August Birthdays!

Two of my favorite people have August birthdays!  My BFF, Jennifer and my Grandma Swan.  I set out to make them both a card that will go with their taste!  The paisley card was for Jennifer.  Jennifer is a very classy lady and I think this card is classy too!  The card base is a navy color from Creative Memories (don't know the name of the color) and the front is CTMH Colonial White.  Behind the C. White is some brown cardstock from a Bazzill Fourz pack.  I saved the brown sheer ribbon from a gift someone gave me.  I don't EVER throw ribbon away that comes on gifts.  I always find somewhere to use it!!  The stamps, ink and markers are all from CTMH.  I love the accents with Diamond Stickles!!  This card is one of my favorite items that I have made.  Inside I used a piece of Colonial White and stamped a few of the small flowers in the corners. 

My Grandma Swan loves GREEN!  I used Sweet Leaf cardstock from CTMH to make the card base.  I had the roses and embellishments from K&Company.  I stamped Happy Birthday in the middle of the cardstock embellishment with CTMH Ink and Stamps.  I added a strip of pink Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock.  I used a little bit of ink around the edges of the card and on the pink strip so that I could tie together the differences in the pink colors a little.  I used some Stickles glitter glue around the center embellishment to give it extra sparkle.  Inside I used another embellishment tag that said "Beautiful You".  It came out super Kawaii! 

HELLO!

Living in Japan is AMAZING.  I love it here!  However, there are days when I just miss my friends.  With the time difference and everyone's hectic lives, sometimes we go for weeks without saying HELLO!  Here's a sweet little card I made for my BFF Jennifer.  I used a blue card base from DCWV Flower Shower Spring Box of Cards.  I just started using their boxed cards and I LOVE THEM!!!  It is just so fast to grab a card and envelope out of the box and start crafting.  Some of the cards are solid colors and some are patterned.  Some even have light glitter on them.  I found this box at Joann.com on sale for $5.99 for 40 cards and envelopes.  What a deal!  For this card I used green Bazzill Bling cardstock, CTMH Daisy White cardstock, and some scrap patterned papers.  The sheer ribbon and the adorable green brad is also CTMH.  I used a pop dot behind the brad.  The frog and the Hello! are clear acrylic stamps from CTMH.  I also used CTMH ink.  Love the frog!!  Kawaii!!!

Bananas For YOU!

My husband is not even halfway through his Summer Deployment on the big SHIP and I am counting the days.  I really am "Bananas" for him!  I was looking at the Sweethearts Cricut cartridge and saw this cute little monkey.  I used a green card from DCWV Flower Shower Spring Box of Cards.  I added some twill ribbon on the bottom.  I cut the monkey at 3.5" and the "I'm Bananas 4 You!" at 2".  The chocolate cardstock for the monkey base is CTMH, the taupe and yellow is Bazzill cardstock, and the red hearts is Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock.  The patterned papers are scraps from an old project.  I was going to leave the card natural looking, but I just can't seem to stay away from my Stickles glitter glue lately.  I love the added polish it gives.  I did some hand detailing to finish.  The monkey is so Kawaii!!! 

Cindy Loo Circle Card

There are lots of ways to get ideas for scrapbooking layouts and cards.  I find inspiration in scrapbooking magazines, catalogues, and just everyday life.  I love YouTube for videos of talented scrappers sharing their designs.  If you have a Cricut, just search the cartridge you want to use.  There is loads of images and projects on the internet.  One of the sites I enjoy is http://www.customcrops.com/.  Click on "Projects".  I "lifted" this card from a project that Susan did.  Here's the link:  http://www.customcrops.com/article_info.php?articles_id=429.  I used the following Cricut cartridges for this project:  Cindy Loo, Wild Card (to cut the circle card), and Accent Essentials to cut the circle background (blue with white polka-dots).  I used CTMH cardstock for the base of the card.  The ribbon is CTMH.  The polka-dot papers are CTMH.  The green patterned paper and the dark cocoa is from My Mind's Eye.  The tan is from K&Co.  I used a Gelly Roll pen to do the white hand details.  This is a more complicated project.  It probably took me about two hours.  I knew it was going to be cute, so I made two.  One to give away and one to keep!  :)

LOVE Card

I LOVE how this card came together!  I have really started to understand the importance of color in my scrapbooking/cardmaking.  I really try to match my colors as closely as possible.  It makes the whole project come out more polished.  The green in the flowers really matched up with the green cardstock.  The gingham flowers are so cute!  Using the black ink in different things on the front also brought the card together nicely.  The "Love" is from CTMH font set and I used CTMH ink.  I have always loved adding hand inked details to my projects.  The dot/dash pattern around the inset and the "xoxo" truly conveys that I put love and care into this card.  I'm no artist, only a patient fan of cardmaking/scrapbooking so I could use some work on my hand finishes.  If you want to see some work from someone who truly does an amazing job on the hand details, check out Pinke McGreevy's blog at: http://expressionbypinke.blogspot.com/.  She has awesome talent and I love looking at her designs!  For this card I used Bazzill Bling cardstock to make the card base.  I used Bazzill pink cardstock and ran it through the cuttlebug to add the embossed hearts.  The colonial white cardstock and the organdy ribbon is from CTMH. 

