Birthday and Anniversary Cards

July is a busy month for our family.  We have several birthdays and anniversaries to note, so that means cards to give or send out.  Here's a few of the cards I made for this month.

DCWV's Vintage Collector Stack, SRM Sticker, We R Washi, American Crafts Twine

DCWV's sunday Afternoon Stack, SRM Sticker, American Crafts Twine

DCWV's sunday Afternoon Stack, Airplane cut from Cricut B is for Boy cartridge

Lillibee Design paper, My Mind's Eye tickets, SRM stickers, American Crafts twine

DCWV Vintage Collector Stack, silhouette cut from Cricut Sweetheart Cartridge

Design Team: Little Yellow Bicycle's Vintage Summer Collection

Ahhh, sweet summertime!  I love these days of summer and at a recent trip to Scrapdoodles, I was able to pick several pieces from the Little Yellow Bicycle "Vintage Summer" collection.  The colors are perfect for your patriotic pages as well as general summertime gatherings and events.  I picked up several sheets of paper, the Paper Crafting Kit, Stick Pins, and Fabric Favorites from the collection.  You can see the whole thing HERE or stop by Scrapdoodles to see it in person and pick out your own treats.  I brought home my goodies and created a project and 2 layouts to share with you from this line.
For my project, I started with a plain chalkboard frame that I painted with another quick coat of black  chalkboard paint.  Then I layered several elements from LYB's fabric embellishments collection (the banner is one) and several flowers from their Paper Crafting Kit.  I love how the paper crafting kit elements were "pre-cut" but still offered lots of options in assembly and use.  The stick pins offer a fun touch to this project.  Two eyelets screwed into the top of the frame and a string allow it to be hung on a door or anywhere you need a little pick me up.  See it in person at Scrapdoodles!

My first layout starts with a dark blue cardstock base.  I cut apart some of the Patchwork Quilt paper to create my own background for this layout.  The banner is made from circles folded in half (from the Papercrafting Kit).  I layered some more elements from the collection next to the photo.  The title is chipboard letters from my stash.  Underneath it, I pleated a small strip of paper and added a brad.

My second layout uses one of the fun full sheets from the collection.  It's called "Blue Skies."

I cut off the tiniest bit of paper from the left edge and adhered a red scalloped border to the back, so just a peek of the border sticks out.  This strip was actually one of the precut/scored elements in the papercrafting pack, but I thought it would be a cute border.  I haphazardly added a few more tiny print squares from the Patchwork Quilt sheet and added a few more embellishments on top, included the cherries (cut from my die cut machine), a layered flower and one more of the fabric favorites.

This was such a fun collection to play with.  The embellishment kits will provide you with lots of coordinating materials for your projects and layouts.

Happy Crafting! ~Karen

Washi Tape Kids Class

Yay! It's another fun Kids Class to put on your schedule.  

If you live locally, come join me on Wednesday July 3rd at 10:30 am to craft a cute bracelet.  

We'll use jumbo craft sticks, some string, and dig into our Washi tape stash to style up some sweet bracelets for a summer fashion statement.  

The class will be at our awesome local scrapbook store, Scrapdoodles.  Call the store to register!

Check out Mama Miss for her original Washi Tape Bracelet post as well as other popsicle stick bracelet inspiration HERE and HERE.

Wedding and Shower Cards

Ah...love is in the air.  I wanted to share a couple of wedding/shower themed cards I made recently.  This first is a military-wedding inspired card.  The large cut was made with my Cricut.  I embellished it with stickle dots and added a ribbon and a couple of lines from SRM clear sticker borders.

My second card was made for a bridal shower (which I sadly had to miss), but it was a fun card to make.  Again, the main image was cut with my Cricut and I used pop dots to give it depth and stickles to give it some shine and elegance.

Happy wedding season!  I hope you're able to share in making someone's day lovely with your gift of crafting.

Teacher Thank You Gift and Card

I really have been crafting...and moving...but mostly moving.  Before too much time passes, here are a few things I've worked on.  I made this little teacher gift and card while we stayed with friends between houses.  Hannah brought it to her teachers for the last day of school.

