LIM - Week 13 - Thank You or Congratulations

Wow! The weeks are flying by!  I can't believe we're already on week 13, at the Less is More challenge blog!  If you haven't played along, you should.  You'll be glad you did. There are so many talented ladies that participate each week....and you should see their cards!  I try so hard to leave all of you a few words of encouragement, but sometimes I just can't make it to everyone's gallery....(it's that work thing again that gets in the way of my creative time!).  I do try though! You all make some gorgeous cards!  I sincerely appreciate all the wonderful comments you leave for me!

For my card this week, I've chosen to make a thank you card.  I've made so many white cards lately, that I really felt the need to do something different.  Hope this is CAS enough!  I used some green card stock that I had in my stash and made a card base.  For the gingham print across the bottom I used my new stamps from Papertrey Ink's background basics - Gingham stamped in a pear green ink from CTMH.

The flowers are Hyacinths from a Flourishes set  - Hello Hyacinth.  I stamped the image on white card stock, colored it with my Copics and cut it out.  Then I stamped it again and colored the flowers and the ribbon with my Copics, cut those two pieces out and pop-dotted them over the first image.  The tag was stamped with an old Stampin Up stamp from my stash and then I cut it out with a nestability die.  I didn't pop dot it...I just glued it down with a little "bubble" in the middle. 

Here's a little close up of the flowers so that you can see the dimension.

I also thought I share a layout I finished today.  It's been hanging out on my scrap desk for about a week waiting to be finished.  I struggled with this layout. This is a photo of me and my first husband with our girls when they were small. My husband was killed in an auto accident about seventeen months later, so my girls never really got to know what a great guy he was...and our son, who was born seven months after the accident, never knew him at all. I'm trying to scrap some of our older photos, and tell my children a bit about their Daddy.  The man they call Daddy, has been my husband for 30 years now, and he's been a wonderful father to my children.  We're a very lucky family...two great men in our lives!

I used CTMH papers for this layout and LOTS of punch work.  I cut the title out with the Silhouette. The bling flourishes are made with liquid pearls on a transparency that I then cut out and adhered with glue dots.  The flowers are all handmade by cutting out the shape with a Lifestyle Crafts die, then folding each petal and stacking 2-3 flowers together.  A piece of bling in the center to finish them off.  The leaves were cut with a Sizzix die too and embossed with a stylus for dimension.  I also did a bit of machine stitching on the green mat.  The title work is shaded with a Memento's marker. 

Journaling is tucked behind the large mat on the left and reads:

Looking at this photo…I can’t believe it’s been 35 years since this photo was taken.  I really seems like it was just a short time ago!  Kimberly, you were barely three weeks old and Traci was about 22 months old.  This photo was made at Ken and Diane Wiley’s house on Christmas day 1976.  I look back at this photo and realize how young, innocent, and naïve I was.  Little did I know how much my life would change within the next three years.  Your Daddy was a gentle and loving man and his two little girls held his heart captive.  He loved both of you more than you’ll ever know.  He had a happy, fun-loving, and outgoing personality.  Even though you weren’t old enough to remember him, I want you to know that he was a great man and a wonderful Daddy…and he loved you very much!               Journaling: April 2011

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I love to read your comments and I appreciate you taking the time to leave a few words!  Until next time....

Hugs!

OLW51 - Three of a Kind

I'm a little late with my OLW cards this week.  That thing I do call a "JOB" sometimes prohibits me from doing the fun things I love to do! LOL!  But...I guess it's better late than not at all! This week's challenge is hosted by Jennifer at Styles Ink.  The challenge is to make three one-layer cards. Yes, three. Make three cards all using the same image stamp but vary the occasion by changing the sentiment and/or ink colour and/or card stock colour. You must use the same image stamp on each card.

