I have recently needed 3 or so retirement cards.  What a fun time of year to retire!  Here are the 2 different cards I came up with.  The first one I decided to use the Penny Black Lazy Days stamp that I purchased on my trip to Buffalo.  I still hadn’t put it away so when I saw it sitting on my desk, I thought the hedgie would be perfect for a retirement card.  Just kick back & relax in the days ahead!  I used my rectangle Nestabilities since I don’t have the square ones and I cut the right side off to lay flush with the cardfront.    The striped paper is by Die Cuts With a View.  This piece was given to me by a friend.  I was going to direct you to the paper on sale right now at All That Scraps but when I went to grab the link, I couldn’t find it.  They are probably sold out but go and check out the site- they are having a big sale to make room for new products!

Here’s a close-up of the flower.  I stamped and colored it twice.  The second one was cut out and popped up on dimensionals.  The image was colored with watercolor crayons.  I am thinking that I might need to invest in the SU! crayons since I have been pulling out my small set of Lyras quite often lately.  If you have any opinions on the SU! watercolor crayons, I’d love to hear from you!  You can simply reply to this post.

stamps- Penny Black- Lazy Days, words- The Stamp Barn

paper- YoYo Yellow, Celery, White, Bashful, Die Cuts With a View

ink- Palette Black Noir

accessories- watercolor crayons, Nestabilities, corner rounder, pop dots, paper flowers- Walmart

This second retirement card was made with someone in mind that loves the beach.  I was helping a friend make this.  We were pleased with how it came together so I hope the recipient likes it.  The original one we made didn’t have the added shells on top of the vellum.  My vellum wasn’t laying down flat and I knew it would bug me!  LOL.  So I cut the strip and glued it to lie flat.  Then I added the shells on the right to cover where it was cut.  The shell on the left was just added to balance out the card. 

stamps- Stipple Shells, Define Your Life, The Stamp Barn

paper- Soft Sky, Choc. Chip, Caramel, Cameo Coral, White, Soft Sky dp, vellum

ink- Soft Sky, Choc. Chip, Caramel, Cameo Coral, Cocoa

accessories- eyelets

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Doesn’t this cake look scrumptious?  I can taste it already!  Mmmm……..I think it would taste like Kris’s (a CNY friend) Special Angel Food Cake.  ;)  Hers has a chocolate frosting but when I was little, my grandmother always made a pink frosting.  Both are yummy!  This is one of Anna Wight’s images from her Happy Birthday set.  I used my rectangle Nestabilities for the main image….love those!  The red layer was embossed with the Cuttlebug Number Collage folder and the Saffron layer was stamped with the dot from Anna’s Birthday set.

I think we should all pretend it’s our birthday and go have a piece of cake. 

stamps- Happy Birthday by Whipper Snapper

paper- Pumpkin, Real Red, Saffron, Turquoise, Olive, White

ink- Pumpkin, Real Red, Saffron, Turquoise, Olive, Black

accessories- Cuttlebug Number Collage, Rectangle Nestabilities, ribbon, pop dots, circle punches

Before I start yakking about the pics here, don’t forget to check out the new C.C. Designs releases today over at All That Scraps!  

Here are a few of the projects we did when some of my friends came to stamp.  I will let them upload their own shoebox projects but I will share what Jenn brought for us to make since her sample was different than the ones we created.  Jenn brought frames and supplies for us to each make a name frame!  How cool was that?  :)   Karen went first to make Jenn’s project and since we all decided to do the word “welcome”, we pretty much cased hers.  LOL.  Hey, she did a great job!  We just changed a few things to make them our own.  We used various background stamps and the Headline Alpha to make these.   

 I bet you couldn’t guess that this was my shoebox.  LOL.  You’re probably getting tired of seeing these Peek-A-Boo cards.  I guess I need to move on…hehe.  They are just so much fun!  I used the A Little Birdie Told Me set and Bali Breeze paper.  In case you missed my earlier posts, here’s one with a link to directions.  And below is a pic of the card when opened.  This set is perfect for this type of card since it has words that can be used on both the front & inside of the card.

