as well as the cute photo tag i came up with while playing around with my new justrite stampers, but i had to have somewhere to put the book and hang the tag, so i decorated a giftbag, too. it's a bit more challenging for me to do "little boy" stuff, having trained so extensively in princess-pink-n-sparkly with the three nieces, but i think i'm starting to get the hang of it.

(patterned paper: basic grey, imagination project, sei, ki; letter stickers: basic grey; eyelets: making memories; inks: colorbox; pens: zig & copic; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

by the way, have i mentioned lately how very much i still absolutely ♥LOVE♥ the old-school basic grey letter stickers? those things just rock the casbah, don't they? whimsical without being cutesy, and slightly distressed without being grungy; they all mix-n-match together, and they're the perfect size. wouldn't it be great if they came in different materials, like thickers: foam, felt, glitter...??!* ah well, a girl can only dream! :)

happy saturday, darlings!

be sure to tune in tomorrow with your card-making cap on:

it's the start of SKETCHFEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*if you're from american crafts or basic grey...both of whom i am sure read my blog religiously, lol...there's your assignment: team up and MAKE IT SO!

JustRite font *MEGA* blog hop

♥ welcome, blog hoppers! ♥

i hope you're enjoying the amazing and inspiring range of projects featuring JustRite's gorgeous font sets. i'm awestruck by the amazing artists who are participating in this event, and honored to be included! i know it's been a really big day, so let's get right to the photos, ok?

have you ever made a card that turned out COMPLETELY different than you pictured it in your head? well, this one was like that for me: i'd envisaged it being sort of edgy & funky & super-distressed...but apparently it was determined to be shabby chic. finally i had to respect its wishes and go with the flow!

(JustRite products: brayton uppercase font set and horizontal stamper; patterned papers: basic grey, plus some vintage sheet music and ledger paper; cardstock: bazzill; chipboard tag: k&co; flowers: prima; rub-on: making memories; pen: zig; pearls epoxy stickers & ribbon: michaels; inks: colorbox; adhesives: tombow mono runner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

since every size of justrite font comes with a generous double set of beautiful numerals, i thought they needed to be featured as well as the letters! i loaded the large horizontal stamper block with as many as i could cram on there, even letting some hang over the edge. i stamped the grouping twice on my panel and used it in place of patterned paper as the base ofa fun birthday card. i used the 2 3/8" round stamper & its 25-point times new roman font to make a paper-pieced cupcake with a custom sentiment, added a few coordinating embellishments, and i was all set!

(JustRite products: brayton uppercase font set, horizontal stamper, and 2 3/8" stamper with bonus 25-point font; patterned papers: basic grey, imagination project, my mind's eye, sei, prima, autumn leaves, oriental trading co; cardstock: core'dinations; gems: mambi other: dymo labeler; inks: staz-on, colorbox; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

"best fishes" is probably my all-time favorite birthday sentiment to use on "guy cards". for my brother alone, i bet i've made 6 or 7, in every conceivable style! for this incarnation i thought it would be fun to stamp a grouping of text in varying point sizes, but instead of a traditional "block" i've used circular elements to resemble bubbles, outlining and inking them around the edges to give a more dimensional look. my fish is a silhouette made by stapling a photo from an angling magazine to several layers of patterned paper and cutting out around it. i've sponged a few colors of ink around the edges, layered it onto some royal blue cardstock, cut out again, & distressed the edges before adding detail with a copic outliner.

(JustRite products: brayton uppercase font set & horizontal stamper; patterned paper: scrapbook wizard, basic grey, inex page from an old atlas; cardstock: core'dinations; brad: making memories; inks: psx & colorbox; adhesives: tombow mono runner & 3m foam tape)

one of my favorite things about the justrite font sets is that they come with three different point sizesof the same typeface, which is awesome for monograms, address labels, tags...or even just a sentimentwith which you want to have a little fun. this card is definitely the latter: the combination of the slogan... (which i borrowed from the old "rumpole of the bailey" mysteries) ...with my favorite adrienne looman papers and a generous serving of bling really make me smile. i think this is one card i may have to keep for myself! :)

(JustRite products: brayton uppercase font set & horizontal stamper; patterned paper: adrienne looman for prima, sei, kaiser; black glossy cardstock: ranger; bling frame: heidi swapp; chipbaord crown: maya road; flower sequins: doodlebug; sticky pearls: kaiser: inks: staz-on & colorbox)

and now before you head on to the next awesome hop stop, may i remind you that JustRite is celebrating this awesome event with a Super 7 Day Font Sale?! you can take 30% off all font sets and the horizontal and veritical stamper blocks. the sale lasts 9-17 through 9-24, so hurry over and check it out!

