Newf puppy pics!

40th Birthday Card -Time To Have Some Fun!

While talking with a friend at our boys' lacrosse game this past season, she happened to mention that her brother was going to be forty soon. Now, I know her brother because he comes to a lot of the lacrosse games. And the two are very close, and delight in picking on and teasing each other.  So I jumped at the 40th birthday opportunity and offered to make a card. Time to play and have some fun!

So I decided the card had to be very masculine, he's a very big dude. And the card also had to be kind of on the mean side, just for fun! And this is how it began.

I used this great shiny black snakeskin paper for the background, and did the bell out a swirly silver paper. I used my Sakura glaze pens to do a gray outline on the bell and then decided to add the crack in there too, just like the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, which is where I'm from originally.  I already had the phrase in mind, so I played around with fonts and sizing in my Broderbund Print Shop program, which I really use the heck out of.  The edges of the phrases were cut with deckle edge scissors and then I carefully inked the edges black. And I also grabbed a Sakura glaze pen in black and accented the first letter of both phrases. 

Then it was on to the inside.

I started with the black and silver papers that I used on the card front.  And then I decided to add the little pop up.  I used the same font as the front and accented the capital Ls with my favorite black Sakura glaze pen.  The 40! is a cardboard punch out that I glitter-glued with red Stickles.  I used a different font for the happy birthday tag, because I thought enough is enough on the old-style gothic font, and I inked the edges of the tag in red.

Then it occurred to me that some black balloons wafting up through the pop-up would be fun. So I found my balloon template and used plain black paper, then added red embroidery floss for the balloon strings.

And big sister had childhood photos that I was able to scan and print, to complete the card.  And I must admit, I had a lot of fun making this card!

A Tale of Two Cards

I recently had the opportunity to create two 'thinking of you' cards, so I decided to craft them at the same time, using the same group of papers. They are similar on the outside, but the insides were customized for the inidivual person receiving the card.

So I dug through my stash of papers, which continues to grow, and decided on soft colors.  I have so much paper and so many crafting tools now that I sometimes forget what I have!

The fancy tags on the front I made with my favorite new tag-making template (from www.paperwishes.com) that I got for Mother's Day from my #2 son.  I just love this template!  It has several different tags on it, all with different styles, all with those great layers built right in, which makes it super easy to create really pro-looking tags that perfectly match your project.  I'm just looking for ways to use this template these days, and there's another one now, which I don't have, yet....

At this point I sat and looked at the cards for a while, and decided that flowers were in order. So I dug through my paper stash again, this time my scrap stash, to find matching solid colors. And then I dug through my bin of punches to find my various different flower punches and little circle punches.  And I created the flowers, layering smaller flowers inside bigger ones, and punching out flowers around flowers on the paper, and adding itty bitty circles in the middle of some.  Then I played around with the flowers on the page until I was happy, and added a bit of lace down the left side.

Then on to the insides, which were very different.

For the insides I looked at my collection of sentiments and matching embellishments and I was lucky enough to find things that I liked and that matched my choice of papers. Oh yeah! I love it when I have exactly what I want! I then added the hearts, which I punched out myself from matching papers, and created the 'thinking of you' tags.  Deckle edge scissors and ink fancied up the edges of the papers for a more decorative look.  And then they were off, the old-fashioned way, via snail mail.

Birthday Card for my hubby

The cards I make for my husband each year are ones that I really sweat over!  I want them to be perfect because I know that he really treasures the time and creative energy that I put into them.  They frequently have an oriental theme, because he's Chinese.  And I really do love working with oriental papers and embellishments, and then combining them with more traditional papers and elements.  I'm very contemporary traditional!

So here is this year's birthday card. And it really does combine the oriental and traditional.  I went out on a limb with the metallic copper paper, because he is not a big fan of browns, but I love it, so I went with it.

I picked three background papers from 'the Natural Stack' by Die Cuts With a View (DCWV). I have quite a few different 'stacks' by DCWV because they make high quality papers and I just really love the papers they put out.  Then I added some copper sticker stripes along the borders of the papers so the transition from paper type to paper type didn't look so odd.  The copper stripes are kind of like those transitional strips between carpet and hard flooring in your house!  And all of these beautiful copper foil papers were really just a background for the tiger scene I got from the "Japanese Design" book and cd from DoverPictura. I printed out the tiger and then mounted it on the paper I used for the skinny stripe, which is very subdued. And for a little more bling, I added some orange crystals in the corners.