You are Precious to Me!

Another card for my sweetie out on a ship in the deep blue sea!  I "lifted" this design from a Scrapbooks etc. magazine article.  A few of the hearts were embossed with my Cuttlebug.  I used Bazzill Cardstock, CTMH stamp and ink, CTMH patterned paper and Cricut patterned paper.  I also used my Fiskars Treading Water border punch and my EKSuccess corner rounder.  I almost always cut my cards 8 1/2 x 5 1/2.  That is regular A2 card size.  My husband loved this card.  He has it pinned up above his desk!  :)

I Love You!

I am a Navy Wife.  My husband goes on deployments quite frequently while we are on sea-duty here in Japan.  I miss him terribly while he is gone.  To cheer me, and him, I make him a card every few days and stick it in the mail.  Lucky for us, being overseas also brings us MPS mail.  We don't have to pay for the mail going out to the ship.  So I can mail him things anytime I want to without having to worry about the cost!  Thank you Navy!!  :)  This card came straight out of a CTMH catalog.  CTMH cardstock, ribbon, stamps, ink, brads, and flower.  I love their round card designs.  I DOUBLY LOVE that my Cricut Expression can cut round cards!!!!  This is a simple and cute design that can be "lifted" endless ways!  I hope it inspires you! 

The Only One For Me....

My husband and I went to Las Vegas to get married and Honeymoon.  We went to see the Cirque Du Soleil show "Ka".  Here's the link to the show information: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/home.aspx#/en/home/shows/details/ka.aspx.  It was an amazing show!  Prior to the show starting, a photographer came around and took pictures of couples right in their seats.  This is our picture.  I believe that the love and happiness that we were feeling came right out in this picture.  It took me a long time to plan and scrap this picture.  I love the rub-on sentiment, it was spot-on!  I used Bazzill cardstock, BoBunny die-cut paper, CTMH ink and stamps, Petaloo flowers, Creative Memories ribbon and the pearl accents are from Kaiser scrapbook.  The tissue heart is from a Japanese maker.  Using the CTMH "playful flourishes" stamps around the picture really polished this layout.  It almost looks like the paper was made that way.  I loved the Petaloo flowers!!!

Teenage Boy Birthday Cards

I have a difficult time coming up with an idea to make cards for teenage boys.  They are in that in-between stage and unless they are crazy about a sport or like the Rock Star theme, I find myself really wracking my brain.  I found these designs in an old CTMH catalog and "lifted" them.  I used CTMH cardstock, stamps and ink.  The ribbon is Creative Memories.  I think they came out KAWAII!  What do you think?

Dragon Rock Cave!

This is a layout I "lifted" from a design in the April, 2010 issue of Scrapbooks etc., page 102.  Bryan and I visited Dragon Rock Cave in Kakegawa, Japan.  Bryan really enjoyed exploring the cave!  I used K&Company Simply Scarlet patterned paper, CTMH cardstock, stamps and ink.  I loved how the design used the negative space between the papers to do the journaling.  It was super fun to make! 

Simply Sweet! Layout

Simply Sweet is such an excellent title!  All of us have a picture or two that we could use with that title.  My niece, Savannah is Simply Sweet!  I LOVED this picture of her.  I used CTMH cardstock, stamps and ink.  The flowers I cut out of patterned paper from American Crafts.  I added some glitter to the centers.  The "Savannah" letter stickers are Adornit, Carolee's Creations Sleek Blue.  The "Simply Sweet" letters are Doodlebug design Simply Sweet cardstock stickers.

Thank You for a Friend

My good friend, Lezley, needed a thank you card for her church.  We used CTMH cardstock, ink, stamps, ribbon, and brads!  It came out so Kawaii!!
I love how inking around the Kanji characters made them stand out!  In Japan, we say "Arigato Gozaimasu" to mean "thank you". 

Michael's Laughter

My 20 year old son had some medical problems earlier this year.  I needed some cheering up, so I dug around and found these pictures of him laughing.  Michael had the best laugh as a child.  It came from deep down somewhere inside his belly!  I think this layout conveys how much I loved his laughter and him!  The background paper is from DCWV Taj Mahal Stack.  I used red cardstock (Japanese maker) for the large heart and the blue cardstock is Bazzill.  I stamped "Laughter" with CTMH ink and their "Chocolate" alphabet.  There's nothing like your child's laughter to make you SMILE!

Birds of a Feather

These cute little birdies are so easy to make!  I used a small scalloped circle for their head, a medium circle for their body, a small circle cut in half for their wings.  I used a partial medium scalloped circle for their tummy in a patterned paper.  Cut a triangle for their tail and scissor cut fringe into it.  Then, I added their feet and some scarves made out of patterned paper.  Next, I added their eyes and triangle beaks!  This is a lot of fun!!  Here is the layout page I used them on: