Good morning! Another Thursday is upon us, which means today is Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff day! This week, I opted for a shaped graduation card – one of the girls I used to babysit is graduating this month (man I”m getting OLD), so I thought something more personal than store bought was in order. I selected images from Lindsay’s All Around Phrases and School Rules digital stamp sets and imported them into Photoshop where I could layer and color them with ease.  I used Jodiann’s newest style set, Chalkies: Bold Summer (available tomorrow – May 14) to “color” the Inner and Outer Dots and the diploma.  Then I used a silver SuperBladePro preset from the Blading Basket  on the It’s Your Day layer. Then I printed the design + an extra diploma on Staples White CS.  I used my large circle and large scallop circle nestabilities to cut out the image which is mounted on blue glitter CS from my DCWV Holiday Mat stack – I’ve been stashing that one for awhile! I trimmed the extra diploma and attached it with pop-dots for dimension. I couldn’t stop there – I had planned to use small adhesive pearls on the inner circles, but the spacing was too tight, so I opted to create my own using White Opal liquid pearls (I need to practice more – my “pearls” are more like small  cones). I added a bit of shine to the outer dots with my clear Gelly Roll Glaze pen and some shimmer to the letters with my Silver Spica Pen.  For the card base, I once again headed to my stash for an SU precut card in Whisper White.  I embossed the front using my Cuttlebug Textiles folder and my Big Shot before using my largest Labels 8 nestability to cut the shape.  I wanted a bit more shimmer, so added a light layer of Iridescent medium and set everything aside to dry (in this case overnight since my little one wanted to play).  I attached the circle/scallop layer to the card base with glue dots and viola – a simple but I think rather pretty, graduation card for a special young lady.

If you haven’t been to Lindsay’s Blog yet, be sure to stop by. I know she has a FREEBIE and the previews for her new Black & White graduation papers as well as the links to the other DT blogs (also available on my sidebar).

Have a great day! Nadya and I are heading to gymnastics and then a lunch/ play date with a couple of her friends to celebrate her birthday with them since we were out of town last week.

• ABC Challenge – U is for Unused Stash
• By The Cute and Girly – Celebrations
• Crafty Ann’s Challenge Blog – Anything Goes
• Dare You 2 Digistamp – Anything Goes
• Hand Full Of Stamps – Just a Little Dotty
• Ooh La La Creations – Minimalist/White Space
• YNS Challenges – Cut It Out and Pop It Up

The winners of the printable cards from Randi Oh’s Marche Aux Fleurs kit are:

Congratulations Ladies! Check your email for your prize!

Hooray – it’s Friday!  What better way to kick-off the weekend with a project, a freebie, and some candy? Are you intrigues yet?  Well before we can get to that I have a little blatant advertising to do. Today is the LAST day for Jodiann’s Grand Opening Sale – 50% – and FABULOUS styles!!!!   Tomorrow, May 1, is inter-National Scrapbooking Day! Hooray!!! Here are some places you will want to visit (includes my store and templates too): Americo has joined DSV and he’s got some fabulous new goods releasing on May 1 for iNSD – calling all Digi-Stampers – you will love these… The fabulous girls at Kristine’s Store are having a blog hop May 1 – start at Kristine’s blog and hop from there – an uber cute mega kit awaits you!

Now for my projects – I showed you a card and card folio yesterday, but focused on the card – today it’s all about the folio or the folios!  I created 3 of them as Mother’s Day gifts by altering a fabulous template from Mirkwood Designs to make it digital paper/printable friendly and Randi Oh’s  Marche Aux Fleurs digital kit – the rest was Photoshop baby! The recipients of these folios are all very special ladies and I am truly blessed to have each of them in my life. Let’s take a closer look:  I printed all of the folios out on white CS using my inkjet printer.  To add dimension on this one, I printed the pots and butterfly a second time, trimmed them and used pop-dots to adhere them.  Before adding the butterfly, I used PVA glue and Flowersoft to add the flowers – once dry the butterfly was added too.  I inked the edges of the folio with Always Artichoke ink and Nadya added her special touch by “finger painting” with the glue – I tried to wipe it off, but since I printed the folio on an inkjet printer, some of the ink smeared – but it  actually created a cool worn look, so I didn’t stress it too much – and let it dry.  Nadya says this one is for Baba and that she was helping! I can’t complain there, so I just made sure I put the glue far out of reach the next time! For this folio and the one just like it, I printed the butterflies a second time and added Flowersoft flowers to the empty pots before attaching the butterflies. These two folios will be gifts from my Mom and my Nana. Now, you might be asking why folios – what is special about them? Well , each folio holds 4 A2 sized cards and envelopes!  So, of course, I had to make coordinating cards: And here are the close-ups: I didn’t add extra dimension since I’ll be mailing these tucked neatly inside their folios and I didn’t want them to stick together or get smashed. It would be easy to add dimension though – use a gelly roll clear pen over the stitching to raise it up, add some additional butterflies, use glossy glaze to add shine to the pots, stickles, spica pens – you get the idea – the sky is the limit!

Now for the fun part – Randi Oh and RuthAnn (Mirkwood Designs) have both agreed to let me share the folio with you – you can download it here (I’ve included a tutorial with photos as well).  But wait – it gets better – 4 lucky people, who leave comments on this post by midnight Sunday will get the printable cards too!  The card kit includes the card fronts as well as the inside/journaling/sentiment space. All you have to do is print them out and attach them to standard A2 sized cards.  How great is that?!?  If you’d like a 2nd entry, spread the word via your blogs, twitter, or facebook, and then come back and leave me a comment and tell me what you did.  I’ll use random numbers to pick the winners.

Have a great weekend!