Birdie "Hi"

Here's another card, using the Basic Grey "Sweet Threads" collection.  This one uses two layers of coordinating paper, rounded on the edges, along with a diamond cardstock accent.  I love the chipboard bird!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Tree Thank You

I am really loving the Basic Grey "Sweet Threads" collection!  The paper is so versatile, and a wonderful "blank" canvas to create on.  Here's a tree thank you card created with cardstock elements and rub-ons.  Hope you like it!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Glam "Thanks!"

I love the paper for the background of card # 6 from the We R Memory Keepers "Retro Glam" card kit!  The colors and patter are divine!  The bracket-type bubble in the middle has the sentiment "just wanted to say...Thanks!" in a mix of rub-ons and chipboard.  There are three gorgeous flowers on opposite corners, which I used pop dots to raise up.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Flower Friends!

This card (#5) may well be my FAVORITE in the We R Memory Keepers "Retro Glam" card kit!  I love how the flowers pop off the page (thanks to my pop dots), and how the sentiment is chipboard and seems to nestle super-well between the stems and blooms.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

What a Hoot!

Here's card #4 from the We R Memory Keepers "Retro Glam" card kit!  I am loving how easy these are to put together (as well as to modify)!!!  This "You are a hoot" card is sooo stinkin' cute!  I love, love, love the chipboard owl!  I also like the asymmetrical design of the borders!  The sentiment is a combo of rub-ons and die-cut letters.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Hubby Made a Card!

On National Card Making Day, I convinced my husband to sit down with me and make a quick card.  I walked him through a few basics, and he picked the stamps that he wanted to use.  Take a look at how his card turned out!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

National Card-Making Day (Oct. 2)

Just wanted to share a quick Halloween card that I created during National Card Making Day.  I used some Martha Stewart paper, and some dollar-bin stamps (frog, sentiment, spider), to create a cute card.  I also added silver Stickles around the sentiment, on the frog hat, etc., and added a green and black polka-dot ribbon towards the bottom.  I popped up the sentiment, as well as inked all edges with Stampin' Up's Concord Crush.   ~Hoppy Crafting! 

Stampin' Up Party!

Last night, friends and family gathered at Deb's Stampin' Studio, to create some super-cute cards and enjoy each other's company!  Deb is a Stampin' Up demonstrator that I met through my friend, Terri.  You can check her out at: http://debnaylor.stampinup.net/ OR http://flyingstamper.blogspot.com/ .  I know that everyone who came just had a fabulous time!  We stamped, we glittered, we ate, and we glittered some more!  In fact, I think the word of the night WAS "glitter"!!!

I was SO happy that we could get together and spend some "girl time" crafting the night away!  I was also SOOO incredibly THANKFUL that Deb has such a wonderful place for everyone to get together and craft!   THANK YOU, DEB!!!! :o) 

So, I HAVE to share with you the adorable cards we made last night.  I think every card looks a little different (depending on just how much glitter everyone added), but the basic cards were very similar.  My two favorites of the night were the birdhouse and the hydrangea!  In fact, I ended up getting both sets we used, to recreate these at my own Craft Cave!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

 

Christmas Embossing

It's beginning to look alot like...Christmas!  :o)  Ok, maybe not really, but in my craft cave, it is!  With the arrival of August, I know that the remainder of the year will just FLY by!  I will start going into my classroom to reset everything and prepare for my new kindergartners, then will come conferences, Thanksgiving, and before we know it--Christmas.  I have learned that the absolute LATEST I can finish Christmas cards is Veteran's Day.  If they don't get done by then, there is no hope.   (Report cards, kid Christmas crafts, etc., all take over after Veteran's Day!) 
Here is one I made, using embossing powder.  I have a ton of gorgeous embossing powders, all ready to be used, but there are only so many crafting hours in a week!  I had to dust off my heat gun....it has been that long!   I stamped this pretty snowflake background, and covered it with the glittery-blue embossing powder.  Then, I added "Merry Christmas" with letter stickers.  (I HAVE to start using up some older supplies...that's my goal!)  Though it is a simple card, I think it turned out pretty.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Anniversary!

Yesterday just happened to be our 8th wedding anniversary, and my husband surprised me with a nice dinner out on the waterfront at a wonderful seafood restaurant.  The food was delicious, and the walk along the waterfront was gorgeous!  What does this have to do with this blog?  When I picked up our mail earlier in the day, we had received this card!

My mother, who is the queen of cake decorating, is beginning to get into making cards and using her Cricut (we surprised her with a baby bug on her b-day a couple of years back!).  I guess after my visit (and our LATE night-owl crafting sessions), she was anxious to test out some of the techniques I had shown her! 
I think she did a really nice job with this vertical tri-fold-type card! She even used her new clear stamps!She went crazy punching borders with my Martha Stewart punches while I was visiting, and now I see why!  She actually incorporated every color from my rainbow pastel wedding!  (I enjoy color so much, that each of my bridesmaids did wear a different soft pastel color (blue, lilac, celadon [green], yellow, pink). 
I digress!  I'm proud that my mom is dabbling in this area of paper crafts, and I loved her use of the layered flowers with a heart brad (FIRST time she used a brad!), with a pink ribbon behind it.  Way to go, Mom!  Love you!  ~Hoppy Crafting! 

Christmas Present Card

I made this super-easy and super-quick Christmas card, using a green card base, red torn mulberry paper, raffia, and a paper tag with an eyelet.  I attached the raffia bow with Zots.  I think it turned out really cute, and took under 5 minutes!  (Such a bonus, when mass-producing for family!).  The tag was just a circle punch, and then I used another punch for the snowflake center. 

