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

Orange You Glad It's Your Birthday?

I'm not one for being creative with post titles (as some of you may already know), but I tried anyway.

I wasn't sure how I felt about this card being monochromatic, but I'm pretty happy with it.

I wrapped orange and white twine around the sentiment, and adhered gems for a little sparkle.

I hate when ink smudges, but I can roll with it. It adds character...right?

Here's a side view. This little card is only 4" x 4". The perfect little size!

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

-Alex

Washitape Wednesday

Hooray, another link up with Tiffany over at Crafting a Fairytale. This week, I made a card that was inspired by one I saw in the Paper Crafts: Card Creations - Volume 11.

I started off putting washitape onto squares of cardstock (I cut the silver strip off the bottom left one because it was too wide). I made a few different combinations to keep it interesting.

I adhered them to cards that open from the top and added black and white twine bows to each of them to look like presents.

I stamped the bottom right corner with black ink.

Now I have a set of four cards for any type of celebration! I'll be making more of these to eventually put into my etsy shop!

Have a wonderful Wednesday. Don't forget to submit your projects over at Crafting a Fairytale, or you can e-mail them to me creationsbycoal@gmail.com

-Alex

Celebrate

Since Jon's gone to BC with his dad for a fishing trip, I've had a lot of free time to work on cards. I also have a few extra days off this week since a coworker is back from holidays. This means I've made a lot of cards, which is wonderful because I was running low on a few things, and I'd like to open an Etsy shop soon to bring in some extra money when we move.

This card sat like this for a couple of days until I could figure out what to put on it to finish it. I knew it needed a sentiment, and I knew it needed to go across the top right, I just couldn't find the right stamp.

When I got home from work today, I went through my Stampin Up! stamps and found this one. Knowing it was perfect!

I inked the top and bottom edge with light pink ink, and trimmed the edges to look like tape. I adhered it to the card with foam squares and angled it slightly.

Here's a side view of my card. I love that it's bright and cheerful! So happy with how it turned out. All the colours were picked from the floral paper.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

-Alex

Birthday Wishes

Good morning loves! Hope you're all feeling wonderful today! I'm sure everyone is excited for the weekend. I'm working again this weekend, but I'll try and come up with something other than cards and shopping trips to post next week! I have a few projects in mind, but they take longer than a couple of hours, and since I do most of my posts the night before, I don't have time to do a few things I'd like to.

Today, I tried something a little different. I never use border punches on the edge of a card, but today I wanted to hide the fact that the paper didn't quite reach the edge without cutting it smaller.

I love the different shades of green paired with the navy on this one! I just wish I'd had ribbon to match that could hide the seams.

Here's a side view of the card. The punch I used along the side is one of the new Stampin' Up! ones that I picked up last weekend.

I inked the edges of the birthday wishes, and used foam squares to adhere it to the card. I added gems to give the card a little something more.

Here's what it looks like closed. I only trimmed the front layer with the punch, and left the back layer the way it was. I love the business of the middle, and the simplicity of the top and bottom.

That's all for today! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

With Jon being gone this weekend, I should have tons of time to get things done!

-Alex 

Chevron Birthday Card

I'll admit that I struggled with this. I spent my morning working on it, and finally came up with this. It's simple, and cute and I'm so happy with how it eventually turned out.

I added the swirls at the top to make it a little less boring and balance out the bottom.

You can't really tell, but I cut the black and white paper with decorative scissors.

I'm not perfect, the middle one smudged a bit, but I kind of like it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

I'll see you all tomorrow for Washitape Wednesday!

-Alex

Washitape Wednesday

I posted some washitape I got in the mail a few weeks ago on my Instagram account (here), and the owner of Crafting a Fairytale (here) told me about Washitape Wednesday that she was hosting on her blog. She asked if I'd like to submit things for it, and so here's my first project. I've included a mostly simple tutorial for those of you who'd like to do something similar.

Here's the washitape that I used for this card. I'm sure if I went through photos I could tell you exactly where it all came from. The top stripe, the blue and the yellow polka dot came from Scrapbook Daily Deals, and Pick Your Plum. 

Cut a piece of cardstock a little smaller than the card you're going to put it on. Draw a line to use as a guide so that your first piece of washitape are straight.

I started out with one piece on either side of my line and then finished one side and then the other. I decided to keep the order of the tape the same as on the striped tape that inspired the colours.

You can use any number of colours. I used three and tried to keep the widths similar and the colours as similar as I could. But you could use any combinations of colours. 

The back should look something like this. You just need enough to go over the edge and secure it, not to cover the back completely. For the corners, trim the edges so they wrap around and lay flat on the back without going back over the front.

Attach your washitape to the front of your card and decorate it as desired.

I did a simple Happy Birthday with a yellow brad.

Have a wonderful Wednesday. Next week we'll have a whole new project for you!

-Alex

Another Happy Birthday!

Yesterday, while browsing one of my card magazines, I stumbled across something similar to what I'm about to show you. I loved it and though I struggled to achieve something similar, I made two cards from it, and I love them more than I thought I would.

First up, we have the navy and charcoal grey card. The light grey circles were added mostly to cover a mistake or two, but I kind of like them. I just wish they could have been placed differently.

Here's a close up to show you two of the different stamped circle borders. They were made using a couple of my Stampin Up stamps from the Big Flowers set. I had to cover the flowers with a circle, to only get the border I wanted. It was tough, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Here's a close up of the sentiment. It proves that my stamping abilities can be improved. But I love this sentiment. It also shows the texture of the yellow paper.

Then I made one in pink, without random light grey circles. I think it looks a lot better without it, but I also think that the texture on the red/pink circles adds to the card.

Here you can better see the details of the circles.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon!

Have a wonderful day!

-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

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!