Birthday card featuring a fun cupcake with a star and some ribbon flags

A fun card for one of my grandaughter's birthday which is coming up soon!!!  I started with a large envelope and created an off white card to fit inside.  I cut the piece of polka dot red paper for my background and decided to embellish it.  With a black Sharpie I added some hand drawn circles and three dots in all the large circles and put a single dot in the each small circle.  Next, I coloured all the circles in with yellow.  Finally, I used the open end of a nerf bullet to stamp red circles in between all the other ones.  The result adds some pizzazz!! I adhered it to my card front.  I laser printed the cute little cupcake (Melonheadz) after adding the birthday greeting, trimmed it to size and then watercoloured it using shimmery paint on the icing and a clear glitter gel pen on the dots and the swirl at the top.  I ran my tracing wheel on three edges and just below the greeting on the bottom.  I punched the bottom with a scallop punch (SU) and then added four shimmery embellishments in the four full scallops.  I layered it with red cardstock and added seven little red checkered ribbon flags on the right hand side.  To finish off my card I used 3D foam tape to adhere this focal element to my card front.  I like how the star echos the little yellow circles in my decorative paper.          Therese

Slow Stitching - my first house is finished

I have finished slow stitching my first house in my new Slow Stitching project!!  I have changed my daily routine in order to add a daily walk outside so slow stitching has moved to the evening but I don't always get to it so this project may take a little longer than I expected but it is summer time and there are other tasks that will need to be a priority.  No problem, this is a relaxing activity and I will do it as often as I can. 

I pinned the house body - a 5" square - and then added the windows and the door which I cut from scraps.  I used a 7" hoop to stabilize the area and then started stitching.  I did the perimeter of the house body with three rows of running stitch using a light yellow floss.  I stitched the windows in place using running stitch and dark brown floss.  I went around twice filling in the spaces on my first row on my second go around.  I like how that works!!  I added some bright yellow running stitches on the corners of all the panes to create a highlight.  I stitched the door using purple floss and then added a half round window and a door handle in light yellow floss.  I removed the hoop, pinned the roof in place and then flipped the top edge and put the chimney in place and stitching it down with several rows of running stitch in dark brown.  I replaced the roof and stitched it into place using dark maroon floss using three rows of running stitch all the way around.  I added some small black stab stitches in each little black line in the roof to give it a bit of texture.  Pretty happy with how it worked out!!  I am hoping to give all my little houses their own unique look so we shall see what the next one will look like.  I will consider adding foliage and flowers in between and possibly in front of the houses once they are all stitched in place.  We shall see!!          Therese

An all occasion card featuring TH wild flower die cut in purple, a strip of serendipity and a layer textured with my tracing wheel

For Mother's Day I created this card for my youngest daughter.  I features a TH wildflowere die cut in dark purple which I layered onto a strip of coordinating serendipity paper which I punched on the bottom using a label punch (SU).  I inserted it from the back so I only punched the edge.  I like the look!!  I added a gray ribbon to finish it off.  I chose a pink layer and tore the bottom edge then ran my tracing wheel all over it to add some texture.  I mounted my serendipity focal element  to it using double sided tape.  Next, I cut a light purple card to fit in a smaller non standard envelope and mounted my large element to it using double sided tape.  After mounting it I decided to add a row of piercings on both sides using my tracing wheel which frames it nicely.    Therese

CAS Thankyou card featuring decorative paper, a font greeting and some tracing wheel texture

Another CAS card that I created with inspiration from some online that left less blank space.  I have trouble leaving a lot of blank space.  I had the green scraps on my desk from another card I decided to see if I could come up with another card from that stash.  I found these scraps and only hand to trim them to length for this card!!  I adhered them onto a red card which I created to fit in one of my smaller envelopes.  I found the greeting in my stash, added two lines of piercing using my pattern tracing wheel and layered it onto a coordinating piece of green cardstock before adhering it to my card front over the decorative paper.  It still needed a bit of something so I added two little red circle punchies which I adhered with my white glue fine tip applicator.  I have made this sketch before but not very recently.  It was nice to be using designs from the past.    Therese