Create Card Gift Packs

Happy Tuesday everyone! This past weekend's Gourmet Club was another success.  Our club is four couples who come together about once a month to share a meal and enjoy each other's company.  One couple hosts ( it was my turn) and plans the main entree.  Others take care of appetizer, dessert, cocktail and soup or salad.  For the main entree, I chose to brine and butterfly  (never did this before) whole chicken fryers and roast at 500 degrees.  I was worried about the baking instructions but the chicken turned out very moist with crispy skin. This recipe is definitely worthy of a repeat performance.

We have a tradition of a small gift being placed at the table for the ladies (sometimes the men get one but not often).  I remembered I needed to take care of this late Friday evening.  I needed to come up with something quickly. 

The supplies you see in the picture (left) were scattered on my workstation. As I started to clean up Friday night, I got an idea for the small gift I needed.

I created a gift pack of cards that needed to be put together for each of the ladies.  I used Picture Perfect Party  and True Gentleman Designer Series Paper, coordinating cardstock, ink, dimensionals, embellishments and a variety of stamps.  I used the card desgin from my Glitter Queens Blog Hop post which made the gift packs quick and easy to assemble.

Debbie, Marie and Terre had 4 cards each to ink  and assemble with a picture of the card on thier phones to guide them.  They picked their sentiments and stamped the circles right before they left Saturday night.  It was great material for a blog post.  Unfortunately,  I forgot to take a picture.  I will tag them when I post on Facebook and encourage sharing of their finished cards.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Enjoy the rest of the week. I hope your weather is better than Cincinnati's.  Old man winter still lingers!

Do something creative today!

Debi

CAS(E) Paper Pumpkin Alternatives

Good morning and welcome to The Paper Maven. Its been a dreary couple of days but hopefully my post will brighten your day.  I bought a Paper Pumpkin subscription for one of my friends this past  Christmas which was a present for not only her but me too. I get to have a craft date and better yet,  I have a great excuse to extend my Paper Pumpkin subscription. Like I need an excuse! LOL

Debbie and I (yes we both have the same name) scheduled craft dates every 4 weeks on Friday afternoons.  We started our journey with February's Paper Pumpkin kit.  Unfortunaltey, neither of us was overly excited about the sample designs in this kit.  So, off to Pinterest and You Tube we went.  

Thanks to many, many Paper Pumpkin subscribers for your inspiration. Here are two designs altered to make it our own.  

Here is a very simple card with layers of Powder Pink that make everything pop. A white card base and white mats  add a lot of dimension to the card.  The two top layers are popped with dimensionals.  This is my favorite of all alternates made so far.  

This alternative used an embossing folder from my stash, a Powder Pink mat and the Powder Pink Stampin' Write marker to color the small pearls that were in the kit.  

This alternative is very similar to the above card but I used Powder Pink to mat the three floral rectangles also. I had a hard time deciding on the sentiment to use for the front of these two cards.  But I will add one appropriate to the occassion before mailing.  


Which card do you like best?  I thought either design would make a great gift for someone.  I can easily make four more of each with all my left over supplies.  I may create a variety of sentiments and let the lucky recipient choose what the card says.  I think that's a great idea! 

Would you appreciate a package of cards with the flexibility to choose a sentiment of your liking?  That of course means the recipient will need to glue the sentiment to the card.  Your feedback would help me decide.

Recipes:

Single Flower
Whisper White card base: 4 1/4 x 11 scored at 5 1/2
Powder Pink mats: 4 1/8 x 5 3/8; 2 3/8 x 4 1/2; 1 5/8 x 3 3/4
Whisper White mats: 2 1/4 x  4 3/8; 1 1/2 x 3 5/8
Paper Pumpkin Sahara Sand mats; 4 x 5 1/4; 1 3/4 x 3 7/8
Linen thread from Paper Pumpkin Kit 

Triple Flower Rectangles
Whisper White card base: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4
Powder Pink mats: 4 1/8 x 5 3/8;  (3) 1 5/8 x 2 5/8
Paper Pumpkin Sahara Sand mats; 4 x 5 1/4 emboss with Basket Weave embossing folder
Paper Pumpkin flowered tags cut to (3) 1 1/2 x 2 1/2
Linen Thread from Paper Pumpkin Kit

Thanks for stopping by today.  Don't forget to stop back on Saturday.  I am sharing a great recipe that my family loves to eat for breakfast, sweet cinnamon buns.  

Do something creative today!  

Debi

Amazing Springtime Foil

Good morning crafters.  Hope your week is off to a good start.  Mine certainly is.  Yesterday was such a great day.  The sun was shining, the temperature outside was perfect for yard work.  I started cleaning my flower beds.  Spring is truly here!

Today I am sharing three quick cards made with Stampin' Up!'s amazing new Springtime Foils Designer Series Paper (DSP.)

