St. Patrick's Day No. 1

After over a month of being plague ridden, our household seems finally on the mend.  *knocks on all the wood*  I've been making a lot of things lately, though I can't share them all just yet!  But, here's the first St. Patrick's Day card I've done this year.  As always, I love making St. Patrick's Day cards since I'm part Irish and even more so now that my son's birthday is the same day!  The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse essential sentiments too (inside)
Ink: Delicata golden glitz (inside)
Paper: A Muse wasabi reverse dot, wasabi petite pinstripe, wasabi hexagon, and grass shimmer couture cardstock
Misc.: A Muse gold baker's cording, foam mounting tape, Quickie glue pen, A Muse tall alphabet, mini banners, and tag bundle die sets, and Memory Box lucky leaves die
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St . Patrick's Day No. 11

I have to say, this is my favorite card for St. Patrick's Day this year.  I used a die from a halloween set for the pot of gold.  It was a three legged cauldron, and so I just trimmed off the middle leg.  For the gold, I took a scalloped oval die, colored it with a gold sparkle pen and then covered it with gold Stickles.  I used a lot of foam mounting tape for this one in either single or double layers.  I wanted a lot of different dimensions to the scene.  Overall, I'm REALLY happy with how it came out.  (We'll just ignore the scientific error I made.)  The inside says, "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse wishing you luck and good fortune and Essential Sentiments (inside)
Ink:  A Muse grass
Paper: A Muse wasabi petite pinstripe, sugar shimmer couture, onyx shimmer couture, grass petite gingham, line, grass, blueberry, violets, melon, papaya, and poppy
Misc.: Spellbinders scalloped oval die set, Ranger golden rod Stickles glitter glue, foam mounting tape, A Muse tag bundle, grass border, cloud duo, rainbow, and peculiar potions die sets, and Kirarina Wink gold glitter pen

St. Patrick's Day No. 10

Here's my next St. Patrick's Day card.  Some gold embossing, mounting tape, ribbon, and mini brads. The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps Celtic Heritage and Irish Blessings sets
Ink: VersaMark and Delicata golden glitz
Paper: A Muse lichen, vanilla, and green vintage cardstock
Misc: A Muse vintage labels die set, A Muse melon stain ribbon, Making Memories gold mini brads, Ranger superfine detail gold embossing powder, heat tool, and foam mounting tape

St. Patrick's Day No. 9

This one is similar to the card with the celtic knot shamrock.  This card uses this gorgeous celtic knot cross, and in fact, they came from the same stamp company.  I used curved pennant banner dies for the layers rather than just squares or rectangles.  The inside says, "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps Irish Blessings and Celtic Heritage stamp sets
Ink: A Muse grass
Paper: A Muse sugar, wasabi petite pinstripe, grass, and gold shimmer couture cardstock
Misc.: A Muse rounded pennant duo die set, foam mounting tape, and Whimsy Stamps celtic knot cross die

St. Patrick's Day No. 8

Alright, I've made it through all the St. Patrick's cards from last year.  Now, on to this year.  I started with a straight forward card.  This intricate shamrock die really does the work for you.  Just needed some layers and foam tape.  The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps Celtic Heritage and Irish Blessings sets

Ink: A Muse habanero 

Paper: A Muse green vintage, lichen, grass, and gold shimmer couture cardstock

Misc.: A Muse grass silky crush ribbon, foam mounting tape, and Whimsy Stamps Celtic Knot Shamrock die

St. Patrick's Day No. 7

Here, I've made another attempt to use Washi tape.  I have so many rolls of it and never seem to use it much in my cards.  All these green and gold ones went together perfectly!  I laid them all out on their own piece of cream cardstock.  Then, I foam mounted that behind the die cut clover window of the larger cream layer.  For the sentiment, I gold embossed it on vellum and then layered it directly over another die cut banner of green.  I think that softens it's look.  I attached the banner to the cream layer with gold mini brads.  Then, I adhered all of that to a gold card base.  The inside says, "wishing you luck and good fortune".

