Sympathy with Trees

I've used this Tree stamp from Rubber Stampede before when making sympathy cards and it's turning out to be a favorite. This time I stamped it first in the center then on either side. I used Memento Desert Sand and Rich Cocoa for a little bit of a change. I rubbed a tear drop pad in the lighter color first over the whole image then took the Rich Cocoa tear drop pad and colored in areas.

I stamped the image onto the card base then added a layer of vellum onto which I stamped the sentiment from Stampendous. I tore the bottom edge of the vellum just because I liked the look. I'm kind of crazy that way. I do it to make up for my friend Sandy who can NOT put up with the idea of tearing.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Sea Shell Sympathy

I was looking at one of my favorite web sites Heart Prints the other day and Sue had the most beautiful sympathy card I have ever seen, you can see it here. The poem on her card is from an old Embossing Arts stamp and it is so lovely. I'm not sure of the source of the poem but I had to copy it for my card.

I used one of my new JusRite By the Sea Borders and Centers for my image. Colored with Copics of course and cut out with an oval Nestabilities as is the mat. I used some blue DP I had on my desk (see using up my supplies) cut slightly smaller than my card base and mounted the image onto that.

I computer generated the poem onto vellum (let it dry) and placed over the top. If you click on the photo or go to Sue's site you can read the poem, It is lovely.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Sympathy in Brown and White

I'm needing sympathy cards for a project I'm working on and when I received my last shipment from PaperTrey I got my Fresh Snow ink pad. While I was making other cards I kept thinking about that ink and what I could do with it. I found this dark brown card stock on my desk and thought, great something else I can use and clear up some space (yes, I know it doesn't take up hardly any space but every little bit counts). Also in the spirit of using what I already have I pulled out my PaperTrey Masculine Motif set and used the trees.

It turns into a very simple, but I think elegant card. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by.

A Cup of Tea and Sympathy

Everyone knows that a nice cup of tea can be so soothing in times of sorrow. Curled up with your favorite blend of tea allows you to absorb the knowledge of loss and deal with the future.

I really felt that the Tea for Two Additions cup would make a great sympathy card.

I used DCWV La Creme for the DP on my black card base. I stamped the cup with Memento London Fog and the sentiment is from Wordsworth by Rubber Soul. I mounted the image onto more black card stock after adding the ribbon.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by.

Red, White and Blue Christmas

JustRite's Friday challenge #24 is to make a card in red, white and blue using their sketch. Well I have already made all my 4th of July cards and just finished using all my By the Sea Borders and Centers stamps so I really wanted to use my other new set from JustRite.

It is however a Christmas set, Christmas Treasures, and I wasn't sure what I could do. I need to make a set of Christmas cards for a prize at my nieces baby shower next month and I decided I could accomplish to things with one card. This challenge and start my set.

I chose to use the cardinal image as my starting point, after all that gets the red out (groan). I colored the birdhouse blue and used a white gel pen to add some snow to the roof. I dug out all my Christmas paper and found this Merry Christmas paper for one of my borders and used my Martha Stewart punch for the village. I used Gina K pure luxury In the Navy for my card base and Rocket Red for the scalloped mat. Then I went through and pulled out some co-ordinating blue papers for my other layers. All in all I think it came out very well. I may even reproduce this card for myself (well, no, there are too many other images to use). Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Cup of Get Well

This is another get well card made with PaperTrey's Tea for Two and Additions. I chose a different pot and cup with this card and stamped the cut outs (gotta love the dies for these sets) with Memento Pear Tart. It didn't pop against the yellow so I backed it with the navy. The DP is from DCWV Nana's Kitchen. The ribbon is Gina K. I did pop dot the tea pot for a little more dimension and I ran the PaperTrey Lemon Tart through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Now I have to put away these toys for now and make some sympathy cards, hmm what is more sympathetic than a nice cup of tea?????

Have to think about this one, I'll do that while I walk Eddie.

See ya. Thanks for stopping by.

A Little Get Well Tea

I'm trying to be good, really I am, but PaprTrey Ink just ruins my determination every month. When ever they have a release I just get sucked in, or rather my bank balance gets sucked out. I had made the decision to go back and start picking up some of the older sets and had chosen this Tea for Two set in honor of my cousin (Hi Mary). She is a tea fanatic. She is going to go crazy when she sees this card. Anyway in the last release Tea for Two Additions was released so of course I had to have that one also and the dies for both sets. The first set has the tea pots and sentiments with a few embellishments. The additions has the cups to match along with a spoon, tea ball, tea bag and a honey dripper.

In my quest to use what I had I used some of the Gina K In the Navy for my card base and PaperTrey's Lemon Tart for the DP. I stamped the spoon down the side then added the tea pot and cup on pop dots. The sentiment is also from the Tea for Two set and inside I stamped the get well soon form the same set. Since I love the blue and yellow combination I think I'll make another card using this same set. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

July 4th Flowers

When I started to make my 4th of July cards I decided not to use traditional images on all of my cards. I did want to use the traditional colors. How can you possibly go wrong with red, white and blue. I had gotten the Gina K Stamp TV kit Eclectic Summer last year (or was it the year before)??? Another case of having something and not using it. Anyway there was some terrific stuff in that set and the card stock was part of it. I used the Rocket Red for my card base and the In the Navy for my scalloped mat. The ribbon is also from that same set as is that little red brad.

I used the flower stems from the PaperTrey Button Basic set and the buttons are also from PaperTrey. The sentiment is from PaperTrey's Vintage Picnic and the DP is DCWV Summer Dreams. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by. P.S. I'm just loving clearing my craft area up this way.

Bookmarks for the Beach

When I was looking through the bookmarks uploaded to the JustRite Bookmark It challenge I was inspired by Jenny L.'s submission. I liked the idea of the folded bookmark with the magnet closure.

So in my quest to use what I have and create something new I made 8 bookmarks. The reason for 8 is because I'm headed to Tampa July 3rd for my nephews graduation party. It will be a mini family reunion since all my sisters (there are 4 of them) brothers-in-law and nephews, nieces and one girlfriend will be there. Of course there will be some beach time and naturally there will be reading at the beach so ergo we need bookmarks. I used the largest of the Mega Curved Rectangle Nestabilities and scored it at 3 inches. I stamped the Shells on one half and the Beach scene on the other half. The Shell sides are all colored the same with Copics and on the Beach side they're all the same except for the umbrella and the chair. I got my Copic air brush system out and tried to get a little fancy and as you can see I need more practice. I then searched all my bins for the magnet closures I've had for well over a year and finally found them right where I thought they would be (I had been throught that drawer several times and missed them--no wonder I buy things and then find I have duplicates). So another item sitting on my desk for way too long is used up.

Hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.

July 4th Lighthouse

This is another of my holiday cards. I just had to use my new JustRite stamps on this project.

I colored with Copics of course and cut it out with the oval Nestabilities as I also did the mat with the scalloped oval. The DP is from DCWV Prints matstack. The card base, scalloped mat and the ribbon are all from Gina K.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Vintage 4th of July

I got busy yesterday and made my 4th of July cards. My Card Ministry group from church tries to keep in touch with members of our church who can't make it in for Mass.

So I started out with this image from PaperTrey's Vintage Picnic set. Love, love, love this set. It has 5 different baskets ( they are really the old metal kind but we still call them baskets) and 8 different toppers along with sentiments and other images.

Anyway I stamped the image and colored with Copics. After cutting it out with the Oval Nestabilities (the mat was cut with Scalloped oval Nestie), I air brushed a little red around the edges. The mat is from Gina K as is the red card base and the ribbon. The DP is DCWV Summer Dreams matstack. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

JustRite Bookmark

This stamp set By the Sea Borders and Centers from JustRite is one I've wanted since I first saw it. I just fell in love with it and have been so anxious to get it. Well it landed in my mail box yesterday and I finally got to play with it today.

JustRite's challenge this week is to make a bookmark. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to read and I have made my own bookmarks in the past, so this was a challenge I could really get into.

I am funny about my bookmarks in that I don't like a plain backside. I want my bookmarks to be pretty anyway I look at it. I have a box of these large plastic covered paper clips so I decided to try to make a bookmark using one of them. I stamped out the two images and colored with Copics. The images and mats are cut out with the oval and scalloped Nestabilities. I then used a lot of strong adhesive to hold the paper clip in between the two red layers, I then got some red thread and sewed the clip in even tighter. I added my images and was done. It actually took me longer to figure out the mechanics than to make the bookmark. I really like how it turned out. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Father's Day Steve

I made this card for my nephew Steve, who is going to be a new Daddy come mid September.

I made this card for the Mommy to be so I thought the same image would be cute for Steve.

It is going to be so much fun watching Steve be a Dad.

I colored this image from Karen's Doodles with Copics. The DP is Bazzil Basics Swiss Dots and Lasting Impressions and the sentiment is computer generated. I just added the three brads and was done.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

A Vellum Truck

I know, I know, I said no more vellum cards but I had to post this one. I just love this little truck stamp from Great Impressions.

