sometimes, there are no words

Our sweet friends lost their only daughter when she was fourteen years old.  So quickly, so shocking.  How do parents get through something like that.  That was way back in 1993 already.  Sara was our daughters best friend.  Her brother Aaron was lost without her.  Fast forward to May 14 2017.  Aaron’s sweet wife, the mother of five children ages 3-14, was killed in a tragic car wreck.  How, just how, does a family get through these times.  This card was made for Aaron’s parents, our sweet friends.  Long ago, Aaron’s mom said she felt her daughter Sara visited her in the form of a sweet white butterfly.  This seemed a fitting depiction for the passing on to another life of their sweet daughter-in-law.  There are no words.
Entering this into Simon's Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge
Word Art Wednesday 

Using the fuse tool

a fuse tool was gifted to me last year for my birthday and it hasn’t gotten near the use i would have thought.  Somehow, the Fuseables, came into my vision.  Fuseables, what are they?  It’s plastic paper that you can fuse together.  Everything on the tag is the Fuseable paper except the stamped image and baker’s twine.  You can see the “faux stitching” down the middles of the hearts and down the yellow stript.  That’s the work of the Fuse tool.   I had fun making the tag and then, what to do with it?  Aha! Theres that overlay scalloped piece that i cut out a long time ago, i think they call them coverups now.  add some coordinating paper and a SaWeet card is born.  LOVE IT.  If you have a fuse and you didn’t know about these papers you will really have fun with them.  I’m ready to try another one.

Black and White GKD

It’s been a long time since I dropped in at Gina K Designs and Stamp TV.  They had a black and white challenge going on using stamps from their collection.  Rules were that you could use gray scale and one color but only in the embellishment.  I need to restock my sympathy cards and I chose the Vertical Greetings and Things stamp set to have a go at this challenge.  I stamped the leaf image all over the front panel to create a gray scale background.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new Crisp Inks from ALtenew.  Next step, I cut a black pierced circle with my MFT die from one of the blueprints.  Then I had a scrap of this pre-embossed card stock from SU that matched the background perfectly.  squeeee.  I embossed the dragonflys from the set and fussy cut them out.  The bow was made from baker’s twine on my bow easy and i attached a little button in the center and attached it with a clip.  Added the vertical sentiment and I thought this long stemmed thistle die from Simon Says needed to be used.  THERE, talk about blending companies. 

why didn’t i think of that?

a full page of water colored beauty.  then you cut it into parts. how simple, how smart.  I followed a Unity & MISTI blog hop and one of the gals did this and then made quick cards with the MISTI.  So fun.  I had to try it.  Now I’ve done it twice.  It’s going to be my new, i want to craft but i don’t know what to make and i don’t have much time, go to plan.

Look at these beautiful cards created with two different 8.50 x 11 water colored backgrounds.

anniversary coffee

do you know what this kind of punch is called?  I’ve had it for several years.  It allows you to punch all four corners on your card front without adding an extra panel.  You know how you can’t punch the upper corners, or the corners by the fold, whichever orientation your card is?  This punch allows you to do that.  It’s the only one i’ve ever seen and the only design i have.  The kraft cardstock is poked into the frame corners and built on from there.

Tim Holtz hearts stencil in Pumice stone, Spellbinders rectangle die, the little cups and other strips are cut from Doodlebug design Cream & Sugar 6x6 paper pack that came in my Simon kit a couple of months back.  Using up the scraps.  The little heart comes from the Simon set that came in that kit. I added lashes and brightened the cheeks and lips of the “lady” cup.  This way people know it was a traditional marriage from way back when.  Thanks for stopping by.

Technorati Tags: Carol Crow,Coffee,Simon Says Stamp kit,purple punch,SSS coffee and tea

OMW cats

i didn’t have any idea where i was going when i started this card.  i simply chose the background paper I wanted to use and built from there.  A friend ordered a b-day card for her 19 year old grand daughter and those were my starting points.  Beacuase it is a girl, i sparkled the present with wink of stella, and added the curved green piece to soften it a bit.  These Tim Holtz cats make me laugh every time i bring one to life.  Isn’t this just a hoot. I can hardly wait to mail it to her.
I still have time to enter this into Simon’s Wednesday Challenge for Furry Friends. 

Grad Cards

Every year I think we don’t know many grads and every year i am surprised by the invites we get.  This year so far we have Jonathan, Collin, Cade, Taylor, Logan, Koree, Karoline.  How do all these kids grow up so fast.  Didn’t they just start junior high?

