Card Patterns Sketch meet Hero Arts

This is a mish mash of the current Card Patterns sketch and the about-to-end Dust em off challenge at A Blog Named Hero.

I used my only (!) Hero Arts set - Four Dolls, and actually stamped four images, but only one made it onto the card. This was one of those "zOMG I NEED THIS" sets... which has sat unloved since it arrived, moons ago. I have friends who are currently (well, not this second, but you know) jumping through a squillion hoops in hopes of adopting a child from China. So hopefully this card will come in handy sooner than later. One can hope anyway.

The card is a bit spurkly (My desk and I are COVERED in gold smooch ATM...) and blingy, but i love it, so there :)

Another SOS card!

How's this for girly? :D i know the amount of pink will hurt Leslie's eyes, but isn't she cute? i got the idea from Pinterest (where else, really), and made her up tonight after I cleaned up my cave. My friend out west had a baby girl last week, so this is perfect for them.

This is a true SOS card - everything was from scrap bins (cardstock, DSP, ribbon) and even the base was in the pile already.yay me for using scraps!

Baby Shower -SOS style

I have  been invited to a baby shower for a girl I've met through twitter, and in browsing her baby registry, have determined that her nursery is a "jungle" theme. So using that lil piece of info, plus some inspiration from this card on Pinterest (no, really), I came up with this... 

I love the little jungle-ish animals from SU's Fox & Friend (which I hadn't used in forever & a day).. and the umbrella is from my very fave retired set "Font of You". The parents-to-be have not found out the sex of their child, so I've matted the card & sentiment in both pink pirouette & baja breeze. The umbrella is colored in baja/soft suede/pink, then embossed with the pearly embossing powder I've had for-ever. Animals were colored in kraft/suede on sparkly paper, and cut out. And man, cutting around those little tails was a PITA. but well worth it, bc they're cute. I colored tummies/spots in blue or pink and lightly sponged the embossed white panel with baja for "rain". I mean, it IS a shower card, right? ;) 

SOS 48 is april showers/rain/water related - and hey, this has an umbrella on it, "rain" and the word shower. Plus a set I hadn't inked in forever (I think I"ve said that already, right? well, it's been so long, i mentioned it again)... Hope you like it!

Cute as a button

Another SOS card! yay for stash usage!

I have somewhat cased this card from the lovely Crookedstamper (aka Leslie)... she'd made one similar to this shortly after buying her Cameo machine, and i loved those cutout letters so much I asked her to make me some too.

So anyway... I used my last pink front (of 6! yeesh - that's a lot of baby girls! all 6 blue fronts still sit in their baggie...), and mounted that on some sparkly pink and vanilla DSP from many moons (and catalogs..) ago. Mount all that on a pink base, add a bit of vanilla and pink ribbon from the bin as a "bow" and a little white-ish button, et voilà - cute stashy card number two for the evening.

I'll leave perfect to Hallmark...

I wanted to include a card with a parcel of baby clothes I was sending to a friend, so pulled out the MFT Sketch from this week & knew the perfect set to use - My How You've Grown WTG. (second sketch challenge of the week. wooo! go me!)

here's the sketch:

and here's my card:

I love how this turned out, even though I had to squish the sketch a bit to fit the sentiment. I love the colors/papers esp - the pinks & orange w choc chip are great together. I don't love the ribbon, but if I don't use it, i can't really justify nicer stuff, right? (like THAT has stopped me before...)  And ya, it's a bit (ok, a lot) crooked, but umm... thems are the joys of home made. it's not perfect, it won't be. I'll leave perfect to Hallmark...

SOS challenge #7

A new challenge was posted at SOS yesterday, and I had a few cards to make, so I took to the cave to see if i could incorporate the challenge elements into my cards.

This week's challenge was to "use something you got in a swap, a RAK, won, or a card kit or page kit, etc."  I had used a piece of scrap DSP for part of one card (I was making three at once, almost all the same) and then realized I could make the whole card from papers from the old old old SU Simply Scrappin Kit the scrap had come from. So I did :) I used two colors of textured CS & a few pieces of the DSP from the Creative License kit (2007-08) that I had received as card candy at some point in time. 

