End of Winter

My blog title is my hope that this is the end of the snow and cold.  We have a bit of snow still on the ground which is going away slowly.  The forecast is for warmer temperatures and rain this week, that is the start of unofficial mud season.  I am reading all those blogs, where people are seeing their flowers bloom already, with wishful thinking.

I have two cards to post today.  One was the St Patrick's Day card I made for the Cardologists.  This card is made with a Celtic gyre as the focal point.  I covered it in Crystal Effects to make it look a little like a charm.   I used a Spellbinders lattice die and two sizes of Sizzix framelits to cut the backgrounds.  The shamrock was made with a heart punch.

Because you can see, with a little imagination, a green ombre look, I am submitting this card to the City Crafter Challenge Blog where Darnell is the special guest designer.  You still have a few hours to check out the Week 254 challenge.  Even though I have had the boxed set of Celtic stamps forever, this is a never been used stamp as are the Sizzix dies that I received as a gift.  So I am also linking the card to  Darnell's NBUS Challenge 4.

This next card was a quick, and I mean really quick card, made because I didn't want to miss the deadline at Time Out Challenges.  My cardologist friend, Susanne, is guest designer there for challenge 27 where the theme is "Clean and Simple with an optional twist of Black and White plus a Splash of One Colour."

My style might have too many layers to be CAS, but I hope it has enough white to qualify.  The stamp is from a retired Stampin'  Up set called Measure of a Life.  Just a tiny bit of blue colored pencil on the body rubbed out over the wings.


Thank you for visiting my site.  I hope you have a wonderful day.

Best things

My friend and her husband, are starting a new chapter in their lives, having both retired from their jobs recently.  I have been searching for exactly the right card to send them on their way.  I chose for them the saying "the best things in life are worth waiting for" to signify the best years are yet to come.

I love fancy folds for cards so I knew when I found a pop-out window card on Pinterest that I had a the framework.

LeeAnn Greff has a video on how to make her card found on her website here.   The center of the front of the card is hooked to a z-fold on the inside of the card.

I used brush markers to color the flower flourish and then stamped repeatedly.  The butterflies were diecut and embellished with gems. 

I am rethinking this oval shape.  The square in LeeAnn's card fits more snugly than this oval so I might have to add a butterfly or flower in the lower left to keep it from pulling through.






I am entering the card in the Sparkle and Shine Challenge inspired by this photo.  As I sit here I see nothing but white out my window. With so much snow it is highly unlikely we will see any green this year on St Patrick's Day.  I am so looking forward to warmth and flowers and butterflies, so what I see when I look at this photo is Spring.  We just have to "wait for it".




I am also going to enter my card  in the Retro Rubber challenge because  I embellished with a tag using the Luni Stamps "Dream".  I have had that stamp and the Hero Arts flower flourish for a years. I also used a retired Glorious Green paper from Stampin Up. The other colors are Soft Sky and Night of Navy. The sentiment inside is from The Simple Things by Unity Stamps.




I hope I wasn't too long-winded today.  Thank you for visiting.

Edited 3/9 - My friend, Susanne, reminded me that I could also submit this card on the Hero Arts blog where the challenge is Nature so I am going to run right over there.

Celebrate

My sister asked me this week for a birthday card for a friend.  Luckily, Susanne shared her new Penny Black stamp with the Cardologists Thursday night and so I had a colored image.  I liked my water coloring except for one out-of-the-lines blooper that I made worse trying to fix it.


So that meant fussy cutting the flower and mounting it on DSP as well as changing the card color.  Except for the fussy-cutting part, it was a happy accident.   The stamp is quite large, but since the image was cut out I was able to fit it on a card that is 6-1/4 by 4-1/2 inches.


I'd like to welcome my new follower, Liz of Crafty Sunflower. Loving butterfly cards as I do, I was happy to see a beautiful Zen butterfly card on her site that was a Penny Black challenge winner last July.

The bright sunlight we have had for the last two days has disappeared, so now I will go light a fire and sip a cup of tea. I hope you have a good day.