Graduation Card

 It's that time of year!  I found a darling graduation card online here and decided that I wanted to try and recreate it!  It was fun to make but rather boring since the school colors are black and orange!

I just happened to have an orange tassel in my accessory drawer and I had just gotten these cute buttons at Bi Mart for half off and one said Congrats!

The card was super easy to create and I think I'll be making a couple more in different school colors!

If you go to the blog I referred to earlier, she has the directions for making them.

Here is the card opened.


Have a fun day doing something you enjoy!!!

Char

Practical Joke

Here is a practical joke gone awry!!

Earlier this morning, I was talking about going to get my hair cut later today.  I told my hubby, I should just go have it shaved off...then I wouldn't have to deal with it every month.  He said, "Why not just get a mohawk" I said, "Oh yeah, you wouldn't walk down the street with me like that" and he replied, "Oh yes I would".

So, anyway, a little later today I went in and got my hair cut.  While she was cutting it, someone mentioned the pink in her hair and I asked what she had done.  She said she was trying out some new thing that they just got in.  Someone said, try it on Char....so she did.  So, I bought a couple of tubes of it.  It's called Colorme by Giuliano.  It's a professional temporary (I HOPE) hair color.  It comes in a mascara like tube.

So, I came home and put some Teal and Purple in my hair.
A friend came over a little later and I recounted that morning's conversation to her.  I told her I was doing it as a joke on my hubby.

Well, she told me to put MORE on ....as it was too light to see really good.  So, just as he pulled in the driveway, I ran back and put more in my hair.

We sat there while he came in with the mail and he started conversing with us.  He said, "Did you get your hair cut, today?"  I said, "Yes, can't you tell?".  He said, "Not really".  Then, I waited for him to SAY something!  He didn't say a thing.   I thought he was being polite with my friend here and didn't want to mention my 'hair color'.
Then, finally I couldn't take it anymore and I said, "You don't like my hair?".  He said, "Well, I just didn't think she cut much off".  Then, my friend said, "Are you color blind?"  To that he replied, "yeah I am, mostly greens and shades of blue".

DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!  I had completely forgotten that he is color blind and wouldn't have seen the color change!!

SO, the joke was on me!!   Oh well, it was fun, anyway!!

Have a great day!!
Char

Concrete Rhubarb Bowl

Well, we finally accomplished our goal!!  We got a Rhubarb concrete bowl to actually turn out and not crack!!

We actually made four of these puppies, but the first one, we made out of mortar mix but someone...not mentioning who....couldn't wait for it to cure and started chipping off the sides....and it cracked right down the middle.  Ok, so I am not a patient person.  Lesson learned!


We also made one out of quick crete and it looked a little 'rougher' but it's good too.  I didn't get a photo of that one.

Then, we made another one and it turned out pretty good, actually, but noticed that right in the middle of the vein...there was a spot that was really thin, so we patched the bottom of it to cover the 'hole'.   So, then we had to make another one and it is the one in the photo, it turned out the best of all of them.  We made that one out of mortar mix, too.

Next up is to seal them all and put our concrete away for another day!  We still have plenty of material to make a few more but we're done for now.

If you think you might like to try this, we found this book that is really helpful!!

We also checked out some you tube videos, as well.

Enjoy your day!!!
Hugs,
Char

Son Father's Day card

Still hate wood mounted stamps!!!  That is why it's crooked but oh well!  And, it didn't stamp well!   I should have turned it over and tried again but figured I'd make it even worse.

Easy fun card to put together.  We just layered brown card stock onto a blue card and then stamped the sentiment using blue and brown inks.

We added triangles (actually squares turned on end) to the bottom of the card and then placed blue triangles on top of those.  We added little brown triangles to the centers of the blue triangles and then 'stitched' around the blue edges with a marker.

Now, it's back to creating again!!!

Have a great day!!!
                                                                                    Char

Happy Face Day

Using the Bigz L Dies from SU, we punched out one die in orange and the smaller die in Yellow.

We stamped a smiley face onto a white circle and attached that to the middle of the yellow die.  Then, we adhered the two together.

We then took two strips of orange and cut a V out of one end on both strips and attached them under the dies.

We adhered that to a piece of white of card stock and then adhered that to a blue card.

Then, we stamped the sentiment with blue ink.

Another fun card that would make anyone smile!!

Happy Day!!!
      Char

Congratulations Graduate

Black and Silver was the theme of this card.  We used a black card, added two strips of silver card stock to the top and bottom with two strips of black scalloped pieces on top of that.   Then, we added the white card stock after it had been stamped with graduation caps in black.

We added the sentiment "congratulations' Graduate and we were finished!!

I think this would be cool using any school's colors for the card!

Another simple and fun card!!

Have a great day!!
Char

Thanks!!

A definitely retired stamp set....pansies...was used to create this bright card!

