Missing You

Some of you probably know this but I have been caring for my mom since late last year. She is 72 and has a number of health issues. Last week she decided that maybe she should seek out a nursing home that could help to care for her. While I think she made this decision to lighten the burden on us, she does appear to be happy and thankfully the facility we chose is close to us so we can see her often.

 Mom asked me to "pick up" a dozen or so missing you cards that she can send to her friends back in Mississippi and family back home in Texas. Of course, I wasn't going to let my mom send store bought cards so I asked her if I could make them...reminding her it might take me all week to get a 12 cards done. LOL! She was more than willing to wait and I was able to get started yesterday.
Here's the first one I made...

 

This card was relatively easy to create and after the coloring was completed it came together quickly. I started by stamping the flower image from the Heartfelt Creations Daffy Daffodil Precut stamp set and coloring it with my Copics (Y00, Y02, Y04, Y08, Y13, Y18, Y19, YG63, YG67, 0). After I finished coloring I trimmed my white cardstock down to just under 4.25 x 5.5 (sorry, I didn't measure exactly!) then trimmed the bottom edge using the new Spellbinders A2 Curved Borders One dies in my Grand Calibur. After tying off the ribbon under the image I stamped the sentiment from the Heartfelt Creations Classic Message Precut stamp set and added a few Want2Scrap Black 72 Count Pearls. I attached the card front to a black A2 card base and that was that. See, told ya it was easy. :)

One down, eleven to go!  Ha!  Hope you're in a mood to see some more cards.  

Let it Snow...

No, not really. I am about ready for Spring. How 'bout you? Thought so. However, I DO LOVE the Norland collection from FarmHouse Paper Company and even though I'm dreaming of 60 degree weather and flip flops I couldn't help but play with my wintry goodies.

Two years ago when I worked the Indy show I met to amazing sisters, Kay and Joyce. Now whenever I travel to Indy (Kay's home) or Atlanta (Joyce's home) I get to stay with them instead of in a hotel. This year, Kay and some of her friends were getting together to play and crop on Friday so I worked super duper fast and finished with set up before noon. After meeting for lunch we headed to Archiver's to crop. Kay had shared this link to a blog that had a wonderful little vellum tag with stitching and thought it would be fun for us to make some. She had bought a new mini-machine but due to technical difficulties we didn't get to sew our tags. Soooo, today I pulled mine out and finished it up.

I used paper from my 6x6 Norland paper pad from FarmHouse Paper Company and cut it into a little banner shape.  Next I topped it with a chipboard element then cut the vellum tag using the Tag & Tie die from Tim Holtz.  I used some temporary adhesive to keep the element in place then sandwiched it in the vellum and sewed a small zig zag stitch all the way around.  Now, I have tried like a billion times to sew on paper and never had any luck with it.  However, after getting the tensions and all straightened out on my machine, I think I have it down now.  ;)  So, after stitching the tag, I added the little chipboard mittens with some twine connecting them then sprinkled some Want2Scrap 72 Count White Pearls on top of the snowflakes and in some random spots on top of the vellum  I added some white seam binding then tied it off with some twine and finished it off with some mini jingle bells.  Here's a closer view of the details...

I am sure you will be seeing LOTS of stitched projects from me for quite a while. 

Ombre Heart

Ombre is all the rage these days. Everywhere you look you see it; in hairstyles, in fashion, even in home decor. I was pretty short on time this year and wanted to make a quick Valentine's Day card for hubby and I had an idea for an ombre heart. I remembered that you could color on ultra fine glitter with Copics so I set to work. Here's what I came up with...



I started out by adhering a small block of double sided adhesive to a piece of white cardstock. I used these sticky tape sheets but you could also use the new Double Sided adhesive sheets by Elizabeth Craft Designs. Next, I die cut my heart using my Spellbinders Classic Heart Nestabilities then removed the film over the adhesive and covered it with ultra fine clear glitter. After I covered the entire heart, I used my finger to lightly burnish the glitter into the adhesive. After that, all I had left to do was color my heart. Since it was a Valentine's Day card I wanted to use reds so I chose R20, R22, R24 and R29. I used R20 and R27 to blend and help soften the lines where the colors come together. Once it was colored I used more sticky tape to adhere the heart to the front of my card. I used a stamp from an old Unity Store Kit of the Month to stamp the word "love" in the lower right hand corner.

 Here's a closer view of the ombre coloring...

 

I just LOVE the way this card turned out. CAS in it's truest form. And the best part, it only took about 15 minutes! Can't beat that...and this would be a super simple card to make in multiples. Happy Valentine's Day my friends.
 

Make a Wish

Hello friends! Have you seen the new Sew Easy Circles tool by We R Memory Keepers?? It is super cool! I am a gadget girl. I collect and collect and rarely use. Soooo, as you can imagine, I have a nice little stash of Sew Easy and Sew Stamper tools. So I decided to give the Sew Easy Circles a try and see if I liked it. Guess what? I do!! Here's a fun little birthday tag I created using it...

