Masked Visitors

 Our dog was going crazy running up and down the fence and barking. We could tell something was in the Greenbelt behind our backyard. Our daughter spotted the intruders scurrying up this tall pine tree.

 They were keeping an eye out for our dog who was all excited about actually being able to see them. Usually the raccoons are in our next door neighbors backyard right next to the wood fence that separates our yards and it drives our dog crazy because he knows they are there but can't get to them.

 It was a momma and her two babies. After a while they decided it was safe to go back down.

It's always a joy to watch wild animals in there habitat. Although two did venture into our backyard several months ago. Our dog had it cornered between our shed and fence. It was too small of space for our dog to get at the coon so Nanook would run to one side of the shed and the raccoon would run to the other side. There was a second raccoon watching the whole thing from on top of the fence. Lucky for Nanook our daughter had just come home and heard the commotion and put the dog inside until the raccoons left. I hope they learned their lesson and don't come back. They are cute but deadly for dogs to tangle with.

It's a Jungle Out There

I was at JoAnn's yesterday and saw this:



A darling little Matstack called Animal Crackers from DCWV.  I knew it was the perfect paper to go with this:



The new set of It's A Jungle Out There stamps and matching die that I just got from Papertrey Ink a little while ago. On Sunday a new SSSC came out with this new sketch:

I thought the SSSC sketch with the matstack, new stamp set and die would make a fun combination and this is what I ended up with:

A very cute birthday card. I had fun working with the bright jungle print papers. I liked the sketch the way it was so I stayed pretty true to the sketch

The die cut leaves are from Sizzix and were too large so I just cut the branches apart. After I die cut the giraffe I stamped it with Timber Brown Staz On ink and adhered it on with pop dots. I also stamped the sentiment in Timber Brown Staz On ink.

I used a Fiskars scalloped border punch to punch the white border.  

Nothing too fancy but I am proud that I finished a challenge so far ahead of the deadline. I am usually posting it the night before or the day of. Yeah! Go me!

How about you. Are you a last minute fly the seat of your pants type gal or do you like to have your projects done way before the dead line?

Cheery Birthday cards

Earlier this summer I was browsing through the $1.00 section in Micheal's and ran across packages of some cupcake dimensional die cut stickers. There were four to a pack and  they were covered in glitter. I grabbed one pack. Now I wished I had picked up more. I just made four cards with them and they turned out so cute.

 This card was the third one I made and used just scraps of paper left over from the first two cards.  I embossed the pink cardstock with cupcakes then just arranged the rest of the paper shapes to where I liked adhered it all down and stamped the sentiment, "a day to celebrate".

Here is a close up of the sticker. Lovin' the luscious strawberry on top.

Here is the first card I made with one of the stickers. With the sentiment "your so sweet" it could also be a thank you card. I made the borders with a Martha Stewart scalloped border punch with a small heart in each scallop.

I wrapped a white grosgrain ribbon along the top of the scalloped borders and ran the dark pink cardstock through an embossing folder. To add a little more bling I added dark pink rhinestones to the sentiment.

This was probably the quickest one I made. I backed the sticker a little differently by using different colored cardstock. Instead of white and dark pink I used light pink then red cardstock. I just adhered the background pattern paper and wrapped light pink rick rack around that, added the backed sticker and stamped the sentiment "celebrate" and it was done.

Here is a close up. Aren't these just the most darling stickers?



And here is the last cupcake with a cherry on top! Oops I cut off the sentiment. It says "wishing you the best day ever!". I finished this card off with a piece of dark pink embossed cardstock and light pink rickrack.

Here is a close up. Maybe if you click on the pictures you will be able to see the glitter. These cards were so fun and fast to make. Pink and green is one of my favorite color combos especially for fun birthday cards.

What are some of your favorite color combinations you like to use for birthday cards?

