Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Oh, Baby!

This is another baby card featuring little Sweet Pea. I don't know about you, but I think bear ears on babies are one of the most adorable things in life! I think every single one of my son's jackets and hats in his first year had ears on them. They are harder to find in toddler's clothing but they're popular again in teenage clothing. Hmmm...LOL

For this card, I went with neutral colours but it may be leaning toward more boyish colours with the spring moss and kraft. Either way, I love the combo. The kraft was so perfect for the hat and onesie. I die cut the letters and 'quilted' the bottom half of the spring moss to look like a quilt for the baby to sit on. Again, simple and cute!

Sources: SU Kraft cardstock; Bazzill Basics textured Spring Moss cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Sweet Pea; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; QuicKutz Epic Six; QuicKutz Retro Diamonds A2 embossing folder; QuicKutz Sticky Note Mini Alphabet Set; dimension squares

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Congratulations {Baby Girl}

I was in the mood to use Sweet Pea this morning to make a baby girl card. If you read this blog regularly you'll know that I cringe at the thought of having to use pink, but I think that keeping this card simple meant that nothing could go wrong. ;) I love this textured cardstock and bought it to force myself into using pink, and for those emergencies when I actually need pink and don't have any around! I used the same paper as the base to paper piece the baby's clothing, then added one gemstone on the big flower for a little accent. I was thinking of doing something with that diaper but decided to leave it white. Simple and cute, that's what I like!

Sources: AC textured pink cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Sweet Pea; The Uptown Design Company 'Best Wishes' sentiment; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Copics; Forever in Time gemstone stickers; dimension squares

Monday, March 29, 2010

Cute as a Button

I have a really simple baby card for you today. It uses a couple of elements from the Fiskars Baby clear stamp set. I love the retro colours of sea green and brown together on kraft. It's a nice neutral combination for a boy or girl. The notched top corners were inspired by this amazing card! :)

Sources: SU Kraft cardstock; Fiskars Baby; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Basic Grey button; Darice hemp cord; Fiskars Nostalgia corner edger

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Happiness

Can you stand another card from Wishing You? If someone doesn't take these stamps and hide them from me, I'm afraid I won't be able to stop using them. Admittedly, I will have to put them down to work on next week's Pink Cat Studio digi releases. :Þ I'd actually never used this floral image from Because of You so it's nice that another set inspired me to use it. I was trying to do something more fancy with the ribbon but figured I'd leave it flat and simple for easy mailing. The gold metallic stitching adds just the right bit of richness to an otherwise plain card. I hope your weekend has been fun so far!

Sources: SU Kraft & textured Very Vanilla cardstock; AC textured pale yellow cardstock; Verve Wishing You; Verve Because of You; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Versamark Watermark ink; The Old Island Stamp Co. clear embossing powder; Hobby Hot Boss; SU scallop trim border punch; SU 1-3/8" circle punch; SU Chocolate Chip 1" double stitched grosgrain ribbon; Gutermann gold metallic thread

Friday, March 26, 2010

Super Happy CAS

Is there such a thing as super CAS? This is definitely that. It's so monochrome. LOL I thought I'd try a feminine approach to masculine. Does that make sense? Can you see this as a birthday card for a man? It would also work for a girlfriend who loves blue! All I did was score the edges of the inside blue panel, stamp clouds and an accent border in white, then add the balloon and sentiment in black. So simple and fun! Did I mention I'm really loving my newest set Wishing You? I'm almost obessed with it and that doesn't happen too often. ;)

Sources: SU Bashful Blue cardstock; AC textured black cardstock; Verve Up, Up and Away; Verve Wishing You; Memories Black ink; SU Whisper White ink; dimension squares

Thursday, March 25, 2010

FTL83 - A Very Happy Birthday

I wanted to play with my newest set Wishing You again today so I decided to use the FTL83 sketch for this week from the CAS Stamping blog. I created the background with flowers from Because of You. I layered the apron lace border punch on top of the scallop punch for added texture which you can see in the close-up photo. I wavered from the sketch a teeny bit by changing the position of one of the 3D flowers. Like yesterday's card, I used teal as the accent colour and love how it stands out against the vanilla, kraft and black. I think I'll have to experiment a little more with bold colour combinations! Sometimes I can get good results working out of my comfort zone. ;)

