A Wedding Card and back from Portugal

I finally have a card to post - and I am in the middle of working on workshop cards. Lisbon and Albuferia was gorgeous, hot, and I had a great time with family. Below is an image from Lisbon; there are plenty of little shops and cafes along all the walking streets to stop for a cold glass of sangria or beer. 

Little cafe in Lisbon, Portugal

I am also changing up my method of posting to try and keep up with posting even with my busy lifestyle. I will be of course sharing the photos but I will only list the stamp sets that I have used unless if I cannot recall the name. If you would like more information I can always answer that in the comments below. 

Without further ado, the pictures of the card for my friend's wedding back in April. 

I always enjoy using retired paper packs when applicable. I love using the clean colors of red and white with some accents of grey. 

This is to showcase the layers on the card; I don't know what I'd do without foam tape. I'm addicted to it but I always like to have something pop up on a card. One day I will have to try a CAS format and see how well I stick to the guidelines. 

I brought the birds of the set inside the card. The reason why I chose this sentiment is because the bride has always danced to the beat of her own drum, and have had many wonderful experiences since of which some I have been a part of. That is from a different set - "Your Own Kind of Wonderful" which is available in Annual Inspirations until August 31st. 

The set with the birds was part of Seasonal Expressions 1 and has since been retired. But, there are more awesome sets in Seasonal Expressions 2, available until August 31. 

Happy Stampeding from Cowtown!

Sneaky sneaky...

... I didn't realize one of my team members had gotten married until I realized her last name on the door tag had changed! I was hesitant to ask, but nope, it was happy news - she got married! So I decided it was card time. I didn't have to, but I felt like it.

As well, Lest We Forget... I am forever grateful to those who have served, and those who are serving to keep our beautiful country safe and welcoming to live in.

Today's inspiration: http://scrappietoo.blogspot.ca/2014/09/case-study-challenge.html, from Case Study #207. I might have to dig around a bit more in her site - really liking her card style.

I embossed the flowers from an old SOTM onto the vellum, then used the "frosted glass" technique so the colors weren't too crazy. To do this, you stamp the one side of the vellum and emboss, then you color on the back side of it. The little flower I just bunched up a couple of squares of tissue paper from something I had before and attached all the layers together with Liquid Glass.

I used a totally different color technique with the inside - same flower, but this time I watercolored with pigment inks. I didn't want a strong color but I wanted to carry the image inside.

Other:
* Vellum adhesive
* Vellum
* Cream cardstock
* Blue cardstock
* Copic markers

CTMH:
* Jardin (retired)
* Big Hug
* It's The Little Things SOTM ** upcoming!!
* Happy Valentine's SOTM (retired)
* Brown Opaque Pearls (retired)
* White embossing powder
*  Liquid Glass
* Embossing Ink
* Twilight Ink
* Smokey Plum Ink
* Desert Sand Ink
* Cranberry Pigment Ink -- from pigment ink set Adventure
* New England Ivy Ink -- from pigment ink set Enchantment

Hope you are staying warm on this chilly day!

More wedding cards!!

What can I say, sometimes there's a lotta weddings and sometimes there is none. This time it was my little brother's wedding. He first got married in May in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and then to honor my mother's wishes, a second 10 course Chinese banquet in Calgary.

Lake Tahoe was gorgeous and pictures just don't do it justice. The below image is of a "cheap" homemade centerpiece made by my brothers' friends, taken by JT Images. To be honest, I've seen a lot more expensive ones that were purchased, and weren't half as elegant or pretty.

Congratulations to my brother and my sister in law on their marriage, and I wish them many happy days to follow. Of course, you know this merited not one but two cards, as my in-laws wished to also send a gift. I couldn't ask for better inlaws. I can't remember the inspiration for either one, unfortunately, but if you recognize the layout - let me know!

Card #1: (from my in-laws, made by me)

I still had some Bliss Level 2 kicking around which I had used back in the day for my wedding scrapbook album (which is still in progress after 6 years of marriage!!) and thought it would be appropriate. I paired that with one of the Quick Card stamp sets - Japanese Blossom.

I had explicitly bought The Happy Couple set for my brother's wedding cards. Isn't the script gorgeous on the sentiment?

Card #2: (from hubby and I)

This time I wanted to play a bit with Love Doily, another set I had bought on a whim. I used red and silver embossing powder backed into white, black and red papers. The script background is another
retired Level 2 paper set that I couldn't remember what it was for. The orchid peeking out in the middle is from Quick Cards - Island Greetings.

And of course, like always I brought both the image and the color I used inside the card. The Congratulations sentiment is from Now and Forever.

Other:
* Solid colored cardstock

CTMH:
* Bliss Level 2 Paper Pack
* Now and Forever Set - retired
* The Happy Couple Set
* Love Doily
* Quick Cards - Island Greetings
* Barn Red Ink
* Outdoor Denim Ink
* Red Rhinestone Adhesive Sparkles
* Opaque Adhesive Pearls
* Red embossing powder - retired
* Silver embossing powder - retired

Congratulations again to my brother and his new wife!

Rush Hour Wedding Card...

