Flower pot gift card holder

Good Morning, my friend asked me to make a card for a baby shower so this is what I came up with. The design is not original to me. I found a similar card at Splitcoaststampers and added a place to put a gift card, made it bigger, and added my own personal touches. This card fits in a 5 x 7 envelope. I took a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 spring moss card stock, cut off 3 1/2 inches leaving 2 pieces, one 3 1/2 x 11, the other 5 x 11. I made the pot from the 5 x 11, scored at 4 1/2 and 9. The top flap folds forward, the bottom folds opposite. I scored the insert 3 1/2 piece at 6 1/2 and tweaked the cut off to fit under my flowers. I stamped tiny flowers from the Reason to Smile set (StampinUp), on to vellum with white and mounted to the front of the flower pot. Then I tied the ribbon around the flowerpot and added some adhesive in 2 spots to secure it. This holds the flowerpot closed. I mounted the flowers and leaves on to the smaller gift card piece, added a stick with a little lion, a bumblebee, a brad and put a verse inside. I did tweak the top fold of the gift card holder after I added the flowers, I cut some off the piece that tucks under the flowers for a better fit. No measurement for that, depends on where your flowers come to. I also kept an envelope on the table so I could keep checking if I was getting carried away with making my flowers too tall, to make sure it would fit when I was done. Here are 2 more I made for my shop since the first one.


Oops! I almost gave you the wrong name for the stamp I used. My plan for today is to take all my Stampin Up Stamps and name them individually with a magic marker. Once I take them out of the box and work with them, I have to go back and dig around to see the name and what set I took them out of. While I am at it, I have decided I am going to photograph all of my stamps and make a folder in My Pictures so I can browse through them for ideas. I am also considering removing them from their boxes, they take up so much space. I won't throw my boxes out just yet in case I don't like my new system. Thanks again for looking~Diane

Wonderful Wings

I have to say Wonderful Wings by Stampin Up is still my all time favorite stamp. I also used Doodle This and Delight in life to make these cards. 98% of my card stock is from StampinUp, I love the weight of it, so 98% of the card stock used for the flowers has to be theirs. The butterflies and dragonfly are stamped on a heavy industrial grade of vellum and the bumblebee was stamped on a sheet of clear transparency that I added Crystal Effects (also from StampinUp) to give it more dimension. I gave a tutorial a while back on how to make a pop up card, and I had these pop up cards in my Etsy shop and forgot to share them with you. A lovely customer asked me to add a sentiment to the card, so I printed it on a vellum insert and decorated it with a few more flowers. The dark green paper on the front of the cards is a technique I read about somewhere (sorry I can't remember where). It is made from a beautiful 2 ply napkin that I peeled apart and discarded the white ply. I then took a sheet of plain white card stock, covered it with Saran wrap, and then laid the green napkin on top. I then ironed it (the sandwich of 3 layers) on high (cotton setting), until the 3 layers were fused together. (I covered the top napkin layer with a sheet of paper so I would not scortch the napkin). I then trimmed it to size. This was a wonderful use for these napkins. A girlfriend bought me the napkins from a boutique shop in town as a joke, probably arouns 8 years ago. As we were browsing the store we spotted them, and we could not get over the fact that they cost $12.00 for a package of 10! They are not even full size napkins, they are small little cocktail napkins! Obviously I could not bear to use them for all these years. I mean who who spends $1.20 on each napkin to throw away? The napkin does look beautiful on the cards though. Kind of funny when I think about it, I don't mind spending the $1.20 on the napkin to make a card from, but to wipe your mouth and throw it away, no way! I've been busy making a few custom orders for friends and my daughter; I will share them in my upcoming entries. Thanks again for taking the time to look. ~Diane

50th wedding Anniversary card

I am so proud to say this card will be published in the Scrapbook News and Review!

