Father's Day OWL Card

OMG...I was sO excited to find this La Blanche stamp @ my local scrapbooking shop yesterday.  I have only wanted it for like - forever.  LOL  ; ) 

A good friend gave me a gift certificate for this same scrapbooking shop for my Bday a couple weeks ago and I planned to save it for a 'waterfall sale' so I could for once buy lots and save lots. 

Well I ended up using the certificate to buy this stamp because they only had one and I had waited sOOO long for one and didn't want to pass it up for fear it would be another long, long time before I might find it again. 

So glad I bought it. Right after buying my stamp the ideas started to flow and I even woke up early with ideas running around my little brain.  LOL 

So off I went bright and early to try a few things with my new stamp.  I will show you lots in the future, but for now I will share this card I made for hubby for Father's Day.  : )

I used a piece of black cardstock for the base of the card and instead of a regular card fold I folded over both sides to anchor the card to sit. 

For the focal point I stamped the owl image onto a golden brown cardstock with black ink.  Easy peasy. 

For the sides of the card I ran it through my cuttlebug with and embossing folder.  'Ascension' by Couture creations.  I only use the bottom half that had the gears.  I inked the raised gears with a bronze metalic ink bought @ a dollar store - worked brilliantly. 

I used a top note and a cute little label die by 'Nellie Snellen' and gifted to me for my Bday by my dear friend Maria ; ) - to cut a tiny label for the top note.  These dies are FAB. 

(I played with them last night and cut a bunch of them - they were easy peasy to use and all the little bits took care of themselves, so it went super fast.)  YAY I love that about them!  : ) 

I hand penned DAD on the little Nellie Snellen label and attached it to the top note with tiny creamy white brads and adhered it to the back of the card with double sided tape.

I love the results! 

This OWL is sO cOOl...

stay tuned for more ideas using this owl stamp.

On a roll with SWEET BDAY cards

Funny how things work out sometimes. The other night I decided to make a stack of blank solid colored card bases to have on hand when my mojo hits me. Whack! LOL ; )

The next night I decided to dig deep into my scrap pile and pull out any pieces that were close to the size or could be cut down to fit the bases. Not giving much thought to a completed card, just grabbing a sized piece and finding a complimentary patterned paper, plus a card base and stuck them together with my dwindling bit of double sided tape.

Wow, not too shabby - now I have card bases with patterned papers already stuck to them how handy is that?!

Well pretty handy LOL

The next night I spotted some stamped images that could use some coloring with my teensy weensy supply of copic markers. LOL Needless to say I stayed up late cause I was having so much fun coloring in my new HOUSE MOUSE stamp. Who can resist these little darlings?

Guess what happened next?

Yup, I put 2 + 2 together after spotting the stack of card bases all ready to go and my stack of colored images.

Just before my friend flew off to her cousins for a little visit I spotted the bag of scalloped circles we did using her Spellbinders. I don't own any yet - can U believe it? I know, I can't either. LOL ; )

Well my MOJO hit me SMACK in the face and I got to work fast and with much enthusiasm with the stack of bases - now with patterned papers stuck good, my colored images and the scalloped circles. Now while I am on a roll I start to panick just a little (AH!) because my bestie (that's my word for best friend) won't be back for over a week and I know I am going to run out of scalloped circles. LOL ; ) When I do that's it till she gets back and we can have another play date when I can use her Spellbinders again. LOL

Well I kept going till I ran out of double sided tape and foam squares. : ) Now I have lots of cute House Mouse stamped & colored cards all ready to go. Some for friends & family Bdays, and some for my etsy shop. Woot Woot! : )

Here is a sampling of my cards:

Love the 'au natural' soft feel to this one with a pop of color in the frosting on the cupcake.  : )

Love the bubble pattern on this paper and how it works with the circle scallop.  I never would have though of using or even buying these little bows before but it works and no sentiment.  So use this card to celebrate any day worth celebrating with a cupcake.  That's any day of the week for me.  LOL

Love the polka dot distress paper and the zesty green rhinestones for that added bit of BLING!  : )

This one has to be a BDAY card because the sentiment says so.  LOL   Again love the soft colors and I only colored the cupcake so it pops against the nuetral background colors and gives a nice juxtoposition don't ya think!  : )



Similar to the previous blue one but with the sentiment:

'Make a Wish' - I'd wish for cupcakes!  LOL  ; )

As you can see most of the images I colored just the cupcakes cause I love focusing in on the sweet stuff I would love to eat!  

The House Mouse images are just as sweet, but I love the juxtoposition and even graphic look leaving the mice in just the black or brown inked image.  How sweet eh?!

I made more cards, but my camera batteries died and I had to give up on taking any more pics of the rest till another day after I recharge myself and my camera batteries.  ha ha  : )

Check out my my etsy shop OR cathies pARTies if you'd like to purchase one.    

GUEST DESIGNER MARIA & HER SU OWL PUNCH CARDS

I am so

HAPPY

to bring back

GUEST DESIGNER

MARIA

and another one of her

SU OWL PUNCH Cards

for ALL of YOU who treasure her SWEET creations.

MARIA

is so clever and inventive with her

SU OWL PUNCH.   

I challenged her last year just before Christmas to come up with a PEACOCK using her SU OWL PUNCH and ' BOY DID SHE DELIVER.' That was the first card she showcased here on my blog last month.

This month she brings yet another SWEET card to US. . .

Please enjoy her PICS and HOW she did it!

YOU will be motivated to make one too!

* If  YOU want to share a pic with us of one you made,  just leave me a comment with your email
 (I don't publish comments with emails attatched) and I will arrange with you to add your pic/s following this very post.

I can't think of a better compliment that would be to our Guest Designer. : )

ENJOY!...


Dear Friends of Cathie's Sweet Spot,

Thank you for your positive response on my last post about the 'PEACOWL'.
 
I´m looking forward to share more SU Owl-punch animals during the next months with you :)

Today´s special animal was invented by myself again, and I was very proud as I finished this Owl-punch Giraffe (feel free to suggest a better name.)

I made this giraffe out of yellow cardstock and punched out the head, horns, eyes and nostrils, body, feet and tail with my SU Owl-punch.

The legs were long strips of yellow cardstock and all body parts have been colored with the giraffe pattern by using my sponge dauber, brown ink and a little piece my sewing thread was on. (The holes on it were perfect to shape-ink all the dots on the giraffe).

All parts were also distressed on their edges with brown ink using my dauber.

The little hat was a cut-piece from a stash of Christmas paper I bought at the craft fair last year.

As final touch, the giraffe got a scarf made of blue fluffy ribbon my friend Christi sent me.

To keep the winter theme of the card,
I punched a few snowflakes out of embossed vellum paper and put a self adhesive pearl in the middle of each.

 

The sentiment I used is from Lili of the Valley and it just fit the card.

Thank you Cathie for this very great opportunity to show my creations on your amazing Blog :)

I hope you all like this creation and please don´t hestitate to comment.

Have a crafty day!!!  : )

GUEST DESIGNER - MARIA & her SU OWL punch animals

Hello Friends and Followers of  Cathie´s Sweet Spot.

I felt very flattered and touched as Cathie asked me to be a Guest-Designer on her blog to show you all Owl-punch-animals that I did.  I made all these animals using my Stampin UP Owl-punch.

So here is the first animal I want to share with you.

Say hello to the Peac-owl

(AKA Peacock-OWL)

This animal was specially created for Cathie in first place to put on her Christmas tree.

1. The body for the peacowl was punched with the Owl-punch and then I snipped off the feet and ears of the owl, to get the round body for the peacowl.
2. As the next step I punched a pair of yellow feet, inked them with red ink and glued them behind the body of the peacowl.
3. A punched heart is the beak of the peakowl.
4. I layered the punched eyes ( all punched with the OWL-Punch) over it.
5. Last part for the body was to use one of the snipped-off-feet as hair for the peacowl.
6. I used a gold-gel marker to decorate it.
7. The feathers were made after I watched a tutorial for a Thanksgiving table setting by Kim Burmeister (one of my crafting-idols). Therefore, you use a scallop circle and fold it like its shown on the video and you get pretty feathers. I made these using a dark-blue patterned paper and then adhered the "feathers" onto the back of the body.
8. The last step was to decorate the feathers with rhinestones in blue and green for the peacock-eye effect.

