Treasure Life Birthday Card

My mom asked me to make her a card for a special lady who turns 70 this month...

This is a large card, the base is a 8.5"x11" white cardstock folded in half.

I used CTMH My Acrylix stamp set D1306 Treasure Life. The main image and sentiment was stamped in versamark and heat embossed in black.  I then sponged the background to look like a sunrise in Sunkiss Yellow, Blush, Amethyst, Crystal Blue and Twilight.

This was matted with white and black cardstock, embellished with a white satin ribbon,

and centered on the white card base, which was first heat embossed in Silver Pearl with the same stamp set.

(I love CTMH Silver Pearl embossing powder, it isn't bling bling silvery, but more like a pearl finish. It just looks so elegant on white!)

The sentiment on the inside is from the same stamp set D1306 Treasure Life. I stamped it in black StazOn ink onto vellum. I then embossed the flower images (in Silver Pearl) onto the vellum on the left side, and also in a couple of places along the center fold to hide the adhesive. 

The envelope was also stamped in the matching image, and I used chalk to softly accent it with the sunrise colors as well (but it doesn't show up so well in this photo)

I wanted this birthday card to be
elegant and artistic like the recipient...

who is also celebrating 50 years with the convent this year.

This woman has always made handmade cards,

 long before split coast stampers and mega craft stores!

Happy Birthday Auntie Marie!

Flower girl!

I have a couple of special cakes to do in the next few days and need some flowers. Since the flowers have to dry before I use them, I have time to play. Now, I am new to sugarpaste. I have watched a few tutorials and am ready to dive in, but  please don't ask me for advice...I won't pretend to know what I am doing!

First I wanted to make some calla lillies.  I watched a terrific tutorial by Edna de La Cruz of "Design me a Cake" fame on you tube. (If you are interested in gumpaste flowers, you have to watch her videos!)  Apparently, I already had everything I needed right in my kitchen! No need to buy any special tools, yay!

No, these are not hats! I don't have flower cones to dry the flowers on, so I wrapped some cling wrap over some ice cream cones. (Please excuse the nasty pan, it's been well loved! It has been retired from actual food duty.)

Here is one almost finished! The stamen was done with a "sausage" of gumpaste fondant rolled in cornmeal. Looks real doesn't it? Wait until I color it a bit, I'll post the cake when it's done.

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Now for the best part! My 11 year old daughter Jenna, wanted to try some flowers too. I let her watch a rose making video by David Cakes of "CAKINCRAZY" on you tube, and off she went!

Her very first try!  She is a natural! See that perfect rose? No tools used, no rolling pin, no cutters...just her talented little fingers. And, it only took her about 3 minutes. Guess who's making my roses from now on?

I'm so proud of her I could burst!

Happy St.Patrick's Day Birthday Pop-Up Card Tutorial

So here is my very first tutorial! (Constructive criticism welcome!)

Our niece's birthday is on St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to make a card to celebrate both occasions, but I didn't want it to be too "green". I've seen several pop-up cards on SCS, and wanted to try one. So, follow along with me and make one of your own. This card could also be used for valentines day with different papers.

Front:

Inside:

You will need:
2 patterned papers ...I used CTMH "Boom-di-ada" B&T duos (CTMH Background and Texture duo papers have a coordinating solid color on the back side)
2 or 3 colors of coordinating cardstock
Coluzzle circle template and swivel knife
sharp detail scissors
scalloped edge scissors
***(the circle cuts could be made with a circle cutter, Cricut or die cuts if you prefer)
scrap paper and pencil
adhesive
stamps, ink, ribbon, stickles to embellish

To make the card base, place circle template on folded edge of Sweet Leaf cs and cut out, leaving a bit of the fold uncut as shown.  I used the largest circle (about 4.5" diameter)  (See my colorful Coluzzle? I used permanent sharpie markers to highlight the tracks, I find them easier to see and keep track of this way.)

Cut slightly smaller circle from pattern paper for card front.

 Trace this circle onto coordinating pattern paper, then cut out slightly larger than traced line with scalloped scissors to get a pretty edge. I'll be using the back of the striped paper which is a solid pink.

You will also need 2 more circles of the pattern paper for the inside of the card.

Now cut out a coordinating cs for the card front in a slightly smaller circle than the rest. This will be for the stamped image. I used CTMH Sunkiss Yellow cs.

Now for the pop-up part: I made a simple heart shape #1 by folding a piece of scrap paper and cutting out a heart, be sure sure to make the sides straight as shown. Then take this heart shape and trace it onto a larger pice of scrap cs 3 times to make a shamrock shape as show below. Cut this out, avoid cutting where the red and green lines are! These are just folding guides for later.

Trace the shamrock shape onto solid color paper, I find cardstock a bit heavy for this part and it makes the card bulky, so I prefer to use the backside of the B&T duos papers, but you could use cs if that's all you have.

and cut out! Score and fold along the lines, red lines are valley folds, green line is mountain fold.

Should look like this:

You should now have pieces like this. Time to put the card together!

Attach inside liner pieces first with adhesive.

Lay folded shamrock on inside of card to test placement,

don't glue down yet!

Close the card to make sure the pop-up part is completely hidden.

 Move shamrock pop-up around and play with it a bit to get it right.

 Then use a strong adhesive to glue down the SIDE hearts only. Don't put glue on the center one!

Try standing the card up. With the weight inside, the card may roll. To prevent this, just run the bottom of the card along a sandpaper block to flatten it a bit to help it stand.

