Tribute to a Dawn McVey card

I really am not obsessed with Dawn, I just love here style!  She has designed so many of my favorite PTI supplies it just appears I am obsessed!  She posted this card and I LOVED it.  I didn't have the same supplies she used so I improvised with what I had, I was in Charlotte with my "mini" card set-up.  Hers is gorgeous, mine is a very nice card!  It is a 4 1/4x5 1/2 top fold white cardstock base.  The panel is 4x5 1/4.  All of the cardstock is from a K & Co paper pack.  The yellow piece is 3x4.  The reverse of the yellow is the peachy color.  I used the medium PTI Scalloped border die and cut a 1 1/2" strip to adhere to the yellow edge.  The doily is from Michael's, or Hobby Lobby ~ Wilton.  I trimmed off one edge and adhered it down.  The "doily" die from the small Limitless layers was use to cut the peachy cardstock.  I took 2 large, 2 medium, and 1 small cream felt flowers cut with Beautiful Blooms II #3 die.  I used a glass pearl from WalMart to adhere them together.  2 Turning a New Leaf dies were used to cut a piece of green cardstock from the same paper pack and were tucked behind the flower/doily.  A small white piece of cardstock was stamped with a Hero Arts sentiment with peachy ink.

Hers is gorgeous, mine is a very nice card! 

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

GUILTY!!!

OK, humor me with one more funny dog video.  I posted the "talking" dog video yesterday, today is the Guilty dog video.  As cute as yesterdays was, this one is even better.  If this were my dog, I would buy those treats everyday just to watch what this adorable dog does!

Enjoy!

Happy Memorial Day!

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Ultimate Dog Tease

This is a hysterical dog video!  It is so cute, very well done.

Watch it here:  video

Enjoy your Memorial weekend.  God Bless our Troop!

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Edger 3 card

I LOVE Papertrey Inks edgers, by Dawn McVey.  If you have read my blog for very long, you know how much I LOVE Dawn!  These edgers make such pretty cards.  This is a top fold 4 1/4x5 1/2 white cardstock base card.  The patterned paper is from American Crafts Celebration pack.  It is cut at 4x3.  The solid red and blue cardstock is 4x2'ish.  I ran the base and all of the panel elements through my Vagabond with the edger.  They were stacked and adhered to the base.  I took the PTI Sending You die and cut white cardstock, stamped it with 2011 Birthday Tags in Pure Poppy.  2 green leaves were cut with the Sending You die.  I creased them to give them some dimension.  Both of those elements were adhered with pop dots.  Finally I took a length of bakers twine and tied it in a bow at the top fold of the card.  I LOVE this new edger!

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Sympathy Card

This card is for the Make It Monday Challenge.  I will edit this post tomorrow with the directions ~ too late tonight!
OK!  I am back to give you directions.  The card base is 4 1/4x5 1/2 white cardstock.  The panel is 4x3 1/2 patterned paper, from an OLD DCWV paper pad, the solid cardstock is 4x2 1/4.  A piece of dyed seam binding is tied in a bow at the seam.  The felt flowers are cream felt cut with My Favorite Things ROLLED ROSES Die-Namics dies.  You can see them here and here .  They make SUCH pretty flowers.  You will be seeing me use them, a LOT!  The large one has a pin I made from a corsage pin (WalMart) and 2 beads.  The 2 leaf sprigs tucked behind the flowers are cut with PTI Turning a New Leaf die, mounted on pop dots.  Finally a sympathy sentiment, Stampendous ~ Encouraging Words, here was stamped on the solid cardstock.
Dawn McVey, PTI ~ My Favorite Things, advice is classic, elegant images and cheerful colors, not drab, when making Sympathy cards.  I tried to show that in this card.
Thank you for looking at my blog!
Susan

Cricut Cake Card

This is a SUPER simple card ~ but, very pretty.  The card base is 4 1/4x5 1/2 white cardstock.  The front panel is a light blue piece I had in my scrap drawer.  I am not sure you can see it, try and enlarge it, there is a faint gold leaf pattern on it.  It looks like it was stamped with Versa Mark and gold Perfect Pearls was dusted over it.  I got this piece a long time ago so I cannot tell you anything about it, except it is pretty!  The flower was cut on my Cricut.  It is white cardstock and I used Cricket Cake Basics.  The flower was cut at 3".  I took plain white Hug Snug seam binding and tied a bow around the panel just below the center.  A large clear bling was added to the center of the flower which was adhered with pop dots.  PTI Tiny Tags die was used to cut blue cardstock and the Tiny Tags Thanks stamp was used on it.  I tied that tag on the bow with white button twine.