Well...I did it! I received a package of happy mail while I was away at work this week...and it was a few new stamps from Papertrey Ink.  For my cards, I chose to use a stamp from the Larger than Life collection.  I stamped the image on this first card with Stampin Up's Daffodil Delight and used a Zig yellow pen to draw a squiggly line around the border.  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Asian Fusion collection.

 



For my second card, I stamped the image in SU's Tempting Turquoise...same sentiment, stamped in the same color.  I used a Pentel turquoise pen for the squiggly line here. 



For my third card I decided to do something totally different.  I stamped my image in white on black card stock.  I heat set the white ink with my heat gun, then colored the image with Prisma pencils (orange, yellow, and green).  The image is stamped in white and then highlighted with a little embossing powder.  I kind of like how this one turned out. 

 When I first saw what the challenge was this week, I wasn't sure I would play along. Mostly because I hadn't a clue how to make three cards with the same stamp...and because the way I read the challenge rules the first time...I thought I HAD to use a different sentiment on each one...but DUH! I re-read the rules and realized that I could use different colored inks OR different colored card stock. Reading the rules correctly definitely made a difference! LOL!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your comments are greatly appreciated! Have a great weekend!  Until next time...

Hugs!!

LIM12 - Off Centered - Not ME...the Image!

Okay, okay...so maybe I am a little off-centered...but that's not why we're here today! Another Saturday has rolled around...and it's time again to be challenged by Chrissie and Mandi at the new hot spot in town...Less is More.  I thought last week's challenge to use acetate was difficult...it didn't compare to the wailing and gnashing of teeth that went on in my craft room today!   I totally understand the concept of "off-centered"...I mean, I do it all the time! So I can't begin to tell you why I was having so many problems today!  This is the first card I made. I had been envisioning it all morning while I ran errands. I don't know what happened, but my thoughts did not transfer to my card stock ...nowhere close to what I was thinking!  I got my stars all arranged on my acrylic block and stamped it on my card stock (after practicing on paper NUMEROUS times).  It was then that I realized that I didn't have a sentiment that would be appropriate or fit in the space I left for it!  So, I decided I could handwrite it....HA! I colored the stars..then added some stickles.  Then I had the bright idea to put glitter on the sentiment I had handwritten...BIG MISTAKE!!

Back to the drawing board, so to speak...and I tried it again when I found a sentiment  I thought would work with the stars. So, this time I stamped all of one type of star with one different one. I colored them all yellow and then added a little stickles to the different looking star.....blah....still not what I'd envisioned!

My third try....Okay, I like this one a little better.  I love the image (Flourishes - Lenten Rose)...love the way I colored it (with my Copics)...but after finishing it, I decided that it was a little too much "more" and not enough "less"....

For my last and final effort I used a stamp I just got from Close to My Heart.  Can't say I've seen too many blue flowers...but I love how they turned out! The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Through the Woods collection.

Before I go...thought I share the second card I did for the acetate challenge.  I didn't post it to the challenge, because I wasn't too happy with it.  Not sure why I didn't like it, but it just didn't appeal to me when I finished.  I had some acetate cards that I purchased ages ago...so I used an embossing folder to emboss the front of the card.  You really couldn't see the embossing until I put the white card stock behind it.  Then to attach the card stock, I put some sticky dots under the bling I added to the flower centers. 

And, here's a little peek at the inside of the card.  I used a Spellbinder label die and then just stamped the sentiment on it.  I figure if I wanted to send it I could use a sharpie to sign it....sigh.....now you can see why I didn't post it!

I know this was a long post...thanks for hanging in there.  I really struggled with my cards this week. Not sure why. Maybe it's because I was in a bit of a hurry and everything I did....I managed to mess it up! When I got to my blue flowers...I was totally done!  My trash is full of discards.  This might have been the most mess ups I've ever had! Maybe it's that part of me that strives for perfection in all I do...and even I know that I will never achieve perfection!  (That doesn't keep me from trying though....obviously! LOL!)