Scrapdoodles Design Team Wednesday

In hindsight, maybe scheduling my Design Team post for Scrapdoodles immediately after moving into a new home over the weekend (following a week of "homelessness") wasn't such a great idea...  But then again, when great papers are calling my name and inspire a great layout or two, working on top of stacked boxes isn't such a hurdle.  This week I was able to get a little crafting done despite our crazy "just moved in" life at the moment.  We R Memory Keepers' new perfect-for-summer line, "Country Livin'" inspired my first layout.  As soon as I saw the "Top Notch Beef" ad on the "Town Paper" patterned sheet, I new I would create a layout featuring my favorite young man showing his beef in last year's show and sale.  The ribbon paper was the perfect complement.  We R also makes it easy to coordinate with solid cardstock by providing their own perfectly matching selections. I love how these muted tones work together.  The line makes me think of old fashioned summer picnics, parades, and activities.  I just added a bit of twine (Lawn Fawn) and bordered my 12x12 with Washi tape.  Scrapdoodles carries lots of coordinating items including We R's layered chipboard stickers and embossed stickers and die cuts.  Easy layouts for your easy-going summer memories!

Another summery line I found at Scrapdoodles is new from Elle's Studio.  This is actually the boy line, "Cameron," but the bright colors can be used for any theme, including favorite little girls.  For this layout, I started with this great, already embellished down the side 12x12 sheet.  I used my die cut machine to cut the title directly onto the sheet and layered a couple coordinating patterned papers in the back.  I added my photo, other tags and bits from the line, a bit of ink splotches and doodling, and some brads and washi from my stash.  I love how it turned out.

Lastly for you today I put together a couple of simple cards using more pieces from these two lines.  Enjoy!  I hope you get some craft time this week.  I need to get some more boxes unpacked ;)  ~Karen

Invites with SRM Stickers and Echo Park

Need some cute and quick invitation ideas?  SRM Stickers has lots of fun solutions.  I picked up two sets of "We've Got Your Invite" and "We've Got Your Border" stickers from Scrapdoodles to play with and show you how easy it is to put together invitations.  Handmade invites are awesome, but making 30 or 50 or 100 is a lot of work, so it's best to keep your overall design simple.  For these baby shower invites I used the girl invite and border stickers from SRM. Begin with a couple of layers for your card base - this dresses up your invite, but it's easy to cut and layer.  (My formula = A2 base + grey/brown/black + color + white.)
For each card, I used a circle punch and a circle SRM sticker (use a pop dot to add dimension) and then added a cluster of SRM border strip pieces and a cute twine (the Twinery) bow and baby pin (from my stash).  SRM sticker sheets also include a block for filling in all your invitation information, so even the insides get handmade goodness.  I like that I can vary the main accent color (pink, yellow, green), so even though all my invites are not exactly the same, the overall design is, so it makes it easy to pull coordinating cardstock and use my supplies wisely.  For party favors, consider using a clear tube (several sizes to choose from) and applying a few cute coordinating stickers before filling it with candies.  For my tube, I also added a mini twine pom pom and a twine string with thank you banner on the lid.  I think it's super cute! And it was super easy!

The invitation stickers can also be used on a coordinating layout to commemorate the shower once it's over. If you're making the invites, you could complete the layout ahead of time and give it to the guest of honor to add photos to.  This layout uses some of the cute new paper from Echo Park's "Bundle of Joy" line.  That's also at Scrapdoodles and both the boy and girl lines are super-adorable!  I love the journaling cards that coordinate.  In this layout, I used one of the cards as the title block and the other I slipped into a glassine bag (these are so fun!), tied with more Twinery twine.

Don't have a baby shower coming up?  Here's the same idea, but with a Birthday theme!  I began with the SRM Invite and Border stickers.  This first card uses the same basic formula as the baby shower invites.  I also added a couple of pennants (the sticks are toothpicks wrapped in Washi tape!).  The large tube is topped with a big pom pom and I've added some SRM stickers and twine to it, too.

This last invite uses the glassine bag as an envelope and the SRM stickers.  Again, I love how these invite and border stickers can be used to create different looks that make invites quick and easy!  Just find some coordinating papers (mine are from Echo Park's "Happy Days" line) and you are set for an awesome, handmade party.