Too much sympathy....

I have needed entirely too many sympathy cards lately. Last Wednesday, my very dear friend, Linda, called to say her husband, Bob, had died. I was shocked. Bob was one of the funniest people I have ever known.

The story of how we met Bob and Linda has always been one of my favorite stories to tell. None of us remembers exactly what year it was, but it was probably 15 years ago. Tim and I went to Seattle for a conference he was attending. As a side trip, we decided to spend the weekend on San Juan Island at a bed and breakfast. The B&B, Hillside House, had an aviary and all of the room names were bird-themed. I recall there being one that was the only suite on the third floor, and it was called Robin's Nest. I wanted to stay in that room, needless to say! Unfortunately, it was already booked, so we took a different room. When we arrived and mentioned to the owners that were from Atlanta, they said there was another couple staying there from Atlanta. And THEY were in the Robin's Nest.

So, the next morning at breakfast, the owners introduced us to the other Atlanta couple - and it was Bob and Linda. We hit it off immediately and have been friends ever since. Linda even loaned me her very nice rain jacket that day since they were leaving, and we were going on a whale watching excursion. She said we would just have to get together when were all back in Atlanta so I could return it to her. Shortly after we returned home, I heard that Hillside House was for sale. I just did a quick search and found that it's still there, but now the third floor suite is called the Eagle's Nest.

We are so very thankful that we had them over for dinner and to spend the night with us a couple of weeks before Christmas. We had such a good time together.

The card above is the one I made for Linda because she commented on this card that she loved the background paper. I have been planning ever since to make her next birthday card with it, and this Gina K. Designs stamp, but it seemed really well suited for a sympathy card, too.

And, as if that weren't enough sadness for one week, last night we received the call that we have been dreading for the last year or so. My mother-in-law passed away yesterday. She was a wonderful, caring person who welcomed me into the Kirkpatrick family with open arms almost 25 years ago. She had been in deteriorating health for a while, but when we spent Christmas with her, she seemed to have rallied and be doing better. Tim, his brother and sister, and all the spouses have been planning a visit to see her and take her out to dinner next month to celebrate her 80th birthday, which would have been March 16th.

Sorry to have a downer of a post today, but that, unfortunately, is life sometimes. Thanks for 'listening'. Hug your loved ones....

Shimmery Iris

I love the new line of Shady Tree Studios stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms. They are a lot of fun to color and there are so many options for using them. I colored this Iris Bloom with Copic markers to match the patterned paper and then went over the lighter areas of my coloring with some Shimmerz paint to give it a bit of sparkle. The image was stamped on Cryogen white paper, which also has a nice shimmer, and then it was cut with a long rectangle Nestabilities die and layered on a scalloped mat that was cut from Prism Majestic Purple card stock. The embossed patterned paper is from Cloud 9 Design.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages set. I die cut the tag and its mat using two Spellbinder's Double Ended tags, but cut them on one end with my scalloped edge scissors. The tag was adhered to my main image panel with a Stampin' Up lavender rhinestone brad. The sheer lavender ribbon is from Offray and was added to cover up a mistake I made....but I won't tell what it was ;-)

Thanks for looking. Have a good weekend!

SC215 - Best Fishes!

This card was made using last week's sketch from Splitcoast Stampers. The fish stamp is from Impression Obsession, and I colored it using a new product I recently bought, called Shimmerz paints and Blingz. They are water-based paints that are very shimmery and come in 35 colors. I started out purchasing four colors, so my palette was a bit limited, but I thought they would be perfect for working with my fish stamps. They are fun to work with, so I'm sure I'll be getting some more colors soon!

In addition to filling in the stamped image, I used it to paint the edges of my card and both of the Nestabilities Labels Two panels. I also used some blue Taylored Expressions' Tiny Twinkles for the fish's bubbles and added a few Dew Drops in the bottom left corner of the card to balance it out. The patterned paper is from my stash and the two shades of teal card stock are from Prism.

