Oh BABY!!!

Okay…before any body gets any crazy ideas, this is NOT an announcement.  A friend needed a baby card for a shower.  That is all.

Now.  I simply can not get over this color combination.  It is so sweet and soft and yummy.  Was that weird?  Sorry.

Back to the card…these colors are Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery, and Soft Suede.  All by Stampin' Up!

The base is SU Whisper White.  I ran the pink pirouette card stock through my Big Shot with my tiny dot embossing folder and then used my corner rounder punch on the corners.  That elephant stamp is from the SU Patterned Occasions stamp set.  Under the elephant, it has text that reads "thanks a ton" but I didn't really think that was necessary for a sweet lady having a baby.  So, I just used my markers to color the elephant instead of inking him up with an ink pad.  I used soft suede on his body, certainly celery on the flower stem, and pink pirouette on the ear and flower bud.  I then punched the image out with the Decorative Label Punch and popped it up with dimensionals.  The sentiments are from Sweet Essentials stamp set.  I used the Modern Label punch to punch out "hello, baby" and then I jazzed up the front with some green baker's twine and clear buttons.  I love to use Glue Dots to stick buttons onto cards.  They do a great job of holding on.  

That's it for now.  What do you think?  :)  

Love,

Emmy

Christmas-y Gift Card Holders

The area that I live in is seriously iced-in.  Seriously.  School was cancelled, roads are not drivable, we have been staying in our jammies way too long.  It's been great!  I know other people that just detest this sort of situation.  Not this girl.  I love my home and I love the people that I share my home with.  Even the Hunky Husband was't able to go to work.  So it's just been us.  Together.  Drinking hot cocoa  and watching Christmas movies while we eat s'mores.  BLISS!!!  I got Christmas gifts wrapped, Christmas cards addressed, and made some cards for a friend.  Super fun.  I'd love to make some cookies but my butter is taking for-ev-er (name that movie!) to soften.  So, that'll happen later rather than sooner.  :)  The only thing that I'm slightly frustrated about during this situation is that I probably should have bought two gallons of milk instead of just one.  Hey, ya win some and lose some, right?  

Anyway, here are the gift card cards that I made.  The first one, I like to call "Santa Pants".  Cute, right?  

I used a 12x12 sheet of Stampin' Up! Real Red card stock.  I cut a strip 3.5" wide and then scored on the long side at 3.5" and 7.5" (now that I'm typing, I'm not so confident of those measurements. Just score when it feels good!).  On the inside flap, I used my Word Window punch to make the slot for the gift card.  You have to double punch it because the punch is just short of being long enough to hold a gift card.  I stamped the sentiments from the Chock Full of Cheer stamp set by Stampin' Up! in Momento's Tuxedo Black ink.  There was an inking situation with the "To/From" stamp.  Thank goodness for tiny punches (I used my tiny heart punch in Old Olive card stock) to make mistakes even cuter.  Amen.  

I used my two-way glue pen to tack down the sides and top of the inside flap.  Now, for the super cute front!  I cut a 3/4" strip of Basic Black card stock from my scrap pile and then folded it around the card.  You just kind of have to ease the paper.  You want it loose enough so you can slide the belt off easily but you want it snug enough so it doesn't fall right off.  I used my Curly Label punch to punch his belt buckle with my Silver Glimmer paper and used the Petite Curly Label punch to punch the top layer of his belt in Basic Black card stock.  I then used my Buttons Sizzix die to cut out the buttons on his jacket.  That die cuts four different buttons of varying sizes and shapes.  I used the smallest one.  And that's it.  Pretty easy!

This cutie pie is a little different because I am all out of 12x12 Whisper White card stock.  So, I used a piece of 8.5x11.  I cut a strip that is 3.5" wide and then scored at 2" and 6".  I faced the card with this year's Christmas DSP.  That pack is darling.  So stinking darling!  It comes in 12x12 sheets so I cut a 3" wide strip and then cut pieces that were 0.5" smaller than the length of the white.  On the inside flap, I used my two-way glue pen to tack down the sides.  Don't glue down the top, that's where the gift card will go.  I used my corner-rounder punch on the top flap and liner.  The interior sentiment comes from the Sassy Salutations stamp set and I stamped it in Momento's Cocoa Brown ink.  I love, love, love that set.  I think I might use it more than any other set I have.  Again, another inking mishap.  Are you sensing a trend?  So, I punched a heart out of Crumb Cake card stock and then covered it with the tiniest bit of Cherry Cobbler sickles.  So sweet.