oh and one last thing: did you hear about the Mystery Blog Candy being given away during the hop? uh huh. there'll be 3 blog candy giveaways on each day and you can only win by leaving a comment on the right blog! but here's the thing: you won't know which blog has the candy...even the designers don't know! so as you visit each blog, you might just want to leave a comment...who knows, the lucky winner may be you!!!!! you have until sunday at noon to leave a comment for your chance to win; then check back at the JustRite Blog on Sunday evening to find out who won!

Enjoy the Hop!!!

JustRite Blog
Debbie Olson

Jerri Kay Jimenez

Taylor Van Bruggen

Holly Simoni

Barb Schram

Terre Fry

Michelle Kovack

Kim Moreno

Catherine Doucette

Kellie Fortin

Kimberly Crawford

Kathy Jones

Michelle Giraud

Angela Barkhouse

Heather Pulvirenti

Tami Mayberry

Jennifer Buck

Keri Lee Sereika

Jami Bova

Laura Davis

Stacey Kingman

Bonnie Sharp

Stephanie Severin

Janine Orchard

Debbie Seyer

Margie Higuchi

Lauren Bergold (you are here!)

Anja Curvers
AJ Otto

today is the first day of the rest of your life!

coincidentally, but in a completely unrelated way, it is also the first day of the JustRite font mega blog hop! my projects will be featured tomorrow, but seeing as the JustRite folks have rounded up more than *50* MEGA-talented designers, it's well worth a mosey over to the JustRite Blog for a peek! (oh yeah and did i mention there are *prizes*??!)


today is the third day of the caardvarks' in the studio blog hop, sponsored by GCD studios. having seen my fellow crew-members cards and projects for this event, i must strongly urge you to make with the mouse-clicking for the good of your mojo! (completely disregarding the fact that there are *prizes*!)


saturday is nephew matthew's second birthday...a fact which is not being commemorated in any way on t'interwebz, except for me telling you it, here. :)

on the other hand, we're back online sunday in a BIG WAY for the first day of sketchfest over at caardvarks, sponsored by studio calico, which lasts and entire week and will feature SEVEN consecutive 24-hour challenges, with sketches courtesy of the magnificent heidi van laar. (oh yeah and i b'lieve there may be *prizes*!)

in the studio blog hop

♥ W E L C O M E ♥

to the first CAARDVARKS and GCD STUDIOS collaboration! i hope you're having fun seeing all the fabulous inspiring projects the crew have created with these gorgeous papers and embellishments!

i fell in love with the eye candy collection! well, heck, what's not to love about these luscious patterns and bright happy colors? especially if you have a mother-in-law who's celebrating a significant birthday, and you need to make an extra-special gift set. i made a memory box, photo album, birthday card and a gift bag in which to present them all, and still only used about a third of my paper pad!

(patterned papers: GCD designs from the eye candy collection, with a bit of red textured paper from the sunny days collection; template for cupcakes & hearts: "db love pastries" font from scrap-n-fonts; black cardstock: core'dinations; ink: colorbox; acrylic paint & glossy sealer spray: folk art; 12 x 9" wooden memory box: michael's; 4 x 6" photo album: sei; adhesives: xyron cartridge, tombow power hold adhesive runner, 3m foam tape & double stick tape; other: paper trimmer, scalloppy decorative scissors, several sizes of ek success circle punches)

since the blog-hoppers have lots of ground to cover, i've put "solo" pictures of each item, and detail on the process, in a separate post immediately below this one. i'll try my best to answer any questions left via comments or email, but let me anticpate the two most obvious questions right now:

#1: YES, i hand cut all of the cupcake layers and the hearts using a cupcake dingbat i re-sized & printed out; then i mounted them on black cardstock and re-cut them all freehand to leave a 1/16th inch border of black! (i held 3-4 layers together, so it's a *little* less work than it looks like, but yeah, it was A LOT of hand-cutting!)

...and...

