Card for Got Scrape? Challenge

Every Good Witch Looks Forward to the Witching Hour - Handmade Halloween Card

My first entry in a challenge.  The challenge was to make a fall or halloween scrapbook page or card.. I decided to enter a card I made last month.  I used my mini monster cartridge for the witch and for her face I used the male a monster face assortment from peachy keen.

Beatrice was made with several layers of die-cuts (she is a very thick girl). Black flocking powder was added to her hat and dress to give her more texture. Her cute little face is stamped and colored. Her stringy reddish-orange hair is cord. Details on Beatrice include purple ribbon on her hat and a quarter moon brad on her little dress. Beatrice is mounted to the card with pop-up glue dots to give her a 3-D effect.

Retro Inspired 50's Funny Pages Handmade Card

I thought this paper was great when I picked it out at Michaels.  I was there looking for paper for Father's Day cards and came across this decorative paper by Creative Imaginations.

The sheet has a bunch of different comic panels with various phrases.  I choose the ones you see on the card.  The sheet is black and white and is vary retro 50's.  I added some color so the panels using a red marker and outlined the panels and the phrases in black.

Each panel is layered on brown cardstock and machine stitched.  The phrases were attached to the card using mounting tape to give it a 3-D effect.  The base and inside of the card is layered in cream and brown.  The panel edges have been sponged with black and brown stamping ink.  




Materials Used
Funny Pages from Creative Imaginations
Cream and Brown Cardstock from Bazzill Basics
Machine Stitching
Brown and Black Stamp Pad
Red and Black Markers

Ode to Charlotte York Goldenblatt

Did I tell you how much I love my Cricut.  Ok...I love my Cricut.

I made the base of this card about a month ago.  I like the color combination of pink and brown.  I didn't know what I was going to add to the front of the card, but when my Forever Young Cricut cartridge arrived and I opened it up, the little light-bulb flickered.  I love all of the images on the cartridge, but found this purse to be the perfect fit for my card.  Once assembled, it screamed Charlotte York Goldenblatt from Sex and the City.  I like all the gals in SNTC and will probably create a card representing each of the ladies at some point in time.

The card is layered in Vintage Pink and brown (sorry, didn't write down the the exact color name) for the brown cardstock from Bazzill Basics and this cool decorative geometrical design cardstock from Jolie's Chocolat. The pad is awesome and have created a bunch of cards using the decorative paper.  I highly recommend purchasing it if you get a chance.  I machine stitched the decorative paper to the card using brown thread.  I purposely created the stitching with a few waves to add a little dimension to the overall feel of the card.  The inside of the card is also layered in browns and pink.

Now for the purse and accessories....I used a different sheet from the Chocolat pad for the outside of the purse and layered the same decorative sheet used for the main frame of the card for the lining of the purse.  I added some beads to the purse for a decorative feel.  Of course no purse is complete without accessories.  I cut out gloves, lipstick, and a mirror using pink, brown and gold cardstock.  For the mirror, I used silver cardstock for the mirror and gold cardstock for the handle.  I also embellshed each accesory with beads and added some gold and brown stamping ink to the edges.  I cut out several layers for each of the accessories to give them some thickness.  All the accessories have been attached to the purse with glue dots.  The purse is attached to the card with glue dots.   

 

Materials Used

Acid Free Cream Cardstock
Decorative Paper from Chocolat Jolie Paper Pad

Pink and Brown Cardstock from Bazzill Basics

Beads

Machine Stitching

Gold & Brown Stamping Pad

Vintage Inspired Jeweled Blank Handmade Card

I made this card a few months ago using some this great heavy decorative paper from the Chocolat Jolie Paper Pad.  I wanted to do a little something with panels and came up with this design.  Not really complex but think it came out fairly well.  

I layered the white card stock card with pink cardstock (from the Jolie pad) and then worked on layering the panels.  The top two panels and the bottom panel are 3 layers (brown cardstock, decorative brown cardstock, and a embossed decorative pink cardstock) all from the Chocolat Jolie Paper Pad. 

