Interactive Card Series #2: Center Fold Display Card

The outside front panel has fussy-cut flowers, along
with leaves on the side of the greeting banner.
I really like the waterfall of clear gems in two sizes.

Hi Everyone!  How is your summer going?   
Here in Southeastern Pennsylvania, we are hot and humid -- very typical weather for us in this part of the country for this time of year.  What's unusual is that we have already had our FOURTH official "heat wave" and we're not even done with the first week of July. A heat wave is when the temperatures cross 90 degrees for four or more consecutive days. 

And while my 55+ community (VFP - Villas at Five Ponds) has beautiful pools (indoors and outdoors) and a hot tub/spa, they are rendered unusable when Mother Nature sends her natural fireworks -- thunderstorms -- overhead.  So the best thing to do is stay inside with the central air conditioning, and craft, right?

The inside view of my Center Fold Display Card. There's a sentiment mini-card
on the left inside panel, with room for your greeting and signature.

 I'm getting my mojo back slowly but surely.  It was cramped a bit due to some major spine surgery I had in the beginning of May.  The worst part about recovery is that the nerve endings for my thighs were on fire, making sitting and crafting impossible. Thankfully, that passed after a couple of weeks. The best part about recovery is that I remember very little of the pain in the hospital or the first ten days afterwards, thanks to my surgeon's belief in pain management.  

OK, that's me ... what about you?  Have you been getting to those layouts waiting to be done, or the cards needing to be mailed?  August is my heavy-hitting birthday month. I used to spend a boatload of money in August at the Hallmark Store, but now I try my best to make the cards I need, especially for those "cardworthy" friends and family -- you know, the ones who won't think it's weird or cheap to receive a handmade card.

First up, I unwrapped some brand new Stampin' Up! Designer Paper called "Magnolia Lane" and made this "Center Fold Display Card."  I saw a similar card in this design made by another Stampin' Up consultant, and created my own template for it.  Here it is:

If you are a Cricut user, you may want to access the file I created for this template. The base of the card is 12" long, so you'll have to turn the base lengthwise and cut it using a longer (24") mat, at least for that part. I think the base comes up that way when you go to cut it on your Cricut Explore or Maker.

I know that not all of my readers are Cricut users, or may have other electronic machines. So here are some easy cut instructions with measurements that you should be able to adapt or to create your own cutting files:

Please remember me if you'd like to purchase some "Magnolia Lane" paper from Stampin' Up! The paper truly is beautiful, and at just $11.50 for 12 sheets of double-sided designer paper, that's less than $1.00 per sheet!!    I still haven't figured out how to be sure that the link to the product links to ME as your SU Demonstrator, so when you search for a Demo, please indicate that you'd like product credit to go to ELLEN JARVIS in WARMINSTER, PA.  Here is the link to the paper itself: 

https://www.stampinup.com/ecweb/product/149484/magnolia-lane-designer-series-paper

I'd appreciate your support of my endeavor with Stampin' Up! very much. Those who have known me for a while know the story of how I came to be with Stampin' Up!, and how I am building my business from scratch ...again.

Enjoy your summer!  And watch out for new posts as I try to reinvigorate my blog. It's been a long time coming!!  

Painted Butterflies for Mom

Good morning, CardMonkey friends and followers.

First, let me apologize for my inactivity on my blog. It seems I have gotten wrapped up in the work of creating and the joys of sending -- along with babysitting and caring for family -- that I've neglected my dear friends here.  Forgive me?

Just after my last post (in May, egads), hubby and I traveled to Florida to visit my parents.

It is so wonderful to see them aging in place, as well as can be at 85 and 87. This spring, Dad completed a 9-week course of daily radiation to treat aggressive Prostate Cancer, which thankfully was fully encapsulated within the prostate and hadn't metastasized at all.  Mom has neck/back disc compression issues that have left her feeling a bit dizzy and imbalanced, so she has been taking physical therapy. Neither Mom nor Dad had been in their gorgeous pool in 2015, "life got in the way."  I'm glad to say our visit was good, and John and I got my parents in the pool every day of our extended weekend.

Mom's birthday was not long after our visit, and I knew that I wanted to break out some new techniques to make her a card she'd love. (Who am I fooling? She loves anything we kids make for her, always has!)

Here is Mom's card:

 

To make this card, I used the pretty stamp set from Altenew called Painted Butterfly. This is a multi-layer stamp set where you can use any/all layers to create lovely artistic butterflies.  Look here:

 

First I stamped the outlines of the butterfly (highlighted here with light blue circles), stamping them in Versamark watermarking glue/ink and sprinkling them with Ranger fine black embossing powder, available from Close To My Heart. I stamped the images onto watercolor paper from Canson.  I then heat-set the powder with a craft heater. This stabilizes the impression and makes it able to accept water or alcohol inks without smearing. 