Here's a handy tip for tearing mulberry paper: use a paintbrush or those craft brushes you can fill with water, and gently trace along where you want the paper to tear (w/a bit of water).  The water will dry quickly, and your paper will tear super-easy!  :o) 

~Hoppy Crafting!

Sweet Lion

This card was made, using a brown card base, and layering DCVW Cafe Mediterranean patterned paper with yellow cardstock, and punched with MS's 3-dot scallop.  I tied orange grosgrain ribbon near the bottom, and added a lion, (cut from some cute cardstock) with foam dots.  The "sweet" stamp was from Stampology, and done in SU's Chocolate Chip with gold gel pen dots as a border.  I inked and mounted the yellow onto brown cardstock, then also popped it up, using foam dots.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Baby Card Two, Hoppin' Through!

This is the second card that I made using DCWV paper, Studio G stamps, and Anna Griffin paper (rabbit).  I again used creme grosgrain ribbon around the middle, and added pop dots behind the rabbit and "welcome baby" signs.  For the buttons, I used rolled up Zots.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Whooo's Welcoming Baby?

I made two cards, using similar papers, and themes.  This is the first one.  The background papers and tag for this card are used from the DCWV Citrus Stack.  I LOVE the bright colors and patterns from this stack!  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!!!!  I used a creme grosgrain ribbon across the center, and added yellow buttons, using Zots dots, to balance.   The "welcome baby" is a Studio G clear stamp, and I used SU Close to Cocoa to stamp it on patterned paper.  I used a white gel pen to dash and dot around the words, then popped it up, using foam dots.  The owl is actually cut from an animal themed paper, created by Anna Griffin.  After cutting the owl from the paper, I used foam dots to pop it off the page, as well.   ~Hoppy Crafting!

Semi-Homemade....Cards, that is!

Has anyone ever watched that cooking/decor show called "Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee"?  It's on the Food Network, and I've caught it a few times.  Today's cards reminded me of that show because they are not totally made from scratch by me.  I found these cute cards on clearance and all they said was "thank you" on them.  I wanted to pretty them up and use as quick thank you cards. 
I ended up using a Cuttlebug frog, bee, and flowers, and I think they turned out pretty well!  I just die-cut the frogs from green cardstock, cut the bees from two different yellows (one solid, one dotted), and then cut the flowers from blues and yellows.  I also cut stems from yellow, and one has a small pot made from brown and green paper.  After cutting, all I did was group the flowers and glue them, then add the animals.  These took around 10 minutes to make, and were super easy.  Try it out for yourself!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Christmas...In June-uary?

With all of this outstanding June weather we've been having, I'd like to rename this month June-uary.  True, for the last couple of days, it has actually been starting to feel like summer, but how long will it last? 
Well, for as fast as June has flown by, I just hope that July drags by a bit.  I like to do some Christmas in July crafting with my peeps.  I usually have around 40 Xmas cards to make (give or take a few), and if I don't do them during the summer break, then they most likely won't get done.  When you're a teacher, October, November, and December just FLY by because they are SO BUSY!!!  
So, the tradition of trying to make as many Christmas cards in July, as possible, has me wondering how many of you out there do the same?  I'd love to hear from you and seem some of your creations as well! 

This card was made with a blue card base, which I stamped with a snowflake background in dark blue.  Then I found a piece of vellum from a Christmas set I had in my stash, that read "let it snow", and affixed it to the card with four snowflake brads.  Vellum is one of those tricky-adhesive pieces to work with (since you don't want to SEE the adhesive!), so using the brads was how I solved the visible adhesive issue.  ~Hoppy Crafting & hope to hear (and see) your ideas soon!  :o)

Baby Boy Shower

Hi, everyone!  Today, I made a quick baby shower card, using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and two different stamps.  Since I know ahead of time that she's expecting a boy, I chose a blue card base, and used a Cuttlebug embossing folder, which I chalked blue after embossing.  Then, I stamped the chic pregnant lady on cardstock, as well as the "baby" clothespins, and used chalk and watercolor pencils on those, as well.  To attach each to the card, I used blue baby button brads in the corners of each square.  On the inside, I stamped "congratulations".  Hope you like it! ~Hoppy Crafting!

Go Cougs!

Ok, I promise that I won't post Halloween cards two days in a row!  :o)  Here's a card I just made for a graduate, heading off to college this fall (GO COUGS!!!).  Since Wazzu's (college) colors are crimson and gray/white, I started with a crimson card base.  I used Versamark to stamp cougar paws randomly.  Then, I cut a white strip to go across the middle of the card, so that I would have a place to put he WSU stamp cut-outs (stamped with SU Cranberry Crisp, then punched out with a 1" circle punch) and the inspirational quote I had found (also stamped in SU Cranberry Crisp).  To add dimension, I used pop dots behind each "WSU" emblem, as well as behind the stamped phrase and the yellow block.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Hang in there!

Hi there!  I know I haven't posted any creations for a few days, just been so dang busy!  Hopefully life is calming down and I can settle into a summer routine. :o) 
Today's card is fairly simple.  I took and orange-ish/yellow cardstock, and wrapped a sheer green polka-dot ribbon around the middle.  Then, I stamped white paper with a green bacground block stamp, and added the "hang in there" sign, stamped in black.  I cut a Sizzix frame for the background, in green textured cardstock.  Then I added a cute flower embellishment wtih a star brad, to hide the top of where the sign was hanging from.   Finally, I adhered the embellished sign to the middle of the card. ~Hoppy Crafting!