I had these old antique looking jewels (top two panels) that I picked up at a garage sale sometime in the past few years.  I knew they would be great for a card but didn't have any idea what exactly I would do with them.  The larger shell-shaped jewel is from an earring I wore when I was in middle school (yes, 1980's).  The top two jewels are attached using wire and the large jewel is attached with a gold brad.   


Materials Used
Acid Free White Cardstock
Decorative Paper from Chocolat Jolie Paper Pad

Jewels 

Wire and Brads

 

Quilled Baby Congratulations Handmade Cards

I have made two quilled Baby Congratulations cards for my friend Crystal.  All she told me was that she needed a congratulations card and for whatever reason, I decided that they both needed to be quilled.  

The first one I made was for one of her friends that lives in Hawaii.  So, I went for a Hawaiian theme.  I had this light yellow and sage leaf embossed decorative paper that would be perfect for the card. I layered the decorative paper on light yellow cardstock and a light olive green card stock.  I found the perfect design for the quilled baby carriage at Inna's Creations.  I quilled some orange flowers to give it more of an island fell.   The Ho'omaika'i 'Ana (Congratulations in Hawaiian) tag is printed, sponged with stamping ink and mounted to give the tag a 3D effect.

For the second card, she wanted me to do a navy theme.  I was stumped.  What the heck was I going to do.  I decided a quilled stork carrying a baby would be ocean like and a quilled anchor would add the Navy touch. The card has several layers.  First I machine stitched the navy blue cardstock on off-white cardstock.  The second layer is dark blue with blue polka dots cardstock from the Fall/Halloween pad I purchased from Oriental Trading Company last year.  The third layer is this decorative washed blue cardstock from It's Time Breaking Free Adventure Series by Jen Wilson. 

The quilled anchor sits on two separate layers created using the polka dots cardstock and a decorative blue waves paper (Surf's Up) from My Mind's Eye by Zoe Pearn.  The Congratulations tag is also layered using light blue cardstock and white cardstock that has been sponged with blue stamping ink. 

I layered and machine stitched the inside of the card to match the front.  And there you go....many hours later...the card is complete and ready to send.

Materials Used For the Hawaiian Themed Baby Congratulations Card
Acid Free White Cardstock
Yellow and Olive Green Cardstock
Light Yellow and Sage Leaf Embossed Decorative Paper

Quilling Paper
Yellow and Light Green Stamping Pad 

Materials Used For the Anchor's Away Baby Congratulations Card
Acid Free White Cardstock
Navy Blue Cardstock

Dark Blue Polk Dots Decorative Paper form Fall/Halloween Pad by Oriental Trading Company

Washed Blue Decorative Paper (It's Time) - Breaking Free Adventure Series by Jen Wilson
Blue Waves Decorative Paper (Surf's Up) - My Mind's Eye by Zoe Pearn

Quilling Paper

Machine Stitching
Blue Stamping Pad

Add Your Etsy Mini to Blogger

I found this great blogger at Simply Wired Custom Jewelery who has detailed how to add your Etsy Mini to your blog.  Check out her site.

I'm going to post her 1st Step just for reference.  
Add Your Etsy Mini to Blogger

This tutorial covers adding an Etsy Mini to your blog. For this example, I'll be showing you how to add the Mini to one of your sidebar columns (rather than directly in a blog post). Since the sidebar content remains static regardless of what blog post a user chooses to view, I figured this would be the most commonly used option.

Alrighty...here we go (by the way, if the pics are hard to view, you can always click on them for a larger version):

Step 1: From Your Etsy, click the Etsy Mini link, located at the bottom left of the screen (for this screen capture, I highlighted it for you so it would stick out better).