Below is a progressive card we designed together, in a round robin way.  Jenn went first, making the background of words.  Then Karen made the flower with the oval punch and Primas.  They were passed around the table and each person added something.  Karen had these great words from Stampers Anonymous.  I also liked the way Judy added black speckles to the flower center and punched the corners on the sentiment!

We also used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and Rose Frame die, along with Pomegranate ribbon to make these cards.  They were all just a slight bit different.  Mine has the eyelets at the bottom but I still didn’t like the placement of the ribbon, so I have since slid it down a bit on the card.  Thanks again ladies for a fun day!

On Saturday a few friends came to stamp….we had a fun day!  I will share a few of the other projects we made another time.  But for now, here is a card I made for a challenge my friend Karen gave us.  A few posts back I shared a faux pocket card idea that she came up with.  This weekend when we got together, she brought the paper used to make this card and the piece of string.  We were challenged to make one of her Faux Pocket cards and we had to use the string somewhere on the card.  I chose to use the set Time For You and I tied the string around the little window opening on the front.  The flap that was folded down was also punched with two different Martha Stewart border punches.  And the tab was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder- love that folder! 

Here’s a pic of the inside.  I love this stamp set!  I think it’s the first time I got to use it.  I really like how the card turned out too.  Everyone’s cards turned out great!  Below you can click on their names to see the cards they created.   Have a great day!

stamps- Time For You, Vases in Vogue, Petite Patterns

paper- Choc. Chip, Soft Sky, White

ink- Choc. Chip, Guava, Pomegranate

accessories- Martha Stewart Cornice Edge and Floral Lace punches, corner rounder, Round Tab punch, square punches, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, string

Karen’s

Judy’s- outside

Judy’s- inside

Jenn’s- outside

Jenn’s- inside

Today’s sneak peek is the set “Froggie and Friends”.  Aren’t they cute?  This set includes the 2 frogs and their friends shown here plus a lily pad, 2 cattails, 3 party hats, a fly, balloons and a bunch of coordinating words!  All of those pieces make it a fun & versatile set!  I also love that it comes packaged in a CD tin.  I punched the holes and layered the patterned paper behind them.  The images were stamped on the patterned paper and again on cardstock, watercolored, and paper pieced into place.  All of the papers and accessories on this card are also from All That Scraps.  These papers are so cute- I almost hated to cut off these tiny pieces…LOL.  But I had this idea stuck in my head and wanted to give it a try.  Thankfully it turned out OK the first time because I didn’t have any more of the dark green layer to start over. 

I took a pic of the top layer while I was punching the holes so you can see how I got the circle punches perfectly aligned.  I started by deciding how big I wanted the circle punches and then  figured how I needed to space them out.  *Please note- this card is not a typical A2 size card.  The finished measurements are 4 1/2 x 6.  So if you follow my measurements, you will need to find an envelope to fit or make a custom one.  I chose to use my 1 3/8″ circle punch.  Then I cut the dark green layer to 5 3/4″ x 4 1/4″.   If you look closely at the photo, I used the punch upside down and marked the top and sides of the punch opening with a Sharpie marker.  I just used the notches on the sides of the punch as a guide and eyeballed it.  Then I drew intersecting lines on the back of my cardstock layer.  Next just simply line up the three marks you make on your punch with the lines drawn on the cardstock and punch.  On the 5 3/4″ side, draw lines at 1 1/8, 2 7/8, and 4 5/8 inches.  On the 4 1/4″ side, draw lines at 1 1/4 and 3 inches.

I hope you give it a try….it’s really not very difficult.  Post a link if you make one so I can check it out! 

stamps- Froggie and Friends by C.C. Designs

paper- from All That Scraps

ink- Black, Celery, Artichoke, Bashful

accessories- ribbon & brads- All That Scraps, circle punch, gel pen

Here’s the other new gal that will be available Wednesday over at All That Scraps.  Her name is Virginia.  All of the papers, Primas and ribbon  can be found at ATS as well.  The large star was cut from some of the designer paper and I stamped the words on top.  The number 4 was stamped again onto white cardstock, cut out and layered on top of the first one to help it stand out a bit.  I made 2 loops from the ribbon…one a little larger than the other.  Then I stacked them and attached a Prima in the center with a brad. 

Make sure you check out the ATS blog here to find out how to win the new releases!  Tomorrow there will be sneak peeks for a cute new set!