Nobody said I was smart when I backed a BBQ, a card workshop, a post-wedding celebration, and iftaar party back to back in two days. But I did realize very quickly that I didn't have a card for the happily married couple!

In an hour I came up with this inspired by a pin off my Pinterest - Case Study 157 by Jean Martin.

The set itself is a really old SOTM from CTMH but I love how the marks make it really easy to shade the flowers in. Copics used: R24, R29, R22, BG75,YG67, YG63. I paired this with Grey Adhesive Epoxy bubbles.

And on the inside I continued the color scheme and flower, the sentiment from yet another Campaign - You Are My Happy.

Other:
* Ivory cardstock
* Copic markers

CTMH:
* You Are My Happy - Sentiments *retired
* Happy Valentine's * retired
* The Happy Couple
* For Always Level 2 Paper Pack
* Barn Red Ink

* Cocoa Ink
* Grey and Black Adhesive Epoxy Bubbles

Hope you are enjoying summer!

Busy weekend!!

Between cleaning, Spring cleaning (who knew I had that many shoes??), baking, card making, and several other things, I am almost done designing for the card workshop. There will be a total of 8 cards to choose from.

The unique thing about them all is that none of them are dependent on using patterned cardstock. I've got some pretty backgrounds coming in the mail, from Dreamin to Stella. In the meantime I wanted to make sure I used mostly CTMH products so I left my usual stash alone. However, I didn't realize how much patterned cardstock can really snazz up a project until I ended up doing a card for a friend who's getting married out in Lethbridge.

Today's inspiration: Debby Hughes' take on CASE Study #76.

(psst... this inspiration shows up in yet another card workshop card yet to be debuted!)

The four little squares are from Bliss Workshop To Go (retired), and as I realized quickly - I also hijacked the suggested colors from the same WOTG, Smoothie and Chocolate. Yet another awesome thing about the WOTG's. Not only are they a quick set of layouts in a bag with all the things you'll need (sans inkpads) but sometimes the color combination sticks with you. The butterfly is cut with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.

There is nothing like an uncooperative shadow :( on a beautiful sunny day. The stamp set is Bliss from the Workshop and this is the first time I've used such a minimal style in both colors and cardstock backgrounds.

I've got one more card in the works and then I'll post the entire workshop soon!

Off to a sunny Monday,

Hearts, Christmas and Valentine's Day

Can you believe it's December already? I can't... the year has just seemed to fly by! But there is snow on the driveway, Christmas lights are up around the neighbourhood and the local grocery stores are now sporting real Christmas trees for sale.

With a qualifying total purchase of $55.00 CAD this beautiful set - Mad About You - could be yours for only $5.50! This set is totally versatile for Christmas (hearts), Valentine's Day, and of course wedding cards.

I only managed to get around to doing one this weekend, but it features all the prettiest parts about this set - hearts! Today's inspiration is an older Mojo Monday from April 2011: MOJO185.

You can just barely see them but the three brads on the left hand side are hidden in the ribbon bow's shadow. This card just proves that the Wonderland paper bundle from the Autumn / Winter 2011 CTMH collection doesn't have to be just for Christmas cards! The big heart and the sentiment are from Soul Mates to augment the hearts from the stamp of the month.

On December 19 the constant campaign will start which includes one Sneak-A-Peek product from the Spring/Summer 2012 catalog - Collage Cubes. I'll post more about it then!

Michaels:
* Cardstock
* Ribbon
* Brads
* Edge punch

CTMH:
Mad About You - December 2011 Stamp of the Month
Soul Mates
Now and Forever
Cranberry Ink
Chocolate Ink

Unexpected invitation

I was talking to a fellow coworker one day, as we had tea - I had heard that she wasn't returning to the office for a while, and I was concerned about her. In the end all is more or less well, and this followed with an invitation to her wedding at the end of this month! Talk about impromptu...

Japanese drumming, Italian fest, open bar; I just had to give her another card on top of the one I already gave her!

Today's inspiration: MOJO200 by Mojo Monday



and of course I thought I'd take a close up photo to allow you a view of my border embellishment punch from Fiskars:



I cannot wait to go to this Chinese/Italian wedding - it'll be fun!

Cardstock
* Local craft stores
* CM

Tools / Ribbon
* Michaels Craft Store
* Dollar Store

CTMH
* Bliss Stamp Set (Bliss WOTG)
* Soul Mates Stamp Set
* Kanji Phrases Stamp Set
* Chocolate Ink
* Ponderosa Pine Ink
* Opaques Adhesive Gems (Pearls)

A Little Card for a Gift Card

I stumbled onto this lovely little tutorial one day done by Carla Ironside and I just had to try it. It's perfect for a coworker of mine who is about to get married, and I was considering getting her a gift card to either a nice dinner out, or to the store that houses her registry.



It's quite clever how the the little square thing in the middle hides the staples so nicely, and how the bellyband hides the brad legs in the back. And the bonus is, this card took me 20minutes tops to assemble.

Cardstock:
* papers collected over time from local craft and dollar stores

CTMH:
* Now and Forever (retired) stamp set
* Hope for Japan (limited edition, expired) stamp set
* Garnet Ink

- Happy Stamping!