Best mama ever!

Although I have already made my mother's day card for my dear mother (check out the post here and the pic above for a glimpse), I still had another to make for my sister.  She is an amazing mother to my little nephew and she recently announced that baby #2 will be a little girl - can't wait!  Yippee!!

So I wanted to make her a fun mother's day card to show her how awesome I think she is.  I thought the sentiment BEST MAMA EVER would fit the bill.  What does a stamping girl do when she doesn't have the right sentiment?  Create her own with an alphabet set or two, of course!  I love stamping my own personalized sentiments ... this works well for baby cards (with the name), birthday cards, foreign languages or inside jokes ... I have quite a few alphabet stamp sets and love them all!  :-) 

I created a faux glassine bag with waxed paper and fashioned it into a shaker card with the Fabulous Frames die filled with some various sequins - gray, purple, silver, iridescent, vanilla ... you name it, it was in there!  I also kept it bright, cutting up some patterned papers from Lawn Fawn's collection - my sister likes fun colours so this should be right up her alley.

Inside I stamped hearts from Little Bitty Bird and Kelly Purkey's Plain Jane capital alphabet - I like the modern look of this font.

I quickly snapped these pictures with my phone just before writing in the card and rushing out to the mailbox to get it in the post in advance so the blue looks a little more neon than it really is in the pic above - oops!

Have you got your Mother's Day cards ready to go?  Mailed if necessary?

Supplies:
Paper: Staples pale grey card stock, Lawn Fawn patterned paper
Ink: Versafine Black Onyx, Fresh Sky Blue, Silver Lilac
Stamps: PTI Little Bitty Bird, Paper Smooches AlphaDot, Kelly Purkey Plain Jane alphabet
Misc: PTI Fabulous Frames die, waxed paper, various sequins from stash

His and Hers Online Class Bonus Day - so proud of you

Excuse the poor photography but it is late and I don't have a fancy schmancy light box or fabulous camera so this will have to do!  One of my students was named Head Girl for next year and I wanted to make her a congratulatory card.  Our house colours are purple so I used a purple flat square card from Paper Source as my base.

I stamped the sentiment from Wonderful Word Additions and added one of the medallions from Giga Guidelines.  I added a large gem to the centre for a little bling.

I just love the look of opaque light inks on dark card stock ... so striking.  Well, I hope she likes this card .. we will see tomorrow, won't we? :)

Supplies:
Paper: Paper Source square flat card
Stamps: PTI Giga Guidelines, Wonderful Words Additions
Ink: PTI Vintage Cream
Misc: gem from stash

His and Hers Online Class Day Five: Love you so much

For this card, I wanted to try out the new Quick Stitch sentiment dies from Papertrey - I don't think I'm going to use them much for stitching but I like the look of them embossed into the card stock with the negative space showing through.

I added a piece of navy shimmer card stock behind the Hawaiian Shores card panel and added the anchor from Bountiful Banners and the sentiment from the same set ('you') and Mini Blooms ('so much') using Fresh Navy ink.

I decided the card base needed some texture so I dry embossed it with the Houndstooth impression plate.  Love those plates! ;)

Supplies:
Paper: PTI Hawaiian Shores, Staples 110lb white, navy shimmer card stock
Stamps: PTI Bountiful Banners, Mini Blooms
Ink: Fresh navy
Misc: PTI Houndstooth impression plate, Quick Stitch sentiment die ('love')

His and Hers Online Class Day Five: You make every day a happy one

I loved Kristina's curved card front so tried to replicate that.  Rather than stamping, I thought I would use some patterned paper rather than hoarding it ... :)  I used some gorgeous papers from Studio Calico Abroad's 6x6 pad.  Love the colours in this pad!

There are some great patterns and designs for travel themed cards (think Bon Voyage) and some fun trendy designs and masculine colour schemes too.

I stamped an MFT greeting on the front using Fresh Chocolate ink and added three little wood veneer stars from Studio Calico - just love these! :)

Here's what the pack of stars looks like:

Have you delved into the world of wood veneer yet?

Supplies:
Paper: Staples 110lb white, Studio Calico Abroad's 6x6 pad
Stamps: MFT Complimentary Sayings
Ink: Fresh Chocolate
Misc: wood veneer stars (Studio Calico)

His and Hers Online Class Day Five: You make me smile

I thought this would work for a 'love you' card and I was so excited to try out the Rosie Posie Step 2 set from Papertrey.  I might be the last person in the world without Copics but this set eliminates the need for me to stress about trying to shade properly ...