Ok, so I found a new idea and I'm running with it. I love this design with the vellum insert and the beading. I think the gold color card stock and vellum really changes it up.
I would love to hear from anyone on the Zyron sticker maker machines. I am thinking of purchasing one, but some of the reviews claim they are impossible to re load. I think I want to get the 500, which does the 5" wide stickers. I plan to use it on vellum sentiments that I print out on the computer. Does anyone out there have one? I think people are more likely to write a bad review than a good one, so I'm hoping I can ignore the bad stuff. Please help me out if you can, I would love to hear from you, good or bad. Thanks again for looking.

Lauren's Wedding Shower Card

I used the Wonderful Wings stamp from Stampin Up to make this card, I never get tired of the beautiful butterflies in this set. I used chalk on the wings and a gold filigree pen on the body. I stamped the image on vellum, in white ink. I made this for a friends daughter, for a wedding shower, her wedding colors were sage green and pink. I used the Stampin Up sage shadow, with the new Pirroutte Pink (I love this color). Sorry I went crazy with the photo's, but I wanted to show how I cut about an inch and a half off the front bottom of the card. You can see the lace from the inside of the card when you close the card. I mounted the lace on a strip of pink and used double face tape to mount it to the white card. I saw this floral trim in the fabric section of JoAnns, and I had to get it. I hadn't planned out the card yet but I knew it was meant for a card, not a dress. Very well worth the 2.99 a yard price, I think it makes the card. I cut For Lauren with the Cricut Expression. I will try to post more often in the future, and thanks for looking.

Alchemy Special order request

Finally some sunshine! Would you believe the grass is already green in Michigan?
These are some special order cards I made for a fellow Etsian at Studio 79, she's a computer genius. If you are looking to set up a web site you have to check out her shop, I've added the link to her shop here. I had a lot of fun designing these cards, I was trying to capture her taste based on the MUM card she already purchased. But I really need to work on my photographing skills. I also wanted to make one card for entry into the Heart Hugs Designs Etsy inspired challenge. Card number 3 is the one I found my inspiration from the Etsy shop Make Mine Mud. I have a photo of the set of three garden stakesI used for the inspiration. The garden stakes look like the felt flowers I used with the Cricut cut out around it. The 1st 2 cards have some beautiful Spring Moss grosgrain ribbon that looks like paper in the photos. I do like working with ribbons, but I like to tuck them in behind the top layer of a card. I think it looks more professional if the ribbon does not show on the inside of the card. Sometimes if you have to wrap it around the card itself it can be hidden with an inside paper liner. I cut the letters for all of these with my Cricut Expression. This year I have been using more background papers in my cards. I found that when you buy a set the color combinations are already worked out for you, I like that. I would have to say that is where my creativity lacks the most. I have a hard time incorporating different color schemes into my cards, and the sets seem to address that for me. Well I hope she can find 2 of these she likes.

Flower Soft results

So I ordered the new Flower Soft product everyone is raving about. I was so excited I told you I would share my results when it came in. I have to be honest, I have mixed feelings about it. I purchased the Floral Bouquet Color Selection which contains; 7x Flower Soft® (20ml jars):Delphinium Blue - Fuchsia - Heather - Spring -Sweet pea - Lavender - Summer The cards above were made with Sweet Pea (I think, jars are not labeled) and Lavender. From the pictures on the box the Sweet Pea and Summer look similar. The 7 jar box is a good way to try a few out, but the jars are smaller, only 20ml instead of the single jar size of 30ml. I love the Sweet Pea it is a mixture of pale pink and dark pink, and light green and dark green. I did not like my results with the lavender as well. When I put it on light it almost does not look like enough, but when I add to it, I think it looks creepy, more like a rough beard than flowers. I probably should have chosen a different stamp to apply it to. The demo site made a big deal about how much there is in each jar once you pour it out and fluff it up. I am disappointed in the fact that although it does fluff up, it doesn't go very far. The jars cost about the same as a good jar of glitter or embossing powder, but they don't go as far. I am 1/2 way through 1 jar with only 5 cards. Sorry, I don't mean to sound negative, but I do want to be honest with you. I also purchased the bicycle stamp from the site and I love it. I did alter it a bit to make it look like this. All in all, the stamp was reasonably priced at 9.99, the set was 24.99 and sometimes you have to try something you don't like to find the things you do like. I will definitely order again, next time I will buy the single 30ml jars for 5.99 each and I will probably order the yellow too, for the center of larger flowers. I learned something new while making these cards. I had some patterned paper with umbrella's on it that I had not found a use for. I used it on these cards, only a slight amount of the image shows up and you would not know it was umbrella's unless I told you. The color combination was perfect.
Thank you for reading my blog.

