Mother's Day Card 2009

This was the Mother's Day Card that I made for my mom this year. I do own other types of stamps besides Bellas, but the Bella stamps are new to my store and I have been trying to make as many samples with them as possible to help inspire my customers. Since I don't have a lot of time to separate samples for the store from cards that I need to make for friends and family; I tend to make my cards based on what I want to showcase in the store. Also, they are fun to colour with my Copics; which are still new to me (I started playing with Copics back in March).

My mom loves butterflies, so this was the perfect Bella Stamp to use for her card. The saying on the card came from a stamp that I saw in California two years ago. I talked myself out of the stamp and then kicked myself for doing so because I couldn't exactly remember how the wording went. Last year while in Duluth, I saw a sign with the correct wording on it and I jotted it down in my notepad that I always carry in my purse.

The paper is Basic Grey - Sugared, the ribbon is an old line from Karen Foster, Prima Flowers and I am not sure what company the brads came from. The butterfly on the inside of the card is from Close to My Heart - Butterfly Wings Stamp Set. The cardstock I used on my card is Worldwin.

It has been tough getting photos done for this blog. The lighting in my house is terrible, it has been raining or over cast every day and when I finally did get to take some photos, the sun was positioned wrong for where I was. Then there are the dogs. I have a pug, but my parents live in my basement apartment with their three dogs. The grass was still a bit damp, so I wanted to get my photos done as quick as possible.

Well, that was easier said than done. BJ, my parents' Samoyed was constantly throwing a toy at me to play with him. Razor, my parents' Papillon kept trying to get into the shot. Sparkle, my pug was also trying to get into the shot. She finally got out of my direct shot, but then lied down right beside my card and I would move and she would inch closer. So I finally took a photo of her with the card as you can see above. I was able to get one shot off before a child went by our yard on the other side fence and she had to become the guard dog and bark at him. The other Papillon that lives here, Aurora, hates getting her photos taken. So she is normally no where near me when I have my camera out. My photos definitely didn't look this dark on my camera. So, I will work on perfecting the colouring of my photos for future posts.

Mom & Dad's Anniversary Card

Here is an anniversary card that I made for my parents. I wanted to find a recent card that hasn't been on display in my store and this is one of those rare ones. I took a Hero Arts workshop at the Mall of America (MOA) Scrapfest last year that taught us this unique fold for cards. I loved the idea and came up with this style of card that I have used for my Christmas Cards, Valentine's Day Cards, Easter Cards & Birthday Cards for the past year. I have had a very hectic personal life this past year and instead of not making any cards for the occasions, I used the same style. Why continuously re-invent the wheel when you have something that works. This style of card is fun to do and is very easy to incorporate with just about any scrap of paper you have lying around. My goal lately is to try and use up what I already have, but that wasn't the case for this card. I used the back side of BoBunny's Powder Blue Double Dot paper and made my own "patterned" paper using the Intrinsic Backgrounds stamp from Close to My Heart, VersaMark and clear embossing powder. My parent's wedding colours were blue and white. My dad did wear a grey tuxedo; which made me happy because a black tuxedo on this card would have been too over powering.

The stamp is from Stamping Bella, the flowers are an old line of Prima, Kaiser Craft Pearls, Worldwin White Cardstock, Marvy Scalloped Punches & Circle Punch, Copic Markers for colouring and a Stampin' Up Marker for the drawn lines to match the ink that I used to stamp my words. The blue behind the bride & groom was punched out from the BoBunny paper and I paper pieced the bride & groom onto it. I know some of you will be shocked to see me use white cardstock for the card and leave it mostly white, but no other colours would work. So, I had no choice, but to work with the white and not fight it.

A Big Thank You to Shanna

I would like to thank my best-friend Shanna for coming over yesterday on her day off from work with having no children at home to help me get this blog off the ground. I just kind of threw this at her yesterday and she dropped her alone time plans and came out in the rain to give me a hand. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are the BEST of the BEST.

The "Famous" Frog Card

Here is The "Famous" Frog Card. It is titled that because I have sold more of these Stamping Bella Ketto Frog stamps in my store than any other stamp since putting this card on my display shelf. My sister-in-law loves frogs and her birthday was coming up. So, I pulled out my scrap paper bin and found the perfect background paper. Then I called my girlfriend, Krista, and asked her if I could borrow her Copic Markers and the frog stamp. I had just come back from taking the Copic Instructor Training course in Toronto and my first shipment of Copics hadn't come in. I had only picked up a handful of them while visiting the Stamping Bella store and of course I didn't have a green one. As for borrowing the frog stamp, it was a new line in the store and I promised myself that I wouldn't touch the first shipment. I would give my customers first dibs on the stamps and I could wait until the next shipment came in. Of course, that promised back fired on me, but fortunately I have enough friends with the same addiction to stamps who are willing to share. This ended up being my first Copic Marker attempt and my first time playing with the new Ketto stamp line and I am very pleased with my end result. I apologize for the glare on my photos from my flash, it is an over cast day here and that was the best lighting that I could find in my house today.