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!

Welcome to Day 2 of the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff Hop, Crop and Shop Birthday PARTY! I know it’s Wednesday and you’re used to hearing from me on Thursdays, but since this is a special week, we’re changing things up a bit.  If you didn’t get a chance to play – be sure to check Lindsay’s blog post from yesterday and then check out the goodies the girls showcased – each one of us is giving away one of Lindsay’s awesome sets – so you don’t want to miss out.  If you haven’t had a chance to visit the Crop Room at My Grafico – be sure to stop in there as well – Lindsay has some fun challenges and daily freebies just for stopping in and her ENTIRE store is on-sale 50% off – you can’t beat that!!!!  Ok – on with the hop!  Didn’t you just love Lisa’s project? If you are just starting out today and didn’t come from Lisa’s blog – you’ll want to start with Lindsay’s blog – or if you get lost along the way – Lindsay will have the map for you.

This is month for babies!  I have a shower to go to this weekend and another of my friends just had a little boy – so I definitely needed to work on at least one baby project…so here’s part 1:My combined project works for several different challenges – a definite change for me!  Melissa’s recipe challenge over at Tuesday Morning Sketches; SVGCuts Bag & Box Challenge; and Lindsay’s challenges #4 (blue and masculine are not my style) and #7 (the SU DP I used is from my stash). I started out by creating the gift box (there’s an adorable onesie and matching bib inside).  The box was super easy using files from SVGcuts – it’s one of the files in Betty’s Boxes and Bags – I used SCAL to add a scallop edge (Annie’s Edge) in the center and cut it out of double-sided DP, so when the box is opened there are cute little flowers inside.  The begonia flower (3D Flowers set 1 – which really doesn’t dwarf the box in real life) was cut twice in SCAL, once on DP and once on white CS. I sponged Brocade and Bashful Blue inks around the edges and then layered the flower.   I used a fabric brad (Paper Studio) and glue dots to secure everything together and then coated it with a light layer of Iridescent medium (Winsor & Newton) to add some sparkle and shine.  The ribbon is 7/8” white grosgrain from my stash. My box meets Melissa’s challenge as it is comprised of soft colors, ribbon, and flowers. My card is rather simple, but I’m really happy with the way it turned out.  I started out by embossing a white A5 (4.25”x5.5”) card base with an SU texture plate (tips: I misted the CS lightly with water since I didn’t have any ink to run and it really helped make a deeper impression and since I only wanted to emboss the front, I used a bit of drafting tape to secure the card to my plate with the back off of the plate and rubber mat and top plate placed at the fold). If you guessed the the scallop edge is the cut-out from my box, you would be correct – I didn’t want to “waste” any of my DP. The ribbon and pearls (Michaels) are from my stash and are layered for texture, depth, and interest.  I used an EK Success punch to edge my card.  The cute little baby shoes are  from Lindsay’s Babies and Bows set – I resized (~1.9”x1.5”), layered and colored (using SU RGB colors and different opacity settings) them in Photoshop before printing.  I trimmed them and used pop-up glue dots to add them to my card front.  The inside sentiment (SU) reads “A little something for a little someone” and is stamped in Bashful Blue. The last part of my project was to create a matching envelope.  Once again, I turned to Lindsay’s Envelope Bonanza set – with both SVG files and printable templates – it truly makes the creative possibilities almost endless.  In this case, I created my DP in Photoshop by filling an 8.5×11 layer with a solid color (though it doesn’t matter which one) and applying Jodiann’s Dot Cute style set (I added a color overlay to better match my colors, but that was totally optional) and then printing out.  In SCAL I opted for the Bracket Envelope cutting it out of my homemade DP.  Since this set will be hand delivered rather than mailed, I added a tiny pearl to the bracket center for interest and to tie the envelope and card details together.

