Large Anniversary Card

Today I wanted to share an anniversary card I made for my son and his wife:

(click on photo to view larger image)

This is a larger card. I used a full 8-1/2 x 11 sheet folded in half, making the finished size 8.5" x 5.5". I used one of my favorite engagement photos of them and printed it out in Sepia. 

I made the card with CTMH cardstock in Colonial White, with the photo mat in Creme Brulee, along with Desert Sand ink.  Using a sponge, I distressed the edges and the raised embossed area with the ink before attaching it to the card base. The embossed panel is slightly raised with dimensional tape.

The lace-edged burlap is from a shop on Etsy. I just absolutely love it! 
(I also used a wider version of it on the Guest Book album I made for our daughter's wedding. You can see the album here, in case you missed it)

Finishing touches: a metal heart I've had for so long, I don't remember where I got it! Little punched hearts, embossed & inked, and 21 pearls from CTMH (Mocha Opaques)!

I hope you like the card and thanks for coming to my blog today! :)

Wedding Sparkler Labels

Just a quick post today.... 

At the wedding send-off, they've decided to use sparklers instead of rice, birdseed, confetti, etc.

I made these labels in MS Word.... 10 to a page.

I took the photo (sorry for my shadow) before I cut them apart. I also cut slits just above and below the words, for 2 sparklers to fit through each label..... like a ribbon slide.

I can't show them with the sparklers, as the sparklers had to be shipped by ground straight to DD from the manufacturer. I had to include these labels in one of 4 boxes I had to ship out to her with all the projects I've made for the wedding! 

I'll be sharing more projects soon.

Thanks for dropping in :)

Housewarming Card

My daughter and her fiance just bought their first home together for their blended family.... along with the 25 acre farm it's attached to, LOL!

So I made this beautiful window card for the occasion. It's my first window card, and I really like how it turned out. 

I made it 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" and popped up the window to create a little depth between the window, with its curtain valance, and the "wallpapered wall" 
of CTMH Bella stripes in the "room".
Here's a shot of the inside:

Writing is done in MS Word.... fonts used were 2 Peas High Tide and Leaf1. Of course the bird and 3-leaf are diecuts and the stripe I cut from the same Bella paper I used for the wallpaper on the front.

I also included some photo address labels and picture magnets as a small gift in their padded packet for mailing.... (small gift now because we already bought them a new bedroom set for their wedding!)

I used this photo of them all for the address labels, which say "Life is Beautiful" up in the sky area, with their name and address in the reflection on the water-covered beach. 

(photo credit: Mary Pam Sizemore)

I think she'll love them, as this was one of her favorite photos. I ordered them from Shutterfly, as well as the magnets, and they all turned out beautifully.

One magnet is a collage of some of their engagement photos:

(photo credit: Mary Pam Sizemore)

They have 3 girls between them, so one magnet is of them. I just love this photo and had one made for me, too!:

(photo credit: Mary Pam Sizemore)

(Just on a side note... our daughter stands 6'3" tall barefoot! And that toddler in the middle is hers. She's not even 2 years old yet in this photo, and her 2 new older sisters standing with her are 8 and almost 10 years old... but their mom is short, so it's understandable! But she'll outgrow them before long, LOL)


The final magnets are each 2x2.... the hearts and black lines are not really part of these break-away magnets. I just covered up ordering info that's printed in the middle and used the hearts to cover the girls names I had printed on them.

(photo credit: Mary Pam Sizemore)

They are all such cutie-pies!

Well thanks for stopping by for a few minutes to see my card. Have a great day! :)




CTMH products used:
Cardstock - Colonial White, Smokey Plum, Amethyst, Cocoa, Desert Sand,                       and Creme Brulee, Buttercup, Olive
Patterned Paper - Bella
Ink - Desert Sand 

Wedding Easel

We needed a sign of some sort, for the instructions on how to use the little message cards for the Guest Book. I had thought about typing up the instructions and putting them in a pretty frame on the table beside the book, but decided it needed to be double-sided since the table will not be up against a wall. 

