Cool Mixed Media Guy Card

Hi Friends, Today I'm sharing a really cool , mixed media guy card that I created for my grandsons birthday.  I used Ciao Bella's "Collateral Rust" paper collection which has this super cool image of an vintage Indian motorcycle in it.  I was also able to decorate the inside.  Let's have a peek: 

 Well that's it for me today.  Tahnks for dropping by and having a look!  Enjoy your day! ~ Dawna 

Easel Brithday Card

Today I'm sharing an easel birthday card I created for my fried Yvonne.  Easel cards are fun and easy to make and they display so pretty all by themselves!  Here's a few close ups and a bit of information on how to create your own:

An easel is created using two different lengths of cardstock.  Make your front any size you'd like, then make the bottom the same width, but make it at least 2" inches longer than your front.  Score the longer piece at the bottom at 1/2" and again at 2"  Fold your scored lines like an accordion.  Attach the 1/2" area about 1 1/2" up from the bottom of the backside of your card.  Fold the second score line towards the front of your card creating a base.  You'll need to add a stop on the bottom of the card so the front will stand up by itself.  

Thick lace works perfectly as a stop for the top of the card. You can also use buttons, brads, punched cardstock, just about anything that will create a 'lip' to hold the card upright.  

I covered the top, bottom and the unseen areas with green cardstock.  I fussy cut a few flowers, painted them with Glossy Accents and finished the centers with Butter colored Micro Beads from Prima.  I layered a die cut background over contrasting cardstock, and popped up the flowers for extra dimension.  Lastly, I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, added a few die cut Prima leaves, added sprigs of curled Prima wire and finished it with a punched butterfly.  

The decorating possibilities are endless with this style card so I hope you get creative and make one of your own!  Thank you so much for dropping by and I wish you a joyous day!  ~ Dawna

Happy Brithday Card

Morning Friends,

Sharing a simple birthday card I made for my dear sweet friend Patti.   I used Graphic 45's beautiful Botanical Tea paper collection.  I've made a few projects from this collection and just love working with these feminine images and beautiful soft colors.   

To create this card, measure and cut your pink polka dot paper to fit your card base then distress and chalk the edges.  I used A7 or 5x7 card base.  Cut the 3"x5" wild rose card and distress it.  Then cut two small blue butterflies and one 4" doily in half.  Add one small pearl to the your butterflies.  Even though your pearls already have an adhesive backing, always add glue to them otherwise they maybe easily knocked off especially if they are mailed.  Next cut the "Hello Friend" sentiment from the boarder paper and gather up 6 baby blue pearls (2 ea of 3 graduating sizes).  If you don't have this color, you can use a Sharpie or Copics marker to color white pearls any color you'd like. 

To assemble the front, adhere your distressed pink polka dot paper first, then dry fit your doily halves under the wild rose card so the cut edges don't show.  Once your happy with its position, mark their places and glue down your doily halves.  Center and adhere your wild rose card using 3D pop-up foam tape.  Now your ready to add your flower cluster. 

 

Here's are a few close ups to see some of the smaller details:

Flower Cluster Close Up

To create the flower cluster, use Prima wired thread and wrap it several times around a slender ink pen to create these great green flower curlycues.   Make three of them about and 1.25" long.  Then you'll need one piece of Prima's lovely floral lace.   Cut the 5 pointed flower in half creating a 3 piece section and a 2 piece section.  Use these as the foundation for your flower cluster.  Tuck them under the top and bottom of the pink Petaloo Botanica flower just so the lace tips peek out.  Add glue to the wire and tuck your curlycue sprigs under the flower along with a few die cut leaves.  Do not glue down your leaf near the "Hello Friend" sentiment until you have it securely in place.  You'll need to add foam tape to the end of the sentiment tag to keep it even with the rose wild card.  Once your sentiment is secure, glue your last leaf just over the beginning of the sentiment.  Finely, add a couple of bumper mini roses to each side of large flower and finish off the cluster by adhering your butterfly and pearl.   Finely, add your second butterfly and both lines of your graduating baby blue pearls as shown in the picture above.  

Now you can move along to the inside of your card.  Your welcome to leave the inside blank so you can use the card for whatever you'd like when the time comes to use it but I like decorating the insides also. They just feel more 'finished' to me. So let's continue with this close-up:

Inside Detail

Here I've done a bit of fussy cutting to get the background papers, these pretty roses, leaves and a blue bird.  I've grounded the flowers with half doilies and added a little punched blue cardstock trim to compliment the bluebird.  Before I adhere anything down, I cut two adjoining bird stamp images and folded them in half.  I adhered one side between the card base and pink polka dot background paper so I could use it as a closure tab to hide the magnet.  If you do it this way, there won't be anything on the backside of your card leaving it nice and clean.  Finely I distressed and chalked the edges,  popped up the roses for a little dimension and finished it off by stamping a sweet "Happy Birthday" sentiment. 

Simple Hidden Magnet Closure

Adding all these layers adds some weight making your card nice and sturdy, much more like a gift all by itself rather than just a card.  As a finishing touch I like to add a nice closure when I can.  These little magnets hide perfectly under the little "birdy stamp" and are the perfect finishing touch to keeping heavy cards neatly closed. 

