5/8″ mini striped ribbon

Happiest of Birthdays to You

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Who doesn’t need a simple, yet lovely, birthday card?  It is always useful to have one on hand for those last minute gifts, or even the birthday you forgot.  I keep a few cards on hand at all times, you just never know.  I recently got to share creating a simple card with my daughter-in-love and it was the best.  This is yet another one of the cards I made to rebuild the stash I gave her.  She loves using them, and now making them.  Woo hooo!

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The paper is lovely, the sentiment sweet, layered tags are one of my favorite, but this ribbon.  It is so beautiful.  It has texture yet shines, is thick but ties beautiful bows and knots, and the colors are the best.  I normally don’t go through my ribbons too quickly, I try to make them last.  But these won’t with me, I see having to replace them sooner than later.

Having great tools and beautiful paper really makes quick work of a card like this.  One layer of designer series paper layered on a piece of crumb cake card stock, a ribbon tied in a bow around it, and then raised up on dimensionals on the coordinating card base.  The tag was stamped and die cut super quick and layered up again.  The inside has a clean piece of very vanilla and that makes it complete.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Delightful Garden in Bloom

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

This project is a companion to yesterdays post.  Both card fronts were made with the same combination of distress inks, just in different sequences.  This one was actually done first which is why the colors are more distinct.  I certainly am enjoying this kind of painting.

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As I placed the water color paper into the smeared and spritzed inks I made sure to allow white spaces to remain.  I had to make myself stop adding color before some of that effect was lost.  I can’t wait to try it some more.

When I finished drying the piece it felt like something more was needed to tie it together. I found a great stamp from the Garden in Bloom set and did some random stamping. The ink was too dark full strength, so these flowers were stamped off once before being applied. Then a fun ribbon for a bit of interest to finish the front.  A little echo stamping was applied to the inside and the card was done.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

My Happy Day

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was most certainly my happy day.  I made this project with that in mind.  Using my favorite go to ideas and things that make me happy.  Water coloring is awesome, both intricate and simple cards, and a myriad of other projects all bring me joy.  However, there is nothing more satisfying than a beautiful crisp gift box or bag.  I love making and sharing these, they really do bring me joy.  So I indulged myself a little bit here.

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Using an entire piece of designer series paper goes against my “make it last” mentality, but it was my birthday after all.  So I pulled out a piece that I loved and created just what I wanted.  I like to maximize the height so it can hold more of whatever I have in mind.  This one did get a bit of switching around.  The top of the bag needed to have enough space to hold the large ribbon and bow I had in mind, so it ended up losing just a touch of volume, but it was well worth it.

This ribbon though…it is so very nice.  It looks great in a knot, a simple bow, and creates lovely larger bows just like this.  While I may hesitate using my paper, I do not hold back using ribbon.  I love large bows and could put them on everything.  Something I learned from my mother to be certain.  In a workshop situation I wouldn’t go this large, my ladies would just get frustrated trying to make it pretty.  Can’t have that, but since this was for me, I let it slide a bit.  Then of course a simple layered circle tag set, stamped off once and sponged around the edges.

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Again, my favorite types of things.  Second only to sharing them that is.  The bow of course can just slide off so the box can be filled easily and used again.  I always try to make my gift bags and boxes that way.  They are too lovely to be used just once.  So, I make sure the recipient knows how easy it is to re-gift them.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Wedding Favors?

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

What kind of summer has been going on here?  Well…I guess it has been about weddings. We just finished enjoying our son’s wedding and both receptions.  So much fun and truly a joy throughout the entire process.  Much easier to say that now that it is through.  Guess who is looking at wedding favor possibilities?  My oldest daughter.  Wow, two weddings in one year?  Okay…I guess…

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Not much to talk about here to be honest.  I have used a die cut I got from a thrift store and I don’t even know who makes it.  But it is totally adorable.  I don’t even know if I can fit an entire fortune cookie in it, but we are going to try.  The ribbon is current in this years catalog and I love it.  I might go with the other mint macaron ribbon though, a bit smaller scale, easier to work with and a touch less expensive.  The paper I have here is a retired paper from last year.  I will have to use regular card stock or find another paper that is close to the color she loves.  Shouldn’t be too hard though.  I would rather use designer paper instead of card stock so it can be patterned and avoid stamping, mass stamping actually.  I would never avoid stamping.

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Either way, you can get a tiny glimpse into the adventures ahead.  It should be more than wonderful.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Your Generosity and Fabulosity

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

This is another one of last weekends workshop projects.  A very simple but lovely card. There are so many things that I love about it, but especially how they all work together.

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The layering design is all about showing off the designer series paper.  The embossing folder draws attention to it and the sentiment accents it.  In this pack of paper there are several two sided patterned pieces, but two sheets of gold foil designer series paper.  This pattern is one of the two and I love it!

I accented the sentiment with the layered square framelits and some of the awesome new mini striped ribbon.  It might have been a bit over sized, but it is what I wanted so I did it. A touch of echo stamping on the inside to tie it to the designer paper and I was good.  Another great project that will find its way to another fabulous person.

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Have a creative day!

Moana