I went for a non conventional colour combination using Fresh Chocolate, Birch and Fuchsia.  I kept it very simple and used the linen impression plate to add some texture to the card.

Supplies:
Paper: Staples 110lb white
Ink: Fresh Chocolate, Birch and Fuchsia
Stamps: PTI Rosie Posie + Step 2, Sketched Shapes (sentiment)
Misc: PTI Linen impression plate

His and Hers Day Two: Happy Birthday - masculine sketched shapes

I was so excited when my Papertrey package arrived ... I couldn't wait to break into the goodies and get stamping!  I used the Sketched Shapes and Bountiful Banners to create a masculine birthday card.

I thought this would also fit nicely in with A Passion for Papertrey's latest challenge to create cards with a celebratory theme. 

Can I tell you how much I am in love with these new stamps?!!  The sketched look of the notched banners is so cool!  I layered four inks over one another - Fresh Birch, Sky Blue, Sicilian Blue and Chocolate. 

I stamped the HB circle in Birch ink (from Bountiful Banners), die cutting it and mounting it on foam dots before adding the sentiment using Chocolate ink.  Very simple but I think it could work for a masculine card, right?

Supplies:
Paper: Staples 110lb white
Ink: Fresh Birch, Sky Blue, Sicilian Blue and Chocolate
Stamps: PTI Sketched Shapes, Bountiful Banners
Misc: foam dots

His and Hers online class - Day Three: with sympathy watercolour style

 For this card, I tried Jennifer's method of watercolouring over light ink but it didn't work out that well for me - a big hot mess, unfortunately!  Not sure if it was me or the ink or what but I went with plan B and heat embossed the image with Versamark and some gold Zing embossing powder.

 Then I watercoloured with an aqua brush and some Distress Markers scribbled on an acrylic block.

I added the sympathy sentiment using one of the Fillable Frames sets and stamped it on spring moss using the fabulously crisp Versafine Black Onyx ink.  I mounted it on foam dots since the rest of the card and panel were sitting flat. 

Watercolouring makes me feel like an artiste (yup, arteeeest) even though I am SOOOOOOOOO not!! :-P

Supplies:
Paper: PTI Kraft, Spring Moss, watercolour paper
Ink: Versamark, Versafine Black Onyx 
Misc:  Distress Inks, foam dots, Zing gold embossing powder

His and Hers Day Three/10 Minute Craft Dash - with sympathy

I tried my hand at another sympathy card using the 10 minute craft dash colour combo - this is a beautiful group of shades together ... and the third day of the His and Hers challenge was all about sympathy cards.  It's always good to have a few on hand as you are never in the right frame of mind when you actually need one of these cards.  They are also great to add to card sets as they are (unfortunately) necessary at one time or another.

This card came together pretty quickly - I used Birch, Sicilian Blue and Sugar inks for the ikat stamping and overlaid the sentiment from PTI's Think Big set in Chocolate.

I popped up the white panel on foam dots and attached it to a kraft card base.  Easy peasy and done in only 4 minutes and 24 seconds.  Whoo hoo! :-)

Supplies:
Paper: PTI Kraft, Staples 110lb white
Stamps: PTI Irresistible Ikat, Think Big
Inks: Fresh Sicilian Blue, Sugar, Birch, Chocolate
Misc: foam dots

His and Hers Day Three/10 Minute Craft Dash#17 - here for you

Day three of the online class His and Hers covered sympathy cards.  I decided to combine this with a new to me challenge, the 10 minute craft dash.  I managed to make the card in under ten minutes!

I think I was more concerned about keeping track of the time and continuing to refresh my phone's screen to check the time! :)  I got my card stock, inks and stamps all ready to go before beginning which is allowed, according to the rules. 

I stamped the flowers from Natural Beauties in Sicilian Blue ink and then overlaid the line image in Birch.  I added the inner embellished dots in Sugar and Fuchsia before gluing down some irridescent sequins.  I think it took longer for me to cut the sequins and adhere them than the stamping!

I added the sentiment onto a piece of spring rain card stock using a Think Big sentiment in Birch and added it on foam dots.  I got this card made in just under the allowed time - 9:42!  Have you ever tried to time yourself to make a card in under ten minutes?  It's a great way to challenge yourself so I encourage you to try it out ...

Supplies:
Paper: Staples 110 lb white, PTI spring rain
Ink: Fresh Sicilian Blue, Birch, Sugar, Fuchsia
Stamps: PTI Think Big, Natural Beauties
Misc: irridescent sequins, foam dots