Now it's time to embellish the card! The best part!

 I used CTMH My Acrylix stamp set C1299 Butterfly Kiss. Stamped the sentiment in Olive ink on the Sunkiss yellow cs, then stamped the buterflies in Hollyhock ink onto the solid pink of the B&T duos paper, then punched them out with a Martha Stewart butterfly punch. Added some bling with pink Stickles on the edges of the butterflies and added a ribbon tab.

For the inside, I put the Happy Birthday sentiment on the part thats pops up. Added a ribbon shamrock stem.  Put a few glittery butterflies inside too. I think this makes a great Happy St.Patrick's Day Birthday card that's not to "leprechaun-y".

 

What do you think of my first tutorial? 

Now it's your turn! This template could easily be used for Valentine's Day as well.

It can be changed up with different colors/papers/embellishments.  

Please leave a comment here with a link to your original creation using this tutorial.

 I'd love to see what everyone comes up with!

Yay! Making progress on the kid's School Days album!

OK, so I blew off my January scrapbook goal of 10 pages. Please give me a break, I was in New Year's Resolution mode. How many of your new year's resolutions did you manage to keep? But...goals are supposed to motivate you right? Well, I AM making a bit of progress on my kid's school albums, so I'm trying to stay positive. I've re-set my scrapbook goal to get these school albums up to date this year. Follow along with me if you like, and positive reinforcement in the form of your comments would be very helpful!

These are the first pages of my daughter Jenna's school album. She's in grade 5 this year so you can see how far behind I am! For the cover page, I used CTMH Notebook Level 2 paper and Stickease and retired September Word Puzzle stamp for the images. (I don't know why they retired this series of stamps, they are so useful!).

I used CTMH Daydream Level 2 papers for this 2 page layout. I accented the pages with C1343 Happy Endings stamp images, sewing machine stitiching and pink orgundy ribbon. There isn't alot of journalling on these pages, but the pictures sort of speak for themselves.

I forgot how cute she was with her halo of curls! Now she has a waist long blanket of thick frizzy curls that is usually in a braid to keep it from becoming dread locks! 

I can see now why you want to keep up to date with the photos. I keep reminiscing over all the pictures and because of that, these layouts are taking me for-ev-er!

Thanks for checking out my blog!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! (for the rest of you...A Cake, a Card and a Recipe!)

My husband is an avid hunter, and his birthday is tomorrow! (OK, you asked...he's 44) I was going to make one of those 3D deer head mount cakes, but I was a little pressed for time and I was trying to do this all on the sly while he was out. So, I made my very first FBCT cake! (Frozen Butter Cream Transfer for those who want to know...it took me forever to figure out what that meant on the cake sites) If you're wondering, it's an Elk to commemorate his first successful elk hunt this year.  For my first FBCT attempt, I think it turned out pretty good.  He requested a black forest cake, but I wanted to dress it up a bit more...! So I made this
3-layer German sour cream chocolate cake with Kirsch liquor-soaked cherries between each layer. Yum! The white part is real whipped cream, (Stabilized with gelatin and icing sugar so it doesn't go all runny).  Can't tell what's under all that frosting, but I think he'll be surprised when he cuts into it! Now I just have to keep him out of the pantry fridge until tomorrow...I want it to be a surprise. The kids made a "Dad, Keep Out" sign for it :)

Rich Chocolate Frosting

(All I want for my birthday is a bowl of this frosting. Yes, it's THAT good!)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (no substitutes!), softened

4 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 1/4 cups baking cocoa, sifted

1 tsp real vanilla

1 tbsp Kahlua Liquor (I use 2 tbsp and reduce the cream :)

1/2 cup (give or take) cream or evaporated milk

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl (I use my stand mixer) cream butter until fluffy, add vanilla and Kahlua. Gradually add icing sugar and cocoa until all mixed in. (will be dry and stiff).  Gradually add cream (may need more or less) until it reaches soft spreading consistency. 

This isn't the best chocolate frosting for decorators, but it holds basic borders and decorations quite well,
and it's so yummy no one will care if the decorations aren't perfectly smooth. 
Keep iced cake in the fridge, but warm it to room temp before serving.

There is no lower calorie version of this.
It's frosting, it's supposed to be bad for you. 
 Have another glass of wine with it and you won't care.
Enjoy!

And...I just had to make a hunting-themed card to go with it. This card was inspired/CASEd (Copy And Share Everything in SCS lingo) by a card I found on SCS by labullard, I've had it in my faves forever to make one for my husband. All card supplies (except for the deer stamp, it's from SU, I've had it for a while:) are from CTMH.  The images were stamped in Cocoa ink, colored with chalks and watercolor pencils. The main image was stamped, cut in a circle, the rifle scope lines were done with a fine black marker, then the image was popped up with a 3D foam square. I tied hemp along the bottom for some "guy ribbon", then mounted it to a camo pattern background. He'll love this!

If you're curious, his gift is from Cabelas, of course. My 8 yr old son random stamped deer and bear images all over plain brown paper gift wrap. He had fun, and wants to "scrapbook" again with me.

I tried to tell him we were stamping, not scrapbooking, but he didn't care. According to him,"If it happens in the scrapbook room, then it's all scrapbooking!" 

Yeah, he's a little smart ass.

An inky one :)

I think it's time to send him hunting with Dad... 

Thanks for checking out my blog!