T is for Teacher, monogram card.

Here is a sneak peek at my monogram card, along with the recipe.

Monogram card recipe.

I used this great apple cardstock from DCWV the Sweet Stack to make my Monogram card. I also used Green Galore, Pixie Pink, and Apricot Appeal that I cut with my Spellbinders Petite Ovals. The Monogram T was cut on my Cricut using the Plantin Schoolbook in a 1 3/4 size cut, on the 1st cut and on the shadow. I added a little bling with some pink glitter and I cut one of the apples from the DCWV card stock and I used some of the Crystal Effects. When the apple dried, I touched it with some real red ink and added a bow. I used the 3 D Dots foam adhesive under the apricot appeal and also under the pixie pink card stock to give it some added dimension. Thanks for looking ~Diane

Paper and More Vellum

I am proud to say this card was out for Publication in Scrapbook News and Review.

These are the 3 finished cards

Punch vellum and glue together, add glue to top of the vellum flower,
then press the glue into the beads, it will pick them up for you.

Cut tracing paper to size, attach to card with glue dots.

Print sentiment on computer, cut into a strip and add behind tracing paper,
use glue dots here also.

Use glue dots to attach the ribbon to the tracing paper.

I really like the look of vellum, and I love to work with it. It gives you so many more creative opportunities. I found a fabulous source for vellum also, Paper And More has a beautiful selection of vellum and other card stock quite reasonably priced. I ordered the sample packs in both the light and dark colors, and I had a terrible time deciding which ones I wanted to buy! I used my birthday money to buy 2 - 100 sheet packages. I was able to split my 100 sheets into 4 colors for a few extra dollars, so I have 200 sheets, in 8 beautiful colors that I will be showing you from time to time. The flowers on the cards I am showing here were made with the Blush Pink Vellum. I used the StampinUp punch to punch out the delicate flowers, I then glued them together with Scotch quick dry adhesive. I used tracing paper on top of the card stock and it gave it a very delicate look. I cut the leaves with my Cricut expression. I posted pictures of the process with notes above. I hope you like these, I am pleased with how they turned out.~Diane

Step by step how to print an insert for your card.

For this card layout I chose Landscape (even though it is a portrait card)
The text layout is wide or landscape.


For this card I chose Portrait (because the insert, not the card, is portrait)
I have tried to highlight the actionable choices in blue, the rest is just explanation.
I have been asked how I print out the inserts I make for my handmade cards, so I thought I might share it with all of you. I have Microsoft Office Word 2007. I open a page in Word, at the top of the page I choose Page Layout, I can take portrait - the top half of this would be blank with the writing on the bottom 1/2 of the card. Or landscape- which means the left hand side of the card should be blank with the text writing on the right hand side of the card this all depends on the way my card is laid out. If I am choosing the landscape option (wide) I will then go to columns, and choose 2 columns, that will split your page in 1/2. Then I go to Size - More sizes is where you can type in the size of your full sheet of paper. My cards are mainly 5 x 7 so I would choose 9.9 x 6.9 or 6.9 x 9.9. I make the insert slightly smaller than the card itself. All of the above is done in the Page Layout, I then move back to Home (another title in your word document) and from there I can choose center alignment, (this is a picture not a title) to get the typing centerd on the page. I then type in my text, I click and drag to highlight all of the text and I then choose Font and Size. Some fonts are a small 14 and I have to increase it to a 18, or some are a large 10, that all depends and you have to eyeball it. If the text is highlighted, when you roll over the different fonts you will see a preview of what each one will look like. Now if you chose Portrait (long) the card will fold in the middle and the space above the fold will be blank. On this layout I have to press enter a few times to get to where I perceive the lower 1/2 of the page is. I then go to Print Preview, to eyeball it, or hold a ruler to the screen and see if it looks centered correctly. When I am happy with the results, this is very important, I then close the document and save it as Portrait or Landscape, or wide or long whatever is easiest for you to remember, and I save it in My Documents. The next time you want to make an insert everything above will be done and saved, all you have to do is go in to the document, highlight the existing text, start typing in the text you want for the current card and it will replace it exactly like you have it all set up. After you print the page and go to close the document it will ask if you want to save your changes, I usually say no and my original text comes back in place. Last - Printing, very important that you first cut your paper down to the size you chose. Then go to Print - Properties - Size, choose Custom 1, 2, or 3, then press the Custom button that will be on that box, enter your sizes, press Save and ok then press ok on the next page it takes you to , and then press ok again to start printing. The next time you go to print the new text you will still have to set up the printing by choosing your custom 1 or custom 2 however you saved it. Once you set this up it is a breeze to print anything you want in your cards.

