Harry Potter Wedding Card

My 23-year-old daughter has some friends who are getting married and she gave me a list of things they like—books, Harry Potter, nerdy stuff. So I dug into my stash and found some Harry Potter papers from awhile ago and there were some chipboard stickers. She told me what Houses they are in (it's something all the HP fans know, apparently) and I put them on a card, with a gold shimmer paper embossed with this great 3-D embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers.

Here's what I started with.

And after a lot of thought and fooling around, I ended up with this.

  

I put the gold and black panel on a woodgrain paper and added foam hearts in black and gold and then flags of all 4 of the house colors. The daughter was happy with it. 

I also made this card below so she could have a choice...she took back it with her to give a co-worker having a baby. So I guess they passed muster :)

The background is Distress Oxides and water. I ran a page of it through the printer and found a free digi of Hogwarts. I added text and book paper and mounted it all on a piece of aqua cardstock. It's a 5x7 card so I could get all these papers on here. Of course, I added Diamond Stickles for the stars.

If you're a Harry Potter fan, you can go here to Scrapbook.com for some similar products. 

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Wedding Card That Should've Taken Less Time

So, have you ever made a card that took forever? And when it was finished you were all, hey! that's fab, and it looks as good as I thought it would and was worth all my time? Like a complicated folded card? Well, this isn't one of those cards. It's a pretty simple design but it took me forever and I had to trim it and then tore it so I had to go back and redo part of it and so on. Not kidding, I thought I'd never get this card up to snuff.

It's not the worst card, but I can't believe how many times I messed it up and had to work to get it good enough. I used some gold dot paper and gold heart die cuts from Pretty Little Studio, some letter stickers from my stash and black polka dot washi tape. You'd think that it would've been a breeze to make.

Here's a close-up of the shiny goldness. I really like the metallic papers and the printed vellum at PLS.

And I thought I'd throw in a pic of a card that actually took no time at all and came out pretty cute too. This was a Father's Day card for my husband, who is die-hard Coke fan. Won't even drink Pepsi and will opt for Mountain Dew at Pepsi restaurants. I prefer Coke, but a Pepsi will do in a pinch. Ideally, I want a tall fresh-brewed unsweetened iced tea for the caffeine boost and the tea flavor, but sometimes you want that fizz.

These are Doodlebug Design You're so Punny die cuts and papers. The Ale8 bottle top was just sitting on the table from my son's pop (also a fave of my husband), so it made its way onto the card. I doodled on the card with a black pen too.

Here's hoping that you don't have one of those frustrating-for-no-reason cards in your future!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Anniversary Celebration

Hard for me to believe it's been 28 years of wedded bliss with the best man I know. I can't believe I found Matt so early in life and that we were well-suited then and well-suited now, even though we've both changed and grown. This pic is from April, after I just turned 50 and he had turned 50 two months before. 

We were both in the musicals in high school and had mutual friends so we hung out together and then when we were sixteen, I got the idea that he liked me and I thought he was funny and dang hot, so we started dating. Thanks to our mutual friend, Vicki Smith, who encouraged me to date this somewhat intense young man. I figured we'd break up and I'd break his heart...but the joke was on me because we just stayed together!

I'm not sure how we got so lucky, but I'm not questioning it, I'm just thankful. He's a rock-solid, hard-working, dedicated family man who would do anything for me or the kids. He's understanding and he listens and he's kind to old people and children. He also has a zero-tolerance policy for people who are mean or stupid or generally make life harder and more dangerous for the rest of us (I'm talking to you, people who text and drive.) 

Here's the little cake we treated ourselves to for this anniversary and the card I made for him with Pretty Little Studio products.

And this guy is still funny. He says, "you can't spell scrapbooking without the word crap," but he also tells me I do important things for the family by scrapbooking and keeping our memories. So, Happy Anniversary to my honey. Am hoping you have the same kind of luck in love as I do!

And if you need a funny card to celebrate an anniversary, Valentine's Day or just Wednesday, you can click this link to get free cards to print.

Happy Monday!

Chark

Going For Elegance

erI made this wedding table favor with dollar store items and I was going for inexpensive yet elegant, something that could be recreated many times for not much money. This idea didn't get picked for publication but I still thought I'd share the idea.

The glass dish I found at the dollar store was heart-shaped, which makes it perfect for a wedding. The glass pebbles are part of a pack of them that were one dollar. The candle came in a pack of six, I think, at the same store. The ribbon was from the craft store and is sheer lavender and yellow. 

I added a K to the candle with an oil-based art marker I got online and the pebbles are normally just clear. I used the same marker and a yellow one to color the backs of some of the pebbles. The yellow rose flowers are from a ribbon and I just snipped them apart.

Easy, inexpensive and something you can do while watching TV. That's my kind of table decoration!

Happy Wednesdsay!
Chark

Take A Note

I was making wedding favors to try to get them published and this one didn't make the cut. However, I love the idea of little notebooks as favors for a wedding or any big event. 

