Sock Monkey Thank You Card

Sock Monkey Thank You Card
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I have a friend who loves sock monkeys and wears bow ties as his signature tie of choice. I was wondering if somewhere across the universe, was there such a thing a sock monkey bow tie? I searched for it; found it on Etsy; “liked it”; and ordered the last one! Unfortunately, when I “liked” it, my activity was pushed to Facebook and my friend happened to see it IMMEDIATELY. He commented that he was very sad I wouldn’t have tagged him when I shared about it – ummm, that’s because I didn’t mean for you to see it! It’s a surprise! I’m glad he forgot all about it when I finally delivered it to him in person. Here is my goofy friend Brian Copeland with his bow tie (let’s give him credit for tying it right after eating a piece of fried chicken and without using a mirror) and his sock monkey card!

Brian Copeland with his Sock Monkey Tie and Sock Monkey Card

Brian Copeland with his Sock Monkey Tie and Sock Monkey Card

I used my retired Sock Monkey stamp set from Stampin’ Up! to create the card. The ribbon was a piece I re-used from a cellophane bag of marshmallows found at Whole Foods. Yep, I saved the ribbon that tied the package together and smoothed the wrinkles away with my Chi flat-iron. It was the only piece of ribbon from my stash that worked with this card! I used colored pencils, colored paper and double-sided foam tape to complete the card.  I also rubbed the edges of cardstock with ink and a sponge dauber, drew faux stitching and used my favorite label punch from Stampin’ Up!

Sock Monkey Thank You Card

Sock Monkey Thank You Card

Here’s another angle of the card. Isn’t this little guy sweet?

Sock Monkey Holding Flowers

Sock Monkey Holding Flowers

This is the sock monkey bow tie. The seller was very prompt to mail it and I was happy with the service. I checked and it looks like they made another tie! They also have baby sock monkey bow ties.

Sock Monkey Bow Tie

Un-Tied Sock Monkey Bow Tie

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Wicked!

Wicked!
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Last week I was blessed enough to see the Broadway musical Wicked for the first time… twice!  I’d wanted to see it since it debuted ages ago and I’m so happy I finally got to see it.  Wicked was EXCELLENT!!  The sets, wigs, costumes, songs, acting – it was all incredible.  I’m so happy I watched “The Wizard of Oz” (for the first time in probably 25 years) the night before seeing Wicked for the first time because it help set the stage for the musical.

My fiance bought front row center seats for his daughter, himself and me and then his daughter and I went again a few days later and also had incredible seats.  We only planned on going once, but Dale donated $20 to Broadway Cares and tossed his name in for the raffle for the grand prize. At the end of each run of a musical in a particular city, one solo winner’s name is pulled from a bucket. That winner gets to have a walk-on role on stage in Wicked!  Well, after Wednesday night’s show, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West), drew my fiance’s name from the bucket and he won the grand prize!! He got to be on stage three times; Elphaba mentioned his name twice after the show and he got to take a bow with the cast!! His daughter and I got to watch from our seats and afterwards we were treated to a set tour; dressing room and costume & wig room tours; any questions we had about the production were answered by the friendly stage manager; we got to take some photos; and Elphaba (Mamie Parris) signed a glossy photo of herself for Dale’s daughter!! It was a very special evening – one that none of us will ever forget.

Dale Chumbley in Wicked Broadway Portland

Dale Backstage in "Wicked" Broadway Across America in Portland

To commemorate his very special Broadway debut, I made Dale a card that resembled the program and promotional poster for the musical.  I started with a white cardstock base and added a piece of 4.25″ x 5.5″ black card stock to cover the front.  Then I created the illusion of Elphaba and Glinda by adding shapes from green, pink and white cardstock I cut by hand.  I used some pens and colored pencils to fill in the faces and add shading to Glinda’s hand and face, and it came together more quickly than I expected.  I was so excited to give him this card and he loved it!

My WICKED Card

My WICKED Card

 

My Wicked Card - card detail

My Wicked Card - showing the paper layers

Here’s a picture of Dale with Elphaba and Glinda (played by the hilarious & lovely Alli Mauzey) right after the show!  Sorry for the zombie eyes – the set was really dark back there.  That’s The Great Oz behind them.

Dale Chumbley with Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked Broadway Portland

Dale with Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked Broadway Portland

Comparison between my card and the Wicked program

Comparison between my card and the Wicked program

Thanks for reading my blog, and have a Wicked good day!

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XOXO Card

XOXO Card
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Maybe I should be blogging about Spring or Easter cards, but I still have a handful of Valentines to share on my blog. I didn’t plan on my website being down for most of February and March, so here is one last Valentine for a while.

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I made this card quite quickly because I used a DCWV card. DCWV (Die Cuts With a View) makes beautiful paper packs of coordinating card stock. They sell them in bulk single color sheets or in printed sheets with foil, flocking, glitter and shiny embossing. DCWV also makes boxes of pre-made card bases and matching envelopes. Not feeling too crafty, but you like pretty paper? Buy one of their card boxes and they are pretty enough to write in. But for that “Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee” type of crafter, these boxes of cards are great for making easy and fast cards.

I added a strip of shimmery celery green card stock to this card and finished it with a sticker from K & Company, a crystal heart sticket, and some stickers from my stash – probably from some scrapbook club junk mail. I think the result was a masculine, handsome card.

