More Mother's Day Cards

Can you believe my husband made this card?! I can tell you that I was shocked. Shocked, I tell you! Shocked. My jaw hit the floor when he handed it to me. I thought it was better than something I would make! Here's what he said, "I was inspired by THIS card (he goes into my stash and digs it out to show me). It was also the first time I used stamps that weren't Pink Cat Studio. Do you like my colouring? I wanted to use animals like I always do and I thought those two owls were like you and munchkin so I went with an all-bird theme. I felt so much pressure to make a great card so I hope you like it." Well, I didn't realize he was under so much pressure! LOL I knew it took him a week to make it and it was very cute when he would hide in a corner in the evenings and say he was working on my card. ;) Okay, he just walked by while I was choosing the photo and he casually says, "Hey, that photographed really well." Too funny.

A few hours before we were supposed to head over to my parents' place for dinner on Sunday night, my Dad called and asked me to make a Mother's Day card for him to give to my mom. Hello! I thought I was done with Mother's Day cards so I whipped up this colourful card (reds and pinks are a must with my Mom). I kept it one-layer because my Dad has complained about my cards being too bulky and thick in the past. (Insert eye roll here.) I just realized while blogging this post that both cards use the exact same sentiment. It's from one of my most used Verve sets, Because of You. All other stamps used in both cards are none other than Unity. The turquoise text in the olive vases is from Papertrey Ink. I won't be photographing my cards on patterned paper again because I find this blinding. I thought it would look good but it doesn't, at least not to me. Maybe I just picked the wrong paper! :Þ

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day with your families! Now that the Paper Crafts Nov/Dec 2011 call for submissions is over, I need to catch up on some birthday cards and blog-surfing. Thank you for all the comments you left recently! I will be by to return the love very soon. :) What are you all up to this week?

Sources for Hubby's card: SU Basic Gray & So Saffron cardstock; Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Unity Happily Ever After & Picture Perfect; Verve Because of You; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for my card: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Unity Favorite Things/Rockin' It Unity Style & Picture Perfect; Papertrey Ink Background Basics: Text Style II; Verve Because of You; SU Pink Passion, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango & Tempting Turquoise; Gutermann orange and turquoise thread; sewing machine

Pink Cat Studio ~ Apr 28th Digi Release!

Happy Thursday! Pink Cat Studio is back with a spring digi release!! Did you miss us? Today's sweet release features Betty, Billy and Lily with a lot of flowers! These digis are perfect for Mother's Day, Father's Day and a host of other occasions like birthdays, congratulations, friendship, get well, graduation and weddings.

My first card features Billy Holding Flowers for his lovely Mom. This Mother's Day card is already on its way to my mother-in-law!

I hope this card makes her smile because my father-in-law had yet another stroke on Monday. We fear the worst every time the phone rings because he hadn't fully recovered from last month's stroke. :(

My second card uses Lily Holding Flowers.

It's a generic card I made for my stash. I don't think I can ever have enough uplifting cards.

This last card is a Father's Day card that I'll be giving to my Dad. It features Betty Holding Flowers. She's so cute and this is my favourite digi from today's release!

I used Verve sentiments on all of my cards and I've listed them in the sources at the bottom of this post. We've had two days of thunderstorms and very little sunlight so I apologize for the darker photos, especially the close-up ones.

As always, thank you for supporting this Pink Cat Studio release! If you purchase one of these digis, please leave a comment because I'd love to see what you've made with it! For further inspiration, visit the Pink Cat Studio Blog or the design team links on my sidebar. Have a wonderful day!

Sources: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Billy Holding Flowers, Lily Holding Flowers & Betty Holding Flowers; Verve Because of You, Text Objects & Dad's Day; Memento Tuxedo Black; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals; We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Where there is LOVE

This afternoon, while I was "sublicating" (making cards to submit for publication - yes, I made that up) another happy accident occurred and I whipped up this quick card by repeating the accident. Do you remember what happened the last time I had a creative accident? :) That's right, I made this card, then this one and my first ever video tutorial! Today's card features a sentiment from Verve's Text Objects, a set I bought months ago but hadn't inked up yet. It was time to give it some love. Oh, and of course there's the awesome charcoal baker's twine from The Twinery!!