That's about it. Hope you're having a good week so far! Thanks for looking!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Saturday and Happy Valentine's Day! I am happy to be home after a week on the road for work. And when I arrived home last night, and walked into my office, which was dark, there was a distinct smell of roses....I turned on the lights and lo and behold, there was an arrangement of a dozen red roses, some babies breath, eucalyptus and assorted greenery. Leaning against the vase was an envelope that read Happy Valentine's Mommy. Tim said the cats had gotten the card, but he had to help them with the roses...;-) Anyway, it was a very nice surprise, but I won't be opening the card until this evening....and I still have to make Tim's card...eek...;-)

So, these two cards were made a while ago for Repeat Impressions, but I decided to hold off posting them until today. They are pretty straight forward and simple, but I love the color combination of the pink, white, burgundy and kraft. The first card was embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder to give it some texture, then I swiped some Versamark Dazzle ink across it to give it some sparkle (which doesn't show up in the photo, of course). I stamped the image using the Versafine Raspberry ink, and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. I cut it out using a Labels One Nestability die and then colored the edge with a gold leaf pen. This layer was adhered to a layer of Stampin' UP! Purely Pomegranate and then a layer of heart patterned paper.

For the second card, I also used a Kraft card base and adhered three strips of Heidi Swapp packing tape to make my 'patterned' paper. Can you tell that I made this card shortly after getting my labels dies - I used six layers of them!

The image was stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder. The gold heart in the bottom corner was also covered with Versamark and gold embossed and set on top of a pink heart that had been edged with the Versafine Raspberry ink.

Like I said, not much to them, but here they are to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day since they are the only ones I've made (so far)! Enjoy your weekend! I'm off to make some cards!

Comfort and Peace

I found myself in need of a couple of sympathy cards last week, so I did something I don't do very often and made the two cards using the same materials, at the same time. I started out selecting the stamps I wanted to use - Gina K.'s Comfort and Peace set.

For both cards, I used Cosmo Cricket Gretel Butterflies patterned paper and butterflies that were cut using a Martha Stewart punch. I selected different embellishments for each card, as well as making them different sizes. The first card is 5 1/2" square, and the second card is a standard A2 (4 1/4" x 5 1/5") card.

On the first card, I stamped the images using three colors of Ranger Adirondack dye inks (Rust, Latte, Espresso) and cut the image and a mat for it using my Labels One Nestabilities. The sentiment and its mat were cut using my Long Rectangles Nestabilities. I added some crocheted lace from my stash and some velvet Cosmo Cricket ribbon to the bottom, with a couple of pewter leaf brads inserted through the two layers of ribbon.

For the second card, I made my base using Papertrey Ink Kraft card stock and added a layer of Eames Painting Canvas Brown Umber card stock, which has a nice texture to it. For this one I just stamped a single flower image with Adirondack Rust ink and airbrushed the background with a Copic marker while it was still in the die.

At the bottom of the card, I added a layer of plain twill with another layer of velvet flower ribbon on top. The sentiment was also stamped with the rust ink and airbrushed and was adhered, with its mat, on top of the two layers of ribbon.

I added a few dew drops in the upper right corner and called it done. Sympathy cards are never fun to make, but hopefully they provide some 'comfort and peace' to the recipient.

Hope you're having a good week! Mine's been busy so far.

Thanks for stopping by!

CPS100 - Thanks a bunch!

I made this card for for Card Positioning System's Anniversary Celebration contest. This was a hard sketch for me at first. I had pulled several sheets of Cosmo Cricket's Honey Pie line (leftovers from these card folders). I couldn't figure out how to combine the different sheets of patterned paper so they looked right together, so I decided to sleep on it (this really seems to help me when I hit a road block on a card). The next morning, I saw this post from Debbie Olson, and saw that she had pulled off a perfect combination of these papers. But I still couldn't make it work for me, and then I remembered this post that Lisa Lee did using a ghosted background for an inchie and decided to try that for my two smaller panels. It's a really fun technique and I like the way it all came together.

The stamp is KarenLockhart's Geraniums - her stamps are really fun to color and I love that when you browse her site and hover your mouse over the stamped image, you see it colored. All three images were colored with Copic markers and the geraniums all have some Stickles on them (Fruit Punch on the main image and Diamond on the ghost images). I cut the main image out using a Labels Nestability and did a little doodling with a Stampin' UP! Rose Red marker around the edge while it was still in the die. I colored the edge after I removed it from the die and adhered it to a piece of sparkly Stardreams Stationery and added Kaiser Mango Pearls to each corner. The sentiment, from Stampendous, was stamped in Ranger Adirondack Cranberry beneath the Geraniums image.

