Unconventional Graduation Card-for my Goddaughter

Hello, everyone! I think it's been 7 months since my last blog post. Shame on me!

I wanted to share a Graduation card I made for my niece Danielle. She graduated from University of Hawaii in May and I'm so proud of her! A week or so after graduation she left for Australia to see what life is like down under. She hopes to find work there and stay a while.

I always think of my niece as a free spirit and as such wanted to make her something that symbolized her spirit. Here is what I came up with:

Outside

Inside

I like the simplicity of the card and that it fit my niece's circumstance and personality.  Danielle likes it, so I consider it a success!


Materials used: Embossing folders from Stampin Up and Provocraft, black and white cardstock,  layered bird image was cut on my Cameo from a Silhouette file, "congratulations little bird", "It's time to fly...." and sketched bird image done with my Chomas pen holder and gel pens. I colored in the sketched bird with the gel pen once it was drawn onto the circle to create a silhouette image.


Thanks for looking,

Carole

BOO to YOU-Halloween card-Day 4

Good morning, everyone. Here is my 4th Halloween card. I loved this ghost image that I purchased from the Silhouette store and decided I had to use him for a Halloween card. It was very simply put together using the phrase "Boo to you" and a banner for some additional interest. All images were purchased from the Silhouette store. Cardstock was from a DCWV mat stack I purchased last year.

Thanks for stopping by,
Carole

Happy Halloween! Button Pumpkin card-Halloween cards-Day 2

Hello, everyone! Today I'm sharing another Halloween card with you. I really enjoyed the process of creating this card. I challenged myself to use buttons and I wanted them to be set in front of a fence. The Happy Halloween, moon, and fence posts were images purchased from the Silhouette store or created with my Cameo. Instead of using the rails that came with the fence image, I opted to use twine to tie them together. I used some of my huge stash of orange buttons for the pumpkins, the stems are made from green embroidery floss and the "eyes" are filled with yellow Stickles.

Thanks for stopping by,
Carole

Cameo Spotlight Challenge Time

Hello, everyone! Time for another Cameo Spotlight Challenge. This time it's a color challenge!

The challenge was to use Slate Blue/Gray, Sage Green and Beige. And we could also use neutral colors of Black, White and Kraft. I frequently find color challenges difficult, but somehow I managed to use all 6 colors for this card. I won't tell you how long it took me to conceive and execute this card, let's just say it took me a long time and leave it at that. And here it is:

I have to confess that I'm the only person I know that it takes a tremendous amount of effort and planning to create a "simple" looking card. I guess it would be simple to re-create it, and I'll have to settle for that being what makes it "simple".

All of the cuts I used are from the Silhouette store. The card base, rolled flowers, leaves and labels. I thoroughly enjoyed using my Cameo as it cut everything just the way I wanted it to, the first time around. In addition to card stock and Silhouette store images, I used some twine, a couple eyelets and a stamped image for the sentiment. I'm really happy with how this card turned out and I will be giving it to someone I love very much.

Thanks to the Cameo Spotlight Challenge blog for challenging me to play along. And thanks to all of you who have taken the time to look and comment.

Craft on my crafty friends,

Carole

Mother's Day Card-#4

How is everyone doing? Are you ready for another Mother's Day card? This card design could be used for any occasion, but I am using it as a Mother's Day card for my Godmother, who happens to be my wonderful Aunt Rita.

I really liked how quickly this card came together and like the colors and papers I used for it. the inspiration was the Peony flower I had made using a Silhouette studio file. I'm pretty sure the "sketch" was from Papercrafts magazine. I use many published cards in magazines as sketches. They really help me with design and placement when putting a card together.

The details: Cardstock: Ivory,Cherry Cobbler, Black, Calypso Coral (Stampin Up), Mod Retro Stack (DCWV); Ribbon: from my friend Mary's stash; Border punch: also from my friend Mary's stash (Martha Stewart); Sentiment: my own words typed using Microsoft office an printed on my printer.

So simple I doubt this needs much instruction. I made the tag by hand (I was too lazy to find a tag shape). The ribbon did not entirely match, the spots were white and really looked out of place with the ivory carstock. I used a Promarker to color the white part of the ribbon to match better. I used the red hearts from the border punch to further accent the card (inside and out).

Finished size is 4-1/2 X 5-1/2 inches.

Come back tomorrow for my last Mother's Day card!

Carole

Mother's Day Card-#3

Hey, hey hey, it's Hump day...hooray! I'm back with the Mother's Day card I made for my sister, Theresa. Besides being a great sister and a wonderful Mom to my nieces and nephew, she is my son's Godmother. And a pretty darn good one! I love the card I made for her.

This time I used one of the several card base images I purchased from the Silhouette Online store. This one is card base #9. I will be using these card bases more often, as they are a pretty terrific start to any card. As I have stated before, manipulating shapes on the Cameo is so easy. I decided I wanted a shadow blackout to place behind the front of the card, so I manipulated the original shape using the duplicate, cut, re-size, offset, and delete features of the Silhouette software. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? It wasn't! The Happy Mother's Day phrase was also purchased from the Silhouette store and I used the same process to create a shadow blackout for it as well.