Asian Inspired Red Flowers

For the past several months, I have been creating a lot of Asian themed cards.  I really love this red flower paper.  It is from this Asian inspired heavy embossed pad that I got a few months ago.  I should of wrote down the name of the pad before I tore out all of the paper.  Live and learn.  The paper is really heavy and tearing the edges adds a great touch to the overall look of the card.

I layered the white card stock card with heavy burgundy paper first.  I sponged burgundy ink from a stamping pad to the paper to give it a little more color.  I then used some tan and green cardstock for the second and third layers.  I tore the edges and inked them with brown, burgundy, and black stamping pads to add some color and worn look.  I then mounted the red flower paper adding the same stamp ink to the sides.

The card itself is very simple but elegant.  I decorated the inside of the card as well.  If you are interested in purchasing the card, visit my etsy store
http://www.etsy.com/listing/48482927/asian-inspired-red-flowers-blank

Materials Used
Acid Free White Cardstock
Tan and Green Cardstock
Asian Red Flower Heavy Embossed Paper
Burgundy, Brown, and Black Stamping Pad

Japanese Fan on Pressed Flower Background

The Pagoda Cricut cartridge is fab. How can yoiu go wrong with a cartridge that features Kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese writing). Check out Capadia Designs for great pictures of the booklet and information about the features of the cartridge.

There's going to be a lot that I can with this particular cartridge. I didn't even know here to begin. I figured I should start off simple and chose the fan design1. I love the flowers on the fan. A little painful for my machine to cut out the detail of the flowers. I had to help the cut with an X-Acto knife. Well worth the final product.

The white cardstock card is layered on textured light brown paper I found at Flax's. It was a bit expensive but I really love the texture. It is soft but a little but grainy. It went perfect with the pressed flower paper (also purchased at Flax's). Instead of a straight cut, I ripped the pressed flower paper to give the edges a little more of texture. I think the effect looks great especially with the fan die cut image.

For the fan I cut out several layers. For the base I used black card stock and then layered it with gold cardstock. The top layer with the flower detail was cut using sage green card stock from Bazzill Basics Paper. I finished the fan off by brushing black and gold stamping ink on the edges and on the flowers. The inside of the card is also layered with coordinating paper.

Materials Used
Acid Free White Cardstock
Textured Light Brown Paper (1st Layer)
Pressed Flower Paper (2nd Layer)
Cardstock Colors for Fan (white, black sage green)
Black & Gold Stamping Ink

Matryoshka Russian Doll Handmade Birthday Card

A bought a whole bunch of Cricut Cartridges a couple of weeks ago. CricutMachine.com was having a spectacular sale on all of their cartridges. I went a little crazy but ended up spending under $100.00 on 5 cartridges. You can't beat that especially when most of the great cartridges run anywhere $40.00 to $80.00. I usually buy my cartridges from ebay because I can get them for a fairly reseasonable price. But CricutMachine.com has great deals.

I love my Cricut and find it I find it helpful to get a really good look at the cartridges before I decide to purchase them. The web and blogs have great photos of the booklets for many of the cartridges. Capadia Designs has some good photos of the booklets. Diane posts great pictures of the booklets and has reviewed some of the cartridges. I really wanted to the from the Paisley cartridge for some cards that I had been thinking about but wasn't sure about the rest of the images. Checking out Diane's site sold me.

The Paisley cartridge is awesome and not only do I love the Russian doll image, the whole cartridge has sparked my creative juices. But I am in love with the Russian dolls. Lynn over at A Moment in Time has a great pop-up card design that I am hoping she will let me use for one of my creations.

The card is mounted in three layers (not including the heavy white cardstock paper that is used for the base of the card). Layer 1: I used is this burgundy cardstock that I had for years. I think I got it in bulk at Office Depot for a Psychology poster presentation I did way back in the day. Layer 2: Burning Ember form Bazzill Basics Paper. I love the color. I need to go back to Michael's and stock up on this color for my Fall cards. Layer 3: This paper is rather thin but I love the design. It's from My Mind's Eye's Complete Boy pad. The pad has some great designs for using with die cuts and background work on your cards.

