Congrats!

Graduation time is here.  Wasn't it just Christmas?

Here's a cute graduation card -- clean and simple  -- perfect for any gal or guy graduating from high school or college.

Basic white, red and black card stock with the hat stamped in black and a red tassel. 



I'll be posting this card to CAS on Sunday - Challenge #33



Have a great week!
Kathy

Sorry - I forgot ......

Besides needing the challenge to be creative, I love challenges as they give me real reasons (excuses?) to be making cards in my cave!

So, here is a one layer card I made that I'll enter in two challenges:  One-Layer Simplicity and CAS Sunday.


CAS cards are quite a challenge for me.  Other than the requirement to Just Add Water for the One-Layer Simplicity challenge, the theme could be anything.      duh......  think, think, think......

Since I am always needing birthday cards and more often belated birthday cards, I thought I'd use my little "Sorry - I forgot .... " stamp in between the tall leaves and cattails.

This was my first attempt at spritzing water on an inked stamp.  Not bad, but I think I will try flowers next.  I like the water color look.


Challenges:
Clean and Simple on Sunday
Challenge #29 One Layer Wonder


One-Layer Simplicity #3
Just Add Water


Take care,
Kathy

Just a Note

Just a Note -  clever isn't it?  I saw this card on Pinterest and was reminded of a friend who loves playing the piano so I decided to make her a set of cards as a gift.  She loved it!

 

Materials:

Spellbinder Dies

Music was printed from a free printable website

Just a Note stamp by Judith

 

Happy Father's Day!

Kathy

Thanks!

Happy Monday!   Love the little squares on this card.   The idea came from a pin on Pinterest -- I spend way too much time looking at pins!!

 

Have a great week.

Kathy

Geometric Shapes

The OLW  Challenge (One Layer Wednesday) for this week is to use a geometric shape several times.  Sounds easy, but ...   A one layer card really requires a lot of thought since you cannot add another layer of paper and embellishments should kept to the minimum.

So, I came up with this card when I looked at a set of stamps devoted to books and reading (perfect for the retired librarian!).

One-Layer Wednesday 133: Shapes Galore

Thinking of You

I love one layer cards.  The cards are so clean and simple as in CAS -- just love it!

Happy Sunday,
Kathy

Man's Birthday Card

Just realized I will need a couple birthday cards for friends in the next month.  Glad I worked on these cards this week.

Here is another easy and quick card that a man might like to receive or give.

Materials:
Card stock - black and khaki
Paper - ?   (found a small bit in a basket)  ;')
Stamp - Technique Tuesday Greenhouse 09-12
Ribbon - Raffia
Embossing folder - Paper Studio

Have a great day,
Kathy

Masculine Cards

Making the right card for a man can be difficult.  Whether giving or receiving cards, most men seem to prefer cards that are not too feminine, not too flowery and not too plain either.   So, I thought a masculine background with muted colors might work.  Here are two cards I made yesterday.

 

 

Materials:  

card stock - black, light khaki and burnt orange 

ribbon - off white raffia

stamp - Technique Tuesday Greenhouse 09-12

embossing folder - Darice

                   

 

Materials:

card stock - black and light khaki

Washi Tape

stamp - Rubbernecker

embossing folder - Paper Studio

Both of these cards are clean and simple and quick to make.   I think most men would like either of them.

Notice the Washi tape on the second card.  This is my first time using Washi tape.  I love it.  Costco had a revolving tray with lots of tape in different colors and patterns -- couldn't pass it up.

Are you ready for Valentine's Day?

Take care,

Kathy

Hydrangea Notecard Set

Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers (geraniums are number one) so I really enjoyed making these simple yet so pretty notecards.

The hydrangea stamp is from the Stampin Up  'Just Because' set.

Have a great week,
Kathy

More Valentine's Day Cards

I love making Valentine's Day cards.  The colors are usually so bright and cheerful and the cards are full of love.  sigh....

So, here are a couple more that I have made.  Clean and simple and I really like them. 

 

Are you ready for Valentine's Day?  

Happy Monday,

Kathy

Hearts and Lacey Doily

Hearts and lacey doilies are perfect for Valentine's Day.  The card pictured below was really quick and easy to make.  I think I will use it as a notecard instead of a Valentine Card. 

The doily was purchased at Michael's or A.C. Moore and I cut the hearts out with my Mini Cricut using scraps of designer paper I had in my stash.  

