Gelatos birthday card ...

Here's a birthday card I made for a friend's birthday earlier this month.  She's the one that I made the card set for.  She's one of the few people I know who goes out looking for the perfect card for someone.  I always get unique handmade cards from her, so I wanted to make something really nice since I was on vacation and had the time.

I decided to make a card using Gelatos.  I've made several of these cards ... ok, maybe that's a bit of an understatement ... I've made over 20 cards!  I had given a class last October and went a little crazy with samples.  I love the way Gelatos look on dark cardstock!!

As you can see, I added some stickles to give it a bit of a shine :)  Sorry about the fuzzy close-up picture ... well, it adds to the effect of Gelatos on dark cardstock :)

I wanted to make the card more special ... so, I decided to stamp the inside of the card too.  The stamp that I used for the front of the card is part of a 2-stamp set, so it was perfect!

After making this card, I got a taste and am planning to make some more!  I have a reason ... well sort of ... someone at work wants to buy some.  However, I don't think she will be buying the quantity that I'm planning to make though :)

Card set gift ...

Here's a card set I gave as a birthday gift to a friend.  It's similar to some other cards that I previously made ... but I can't seem to stop making this style card!  As I've mentioned, I love the way embossed white cardstock looks.  I was also trying to use up some colour cardstock that I had.

Basically, I made 2 cards each with the same flower and colour scheme and stamped different sentiments.  This simplified things, but it still took a bit of time to finish them.  Pictures are a bit dark, but you get the idea.

I decided to make some matching envelopes for the cards using the Envelope Punch Board from We R Memory Keepers ... love this tool!  Oh and of course ... I die cut some circles with adhesive backing to close the envelopes ... you know like a seal :)

I also made a box to put the card set in since I did not have a box that would fit 10 cards and envelopes.  I used 110 lb white watercolour paper to make the box and covered it with burgundy cardstock and then pattern paper ... covering the lid and base of the box decorated it as well as made the box even more sturdy :)

 

In went the cards and envelopes ... perfect fit :)

Final step ... tie it with matching ribbon and there you go!!

We have a tenant ...

Hubbie and I were pulling weeds a few weeks ago during our vacation ... yup, a fun vacation activity :)  Anyway, we stop to chat with one of our neighbours, and I noticed something ... we have a tenant!

A bird built a nest in our tree ... hubbie and I think it's quite cool!  Here's a picture where you could see the nest.

However, the bird wasn't facing the right way for the camera, so I went around to the other side.  Somewhat better ... it took a few attempts as it was a bit windy and the leaves kept getting into the picture.

Oops, I got a bit too close and the clicking of the camera scared it ... sorry!  Came out of the nest ...

... and then on to the neighbour's fence.  Figure I better leave it alone.

 

Oh, here's some other outside news ... hubbie and I finally got some plants and planted them in the flower bed in front of the house.  We figure it was time to grow something else instead of weeds.  Hubbie said since he mastered growing weeds, he figured it was time to move on to something else :)

Hubbie did the actual planting ... I helped him fill the flower bed with soil and took off after seeing a bunch of mosquitoes flying around.  I already got bitten once when we were pulling weeds, so I didn't want to get bitten again!  However, by the end of our vacation, I got bitten 3 more times :(

We planted Weigela Florida Nana Variegata ... quite the mouthful.   They're suppose to look like this ...

 

Initially, we thought maybe we would plant some annuals flowers until they grow to their full size, which would be in about 3-4 years.  However, we didn't know what to plant ... maybe next year ... one step at a time :) 

Red envelopes ...

Finally, got around to tweaking the pictures of the red envelopes that I made for my cousin's wedding in April.  I didn't know if he was planning on having a tea ceremony and if we would be involved ... so I made a few extra in case ... I made 15 of them and used 2 in the end.  Here are a few pictures ... the larger one was for my mom as I figured she would be giving cash.  The smaller ones fit a few bills or a cheque ... I measured :)

This was the first small one I did as I wanted to use this die from Papertrey Ink.  I like it but thought the double happiness may be a bit on the large side, so I thought of another design ... which is the ones in the above picture.

Here's a close up of some of them ...

 

These ones were made with gold coloured paper, and I added a layer of red on top of it ... both in front and the back.  I have so much gold colour paper left from my brother's wedding invitations I figure I should use some of it :)

I actually had a lot of fun making them!  I think I should make a bunch more ... never know when you will need some :)

Wedding cards ...

We had my cousin's wedding reception Easter weekend, so I needed to make a few cards and red envelopes.  In the end, only 2 of the cards and 2 of the red envelopes were used as I didn't see mom before hand to give her the card and red envelope.  I guess I'm prepared for the next wedding :)

Here are the 3 cards ... I'll post the red envelopes a little later once I've edited the pictures.  I love the simplicity of the stamped image on this 1st card and the sentiment says it all :)

Of course, I had to add some stickles to the flowers ;)

I was trying not to make all 3 cards the traditional Chinese wedding colours (red and gold), so I ended up with 2 pink cards.  Again, I tried to keep it simple ...

 

I die cut a few hearts and stuck them together to give it some dimension ... not sure if you could see that.

  

 This card was the one that was the more Chinese style wedding card ...

... with the double happiness symbol embossed in gold.

Mother's day card ...

Here's a quick card I made for mom for mother's day.  I didn't really have time to do something elaborate or complicated since I've been away for work.  I decided to keep it simple and use this patterned paper.

I thought the flowers on the paper were plain, so I added some colour to it with my "Metallic Melon" Gelatos ... no, it's not a new flavour of ice cream.  Gelatos is a product by Faber-Castell; they are compact acid-free pigment sticks.  I added a bit of water on the pigment stick and used my finger to apply the colour on the flowers.

Here's a close up of the flowers ... I don't know if you can see the shimmer of the Gelatos on them.  Of course, I added a bit of stickles on the center of the flower :)

Back to my roots ...

It feels like I've been away for a long time ... hubbie says I have as I've been away for 2 weeks for work.  I did come back last weekend, but it is a bit of a blur ... it felt like I was back just to do laundry and then left again (on Sunday).

While I was in Saguenay last week, I did some folding ... yup, I did some Origami :)  It's been awhile since I've done some Origami ... it was actually fun.  I made an octagon box ... well one and a half boxes while in Saguenay.  This weekend I ended up making a few more boxes ...

 

 

I think I'll be doing some more boxes ... it's not quite out of my system yet.  I was thinking of making some origami balls as well :)

All done now ...

Well, hubbie went to Ikea to get the last drawer a few weeks ago and installed it ... so it's all done now!  BTW, I haven't filled it up yet ... in case you were wondering.  I guess I'll need to do a little shopping, so I can fill up the drawer :)  I really love my new storage units!!

I've been away for work last week, so I'm currently just sitting in The Paper Room ... my happy place :)  Unfortunately, I have to leave again for a week tomorrow, but it's nice to be able to come home for the weekend even if it is for a short period of time ... also, the reason why I don't have a craft post today.  Have a nice weekend!

Papertrey Ink's Rainbow Stripes die ...

Figure it was time to use, some of the many dies that I recently bought from Papertrey Ink on a card instead of just die cutting them to get rid of my scraps of paper :)  It was the Rainbow Stripes die that initiated this ... I wanted to make a colourful card ... then I decided to incorporate some other dies.  I added one of the "birthday's" from the Birthday Trio Die Collection.  Since it look like something was missing, I decided to add a few balloons from the Birthday Style Die Collection and stamp happy on them.  Well, here's the card ... what do you think?

Since I die cut the Rainbow Stripes die on 5 different colour cardstock, I had some remaining stripes as I only needed one of each colour for the card.  Of course, I was not going to waste it :)  I decided to use them to make other of cards.  The style is the similar to the initial card.  I just love sentiment dies ... gives the card a different look and I don't need to die cut each letter :)

It's always good to have some extra cards on hand :)