Supplies

Stamps: DeNami Designs Happy St. Patrick's Day and A Muse luck and good fortune (inside)

Ink: VersaMark and Memento Cottage Ivy (inside)

Paper: A Muse vanilla, gold shimmer couture and green cardstock and Martha Stewart Crafts vellum

Misc.: Lifestyle Crafts banner and clover nesting dies, Making Memories mini gold brads, Ranger superfine detail gold embossing powder, heat tool, A Muse gold chevron and lucky assortment Washi tapes, and Impress Rubber Stamps green shamrock and gold glitter Washi tape

St. Patrick's Day No. 6

I've caught up to the cards that I've actually made this year now.  Here's the first of them.  I saw a tutorial here about using liquid drawing gum to mask die cut images for watercoloring.  It looked so cool I had to try it!  I did green around the shamrocks and used the transparent gold as an all over color wash.  The sentiment is gold embossed.  I also used my VersaMark pen to freehand a gold embossed border all the way around the watercolor layer.  I had intended to do that on this card, but didn't quite get to it.  It's the first time I've tried added the gold border and I think it worked our really well.  The freehandedness of it goes so well with watercolor and the hand scripted-ness of the word "lucky" in the sentiment.   Between the watercolor and the embossing, this layer was quite distorted, so it sat under some heavy books overnight once it was dry.  I added a few sequins then and foam mounted it onto the green card base.  The inside says, "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse Lucky Charm set
Ink: VersaMark and A Muse sage (inside)
Paper: A Muse sage and Strathmore Bristol board 300 series smooth/vellum
Misc.: A Muse 6mm gold sequins, Ranger superfine detail gold embossing powder, Nicholson's peerless watercolors and transparent metallic gold, A Muse candy box die set (for shamrock), Pebeo drawing gum, Simon Says Stamp masking paper, Yasutomo Niji water brushes, foam mounting tape

St. Patrick's Day No. 5

I love this one.  I think it's because I love this wreath die.  I made a card at Christmas and am in love with that one too!  I gold embossed the sentiment.  Words just seem to stand out so much better with embossing in gold rather than just using gold ink.  The inside says, "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse good luck and Essential Sentiments set (inside)
Ink: VersaMark and A Muse grass (inside)
Paper: A Muse sugar, lichen, grass and gold shimmer couture cardstock
Misc.: Ranger superfine detail gold embossing powder, heat tool, We R Memory Keepers wreath frame die, foam mounting tape, A Muse fern silk crush ribbon, and Memory Box lucky leaves die set

St. Patrick's Day No. 4

This card took me several tries before I found just the right color combination for the cottage scene.  I think it was actually the first card I did after getting a set of Nicholson's Peerless transparent watercolors.  I had used them during a stamp class and they are just so cool.  Instead of a tube of paint, or a dry dish of paint, they are completely dry pieces of pigmented paper that only activate with a brush and water!  They've been made since 1885.  I liked how easy and mess free they were to use.  Other than that, the scene really is the whole card, just a layer, card base, little border stamp and some twine.  The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: Waltzingmouse Irish Blessings and Celtic Heritage sets
Ink: Ranger Archival jet black and A Muse fern
Paper: A Muse fern and lichen cardstock and Strathmore Bristol board 300 series smooth/vellum
Misc.: Nicholson's Peerless transparent watercolors, Niji water brushes, A Muse toffee twine, We R Memory Keepers 1/8"/3/8" corner chomper, foam mounting tape

St. Patrick's Day No. 3

Look!  More white space!  And lace.  I definitely think of fancy lace and linens when I think of Irish things, so this lace border die worked perfectly.  There's of course some foam mounting tape between the layers and the card base.  The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: Waltzingmouse Irish Blessings and Celtic Heritage sets
Ink: A Muse grass
Paper: A Muse sugar and grass cardstock
Misc.: May Arts metallic gold twine, foam mounting tape, Lifestyle Crafts Nice die set

St. Patrick's Day No. 2

I really liked this card.  For some reason, it seems that I am most able to leave a lot of white space on cards for St. Patrick's Day.  It just looks so nice and crips with a good green color.  I used an embossing folder that has shamrocks on it for the large white layer.  There's some foam mounting tape behind it and behind the circle layers and sentiment banner.  I edge the sentiment banner with a sponge dauber in green ink.  To give the pot of gold some sparkle, I added some gold Stickles after coloring the coins with Copic markers.  I also put a tiny but of black Stickles on the little black marks above the coins.  The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse pot of gold, luck and good fortune, and Essential Sentiments set (inside)

Ink:  A Muse black dye and grass and VersaFine onyx black

Paper: A Muse sugar and grass

Misc.: May Arts metallic gold twine, Copic markers, Lifestyle Crafts banner die, foam mounting tape, Darice St. Patrick's embossing folder, sponge dauber, Ranger Stickles in golden rod and black, Spellbinders circle nesting die set

St. Patrick's Day No. 1

This year I feel like several holidays are all bunched up together.  Valentine's day, a month later is St. Patrick's Day, and then only a couple weeks later is Easter this year.  Seriously?  Doesn't the spring equinox realize that's not enough time for card making?!  Oh well.  I've got some St. Patrick's Day cards that I made last year but forgot to post about.  The card is straightforward.  Image, sentiment, jewels, twine, layers and of course foam mounting tape!  The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day".

