Fourth of July Pet Safety Tips and Feathered Hello Card!

With Fourth of July celebrations beginning soon, I wanted to share some important tips on keeping your pets safe!  A lot of pets are really frightened by fireworks, and unfortunately, many end up in shelters because they get spooked by the loud noises, run away and get lost.  Here, I've summarized some important tips offered in this article from Adopt-a-Pet.com, but please take a moment to read their full article for more in-depth information!

Fourth of July Pet Safety Tips

• Make sure your pet's microchip is registered with your current information
• Make sure your pet is wearing their collar with up-to-date tags and that the collar is secure
• Keep your pet inside your home and don't bring them to Fourth of July celebrations
• Make sure ALL doors and windows are closed and locked
• Turn on the TV or music to help muffle the sounds of fireworks
• Help distract your pet with a food-stuffed toy or long-lasting chew treat 

During Canada Day fireworks a couple days ago, I distracted Humble with a nice brushing with his favourite brush -- he loves that [it's part of our daily routine!], and it puts him in a really zen-like state. :o)

I hope these tips help!

And now for today's card share!  I recently received a box of my projects back from Paper Crafts [things that appeared in past issues], and I re-photographed some of them this afternoon so I could share them with you over the next week or so.  Here's a card that appeared in Stamp It! Techniques: Volume 2...


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I stamped and heat-embossed the background with white embossing powder, then I inked it using sponge daubers and ink from various ink pads.  I wanted to use the solid feather images and the feather outlines, but I didn't want to cover the colours of the solid feathers up so much with the outlines, so I decided to offset them -- thought that looked kind of neat!  The feathers and letters were fussy cut and attached with foam squares.  The stamps used are from Hero Arts.

Thanks for stopping by today! :o)

Reshares: Office Themed Projects!

I have this weird love for office themed supplies, so here's my first post of office-y reshares!


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From the March/April 2012 issue of Paper Crafts.  I used one of the sketches from the issue!


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From the July/August 2012 issue of Paper Crafts.  ETA: I forgot to mention before that this appeared in the digital version of the July/August issue [as bonus content] and not in the print edition.  Not sure if that really matters to you guys.  Ha! :D


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I made this 4 years ago.  How time flies!  I love that pencil patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket and stamp from American Crafts!


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Made 2 years ago using October Afternoon's office themed 9 to 5 collection.  I love that collection!!


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A mini card from 2011 using Lawn Fawn stamps and a cute brad from Doodlebug!


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A CAS card from 2011 using Lawn Fawn's Quinn's ABCs stamp set.  

TIP: When applying glitter glue [I used Stickles here], try colouring your stamped letters or image in first with similarly coloured markers.  This helps to make your glittering look "fuller" because you won't see little white spots from cardstock showing through! :D

The next two cards were made a few years ago using a super-cute typewriter stamp from Lawn Fawn's Just My Type stamp set [I made two of the same-lookin' typewriters!]:


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I'll post some of my favourite office themed projects tomorrow!  [Am I the only one who feels bad calling certain projects favourites?  I care about them all!]

A Wave Hello Card

Stopping in to share this summery card today...


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I love crafting with cardstock die-cuts, although I sometimes have trouble using up those tiny little die-cuts that come in a lot of packs.  When I made this card, I wanted to push myself to use a bunch of the tiny ones!  My photo doesn't show it that well, but I stamped the "a wave" in light blue ink, then in a darker blue ink -- I wanted to give it a sort of shadow effect.  This little lady appeared in Handmade Cards.

Hope you got a smile here today and that the weather is warming up where you are!

Reshares: Some Past Blog Hop Favourites!

Today I thought I'd reshare some of my favourites from past Paper Crafts blog hops!  First up is this hand-stitched card...


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For the Handmade Cards blog hop in September 2013.
We were asked to make cards using a certain number of supplies, and my number was three.  The three supplies I chose: cardstock, stencils and embroidery floss [basic tools and adhesive didn't count].

For most of my card's elements, I used stencils from an American Crafts kit.  For the blue flower centre and "hi", I paper pierced the cardstock freehand.  The flower from the stencil was a simple outline, but I wanted to add a bit more detail, so I pierced one hole in the middle so that I could have stitches radiating from the centre [like I did with the blue piece].  One option was to cut the designs out before stitching, but instead, I decided to stitch the designs before cutting them so that I'd have a slightly larger piece of cardstock to hold onto as I did the stitching.