 

I then took the first layer stamp (highlighted here in pink), laid it on my acrylic block and literally painted the stamp with watercolor paints onto the stamp, and stamped the paint atop of the embossed outlines.  Where needed, I filled in the color by pushing the paint with a water pen. When the image was dry, I cut the image into a card-sized rectangle, using a Lil' Inker Dual Stitched Rectangle die.

 

I created the inside of the card using the same method, and stamped both the front and inside of the card with a birthday sentiment from the "Card Chatter - Birthday" collection from Close To My Heart.  I added a few sparkle gems from CTMH, mounted the images on a vertical A2 card I created from Gypsy-colored cardstock from CTMH, and voila, happy birthday, Mom!

 

 



Happy Birthday, Josh!

Happy birthday to my son-in-law, Josh.  What a great husband and Dad he has been -- loving and supportive to our daughter, Emily.

I made this layout depicting one of my most favorite moments with Josh and Charlotte.  Charlotte was visiting for the afternoon, and Josh was joining us for dinner.  As Josh approached our house, Charlotte went running down our front lawn, her arms open wide, smiling and shouting, "Dada! Dada!"  Josh scooped her up and ... the camera captured the father-daughter love.

"Love you to the moon and back" is the young family's most favorite saying. I found this cut on the Silhouette Online Store, and cut it with my Silhouette Cameo.  The moon and stars are also from the SOS.  The slate paper is from Close To My Heart, as are the gem flourishes. 


DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Box of Flowers Card -- what a breath of springtime!

Shhhh, it's soon to be a BIG-0 birthday for one of my friends and papercrafting students, Susan. She is unabashedly turning 70 at the beginning of March.  

Given that she sees me as her crafting inspiration, I needed to go "all out" on a birthday card for this special woman. I never tried a box card before, and this would be my opportunity.

First the pictures of the finished project:

This is the card, folded flat, measuring 6"h x 5.5"w

This is the card with its flaps opened and pushed out to a "box".

Now, there are many tutorials on how to make this card (just do as I do, Google it, and/or search on YouTube).  The best tutorial I found was on a blog by a woman named Cathy at http://extremecards.blogspot.com.  This is her cutting file:

Here is a link to the blog post where Cathy describes how to assemble the box: 
http://extremecards.blogspot.com/search/label/boxes

Then the fun of decorating your box begins!  I used Close To My Heart's new line of Ariana papers and Complements to decorate the base and to make the flowers. The colors in this line of paper are some of Susan's favorites, so I think she'll really like the card.

I cut the words "Happy Birthday" from Bazzill metallic paper that I bought from Scrapbook.com, using the multi-cut feature on my Silhouette Cameo and one of the great files by Rivka Wilkins for the Silhouette Online Store.   The glittered letter stickers in Susan's name and 7-0 are retired Pixie glitter letters, from Close To My Heart. The butterfly die and the leaves on vine die are both from Cheery Lynn Designs. The ribbon is "Olive You" Rumple Ribbon by Lovebug Creations. 

To allow the flowers to have some movement when the card is closed, I mounted each on a green florist wire by taping it to the back of the flower, and covering the tape over with a circle of floral paper. The numbers 7-0 are on thin silver wire, to match, instead. All of the wires are glued or taped onto the center fold tab (see template, above) which rests in the inside of the box. Oh, and I used my favorite corner rounder (by CTMH, of course) on the flap edges to complete the look. 

Why not bring a little spring into your household by making one of these pretty pots of flowers for your desk?

No better bling than a Granddaughter's Smile!

Can you believe this cutie

is three years old today?!

 

 

HaPpY birthday

to my dear granddaughter,

CHARLOTTE!

 

 

 Today, Charlotte and her Mommy Emily and I are going out to see the new animated movie, "Frozen."  It's the first time Charlotte is seeing a movie in the theaters and we think she's ready to handle it. Charlotte is a little bit afraid of the dark so she said she'll bring a glow bracelet and a "fwashlight" just in case. 

 

Tomorrow is the party with more family -- Daddy Josh, Pot (my hubby John), Bubba (Josh's Mom), Grandpa Steve (..and Josh's stepdad), and Uncles Nick and Matt. The theme will be a surprise to me; depending on the weather I think, Charlotte tells one of us or the other that she wants a Doc McStuffin party, an Ariel party, a dolphin party, a Minion party or a Princess party. All I know for sure is that she wants "balloons" and "cake ... lots of cake!"  (late breaking news: I'm told the cake is MINION!!)