Enjoy the rest of your day and be sure to stop by tomorrow for an incredibly gnomey Pink Cat Studio digi release! Click HERE or on the blinkie for contest details. Trust me, you will want these digis!!

Sources: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Verve Text Objects; SU Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise & Wild Wasabi; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; The Twinery baker's twine in Charcoal

In Memory of Marty

Last month, my wonderful friend Angela lost her sweet Marty and I'm ashamed to say that I only got around to making her a card now. I think she knows she has been in my thoughts this whole time. :) All sympathy cards are difficult but especially ones for pets. I certainly don't enjoy making them nor am I ever inspired to make them and that's one of the reasons for the delay in producing this card. I combined stamps from three different companies to come up with this card.

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Kitty & Sweet Bird; Unity January 2011 Kit of the Month - To the Moon & Back; Verve Forever in Our Hearts; SU Tempting Turquoise & Tangerine Tango inks; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Stampin' Dimensionals

My Top Ten Cards of 2010

Choosing my top ten cards was a lot harder than I imagined! I copied all my favourite cards into a folder and came up with an astounding 63. When I whittled my list down to 29, I couldn't eliminate anymore. What I did instead was put the ones that I absolutely love into a new folder. It was a lot easier that way and I was able to choose ten very quickly. I was sad to leave the other 19 behind though. Maybe next year's blog hop should be for a top 20 or 30. ;)

Here are my top ten favourite cards of 2010, from oldest to most recent (clicking on the photos will take you to the original posts):

There are so many different reasons why I chose these ones which range from true clean and simple to scrappy collage and embellished. If you've been a long-time follower, you'll probably recognize them all (or maybe not). If you're new to my blog, please browse around and let me know which ones are your favourites.

I hope you will add your name to the blog hop HERE and HERE. Don't forget that there are prizes to be won! I would love to see which ten of your cards are favourites for 2010!!

Wishing You

I made this card for The Play Date Cafe Challenge #54 which is to use the colours shown at left. I thought these colours would be easy to put together but it took me a while to think of a way to make them work! The last few cards I made were a bit fancier than my usual style so for this card I decided to go super clean and simple. It felt really good, especially because I finally had the chance to use this five-point ribbon flower tutorial that I found on Elise Durenberger's blog, oh, only five months ago! For someone like me who has a ton of ribbon I never use, this is a great way to create handmade embellishments. Give it a try! I guarantee you won't be disappointed. ;)

Sources: SU Certainly Celery cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury White cardstock; Verve Wishing You; Memories Artprint Brown ink; SU Certainly Celery 5/8" grosgrain ribbon; Gutermann white thread; sewing needle; Basic Grey buttons; The Twinery baker's twine in Mandarin; SU 1-3/8" circle punch; Glue Dots minis & pop up relief

Pink Cat Studio ~ Aug 26th Digi Release!

You're in for a real treat today if you love Sick Billy and Sick Lily (view my samples here)! Now the sickies have Doctor Billy, Nurse Lily and Nurse Betty to tend to them! I had to use Nurse Betty for my card given my love for Betty. Besides, she was holding a teddy bear. The moment my son saw my printout with the new digis, he exclaimed, "Bear!"

I know, you're probably shocked that I didn't do anything extraordinary with her hair. I decided Betty was too busy to hit the salon this time around. ;) I coloured her in la-dee-da, shaded all the whites nicely, outlined her in blue and started cutting her out. Then it happened again. Gah. Do you remember the last time I coloured Lily's hair black and smudged it everywhere? I seem to have the worst luck when it comes to using black on my images. The shading near the red cross and the bottom of Betty's dress isn't shading, it's smudging. Argh. At least I didn't smudge black on her face this time! I loved the way Betty looked and I wasn't willing to start over so I left it. Besides, nurses rarely wear all white anymore and if they do, what are the chances their uniforms aren't a bit stained? If you didn't notice, just pretend I didn't say all that. Heehee. The main sentiments and background were created using one of my favourite Verve sets, Wishing You.

