Sometimes we need a lot of cards

Jane Magsam has passed.  She was Dorina’s mom.  Dorina has two boys who have lost a beautiful grandmother.   Those young boys have learned a few lessons these last few weeks.  Dorina’s boys were here this past summer with the other grandpa and grandma and I am feeling their loss.  Jane is also the sister-in-law of Sylvia and Bill.  Dear friends to all in Wittenberg and beyond. 
Gene Brotzman died.  His granddaughter, Kandace and our Sarah are very close friends.  They stood up in each other’s weddings. We have gone to fellowship meetings on the first Sunday of they month for four years now, with Dan and Ruby.  Kandace’s mom and dad.  Gene is also the best friend of Bill and Sylvia.  Those dear people have had a lot of loss in their life in the past year.  Sylvia’s mom died, last June.  Then her brother, this past December, now her sister-in-law and best friend all in a week.
A card is small but it says so much.  Sometimes, it is the only thing a person can do.  Here is my simple offering for many.



 Today I will finish disposing of my plants in the pots outside and think about the process of life and living and dying. In spite of all the deaths, my heart is feeling very peaceful. 

Warm up with Coco Mouse

this was a new technique for me to make a hidden message card.  Also for HYCCT.  It’s too cute not to enter it into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use a rubber or acrylic stamp.  The stamp is from Sweet N Sassy-Coco Mouse Tea set (psst..it’s on sale right now)  The card took shape with My Favorite Things Blue Prints 3 that you can get from Simon Says.   The DP was gifted to me in precut shapes so not sure whose it is but thinking Creative Memories.   It was a fun card to make.  Flower Soft on the top gave it the added touch it needed.  Wouldn’t you just love to share a cup of tea together?

Hope IS

 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is to use a “real stamp” not a digi.   This card is also for HYCCT at Split Coast Stampers.  It will go in the box to be shipped to MD Anderson clinic in TX for women going through treatment to use since shopping for cards is likely a time consuming task and energy that can be spent elsewhere.

I distressed the edges with a scissors, Ran the DP  from the Traveler Mat Pack from Me and My BIg Ideas through the cuttlebug with a Fiskars honey comb embossing plate, for a bit of texture.

Die cut and stamped the leaf with Sweet N Sassy’s Autumn Leaves set and added the sentiment from an old Stampin’ Up set. 

Pink Tag

Simon Says has a challenge using Sentiments.  I have always loved this one  and decided it would work perfectly for My first ever large tag.  I have never really liked the thought of working with tags but there is so much mixed media being done on them; it kind of called my name today.  I made this for a friend and thought I would try some of that mixed media technique.  I used Dylusions spray, whew, that stuff is vibrant.  I love how it turned out.  Then I sponged some of the watered down spray on half the card.  Pressed my MFT dots stamp into the puddled spray and stamped that.  then inked up my friend stamp from MFP and stamped off and subtly stamped it several times on the tag.  I finally found my acrylic sheets and I cut a scalloped border with a die from MFT.  added a tiny strip of pink paper run through the puddle still sitting on my craft mat and then glitzed it up a bit with a start dust pen.  it needed that Recollections flower and a paper button from CM.  All in all I call it a success and I would try making tags again. 

Playing along with the Elf challenge

T.Joy has a beautiful blog.  She has thrown out a weekly challenge to use our Blueprints dies from MFT.  Here are my cards for this weeks one and three.   Stop by her blog to see Tricia’s creations.

Blue Prints are dies that are all grouped together to make a sketch card with a great design. This scarecrow card will go to my sister in law for her birthday.  I must remember to mail this on Monday.  Every thing but the leaves and stamps come from the BluePrints 1.   The image and sentiment are from Mark’s Finest Papers. I fussy cut and popped up the little crow.    This is week 3 sketch.

Week 1 –I had a little heart there, where the leaf is and  I tried to put crystal effects on it and oops, it just smeared all over.  Drat! the whole card is made, I couldn’t undo it, thankfully I still had one of these larger die cut leaves from several years ago.  It is my goal to get all the leaves used up this year.  I only have three more to go.  They have been sitting OUT on my table for about three years.  (I shouldn’t even tell you that LOL)

I guess it really is Autumn

When Sept 22 arrived, I could no longer pretend it was summer.  Angie is hosting the blogging challenge for the flybabies over at SCS.  I chose this blue because the autumn skies in Wisconsin ARE this beautiful blue color.  However, once I put the card altogether I wasn’t so sure I liked the color combo.  Oh well, that is how we learn in stamping.  I have a sweet friend that is going through chemo right now and I will send it to her.  She will appreciate receiving the mail and it will give her a little taste of the outside world for right now. I enjoyed using the BluePrints 1 set from My Favorite Things.  This may fit Tricia’s challenge to use sketches provided but I have a question in to her about that before I claim it.  Okay, question is answered and I will go ahead and submit it as my entry for Elf Blueprint Challenge 1.2     Certainly am enjoying being crafty in my stamping room.  It does need a huge amount of loving attention today to get things picked up and put away. 