Whew! If you’ve made it this far you definitely deserve a reward!  Everyone who leaves a comment will be entered for a chance to win Lindsay’s Envelope Bonanza template set – you have until Monday morning to comment at which time I’ll use Random Number to pick a winner! For a 2nd chance to win, grab Lindsay’s fan blinkie from my sidebar, add it to your blog linked to Lindsay’s store, and then come leave me a 2nd comment with your link. Easy peasy!!! If you already have Lindsay’s the template set or don’t want to wait ‘til Monday since it’s 50% OFF right now, not to worry – Lindsay will let you select another set in its place – so what are YOU waiting for!??!  Your next stop along the hop is Tanya – and when you’re done hopping, stop by the Crop Room for today’s freebie and to see what’s happening – we’d love to have you join in the fun! Have a FABULOUS Wednesday!

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Yesterday my DH met-up with one of his friends from my hometown at the Fairgrounds for an afternoon of Go-Cart racing.  Nadya and I met them for dinner afterward.  They had a great time and it was a much-needed break for my DH after a couple of  work weeks with really long hours.

I also spent some time being creative – I pulled the Cricut out of her box, installed the blade, unloaded all of my 12×12 paper (ok not all but a lot), and began to play.  Since tomorrow officially kicks-off the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff celebration, I wanted to have a few items ready to share! See this post for more information and be sure to visit Lindsay’s blog and the My Grafico crop room Tuesday-Thursday for fabulous freebies as well as a 50% off sale Lindsay’s My Grafico store – you DON’T want to miss out!  Thursday is my MIL’s birthday, so I put together a card for her – inspired by one of this week’s projects by Mary Rudakas at the SVGCuts blog – check it out here – and I need to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Leo and the folks at SVGCuts – one of their contests was for a FREE copy of Sure Cuts A Lot and a $50 gift certificate to the store – and my Mom and I won!!!  I split the GC with my Mom and as soon as the SCAL cd arrives, I’ll take it to her as well since she doesn’t have the software yet and she was awesome enough to let me use her baby bug while I was still deciding between the Cricut and Gazelle cutters. Anyhow, on to my project…The card is A7 – 5×7, offering me the perfect opportunity to use Lindsay’s Envelope Bonanza SVG  and Printable Template set.  I used some heavier weight DP from my stash and opted for the scalloped edge envelope as I wanted something both pretty and elegant.  If you don’t have a digital cutter, Lindsay has included a printable template file in the set. The card base is cut from a sheet of DCWV The Rustic Stack – I love the vintage feel and the subtle elegance.  Using Mary’s card as a guide, I imported the gate, oval mat, scallop 1 and scallop 2 SVG files from the Moonlight Garden Party set and sized them according to Mary’s dimensions.  I didn’t want to cover up the glittered pattern on my card base, I opted to omit the oval frame mat.  All of the elements are cut from DCWV glitter cs – though they came from different mat stacks.  I adhered the oval frame and scallops first.  Then I stamped the birthday sentiment (SU – retired) in Brilliance Pearlescent Crimson.  The gate is attached with pop-dot material – my sheet was almost empty and I thought the edge was perfect for the fence strips, so I trimmed it and used it – perfect! The flowers are Prima – attached with pop-dots and glue dots depending on the amount of dimension needed.  I wanted to decorate the gate a bit more, so I used the end of a paint brush to apply PVA glue and then Spring flowersoft – I am actually really happy with the result!For the inside panels, I wanted to continue the theme from my DP card base without the added bulk of heavy CS, so I opened up Photoshop and created 4.5×6.5 panels that my DH could inscribe. I used a couple of blending modes and an awesome overlay from Kim Broedelet’s Floral Grunge 3 set: In fact, I liked them so well, I thought perhaps they would make a nice custom notepad tucked neatly inside a 5×7 folio…so I’m giving them to you!  I didn’t stop there though – following with my idea of notepads, I made a set with journaling/notebook lines (Jodiann – this one’s for you) and a 2nd set with binder rings for the digital scrappers out there.   I hope you enjoy them and can find a use for them.

That’s all for today – I hope to see you all in the My Grafico crop room tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday!  Until then – have a great Monday!