The Matryoshka Russian Doll was made using several cut-outs of card stock from Bazzill Basics Paper. I used scraps that I had so I am not sure what the name of the colors are but I the shades I used are the following: white for the main card, then black to add a little more thickness and for the hair and eyebrows, red for the blush and center of the flower, pink for the lips, two different shades of orange for the head scarf and the flowers. The dress was mad from this gorgeous paisley paper from Anna Griffin, Inc. I love the colors.

The handwritten Happy Birthday tag is layered using the same paper for the used for the layering of the entire card. As usual, I also layered the inside of the card. I decided to add some machine stitching to the front of the card as well as the tag.

If you are interested in purchasing the card, I am selling it at my etsy store
(www.etsy.com/listing/49939832/matryoshka-russian-doll-handmade)


Materials Used
Acid Free White Cardstock
Burgundy Cardstock (1st Layer)
Bazzill Basics Paper - Burning Ember (2nd Layer)
Cardstock from My Mind's Eye "Complete Boy" Pad (3rd Layer)
Cardstock Colors for Matryoshka Doll (white, black, red, pink, two different shades of orange)
Anna Griffin Paisley Paper
Red Packing Cord
Machine Stitching (Brown Thread)

Ode to Clapton

I spent the day on filling orders for folks. This is the first of a few orders I completed. This card is for my god-sister to give my godfather. I was asked to create something that my pop would like and this is what I came up with. By the way, my pop loves it.

I mounted the card with Chantilly cardstock and then went through a few of my dad's Guitar Player magazines. I found sheet music for Eric Clapton's Layla and some blues cords and scanned them. Printed on heavy cardstock, I then stained the Layla sheet music with a tea bag and sponged the blues cords sheet music with a brown stamping pad. I adhered the the blues cord sheet music with glue and then machine stitched it to the base of the card. I also machine stitched the first bars of the Layla sheet music to the card. I printed out the greeting tag and adhered it to the card with glue tape. The card is embellished with gold brads.

Materials Used
Acid Free White Card Stock
Bazzill Basics Paper - Chantilly
Sheet Music
Tea Bag
Brown Stamp Pad
Gold Brads

Summer Solstice Sunflower Card Set

A friend from high school asked me to create some Summer Solstice cards for her fellow wiccans using sunflowers. I love sunflowers. They are my favorite flower and I have a huge collection of sunflower stamps.
I wanted to keep the design simple but elegant with. After spending an hour playing around with my stamp images, I came up with the design pictured.

The card was made using heavy white card stock. I layered the front of the card with Bazzill Basics Paper Cream Paper and this very cool olive green cream flower embossed decorative paper. I machine stitched the sides of the decorative paper to the base of the card using cream thread and added clear yellow buttons to the corners using some heavy brownish-gold packaging thread that I got at Flax's a few weeks ago.

For the sunflower, I stamped the image 3 times on white card stock using cream stamping ink. I cut out the main image and then cut out the flower portion of the image twice. The two flower portions of the sunflower are layered using mounting tape. I colored the sunflowers with yellow, brown, tan, and orange markers. For the center of the flower, I added gold micro beads. Once the sunflower was dry, I glued the image to the center of the card

The "Summer Solstice Greetings" tag was printed on heavy white card stock using a cool Celtic font that I had downloaded for my St. Patrick's day cards. I brushed the tag with orange and gold stamp pads.

The inside of the cards (which have been left blank) are cream and have been sponged with gold stamping ink.

Materials Used
Acid Free White Card Stock
Olive Green Cream Flower Embossed Decorative Paper
Sunflower Stamp
Cream, Gold, and Light Orange Stamp Pads
Clear Yellow Buttons
Brownish-Gold Packing Thread
Gold Photo Turns
Yellow, Brown, Tan, & Orange Markers
Machine Stitching

Flower Power

I can't tell you how much I love TV. My favorite show is Lost but I'm up for anything (except for reality tv). After watching some old episodes of the Brady Bunch, I wanted to do something creative with flowers and windows. So this is what I came up with.