I thought it would go great with this DP from Lasting Impressions. You've read my other posts on how these cards are made so I won't bore you with the details. (You have read them right???)

Anyway, I really don't have any more vellum cards of this design to post. I do have to make some sympathy cards and I saw a card the other day that gave me an idea of how to use vellum for those. We'll see.

Hope you like this one and thanks for stopping by.

A Vellum Rose

Unless I get stuck for something to post (not likely) this is the last of the vellum cards I will post. I do have several more made up but I'll spare you.

I used the Stitched Rose from Hero Arts for this card. I wanted a little bit of a longer image to fit into the oval Nestabilities cut out. I used some Papertrey Ink card stock for the frame.

Let me tell you about cutting out this frame. It's a pain. I'm not the most dexterous person and trying to line up two Nesties to cut at the same time is tricky. I finally learned to put down the center oval (the same one used to cut the front of the card base) then line up the scalloped oval around it. Whew, it can be frustrating. Be sure to have a flat B plate, mine was bowed from previous cuttings and the Nesties kept shifting.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Winning is Fun

Last month I tried to stretch my wings a bit and entered this card in three different challenges. I won the 365 Cards challenge. My prize was my choice of stamp set from Stamp{ippity}. I chose a new release Now & Always. What a cool set, I got it just a few days ago and haven't had a chance to play with it. So I went to the 365 Card blog this morning to see what the current idea is today. Well it is to use the lyrics from the song Rainbow Connection to make a card, but you can't put a rainbow on your card.

Well I read the lyrics and thought about it and decided that, okay, rainbows come after rain and flowers come after rain also. So my card is a flower in a rainbow of colors.I stamped the flower in black onto Cryogen white then chose every one of my Vand RV Copics and colored away. I colored all the petals with RV00 first then added V12 to the first row (starting from the center) and blended, the second row I colored with V12 then added V04 and blended with V12, the third row I colored with V04 and added V15 and blended with V04. On the third row edges I colored in RV04 which was a little too pink so I added V12 and then went over the whole thing with RV00. The center of the flower is YR15 and Y38. I wanted to add a little sparkle so I decided to add a rhinestone brad to the center. Now I have all my brads dumped into one drawer and I have to rifle though them to find the one I want, for whatever reason all I could pull out was this little purple one. So there it is, I added the two leaves that I had stamped on a bit of green patterned paper that I colored with YG03 and G20.

I cut out the flower and went to my scrap drawer to find papers for mounting. I decided to use my scalloped circle Nesties for backing and then I stamped the image in several shades of Memento inks on some shiny gold paper and put it all together on a Lasing Impressions card base. This card didn't take as long to make as it to type up this post.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Vellum Balloon

I'm posting this card to point out a mistake. When I stamped the Balloon image from Hero Arts the top of the balloon didn't get stamped. I thought I would just have to throw it out but decided to play with it any way. When I colored it up I just colored it as if the line was there. Hey presto it looked fine. So I made a card.

DP is Bazzil Basic Swiss Dots.

The Sentiment is from Papertrey Ink Button Basics.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Retirement Mary

My sister is retiring after many years as a teacher and this is the card I made for her. I only made this card after talking to my sister Bea and she mentioned having to go out and buy one. I hadn't even thought about making a card at that point so I had to get busy.

Mary took time off from teaching to raise her kids then went back into the battles. I have a lot of respect for the teachers of this world. I went to parochial school and needless to say you paid attention in class or else. Now a days it is so different, but I digress.

Back to the card.The stamp is a Lockhart stamp Vintage Chair. I colored with Copics and the DP is (you guessed it) Lasting Impressions. The frame is Bazzil Basic Swiss Dots.

I want to sit in this chair with a cool libation and enjoy the sun don't you??? Thanks for stopping by.

I just entered this card into the Copic Creations challenge # 30 this week. Wish me luck.

Vellum at the Lake

I tend to think of vellum as a "pretty" thing. Something to make a card prettier, more feminine. This card changed my mind. I wanted to make a more masculine card and decided to haul out my scenic stamps. The lake shore is form the Artful Stamper and the birds are Northwood Rubber Stamps. The DP is of course Lasting Impressions (can you believe I still have a ton of this paper).

I stamped the image with Stazon then flipped it over and colored from the back with Copics. The only thing about coloring on vellum with Copics is there is no blending. It ends up with a bit of a water color look. Anyway, I like how it turned out. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by.

A Vellum Window Card

Blog browsing can be a dangerous thing. Some sites make you want to blow your whole budget on new things out there. Then again there are sites like 'The Classroom' that teach you new techniques and different ways to use what you already have. Right up my alley. I'm on a kick to use supplies I already have and when I stopped by The Classroom yesterday this post fired up my ambition.

