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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Moving Card Reveal!

While I still had my craft room in one piece (well at least things were still accessible) I decided it would be a good time to design my moving card and get the pieces cut out. Then I could put them together and address them as I had time while unpacking.  I knew the feel I wanted (obviously an ocean theme), but it t took me a while to come up with the right look.  I am really happy with the end result and hope the recipients will as well.

I thought it would reflect the colors of my condo as I was originally leaning toward blues and browns, but the condo has actually taken on more shades of  gray, black and white with pops of blues.  Oh well - I am still happy with the way the card turned out.

I used a starfish pattern that Ducky (Ducky's Designs) used for my birthday card and made a shadow layer so the color would have more dimension.  I have a background stamp (square block with varying patterns) from Stampendous that I use whenever I want a feel of texture and interest.  I actually used it a couple of times.  I stamped it in white ink and covered the card base to give the feel of the ocean, and then used a brown ink over the starfish.  I also ran the starfish through a Cuttlebug embossing folder so it would seem more realistic.  The papers are all from Paper Temptress, of course! 

Love the dimension that comes from the multipurpose cube stamp

Starfish stamped with the same stamp as above

I found the quote by Jacques Cousteau online and it seems to really reflect my feelings.  All of those were cut out using the print and cut method in SCAL.  And they were printed on a marble vellum that I also used on the inside of the card to share the new address.  It takes so little work to create a customized card - just type and cut - love it. And it was so much fun to watch it all come together.

Thanks for going on the journey with me...  Pictures of the finished remodel (minus pictures on the wall - still not quite there!) coming very soon.  I promise.  Just editing them now.  Some of the areas are hard to photograph so working on getting the best pics I can!

In the meantime, this was my last bit of "craftiness" - hard to believe these were made seven months ago.  But looking at these photos does make me want to start looking for some creative mojo again...
baby steps.... :)

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A Special Friend - times two! (part 1)

I am lucky enough to live in the town where I was born.  I doubt everyone would feel that way, but I love this part of Southern California.  I had to leave and live in Arizona for 12 years to fully appreciate how wonderful it was.

And in living in the same city, I have been fortunate to have retained some amazing friendships - both with those who were friends of my parents, and my own friends.  One such friend was in and out of my life through most of my growing up years. We went to different schools, but her grandparents lived across the street from my parents, so we had a great time whenever she would visit. My parents cared for her grandparents as they aged, and many years later her parents lived in that same home and cared for my parents.  It was beautiful.  So when I returned to the area in the early 2000s, I rekindled a friendship with both the daughter, who is my age, and the mother.

And both need cards this week. The daughter has a birthday on Thursday, and the mother is failing in health and I was long overdue to make a special card for her.

So the "thinking of you" card is first on my list.  She loves the ocean and lives not far from it, so I turned to the wonderful shell files of Dominic. If you have not seen his files yet, you have to check them out.  They cut beautifully on my Silver Bullet and the detail is incredible.

And as usual, I turned to my papers from The Paper Temptress.  I absolutely adore her papers, especially the mica papers.  I have every color in the text and card weight.  Yes I collect them!

I wanted a little texture on the shell so used a marble stamp cube that I turn to often from Stampendous. And here are the results using the cube, Versamark and Ranger's Perfect Pearls.

I really like the textured feel that this stamp gives to the paper.  And here it is fresh off the Silver Bullet Professional -

A different view

I love the pairing of Dominic's detailed files and the intricacy of the Silver Bullet.  It makes me feel like I can create anything!


And here is the finished product with three layers of Paper Temptress papers - Incandescent Blanco (White) for the card base, Mica Cappuccinio text for the shell and Mica Bronze behind it.   The stamp is from Verve; yes I collect those too!

I hope this brings some cheer to her day.

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