For my tag base, I used my new Spellbinders Just Swingin' die template set and used only the outer die to cut and emboss my tag from American Crafts white cardstock. Next, I chose to try the Zig Zag Stitch Piercer and I put it in the Sew Easy Circles tool. I staggered my zig zag circles by making one in the upper left hand corner and one in the lower right hand corner. Next, I pulled out my stash of October Afternoon Cakewalk goodies and set to work. I inked all edges with both Stampin' Up! Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip inks. And to top it off, I added some seam binding I had colored with my Strawberry Shortcake Chalkboard Glimmer Mist.

I really like how it turned out and am anxious to try the Sew Easy Circles on a layout!!

Spellbinders CHA Release...

Have you seen the Spellbinders 2013 CHA Winter release? All I can say is W.O.W. I seriously don't know how they do it year after year. This release, like all that have come before, is chock full of amazing and innovative dies. I was SUPER lucky to have received a big ole' box full of them last week and couldn't wait to work with them. I was browsing through the January Page Maps and ran across a sketch I really liked so I used it as my inspiration for this layout.

The base for my layout is a piece of black American Crafts Cardstock. The green star paper is from a Dear Lizzy collection. I used the Page Maps Office Supplies dies to cut the little mats for my pictures. After adhering those, I decided to cut some little tags for the top using the new Page Maps Charmed I'm Sure set and tied them off just above the pics with some We R Memory Keepers Bakers Twine. For the title, I cut out a speech bubble from the new Page Maps Say What? die set then embossed it and stenciled the lines with my Silver Copic Spica glitter pen. For the words, I used the Donna Salazar Girlie Grunge Labels and followed the same steps as on the speech bubble. American Crafts Thickers finish off the title. Here's a closer view of the details...

It felt so good to be scrappin' again! It has been quite a while. :) This layout is headed to our trade show booth...coming to a show near you soon!

January Saturday Sketch #4 from Kaisercraft

Have you ever started a layout or project, not too sure the exact direction, but ended up LOVING it when you were done? That is exactly what happened for me this this layout. I was on Facebook the other day and my friend, Lori Williams, had shared Kaisercraft's link to the January Saturday Sketch. Soooo, I thought it would be fun to play along. Here's a peek at the sketch...

I went right to work digging through my Kaiser stash and stumbled upon the Merry & Bright collection. I had some pics of my littlest ones and my niece with Santa and thought it would be fun to work with them.

I started with a 12x12 sheet of Twinkling as my background page. I wanted to keep with the square layers so I grabbed my new Grand Decorative Labels One and cut it out using the cream side of a 12x12 sheet of Luminous. Once that was done I started picking out various die cuts from the 6 1/2" Merry & Bright paper pad. I really like how they add some embellishments in with the paper pads!! I LOVED the Twigs & Berries and knew right away it HAD to go on my page. I felt it needed a little something more and since I didn't have any Kaiser Christmas flowers, I decided to use one of the foil pages in the paper pack to cut some poinsettias with my Spellbinders Poinsettia Creations dies. Here's a close-up view of the Twigs & Berries...

Isn't that just gorgeous?! Lucky me, I have a small one left to add to a future project. ;) After I got all the flower pieces cut and assembled I arranged all the elements then set to work on my title. I hand cut a banner piece from the paper pad then added some bling using some Kaisercraft Rhinestone Strips. The title was die cut using an old font and the wood grained paper from the pad. A little tag for the date tied up with some twine finished it off. Here's a closer look at some of the title details...

I love the added detail of the foil paper on the flowers. Like I said, I am extremely happy with how this layout turned out. Be sure to check out the Kaisercraft Blog for some amazing inspiration! And who knows, maybe I'll see you in one of the February challenges. :)

Anchored with Love

The Nautical theme has made it's comeback and is a hot new trend. With Valentine's Day just a few short weeks away, I figured I'd better get going with my cards. I decided to make hubby's card first. I recently acquired the Quickutz Nautical Embossing Folder set and couldn't wait to use the anchor one. I started by creating a standard card base with kraft cardstock with a red mat on top. After embossing and adhering my white cardstock I began on my embellishments. First I cut the Scallop Heart and Heart using my Spellbinders Grand Calibur. Next, I stamped the sentiment, from the JustRite Stampers Anchor's Away stamp set and added the Silver Heart Nestabling then added the Quickutz Anchor. I thought it needed something more, but since it was a masculine card I was trying to avoid using ribbon. So I went with the Quickutz Rope Border from the Maritime release.

I think my favorite part is the embossing! Here's a closer look at the details...

Another Nautical favorite of mine is navy blue and white stripes with yellow color pop! I may have to do something with that soon! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I'll see you Monday!