Take care,
Kathy

Another Valentine's Day Card

I saw this card either on Pinterest or when I was roaming the Internet and thought it was pretty cute.  So using my computer and printer, I printed off a few.   Simple and to the point!  The picture might be blurry but I decided not to retake it -- eye exam, blurry eye chart ....    ;'))

 

The actual card is not blurry at all.  

Take care,

Kathy

Thank You

Have you sent your thank you notes for the Christmas presents you received?  Do you send thank you cards?  I don't send many and I do like to receive them.  Sometimes I just send an email, but there are occasions when nothing but a card will do.    With that in mind, I made up the thank card pictured below.   Though winter is here, I love sunflowers!

 

I love the simplicity of this card.  After sponging the panel, I stamped the sunflower and sentiment.  Orange and red colors just do not photograph well.  These colors are lighter on the card than they appear here.

Supplies:

plain white card stock 

Inks:  Memento Desert Sand and Potter's Clay, Memories Hunter Green (thanks) and some other lighter green for the flower stem

Stamps:  the sunflower was a clear single stamp and 'thanks' is Paper Smooches

One of my goals this year was to enter one card making challenge or contest a month.  I had no idea there were so many!  Well, I was going to place this card in the CAS-UAL Fridays challenge but I missed the noon deadline.   sigh. 

Take care,

Kathy

Hearts, Hearts, Hearts

Yesterday I was setting up my 2013 calendar and when I got to February, I realized I had no Valentine cards yet.  Hope we make a few Valentines in card class the last week of the month.  In the meantime, I thought I would try to be creative and make something using hearts and paper doilies. 

Here are two I made yesterday.  The first card is really simple.   I used my Mini Cricut to cut out the hearts (love that machine - I could just cut things out for hours!).  I taped the hearts to white card stock and a red card,  added a few shining hearts and stamped the sweetheart sentiment.  I like the way the hearts flow.

The second card was almost as easy and quick to make.  I found the heart online (free printable) and cut it out.  Then I taped the heart on a paper lace doily and  added both to a finished card -- the light green stripes printed on the card really go with the stripes in the heart.  I wish the colors were truer in the picture.  The flowers are more orange than red, but I changed the brightness of the picture so the  the doily and heart outline could be seen easier.  The final touches were the paper flowers and little roses on the left (purchased at Michael's).    Pretty and feminine.

The first card has been entered in the Just Us Girls Challenge:
 

Happy New Year Cards, part 3

Stars and Happy New Year just go together so when I found a scrap of designer paper with stars, I thought it would be perfect for new year cards. 

Same layout with different colored card stock.  The same, but different.

What do you think?

Happy New Year Cards

Well, Christmas is past and 2013 is here!  Though I did get Christmas cards mailed, I did not send happy greetings to everyone on my list.  Just ran out of time.  So I thought I would send Happy New Year cards.

Here are a couple pictures of two I sent out.  

One of my Christmas presents was a Mini Cricut machine.  I had fun cutting out these stars.  The little tiny stars are from a Martha Stewart punch.   I don't have a Happy New Year stamp so I printed the tags with my computer.

The balloon on this card is also computer printed -- found the balloon on a free printable site.

Happy New Year to everyone. 

Cardinal Christmas Card

Cardinals are perfect for Christmas!  Here is an easy layered card -- almost clean and simple except for the layers....

Red card stock with layers of white, red and designer paper.  The cardinal was stamped in red on white and the sentiment is in red on white and red card stock.  Simple yet elegant. 

Red, Red, and Red Christmas Cards

Here are three Christmas cards with red as the main color.  Red does not photograph well so I hope you can see the beauty in these cards.

Love this card with white embossed trees on a plain red card with a little snowflake button in the upper left corner.  So simple.  So pretty.

This card was a little more involved than some I have made.  After stamping the white card with red snowflakes, I used a square die cut to make three layers of the snowflake piece and two layers of red.   A green metallic snowflake adds a little bit of extra color.

 

This card has several layers:  the basic card is a light green with a darker green for the first layer.   Then the red piece was embossed (tweed/herringbone pattern) and the Christmas tree was cut out using a die cut.  The red piece was then taped to a white piece of card stock that had been embossed with a brick-like pattern and then added to the card.  The wreath was made with little punch outs and taped in a circle.  A little snowflake was added in the upper right corner.