Thanks for reading my blog! I need to go work on some Easter cards now…

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Thanks a Bunch – Black Floral Card

Thanks a Bunch – Black Floral Card
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I was shopping at my local craft store when I came across the clearance section. Oh, how I love a good bargain! I came across a small bundle of adorable “thanks a bunch” paper tags in the bin – I think they were made by EK Success. At fifty cents each, I bought the whole bundle of six or so because I figured they would make card-making very easy. I had recently purchased some craft paper I’d wanted to use and the colors in these tags went so well with that paper pack! This card below is just one of a handful of cards I made with these tags.

Thanks a Bunch - Black Floral Card

Thanks a Bunch - Black Floral Card

I inserted an embellished brad into the top of the tag and secured it to the card (kraft paper with the pretty scrap paper on top) and then punched each corner of the card with my nifty new-used corner notching tool and tied embroidery floss around it.

Punched Edge

Punched Edge

Thanks a Bunch - Black Floral Card

Thanks a Bunch - Black Floral Card

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Happy Birthday Button Card

Happy Birthday Button Card
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This card was inspired by one I saw published in Paper Crafts magazines, but I put my own twist on it. I selected colorful buttons that I bought in the sewing section of the craft store (because they are less expensive than the ones sold in the paper crafts aisle) and glued them in a rainbow row onto some cardstock I had mounted onto some black paper. Then I adhered it onto a card I had made with white and black card stock and some cheerful green birthday paper. I lined the edge of the card with my silver leafing pen and handed it to my friend Sarah, for her birthday. :-)

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I love the perspective and dimension in is photo:

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Thanks for reading my blog!

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Mushroom, Pineapple and Pepperoni Pizza Card

Mushroom, Pineapple and Pepperoni Pizza Card
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You may recall seeing my pizza cards before, but this one is different – it has mushrooms, pineapple and pepperoni on the pizza!  Not too long ago, I enjoyed a pizza night with my guy and his kids, and we had fun watching him toss dough in the air like he did years ago when he worked in a pizza parlor.  I made my home-made dough and we bought several toppings so we could each make pizzas tailored to the way we like them.  Here’s the card I made for him when I showed up at his house for Pizza Night:

Mushroom and Pineapple Pizza Card

Mushroom and Pineapple Pizza Card

I tell ya, for someone who is afraid of mushrooms, it wasn’t easy to make the paper look like them. I used colored pencils, colored paper, an eraser, different markers (burgundy, black and white) and my secret weapon: double-sided foam tape in the making of this card.

close-up of the mushroom pizza card

close-up of the mushroom pizza card

And here are a few pictures from that night. :-)

Dale Tossing Pizza

Dough Tosser - photo by Stephanie

My Pizza Pie!

My Pizza Pie!

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A Snowflake Valentine

A Snowflake Valentine
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Since it’s Spring, it made sense to share this SNOWFLAKE card.  You disagree?  Well, here in the Pacific Northwest it snowed on the first day of Spring and the day after, so… just sayin’.

Sparkly Snowflake

Sparkly Snowflake

To make this card, I used a glittery DCWV card base and embellished it with XOXO paper, sparkly silver snowflake brads, silver glitter gel, chipboard and a dimensional snowflake sticker!  Voila – easy!

I "Heart" You Snowflake Card

I "Heart" You Snowflake Card

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Real Estate BarCamp Cards #REBCSEA

Real Estate BarCamp Cards #REBCSEA
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Sorry for the unplanned hiatus, everyone. Getting hacked with malware, Google ads, and my site getting redirected to a site in Indonesia may have stopped my ability to blog but it didn’t stop me from making cards!  I’ve hired some professionals to keep my blog clean, so now I’m back to blogging again – or at least for today. ;-)

Last year I had the privilege of being part of the planning committee for Real Estate BarCamp in Seattle. No, it has nothing to do with bars or drinking – but just go with me on this. It’s basically a fun day of learning, sharing, networking, and laughing at an informal “un-conference” for professionals in the real estate industry. After all of our planning was complete, and the fun BarCamp (#REBCSEA on Twitter) was over, I made these cards to thank my fellow committee members for a very successful BarCamp.

Real Estate BarCamp 2011 Card

Real Estate BarCamp 2011 Card

#REBCSEA 2011 Cards

#REBCSEA 2011 Cards

I used my Cricit Expression machine to cut the silver rectangle frame and the green banner and then used a silver marker to write REBCSEA ’11.  I took the event’s logo and enlarged it and cut it out for the front of the card and embellished it with dimensional silver stickers.  I also printed out tiny logos to adhere to the envelope to seal it, after running the seals through my Xyron mini machine, which turned them into stickers.

Thanks for reading my blog!

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“I Love You” Card

“I Love You” Card
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This Valentine card started with another DCWV “La Creme” black card base. I bought a box of the black and white “card starts” that come with matching envelopes and I’m having fun embellishing them and transforming them into finished cards. To make this card, I added layer of shimmery Spring green paper and adhered black gross-grain ribbon around it. Then, I just added the chipboard shapes where I needed them. It was that easy!

Polka Dot Love

Polka Dot Love

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Perfect Match

Perfect Match
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Some cards come together so easily and others take an hour or more!  This Valentine card came together pretty quickly.  I used a card base made by DCWV and rounded the edges of the card with the 1/4″ side of my Crop-O-Dile Corner Chomper.  I also rounded the corners of the shimmery light green cardstock I mounted the tag to.  The tag is from a set of dimensional stickers from the K & Company Poppy Seed collection.  I added some of my own ribbon to the tag and used double-sided foamy tape to make the tag pop out.  I finished the card with a glittery heart chipboard shape I got in a grab bag.

Perfect Match

Perfect Match

I love to pop embellishments off the page.

Close-Up

Close-Up

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