'Tis the Season (no not that season!)

Hi everyone!

Well, I've been on a major wedding card kick lately.  'Tis the season!  You didn't think I meant Christmas, did you?!  Heck no, I never start my Christmas cards this early - though I really should.  I'm one of those procrastinators you find knee deep in cardstock and glitter on December 21st, hurriedly making 25+ cards, living on coffee (and Bailey's!).

Wedding season means gifts and therefore cards too!  My little cards have found a good home at a local shop here in town.  I'm very grateful to iDecor & More that they've allowed me the opportunity to showcase my cards there.  iDecor carries a great selection of home decor gifts that would be perfect for any newlyweds!  And my cards are right at the till, so grab one to match your gift, would ya?

This card is on a Pool Party base and features a simple cross made from Attic Boutique DSP.  The center of the cross is adorned with a journalling spot from the Attic Boutique Side Notes.  The sentiment is from an oldie but goodie set "Whimsical Words".  It's finished off with simple and clean rounded corners using our corner punch.

Hope you like :)

Attic Boutique

I am loving this suite of products from the Occasions Mini.  It's called "Attic Boutique" and includes great paper featuring antiques, pretty stamp sets and easy pre-made labels/journalling spots. 

Here is a card I made using the Attic Boutique designer series paper and "Side Notes". 

I find there's a larger demand for engagement and wedding cards this time of year, so I thought I better get prepared! 

The sentiment is from another Occasions Mini stamp set "Love & Laughter".  I stamped it on a pre-cut label from the Attic Boutique Side Notes and popped it up a layer with some Stampin' Dimensionals. 

I just love antiquated feel of this line.  The other papers are simply gorgeous as well - featuring tiny flowers and window shutters, roses and trumpets, coursets and ink pens! 

Remember your last chance to get your hands on all of these products is approaching quickly!  The Occasions Mini ends on April 30th!  Contact me today to get your order in!

My Big Fat Greek Wedding Card

Hi everyone!


I wanted to show you a custom card I made at the request of a lady I work with. She wanted a Greek style wedding card. I don’t know a whole lot about Greece, despite having visited there on a school trip. I do remember the beautiful blue of the ocean against the white of the shoreline houses though… So I jumped off from that for the inspiration on this card.  I ran into problems when I saw the vision of the card in my head, but realized I don’t even have the Lattice die that I would need! Luckily, my sweet friend Linda came through for me and saved the day by lending me hers {{thank you Linda!!}}.

I used her Lattice die with Whisper White cardstock through the Big Shot machine then adhered it to a Pacific Point card backing. The base of the card is also Pacific Point, but matted to 1/8” with White as well. I rolled Old Olive cardstock through the Big Shot twice with our Little Leaves Sizzlit diecut. I cut the leaves a bit to space them out more on the bottom of the card. Then I punched a bunch of tiny Always Artichoke dots using the Cupcake builder punch. These are my olives on the olive branches!! I have no idea if they realistically resemble an olive or not, but I think the Greek newlyweds will get it!

The card is finished off with the “congrats” sentiment from the Tagtastic hostess set.


I also wanted to show something else I’ve been working on….My new kick is BOOKMARKS! You can get one done super fast and feel really good that you’ve accomplished something. That feeling is few and far between for me lately. I just feel so busy and guilty that I’m neglecting my stamping stuff. But you can bust one of these out in less than 15 minutes, so it makes you feel great!!!

This one was made by cutting our DSP cardboard packaging insert down to 8” by 2.5”. Then I covered it with Baja Breeze cardstock. I stamped a few different images from the Artistic Etchings set all over both sides. Then I adhered some retired black jewels that I’ve been hoarding since last Halloween. I sponged the edges with grey and a bit of black. I punched a hole near the top, set a jumbo eyelet in it for strength then tied some Pool Party ruffled ribbon and other thin black ribbon through.

Hope you liked these things and hope you can find a spare 15 minutes to try your hand at a bookmark!

(P.S.  Yes, Clive Barker is one of my favorite authors!  I will read anything by him, as well as by Lee Child!)