The base of the card is white card stock. I layered the card with some burgundy card stock. I next cut out small squares of decorative flower card stock that I had from a paper kit and some plain off-white and pink card stock. I folded the off-white and pink card stock in half to form the windows. I painted the edges of the windows with some burgundy acyrillic paint and added iridescent glitter to the front of the window to give it some 70's feel. After everything was dried, I mounted the two small flower decorative paper and windows on different shade of burgundy paper and attached the windows using gold photo turns.

For the middle of the card, I broke out the cricut and cut multiple flowers in various shades from the Walk in My Garden cartridge. I attached the two outer flowers with a gold brad and the two center flowers were attached with glue on a strip of yellow based flower decorative paper. I added some decorative beads in the center of the two flower for some added effect.

I next embellished the card with yellow ribbon, decorative beads, and some multi-colored fibers (which I attached to the decorative flower paper). When you turn the photo turns, you will see that I added two pop-up flower stickers. As with all my cards, I also decorated the inside of the card to match the front.



Materials Used
Acid Free White Card Stock
Decorative Flower Card Stock
2 Shades of Burgundy Card Stock
Pink and Tan Card Stock
Flower Images from Cricut Walk In My Garden Cartridge
Gold Photo Turns
Pop-Up Flower Stickers
Gold Brads
Purple Beads
Yellow Ribbon and Multi-Colored Fibers

Lavender Shaker Note Card(s)

I love the smell of lavender. I keep lavender in my dresser drawers. I thought it would be cool to make a shaker card. I ran across some Rossler Papier sage photo cards at Flax that were perfect for what I was thinking about. I was just going to buy one, but thought that the card idea would be great for a set of note cards.
 

The card is a double-fold and perfect for shaker cards. It already had an oval cut out so no extra work involved. First, I cut out some transparent paper and attached it to the back of the first tri-fold of the card placing it over the oval cut out. I then sprinkled the organic dried lavender over the transparent paper. 

Using mounting tape, I then proceeded to mount Sage Bazzill Basics Paper over the dried lavender. I sealed the first fold over the card to give the lavender a little more security. For the front of the card, I heat embossed a decorative stamp image and added black and gold brads and accented the card with purple ribbon. I scraped the edges of the card to add a bit of texture. 

Materials Used:
Rossler Papier Sage Photo Card
Bazzill Basics Paper - Sage
Decorative Stamp & Pirate Gold Stampendous Embossing Powder
Purple Ribbon
Black and Gold Flower Shaped Brads

Beth's Baby Shower Card

I spent much of the weekend working on the invitation design for my friend Beth's Baby Shower which I am hosting with our friends Esther and Karina. I'm so excited to meet the new addition to the Lane family. Beth and Geoff's son Aidan is one of the sweetest kids you will every meet. That towheaded kid melts my heart. I know Baby XX Lane is going to do the exact same thing to my heart. 

The Lane's are a great family and a great set of friends that I am happy to include in my extended family. That being said, I wanted to do something special for Beth's invitation.

Before I start talking about the design I came up with, let's talk a little bit about Baby Shower Invitations. It seems that the Baby Shower Invitation market is flooded with an array of pink and blue themes. Don't get me wrong, I like pink and blue...but come on...there are so many other colors out there that you can choose from. Many of the themes of these invitations look like one is throwing a child's birthday party. Baby showers are for the expectant parents....who are adults...not 5 year-olds. I prefer a more elegant, sophisticated design. Don't even get me started on the party themes and favors. That will be saved for a later post.

Invitation Design

I wanted to do something a little different than the classic card opening. I was on the Stampers Pad Tutorial site a few months ago and remembered seeing a tutorial for a Simple Slide Card. I love the Stampers Pad Tutorial site. I recommend anyone interested in stamping checking out the site. It is a great place for beginners and novices. I was thinking that these slider cards would be great for Halloween Cards (which I think will be my theme for 2010). So slider invitations it was.

