Friday, April 17, 2009

Happy Birthday to You, Elise!

Easter was a religious holiday, a bunny hopping egg finding day, and a friend's birthday! I met Elise through the wonderful world of scrapbook retreats and she became my 'friendly Stampin' Up! gal' as well. She is a sweet woman who is incredibly artistically talented. I am inspired everytime I get to watch her work! And now that she has her own blog, I do not have to wait for the next retreat to see what crafty & artsy goodness she is up to! Lately, she has been playing with Tim Holtz's fun fragments and giving me all kinds of ideas. By the way.....that workshop that Tim is talking about on his blog?? That's where Elise is right now...today!!! How Awesome is that?!! I am So looking forward to seeing what she's learning from Tim, the man, today!!



Rummaging through my stamp collection with Elise's birthday card in mind, I wanted to pull stamps that she may have not seen before. She is a stamp-addict, like most of us in this stampy blogosphere, so she's seen a lot. Then I came accross Marilyn, by Stampsmith, and thought she would be perfect! Since this card was going in the mail, I didn't want it to be too lumpy and bumpy, so I kept my design fairly flat. Something that I really liked was that the ribbon points on the card fold flat in the envelope, but pops up a bit when taken out. On the inside of the card is a piece of PTI's vintage cream cardstock with a strip of Bitty Dot paper to coordinate with the front of the card. I'm horrible about remembering to decorate the insides of the cards, so I was really glad that I did this time! :>

Here's a little mailing TIP: If you have brads, bling, or bumps that do not make your envelope thicker than the 1/4" max, put clear packing tape on the back of the envelope so that the post office machines do not get caught on your embellishment and you do not have to put additional postage on it for hand proccessing! Someone from the Stamp Shack sent me a birthday card this way and I thought it was ingenious! I even went to the post office to ask about it and they said, yup, it will keep your postage down to a single first class stamp as long as you do not exceed the size or weight limits. Too cool! (oh yea.....Elise, apologies for the lint and whatnot that was on the first piece of tape I put down....I didn't realize the packing tape had been sitting out so long!! :>)


Supplies:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Plum Pudding - PTI
Patterned Paper: Bitty Dot Basics - PTI
Stamps: Marilyn - Stampsmith
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Sweet Blush Satin - PTI
Embellishments: Flowers - Prima; Light Pink Flower Rhinestones - KaiserCraft

12 comments:

  1. OMG! Karen! I'm positively blushing! YOU are soooooooo sweet! I can't believe you and your lovely compliments and great references to all things retreat, scrapping and stamping! You summed things up SO well and I must admit, I didn't realize that Marilyn was a stamp! I thought you got her from Clearly Vintage or somewhere like that!!! Double Wow! You are most kind and I, too, am inspired by YOU! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! (We meet with the T!m man tonight at 5:30!!!) Can't hardly wait! I love the tape tip: NEVER HEARD IT BEFORE: you ROCK! I am humbled by your compliments and richer for your friendship... Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful card! I love those folded ribbon petals.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Karen, that is such a beautiful card.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Truly gorgeous card Karen. Absolutely love Stampsmith stamps and have a few, but this Marilyn is just fab,
    Stunning work Karen,
    Love Sarita xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your card is beautiful Karen - and I really appreciate the lovely comments on my blog - it keeps me motivated!! Hugs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is such a pretty image and I like the ribbon and flower details you added.

    I use the same packing tape trick myself. I thought of it after recieving some cards where the embellishments had torn through the envelope by the time it got to me. I want to make sure my recipients don't get the same damaged cards I have. If I have something with lots of embellishments (rare for me) I also use some really thin bubble wrap that came with some electronics I bought. I cut a piece just big enough to cover the front of my card and tuck it in the envelope. It doesn't add any weight and because it's thin, it still goes for the under the 1/4" rule.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Karen! What a gorgeous card for Elise! That Marilyn image is divine...and you stumped the stamp queen. Pretty hard to do ;) I loved your sweet ribbon points and the packing tape trick is new to me. I've been using the hope and pray that it makes it techniques....probably not as fail safe as the tape :)

    THanks for visiting my blog and leaving your always supportive and sweet comments. You make my day!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gorgeous card, Karen. I love the folded ribbon and the Marilyn image is awesome!

    ((hugs))

    Mickey

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is stunning Karen. I love the ribbon. I have that stamp, I must dust it off now ( you enabler)
    hugs
    Enfys x

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is stunning! I just love how you did the ribbon.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I totally love the ribbon treatment here -it's unique and perfect for the image! Your tip for bling and brads is excellent too! Thanks so much! I'm glad I stopped in to visit :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. i love this. I LOVE marilyn monroe. awesome job.

    ReplyDelete

Thank You for visiting! I appreciate and am grateful for all of You who craft some of Your time to leave me comments!

Blog Widget by LinkWithin