A Bunch of Bees (and bugs) by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans!

Today I'm sharing 3 cards.

One is my card for the Stencils and Masks challenge and the other 2
were made for friends.

I used the 5561 – Birds and Bugs Set on all 3 of my cards.  I also used the 5562 – Journal Letter Die Set on all of them.  I have a tip for the little letters below.

For this card, I mounted the letters onto the banner from 5463 – Slimline Dies Set.

I don't really own any stencils so I decided to get creative and make my own.

I used a honeycomb die that I have and I cut it on some heavyweight cardstock.

I then used washi tape to hold my stencil down.  I inked over it with some yellow ink by using a sponge.

Viola! A homemade stencil that I really liked!

For my next card I stamped the bees on a piece a die cut using 5061 – Square Double Stitched Dies.
This card was made for a friend who let my 24 year old son dig through her record collection before she got rid of it. He was so excited and came home with about a dozen albums.  We wanted to thank her for thinking of him.

Here's my tip to make your life easier.

You know those sticker sheets (invoices) you get from Ai?  What do you do with them?  Probably just throw them away.  I glued some cardstock to mine and then die cut my letters out of it.  I didn't need it all for these cards so the leftover scrap has been filed away for another day.  Now you have letters that are like stickers.  No need for fussing with trying to neatly get glue on the back of these small letters.

I'm ALL about recycling what you can. A while back a friend gave me the prettiest bee blanket.

This heart on my card was the tag on it.  It was way too cute to just throw out so I saved it knowing I'd find a use for it one day.



The day arrived when I found out a former co-worker was ill.  I sent this to him hoping it would brighten his day.  I used a micron pen to draw the flight lines of the bees.  In order to make sure my letters are even I use a ruler to place them.

I hope you will BEE inspired by my cards and will join in on the challenge.
See you next Sunday!

Happy Birthday Ole Buck! by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

Today I'm sharing two cards made with the 5043 – Ole Buck Set.

I live in a small, rural community so pretty much everyone hunts.

As soon as I saw this set I knew who my first card would be for!

I work in an elementary school and we recently had one of our 5th grade teachers get transferred to the middle school to become a 6th grade science teacher.  We were all so sad to see him go. He's a big time hunter AND his birthday falls during hunting season!!  I knew I had to make him a card for all of us to sign and send over to him so he knew we didn't forget about him.

He loved the card and even sent me a photo showing me where he displayed it. 

This is the inside of his card.  I left it mostly white inside to give several of us a place to write a message to him.

Here's the other version I made.  They're similar but I used some of the other smaller accent stamps for this one.

Here's the inside of my second card.

You'd laugh if you could see my school during November.  We don't have very many male teachers but they LOVE their "no shave November" because it keeps their faces warmer when they hunt.

Kangaroo Mouthfuls by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

My niece just turned 11!!

Happy Birthday Brynn!

As soon as I saw this sweet new 4947 – Kangaroo Mouthful Set set from Art Impressions I couldn't wait to make a card for her.  There are lots of accessories with this set and many different combinations you can try.  I chose the noise maker and the gift box. Both Mama and Joey are wearing a party hat.

This mom and joey are just the cutest combo!

Baby can fit in her pouch but I chose to use the gift in her pouch and put the little one beside her.

I used two verses from the set...one on the front and one inside.

I made a second version to have on hand just in case someone's birthday pops up that I forgot about.

Here's mama kanga with the gift outside of her pouch.