For these, I did a watercolor smoosh technique like this one from K Werner using Squeezed Lemonade and Shaded Lilac Distress inks. Then I trimmed the paper down and made matchbook notebooks. I added word sickers from Cosmo Cricket and a colored staple. That's it. The thing that took the longest was the drying time for the watercolor!

You could make a lot of these if you needed them in any colors of course. Maybe I'll make some for Christmas gifts next year in red and green or blues. 

Happy Monday,

Chark

A Little Love Never Hurts

I made a little love ornament to show how you can personalize these mirror ornaments from the craft store. My niece got married this year and I think it's always a nice idea to gift newlyweds with an ornament for their tree. We received two for our wedding long ago in a galaxy far, far away...ok, it was Ohio in 1990 but that's 25 years ago, so that counts! And yep, we still hang them on the tree.

The word love is a rub-on from Heidi Swapp that is in a foil kit, so it's adhesive. I added glitter instead. I know you're surprised. The ribbon is aqua seam binding that you can buy for 25 cents a yard. I just adhered it in a ruffle.

For the back, I printed their names and wedding date on a piece of cardstock and die cut with a Spellbinders die. It covers up the ruffle and adhesive nicely. You could always use a piece of fabric if you want to use fabric markers to personalize.

Quick and easy and inexpensive...all things I like in a project!

Happy Monday!
Chark

Winning Wednesday

Thought I'd let you know about a facebook post by a2z Scrapbooking Supplies (I'm on their Design Team currently) where you can win by liking their page, commenting and tagging a friend. You have until Saturday, July 11 at 11:59 EDT to enter and so far, the competition isn't too stiff! Hope you'll stop by and try to win the $25 gift certificate to the store, where you can choose any items there for your gift. 

I'm personally thinking my next purchase will be the new ombre inks or some of the new stencils—loving the stencils!

Here's a card I made for the June a2z Scrapbooking post that I only share a bit of on the blog. Here's the full card using the Hero/Basic Grey Small Square Grid stencil. So cool! It's white paste on silver paper and it came out great. I will give a little hint I learned—the embossing paste will pick up some of the color if you emboss on top of Distress Inks. I had started another project for them, but I didn't care for that effect. If you're prepared, though, you could make it work.

Happy Wednesday and don't forget to hop over to the Facebook page and enter to win!
Chark
p.s. My son had Putt-Putt Golfing for summer gym yesterday and only came home with bug bites...so that's a win! We'll see how sand volleyball goes today!

Rainy Days And Mondays

Yep, it's raining and it's Monday. I'm not really down like the song says, but I am dying for a nap and I've only been up for two hours. I blame the gloomy day outside...snuggling in bed seems like a great idea. But first, I'll share a gift bag I made for my niece's bridal shower.

I started with a huge white bag from Hobby Lobby, then added a piece of 12x12 Mr. & Mrs. scrapbook paper from there and added paper roses I made with burgundy cardstock. The bunting I made from really old paper I won—I just freehand cut the shape, hole punched and threaded ribbon through. Easy to make, although it took forever to glue the roses. Making them takes a minute or two, but then I fussed with the shape and width and then finally used some liquid glue to secure them, which takes awhile to dry.

Here's a close-up of the paper roses. I used two sheets of 12x12 cardstock. The biggest rose is one sheet by itself. Here's a tutorial on felt roses that I applied to paper roses. Works just the same. Start with a basic circle and then spiral cut and roll. You can ink the edges of the paper after assembling the roses if you want more depth.

 

Happy Monday! Off to napzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Chark

It's A Nice Day For A White Wedding

Here's an all-white wedding card I did for a scramble and let me tell you, all white is hard to photograph! However, I love the look of all white cards and was happy to have a chance to try it.

I used the Hero Arts Stamp & Cut Happy set with one of the sentiments that came with it and silver Staz-on ink.

Love this little set, although the happy is a little delicate when you use thin paper and you can't store them without them ripping...ask me how I know.

I used Diamond Stickles on the die, of course, and little sequins from Pretty Little Studio.

Keep in mind this is a 90 minute scramble and you have to make, photograph and upload the project in that time. So, it's not the most elaborate card ever. But I'm planning to give the all-white card another shot very soon. I'll let you know how it goes!

Happy Wednesday!
Chark

Miniature Wedding

I made this little wedding couple and gazebo with unfinished wood pieces from Jo Ann Fabrics. The gazebo is a birdhouse and the people were in a package marked "wooden people." How could I resist buying them and making a little bride and groom? 

 

I gave them peach roses and a black tux and ivory dress to match the wedding clothes my husband and I wore. Her veil looks is longer than her dress, just like mine was back in 1990!

Here's their gazebo that I painted with white acrylic paint and blinged up with various gemstones and pearls and ribbon from the scrapbooking aisle and my stash. I used marker for their eyes and mouths.

Happy Wedding Day, Little People! 

Sorry I was MIA yesterday. I was visiting my mom and she doesn't have internet at her house...it's like being back in Laura Ingall's day. Or at least 1985.

Happy Thursday—see you tomorrow!
Chark