The card base and the panels for each of the stamped images is Taylored Expressions' Choice Buttercream, which is very nice for coloring with Copics. The ghost images were matted on BasicGrey Strawberry Smoothie. The red layer on top of the card base is also Stardreams Stationery that I scored at the top and bottom and paper pierced between the score line and the edge. The patterned paper is Ella from the Honey Pie collection. I airbrushed a couple of clear buttons with a pale yellow Copic, tied a bow in each button with some pink embroidery floss (recycling my old cross stitching supplies there...) and put them in opposite corners. The yellow grosgrain ribbon is from Stampin' UP!.

I think that about covers it - sorry for the novel! Hope you've had a good week! I'm looking forward to going to the Heirloom Productions' stamp show tomorrow with my Krafty Kat friends. Have a good weekend!

Card Details:
Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie - Ella; Basic Grey Strawberry Smoothie
Card stock: Taylored Expressions' Choice Buttercream; Stardreams Stationery
Stamps: Lockhart Stamp Company; Stampendous
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black and London Fog; Adirondack Cranberry
Ribbon: Stampin' UP!
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Copic Markers: E00, E01, E08, E55, Y23, Y38, YG03, YG11, YG95, W1, W3, R000, R02, R11, R32, R35, R81, R85, G24, G94, G99, 0
Misc.: Buttons - 7 Gypsies; Ranger Stickles (Fruit Punch and Diamond); Nestabilities

Happy Anniversary

Before I left for CHA, I made this anniversary card for my mother and her husband, who had their anniversary last week.

I stamped the heart from Stampin' UP!'s Always set twice on Very Vanilla paper and embossed it with Powder Keg's (now known as PK Glitz) Buttered Rum embossing powder. I cut both hearts out (gee, that sounds ghoulish...) and mounted them on the green mat that was cut out with Spellbinder's Labels Two Nestabilities.

The sentiment was also stamped and embossed with the Powder Keg embossing powder. I loved this sentiment for them because my mother has been into various forms of sewing (embroidery, needlepoint, smocking...) for as long as I can remember. I, on the other hand, have ZERO sewing talent (well, OK, I did a little cross stitching for a while, but how hard is it to stitch an X??), so I used a gold gel pen to add some faux stitching around the mat and the sentiment. I added a trio of gold beads to the corners and added some ribbon and a bow around the mat.

Funny story about this card - I had it all finished up and one of our cats was crying outside my stamp room, so I let her in and she got up in my lap while I was trying to figure out if there was anything else the card needed. In one fell swoop, she leaned in, grabbed the tail of the bow and yanked it completely out....I almost started to cry, as I had worked on that bow for quite some time, trying to get it 'just right', but in the end I just had to laugh. And put her in her room for the night....I slept on it and finished it up the next morning. Unfortunately, the final bow wasn't as purty as the bow she destroyed, but it turned out OK. And that is why my cats are not usually allowed in my stamp room....

One more funny story I left out of my CHA post. I talked to my cousin before I left for the show and she said I should look up her daughter while I was out in California, but I told her I wouldn't have an opportunity since I was going to be with other people and would be in Anaheim and not L.A. I didn't even have an opportunity to meet up with my sister, who lives in L.A. and had a birthday while I was out there.... So, I'm sitting on the plane coming back to Atlanta and about an hour into the flight a voice from the seat diagonally behind me says my name and I turn around and there she is - my cousin's daughter (my first cousin, once removed, I guess...). How is that for a small world?? So, I did get to visit with her, after all! She's a big wig at the Cartoon Network (in charge of developing all of their movies) and was on her way to Atlanta for some meetings about her new movie. Very fun coincidence.

Hope you're having a good week, thanks for reading this little novel!

Card details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' UP! Haiku
Card stock: Stampin' UP! More Mustard and Very Vanilla; green card stock from my stash
Stamps: Stampin' UP! (heart); Papertrey Ink (sentiment)
Ink: Versamark
Ribbon: Ellen Hutson
Misc.: Embossing Powder - Powder Keg; gold beads: Michael's

I'm Baaaaaaack.....

Hello, it's me.....the bad blogger.....I'm back after my trip to the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) trade show and a two-day bout with a nasty migraine. This was my first experience at CHA and it was quite overwhelming. There is so much to see and do at the show that it's impossible to see and do it all. I was so engrossed in it all that I didn't get many pictures, unfortunately.

The first day there, I had a class with Suze Weinberg, called Melt Art Workshop. I have owned all the equipment and supplies for the techniques we learned for over a year and had never taken them out of their packaging, so this class was a great introduction. Here is the finished product - a Grungeboard book that we painted with Ranger Metallic Paint Dabbers. To that, we added a Grungeboard flourish, some rub-ons and the three pieces of melt art that we created:

During the class, Suze noticed the butterfly necklace I was wearing and insisted on getting a mold of it, so here is a picture of Suze, me, my necklace and her mold of it!

One booth where I spent quite a bit of time gawking was the Ranger booth. They had great demos and make-and-takes, but there was always a line for the make-and-takes, so I didn't bother. I did get a front row space watching the incomparable Tim Holtz doing some demos of his new Grunge paper and other products, and I finally remembered to get out my camera and snap a few shots:

And last but not least, I had the opportunity to spend about 20 minutes talking to Debbie Olson, one of my absolute favorite bloggers. Here we are at the make and take at the Just Rite Stampers booth:

So, it was a great experience, in spite of the fact that I had a cold. Thank you to Laetitia and Tonya from Scrap Chic Boutique for letting me tag along with them to the show - you ladies are the best!

And, while I was at the show, my sister had a birthday. Here's the card I made for her:

This is Sassy Suzie from Stampin' UP! I've had this set for about a year and it had never seen any ink, so it was high time. And since she is my OLDER sister, it seemed like a good occasion to use this set!! I used Taylor's sketch from January 16th (TECC51) for the layout.

The image and the first part of the sentiment were stamped on Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select and colored with Copic markers. I colored the edge with a purple Copic marker to match Suzie's top. The second part of the sentiment was cut out with my double ended ribbon dies from Spellbinders and then airbrushed with a Copic marker while still in the die. The background paper is some fun scalloped-edged paper from American Crafts.

I added some Stickles for her necklace and earrings to give her a bit of bling! The three lavender strips are embossed leaf paper from The Paper Company. I added black brads on the ends of the strips and put it all together. Pretty simple, but fun. And a good dose of purple for someone who loves it.

Sorry I've been out of commission for so long, thanks for bearing with me! I will do better this week, I promise! Thanks for looking!

For You

I made this card a while back to showcase this gorgeous Italian paper that I received from Krafty Kat friend, Barb. I'd link you to Barb's gallery or blog so you can see her wonderful creations, but she doesn't have either....Come on, Barb, you should share your talent! ;-)

Anyway, I just loved this paper, especially the beautiful bird, so I cut out this portion of it using my Labels One Nestabilities. Then I created each of the mat layers using the next larger sizes.

The only stamping on this card is the sentiment, which I stamped with Versamark and embossed with detail gold embossing powder.

I wrapped some ribbon around the black card base, adhered all my label layers on top, tied a big bow and it's done! Not much to it, but I think it turned out nicely.

You can also see that I put a little strip of the Italian paper on the inside to tie it all together. This is one of those cards that I will have a difficult time parting with, although I did just find some more of this beautiful paper, so maybe I'll make a few more like it.

Hope you're having a good week. I've got a sick spouse - he started coming down with a bad cold on Sunday and spent most of yesterday in bed. Poor baby had to go to work for a meeting this morning, but will probably be back in bed as soon after as possible. I'm doing what I can to take care of him, but stay away from him at the same time! I cannot afford to get sick now...

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Details:
Paper: Rossi Florentine Print - Phoenix; red handmade paper, gold and vanilla card stock
Stamp: Stamp Camp
Ink: Versamark
Misc.: Ribbon - Offray; gold detail embossing powder, Spellbinders Label One Nestabilities

More card folders!

Here are another couple of card folders I made as Christmas gifts. By the time I got to these two, I was running out of time, so these folders and the cards that went with them are more uniform than the other ones I've shown.

For these two, I used my JustRite Stampers round Monogram stamper with the Special Occasions font and border, and the Small Letters set. I used Stampin' Up! Bella Rose Designer Series Papers and Riding Hood Red ink. The folder and cards were made using Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette card stock.

I think they are pretty self-explanatory. This first photo shows the cover of the folder and the next photo shows the opened folder with the cards inside.

Next is the second folder cover. The nice thing about the JustRite stamper is all I had to do was change out the letters for the name and, voila, I was ready to go with another personalized stamp.

This one was made using So Saffron and Baja Breeze Patterns Designer Series Paper and Baja Breeze, More Mustard and Very Vanilla card stock.


Here is the open folder. The monogram circles were stamped with Baja Breeze and So Saffron inks. All matchy-matchy!

That's about it for these two. Hope you're having a good week - I'm glad it's almost over! Thanks for looking!

