Birthday Card for a Special Person in My Life!

Here's a birthday card for my son's "Second Mom." He is so lucky to have her in his life --- wouldn't it be great to have 2 moms to spoil us, take good care of us and guide us through life?! 

These pictures show a quick way to give someone a gift card using SU's Word Window punch. I use this punch a lot and it works particularly well for words (as shown on the card front) and as a slot for gift cards. To make the gift card insert, score a 5 1/2" wide by 10" long piece of medium weight DSP. Score at 2, 5 and 8" and use a bone folder to create a valley fold at the 2" and 8" score line and a mountain fold at the 5" score line. Measure the width of your gift card as you hold it up to the center of the fold at the 5" fold --- add about 1/4" each beyond that on each side of the gift card and mark those points with a pencil. Start on one side and punch 3 times in a row - aligning the next punch point with the previous punch until you reach the other pencil mark. Punch in the center with a 1" punch to create a half circle and attach the entire piece to your card with red sticky tape. (I used a lace punch to add a border on each side before I attached the entire piece and also put red sticky tape between the 3" sections to prevent the gift card from sliding down too far inside the pocket.)

Butterfly and Lace Punches: Martha Stewart

Pearls: Creative Cafe

Paper: American Crafts I DO Gerber Daisies

Blue Paper for Lace: Lightweight light blue scraps I had from who knows where!

Ribbon: Celebrate It from Michael's

Check This Out!

One of my CARD & CRAFT CLUB members, Barbara Ernst, sent these sweet little angels to me after I sent out the February penguin project. Thank you, Barbara, for making my day with this wonderful surprise in the mail. These samples of your impressive crafting talents made this happy little crafter do quite a happy dance!

Wedding Shower Tomorrow!

I've been busy getting ready for a wedding shower I'm giving tomorrow for one of my dearest friend's daughter who is getting married in May. I made this card with a saying that I love for the parents of the bride, and I'm sure it will bring a tear or two! The saying reads:
When children find true love, parents find true joy.


Some of the ideas I'll be demonstrating at my March 21st class will come from this shower --- they are ideas that can be adapted to any party or family gathering....for example...have you ever heard of the Right/Left game? I believe there are 2 spots left for my class. It's a Martha Stewart-type class filled with food, entertaining and paper craft ideas --- 3 of my favorite things on the planet!!! Click on my picture above to read more details about the class.  If you can't come to this class, I'll be teaching them every few months!


BTW ---  The heart punch is from Martha Stewart and the largest background paper is one of those huge sheets of paper from the Paper Source.

Sample of a January CLUB Project

Here are some pics of the paper purse and matching card I made for my son's girlfriend's birthday. The smaller and last picture shows the inside of the card made with the Labels 3 Nesties. My husband's assistant gave them to me recently because an online site mixed up her order and sent her an extra Labels 3 set to make up for an error on their part...so I was the lucky recipient of the FREEBIE! Thank you, Tiffany!!!! The paper purse was made with my January Card & Craft Club template. If you'd like to make some of these purses, write to me and I'll send purchase details for the instructions and template. The Happy Birthday saying  and background oval were cut on my Cricut (using the STORYBOOK cartridge --- one of my favorite cartridges). The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch --- oh, it's so hard to resist her punches!...and I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder (WITH LOVE) for the line of raised dots along with my Scor-Pal to make the raised straight lines on the front of the card. The little silver adhesive balls (purchased at Michael's) on the butterflies and hearts added a nice touch of bling to the final look of the card.

Valentines!

Oh, what fun I had over the weekend! I made some valentines with my sister, mom and some very talented friends. The first picture shows a quick and easy card I designed with Martha Stewart's heart border punch and a heart ribbon with a silver heart charm (both from Michael's in their wedding section --- for $5.49 you get a zillion heart charms --- use your coupon for even more savings). The final rectangle is raised with foam tape for an added professional touch.

The second picture shows a card my crafty friend Katie had us make using SU's Sweet Treat Cups --- so clever! My son is giving this card to his girlfriend for Valentine's Day ;-)

BLOG CANDY FOR EVERYONE!!!!

I've just added TWO new FREE downloads to my MLO website!! (See the second picture above.) One pdf has small red and pink hearts behind the saying and the other file has large pink hearts behind the saying. The top picture shows a card sample using the pdf with the large pink hearts. Download the FREE files, print them on white or cream cardstock and use your imagination to find ways to use these two FREE sheets of sayings. Email me a picture showing me your creations --- I'd love to see them! Enjoy and thank you to all of my loyal blog readers! CLICK HERE for the free files. BTW - the Sizzix embossing folders (used on the card above) worked very nicely in my Cuttlebug!

Embossing folder:

Sizzix Textured Impressions Embossing Folders 2PK - Floral Flourishes & Vines Set

Heart Lace Punch:

Martha Stewart Heart Lace Border Punch