Good morning everyone!

This morning I am singing the praises of antibiotics as I blog and as I eat semi-solid food for the first time in 2 days. My throat infection turned out to be strep but I am fast improving thanks to this wonderful drug 🙂

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me to make a birthday card for her aunt who will be celebrating 90 years. I finished the card almost as soon as she as asked but am just now getting around to posting it.

This was a very simple card to put together and I am pleased with the end result. The paper is from Kaisercraft 75 cent Collection. I used my Cheery Lynn Kiwi Doily die and my Spellbinders. The adhesive lace is from Recollections and the fabric flower and button is from the Close to My Heart Bohemian line. The small crystal adhesive flowers were found at the bottom of a clearance bin at Michaels months ago but just seems perfect for this card.

Thanks for visiting The Crypt…..I’ll leave a candle burning for you

Good afternoon everyone. Since I am battling a horrific ear/throat infection, I thought now would be a good time to show you some of the projects I was working on before I got sick. I found a tutorial on the Graphic 45 website for these terrific gift card holders. They are super simple, fun to make and are a great way to make use of some scrap pieces.

Supply List:

Graphic 45 Ladies Diary, Graphic 45 Secret Garden, Romance  Novel Collection “Emotion”, Recollections Toile, Cheery Lynn Kiwi Doily die, Cheery Lynn French Pastry Doily die, Recollections Butterfly stamp, Dollarama Faux Pearls, Wilton Black Doily and Stickles.

Finished product is 4 X 8 🙂

I think these will be a staple in my stash pile as gift cards are very common in this day.

Thanks for visiting The Crypt…..I’ll leave a candle burning for you

Good afternoon everyone!

I am still in the process of making items for my niece to sell to help raise money for her upcoming trip. Since a lot of my great friends (I am so very blessed to have them) have donated a stack of homemade cards which I know will sell quickly, I am hoping the gift bags and matching cards will be a huge hit as well 🙂

I am loving the Graphic 45 Secret Garden line – the colors are so soft and feminine. I also have a new Martha Stewart Punch Around The Page  which I used on this project (Thanks to Lisa Young-Folley for helping me master the technique – I was getting ready to return it to the store)

Items I used:

Gift Bag from Dollarama; Graphic 45 Secret Garden Paper – May Flowers #4500660 and Pretty Primrose #4500655; Bazzill Cardstock (Salmon); Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Swirling Lace; Recollection Floral Embellishments; Prima Flowers; Recollections Butterfly Embellishment; Studio G Adhesive Gems; Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two die; Bazzill Cardstock (Vanilla)

I really enjoy making these sets and am very pleased with the finished result!

Thanks for visiting The Crypt…..I’ll leave a candle burning for you

Spring ahead!! Since I am loving the fact that that the sun is shining and the snow is fast disappearing, I decided to make a spring themed card for a friend of mine.

Since I love the Graphic 45 Place in Time paper line (March) & (May), I felt it was perfect paper for a vintage spring look, especially when pairing it with polka dot cardstock. To add some bling, I adhered purple half pearls, purchased at the Dollarama and centered a purple flower from Recollections. The “Spring” stamp was rescued from the $1.50 bin at Michaels and I used Pansy Purple ink from Close to My Heart. The Pansy border is also Graphic 45 Place in Time

Thanks for visiting The Crypt…..I’ll leave a candle burning for you  

Good morning everyone!

A friend of mine asked me to make her a few  thank you cards to give to her instructors at the end of the semester.

A lot of the paper I used came from my scrap pile and the majority of it is a blend of Graphic 45 Place in Time and Bo Bunny Gabrielle. I matted everything on Chocolate cardstock and cut a computer generated “Thank You” with my Spellbinders die Fancy Tags.

The next card had a bit of a stipulation attached – it had to contain an image of a red shoe. Going back to the internet, I was able to come up with a great image of a shoe (that even I would be proud to wear)

The background paper is actually a piece of MME Christmas paper. The shoe is double matted with cranberry and black cardstock. I added some Recollections Glitter Adhesive Flourishes and cut my “Many Thanks” tag with my Spellbinders Scalloped Circles die.

With the final card, I wanted it to have a bit of a spring-y feel to it so, digging back in my scrap pile, I found some great vintage paper with roses (no clue as to the name of this line).

I used a cut out from Graphic 45 Place in Time (March) and adhered it to a Cheery Lynn French Doily cutout. I plucked a few Recollections Floral Embellishments from my garden, centering a Bo Bunny Brad to give it a pop and a Karen Foster Swirl Burst Brad to finish things off. Using my Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two die, I cut a vertical “Thank You” tag on cream cardstock.

Thanks for visiting The Crypt…..I’ll leave a candle burning for you  

Good morning everyone. With the Easter weekend upon us, I hope everyone will take the time to relax and spend time with family and friends, as I will be.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be making cards/bags to send to my niece in Alberta to help her fund-raise for a cadet trip in August to tour the European Battlefields. I am so excited that she got picked for this honor, as my great grand father was a veteran of WWI and I will do whatever I can to help her out.

Grabbing a Dollarama gift bag, I covered it with black cardstock. I added a piece of Karen Foster’s “Wedded Bliss Brocade” and Bo Bunny Enchanted paper. I found this awesome self-adhesive lace tape yesterday at the Dollarama and was anxious to try it out – Love it!! To finish the bag, I added some Recollections Floral Embellishments, blinged it up with a Kaiser Craft Ebony Sparklet and topped it with a Jolee’s Boutique Timepiece, tied with a piece of black and white ribbon.

