Die Cut Border Card Set // Avery Elle

I have a fun card set to share with you today, the result of trying to make one unblemished card.

This first card is actually the last card I made, the one look that I was going for.

However, I didn't want my cutting and embossing on the previous cards to go to waste, so with some creative layering (i.e. vellum clouds, sequins), I was able to finish the first three.

I took the clouds from the Weather It stamp set coordinating dies, and embossed them into the card base using a Spellbinders tan mat. I then cut around the clouds, getting a sort of window card? Hm, not exactly sure what you'd call this kind of card...;)

I was inspired by the look of the clouds in THIS pin. Embossing with your dies is a great way to get some more use out of dies. 

Of course, THIS little goose was just dying to use THIS umbrella.

They all have such different looks, despite having the same layout. Which one is your favorite? I think I might like the last one best.
This was such a fun way to use up some more patterned paper - I can't even believe how little I use it these days!
This is for the AEI{heart}U Friendship challenge (click on the badge to go to the challenge)

For a chance to win a $30 Altenew gift card, please visit THIS post.
Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Michaels
Patterned paper: American Crafts Crate Paper and Dear Lizzy
Stamps: Avery Elle Storybook and Weather It
Ink: Versafine, Tim Holtz
Other: enamel dots (My Minds Eye), sequins (Avery Elle), vellum

Tools: Cuttlebug, Avery Elle Weather It and Storybook dies

Shaker card // Lawn Fawn

Things were getting a little too girly around here again, so here I am with no-frills card to shake things up! (sorry, that was awful ;))
This card is for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes) and for the SSS Monday challenge (anything goes) as well.

This is one of the first shaker cards I've ever done - if I could change anything, I'd do something about those clouds hidden behind the vellum pocket, but for a simple little baby card, I left it as is.

I finished my last class of the semester today, and I am officially a senior! Wohoo! If you know of any cardmaking/papercrafting/craft companies that have some kind of summer internship, let me know, because I'm looking high and low for a cool place to put my design skills to work!

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Supplies not shown
Cardstock: Canson
Other: vellum

Quilling // Lawn Fawn

I decided the blog was getting overwhelmed with girly cards again, so here's a masculine/gender neutral card to spice things up a bit.

This card was published in one of the last issues of Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking...*sigh* I miss that magazine.

No joke, I pulled this quilled frog from my scraps basket, and I made it at least, oh, six years ago! I had a little thing for quilling for a while when someone gifted me a Klutz quilling how-to book, but I eventually found it too time intensive for my style of cardmaking.
I can spend hours playing around with the arrangement of items on my cards, but I don't care to spend too much time on individual items, thus I don't involve myself with Copics or fancy coloring shtuff.

Quilling this frog was pretty simple though. I don't know all the technical terms, but the frog's head is just a tight circle, and the other pieces of his body are loose circles pinched in simple, various ways. Add a little smile with a marker, then attach some googley eyes, and there's you have your frog!

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Supplies not shown
Quilling tools/design/paper: Klutz
Other: googley eyes (stash), vellum (Joann Fabrics)

Layering cards // Avery Elle

I'm a guest over at Virginia's View challenge!

This month's challenge is layers and dimensions, and for me, layering cards are a bit like piecing together a puzzle.
I love pulling random elements lying around on my desk (pros of being a messy crafter!) and making them all work on one 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch canvas.
Sometimes I'll begin by pulling those random pieces together, and sometimes I like to make a focal point, and arrange everything around it.
For this card, I knew I wanted to use the sweet little fawn from Avery Elle's Storybook stamp set, so I first stamped that, die cut it, and began to arrange everything around it.

Before I pulled all the elements of the focal point together, I found a piece of patterned paper that worked well with the fawn. The striped paper from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm 6x6 paper pad worked very well, because when I do layered cards, I usually try to make sure the largest piece of paper that is exposed on the card is a basic, lighter feel.

If you use a very busy pattern as the main paper, then it tends to distract from your focal point, so for the busier patterns, I use smaller pieces of and tend to concentrate them in one spot. Using papers from one company or paper pad usually makes it easier to make sure the layered papers flow together well.

Once I had my patterns picked out, I looked for textures.
On the focal point, I started with a piece of fabric that was a tag on a pair of pants in its previous life. Then I slipped a light piece of doily underneath the smaller, layered busy patterns, to lighten them up.
I used a wood veneer frame to set the stage for the fawn, and once the fawn was placed, I added some orange butterflies and pearls to add a pop of color to the card.

To make sure the card didn't get too heavy, I embossed the sentiment on vellum and cut it out for an airy feel.

