Making Birthdays Oh So Sweeter!

Using the great embellishments and papers from Little Yellow Bicycle's Cupcake Love collection  can make any birthday card just that much sweeter! See for yourself in these easy to create card samples.

Felty cupcakes are just so yummy!

On the card below I added some rhinestone bling to my verse to coordinate with the heart rhinestone on the cupcake. For bright cheery cards, try this color combo: hot pink, yellow, magenta and white!

The card below also combines a new patterned paper from Stampin' Up!®, a wonderful sample from my demonstrator friend, Ree Nathan.

Sunny Sweet
I just love it when I can mix together a bunch of scraps, some new patterned cardstock, pull a few elements from my vast cardmaking stash pile and turn it into something cheerful to wish someone a wonderful birthday!

Hope these ideas sweeten your day and help you to..

Ooooh, baby, baby!

There must be something in the air because this Spring, there have been a bunch of friends and family members having babies! This put me in the cardmaking spirit, something I have missed doing lately. I grabbed the cutest little embossing folder, a gift from my stampin' buddy, Trudy, to use on some cards. Keeping in line with a current design trend to use strips of pennants as a background, I created these baby boy cards...

Baby Boy Pennant Card (for new baby)

I added two navy mini brads to the wheels of the carriage! Make this in under 5 minutes!

 Baby Boy Mix Card (outside view)

Layered patterned paper pennants with buttons, polka dots and an embossed baby carriage. This card uses a mix of subtle and bold tones of red, white and blue.

(inside view)

Don't be afraid to coordinate the inside of your card with the colors,

papers and design theme used on the outside!

Embossed Carriage Card

White and Blue tones paired up with embossing adds up to an elegant looking baby card. I made this for our friend, Meghan, who recently had her third boy. To bring out the embossing more, you can dip a small piece of sponge into light or dark ink and drag over embossing. On this, I used navy ink to bring out the edges and lighter blue over top of the embossing.

Can't forget about the girlies!!!

Lil' Something Card

Again, I used the same embossed carriage, except this time on a girly themed card. This was made as a congratulations for my cousin Chris and his wonderful wife, Kelly who gave birth to their second daughter, Jillian. By adding some delicate ribbons, a scalloped border and flowers paired with feminine patterned papers, you see how the overall look has changed to a girly theme.

And I couldn't forget about the big sis either!!!

New Baby Sister Card

Didn't want to leave out Brooke, the big sister, so I decided to see just what fun I could have using my owl punch from Stampin' Up!®. To recreate this card choose a couple solid shades of pink to coordinate with a sheet of pink patterned paper. You will also need a sheet of white cardstock and two shades of brown. I used a chocolately shade with a textured taupe color. 

You will punch the owl once in white, once in brown and then in each of the pink papers (both solid & patterned). Mix and match the punched items to create the owls. For the diaper, you can cut by hand like I did. Or just cut the legs and top half of the body off of an owl punched from white cardstock...my delayed lightbulb moment! LOL. For the diaper pins, just snip your pieces of one of the solid pink cardstocks. For the Flowers, I used the Boho Blossoms punch and layered with some owl punch leftovers. I used rubber stamps selectively colored with a brush marker to stamp the words A, New, and Baby. 

I wrote sister in my own handwriting with a pointed nib marker. By doing these on separate paper strips, I was able to trim to sizes needed and angle on the card. Congratulations was heat embossed with white powder. To make the big sis owl have a bit more interest, I used small white satin ribbon to make a bow. For the baby owl's bow, punch white paper scraps using heart from the owl punch. Combine two hearts with a tiny circle on top to form the bow.

Now that I have show you some cardmaking ideas for babies, next I will share a few cards for the moms. Check back for Mother's Day card Inspiration! Remember to Live Life Creatively!

What do Christmas, a reindeer, surfing & a mermaid have in common?

The answer is my Holideer Surfer digi stamp! Here are a few creations made using printed and handcolored images of this beachy themed Christmas digital stamp...

An oversized card

(handcolored with markers and blender pen/layored on embossed CS)

A cheery standard greeting card

(handcolored with markers/color blocking with patterned paper substituted

and a decorative border strip added to uneven fold)

A fun gift certificate/special note or gift card holder

(I used metallic gel pens on this one!)

Want to know one huge plus of working with digital stamps?

You can have it at exactly the right size needed...all you have to do is scale it and print it, then combine it with a custom verse you set up on your computer. Now that brings holiday cheer to crafting!

Gobble Up the Savings before Thanksgiving!

Yesterday, I shared with you some old and new sets that may spark your creativity for the holidays. Today, I bring good tidings of a pre-Thanksgiving 4-day sale. Yes, everything in my shop at 40% off!!! Time to gobble up lots of digi sets before the sale ends at midnight on the 19th.

You can check out all the creativity at MyGrafico, then locate all the products in my shop by going to the side designers pull down menu and locate Cheri Wenger. You can go through all the sets available in my shop. If you want to be part of my community, click on the mygrafico community link to go to the groups or to get inspiration from the gallery photos. You can join my group to get info on newly released sets and special info.

Want to get cool graphics for FREE to play and create wonderful things? Check out the new Brag Party group just added to the community. If you are interested in being a part of this group, email me to receive a personal invite to the group.

