Print Candee Bookmarks

It's been busy, busy, busy! My mom was here (from Maine) early in the week and I attended a multi-day training session later in the week. Plus, all week I've been fighting some type of cold that's settled in my chest--ugh. But, it's the weekend and tomorrow is World Cardmaking Day--yeah!

This month, the Print Candee Creative Team made projects with the theme of "little gifts." Fun! I decided to make a bookmark set, but I went a little out of control! There were so many good images that would work...I love that about Print Candee.

When I made these bookmarks, I had my in-laws in mind...they are avid readers. I started off by making a set of seasonal bookmarks using Pink Pueblo's Four Seasons Trees:

Once I figured out the best strategy, they were super easy to make. I started off using Photoshop, but I found it was easiest to just save the jpegs in Word and resize them all the same. Then, I used my Papertrey Ink Bookmark die (although you could just cut them, too). To finish all of the bookmarks, I cut a second bookmark in patterned paper, attached it to the backside, and tied a ribbon on top. As a tip, you could use Print Candee papers to easily match both sides. Here are the backs:

I did leave off the winter. In South Dakota, we really don't need a reminder about winter--LOL! Aren't those trees gorgeous? They would make a nice notecard set, too. Here are close-ups of the seasonal bookmarks:

Love the summer tree (the last one)...I think it would work for fall, too. You could stamp a sentiment on any of these, too.

When I was looking through the Print Candee website, I ran across Digital Potpurri's Cherry Blossom stamps. Holy cow, is it a pretty set! It was tricky to size these well for the bookmarks, but here are two I made:

Here's a close-up of the cherry blossoms:

For the butterflies, I did use the png files in Photoshop to layer the butterflies and recolor them. The butterfly on top is an orangish-red, although it's hard to tell in the photos. Here's a pic:

Finally, I wanted to make sure I had a more masculine bookmark, and I found Life is Groovy's Birch Trees Spring/Fall set. In Photoshop, I simply layered the birdhouse on the tree. I finished it off with some May Arts natural twine. I think it's my favorite!

Thanks for taking the time to look through all of these pictures. It was so much fun to make these...I may be making about 50 more for Christmas!

Have a great weekend!

Bmfffff!

Okay, that's my elephant sound. Or at least how my son makes an elephant sound. Currently, he is obsessed with elephants, and when he sees an elephant, he makes the cutest little sound (bmffff). So when he saw my card, he got a huge smile, and proceeded to (bmffff) at it. Here's the card:

I love that little elephant from My Cute Stamps. I made the toothpick flags and used a sentiment from the same set. The hat is from Hero Arts/Basic Grey. I went round and round which paper to use but ended up coloring it with different Copics. I made the Twinery twine pom-pom to balance out the little clown nose pom-pom (hee hee!). Here's a close-up:

 

 

I made a cart for him to ride on. I didn't have any red and white paper with the right scale, so I cut out the strips. To finish the cart, I used buttons from my stash and braided the twine. My braiding is terrible...I'm really out of practice! Here's a close-up of the cart:

Speaking of my little guy, I took him into the doctor today, and they ended up testing for food allergies. They drew blood and didn't get enough the first time, so they had to take a second vile. Poor little guy!

Thanks for looking! Have a great day.

Stylin' Suzi

My blogging friend Emily Leiphart's birthday is today, and I made a card for her. I'm really bad about mailing, but my procrastination gave me the chance to snap a few pictures of my card.

Emily is a huge fan of Unity's Suzi Blu stamps and always makes such cool and creative cards with them. So, I broke out my lone Suzi Blu stamp and here's what I made:

Isn't she fab? Seriously, this card took me forever to execute between the paper piecing and the coloring. The papers are a mix of October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket, and My Mind's Eye. I love how the papers look together.

See the cool tweed hat? It's a digital stamp from Bows and Berries (Tweed Hat) that I flipped and resized to fit the girl's head. I printed the hat on the C.C. Clementine paper, but the pattern looked strange. So, I turned the paper, printed the image again, and then paper pieced the tweed patches. Here's a close-up:

Using digital accessories opens up all kinds of possibilities, doesn't it? I'm thinking it would be so cute to resize this hat for some animal stamps...

I'm linking the card up to Unity's Friends With Flair this week. Check it out! And if you get a chance, wish Emily a happy birthday. :)

Have a great weekend!

Toonces

This week on the Create blog challenge, Paige's challenge was to use foxes on cards. Cool idea for a challenge! So I thought about it and had a card planned out in my head: my Amuse Arctic Fox stamp in a little forest scene.

I got ready to make the card, and while I was looking through my papers, I ran across the new Echo Park Happy Days stickers. Instead of the forest, I decided to have the fox driving the card. I figured I would probably be the only person submitting a card with a fox driving a card (LOL!). Here's what I came up with:

I stamped the Amuse fox, colored him with Copics, and then trimmed him to fit in the card. Is he not just the cutest fox ever? All of the papers and the sentiment are from Echo Park (the sentiment is digital Echo Park). Here's a close-up of the fox:

My husband saw the card and he said "It's Toonces!" Does anyone else remember the old Saturday Night Live episodes with the driving cat, Toonces? I had to explain it was a fox and not a cat, but I think he's still equally cute.

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

Pinking Out

Happy Monday! This weekend we made the trek over to Worthington, MN to go see the Gobbler Gallop at Turkey Day (no, I am not kidding). There were two turkeys that raced down a downtown street with wall-to-wall people cheering them on. The local turkey (Paycheck Turkey), racing against the badass turkey from somewhere in Texas (Ruby Turkey), won the race. It was hilarious--both the race and "Groundhog Day"-like atmosphere! I definitely see a turkey card in my future....

Anyhoo, I have good news! I'm joining the Bows and Berries design team! When Robin e-mailed, I was super excited...it's been hard to keep it a secret! I found the stamps a while back, around the time I made this card using the "Stache and Glasses" stamp.

Today, Bows and Berries is having a new challenge using GLITTER. I made up this little CAS mini card using the new "Onesie" stamp:

I chuckle every time I see it. I made the sentiment in Word, although I wish I had it in a stamp.

I printed the onesie on the card with the sentiment and then printed and paper pieced the onesie on Authentique paper and popped it up. Isn't that stamp cute?

I wanted to enter this card in the CAS-ual Friday challenge this week (mini cards), so I had to keep my 4" x 4" card simple.

But, I wanted to add some twine across the top. A "pink" girl wouldn't just tie a bow, though. Every configuration I could think of either made it look like it was S&M or a tampon (neither of which you want to think about on a baby card). Finally, my hubby suggested looking at knots on a mountain climbing website. I ended up using the Double Fisherman's knot, although I intentionally left space between the knots so it didn't look like I had a snarled line of twine:

I'm not sure if I tied the knot on the right correctly, but I decided I wasn't trying for a knots merit badge. (ha ha)

Check out the Bows and Berries and CAS-ual Friday challenges! Thanks for looking! Have a great week!

Butterflies & More Butterflies

Whew! I finally finished up a report for work before I have to pick up the kiddies. Woo hoo! So, I got to have a lunch longer than 3 minutes, watch last night's Project Runway, and write a blog post. Yeah! I'm joining up with Unity's Friends With Flair this week with my new composition book:

I started with a cheap composition book I bought at Office Max for $.50, but it had an ugly cover. I used my Distress Inks to splatter ink the front and then stamped the butterflies. Even though I'm not typically a butterfly kind of gal, I love this "Grow Your Wings" Itty Bitty from Unity. Here's a close-up of the butterfly with the sentiment:

The front was really busy, so I decided to keep the back simpler. I covered the back with a textured Bazzill and covered the book binding with some washi tapes. Here's the back:

I can't wait to use my book for card sketches and card ideas. While I typically keep my ideas sorted in an Excel spreadsheet, I want to have something I can take with me while I'm out and about. Plus, I'll use it to organize all of my sketches floating around. Time to get organized!

Thanks so much for looking! Have a great weekend!

Catching Up

Hi All! Sorry I have been so absent in blog-land lately. I've barely visited any blogs, but I'm hoping to catch-up!

I haven't entered any challenges for the past two weeks, but I did want to enter a card in the Create blog challenge. Paige challenged designers to create a card with toothpick flags. I've never made them with a toothpick before, but I love how they look. Here's my card:

First I started by misting the kraft background with Mr. Huey's cream mist to make it look starry. Then I used a combination of October Afternoon Rocket Age and Ruby Rock-It Paper Boy papers for the circles (totally loving these papers for boys!). I colored the little astronaut from Technique Tuesday with Copics. Here's a close-up:

To make the flag, I used border paper...the width worked well. I finished the card off with a sentiment from Technique Tuesday.

On a totally different note, I wanted to thank Jen Wills for passing on the Liebster award. I'll be passing it on in a few weeks. Thanks, Jen! If you haven't checked out her blog, she makes the most fun cards and her posts are always a hoot!

I also wanted to announce the winners of my blog candy. It was awesome re-reading the comments...I definitely felt the love. Anyhoo, the winners were Erin and Heather. Woo hoo! Erin and Heather, please contact me at redballooncards at yahoo dot com.

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

Thankful

If you're looking for the Print Candee blog hop, see this post.

Even though it's still hot here in South Dakota, it's definitely starting to feel a little more fall-like. Early in the week, it was in the low 50s when we walked to school and I've noticed that the days are quickly becoming shorter. *sigh* Where did summer go? I do love fall colors, though, which inspired this card:

The entire card was based off of the fabric brad for this week's challenge on the Create blog. I started with some batik fabric, which I made into a double-ruffle flower. [I cut the fabric 2" wide and then ripped it 18" long. Then, I folded it over on itself before I started rolling.] I added the brad, and voila! The flower has so many colors--here's a close-up:

I'm joining in with Friends with Flair again...it's always fun to see how others are using their Unity stamps. The sentiment is from Unity's "When I'm With You" store kit. Love that fabulous font!

Speaking of Unity, my birthday blog candy ends on Saturday and I'll be drawing on Sunday (see this post for details). I with I could send something to everyone--I'm so lucky to have such supportive blogging buddies!

Thanks for looking!

Here are the details:
Stamp: (When I'm With You KOM) Unity
Ink: (Rich Cocoa) Memento; (Tea Dye) Ranger
Cardstock: (White) PTI, (Honey Cake, Everyday Flair) My Mind's Eye
Rhinestones: (red) Zva
Brad: Sassafras