I believe the brown cards also qualify, as the card bases & heart papers (and possibly ribbon) came as parts of MFT kits, but not together, and I don't know which kits, so I'm not worried about that :P Blue card definitely fits the bill though :)

more baby cards...

It seems kind of silly to make cards for various holidays for my baby boy (5 months old today!!) but I can't help it. I made a quick one for him for Valentine's day -I felt the "you stole my heart" sentiment was only fitting, no?


I also made him an Easter card using SU's A Good Egg set... I flocked up that little chick, and used the shimmery paper for his egg. and then for some reason, i put ANOTHER egg on the card. Ahhh whatever :P I used my fave blue argyley paper for hte sky, and an egg wrap from last year's Eggcoutrements set for the grass.

WHen you have a baby, people like to give you (the baby) stuff, and I have made at least 40 thank you cards since he's been born. That doesn't even cover the shower cards I made in the fall!! What can I say, we're blessed.
First I made about 30 of these:

 

then I ran out of the brown/blue DSP, so I switched to some of these...

But sometimes you get a gift that warrants a special card all it's own. And that gift came from J's friends in northern NB. They sent us an email shortly after Joel was born, saying that they'd ordered something for us from Chapters, and it was being delivered directly to us. Cool, awesome, you didn't have to, etc. So no problem. We get a parcel card to pick something up at the post office, so we attempt to pick it up on our way home from an appointment one day. Well. They got us (Joel) a wagon. Ever seen a box for a wagon? Ya, huge. Must've taken us 20 minutes to figure out how to fit the three of us, his stroller & the wagon into our vehicle. So I decided I'd make them a card with a wagon on it to thank them for this awesome gift. I used my MFT dies for the grass & clouds, and tried to model my wagon as closely as possible to the real wagon.. the body's a bit high, but eh. A quick "Thank you" on the front, and inside I wrote "for the sweet ride" :)

Last baby card.. is a welcome new baby card I made using the Little Me set by Unity that I posted about yesterday. I love love love this card & set. And it's a true equal-opportunity card. There are products from 4 different companies on it! Unity for the Little Me and Moonbeams & Heartstrings (in background) sets, My Minds Eye DSP, Lawn Fawn for the polaroid stamp (from Say Cheese), and SU Short & Sweet set, Wild Wasabi & Glossy White CS & awesome WW seam binding ribbon. I love love love this card. It was a bit fussy, because the dad is actually looking in the other direction, so I had to make sure to not stamp his eyes, and I kinda cut off one of his arms, but all in all, I love it.

Oh baby!!

There's a lot going on around the Hanwayink household lately, the most major of which is that there's going to be a baby Hanwayink come early in the New Year (EDD Feb 1). This is one of the reasons I haven't posted much lately... my stampy time & budget has been taken over by baby prep.

I have been crafting a bit lately though, never fear. Mostly baby related, but that's just what seems to be going on with oh, EVERYONE these days. or so it seems, at least.

First up, the favors & thank you cards from my baby shower... I have a slight obsession with cows & cow-related stuff, hence the cow paper & milk carton (which I filled with yummy blue jellybeans that matched the tempting turquoise paper). A special shout out to my tweep, depmodegal (aka Stephanie of Dawson Designs) for sourcing the paper for me in OREGON (pretty damn far from NS!), and sending it out.

 Next up are some of the new baby cards I've made for friends over the past few months. The blue & brown card was for friends who had another little boy ... (so many boys around here... including ours!), while the pink & green was originally made for one of J's coworkers, but he ended up not wanting to give them a card (??) so I used it for friends who adopted a baby girl earlier this month. As you can see, I'm LOVING this baby bundle set.. the buggy especially. SO. Damn. Cute! (the poem on the shower TY is also from that set). 

This is the thank you card I made for J's parents, who gave us money to buy the dresser for baby Hanwayink's room. I have to give huge props to Lynn Pratt of Stamp-n-Design for the dresser idea. I modified her dresser to mimic the one that we bought for baby (like this, but in espresso finish). And ya, the baby's bedroom walls are a lovely bright green, so I figured this worked :)

So that's what I've been up to, crafty-wise lately. Thank you cards x 30 (so far - I have at least one more shower to go!), milk carton favors x 20, and a bunch of special babies coming into this world have kept me busy. Apparently there's another major card season coming up of which I haven't even given any thought. Ay Carumba!

eeek! how cute is this?