I hope you all like this creation.

Have a crafty day!!!

A LITTLE PICK UP FOR A DESERVING LITTLE BOY

I was making some cards last week using some SU stamps that I had never even used before.  I entered one in a challenge too.  Then someone put out a call for cards for a deserving little boy who has a rare condition and could use some cards to cheer him up when in hospital and also to let him know that others care and are thinking of him and wishing him well. 

The cards I had been making had a little truck stamp and I really didn't have anyone in mind for them when making them.  Most had a handmade flower embellishment to finish.  When I got the call for cards I immediately thought of the cards I was making, but they were a little too feminine I thought so instead I made one right away as the supplies were still there in front of me. 

I made on just for him and a little more masculine for a little boy - left off the flower, instead I used a heart with a little circle to stamp the sentiment.  I layered all the stamped pieces and cut outs to give it an interesting 3d effect I was sure a little boy would enjoy on a card.  The road lines were made with a lil ol sharpie - easy peasy detail.  LOL

I love how it turned out.

A little PICK UP

Just thought I would share a card I made

with some of my favorite patterned paper

I picked up

'no pun intended'

at one of our local scrappers garage sales,

a set of SU stamps called 'Loads of Love'

and one of my handmade flower embellishments.

I think it has just the right amount of whimsy and color for

a good little pick up

while waiting for Spring.

VINTAGE STYLE HANDMADE CARD INSPIRATION

Here is some inspirtation for those of you who like to make handmade cards with vintage style.

I made this card for a challenge in one of my papercrafting groups. 

The challenge was to start with the same piece of clip art as everyone else,

then create a handmade card in a vintage style. 

CLICK ON THE PIC TO ENLARGE FOR A DETAILED VIEW

To create my card in a vintage style:

 I started with the clip art like everyone else.  I crumpled it up to give it some creases, then touched the creases and edges with distress ink.  I used a dampened finger to smooch the ink to soften the hard edges & dirty up the paper a bit to create an aged look to the paper clip art. 

The card base is a favorite green I thought would be a nice juxtoposition to the patterned paper I used. 

I sewed along the  edge of the patterned paper to make it look like fabric.  Then roughed up the edges to soften the look a little.  I love the paper - it's a graphic 45 piece. 

I used a little lace along the bottom of the card to again soften the look.  The lace was from my haul back in the summer you can read that blog post HERE.  I used a little more of the same lace to make a yo yo.  The vintage looking button in the center of the yo yo I made using a gold shank and a button that happened to fit perfectly in the center.  The shank and button I recieved in a swap from another paper crafting group. 

The stick pin was made using a corsage pin, a transparent black bead with gold felcks inside and a bead cap.  To keep the bead cap in place after gluing I used a earing back that I slid up the pin snuggly - worked like a charm.  The earing back was then used again after inserting the pin in place for the card so the recipient doesn't get poked.  You can even glue it on for better safety. 

Don't know if I really needed the tiny bow made from seam binding but I just love the stuff! 

: )

Love to hear you comments & if I inspired you.

MY HOUSE MOUSE CARD

My HOUSE MOUSE CARD got published TODAY on the HOUSE MOUSE Website!
Woot, WOOT !!

ONLY the title is suppose to read: 'DOUBLE THE JOY'!  Don't know what happened there, but hey it made it on to their website so I'm happy.

I only own 4 copic markers & in that I only used 2 to color the stamped image so I think that's pretty darn good.

I wrote a detail on how I put the card together - the inspiration etc.  Check it out I left a link to it.

I'm HAPPY  

HERE IS THE DIRECT LINK:

http://www.house-mouse.com/php/stamped_show.php?id=1436">>

A CLEAN AND SIMPLE CHALLENGE

This card was created for Brenda's CASS CHALLENGE (CASS21) - CLEAN AND SIMPLE SUNDAY CHALLENGE  this week.

The main focal point is clip art. (Doesn't she remind you of someone?)
My first attempt to stamp the sentiment on the clip art, wasn't clear enough.
I stamped it again on a piece of white scrap, fussy cut around it & then popped it off the clip art using pop dots.  I liked this even more.  The original stamped image is now creating a shadow behind making it look more 3 dimensional.
A fern photo corner punch to punch two opposite corners of the green background mat to mount the clip art was used to add just a touch of detail.
I used MY MIND'S EYE 'wild asparagus'  "you are my sunshine" striped paper for the cards background & adhered it to a basic black card. 
Following the template I used a portion of a decorative border from my scraps.
Voila Finished Card!
Definitely Clean & Simple!

Want to play along with BRENDA'S CASS21? Here's a link:
http://www.stampingwithbrenda.com

*********************************************************************************

ALSO DON'T FORGET I ALSO HAVE A CHALLENGE FOR YOU WITH FREE CLIP ART!

Check out my Challenge too for my

 'BEST WITCHES'

PENNANT FLAG BANNER! 

It's @  cathies pARTies

Follow  THIS  Link:

http://cathiesparties.blogspot.com/search/label/Challenges

YOU'LL FIND IT IN THE SIDEBAR UNDER THESE LABELS: 

 FREE CLIP ART,  CHALLENGES

 Just CLICK  & SCROLL TILL YOU FIND IT.

You have till the Witching hour on OCTOBER 31 to get your submission in to win some candy!

GOOD LUCK!

My version of a TEA LIGHT Candle Card

I made this card for a Swap.  We were challenged to make a tea light candle card, use some ribbon on the card, fill the pocket with anything we want & it had to be girly. 

This is what I came up with:

I started with the basic tea light candle card template.  I tweaked the pattern just enough to flatten the pocket so it would ship flatter(hopefully go regular post which it did) and accomodate the width of the Pumpkin Spice Tea bags.  I chose the tea bags to be unique & cost a little less for shipping as they are lighter than candles.  Plus I already have lots of candles & thought others probably did too.  Perhaps they would like something a little different.  It also made the challenge a little more interesting & challenging. 

I added a Black Satin Ruffle Bow to The Black Cat's hat in my paint program & also highlighted the eyes in green to emphasise them even more.

I added just enough glitter to the cat hat, pumpkin, spider web bow etc. to make it girly. I think the little black cat makes it girly too! The classic chair is girly & I added the white floral detail @ the top to make it even more girly.



The last pic shows the tag I made to go in the pocket behind the chair. I made my own clip art sentiment to go along with the theme going on here.

It reads:

"Come Sit for a Spell & Enjoy your Treat!"

I used one of my favorite fonts, I think it works well with Halloween Projects like this.



Father's Day Card

This is the card I made for hubby this year:

FRONT:

I used his own photograph which he digitaly enhanced by taking out a modern boat that was in the forground - yup he's pretty clever.  Then he softed the image.  He made a Sepia toned print and framed it himself.  I used one with just a hint of color, to go along with a scrapbook paper map that looks vintage and has old clippers much like in his photograph.

INSIDE:

I trimmed & glued (using PRO GLUE RUNNER) a piece of scrapbooking paper (vintage map with clipper ships) to fit inside card.  Printed my own Father's Day Sentiment Poem on parchment cardstock and glued it in again with pro glue runner.  Added a smaller print of hubby's photo.

CLOSURE:

I made the old fashioned closure by punching out circles of cardstock that I glued to scraps of the map paper.  Punched hole in center, added grommet & attached to card concealing it between the  layers of  card and scrapbook paper.  With one I added a string before pinching the grommet.  Now the card can be tied for giving, then untied by the receiver. 

* I had much grander plans for this card, but I started it just moments before hubby phoned to say he was on his way home.  I will make another card with the added details and post in the future.

