Jessica's birthday...

I promised to share Jessica's birthday card I made for her.  She loves "cut out" cards like this, so I decided since she was turning 11 this year, I'd make the front an 11.  I layered it on some striped designer paper to cover up the inside, and make the 11 stand out.

 Here it is sort of opened up.  The front is attached to the back and the striped paper is glued inside at the fold.  I used Elegant Eggplant for the card.  Jessica LOVES purple.

 And inside is the stamp that I thouht was perfect for her this year, "On a scale of 1 to 10, you're an 11."  It's from the Perfect Words Hostess set.  Isn't that perfect for a girl turning 11.  She loved it.  Of course she loved the money I put in the card, too. Ha.

And I just had to add a picture of the pretty birthday girl!  Isn't she lovely! She's such a delight to me.  I just don't get to see her enough now that she's growing up!

Thanks for stopping by today.
Smiles, Laura

Big Hug....

I made this card the other day for my brother-in-law who has been in the hospital and a care facility for several weeks.  I know days are long for him and I am trying to come up with masculine cards to cheer his days. 

I love the Hostess set Perfect Words because it has several great sentiments in the set.  I especially the "Big Hug" one.  Sometimes I sign my email messages with "Big Hugs" (before the "Smiles, Laura" of course) and I really wanted to give my BIL a long distant big hug.  So I thought of our bear in the Under the Stars set.  He looks like he is about to give someone a big bear hug. 

The card itself is Crumb Cake and I layered that with Very Vanilla.  I used various 5/8" wide strips of designer paper to make the various strips down the paper.  I notched the ends and just glued them in the center so they flare out a bit.

 In this shot, you can see how the ends of the strips are not attached but rather flare out. 

I stamped the bear in Crumb Cake and then stamped "Big Hug" over him in Soft Suede.  I sponged the edges of this piece of cardstock and affixed it with dimentionals.  And I stamped the little raccoon in the bottom right corner to fill space and to add more humor to the card.

I think my BIL really liked the card!  I hope he "felt" the hug!  Get well soon, Billy!!

Smiles (and big hugs), Laura

Love and Sympathy

Today I wanted to share with you another card we made recently in class that uses the Love and Sympathy stampset.  For this one, the shape is alittle different.  I cut a piece of CS 8.5" x 5.".  Then I cut 2.5" off one end, leaving the card \6" x 5.5".  Folded in half, this made a card 3" x 5.5".  With the piece I cut off, I cut the length to 4.25" (toss that little bit cut off) and laid it across the card.  I cut a "notch" into the end that extends over the side of the card.  So the card is still 5.5" x 4.25" and will still fit into a regular size #2 envelope.  I love having a different layout/shape but being able to use the regular envelopes I keep on hand.

This card is Lucky Limeade and is layered with Rich Razzleberry. You cane see that I stamped the flower from Love and Sympathy onto the Razzleberry in Rezzleberry, to decorate the cardstock a bit.

I used paper from the Pocketful of Posies suite to layer onto the Limeade, also cut out with a "notch".  I layered Certainly Celery taffeta ribbon on to that.

I used markers to color the flower and stamped it on a circle cut with the Circles #2 die.  I punched smaller circles from Limeade and Razzleberry using the 1-3/4" and 1-3/8" circle punches.  The circle with the flower is popped up with dimensionals.  And I stamped the sentiment  from the Perfect Words hostess set in Razzleberry.

Another day I'll share a Christmas card I made using this same layout.You know by now that I love finding layouts and using them in several different colors and stamps!

Thanks for stopping in!!

Smiles, Laura 

Three Leaves....

Today I thought I'd share a card we are making in class this month.  I'm feeling like fall and leaves!!  So I used the Leaves #2 die on this one.  It's a fairly simple card, but would be good for many occasions.  In fact, I made several and sent one as a birthday card to my sister Connie, one to friend Vicky for her birthday, one to welcome a new couple into our church fellowship, and one to say Thank You to Jackie for keeping Gabby for us while Frank was in the hospital.  As you can tell, it's versatile--just change the sentiment at the bottom!

For this card, I used Baja Breeze for the card itself, layered with Pear Pizzazz.  I cut two Pear Pizzazz leaves and one from Baja.  I also cut three more leaves from Pocketful of Posies Designer Paper and from the Patterns Stack DSP.  I free hand cut the designer paper leaves---not the cardstock ones. Then I glued the halves of the designer paper leaves onto the cardstock ones.   (Of course I sponged all the edges first with my accent color, Not Quite Navy.)  That's also a piece of Not Quite Navy behind the leaves and the stripe at the bottom is from the Regals Pattern Stack.

Here is  close-up of the sentiment. The sentiment is from the hostess set Perfect Words.   I punched two sizes of circles to go at each end of the sentiment and added a brad on each end.

Before making the card above, I had made this one (below) from non-SU paper, just playing with layouts.  That card is Perfect plum and uses Certainly Celery. 

Close-up of leaves.

Sentiment:
                                 
I'd say this card's pretty in just about any color combination you can think of .  I'm already thinking of some yellow and oranges for fall!!!
Thanks for stopping in!!