Good Luck!

School is out! That also means a ton of graduations going on! Tomorrow we will be headed to Oklahoma City to celebrate my cousin Ryleigh's graduation from Trinity University! Go Ry! (You will be receiving this card tomorrow lol!)
To honor Ryleigh's past few years going to school in San Antonio, I chose colors that remind me of the city! Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Tangerine Tango make me feel like I'm on the River Walk!
For the patterned background strip I used the Stamp-a-ma-Jig and the Fine Flourish stamp! I simply lined it up and stamped it all three colors on Shimmer White cardstock.
For the pretty little flowers I used my markers to color the stamp, huff to remoisten, and stamp onto Shimmer White cardstock. I then handcut them out and tied them together with a little white ribbon.
This card is very simple to put together! I'm headed out the door or I would post directions for you! IF you do have any questions about this card or would like directions simply email me at aprilmassad@yahoo.com! As many of you know I will be happy to help!
I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I will be headed to the lake so I won't be posting until Tuesday!

Flowers Flowers Flowers

I LOVE flowers! They are all over my back porch, on my front porch, and around my pool. Every year I can't wait for springtime to bring them all back out and plant new ones!

Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Tips and Tricks came out at the perfect time! This issue is ALL about flowers. While this blog is my cardmaking blog that doesn't mean you can't take an idea from a scrapbooking layout and translate it into your cardmaking! Flowers look beautiful on ANY project! ;)

My layout in this issue is for the Latest and Greatest column. They sent me some goodies and I had to make scrappy magic with them. I can't post the whole layout on here, but I will give you a sneak peek!
The sneak peek pic above is of a clothespin I added to the layout to hold Brodey's note. (I wanted it to be removable since it's a keepsake.)
I used the Punch Potpourri stamp set and stamped the flowers onto the clothespin with brown Stazon ink. I then took my markers and blender pens and colored in the flowers. I attached the clothespin to my layout with Glue Dots. I thought it was a fun way to add memorabilia to a layout and it's always fun to color flowers!
To celebrate the flower issue I made a card with some fun tissue flowers! We first made a tissue flower card in my March Stamper's Night Out. For that card I used the smallest flower in the Island Floral die for my Big Shot.

For today's card I used the Daisies #2 die. I LOVE this die! There are three different sizes of daisies on it! Remember that with the Big Shot you can cut just about any type of material out! It's AWESOME!
This card is very simple to make so I'm just going to give you the directions for making the flower. (If you need directions for the entire card sent me an email at aprilmassad@yahoo.com)

Here are the stamp sets and ink colors I used on this card:
Four Frames - Melon Mambo and Pretty in Pink Frame Around the Sentiment
Sincere Salutations - Old Olive Best Wishes
Love and Care - Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink and Old Olive Flowers

Supplies Needed to Make Flowers:
- Big Shot Die Cutting Machine
- Daisies #2 Die (or any flower die)
- Light Pink Tissue Paper (Largest and smallest flowers)
- Dark Pink Tissue Paper (Medium flower)
- Scrap Paper
- Circle Punch
- Paper Piercer or Small Hole Punch
- Brad

Directions:
1. Take your tissue paper out of the package but DO NOT separate the sheets. (By keeping the sheets together you can cut all of one flower size at once)
2. Cut a square out of the pieces of tissue paper close to the size of the largest flower in the die. Lay the square of tissue paper over the flower and run through your Big Shot.
3. Repeat with the two other sizes of flowers.
4. Take the smallest flower and begin separating the tissue paper with your fingers. It's easier to do this by just rubbing the center of the flowers between your fingers. As you separate each flower, feed it onto a pencil, paper piercer, or paintbrush. (This helps them stay centered and keeps them from blowing away)
5. Repeat with the other sizes of flowers.
6. Punch a circle out of scrap paper the size closest to the flower you are using. (I used all three flower sizes in the die so I punched out a 1 inch circle.)
7. Punch or pierce a hole into the center of your circle.
8. Slide the tissue flowers off and put the punched circle on the back of the flowers. Feed your brad through the hole to hold your flowers onto the circle base.

And now you have a beautiful Gerbera daisy!
I hope your Thursday has been a happy one!

P.S. I just wanted to let you know that if you scroll down my blog, on the right side there is a product index. There are products, colors, stamp sets, etc that you can click on and see what projects I have shared using those items! This might be helpful when you get that stamp set in your hands and you can't kick your creative side into gear! ;)

Don't Judge a Stamp Set...

I've always agreed with the phrase "Don't judge a book by it's cover." I have read many books that were wonderful but had terrible covers! After this week I'm convinced this phrase applies to stamp sets as well as books! Although I'm not quite sure how you would alter it. "Don't judge a stamp by it's black and white image in a catalog?" Haha! I hate to admit that this hostess set in the new Summer Mini wasn't my favorite stamp set in the catalog. When I got it a couple of weeks ago I wasn't that thrilled about it but I was in a Poppy Parade kind of mode. I had just been at the Gap and bought a shirt that exact color, painted my toes that color, and I was dying to use it in my papercrafting. I guess you could say Love and Care came at the right time. I started playing around with it and came up with the card above. I LOVED it and I knew my girls at Stamper's Night Out would too!
I had so much fun making that card that I just starting stamping different color combinations. Then I thought WOW! I could make Brodey's teacher a set of cards for Teacher Appreciation week!

I took several different sentiments from the Sincere Salutations set and stamped them with Basic Gray. (Basic Gray goes with any color combo) I took the smaller flower stamp and stamped around the sentiment with So Saffron ink. Then I punched the sentiments out with the Decorative Label Punch. I also adhered double sided foam adhesive squares to the backs of the sentiments. I left the backing on the adhesive so that she can add the sentiment she needs to whatever card she chooses.
So Saffron is a beautiful shade of yellow that has many beautiful color combos in the Color Coach. I ended up stamping 6 different card with 6 different sentiments. Listed below are the color combos I used for the cards starting with the card in the upper left of the photo.

Regal Rose - Early Espresso - So Saffron
Tangerine Tango - Pacific Point - So Saffron
Melon Mambo - Tempting Turquoise - So Saffron
Cajun Craze - Always Artichoke - So Saffron
Perfect Plum - Wild Wasabi - So Saffron
Poppy Parade - Baja Breeze - So Saffron

Once the cards were stamped I put the sentiments in a baggie and tied them all together with a pretty ribbon! I let Brodey stamp her a card with the same stamp set and he really enjoyed doing it!
This stamp set is a Hostess Set that is available for a limited time in the Summer Mini Catalog. If you would like more info on how to get this set please send me an email at aprilmassad@yahoo.com!
I hope you enjoyed today's post! Tomorrow I will share a Father's Day card using the new Open Sea stamp set and Nautical Expedition Paper!