Monday, January 20, 2014

Hockey Fever

It appears as though NHL Fever is everywhere.  Everywhere I look you see people in jerseys, or with their favourite team stickers/flags on their cars, not to mention a ton of social media posts daily in regards to the most current game and their favourite teams win or loss. 
I guess it was just a matter of time before it hit me. 
I have been designing quite a few team specific birthday cards, and I just finished the coolest Wedding card for a couple who are Hockey Fiends.

Check out the cards below...

Card 1




Card 2




Card 3




Wedding Card



Hey All!  Hope that everyone is well and that they are enjoying the cold weather.  I have been asked to make a variety of cards for my sister-in-law to pass out and they are various themes, which always keeps things interesting, and the creative juices flowing.
When she asked me to make something either Grape of Chocolate themed for her sister's birthday I knew right away what I would make and when she said that her sister's favourite colours are purple and green it fit in even more nicely.  The card came together flawlessly and it's so cute and fun, and the wording is a total play on words which ended up being perfect for a birthday.
I started off the this really cute peel off of the grapes.  I used my Letraset Promarkers to colour in the grapes and the leaves.  I then used my Spellbinders Lacey Circles Die to cut out the purple background that the grapes are on.  I used Martha Stewart Doily Lace Boarder punch along the bottom and backed it with the same purple paper that I cut out behind the image.   I then used Fiskars Aged to Perfection stamp set for the very cute and clever wording, and cut it and mounted it to look like they were little flags.  I tied it together in a bow with some light Hemp Cord to give it a rustic feel.  Then to finish it all off I added some Wink of Stella clear glitter to the bunches of grapes because I LOVE GLITTER! 
I hope that she loved the card, and that her sister had a good laugh about the wording on it (which you can also see below in the pictures) 
Here you can see the front of the card

The side of the card

Close up of the coloured image


This card is easily one of my favourite cards that I have made thus far.

Bridal Shower 1

This Bridal Shower Card was created and was what I meant to create instead of the Happy Accident.  If you want to know what I mean by Happy Accident my previous post talks all about that card.
In creating the card that I had meant to design instead of it I worked very hard to fulfill the customers requests as this card is a Commission card. 
I had an image in mind that I was so excited to be using.  It's a beautiful bride from Stamping Bella which you can find here.  I love this image as it allows you to be able to colour her with any colour hair that you would like, and her bouquet is really up to you to colour using colours that you select.  That being said I was informed that the hair of the bride was to be a blondish brown, and that the colours for the bouqet were reds.  I used my Letraset Promarkers in order to colour the image.   Going with that I decided that her whole dress would be covered in diamond stickles and that I would add them to her flowers on her bouqet as well.  I then got really glitter happy and added some silver stickles to her tiara.
I used one of my favourite Spellbinders - Labels Twenty-Nine for cutting out the main image and the mat that it is on.  I then used some scraps from my scrapbox of black flourishes which were previously cut out.  I tied it all together with some sheer silky ribbon in a bow, the wording "Congratulations"
and some really pretty pearlesk looking gems.
The shimmer paper in the background gives it some extra added glam and makes it classy!
Front view of the card

This is the side view of the card


close up of the image all coloured



The following card however was the other option that I gave the customer.  I had designed both cards and gave her the option of which one she wanted, and she chose the first one.  I used basically the same supplies for this card other than the fact that I used Spellbinders Lacey Scallop Circle Dies and used a piece of very silky scrap silver ribbon.  I finished off this card with some pearls and glitter to the brides bouquet using red stickles.

Here you can see the front of the card


The side view of the card


Here is the close up of the coloured image.



Which card do you prefer?  1 or 2?

Your How Old?

I just love this saying!  It's so perfect for those cards that you want with the recipients age on it.  These are great too when you are giving someone a card that you dont know all to well, but whom you need a card for.  I have done this card in various numbers, colours and sizes.  It just turns out so great regardless of the age on it.
The sample that you will see here I made for a customer's brother in law.  She told me that he likes video games, and energy drinks, however designing a card with those things in mind was incredibly difficult, so a number card was perfect. 
I made a card very similar to the card you will see below, and thought that it would be perfect to do it again with a different number...I used masculine colours because I just love these pattern papers. 
I used Recollection (Michael's Brand) pattern paper and a Recollection Number stamp set to stamp the age on the card in Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Gathered Twigs).  I then tied it with some ribbon that I had laying around, and attached a sentement from Amy R's Birthday Stamp set, and finished it off with a little bit of glitter on the numbers.  I also used a punch to make the one piece of paper look like it had been ripped out of a binder/book to add some dimention and some character. 
The original version of this card


The side view of the original card.


