Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day everyone! Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad!  Wish my dad lived closer, but we talk everyday and I'm wishing him a wonderful day. 

Just wanted to post a quick and easy card for Father's Day.

Wanted to show you a close up of the saying.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a great day with your dad!
              ~Anna

Cards from the "To Distress or Not" Class

First I would like to thank everyone who came to the class and helped make it such a success!  We created, caught up with news and laughed all afternoon.  What more could we have asked for?  Too bad that Korkie and Jan weren't feeling well and did not make the trip up.  We missed you both!   I also have to say that I missed Jan's cute British accent.  Hope you are feeling better and looking forward to see you soon!

I also want to thank Barbara for teaching and bringing the vintage and distress look to us again.  You really made everyone think outside the box!

Here are the cards we made:

These are the 3 cards with the distressed look.

And these are the non-distressed cards (I guess we can call  them the clean cards).

Next, are pictures of the cards side by side.  We basically used the same design layout and the same supplies, and came up with two different looks!  It was just amazing!

Hope these samples get your creative juices flowing!

Thanks for stopping by!
         ~Anna

Make a Wish with Glittery Candles

Els. owner of Elizabeth Crafts has designed and released her new dies and I just got them in.  They are so much fun and here is a card I made for Maria's birthday.

The bow is actually from the "presents" die set, which is a set of different presents, similar to the candles.  This way you can make all different color boxes and layer them on the solid present, or in this case, a solid candle.

And using the glitter really makes this card sparkle!

Thanks for "stamping" by,
            ~Anna

A Sympathy Card

Impression Obsession has a very nice saying stamp for sympathy cards and I used that stamp as the starting point for my card that I recently had to make for a fellow parishioner who lost her young husband. 

I made a frame with the Spellbinders Labels Two and stamped the saying inside of it.  I layered it on card stock that I embossed with the new embossing folder from Crafts-Too and then decorated around the frame with flowers and leaves.  The last touch was the Cheery Lynn butterfly and of course a bit of stickles strategically placed.  Oh yes, I also used Viva Decor pearl pens to make pearls for the centers of the flowers and the body of the butterfly.

You may be surprised that this is a sympathy card, but not all sympathy cards have to be of a dark color palette.  Dark colors sometimes make the card look a bit too sad and most of the time I try to stay away from them.  Hope this gives you some inspiration for these sometimes difficult cards to make.

Thanks for stopping by,
            and
Have a wonderful day
         ~Anna

New "Anja" Card Stand

I got the new Anja card stand die in and went straight to my Big Shot to try it out.  It is so pretty with the lattice work and then I layered it onto the "Angel Wing".  I really like this Anja die for all the detail.  Cheery Lynn has a card stand die, but it is very plain; just a solid background.  In addition, in order to use the Cheery Lynn die, you must first fold your card stock in half and then place the die on it and run it through your machine.  The Marianne Anja card stand is a set of two FULL dies.

To me they looked at bit small but I was VERY pleasantly surprised that they held all size cards!!!

As you can see, they help make a beautiful display of your cards!  These card stands are especially wonderful for "round" cards, as they are unable to stand on their own.

You can see that this card stand holds up different size round cards very well.  Also you can visualize the size of the card stand by seeing it next to the square, 6X6 card.

Lastly, here is a picture of the stand holding the large, 6X6 card!

These stands fit perfectly in the envelope with the card.  This is a fabulous way of sending a stand with the card, especially with those special cards that you know the recipient would love to display;  ie, Wedding and Anniversary cards, special birthday cards, odd shaped cards that can not stand on their own, etc!  And don't forget, you can customize it and coordinate the stand colors to the card!

Let me know if you would like to get this die and I can set it aside for you.

Thanks so much for stopping by
               and
Looking forward to seeing you!
            ~Anna

A Pair of His and Her Cards

I have been wanting to use this pretty Hero Arts/Sizzix medallion embossing folder.  Last week I dreamt of elements of this card; probably because I was on Pinterest late at night.  When I woke up, I knew that I wanted to use my Cheery Lynn butterfly die and sand the Hero Arts card stock.  (This card stock has a white core and when you sand it, the white comes through.)

I then challenged myself.  I wanted to use the same embossing folder and card stock and create a masculine version of this card.

Butterflies and cursive font tend to be more feminine, so I used the Hero Arts Alphabet die set and cut out the word "happy".  I then found a bold font for birthday (a Hero Arts stamp) and stamped and embossed it in white.  I used a Nellie Snellen set of star dies and attached it to the card.

                                                  Here are the two cards side by side. 

Now, this brings me to another class - His and Her Cards!  You will create 3 sets of cards, one female version and male version, using either the same supplies, or same sketch, etc.  This will be a fun class with lots of tips for you to stretch your supplies and think outside the box.  We always have a harder time creating a card for our male friends and this class will get you out of that rut!  Join us on Thurs, May 30 at 1PM or on Saturday, June 22 at 11AM.  Call and pre-register for the class and save $3.

Looking forward to seeing you in class!
                        ~Anna

A Fun Birthday Card

Now, when I saw this Impression Obsession stamp, chicken in overalls, I thought, OK, it's cute but what can you make with it?  Well, don't worry, Soni Larson knew what to make!

She created a fun birthday card for Cecilia Prange!  Isn't it just fabulous!  Great coloring with Copics and the layout and colors of the background papers are just perfect.  The window is framed nicely and the sayings are all FUN! (They were computer generated.)  Thanks Soni for this wonderful idea!

 Who would have thought.  And the ladies who saw it on Saturday, all now want this stamp! LOL!

This is the inside of the card:

And it's all in good fun!

Hope this puts a smile on your face today!

            ~Anna