Paper Distress Birthdays!

I have finally bought some of Tim Holtz's Distress Ink pads. After seeing so many nice cards done with this technique of dying the paper, I wanted to try it. My boyfriend's mother and his brother's girlfriend share a birthday at the end of December so they were my guinea pigs. I used the Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, and Peeled Paint ink pads.

This card is for my boyfriend's mom. She's a fan of flowers and she keeps a bird feeder in her backyard so I wanted to incorporate both in her card.

This is for my boyfriend's brother's girlfriend. Miss Genevieve is a fan of Owls and I used the Vintage Photo ink pad to cover some of the loud yellow from the paper and ribbon.

Do you use Tim Holtz distress inks? I would love to see your creations!

Christmas Cards Galore!

So here are the Christmas cards I made for 2011. Funny enough, I was so tired as I was making some of them that I wrote happy 2013 inside most. Sigh. These were mostly made with Christmas paper and embellishments. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas filled with love, friends, and family!!

This last card, I made for JP. <3

Mee Chelle vs. Glitter Embossing

Glitter is not my friend. Embossing which looks SO EASY on all those amazing how-to videos I spend hours looking at online never seem to be THAT easy for me. On a trip to Michael's I bought a glitter pack from the Martha Stewart collection because I was determined to master this.

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I attempted to create a glitter embossed Christmas Tree card. This is how it came out.

Pretty right? I thought so too. Then I let it sit after EXTENSIVE heating from my embossing tool. When I started to write my sentiments on the inside the next day, this is what happened.

Epic fail. So back to Michael's I go. What I find infuriating about that place is that the workers never seem to be able to help me. I would think that if you worked at Michael's you may pick up a thing or two about arts and crafts. No such luck. So I returned Martha's glitter pack and bought some Stampendous Glitter and clear embossing ink. I also threw in a VersaMark stamp pad for good measure.

Buy at Simon Says Stamp!

Buy at Simon Says Stamp!

So finally, it seems as if I finally found the right tools because I tried making the card again with different colors this time and this is what I came up with. In retrospect, it looks a bit like a Chanukah card, but hey- Tis the Season!

December Baby

My closest friend at work has a birthday in December so for her card, I tried to stick to Christmas-y type of colors. This was made with my Cuttlebug and a good marker.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto!

So after I make cards, I usually have a lot of paper scraps. I try to recycle them into other projects as much as I can and this was one of those times. I made this little robot out of small scraps and I used a stamp that I had bought months before and was simply waiting for the right time to use it.

Hole-in-One

JP's Dad is a huge fan of golf. He watches it and he plays it so I decided to make him a golf inspired birthday card. I was a little perturbed that my stamp came out messy, but of course that was the last thing that went on there so I had no choice. Don't know why these pictures came out so dark. I need to pay better attention to the lighting inside my room!

Holiday Grab-Bag

I don't know about you, but I never know what to buy for Office Christmas party grab-bags. I sometimes think it would be easier to do Secret Santas and just pick something that you know the person would like, but that would take all the fun out of the White Elephant grab bag I suppose. This year with the $15 limit, I purchased an iTunes gift-card and made this card to go with it so it wouldn't totally look last minute.

First Anniversary

Hitting our first year anniversary, I knew I wanted to make something special for John Paul. Along with this card, I made him a scrapbook entitled, "Our Adventure Book" which mirrors Carl and Ellie's book from Disney/Pixar's UP! It was our first date and the book is filled with inside jokes, pictures, AOL conversations, etc. While that book is way to personal to put online, I did make this large card to go with it.

John Paul is a huge fan of board games so I made this card to look like a Monopoly board with each piece being a special thing we both had loved that past year. Movies we saw on special dates, television shows we spent hours snuggled up watching, songs we danced to and sang to on the top of our lungs in the car and a fireworks display we watched hand in hand at Disney World. It's kinda hard to top that first perfect year with him, but almost three years later, he is still the most amazing man I have ever known.

Baby Girl

The head boss lady sent an e-mail through the line of assistants to find out if I would make a card for one of the trainers. She had a brand new baby girl, but not knowing the person (or the name of the baby) I had to keep this card as generic as it comes. My apologies for the crappy photo. I promise I will never use my cell phone to take pictures ever again. You can't see but the background is patterned and the carriage is sparkly.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match!

For our first Valentine's Day, I made this card for John Paul as a special nod to our matchmaker. Again, I remember having like an hour or so to do this so it's a little lame. I already have this year's in mind however and it will be epic.

Game On!

My good friend Michael is a big video gamer. For his birthday, I attempted to make a video game controller. On the bottom, I tried to stamp the word Birthday with glitter and emboss it. After getting the stuff everywhere and frustrated that the word did not look like birthday at all, I cheated and used a sticker instead. Womp womp. The background was made with my Cuttlebug.

Tea Party!

When a close friend of mine from college was getting married, I was lucky enough to be in her Bridal party. For her shower, I volunteered to make the invitations to cut costs. Her favorite color is baby blue so I wanted to incorporate that into the card. I created the shapes on my Cricut machine and then put them through my Cuttlebug to create the flower shapes on them. She was marrying a man named Micah (hence the M on the flip side) and I had to mark out the phone number for obvious reasons.

Super Timmy!

For Halloween, I sent John Paul's brother a superhero card. Tim is in law school and it seems as if someone needs to have super powers to get through it.

Family Tree

I'm a huge fan of Ben Kweller and that is due to the many music mixes my best friend made me in college. I cannot hear his song Family Tree without thinking of her and how she is more like my sister than friend at this point. I made her this card just because she's amazing. This card was made with my Cricut and some flower stickers.

A broken branch I'd be

If you weren't grown to me

You are my Family Tree

Happy Anniversary!

When John Paul's parents were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, I made them this card. I experimented with my Cuttlebug and glitter embossing. After 30 years all you need is love... and alcohol.

Bonjur!

My supervisor is pretty awesome. She is always helping me at work with projects or quick e-mail with some coupons. To thank her, I made her this thank you card with an Eiffel Tower since she had just come from Paris.

Bestie Vacation

For the past two years, my best friend and I have gone on vacation together in the spring. We have a friend from college who lives in Florida and he is always so nice to open his home to us. This was a thank you card I made to hold a gift card we bought for him. Derek loves to scuba dive so naturally, I knew that his card had to center around that.

Sea Creature

I once asked John Paul's brother Timmy was his favorite animal was. He said squid but this was as close as I could get. This was just a card to say hello.

A Little Princess

Another new baby! This time, a coworker had a baby girl and since she was his first and only daughter, I knew she would be a little princess. Later, he told me his wife put my card inside a baby scrapbook she had made. That made me quite happy.