Then for the inside. I used two of the three background papers from the front as backgrounds for the bamboo, round grasses and sentiment.  The bamboo and round grasses were done with metal templates that I have.  For color I used a variety of green inks, starting with the lightest colors and ending with the darkest colors. 

The sentiments I found in my stash somewhere, but I didn't like the paper or font that had been used.  And I wanted to combine a couple sentiments.  So I went to my trusty Print Shop Pro program from Broderbund and created my own sentiment with exactly the fonts I wanted, the size and shape I wanted and on the paper I wanted.  And I must confess, I do this a lot.  I'm really starting to play around with mixing fonts, bolding certain words, and layering words over top of each other.  I use the heck out of that program!  And I do occasionally update to a newer version because I like it so much.  

Then it was time for a few last embellishments.  The copper hexagons I cut out one by one from background paper. Honest! The orange bamboo stickers I took out of my stash.  And just so folks would know, including my hubby, that bamboo is a sign of vitality, I included then little 'vitality' sticker too.

And voila! There you have it. 

Lilac 'Miss Kim' Photos

These are three photos I took yesterday morning of our 'Miss Kim' Lilac. It is having its first really spectacular bloom since we planted it a few years ago. Which photo do you like best? Let me know! They will all be up for sale on my Etsy shop www.andreagoo.esty.com very soon.

Happy Birthday - for a musical guy

OK, well I'm still on my Color Me Resist paper kick!  This time the card is for my oldest son, who will be 28 years old on May 2nd. And exactly how did he get so old?

My son eats, sleeps and breathes music, and he has since he was 4 years old.  So I chose to use a 12x12 inch sheet of the musical notes Color Me Resist paper.  I colored the whole sheet first, and then decided how to cut it up and use it.  I wanted an old world feel to the paper, so I chose golds, browns and a bit of green too, layering the ink colors over each other until I felt that it looked the way I wanted it to.  And since the paper has this wonderful flourish detail in the bottom right corner, I chose to use that part for the front of the card.  Then I colored a matching tag in greens, for a little contrast, and added a Happy Birthday vellum sticker from my stash.  Next I added a few rusty-colored dots with those Sakura Glaze Pens that I love so much, for a pop of color, and a matching dot-thing sticker-thing on the tag.  And this is how the front of the card looks now that it is completed.  The paper is so wonderful, I really felt like anything more would be too much.

 

Next it was on to the inside.  I started with another big chunk of the music notes paper on the right side.  Then I found some sentiments that I liked for a birthday card for a young musical guy, nothing too mushy!  And I added some music note stickers that I had in my stash. 

And I thought I was done!  So I showed it to my hubby who said, "What are you going to put on the other side?"  Everyone is so used to me covering the whole bloody card with artwork, I can't skimp anywhere anymore!  So I thought about it for awhile. I didn't want to detract from what I had already done. And then it hit me!  More music notes, cut out of the music notes paper. And then it was done....



Thinking of You

Inevitably there are occasions throughout the year when I find myself making cards for unexpected events.  Unfortunately, these are not usually happy events.  They are what I like to call 'Thinking of You' events.  I'm not one for mushy sentiments, just some good old creativity in the form of an art card and a simple thought.  I like to let my art do the speaking.

A friend of mine recently shared some disheartening news about her husband's health, and it was just the time for one of these cards. 

I started this project with another pattern of the Color Me Resist paper from Paper Wishes ; they have so many beautiful options now.  And since acquiring a whole lot of Spectrum Noir markers, also available from Paper Wishes , I was anxious to try them out on this paper and see if they were as magical as they seemed they might be.  They worked like a charm!  The markers blend so beautifully, and there are sets of colors in various shades and hues of the same color that really make blending a cinch!  You need to work with the Spectrum Noir markers while they are still wet, otherwise they don't blend the same way, which is why the outline of the leaves is a bit pronounced and unblended.  Of course, my friend didn't know that until now!

To finish off the front I added some simple ribbon stripes, the tag accented with dots of my favorite glaze markers and a bow.

On the inside I used peachy vellum, with more simple ribbon stripes.  I printed the tag from an art program of mine and used a Martha Stewart border punch to create its decorative edge, and a few more dots with my favorite glaze markers.  And by now you probably know that the butterfly is also a Martha Stewart punch accented with her glitter.  Good guess!

And voila!  Off in the mail it went.