I spent quite a bit of time today going through supplies and making choices. (this was in between doing some cleaning and helping a neighbor out, taking care of the dog and of course going to church---I'm tired).

Since I have a quest to use up existing supplies I pulled out Lasting Impressions paper, vellum I've had for ever, and a Lockhart stamp that I haven't used nearly enough. I set up my card stock first, getting the card bases, then making sure that the inside of the card would show case the stamp well (white just doesn't do it). For this card I lined the inside with the same DP as the card base. I used oval Nestabilities to make the window and the same Nestie with a larger scalloped Nestie to make the frame. Whew!!! Not easy, takes more patience than I some times have. I stamped with Stazon then after it dried I flipped it over and colored with Copics on the back side.

Then I assembled the card, vellum tape attached the image to the inside, glue pen to attach the frame and opaque white pen to add the dots. I stamped a simple happy birthday on the inside. All done. I have set ups for 15 more cards. When oh when will they be done??? Your guess is as good as mine. I still have baby thank you cards to finish and the cards for prizes at the shower my sisters birthday card and cards for her gift. I need a nap. See ya. Thanks for stopping by.

Just Sitting

Just wanted to show you a more contemporary card made with (again) the On My Couch set. This time I added the lamp and coffee to the scene. The DP is from DCWV Mango Frost. I just love the dog sitting there waiting. Kind of makes me think of my Eddie waiting for me to sit down so he can jump on my lap for a nap.

I love the colors on this card, you can't really see it but there is a faint stripe of the orange in the chair and also the blue matches. I figure whoever put this room together is planning to reupholster the chair or change the wall paper. What do you think???

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Just Thinking

When I started making cards yesterday I kept trying to put stuff away and got sidetracked into making more cards.

What was really going on was I'm trying to use up items laying around on my desk. More than a month ago I was playing with my On The Couch set from Papertrey Ink and had stamped off a few couches and chairs on patterned paper. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them until I started playing with the DCWV paper pads. These papers are from the Linen Closet pad. It doesn't look like it but in real life the colors work well. The DP is actually more of a soft olivey brown and the green of the couch isn't so bright. I used my Impression Obsession Sentiments I word set for the wall hanging.

I have another card that I will post tomorrow. Hope you like this one and thanks for stopping by.

I'm Baaaack!!!!

Well, I'm upright and taking sustenance anyway. Still coughing and stuffed up but I am on the mend.

I was feeling a strong dose of cabin fever yesterday so I went with Bruce to Grand Rapids. He wanted to go to a couple of golf stores and I didn't think it would hurt to ride along. It was a beautiful day and we had a nice ride.

I did run into a bit of a problem with a pledge I had made about not buying new til I had used up existing supplies. One of the stores he went to was next to a Jo Anne's and I had my 40% coupon. What's a girl to do? I needed tape so I thought I was safe, hah!!! They had 40% off on all papercrafting supplies. That included the DCWV paper pads that I love, and they had several new ones. I only bought 4 and my tape. Then we went over to Stamp Therapy the LSS I go to in G.R. and they were having a sale on the Tim Holtz Sizzix embossing folders. I picked up the brick and woodgrain combo pack. So of course I had to play today.

The funny thing is that this card was intended to be a guy birthday card. I was watching a show on HGTV this AM and they were showing these urban row houses in Baltimore with all this exposed brick walls and my mind took off. I used some core'dinations paper for the Bricked part, then I used some of my new DCWV Mango Frost paper for the bottom. The border is some of the wood inlay that I've had laying on my desk for over a year and of course the furniture is Papertrey Ink On My Couch. When I had that all assembled I needed something for the top and decided to use the sentiment for a wall hanging. That's when it turned into a get well card. I stamped it out and trimmed it and the kraft matting with my deckled scissors, using a brad to "hang" it.

Now I need a nap. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

MIA

Sorry I haven't posted the last few days. I'm dealing with a sinus infection and asthmatic bronchitis. Requires lots of sleep and heavy duty meds. Will be back in action soon I hope.

Happy Birthday Dylan

I had such fun making this card. My nephew Dylan turns 18 today. This is my baby nephew born to my baby sister. Does this mean I'm getting old ??? No!!!

Beth sent me an email with photos of Dylan pitching for his high school baseball team. I thought he looked really great and decided that they would be the perfect focal point for this card.
I copied them to my Photoshop Elements 2 program and sized them to fit the front of a card that would fit into a business envelope (appropriate since I'm sending a check). I computer generated the sentiment on the front, on the inside I just wrote "who has all the right moves" .