Supplies
Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps Irish Blessings set
Ink: A Muse grass and Encore! Metallic gold
Paper: A Muse sugar, grass, and grass petite gingham cardstock
Misc.: Foam mounting tape, A Muse metallic gold/natural baker's twine, and Memory Box canary yellow jewel stickers

St. Patrick's Day No. 7

Alright, it's only over a month and a half late, but here's my last St. Patrick's Day card.  This one was another fairly direct copy.  Here's the original.  But hey, it's cute, and sometimes after a day of being a mom, I don't have enough energy left for my own creative juices to flow.  It did give me a chance to try to use a cutting die to emboss instead of cut, so that was fun.  The inside said "Happy St. Patrick's Day"

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse irish proverb and Essential Sentiments set (inside)
Ink: VersaFine vintage sepia
Paper: A Muse vanilla cardstock
Misc.:  Fiskars Fuse, Impress Rubber Stamps glittered shamrock buttons, May Arts gold twine, Spellbinders square die set

St. Patrick's Day No. 6

I just realized I never finished posting my St. Patrick's Day cards!  (Or my Easter cards for that matter, life got busy, you know how it is.)  This one was pretty much a direct copy.  But I love it so much, I had to recreate it.  Here's the original.  Well, just kidding.  I went to find it and the blog has been removed! So I can't give credit where credit is due, but at least I tried.

In the first photo, it's a little hard to see the sentiment.  But, I managed to get a good close up so you can fully appreciate it!  The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day"

Supplies
Stamps: Celtic Highlander Stamps Ireland Forever and A Muse Essential Sentiments (inside)
Ink: A Muse lichen and VersaMark
Paper: A Muse kraft, lichen, and vanilla cardstock
Misc.: Fiskars Fuse, Memory Box Lucky Leaves die set, foam mounting tape, A Muse satin pearl embossing powder

St. Patrick's Day No. 5

Here's my fifth St. Patty's Day card.  It's the first one I've made in a non-rectangular shape!  The clover die set from Lifestyle Crafts (now owned by WeR Memory Keepers) was very fun to work with.  I used the largest die from it for the card base.  The claddagh ring image is gold embossed and popped up.  And once again, that gold twine really finishes it off!  The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day"

Supplies

Stamps: Celtic Highlander Stamps claddagh ring and Slainte, A Muse essential sentiments set (inside)

Ink: VersaMark and VersaFine black onyx

Paper: A Muse sugar, grass, and grass petite gingham cardstock

Misc.: Fiskars Fuse, Lifestyle Crafts clover die set, May Arts gold twine, Ranger super fine detail gold embossing powder, foam mounting tape, Making Memories mini gold circle brads, A Muse vintage labels 1 die set

St. Patrick's Day No. 4

Well, we are all back home from our birthday/let husband study trip to Yakima!  Kieran passed out quite nicely at nap time once we were home and was pretty thrilled to see his Daddy when he woke up.

Here's my next St. Patrick's Day card for this year.  I have to say, that lately I've had a hard time coming up with ideas to get started with cards.  A while ago I read, on one of the many stamping blogs out there that I follow, that when that particular author felt a creativity block, she would just find a card she really liked and was drawn to and make her own version of it, just to get the act of making something going and then after a few of those, more original ideas would usually start popping into her head.  I have to say, I think that's brilliant.  With a very active 3 year old, sometimes I just don't have the bandwidth to think of something original.  But, I still want to enjoy the act of stamping and card making, so it's perfect!  This card was inspired from this one that I found on Pinterest.  I loved the idea of making a banner out of vellum.  I made sure to gold emboss mine so it would stand out over the busy print behind it.  Attaching a three dimensional banner was tricky.  I couldn't use mounting tape since that would show through.  So, I used a clear glue on the ends and put something heavy on them while it dried so it wouldn't ripple.  Worked very well.  And, I think the gold twine to the left of the shamrock, but not all the way to the fold, really pulls it all together.  I believe the inside of this one says "Slainte".