We stamped the pansies onto white glossy card stock that had already been decorated at the bottom with the Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and the Edgelit die.

We attached a piece of purple ribbon and then adhered that to a yellow card. We stamped Thanks (retired) three times using yellow, purple and green ink, onto glossy card stock and adhered that to a piece of purple card stock and attached that over the ribbon.

Too bad that stamp set is retired, it was fun to play with and makes such a cheerful card!!

Have a great day!!!  
                                                                      Char

Happy Father's Day card

Ok, I am going to just say that I am not a huge fan of wood mounted stamps and the reason being, I can't 'see' where I am stamping.

This image, as you can see didn't get fully stamped and I apologize for that blunder.

But, here again, we used a fishing theme.  We stamped the sail boat onto white card stock and attached that to crumb cake and then attached that to a Island Indigo card and added a strip of pool party, I believe, to look like waves.

We added a piece of bakers twine that had a hint of 'blue' to it and stamped a sentiment in pool party to an oval piece of white card stock and attached that to the left side.

Love the blues on this card!!!
Have a great day!!
Char

dad card

Love this card that we made at stamp club.  Using the "Tool Shed" background stamp from SU, we stamped it in brown ink onto cream card stock.  Then, we attached it to brown card stock and added a strip of brown card stock that had been embossed with 'Stripes" embossing folder.

We added three brads to the right hand side and attached the letters d a d that were already cut out for us, using some sort of 'chipboard'?  I saw the 'on Board Alphabet Soup" chipboard letters but these don't seem to be what we used.  Although, they are discontinued, I am sure you could find something similar at your craft store OR if you have an alphabet die set, you could try using that.

Very quick card to put together and I could visualize different backgrounds and letters to come up with all kinds of holidays and occasions.
Give it a try!!

Char

Masculine Birthday

Here is a masculine birthday card for the fisherman in your life.  Of course, it could be used for Father's Day, as well.

We used two pieces of brown designer paper and attached them to cream colored card stock.  Then attached those to the front of a brown card.

Then we stamped the fishing themed stamp onto cream card stock and attached that to brown card stock and added that on top of the two pieces of designer paper.

Adding some unraveled twine to the side of the card and attaching a circle sentiment....finishes off the card.
It's very monochromatic but then you don't have to do any coloring, either, if you choose not to.

Have a great day!!
Char

A Note of Thanks

We can all use note cards to send a little note to a friend.  Here is a really simple one!

We used a Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, and embossed Framed Tulips, from SU on a white card.

Then, we used SU Beautiful Wings Embosslits Dies cut from green and coral card stock (I know those aren't the names of the card stock that were used, but you get the picture, anyway).  We attached the 3 butterflies in the right hand corner and then added a little rhinestone to each butterfly.
Then we stamped "A note of thanks" and Viola` we were done.

I keep saying I need to just "DO SIMPLE" now and then and this card is just that....yet so sweet!

Have a great day!!
Char

Ship Ahoy

Here is another card we did at stamp class last Saturday afternoon.    I was going to be SO GOOD, this time, and write down all the stamps, card stock and other things as we made them, but I got to talking and making cards and before I knew it, I was done and ready to go home.  :-(

This would make a great Father's Day or masculine birthday card.  It was another fun card to put together.

Have a great day!!!
Char

May Stamp Club

Well, another stamp club come and gone!  A good time was had by all!!

For our May stamp club, we made 10 cards.  I'll be sharing those over the next few days ;-)

We made this cute "Elmo" card.  We used the large Frame, Oval Scallop (retired) and used the 'negative' piece cut from green card stock.  We attached it to a red card and added 'eyes', a nose and mouth!  EASY PEASY and so cute!!

Joanne, our instructor, said that we would be making more of these cute characters in the months ahead.  :-)  I love making punched art!!

Give it a try, it's fun and so easy!!

Have a great day!!!
Char

Challenge Card

This was another challenge!  We were to use a Precious Moments color book image and a sketch and come up with a card.

IF I hadn't had to follow the sketch, I probably wouldn't have added the ribbon on the right nor the 3 pieces of card stock to the left of the image.

I think I'll challenge myself to come up with another card using the same image but different elements.

I do enjoy being challenged to 'think outside' my comfort zone but I am not the best colorer so normally I don't use a lot of images where I have to color ;-)

The little flowers were made using a tutorial for rolled paper flowers.  You can do a Google search for Rolled Paper Flowers and will get a plethora of sites you can go to and watch how to make them different ways.

Enjoy!!!

Char

Sympathy Cards

There comes a time when we all need Sympathy cards.  These are cards that I just don't 'have' on hand, it never occurs to me to make a bunch of them up because it just 'feels' wrong, somehow.  But, why is that occasion any different than others?

Anyway, there have been a couple of people that have lost loved ones this month and last and so I got busy and made some sympathy cards.

