Special Card for Courageous Friend

I have a very special friend who has been fighting the dreaded "C" disease for the past several months.  She is a pillar in our community and loved and respected by all.  But cancer doesn't care how wonderful she is - and that is just one of the MANY things I hate about it. :(

I wanted to send her a little sunny encouragement and I hope this card helped.    I have been stretching to learn new things and/or use techniques that I have not used in a very long time - like distressing.  The Coredinations card stock is great for that because the white core comes through the color when lightly sanded - and I love that look with this card.

The digi image is another beautiful flower from Power Poppy - Climbing Clematis.I used the Spectrum Noir color blend pencils and gamsol to blend the colors together.  I had forgotten how incredible relaxing it is to color with pencils and I am determined to do more of it.  I just need to make more time.  I traced the image in SCAL and cut it out with the Silver Bullet and purposely left a bit of a shadow around it.  The "thinking of you" is a Hero Arts stamp, colored with a Zig Brush Marker to complement the background.

Love the closeup of the butterfly and all of the colors. The rhinestones

give the butterfly that little bit of sparkle and pop!

I highlighted the center of the flowers with Color Technik glitter gel pens.  I love the way they color - so smooth and sparkly. They are my "go to" gel pen because of the wide variety of color choices.  Well, I really love the Sakura gel pens, but they are limited in color - so I use both.

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A Special Wedding....

This past weekend, my family traveled to Fresno where my daughter and granddaughters live.  It is not my favorite place to travel as it is a long car ride on a good day (about 5 hours).  And in the summer, it is hot.  Fresno did not disappoint when it comes to summer weather..  It was in the 90s when we drove in and 102 on Saturday - ugh.  People tend to say that dry heat isn't as bad, but let's face it - HOT is HOT!!

But enough of that - once settled in, we were able to enjoy some family time. I loved having extra time with my two boys (who are really adults!), my DIL and my adorable grandson. He entertained all of  us with his dancing and chattering and toddler antics the whole time.  It was great fun.

Saturday was the day of the wedding and all went well. I don't think I have ever seen my daughter happier, and I hope that stays with her the rest of her life. Her daughters love her new husband, and his daughters love Missy.  Seems to be a beautiful blended family.  What more could I hope for - right?

Her colors were gray with purple accents, so I used that inspiration to design her wedding card.  I wanted it to be simple and elegant and think I achieved that.  I used a beautiful image from Power Poppy ( LOVE her floral designs) and foiled it in purple. The foiling is so difficult to capture, but hopefully with the different angles you can see how pretty it was. I was thrilled to see how all of the detail was enhanced by the foil.

A perfect example of how difficult it is to capture the color and shimmer

of the foil.  But also a good way to see the detail of the digi image.

It is beautiful in its simplicity.

A little better capture of the foiling.  Now you can see why I love it.

It just brought the image to life.

The sentiment is from Anna Griffin, stamped on Gina K Heat Resistant acetate 

and heat embossed.

I wish them a very HAPPY life.....

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He CAN'T be FORTY!!!!

Today my oldest son, Scott,  is FORTY YEARS OLD.  How can that be??  If I am not getting older, how can he??

We celebrated his birthday on Saturday with his wife, adorable new son, and his brother, Robert.  It was a fun time sharing dinner and just good family time together.

I made beef stroganoff in the pressure cooker (my Instant Pot - love it!), noodles, grilled asparagus, croissants and homemade cheesecake ice cream and homemade lemon cookie gelato. (see the photo below!)  I had not made stroganoff in ages, but it was fun to experiment and it was an unusually cool day here so it was perfect weather for that kind of a meal... (stroganoff recipe to follow soon!)

In lieu of birthday cake, I made lemon cookie gelato.

Scott said it was the best gelato ever - even the ones he had in Italy!

Made my night <<BIG smile!>>

The birthday card file is from Dominc (Crafty Vectors) and I so love how his files cut. The shell is pretty symbolic to both of us - my parents lived fairly close to the beach and my children spend a lot of time at their home when they were young.  And I have been longing for more time at the ocean lately, so it seemed like the perfect image to share with Scott. He loved the card.

Dominic's shell file - love the intricacy of it...

The file with two different backgrounds to give it a finished look...