Supplies
Stamps: Denami Designs Happy St. Patrick's Day and Celtic Highlander Stamps A310 (Slainte on inside)
Ink: VersaMark and A Muse grass (inside)
Paper: A Muse vanilla and grass petite gingham and Martha Stewart Crafts vellum
Misc.: Fiskars Fuse, Lifestyle Crafts clover die set and banner die, May Arts gold twine, A Muse crystal clear lacquer, Making Memories mini gold circle brads, Ranger super fine detail gold embossing powder

St. Patrick's Day No. 3

Today is my son's 3rd birthday, and I think it was a good one for him. We visited the John Deere tractor store where he got to sit on and pretend to drive many of their maybe 50+ tractors. It was amazing, he was so excited he was skipping and jumping from one tractor to another, barely able to contain himself. This was promptly followed by a kids meal at a fast food place, presents, more favorite foods for dinner and cake. Pretty awesome for him. (And definitely a lot more fun than what I was feeling 3 years ago)

Here's the card for today. I used the same cool die as the last card, but this time I used spray ink to make a negative image of it. The photo doesn't quite capture the sparkle and sheen of the gold spray in, but it was pretty! The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day"

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse luck and good fortune and essential sentiments set (inside)
Ink: VersaFine black onyx, A Muse moss, A Muse lichen, gold, and marshmallow Splash! Spray inks

Paper: A Muse vanilla, gold shimmer couture, and moss cardstock

Misc.: Fiskars Fuse, Whimsy Stamps Celtic knot shyamrock die, May Arts gold twine, foam mounting tape, A Muse lime pearl stickers, Lifestyle Crafts banner die, sponge dauber

(Kieran enjoying the tractors)

St. Patrick's Day No. 2

For my next card, I used a new die I got this year.  It's such a cool combination of celtic knot and shamrock!  It's so detailed!  And I'm a sucker for celtic things, so this was a no brainer to add to my collection.  I had to cut my foam mounting tape into tons of super tiny pieces in order to get it to pop up, but it was worth it.  I also really enjoy the celtic background stamp.   The inside says "Happy St. Patrick's Day"

Supplies
Stamps: JudiKins celtic background, A Muse luck and good fortune,  Memory Box happy st. patrick's day (inside)
Ink: A Muse lichen and VersaFine black onyx
Paper: A Muse grass, lichen, sugar, and slate cardstock
Misc.: Fiskars Fuse, foam mounting tape, A Muse lime pearl stickers, Whimsy Stamps celtic shamrock die, A Muse green baker's cording

St. Patrick's Day No. 1

Well, it's almost that lucky time of year again!  I've got a few St. Patty's Day cards made and I need to get them in the mail.  This year we are going to be spending this Irish holiday (and also my son Kieran's 3rd birthday!!!) in Yakima with my parents.  This wasn't exactly how we envisioned it.  My husband is in his second quarter of grad school, getting his Masters in Aerospace Engineering, and his final for this quarter is ON the 17th!  What terrible timing!  Since the class is at night, he's still working full time at Boeing, it basically means that if we stayed home, he wouldn't see Kieran at all anyways and last quarter Kieran and I left town for a few days to give him some dedicated study time with no distractions.  Soooo...we might as well spend Kieran's birthday with people who we will actually see!

Anyways, I've made a lot more time for stamping lately (fairly easy since Nathan's doing schoolwork most nights).  So I have a fair number of cards to share for this spring's holidays!  Also, I am SOOO in love with my new lighting set up and the Camera+ app for my iPhone!  It's made such a difference!  I also purchased a cabinet from IKEA to have the tent and lights permanently set up.  It's so much faster just to pop a card in, take a pic, edit it on my phone, and BAM...DONE!  And done with a result I am happy with!

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse Lucky day and essential sentiments set (inside)

Ink: VersaFine black onyx

Paper: A Muse sugar, sage petite dot, and sage petite gingham card stock

Misc.: Fiskars Fuse, A Muse clear twinkle sticker, Copic marker (to color twinkle sticker), foam mounting tape, Lifestyle Crafts banner die (from treat carrier set), and A Muse shamrock die (from candy box set)

Last Lucky Card

This is the end of my St. Patrick's Day cards.  I sent this one to my parents.  I really like it, though again, I have to admit to stealing a layout from this card of A Muse Studio's.  I really like the greens in it, they seem to pop.

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse pot of gold, flower and vines, and lucky day, Memory Box happy st. patrick's day (inside), and JudiKins celtic background

Paper: A Muse white, lime, slate, and grass cardstock

Inks: A Muse black dye, VersaMagic tea leaves and key lime, and VersaFine black onyx

Misc.: Stickles golden rod glitter glue, Spica glitter pens, and foam mounting tape