Bloom Box with a Twist - Love Grows

 I started getting Fun Stampers Journey's Bloom Box, which is a monthly kit, a few months ago. Honestly I have issues followi g directions. (I know, I know it isn't only true in cardmaking!) 

Anywho..... One of the kits came with the "Love Grows" stamp set. In the kits they include some of the supplies needed to make 4 cards (no inks). This is one of the cards that came with this particular card. You were supposed to make a Gatefold card and use the Pumpkin Bread strip of cardstock to make a belly band:

 Well...I really wasn't feeling this card. I sat staring at it for a few days. I finally ended up trimming the card down and adding it to a piece of kraft cardstock. I cut down the pumpkin bread card stock and made it into a banner and then added a second kraft banner. For the square vocal point I switched the pot they used and slid it over on the Butter Cream cardstock then using a mask I added a second flower pot. I also changed the cactus they used and stamped it using my Cajun Craze inkpad (Stampin Up). I used Copics markers to color the pots and dirt. Then I double stamped the sentiment. I ended up not using the twine or button on my card. I didn't have any gold silk that was used on the original so I grabbed a piece of wax paper dabbed a little bit of orange Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink, then added some Frost White All-Purpose ink and mixed them together. I used a paintbrush to tap it onto the card. It didn't work as well as FSJ's Silks, but it turned out okay.

Happy Birthday Twins!

On Sunday we celebrated the birth of two crazy amazing boys! We love these two boys and there is an ongoing joke that my daughter is the "girlfriend" of one of the boys. So of course she asked me to make cards for them both. Unfortunately the past couple of weeks I have been "out of it" as a side effect from some new medicine. I have been having stomach aches, and I haven't been able to focus on anything and I have been exhausted all the time. So making this card was a little difficult. The sad thing is that it was a card from a past Fun Stampers Journey Bloom Box. So I pretty much just had to stamp, cut, and follow directions. Easy right? Well....it took me a day and a half to make it!! The stamp set is called "Deer Friends" by Fun Stampers Journey.  I did change up some of the colors as I used what I had. I colored the deer and the hedgehog using my Copic Markers. 

The day before the birthday party my daughter saw my Lawn Fawn "Hippo Birdie"  (also known as Lawn Fawn Year Four) stamp set sitting on my craft desk and she got excited and asked me to make her BF a hippo card. So.... the next morning I got up and made a new card!   I used "Hippo Birdie" as well as "Elphie Selfie" both by Lawn Fawn I did some masking as wall as paper piecing and I added the hole border using my Stampin Up "Paper Piercing Pack Essentials"and piercing tool. I made the hat with Stampin Up's tree punch thwn I trimmed it to fit. For the sentiment I actually cut my stamp apart since I didn't want the sentiment to be all on one line. I colored eveeything with my Copic markers and then added some shine to the candles using my Gelly Roll pens. I like how this one turned out.