congrats to Jessy & David!

My niece Jessy and her beau David were wed this past weekend. It was SO nice to see the extended family together! My youngest son and I got our crafty on for part of their gift; he'd originally worked with Jessy to design the invites so we framed ours; I'd used some software to blow up and switch her wedding announcement from color to a soft charcoal pencil and we put them in matching frames. Voila!

The reception theme was "under the stars" and they'd strung white mini lights all across the yard. It was SO cool looking! Their colors were a deep blue and white so I kept to that for the card too, and HAD to include some star-shaped bling. The blue sequins were from the table decorations from their wedding shower; they'd put blue and white flowers in canning jars with small white sparkly rocks and these blue sequins. I was lucky enough to take a table decoration home w me so got to use that on the card as well.

Here's wishing them the happily ever after they both deserve!

stamps: SU's Gorgeous Grunge; paper: Neenah's Solar White, SU's Night of Navy; ink: Ranger's faded jeans, SU's Night of Navy; tools: Cuttlebug w QuicKutz's Moonlight alphabet and gingerbread dies; accessories: asst'd Hero Arts' rhinestones and wedding shower sequins

a CASE study wedding greeting

Sigh ... I have the printout of the card this is based on and know it was something I found on Pinterest ... and I THOUGHT that I'd saved it in my inspiration directory to papercraft later but alas, I can't find the original now to credit the originator. I entered the URL printed on the top of my printout but it's no longer available online, and a search for "you make me smile" didn't turn it up either. If anyone knows the originator, please share, ok?!

I had the same embossing folder and bird die, and thought of this card immediately when a coworker announced he was getting married. All I did was reposition the birds to the right side (a pet peeve of mine, I don't like photos or dies looking off the page as they were when placed to the left on the original) and skipped the outside sentiment. My inside sentiment is PC-generated and reads, "congratulations on becoming Mr & Mrs."

Thanks for stopping in!

stamps: n/a (sentiment is PC-generated); paper: Neenah's Solar White, SU's Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, and Old Olive card stocks; ink: n/a (PC-generated sentiment); tools: Cuttlebug w Provo Craft's birds and swirls embossing folder, and memory box perched reed bird, and unknown small heart punch

for the love birds

I had the pleasure of a first for me this weekend - attending a wedding at the Pine Knob Mansion in Clarkston MI - for a stamping buddy's daughter. Her colors were dark brown with the bright pink and green at left. I helped with the wedding invites in exchange for a couple pieces of the card stock to use for my card to them! I used my invite in a mini album I gave to the bride for one of her shower gifts (why didn't I take a picture of THAT also, you ask?!).

Anywho, condensed from the Pine Knob Mansion web site comes the following:

Colonel Sidney Dunn Waldon, of Packard Motor Co and Cadillac Motor Co fame, was born in London, England in 1873, and came to the United States in 1893. He purchased 840 acres of land in Clarkston, Michigan in 1927 and hired H. A. O'Dell to design a home for him. The result was a 19 room English Manor residence located atop the highest point in Southeastern Michigan (elevation 1221 feet).

One of the most impressive rooms of the Mansion is the "Great Hall" with it's gracefully arched ceilings, and acoustically perfect design. It's East and West walls are comprised of ceiling to the floor arched windows offering magnificent views of the sunrise and sunset. The Colonel's library, which is still the library today, is located just off the main entrance. He imported materials from all over the world and employed European craftsman to complete much of the work. For example, the oak screen, wood paneling and stone fireplaces took almost three years to carve. These artisans also crafted the stained glass windows and arched ceilings.

Colonel Waldon passed away on January 20, 1945 at the age of 72. Today the mansion is available for corporate or private events, and Sunday brunches. Sounds like a nice "gals day out" outing for my sister, Mom, and me! I'd love to take a tour of the place!

Some pics of the mansion and grounds follow:


Back to the card deets!
stamps: Hero Arts Woodgrain Pattern, SU's Congrats; paper: unknown bright pink and green, SU's Kraft Crumb Cake, Staples' white card stocks; ink: SU's Kraft Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Soft Suede; tools: Cuttlebug w QuicKutz's bird, love birds dies (used bird on card, love birds on envelope)

showering you with wishes today

a bridal shower card for a friend's daughter ... I scanned the photo album I picked up at a local art fair and used that for the 1-1/8" punches on the card's front. her colors are the bright pink, bright green, and brown. I used this past week's SCS Clean and Simple Cards CAS123 sketch challenge for the card's layout.

the inside reads:
wishing you
a wedding filled with romance,
a marriage filled with love,
and a lifetime filled with happiness.

thanx to blue mountain cards for the inside sentiment!

stamps: n/a; paper: American Crafts' textured white, SU's vellum card stocks; ink: PC-generated - dark brown for sentiments, scanned photo album for squares, SU's green galore

it's THAT time of year!

