First Card for 2011 [ACD Bday card]

This is my first handmade card for the year 2011.  Yay!  Several of my lovedones are celebrating their birthday this January starting off with my sis-in-law.

I love this floral scalloped background paper!  I have used it in one of my Christmas cards and decided to use it this time again and with brown matting.  When I was cleaning my tiny craft space, I saw an Inkadinkado stamp set that I haven't used:  97635 Round frames.  I stamped the scalloped frame with bundled sage distress and memento rich cocoa dye inks.  The sentiment was stamped in colorbox' scarlet ink.  I handcut it and secured it with dimensional adhesive. 

To add dimension, I placed a red button, tied it with twine and secured it in place.

It's simple but handcrafted with a lot of love.  Happy birthday, Manang!

Giving Thanks and Color Challenge [HA December 2010 Challenge]

It's mid-December already... wow, where did the time go? 

I was able to finish 2 cards for the hero arts December 2010 Challenge. 

The first card that I made was for the color challenge.  I used my HA clear sending holiday cheer stamp set and slate blue cardstock.  I made the background using the pine trees and added snowflakes that i embossed with white.  I also added glitter on the skyline.  I stamped the house, colored and cut it out.  Finally, i added the sentiment,a scallop border dp and 2 red crystal brads.

The second card that I made was a thank you card.  It's a simple card made with love.  I used F5030 Long stem blossom, stamped embossed with gold.  I matted this on a blue cobblestone embossed dark blue paper.  The hand printed the sentiment and added a ribbon.  I placed a gold flower brad on each corner of the mat.  I love the effect of the stamped brass blossom and the brass brads, though it was a challenge to take a good photo.  Simple but made wth love.  TFL ☺♥☺.

HA Quickcard4

Quickcard4
Originally uploaded by cabbycraft

Today is a nice, cool, sunny and lazy Saturday. I browsed through flickr and what do you know? HA's Barb has a 90 minute scrambler challenge. It was my first time to join so with barely 35 minutes left, i grabbed my stuff. Her challenge was to make a Christmas card using flowers (emphasis on NO POINSETIAS ☺). So i grabbed my favorite flower stamp, friend definition background and punched pot. I love it! Then, i stamped the sentiment on gold paper and tada! My quickcard is done!
Next challenge for me was how to post it on the HA group and then to to the discussion board. All this computer and blogging hi tech terminologies are quite challenging to me so it took awhile before i could finally upload it on the discussion board. Geeez... i hope i made it on time.
That was fun. I never thought that being under time pressure could make my creative juices flow so fast. Hahaha... if it was like that everyday, i'd have tons of cards to upload.
Have a great weekend, my friend!

Christmas in November

Can you believe it?  It's November 5 already and i haven't made a card yet.  Hahaha.  Trust me, for a craft enthusiast, that's a dilemma.  It gets so overwhelming looking at the blogs and all the tutorials going on - it's like being in a class with so many homework to do. 

Anyway...  I made a Christmas card today.  I used HA Cl464 Sending holiday cheer set.  I love the set but somehow, i find the sentiments too large to fit regular card size (4 1/4 x 5 1/5") or perhaprs, i'm not too creative to figure the best way to use it. 

Since i will be spending my first white Christmas, i made a winter landscape.  I stamped and embossed pine trees for the background.  I stamped a house, colored and tried adding mod podge matte to it.  It was my first attempt to use mod podge and i like it.  I added designer paper on on the bottom.  I added shades of green to offset the "blue winter" scene.

Thanks for looking.  Blessings!

Materials:

HA CL464 Sending holiday cheer

Clearbox white ink; Judikins opaque white embossing powder

Versamark; Judikins Black embossing powder

Marvy markers

Cardstock:  cream, blue, white

Check out:  my Flickr

Christmas in October

2 days ago, my husband lovingly drove me to my favorite craftstore were i found a nice HA Flourish ornament rubber stamp.  I deviated from the usual red and green christmas motif and used yellow and green shades.  I made a background stamp using the block stamping method that i learned from Jennifer McGuire HA/2 Peas Thinking Inking.
I stamped it on a DP and embossed the image using black embossing powder.  I added extra fine glitter and a ribbon.  I stamped the sentiment inside the card.
I had fun making this!

Friends who truly care

The August 2010 theme of the Hero Arts blog was to create anything about:  "Back to school, keeping in touch or a stationary set".
I love this theme.  Mainly because i love sending cards or letters and just keeping in touch with my family, loved ones and  friends.  Last Aug. 13, i bought a couple of stamps from a new store, Craft Fancy.  I bought a HA "Friends background" stamp (G2991).  I was so excited to use it and also try to add distress ink on it.  As i always do, i added a quilled flower.  I placed the Friend stamp off center to give a little bit of dimension.  I added sentiments from HA clear stamps:  "Thinking of you" and "i hope you know..."

I am feeling quite lonely today.  I miss my family and friends in Manila.  I miss my life, being able to drive myself around town with my mom and dad, chatting with friends and people from the hospital where i work at; i miss my colleagues, my fellow doctors and clinic office buddies, Philippine food, etc.  My life in America for now is more than laid back - a little housework here and there and that's it.  I miss interacting with people besides my family.  Crafting and making cards make me happy here - though it is really costing me, my husband actually, quite a lot of money.  Heck...  it keeps me sane  ☺.

Take care, my friend and know that i truly care for you.
Thanks for reading.  Blessings!

July 2010 cards for Hero Arts

Hero Arts July 2010's theme was food and travel, plus bookmaking techniques. It was quite challenging for me because i thought i had a "craft brain block". You know... there are days when i get dehydrated of my creative juices. Does it happen to you too? I stare at my cardstocks, paper, stamps, ink, paper trimmers, scoring pad, ruler and scissors and i just go

B-L-A-N-K. It must probably an episode of absence seizure were one just stops and stares unconsciously into nothing.

After hours that turned to days of thinking, these are what i came up with. Not exatly the best work. I used Muffin polyclear stamps and Sweet wood stamps that i bought from a craftstore in Galena. I added paper quilling in one of the cards - i loved how it turned out.

Thanks for looking, friends. Blessings!