Happy 2nd Birthday!

This card was inspired by another card magazine. I attempted to use some scrap paper from my nearly overflowing box of scrap paper.

One day either my desk will be clean enough to not have clutter in the background of my photos, or I'll go downstairs and use the portable photo studio that I bough Jon for Christmas the year before last. Anyway, here's the card.

This is the piece I struggled with the most. I definitely had to step outside of my perfectionist bubble here, and accept that this ribbon would never look as good as I wanted it to. The circle with the number 2 on it, is from Elle Studio's Day to Day Tidbits. 

I adhered a scrap piece of polka dot paper and wrapped twine around the card. Stamped happy birthday in the bottom corner (for some reason I gravitate towards the right side).

Here's the side view of the card. The circle of the ribbon was adhered with foam squares and the bottom half of it wasn't adhered at all. I didn't want them to be so one dimensional. I love that not adhering them would add some dimension to the card.

My goal this year is to push myself out of my comfort zone. Do you have any goals in regards to your crafting?

Have a great day!

-Alex

Baby Girl & Boy Congratulations

Today I made some baby cards. I made four purple & pink and four green & blue.

This is the first time I've ever used washitape on a card, and I'm so happy with how it looks. Once I put the twine across the middle, I felt the card was too plain. I slid it up and put washitape under it and I think it made it tons better than before!

The stamps along the bottom are all part of a set. I thought at first that the black would be too dark for these cards, but I think it was just enough to balance out the pastel colours.

Here we have the green one. The thing I like most about this card (minus the smudges of ink) is that if I changed the "congratulations" sentiment at the top to "you're invited" or "our baby is here", I could easily turn this congrats card into an invitation or a birth announcement!

I originally made this one first, and put the lime green washitape on it. I felt that it made it better. Now I think I should have gone with something to match the card base, like I did with the pink ones. But I still like this one as it is.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

-Alex

Happy Birthday to You!

Made this lovely birthday card and wanted to share it with all of you! Some of it's elements were displayed in yesterdays graduation card, but the swirls on this one are more what I was going for in the last one. They're simple and beautiful!

This card opens from the bottom, and the twine was wrapped 4 times with a single bow. The large flower, and the one little flower below it have glitter on them.

I really don't like glitter, but this card needed something to make it sparkle!

The twine is centred between the swirls and tied with a single bow.

I was originally going to put the banner on the very edge, but decided that I liked it better at the edge of the beige paper.

What do you think? If you have any questions about what I used, I'll do my best to give you a detailed description.

Have a lovely day everyone!

-Alex

You did it!

A coworker of mine graduates highschool at the end of the month. We decided that we'd give her a card and a small gift to celebrate her achievement, and so I made this lovely card for her.

Using an additional left over piece from yesterday's Father's Day cards, stamped swirls along the edges and 'you did it!' in the bottom right corner.

Here you can see a close up of the double twine bow and the swirls. There's a piece of black and white striped paper between the flowers and the front sheet to break it up a little. I could have simply used a plain black piece. 

And a close up of the swirls. The left side was stamped once using brown and black ink to make it a little lighter. The ones on the bottom were stamped with brown over the edge and then black along the edge.

And there you have it! I consulted with Jon a lot on this card. He was more than happy to help me coordinate things and I really think this card is more of him than me. He altered my original idea, and made it better. That's why I love him!

Have a wonderful day!

-Alex

Happy Birthday

For whatever reason, when it comes to making cards lately, I get stuck. But I recently made some birthday cards I'd like to share. They were inspired by ones I saw on Pinterest, but are different in some ways.

Each card is also a great way to use up some of those scrap pieces you have from other cards. Which is what I used for every one of them! It's one way to clean out your scraps box!

This first one is the first one I've made using my bicycle stamps. I believe I got them at Michaels for those of you interested in picking up some! I also used my Martha Stewart circle cutter to cut the circle for the bike and the navy circle behind it.

This one, I hate now. I struggled with the twine because it ended up being too long then too short, then it wouldn't stay in place. I used a glue pen to secure the twine to the card. I secured it at the bows and in the middle, and now I wish I had secured it all the way across.

After I made the first one, I wanted to make more of it. but I lost my "d" stamp and birthday was too long in the capital lettters, so I had to change the bottom font (after I'd already put the happy down, of course). Then after I took this photo, I fixed up birthday and filled in all the light parts and made it look better.

With a couple of the left over banner pieces I made this card, which was inspired by a Father's Day card. They had the ties where I have the banners. I actually love this card so much! I might make even more of it!

That's all I've made recently, aside from a few failed Father's Day cards. I only need to make 2 of them by Sunday, and I can't even make one. Hopefully tomorrow goes better!

Have a wonderful day loves!