Now for colors...I love the way greens and purples look together; especially when accented with gold. I had purchased a "Baby" stamp and another stamp that I wanted to use for the invitations last weekend. Yes there was going to be some heat embossing. 

There are several layers on the invitation. I started off with cutting 2 pieces of white card stock to serve as my base. For the first layer, I choose a purple cardstock from Recollections Card Stock for the front and back of the card. These are great for acting as a base for cards because they are very thick. They are pretty plain so I usually jazz them up with some sponge painting. I used the Bazzill Basics Paper Guacamole for the second layer (cut 7"x7"). For the third layer, I wanted to use a designer paper. I went to Micheal's (evil..evil..place) and came across My Mind's Eye paper from 20th Street Market. It was perfect and went with the green and purple theme. I cut one piece a little smaller than the the second layer. Bazzill Basics Paper Lily was used for the fourth layer (cut 6"x6"). I sponge painted some gold streaks on the Lily paper to give it a little color and texture and painted the edges to add some depth.

To accent the fact that this was a baby shower invitation I decided to add some simple tags to the design using the Purple Recollections Card Stock and Bazzill Guacamole Basics Paper cut at 41/2"x3". I used the Bazzill Wild Pansy Paper (cut at 31/2"x2) for the center of the card. I painted the edges of the three tags using some antique gold paint and heat embossed the "Baby" stamp image using gold embossing powder. I accented the card with antique gold beads.

Once I was done with the front of the card, I assembled the front and back of the cards by attaching double sided tape to three sides of the card leaving the side of the card that I wanted the announcement tag to slide from open. Once assembled, I painted the sides of the card using the the same antique gold paint I used for the tags. I punched a hole in the opening side of the card and cut a piece of light purple and sage green ribbon to serve as the "pulley." 

For the tag announcement, I created a tag and used a stamp image heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I found the font from Urban Fonts for the announcement and accented the announcement tag with a strip of My Mind's Eye paper.

Mother's Day Cards

So...I have gotten my creative juices running for Mother's Day. I was getting out of my car in the lot at work and making my drowsy way up the flight of stairs to begin the much dreaded gathering of my quarterly statistics, when I noticed a butterfly on one of the tree branches. It was weird because I rarely see butterflies this time of the year.

I love butterflies (probably as much as Mariah Carey) and have used a butterfly motif in many of the cards that I have given friends. In the past, I have tried to add dimension to the butterflies and they have turned out fine (my friends like them).....but I wanted a little something different. Something fresh. Then I remembered my mom's Spring Wreath. She has made wreaths for every season. Her Spring Wreath had these fabric butterflies that added a lot of dimension and flight. I knew I wanted to start my etsy store and what a perfect time with Mother's Day just around the corner. So...off to Beverley's Fabrics I went (of course after putting in a long day of crunching numbers).

I came across these pink and orange butterflies that I knew would be perfect for the cards I had in mind. I also wanted the butterfly to sit on a branch. I was thinking using a real tree branch (of course smaller in scale) but was concerned that it wouldn't hold up in the mail. Thank the Gods for Cricut. One of my better purchases. I had used the Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge while making my Christmas cards this past year. The cartridge has a great tree branch image that would be perfect for the card (cardstock is a little sturdier than actual tree parts.)

I have been doing a lot of heat embossing lately and can't seem to stop myself from purchasing a new stamp every couple of weeks. Of course I had to get a new mother's day stamp. The stamp (pictured above) is from inkadinado. It's the perfect size for making a tag and the perfect image for heat embossing. As you heat embossers know, the more detail the stamp has can sometimes lead to a messy looking image.

The first of the two butterfly cards I made was the one with the orange butterfly. At first I was happy with the card, but after sitting on it for a while...I thought it needed a little more pop. I love adding beads to my cards (which initially I had added some on the the tree branch and the flowered paper) because I really like the detail that it adds to the cards.