Here are some more of the tape transfers I did.  On the computer card, i just pasted an image into Word doc and then printed it and did the tape thing. It gave me the perfect image to fit that computer.  Collin and Cade are my twin great nephews who have played football all of their highschool years and they were both accepted to Eastern KY University to play on that team.  I pulled some pics off their mom’s FB page and printed them and used my tape to create these very personal cards for them.  The one of Collin is from a homecoming game, it’s not blood.  tee-hee

 

Love and a dog

My daughter showed me the transfer tape technique and I wanted to try it with this little doggie from the newspaper but he tore in a couple of places.  I used him anyway as it is going to my 89 year old mother and she won’t be able to see that it has a line in it.    She just likes to get some real mail in her mail box. 

Simon Monday Challenge this week is to use a critter and I thought i would go aheaqd and enter it even though it’s not one of my best projects by far. 

MFT Color Challenge

MFT Monthly color challenge always throw me for a loop because i usually have never thought of those color combos.  This one is really great.  I love the look of these colors together and I groaned when I saw the Safety Orange but look how it accents this so nicely.  Everything I used on this card is from MFT.  I think they must be my favoritest of all places to order from.  I would love to visit their store sometime. I did stamp surgery on the sentiment that was in the Snowfall of blessings set.  It is a horizontal sentiment in the set.

Home Sweet Home

When I saw the Monday Challenge at Simon last week I really wanted to make this card.  Well, not THIS card because I didn’t have a plan.  I wanted to use my bird house dies from MFT that have been sitting way too long unused in their bin.  This is what developed today when I finally got to use these dies.  I think I am making the challenge with a couple of hours to spare.  Whew.All dies are MFT except raindrops which are just scraps from other die cuts. 

Technorati Tags: Ramona,Bird House,Spring,MFT,SSSM

Grand-Timers

Wow, a hundred years.  A friend of mine saw THIS card on my FB page and asked if I could make a similar one for her almost to be 100 year old Aunt.  I wanted to make it a bit more feminine and I didn’t have another of the same embellishment.  I made the stop watch embellishment using the tape transfer method with a digi stamp.  I adhered it to a textured piece of silver cardstock for an old fashioned look.  I really like how this turned out so different from the first one with the feminine touches.

it’s all about love

My sweet daughter came home this weekend and we stamped together.  Since she doesn’t know all the supplies i have on hand and where everything is i got a lot of “Mom, do you have….. and where” questions.  I love stamping with her and didn’t mind her questions or my search for all she needed.  She made seven cards.  I made two.    Anyhoo, i digress….i knew this would happen and I happily pulled out these sweet sticker stamps that Angela Bode gifted me with and colored my heart out.  I scattered them over my cardstock and decided they looked like the hippie era and love, man.  The tag is cut from MFT die, the doily from Top Dog, faux stitching and Hero arts sentiment that is cut off from the rest of it. Thus, a card was born.    I decided to share this in the Simon Work It Wednesday Challenge for April to use flowers.

Technorati Tags: flower stickers,love,Lydia Sarah's Friend

Left over fun

From the MFT diagonal card I had these scraps left and since i am looking my eyes out for summer and days to go to the lake I thought this was a nice reflection of my longings.  I like the sentiments from MFT that have cursive scriipt and block lettering to pair.

Technorati Tags: masculine,sail boat,summer

ABC-K

Keep it Simple is the K theme at ABC Christmas Challenge. I like those simple challenges.  A piece of DP a stamped image, a teeny bit of color, some glimmer spray and card is finished.  I did add some Viva peral pen in gold to some of the stars and dots, you know, for just a bit of texture.

ABC-J

Trying to stay caught up with ABC Christmas challenge.  J is for Jingle Bells.  I don’t have one stamp of a jingle bell??? Gasp! I may have to remedy that.  The closest i could come is this pre-printed image from Susan Louise Arts that has some jingle bells on the sled.  Mission accomplished. I had some scraps left from some DP and i cut the sentiment tags from that and added them.  The sled image looked a little bare on just the brown and i grabbed my birch trees embossing folder and added a bit of character.  I sponged lightly with some white pigment ink onto the trees.  end result: 

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Susan Louise,Sled,Winter

little sparkles

Simon’s Wednesday Challenge is to use a bit of sparkle. This is the last of the pre-embossed cards i purchased from Michaels.  Because they were kind of flimsy (you get what you pay for)  but i knew i could use them and the envies that came with were worth the dollar that i spent on the set.  I found if i cut them in half and just used the pre-embossed front on other cardstock it worked really well.  For this one I used my new Altenew ink pads to lightly sponge the embossing in some pastels.  I had the dotted ribbon strip alreayd cut with an MFT blueprint 1 die and it’s been sitting in my “use it up” pile.  The heart too. After adding the shimmery Viva pearl drops i added a touch more sparkle with some Heidi grace glimmer spray.  Just a touch of sparkle and i’m in love with this card.  I’m almost sorry I’ve used up all those embossed fronts.  Time to make some of my own.  This is an odd sized card which i will need to make my own envie for.  6.25x 4.25 inches.

MFT Diagonals

This is an interesting sketch for the MFT Wednesday Challenge 333. I wanted to use some MFT goodies and I chose their papers called Fun and Frolic 6x6.  Their DP is really really nice. Then I went to my MFT Die Bin and chose my Dienamics stitched edge basics.  For the focal point though, i had this ever so cute brand new Lawn Fawn stamps and dies and I just had to use him with this cool sketch.  He has to make you smile.  My husband said, “you need to make a lot of those.”   I just might do that. 

random cards

Trying to use up some pre-embossed cards that i purchased at Michaels quite awhile ago.  I’ve decided the cardstock is to flimsy to use as a full card.  The colors bleed through etc.  I cut off the sentiment side of the card and attached the colored part to some cardstock of my own and it turned out really nice, I think.  i was so glad to find that scrap of gold and silver ribbon that really makes this card.  The ribbon is slate gray from SU. 
Here are a couple of flower cards to enter into Simon's Work It Wednesday Challenge for April. 

flowers x3

it was so fun to watch a Penny Black video on how to do brushtroke flowers.  Though these Tim Holtz flower images aren’t brush stroke the concept was the same and I had such a relaxing time creating these three cards for some friends that are needing a pick me up.

Simon Says Work It Wednesday April Flower Challenge

Shake it Baby

More birthday fun.  Can i have one of these every other month?  My friend included some pre-stamped images of this flamingo as a gift.  I used Tombow water colors on him and decided he would make a perfect shaker card to use as a thank you to send back to her.  How fun is that?   My daughter bought me the fish from Hero Arts and it too asked to be made into a shaker card.  I never used to make shakers but now that i’ve done a few it doesn’t seem so complicated.   The fish card uses MFT sequins die to make the dot bubbles for the fish and they cover up some misguided ink smudges too.    win win.

Simon Wednesday Challenge-Dots

Technorati Tags: JoAnn C,Sarah O,Flamingo,Fish

Wowsas!

Talk about simple.  This card was made using another birthday embossing folder.  I sponged distress inks over the different parts added some black Viva pearl pen drops and that pink and black sentiment just sets this right off.  Super Easy.

Ahoy and others

A friend called and ordered five cards for her nephew who is going to be starting cancer treatments.  She wanted some encouraging verse cards to send him through this period of time.  I was able to pull some from my stash and enjoyed the process of creating these for him.  Did you know, if you google, uplifting verses for cancer patients, you get a lot of inspriational quotes you can copy and put into word to make the insides of your card.   ~~I have no idea where any of the things i used on this card came from  except the sentiment which is from Tim Holtz. I water colored that very coold image and used a spellbinders die.

Here are two of the others I made for him.

NBUS dies and dots

This is what happens when you get new stuff or dig in your stash for NBUS.  I bought this embossing folder from SU, part of my gift to me. I found a scrap of DP that would go with it.  The cake dies are NBUS Sizzix those little plastic and foam kind.  ~~The cake with dots is for my cousin whom i have never sent a card to in fifty years.  I think i did once when we were teenagers.  Anyhoo- he is severe diabetic, has been in hospital twice this past year for heart failure and I thought he could use a cheerful birthday card from “none other”.  I have talked with him several times these past two years and reconnected.  He lives in KS.  He’s been a great support in a troublesome time we were going through.  I’m sure he will be surprised and really like his card. He can’t eat cake but ya gotta have some kind of cake on your birthday.  Here’s to you Darrol.  

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge-Dots

sweet kitty

I don’t know who gave me all the images of this sweet kitten.  It was long ago and i just now got around to coloring them and using them up.  He’s so cute with his balloon offering.  I used my MFT stencil and ran it thorugh the big shot.  I love that embossing technique.  It’s subtle and attractive.  The pink paper is a linen textured piece of Bazzil.  The speech bubble is My Minds Eye, also and MFT die as is the grass.   ~~I should win and MFT award don’tcha think?