#2: YES, i'm pretty sure i *AM* crazy, actually!!! :)

of course, GCD makes more than paper, they have gorgeous glitter letters, fabulous chipboard diecuts, and all sorts of fun embellishments! here are a couple of cards i made, using some of the more dimensional items:

(patterned papers, glitter letters, epoxy stickers & chipboard journaling block: GCD designs; glossy black cardstock: ranger; flowers: prima; ink: colorbox; pen: zig; adhesives: xyron cartridge, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)

(patterned papers, chipboard letters & tag, rub-ons, cardstock tag: GCD designs; cardstock: core'dinations; ink: colorbox; ribbon: queen & co;adhesives: xyron cartridge, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape)


and now i will send the hoppers on their way, with a fond farewell and a reminder of the running order:

Jenyfur
♥ Lauren ♥ (...you are here...)
Mel
Lori
Tanis

Adela
GCD Studios Blog

♥♥♥ happy hopping!!! ♥♥♥

GCD gift set details

in today's main post, for my day of the GCD studios blog hop, i showed you the four piece birthday gift set i made for lovely husband jeff's mother's upcoming "significant birthday". the set includes a gift bag, a birthday card, a small photo album (to fill with pics from the party we're having later this month) and a box in which to save all the cards and mementoes from the big day. in the interests of keeping the blog hop post short, i just showed a photo and listed my materials, but just in case anyone needs more detail, here you go!

the box: is unfinished balsa wood from michaels, and cost about $5. it's approximately 9.5 x 12". (with a slightly larger lid, so you can paint and decoupage without worrying about fit!) since i really dislike going around corners and over edges and making everything line up perfectly on multiple planes of vision, i did what i usually do in these situations: i cheated! i base coated the entire inside and all around the edges of the outside in black acyrilic paint, and then had lovely husband jeff take it outside for a coat of spray-on glossy sealant. this way, i could work only on the flat panels of each side of the box, and the narrow border of black is an intentional design statement! (if you're new to 3-D papercrafting, TRUST ME, this is the way to go!)

i made the decorative panel for the top of the box first. i used broderbund's printshop software to make a template for the oval in the exact size and shape i wanted, and a cute dingbat font (db love pastries) for the cupcake. (later i re-sized the whole thing as one object to have smaller but identical motifs for the photobook & card, without having to re-create the work.) i printed out a few copies, which i then stapled to 3 or 4 layers of patterned paper and cut out multiples of the various bits. my intention was just to paper-piece them the normal way, with maybe a black outline, but these gorgeous vibrant prints were just a little too strong when layered directly on top of each other, so i wound up mounting each piece on black cardstock and cutting again to leave about a 1/16th of an inch border. i put little squares of foam tape on the lower edges of each cupcake layer and the heart at the top, so they would have a bit of dimension.

the scallops around the oval are the cute motifs from the brown "sweet tarts" patterned paper, on which i used a 1" circle punch. i then used a 1 3/8" circle punch on the black cardstock, cut all the circles in half, layered them, and attached them to the edge of the oval with (gasp!) regular old scotch tape. the strips which make up the frame were cut with a paper trimmer from the reverse side of the "candy charms" paper, mounted on black and then cut with scallopy decorative scissors.

for nearly a day i thought the box was FINISHED with just the cupcake and the frame on the rectangular background of "taffy" paper, but eventually i decided it needed one more thing...so i made the little corner elements by stacking leftover hearts & sweet tart circles in various ways until i found a combo i liked. again i used foam tape to pop them up.

after the top was done, it was just a question of choosing something for the edges, and to line the inside of the box and lid and WOOHOO it looked pretty fab, if i do say so myself!

the card: measures 6 x 8.25" and is built on a black cardstock base. the materials and basic process were much the same as for the box, but i've scaled the cupcake down slightly to fit the smaller proportions, and i changed around the papers i used for the various elements. the scallops were made of black cardstock using a 3/4" circle punch. again i used stripes from the reverse side of the "candy charms" paper, but i trimmed them slightly differently and mounted them across the corners instead of in a frame pattern. i made a coordinating panel for the inside using light blue patterned paper from the sunny days collection and printed my text in "tabitha" font, formatted in broderbund's printshop.

the photo book: is from the SEI preservation series, with teal covers made from supersturdy plastic-coated cardstock. since the teal chimed in quite well with some of the stripes from the reverse side of the "candy charms" paper, and the spine was already conveniently colored black, i only needed to affix a panel to the front of the album which matched the other items in the set. again i scaled down the cupcake and the oval, and switched up the placement of the various patterns. this time the scallop frame was cut with my trusty decorative scissors... (one of my very first papercrafting purchases from michael's; at least 15 years ago!) ...and the frame uses slightly thinner stripes on the top and bottom than on the sides.

the bag: is a plain black one from hallmark which measures 10.5 x 13 x 6.5". it was made after the rest of the set was finished, when i realized that i had to have some way to *wrap* everything else! i used a leftover oval and cupcake, punched more black circles for the scallopped border, made another set of corner strips, and swapped out the plain black ribbon for some brown-n-pink stripes on the handle...and we're good to go!

now i cannot wait for the party so we can give

the birthday girl her presents!