Well friends, that's it for me today.  Thank you so much for dropping by.  If you enjoyed this little bit of inspiration I'd love to hear from you!  Wishing you all a happy and healthy creative day!   Hugs  ~ Dawna

May Brithday & Friendship Cards

Yvonne's Birthday Card - Front

Hi Friends,

Still catching up with blog post this afternoon, so forgive me if you've already seen these creations.   There were actually three special birthday celebrations in May.   The first two are in our regular Birthday Card Club and those are for  Shana (aka (Dryala) and Yvonne  (aka Euroalien).   The last one is for a my friend Norma (aka Njr007). 

All of these ladies are friends I've made over the past few years at scrapbook.com and I have sincerely enjoyed getting to know them.  Its a real blessing to have such talented ladies in my life, they are all very different but I genuinely appreciate their friendship!  

So lets start off with my sweet Canadian friend, Shana.  She's a young newlywed who lives in Alberta, her and her dear hubby are just starting out and she adores the color purple.    Here's what I created for her special day:

Shana's Birthday Card Front

Shana's Birthday Card Inside

Next up for our Birthday Club is my sweet Swedish friend Yvonne (aka Euroalien).  Although she's Swedish, she lives here in the US with her dear hubby.  Yvonne celebrated her birthday a bit early this month as she's getting ready to fly out  to see her parents in Sweden.  She loves to travel, enjoys china painting, plays in the swaps and likes the color pink (among other colors).  I all most got a chance to met her irl when she came to Ca. last summer.  She wasn't too far from me, but we just couldn't make the stars line up and connect for us.  Awe ... next visit for sure!   Happy Birthday Yvonne and wishing you safe travels dear friend!   Here's the card I made for Yvonne:

Yvonne's Birthday Card - Front

Yvonne's Birthday Card Inside

Yvonne's Card Inside Top and Bottom

Last, but not least is my friend Norma.  This is one of my favorite cards so far this year, its bright happy colors make me smile.   I met Norma in 2011 while playing along in her Cricut Challenges each month.  Then I went on a challenge hiatus when I joined the design team for Scraputante in 2012.  But Norma and I still cross paths regularly and I'm looking forward to returning to her Cricut Challenges in July.  She is a very talented scrapper, has a beautiful family and just settled into a new home in Texas.  Here's the card I made for Norma's special day:

Norma's Birthday Card - Front

Norma's Birthday Card - Inside

Well friends that it for me today.  Hope you found something you enjoyed.  Thank you for dropping by and may I wish you all happy day!  Remember to create something from the heart and live your life inspired!   Hugs ~ Dawna  <3

April Birthday Club

Front of Linny's Tag

Morning Friends,

I'm doing a little  catch-up on my blog today, so please forgive me if you've already seen this creation.  I will explain how I made this lovely tag and provide links to most of the materials, so if you'd like to know about that, feel free to follow along. 

This happy birthday tag is for my sweet friend Linny.  She's the kind of friend that always makes you smile, laugh, cry and everything in between.   But mostly, Linny always has something silly to say that reminds me not take myself or life too seriously.  I  love her for that wonderful quality and I'm so grateful to have her friendship!  

Linny loves romance and the vintage style so when I saw this wonderful image, I knew it would be perfect for her.  Last month I made my first tag (see Martica's Angel Tag) and I thought I would try my hand at it again for Linny.  I love the way the front turned out and here's a peek at the back.  I did a little experimenting with different stitches on my electronic sewing machine and loved how these stitches turned out: 

Back of Linny's Tag

I had a lot of fun creating this tag and kept the steps pretty simple.  To create the base tag, I made a front and back side so I could individually stitch on each side.  I shaped the tops before I started sewing.   I used black cardstock in the middle and trimmed it up so it highlighted the scalloped tag top and gave the tag a nice thin framed look.  The bottom was complimented by adding a green scalloped ribbon at the bottom.  I made sure to glue the scalloped ribbon on the back of one of the tags so when I glued all three layers together it was captured in the middle layers.  I finished off the top with an eyelet and piece of black velvet ribbon.  To embellish the bottom I used black chiffon double ruffled ribbon and ran a rhinestone trim across it to give it a pretty splash of bling!  

Back of Linny's Tag

Front of Linny's Tag

To create the front, I feather stitched around the edges of the vintage image then backed it with pink cardstock.  I finished the edges by distressing them with Prima's chalk edger in black coal.  I slanted the image on the front and anchored the top and bottom corners with a piece of Prima's new medallion lace.  I blackened the lace pieces by spraying them with Prima's color bloom spray, vintage coal misting ink.  Then to anchor the image by creating a flower cluster with a center champagne pink rose, pink Prima botanical flowers, sweetheart blossom,  white rose buds and a few leaves under the flower cluster.  I balanced the top off  by adding a Tim Holtz vintage Parisian metal plate.  And voila, there you have it friends, all done! 

I was very happy with how this simple, yet elegant, tag came out.  I was especially pleased that Linny loved getting it!  Thank you for dropping by and having a peek.  If you have an extra minute to leave a comment, I always appreciate hearing from you.  Have a wonderful day and remember,  when create something from the heart you live life inspired!  Dawna ~ <3