Mothers Day card ideas

This was a very cool honor, one of my peers at etsy chose this card for a Mothers day treasury she put together. The treasury was chosen for the front page, which gives my shop more exposure. Thank you OhFaro, it truly was an honor to be chosen along with the other awesome crafters, my Mother would be proud of the company I keep. Here's a link to the treasury http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=55112 Better yet, check out her shop, she has some awesome hair accessories made from vintage jewelry, here is her link:
I have been busily working on some Mothers Day cards for my shop. I thought I would share a few of them here. I was browsing through my Card Makers Sketch Book by Tanya Fox, and I found this idea for 3 cut sheets going in different directions. I bought these coordinating papers quite a while back, I thought they would really make it pop. I like how they came out but I had no idea how much work would be involved. I was surprised it took a lot more time than I expected. Cutting all the pieces and gluing them on, gluing the letters on (in a straight line)
was more challenging than I imagined. I cut the letters with the Cricut expression, and I used the negatives too. I like the way the lavender stripes show through the word MUM. I ordered a new product called Flower Soft, it just arrived. I will have to tell you what I think of it. I can't wait to start trying it out. Take care.

Basket weave tie dye, candelabra and Birthday card

Sorry no posts, I had the flu। I wanted to update you with a few more cards I finally finished. The 1st card I made with some of the tie dye paper I made. I cut it into strips and did a basket weave. I used the Cricut to cut the scalloped border. I added one of my StampinUp Wonderful Wings butterflies that I stamped with white ink on vellum, then chalked. I had a white flower
that I chalked to match, added a little glue and glitter to finish it off. Candelabra was stamped with the gold acrylic paint that is pretty liquid and then I used black opaque embossing powder. I like working with the thicker paint it gives it a different effect. I had some teardrop shaped rhinestones that I added for a splash of color. The Birthday card was for my daughter, I used
the Melissa Frances paper, ribbon and embellishments that I won from Paper Craft magazine. I really liked working with the set, that was a first for me. I liked that everything was in the same color family and I could mix the papers and not worry if it would look good. I used the vellum stickers from K&Company for the sentiment, I stuck it to a piece of blue card stock and then I dipped the edges in black ink. My daughter said she really liked the way it looked so professional. Have fun stamping this week, it's snowing here in Michigan! I can't wait for the warmer weather.

Some Tie Dye results

Hello, I had fun making these cards with my tie dye card stock. The Stampin Up set Very Punny has these cute little fishes. I used the Stampin Up Crystal Effects (kind of like a clear puffy paint for those who have never used it) to make the fish and their bubbles raise up off the card, it gives them a 3D look. This stamp came with the words best fishes attached. I found a neat trick for mounting your rubber stamps I will share. I think the best fishes is cute but it would have
taken away from this card if I had stamped it with each and every fish. If I get a stamp that has words attatched, when I trim it before mounting it, I cut the words off and mount them to the side or top of the stamp. That way you can use them separately without fooling around with masking them. Also, if your stamp has already been mounted, you can stick it in the microwave for 10 or 15 seconds and the rubber will come off to be repositioned or in this case you could cut the words off and re-mount them on the side. I also found out that if you have an image that requires 2 stamps, like a flower stamp and a stem stamp, it is easier to position them correctly if you mount the stamp at the very top of your block or bottom instead of centering it. That way you can see where you are aiming at and get them to meet each other. I have the stem mounted to the top, and the corresponding flower is shifted towards the bottom. That way I can see all of the stem and my block is not in my way when I am positioning the flower. Of course I found this out after all my stamps were mounted, so the microwave tip came in real handy for me. Hope you enjoy this.