One of my customers contacted me yesterday asking for a baptism card for a little girl... not too 'Hallmark', etc. This is what I came up with, after a bit of surfin on SCS...

cute, no? The pattern & idea came from Lynn Pratt's blog - you must check it out. She's got a TON of excellent cards there. Thanks Lynn!

I think I found my mojo!

I made *FIVE* cards last night. FIVE! I think the key was using new sets.  First I made a few cards using a set from a new Stampy company founded by one of the girls I've met through twitter. I won LawnFawn's "Critters in the Burbs" set at hte beginning of the month, and it finally arrived this week (don't get me started on the postal system...). Unfortunately I've had some friends lose beloved pets in the last few weeks, so used it for a not-so-happy reason - pet sympathy cards. Hard cards to make, but this is what I came up with... Love the tree stamp, and the cat & dog are super cute. I used some of the SAB paper for the top of the tree, and sponged a bit of ink in the tree before I put down the paper pierced 'leaves'.  The stamps are clear polymer stamps,a nd they're FABULOUS quality. I really liked how they stamped. way to go, Kelly Marie!!

Then I moved on to make a few baby cards using Fox & Friends ($24.95w/$19.95c in the Occasions Mini). This is a card for a family that just had 2 baby boys... I put the owl there to represent their big brother, and wrote in the "whooo" speech bubble. Inside it says "...are these two cute little monkeys??" tee hee. I slay me.

Then a couple more baby cards, for some babes born earlier this month - a boy & a girl. The cards are essentially the same, I just flipped colors for the base & mat depending on boy or girl. I'm really happy with how they turned out. I cannot believe that I have had this stamp set for a while now and finally inked it up last night. My bad for sure. Many more plans to use this set in the future.

I still have a long list of cards to make, hopefully I'll get to finish off another 'chunk' of cards tomorrow.

Recent pics...

I've been kinda slack in the blog department lately, and I apologize. I've been sick, and there's some other stuff going on right now I can't really get into on here. Nothing bad, just time consuming :) I have found a bit of time to stamp though, here and there.

First I had to finish off some swaps that I had outstanding... and I can't show most of them due to SU rules :( But I can show you this lovely I made last night for a swap, using a favorite stamp set that recently retired - Font of You. Poor thing debuted in teh Spring 2009 SU IB&C, and went dormant in the 2009-10 one, retired Jan 4/10. BOOO. Hopefully that means there's a new fonty set coming out in the 2010-11 catty. A girl can dream, right?
Then there were a number of cards that the receptionist at my acupuncture clinic ordered. Most were CASEs of previous cards, but she requested one I had sold the stamp set for (duh duh duh) so I had to come up with something along the same lines... and I LOVE what I ended up with. Enter, Sock Monkey & his twin brother & sister :)

Let's see, what else have I made lately?? hmm... I posted the PTI celebration cards I made... oh yes, my February workshop items! There was this Valentine's treat cup slider (based on Heather's card) that almost gave me a coronary because my stupid Heart punch doesn't want to always work properly (which, combined with PMS was naaaaaaaasty. My poor hubby....) and a cute SAB-inspired birthday card. Love using 'free-to-me' items!

I had promised to contribute something crafty to the Easter raffle basket at work, and so decided to CASE Kerin Sylvester's great card using the Eggcoutrements set from the current Mini... Such a cute set. And there's a Chick stamp! Yay!  Isn't the card  cute?? I ended up making a pack of 6 of them, and putting them & envelopes in a cello bag tied with some leftover ribbon from last year's SAB. They looked pretty cute & were a huge hit at work...

This Kraft one on the left was for a downline member of mine who had to have surgery last week... I love the white embossing for a change, and the little bouquet I put on the inside & watercolored with my blender pen. Love that look...