Sweet Floral is my New Favorite!

Hi everyone!

Hope this beautiful summer day finds you well...it's so nice out here today.  I just wanted to share a quick card before I'm off to go swim at my friend's pool. 

This background stamp is one of the new ones that made an appearance July 1st with the new catalogue release. It's called Sweet Floral and it is so elegant. 

Here I've made the card base from Blushing Bride cardstock.  Then inked up the Sweet Floral stamp with Staz On black ink and stamped on vellum.  It's very important to use Staz On when stamping on vellum or other less porous surfaces so it won't smudge.  Once the ink dried, I flipped over the vellum piece and simply used Stampin' Write Markers to colour it from behind.  Then the vellum was attached to a same-sized piece of retired Night & Day DSP.  Instead of using my special invisible vellum glue, I just used a mini brad in each corner to adhere the layers. 

The sentiment is from the Hostess only set "Tagtastic".  It goes great with punches of course! 

Hope you liked it!  Oh, and one more thing before I go.  I wanted to introduce my blog helper...

Her name is Kitty Kitty or KiKi for short.  I think she's actually more of a hinderance than a help since I have to type all this stuff one handed. 

But she loves hanging out with me at the computer so I feel bad to kick her off.

Bye everyone!

From Charlene & KiKi

Tis The Season!

Hi everyone,

Apparently it IS the season...not Christmas, but weddings!  I guess I don't really know much about weddings, or why there even is a season...but I figure there is.  It's all over the ads in the paper, photographers are popping up everywhere, there are huge conventions to showcase a whole bunch of wedding stuff! 

I'm certainly glad I'm not planning one, ha ha.  Looks like a lot of work!  I am, however, content to make a whole bunch of cards for weddings!  Here are a few I've done lately:

This one was inspired by a card in the Card Creations: Favorite Occasions vol.2 magazine by Maile Belles.  I used a classic stamp set called "Fifth Avenue Floral" - it's really pretty and versatile.  Good for either line art, like you see here, or watercolouring, or layering/collaging. 

The ribbon is retired, it's Kiwi Kiss coloured.  I stocked up on it because it was such a favorite of mine.

My favorite part of this card is obviously the tiny little crown hanging from the ribbon.  They are known as Trinket Crowns and can be found on Pg.24 of the Occasions Mini Catalogue.  They are so gorgeous - you can use them on cards or (if you have a hard time giving them away) you can use the included jump rings to attach them to a bracelet or necklace chain.  They would work perfectly on the Simply Adorned line of jewelery that Stampin' Up offers.

This one here was super easy to make using just cardstock, the Big Shot, a stamp set and a couple simple embellishments.

The background is embossed with a swirly embossing folder through the Big Shot machine.  Then I cut one of the tags from the Two Tags die using the Big Shot.  Conveniently, the scallop circle punch fits in it perfectly.

Around the base of the black tag, I tied a small length of Very Vanilla satin ribbon then hot-glue-gunned one of my favorite new embellishments to it - Vintage Flower Adornments.  They are so adorable and come in a package of 24 - assorted colours of Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze and Rose Red.

Hope you like!

And if there are any brides out there gearing up for your big day - congratulations and best wishes!!! :)

The new owl punch is the best!

Hi everyone!  (If there is even anyone reading, who knows, right?)

I figured I would post a card I made for a special occasion this past Sunday.  It was my neighbours' 50th wedding anniversary!  That is a long time, so it deserved something special, yet cute. 

The owls are made using the 2-step owl punch in the new catalogue.  It's really versatile - you can punch a whole bunch of different colours and patterns, then keep them on hand to mix and match whenever you happen to need an owl {believe me, it happens more often than you'd think}.  

This pair I dressed up using our new vintage Chantilly lace for the bride's skirt and shiny black striped paper for the groom's shirt.  

The Cherry Cobbler background is embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper folder.  The music note paper is also new (from the Newsprint collection).  Both the paper and the chipboard '50' are sprayed with Smooch spritz, which gives a really nice splatter/distressed/misted look!  Hope you like :)