Thanks so much for sticking through this long post, and thanks to Virginia for inviting me! Head over to the challenge blog to see all the amazing entries, and play along for a chance to win a Simon Says Stamp $25 gift card!

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Avery Elle // Oh Happy Day

You guys are all really nice.
And for that, I...

A simple die cut and stamped card, topped off with some pearls. The "thank" was cut using my Silhouette Cameo using the Varsity (I think?) font, and then I added the "you" with the Oh Happy Day stamp set from Avery Elle.
I just love that Dear Lizzy paper - I've said it before, but seriously, Lucky Charm is one of my all time favorite paper lines!

Thanks so much for stopping and being so sweet! God bless and have a lovely weekend!

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Hero Arts // Butterfly Framelits

Ah, now that I've posted a manly card, I can turn back to my natural inclinations...

Dang, this card was hard to photograph.
I used my Tim Holzt Distress Ink markers to selectively color the stamp. The image was etched in rubber, which works well with the markers. Clear stamps? Not so much.

But now let me pose you a question;
Let's be real here, peeps - do you like it when I link products, using something like Inlinkz? Or is it a feature that just takes up space?
PLEASE TELL ME.

Okay, that's it for today - thanks for stopping in and God bless!
Also, seriously, please tell me if you prefer linked up products. ;)

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy
Stamps: Hero Arts "Butterfly #3"
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz, Versamagic
Other: gems (Darice)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Hero Arts Framelits die, heat gun

hello

....AMURICA!! I am (finally!) back in the good ol' U.S. of A!

Plot twist: this isn't actually a Valentine's Day card. I didn't even realize how Valentiney this looked till now...about a half year later from making it.

The Wink of Stella makes up for any faults though (darn, I love that stuff)

God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Hero Arts "Typewriter Notes"
Ink: Studio Calico
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"
Other: Wink of Stella, vellum

Tools: Cuttlebug, Simon Says Stamp heats die

Fiercely

...missing home! I'm already prepping for Christmas, and trying to start work on the end of the term papers. I'm so ready to make Christmas cookies while dancing to the Nutcracker with my little brother!

I seriously love the Mama Elephant Alphabet dies - perfect font, perfect size! Also, this Lucky Charm paper may be one of my top paper collections of all time.

Thanks for stopping and have a lovely week! If you have a moment to spare, please say a prayer for my last midterm and paper to go well! :)

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Cardstock: Canson
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Tim Holtz

Tools: Cuttlebug, Mama Elephant Alphabet dies

Happy Little Moments

Hey, I'm over on the Pinkfresh blog today, chattering all about happy little moments! And when I'm happy, I love to go BRIGHT, so make sure you have your sunglasses all ready to go! ;)

For my first layout, I chose to go with the primary colors, using some Neon Brad stickers, colorblock wood chevron (the triangles would work as well), and then some yumminess from the Fresh Inspiration kit.

I have a thing for sticking these adorable enamel stickers right on top of my photos. ;)

I used one of the canvas pockets, and then cut out the circle from one of the transparent cards from the kit. It has such an interesting texture, that reminds me of a summer pool floatie - perfect for this summer themed layout!

I used more bright colors for second layout, using the same staples of the enamel stickers, canvas tag, and wood veneer.

With this one though, I added a bit of washi love to bring out the red in the photo. Only using the one half of the ombre tape can give you more usage if you only want to use one of the colors for a particular project!

Mmmm, I just love me these canvas tags. In general, I like to have my notes and messages on my scrapbook layouts "hidden" so that I can write something really personal if I want to gift the layout to a friend. And why yes, there are more of those dots on my picture. ;)

Hope you've retained your vision after walking through these layouts with me! Have a wonderful day, filled with happy little moments! :)

Hello

I haven't forgotten you, I've just been a wee bit busy lately, with preparing for Austria, work, and quickly fixing up my new photography site.

Pretty much follows what I did for my blog here, but I played a little more with Illustrator, and I dunno, but I just think it's cool that my handwriting in a 'logo'. ;)

Anyways, a card for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Make It Sparkle challenge and Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes challenge.

This card is just a bunch of my favorite things - lots of die cutting, glitter, colors, and heat embossing! Plus, "making up" sentiments by combining different stamps and die cuts is so much fun!