Happy Birdie

Happy Monday! I've been a bad blogger this past week - sorry about that! I was out of town for work last week and just didn't find the time to post anything. Hopefully this week will be better!

I recently needed a birthday card for one of the men in my family. He is a golfer, as is obvious from the card! Nothing says golfer like plaid, right? So, I had the bright idea to paper piece the golf bag. Paper piecing is fun, but when you're working with some of these little pieces, it gets a bit tricky and time consuming!

I stamped the golf bag image four times - on white, tan, and green paper and on the plaid paper. I colored in the clubs and the metal hardware on the strap with my Copics on the white version. Everything else is paper pieced. I started with the tan bag and strap and added the other pieces on top. It was really a lot of fun to 'design' this golf bag, but I don't think I'll do another one any time soon! The border of the panel with the golf bag was colored with a gray Copic marker, and then I used my colorless blender to make the dots - I was trying to mimic the dimples on a golf ball.

The golf ball - the round piece on the felt ribbon - was run through my Swiss Dots embossing folder once, then I rotated it in the folder and ran it through my Wizard again to add more dots. I adhered it 'wrong' side up (debossed side) to simulate the dimples of a golf ball.

I think the rest is self-explanatory. Hopefully he got a chuckle out of it!

Thanks for looking and hope you have a great week!

Card Details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' UP! Manchester DSP
Card stock: Stampin' UP! Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze; tan and green from my stash
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa
Stamps: Gina K. Designs (golf bag), Savvy Stamps (sentiment)
Misc.: Stampin' UP! felt ribbon; Copic markers; Nestabilities; Swiss Dots embossing folder

Another card folder

This folder was the first one I created a few months ago. My stamp group gets together once a month and for each meeting we take turns putting together a kit containing papers and embellishments. The following month when we get together, we show what we made using the kit. This card folder was made using the papers and embellishments from one of those kits.

The patterned papers I used are a mix of Cosmo Cricket and Frances Meyer. The folder was made using Papertrey Ink's Kraft card stock and the card bases were made using either Prism Desert Coral or the Kraft card stock. The stamps are from the Stampin' Up! Pocket Silhouettes set. At the time I made this one, I was still thinking that I would make a bunch of themed folders, so all of these cards are thank you cards. I had decided not to give this folder away as a gift for a couple of reasons, and now that I need some thank you notes for Christmas, I will just be using these cards!

I love this leaf ribbon from May Arts and thought it matched up with this stamp really well.

I stamped a few of the flowers in the set on the bottom of this patterned paper.

For this card, I was able to incorporate several of the embellishments from the kit, including the flower, the ribbon, the photo turn and the brads.

This one includes some scraps from the other cards, along with a chipboard scalloped circle that I covered with a flower from the patterned paper.

Hope you're having a good week so far! Thanks for looking!

Happy Anniversary

Several months ago, a friend asked me to make a card that she could buy to give to a couple she knows for their 25th wedding anniversary at the end of January. Did I jump right on it? Of course not! So here it is January and amidst all the other cards I'm obligated to make right now, I also had to come up with a special anniversary card for her. One of these days I'm going to learn to stop procrastinating....

So, here it is. I struggled with this one and ended up having to re-do almost all of it, but overall I'm happy with the way it turned out. The heart image is one I bought from Stamp Camp at last year's Heirloom Pro show, and since it's almost time for this year's show, I figured that stamp ought to see some ink. I stamped it with the new Versamark Dazzle ink, then heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. The happy anniversary stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms' Script Essential Expressions set. After I cut the heart out (oooh, that sounds bad...), I decided it needed a black border, so I stamped the image again on black paper and cut it out, leaving about 1/8th of an inch all around to create the mat layer.

I embossed part of the silver paper with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and then scored several lines across the middle, 1/8th inch apart. I used my ticket corner punch for all four corners and added some black Heidi Swapp bling in the corners and through the middle.

Now my question - what do you think would be a fair price to charge for a card like this? I struggle with this as I will never be able to charge enough to actually make any money on my cards, but I don't want to just give them away either. So, let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card details:

Patterned paper: from my stash (no name on it)

Card stock: Papertrey Ink Silver Shimmer card stock; Cryogen White

Stamps: Stamp Camp; Cornish Heritage Farms

Ink: Versamark Dazzle

Misc.: Ribbon - Michael's or Hobby Lobby, not sure which; Silver embossing powder - JoAnn's; Bling - Heidi Swapp

Honey Pie Card Folder

This is the front of the second in my series of card folders. This folder and card set were made using Cosmo Cricket's Honey Pie paper collection. I love these papers!

