Lawn Fawn | Bunny and Turtle Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Every now and then I get a special request. Someone needs a birthday card, but instead of choosing from what I have available, they want something a little more specific. This card was one of those.

I was told "something nice with a turtle and a bunny". Literally that is all I had to go off of. Ummm, what? There was no colour palette, no insight into what it was she wanted. Just "a turtle and a bunny".

Needless to say I fretted about this for a bit. I stopped offering custom cards quite some time ago, for any of you that have done this, you understand why. It can be incredibly frustrating when you think you've got what they are looking for, having literally put in hours of time only to hear "It's nice.... but maybe some brighter colours? or more muted? or something funner." So more hours go in, and it's not like we can actually charge for our time... I mean who is going to be paying for each iteration of a card because it's not "quite what I'm looking for".

So now for the most part, what I have available is what I have available. But this was for my mom. How could I say no? Fortunately, she provides me with quite a bit of creative freedom and there haven't been any flat-out "no" cards.

I stamped the banner, the bunny and the turtle (now wearing a hat) with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut them out.

I used one of my DIY stencils to create some fading grassy hills with Distress Ink and did the same with the cloud stencil for the sky. I then stamped some of the flowers directly to the panel and coloured those in as well.

I trimmed down a piece of perfectly plaid patterned paper (yay alliteration) and adhered that to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. I then trimmed down the coloured panel with the second largest of the Stitched Rectangle dies and mounted that on top. Finally I added my banner and my little birthday critters.

If I'm being completely honest, I was not really all that happy with this card, but mom LOVED it, and at the end of the day that's really all that matters.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

The Greeting Farm "Be A Unicorn" | Party Like a Pony Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Remember before you had kids, everyone was like "Oh, you should totally have a baby!", and "They're so cute!", and "Being a parent is such a rewarding experience!"? Remember that?

Let's get real for a minute. No one ever said anything about how incredibly frustrating it is to raise another human. How growing a human will take away a huge part of your identity. How your whole life will revolve around another little person. How you worry about whether or not you should go back to work, because if you go back to work, you'll worry about daycare and what to do if your job calls you out of town, but if you don't go back to work and "you're just a stay at home parent" you worry about all sorts of money issues and the giant gap in your career (whatever that may be) that could set you back years in your climb of the corporate ladder, not to mention thinking about retirement.

And when do you get time for yourself? You either spend every waking minute running after your kid(s) or you're so exhausted from work, then coming home and cleaning up after your kid(s) and dealing with whatever 3, 5, 9, 14 year old drama happened that is likely the end of the world.

My point today is carve out time for yourself. Every moment with the kids is important, but you can't take care of another human effectively if you, yourself are worn down completely. And that's in a house with TWO parents. I've done the single parent thing as well and that's an entirely different ball game. That's the difference between pee-wee and the major leagues.

So if at the end of the day, your child is fed, clothed and remembers to say "Thank you" (most of the time), you're probably doing a good job. Give yourself a break and if you need help, ask for it.

Today I have a card that has nothing to do with the ramble I just went on, but a super cute celebration card, featuring stamps from The Greeting Farm.

To begin, I cut down a piece of butter yellow cardstock with the largest of the Large Stitched Rectangle dies from Lawn Fawn, and another piece of 110lb Copic-friendly white cardstock with the next largest die from the same set.

I used a small polka-dot stencil and some Sunflower ink (Lawn Fawn) to create a fun tone-on-tone patterned paper. I then stamped the Unicorn, butterflies and the greeting with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and masked them off.

I used my cloud stencil (DIY!!) and some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to create my sky, then blended in some Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss Distress Ink for my grassy area.

Once that was dry, I removed the masks and coloured the images in with Copic markers. I adhered my coloured panel to the yellow piece and mounted the lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card I used clear Wink of Stella on the pony's hair and tail as well as on the butterflies' wings. Finally I used some Glossy Accents on the wings to add a bit of shine. 

