Hey Buddy, Happy Birthday!

How about a boy card for ya today. I have to say, I hate making masculine cards, but if they are for young boys, it isn't so bad. You can get a little fun and cutesy with them which makes it all the better to create.

I am using a THIS fun stamp set from Papertrey Ink. What little boy doesn't like airplanes. I could get a lot of use out of this stamp set. And with this stamp set you get the choice of coloring an airplane image or go with the solid one. Love options.

Have a wonderful, warm week!!

Supplies:

cardstock, twine, felt - Papertrey Ink

patterned paper - October Afternoon

stamps - Hero Arts (Happy Birthday sentiment), Papertrey Ink (polka dots, plane, Hey Buddy banner)

ink - Tsukineko (black), Papertrey Ink

circle cutter - Creative Memories

border punch - EK Success

corner rounder - EK Success

Birthday Party Invites

Hi everyone. Sorry for the absence, we have been gone some and I haven't had a chance to post since last Monday. But I am back with you today with three cards for ya. I was asked to make some birthday invites for my niece and so I made three different ones and thought it would be fun for her to pick her favorite. And here is her number one choice (the card below). And secretly, it was my favorite one too. She has good taste. :o)

I used one of my favorite companies to make this card, Cosmo Cricket. I love their new paper line, Garden Variety. So full of yummy goodness. The stamped image is from Stampin' Up! and I just paper pieced the frosted top to that cupcake. And of course it can't go unnoticed one of the best border punches ever, the loops edger punch by Martha Stewart.

My son picked this one as his favorite. The colors really pop off the card on this one. The stamps I used are from Hero Arts titled Elephants. I love that big elephant in that set, so easy to cut out and looks really cute too stamped on patterned paper if you want to spice it up a bit. And of course in true Julie fashion, I had to use another one of my favorite border punches by EK Success, the large embossed scalloped.

Here is the last card I made and I did another one of my loves, embossing. I love my embossing folders, they give just a touch of interest to a card without being distracting. The stamps I used for this card are also from Hero Arts, love that galaxy of stars stamp set by them.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week!!!

Supplies:

Card 1

cardstock - Papertrey Ink, Stampin' Up!

stamps - Stampin Up! (cupcake), Cosmo Cricket (sentiment)

patterned paper - Cosmo Cricket

punches - Creative Memories (circle, square), EK Success (scalloped circle), Martha Stewart (loopy border)
die - Spellbinders

ink - Tsukineko, Papertrey Ink

Card 2

cardstock - Papertrey Ink, Stampin' Up!

stamps - Hero Arts

punches - Creative Memories (circle), Stampin Up! (small scallop border), EK Success (large embossed scallop border)

glitter glue - Ranger

ink - Tsukineko

die cut - Cricut cartridge Home Accents (sun)

Card 3

cardstock - Papertrey Ink, Stampin' Up!

stamps - Hero Arts

embossing folders - Cuttlebug

twine - Papertrey Ink

border punch - EK Success

ink - Tsukineko

Spring is in the Air

Nothing is better than the happy thoughts of spring. Even though we still have many inches of snow on the ground, I can't help but think of the colors of spring and everything being renewed. Just brings a smile to my face. Even now, the sun is shining and the temps are warming up, all is good.

Here is a springy card for you. The black doesn't really a spring color but I added for some boldness and to make the card pop a little more. And isn't that border awesome. I made that with my new scalloped border die from Papertrey Ink. They have three different scalloped sized to pick from.

Supplies:

cardstock - Papertrey Ink

stamps - Hero Arts (background of buttfly and card), Stampin Up! (sentiment)

twine - Stampin Up!

ink - Papertrey Ink, Tsukineko

die - Stampin Up! (butterfly), Papertrey Ink (scalloped border)

circle punchs - Creative Memories

Caardvarks Sticker Challenge

Hi everyone. It's the start of a new week and I am feeling like it is going to be a great one. The sun is shining, the snow is glistening, and all is calm. Even my kids are getting along, normally it isn't like that on Mondays.

Here is my card for the Caardvarks Sticker Challenge. All we have to do is use a sticker on our card and my present sticker is by EKSuccess. I just went with the colors of the sticker and designed my card around that. I love how bold and bright it turned out. Used two of my favorite punches on this card too. The loopy one is by Stampin Up! and the large scalloped on is by EKSuccess.

I have always wanted to do my sentiment on a banner like this, so I thought now was a good time to try it. Very happy with the results. Loving the added dimension to the card.

I hope you all have a great week!!

Supplies:

cardstock, patterned paper, - Papertrey Ink

stamp - Hero Arts

sticker - EKSuccess

punches - Stampin Up!, EKSuccess

ink - Tsukineko

Caardvarks Wedding Card Challenge

Hi everyone. Just popping in today to post my entry for the Caardvarks Challenge. The challenge is to create a wedding card and get this, the winner will get published in CARDS magazine. How awesome is that? So, I couldn't pass up on this opportunity. Check out the challenge HERE and all the amazing inspiration.

It was hard for me to pick colors for this challenge, there are so many possibilities. But since I knew I wanted to go with the Damask background for my card, I figured I would go with bold, elegant colors because that is what came to my mind with this background stamp. I heat embossed the sentiment and added a little bit of sparkle with my frame.

Supplies:

cardstock - Papertrey Ink, Stampin' Up!

stamps - Papertrey Ink (Damask Background), Hero Arts (Sentiment)

ink - Papertrey Ink, Versamark

embossing powder - American Crafts

glitter - Making Memories

flowers - Creative Memories

brad - BasicGrey

stick pins - craft supply

border punch - Stampin' Up!

Girly, You Rock!

Another new year and a new decade is upon us. I hope your 2009 was wonderful and that 2010 is even better. Everyone deserves to be happy so I wish all of you tons up happiness for the year to come.

So to go along with the theme of happiness, here is a cheery card for you. I just love the colors in this card, they are bright, fun and happy. I have been on a kick lately with butterflies and when I was shopping at Michaels a few weeks back, I came across this sizzix butterfly die and I had to have it especially when it was 40% off. What a deal and a great purchase because this baby will get some good use.

Hope you all have a fabulous week and that you are kicking 2010 off to a good start.

Supplies:

cardstock - Papertrey Ink

stamps - Hero Arts (polka dots), Papertrey Ink (sentiment)

ribbon - Cosmo Cricket

gems - Hero Arts

butterfly die cut - Sizzix die

border punch - Martha Stewart

scalloped circle - Cricut Stamping Cartridge

ink - Papertrey Ink, Tsukineko

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #16

I LOVE the fall and what better way to start the season early than with these awesome colors. I was so giddy when I saw the colors for this challenge. I could work with these colors all year long, never get sick of them.

It was so amazing how quick this card came together. I knew in my head how I wanted to do the design of this card and it all just kind of went from there. I used the new 2009 Autumn Tags set from Papertrey Ink for the stamps. For the background stamp though I used the Hero Arts Raindrop background stamp. I wanted to add some texture to this card as well so I embossed the brown cardstock with THIS Cuttlebug embossing folder and added some rustic twine.

Supplies:

cardstock - PTI (summer sunrise and dark chocolate), Stampin Up! (kraft, very vanilla)

stamps - PTI, Hero Arts

ink - Memento

twine - PTI

other - Cuttlebug embossing folder, Stampin Up! exclusive Sizzix die cut, EKsuccess circle and scalloped punch

Thank You, Hero Arts!!! Blog Hop

Hi Everyone. Thanks for visiting my site for the blog hop that Ashley created to thank Hero Arts for being such a great company. I couldn't agree with her more and I appreciate the thought and time she put into this to make this happen. Thanks to you too, Ashley!! And if you want to follow along on the blog hop, visit HERE and have fun!!

So, without further ado, here is the Thank You card I created for Hero Arts to show them that I appreciate all they do and the wonderful products they create. You couldn't find a more creative, kind, generous, eco friendlier company than Hero Arts. And for all those who run, design and work for the company they are great as well. We all so much love and appreciate everyone who has a hand in making Hero Arts a successful company. Kudos to you!!!


For this card I used my favorite stamps, the heart winged butterfly and the raindrop background, and my new favorite stamp, dots and flowers. Here are the numbers for them in case you want some enabling.
F5158 - Heart Winged Butterfly
S5213 - Dots and Flowers
S5101 - Raindrop Background
and I also used CL142 - Clear Design Thank You Messages

To go along with this blog hop Ashley came up with a couple of questions for all of us to answer, so here we go:

1. How did you get started using Hero Arts products? While visiting Jennifer McGuire's blog one day she mentioned about a new blog going up called the Hero Arts blog. And I had never heard of Hero Arts before and so I thought I would visit there and see what it was. Come to find out it was this wonderful stamp company who decided to start a blog to showcase their products and to give us all inspiration for creating. Right then and there I was hooked and I made my first order shortly after that. And my ordering hasn't stopped since. I am now a proud owner of many Hero Art stamps and I love everyone of them.

2. Tell us why you are thankful for Hero Arts. I am most thankful for Hero Arts for bringing out the stamping side of me. Their daily inspiration and great products were enough to really bring out all my creativity. Also, I am thankful for their generousity. They are such a kind, stamping family and are always giving. It is amazing the prizes they give away all for just being a part of the Hero Arts club. How wonderful is that? And one other thing I am thankful for is the great Hero Arts flickr family. Those girls are the best and I look forward to creating with them and talking with them. You couldn't find a nicer group of people, they are a family to me.

Last Post Before Our Vacation

Hi all. I just wanted to get one last post on my crafting blog before we go on vacation. We are going to Maine this year and with the whole Batta Family. It should be so much fun and we are anticipating some beautiful scenery and wonderful hiking adventures. Not to mention the ocean and lighthouses. I am so excited to see the lighthouses, don't know why, but I am. I just think of it as a beautiful work of solitary architecture along the shoreline. A beacon of hope for many ships who once passed. A lot of history in some of those lighthouses. I plan on taking many pictures and posting them on my family blog so watch for that in my sidebar under Family Blog.



This first LO I did was for a Hero Arts challenge. We had to create something with the theme vacation in mind. And speaking of vacation, these pictures are from 7 years ago when we all went to Montana. I don't know why I haven't scrapped them yet, I am thinking it is because I did a 12x12 album which takes so much long than an 8x8 album (which I have done for all our vacations since). No better time than the present, right?

Here is my second LO for you. This was also created for the Hero Arts Challenge. And I am still using the same vacation pictures from Montana. These little paper flowers I made are so simple to do. I just tore out three large circles from cardstock and three smaller circles. I then crumpled them up and curled the edges a little and then put a solid black circle in the center with a light blue brad. If you would like to create these but with a little more flare and more colors, visit this post HERE on Dawn McVey's blog. She is the master and creator of these beautiful flowers.

I hope you all have a wonderful upcoming week. Be thinking of me when I fly out Saturday morning at 5am on a 44 seat plane. I am a little freaked out about riding on that stinkin, small plane. But it is only to Minneapolis. I can do this. Or maybe I can do this with a little tranquillizer. :)

Supplies River Rafting:

cardstock - Bazzill Basics Paper

patterned paper - October Afternoon

stamps - Hero Arts

gems - Hero Arts

letter stickers - American Crafts

journaling sheet - Making Memories

butterfly punch - Martha Stewart

ink - Memento (black), Colorbox (blue)

Supplies Going to the Sun Road:

cardstock - Bazzill Basics Paper

patterned paper - October Afternoon

stamps - Hero Arts

letter stickers - Adornit (black), American Crafts (white and blue)

ink - Memento

brads - BasicGrey

One Wild Party

Here is a LO I did for my son's birthday. I got the color inspiration from the string of triangles across the bottom of the photos. I cut those out of some American Craft patterned paper. Big bold colors should be used for birthdays anyway.