Thanks a million for all the sweet comments! You LIMettes are the best!! Until next time....

Hugs!

OLW50 - Thankful for the Good 'Ol Days

This week Susan at Simplicity has giving us a One-Layer Wednesday challenge that is sort of the opposite of the OLW49. We used new rubber last week, so this week, Susan wants us to pull out an old rubber stamp (or photopolymer, if you prefer) that hasn't seen love in a while. Dust it off, ink it up, and make a one-layer Thank You card with it!

Well, there are actually quite a few stamps that have been languishing in my stamp collection for quite a few years!  I seem to be drawn to "nature" kind of stamps.  I think the majority of my stamps are leaves, trees and flowers!  I have a couple of really cute stamps that haven't seen ink in a while...unfortunately, they just don't seem appropriate for a thank you card.  So...the stamp I chose to use was a set of four stamps that were probably the first Stampin Up stamps that I ever bought.  I've always had difficulty using them, but now that I'm using my stamps more by participating in several challenges, I'm beginning to see different things I could do with them! It's kind of a "negative" image, and I chose to stamp with versamark ink, then brush lightly over it with some bright yellow Pearl-ex.  The Pearl-ex gives it a bit of a shimmery look.  I guess I could have used some yellow ink, but I thought of that after I  finished the card.  Maybe I'll do another one....nah, probabaly not.  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink Through the Trees set.  It all looked a little lonesome on the card by itself, so I added a couple of scored lines around the edges to frame it.  Now that I've posted a photo,  it looks like I didn't get the lines exactly even!  Anywho.....that's my card for the OLW50 challenge!  Can you believe we're already at 50?

Thanks so much for stopping by...and Thanks a Million for all the nice comments you leave for me! I really appreciate it!  Until next time...

Hugs!

LIM 11 - Let's use Acetate

What a great idea...let's use acetate!  This is the challenge that has been presented to us by Chrissie and Mandi this week at Less is More.  I hear that we're now being called the LIMettes.  T-shirts and pom-poms will surely be next! You don't want to miss out, so you probably should hurry up and finish your card for this week's challenge and get it posted over there!  Well, I've completed a card...but I'm not too sure how I like it. I might just end up making another one this week...we'll see.

For my card this week, I used Papertrey Ink's Friendship Jar and filled it with gumballs also from Papertrey Ink's Friendship Jar Fillers.  I stamped my jar and lid on acetate with black Stazon ink.  I cut out a large rectangle around the jar, and cut the lid out close to the edges.  I embossed a piece of white card stock with a Cuttlebug large dot embossing folder Seeing Spots.  Using my largest rectangle Spellbinder die, I cut the center out of the embossed piece and set it aside.  I stamped the jar again on the card front with Memento's black ink, and stamped the gumballs inside the jar with the Memento black.  I colored the gumballs with several different colored Copic markers. (Drew a line to ground the jar...you know I have to have my images grounded! LOL!)  I then placed the image of the jar on the acetate on top of the image stamped on the card and adhered the embossed piece to the acetate, so that my images would be right on top of each other.  I adhered the lid to the jar (which is also stamped on acetate) at an angle on top of the jar.  I added a little shading with a light gray Copic marker.  The sentiment is from the same Friendship Jar Fillers collection. I stamped it on white, punched it out with a 1 inch punch and then punched a 1 1/4 inch red circle to back it. I used foam tape to raise the acetate and embossed layer off the card front. The "candy 5¢" tag is also popped up with foam tape.  I added a doodled dashed line around the edges of the tag.

I've added a close up shot taken from the side to try to show the depth on the card.  From the front of the card, you can see that it looks like one stamped image, but here you can see the lines behind the acetate (I hope!)

Thanks so much for stopping by and I truly appreciate all the wonderful comments!  Until next time...

Hugs!!

OLW49 - Pink and Green...and never seen Ink!