With any purchase from the Pink Cat Studio digi or rubber stores today only, you will get Doctor Bear free! Can you imagine creating a little scene with Sick Lily and Doctor Billy with Doctor Bear? Oohhh, fun! LOL Now you have many more creative options to make cute Feel Better cards! Thanks for stopping by for today's new release. We'll have a super fun Halloween rubber release for you next week!!! Have an awesome day. :D

Sources: SU Kraft cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Nurse Betty; Verve Wishing You; Vivid Red ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Crumb Cake ink; Copics; Glue Dots pop up relief

Enter the World of Ferrets and Weasels

A while back, a friend of mine who is a mom to five ferrets (yes, you read that correctly) asked me to make a sympathy card for her friend whose weasel Toot passed away. She didn't want a typical sympathy card but more of a remembrance card. Weasels live an average of four years but Toot lived six years which made him seemingly immortal so his owner took it very hard when her Little Dinky Doughnut Chicken Man died. I know, the nickname sure makes you chuckle, doesn't it? Toot got this nickname because he was tiny, about the size of your hand. If anyone moved at all, he would run fast like a chicken and hide. Still, he was a tough little chicken. If you left your hand out, he'd take a chunk of you with him as he ran! Or so I've heard.

I made this card 5.25" x 5.25" because I needed the extra space for my design. When my friend sent me photos of Toot, I knew I had to incorporate them into the card which I made in the style of a scrapbook layout. When I signed up to receive Unity's KOTMs, I received a bunch of free stamps and these scrolled frames were included. I used those to highlight the photos of Toot. The background images stamped in black are all from Unity's July 2010 KOTM except for the Forever in our hearts sentiment which is Verve.

To create the background, I stamped the images along the left side first, then added the big lace frame on the right. I angled the frames but didn't pop them on 'til the end. I wrapped the Verve sentiment around the frame, stamped a heart from Tiny Treats: Valentine overlapping the top of the frame and added a clear rhinestone accent.

To create the focus sentiment with Toot's nickname, I used the short dotted lines from Top Ten to spell out each word. Just before cutting the strips, I used the Outlines Alphabet to subtlely ink his name in the background. Did you notice that? My husband said, "That's so cool." ;) Here's a closer look.

I cut the strips, centred them over the lace frame and added a final rhinestone. When I finished this card, I admired it for the longest time. Then my husband said, "You made a card for an animal. Your friends are going to think you have a heart of gold." LOL Isn't he the sweetest? It was nice to hear that because I put off making this card for the longest time. It's never easy to make a sympathy card but I really dreaded making this one since our cat is suffering from cancer. I do love this card and I hope it'll bring a smile to the recipient's face and help her remember her wonderful little Toot.

Before I go, I thought I'd share some photos of our Pit'r with her late brother Hobbes who was a ferret. He passed away while my husband (then boyfriend) was living in Italy. Hobbes is buried in the courtyard of a 13th century castle. Talk about a majestic resting place. We visit him whenever we're in Italy. Pit'r and Hobbes got along really well. Hobbes was the older brother and he thought his sister was a stuffed animal so he loved dragging her around. Pit'r would pretend to hunt Hobbes as if she were a cheetah and he a Thomson's gazelle in the wild serengeti. She'd pounce on him to start wrestling matches but Hobbes would always win! My husband would always have to step in and separate them.

Sources: SU Kraft & Naturals Ivory cardstock; Unity July 2010 Kit of the Month - Happily Ever After; Unity frames; Verve Forever in Our Hearts; PTI Tiny Treats: Valentine; PTI Top Ten; PTI Simple Alphabet; PTI Outlines Alphabet; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Crumb Cake, Rose Red & Pink Pirouette inks; SU Basic Rhinestones; Glue Dots mini dots & pop up relief

Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop! Verve turns three today and we’re celebrating with a hop, hop, hop! If you've already been hopping along, you arrived here from Joanne's blog. If not, head on over to Julee's Blog (owner of Verve), for all the info on how to win prizes (after all, what's a party without presents?), and to start hopping from the beginning. If there's a hiccup along the hop, you can always head to the Master Hop List to get the full list of links.

This is my first blog hop ever so I'm extremely excited to be here today! I've been a long-time fan of Verve stamps and today's card uses two of my favourite sets in my signature CAS style. I have a lot of birthday cards to make in the next couple of months and one lucky friend will receive this pretty wreath made with the large flower from Because of You. I inked up the flower with four different colours, cut them out and arranged them around the two-piece sentiment from Wishing You. The flowers are attached at three different heights for visual interest and dimension. I added gemstones in two colours and tied a bow with embroidery floss to finish.