Next up is Naptime Santa Card...


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For the Holiday Cards & More: Volume 7 blog hop in September 2012.
We were asked to create projects using the free sentiment downloads from the issue, and I chose to use the "Holiday Cheer" banner.

The napping Santa and couch are stamps from Starving Artistamps.  I love colouring on patterned paper, as I did with the couch there.  It's an easy way to add detail/another colour without having to paper piece!  To create the baseboard, I scored a piece of cardstock and then trimmed it.  I found it easier to score the cardstock first and then cut it into a skinny strip, rather than trying to score a fiddly, skinny piece of cardstock.

Humble, Napping Champion, was napping on the couch when I made this Santa card. :D

Next up is a Before and After set of cards that I made for the Card Design Handbook blog hop in August 2012.  The idea behind the blog hop was to show how a project can go from "good to great" by following the rules of design explained in the issue.  I decided to work with the "rules" of Fun & Cute, my favourite crafting style.  Some of Paper Crafts' tips for crafting Fun & Cute are to incorporate the following:

• happy colour scheme
• sweet sentiment
• uncomplicated design
• whimsy [i.e. cartoons and doodles]
• simple shapes [i.e. hearts and stars]
• friendly patterns [i.e. polka dots and gingham]

Here's my Before card:



Here we've got the uncomplicated design and cartoon.  The main thing that looks a little "off" is the sentiment -- the font is a little too fancy for a Fun & Cute card.

Now for the card makeover!


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That sentiment is WAY better, right?  Punny sentiments and Fun & Cute are like the best friends of card making. :D  This time, I covered the card base with a slightly brighter blue that's embossed with dots, and I stamped polka dots on the "sky" to add more of that friendly pattern.  I rounded the corners of the card to soften it a little.

The moose and polka dot background stamps are from Starving Artistamps.  The sentiment from them is really "That's Amooseing", but I did some selective inking with it and a different stamp to get this sentiment.

My last reshare for today is a card I made for the Card Creations: Get Inspired blog hop in December 2011.  We were asked to make cards using something from our homes as inspiration.  I chose one of my favourite vintage finds, this adorable bunny mug...


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This little guy makes me smile every day!  Here's the card he inspired...


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Jumping for joy!
For added dimension, I trimmed around the upper body and lower body separately, then I attached the lower body with one layer of foam and the upper body with two layers of foam.  The cloud paper in the background is shimmery -- fun stuff!

Again, I used stamps from Starving Artistamps.  If I had to pick one favourite stamp company, it would be them.  Their stamps make me laugh, and I just have pure fun using their stamp images.  They have lots of cat stamps, too, so it's impossible for me not to be in total stamp love. :o)  I used some of their cat stamps on a couple of my favourite blog hop cards, but I'll save those for a future cats-only reshare post! :D

Before I go, I wanted to share some news that made me giddy!  Humble will be appearing in Holiday Cards & More: Volume 9! :D  Hoo-hoo!!  I crossed all fingers and toes hoping that one particular card would make it in.  I don't mention this to brag or anything -- I'm just happy about it because I love Humble the most. :o)  I'm still grinning like a fool.

Thanks for stopping by for this gigantic blog post -- hope you have a crafty weekend!

Color Inspiration for Card Makers

The latest special issue from Paper Crafts magazine is out now -- Color Inspiration for Card Makers!  This issue features cards made using 70 different colour combinations, with a whopping 280 projects inside!

Here's one of my cards that appears in this issue!


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Now that's a friendly veggie.

Some of the colour combinations in this issue were a bit challenging to me, but it was really fun to try colour combos that I don't usually try!

Check out today's post over at the Paper Crafts Connection blog, where P. Kelly Smith has posted one of my cards -- what a great surprise that was to see!!  Thanks, Kelly!! :o)

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope 2011 is off to a great start for you!

Green, Green and More Green

Before going to bed yesterday, I came across a challenge on Caardvarks to make a monochromatic card.  Since they're featuring Core'dinations cardstock, I decided to use some of my green Core'dinations to make this card today:


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Clean and simple.  And I'm jazzed about it!
I really like "rumpling" scallops like that for added dimension.  And while I don't normally do a whole lot of sanding, I really like the sanded Swiss Dots -- fun!

Thanks for the sandpaper, dad! :o)