Uchi's Design Hugs & Happy Thoughts Animated Card

I recently received the DC 103 Animation Envelope Die Set from Uchi's Design and I created this card for a dear friend with it as soon as I had time to play. I watched the video on the website (link above) and learned how to use the die, stamps and grid from Uchi's Design to create this animated card. Here are a couple more pictures showing the tab being pulled:

I used the bird and sun stamps from the Growing Garden stamp set by Uchi's Design, a sentiment stamp from Altenew and a "Pull Here" stamp from Lawn Fawn. I added a couple punched polka dotted birds to complete the hugs card. Still photos do not show the wonderful animation of these cards very well, so I am sharing a video so you can see the magic:

**Edited to add: To see the animated motion of the bird and sun in this card as well as the butterflies and ballerina above, check out my Cardmaking Techniques and Tips Session 102 - Uchi's Designs Animated Stamps and Dies in Three Different Ways video on my YouTube channel here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpRxxjX_M4M&feature=youtu.be. You could even win the cards shown if you subscribe and comment before early October 2017!

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Happy For You Bride's Card with Nuvo and Tonic Studios

A friend recently announced she was getting married and so I made her this card to say how happy I was for her. I stamped Tonic Studio's Belle Boutique Sweet Sashay Stamp with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with Nuvo's black embossing powder. I colored her hair and skin with Nuvo Soft Rose and Rustic Oak Aqua Flow Markers and a Nuvo Aqua Flow water brush. I created a stencil with Tonic Studio's Floral Blooms Patterned Panels Die and used a craft knife to add some Powder Blue Embellishment Mousse through the stencil. I stamped "Happy For You" by Flourishes with black ink, added a few dots with Nuvo's Signature Calligraphy Pen and layered the finished card front onto a black card base. 

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Congrats 2017 Graduate Card

My great niece (yes I am that old! My nephew's daughter is graduating from high school!) graduated this weekend and this is the card I made for her. The colors are gold and maroon as those are her school colors- at least they were many, many year ago when I graduated from the same high school:) I started with the negative of a piece of Gina K's Foil-Mates foiled with her gold sequins. I layered it on black and then onto a maroon cardbase. I die cut a celebrating female grad out of gold and out of the foil sheet and inlaid her back in the shape's hole. I die cut and attached "congrats" and the year 2017 (dies from Tonic Studios.) 

I just can't waste any of the gorgeous golden sparkly foil, so I put it inside the card where I wrote my message of graduation best wishes. 

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Karen Burniston New Pop up Dies Series - Day One

I was so excited recently to find out that my favorite pop up interactive die designer has started a new company and released a bunch of new designs. I visited Karen Burniston's new website here and placed a large order immediately. I just received my new dies yesterday and had to play right away. If you received this card, you would no doubt think the front was pretty. The grass and hills and clouds (from 1006 Nature Edges) and sentiment dies (1002 Word Set 1-Greetings) are all by Karen B. and are perfect for scenery and saying hello. I added a couple flowers to my card front die cut with a Wild Flowers 2 set by Tim Holtz for Sizzix. 

But when you open the card, the magic happens:

Right?? One of Karen Burniston's new dies is 1010-Flower Pot Pop-Up and it creates a pop up flower pot sure to put a huge smile on the recipient's face! I watched the video here and also printed the PDF with super helpful instructions (both available for every die on the website!) I made mine a little differently from the video in that I cut the pop up mechanism into the card base and added a piece in the front and the back to cover up that hole. I die cut and attached many of Karen's flowers and leaves from the same die set. Then I added some more Tim Holtz flowers, a few punched flowers and some punched butterflies. I attached some Stampendous gem stickers to the flowers and butterflies and die cut another sentiment from the Karen Burniston "Word Set 1 - Greetings" to let my friend know I am thinking of her.

Here is a look at the flower pot pop up from the top. There is a lattice inside the box that the flowers and greens are attached to. I "flew" my butterflies using strips of acetate and added a couple more punched butterflies to the inside of the card. 

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

A School Color Graduation Card with Distress Oxides

 I needed a couple graduation cards this spring and in both cases, I chose to use the graduate's school colors on the card. I started this card by applying two shades of blue Distress Oxide inks to a thicker piece of cardstock with a Smoothies sponge and then spritzed it with water. I die cut Taylored Expression's celebrating grads die in blue and white and layered them together with a white shadow. I also die cut and attached Tonic Studio's Congratulations. 

On the inside, I created a diploma with the cash gift, tied it with a piece of blue baker's twine and attached it with a temporary glue dot. The inside sentiment is an old one from CTMH. 

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Live Love Cards. 

Bright Colors 4 Kids at Send a Smile 4 Kids!

It’s Saturday and time for another fun challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! This time our challenge is: Bright Colors 4 Kids! Create and link any brightly colored card appropriate for a child and you could win one of our great prizes.

We have two very generous sponsors for this challenge: Paper Nest Dolls is giving their winner 3 digis of their choice! And the winner from Tonic Studios will receive 8 bottles of Crystal Drops! TEAM S.A.S will also be choosing their favorite cards for our top three and the winners will receive a blog badge and an opportunity to be a guest design team member on a future challenge.

My card today features a sweet digi from Paper Nest Dolls called Birthday Owen. I paper pieced him in bright colors of patterned paper scraps. I foiled a Gina K Foil-Mates birthday message with rainbow colored Deco Foil for a bright Happy Birthday, and layered them both onto a bright polka-dotted cardstock base.

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!

Altenew Layered Floral Dies Series - Day Six

I have been having a great time designing with my Altenew floral layering dies and I showed my in home classes the cards I had made. They asked that I teach three of them in an upcoming class and suggested that I design one for Christmas as we all like to make cards all year round for our Christmas card stash. 

I die cut Layer A out of a dark red and Layer B out of a medium red and glued them together. I then cut out the bottom two flowers and attached them with thin strips of mounting tape on a white A2 card base. I die cut and punched some greens and stuck them behind the Christmas flowers. I die cut and attached Creative Expression's Christmas Blessings, then added some gold Nuvo Crystal Drops to complete the pretty Christmas card.

If you would like to see the other cards in this Altenew Layered Floral Dies series, just click here. 

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Live Love Cards. 

Thanks for helping me #spread the joy of creativity!