October Anniversary - five years already!

It is unbelievable to me that five years have passed since Scott and Megan were married and now they have a beautiful son who will be TWO years old in a few months.  And this post is a couple of weeks late because, once again, life got in the way.  Why does that happen ?  I have the best of intentions, but I get derailed a lot lately. So going to try to get back on track with the rest of my October cards and some new ice cream recipes. It is warm again here in southern CA, so my freezer is once again full of ice cream (even pumpkin pie ice cream and it is delicious!)  Just  a little teaser for you. Wish I could pass out samples - you would love it. But other flavors first.....so stay tuned!

Back to the anniversary card.  This is from Paulo's FREE collection online (Lacy Heart) and I love the detail in many of his files.  This seemed quite perfect for a five year anniversary.

  

    This is the basic design. The love bird stamp from VERVE

was embossed with silver. Used the MISTI for positioning.
 I love all of the detail in the heart.

This is the final result. I love it!  I added itty bitty pearls to add to the larger heart cutouts.

Five white rosebuds were added to honor the five years!

It is simple, but elegant.

If you have not checked out his files (link above) in a while - you need to do that!!

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A Special Card

A beautiful young woman who is close to my family is going through a very challenging time in her life.  She is in a daily battle with cancer and it has reminded all of us just how quickly life can turn upside down.  Each day is a gift and we truly have no guarantees.

I wanted to make her a card to let her know I am thinking of her. She loves the ocean and all things nautical, so I tried to combine the two in this card.  I hope she likes it and feels loved because she certainly is.

A well made design like this one will give you two cards with one cut - love it!

The design is from one of my early favorites - Dominic of Crafty Vectors.  He has created a beautiful shell collection and this is just one of them.  One of the many reasons I love his designs is that I can get two cards out of one.  I used the main design for this card, and cut out a piece of double sided adhesive for the negative piece so I can use it for another card later.

Saving this shell, now covered with adhesive, for another day.

I used the MISTI to get the sentiment in the perfect spot.  Thanks to how

easy it is to align things with this tool,

I am no longer hesitant to stamp directly on a finished card.

I used the Stampendous texture stamp to create a mottled effect on the frame around the shell and give it a little dimension.  I love the detail in the shell and hope it helped her feel a little of the magic and calm of the ocean.

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A Brusho Birthday Card

I think this may be my new favorite card ever - I mean EVER!!!  For those of you who make cards, you know how much fun it is when you start to put something together and it takes shape on paper even better than you had it in your head.  That is how this process played out.

What did I do before Pinterest?? When I am stuck for inspiration and ALL of the blogs I follow are not quite "directing"  me (don't get me wrong - I have a list of projects that I want to try because of all of them - but wanted something different for the birthday of this friend - just not sure what!)

And then I saw some fun ideas using Brushos and that was all I needed.  I had created some background sheets while playing with them  and wasn't sure what to do with them and this seemed like just the right project. I am still learning and am a bit heavy handed with the sprinkling of the Brushos, but working on that!

I still want to use them to cut out some shapes, but this time I just cut out a simple cylinder shaped background and let the white image on top pop - and I think it does!  This is so simple with just the white and red, but I love how it all came together and am eager to try similar  ideas again.

Love the way the Silver Bullet cuts the thin lines in this image. And look at the fun splashes of color that you get from the Brushos.  This is the Rose Red color.

So not only did the idea succeed (and look at the detail in that butterfly cut), but the stamped greeting was exactly what I wanted.  I know that seems like a no-brainer, but I have rarely had a stamping success like this one. No matter what I do, I either slip with the stamp, or the ink goes down too light in one area or - well you get the picture.  But not this time.  I used my new MISTI tool that everyone is talking about and loving and you can add me to that list.  I was able to position the greeting perfectly and stamp it. The first image was a little splotchy, so I re-inked it and did it again.  Perfection.  You don't have to worry about the positioning being off because nothing moves or shifts and you get a stamp in the exact same spot each time.  I know I will be stamping more now - and loving it!  If you don't already have this tool and you like to stamp -it is an investment worth making. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!

The central image is a png I found on the internet that  I just traced in SCAL.

The greeting is  Hero Arts stamp.

The image has tiny foam squares behind it to give it dimension on the card.

So........Happy Birthday to my dear friend, Robbie. I hope she likes this card as much as I enjoyed making it.  Cannot wait to try some other ideas that have emerged from doing this...

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