A Little Birdie

Each time I get together with my crafty BFFs, we set up a RAK (random acts of kindness) section where we put out craft supplies that are free for the taking. It's generally a mish-mash of impulse buys we never got around to using. At a recent gathering, I found a set of birds cut out of felt and assembled this card with it and some paper and letter stickers I found amongst the RAKs. I think I put his wing on backward though. Must go fix that...

Basic Grey Birthday Cupcake Cards

I made a few birthday cards the other day with stuff from Basic Grey.

This first card is from one of the Basic Grey card kits. I didn't like the design though so I tweaked it with blue twill Stampin Up ribbon. I also added the yellow flower, a Basic Grey cupcake chipboard sticker from the Nook & Pantry Collection chipboard sticker set, a Basic Grey blue flower paper (not sure what collection that's from on top of the chipboard shape from the card kit) and a strip of Martha Stewart Happy Birthday ribbon.

For this card below, I used the same Basic Grey blue flower paper and a Basic Grey chipboard cupcake sticker from the Nook & Pantry Collection chipboard sticker set.

I also made a smaller card with a Basic Grey ice cream cone chipboard sticker from the Nook & Pantry Collection chipboard sticker set (LOVE that collection!).

Simple Flower Cards

Here's one more super simple design. The blank card is from Club Scrap. It has a fun, funky wood grain embossed into it. I punched a design into checked Memory Box cardstock with a Stampin Up border punch, added a ric rac ribbon for a stem and a big stitched flower. Love that flower. It was in a monthly shipment from the now-defunct Self-Addressed monthly card kit club (miss them!!!).

I did one more card with the same design. This one has a Heidi Swapp heart brad for the flower top. I gave this to my husband on the anniversary of our first date.

Simple Birthday Cards

Here's another simple design with a single strip of ribbon as the base with metal birthday stickers on American Craft scalloped foam squares. The cream blank cards are from Paper Source.

I also did a variation on this theme with this flower card below. 

I love the Stampin Up stitched felt flowers. 

 

Simple Ribbon Cards

Over the weekend, I also made several cards based on the same basic design. I placed a ribbon with the ends cut (not sure what that kind of cut is called) and added a focal point embellishment at the center of each card.

The key to these cards is that I used a card size that's smaller than the typical A2 card, which looks barren with so few embellishments. This size can be hard to find though. I snagged a bunch of them when I found them at Paper Source (there are a few of them around the Bay Area and in other areas of the U.S.).

On this one below, I used a strip of Stampin Up twill ribbon, an American Craft scalloped foam rectangle and a Martha Stewart cupcake sticker on a pale pink blank card from Paper Source.

Here I used the same Stampin Up twill ribbon with an American Craft cream foam circle, topped with a metal cupcake sticker on a cream blank card from Paper Source.

On this one, I added a strip of Stampin Up cream twill ribbon and a Stampin Up felt flower and leaves on a cream blank card from Paper Source.

Basic Grey Nook & Pantry Cards

I made a few more cards with the Basic Grey Nook & Pantry collection (LOVE just about everything from that collection) over the weekend. I used Nook & Pantry chipboard stickers,  cardstock stickers and papers, which I combined with some Amuse paper (the blue polka dot paper on the top half of the cards) and a few other odds and ends from my stash (the gingham paper ribbon, brown twill and chiffon ribbon, the white flowers with rhinestone centers and blue rhinestone brads).

Time for tea card

I have a friend who's all about visiting tea houses so, of course, I have to make her cards with a tea theme and I had to snap up the adorable Basic Grey Nook and Pantry cardstock stickers and papers when I saw all the cute tea stuff. This is one of my absolute favorites from Basic Grey. Along with tea items, there are also cupcakes and other sweet treats – sooooo cute!

Basic Grey Nook and Pantry Die-Cut Chipboard Stickers

I made this tea card with Nook and Pantry and just love it. Can't wait to make more cards with this collection. It's so easy when everything's so nicely coordinated.

Oh, hai!