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

MFT "Friends at First Sip" | Appreciate Your Friendship

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So remember how I switched jobs a couple months back? Loving it, by the way. But it's now stampede week in Calgary. If you don't know what that is, you should Google it. "The Calgary Stampede". Basically, it's a giant 10 day party, where people skip work, engage in crappy behaviour and spend the day drunk, eating the weirdest food ever. Today, is day one. That means there's a parade. A parade that shuts down roads to our downtown core. A parade that somehow gives the impression that parking rules no longer apply (not to mention the next nine days). I work with guys in the construction industry and entire sites have to shut down for this "party". So hopefully, I'll be able to get to work without losing my mind, and just pray to the gods that my parking space hasn't been snagged by someone hoping to avoid getting towed.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep that much last night. Coffee was the first thing on my agenda this morning, luckily, MFT has an awesome new(ish) set all about the black gold in a cup.

To begin, I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured her in with Copic markers. I then masked her off and used my Dollar Store (FTW) blending brushes to add some Tumbled Glass and Mowed Lawn Distress inks to create a soft background.

I really wanted her to be the star of the show, so I chose not to create a more detailed background, but I definitely did not want her to be floating in the middle of nothing - she hasn't had *that* much coffee, yet.

I then stamped the greeting from the same set and trimmed down the panel. I adhered it to a piece of kraft cardstock, then mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "On the Beach" | Have a Relaxing Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Well it's summer time now. My kids are all off school, and for the most part seem to be under the impression they can play video games or sit in front of a screen all day long. That is not the case. Last night the two older ones sat down and had to write out a step-by-step checklist of their chores. Sure, the chore is "do the kitchen" but what exactly does that entail? They sent in their lists last night, where they will be consolidated and finalized today (for each of their chores, not just the kitchen) then laminated as a checklist, so we don't have to continually send them back to rewash a dish, or actually wipe down all the baseboards in the bathroom when cleaning the floor. It'll be good to have everyone on the same page regarding our expectations. It'll definitely make for a smoother summer, and hopefully instill some good habits for their futures.

Today I have a (mostly) single layer birthday card, that can be used for either as either a masculine or feminine (which is always handy) using Lawn Fawn's "On the Beach" stamp set.

To begin, I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock then coloured them with Copic markers and masked them off. I used the negative space of a circular mask to allow for ink blending.

I used my dollar store (FTW) blending brushes along with Distress Ink to create a soft sandy/beachy background for this guy to be hanging out on.

Once I peeled the masks away, I put the panel back into my MISTI and stamped the greeting. I then adhered this panel to a piece of patterned paper and mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Magic Picture Changer Happy Birthday | Lawn Fawn "Birthday Before and After"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So you know when you already don't like your phone, and then you see a killer deal from your own provider? And you think, maybe, juuuust maybe they can save the relationship? That was my yesterday. So I'm chatting with the guy from my provider and he's giving me the information on this (already overpriced but better than my plan at the same price) plan and then says I have to pay out my contract in order to go on this plan. Nearly 8 years, 3 phones and there's not a thing they're going to do for me. So naturally I'm mega frustrated, so my husband says "Let's pay out the contract and get you switched over to another provider" so that's what we did. So for WAAAY less monies and WAAAY more GBs I have a WAAAY better phone, no charge accessories and a happier day. So that's where I'm at.

Today, I have another Magic Picture Changer card (currently my favourite interactive die, can you tell?) along with the "Birthday Before and After" stamp set.

To begin, I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers. I wanted to keep the cupcakes on the background panel in the same families as the main cupcakes, so I just went a few shades lighter.

For the outside of changer piece, I shaded the whole cover piece with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, which I thought was closest to the pink I had chosen for the pink cupcakes. Once that was dry I stamped my greetings with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Lawn Fawn's White Embossing Powder.

I mounted my custom background on a piece of black cardstock then adhered that to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. I used to two layers of foam tape to mount the slider to the front of the card.

To finish off today's card I stamped the sprinkles in coordinating ink and filled them in with Glossy Accents for some sprinkly shine!

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.