By the way my hubby loved this card, guess cause it had something of him in it too!  : )

Penguin Card

I made this card last year.

I think the bright non-traditional colors gave it a modern twist.

I love the hit of orange in the striping and the juxtaposition
of the cold climate penguin standing on sparkling icicles.

I still loooove this card!! :)

Little Elf Holiday Card

This little Elf Holiday card was snagged for an ETSY Treasury tagged:


Will your gift wrap be remembered



To purchase it or other handmade items by myself click on any of my etsy shop photos at the top of my current blog page. This will take you to MY ETSY shop with all the details.

Christmas Cards All Year 'Round - Challenge

These cards are my entry for the Christmas Cards All Year 'Round(Blog)Challenge.



The challenge was to make cards with snowflakes as the main theme.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CARD

I made this card for my hubby for our Anniversary last week.

He never clued in when he saw the handmade envelope I made to put the card in and left out on the computer station. He just asked "What's this?", and I replied "You have to wait till fridayto open it and find out!" Perplexed till then.

Friday rolls around, and I get a call from him at work -
"Guess what?" he asks.
"What?" I reply.
"It's Friday the 13th!"
Oh, yeah, I already knew that" I say.
"Oh, yeah, uh and it's our Anniversary - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!"



He finally clued in when he and his coworkers were discussing special days/events in their lives that fell on a 13th, and that day would sometimes fall on a FRIDAY the 13th.

Usually he's the one that remembers and he makes me a handmade card or photo impressed luv mug - sweet stuff like that!

Using the Cindy Loo cartridge in my Cricut Cutter I made the deer frame, using pink paper with brown polka dot print and used the GYPSY design studio to tweak the size of the 2nd deer (overlay), using pink paper.

It took a while to get to the right size, and when I found it I saved it for future reference. I have more card ideas for future projects using this image.

The frame was adhered using 'sook wang' tape to printed cardstock with soft hues and dainty daisies. I added a line of glitter to the upper lid of the eye for little extra sparkle and a tiny star that was in the glitter was used to highlight the eye.

I created the sentiment on my computer, printed it out and adhered it too with 'sook wang' tape. The "LOVE YOU" sentiment was included in the GYPSY hardware.

Check back to my blog for more of this adorable deer.

FATHER'S DAY - free printable

We have had many a car ride with the stereo blasting out hits while a game of 'punch buggy' is taking place. Our son played it for years. These cards were inspired by our love of music and 'Punch buggies'.

Just click on an image above and print it onto cardstock using your home printer.
You can also save the image and email it to your local copier to print.

Enjoy!

Sweet & Simple Folded Birthday Card

This Birthday card was simple to make and turned out pretty sweet.

I used a 12 x 4" piece of card stock, scored at 4" & 8". Then scored diagonaly from corner (at fold line to corner at edge of paper) on each end. These corners are folded back so when the card is closed they come together to close the gap and together create the front of the card. When you have constructed the mechanics you will decide were to put you embellishments. My butterflies were folded and attached with sook wang (double sided) tape. Then placed within the confines of the folded card so it wouldn't stick outside the card when closed. When opened the large butterfly unfurls its wings.

Sound complicated! Na! Trust me you can do it!



I used pretty floral card stock that coordinated with the sticker I used on the inside of the card.

The butterflies were stamped, embossed and colored with chalk pastels.



Captions were stickers & die cuts layered on card stock.

Final card was wrapped & tied with a ribbon that was secured with brads, so the ribbon won't get lost.



Now that I've taken pictures of it to post I can give it to my friend. :)

Hope she likes it!

Hope you enjoy making one yourself, and if you do; link back to my blog in my comments and show me how yours turned out. I would love to see them! :)

SWEET ' VELVET BUNNY ' EASTER CARDS

Here's a couple of clean, simple and SWEET Easter Cards I made with my scrap paper stash and a wee bit of VELVET paper I've been waiting to use for this very occasion.