The card consists of the same Bo Bunny Enchanted paper and lace tape. I cut the anniversary tag with Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two and fancied it  with a few Black Rhinestones stickers from Michaels and Dress It Up Flats Lunar Eclipse from the Great Canadian Dollar Store. To tie everything together, I added another black flower with an ebony sparklet.

Thanks for visiting The Crypt…..I’ll leave a candle burning for you.

Good afternoon everyone! I realize lately that my cards have been girly and frilly so I thought I’d try my hand at another masculine card (which I find challenging). However, after perusing Pinterest, I found a great card to C.A.S.E

I got this beautiful stamp set from Stampin’ Up, called The Open Seas. I stamped the background in Desert Sand, overlaying the image of the ship in Cranberry and the compass in Denim, all inks from Close to My Heart.  I double matted the image before adhering it to the card base. During my last trip to Shabby Shutters, I found some beautiful nautical themed paper from Moxxie, which I matted on black cardstock.

Digging into my ribbon stash, I found some matching ribbon from Little Yellow Bicycle, and since bows are a little “girly”, I settled for a knot. I then cut the Happy Birthday sentiment that I printed on polka dot cardstock with my Spellbinders Fancy Tags die.

All in all, I am pleased with the end result, even if it doesn’t have a flower or shiny sparkles.

Thanks for visiting The Crypt…..I’ll leave a candle burning for you

Since over the weekend, my crafty friends were enjoying their time at The Cutting Garden putting together lovely white on white cards, I decided to give it a try. I didn’t realize how hard it was not to use color!!

I started by using my Martha Stewart Floral Vine punch along the top and bottom of the cardstock. I cut a doily using a Cheery Lynn French Pastry die and centered it on the card. I cut two butterflies with my Memory Box Vivienne Butterfly die and placed them diagonally.  Reaching in the flower garden again, I found Mark Richards Fluerettes Fabric Flower Stickers and adhered three of them in an upside down triangle. In the center, I glued a Rhinestone Designer Brad from Close to My Heart. To jazz things up a little more, I inserted three Crystal Sparklets from Carsand Mosher and Adhesive Rhinestone Flourishes from Michaels.

To finish things off, I added Pearl Halves from the Dollarama.

Thanks for visiting “The Crypt”……I’ll leave a candle burning for you 

Good afternoon everyone!! I hope everyone is enjoying this absolutely beautiful spring day 🙂

A friend of mine had asked me to make her a couple of wedding cards for upcoming ceremonies. Usually she just tells me to do whatever I feel, but this time she had a specific idea in mind  for one of the cards and I tried my best to fulfill this wish.

Since Cinderella is the theme for the wedding, Clara asked me to tailor the card to match. Since I was unsure of the wedding party’s colors, I decided to go with basic black and white, just to be safe. I went into my paper stash and pulled out a great piece of Bo Bunny’s Enchanted paper, which has some great sparkles on it. I cut a doily using my Cheery Lynn French Pastry die and adhered them to the card. I downloaded a Cinderella/Prince Charming image from the internet and dazzled it with some Star Dust Stickles to give it a snow globe look. Digging through my ribbons, I found a strand of mesh flowers that I purchased from Shabby Shutters and used a Close to My Heart Rhinestone Brad to bling things up a little. I finished the card by adhering some silver pearl halves that I found in the discount bin at Michaels.

The second card was a bit easier to do as there were no specifications. I decided to keep with the black and white theme for simplicity. I had a piece of Karen Foster’s “Wedded Bliss Brocade” paper which I paired with another piece of Bo Bunny’s Enchanted paper. I used the silver pearl halves from Michaels on each little flower on the paper for added dimension. To give a feeling of softness to the card, I found a  Forever in Time Laser Cut Felt Butterfly that I purchased at Walmart and a Wedding Bow from the Great Canadian Dollar Store. Simple – yet Elegant.

Thanks for visiting The Crypt….I’ll leave a candle burning for you 

Good evening fellow bloggers!!! Tonight is the first post to my new blog and I am excited to be caught up in this crafty craziness!

I wanted to do something nice for my aesthetician  who, quite frankly, keeps me from looking like the Wreck of the Hesperus. So I decided to do a gift bag with a matching card. I dug into my scrap pile for paper, which I believe is from either Graphic 45 or My Mind’s Eye, to cover the bag and then used my Stampin’ Up Hello Doily stamp to create some background images in Close to My Heart inks Sorbet and Desert Sand.

I used a Memory Box die called Vivienne Butterfly on brown and sorbet cardstock, interchanging colors for the butterfly’s bodies. To jazz up the butterflies on the paper, I added stickles for extra dimension and bling. Since flowers are an absolute favorite of mine, I went into my flower garden and found vintage flowers from Jolee’s Boutique and Crochet Embellishment Flowers from Recollections, adding buttons to the centers. I then finished the bag with Recollections Adhesive Faux Pearls.

The card contains the same paper line as the bag and again I used the Hello Doily stamp in Desert Sand ink. The butterfly stamp was a great find in the $1.50 bin at Michaels about a month ago. To complete the card, I used another vintage flower and topped it with a decorative pin to add a pop of color.

Thanks for visiting “The Crypt” – I’ll leave a candle burning for you….