This week our one layer Wednesday challenge is hosted by Jennifer at Styles Ink.  Our challenge this week is to make a one-layer card with any stamp (or stamps) that have never seen ink and include the colours green and pink.   Easy...right? Well, it could be, if I could remember what stamps have never been used! LOL!

I finally remembered that I had a set from Papertrey Ink that I just got a couple of weeks ago and I hadn't used any of them...then I had to decide what stamp I could use with pink and green....wow...my poor brain!  Anyway, here's what I came up with.  With it being close to Easter, I thought of those yummy "kisses" you can buy that come in pastel colors for Easter.  So...here's to you...Hugs and Kisses!! First I stamped the sentiment "Hugs and Kisses" on the card, then I stamped the little "kiss" across the card with black Memento's ink.  They're not lined up perfectly...I tried several times...even using my grid block, but I still didn't get them all even! Pooh!  I drew my usual little black line to ground them. (I have a thing about images floating on the card.)  I colored the kisses with Copics - R83 and YG13.  The little papers that stick out of the top of the kisses is colored with a silver metallic pen, although it's hard to tell from the photo.  Then, because I could...I decided to add a little sparkle to the kisses.  I colored each kiss with my handy-dandy little glue pen and sprinkled on a very fine glitter (sugar coating). And there you have it! Sparkly, shiny, "hugs and kisses" for all!  And...might I add...not a calorie to be found!!  

Thanks so much for stopping by! Love it when you leave a comment...it makes me happy all day!  Until next time...

Hugs!

LIM10 - Focus on the Sentiment

It Saturday, and time once again for the Less is More Challenge.  Our challenge this week is to  make the sentiment the focal point of the card.  These challenges have really made me put my thinking cap on!  In fact, for this week's challenge, I couldn't make up my mind what to do!  I can't wait to see what everyone is posting for this challenge!  You really should pop over to Less is More and check out the challenge and all the beautiful entries!

Putting the focus on the sentiment is so different from what I would normally do.  So....off we go! I ended up making four very different cards, and I'm not sure that I'm totally thrilled with any of them.  So you can tell me if you have a favorite.

This card was the first idea that I had.  I stamped the sentiment (I think it's Hero Arts) in versamark and black and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Then I stamped the butterfly image (no idea who makes it!) with versamark, then with a paintbrush, I lightly brushed on some Pearl-ex in a teal-blue.  I thought it would be a lighter shade of teal, but I was wrong.  So...not completely satisfied, I moved on to the next one...

I found another stamp (the flowers - no idea who makes it) and decided to stamp it with versamark and brush lightly with a soft green Pearl-Ex powder.  I also added the butterfly stamped with versamark and brushed with the Pearl-Ex powder.  The trail of the butterfly was done with a versamark pen.  I was trying to get it to look more like a watermark than a stamped image.  Then I stamped the same sentiment as in the first card with Memento's black.

I'm kind of leaning toward this card as the one I like the best.  Remember the old brass stencils that you had to use a light box to emboss with?  Well, the border around this card was hand embossed with a stylus and one of those little brass stencils.  I had to keep moving the card around on the stencil to be able to do all the edges as the stencil is a rectangle of about 2 inches by 3 inches.  The sentiment is also from the same set as the first two cards.  When I finished stamping the sentiment, I decided that the card just need a little something else...so using a glue pen, I added glue and white glitter dust to all the leaves...I think it did add a little pizazz to the card. 

For my last effort, I made a cutesy card.  The sentiment stamp is from Paper Smooches and the cupcake is from Hero Arts.  I stamped the sentiment in SUs Tempting Turquoise. I stamped the cupcake in Memento black. I colored the cherry with a red Copics and the cupcake paper with a tan Copics marker.  Still a little blah....so I used my glue pen and traced the word celebrate and added some Martha Stewart teal glitter. I also added a little teal glitter as sprinkles on the cupcake. Then to bring it all together, I added a border about 1/2 inch from the edge of the card.