I like this fun, cheerful card. I made it awhile ago but it didn't feel totally done. After getting a Basic Grey card kit and seeing how they add words to their cards with cardstock stickers, I added "hi" and everything came together. Hooray!  :)

Like I said, I made it awhile ago, so I'm not totally sure about what the paper is; but I'm pretty sure it's by Sassafrass Lass. I do know for sure that I got in a Self-Addressed monthly kit (I really, really, really miss that club – so sad they're not in business anymore). The flowers are Prima. The "hi" stickers are Thickers (love those!)

XO, Sonja

Brain brushing exercise cheat sheet card

I read about a cool little exercise called "brain brushing" recently and made this cheat sheet card to remind me of the steps in the exercise. At first I was going to just write the steps on an index card; but then I figured I might as well make a pretty card so I chose a beautiful piece of handmade paper with this gorgeous leaf and stem design embossed into it.

 

I found this piece of paper in my stash. It just happened to have five stem designs – perfect for writing out the five steps. To make the title stand out, I wrote that on a separate piece of handmade paper that I tore around the edges. I inked the edges of the leaf paper with Walnut Stain Tim Holtz Distress Ink and added three pearls as accents. I framed the whole thing with a dark brown piece of Club Scrap paper (one of my gajillion POPs).

The exercise is from Daniel Siegel, UCLA psychiatry professor and author of Mindsight: The New Science of Transformation. If you'd like to learn about the exercise, visit my beauty and health blog hello beauty! where I just published a post about it.

A gift for dear ol' dad

This is a gift I made for my dad with a photo of us when I was a little bugger. The base is made of two coasters I covered with Stampin Up textured cardstock that I edged with Stampin Up classic ink. I embellished with various stickers, a fabric hang tag, fabric photo corners, Stampin Up felt flowers, a giant flower brad, button, and Making Memories heart clip.

I attached the two coaster pieces with a piece of cardstock so the whole thing would stand up on its own. I love how bright and cheery it turned out and I just adore that pic.

Buzz Buzz

This is a card I made with a circle punch, Stampin Up textured cardstock, a giant brad, some Hero Arts buttons, and an adorable bee embellishment that a friend put on a present years ago. I saved it and finally found a fun use for it. I like how simple it is and all the texture and dimension.

 

 

Getting back to crafting with cupcake cards

I've neglected this blog for quite some time after doing little-to-no crafting last year. But this year I resolved to get back to my crafts. One of my recent projects was making a bunch of cupcake cards over the holidays with cute cupcake embellishments I got from my secret Santa this past year.

I love pink so this one is my favorite.

 

I also used an ice cream sticker for one of the cards so it's not technically a cupcake card.

The puffy heart on a couple of the cards is cut out from this ribbon. Cool stuff, huh? I'm afraid to use all of it, because I have no idea where I'd find more.

The papers are from the Basic Grey Cupcake Collection 6x6 pack. The cupcakes are Martha Stewart stickers.

I also made a cupcake card with Memory Box paper so it has a more clean, graphic feel to it:

I've actually been quite good about doing more crafty stuff this year so I'll be posting more finished projects soon!

Fabulous flower card

This is a card I got from my friend Tracy. She used those fabulous Michael Strong stamps for the flower vase. It's hard to see in this photo, but the vase is embossed in gold, giving the image nice texture.

Martini Card

Here's another great card from my friend Nancy. Love the martini – one of my favorite drinks. The paper is Club Scrap.

Be Good or Be Stylish Card

Love this fun card I got from my friend Connie! Check out the clever quote inside.

Japanese beauty drinking tea card

I got this gorgeous card from my friend Rita in a one-card-a-month exchange that I organize with some friends. She says she chose this image (by Stamp Francisco) for me after reading my recent post about tea on The Coveted.

She mounted the image on handmade Japanese paper from the Japanese paper shop on 4th Street in Berkeley, where we recently went shopping. Beautiful!

Sweet giveaway with lots of Hero Arts goodies!

The Daily Marker, a fabulous blog, is doing a very cool giveaway with all the great loot shown above, including lots of Hero Arts goodies. Sweet! I love that Hero Arts has cling-mount stamps now – definitely helps make stamps more affordable. Click here to enter.