I decided that the "Happy Mother's Day" tag needed a little more dimension. I decided to add some more beads to the tag. I think the flower shapes I created with the beads gives the entire card a better look. I am much happier with the final product (second card pictured).

Just a little bit about the card: The front of the card is double layered with Brazzill Basics Cream Paper and a very pretty orange flower paper I picked up at Beverley's. I added the branch cut out from the Cricut cartridge Winter Woodlands using a heavy gold paper and added pink beads to the the leaves section of the branch and orange beads to the centers of the flowers on the orange flower paper. The final tag is layered on the same flowered paper and cream paper used to make the card.

I accented the cream paper used for the tag with orange paint that I lightly brushed on to give it an antique feel. The tag is attached using cooper grommets. I added a piece of orange ribbon to the top of the card and used Martha Stewart's blade to fray the edges of the card and Martha Stewart Hibiscus stamp pad to add some color to the frayed edges.

I left the card black inside but like to add a little personal touch with coordinating paper and/or themes. As you can see in the third picture, the inside of the card turned out pretty cute. I love the orange ribbon accents.

Materials Used:

Acid Free White Card Stock

Bazzill Basics Paper: cream

Orange Flower Paper

Orange Craft Butterfly

Gold Tree Branch Image from Cricut Winter Woodland Cartridge

"Happy Mother's Day" stamp from inkandinado

Pirate Gold Stampendous Embossing Powder

Orange Ribbon & Pink and Orange Beads

My second card turned out great. I really like the pink and brown together. Just a little bit about the card: The front of the card is double layered with Brazzill Basics Tan Paper and a brown and pink stripe paper from the Jolie Paper Pad Chocolat collection. Using a heavy gold paper, I added the branch cut out from the Cricut cartridge Winter Woodlands and added pink beads to the the leaves section of the branch. The tag is layered on the same brown and pink stripe paper and Brazzill Basics Pink paper. I used Martha Stewart's Hibiscus stamp pad to add some color to the tag. The tag is accented with pink beads with a gold center making the decorations look like flowers. I topped the card off with a bow made with gold and pink ribbon.

Just like the orange butterfly card, I left the card black inside but like to add a little personal touch with coordinating paper and/or themes.

Materials Used

Acid Free White Card Stock

Bazzill Basics Paper: tan

Jolie Paper Pad Chocolat: brown and pink stripe

Pink Craft Butterfly

Gold Tree Branch Image from Cricut Winter Woodland Cartridge

"Happy Mother's Day" stamp from inkandinado

Pirate Gold Stampendous Embossing Powder

Tan & Pink Ribbon

Pink & Gold Beads

Greetings!

Greetings from Casa Gray!

So here I am blogging. I have finally "come out of closet" and have decided to give this blog thing a shot. Welcome to the modern age Missy. For the past year most of the things that I have to share have been done on Facebook. Although I love Facebook, I think that sometimes Facebook can be limited in sharing one of the things that brings a tremendous amount of joy and pleasure in my life: crafting.

Well let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Heather and I am the Family Support Coordinator for the Northern California/Northern Nevada Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association (http://www.alz.org/norcal/). My primary job responsibilities include coordinating and overseeing over 60 family dementia family caregiver support groups; facilitating two support groups for individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease; providing care consultation services for families living with the disease; and providing community and professional education. I am absolutely in love with my job and love the people I work for and the families I work with.

In my spare time (which is very limited), I love crafting. Specifically, making handmade cards. I have been making cards for many years now and just recently (after many suggestions) have decided to open up my own etsy shop. I don't know where it's going to go and what sales I will make, but I love a challenge and hope that one day it might actually be successful. I just recently took up sewing (which I will blog about). I love it as well...but making cards is my passion. I love sharing ideas and hope that I inspire some of you to break out those art supplies and get crafting.