They Say It’s Your Birthday

How about a simple birthday card!  I think this one could be for just about anyone, don’t you? Keeping projects simple allows for a lot of options, more than you would think.  And how awesome is this balloon bouquet punch?  I am absolutely in love with it.  I hope it carries over.  I am keeping it no matter what.

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I had to hold myself back to not put strings and all kinds of fun stuff here.  But, that would defeat the purpose of of a clean and simple cards after all.  This way I think it would even work for a masculine card.  Gotta love those!

I punched two large and three small balloons.  The large ones were attached flat to the paper and the smaller ones were raised up on dimensionals.  Of course everything is sponged.  The balloons were sponged in hello honey to coordinate as well as the tag.  I thought the color was too strong on the tag, so I sponged with silver encore ink as well to soften it.  It turned out great.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

 

Success Looks Good On You

Don’t you love it when designer paper has such unexpected patterns?  This awesome paper from Sale-a-bration, which will end soon, has a few patterns that are so fun and different.  You  wouldn’t guess that this dotted pattern comes from a primarily floral set paper.

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This project is the first of a dozen cards that I made for a gift set to share with my daughter. It is nearly spring break and my family gets to all be together.  She loves to paper craft with me, and actually kept me company through crafting nearly all of these.  So, you get to enjoy a different one each day.  The series will end with the coordinating container I made to store them all in.  It is so pretty.

The card is super simple.  Just one layer of dsp cut to leave a 1/4″ border, one strip of ribbon tied in a knot, and a layered sentiment.  I stamped in black stazon, punched with the decorative label punch, and then sponged with silver encore ink.  I did use a double layer of dimensionals to keep the tag high enough to clear the ribbon knot underneath.  Simple, right?  Sometimes simple is just right.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Know What I Love?

My youngest is in the throws of re-decorating her room and the colors are so awesome.  I thought I would work with them for a few projects.  She has real red, basic gray, smokey slate, whisper white and basic black.  I used Stampin’Up! color names because that is just how my brain works anymore.  You get the idea.

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Either way, this card was so quick and fun.  I just used a bit of the stamps available in the Know What I Love stamp set.  We may still be in winter, but I couldn’t wait to start with some spring things.  Rain is so welcome, and flowers won’t be far behind.  How exciting!

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The card is pretty basic, just a few layers.  I do love it when a stamp sentiment fits inside a punch I already have.  It just makes life easier and definitely more fun.  If I hadn’t been distracted with other projects, this card would have come together in about twenty minutes, including design time.  That is what you get when you have great product to work with, and I definitely do.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Corner Garden Gift Bag

Sometimes I design a bag around a gift or to match some cards I have made.  This time I wanted to work around a specific stamp.  I wanted to do a tone on tone with the Corner Garden stamp set.  The detail is fine and subtle, just the look I was going for.

Corner Garden Gift Bag

The bag is large enough to hold plenty.  It could hold a large set of cards and envelopes, or any number of things.  It is sturdy too.  A nice heavy cardstock bag with my favorite chevron ribbon.  Bring on the heavy gift, I am totally ready.

Corner Garden Gift Bag

At workshop Saturday my ladies teased me about my need to sponge the edges of everything.  I was able to say that I had controlled myself and we only sponged one of our three projects.  So I was feeling the need and definitely got busy on this bag. I just love the look it gives.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Throw Back Thursday with Essence of Love

I so enjoy dipping into my older stamps to create something.  It is easy to get caught up in all of the new product available.  It is the perfect reminder that I love all of the stamps I buy, and they should still get used, even if they are retired.

Essence of Love

As you can tell, this floral stamp still looks as crisp and beautiful as the first time it got used, which was nearly ten years ago.  I even pulled out some retired paper.  That venetian romance dsp set is so beautiful.  I opened my last pack of it to make these cards.

Essence of Love

I loved mixing all of these elements together.  Any time I get to use oranges I am a happy crafter.  This particular card set brings together all of my favorite things.  Flowers, butterflies, elegant ribbon, more flowers, lots of orange (tangerine tango), and the most beautiful sentiments ever.  Like I said, my favorites.

Essence of Love

With all that said, get into your stash of your favorite things, make something beautiful, and have a creative day.

Moana

Dear Heart and Cheerful Critters

Today is totally out of my comfort zone, but I stuck with it.  It was hard not to add a ribbon or some sort of accessory.  Do the mini brads count?

Dear Critter

I took this cute little raccoon from the Dear Heart set.  I have enjoyed the little boys faces so much that I hardly noticed this guy.  I was ready to use the dinosaur instead, then I saw him.

Dear Critter

I couldn’t decide on a background, at all.  I had picked the sentiment from Cheerful Critters, but thought it would be a punch.  I actually went to bed frustrated with nothing but the raccoon colored.  In the morning I merged the two together.

Dear Critter

Even though I am not the most precise stamper when it comes to things like this, I liked the results.  But I have to admit I did rummage through the ribbon one more time trying to add something else.  I stayed firm though and left it as is.

I used smokey slate as my primary color for the paper, stamping, and blendabilities.  I only used a bit of real red for the focal sentiment.  All good? Thought so.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Painted Petals with Elegant Eggplant

I sat down to work on this blog project with only one thing in mind, purple.

Painted Petals

I am totally feeling it.  I haven’t used elegant eggplant in ages.  I think it could have easily been a year.  For shame…

Painted Petals

The painted petals stamp set is such a useful set.  The sentiments, all three shown here, are wonderful.  The flowers have so many options.   The additional graphic elements really give a lot of interest.  I wonder how many projects I could make with just this set.  That thought just sent my mind spinning.

Painted Petals

It seems I can’t make a card these days without a matching bag or box.  It makes for a really busy desktop.  I obviously need to give more of this away.

Painted Petals

The background is cardstock velum stamped with white stazon using lovely lace and then I embossed it.  Sometimes the double treatment is necessary.

Painted Petals

I hope you feel inspired to get out there and have a creative day!

Moana