As you can see, I was jumping from one thing to the next, but I just couldn't make up my mind.  Therefore, you get to see all my trials! LOL! 

Oh! Sharing some happy news!  This past Monday, I was a featured designer on the Bo Bunny blog.  They featured a little bio on me and two of my layouts! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your comments are much appreciated!  Until next time....

Hugs!

OLW48 - Sympathy

The challenge this week for our one layer Wednesday card from Susan at Simplicity is to make a one layer sympathy card (hoping I don't need it!) but there can be no flowers or trees.  I didn't realize that most of my stamps are flowers and trees! Now, there's a problem! LOL!  I finally found these seashell stamps that are some of the first stamps I ever bought from Stampin Up.  I don't even think they've seen ink that often.

I stamped the long small stamp first, then masked it and stamped the large shell, masked both shells and finally stamped the sand dollar behind both of them.  I must admit I practiced about 4 or 5 times before I found an arrangement that I liked.  When I finished stamping, the shells looked kind of barren and lonely, so I shaded them slightly with my Copics (pink and several browns).  Then they looked like they were floating, so I colored a bit with my Copics in a light, light pink under the shells, then sponged some ink around the bottom of the shells too.  A final touch was to add a few brown lines with Copics and then highlighting the brown lines with my white Signo pen.  I did have to re-make the card once because I stamped the sentiment and managed to get a big blob of ink on the background!  All in all, I'm kinda happy with the way it turned out, and it'll be good to have a sympathy card on hand...hoping I won't need it!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your comments brighten my day! Have a fabulous day....Until next time...

Hugs! 



LIM - A Touch of Red

I'm a little late getting my card done for this week's Less is More challenge.  Each week, Chrissie and Mandi give us a new challenge...and I encourage you go check it out!  There are some beautiful cards posted by some very talented individuals.  Mandi and Chrissie usually give some helpful hints or a short tutorial.  I promise that you won't be disappointed!

For my card this week, I made an embossed frame backed with a piece of black card stock. The frame is pop-dotted above the image and I love the depth that it gives! The image is a Flourishes stamp called Lenten Rose.  I used a technique called Spotlighting.  I stamped my image on the card base, then I stamped it again on another piece of matching white card stock.  On the second piece, I added my "touch of red" by coloring just the one rose and part of the leaf.  I punched the colored rose out with a 1 inch circle punch and backed it with a 1 1/8 inch circle of black card stock.  Then I layered it on top of the black and white image.  The sentiment is from the same collection.

I spent the weekend with my Mother to celebrate her 86th birthday.  Two of my siblings were able to join us for dinner. I wish all six of us could have been there. That would have really made her birthday special.

While we were there, I also went to a crop with my sister and my niece.  I didn't take anything with me to work on, but my sister was prepared!  She had printed out this darling photo of my youngest granddaughter, Maggie.  Maggie was getting a bath while visiting her great-grandma...and it seems the best place to take a bath was in the kitchen sink! 

My scrapping tools were limited, since we were at a crop, but it's amazing what you can do with just a little.  The papers are from Making Memories and are called Chloe's Closet.  The colors were perfect with the colors in the photo! I hand cut some of the flowers from the papers and popped them up around the photo.  The little squares on the side were cut in 1.5 inch squares, and I rounded each of the corners of the top and bottom piece.  I also round the outside corners on the mat behind the photo.  I cut a frame from the blue gingham and used it to frame the photo.  Added a bit of faux stitching in blue and orange...and a few buttons for the flower centers.  I also added glossy accents to the title word "wet".  I kind of got a kick out of the title...because if you've ever bathed a baby...you know...they are definitely "slippery when wet"!!

(The layout is on a white background and does not have a black border...I added the black border digitally so that the edges of the layout would be visible.)

I appreciate you taking the time to leave me a comment...I really makes me happy!  Thanks so much for stopping by!!  Until next time....

Hugs!!