4 new cards to share

I thought you might enjoy these cards I have been working on. The first two are done in some beautiful flocked paper a friend gave me as a gift. It is from K&Company-BW Mira Specialty Paper Pad. I did not have to stamp either of them, except the butterfly embellishment that I stamped and added. I made the butterfly out of the drafting vellum and I used one of the darker Pearl-Ex mica powders, it's sort of a burnt red color, it matches the colors in the flocked paper. I also used some black to accent this butterfly, I think it looks better with black because it's not as pastel as my other butterfly's. I used Sage Shadow, and Bravo Burgundy card stock from Stampin Up. The second card was made with the top half of the same 12 x 12 sheet, I only caught the top of one of the flowers and also a butterfly on the lower left. I used my new Cuttlebug folder on only the left half of the card image. I really like how it came out. I added a little of the reddish Pearl-Ex to the bird and some yellow to the marsh grasses to make them pop a little. I think the little butterfly looks cute in the grasses too. I am surprised that I was able to do a 1/2 of the card with the Cuttlebug folder. I was afraid there would be a dramatic line at the edge of the folder, but there really isn't. This looked perfect with Apricot Appeal cardstock from StampinUp.
The next card I made with a teenager in mind. I found the huge embellishment at JoAnns on clearance and I plopped it on the bright pink pomegranate cardstock from JoAnns. I embossed the pink with a Sizzix plate in my Spellbinder Wizard, added some lace and Voila! I printed the Happy Birthday on my computer onto the drafting vellum also. I mounted this onto Pacific Point, a rich beautiful blue from StampinUp.
This last card is made from some beautiful fabric my friend gave me also. I don't know if you can see it that well in the pictures. It is a black mesh fabric with small stripes of raised patterned blue, tan and yellow fabric. The center square has almost a quilted look to it, and the center of the square is black mesh (under the embellishment). I had a tough time designing this card, I love the fabric so much, I wanted to make something that would bring out the beauty of the fabric. I mounted the fabric to a sheet of black cardstock, taped that to a sheet of So Saffron and then the card is Brocade Blue. I hope you enjoyed the selection~Diane

A few cards I've been working on

I've been busy thinking up new cards for my friends and my daughter. I am still trying to organize my stamps. I photographed all of my Stampin Up sets on Friday and I somehow lost them in my computer. I have been loading pictures incorrectly so I figured out what I was doing wrong there. I would keep pictures on my camera card so that every time I loaded new pictures into my HP Image Zone, the program would recognize them as new and make back ups and copies, and then when I would edit them I would get more copies. So now I have it set up to delete the photo's from my camera card after I transfer them. I thought I was keeping the photo's in My Pictures so I deleted the photo's in the HP program. Guess what? That deleted my photo's in My Pictures too. Well the good part is that I found out that I have a back up so I found the photo's and I also found about 800 more copies of copies to go through and try to delete only the many duplicates. I am happy that I figured out the back up and how to recover from it. I will post a tutorial on spinner cards soon. Thanks for looking~Diane

Spinner Card

Be careful your flower petals don't get caught in the track.

Red card is my inspiration piece, I just modified the design.

Stampin Up Word Window punch and Dimensionals

I forgot to trim the dimensional to a round shape here




These are foam strips or dimensionals (sticky on 2 sides with foam in between)

So this is a Spinner Card or penny card. The pennies make the rattles or butterflies spin in circles as they travel up and down the slot in the card when you tilt the card from side to side. I used the Word Window punch from Stampin Up to make the track in the side of my card. You will need to line it up and punch it out a few times. I then took 2 pennies, added a foam dimensional to the top of one and placed the penny under the card inside the track. I then added the other penny to the top so they were stuck together with a foam dimensional. (Make sure your dimensional is mounted in the center of the penny. I sometimes find it easier to mount the pennies together and then gently wiggle them into the track.) Also, it works a little better if you trim the edges of the StampinUp dimensional to make it round. I used a 1/2 of a foam dimensional between the bases of the rattles. I used another foam dimensional to attach the stuck together rattles (or butterfly and flower ) to the penny on what is now the outside of the card. (From the bottom up you will have penny, foam, penny, foam, rattle or flower and butterfly.) On the back of the card front I add strips of dimensional foam so that when I attach it to the card there will be air space between the 2 layers of card. Hold the card between your index fingers on the 2 open ends (top and bottom on the rattle card) and tilt the card from side to side and the rattle should spin. Sometimes when it is new you have to shake it down the track to get it broke in a little bit. Sometimes I have to tilt it 15 to 30 times to get it to do an actual circular spin, but once it gets going it will keep spinning in circles. If your foam on the pennies is too big it may have to be trimmed down so it won't catch in the track. Make sure when you are holding the card and tilting it from side to side that you are not pinching the card closed anywhere near the edges or sides of the track, that will constrict the flow also.
This time I decided to add my inspiration piece. The red Thinking of You card was the first spinner card I made. I made it at a StampinUp party which is where I learned the technique. One year I made a Christmas card that had a snowflake that spun on the card, I wish I would have kept that one. The butterfly card is the last one I made. It has a lot of detail, I stamped it with white ink on a very heavy vellum, cut them out by hand, trimmed all the edges with a gold filigree pen, glued on rhinestones and colored chips and colored the wings with chalks. I love to go crazy with the details! Well, thanks again for looking. ~Diane

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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