It's been a long time!

It has been a long time since I last posted anything. I have been creating cards, but usually it is one of those last minute "need a card" situations, so my blog has gone bare. I do have something to share today though that I actually remembered to take a picture of-whew. One of my good friends from H.S. is getting married (renewing vows really) so I offered to make her wedding invitations. We played around with some different ideas and styles and this was the final invitation. Because my samples were not in her wedding colors I wasn't sure what the final product would look like, but I love the way they came out. The invitation does go in an actual envelope too. It's a 6 x 6 square card, the template was actually for making an envelope, but I liked that it worked for this too. I blocked out all the personal and identifying info. What do you think?

April Calendar

Here's the calendar page for April. This duck holding the flower is one of my favorite Amuse stamps. Has spring sprung in your area?

Color Challenge

I have never done a color challenge, but I've been in a craft slump, so I thought I would give this a try. It was posted by Dawn McVey who is part of the Papertrey Ink design team and does some really cute and adorable things. Her challenge was to make a card using brown (chocolate), celery/moss, white and teal. This is a pretty simple card, but I really like the color combo and think it suits the card well. My picture taking definitely needs improvement, maybe it's my lighting? What do you think of the card?

Calendars

Wow I am behind in posting stuff! I was supposed to make Amuse calendars for Christmas gifts-key words being "supposed to"-and didn't get them done in time. I just recently finished them. Here is pictures of the outside of them and also a picture of what my March page inside looks like. While I had my Zutter out I made a little notebook to carry in my purse where I can write down the names of books I read about or someone recommends so that when I'm at the library or bookstore I will actually remember the names of them. I used the books stamps from Amuse for this one. The other notebook I made at the request of a friend. She was getting ready to buy her daughter a charm bracelet and her first charm. She wants to take a picture of the charms as she buys them, put the picture in the book and then write a note to her daughter to tell her why she bought her that specific charm. Isn't that such a clever idea? I might have to "borrow" that from her once Annika gets older.

Hero Mail

Geeta had a challenge on her blog to make some cards for Operation Hero Mail which sends cards to our troops serving overseas. I made her about 25 cards, all the same so it was easy to mass produce. Of course a card seems like such a small token when you think of our brave men and women who put their life on the line for our freedom. To our servicemen and women--You are my Hero!

Love is in the Air

I have a couple of pictures to post from last week. Last week DH and I celebrated an anniversary and there was Valentine's day. I made this card for the hubster. It is very similar to one Rhonda made and featured on the Amuse Blog, but I thought it was so cute that I thought it would be perfect for the anniversary.

I decided to not make Valentine's cards for Annika's class this year and instead made Valentine's tube treats. Wish I could say this idea was mine, but no, I got this from the very talented Geeta who made them for Halloween and the Amuse Instructor workshop. The inside has Valentine M&M's. I made a quick tag with the milkshake stamp and on the back stamped "You're the cherry on top!" and "Happy (heart)'s day!" and then signed her name. I think they turned out really cute and the kids loved them.

Busy as a bee

I haven't posted anything lately mainly because I've been busy creating, but then forget to take pictures to post. I'm still working on calendars-yes, I know its already February and I'm working on Annika's Valentine's day treats for school. I made this card awhile back, but never posted it.

The paper is from Papertrey Ink (Everyday Blessings and Aqua Mist cardstock). The stamp is amuse. I think the sentiment on the twill ribbon smeared a little. Maybe my ink was too wet for it. The Daisy Girl stamp is one of my favorites, makes me happy and think of spring. Are you ready for spring?

Share your spark 1.21.09

Heather's share your spark this week is to make a card using some type of cutout. Maybe I had the Inauguration on the brain, but I chose to make a card using the flag from the Hero Mail set. I stamped stars on the background using white chalk ink, a little bit of scrap of blue gingham ribbon and the flag which I used spica pens on for all three colors. Overall I'm please with how it came out.

Bling!

Heather Meeson (who is not only a talented card designer, but photographer) had a challenge for Share your Spark Friday to use some bling on a card. I always want to do her challenges, but never seem to find the time. One of my goals this year is to make more time for me and the things I love (crafty things!). So I set out to make a card and since I needed a birthday card for a good friend I combined the two. This is a lot of bling for me as I'm usually the more subtle type. I even glittered the red on the superhero suit and you probably can't see it very well, but the circle on the belt also has a gem/bling in it. I really like how it stands out though. Thanks for the challenge Heather!

Thinking about Heart Day

Even though I still have Christmas decorations up (coming down today!) and I have yet to write Christmas thank you notes, I am already thinking of Valentine's day and my projects. I made this card awhile back for a contest or something, but realized I never posted it. I love this Elsye stamp from Amuse. It was my first Amuse stamp and I bought it last year to make my daughter's Valentines for school. The card ended up different than I planned, because of an "oops that didn't work". Originally the "U", which is a chipboard, was white and I used an ink pad to dye it red. I was then going to use a SU! polka dot background on it and emboss it in white. Well...because the chipboard was textured and not smooth, the stamp didn't come out quite right and it looked awfully. So to salvage it I decided to wrap the chipboard piece in ribbon. The color of my ribbon wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was all I had that would work. I might try this again with a better ribbon and see how it turns out.