Clean and Simple!

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Butterfly cards

I have shown you this general design before.  This is just a little twist on it.  The bottom card is a package of 6 cards and shows how I package them for sale.  In my About Me section I tell that I sell cards and donate the money to Missions at my church.  I am actually going to try and figure out this summer how to hook my blog to a Paypal account and see if I can sell some cards here. If not I will try and do it through etsy, I just have to pay the % to them.  I donate 100% of the money I collect.  It all goes to support Missions that work with especially Aids victims in Africa.  Shade is the specific organization.  I also support UMCOR, a charity arm of the Methodist church.

Enough about me.  The cards are 4 1/4x5 1/2 white cardstock.  A 4x2 3/4 piece of solid cardstock and the same size of patterned paper are adhered together.  A length of ribbon is knotted at the seam.  White cardstock is cut with PTI Mat Stack 2 and stamped with Mat Stack 2 Collection stamp in coordinating ink.  Butterflies were cut using Love Lives here die.  I use the pearl/rhinestone strip from the Recollections brand at Michael's.  It is double wide so I trim it in half and cut 3 stones.  They put these on sale or use your weekly 40%.  They go a LONG way and are VERY convenient.  Since I used solid cardstock on the bottom, I just stamped my sentiment directly on the card. 

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan 

Graduation Card ~ One design, 4 colors

This is a 5x7 white cardstock greeting card.  The stamp set is Papertrey Ink For the Graduate.  The Mortarboard image is stamped on the front of the card to make a background pattern.  A coordinating color of cardstock it trimmed to size and embossed with Tim Holtz Texture Fades Notebook.  Mat Stack 1 was used to cut white cardstock and was stamped with the Mat Stack image from the graduate stamp set. A  sentiment from the set was stamped on white cardstock and mounted on the coordinating piece of solid cardstock.  A single mortarboard image was stamped, trimmed and mounted over the sentiment.  3 buttons were threaded with button twine and adhered to the center of the panel.  The panel was mounted on pop dots.

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

The Biltmore; Ashville, North Carolina

Have you ever been to the Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina?  The nations largest home.  It is an amazing, staggeringly HUGE, MASSIVE, AMAZING home!  4 acres under one roof!  Here is a link to their web page that gives more details of this incredible home.  I had to back down the driveway about 200 yards to get the whole house in my picture and then you cannot see the Carriage House on the right side.  If you ever have a chance to visit this unbelievable home, go!  You won't be disappointed!

I made a lot of cards last week but I need to get them photographed & edited.  I have been doing laundry since I got back.  I will post new cards as soon as I can.

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Blog Break

I will be out of town until May 22nd.  Even though I will have access to a computer, I will not have access to my pictures!

See you in a couple of weeks

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Masculine card

In the ongoing effort to make masculine cards, here is my latest.  It is so hard not to use ribbon, flowers, or bling... So the latest Tim Holtz stamp set I bought, Curiosities, helps.  The base is 4 1/4x5 1/2 white cardstock.  The panel is 4x 2 3/4" brown pattern paper & chocolate brown solid paper.  On the seam is a brown strip stamped with the ruler stamp from the set.  I didn't do a great job taking the picture, so you cannot see if very well.  I took my 1 3/4" circle punch and cut cream cardstock and stamped the watch face in Dark Chocolate ink.  The little cream rectangle is an "ad"  stamp that I trimmed to size.  Finally the same cream cardstock was used with Fillable frames #10 die and stamp.  All of the elements are adhered with pop dots. 