Sources: AC textured black cardstock; SU Kraft, textured Very Vanilla & textured Black cardstock; Verve Wishing You; Verve Because of You; Memories Black ink; SU Taken With Teal ink; Forever in Time gemstone stickers; Fiskars Apron Lace border punch; SU scallop border punch; dimension squares

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Stitched Daisy

A while back I mentioned that I didn't have any decent birthday stamps and I had my eye on Wishing You from Verve for some time. I needed some stamps with large classic fonts and this was that set. I arrived in the mail yesterday and I was so excited to ink it up but my back was hurting so much that I couldn't get into a stamping mood even though I knew what I wanted to do with it! Thank goodness I felt better this morning and had a bit of time to stamp.

I've been seeing a lot of giant floral images lately in the blogosphere and love the way they look but I don't have any...yet. So this is what happens when I don't have a big flower image to stamp with. I decided to stitch a giant daisy. At first I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Would I follow a pattern or stitch freehand? Well, freehand could be disastrous. LOL I punched out an oval and used that as a template for the petals. It's not perfect but I love the result.

Sources: Bazzill Basics cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Kraft cardstock; Verve Wishing You; Memories Black ink; SU Taken With Teal ink; Basic Grey button; Darice hemp cord

Monday, March 22, 2010

Pink Cat Studio ~ Mar 22nd Digi Release!

Eeek! Aren't these the cutest Easter images you've ever seen? I can't believe the cuteness Melissa dreams up week after week! Today's release is truly exceptional and I was so inspired. Let's get to the good stuff, shall we? :)

I love the fresh and pretty colours of this 'Hoppy Birthday' card so much that I wanted to keep it. As you can see, I'm still on my PCS accessories kick and used flowers, bees and butterflies from Dress Up Sweet Pea. I think they add the right touch to this little scene! I love mixing all the PCS sets to show you how well they all work together. This birthday card is going in the mail for the awesome Melissa whose birthday is next week. Hoppy Birthday, Mis!

Sources: Bazzill Basics textured cardstock; Provo Craft Slab IV dp; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Easter Lily digital image; Pink Cat Studio Free Digital Sentiment; Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Sweet Pea; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large; QuicKutz Epic Six; Martha Stewart Picket Fence border punch; Gutermann white thread; dimension squares

I used the exact same colours for my second card 'Twilight Easter Hunt'. It's the return of Princess Bunny! This time, she's flying high with two little ones in her Easter basket. Can you envision other uses for this image? ;) The Easter baskets in the hills are from Dress Up Lily and the stars are from Lily & Billy Accessories.

Sources: Bazzill Basics textured cardstock; Provo Craft Slab IV dp; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Bunny Balloons digital image; Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Lily; Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Accessories; SU Elegant Eggplant & Lavender Lace inks; Gutermann white thread; dimension squares

Please stop by the other DT blogs and our special guest designers for more yummy cuteness! The next Pink Cat Studio digi release will be on Thursday, April 1st.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Cards from Hubby

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary so I thought I would share the card he made for me as well as the Valentine's Day card he made with a PCS panda last month. I don't think many husbands raid their wives' craft supplies and secretly craft in the evenings. If yours does, I'd love to see what ultra special cards you've received! I think it's so sweet and funny when my husband asks me, "How do you colour with your Copics? What if I want to blend? Do you have any anniversary stamps?"

I must admit this is an extremely creative idea that I never would've dreamt up myself. I could never figure out how to use this DCWV Green Stack dp and I'm thrilled to see how well my husband used it! After my husband presented me with the card and I gushed over it, he said, "Do you want to know how I made it?" LOL Basically he finished gluing the papers together and couldn't figure out how large to make the word bubbles so he took it to work and scanned the card, then created the sentiments and cut them out. :Þ

I described in this post how my son loves to call out everything by the sounds they make. There are certain words he can say depending on the letter they begin with and there are some of them. The "Canadian" beaver is yelling, "Go, go, go!" My son got that from watching the Olympics. Gwirl=Squirrel. Ssti=Stick, which is difficult for him to pronounce but he tries so hard. Lumaca=Snail in Italian. :) Click-click...for some reason my son thinks birds make a clicking noise which he may have gotten from Peep and the Big Wide World but I'm not sure. He knows owls hoot and dogs woof but sometimes he mistakens other animals like mice for dogs because they do look like miniature dogs depending how they're drawn. That's why the one beaver is woofing. So there you have it, a day in the life of my son. :)

See you tomorrow for a special Pink Cat Studio Easter release!!!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Two Babies

This was supposed to be a practice run since I've never made a twin card before but it turned out way better than I expected so I'll definitely be using this. LOL This will probably be one of the many cards I send to the couple I talked about in this post here. After everything they've been through, boy-girl twins are expected within the next month. Every extra day in the womb is just gravy. Of course we're all hoping for big, fat, healthy babies! I can't wait to meet their little ones.

I found these letter stickers at the local dollar store a while back and loved the pastel colours but couldn't think of a way to use them 'til now. The package doesn't contain the entire alphabet and doubles of some letters so it was lucky that I could spell babies! I love how thin and sticky they are but also the corrugated texture on them. I wish I bought more because I don't think I saw them the last time I was back at that dollar store. I'll have to have another look next time and definitely stock up!

Sources: AC textured cardstock; Bazzill Basics textured Turquoise Mist cardstock; SU Kraft cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Baby Firsts; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Forever in Time letter stickers; Forever in Time Gemstone Stickers; Gutermann white thread; dimension squares

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Pink Cat Studio ~ Mar 18th Digi Release!

It's Thursday and you know what that means! I mentioned last week that I couldn't wait for this week's releases and you can see why!! Who doesn't love a bike? Melissa upgraded this image from Lily & Billy Sweethearts and my favourite part is the helmets!! Safety first! PCS fans alike have been masking off Lily like this and now you don't have to! Lily has her own ride. Sweet! Of course the old classic of Lily riding in Billy's basket will always be a favourite but how could you not want to have these images, too? ;)

I made this 'Powered By Love' card to give to my husband on our sixth anniversary this weekend. We both love bikes and if we had the space to store them we'd probably have at least a dozen! Needless to say, this week's images were perfect for the occasion. Much like the snowboarding images, I will be using these bike images again and again because we have a lot of friends who also love to ride bikes! They are also perfect for the little ones who are just starting out on their LIKEaBIKEs, Boot Scoot or Wishbone. I can't wait 'til my toddler is old enough to ride one!

Did you notice how muscular and sexy Lily's legs are? I guess she's a diehard cyclist. LOL I couldn't help but giggle when I saw that little detail. Melissa's such a great illustrator! The sentiment and heart exhaust are from Lily & Billy Sweethearts and, since I've been on a PCS accessories kick lately, I just had to add sunglasses which are from Dress Up Lily or Dress Up Billy. I don't go anywhere without my sunglasses. ;)

Sources: AC textured brown cardstock; Bazzill Basics textured cardstock in Spring Breeze & Turquoise Mist; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Bike For Two; Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Sweethearts; Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Lily or Dress Up Billy; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Vivid Butterscotch ink; Copics; Fiskars Apron Lace border punch; Gutermann white thread; dimension squares

This week Alicia Weiman decided to leave the DT to spend more time with her family which, as you know, is the most important thing in this world! We'll miss you, Alicia, and hope you pop in on occasion to see what we're up to!

Please note that the next PCS digi release will be on Monday, March 22nd showcasing Easter images. That's only four days away and this won't come as a surprise to you but they are all incredibly cute!! You won't be able to choose which one you like the most. ;)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Special Delivery

It's such a gorgeous 17C/63F out today! We didn't even have much of a winter and now spring is officially here. All this warm sunshine makes me happy so I decided to make a bright and cheerful baby card for my stash. I have so many friends and family having babies in the next few months! Please do come back tomorrow for another Pink Cat Studio digi release. ;) Have a great day!

Sources: SU textured Sahara Sand & Real Red cardstock; AC Kids Piggy Bank dp; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Sweet Pea; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Copics; SU 1-3/8" circle punch; Fiskars Apron Lace border punch; Gutermann white & metallic red threads; dimension squares

Monday, March 15, 2010

Make a Wish

Phew, the weekend was sure busy! I'm looking forward to having a rather quiet week and finding some much needed time to craft. This is a birthday card for my dear friend Lynn in California. We met while working together at one of the Big Four audit firms in San Diego. Lynn's one of those extremely generous and thoughtful friends who sends me surprise gifts for no reason at all. She even sent me one of the stuffed Olympic panda mascots all the way from Beijing!! Two of the things Lynn loves the most second to her sailor husband are cats and food so I hope she likes this card. ;)

Here's a closer look at the details:

And of the Spica glitter I used all over the fairy kitty!

Sources: SU Rich Razzleberry & textured Basic Gray cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Fairy Friends; Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Accessories; Memento Tuxedo Black & Rich Cocoa inks; Copics; AtYou Spica glitter pen; dimension squares

Friday, March 12, 2010

Little Boy Accessories Card

This little idea popped into my head and I just had to make this card for my 18-month-old who is my biggest fan. ;) It uses accessories from two Pink Cat Studio rubber sets: Dress Up Billy and Lily & Billy Accessories! It showcases some of his favourite things - bubbles, construction vehicles, trains, dogs and Goldfish crackers. LOL He can't say the words yet so he uses the sounds to name everything: boom-boom, choo-choo, woof-woof. He does, however, say "Gol-?" to ask for crackers. It's so cute and it makes me so proud of him! The sentiment is from the Verve set Dare to Be You. Isn't it perfect? He was so excited when I showed him the card and it just melted my heart. Aww... :)

Sources: AC textured blue cardstock; SU Kraft cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Billy (dump truck, train, fish-minus the rod); Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Accessories (dog); Verve Dare to Be You; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; AtYou Spica glitter pen; Signo Broad White Gel Pen; SU 1-3/8" circle punch; McGill 1-1/4" circle punch; Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large; QuicKutz Epic Six

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Pink Cat Studio ~ Mar 11th Digi Release!

It's Thursday and you know what that means...new digi releases from Pink Cat Studio! :D This week Itty Bitty Betty and Itty Bitty Bobby return in star costumes. How cute are they? I think most of Melissa's designs are extremely versatile but I think these have great versatility because they'll work for just about any occasion. I'm thinking they'd be perfect for birthdays, achievements, an every day perk-me-up, even Christmas if you want to think that far ahead! ;)

My friend Lexy's youngest daughter is celebrating her 2nd birthday later this month and I thought this week's new image of Itty Bitty Betty in a star costume would be perfect for her obsession with 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'. I went with bright stellar colours typical of stars and suns, which are basically the first three colours in the rainbow. I coloured the costume with yellow Copics, then glittered it up with ancient gold embossing powder. I used the free sentiment 'Twinkle Twinkle' to create the background on the top half of the card and I used the two stars from the PCS rubber set Lily and Billy Accessories to create the star trail on the bottom of the card. As if there wasn't enough stars and sparkle, I finished by adding one little bling to the star wand in Betty's hand.

Thanks for looking and be sure to check out what the rest of the fabulous DT created for this week's release. Be sure to check back next Thursday (if not before then) because I'm giddy with excitement over next week's images! I can hardly wait a whole week!! :D

Sources: SU Real Red cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Provo Craft Slab IV dp; Pink Cat Studio Betty Star Costume digital image; Pink Cat Studio Lily and Billy Accessories; Memories Black ink; Copics; Forever in Time Gemstone Stickers; Zig Emboss Writer; Ranger Ancient Gold embossing powder; Hobby Hot Boss; SU Real Red 3/4" polka dot grosgrain ribbon; Gutermann metallic thread; dimension squares

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Enjoy.

I made this for my friend April's birthday which is of course in April! ;) She's one of my dearest friends from the time we were living in San Diego. One of our favourite things to do was shop and boy did we do a lot of it. She was the perfect shopping buddy because we liked the exact same things and that's hard to replace! Since April loves uber pretty things, I thought I would make a second attempt at another one of Dawn McVey's poofy flowers - see my first attempt here. This time I used dp instead of cardstock so it was much easier to crinkle. I am not into butterflies at all but I finally found a use for the one I had in this set. I quite like how it looks and I might actually use it again!

Sources: The Paper Company Cottonwood cardstock; SU Kraft cardstock; Provo Craft Slab IV dp; Imaginisce All Kinds of Happy; HOTP Tiny Words & Images; SU Lavender Lace & Elegant Eggplant inks; Memories Artprint Brown ink; SU scallop circle punch; SU scallop trim border punch; Forever in Time button; Darice hemp cord

Saturday, March 6, 2010

CAS Sympathy

My aunt passed away early yesterday morning and the whole family is mourning the loss. I'm extremely sad for my dad for losing one of his younger sisters and for my aunt's youngest daughter, my cousin, who had to move into her new home today and is seven months pregnant with her second child. The past two days were difficult for everyone with so many phone calls going around. Of course I never, ever want to make sympathy cards but they are a part of life. Since I had to make so many for the family, I decided to make them all the same. In Chinese tradition, one has to be very careful what colours are chosen as to not offend the receiver for that specific event. In this case, green, brown, white and black were safe to use so I decided to keep it earthy. All six cards vary a little bit with the placement of leaves in three colours but the frames and sentiments are all the same. The inside of the card simply reads 'With Sympathy' since I will be doing some writing as I always do in my cards.

Sources: SU Kraft & Chocolate Chip cardstock; Verve Forever in Our Hearts; Memories Artprint Brown ink; SU Garden Green, Kiwi Kiss & Whisper White inks; Spellbinders Labels One Nestabilities; QuicKutz Epic Six

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Pink Cat Studio ~ Mar 4th Digi Release!

Welcome to another week of digital Pink Cat Studio cuties! There's something for everyone this week. There's a gorgeous Lily fairy showering fairy dust on happy flowers, Lily and Billy snowboarders (eeek) and the cutest Lily Easter bunny with egg!

I decided to make these cards in the spirit of Maëlle Ricker's gold medal run in the ladies' snowboard cross, one of my absolute favourite Winter Olympic events to watch. These Olympics were the best I've seen in my life and I've never been more proud of Canada's performance in it! I don't think I've screamed with excitement or cried so much in my life, purely out of sheer happiness and amazement. Canada broke the previous records for the most gold medals ever won in a Winter Olympics and the most gold medals ever won by a host nation! I think those records are going to last a while. :)

I don't know if you can tell, but I stamped a maple leaf in red for a nice subtle and very Canadian background. Then I stamped one card with the sentiment 'You're #1' and 'Way to go!' on the other. Both of those sentiments are from the PCS rubber set Lily and Billy Accessories. I also put crystal effects on the goggles and snowboards to make them look like the real thing. Cool, eh?

I didn't have time to use Billy snowboarder but I'll definitely be using both of these images a lot. Oh, how I miss snowboarding! It's not easy to do any of the things I used to do before I became a mother and this is one of those things I probably won't get to do again until my son is old enough to go snowboarding himself. By then I'll be... quite old and if I don't get myself back into shape I might just break something on the bunny hill. LOL

Sources: SU Real Red & textured Black cardstock; AC textured Black cardstock; TPH 111lb matte white cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Lily Snowboarder digital image; Copics; SU Crystal Effects; Pink Cat Studio retired Canadian maple leaf; Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Accessories; Vivid Red ink; SU Basic Gray ink; Gutermann metallic thread; dimension squares

I made this set of Easter cards for my sister and personalized them at her request. She's going to be sending three of them to Scotland so I had to rush to get them done and in the mail. I almost never use purple or pink so I was completely out of my element here! Adding pink dp to the mix didn't look right so I just sponged the edges of the card using my Pink Pirouette ink pad to match the pink ribbon. The sentiments could've been better if I had more time. I found that where I had to spell certain words with individual letters, the ones I had were too large so I definitely need to invest in an alphabet set with a smaller font!

Sources: TPH 111lb matte white cardstock; Provo Craft Slab IV dp; Imaginisce Perfectly Posh Chic Speak dp; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Lily Bunny on Egg; Verve Because of You, Verve World's Best; HOTP Plain & Simple ABCs; Copics; SU Pink Pirouette, Lavender Lace & Elegant Eggplant inks; SU scallop border punch; SU Pink Pirouette 5/8" striped grosgrain ribbon; Offray ribbon; Gutermann thread

I hope you enjoyed my post today! Remember to check out all the other DT blogs for more inspiration and if you want to start shopping now, just CLICK HERE to head on over to the Pink Cat Studio store. Have a great day and see you again soon!