But more important than all of that is thinking back to forty years ago and as trite as it sounds, it does seem like yesterday.  Scott was my first child and I was practically a child when I had him  (very early 20s). I always say he turned out well in spite of me.  I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but the one thing that was always constant was my love for him.  And forty years later, it is only stronger.  I am so very proud of the man that he has become. And watching him with his wife and baby son just makes my heart skip a beat! He is really living the life he is meant to live and isn't that what we want for our children... for them to be happy and content and fulfilled?

One of the highlights was capturing Scott and Carter having quite the conversation!  This looks like contentment to me...

Scott didn't change his position much, but Carter was certainly animated...

I  feel very blessed and look forward to the adventures we have ahead of us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY , DEAR SCOTT!!

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Birthday Greetings!

I have been watching some of my friends make some really fun cards with files from SVG CUTS, and since I have amassed quite a collection of those files, it seemed like time to put one to good use!

October has become a busy time for family cards - my daughter in law's birthday, their anniversary, and my oldest granddaughter's birthday right before Halloween.  So I have been busy trying to get them done in time and so far it is looking promising..... well sort of.  Megan won't actually receive her card til next weekend when I see them and can deliver her present as well, but hopefully the thought will make up for the tardiness of the actual greeting.

So there is a theme going on between the card and the present and that is ALL I am saying!  I know - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to fill in the blanks, but such was my inspiration for the card.  I thought the Luxury Purse set from SVG CUTS was so cute and immediately wanted to make the purse card.  It was simple and fun and went together easily.  Love it when it all works!  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

The purse base itself is Coredinations cardstock which I embossed with a preppy houndstooth folder.  I really like the added  texture.  The silver pieces are Mica paper from Paper Temptress (who else?!?)

I highly recommend giving these files a try - there are quite a few really interesting purses to create!

Inside was printed on vellum with inkjet printer and heat embossed.

Assembly was a breeze!

The final result - I added the little buckle (Prima embellishment) and the little tag.  

The Happy Birthday greeting is printed gold on silver with a Brother tape labeler.

 Brads were added at the handles to give the purse a little more interest.

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A Heartfelt Get Well Card.....

I have a dear friend who was recently in the hospital for a heart repair.  As far as I am concerned, there is not one single thing wrong with his heart, but some rather renowned cardiac surgeon felt otherwise! Anyway..... he and his dear wife are doing well. She is certainly relieved and happy to have him home and heading for a full recovery - GREAT news!!  His heart is mending beautifully!

In my usual form of late, the get well card was just mailed.  I am not sure why I cannot get things done in a timely manner anymore.  I always use to be early with everything, but no longer!  It's the thought that counts, right?  I so hope so........

My inspiration for the card was one of the  Dreamweavers stencils. They have a wide variety of beautiful stencils (many of which are quite at home in my craft room!)and some of them are vertical greetings.  I used a take off on their Get Well greeting, cut it out of some fun Coredinations card stock that I have had sitting around here forever, and then cut a lot of layers with the Silver Bullet Professional.  The greeting is backed with Paper Temptress brown bag, the rectangle is Coredinations and the mat shadow is Paper Temptress Basis card stock.

You can see the detail of the letters on the mat and the various layers...

The card front....

I used some white and taupe Coredinations for the background that I ran through a Teresa Collins embossing folder (Woodgrain) and then distressed it to show the detail of the embossing. I love the look of that and have vowed to do more of that - it was like watching magic before my eyes. :)  I think the light sanding really made the woodgrain pattern pop!!  The whole thing was placed on Kraft card stock from.. you guessed it.... Paper Temptress.

Wanted to share a close-up of the woodgrain distressed.  I love the wood pattern.

Since this card was for a male, I didn't want to overdue it with too much, so I used the Fern Branch from Penny Duncan Creations (thank you Penny!) and cut it out of Paper Temptress Mica and Pop Tones papers to add a slightly different look.

This was a relatively simple card for me and I would like to play around more often with the vertical greeting  idea -it was a fun twist.

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Sympathy Cards - Made with Love...

The ideas have been seeping into my head and I am trying to do a better job of writing them down as bits of creativity slip in and rapidly out of my brain.

It has been a sad couple of weeks.  I have spent the past few days making sympathy cards.  It is such a heart heavy reminder just how fleeting life is and how important it is to make the most of every day.  We all get hung up, it seems, with projects and meetings and just the demands of daily life. But I am acutely aware now (and hope I don't forget the lesson) that it should not be so hard to schedule lunch or coffee with a friend.  That time should be much more important than any other meeting or "thing to do". When it comes right down to it, it's about making the most of the time that has been gifted to us, and the older I get, the more I realize just what a gift it is, and how quickly it can be taken away.  So..... a renewed commitment to make time with friends a priority - the other "stuff" can wait.......