There is no stamping on this card, but there was a lot of struggle since I haven't mastered Photshop Elements yet (will I ever).

Hope you like it any way and thanks for stopping by.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to This Card

When I went to clean up after my card making binge I got sidetracked into making this card. As I was putting stuff away I started to pile up the scraps and found that one of the scraps had tape on the back of it ( I had intended to use on another card but it was the wrong size). It's the white with brown polka dots (how did dots become named polka anyway???) so I grabbed another scrap and put them together. Then I found the striped paper and the card base and put them together and I was almost done. No focal point so I went to my stash of colored images and found this one from Digi Stamp Boutique. Since I had the twine still out a cut off a length of it and wrapped around one of the layers. After I had the card all assembled I found that I had put the beer mug on the wrong way, luckily I was able to pry it up and turn it around. Whew ! Now I can add it to my stash of birthday cards.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Mr. Fix It Get Well

This is my card for the Karen's Doodles challenge blog this week. I think this image is just the greatest. I chose to make a get well card for this challenge.

I used my Lasting Impressions paper again (one of these days I'm going to run out of it) and a screw head brad I found in my stash.

I colored with Copics and assembled my card. I found this an easy card to make because I had used this same image for another challenge and it all just fell into place.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like it.

Father's Day Oops

I decided to enter the fun over on the PCP Sketch Challenge group. It's being sponsored by Karen's Doodles (and P.S. she's having a sale until June 6th). Karen has a number of great men images and this is a new one. Mr. Fix It Car.

The challenge is to make a Father's Day card using the sketch assigned. By now you all know that sketches give me a great deal of angst (try working that word into your daily conversation). I fret over the sketches trying to make my brain wrap around them to make a great card. This sketch wasn't so bad, it allowed me to follow my own personal quest of using up supplies I have on hand. So once again I pulled out my Lasting Impressions paper (who knew I had so much of this stuff) and made my choices for the different layers. I then set out to color the image to co-ordinate with the paper.

I knew as soon as I saw this image that I wanted to make it a funny card. Can you just picture this guy thinking to himself "I'll change Dad's oil and he'll think that's a great idea", then he realizes just what a mess he's gotten himself into. (as a side note something similar actually happened to me and it wasn't pretty).

So I colored with Copics and then I went to find something extra to put on it and I found this screw head brad in my stash. I pulled out my Making Memories brad setting tools and made a lot of noise. After wrapping the twine around the first layer I put the rest of the card together. Since the brad was so thick I pop dotted the image layer and added the sentiment.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Anniversary Mary and Mike

My cousin and her husband have an anniversary coming up and I wanted to make a special card for them. So I went looking for ideas and the first stop I made was my friend Sandy's site. She designed the sketch for the ABC Toys and Craft challenge this week. Hmmm, can I combine a challenge with a card I need to make anyway? YES!!!

I used this wonderful wedding ring stamp from Inkadinkado for my focal point. I colored with Copics N1 and N3 then I air brushed RV34 around it. Then I had to make choices for paper and embellishments to meet the sketch. I pulled out my Lasting Impressions paper (I've made a vow to use stuff I have before buying new lol) and chose the ones I wanted to use. It turns out to be a somewhat monochromatic card, and I'm not sure Mike will like it with all the pink (sorry Sandy). It's really not pink more a rose color. Oh well. I cut the hearts out with Nestabilities and started layering the elements. I had some grey and black rhinestones so I pulled them out and added grey one for my bling.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Get Well Left Overs

These cards are the result of my inability to throw anything away. Typical of crafters, right??? The Bazzil Swiss Dots paper is left over from the thank you notes I'm making for my niece. I had to cut the paper down from 12x12 to 8 1/2x 11. These two strips of 3 1/2 x 12 card stock I had stamped an image on and then used my one inch punch to remove them. (sounds a bit convoluted but you know what I mean). So when I was putting stuff away these strips intrigued me, I just knew I could do something with them. I trimmed the paper down to 10 inches and scored at 5. I went looking for something to stamp in the circle and found this little Stamps by Judith flower, perfect. I put some white card stock on the inside and marked where to stamp (I did a better job on the green than on the yellow) which I then colored with Copics.

The Chipboard Punch Outs from Colorbok I picked up JoAnn's on the dollar rack.

I am making a commitment to start using up stuff I have before buying new stuff, yeah right like that's going to happen. I'll buy new stuff and combine it with the old okay???

Well I hope you like them and thanks for stopping by.