Thursday, June 26, 2008

Greetings from Louisville


Today I am in Louisville with my husband who has a conference here. I spent the day walking around downtown Louisville and stamping! Most of my suitcase was filled with stamps and supplies!

I needed to make a card for my great nephew, Andrew. He turns 4 tomorrow. I brought along the paper that I received from Kisa, Daisy D's Sidewalk Chalk Mini's. (Thanks, Kisa!) The second card below was my first attempt. I had everything cut and ready to assemble when I realized I didn't bring any adhesive! Oops! Off to find some.

When I returned, I decided the card was too girly. So I swapped out the Mellow Moss cardstock for Certainly Celery, and the Orchid Opulence cardstock for Brilliant Blue. It's still not too masculine, but he's only 4, so I don't think he'll mind.

I took the first photo during the day, but didn't photograph the second one until evening, so
unfortunately the image isn't as nice.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Unfrogettable SU!

Ink: Stazon Black pad, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss, Garden Green, Orchid Opulence, and Bordering Blue Markers for watercoloring

Paper:
Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss, Brilliant Blue, Orchid Opulence, watercolor, Stamper's Select White by PTI, Daisy D's Sidewalk Chalk Swatches Paper Minis.

Extras: Black Brads, Martha Stewart punch, Black gingham ribbon, dimensionals, google eyes.


Sunday, June 22, 2008

Copic Weekend Thank You


This was my weekend to work, and since we work with less staff on the weekends, they are usually quite draining. So I many times don't have the energy to stamp after dinner. But I managed to get a card stamped over a few days.

This is a card for our neighbors, who recently returned from an Alaskan cruise, and brought us back all sorts of fun stuff. Smoked salmon, which on l plan on using in a smoked salmon pasta salad I like to make, Alaskan chocolates, a HUGE Washington state apple that 4 of us shared for dessert, and my favorite, a bag of huckleberry pancake mix that smells heavenly. I'm planning on making them next Sunday after church.

The pancake mix is packaged in a fabric bag that gave me the inspiration for these colors. I used my Copics to color in the image. I am slowly increasing he image size! lol I wasn't too happy with the way the word melon smeared a bit when I used my blender over it. But not unhappy enough to redo the whole thing over. ;)

The background is Weathered, by SU!. I used my clear Spica glitter pen to color over the melons, and some Black Diamond Stickles on the dots next to the word melon.

A little bit of ribbon, and some brads in the corners finish off this card. Hope you had a great weekend, and you managed to get some stamping done. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Farm Fresh, Weathered, both by SU!

Ink: Versamark, Adirondack Pitch Black

Paper: PTI Stamper's Select, SU! Lovely Lilac, Basic Black, Only Orange

Extras: Mustard grosgrain, and Black gingham ribbon, Black Diamond Stickles, Copic Markers, Spica clearglitterpen, ticket corner punch, dimensionals

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Bit of a Repeat

This is sort of a duplicate post. This is the original card I made for our stamping day last Thursday. It is the same as the Birthday card in my post from Tuesday, the 17th, except for the sentiment. I wanted to tell you about this particular card and about TAC stamps.

I made this card especially for Suzy, my son Daniel's girlfriend. She is certainly one of my nicest thoughts. She is a great girl and we love her very much. She is away at school this summer and I know she is a bit lonely. So I'm hoping this card will brighten her spirits a bit.

This sentiment is a TAC stamp. I had never used a TAC stamp before, but I received this one from a blog candy that I won from Kisa. She has a great blog, Kisa's Paper Cuts, and she gave away a fabulous package. I got loads of TAC stamps, designer paper, and two darling rub ons that come in an applicator. I will be sure to post once I use the things she gave me.
The TAC stamps come as blue rubber and need to be trimmed. They come with cling vinyl foam that I stamped the image onto before I trimmed it. So you stick the rubber onto the sticky side of the foam, trim it out, pop it on an acrylic block, and you are good to go. Thanks again Kisa! You can find her blog on my blog roll to the right.

The details on this card are in my previous post here. The only difference is the sentiment from TAC.

Have a lovely day, and I hope you get to stamp! Thanks for visiting!



Wednesday, June 18, 2008

A Turtle Birthday


This card is for my nephew, Matthew who turned 18 the other day. It is a pretty simple card: no ribbon and few layers. My masculine cards tend to run that way.

I used the turtle from the retired set Nature Prints. I like this set and all of the images are appropriate for cards for guys. I watercolored him with my SU! Watercolor Wonder Crayons.

I distressed all of the panel edges and rounded the corners of both the panels and the card. The turtle panel is wrapped in gold DMC metallic thread. It a good fiber to use on a masculine card since it has a metal element, and it's rather subtle. I had forgotten that I had it, until I saw a piece trying to escape from my drawer, and I decided it would be a good addition to my card.

