Window Blinds Birthday Card [PTI Blog Hop]

I don't do floral cards too well, so I picked up on the graphic horizontal folds in the inspiration photo for this month's Papertrey blog hop.

Horrors of all horrors, my Cuttlebug broke last night. I was embossing and heard an awful popping noise. Closed my eyes. When I opened them I saw the case had come loose. Totally broken. Sooo ... I went to bed. This morning I tried rubbing the paper with a bone folder over the impression plate and it worked, a little. Good enough until I can get a new one at least. Now I'm old school. 

The Roman shades are made with the ScorePal. I used the green strips (the ones with the stripe embossing that broke my Cuttlebug!) to hold the blinds up, just like they would in real life. Cut out shapes for the window sill, and added a pull with some wire and a bead.

OK, now I'm off to check out the fabulous cards in the hop ...

Thanks for looking!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI Think Big Favorites

Impression Plates: PTI stripes, linen, woodgrain

Other: wire, pearl bead

Baseball Party Invitations

Read on for baseball party invitation info, but
click here for the complete Baseball Party Post with Decorations, Activities, Games, Food/Menu, Cake, and Favors.
 

My 8-year-old is obsessed with baseball and is super excited to have a baseball-themed birthday party. I was going to make the invitations on a die-cut baseball, but then I thought, why not use a REAL baseball? Not sure if my idea would work, I was a little nervous ordering two dozen autograph balls. But I had faith and am really pleased with how they turned out.

I picked Markwort Autograph Baseballs since they don't have any logos which would interfere with the party information. Also, I figured these were meant to be written on. They were $20/dozen when I ordered. A little pricy, but I figured since we'd be hand-delivering these we'd save the cost of postage, and the kids would have a favor they could use before the party even started.  

The party information is stamped on the back side. I used black StazOn ink, which is great for "staying on" hard surfaces. The stamps are from various sets. The specific information (date, time, address, phone number, name) is stamped using individual letters and numbers lined up on a clear stamping block.

 In between the front and back panel, I stamped my street address and phone number. I ended up designating one ball to be the practice ball and used it to do all my practice stamping on. This took the pressure off a little. Obviously, the ball is round, so it was a little tricky to rotate the stamps so they would produce a clear impression. But it's definitely doable. This is where having a practice ball comes in handy! Any words that stamped too lightly I carefully went over with a fine permanent marker and it worked OK.

Time to deliver the invitations. My son loved going to everyone's house and playing mailman. A few of the balls were delivered earlier in the week when we saw kids at play dates, baseball games, a pool party, etc. It only took an hour to deliver the baseballs to all 20 families.

Thanks for looking!

Don't forget to check out the complete post about the party!

Supplies used:

autograph baseballs

StazOn black ink

Martha Stewart Laurel clear stamps

Misc. clear stamps from Michael's dollar section

linking up with these fabulous parties:
See Vanessa Craft, Young and Crafty, Tatertots&Jello, Be Different Act Normal,Nap Time Crafters,Fingerprints on the Fridge,The Artsy Girl Connection,Craft Envy,Too Much Time On My Hands, Funky Junk Interiors,Tickled Pink,Saturdays at Seven,, Made by You Mondays, CraftOManiac,Tuesday To Do, Not Just a Housewife, Gingersnap Crafts,

Have a Blast Rocket Card [LIM #71]

I challenged myself to think of a masculine design after seeing the Less Is More challenge to make a one-layer card with a flourish. Flourishes are so pretty and fun to use for feminine cards, but I don't have as many occasions to use those cards since we have so many boys in our family.

So, the flourishes become rocket blasts!

I inked the flourishes in orange first, and then tapped some edges in red before stamping to give it a little more dimension. The letters are cut out of the card to keep it one layer. Only the bottom of the rocket is stamped to keep the focus on the flourishes.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies used:

stamps: Recollections Robots, Autumn Leaves Flourishes by Rhonna Farrar, Martha Stewart Laurel

ink: Color Box Tangerine and Warm Red, Papertrey Ink True Black

dies: Papertrey Ink block letters

paper: Luxe

Father's Day Tree on See Vanessa Craft

Hi everyone, I was pretty excited when Vanessa from See Vanessa Craft asked me to do a guest post for her. She has a great blog with lots of fun craft projects that she dreams up and showcases. My tutorial is on making a Father's Day tag tree with all sorts of reasons why we love Dad. It was fun to get the kids involved in this project and hear things from their point-of-view. Then when you're tired of looking at the tree (because let's face it, that totally happens, even with the best of craft projects) stick all the tags on a key ring and have the quickest mini-album ever. I'd love it if you stopped by to check it out.

Thanks for looking!

Father's Day Card for Inspired by Family Magazine

I'm so excited to join the fantastic team at Inspired by Family Magazine! They post on all sorts of interesting topics like fashion, recipes, activities to do with your kids, crafts, human interest stories, you name it. And now they will be featuring a monthly post on handmade cards (yep, me!)

If you haven't stopped by yet to check it out, head on over.
You can also take a look at my article on this Father's Day Vest card.

Thanks for looking!