I started with pulling out a couple of pieces of cardstock scraps in Easter egg blue. Followed by small scraps of white cardstock to stamp the sentiment. I also pulled out green bits to use for the grass in the forground of each card. I already had the vision of what kind of scene I was going to create, so this made the color choices easy.

I also pulled out a wee bit of striped cardstock you see in only one of the cards. At first I thought the stripes might become stems for flowers, but I nixed that idea because I wanted these to be fuss-free cards.

I had gone through my scrap stash just recently and punched a bunch of flower petals with my (Martha Stewart) hydrangea punch, so I had these handy in case I wanted to use them. I ended up only using one on each card as leaves for the single flower you see on each card.

To create the card:

I started with the blue cardstock and clipped the corners at the narrow end to make tags.

Then I trimmed the green grass papers to the width of the tag, and used a pair of edge cutter scissors to create the look of grass. This was attached to the bottom of the tag with double sided tape.

On one card I added the striped bit of paper next to the grass and attatched with double sided tape.

With a narrow scrap of white cardstock trimmed to width, I punched it with the Martha Stewart - Picket Fence punch. Then adhered with double sided tape behind the grass on one card or striped paper on other card. (See photos)

The sentiment was stamped on tiny white scraps with Happy (A single stamp from what maker I don't know cause there wasn't a name on it that I could find; you could find one by many makers I'm sure) and Easter (individual letter stamps by Fiskars). It was then layered with a slightly larger piece of green printed scrap paper just to help it- pop. This was adhered to the top of the tag, leaving space for a hole to be punched at the top of the tag. One card I added an addition of stamped flower in the corners ( here again I don't know the make - If you buy clear stamps secondhand like I do at stamp swap & sales you don't always get them in the original packaging; so use what you have).

The tag was puched with regular punch at top and a reinforcing circle (found in stationary supply shops) was placed over hole. A small piece of Amuse dot ribbon in a beautiful shade of spring green was looped through through the hole.

A tiny hole was punched lower on the tag to allow a velvet flower brad (Making Memories) - backed by a single green punched paper flower (Martha Stewart hydrangea punch) for leaves.

The Sweet Velvet Bunny was created using Velvet paper and bunny shape cut at one inch size - you can recreate using your own personal die cutting machine or punch. The eyes are brown pearls by Recollections and came in a pack with various sizes. On one card the bunny was tucked behind the grass. Both are stuck on with double sided tape.

Finally the tags were stuck on cardstock folded to about 3x41/2".

easy & economical VALENTINE cards

You know those packs of 8 1/2 x 11" cardstock available @ Michaels and other craft stores that go on sale for sometimes 2 packs for $5.oo can really give you a lot of bang for your buck. For those of you who have been spending upwards of $1.oo for a sheet of cardstock for a 'card base' consider this - I made four cards from one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11". They were quick, simple and economical.

Here's what I did-

I took one chocolate brown sheet of cardstock cut it in quarters. So each card came out different; I folded some to open horizontal others vertical. Some were folded at the center point, others off center (these ones I added scraps of coordinating printed paper with or without a fancy edge cut made with decorative trimmer. Some corners I rounded off with scissors. All pieces went through my cuttle bug using the same embossing folder for each. Some I placed only the card front into the embossing folder (fold the backside around to the back of the folder so it doesn't get embossed) others the whole card got embossed front and back.

Although each used the same embossing folder to speed up productivity each one came out looking different with various finishing touches. I used a white gel pen to highlight some embossed areas and added some hand written words; one I rubbed a white ink pad over the embossing to give it a slight highlight. Finally I added a coordinating printed trim, ribbon, heart shaped brads, pink pearls, or paper flower here and there - and voila! I had the most productive & quick card making stint ever. All four done in record time.

I would love for you all to try this method -

1) one piece of 8 1/2 x11" card stock
2) one embossing folder
3) paper scraps for trim/embellishment
4) a bit of ribbon (optional)
5) one or two brads, buttons, grommets or other bits
6) each one different, while using same techniques

and email me your results to share with other viewers to my blog.