Project 149: WOYWW and flower girl thank you card

It's been a while since I've been able to join What's on your Workstation Wednesday but I was doing a fair bit of crafting this weekend so I thought I would stop by and have a snoop around!

I am cheating a bit with the main photo - this is what I took originally and was so ashamed by the mess I cleaned it so I could take another photo. Whatever gets the job done I say.

In fairness, I just had a big order come in from Craft Superstore so that accounts for the chaos but that's a lazy excuse, no?

Featured here I have a list from a big order, a few stamped pages I am trying out new techniques from a stamp course I am doing, my candy caddy and pro-markers and of course a pile of scraps that I haven't done anything with for ages. So precious about throwing out paper - why!?

You can also see my little cupcake (which has nothing in it - I just like it and think it looks fun and fits the chaos and have unfulfilled plans to use it some how) and J hanging on the wall which is a relatively new addition.

And then like a Where's Waldo/Where's Wally challenge (for the yanks/brits): spot the almost invisbile wine glass! 

The cards on the desk are part of a bigger order I am filling for my sister's wedding thank yous. She is having a cherry blossom theme and asked if I could personalise some of the cards for people in the wedding party. Here is a closer view of the one for her little flower girl, our cousin's 6 year old daughter:

I used a digi stamp of a little girl and made her all pink (my cousin's daughter is definitely a little pink girl) and die cut a scallop circle in a pink cherry blossom paper to match the theme. I topped hre with some glitter and bling and added a thank you over some washy tape (pink, natch). Simple and sweet.

To see a few other designs from the set, pop over to my post from this weekend for the grown up cards.

Can't wait to see what everyone else has on their desks - will definitely pop by!

Project 148: Music and Cherry Blossom thank you card

My sister is getting married in 2 months and she asked if I could make thank you cards for some of the special members of the bridal party and family who are contributing time and talent to her special day.

Her wedding theme is around cherry blossoms and so I wanted that to be a core feature in the thank you cards.

Two of our family/family friends are amazing musicians and are playing in the ceremony so I wanted to make their cards stand out with a musical twist. The headline card was my way of combining the two.

I used a layout from Freshly Made Sketches as I thought it would give me the right balance of papers I wanted in the mix. I started with a cherry blosom foiled paper that Claire gave me and die cut it in a large circle scallop. I embossed a light pink banner with tiny dots for texture and then topped this with a pink card that I stamped with a music stamp I have from a Papermania collection.

The greeting is part of a Fiskars thank you set Claire gave me and I follwed her advice - yes I do listen sometimes! - in the comments of this post about masking off part of a sentiment stamp. The greeting actually continued with "for all you do" but I wanted to keep this short and sweet and I really liked the font to correspond with the pretty papers.

Below is my second take, this time in blue and pink instead of all pink:

For the people doing readings in the wedding, I used the same papers but a slightly different sketch - this time casing an old card I made a few years ago that I stumbled across and liked the layout.

I rounded the corners and punched a floral border punch along the bottom to give it a bit more detail. I scallop-punched a solid color and used gold peel-offs for the greeting to match the foiled paper. I then added a few flowers to offset the scallop and then topped it wtih a ribbon. I made three of these in total.

Finally I needed 4 groomsmen cards and instead of the cherry blossoms I decided to go with a ginko pattern that was a bit more masculine. I kept these super simple as I liked the two-tone colors and thought a basic layout would work well. I used an alternative Thanks stamp from the same Fiskars set, topped the smaller card with two candies and a small banner and left it at that.

 I have a few more to make tomorrow but I think it's a pretty good output so far. Hopefully my sister will like them as well!

Project 147: Transportation challenge at MAWTT

I love iconic transportation shapes, like steam trains, hot air balloons and scooters. They are always retro, always work well for boys and girls and are generally pretty fun to work with.

I was delighted with Tammy's challenge at MAWTT this week to use transportation as the theme - I had the hardest time choosing which images and stamps to feature.

I decided on this Vespa stamp from Get Stamping magazine (issue 3) and I decided pretty early on the preppy pink and green combination. I love the green and pink spotted paper which is from the Neopolitan Collection Recollections pack from Michael's.

I used a circle die to cut out the image and then did larger circles for grey and green.  I was going to center the images and then when I was laying this out I knocked the stack and decided I liked this fanned version better than the centered version so I stuck with it. Very lucky I'm clumsy!

(Side note: the remains from cutting out the green circle was used to make the window card I posted here.)

I added the pink baker's twine to add a bit more texture. The "Discover" sentiment is from the same adventure stamp set of Get Stamping, part of a much larger stamp but I was careful to only get this word. I underlined it with a strip of bling to add a bit more girliness (and cover an "oops" where the word below still came through despite my care to prevent it). Finally I added some floral candies to mimic the little circles on the paper.

All in all I'm very pleased with this card, I think it'll work well for a lot of occassions and can't wait to find the right recipient!

