Delightful

Delightful does not describe the weather at the moment.  It is so dark that I had to use may scanner to take a picture of these cards. It is the name of the Penny Black stamp that my friend Susanne had. Because I loved it, she let me stamp some images to use on my cards. (In fact, I had to purchase it myself recently.)

I haven't finished a card in a few weeks - it has been way too nice to be indoors.  So I guess I am happy it is a gloomy day today.  There are pieces of half finished cards all over my desk.  Sometimes I get stumped with how to finish a card and I have to leave it for a while.  But I need to reclaim my desk.  Today was the day to finish these three. 

The Penny Black image makes a big card; I will have to use a letter envelope to mail this first one.  I colored all three images with Primsacolor pencils while I was watching television.  Then I had to match the colors to paper., always a tough job and usually where I get stumped.  I found scraps of pink and purple to match the flowers; added a snippet of green ribbon and used butterflies that were in my stash left over from some other projects.
The sentiment is from a very old The Angel Company stamp set



The other two are made from part of the image....accidents in stamping but couldn't bear to throw away.    This second card is a regular card size.  The layer is from a Ranger core'dination stack embossed with a Darise folder.  The stack, paper and sticky dot embellishments were all gifts from my friends.  The banner for the TAC sentiment was going in the upper corner.   I could tell you I didn't want to cover the embossed butterflies with it, but the truth is it is covering a blooper.  When will I learn not to put "finished' cards by an open stamp pad?


This last one is a small 4-1/4 inch square card.  Once again it has core'dination paper, embossed and distressed as a layer but this time it was diecut first.  I added a layer of blue vellum that has a faint pattern to break up the blue space of the card. The vase uses an ornament punch cut off at the bottom then embossed with a Cuttlebug folder..   And who doesn't have oodles of gems to use - someone who has more power to resist them in the store maybe.


Edit:  I am entering this third card at Virginia's View Challenge "layers" and Penny Black Saturday Challenge "nature".

A productive day, I think.  Its off to Sunday dinner at my sister's house.  Wishing all my friends a Happy Mother's Day.  Thank you for stopping by.

Butterflies and Music

I am in love with a background technique I found on Pinterest called "bokeh" that comes from a photography term. There are many sites that provide details on how to do it and even a few different ways to get the effect. Here is a picture of my first attempt....

Yeah, I missed a few spots...but I have to say this is an easy and fun technique, so I will be doing it again.  If you haven't tried it and can't find it let me know and I will send you a couple links.

This week Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge 28 letter is "M" for music. I don't have any "Music" stamps but I am poised to purchase (have it in my cart already) the Hero Arts stamp the guest designer, Kath, used in her inspiration card. I inked part of a Christmas stamp to get the music for my background.  I used a new Darice die for the vine and a Stampin' Up embosslit for the butterflies.

I love butterflies and can't wait to see some flying around here.  We lost the last of our snow last week and the mud is drying up in the bright sun today.  Last night I heard "peepers" in the pond out back. This week we are supposed to get some rain which will bring some lovely green into our dreary scenery.  Spring arrived so late, that we can hope we won't have another frost that kills the apple and lilac blossums this year.

And because I made my own background, I am also linking this card to the Simon Says Wednesday challenge.  Their sponsor this week is My Favorite Things. 

Thank you for visiting. 

Its A Girl Thing

My title refers to a retired Stampin Up set from which I pulled this stamp with a collection of purses.  Since the stamp set is over ten years it qualifies as retro rubber.  I hope you check out the Retro Rubber challenge 12 on their website where the theme is "Hey Brad".  How long has it been since you have used your brad collection?

This card was inspired by the Card Concept Challenge # 33.  The pink and grey color combination and all the dots and chevrons jumped out at me.  I didn't realize that it was a baby's room right away (dah!), I just thought the owner would be a stylish lady with a shoe and purse collection.

My style is 'clean and layered'. I pulled the dots in on the purses and in the dotted background. The ribbon, a gift from a friend, added the chevrons, and a couple layers added some stripes .  I had to use a sharpie on my brads to make them hot pink. I toyed with using them to affix a sentiment, but I don't know how I am going to use the card yet.  There is a bit of Wink of Stella on the purses.  In fact, three of the purses are popped up because I spilled a bit of wink on one of them. Its what we call a 'happy accident' because they look better popped up.

Can anyone tell me why I can't get these two pictures to sit side by side unless I put words in between them? Aargh.  Check out the links above to find your own inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wind

I had this idea for a card for the Chocolate Baroque Color Challenge Nine all weekend, but procrastinated to the last minute.  I grabbed a piece of paper (wrong green I realize now) and sponged on some color (sloppy job emphasized by the scanner). 

No time to do it again because I have to go to work.  Oh well, as a coworker once said to me, guys don't care what it looks like, they just like to get the card. (I hope its true).

It will also work for the One Layer Simplicity challenge this week where the challenge is Wind.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Easter blessings

I just got home from a delicious Easter dinner at my sister's house complete with spiral ham and strawberry shortcake.  Yum. Just a quick post tonight to wish every reader a happy Easter.  I finished signing and addressing my Easter cards today and will mail them tomorrow. 

I have two cards to post today.  The first was made for a little girl in town.  One of my coworkers at the post office spied a letter this girl wrote to the Easter bunny and horrors it was postmarked last year!  He told me that poor child had been waiting to hear from the Easter bunny for a year so I had to make her a special card.

I used the tree stamps and dies from a Sizzix-Hampton Art set called Hello Spring.  I stamped and watercolored the background trees, then colored one tree so it looked like an Easter egg tree.  I covered the 'eggs' with crystal effects, added a sentiment and bunny from Stampin Up sets and mounted them on a bright card.   This is the only card I finished to arrive before Easter.




This next card is the one going in the mail tomorrow to the Cardologists.   There is a sad story to tell here.  I had already cut out the papers before I went looking for a spring flower stamp. All my daffodils were too large or too small.  The Easter lilies would have been murder to fussy cut. The flower that had a matching die was so busy it looked washed out on the card no matter how dark I inked the stamp. 

I searched through my binder where I categorize all my stamps and finally decided only the calla lily would work.  It was only after they were all colored and cut, when I went looking for a stamp for the inside, that I found my new tulip that I had put away without stamping it in my binder, gasp.  It would have been perfect if I had not forgotten I had it. So as my sister said, I just used the 'wrong' kind of lily.

Is there such a thing as too many stamps??




Well, I leave you with this Stampin Up sentiment that I used inside the card:  May the miracle of Easter bring renewed hope and peace to your life.

Thank you for visiting.