Another Flip-Its Card and a New Tip-In

My daughter just finished her last round of chemotherapy, and she is all done with radiation, so here is a card I made to send her and let her know I am proud of her courage and strength through this past year of fighting breast cancer.  If you know someone who is fighting this disease, don't hesitate to send them cards of encouragement all along the way.  Ultimately, the cancer patient spends most of the fighting time in treatment, surgery, and doctor visits--many hours just waiting alone or with other newly-made friends undergoing similar treatment.

Here is the front of the card cut from the Flip-Its cards from Sizzix.  I used some wonderful coordinating papers and epoxy stickers from S.E.I.  They were in a great collection of fall-themed papers offered in a bargain packet at Creating Keepsakes Convention held at Opryland Hotel in Nashville this past fall.  If you get a chance to pick up a $20 bag full of S.E.I products at a convention, do not hesitate!  It was more than worth the money.  Big bang for a 20-spot!

The bird in the center was cut from some of my stash of old NRN Design papers left from some of the convention classes I used to teach for the company.  I embossed the vertical "Blessings" stamp and added a Memory Box die cut leaf and tendril to the edge of the "flip" part of the card so the tendril will show when the card is opened.



Inside, the stamped sentiment "May life always allow you to fly high" is surrounded by more leafy-looking flourish die cuts.  More epoxy stickers that go with this paper collection are seen on the flip circle and on the edge of the card, visible both on the closed card and also when it is opened.  The stamped sentiment and embellishments are mounted on a Nestabilities Circle die cut with inverted scallops.  A scalloped trim from the coordinating paper trims the sides of the card.

This card is a square card, like the last Flip-Its I published, but I didn't mail it in a half sheet size envelope with my fun technique.  Instead I sprung for the required extra postage of 20 cents and made a square envelope with the Martha Stewart Scoring Board and envelope triangle that goes with it.  Although I love this way to make envelopes, I personally am excited to be waiting on the new Envelope Punch Board from We R Memory Keepers--just ordered it from Marco's Paper at a great price with free shipping if one orders before they get their first order.  Here is a link to their site.

Valentine Card Tip-In for Swap

And now to the tip-in two-page spread.  This is the tip-in swap I am hosting on the Tennessee Stampers' Yahoo group board.  We have two groups of participants, nine in each group.  That should give us all nine nice tip-ins for our books.  I love the fact that everyone has a different theme.  It makes it challenging and fun to work in another person's book without actually having to handle it with care, worry about buckling the delicate book paper with too much wet glue or paint, spending priority mail prices to mail the book to the next person, praying that it won't be lost in the mail or damaged somehow.  Mailing an altered book is a scary thing!  AND costly, especially if your book is large or thick and heavy.


This friend's theme is the "Hallmark of Caring".  She is re-purposing a book that was all about Hallmark Cards, so she is using the book's subject matter as stimulus for her theme.  I chose to use Valentines' Day cards for my tip-in.  I made two actual Valentines, one from Artistic Outpost's Cutie Pie plate for the "Then" card and one for the "Now" card from the humorous collection of funny old ladies made by Art Impressions.  Both images are colored with Copic markers.

These are on facing pages, heart doilies behind the cards.  The doily behind the AE stamped card is tinted with Ranger's Distress inks.  Tim Holtz's new embossed Kraft-backed Core'dinations Seasonal Impressions papers--Valentine's Day red one--is cut up and placed on the page in various spots.  The "By Definition" (now retired) typewritten background stamp on love is from Stampin' Up.  Wooden hearts painted pink and red are palettes for little sayings found on conversation hearts.  Inside the "Then" card is a history of the Valentine Card.  Click here for a video by Tim Holtz showing his collection of Core'dinations Seasonal Impressions