I made 8 cards basically the same design.  I just added one flower on some and two flowers on others.  I used a Martha Stewart border punch and I made the rolled flowers out of cardstock.  Adding pearls along the satin ribbon and to the middle of the flowers gives a little 'pop' to an otherwise monochromatic card of purple and cream.

Here is another version of the same card using a slightly different flower and changing up the look a littl.

And, finally, because I don't want to do two days of sympathy cards, here is a different one that I made.

I used some of my TAC designer paper (no longer available), SU Very Vanilla card stock, and a few paper flowers I had in my stash with some pearls added to the centers and along the crinkled ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon to finish it off.  You can't quite see the purple organza ribbon under the white ribbon, but I layered that on top of my designer paper and then glued the white ribbon on top.  

Then, because I liked the design, I made another card similar to the first one for Mother's Day.  I will share that tomorrow.  

Have a great day!!!

Mother's Day card

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I basically used the same design as my Sympathy cards that I previously posted but added a couple of ribbons to the left side of the verse.  I added pearls down the length of the lavender ribbon and then added three paper flowers under the verse and added a pearl to that.

As you can see, I haven't really stamped much other than the sentiment.

I find that I get more into 'designing' the actual card than stamping...that must be what they call 'papercrafting'.

Guess I'll actually have to get out some stamps and do some actual stamping!!
Now I need to get busy and get some Father's Day cards made!

Hope you have a great day!!!

Char

Double Dutch Card

Yes, I had to make another card similar to the one I made a couple of days ago.

This one is for my Sister and hopefully she is too busy to check out my blog before it will be on it's way to her the first of next week.

I found some a pkg of cool Sisters embellishments at Michael's and just had to get them.  They say, "Sisters make the Best Friends".

Of course, I hid the Friends part behind the two flaps so that she has to untie the ribbon to find out what it says.

I punched a scalloped Circle from purple card stock and adhered it under the top flap and added a smaller scalloped white circle and stamped "Thinking of You'.
Her favorite color is purple, just like mine, so hopefully she'll like it!!

Another submission to the DCC59 Double Dutch Fold challenge at Repeat Impressions.
Have a great day!!!

Char

Concrete Lawn Ornaments

What is THIS you ask??  Well, it's the start of a concrete 'bowl' for my Son's yard.

I bought a finished product a year or two ago and loved it!!  I decided we should make good use of our Rhubarb leaves and try our hand at making a few.

So, last year, hubby and I bought all the ingredients, we thought, and waited till our Rhubarb started growing.  But, lo and behold the earwigs got to them before we did.  Not ONE Rhubarb leaf was spared.

So, this year, we decided to try it again.  But, after rechecking out the book where I first saw the directions, we noticed we hadn't gotten all the ingredients and he had actually gotten the wrong concrete.

So, we made a quick trip into Home Depot and after buying two more bags of concrete, concrete tint and concrete sealer...his wallet was a lot lighter.

But, we forged on!  In the above photo you see the process beginning.  We mounded sand up to form a 'bowl' (we later found that we didn't mound it high enough).  Then, we laid a piece of plastic over the sand and laid our leaf on top of that.

Then, we poured concrete over the top of the Rhubarb leaf and waited till it dried and then turned the entire thing over to cure for 5 days.

Well, I got in a hurry and wanted to pick off some of the leaf and chip some of the 'run over' off the sides and I caused it to have a small crack down the center rib.  Oh well....we'll still use it in our yard and we'll make another one for our Son.

When we finish the one for our Son, I'll come back and post a photo of it.

Here is the name of the book you can check out if you are interested in making one of your own.  I think that they are so cool!!!

Ok, back to card making!!!

Char

Ok, so green and yellow are not two colors that I put together often.  Heck, I don't know if I have ever put green and yellow together, but I did yesterday.

I was challenged to make a green and yellow card and I had to live up to that challenge :-)

Once again, you can see I used my SU Blossom Punch and the Modern Label Punch and also the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch.

Then, I added one of those inexpensive brads from Wally World that says, "You're the Best" and tied a piece of green organza ribbon around my layers.....and DONE!!!

Are you seeing a trend here?  I haven't really done much stamping lately!!  It's really not intentional, I just love putting pieces of this and that together to make a card!

Shhhhh, don't say anything or my friend will challenge me to actually STAMP!!! LOL

Have a great day!!

Char

Isn't this just too cute???  I found these book marks on a friend's blog here and just had to sit down and make some.

This one went to a friend of my Granddaughter who had a track meet the next day.  I called hiim Kermie and I told her that it was her good luck frog.

I made the Monkey, too, but I didn't get a photo of it before my Granddaughter snatched it up.

Then, I made several Pigs!!  I got to thinking, who on earth will I send these too as I don't want anyone thinking I am calling them a pig.

So, I just may have to make more Monkeys and Frogs!

Try your hand at them.  They are so much fun to make and make really cute book marks to give to friends.

Have a great day!

Char