The front.  Again, I used my Coffee Cozy Die and Stamp Set from Lil' Inker Designs.  I just really don't think you can go wrong with that set.  I used a mix of DSP and solid card stock but all of the pieces were stamped with Momento's Cocoa Brown ink.  The band going across the card is Chocolate Chip card stock that I used my scallop edge border punch on both long sides.  The sentiment is cut using the Itty Bitty Banners Framelits set and then embellished with two tiny rhinestones and one large rhinestone.  I then decided to freehand a design on the white banner.  It went horribly wrong.  So, I used my Jewelry Tag Punch on Old Olive Polka Dot Parade DSP to cover up my yucky mistake.  I have a coordinating set of stamps that works great with that punch (I can't, for the life of me, remember what the name of that set is!) so I used the "merry" stamp.

That should make for some happy gift giving!  Have a blessed day, everybody!   :)

Love,
Emmy    

Coffee Talk

Here's what I like...

Hot, caffeinated beverages with lots of cream and sugar; fall days that are cool enough to have a bite in the air; and sweet friends.

And here's the deal...

Pumpkin spice lattes are available at the mother ship; I live in North Texas...these kind of days don't happen until November; but I do have sweet, sweet friends.

To celebrate a few of my sweet friends, I made these cards:

I started out by making my card base.  I used Very Vanilla card stock by Stampin' Up! and cut it to 8.5"x5.5" and then scored at 4.25" on the long side.  I then layered the matted pieces in Stampin' Up! Real Red and Polka Dot Parade in Marina Mist.  The Marina Mist is 5"x3.75" and the Real Red is 4.5"x3.25".  

Now, for that darling coffee cup.  I used the Coffee Cozy stamp and die sets by Lil' Inker Designs.  I used scraps that I had in Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla.  I stamped all of the images in Momento Ink in Tuxedo Black.  I ran the scraps and dies through my Big Shot two layers at a time (I actually made six of these cards at once).  Once all of the pieces were cut, I could stamp and build my cups.  Because the Lil' Inker stamps are clear photopolymer you can see EXACTLY where you're stamping.  I just used some snail adhesive and tacked the pieces to my craft mat before I stamped the images.  After I stamped, I used my Stampin' Up! Real Red marker to color in the cutie pie heart on the cozy.  I used dimensionals to pop up the coffee cup and lid and just used my snail to adhere the cup cozy.  That stamp in the bottom right corner reads "A gift for you" and is part of the coffee set that Lil' Inker sells. It still didn't seem "finished" to me so I added a rhinestone embellishment to the center of the heart.  Cute, right?  :)

For inside the card, I found some scraps of Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!) that fit inside the card.  I ran them through my Big Shot using my chevron embossing folder (Stampin' Up!) and then used my word window punch to cut out the slot for the gift card.  That punch's area is just shy of being long enough to hold a gift card so you actually have to punch it twice.  I just eye balled it about 0.5" from the edge of the paper on one edge and then did the same from the opposite edge.  

And that is when I ran out of snail adhesive.  Bummer!  So I put a line of tombo glue on the edge of the Night of Navy and placed that inside the card.  The sentiment is stamped on a scrap of Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!) that measured 1"x2.5".  I used my 1" square punch to flag the ends and the "All the goodness of life in one little cup" sentiment from that coffee cozy set.  And then used a few dabs of tombo glue to adhere the sentiment to the gift card pocket.  

That's it!  :)

Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.

Hugs,

Emmy

Moving On.

Ok.  So, quite a bit has happened since I last blogged.  Like time.  Quite a lot of time has passed since I last blogged.  Whoops.  I guess I was busy.  It's only been 21 months.  No bigs.  Right???  Anyway, since that time, I'm now a stay at home momma with one preschooler and a first grader.  

Also, I have gotten into paper crafting and making cards.  So, in addition to my crazy musings about life and random recipes that people like, I'll add in cards and crafts that I make.  Very few of my ideas are original.  In fact, some of my best ideas are stolen from very talented people that I stalk follow on Pinterest.  Here are some of my most recent creations...

Well, I suppose this means that my blog is no longer "vintage".  I am now modern and trendy.  I suppose there is a first time for everything.  

Signing off for now.  ;)

Hugs,
Emmy