Surprise! Surprise!

Surprise, surprise!! Two posts in one week!  I'm on a roll this week! LOL!

I needed a couple of birthday cards for next week, and of course I only have three weeks to get 10-15 cards made for our widow's group...so I'm keeping busy!

Off we go...

One of my granddaughters will be 17 next week, so this first card is for her.  I have quite a few of the Julie Nutting dolls, but rarely use them...not sure why, because this cowgirl turned out adorable!  I sponged the sky and ground, then paper pieced all of her clothes and hair. Sentiment is from PTI.

This second card is for my sister in law who has a birthday next week also.  I'm really loving the floral stamps from Altenew!  Since I don't have dies for these stamps, I scanned the stamped image into my Silhouette program and made a cut file to go with the stamps...cut out 6 or 8 flowers and leaves, then stamped the image on the cut out...easy-peasy!  I did discover that you MUST make the cut border slightly larger than the stamped image or you'll never get it lined up to stamp....ask me how I know! LOL!  These floral images are multi layer stamps so I used several shades of HA ink to stamp, then added a little highlights with some Prismacolor pencils.  The cut out leaves were colored with Copics.  I stamped a couple of the blooms on the card panel, then popped up three cut out blooms over that.  LOVE how this turned out!

This card is something I wanted to try after watching a Simon Says video from Kelly Letevola.  It's like bleaching, only you use distress inks on watercolor paper...much easier than I thought it would be.  The image is from WPlus9 (Beautiful Bouquets: Dahlias).  I think I'll used this stamp and this technique often!  I also inked up the sentiment strip and stamped the sentiment (SSS) in versamark and heat embossed in white.  I was digging around in some of my old stuff and found the netting paper and thought it would be a great background for the watercolor panel.

These two cards are not my favorites, but I thought I'd share them anyway.  I got these dies from Tim Holtz because I thought they'd work well on cards and on scrapbook pages.  There are 7 dies in the set and most of them are fairly large.  Super simple cards, but at least I'll have a few in my stash.

I really appreciate all the visits and I always smile when you leave me a comment...it makes my day! I hope you'll come back to visit soon!

Until next time....

Busy, busy, busy......

I've been crafting a lot this week trying to get enough cards ready for our monthly widow's group meeting.  Each month we write cards to people that might need encouragement or just to make someone smile.

So here's what I've done this week....(WARNING:  PHOTO HEAVY)

These first three cards are smaller cards...measuring 3.5 x 5 inches.  I had some envelopes left over from something, so I just made cards that would fit those envelopes.

Stamp - Clearly Besotted
Sentiment - MFT

Flowers - Altenew  Peony Bouquet
Sentiment - MFT

Background inked w/distress inks
Sentiment - TPC Studio (embossed)

These next cards are a few that I made after watching one of Jennifer McGuire's videos...she makes it look really easy...unfortunately, I had to piddle with it for a while before I got something I wanted to share with you! LOL!

This first card has a small white card inside of a vellum card.  I stamped the image on the small card and colored it with copics, then stamped it again on the vellum over where it is on the small card.  Here's a link to Jennifer's video...she explains it much better than I did!

This card is just something I was trying out...not sure it worked so well.  I purchased "corner dies" a while back and I was trying to get a border using just one of the dies.  In order to do that, you have to die cut from both sides, then try not to overlap the die too much over the first cut.....whew!  It'll do....
Sentiment is from TPC Studios.

This is also a technique I picked up from one of Jennifer's videos...Here's a link to the video. I love how this one turned out....I probably should have paid a little more attention to the video, because I didn't do it quite like she did and I struggle with it a little...lesson learned!Here's a close up of the card so that you can see the stripes inside of the card.

This next card looks all white in the photo, however, the top portion of the card is all vellum.  Turned out kinda cool! The butterfly is a punch from MS.  The sentiment is from SSS.  Below this card, I've attached a close-up of the top of the card so that you can see the stripes inside.

This last card i probably my least favorite card....it warped a bit when I heat embossed the sentiment from MFT.  I stamped the SSS flowers on vellum and heat embossed them in white, then turned them over and colored with with Zig Clean Color brushes.  I die cut leaves (SSS), colored the back of each leaf with green copics, and then folded them down the center to get a nice crease.  I added white dashed lines around the edges of the vellum and rounded the bottom corners.  I put glue does under the flower to hold the vellum card to the dark pink card base.

That's it for me today!  If you managed to hang in there for all this...Thanks A Million!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!  Hope you'll come back soon!  Your comments are greatly appreciated! Until next time...

NBUS & Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

I almost missed playing in Darnell's NBUS challenge, but I made it just in the nick of time!  I have several items in my "never-before-used-schtuff" and couldn't wait to play.  I've been traveling a bit so I haven't had as much time in my craft room as I wanted.  I can't say that I have stacks of NBUS...because I don't order that much anymore, I try to use what I have on hand...and believe me that's a TON of schtuff!  Anyway....off to the challenge!

I also have a card that fits perfectly with the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge!

I've made several cards....well, because I wanted to use ALL my new schtuff!

