A-MAZING!

Happy Monday all! I just wanted to pop in and tell you a little bit about this A-MAZING book I own! Its titled- Paperie for Inspired Living by Karen Bartolomei.

This book is beautiful, wonderful and caters to the papercrafter! If you are looking for a book with inspiration galore, this is the one you need to buy! The images are fantastic, and the information is abundant! I love to flip through this book when I'm looking for fresh papercrafting or stationery  ideas. The author, Karen Bartolomei, is very VERY talented (not to mention you can find her company, Grapevine Couture Paperie in the BEAN (my home), which in itself is great!) This is one of the many inspirational books that continues to keep me so excited about PAPER! For more great inspiration please check out her website here! Also if you haven't yet, go pick up a copy of this F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S book and enjoy! *wink*

On a side note...I'm super excited because I can see that Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design is more within my reach than I could have ever imagined at this point in my life! (Those of you who know these programs well, know that even one costs a small fortune, let alone the whole bundle!) lol. I'm crossing my fingers that all goes well and I'm able to purchase this software, update my dinosaur aged version and get with the times using my new design programs very soon! Wish me luck!

Sweet Pea

Supplies; 5x7 Blank Greetings Card- Paperbilities; Patterned Paper- Making Memories, Chloe's Closet (orange polk-a-dot), Animal Crackers (ella giraffes); Buttons & Paper Flower- Making Memories, Animal Crackers (ella embellishments kit); Crochet Lace; Textured Velvet Ribbon; Brads- Pink Star; Textured Cardstock- DCWV; Stamp- Sweet Pea; Colored Pencils- Prismacolor; Distressing Ink; Tim Holtz (pumice stone)

Happy Monday all! It was a gorgeous day out today in NY (too bad I spent it indoors, as usual *frown*). Anyway, I hope most of you were able to get out and enjoy the day and capture some beautiful moments!

Today I would like to share the most recent card that I made. I've been in the card making mood lately. I've decided they take less time than LOs (for me anyway), depending on your style and they are quite fun to create (the best part about them is you don't have to have pictures *smile*). This card was one that I made for a friend at work who's baby shower we had on Friday! The shower was really sweet, we had lots of goodies, even a chocolate fondue fountain and mom-to-be was SUPER surprised, she had NO idea!!! It was a great time!

Here is how to create this baby card;

Step 1; Cut the Polk-a-dot cardstock and mount it to the front of a 5x7 blank greetings card.

Step 2; Cut the baby giraffe patterned paper to cover about 1/2 of the card and adhere to front of card. Ink all around the outside edges (for a distressed look).

Step 3; Use a tag stencil to create the blue tag, and a star stencil to create the ivory tag and ink the edges of both (for a distressed look). Punch a hole in the tag to insert the star brad and stamp the Sweet Pea sentiment to the star.

Step 4; Add color to the Sweet Pea stamped image using colored pencils and adhere the star to the blue tag, then mount both to the side edge of the card with foam squares to create a 3D effect.

Step 5; Thread embroidery floss through the holes in both buttons and tie them in the front (to create a homespun look). Then adhere buttons to the card using a glue gun.

Step 6; Cut crochet lace and textured velvet the full width of the card and use as a border at top. Lay the velvet ribbon ontop the lace and attached with adhesive.

Step 7; Lastly attach the flower with button center to the front top side of the card for the finishing touch!

Hope these instructions are helpful so that you too can create a sweet baby card like this one! Happy crafting!! *smile*