The only difference was that the number on the card was different and the "Happy Birthday" was changed to "your how old".  Having fun with number cards...there are so many endless possibilities.

Singing "Happy Birthday to YOU"

I again was commissioned by my sister-in-law to create a birthday card for her brother's birthday.  Before designing cards for someone I always ask theme, colour scheme, and if they can tell me a little bit about the person.  Knowing her brother a little bit I knew what she was going to say...he loves to play guitar, sing and music is a huge passion of his.  With that being said I knew that I didnt have anything with a guitar so I set out on the search for a stamp with just that.  I found the cutest Penny Black stamp image called From the Heart.  I thought that this was just hillarious and had my sister-in-law approve this for the card before I purchased the image.
Then when designing this card I picked paper that I thought would be cute with the frog, and since hes green I some plain and some patterned paper with various shades of green and chose to go with that for the card.  I dry embossed the background with a pattern that looks like sheet music.  I then used a sponge, and sponged on some lime green ink to give the background more dimention and to allow for the embossing to be more visible.  I then coloured the image using Letraset Promarkers and cut out the image and the other 2 mats using the Spellbinders Nestabilities Lables 16 Dies  I used wording from Amy R's Its Your Birthday Stamp Set  and then tied it all together with some Maya Road Celery Green Twine.  To put finishing touches on it, I added a little bit of Stardust Glitter Pen to the strings on the guitar and the music notes.  If I made this card again I would add some Glossy accents to the little guys eyeballs to make them look glassy like eyes. 
I hope she liked it and that he liked it as well.
Here you can see the front view of the card


Close up view of the image itself, and my colouring


Side view of the card which helps to better show off the different dimensions


Hope everyone has a great day and that this card has inspired a couple of you atleast.  I try hard to link to most of the materials that I use, however some of them are either discontinued or scraps that I have laying around, and am no longer sure where I originally got them from nor the company whose product it is. 


Baptism Card

Over the Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada my Godson got baptised.  With him being a energetic, adorable, and sweet little 6 year old boy I wanted to create something for him that was classic Baptism because the gift I was going to give him certainly was anything other than traditional.
His gift was 2 African Dwarf water frogs and I would have loved to have created a card that encompassed that theme, however I did not at that time have a stamp with a frog.  So instead I designed a traditional baptism card.

When creating this card I wanted to give my Godson a Bible verse that he could turn to while he grows and know how loved, special, and cared about he is.  This verse has been one of my favourite verses for years, and I have found much strength in this.

I used scrap paper for parts of this card, as it has been something that I have been trying to do since I have TONS of scraps.  I cut the large blue piece of paper with Spellbinder Nestabilities Lables Eight dies.  I then typed out Jeremiah 29:11 and printed it on to white cardstock and then also cut it with the same die set.  I sprayed the blue card stock that the verse is mounted on with Memories mists - Iridescent and then mounted the verses together.  Then used Cherry Lynn Designs Cross Set B207 to cut the cross out of some Bazzill Marshmallow Cardstock which is shimmery paper.  I then shadow cut the cross after adhering it to blue paper.  I tied a silky piece of scrap ribbon (sorry no link) around the card and tied it in a bow.  I then adhered the verse to the card on a slant, and then attached the cross using foam squares to add some dimension.  To finish it all off I printed the wording "On your Baptism" on the front using the same font that the Bible verse was printed in.  I cut it out and then mounted it on the same blue cardstock as previously used and attached it flat to the right left hand bottom corner of the card.

The funniest thing about this card is that it matched so closely to the cake that his mom had ordered for his baptism.  I hadn't seen the cake till that day and my Godson's mom hadn't seen the card until at the party after his baptism.  God was in control of this one.  I will also add below a picture of the cake so you can see.

Here's the card from the front


Side view of the card


Picture of the cake
Who would have thought that the cake would have been white and blue just like my card, and the placement of the cross was almost the same spot as it was on the card.

So COOL!