Cards from the Heart...

Hello stampers.  I was sent this link for Valentines cards to be sent to children in various hospitals.  I thought I'd share this link and these cards with you and if you have the time, it's an extremely worthwhile cause.

These cards were actually designed by my talented daughter who does not have a blog nor the time for one (our loss).  She loves Paper Smooches and she actually designed these cards for me to teach at Kept Creations.  I'm not the "cutesy" type when it comes to stamped images and have a very difficult time creating cards with them.  So this was the solution we came up with -- my daughter designs the cards and Mom teaches the class.  A little unorthodox, but it works!  So here's a really cute one with the frog.  There's some great Stampendous glitter and Flower Soft in this card as you can see.

And on to the next card (my personal favorite).  She did a fantastic job with this whimsical little card, don't you think?  I love how the rabbits are hanging on by their teeth -- and doesn't this just signify what some of these poor children in the hospital are doing.  Bet this will get a smile from one of them.

So, you have the link and if you have the time, please follow the rules set forth.

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella! 

FIve little Washi cards

Good morning all!  It's a crisp and windy day out there.  But any day without snow makes it in my book :)!  Today I thought I'd bring you some little 4-1/4" square cards using Washi Tape (of course).  I tried to keep these "uber" simple since I'll be doing a class on them at Kept Creations next month.  So here are the five cards I selected to do:

In a hurry?  Well these fit the bill just perfectly.  You could make these up and create a box for a gift -- perhaps for a hospital visit, Mother's Day, a thank you for your hostess, etc.  The list goes on.  But the overriding idea is that they are quick and simple to make.  

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed creating them.  Feel free to leave a comment.

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella! 

Back to a little bit of winter...

I seem to have another fascination --  using corner dies.  This is a set by Cheery Lynn and I just knew I had to do something a little bit different with one of the dies in particular.  The set contains three different style corners (there are several different sets by Cheery Lynn).  So, combining my love of teabag folding and corner dies, here's the end result.

This is simply a 4" x 11" card scored at 2-5/8" to form a cupboard fold, I embossed the front flaps only then mounted it on an aqua base.  I used a Spellbinders Lacey Circle die for the aqua base then cut eight of the corner dies by Cheery Lynn, folded them, inked the edges and placed them on a 1" circle with a big glue dot in the center to form a "snowflake" and placed a pearl in the center.  This is the end result.  What the camera fails to pick up is the glitter on the embossed areas and some glitter on the "snowflake".   I finished it off with a simple knot tied from tulle and added a sentiment.

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella! 

Poor October -- it got left out!

Oh my!  My mind is on a different plane for sure.  Either that, or I can't count the 12 months of the year.  I was just going thru all my pics and realized I had left the month of October out of the Graphic 45 series.  I'm sure you were just dying to see it (not!).  Well, here it is anyway. And none of you caught the omission either -- not paying attention, are we? (LOL!)

For some reason I had a wee bit of trouble putting this one together.  Choosing just which images you want to go where is the only challenge  -- the images are so creative!

This particular card was created with a single sheet of cardstock and scored, cut and folding in such a way as tocreate a book form and here's a peek at the first inside page...  The center page actually allows you to turn down a corner and create a pocket.

And here are the last pages...

So that concludes a year in total and I really hope the ladies at Kept Creations will join me in this fun series.  We're going to be doing January and February in the first class and from then on, it will be one per month.  So once the calendar is posted, feel free to sign up for this fun class and let your imagination run wild.

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella! 

MORE Graphic 45 Papers

Hello again.  Well, I just finished taking pics of the remainder of the year using A Place in Time by Graphic 45.  Just an FYI -- there are a LOT of pictures in this post, so you  might want to grab a cuppa before you start.

For the first picture, I'm showing the missing March project that I had left at the store.  And here it is...  This is actually two Z-fold cards placed together.

March opened up -- note how the center back looks by putting the two "Z" folds together.

This next one is June and happens to be a favorite of mine.  Just something about the softness of the colors -- oh heck, I just love the whole premise of June wedding!

I added some embossed cream cardstock to enhance these luscious colors.

This is actually a book using pleated card stock in the center to contain the pages.

Last page of June.

On to summer!  Here's July.  I'm not normally a huge fan of patriotic stuff (is that blasphemy?) -- don't get me wrong, I love my country, but sometimes the red, white and blue are so overdone.  I love what Graphic 45 did with their colors and choices of images.  So, this turned out to be a particularly fun one to do.  It really challenged me to create a very different folded card as you will see by the following open pages.  This card has a belly band as did some of my others in a previous post.

Opened to the first page...

Opened to the second page...

Then flipped up to reveal more fantastic images!

Now this next one, August, is so totally different that I even surprised myself.  Keep in mind that this folds completely flat and is still an A2 size card (as are all of them except September).

This is either the front or the back -- it makes no difference as you will see.

Here's one side...

The reverse side...

The last short side...

Here's a view of the card looking down onto it.  I don't know what to call this fold, but it is one of the most fun folds I've used in a long time.  I simply put two of these together to form one complete card.

And here's September -- this fits in a #10 envelope.

And here's September opened.  I created little paper bag pockets out of actual paper bags and deckled the tops.  I then used existing tags on the sheet and inserted them in the bags.  Believe it or not, I used almost every image on this particular sheet.  

And here's November.  I made all separate pages and attached it with an "O" ring and hung a tag off the side (not too visible).

Inside first page...

Inside second page...

And last, but not least, Christmas!  Once again I created the book style using an accordion folded center to hold the pages (same as June, but different orientation)...

Inside first page...

Inside second page...

Inside third page.

Well, that's all they wrote, folks!  I don't know when I enjoyed doing something this much.  Part of it was because I FINALLY had some time to just sit and create without pressure for a deadline or a blog post.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing these as much as I've enjoyed showing them to you.

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella! 

Graphic 45 Papers

This company has such gorgeous papers.  Their newest selection "A Place in Time" really called out to me.  I HAD to have each and every month.  I decided to try and create a different folded card for each month -- I almost made it.  I came up with 10 different folds.  I'd like to show you what I've created for January, February, April and May (March is at the store - Kept Creations).  These are so addictive once you start on them!  Kim at Kept Creations loved them so we've decided to offer a "Card of the Month" using just these papers.  Here's a sneak peek...

January showing a short "Z" fold and card is banded:

One view opened...

Second view opened.

February with normal "Z" fold:

Inside front view of February:

Outside back view of February (I actually ran out of images to place on this one):

Next is April using a double easel and banded again:

April opened full view with both easels:

April showing the inside of the closest easel:

May using a standard sidestep:

I will take pics of March and June thru December and post them at a later date.  

You have no idea how much fun these were to make.  It's like putting a puzzle together -- you need to plan exactly what pieces you want to place on the card without cutting into another piece that you also want to use.  

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this teaser and I hope we get a lot of sign ups for the Card of the Month at Kept.  I look forward to seeing you all there!

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella! 

A little gift...

In a previous post I had made a box and decorated it with Washi flowers.  Well, here's the same box, but done up for the holidays.  I filled the box with six cards and envelopes to give to my gifted hairdresser.  Using my favorite mirror cardstock and a great poinsettia die from Cottage Cutz, I created the top for the box.  The little corner adorners are from Cheery Lynn -- I absolutely love this set!

And here's a close-up of the corner...

Well, I guess I have to get back to making some Christmas cards!  Enjoy and feel free to leave a comment.

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella!