Oops!

I'm glad the last 7 days are over! They haven't been bad or anything, just busy. I made 60 wedding invitations for my sister and her fiance and as it came down to the last, I had all sorts of computer and printing issues. Luckily for me, my husband's an IT guy so he can fix anything like that, but it was still a huge annoyance when I was relying on the computer to finish these things. But they're all done and in the mail and next week I'll do a blog post about them. (I don't want to post pictures before my sister has even seen it in person!) So I am posting a picture of a random card instead.

My husband has a co-worker who buys my cards from time to time and last Tuesday night as we were getting into bed, my husband handed me a Post-It note with some details on it and said his co-worker needed the card and a gift card holder by Thursday. Even though I had many other things to do on Wednesday (Emily's wedding invitations, a Dodger game in the evening, Father's Day cards), I never like to turn down requests. So I spent most of Wednesday working on the card--the co-worker wanted to spend $15-$20 on the set and that meant a lot of details, customization and even a custom envelope. Not an easy nor quick job! So this card was for "Georgie" who was 16 and graduating from high school. I got the card mostly done, did some laundry, and a couple of other things, and we left for LA at 3pm.

{Side note: We live in Orange County and it takes 45 minutes to get to LA when there is no traffic. Thing is, there's ALWAYS traffic! That's why we left so early for a 7:10 game. However, we made excellent time and got to Dodge Stadium at 4:30. At the gate, they told us to turn around and come back at 5:10! So we did and it was really cool because we got to watch both teams (they played the Oakland A's) warm up and take batting practice. We had pretty good seats, too--close to the field--and the A's used to be my favorite team so I still root for them. I don't know too many players by name anymore, but it was still cool when they won (although, with all of their dropped balls, they really shouldn't have!}.

I digress...We didn't get home until 12:30am and I still had to finish the gift card holder so I stayed up until 2am to finish it. I gave it to my husband to take to work the next morning and he saw the flowers and said, "It's for a dude!" I just assumed "Georgie" was a girl (his coworker has always gotten cards for girls, never guys). So it's true what they say...Never assume! Oh, well, I still love this card and fortunately, de-customizing it was pretty easy. I hand-stitched on felt for the first time which was pretty time-consuming but I really love the way it looks and the soft texture that felt adds to the card.

{The cardstock and ribbon are from Papertrey Ink; the orange paper is Doodlebug Design, the "journey..." paper is K&Co., and the flowers are from Petaloo.}

Black is the Colour

This is the color challenge for the week over on Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite blog:

It ended up being a really great color combination and here is my card (click on picture for larger image):

My card is soft and romantic and the black tulle even makes it a little sexy, I think. I used Leaf from Paper Source as my green shade and used some 7 Gypsies decorative paper and a piece of old sheet music. The black glitter letters are from American Crafts and the pearl stick pin is Maya Road. I made the cream flower out of wire ribbon and some black tulle circles, plus a button and some adhesive pearls from Kaisercraft. For something a different, I cut a piece of black tulle a little bit bigger than the size of my card and hand-stitched it to my decorated papers.


That's all for today!

Sweet Violet

My sweet niece Violet recently turned 2 in April and she's already a total ham. I don't get to see her much since my sister (Emily) and her family are still on the East Coast while I am on the West Coast, but I get lots of pictures and hear lots of stories. She always gets on the phone to say "Hi" to me when I'm talking to Emily and the other day I was surprised to hear that she had picked up a southern accent somewhere. They have always lived in upstate New York so I don't know how Miss Violet developed her southern inflection, but it sure is cute! "Hi Aunt Beck" suddenly became "Ha Aint Back."

Here is a photo Arvin took of Violet and me when we visited a month after she was born:


(He was experimenting with a new camera and I was wearing a salmon-colored shirt! He LOVES his cameras!)
And here is Violet a couple weeks ago:


What a silly little tomboy! Emily said she makes that face a lot.

Emily and Mike took her to the Buffalo Zoo on her birthday this year and coincidentally, I made her a card with an elephant on it.


I used a Basic Grey chipboard elephant, a journal diecut from Making Memories, and a "happy birthday" stamp from Pink Persimmon. I stitched a piece of lace onto the diecut for some texture. I don't think Violet's old enough to appreciate this kind of stuff yet, but she is one of my most favorite people to make cards for.

Hope you had a great weekend. I can't believe the stupid Lakers won the NBA Championship. I HATE them! It was so great when they lost last year. Ah, memories...

Tickled Pink

I decided to participate in another Pink Persimmon challenge. This time we had to make a card using pink and orange (you know, like a persimmon!) and I love that color combination. I really wanted to use some of their stamps and in the course of my card design I tried a few different things. In the end, however, I ended up using just one of their stamps and it's really small! But it's very fitting ("tickled pink"). It's from the Ric Rac stamp set and it's curved, but I straightened it out (ah, the beauty of clear stamps).

Here is the card I made:


{I used supplies from Maya Road (chipboard butterflies), Doodlebug Design & Sassafras Lass (Paper), Stampin' Up! (word window punch), K & Company (flower vine stamp), Papertrey Ink (pink button, ink)}


I also decided to do a quick tutorial on painting the chipboard butterflies from Maya Road. It was pretty easy and I probably don't need to talk anyone through this process, but I know that when I started out making things, I always liked how-to's and getting tips from other crafters--I still do. (Click on any of the pictures to view a larger image.)

1. I started out with my plain butterflies...

2. The light pink acrylic paint is from Plaid and it's called "Ballet Pink." The darker, glittery pink is from Making Memories and it's called..."Tickled Pink!" Perfect!
3. My sponges are just foam makeup wedges. They work really well and you can wash them out and re-use them when you're done. I also use a piece of cardboard underneath and squeeze a little paint right onto that, then dip the sponge into it. Really convenient and nothing fancy.

4. I applied 2 coats of Ballet Pink as my base. It dries pretty quickly but I used the overturned lid of a yogurt cup to rest it on. If there's any wet paint on the underside of the butterfly, it will stick to the cardboard.

5. Next I applied 1 coat of the glitter paint. You can apply more if you want--the amount of coverage you want is up to you.

6. Just let dry (I placed it on the yogurt lid again) and then you're all done!


Because this chipboard piece has little cutouts in it, I decided to adhere it to an old book page (another of my $1 books!). Then I cut around it with pinking sheers and inked the edges of the paper with Raspberry Fizz ink.

I hope you enjoyed my card and my easy tutorial. Have a great weekend!

Remember To Dream

Betsy Veldman has a fun challenge going on and I thought I would play along since the rules are to find pictures of things on the web that inspire your design style and then make a card based on them. I love finding things like that. I think everyone has a personal style, but I'm not sure what mine is, exactly. Feminine, soft, and pretty, definitely; and I do love color. Aside from that, though, I just like interesting things. But I can't say that I don't like "simple" cards because, depending on what kind of mood I'm in, I might be inclined to make a simple card. So I hesitate to define my style since I like to think it is always changing. That doesn't mean I didn't LOVE taking part in this challenge, though! (And I'm always turning to Betsy's blog for inspiration...She does amazing things with color.)

I always, always, always get inspired by things in the Anthropologie catalog so I started looking there.

I love this pretty top with fabric roses on it. I was expecting to find some prints on their site since that's usually what attracts me--the shower curtains and aprons and bedding--but I have been on a kick lately of making my own 3-D flowers so I think that's why I was drawn to this shirt...

...and to this headband. I have also been obsessed with tulle as of late so, along with the flowers, it's really speaking to what I'm into now. (And I just think it's so pretty!) I can't wait to make my own tulle flowers.

I have been using buttons and lace on my recent cards, as well. I love the vintage, well-worn look and this picture, courtesy of the French General blog, The Warp and the Weft, captures that feeling wonderfully! I wish my studio was filled with things like this, but I can thank my mom for getting me started by giving me a bag of her grandmother's vintage buttons.

And finally, I recently bought this book at a used bookstore. My $1 copy is not an original Cecily Mary Barker, but a 2003 edition by Frederick Warne, based on her books and images. I bought a bunch of $1 books to use for crafting and I fell in love with this book as soon as I saw it. I've been wanting to use a page from it since I got it and the colors fit perfectly with the inspiration photos I chose.

So here is my finished product:

The fairy image is from the book and I added glitter to her wings and some of the flowers. I made the rosette from some cream wired ribbon, a button, and cream tulle, then trimmed the card with a couple different pieces of lace and a strip of green twill. The word stamps are from Crafty Secrets.

Thanks for the challenge and the chance to play along, Betsy! I wish I could put bright colors together like you can!

Simple Comforts From Mom

Just popping in quick tonight to show you a sweet, feminine card I made inspired by my mom. As soon as I saw the vintagey label from Melissa Frances, I immediately thought of my mom and all things "home." (OK, that includes you, too, Dad!) My parents' home has a folk-country style and my mom puts out a lot of quilts and antiques and candles and so this sticker reminds me of growing up in New York. Even the jute twine I tied onto the tag makes me think of being out in the vineyard with my dad. August and September are the best months to be there for the smell of the grapes ripe and ready for harvesting but I love, love, love NY summers! June 27th is my dad's birthday and that means strawberry shortcake! Fresh, locally grown berries and big, fluffy biscuits...I miss it!

I didn't mean to be so nostalgic, but, well, that's the feeling this card is supposed to invoke. This one's for my mom but I just posted a very similar one in my ShopHandmade store.

Extra is on TV right now--you know, the gossip show? I NEVER watch it (more of an E! fan for celebrity gossip!). I'm in my little studio working away at the blog and a few other things so it's just on in the background. I have a headache right now and I've had it for the last few hours. I just learned from Extra that because it's on just one side of my head, it could be a leaking aneurysm and I might be dying. Yes, that was one of their stories tonight--5 Things You Don't Know That Might Kill You! So, just letting you know that this could be my last-ever blog post! (But let's hope not...)

Have a good night!

Praise From Mallory

I wouldn't normally praise myself, or should I say, I would never devote an entire blog post to self-praise. But, this is a special circumstance and actually, I'm not praising myself; I'm just sharing with you some praise I got from someone else. This is a picture of my cousin's 5-year-old daughter Mallory:


It was taken at our wedding back in August, 2007, when Mallory was 3. Isn't she sweet? She is still and always has been very intelligent. I always look forward to hearing stories from her mother (Erin) about the impossibly random things she says. Example: A couple of years ago Mallory had done something she wasn't supposed to do and when her father (Zach) reprimanded her and explained to her why she shouldn't have done it, she simply looked at him and said, "Thank you for telling me all of those words." She was only 3!

For Mother's Day I sent this card to Erin:


A few days later I got an email from her and this is what Mallory said about the card from me:
"Becky is so good at making cards. I think she is the best person in the world at making cards. I would never tell her she's bad at making cards because she's so good. She should be a card maker when she grows up."

Thank you Mallory! That's the best compliment I've ever gotten! I know I'm not the best card maker out there, but I certainly do enjoy creating them and would love to be a card maker when I grow up! I'm trying...(I just put this card in my ShopHandmade store.)

Thanks for letting me be a little self-indulgent today!