My DH and I wed in July, but according to the kind folkes at yahoo, the most popular months for weddings are May - August. All totally unscientific, but it is what it is. My boss asked me to create a wedding card for her niece who's getting married this coming weekend. I knew that I wanted to use chrysanthemums in their wedding colors, but I don't have a stamp for that, so I snitched the actual flowers from their invite web pages. This is the 2nd wedding I've been involved in that had a web presence. The other one used Facebook to set up an event and issued invites from it for a wedding shower.

The text was PC-generated but is from a stamp set that I own ... and the inside sentiment was of excerpts lifted from an inspirational piece originally titled Heaven in 2011 by Harold W. Becker, president and founder of The Love Foundation. Harold regularly used "Love, light and peace" as part of his signature text, and that was the wedding's theme.

stamps: SU's Congrats; paper: SU's Whisper White plain and textured card stock; ink: PC-generated and SU's Soft Suede; accessories: Diamond Stickles (could you spot it on the flowers?), unknown Tonic butterfly punch

love is just a word ...

I love this Unity stamp, but hadn't planned on using it for a wedding shower 'til I went in search of another stamp and happened upon it. Tho' it's not in the colors I'd intended to use for their shower, it goes with the present I got them! I used the whole 9' of ribbon in tying knots around the gift and the tiny amount on this card ... which goes great w SU's Bermuda Bay, don't you agree?!

It's funny-strange ... I used to look at colors and sometimes know exactly the color DMC floss family it was ... still can with some of my favs. And when I was in the store a couple weeks ago and spotted the items I picked up as a gift, I just knew it would go great w the SU Bermuda Bay color!

So ... I'll have to use their wedding colors in my eventual wedding card! Sigh ... how is it that I hadn't established a "wedding" label category for my cards yet?! Later today I'll have to peruse the lot and label others!

stamps: Unity's love & meaning; A Stamp in the Hand's Best Wishes (inside sentiment); paper: SU's Bermuda Bay, Staples' white card stocks; ink: SU's Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Soft Suede; accessories: Offray's dippy dots 3/8" ribbon

white on white

Sigh ... I love white on white, and ivory on ivory, and ... well, you get the drift. This is slightly altered from today's make-'n-take from the lovely and talented Karen of Karen's Creative Stamping in Burton MI. We (me 'n my stamping buds, Pat and Kim) took a baby flip book class (more on that later) Friday evening, and I called ahead to see if we might be able to also do our Saturday morning make-'n-take. Karen had offered that option to us the LAST time we took a Friday evening class.

Anywho, I'm a fan of the CAS lines. This card was meant to have a rectangle-cut piece of DP in the center of the card front, but I chose to eliminate that step, and trimmed my cake on platter image to be a bit more rectangle-y. I love that we used a clear stickles in the impressions of the popped up image, too. Sweet in more ways than one, eh?!

low on deets today - I'm lovin' this cake image and methinks I MAY have that one in my stash of Cuttlebug embossing folders, tho' ... yep, just back from a quick search and I DO - it's Cuttlebug's Wedding Marriage set of 4 folders (hey, this is the first time that I've noticed that they had a typo in their packaging ... they called that set their "Wedding Mariage" set (w one "r")!). Otherwise, deets include unknown white card stock, unknown embossing folder, unknown ribbon, and unknown stickles

IF you're curious, the other 3 plates to that embossing folder set include a cute wedding couple, a pair of champagne glasses, and wedding bells. I'll be bringing 'em in to work so that I can have show-'n-tell w Danielle, Kim's daughter, so that she can see whether she'd like to borrow any of them when she starts working on her wedding invites. You can see a sample of 'em here.

Thanx for stopping by!

wedding day approaches

Do you recall the "welcome to the family" card I made for a work buddy back on the 2nd (here)? I made a coordinating Wedding Day card for Jeanette this past weekend. I lifted portions of their announcement card and edited it in Photoshop to remove some banners and fill in the tree with more leaves, printed that for the inside, then printed the verse on vellum to lay over the trees.