It was at this point that I realized I wasn't going to be able to do the themed folders I had intended, so this one doesn't have a sentiment stamped on the front like the last one did, and each card has a different sentiment. This is really a more versatile approach, but I still like the idea of doing multiple folders with each one being for a different occasion (birthday, thank you, thinking of you, sympathy, etc.). Someday maybe I'll work that out!

The ribbon on this folder is Martha Stewart's seam binding ribbon. It's pretty thin ribbon, but I think that makes it easier to tie a bow. The thick twill I used in the last folder was also Martha Stewart, but it was difficult to tie into a nice bow. Since these are going to people who are not paper crafters or bow tying aficionados, this thinner ribbon is better. I also learned that you need to be sure to cut the ribbon long enough to make it easy to tie a bow, which I didn't really do on the first folder.

This is the card folder open, showing all of the cards and envelopes.

I used the same stamps for this folder as I did for the last one, except that each card has a different sentiment.

I had some coordinating Cosmo Cricket ribbon that I used on this card.

Each of the envelopes was stamped with the same image as the card, using Stampin' UP!'s So Saffron ink. I really like all the different colors in this paper collection.

For the coordinating envelope for this card, if I remember correctly, I didn't stamp a good image, so I just covered it up with coordinating paper instead. I've said it many times - most of my projects are an exercise in hiding a mistake of some sort!

I hope you had a fun and safe New Year's Eve and wish you a very happy 2009! I have to admit that 2008 was a pretty wonderful year for me, especially related to my paper crafting hobby, so I'm not sure how 2009 can be any better, but time will tell!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year!

Card details:

Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie

Card stock: Stampin' UP! Regal Rose, Rose Red, Mellow Moss, So Saffron; Prism Natural Smooth

Ink: Stampin' UP!

Markers: Copic - R000, R11, R21, R35, R85; Y30; YR00; YG03, YG95; G94, G99

Stamps: Stampin' UP! Flores Suaves and Bloomin' Beautiful; Papertrey Ink; Denami Designs; Stampendous

Birthday wishes card folder

A couple of months ago, my stamping friend, fellow Krafty Kat and Stampin' UP! upline, Miriam, showed me some card folders she had made, each containing matching cards and envelopes. I thought they were such a cute idea and that they would make wonderful Christmas gifts.

I had the great notion that I could make them themed - one for birthday cards, one for thank you cards, one for thinking of you cards, etc. Well, being the procrastinator that I am, when I finally got started on them, I quickly realized I was going to be lucky to get one folder set done for each person on my list, so there went that idea!

Over the next few posts, I'll show you all the ones I did, starting with the first one I made, when I still thought I'd be doing them by category. It contains four birthday cards, each with the same sentiment.

The first picture shows the folder cover. The ribbon goes through the folder to hold the cards in place, as shown in the next photo, and is tied with a bow to keep it closed up.

This is the open folder with the four cards held in place by the ribbon.

I stamped the focal image from each card on its coordinating envelope. I also decorated the inside of each card with strips of the patterned paper and card stock, but I won't bore you with all of those photos!

For each card there is the matted focal image, the matted patterned paper and the stamped sentiment, but each one is laid out a bit differently, using different Nestability dies.

All of the images were colored with Copic markers and each one was airbrushed while still in its Nestability die to give it a nice background and add the appearance of an additional mat. I was trying to keep them from being too thick so they would fit into the folders better. I did end up revising the folder template that Miriam had given me to deepen the spine and the pockets.

This was a fun project and I really liked how this whole set turned out. I only had one sheet of that beautiful patterned paper, so I'm not sure I will be able to duplicate these cards, but I will be able to create 'refill' cards using the same color scheme once these run out. Assuming the recipient liked them and lets me know when they have been used up, of course!

Card details:
Patterned paper: K&Company Ancestry.com Teal Floral & Newsprint Flat Paper
Card stock: Prism Island Mist Medium and Dark; Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Stampin' UP! Flores Suaves and Bloomin' Beautiful; Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses (sentiment)
Inks: Adirondack Mushroom, Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze
Misc.: Copic Markers (W1,E31, E37,E55,E57,G94,G29,G82,Y38,BG10,BG15,BG72); brads; Nestabilities