Technorati Tags: MFT BluePrints 1,Autumn,MFT sentiment

Peaceful Crane

I received a beautiful card from my friend Joyce in PA.  We have never met face to face, only in a stamping forum.  Joyce is multi talented and sews and does other crafts besides.  Here is her blog.  Take a peek at her GORGEOUS work.  Anyway, to the point.  I used her card as a sketch to create this beauty for a Mark’s Finest Papers challenge 177, use G. 

My G is I used Gems, I used a Glue pad to get the Glitter onto the bird.  All sentiments and images are MFP.  I do so love how their stamps STAMP.  Crisp and Clean.  The see through made it easy to position to add the glue portion onto the image.  

Fall Fun

This was a fun thing to do. SCS Technique Monday was to do this technique.  I brayered over real leaves and then pressed them onto my cardstock.  I have heard of doing this but never tried it myself.  Mark’s Finest Papers is having a G word challenge and I can think of lots of G words.  Here is my entry using a Gel Pen for the faux stitching and Green hearts for accents.

cute critters

does this look like a Chicago Bears fan card?  Entering into Animal Antics Simon Says Challenge

love little critters

I computer generated this sentiment and the inside which says:

Some days are just like that, Hang in there.

Entering Simon Says Stamp Animal Antics

More Animal Antics

So much fun to play with all these critters.  Another card for Simon Says Animal Antics.  This is the first time this turtle stamp has seen ink.  the sentiment was attached to him all together on one stamp.  Making it work as a word bubble, all I did was cut the words away from the turtle and voila’ I have something with more versatility.  did it really take me four years to figure this out with this set?  LOL.

soft butterfly sympathy

This past week I learned of four people who are in need of sympathy cards.  I needed to make them and get them in the mail quickly and I knew I couldn’t put it off.  My go to stamp is Lacy Leaves from Stampin Up.  It’s elegance saves me over and over again.  Simon Says has an ALL STAR challenge on right now, your go to tool that you use over and over.  That would be this stamp.  It’s soft elegance makes a clean and simple card just the right touch for many occasions

Peaceful Sympathy

Made a card for Sweet N Sassy sketch challenge SSS226 .  I really love how their stamps stamp.  I don’t have many but am starting a small collection of them.  This is one of theirs. Their sentiments are always so beautiful too.  I used the “It is well with my soul” sentiment on the inside of this card.   Thanks for looking. 

My Tribute to Summer

and “I can’t believe it’s September ALREADY” card.  I don’t have any Greeting Farm stamps so thought I would use my new TCP bunny stamp  Doesn’t he look like, hey, where is everybody????

Entered into Simon Says Anything Goes challenge.  .  I have just finished ready Marianne Walkers Shading and Lighting book for the second time and I think some of the things are starting to stick.  Here is my first image to be colored using what I learned in her book.  Also using MFT Blueprints 3 and one of their designs that comes with the purchase.

1st Cat’s Pajamas

My very first Cat’s Pajamas entry.  Long Tall card or card that fits in a long tall envie.  So here it is and I even got to do a teeny put your toe in the water SCS  Mixed challenge.  I used Gelatos on the bottom three ice cream scoops and dripped water on them so they would look like ice cream dripping….well that’s what I thought it would do,  guess it didn’t do so well.  But I just couldn’t do a full MIXED challenge as the youtube video I saw about it just reminded me of blood.  just. could. not. do. it.    but long and tall card…I could DO that as long as I flipped it. 

Pinks and Grey

Mixed Media Color Challenge 6 chose two pinks and grey for our challenge this week.  It was more difficult than I thought.  Mostly b/c I don’t have different Media besides stamp pads in these colors.  What to do, what to do.

Hmmm…I have some very old liquid radiant pearls and just a tiny bit left of light pink  I added some rubbing alcohol to the container and proceeded to stipple brush over my DOTS stencil from MFT.  I did this on the cream colored base and also on the pink layer.  it kind of looks like mini star fish, don’t ya think?  Necessity is the mother of invention.

I wanted to use white stencil paste with my American Traditions sea shell stencil and color them but when I got up this a.m. I see I used translucent instead of the white…but hey, I kind of like the effect.  I took my SU markers and painted the translucent shells with the light pink and dark pink required.  Layered them up with both those colors and the grey and…hmmmm…I really like the way it turned out. 

Now I need to get this out in the mail to a friend who lost her mother last week and her brother this week.  I hope it has a soothing effect.

Whhheeeee!!!

Simon Says let’s get dotty on their blog challenge page.  I love my new stencil from MFT and my cloud dies and gelatos from Simon Says and House Mouse, well what a great combo.  Entering this into House Mouse challenge Transportation TRANSPORT for HMFMC#152 and also Simon’s dotty challenge.
It’s been a long time since I played with my House Mouse stamps.  And I made two cards this week with House Mousies.

The dots are gelatos with a stencil.  Using MFT fishtail stax dies, Pearl pen for the pearl dots, and pleated dotted washi tape for abstract grass.  MFT wood grain fence die and Simon Says clouds. The wings  on the dragon fly are two layers and they have Clear Star pen on them for shine.  All images colored with Kohinoor and gamsol.  Thanks for looking.

We all scream for Ice Cream

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM. had it in my head I wanted to make an ice cream card before summer is over and then Pretty Pink Posh threw out a "make a card in ten minutes challenge" and this is what I quickly came up with. I thought the colors were so pretty.  I made it with 4 seconds to spare.  WHEW! I didn’t intend for the scalloped edge but in my rush I scored my cardstock in the wrong place and the quick fix was to use my SU scallop punch.  I was happy for the mistake b/c I love the little scallop on the greeting part of the card.  (((so glad I happened on Pretty Pink Posh’s birthday party.  thanks.

Summertime

Dream Weaver stencils is having an anything to do with Summer challenge.  I chose flowers.  I love looking out my windows and seeing flowers instead of snow. This is a Dream Weaver stencil I have been wanting to use.  This whole card got a bit messy on me and I will have to try to fix it somehow but it is what it is b/c that challenge ends in four hours and it’s almost bed time for me.

I ran the stencil through my cuttlebug and then used markers and an aqua pen to paint it.  The rest was just a challenge to get it to work, you know how that goes sometimes?  This was one of those cards.  All in all I am okay with it but next time I would not emboss the back of the flower panel to try and make it stand out.   sigh.

green again

Well that was such a fun card to make I had to make another similar one and since I didn’t want to cut into a “clean” piece of the frame paper I looked at the inside of the frame I had just cut and decided to use that.  That’s what I love about stamping, you can use, all the same ingredients and come up with a whole different look.  For both cards I sponged the cloud background behind the bird by using a little scallop die cut that didn’t cut correctly.

Second entry into the Monday Green Challenge at Simon Says 

Going Green

Simon Says is having a “green” week.  I chose the Green of using up cycled materials.  My chipboard frame and canvas are up cycled packaging materials.  My bow is even a very very thin piece of cardstock that I trimmed off something yesterday.  It came off all curly and I thought this would make a cute bow.  It did.  It looks like twine. The rest of the card pieces are scraps.  Before I throw away a scrap I check to see if I can make a die cut banner out of it or a butterfly punch or heart or if I can use it to paper piece something, like this bird.   I put those pieces all in bags and go to them when I need embellishments.  I love to stamp GREEN.

Stamp is Mark’s Finest Papers May Release Marsh Birds.  Inside says:  From one old bird to another.  With a bird stamped beside the sentiment. 

This turned out so cute I am going to make another right now for a friend whose 60th birthday party we will be going to on Friday.  (she’s just a youngster, three years behind me. )   

Flourishes Black and White

It has been FOREVER since I did an all black and white card.   Since Flourishes threw out the challenge, and well, there is a prize involved, I thought I would throw my hat into the ring.  I don’t have any Flourishes images and I would like to remedy that.  Thanks for the chance.  The dies are from MFT and spellbinders mat frames.

More Mixed Media

I was so inspired by friend Angie to try the Gesso as a new technique and enter another card into the Mixed Media Color Challenge  I LOVE the way this card turned out.  It will be for my daughters birthday as she loves all things from the sea.  The whale is a stamp from Door County Rubber Stamps
Media Used:  Gesso, Memories Spray Mist in Eau de Pansy, Pearl Ex powder gold pigment, Tim Holtz Distress inks.  This is a 5 x 7 card.  I am posting two pictures as I am hoping one of them will show the beautiful sparkle of the gold pearl ex.

 

Mixed Media

My friend Angie told me about the mixed media challenge.   She does such gorgeous work with mixed media so I am sticking my little toe in. 

My first submission has:

Versa mark stamped bamboo background

You can’t see it on the picture but the image is misted with a golden mist to give it a soft summery glow.

Well it’s a beginning isn’t it?   It is also a color challenge.

CELEBRATE!

That reminds me of Kool and the Gang.  LOL  those were the days of good songs, eh?  Yumi Fumi are having a celebrate any day challenge.  Thought I would join them with this great digi image of Cowboy Luka.  Also entered into La La Lands Christmas in July challenge.  He’s a cutie, isn’t he.  I thought the embossed green paper looked a bit like abstract pine trees?  Can you see it?  I used water color pencils but realized too late that I was trying to blend on super smooth paper, next time I will use water color paper.  You can tell I have been on vacation.

PIN IT

The Wed challenge at Simon Says Stamps is PIN IT.  I got this wonderful May 2012 kit from Simon as a gift in a drawing and I couldn’t wait to dig in and use it.  I used a Recolletions paper clip from Michaels and colored it with copics to make the heart blue. The little button has been in my stash for about ten years.  Everything but the pin, button, and blue cardstock, came from the kit. There is a TON of stuff in there. so fun.  all kinds of transparencies which I have never seen or used before.  The star and the banner across the bottom are transparencies.  kind of a “see through” look and a bit like vellum but easier to use and sturdier.

Yumi and fumi

Yumi and Fumi are celebrating their one year birthday.  Follow the link to join the fun!  I couldnt get the badge picture to post with my ipad.
http://yumifumihandmadecrafts.blogspot.com/2013/07/were-celebrating-our-1st.html