(complete materials: all patterned papers: GCD designs from the eye candy collection, with a bit of red textured paper from the sunny days collection; template for cupcakes & hearts: "db love pastries" font from scrap-n-fonts; black cardstock: core'dinations; ink: colorbox; acrylic paint & glossy sealer spray: folk art; 12 x 9" wooden memory box: michael's; 4 x 6" photo album: sei; adhesives: xyron cartridge, tombow power hold adhesive runner, 3m foam tape & double stick tape; other: decorative scissors, several sizes of ek success circle punches; tabitha font (used inside card & photo book)

no cat-based shirker post for *ME* today!!!

no sirree, bob!

even though it's a monday,

i am far too organized to need

to do something cheesy like that!

i've got a DOG-based shirker post all ready to go!!!!!!!

(betcha didn't see that coming, eh? thought not!)

hope you had a wonderful weekend

and that the sun is shining where you are...

either in a meteorological sense,

or at least metaphorically!

another tag, on a different bag...

...but still featuring my current favorite tool: justrite's 2 3/8" stamper with a font for making phrases around the edge. i've found a new way to use it: as a photo frame! so now my tags and cards can not only feature custom phrases tailored to their recipients, they can have a sweet little face on them, as well.

like, say, nephew matthew, perhaps, whose second birthday is merely a week away?


it turns out you can cut a perfectly fitted ring inside the phrase using a 1 3/4" punch, and a perfect circle outside the phrase with a 2 1/2" punch. i hand cut the black and white ring using decorative scissors, and mounted the whole thing on yet another circle, this one made with a 3" punch. finally i hung the tag on my gift-bag using a 7 gypsies bookring adorned with some ribbon scraps and WOOHOO...even young matthew will know immediately that this is *HIS* gift!

oh yeah, did i mention it's double-sided?!


...because you can never have too many pictures of a lad who's THAT CUTE, can you??!

(complete materials: 2 3/8" stamper with font by justrite; patterned papers: basic grey & imagination project; circle punches: ek success & marvy; inks: staz-on & colorbox; pen: zig; book ring: 7 gysies; miscellaneous ribbon scraps; plain kraft gift-bag from michael's; adhesive: tombow mono runner)

tag on a bag...and upcoming fun!

♥

this is the tag

that hangs on the bag

that's part of the gift-set

that i cannot show yet!

♥♥♥

why not? 'cause the gift-set... (which is destined for lovely husband jeff's mother, whose 75th birthday party is tomorrow!) ...is my big project for the caardvarks' "in the studio" blog hop next week sponsored by gcd studios. luckily i am on the team for the first day, tuesday september 15th, because i don't think i could wait much longer to show it off! this tag is a sort of a preview, though, since i've used scraps leftover from making the gift-set itself.



the center of the tag, which features a custom stamped phrase encircling a delicious paper-pieced cupcake, was made using one of my cool new justrite stampers! i ♥LOVE♥ that i can make tags, stickers, emblems and seals especially for my intended recipient and have them look so fancy and "official" like i had them custom printed! i'll be showing some off other justrite stamps during THEIR big font mega blog hop, which also happens to take place next week!

the back of the tag features thickers that were part of the studio calico kit i used to make ALL EIGHT of my cards for caardvarks' upcoming seven-day sketchfest. that's all i'm allowed to tell you so far, but you will definitely want to stay tuned for that because i have seen some of the other dts' cards...and trust me...they'll blow you away!!!


so to sum up: i think you'll pretty much want to hang out on t'internet ALL NEXT WEEK because there'll be waaaaaaaaaay more fun...and inspiration...and prizes (!!!) than you will want to miss! :)

(complete materials for tag: stamp: justrite 2 3/8" stamper with font; patterned paper: gcd studios eye candy collection (plus a teeny bit of doodlebug & around the block); chipboard tag: autumn leaves; cardstock: core'dinations; alphas: american crafts; sequins & bow ribbon: doodlebug; pearls: kaiser; ink: staz-on & colorbox; pen: zig; skinny ribbon & epoxy sticker: michaels; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape & doublestick tape, diamond glaze)