{Retiring} Lovely Letters

Finally...something to show.  I made this set of cards for my friend's sister and her husband-to-be.  They are getting married tomorrow, and since she was in middle school when I met her (I met this friend on the second day of my freshman year of college), I just wanted to do a little something for her to celebrate her marriage. 

I love the simplicity of these cards.  I always feel that simple is best when using a monogram.  And I also wanted these to be used for whatever purpose Sheri decides on...I didn't want to make them have to be thank you notes.  Using my Big Shot and accessories, I was able to create these simple, yet elegant monogrammed note cards.  I even monogrammed the envelopes.

In other news, the 2013-2014 Annual Catalog is now live!  Let me know if you'd like a catalog, or if you'd like to place an order for all kinds of fun new things!

I'm hoping to be back to a regular blogging schedule next week.  I know it's not good blogging practice to let over a week go by without any real updates, but life has dealt our family a series of pretty tough blows over the past 8 days, and honestly, it's knocked all the creative winds out of my sails.   So I promise that fun posts will start showing up again in a few days. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'll admit, this day is sooooo not a big deal in my house.  I usually try to do something fun for the kids, but that's about it.  But hey, if you celebrate today, have fun!

Do you ever have an idea for a card that looks great in your head, but just doesn't translate to paper in quite the same way?  Yeah, this card would be a prime example of that.  It just didn't turn out quite how I had planned, and everything I did to jazz it up fell a little flat.  But there are some great elements on it, so let's talk about those. :)

The hearts...I'll be you're thinking that's red glimmer paper.  And that would have been a far easier way to make this card.  But that's not what's going on here.  I placed  couple of my Hearts Collection Framelits on the Basic Gray cardstock.  Once the holes were created, I stuck a piece of packing tape to the back, then sprinkled some (very old) red glitter on the sticky side of the tape.  It's a pretty cool technique, and given the amount of retired glitter I have, I should be using this technique a lot more.

The little strip of hearts at the bottom...I simply sent a strip of Naturals White card stock through my Big Shot using the Adorning Accents Embossing Folders, then tied a piece of Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine around it (I love that stuff...I will cry if SU! ever retires Baker's Twine!)

Stamps:  Itty Bitty Banners (126255)
Ink:  Whisper White Craft Ink (101731)
Paper:  Basic Black (121045), Basic Gray (121044), Naturals White (102316) card stock
Accessories:  Big Shot (113439), Hearts Collection Framelits (125599), (129267), Adorning Accents Embossing Folders (125601), Rhinestones Basic Jewels (119246), Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine (123125), red glitter (retired)