The first card was a thank you card I sent to Angela, one of my new customers.  She is new to card making and scrapbooking so I am excited to help her along her crafting journey.  Welcome Angela!






Using the same measurements, I made the second card for my Mom's 88th Birthday last week.  However this time I added ombre ribbon, fussy cut one flower from the DSP and colored with matching Stampin' Write Markers.  I put the sentiment (Stampin' Up!'s Happy Birthday Thinlits Die) on the inside of the card.


Sorry, but I forgot to take a picture of the inside before I mailed the card to Mom.  Opps!

This final card was my interpretation of Glitter Queens Card Sketch # 21.  Thanks Dawn for such a great sketch.  All of the cards in today's post are based on that sketch which you can find here.  I added Copper Metallic Thread, Vellum Card Stock, a sentiment from Sale-A-Bration, Celebrate You Thinlits Dies and Copper Embossing Powder for the "You're" sentiment.  Yes, I did cut my stamp apart! I do this frequently and find it makes my stamp sets more versatile.

Recipe:

Tranquil Tide card base cut at 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4.
Copper Foil base cut at 5 3/8 x 4 1/8
Springtime Foils mat cut at 5 1/4 x 4
Rectangles: Tranquil Tide cut at 2 3/8 x 3 5/8; DSP (Copper Foil and Springtime Foils) cut at 2 1/4 x 3 1/2
Vellum cut at 2 1/8 x 3 3/8
Stamp set: Falling For You
Stampin Write: Island Indigo, Garden Green, Blender Pen
Ribbon: Ombre Island Indigo
Other: Copper Metallic Thread, Classic Label, Celebrate You Thinlits Dies

Thank you for stopping by today.  See you on Thursday with a few Paper Pumpkin alternative cards.

Please share your thoughts below. I would love to hear from you.

Do something creative today!

Debi

Catch Up With The Paper Maven

Happy Saturday everyone and welcome to The Paper Maven.

After a few months off, I am back.  So much has happened since my last post!

The holidays came; my time was consumed with baking, shopping, wrapping and preparing food.

I retired after a long career in Higher Education. WOO HOO!

Sun spotlighting tiny spruce tree 

I vacationed in winter wonderland with my husband, brother and sister-in- law (Keene, New York). Left is my fav picture from this vacation.

I visited my parents and daughter's family n Syracuse, New York .

I just returned from Florida on Monday (visiting another daughter and her children).

All of this travel was awesome; however I was quite homesick.  I am so glad to be home.

Hopefully, I will be back into my normal routine next week.

Check back next Tuesday and Thursday to see two great cards I will be sharing.

Soon (most likely Saturday) I will be  sharing my recipe for awesome cinnamon buns I am making for Easter next weekend.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Do something creative today!

Debi

Purple Butterfly Birthday Card

This past Saturday was my assistant's birthday.  She is a lovely young talented women who make miracles happen in the workplace. Her favorite colors are purple and black.  She is way too young for a black birthday card so purple it is!

Hope your birthday weekend was awesome Nikki!

Supplies: Darice embossing folder, Stampin' UP! Embosslits Beautiful Wings, purple rhinestones and purple cardstock.


Do something creative today!

Painted Autumn - Wish Big

Happy Thursday everyone!  Fall is a busy time for me with lots of birthdays, holidays and anniversaries.  Today's card will arrive in someone's mailbox pretty soon.

The Paper Maven - Images @ Stampin' UP!

I love Stampin' UP's new Painted Autumn  DSP.  When the package arrived I fell in love (not hard for me to do since paper is my addiction) with the first patterned paper in the package and I used it in this card.  

The swirl  reminds me of a fall breeze with leaves floating about. There is nothing better than a brisk walk with the colors of fall falling around you. Hopefully I captured that ambiance with this card. By the way, don't you think the colors are just gorgeous?

The following steps will help you recreate the card.

 1. Start with Very Vanilla cut at 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, scored at 4 1/4.
 2. Add Copper Foil cut at 5 1/4 x 4.
 3. Cut a second Copper Foil at 5 1/8 x 3 7/8
 4. Cut (from the center of DSP) a piece 5 1/8 x 3 5/8
 5. Cut the above into 3 pieces 5 1/8 X 1 1/2, 1 1/4, 7/8;  arrange and adhere to #3;
 6. Add a piece of Burlap Ribbon
 7. Adhere to #2
 8. Ink a Foil Snowflake back with Cajun Craze.
 9. Stamp/emboss the starburst from Cheers To The Year stamp set and cut out with 2" punch.
10. Cut a 1 3/8 Copper Foil circle (punch from center of #2)
11. Stamp any sentiment ( I used "Wish Big" from A Dozen Thoughts) and cut out with 1 1/2 circle  punch.
12 Arrange 8-11 as pictured and add to the card with Dimensionals.
13 Add a few Rhinestones

If you enjoyed my card leave me a comment.  I really enjoyed making it!

Do something creative today.

Debi