Today was a picture perfect day here in northern Illinois. I met a friend for lunch at the Morton Arboretum. Everyone else seemed to think this was the perfect day for lunch at the Arboretum too, as it was one of their busiest days. I enjoyed the view, the company, and the lunch! Hope your day was picture perfect too. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Nature Prints, Birthday Whimsy, and Flannel Plaid, all by SU!
Ink: Stazon Black, Versamark
Paper: Taken with Teal, Old Olive, Basic Black, watercolor
Extras: Watercolor Wonder Crayons by SU!, Black brads, Corner rounder, DMC Metallic thread Lt. Gold

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Birthday Wishes



I made this card for my sister's 65th birthday. She lives in Ohio, so we don't get to see each other too often, but I lived with her for several summers as a young teen. She was a teacher, and would take classes over the summer, and I would live with them for the summer and watch her kids.

This was my card for a shoebox swap that I was at last week. I got together with my old stamping friends Patti and Juli, and met a new friend, Theresa. We spent the morning making our shoe box swaps, had a lovely lunch provided by Patti, and then spent the afternoon playing, mostly with Patti's goodies!

My card uses my Nestabilities, and that cute Martha Stewart Lace Doily punch.
The stamps are from SU!. The watercolored heart is from the Occasion's Mini set Just Celebrate, and the sentiment is a hostess set in the Spring Summer Collection.

I used my Spica At You glitter pens on both the heart and the candle. You can just about make out the clear on the heart in the close-up.

I hope you had chance to stamp today. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Just Celebrate, For A Friend,Hot to Dot wheel, all by SU!
Ink: Stazon Black, Soft Sky Classic pad, Soft Sky, Lavender Lace, and River Rock reinkers
Paper: watercolor, Soft Sky, River Rock, Lavender Lace, Very Vanilla
Extras: Nestabilities, Spica glitter pens, River Rock double stitched ribbon, SU! rhinestone brads, Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day


Happy Father's Day to all of the Dad's!

I remember my Dad with much fondness today. He was a wonderful Dad and loved all five of us kids very much. He was a good provider working full time into his seventies until I was finished with college. One of the best memories I have of my dad is the last time I danced with him. We were at my niece's wedding and I was dancing with him to "Unforgettable." I always loved to dance with my dad. He was an excellent dancer. I remember telling myself to enjoy this dance, because I couldn't be sure I'd get another opportunity to dance with him. He was 81 at the time. That was in February and he died that same May, just nine months after my mom. That was 16 years ago, and when I hear "Unforgettable", it still brings tears to my eyes. I love you, Daddy.

So anyway, I made this card for my husband, who is a dedicated dad to our 4 boys. Our boys are turning into honest, caring, and loving young men, just like their dad. Well, maybe not the young part!

I watercolored the focal image from SU!'s Thinking of Father. The embellishments on the corners are Dew Drops, and I applied Ranger's Sepia Accents over the main image to give it an aged look. You might be able to see that if you enlarge the image. I used Flannel plaid on the left and Cheesecloth on the right, both by SU!. I thought the right side still needed something, so I used toilet paper wadded up and dabbed on some Antique Linen Distress ink.

I like how it turned out, and more importantly, so did my husband. Although he's so nice, I'm not sure he'd ever say he didn't like a card I made, unless I didn't like it, and then he might agree with me.

I hope you enjoyed Father's Day, either with your own dad, or thinking of him, or with the father of your children. May God bless Father's everywhere today, and everyday.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Thinking of Father, Cheesecloth, Flannel Plaid, all by SU!
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versamark, Stazon Black, Ranger Antique Linen Distress Ink
Paper: Watercolor, More Mustard, Really Rust, Basic Black
Extras: Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon, Dew Drops, Sepia Accents by Ranger, SU! ticket corner punch, Watercolor Wonder Crayons by SU!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

A Pair of Graduates


These are a pair of graduation cards I made up for some graduation parties we had a few Saturdays back.

I used Debbie Olsen's design here. She used the small letters and medium numbers to put the school and the year on them. When I ordered my Just Right Stamper, my medium numbers and small letter set was missing, and I didn't get the replacement shipment in time. So I used the graduation sentiment from Papertrey's Mixed Messages.

Our first recipient graduated from Buffalo Grove High School, so I went on the internet and looked up the school's colors to use in my card. I used Brilliant Blue and Pumpkin Pie from SU!. I was working, so I didn't go to the party, but I'm hoping he appreciated my using his school colors.

Our second graduate just finished 8th grade, so I didn't use any particular colors. I chose Pixie Pink and Certainly Celery for her.

The card is a tri-fold, with the inside flap going half way up the card to make a pocket, where I placed a check for the gift. A gift card would also fit nicely.

I apologize for not posting in such a long time. Things are more back to normal around here, so I am hoping to be blogging on a more regular basis now. We had a beautiful day here today in northern Illinois. I hope you did too. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: PTI Mixed Messages, Just Right Monogram stamper
Ink:Pixie Pink, Brilliant Blue
Paper PTI Stamper's Select, Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Brilliant Blue
Extras: Martha Stewart Zig Zag punch, Making Memories Photo Anchors, Nestabilities