"Prototype" for Baby Announcement

I'm sure none of our family or friends care nearly as much as I do about what my baby announcements look like, but here is the first idea I came up with. It is a card that was inspired by the fact that I didn't want people to be able to throw away the card (insert evil grin) to keep the picture, unless they cut it up. Also, it uses elements from two cards that I really liked on SCS. The first is one by Stampinholic. I really like the colors that were used, and the use of the Dotted BG stamp. I thought the little tag was great and I liked having the ribbon tied right through the middle. The 2nd card from which I drew inspiration was one by lleonard, and I liked how she stamped the Canvas BG at the top of her pull-out card inside the pocket card. Each of these ladies actually CASE'd someone else in making their cards, so I thank those individuals too!

The outside of the card:


The entire inside view of the card:


The top half of the inside of the card:


The bottom half (this is where the picture will go, GLUED in except maybe for my parent's copy) so that hopefully more people will actually keep the cards I worked so hard on. I'm thinking that they can just "display" them on their fridges open so that the info and the picture show.


The things I'm going to work on are getting that Canvas BG to stamp more to the bottom of it's half of the card. I want to make sure the words "sweet" and "baby" are more centered on the tab and I will stamp the Curvy Verses sentiment on the outside a little lower on the rest of them. Other than those changes, I think it will pretty much stay this way. I wanted Chocolate Chip CS on there somewhere, but didn't want to make the card too "dark" so I didn't end up using it. I still kind of want to though.... :) It's nothing too too complicated, but it will take quite a while to make them all. Let me know what you think!

Stamp Sets: Bundle of Joy (Spring Mini catalog), Curvy Verses, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Canvas BG, Dotted BG, Word on Word (2007-2008 Hostess Level II set - preview)
Card Stock: So Saffron, Ballet Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Brown StazOn, Ballet Blue, Chocolate Chip and So Saffron classic inks
Accessories: Blender Pens, Vintage brads, Round Tab punch, Chocolate double-stitched grosgrain from Michaels

I finally used Pick a Petal!

I needed to make some thank you cards for a friend's baby shower (as usual, part of the gift I give them) and since I was going to have a friend over stamping with me at the same time, I didn't want them to be too complicated and I don't know how everyone else feels about them, but I LOVE single-layer cards. So, I decided to keep it simple in color and design, and used Pick a Petal to make a huge flower on the card, and then to off-set the large size of the flower, I used the Thank You sentiment from the upcoming Level II hostess set, Vases in Vogue. I made her 12 cards, three of each color. I used Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky and Groovy Guava. I thought Soft Sky would be my favorite new In Color, but it's not. It has a little more of a gray tint to it than I like for it to be my favorite. I find myself REALLY liking Purely Pomegranate, and that's not a typical color for me. I usually go for cool colors, greens and blues, but I love the Pomegranate!!!!! Anyway, here are my simple cards, followed by a couple more pictures that I'll explain. Have a great weekend - I hope to get to stamp today, we'll see!!!!

This next picture is of the card that Emma made for her friend Skyler. She did it all by herself as you can see by the little Taken with Teal fingerprints on the card :) She LOVES to stamp - I'm creating a little mini Stamp-a-holic!!!!!

Lastly, THIS is what Tracy won from my last blog candy contest. Sorry it took me so long to post a picture. Unfortunately, I found that the price of shipping appears to have increased from the last time I shipped Blog Candy to Canada, and in the future I will no longer ship blog candy there. Here's why: I like to have substantial blog candy, almost always including a stamp set, so it's not very light-weight. The shipping this time for this blog candy was almost $18 so when you add up that plus how much the actual blog candy cost me, it gets pretty pricey. I know that that will make my Canadian friends sad, but I don't want to just give away paper and ribbons, you know? I'm sorry, but hopefully everyone will understand. Thanks!!!

She got 32 sheets of 6 x 6 patterned paper (by wild asparagus), a little mini scrapbook to cover and fill, LOTS of copper brads, TWO stamp sets (Very Punny and Warmest Regards), some flower die cuts, and some pretty ribbon. Have fun with it Tracy!!!!

Last Two!

Here are the last two cards in the set of 10 Thank You cards that I made. I really like Natural Beauty and I'm sad that I bought it within a month of the retiring list coming out only to find that it's retiring. Along with Petal Prints and Roses in Winter, it's one retiring set that I'm going to keep because I like it far too much to part with it! Anyway, here are the last two cards:

This first card is a hinge-fold card I guess. I'm sure it was influenced by ones that I've seen, but I kind of put the length of the 2 front flaps how I wanted them and actually don't even remember what their dimensions were. I know that it did end up being a standard A2-sized card though. When it's flat the words on the side are not covered by the mounted image, there is about a 1/4" or less in between them and it, but that's how I wanted it to look. I should have taken a pic of that view before giving them away!!! Anyway, I created my little Thanks tag by only putting ink on the "Thanks" part of the Thanksgiving stamp in the Holidays & Wishes stamp set. The corners were punched in a modified way with the Ticket Corner punch - I didn't push the paper all the way in, that was too far for the look I wanted. The thread running through it is white sewing thread that also runs through the button.

Stamp Sets: Natural Beauty, Holidays & Wishes (Fall-Winter 2007 Preview set)
Card Stock: Ballet Blue, Cool Caribbean, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Black StazOn
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Baby Oil, Blending Stumps, CB Divine Swirl embossing folder, Black Brads by SU!, Ticket Corner punch, black button by SU!