This is what we came up with:

Sorry the photo is blurry.... (note to self: do not try to take photos when hands are shaky, lol!).... Anyway, I took the photo in a mirror to try to show the back easel. It is lower because it sits on the easel frame, but I think it will do the job.

While the Guest Book table might end up under a tree somewhere, it will be able to be accessed from both sides. With the 4 decorated navy gel pens available to use, more than one person could be sharing their well wishes or advice at one time.

So I thought a double-sided easel with chalkboards would fill the bill.... and my hubby found this wooden table-top easel at Walmart. It was unfinished, so he painted it white to match the Guest Book Box holding the mini-cards, pens, and envelope seals. He also found 2 small chalkboards and painted those frames as well.

Here's a little clearer view that's also closer up:

I decorated each easel with a simple corner floral and bow accent. Again I painted the originally white roses from I Am Roses with Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays. I blended a few colors to get the right color of mint. 

Here's a close up of the flowers after I painted them. They are not put into the corner arrangement yet, but I wanted you to see how they sparkle... I just love Lindy's Starbust sprays!

(click on the photos to see larger)

The only thing is that I took this photo with my cell phone and the bigger blue rose turned out more like a royal blue on my monitor instead of the NAVY color it really is.... so frustrating! I wonder if I'll ever get this color thing figured out since I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Oh well, such is life! :)

I will use a chalk marker to write on the chalkboards so the instructions can't be just rubbed off like regular chalk. 

I hope you like this, as much love is going into all these projects for our only daughter. And I love that I can share them here and maybe inspire some creativity in others.

Thanks for stopping by again today. 

Wedding Guest Book

Our daughter is getting married in October. It will be an outdoor country-chic wedding at her in-laws farm in Ohio. I've made her several items for her wedding and the first one I'd like to share is the Guest Book.

I made this guest book with a 12x12 strap-bound scrapbook album. Her wedding colors are navy, a true mint blue, and white. I found a navy fabric album and decorated it, as well as the inside pages.

I don't know why it looks black in this photo (at least on my monitor), but it's definitely navy in color.

I custom painted white flowers from I Am Roses with Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays (my favorite way to color flowers!) and I made my own 
2-tone small carnations. Then I built the arrangement on a piece of cardstock as a base. Here's a close-up:

The bling letters I purchased from ?? and they are self-adhesive stick-ons. 
I was surprised at how well they stuck to the fabric, even to the burlap! Thought I might have had to add fabric glue to have them stay put, but so far, so good!

The pretty burlap lace ribbon I purchased on Etsy... love it! It wraps around the entire front cover and is removable. I made it that way for shipping purposes... if I decide to attach the flower arrangement to the burlap before shipping, I can remove the strip to better protect the flowers from getting squashed!

Now for the inside....

The writing was done in MS Word in different fonts. It is double matted on mint and navy. I stamped a pretty flourishy corner vine in Mint Julep mid-tone ink, both from Hero Arts. 

The next four pages are just for the guest signatures. I used a gel pen in Navy to draw each and every line! I also scored a separating line between the 2 columns and stamped the same leafy vine in the corners.... used a finger dauber to put both colors of Navy and Mint Julep inks on to the stamp.

The rest of the pages look like this:

My daughter wanted something a little more than just the traditional signature book, so I painstakingly scored and inked and stamped all these 6x6 squares (4 per page), as well as the envelope flaps.... pages upon pages, LOL! ... Let me tell you, that with arthritis in my hands, this endeavor took me awhile to finish. I could only do 3 single pages per day. My hands were happy when I was finally done!

The guests will be able to fill out a small card with a greeting, marriage advice, well wishes, or whatever they want, then put the card in an individual envelope and seal it shut with a silver double hearts envelope seal. 

These are the little cards I inked and stamped in various ways:

The last page in the book I just made a pretty medallion image with the same stamp because I didn't want the book to just end with an envelope page and I didn't want to leave it blank either. I think it turned out fairly well.

My hubby built me a custom-sized box to accompany the Guest Book. It holds the little cards, the envelope seals, and the decorated navy gel pens for signing. It even has it's own little 'trash' bucket for the backing paper off the seals!

Well I'm finally done! I guess I should have warned you about a photo heavy post :)

Thanks for stopping by!