NO BLING! ~ or flowers

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Birthday cards

So here are the last 2 cards from that one sheet of paper.  I got 5 cards from that one sheet of 12x12 paper and 4 of them were 5x7, like these 2.  The mats were 4 3/4x 2 1/2-4 or so.  I divided what I had left between the cards and made the embellishments fit the space.  The "rust" color is a sheet of cardstock from Hobby Lobby.  The top card has  a cream mat cut with PTI Mat Stack 5.  I topped that with a piece of the rusty cardstock cut with Mat Stack 1.  I used Versamark ink and Mat Stacks 1 collections and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  That is topped with ivory felt flowers cut with Beautiful Blooms II #1 die. The whole piece is attached with pop dots.  2 sprigs of Spring Moss cut with Turning a New Leaf die are tucked in behind the stack.  American Crafts ribbon is tied in a knot at the seam.  Happy birthday is stamped on the bottom with Terracotta Tile ink.  The 2nd card uses Limitless Layers 2 1/2".  The 3" circle is used to cut cream cardstock.  The same die from the smaller 2 1/8" die was used to cut the rusty cardstock.  Beautiful Blooms II #3 was used to cut ivory felt.  The same felt was used to cut butterflies with Signature Butterfly and Love Lives here die.  Orange seed beads are sewn into the center of both felt pieces The sentiment is cream cardstock cut with Mat Stack 2, and stamped with 2011 Birthday Tags inked with Terracotta Tile.  A single, small flower like the large on was put in the center.  American Crafts cream ribbon is tied in a knot at the seam.
If you cut your cardstock with care you can get several cards from one sheet!
Thank you for looking at my blog!
Susan

Rolled flower cards

This is another large picture post.  Once again, I am showing a number of takes on the same design.  The flowers are the ones I talked about in another post.  You take a circle and tear it in a spiral, roll it up and kinda smoosh it down and glue it.  All of these cards are 4 1/4x5 1/2 white cardstock base.  The mats are all 4x 2 3/4'ish depending on the size of scraps I am using.  I almost always use scraps for cards like these.  I have used Turning a New Leaf die and stamps on most of the cards.  The tiny tags are from Tiny Tags dies and stamps.  I used a dew drop on most of them.  Some have PTI's Jar Label.  There is also the technique I talked about before of the red line tape and pleating the ribbon on top of it. 

I have not mailed one of these cards, so I am not sure how they will hold up.  But, they are so pretty maybe just hand delivering them would be the best.

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Happy Mothers Day!

This is the Mothers Day version of the American Crafts Ribbon card I posted earlier.  It uses the same paper and BEAUTIFUL American Crafts Rose Ribbon.  The only thing I changed was the Stampin Up stamp I used for the sentiment.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all mothers!  Especially mine, Donna Whitley.  I LOVE you!

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Pink Paislee?? Card

I think this paper is from Pink Paislee, but I am not sure.  I know my sister Pat Whitley, Hi Pat!, gave it to me.  It is from the "Lemonade card".  You know, the one I made the mistake with the Rosette.  Anyway, I really like it and I used every square inch.  The card has a 5x7 white cardstock base.  The front panel is 4 3/4x6 3/4.  A strip of American Crafts ribbon make the "ruffle" at the top.  I used a strip of Red Line tape, the really sticky tape, from edge to edge.  The ribbon is tacked to the back of the card and them pleated across the tape, the end tacked to the other side.  You can do this technique with a stapler, too.  It works well with a Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. For the flowers, you take a circle of paper tear it into a spiral, coil it and let it open up to where you like it and then glue it.  It is super simple but you do need to learn the technique.  When school gets out I might have Colin help me film a video and post it.  I make these flowers a lot.  I have a pattern for a leaf, just a pointy oval, I cut out 2, ran them through my paper crimper and attached them to the flowers.  The tiny mat for the tiny sentiment is, of course, PTI.  The mat is the Jar Label stamped with Happy Birthday from Just the Ticket inked with Terracotta Tile ink.

I do have one more card from this paper I will post later.

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Lemonade card ;)

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade ~ right!  I really like this paper and I only had one sheet.  This was all I had left from another project so, I had to conserve.  The card base is 4 1/4x5 1/2 white cardstock.  The panel is 4x3 1/4.  The reverse side is the brown on the bottom pieced, 4x1".  I took a piece of white seam binding and sprayed it with Glimmer Mist (I cannot remember which color. It was a brown.  Let me know if you need to know) and tied it on the seam in a bow.  The lemonade comes from the flower.  I used my large Tim Holtz Rosette die and cut the last strip of the paper I had.  When I glued the ends together, I did it wrong.  I have made LOTS of these rosettes so I really do know how to do it, I just blew it.  Well, I wanted to use it because I could not make another from that paper, so I made lemonade.  See the part where the leaf is setting?  It is flat and it is not supposed to be.  I took my AWESOME PTI Turning a New Leaf die and cut one that fit the best and kinda looked like a flower stem!  Voila, I salvaged my mistake!  Do you think I did?  Does it look intentional?  Would you have known if I hadn't told you?