Design materials and details: Cardstock: Bashful Blue and Everday Enchantment (Stampin Up); Paper and felt flowers: from my stash: Punch-butterfly (Martha Stewart); brads and ribbon: also from my stash.

Inside sentiment created by me using Microsoft Word and free font.

Finished card size is 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 inches.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you again tomorrow when I will show you a card for my sister in law....it has a sewing theme!

Ciao!
Carole

Mother's Day card #2

Hi, Everyone! Today is my day to post over at the Bugbytes. Please stop by and check out my Mother's Day card!

Mother's Day Card-#1

Happy Monday! I like to make Mother's Day cards for all the nurturing relatives in my and my children's lives. This week I will post a card a day showing you the different Mother's Day cards I made for the special people in our lives.

The first one is the one I made for my Mom. I'm not really a huge fan of cameo cards, but I got a sudden urge to make this one. Probably from the Paper Crafts magazine I got a few months ago. This image is from the Silhouette store. Once again, I manipulated it to fit my likes. I flipped it because I like cameos to be facing to the left (we all have our quirks) and I removed some sort of strange flower image that was on her right shoulder. It did not fit with my design idea. 

Materials used - Cardstock: White(Bazzill), Sandstone, Black(Stampin Up), La Creme Stack (DCWV); Ribbon: organdy (from my stash); Stick pins: red and white heart (Ortiz) ; Pearl (Martha Stewart Crafts), pearl flourish scrap, stickles, brads for center of paper flowers.

I made the red flowers on her shoulder from organdy ribbon. I gathered one side using thread, a needle and a running stitch. I formed them into a circle and hot glued them to her shoulder.  The cluster at the lower right uses 3 paper flowers I made using paper scraps and a Stampin Up punch (Boho Blossoms), 2 ribbon flowers (like the ones I used on her shoulder) and 2 heart stick pins. The necklace was made using a thin scrap of black paper and an oval shaped adhesive backed pearl. Her hair adornment was my favorite part of the creation. I used a left over piece of pearl flourish and added red stickles between the pearls. I really love the effect!

I combined two different stamps for the inside sentiment. I heat embossed using Versamark and red embossing powder. I colored in the flowers/leaves using a white gel pen and green sparkle pen.

The finished size is 5 X 7. 

Check back tomorrow for another Mother's Day card.

Thanks for looking!

Carole

Dedication Card

Hi, all. I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since my last blog post! Life has been a bit crazy since I last posted. My daughter accepted a job in Dallas and so the month of April was pretty much driving to Dallas, helping her get set up, and then catching up on everything that needed my attention while I was away.  I also had a hectic month at work, and a girl friend's scrapping retreat (it was awesome!) during that time.

Even though I have not posted, it doesn't mean I have not been crafting. I am loving my Silhouette Cameo more and more everyday.  I've been using her for just about every project I can think of and love how easy it is to manipulate images to suit my needs.

My great niece Aila had her dedication in April. Hubby and I were invited but unfortunately could not attend due to an over hectic schedule. I did manage to create a card for her though. I know Aila's parents are deeply religious, and God will play a huge part in Aila's life. So, I wanted to make her a card that would acknowledge this important day in her life.

This card was made using images all purchased from the Silhouette America store. The background is  simply called "background" the cross is called "cross" and the corners are called "art nouveau heart corner".

I used gold specialty paper (from my stash) as well as cream and pink cardstock from Stampin Up. The cross was embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I added a pearl and gold brad (The Eyelet Outlet), self adhesive pearls (Martha Stewart and Reflections) and pink pearl flourishes (Zva Creative).

One thing I love about the Cameo is how easy it is to manipulate shapes. The diamond shape lattice back ground was designed for a 12X12 layout page, I resized it to fit a 5x7 card. The cross and corners did not have shadow black outs, I used the offset features to make them, in a flash.

For the inside I used a simple phrase, also purchased from the Silhouette store. 

I love the simple beautify of this card. I hope Travis and Britni  (Aila's parents) like it, too.

I have several Mother's Day cards to share this week. So please check in again. It's great to be back!

Have a wonderful day,

Carole

Note Paper Holder

Hello and Happy Friday! I wish I had am empty weekend to look forward to, but alas I do not. I still hope I get a couple hours of crafting time in. I've been truly enjoying using my new Silhouette Cameo and love any opportunity I get to use it.

Today I am sharing this project over at Passionately Artistic. Please check it out and leave a comment or two. I'm very curious to hear how you like my latest 3D project using I file I purchased from the Silhouette America store.

Thanks and have a wonderful, crafty, weekend!
Carole

Gift Box-Using my Silhouette Cameo

Happy Friday! Today I have a project over on the Passionately Artistic Blog. Check it out!