Retro Cupcakes

For the last 3 weeks or so I haven't been able to play along in the Tuesday Trigger Challenge or any other challenges till now. I love the little bit of doily used as a table cloth in the card that is the inspiration for this weeks Tuesday Trigger which you can find here http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2011/06/tuesday-trigger.html

This cute card can by found on page 134 in the Stamp It! Cards and was created by Tina Fussel. Besides the doily I also really liked the pastel colors.





Later I ran across this card sketch on Jen Tapler's blog. The sketch is from Verve Stamps. As soon as I saw this sketch cupcakes came to mind. 



I wanted the card to feel like the cupcakes were sitting in a bakery shop. I went with the pastel colors of the TT card but just a shade or two darker. I gathered up my Martha Stewart cupcake punch, all the doilies I had and ended up using a square card for the base of my card. The pattern paper is an old old paper pack from Creative Memories called Cabana. It is very retro and not really my style but you know what I ended up liking it alot after all. I made some scrapbook pages for my daughter's Freshman Dance as the blues and tan matched her dress. Now I am making a card with it.

I had intended using the blue and yellow pattern paper as the background but I cut it too small and I didn't have another piece large enough. I was determined to make it work so I made a mat out of kraft cardstock to go under it .



 I chose to cover the center of the doily with a yellow paper circle to make the four kraft squares stand out more. I originally had just the doily squares but there was still too much white and they ended up getting lost. So I just backed them with a larger square of kraft cardstock.

 Each of the cupcake liners are of a different color and for the icing I used dark brown cardstock. A pop up dot was used to give a little dimension to the frosting while the liners are adhered right to the doily square. I also filled in the brown cardstock icing with Glossy Accents. I love how it made the frosting shiny and gives even more dimension making it look like real chocolate icing. I wanted to add some seed beads for sprinkles but was afraid it might ruin it so I left well enough alone. Maybe next time.

For the last square I was going to stamp the sentiment "it's your birthday" directly on the square but I first stamped it on a scrap square and layed it on top to see if it balanced out the card. I decided I liked the layered look of the two kraft squares and used pop dots to adhere the smaller square. I then stamped "eat cake" in brown ink on a white banner and trimmed it down to fit and was done. 

I am really pleased with how the card turned out. Now for some reason I'm hungry for a cupcake!

Blue Ribbon Anniversary Card

A good friend of mine is celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary this week and I thought it would be fun to make them a card to help celebrate the occasion. I can count on one hand how many anniversary cards I have made so I don't have much experience in this area of card making. So I grabbed a couple of Paper Crafts magazines to thumb through for some quick inspiration. I didn't have to look far. The first magazine I picked up was a recent publication, 350 Cards & Gifts. When I came to page 35 I fell in love with the Lovely Note Card Set by Lucy Abrams. I thought it would make a perfect anniversary card. 

I stuck pretty close to how she made hers with just a few minor changes. She made a set of four 41/4" x 51/2" note cards in pastel colors. Since I only needed one card I chose to do my card in blue and I changed the card size to 5" x 61/2"

I started with a blue cardstock base the size of the card. I chose a Hero Art stamp, Flourish which I inked up with Versa Mark ink and stamped on kraft cardstock and embossed with white embossing powder.On her note cards Lucy stamped on the kraft paper using white ink and no embossing.

I cut the stamped kraft cardstock to the size I needed.

 I then chose a scalloped border bunch with a heart in each scallop which I thought fitting for an anniversary card.

  I then tied a blue satin ribbon onto the embossed kraft cardstock towards the top and then adhered it to the white scalloped edged paper and adhered that on top of the blue cardstock. I adhered that to the card base. I decided to add a stick pin I had decorated with gold tulle and a clear bead and stuck it through the bow.

Lastly I stamped the sentiment Happy Anniversary in black Staz On ink on a white banner and inked the edges of the banner with Broken China Distress Ink and attached the banner with pop dots to the bottom of the card.

I love Lucy's note card set and love the white ink on kraft paper and have many ideas to make more of this lovely set. So don't be surprised to see more of these.

PS Sorry for the straight out of the camera photos. I am not using my computer so I didn't have any photo editing software to do any editing. I couldn't even crop them.