Anyway, I like it.  I especially like the paper, so at least I got one last card from it!

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan

Notebooks

 This is a large picture show!  I make these notebooks all of the time.  They are from an idea from Papertrey Ink and from Michelle Wooderson.  Her blog is Mish Mash.  She lives in Topeka and she and Dawn McVey are 2 of my favorite Papertrey Ink designers.  These notebooks are made with notepads my sister Pat Whitley ~ Hi Pat! ~ got for me.  She found them in the dollar section at Alco!  YOU ROCK, PAT!!!!  Papertrey Ink has awesome notepads, really nice ones but.... they are expensive, $6 for 10.  Really nice paper but, the ones from the dollar store, or Alco are $1 for 5!  20 cents vs 60 cents.  Now if you are making these for yourself then the Papertrey Ink ones are well worth the money.  I make mine and sell them and give the money to Missions at my church.  I need to penny pinch where I can!

Anyway, the size of the $ store ones are 3x7.  I cut my cardstock at 6 1/2x7 7/8 and score at 3 1/3 & 3 3/8.  I glue the chipboard back to the back cover and the top folds over the top of the pad.  I then go to town with embellishments.  I usually add a mat of print paper.  Here is a good place to use those scraps you save.  If I piece I will use PTI RickRack or eyelet lace border die on the seam.  I almost always use the "doily" from Limitless layers die and Love Lives here butterfly.  I take miniature, 1" clothespins and glue rhinestones on it with glossy accents.  Since I got the PTI Turning a new Leaf dies (have I told you I LOVE those dies?) I use them a lot of the time, too.  The stamp on the "doily" is from Take Note.  GREAT set!  Lots have the crumpled flower I use a lot.  I have more I will post later.  If you have questions about a specific notebook, ask.  There are too many to give individual instructions!

Thank you for looking at my blog!

Susan



American Crafts Ribbon Cards

I have a new love! Don't tell my husband ;) !  I LOVE this American Crafts Rose ribbon.  It is beautiful, a little pricey, $3-4/yard, but for this card you need just 5", so you can get 7 cards from a spool!  The base is 5x7 white cardstock.  The mats are 4 3/4x3 3/4'ish.  On some of the I was conserving the patterned paper so I fudged a little and made the solid part larger.  I just shifted the ribbon down on the solid part on those.  I used my PTI Signature butterfly die and cut shades of velum to match the color scheme.  I cut 2 for most of them, the top one I also used Love Lives Here.  I used my Delightful Dahlia stamps to add some texture to the wings, if you look closely it kind of looks like feathers.  A strip of adhesive Michael's pearls are added to the center of the butterfly which is adhered above the ribbon with pop dots.  I stamped the sentiment on the bottom of the card.
The ribbon comes in white, which I sprayed with Glimmer Mist Wheatfield on the 2nd one, yellow, which is the first one, pink, 3-4 are pink, black and Rouge.  I will use those soon and let you see them.
So, do you share my new love?  Really, my husband won't mind.  He supports my card making totally!
Thank you for looking at my blog!
Susan

Mothers Day Cards

Here is my latest sample of "4 versions of the same card".  All are greeting card sized 5x7 white cardstock base.  All have a front panel of 4 1/2x 6 1/2 printed vellum.  There is a 2x6 1/2 strip of coordinating solid cardstock down the center vertically.  White cardstock was cut with PTI Limitless Layer ~ 2 1/2" "doily".  The circle die from the set was used to cut the solid cardstock center.  I cut 2 vellum butterflies with PTI's Signature Butterfly die, glued them together in the center and adhered a strip of Michael's pearl strips down the center.  It was put on pop dots on the center of the "doily", and that was adhered to the card with pop dots.  A Stampin Up stamp was inked in coordinating ink, stamped on white cardstock and matted on the solid cardstock.  That piece was added to the bottom of the center strip.  PTI Love Lives Here butterfly was used to cut solid cardstock, 3 pearls were added and it was adhered to the sentiment with pop dots. 

Each version is pretty, but I am partial to the last, aqua one.

Thank you for looking At my blog!

Susan