 

Pot and I gave Charlotte her own "pink iPad" for her birthday. It's actually my 1-yr old iPad but she has more apps and videos on it than I do. So we upgraded the case to a heavy-duty pink "childproof" case and gave it to her last week when she visited.  We have a few other "prezzies" for her, but none is as nice as the gift she gives us all year long.  She gives us life ... joy ... and makes the air so much sweeter to breathe. Being a grandparent is THE BEST!

 

Now a little bit about crafting, just because that's the reason you stopped here. Charlotte's Mom Emily asked me to make the Age Shirt for kiddo.First I backed the cute bubble fabric with Pellon Light adhesive interfacing. Then, fabric side onto the mat, I cut the fabric using my Cricut Expression 2, and peeled the adhesive backing off the "3" and ironed it onto a shirt from Old Navy. I machine-appliqued the number using a tight zig-zag stitch on my Husqvarna Diamond Viking sewing/embroidery machine.

For the cute sneakers -- Charlotte's "Chucks" -- Emily traced a paper template for the toes. Then she lightly taped the template onto the Dazzling Diamond rhinestone resin adhesive sheets from The Buckle Boutique* and cut the clear "diamonds" using regular scissors. She peeled off the paper backing and applied the sheet -- no individual rhinestones, no choking hazard -- GREAT for kids' and adult shoes alike!

 

I made the crazy bows and sewed them onto crocodile hair clips. The Chucks were laced with satin ribbons and the removable bows were added for the pictures and party.

 

 

Here's Charlotte's month-by-month progression, from 2 years to 3, almost all in 2013.

I have a massive crush on this girl!!

Happy birthday,
darling Charley!!

LOVE ALWAYS,

 

Gii
also known as

KCC My Man Blog Hop -- Happy Birthday, Bernie!

Hey, girlfriends!
This "My Man Blog Hop" is being sponsored by the Krazy Crafting Crew and is hosted by a member, Katina Martinez's "Loving Life's Little Blessings"  ...

... in honor of those pesky men in our lives who support our cardmaking habits, but for whom it is so tough to make something masculine.

 

Will they like the glitter? Doubtful. The bling, the ribbon?  Negative. Men -- gotta love 'em, even when they cause a crafting challenge!

 

Well, today also happens to be the birthday of one of my best male friends, Bernie. Bernie is the hubby of my "sister" Star -- one of those women whose sisterhood you've chosen, not one of your blood but of your soul. Bernie is a wise man who married Star in 1979, the same year Star and I met as work colleagues. I rely on Bernie for a caring ear, warm hugs, spot-on judgment, and sense of humor. He's seen me through some fun times, and some tough times. Bernie, happy birthday -- and many, many more!

 

Bernie, this card's for you:

 

 

I made this card using almost all Close To My Heart products.  The base cardstock is Daisy White, then a layer of Champagne cardstock.

The shapes were off-cut squares that I cut from Laughing Lola B&T Duo paper. I rounded two of the corners using the new CTMH Corner Rounder.

The Happy Birthday stamp is one of the fantastic new M-sized stamps by CTMH, Heartfelt Birthday Greetings M1033, priced right at just $2.95!  I stamped the greeting using Exclusive Black Ink, and used a colored pencil from Prisma to match the blue in the Laughing Lola paper.

 

I hope you liked this card, and now it's time to move on to see other projects made for the men in our lives by other members of the KCC.  Your next stop is: ROBIN at Scrap and Chat.

 

Here is the entire line-up, in case you get lost:

Loving Life’s Little Blessings

CardMonkey's Paper Jungle

Scrap and Chat

Love 2 Create it all

Scrappin' My Stress Away

Precious Pages with Paula

So Many Crafts, So Little Time

 

 

Thank you for stopping by, it was lovely having you!

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Star!

By the time that my friend Star reads this blog post, we will have met for dinner to celebrate our birthdays. Hers is tomorrow (8/27) and mine was last Sunday (8/19), and so we have double the fun on our dinner out with our hubbies.

Credits:  Studio cut files from Silhouette Online Store; Stickles

Star and I have known each other for 33 years, when she and I worked together at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. How lucky am *I* to have met her, and her sweetheart, Bernie.  Now, not only do we have our long friendship in common, but now we both make cards!


In case you're wondering, I always try to find a card with a star on it -- made easier now that we craft the cards.

And we exchange a little something, usually crafty, like a magazine or a book.  This year, I made her this 3-D box, and stuffed it with 3-yard sample bobbins of some of my favorite twine.  The card, box, star-shaped ribbon confetti, and even the cardboard bobbins for my twine were all cut using my Cameo, and files purchased from Silhouette Online Store.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dear Star!!

DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,