Perky Penny Paper Arts

Today I am sharing my niece's graduation card on YouTube.  The star of this card is the incredible and elegant Grand Cabinet 3D set from Spellbinders.  This set includes 6 dies that you can use to make several different dimensional or flat cards. This beautiful card will even fold flat to fit in a 6" x 6"  envelope (but I will be sending my niece's in a box).
Be sure to check out the accompanying video to see a quick run through of how I created all the different elements for this card, including the tassel and graduation hat.


To create my card, I die cut two each of the largest panel with the center cut out from Peacock paper from Simon Says Stamp and a Lime Green paper from my stash which I believe is Gina K designs Grass Green paper.  I then cut one of the same panel with the center intact for the back of my card.  I used the scraps to cut out two each of the numbers in both colors which I layered together; the two side panels; the Hooray background die from N…

I am in love with Cherry Blossoms!  They are so fun to color that whenever I see a Cherry Blossom stamp, I simply have to have it.  The new Mondo Sakura (Cherry Blossom in Japanese) and coordinating die from Ellen Hutson are no exception.  This set has another quality I love in my flower stamps:  they are HUGE!!!!!  Having all that space to color is just dreamy.  At first glance this card may seem complicated to create but I am here to dispel that myth. 
To create this card, you will need 2 sheet of 5" x 6" Hero Arts Acetate (one cut to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and one folded on one side at 1 1/4” inch on the 6” side);  2 sheets of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" 110 lb white card stock (one cut with the cover die of your choice, and one folded in half and cut with the 3rd largest die from the Infinity Tag Frames Die set by Hero Arts [so you have 2 tags]); and 2 sheets of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" Bristol Smooth card stock (to stamp and emboss the Mondo Sakura on).  I will colo…

I am so excited to be sharing my Level 1 challenge for the Altenew Educator Certification Program.  I was asked to create a card for a teenage boy or girl, with a choice of several categories.  I chose an encouragement card for a teenage boy because I always love a good challenge.  The other requirement was to use 3 elements from the classes I have taken so far in Level 1.  I chose 3 elements with a very basic thought: many a teenage boy is not going to keep a card forever, so I wanted something simple, quick, and fun for me to make.  I reviewed Lesson 1 of the Clean & Simple Boutique class to zero in on this concept for my card. I decided on no dimension to keep it as simple as possible and a few elements to still have a fun card when I was done.

Besides an A2 white card base, this card only needed a 4" x 5 1/4" white panel to stencil on, a scrap for the sentiment, and the super cool Tim Holtz Idea-ology Metallic Kraft Stock (silver) cut to 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" an…

I had so much fun playing with the May 2018 Kind Heart Kit from Simon Says Stamp.  I created 8 pretty cards which I am so happy to share with you today.  I took advantage of the huge masking paper included with the kit and created masks for each of the images in the Everything Together stamp set (but not the sentiments).  You will see below how I used them. I have saved all of the masks and I'm storing them with the kit so that I can reuse them in the future.
I like to call Card 1 a one layer wonder.  I measured my sentiment and cut a piece of the masking paper just slightly larger.  I centered it in the center towards the top.  This gave me a 1/2" border on 3 sides and a slightly thicker border on the bottom.  Kind of like a Polaroid photo which I thought was kind of fun.  I then used my flower and leaf masks to determine placement and create a flower border around my masked rectangle and removed the masks when I was done.  Before I removed the rectangle, I took a Gold Signo…

As of this writing this kit is still available at www.heroarts.com while supplies last so if you would like the set hurry on over to purchase.
Have you ever needed a bunch of cards quickly?  I find in those situations a good cover die can go a long way.  There was a wonderful bonus in the April 2018 My Monthly Hero Kit, a full size cover die!  And this one is really special.  I created several sets of cards and a few singles--31 in total--in one day thanks to this timesaver, and I thought I would share them with you just in case you are ever in need of some quick cards for a gift or charity, to sell or just send out individually.  There are 9 different ways I used the die in total.  Most of these cards won't be decorated or have a sentiment yet.  That way I can customize them later, when I need them.

The products used in today's cards were minimal.  I used the kit, which included a huge, adorable stamp set; coordinating dies for many of the images; the aforementioned cover die…

My friends and I love to craft and we love playing with new products so every month I put together a kit and come up with 5 projects for everyone to create together.  The papers from this month's kit are so pretty I  thought it would be fun to share the kit and projects with you today.  I called the kit Isn’t She Lovely as it is filled with pretty things to make Mother’s Day or birthday cards for the special women or girls in your life.

Here is a YouTube Live I filmed constructing these cards.   Check it out and then read below for measurements and a shopping list. The paper I chose this month is the Hello line from Doodlebug Design.  I included three coordinating Doodle Pops; they're mini sets of multilayered embellishment stickers.  To stamp, I chose the awesome You Are My Most Favorite stamp from Neat and Tangled which would make a great card stamped alone on a card.  I included this set of adorable puffy stickers with great gold accents and some pink chevron washi tape that…