Bliss

Oops! Between my trip to CKC Valley Forge and my vacation to California, I have fallen a little behind in sending out anniversary cards this month. So, here is card I made for a July anniversary. I'm posting it along with my best wishes for those who did not receive their cards in August. Anyway, here's the card:

It was inspired by the beautiful Brenda Walton chipboard piece that I had found on sale at Michael's. To make the butterfly, I first stamped with Versa Mark ink. I sprinkled gold embossing powder on top of the stamped image. Before heat setting it, I brushed a little of the embossing powder off for a distressed look. I colored in the image using distress inks (my new favorites!) I did not use dimensionals for the butterfly since this card had to go through the mail.

Hopefully I'll catch up on my card making in time for those September birthdays and anniversaries but there's no guarantee since I'm off to the Scrapbook Expo in Somerset, NJ this weekend!

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! (Whisper White) and DCWV (Brights) card stock; K & Company
(Brenda Walton) patterned paper and chipboard; Hero Arts (Heart Winged Butterfly) stamp; Versa Mark and Tim Holtz Distress (Shabby Shutters and Broken China) inks; Stamp-n-Stuff embossing powder (Gold Tinsel); Martha Stewart border punch (Doily Lace).

A Tisket, A Tasket...

...look how I made my Easter basket. I made it using my Cricut and my Cuttlebug to be more specific!

First, I used the Doodlecharms cartridge to cut out a 4-inch basket. Next, I took my Distressed Stripes embossing folder and swiped white ink across the inside front panel. I placed the basket in the folder so that the stripes ran horizontally and ran the folder through my Cuttlebug. Voila! The basket was embossed and inked. I love this technique.

Next, I used my Cricut to cut out the Easter eggs. This was my first time using this cartridge so after a few tries, I found out that the egg size is proportionate to the basket size. So, to cut these 1.5 inch eggs, I left my setting on the 4 inches I had used for the basket. Makes sense. I'm just a little sorry that I can't cut out 4-inch eggs for cards.

I don't have a grass stamp, so I used the tulip leaves from Stampin' Up!'s Spring Garden set. I used a Martha Stewart punch to create the grass in the basket. I popped the basket using foam squares to give the card some dimension. Finally, I added the butterfly using the two layers I described in this post: http://eterno-lyyours.blogspot.com/2009/01/quick-post.html.

That's it for today. I hope you have a Happy Easter!

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! card stock (whisper white and kraft), patterned paper (Fall Flowers and misc. scraps); Stampin' Up! ink (Whisper White and Always Artichoke); Stampin' Up! Spring Garden stamps; Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge, Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes embossing folder; Martha Stewart (butterfly) and Stampin' Up! (ticket corner) punches; Michael's pearls.