I couldn't resist using THESE cute little animals stamps from Hero Arts. It was a chore cutting them all out, but I didn't mind it too much. I tend to like the art of cutting sometimes. I just thought the stamps go great with my title, One Wild Party.

Supplies:

cardstock - Bazzill Basics Paper

stamps - Hero Arts

patterned paper - American Crafts

letter stickers - American Crafts

ink - Memento

Birthday Wishes

HI!!! Here is a card I did for a challenge at the Hero Arts Blog. The challenge was to create a card inspired by one of the winaday on the blog contest winners. As I was looking through all the beautiful cards by the lovely winners, I instantly fell in love with THIS card by Linda. What I loved the most was the weaving and the big, beautiful flower.

So, to create my card I started with some awesome October Afternoon patterned paper called Ducks in a Row. I cut those papers into .5 X 5.25 inches and weaved them onto my cardstock. This got a little tricky trying to adhere those strips down because I have a tendency to be a perfectionist and I wanted them all to line up perfectly. Lo and behold, I did it. Next I created my flower by cutting three different sized circles and cutting notches out of them to make petals. I then stamped them with Hero Arts background stamps and distressed the edges. To finish off my card I sewed some buttons on for the leaves of the flower. Really, pretty simple but a little time consuming. All worth it though.

Supplies:

cardstock - Stampin Up!

patterned paper - October Afternoon

stamps - Hero Arts

floss - DMC

buttons - ?

ink - Colorbox (blue), Memento (brown)

brad - BasicGrey

Father's Day Cards

Here are the cards I sent out for Father's Day. Actually I sent two out and just handed the one to my amazing hubby. The first card I made for my hubby, the second card for Curt's dad and the last card for my dad. It is really hard for me to make masculine cards sometimes especially when I am making a bunch at once, but I liked how these turned out. I always seem to want to add a feminine touch to all my cards and so I have resist that with masculine cards. I even carefully choose my border punches because even some of those I consider feminine. Hopefully someday this will get easier for me.

Supplies (card #1)

cardstock - Stampin Up!

stamps - Hero Arts

patterned paper - October Afternoon

letter stickers - American Crafts

ink - Colorbox (blue), Memento (brown)

Supplies (card #2)

cardstock - Stampin Up!

stamps - Stampin Up!

patterned paper - BasicGrey

twine - Papertrey Ink

ink - Memento

embossing folder - Cuttlebug

Supplies (card#3)

cardstock - Stampin Up!

stamps - Papertrey Ink

border punch - Fiskars

embossing powder - Hero Arts (white)

ink - Colorbox (blue), Versamark (for embossing)

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #9

Aren't these colors beautiful for this weeks challenge? I love this picture, this would inspire me as well to use these colors for this challenge. I was very inspired to make a masculine card because the colors are perfect and I never have enough of those. Who is with me here when I say that masculine cards are not easy to create. I always go into a creative block when I need a masculine card. Thanks for the inspiration Dawn to get my mojo flowing for this card.

As you can see, a very simple card. I don't feel you need a lot to please the eye sometimes. For this card, to make it appealing, it is all about the placement of the sentiment and the leaves. Having it offset from the center of the card makes you notice it more. To keep the background from being drab, I stamped THIS polka dot background by Hero Arts.

If you have some time. You need to take a look at this weeks entries for this challenge. There are some really beautiful cards in there. Scroll down on the post and just click on the individual names and it will take you to their card they made. Thanks for all the great inspiration ladies.

Supplies:

cardstock - Bazzill Basics Paper

stamps - Hero Arts (background and sentiment), Stampin Up! (leaves and frame)

ink - Memento

Dancing Girl

This is a scrapbook page I did for a Hero Arts challenge. The week's challenge was to use polka dots on our creations. I don't have a lot of stamps with polka dots but I do have plenty of patterned paper with it. The fun part was trying to pick out what paper I wanted. I had this Pink Paislee scalloped circle for a while and thought to give it a try.