This first card is my FAVORITE!  I love the Peony Bouquet from Altenew!  The images are just beautiful! I got these stamps just this week and couldn't wait to ink them up! This card is a total CASE of a card made by Marika.  Of course, her coloring is so much better than mine...but I'll keep practicing until I get better!  I used the small bloom, colored each bloom with Copics and then shaded them with colored pencils.  The sentiment is heat embossed and is from PTI. I cut around the flowers and then popped them up.  

The cross is a die from Spellbinders and the sentiment is from PTI.  I used distress ink to add the yellow halo around the cross...before I adhered the cross with foam tape.

The corner die set is one that I've wanted for a long time!  I finally ordered it a couple of weeks ago. I made this card and the next two using dies from the set.  I love how they turned out!  Sentiment is from PTI.

I added a leaf branch from a very old Sizzix die.  The sentiment is from PTI and is heat embossed in green.

On this last card I used the corner die in both the top left and bottom right of the card panel.  The sentiment is from PTI (I really got some use out of my Papertrey Ink sentiment stamps this week!) and is heat embossed in liquid platinum.  I popped the die cut panel over dark blue card stock.

This month at our widow's meeting, we'll be writing cards to each of the church office staff members to say thank you and we appreciate you.  Our church staff works hard to keep everything running smoothly, and I'm guessing that they rarely get a "thank you" note from anyone!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!  Hope you'll come back soon!  Your comments are greatly appreciated! Until next time...

Water Color Class and much more!

I decided to take the Watercolor for Cardmakers class and the more I play with water colors the more I like them.  Can't say that I'm really good at water coloring yet, but it's fun to play with them.  Here's a couple of cards that I made for the class....

For this first card, I decided to paint a bouquet using the wet on wet technique (for painting the blooms).  I kind of like how this turned out...not too sure about the yellow background, but overall not too bad.  I used Koi water colors on this card.  Tied a ribbon around the water color panel and added a sentiment from Flourishes.

I wasn't sure where this was headed when I started painting it.  I think the most difficult part of water coloring for me is the lack of "control" I seem to have over it!  I do like having "control" over things I do!  I also find it very difficult to wait for things to dry, as I'm anxious to see the finished project! I used Koi watercolors and Canson watercolor paper.  I painted the sentiment tag with the same colors used on the "flowers", added a sentiment from SSS.

Now...I've mentioned before about making cards for the widows group at my church...well, this week I've really been playing catchup, because last week we mailed 15 cards!  I know we only mail out cards once a month, but I didn't realize that I'd need quite so many cards.  However, it these cards are an encouragement to some of the ladies, then we definitely need to keep sending them out...Fair warning...very photo heavy from here on...

I've left all the photos small, but if you want to see them larger, you should be able to click on them and see them larger.

The "hello, hugs, happy, and smile" cards were made with the Cameo.  I designed the panels in the Silhouette program and cut them out to layer on top of the card base.

The bird cards are all Tim Holtz crazy bird stamps colored with Copics.  The sending caring thoughts card was made by die cutting the flowers and adhering them to the back of the white panel.

If you have any questions about any of the cards and how them were made, just shoot me an email and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. If you hung in there for all of this....bless you!  

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!  Hope you'll come back soon!  Your comments are greatly appreciated! Until next time...

Lots to share...it's been a while!

WARNING:  This post is very photo heavy! 

I've been making quite a few cards lately.  I'm trying to get a good backup of cards to use in our widow's group.  One thing we hope to do more of this year, is try to send cards to each of the ladies in the widow's group, so that they get some "happy mail".  Don't you just love to open your mailbox and find a hand-addressed envelope rather than another bill or circular?  So, that's our goal this year, and I seem to be the one designated to get the first batch of cards together.  We have a number of our widows that are in assisted living facilities, so I think they'll be delighted to get a card to let them know that someone is thinking of them and praying for them.  Here's some of the cards that I've put together so far.

This round card was cut completely on the Cameo.  I stamped the flowers with a TH stamp.  I cut 4 additional sets of the word "celebrate" and layered them for dimension.  I inked the edges of the circle with distress ink and colored the flowers with Prismacolor pencils.

Super simple card - SSS feathers layered on a brown card stock and edged in the same yellow as the feathers.  I inked the edges of the feathers.  Added a bit of jute string and a bow to finish it off.  The sentiment is heat embossed. (can't remember who makes the sentiment)

I used a pink card base for this card.  The "hello" tag was made with water colors on water color paper using a "smooshing" technique.  I cut the SSS hello from the watercolor piece and from a piece of green shiny paper, then inserted the green into the water color piece.  Super quick and easy!

This is probably one of my most often made cards.  I love this layout with the inset flower (SSS), and you can add almost any sentiment and it makes a perfect card!  The sentiment is heat embossed and is from Paper Smooches.

Another card just like the previous...just added a few sequins, and a PTI sentiment.and a slightly different flower die.

This butterfly is enormous!  I cut him in white then colored him with Copics.  The sentiment is stamped on an inked strip to match the colors on the butterfly and heat embossed in white.  I dry embossed the background with a wood grain embossing plate.

Back to the tried and true...I really do love this layout....Sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!  Hope you'll come back soon!  Your comments are greatly appreciated! Until next time...