Just a CAS summery card I sent to a pen-pal with her letter. I love this bee (and you don’t often hear me say THOSE words!!) which was Cricut-cut. I can’t remember which cartridge so if you would like to know leave me a message on this post and I’ll look through my handbooks and find the image for you.

I printed the words on my computer first, then used foam tape to attach the layered bee.

I actually worked on a Thanksgiving card last night, but I don’t want to hurry Summer along so won’t post it until it’s much closer to Thanksgiving. However … here is a little teaser. 

Yup - a brand new SVG set was released last night and I couldn’t wait to download it and play. I’ll post full details with my card in a month or so.  Thanks for stopping by today!

There is a new sketch at the Clean and Simple blog, and I couldn’t wait to play with it …

 Here is my take on the sketch:

This was way fun — the card itself is made from an old old OLD hanging file folder. I found a stack of them somewhere and cut them down into A2 card bases. I love the mottled look to them. The red paper is from one of my new paper stacks and is probably my favourite out of the whole package. And here I am USING it. Just cutting right into it and USING it. 

The flowers are Photoshop brushes by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. They are having a Christmas in July sale, and these were on my Wish List. When I saw they were on sale, I snagged them. They were printed on a Staples brand satin photo paper and I’m not sure how I feel about it. At any rate, I like the card.  (Word-Art is my own).

I added each of the flowers to a separate layer in Photoshop, and added a gradient to them for some variation. I also added a small, shallow drop shadow to each of the brushes. The card has a white paper insert with rounded corners.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Since I’m thinking about the August tag I’ll be sending to Sue, I thought I’d better share the June one. I thought I had already posted it, but this morning I see that I just got the photos sized and ready.  The first of each month, Sue and I pop something in the mail to each other (we live in the same province, but not the same city). I was inspired by Tim Holtz’ ‘12 Tags of Christmas’ so decided to do the ‘12 Tags of 2010′ for her this year.

For the June one, I was ready for some DIGITAL creating … so used a bunch of things from Dee Bee Designs at E-scapeandscrap.net** for the tag. I sized it at 6-1/2″ long and 3-1/4″ wide, and printed it out on Kirkland Professional Glossy Inkjet Photo Paper from Costco. Love this stuff. All the digital shadows, stitching etc were added before printing, and this is what it looked like:

**E-scapeandscrap has been having a terrible time with their host and server. It’s been a mess - and my heart goes out to Julie (site owner) and her designers & creative team. This is completely out of their hands — and I hope everything is resolved quickly. Shame on bad hosts … shame shame shame.

This is the finished ’set’ - as I usually make an envelope for the tag to fit into. You can see it was cut into a tag shape (something I took into account when I was designing it on the computer) and matted with pink card stock.

Finally, a detail shot. Oh, don’t I enjoy using pretty fibres. 

Happy Friday - thanks for stopping by!

This was one of the cards that went into my friends large card order. She is a Realtor, so likes some ‘house themed’ cards. The decorated panel is completely digital … I created the house using various shapes so it can be changed out to just about any colour or pattern and for this one I used my own digital papers.

I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder right on the turquoise card (and envelope)  and the card was lined with  slightly smaller folded white card stock. That gave her a bright place to write, made the card more ‘weighty’, and hid the embossing on the top inside.

Yesterday was a productive day as far as the Christmas Craft Sale went — I had pre-printed and punched a bunch of circles/scallops and they were all ready to be attached to York Mint Patties. Yesterday I got that all done, AND the candy in their plastic sleeves!! I want to use the Cricut to create a header, however have cut several shapes that I am not pleased with. That will be the next challenge, but I’d sure love to get those finished in the next couple of days so I can move onto the next un-finished craft sale project. Nothing like putting on a Christmas Craft Sale to keep you in the Christmas spirit all year long. 

We are off to a Stampede Breakfast this morning - I LOVE Stampede!!!

Thanks for stopping by today.

I love paper crafting, and I especially love that I can switch back and forth between digital and the real thing when making cards and layouts (and everything else too!). I saw these “Painted Butterflies” by the amazing Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals, and they made my heart flutter.  :-)    I bought and downloaded them immediately.

The first card I did was completely CAS (Clean and Simple) and I love it. LOVE it. I simply printed this butterfly on my favourite glossy photo paper* and folded it into a card. There is something so classy about a beautifully coloured image on a glossy card. Once I had that one out of my system, I made this card … the two photos are the same card - just different lighting.

The butterfly image was printed on the same glossy photo paper*, but trimmed and matted with patterned paper and black cardstock - then popped off the card front with foam tape. I used a heavy card base - it’s white but has confetti flecks through it. I made four of these, since I could easily fit 4 images on the sheet of photo paper. I had to stop myself, because I could make DOZENS. Just because the image is SO beautiful. LOL - you know me and butterflies!

*I use my favourite glossy photo paper - Kirkland Professional Glossy Inkjet Photo Paper from Costco.

These Painted Butterflies remind me that retiring from digital designing was the right thing to do. If I were still ‘in the business’ - I’d look at this and take it as an inspiration point to create my own collaged butterfly digital images. Or flower images or whatever I was inspired to do when I opened up Photoshop. Or I would have jotted down the idea in my ‘idea journal’ to create WHEN THERE WAS TIME. I wouldn’t have let myself just buy Katie’s set and enjoy them like I have.

Oh, and now that I have done the glossy photo paper thing? I want to try to print them larger on photo canvas. Or even Bazzill card stock for a totally different look. Oh these images make me so happy!!!

Thanks for stopping by today.

I was very happy to find the new “Go To Sketches” magazine, and Jessica Witty’s sketch on page 133 appealed to me immediately. When I shared the magazine with “D”, that was the one that she wanted to start with too!

So.  I decided to try and do a digital version, which of course was all kinds of trouble because Photoshop kept crashing on me. I finally got the program reinstalled and got the digital card done. Well it printed crooked, so I had to trim the fronts into panels and mount them onto the card base. Did I trim them properly? Nope - upside down.  So this is my first VERSION of her sketch:

I tried printing again and this one worked … but I realized that with the margins for the printer I couldn’t get the circles as close to the bottom edge as I would like. More trimming and mounting …

I like the cards and will make them again for sure. In fact, here is a tease of the next ones I started on …

I thought I’d like the more subtle colours in the top cards — and while they are OK — I much prefer the more saturated ones in the bottom teaser picture.  It’s a FUN sketch, that’s for sure!

Credits:  Stamps - Hero Arts; Digital backgrounds - my own (Our Dad digital scrapbooking kit, now retired); Tan cardstock - DCWV ‘Linen Closet’; Christmas digital backgrounds - by NMartin; Christmas Word-art - Ali Edwards (both @ Designer Digitals)

Thanks for stopping by today!

First of all, yes there is music coming from my blog. Just something I’m trying out. If it drives you nuts, just scroll down to the bottom right and you can click the ‘pause’ button. 

I have a hybrid Easter card to share today … The chicks, words and frame were printed on regular card stock, and cut (by hand - no Cricut was used in this card!!). I punched 2 slots for ribbon, then printed the digital background layers. Both are by Julie Mead at E-scapeandscrap, although both colours were completely adjusted to match the chicks. I added a hand-painted digital shadow between the yellow and green layer, merged everything, and printed it as one image.

After cutting out the background, the ‘chick and ribbon’ piece was wrapped around it, then the whole thing was attached to the front of a folded white card.

With being away, and then the shower –  I didn’t get many Easter cards made or sent this year … including these ones. They will have to wait until next year to be mailed.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I didn’t want anything too pink or frilly for our DS’s Valentine … so I went totally digital. I printed the top and inside panels onto satin finish photo paper, trimmed and mounted to a folded white card.

All backgrounds and images are my own … and used to be for sale at E-scapeandscrap.net before I ‘retired’ last month. It’s strange to post something using a digital file and not have to find the links in case you wanted to purchase them!

Our cabin furnace went on the blink yesterday. !! Of course - the Sunday of a long weekend. But at least the weather was fairly mild. It could have been minus 25, and the Sunday of a long weekend! The part wasn’t in stock so has to be ordered today. There is just always some sort of excitement at our house. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

This CUTE reindeer was actually on a gift tag that I snagged after we finished opening gifts last year. Look at him - how could one just toss THAT in the trash?

The decorated panel I attached him to, is actually a digital panel. Two layers of digital paper sized with a hand-painted shadow before printing. I printed 4 to a sheet using my ink-jet printer and matte photo paper. Easy Peasy!

Thanks for stopping by today.

I have decided to host a Christmas Craft Show. Here, next November. A couple of friends want to partcipate and I’m really excited! Probably being in the Christmas spirit helps … by July I’ll not be too thrilled to be making Christmas items. At any rate, I’ve been keeping busy making tags etc for us for Christmas AND making extra or tucking one into a file to make for the Craft Show. I don’t have any pictures yet, but will hopefully remedy that this weekend and have some fun things to post.

Yesterday I was making gift card holders. I made 2 for us to use this year and 2 for the sale next year. :-)  This morning I had an idea for another one, so am heading down to the studio to make them up before the idea leaves my head.

Here is the newest product in the boutique: I have done digital albums before, but this one is a little different. Instead of transparent window openings - this album has ten pages saved as .jpg’s. (For you non digital scrappers, that’s the same format as the pictures you download off your camera.) There is a spot for an already printed 4×6 photo — so it’s an album you can print at home and complete on the fly. I’m very pleased with it!

Simply Christmas - Printable Album can be found HERE:

Thanks for stopping by today!