You have to love the journaling sprouts by Jillibean Soup. Check out the sprouts HERE and HERE. They are so great and come in a variety of colors. I used a couple on this page to fit all my jounaling and it worked out pretty good to line them up so my words kept flowing. And if you notice my colors, I went off the colors in the patterned paper to create this page. At first I didn't know how it would all look, but I ended up very happy with the end result and I think the colors make the page stand out.

Supplies:

cardstock - Bazzill Basics Paper

patterned paper - Pink Paislee

stamps - Hero Arts

flowers - Maya Road (yellow and blue), Bazzill (large Black), Prima (small black)

gems - Hero Arts

journaling sprouts - Jillibean Soup

letter stickers - Adornit

corner rounders - Creative Memories

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #8

Here are the fun, beautiful colors we get to play with this week for Dawn's color challenge. That chair is gorgeous and the pink color in it is the first color I see when I look at the chair, even though the chair is predominantly tan. I wanted to make my card like that as well. I wanted the pink in the card to pop out at you and be the first thing you look at when you see my card. I hope I succeeded in that attempt.

It was so fun to create with these colors. I am a sucker for pink when it comes to cards because I don't get to use it a whole lot on my scrapbook pages having only one girl and three boys. But with cards, I get to use it more for all the wonderful girls and ladies in my life that I can make cards for. Thanks again for another great challenge, Dawn!!

For the flower in this card I first cut out three different sized circles and then I notched out little sections around the circles to make petals. It isn't perfectly done, but that is what I like about it. And then I inked around the edges to make the petals stand out more. And finally I curved up the petals on each of the layers to add depth to my flower and added a large brad. Fun and easy.

Supplies:

cardstock - Stampin Up!

stamps - Papertrey Ink, Hero Arts (sentiment)

ink - Colorbox

gems - Hero Arts

border punch - Stampin Up!

brad - ?

Thinking of You Makes Me Smile

Just a simple card today. I don't have a lot of time now-a-days to sit at the computer very long. This summer has been busy, busy, busy. Not only do the boys have swim team and baseball for Zach, but we have taken on the task of painting our house. We are in the process now of scraping. Fun stuff. By the time I get to the computer at night, I am too pooped to stay on long enough to post some cards and scrapbook pages. It also seems like having everyone home during the day, there is endless cleaning up to do. I have a feeling the boys are going to get really good at the dishes this summer. :)

This card is done with an awesome stamp I got from Hero Arts (the Thinking of You Makes Me Smile stamp)for getting an honorable mention on one of their challenges. I also got a few other fun things as well like the flowers on the card. I couldn't wait to use all my goodies so I made this card late one night to play around with my stuff.

Supplies:

cardstock - Stampin Up

patterned paper - Cosmo Cricket

stamps - Hero Arts

flowers - Hero Arts

pearls - Hero Arts

ink - Memories Ink (white), Colorbox (rest of it)

colored pencils - EK Success

Kristina Werner Color Inspiration #51

Hi! I have another card for you for color inspiration #51. I love the look of these colors together. I think they go good for preteen and teen girls. They are bold and beautiful colors and it shouts girl power to me. :) And because of that, I made this card with a special girl in mind who has a birthday coming up.

The butterfly on this card was done by heat embossing in white on brown cardstock and then I went back and filled in the hearts on the butterfly with cinnamon stickles to make them shine and sparkle. Every girl loves a little sparkle, right? The card itself was cut out with my Cricut using the storybook cartridge. Love all the different shapes in that cartridge, a must have for scrapbookers or cardmakers.

Supplies:

cardstock - Stampin Up!

stamps - Hero Arts

embossing powder - Hero Arts

glitter - Stickles

ink - Memento

pen - Signo Uniball