This 2nd card is pretty simple but I really liked the colors together - even more so in real life:

Stamp Sets: Natural Beauty, Holidays & Wishes (Fall-Winter 2007 Preview set)
Card Stock: Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Cranberry Crisp, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Black StazOn
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painer, CB Tiny Bubbles A2 embossing folder, Cranberry stitched grosgrain

Seven and Eight

Here are cards seven and eight of my 10-card set. I got a little stamping done yesterday even though my hubby is on an overnight trip. I made some one-layer cards for a friend's baby shower for her to use as Thank You notes. They feature one of the stamp sets that will be in the new catalog in July along with three of the new In Colors for the next catalog too. I'll show them to you on Saturday since tomorrow I will finish out with cards 9 and 10 from my 10-card set.

This first card features the Palette O' Prints paper and some fun ribbon, but again, it's relatively simple.

Stamp Sets: Natural Beauty, Holidays & Wishes (Fall-Winter 2007 Preview set)
Card Stock: Sage Shadow, Palette O' Prints, Whisper White
Ink: Black StazOn
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Baby Oil (for blending instead of Gamsol), Blending Stumps, Sweet Shop ribbon by SU!

This second card took a while simply because I cut out the stamped image and boy are those flowers tedious work to cut out!!!

Stamp Sets: Natural Beauty, Holidays & Wishes (Fall-Winter 2007 Preview set)
Card Stock: Pretty in Pink, Palette O' Prints, Whisper White
Ink: Black StazOn
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Baby Oil (for blending instead of Gamsol), Blending Stumps, black brads by SU!

Father's Day Cards

Here are the cards that I made for my dad, my husband, and my father-in-law for father's day. No peeking Dad!!!! I was totally inspired by and very much so CASED Cambria's card that she made and I followed her outstanding instructions on how to make the shirt. It was super fun to make the shirts and I liked that there wasn't a ton of stamping - it seemed more "masculine". Enjoy, and check out the links to her site!!!


Stamp Sets: Circle of Friendship, All-Year Cheer III
Card Stock: Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Palette O' Prints
Ink: Brown StazOn
Accessories: Vintage Brads, CM circle cutting system, 1 1/4" circle punch by SU!, CB Divine Swirl A2 embossing folder

Card # 6 and Why I Use Baby Oil on my Cards....

First - to answer why I have Baby Oil in my list of Accessories, it's because (as Brandie mentioned) I'm pregnant and Gamsol isn't the best of blending mediums to use when you're pregnant. Some will say that Gamsol produces the best results, but I have seen no problems with my Baby Oil and I have no worries about having Baby Oil around me while I'm pregnant. Perhaps if I were a "professional" stamper, I would be more concerned with the quality of the image that Baby Oil produces, or perhaps it really isn't different enough that even a "professional" would care. I love to blend the my penciled in images to get more realistic shading with the Prismacolor pencils and to alleviate any pencil lines left from coloring. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a GREAT tutorial from Inky Antics on how to blend with Gamsol. I feel that the tutorial works with any medium like baby oil or lamp oil (make sure it's clear in color!!!) and it's very good at showing you step-by-step what to do to make your colored image look more finished. I actually prefer not to use Gamsol even when I'm NOT pregnant. Just because you can't smell something that's hazardous doesn't mean it's fine to breathe, and that's how Gamsol seems to be marketed, is that it's "odorless" unlike other artist-grade mineral spirits. That's JUST MY OPINION though! I did order my blending stumps from Inky Antics, so check out their site here.

Here's the 6th card in the set. I didn't go overboard with embellishments on any of the cards, but hopefully they're still considered pretty for their simplicity. This was one of the more "simple" ones. Thanks for looking!

Stamp Sets: Natural Beauty, Holidays & Wishes (Fall-Winter 2007 Preview set)
Card Stock: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Palette O' Prints
Ink: Black StazOn
Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, blending stumps, baby oil, Sweet Shop SU! ribbon, CM oval cutting system, corner rounder punch, dimensionals

More of the 10 cards....

As for yesterday's post with the onesies, not many of you guessed, actually only one of you, but she got it exactly right!!! Juanita thought that the two I made were the butterfly with the path and the flower that looked rock n' rolled. I couldn't rock n' roll it because it was a stencil, but after I had painted the flower originally just that darker red color I thought it looked too flat, so I went back in and added some lighter highlights and a line of glitter along each petal. I also put glitter on my butterfly and on the words on the butterfly onesie but it's not dry in the the picture. Thanks for guessing Juanita!!!

Do you remember how I had some posts showing you a set of 10 cards I made for a friend that "bought" them at a service auction at my Church? I had been using Natural Beauty (retiring) for them all? Well, here are a couple more. The only thing she asked for was Thank You cards.

This plum one was my least favorite of them all, but it's okay:

Stamp Sets: Natural Beauty, Holidays & Wishes (Fall - Winter 2007 Preview set) Card Stock: Watercolor Paper, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum Ink: Black StazOn Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painter, Plum buttons by SU!, CB Bloom Dots A2 embossing folder, Dimensionals, ticket corner punch

I really like this apricot one for its simplicity:

Stamp Sets: Natural Beauty, Holidays & Wishes (Fall - Winter 2007 Preview set) Card Stock: Apricot Appeal, Whisper White, Basic Black, Gypsy paper (Basic Grey) Ink: Black StazOn Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Baby Oil, Blending Stump, Black brads by SU!, corner rounder punch


I hope you like them, have a great day!!