The bluey card uses the kaliedoscope DSP and Bermuda Bay CS & ribbon - LOVE the combo. That DSP just in general (Kaleidoscope by SU) is my current favorite. Love the bright colors. Buy some. it's awesome. Trust me :D

The last card is for a friend who just found out she's expecting her 2nd lil one.. I needed a quick card,but liked how it came together. Gotta love the Top Note die...

SHOP SU 24/7!!

MDS Project!

My fabulous upline, Heather, teaches a great line of "Simply..." classes. Right now, we're almost 1/2 way through her Simply My Digital Studio course. And I made a card! And it's super cute (IMO)!

What do you think??

I know the letters on the inside aren't quite lined up, but hey, each letter is a 'stamp', so i think I did ok.  I guess this is why they make the stamp-a-ma-jig (which I'm not overly adept at using, either...)

Clippo cards!

My friend Alexandria owns Clippopotamus - a great children's accessory line out of Pickering, ON. Back in the fall, she'd asked me to make some cards for her clippos, to sell at the Children's Trunk Sale, and I willingly obliged.

When I got the new Something Sweet set (which coordinates with the Sweet Treat cups!) I got to thinking.... 'I wonder if these will fit a clippo...' so I spoke to Alexandria, made up some prototypes, and she sent me some Clippos to try. And... partial success!

Here is a pic of a set o Tiny Ones clippos inside the treat cup portion of a baby card..

(next time I'll stamp the sentiment in brown...)

Isn't it cute?? Love that rattle, and the awesome possum sparkly brown paper too. (Sending Love Specialty Designer Paper - also in the Occasions Mini)

For Alexandria's reference, here are the Tiny Ones & Little Ones clips in the cup... Love the Tiny Ones in there - too bad the Little Ones won't work too...

more pictures...

I have been trying to get back to crafting, in anticipation of the new catalog dropping on July 1. Plus, people seem to be having babies left, right & centre, and as summer is (apparently) upon us, so are weddings & showers & get togethers.

This first card was made for a set of (girl & boy) twins that an ex-coworker gave birth to earlier this month. I love the rock & roll technique, but got a bit carried away with the sponging. oops? I used the two little ladybugs from the same set as the butterfly (Garden Whimsy) on the inside - in pink & blue, of course!

And then, I liked that card so much, I kinda case'd it myself, for my parents anniversary card. I switched it up a bit, but same idea. Nixed the sponging though, hah.

I had to make a card for my coworker who's getting married this coming weekend, so broke out my Black Tie Birdies (by Verve). I incorporated her wedding colors (cream, black & yellow), and really like how it turned out. I used SU's black and iridescent ice embossing power on the birdies, and colored the balloons & bowties with SU markers - blush, apricot & saffron.

One last card for tonight's post - this one for a friend's wedding shower that is coming up next month. I used the large SU Circle Die for the Big Shot, and a pattern from the wonderfully talented Patty Bennett. I used the wedding colors for the card, and really love how the dress turned out. I'm not 100% sold on the sentiment though. Thoughts on how to fix that?

Recent pics..

QUICK REMINDER - I'm offering NO SHIPPING OR TAXES on all orders before June 28. See the post below for details!!
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Contrary to popular belief, I have been spending some time in the cave lately, just not as much as I should... First, because it's Father's Day, here's a card I made for both of our dads. I love the simplicity of the card, and to be able to properly mount the sentiment, I just cut the other words from around the D.

I used some Jolee's stickers to make this ocean-ish card. The inside makes me giggle though. *waves* "Greetings from Nova Scotia" TEE HEE. Waves *waves* get it? :P I sent this to a friend who'd recently come for a visit, and asked me to 'send some ocean' to her in landlocked Saskie. I figured this was easier than bottling ocean...

I've had a number of friends give birth in the last month, so I've been on a baby-card making kick. here are a couple with the 'cute & cuddly' stamp set. I love the flocking on the lamb - so cute :)






And here's one using the NEW SU set Animal Tales. I love this Giraffe, and used the rock & roll technique to ink the stamp. Saffron, Pumpkin Pie & Chocolate Chip... I should've used the new In Colors to go with the new stamp, but ah well. there'll be lots of time to do that. The sentiment also uses a new set - Teeny Tiny Wishes. 24 sentiments! yay for sentiments!!