Hidden Message Slider Card

Here's the card I sent to Joy of "A Place To Be Me" for August's One Card Swap. I wanted to try something new, but was stumped until I came across Michele's Hidden Message Slider Card posted on her blog, "My Simple Crafts". Michele had created the cutest sliding graduation card but I just could not figure it out. Being that I enjoy cards that move and slide and pop the most, I really loved this card. Did a search on the Splitcoast Message board and lo, and behold, found the instructions shared by Beate. (click on the link to the message board then scroll down to Beate's response for her link to the instructions)

For my card for Joy, I used a cut created using SCAL a digital bear image from Darcie Hunter and cut with Cricut, then chalked. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch, stickled and popped with some foam tape, and the rhinestone blings are from Photocraft. Sentiments are computer generated, font is DJ Doodlers, and rubber stamped flowers are from Dandelion Designs. Of course, I had to use Joy's favorite purple and my favorite pink! Pulling down on the tab at the bottom of the card makes the bear slide down to reveal the "hidden message" at the top of the card. Neat, huh. Looks complicated, but it's actually very easy! Hope Joy enjoyed her card as much as I had fun making it!

And if you think you might be interested in participating in the One Card Swap, pop on over to Teri's blog, "Big Ideas from a Little Girl" to sign up now for the month of September. It's really a fun swap and all it takes is one card you've made to participate and you too will have the opportunity to meet some of the nicest people ever.

August OCS and RAKs

Been getting a lot of "happy mail" recently and wanted to share...

I signed up for Teri's OCS (One Card Swap) again this month and was so excited to learn I had been partnered with Joy from A Place To Be Me! Her blog is such a fun place to visit because there's always something new... she has the cutest cards and projects and it's amazing how quickly she puts things together. I just love this Miss Anya card I received from her last week. Such an AWESOME card with a great color combo and embellishments! Joy used the "Out of Frame Technique" on this card to create the look of Miss Anya sitting in the nestie with her legs dangling...neat, huh. You can find the the link to the instructions for this technique on her blog. I'm gonna have to give this a try too. Thank you, Joy!

Next is a "Things I Love" Mini Envelope Book created and sent to me by my friend Patti Lee of Creations by Patti. All I can say is "Wow!" This little book is nothing short of AWESOME! All the stamping, cutting, crimping, gluing involved, all the attention to detail ... just amazing!

Here's the book opened...

The pages inside...

And these tabbed pages that slide out...super cool, huh. Thank you, Patti!

If you love this as much as I do, you can create your own with the tutorial Patti has posted on her blog. Thank you, Patti ... this is really a treasure!

And most recently, I received this lovely card, from my new friend, Kyoko of Cards and Tags Mania. I was lucky enough to meet Kyoko in person last month when she generously offered to share some of her very precious patterned papers with me. She is one of the warmest, sweetest people I have ever met!

Kyoko's card is my very first Magnolia stamped card...love the colors she chose for her and all the pretty layering. Really like how she accented her swiss dots embossed layer with silver ink ... can't wait to try that too.

And as if that weren't enough, Kyoko also sent along a whole bunch of Gorjuss Girls stamped images for me to play with! Thank you, Kyoko...you are the bestest!

It never ceases to amaze me how many wonderful new friends I have made through this blogging network. Everyone is always so thoughtful and so generous in giving and sharing ... heartfelt thanks to all!

One Card Swap for May

I was thrilled to receive this delightful card in the mail last week from Joni, my partner for Teri's

One Card Swap for the month of May. Just love how she made this double slider card...I know these take an extra bit of time and effort to make, especially to get the slider to work just right...and Joni's card turned out great! Fairy Tink looks adorable in pink (yup Joni, PINK is my fave!) and Joni says she used a Sakura Gelly Roll - Clear Star on her wings to give them that very special pearly sheen. So pretty! Everything about this card, down to the last detail, the heat embossing, the sentiments, the perfectly coordinated papers ... everything is so special. Thank you, Joni!


This is the card I sent to Joni. I came across this flower pot card as a challenge at Splitcoast Stampers and wanted to try one too. Of course I had to use my Cricut, right?
Found the perfect flower pot cut on the Walk In My Garden cartridge, sized it and welded two of them together in Design Studio. Then on a new page, I welded together three shadows of a flower cut I liked from the same cart, together with a rectangle cut from George. By using the preview of the flowerpot from the first page as a guide on the new page, I could size the flower shadows and rectangle for a perfect fit into the pot. I then sized and cut flowers to fit the shadows, and added a few leaves.
For the final touches, I chalked the pot & flowers, embossed the pot with a Sizzix embossing folder from a Hello Kitty set, glittered the flower centers, and added a tag and bow. It actually came together pretty quickly and easily, and that's a good thing since I had waited till the last minute to start working on my card for this month's swap. The actual card turned out to be larger than I had planned, about 8 inches tall! Next time I'll have to scale it down a bit.

Luckily, Fairy Ava is a digital stamp so I was able to size her to fit the card. I used Copics to color her in and blinged her wings with some prisma glitter. Isn't she the cutest? Love her anime eyes! Jodi from Inked Inspirations turned me on to the In Style Stamps site where I found Fairy Ava and many of her anime friends available in rubber as well as digital downloads.


The non-Cricut tutorial for this Flower Pot Pocket Card can be found on Stephanie Luman's blog, Beat of My Drum. You can also view many samples of what others have done with this card on the Splitcoast Stampers gallery. So many great ideas!

One Card Swap

Here's a card I received in the mail last week, created by my new friend, Tracy, with whom I was randomly paired with for a "One Card Swap". Isn't it the cutest? I was so impressed with Tracy's coloring and shading, and with her neat and precise card making. I also loved the way the colors she chose coordinated so well. Thank you, Tracy, receiving your card really made my day special! You can visit Tracy at her blog, "Tracy's Happy Place" where she shares more of her talent and creativity. She has a fun monthly rak, the Aloha Rak which you can join to share almost anything you've created plus other goodies with crafters from all over. And if you are a procrastinator (like me!) you might enjoy Tracy's Christmas Card Challenge, which might be just the solution to getting those Christmas cards done on time this year!

The "One Card Swap" that Tracy and I participated in is the brainstorm of our fellow blogging friend, Teri at "Big Ideas from A Little Girl". This is a brand new card monthly card swap if you are interested in exchanging just one card. It's a fun, low-keyed swap and great way to make new friends and meet other cardmakers. I will be posting the card I sent to Tracy later after I hear that she's received it. I had to scramble to finish and mail her card to her by the deadline after the Valentines Day projects were done...yup, last minute as usual. (Sorry, Tracy!)