Project 146: Springy stamped mother's day card

I wanted to make an elaborate Mother's Day card for my grandma, and I thought this floral Little Claire stamp would make a perfect feature. I stamped it directly onto green spotted paper as I wanted it to have that slightly vintage feel. I colored in the image after debating it for a while  I decided it was more special to have the colors.

Using what was left after cutting out a circle die, I created an aperature card and then trimmed down a square base to fit what was left. I usually hate window cards but I think this works - maybe it's the bright kelly green? Who knows. I dig it.

I used a gold sheer ribbon down the side to add a bit of lux and then layered some flowers - Grandmas always love flowers, right? - and decided to color the edges of green flower with ProMarkers to give a bit more of that vintage feel. Claire gave me the white paper roses about a year ago and I will be honest and say they've always scared me a bit. But they work here!

I didn't glitter it at the time but I might go back and do that...adds a bit more luxury I think. I kept it greeting-free as I thought it was already a bit OTT and so I will write my message and then get this off to Indy for Grandma to enjoy!


NB: The Indy link above is one of the first ever playdate blog posts. Too funny re-reading it now 2 years later - how far we have come! 

Project 145: MAWTT Easter and Retrosketches challenge

I am so thrilled to have my first challenge as a DT member of Moving Along With the Times. So happy to be a part of it!

The challenge this week is Easter or Spring. Beth gave me this adorable purple chick and egg ribbon and this was the inspriation for the whole card.

I used RetroSketches' layout this week as my template:

I embossed the lilac paper with the rose embossing folder Claire gave me. I added the ribbon to the sentiment card as well as the little tab. The greeting and tulip are both from a Hobbycraft Easter greeting set of peel-offs (also from Beth) and I finished with the candi and little purple daisy bling to balance out the layout.

Originally I didn't put a background paper down but I thought it looked too plain and the gingham really brought it to life. All purple for the Easter holiday - it works, no?

It was a fun little card and I loved how easily it came together. This will likely go to O's grandad, I know he'll appreciate a bit of spring-like cheer!

A special thanks to Claire who has introduced me to MAWTT - I'm so delighted to be on the DT with her.

Project 144: Lounging guy challenge

Claire and I like to make up our own challenges (as if we're not busy enough) and she pointed out that neither of us have used the lounging guy stamp from Little Claire previously. We decided to challenge ourselves to use him within the week.

I used natural card for the backing and framed the image within a green card. I was going to emboss it but it was far too busy so I lost that!

The aviators in the corner are from a stamp set I have from Get Stamping. I was trying a new technique I learned in an online course called "kissing stamps". I inked the black on the aviators and then put a green starry stamp directly onto the aviator stamp to give it little bit of dimension. I cut them out and put them on the corner as a little feature - I really like how it modernises the image I think.

We were supposed to use 2 papers for this - and I kind of forgot that - so I'm going to post-rationalise this by saying my backing card is natural brown craft card and the green border around the image are my two papers. (Claire - account handlers are always post rationalising, aren't we?)

I have some "relax" -themed stamps but I decided to strip this one back to basics and handwrite this message. 

All in all, I think it's a cute little card and I'll happily use him again I think!

Project 143: Coral anniversary card featuring KennyK mermaid

I've mentioned so many times on this blog how much I love a super-specific, personalized brief when I'm making cards for friends and this weekend I got a great one: a "coral" anniversary card (35 years) for my friend Beth's parents. 

She knew I had a mermaid stamp from Kenny K as I've blogged about her before (in fact I think I sent her that card) so she asked if I could feature her with two little orange fishes to represent her fur-children. See what I mean about specific?

The Krafty Krew who run the Kenny K blog are doing a pastle theme for their challenge - I tried to keep most of the colors in this pastel but there are a few bold ones in there as well for accents (like the coral and turquoise). 

The headline is my card for her. It's busier than some of the other cards I've made lately but even if it's busy it's all so personal I think it works. The mermaid stamp was colored in varying coral and pink shades using ProMarkers and I added a little turquoise streak to her hair and bangle just to break it up a bit. I glittered her shells in her hair, her bangle and the rim of her fin to make it stand out.

I die-cut two petals, one in a very light blue-green and the second in a spotted turquoise paper that is a bit distressed. I love using petals to frame images, particularly KennyK stamps like this. It may be a bit busy over the background coral paper (which I found in my collection - score). That's probably the only thing I don't love about the final product but once you stick it down, you're committed and all you can do is honeslty blog about it!

Finally I added a blingy 35, some bling to both her eyes and the little gold fishes (to represent her two orange cats - I just cut them out using goldfish crackers as a template. Love when snacking is inspiration!), some candy and a banner for the sentiment.

Side note: I HATE those anniversary peel-offs. This was the 4th attempt at setting them straight. I really need to get a new set, or stamp, or something else as these are impossibly thin and difficult to use.  But they're just about straight here so I called it a day.

Putting this together was a really fun challenge and I hope Beth's parents like it!