A Happy Hello

Here is a card that I am using for 3 different card challenges.

Inspire me Fridays- #77
Twisted Tuesdays- Back to Basics
Make it Monday- #108

This is also my card for the next Card Swap I am doing. The theme is Thinking of You cards. A simple sweet card to brighten anyone's day!

~CJ

EKK! Halloween Card

I saw this sketch on Twisted Tuesday Challenge and knew I wanted to participate. I love this layout! So simple and yet the possibilities are endless. The twist was no ribbon or trim could be used. Here is my take on it...

 To make this card I used white solid card stock and black and white patterned paper. (Perfect use of scraps) I cut the ends of the pattern to form a banner type look. The Ekk shape was cut with the cricut. I handwrote EKK in black marker. And added googly eyes with glue dots. I inked all the edges in black. I'm falling in love with this technique thanks to my Sister-in-law Ashlee.

I love the googly eyes and the spookiness it brings to the card!

I'm so ready for Fall and Halloween. I have a Fall decoration coming up soon that is cheap and easy! 

~CJ

Bridal Shower: Invites

My Best Friend is getting Married!!!

I can't believe it, it's so exciting. Amy and I have known each other forever! Literally! At least for me since she is almost a year older than me. Our families have been friends since before we were even thoughts in our parents minds. I am so happy that she has found her eternal companion!

With the excitement of her getting married, I get to throw her a bridal shower! I love throwing parties! Amy is the only girl in her family so growing up I was like a sister to her. So as her Sister I want this party to be over the top. (My over the top and your over the top are most likely different. My over the top is probably your thrown together in a few hours.)

The shower is tomorrow so I have been SUPER busy getting things ready. It is looking awesome! Can't wait. So to get you as excited as I am, here is a look at the invites I made!

She decided she liked the colors Yellow and Brown for her Bridal Shower. It seems a little baby shower-ish so to make it less baby I found some coordinating paper with purple. So the colors are going to be yellow, brown and purple as the accent color.

I love how they turned out. I made 40 of them and between paper, envelopes, and recipe cards it was less than $10. Gotta love it!

We are doing a door prize at the shower. Sent with the invitations was a recipe card. Guests were asked to fill it out and bring it to the shower. We'll randomly pick 1 or 2 and that guest will win a prize! Who doesn't need more recipes? And better yet who doesn't love prizes?!?! Hopefully there is a lot of participation.

 I found the recipe cards at Michaels, regularly $1 on clearance for $.50, plus I had a 15% entire purchase coupon. I bought 3 so there would be a variety of design. Artichoke, lettuce, and mushrooms. At first I didn't really like them, but they are kind of growing on me.

 All the paper was bought at Joanns for 5 for $1 plus 20% off because they were doing college discount! Love it!

Stay tuned for the rest of the Bridal Shower Details!!! Hopefully I'll get right on them and not post pone it too much.

~CJ

See more about this shower
Decorations

Linked to these parties

Swap Week: Homemade Cards

Today's swap idea is one that I'm pretty sure I have mentioned before. Card swap! We make a homemade card, and bring all the supplies for everyone to make that card.  So we leave with a bunch of different cards. I love doing stuff like this, it is so much easier and cheaper to make stuff mass produced. It has been so much fun and I have learned so many fun techniques.

We try to have a theme like masculine, Birthday, brides and babes, Christmas, Thank you, blank cards, etc. We have even done gift bags.

My own personal goal is not buying anything. It's great because my stash of stuff I'll never use is dwindling! Each card doesn't have to be the same. Like I did here, the layout is the same, but the paper is different. Great for getting rid of scraps.

I have become really good at making cards, the hard part is giving them away. I don't give cards out as much as I make them. Plus everyone in our swap group makes such cute cards I don't want to give them away!

Rainbow Gift Bag

For over 2 years now I have been part of a card club. I use to attend classes at the nearby Scrapbook store. After 2 times I realized, I could do this myself... for FREE! I asked friends and family if they would want to do it and 2 1/2 years later we are still going strong!

Basically what happens is we pick a theme (or just do a free for all) and everyone comes up with their card design. Then on the night of the swap they bring supplies for everyone to make their card. It is so much fun and we are all learning new things!

We meet about every other month and have between 10-15 people come. It's awesome!

This past swap we decided to change things up a bit and do gift bags instead of cards. Including tag and matching tissue paper. Here is my gift bag.

 I just did strips of paper in all the rainbow colors.

 I threw a quote on it to add a little extra touch. "Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams you dare to dream really do come true."

Then for the tag I put dream big with an orange stone. I was pleased with my design. Everyone had such great ideas!

~CJ

Do a lot of paper crafting? Learn how to make your very own glue dots here!

Linking to:

Card Challenge-Celebrate!

I love cardmaking! It is so much fun. I'm not very creative though to come up with layouts on my own sometimes. I have come across a few websites that have challenges. They will give you a sketch and you create something based on the sketch. My 2 favorites are Mojo Monday and Pals Paper Art. Pals Paper Arts will sometimes change things up and give a color combo instead which it fun. Both challenges are laid back and very supportive. If you want to feel good about your creations link up to these websites!

This weeks challenges are somewhat similar so it worked out. I was able to create something using both layouts. Here are the sketches for Mojo 241 and PPA135 and my creation.

I actually created 2 cards because I had enough supplies and I couldn't choose. However I think they are similar enough.

They both use the same papers purchased at Joanns

Glittery Orange

Light Pink

Yellow

Happy Birthday

Everything was held together with homemade glue dots see how to make your own here.

The stamp is used from INKADINKADO #97628 Birthday Cupcake in black ink.

The card on the left is embellished with a light blue button and a white bow tied with embroidery floss.

The card in the right is embellished with green, orange, and blue glittery brads from the brand We R Memory Keepers- Peep

I think they turned out nice and colorful. I picture it being for a DIVA, but really what girl wouldn't love a glittery birthday card?

Here they are again...

Linking to: