Celebrate Everyday with an Announcement

I have officially made a brand NEW BLOG LOGO AND BANNER!!! And, better yet, I did it all on my own! I have to take a second to toot my own horn *toot toot* because I am really proud of myself. I hope that you all like it as much as I do!

My New Logo

My New Banner

The card for today is yet another one that I made a few years ago. Every now and then I simply sit down with some new supplies and decide to 'play' by testing the limits and new techniques to see what I might like. This card was the result of one of  my 'play days' where I was trying out some new stamps, dies and ink colors to see what might look good together. 

Let me know what you think about the new banner and logo as well has the card for today in the comments below. I love to get new comments, and it helps me know what you like! 

See you again on Friday! 

Change It Up Thanks

I made a card for a coworker of my mom's several years ago to thank her for something, and from the minute that I completed the card it felt off to me. I was happy with parts of the card but with others I was displeased but unsure of how to fix it. I remember staring at it for quite a while trying to convince myself that I liked it. In the end I decided to just go with it and I went on to bed.

Here is a couple of photos of that card, what do you think? Was I being too critical of myself or is there something off designwise?

The next morning I came back and the card was still sitting on my desk. I grabbed an envelope and prepared to address it when an idea of how to fix it popped into my head. I CAREFULLY peeled up each of the flowers, leaves and mini buttons on the front of the card, which was difficult because the polka dot paper in the background was extremely thin, (about the weight of copy paper) and I had used a rather strong double sided tape to adhere them down. 

Finally, the floral elements were off and I am happy to say that the pink paper remained intact. I found a different flower that was in the same stamp set as the ones that I had just removed and stamped and cut it out. I placed the 'thanks' sentiment on the outside of the card and relocated the mini buttons. I was MUCH happier with the new look and it felt like it belonged there. 

But, because I had added the word 'thanks' to the front I now needed to change the inside of the card so that it wasn't just the same. I added the larger flower that had originally been on the front to the inside so that it didn't go to waste. 

So, what do you think? Did I make the right decision changing the card up or should I have just left it the way it was?

Thinking of a Floral Gate

Since the last couple of blog posts I have written have been about cards I made years ago, I figured that I would continue that trend for at least one more day.

I made this card at least 6 years ago. Back in my paper flowers phase, when I literally put paper flowers on EVERYTHING. To say that I was obsessed with them would be an understatement! I can still remember the day that I ran out of the flat, felt-like flowers that were used on this card. I actually cried and dragged my mom all over town to every big box craft store looking for more, only to discover that they had been DISCONTINUED and the stores wouldn't be getting anymore like it. They had changed to a different looking flower that was more paper-like and I HATED it! I wanted what I had not something new. Wow those were the days. Thank goodness I am past that now. 

The gate and fence were cut out using the Cricut with a cartridge that I actually forgot that I own. With the creation of the online Cricut design software, it is easy to forget each cartridge as a whole because I usually just search for the image that I want and then from there weed out the cartridges that I don't own to find the right fit. I will have to go and look up more images from this cartridge to see what else I might be missing from what I already own. One more item for my to do list that I will hopefully get to someday soon.

I could go in and try to modernize this card but I think that I will probably just stick it into a keepsake box to be "rediscovered" many years from now so that I can reminisce over it again. 

Heartfelt

Hey readers, today for my card I wanted to use up some large chipboard pieces that I have had in my stash for a while. I have a confession, I may or may not have shared with you before....I have a bit of a hoarding problem. When I get crafty items that I don't have a set plan for, sometimes I tend to just set them aside in the hopes of using them later, only when later comes I still don't have the "perfect" idea for them, so back into the drawer they go. My goal going forward is to USE my collection of goodies and not wait for the perfect use for it because lets face it, it is hard for inspiration to strike when the supplies are tucked away.

So, I added some foam to the back of my elements and slapped them onto the front of a couple of card bases and I love it.

Friendly Butterfly

Today I am back with another relatively simple card where I let the products do the hard work for me. A while back I bought this cool stamp and embossing folder combo, mainly because I had never seen it before and I absolutely LOVE it. The stamp is really pretty when stamped alone but combined with the embossing folder it makes for a spectacular card with lots of dimension.

Since I love butterflies and have about 12 different butterfly stamp sets I decided to include one of my favorite butterflies stamped on the inside along with a sweet sentiment to bring this whole card together.

Mother's Day Floral Framed Card

Hey guys, Mother's Day is just around the corner so I thought that I would share the card that I plan to give to my own AMAZING mother so hopefully she doesn't check out my blog in the next few days, because if she does she is going to see her Mother's Day card early.

While on YouTube this past week I came across several people talking about how to get the most out of your stamps by stamping them onto a patterned paper instead of just a solid color. I love this idea and it can add so much color and interest to any project. So, I grabbed several sheets of patterned paper and started stamping. I love how it all turned out, with the solid black line from the stamp over the color design pattern, each flower looked completely different even when stamped on the same patterned paper.

  

Just like I did with last week’s card, I choose to add the same stamped designs onto the inside of the card. Only, this time I decided to color in each flower to give it a bolder, more vibrant look. I love how this card turned out and I hope that my mom will too. 

Mother's Day Stamped Layer Card

I made this beautiful card with a new stamp set that I got. One of the newest trends in stamping and card making is layering stamps; stamp sets that are created with images that when stamped with different colors layer on top of one another to give a more realistic look to an otherwise flat image. So by layering several different shades of pink together these gorgeous flowers appear to be almost 3 dimensional. This card could easily be used for any occasion by simply changing out the sentiments and/or colors to fit the recipient and the occasion.

For the inside I used the same stamps that I used on the front but chose not to layer them, so that it gives a cohesive look without being too heavy and still leaves enough space to write a message.