So here is a brief glimpse of what I have been working on - trying to make each different and personal to the recipient.....  and I am determined to make simpler cards.... my version of clean and simple.  I could accomplish much more if I simplified things.  Also on the list of things to do is to utilize the stamps I have.  Lots of goals , but that's a good thing.  It keeps me motivated.  But first things first...

The first card is a very nice cross from dear friend, Penny.(Penny Duncan Creations).   It is her Fancy Christian Cross.  I love her files and can always count on them to cut beautifully.   This paper is from Paper Temptress and is the incandescent paper - blumarino and candido.  They are elegant and make any card look more special!

Love the simplicity yet beauty of this cross.

A better look at the detail......

You can see the richness of the colors in the closeup.

And the next one I am choosing to share also utilizes a file from Penny.  I got  the idea from something I saw on Pinterest and I used Penny's file as the foundation to make a medallion.  This is a fleur de lis from Penny's embellishments - Deco Items.  I wanted it to look like ribbon was running along the side of the card and was anchored by these embellishments, so I took Penny's design and and a frame design in the shape library of SCAL, and welded them together - success.  It was very easy to do and I love the way it looks.
As you know, I almost always use papers from Paper Temptress as they are my all time favorites to use when creating cards, but I found a rather large stash of Coredination papers while reorganizing my craft room and liked the two tone colors of the paper.  It has a sort of tweedy look on one side and a smooth color on the other.  I shortened the width of the front so the inside would show when the card was closed and complement the embellishment.  I love how it looks and how simple it is.  I felt like this card needed more, but I held back and just "let it go" without adding clutter to it.  The stamp was an old one from my stash - I think it is the Clearly Inspired line....

Again, thanks to Penny for inspiring these two cards.  It really jump started my ideas.

Will be sharing one more in a few days.


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Dominic's Daisy - Tripled!

I have so needed to make quite a few birthday cards, but have been busy with some fundraising events and time was just not on my side.... until this past weekend.  I sat myself down and just said "knock it off!  You have things you need to do so focus!!"  Nope -  that was a great idea in theory but fell flat. I don't listen to my own lectures very well!  Sometimes the creative mojo is just NOT there and it has been doing an exceptional job of hiding lately.  I have searched through card sketches looking for inspiration - and found none.  I tried blog after blog after blog. I loved all of the wonderful creations out there, but none moved me enough to try to make one like it.  The more I looked the more discouraged I became.  And the more discouraged I became the less inclined I was to even try to think of something  to make.  Then it happened - the undeniable tick of the clock reminding me that the time was upon and the cards were needed NOW.

After a mild panic, I fell back on one of Dominic's designs - I love how they cut and they always make me look so clever - but it's really ALL him. I love his flower series and have used many time and time again.  I decided it was time to make the daisy again - so I not only made it once, I made it three times!  I know.... I never..... well almost never make the same card twice.  And even though I  used the main design three times with basically the same paper, each card has a character all its own. I really am happy with how these turned out and even happier that it has led me to work on other projects - to be revealed over the next few days  I hope.

I am hopeful that the creativity is returning, albeit s--l--o--w--l--y!!!  But it's okay - I can wait patiently and hope I can nurture it and keep it going.  My fingers are crossed!

So here is my trio of Dominic's daisies. And even though I cut the positive/negative image, I decided to just stick with the main file and play around with that.

I love showing the positive and negative images. 

This time I didn't make a card with the negative image...yet!

Paper Temptress Pop Tones Grape Jelly card base

Paper Temptress Parchment pink

Bow Easy for perfect bow making!

A simple and easy card.

Paper Temptress Sparkle Blanco card base

Coredinations background showing in the corners

Paper Temptress Luster Canvas behind the daisy

Seed pearls glued in the center of the flower.

A bit more detailed but still simple.

Paper Temptress Pop Tones Grapesicle with daisy cut out.

Back of Bo Bunny patterned paper showing through the daisy for contrast,

Star Dust Stickles in the openings of the flower center

All of the cards use Bo Bunny dotted patterned paper that has a solid color on the reverse side. It cut beautifully with the Silver Bullet Professional Cutter as did all of the papers, and it was fun to use something a little different.    Details are under each card. I hope you enjoy them!!

Stay tuned for more creativity from the craft room and the kitchen!! Pin It Now!