I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the front and a piece of the background print used in the announcement card and fashioned a gate-opening card for the front. This is one of my favorite PC fonts - it's Lucida Handwriting, in case you're interested, but I don't recall where I got it now. I'm a fontaholic and am always on the lookout for them!

stamps: no stamps were used in the making of this card!; paper: Colormates' Light Spring Green, SU's Vellum, Shimmery White, Whisper White cardstocks; ink: PC-generated; accessories: Cuttlebug and Wedding/Marriage embossing folder

welcome to the family

I made this card for a gal at work to give to her future daughter-in-law to welcome her into their family. It's an acrylic card similar to the one here and uses the poem below as the inside sentiment. I used PhotoShop to crop and remove the background from the quails used on the front of the original card, and the leaves background from another portion of their card to use on "our" version - so it's 4 layers: front is matted quails, inside front is custom DP, inside sentiment is printed on vellum cardstock, and back is green cardstock. I scanned the card at work as I forgot to take a picture before bringing it in to Jeanette. I LIKE creating custom DP - cool beans, eh?!
Jeanette made a mini bridal dress from a special hankie and is giving that to Alison with this card. Do you recall earlier hankie poems for baby cards I've made (one example's here)? Same gal - this is one crafty mama! - provided that poem and taught my boss Susan how to make the baby bonnets from hankies (Susan made that example one for me this past summer). Today we discussed ideas for a wedding card using the quails in the trees as a watermark ... but I've gotta pick up more supplies AND find some nice wedding card sentiments! It may be this weekend's project ... so more to follow ...

My New Daughter

As your wedding day approaches
these thoughts have come to mind,
my son has found the sweetest bride
that he could ever find.

I'm so glad that he has found you,
for you fit just like a key
into our special locket
that we call family.

Hold this hanky as a keepsake
that's from my heart to yours,
and with it are my blessings
as you open your life's doors.

Years from now in times to come
you'll pass this hanky on...
to a loved and cherished daughter
or the bride of your grown son...

Now you join our family,
and I joyfully extend
my open arms of friendship
to my new daughter and my friend.

Welcome to our family; we love you!

stamps: n/a; paper: custom DP, recycled acrylic report cover, ColorMates Light Spring Green, SU Whisper White cardstocks; ink: PC-generated; accessories: eyelets from a past share

an SC199 wedding

I made this card for a gal I know at work to use for an upcoming wedding she's attending. It's based on SCS's SC199 sketch challenge using its intended recipients' wedding colors and flower (navy and silver, and white roses). I found the flower image on the Internet and printed it on vellum cardstock, then triple matted it on silver rouche (BEAUTIFUL stuff!), then brilliant silver and navy cardstocks, and used dimensionals to pop it and the ribboned piece up a bit. I printed their special song to be used at their wedding ceremony in a dark navy ink as the inside sentiment. Here's wishing the them love, laughter, and happy ever after!

stamps: studio g's flourish; paper: WorldWin's silver rouche, Prism's navy speckled and unknown silver mirror cardstocks, and SU's vellum cardstocks; ink: CTMH's Outdoor Denim; accessories: CTMH's Outdoor Denim organza ribbon, Masterpiece Studio's glitter brads

to Dan & Susan

Warmest wishes to Dan and Susan, who're getting married next weekend. My boss asked me to make a card using hydrangeas in the palest of greens, and the palest of pinks as an accent color - colors they'll use at their wedding. The inside sentiment is a snippet of the wedding song, Someone to Watch Over Me, in the form of a pull-out card.

I printed the hydrangea image twice - on vellum and again on a mottled light green cardstock, then cut the flowers from the green cardstock. I colored the back of the vellum cardstock using green watercolor markers, then mounted the green mottled flowers to the back of the vellum and triple-matted it on Shimmery White, Medium Fairy Tale Pink (so appropriate a color name, don't you think?! wink!), and some beautifully textured dark green Ruche cardstock. I scored both the outside and inside ivory cardstock to match. Thinking it still needed something, I added some mini pearls and added a touch of SU stampin' glitter to the largest flowers. Hope they like it!

stamps: n/a; paper: Colormates' Medium Fairy Tale Pink, Prism? unknown mottled green, SU Shimmery White and Vellum, Ruche unknown dark green textured cardstocks; ink: Tri-C watercolor markers; accessories: Mike's stick-on pearls and SU Stampin' Glitter