Two Cards from One Awesome Prize

I was extremely lucky to win a prize hosted by Sassafras and Vicki Boutin at Moxie Fab that contained the Ellie's Tale line. I love elephants and Sass and so this huge generous prize package really brightened my day last week. I sat down to create with it and made the two cards you see here but also a LO which I might share in the future (so much more work to take a pic of those). One card is made with the CPS sketch and the other with the Card Patterns sketch. You can see that things got a little messy when I tried to add enamel accents to the elephant's eye and I tried to fix is by adding eyelashes but it's still pretty messy. But handmade cards are subject to human error and I think the elephant's cuteness makes up for my mess.

A Card to Share

I created this card with this month's kit from my local scrapbook store Scrappers Cove. Love their $5 kits because you get a great value and a chance to play with things you might not have bought otherwise. This month featured the Twig line from Little Yellow Bicycle. I made this card with last week's CPS sketch.

I recently visited the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA. I got to meet Eric Carle himself and get a few books signed. I loved his books as a kid and love to teach with them still so it was a pretty exciting day for me. I made a quick collage in the museum's studio to share with my kids when we study Eric Carle in the fall.

Mail-able Cards with Kreaxions Punches

Like many of you cardmakers out there I love to send handmade cards. Unfortunately it can be quite expensive to mail them and cards with any dimension often mean a special trip to the post office to make sure you have the right postage and if you mail in a square envelope it will cost you extra as well. I don’t say this to discourage you, but instead because I think Kreaxions punches offer opportunities for us cardmakers to add great detail while still keeping cards easy and cheap to mail. On my card I’ve used Punch 916, Punch 604, and the circle cutter, but have done a fair bit of layering to add dimension without the bulk that requires extra postage. A few other tips for mail-able cards. Faux stitching will keep your card flat and is much faster. Also, I find it best to make a few cards for each occasion that are flat for mailing so that way you don’t have to worry about being inspired during crunch time because mailed cards always need a few extra days to get there. Have fun adding dimension without bulk with your Kreaxions punches!

Clean and Simple Stamping 148

I love the idea of clean and simple cards but I also love to use lots of patterned paper so sometimes its hard to achieve. I have tried with the sketch from Clean and Simple this week. The papers are My Mind's Eye and the stamps are Hero Arts.

Card Patterns Sketch 123

It's been great to have some time off although I do have a part time summer job. But still I have time for scrapping and for catching up on some reading. My card is for the Card Patterns sketch and uses papers from My Mind's Eye. I know that many manufacturers are releasing new lines but there are still ones from last CHA that are new to me like this one that I'm excited to have.

Can't Use Just One

When I started this card I had just planned to use the star template and Punch 305 but unsurprisingly when you have all the lovely Kreaxions products sitting out in front of you it’s hard to use only a few. I wound up layering the punched star template on a circle cut with the circle cutter and then on the base of the card I punched the corners with Punch 916 and punched a butterfly for an accent. I love that their products are designed to work so easily together. I encourage you to play along with our July challenge. On my next post later this month you will see my take on the challenge.

Happy Summer Everyone!

The school year finally ended last Thursday. I loved the experience I had and am so excited to be teaching kindergarten next year but I never did get the hang of maintaining my crafting or my blogging while dealing with the job and commute. I’m hoping some summer downtime will allow me to play along in a few challenges and catch up on some fabulous bloggers. I’m still designing for Kreaxions and you can see some of their fabulous products featured in my cards today but unfortunately I had to leave my spot with Die Cuttin Divas because I just didn’t think I was giving them my best. Anyway, happy summer everyone! I look forward to sharing with you and checking out your blogs.