Thanks for hopping by! I had a lot of fun making this card and I'm honoured to have been part of Verve's 3rd Anniversary Blog Hop. Since I'm the last stop on this blog hop, please head on over to the Verve Stamps blog, for a little more Verve-y goodness. ;)

Sources: SU Kraft & Naturals Ivory cardstock; Verve Wishing You; Verve Because of You; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Taken With Teal, Kiwi Kiss & Always Artichoke inks; Vivid Red ink; Forever in Time pop-dots; Glue Dots pop up relief; Forever in Time gemstones; Carnival embroidery floss

Happy Father's Day³

This Father's Day card is for my Dad. Every summer, my Dad tends to a huge flower, fruit and vegetable garden and there are usually enough melons harvested in the fall to last through the entire winter. He's now 81 and still working away happily on his garden. It's amazing! Most of the flowers in my Dad's garden are purple or yellow and this is the reason I wasn't afraid to create a pretty floral card for my Dad who's coming over tomorrow for dinner. The huge flower is made from the two sizes of hearts punched from Heart Prints, then crumpled to make it look more realistic. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the end of your week!!

Sources: Bazzill Basics textured yellow cardstock; Provo Craft Slab IV dp; PTI Heart Prints; PTI Fancy Florishes; PTI Background Basics: Text Style II; Verve Father's Day; SU Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green & Summer Sun inks; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; EK Success medium & large heart punches; Forever in Time button; Offray ribbon; Glue Dots pop up relief

Happy Father's Day²

It's Friday! Hip Hip Hooray!! Thanks to everyone for sending their sleep fairies! While my son still did not sleep well, I feel more rested myself and that's a good thing. Now, if I can sneak in a nap today I'll be good as new. ;) So on to my card, shall we?

My best friend Elen in Montreal asked me to make two cards for her Dad. He's currently being treated for a rare form of leukemia here in Ontario and she wanted him to have some very special cards for Father's Day and his birthday in July. Elen's Dad lives in Greece for half the year and loves to walk on the beach and swim in the ocean on the island of Rhodes. For her Father's Day card she chose this wedding card as the sample. I used a combination of colours I've never used before and I loved it so much that I decided to make Elen's second card in the same colours. I switched the main elements of the card around a bit by using a different nestie and adding ribbon. Instead of tearing kraft paper for sand, I decided to use the same sand and waves image as in this beach card. Thanks for looking and I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Sources: Bazzill Basics textured cardstock; SU Naturals Ivory, Certainly Celery & Kraft cardstock; Taylored Expressions Beach Bum; PTI Background Basics: Retro; Verve Dad's Day; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; SU Taken With Teal ink; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One; QuicKutz Epic Six; SU Certainly Celery 5/8" grosgrain ribbon; Forever in Time pop-dots

Happy Father's Day¹

I have three Father's Day cards to make and with SCS's CAS Fireworks Challenge #1 on my mind, I decided to use Chloe's Closet dp to make this a masculine literary card. My husband, Dad and father-in-law all love to read but since it's not appropriate to give a gift with black in my own culture, I decided this would go to my father-in-law. I usually make something cute and/or funny for my husband so I will stick to that tradition!

To make this easy card, I rounded two opposite corners and stamped the sentiment in both black and brilliant blue to make it pop. I lightly sponged the edges around the sentiment panel as well as the outer edge of the card. Then I strung five buttons together but only glued the middle three on blue ribbon so there would be some movement. Lastly, I distressed the right hand edge of the sentiment panel for added detail and attached it using dimension squares. I think this card is simple, elegant and manly enough for my father-in-law. :) I would've used it as my entry for the challenge but I realized it's not too colourful which was a requirement. Sometimes I have an idea in my head and can't change its direction. Oh well! Hopefully I'll have time to make an actual entry by tomorrow night. Have a great night!

Sources: SU Naturals Ivory cardstock; AC textured black cardstock; Making Memories Chloe's Closet dp; Verve Dad's Day; Memories Black ink; SU Brilliant Blue ink; SU 1-3/8" circle punch; Dashes, Dots & Checks ribbon; Forever in Time buttons; Darice hemp cord; Generations dimension squares