This fall card is an example of how you can make use of a Halloween set, Hallowettes 2, in creative ways long after the holiday has come and gone. Lesson: Don't let a set name limit your creativity or let you pass it by. Look at all the graphics included in a set and challenge yourself to use them for other occasions or purposes. If you check out the gallery for this set you will see that it comes with 4 sheets of various size leaves and 1 sheet of frames for cutting on your personal die cutting machine. For this card, I used the frame cut from grey card stock with leaves cut out from patterned and solid cardstock to make a get well card for a friend.

Wanna know how I made that crinkled leaf on this card? Keep following my blog for a tutorial!

A 4 Day Sale that Will Put Crisp Dollars Back in Your Pocket

Get ready to shop for your fall and winter craft projects during my 4 day, 40% off Fall Savings Event.
Click this link to view all of the sets in my shop starting with the newest collections. Here are a few new sets to inspire your creativity...

Sale begins Oct. 7 and runs through Oct. 10 midnight PST.

Weekend Sale - 40% at Mygrafico.com

While shopping for all your favorite back-to-school stuff, be sure to treat yourself to a few new digital goodies to spark your fall crafting! Start saving after midnight tonight...40% off all day Saturday & Sunday, Aug. 6 & 7 at mygrafico.com. Be sure to check out all the digital goodies in my shop!

Project 365 Challenge - Days 136 - 146

Photos, Cards & Sketches ...these are just some of what I accomplished during days 136 - 146 of my Project 365 challenge. Some days are filled with multiple projects, others creativity is invaded by life. Here is an update of what happened, creatively speaking, between May 15 and May 25th.

Day 136 - Pictures with Family
Leading up to graduation, we were lucky enough to have her grandparents in town to celebrate with us Ashley's Baccalaureate mass. And I got to get a rare photo since someone else took some photos of us. This time, Dan unfortunately was left out of the photos since we were pushed for time.

Day 137 - Endeavor Launch Photos

Fortunately our house faces the right direction for watching the shuttle from right outside our front door. We can look over our neighbors roof once we hear the countdown on t.v. and watch to see it lift off. My favorite shuttle launch was on the 4th of July where we watched from a point on the beach.

Day 138 - Mod Linear Florals Collection & Project Sample

It is time to switch back to my design hat. I just love this new Mod Linear Florals collection!

Combine the shadows and linear overlays to create lots of fun, contemporary flowers.

Here is a digital card created using art created from this set.

A colorful sweet 16 card to have on hand for one of my daughter's friends who will be turning 16!

Day 139 - 12 x 12 MLF Paper Design (with copyright)

This is a digital paper design created using the Mod Linear Florals set.

You just may be seeing this in a new set in the future!

Day 140 - Graduation Photos

Ashley’s graduation brought our family to town for the special event, allowing for plenty of great photo opportunities starting with a celebratory dinner and the graduation ceremony.

Day 141 - Princess Grad Cards

Framed Grad Princess hybrid card created with art from my Grad Princess collection

Princess Grad Bling hybrid card using similar art printout created using this same set.

For those of you who don't know what a hybrid card is, it is one created using traditional and digital techniques. In this case, the art was created on computer, printed out, mounted onto cardstock with layers, embellishments and bling added to complete the finished cards.

Day 142 - Birthday Party Pics

While family was in town we celebrated a belated Sweet 16th birthday for our other daughter, Kylie. It was a fun event with a giant water slide. Great fun was had by all who ventured down the steep slide.

Here are a few of our candid photos.

Day 143 - More Princess Grad Cards

Girly Grad Hybrid Card

A simple pink and black theme. The circle graphic was printed and layered with punched CS and the cap with tassel is matted as the focal point. For a little sparkle, the verse was embossed in silver. I used the artwork from my Grad Princess collection.

Pop Princess Hybrid Card

Yes, you can tell there is a lot of grad action in this house. I have been busy making graduation cards for Ashley and her friends. For this design, I created a patterned design to print and mount on the left side of this card and matted the tiara on black as the main design element. The Grad Princess art was used as my verse on the card front. It is easy to print out multiple graphics and store in a folder for making cards on demand when you need them in a hurry. And as you can see, without even changing the colors, there are so many possibilities for creating different card designs. Scaling art allows you to be even more creative.

Day 144 - Wildcat Graduation Card Idea

Blue and silver was the theme for this card done in school colors. A pawprint wheeled stamp was used to create a pattern on the background. I drug the edges of the lighter blue cardstock over a versamark pad before pouring silver embossing powder on top. This creates a shimmery edge and makes it pop off the background. Also did the verse in silver emboss and finished with a silvery ribbon.

Day 145 - Rose Sketch for future set

Many of my illustrations and digi art collections begin in the form of a pencil sketch.

I started sketched this rose while waiting for Kylie to take her speak with a counselor about taking dual enrollment classes while in high school next fall. She will split her time between community college and high school. Now we have to look for a car so she can drive to both. Anyone need to hire a graphic designer or illustrator? I am for hire!!!

Day 146 - Joe & Ashley at the Beach

It was the perfect day of sunshine at the beach. Ashley and her boyfriend, Joe were full of smiles and surprises. Joe entertained us with his skimming and backflipping skills.

and this ends this session of Project 365 creative inspiration!