To make up my little absence (and because I need to pass this on before it becomes "old news"), I decided to give away a Maggie Holmes 12x12 Styleboard paper pad to someone who commented within the past two weeks. Some random scrolling, hand-covering-eyes later, and the mouse has chosen Cristine! Yay! Cristine, if you could e-mail me your address, I'll try to get out this paper pad ASAP to ya! Thanks to everyone who's been so kindly leaving comments - I hope to return them soon, and when I get back from Austria, have more random giveaways. ;)

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Strathamore, Bazzill
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"
Stamps: Hero Arts "Three Silhouettes" and "Essential Messages"
Ink: Versamark
Other: glitter embossing powder (Hampton), glitter paper (American Crafts)

Tools: heat gun, Cuttlebug, Paper Smooches "Quote Tag" die, Papertrey Ink "Simply Jane" frame die, Mama Elephant "Tiny Bow" die

Go bigger

... with some layouts! *gasp*

I'm on the Pinkfresh blog today sharing some layouts, so, please be merciful - not only am I an inexperienced scrapper, but I'm also very inexperienced at taking pictures of the layouts! (struggling with some serious admiration issues right now for the rest of the Pinkfresh DT's amazing photographs ;))

{note to self - don't use neutral colored backgrounds for your page until I get better at taking pictures}

Being an inexperienced scrapper, I wasn't totally sure what do for my color scheme, so I decided to pull the colors from my friend's pretty dress.
First, some gorgeous peach and mint washi tape and a couple veneer hearts...

...then some super fun veneer arrows...

...and of course, an enamel frame for the photo, and a drop sticker to finish everything off.

For my second layout, I decided to take it easy on myself and print the photo black and white. ;)

I used some cute little enamel stickers from Way to Home to give the photo additional framing, and notice those pretty gold birds? I actually punched those out from the gorgeous gold packaging for the alphabet letters I used below!

I used the super pretty orchid gold foil letters, and then another die cut out of the packaging for the heart. :)

*Phew!*
That wasn't too painful after all, eh? ;)
Thanks so much for stopping in today and have an awesome weekend! 

What to do

...I've been getting a lot of things done this week, now that I'm finished with summer classes, but I've gotten to the point where I only have a few things left to do, and those are the things that I'm really dreading.

So, in an effort to make myself feel productive (without actually getting anything done), I'm writing this up and sharing a cute little card for this weeks Lawnscaping challenge...

...using some heat embossing.

I used the new, super cute Chit Chat stamps and dies, along with the Gnome Sweet Gnome stamps and dies. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little bit obsessed with coordinating stamps and dies, plus, the Chit Chat bubble dies are definitely dies that could be used by themselves (oh, and this is definitely not me trying to justify my recent, rather large stamp/die purchase...;))

I thought it was fun how the button I used above the gnome happened to have the name "Ralph" on it. ;)

Anyways, thanks so much for stopping in, and I hope you have a more productive day than mine is turning out to be thus far! ;)

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Stamps: Lawn Fawn "Chit Chat" and "Gnome Sweet Gnome"
Ink: Versamark, Distress Inks, Stazon
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"
Other: buttom, string, vellum, embossing powder

Tools: heat gun, Cuttlebug, My Favorite Things Framed Greetings die, Lawn Fawn Chit Chat and Gnome Sweet Gnome dies

Just popping in

...to share some fun news and a small card with you!

I'm designing for Pinkfresh Studio!! Yay! I'm so excited!
Here are the other wickedly talented girls I will be designing along side...

Amanda De Jong 

April Joy Hill 

Ashley Fawler 

Ashley Horton 

Els Brigé 

Jennifer Calma 

Margareta Carlsson

Magda

Taheerah Atchia

I haven't gotten my hands on any of the fun product from the Studio yet, but here's a card with some wood veneer to give you a taste of what's to come. ;)

One last thing - my brother wrote an excellent article on some Father Brown books by G.K.Chesterton, if you wanna check it out (shameless plug, I know, but it really is a great article!)

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson

Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "5th and Frolic"

Ink: SEI

Other: gem (Hero Arts), wood veneer (Studio Calico), embossing powder (Hampton Art)

Tools: heat gun

Paper Smooches SPARKS Anything Goes

...popping in with a confetti themed card for this weeks Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes...

I used the adorable and super fun Quote Tag dies - seriously, they are so addicting! I also used the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm paper pad. I wasn't too sure about it when it first came out, but when I found it on clearance awhile back, I decided to give it a chance and fell in love with the patterns. Possibly my favorite Dear Lizzy line yet.

Some pretty sequins for the confetti....

Check out the rest of the design team samples here...

Erin

Isha

Karin

Savannah

Thanks for stopping in and God bless! 

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Cardstock: Strathamore

Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"

Other: sticker (Crate Paper), sequins (Avery Elle), glassine envelope (stash)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Paper Smooches Quote Tag dies