Baroque Motif stamp

I love this Baroque Motifs stamp set. That last card had me in the mood to do some heat embossing, so I had some fun with this stamp. I have had this muted gold and silver cardstock from Me And My Big Ideas for some time, and I thought it would look great with this stamp. I used double faced tape to mount the muted gold and silver to my Very Vanilla cardstock from Stampin Up. I stamped the square medallion in gold pigment ink, and used the Hampton Art
gold embossing powder. I cut out the medallion and mounted it with dimensionals (SU). I had some gray tone on tone ribbon I glued to a piece of gold cardstock. The pretty metal flowers are
part of my prize winnings from PaperCraft magazine, WorldCard Day Contest. I've been saving them for something special. They are called Flower Elements from Maya Road, very cool. I added some ruby red rhinestones to finish it off. The second card has basic black cardstock
from Stampin Up and pirate gold embossing powder from Stampendous. The buttons and jewels border is from JoAnns (I loved it when I saw it, but I could never find a project to put it on.) And of course the Baroque Motif stamp from Stampin Up. This one was not cut out like the one on the card above this. I hope you enjoyed these ideas, I will post my Tie Dye cards
as soon as they dry.

Mistakes can be inspiring.

I found an orange Christmas ornament (yes I said orange and Christmas in the same sentence) on clearance at JoAnns. Any one wonder why the were on clearance? But I thought it would make a lovely stamp. The ornament was made of some type of hard felt, but I decided I could glue it to an acrylic block. I guess there is a reason I have never seen a stamp made of hard felt. It would not pick up the ink, or at least it didn't look like it did . I thought well maybe my gold pad isn't juicy enough, so then I tried my silver pad. When I stamped the image I came up with this worn antique effect. I think it looks pretty cool. Ash filigree paper from around the block, black cardstock from Stampin Up, textured silver cardstock from DCWV . After I made a few cards like this I decided to try heat embossing the same image. So I used some acrylic ink out of the bottle, and sponged it on to my ornament stamp, then I used a pewter embossing powder from stamp n stuff and voila, I have this really cool bubbly raised surface. I think they both look pretty rustic. I used Stampin Up black cardstock, and the Stampin Up old olive cardstock really brought it all together.

How to make Tie Dye card stock

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This is a fun project almost anyone can do. This is what you will need to make your own ;
Newspapers, disposable gloves, cut sheets of card stock, an old container ( I used an old 9 x 13 cake pan), ruler, paper towels, shaving cream (whatever scent you use it will stay with the cards forever! I use the aloe or lemon lime), your liquid ink of choice. (You can use Stampin Up re-inkers, food coloring or old computer refill inks.) I use the old inks I bought to refill my computer cartridges since I never figured out how to get the ink in without spilling it everywhere. I think you should be able to follow the pictures. Shake can of shaving cream, squirt into your container. Gently squirt or pour a few drops of ink on top of shaving cream. With an old pencil swirl ink by dragging pencil from side to side. Do not mix or stir colors, see the picture. Take your cut sheet of card stock, (hope you have the gloves on by now) and push it into the shaving cream. Remove and use the ruler to gently scrape off the shaving cream. Use a paper towel to wipe off excess. The shaving cream that you scraped off your card can be scraped onto the edge of the pan and re-used. Continue pushing cards into the cream, you will get a different effect if you twist the card after you have pushed it into the cream. Also
the pattern will vary with the direction in which you scrape with your ruler. If you don't like the
look of one you can always re dip and do it again. When you get down to the bottom you can push the scraped leftovers into your pile and continue. Towards the end the colors will be mixed together too much and they won't be as vibrant. That's when I let the cream set on the card a little longer before I scrape it off. You may need to use an index card in place of a spatula to lift the card up without destroying the edges. Place finished cards on newspaper to dry making sure they do not overlap. It is natural for the cards to curl while working on them and while drying. The following day you can place your finished pieces underneath a heavy book for another day or two. You will get different effects also by the color of card stock you use. I like to see what they look like when they are done. Some look like the stems of flowers, others like the ocean. I then decide what card to use them on. I hope I explained this clearly, post any questions you may have.

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