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.

Morning glory

Hello, to my newest follower, Joy, from Morning Glory Card Studio.  In your honor, Joy, I pulled out this old Hero Arts morning glory stamp which I have had for almost eighteen years. The Just for Fun "Dream" stamp that I used on the inside has also been in my stamp drawer for almost that long. I think that qualifies this card as retro rubber!

My friend Susanne is a guest designer for challenge 8 on the  Retro Rubber challenge blog which involves using eyelets.  Yes, eyelets, isn't that a blast from the past!  I dug out my stash and found these little beauties purchased back when we were all using eyelets, and to the best of my memory, I have never used.

Thank you to Retro rubber for the chance to use some of my supplies.  I hope my readers will check out the challenge; you still have time to enter before the deadline, this Friday, February 27. 

I also used several snippets of paper in this card including the white cardstock, left over from my Valentine cards, and just big enough for a 4-1/4 inch square card.  The green backgrounds were in my scrap bin as well as the snippets I used for die cutting the butterflies. So I will be linking to Pixie's Crafty Workshop blog now on challenge week 165.  I hope you will stop by and say hello to Di and Parsnip.

Now to find my white pen in the mess on my desk to write a greeting on the green, hmmm.

Thank you, dear readers, for visiting today.

Happy Valentine's Day

The Cardologists had their own challenge this holiday - make a card with the Simon Says Stamp Swirl Heart die - and here are all seven:
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For my card this year, I knew I wanted to cut with the die twice and then piece together the two.  I originally started with a much funkier paper, but couldn't pull it off since it is so not my style.  I ended up choosing this flowery paper and making a Victorian Valentine.  For the background I used a Stampin Up edgelit die and then embossed the paper.  I used Wink of Stella on the outline and the smaller red hearts.



I am entering my card in the SSS Monday challenge: Red+Pink.

Bob used pattern paper with the die and pulled off a very modern look by cutting out a row of hearts down the side and adding a red ribbon with white hearts across the bottom.  BB gets kudos for using the string of tiny hearts to embellish her card.  And I just noticed, being the only lefty in our group, she used the die the opposite way from the rest of us. I like the fact that she used blue (my favorite color) in her card too.



 Melba and Tina both liked red sparkle paper for their diecut heart.



Tina embossed her white background with hearts.  I looked at the card and at first thought the black polka dotted ribbon was blue  (my mind went fast forward to the 4th of July).  Her embellishment of choice were three white flowers with gems for centers.  Lovely. And congratulations on your retirement Mrs. T!





Melba dry embossed a pink pattern paper for her background and embellished with three sparkly hearts, and little gemmies. Sweet.







Lola went for hot pink on her card.  The amazing part of this card is that she carried the curvy heart into the sweater.  That cute little bird in his warm hat and scarf is an itty bitty stamp by Unity. Our generous friend made sure that we all had the little guy in our gift box.  And that little heart "pin" on the sweater is the perfect embellishment. All this as she is recovering from the flu!



 Susanne went way outside the box with her curvy heart, using the die to cut a stencil to use as a mask when she sponged purple ink on the paper. Her diecut is the LOVE sentiment. She also went for a modern look turning the top layer, adding washi tape and mismatched embellishments (I spy a dewdrop - one down, 99 thousand to go, Susanne). Heavenly.

Susanne has even more Swirl Heart cards on her website Keep in Touch.  I hope you stop in to visit her.



And last but not least, our hostess, Jules went for this black card.  I couldn't take a photograph that would entirely show the shiny gold outline in the heart and around the border.  The heart inlayed with a beautiful gold embossed paper, the reverse fold, the roses caught in another echoing swirl, all make for a stunning card.



I think our challenge was a success and I hope you liked seeing the results.  Thank you for visiting.