Ray of Sunshine

I am working on a couple projects this weekend - cards for Independence Day and Luminaries (bags) for next week's Cancer Walk.  Since I am not ready to post those I will show you the card we made Thursday night.  Jules got her new dies from Taylored Expressions and we decided to use the Ray of Sunshine die.  Our inspiration was on the Taylored Espression's blog found here. 

This is our version:

We sponged glossy paper for the background; glued on the yellow diecut rays rather than using them as a mask.  We cut and sponged some green patterned paper for hills leaving them rolling in the horizon.  The tree and a Stampin' Up "hello" are diecut in dark brown because all we see is the shadow of them as we are looking into the sun.

As the sun sets on another glorious day here, I will say good-night to my readers. 

Happy Fathers Day tomorrow.

Convention

I didn't post last weekend because Molly and I went to the Stamp Convention in West Springfield and this past weekend I went to a Stampin Up workshop. I am very behind in reading posts and leaving comments.  This card was started on Thursday and I must confess you are seeing my second attempt at watercoloring this image.  I still am not happy with the coloring, but wanting to finish a card before midnight, I decided to cut around the petals and pop them up, somewhat disguising the fact that I need practice with watercolors.

We haven't been to the Stamp Convention in a couple years for various reasons.  I was a little disappointed to see that it is down to only twenty eight vendors making it very crowded on Saturday.  I think next time I may only go on Sunday, a much more relaxed day.  My favorite find was the Peerless Watercolors sold by Technique Junkie. I have been wanting them for a while and I used them on today's card.  Best new product (to me at least) were the new StazOn pads.   They are smaller and the lids click on.  I used Cloudy Sky to stamp the Artful Stamper (Stamp On It) image on watercolor paper.

I die cut the pink layer and the watercolored piece the same size, then cut down the one on the inside line by hand. A line of washi tape and some brown leaves on an embossed olive layer to keep it from being too centered; a butterfly and some gold dew drops to embellish; all mounted on a white card.

No time to find a challenge to enter....you were kind enough to visit anyway.... thank you for stopping by.

Merci

Exciting news today; I was promoted to supervisor in my unit at the Post Office.  I don't know whether to be happy or scared because this is a step in another direction.  I had been a Union officer for sixteen years, but now am crossing the line to the other side.

Talk about a step in another direction, this card is not my usual fare either. Compared to the card I made a few days ago found here, it is a bit grungy.  Lola die-cut this Eiffel tower in white for me that I didn't use on for my earlier card. 

Once I distress inked it - sort of old, rusty metal, I drew criss-cross lines by hand.  Then I found this gold patterned paper to use for the bottom half of the card.  The top part is a cream paper stamped with the SU French word background in Creamy Caramel.  The leaves overhanging are the stamp from  SU Thoughts & Prayers again stamped with Mellow Moss. 

The skunk, are you thinking Pepe le Pew, was probably the first stamp I purchased years ago from Dots (Close to My Heart).  The birds are a NBUS die by Memory Box that I received as a gift recently.  The sentiment is another gift and from the Hero Arts Paris set.  A few well-placed black gems finished the card.  All is mounted on a Mellow Moss card with black trim.

I am linking this at the Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe challenge 247 since I have the bottom line: die-cut, pattern paper, and shade of yellow (gold).  There is a little blue and a tiny flower, too.

A warm welcome to my thirteenth follower, Therese.  Thank you for visiting... or "merci de m'avoir rendu visite". 

Happy Birthday Susanne!

My friend Susanne, the talented author of the blog Keep in Touch is having a birthday on Monday.  I can show you the card I made because the Cardologists had a party tonight complete with ice cream cake and presents for Susanne.

I started with an idea for a CAS card that involved embossing a strip from Stampin Up and adding lines on either side with the score board.  I even put the sentiment on before I decided on the stamp to use for the focal point. 

This is the Sweetbriar Rose from Stampin Up, that was one of two flower stamps sitting on my desk waiting for their first use, stamped on watercolor paper.  The flower petals were painted with distress ink, the leaves with an Elmers watercolor brush. The leaves were a little dark so I took some of the color off with a waterbrush.  I then had to fussy cut the flower because it needed to overlap the embossed strip, added the mulberry paper underneath, and touched it up with Wink of Stella and yellow pearls.  Finally I decided to make the white card front into a layer and mounted it on a blush card.

I am going to link this to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge where it is "Anything Goes" this week.

Happy Birthday, Susanne!

Bonjour

Just a quick post because I finished our Thursday card.  We all stamped the Penny Black 'bonjour!' stamp three times, colored, fussy cut and layered.   Lola brought her Sizzix Eiffel tower die and while some went with sparkly pink or distressed red, I chose glossy black.  That was as far as I got after two weeks.    

Today, after organizing some of my new stamps and putting them away, I found the motivation to finish the card.  First,  I found the "Paris" in a Hero Arts set to be stamped in the corner of a quarter sheet of white.  Then I added parts of the tree branch from the SU Thoughts & Prayers in Pear Pizzaz kissed with Forest Foliage.  Since the tower was so solid, I die embossed the layer with diagonal lines. 

The final embellishment was the flower for Mimi's beret.  Alas I had only pink gems; but no worries, I colored over with a red sharpie.  Everything assembled on a red card.

Mimi is now ready for her Paris adventure.   Au revoir.