A Cut Above (Day 1) and CFC48

I'm a few days behind on my "homework" for the on-line class A Cut Above.  The first day touched on ways to make your own card embellishments using die cuts:

I know - pretty simple!  At first I thought about adding a bunch of  really small die cut hearts to all of the trees but decided it looked too busy.  Then I got the idea to use the embossed heart border as "grass" and somehow one heart on the largest tree looked just right:)

Materials Used:  Hero Arts My Happy (sentiment), Magenta Abstract Orchard, Stampin' Up cs, Sizzix/SU Fashionable Hearts Embosslit, Sizzix/SU Adorning Accents Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Clearsnamp Seaglass pigment ink, Versafine Smokey Grey pigment ink, W R Memory Keepers Corner Rounder

I'm entering this in the CAS-ual Fridays Opposites Attract challenge:

Thanks for all your lovely comments!

A "New" Challenge For Me......

I recently decided it's time for me to explore other challenges out there besides those sponsored by Hero Arts.  And what better way to take a baby step than to participate in one sponsored by a new challenge blog that celebrates all things Hero:) 

It was difficult for me to choose just one fave Hero Arts stamp (especially since my stamping studio is filled to the brim with HA stuff!) but I decided to create a card highlighting S5316 Silhouette Grass:

Did a little shadow stamping by first stamping the silhouette in white pigment ink and then stamping the image again (slightly offset) in HA midtone pool shadow ink.  The sentiment is from a 2012 clear set CL588 Sending You Love and I die cut it using one of the matching HA frame cuts.  The dragonflies are from one of my fave clear sets CL383 Antique Engravings - I reach for both the dragonflies and the butterflies from this set time and time again.
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up cs and pp, HA soft brown shadow ink and brown gems, Making Memories paper piercer and eyelets, Ranger distressing tool and distress inks, Creative Impressions twine

Thanks for all your lovely comments and enjoy your day!  I'm off to figure out other ways to avoid doing housework.....

Bring on the Girly Stuff!

I really needed a break from making "manly" cards :)  My dear enabler - er, I mean friend - had an extra Michael's coupon and offered to pick me up this Flower Fields stamp (P116) by Stampendous I've been eyeballing for awhile.  And one of my sweet Flickr friends Joy provided the perfect inspiration to create a card with it.  I really love the sunshine colors Joy used in her card and the way the sentiment was placed over the flower stems.  Here is my take:

I colored the flowers with copics and popped up the largest bloom.  The butterfly is from my favorite Hero Arts clear set CL383 Antique Engravings.  The sentiment is from an old Plaid set.

Other Materials Used:  Hero Arts Sunshine layering paper, Papertrey ink cs, Queen & Co pearls

My mom asked if I could make her a thank you card and since my Flower Fields stamp was still sitting on my craft table I decided to use it again:

This time I stamped the image twice and colored the flowers with a prisma and the leaves with copics.  I recently attended a Stampin' Up workshop and the sentiment is part of a set I won as a door prize!  I really like the whimsical font.

Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up cs, pp and butterfly die, Nestie ribbon slide label, K & Co gem, Michael's ribbon

We've been having outrageously hot and humid temps with no relief in sight.  I must confess I like having the excuse to sit inside with the cool air conditioning and to surf everyone's blogs,  to comment on flickr and to create!  It's so difficult to strike a balance sometimes, isn't it???  When I can't create and be as active on-line I don't like it but I also don't want to sit on life's sidelines either :)

When Was the Last Time You Used Pinking Shears?

I've had this idea for a congrats card for a new baby girl all month and finally put it together today:

The die cut onesie is from Cricut New Beginnings cart.  I stamped it with this cute sentiment from studio g I found in the $1 bin at AC Moore.  The background was stamped with Hero Arts S5215 Clouds in Color Box french blue ink.  The sun and tiny clothespins are images from Hero Arts CL439 Kiss From the Sun clear set.  I happened to notice my pinking shears collecting dust while hanging from my craft room wall and thought I should put them to good use making some grassy hills:)
Other Materials Used:  Papertrey ink cloud die, Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder, Martha Stewart baker's twine, Oriental Yrader button, Stampin' Up cs and pp.

Now if only one of our nieces or nephews would cooperate and give me a reason to need this card...........:)  :)   :)

His & Hers

This fun patterned paper from American Crafts immediately made me think of the chairs in Hero Arts clear set CL480 Wish You Were Here so of course I had to buy a sheet :)

I embossed one of the chairs from this set on the solid red reverse side of the pp, cut it out and mounted it on a swiss dot embossed circle.  The sentiment from the same set was stamped on a thought bubble I die cut from Cricut George and Basic Shapes cart and adhered to the card front as shown.

Other Materials Used:  Martha Stewart baker's twine, Stampin' Up cs and ink, Nestie, Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder

I didn't stop there!  A cute anniversary card featuring His & Her towels in Card Creations Volume 9 page 17 inspired me to create this card that could be used as either an Engagement or Wedding card:

The sentiment from Hero Arts set CL342 Everyday Sayings was embossed on a piece of vellum and attached to the card front with brads.  I found the His & Hers letter stickers at Dollar General.  The "rug" was made by die cutting an oval from Cricut George and Basic Shapes cart and snipping the edges with scissors to create "fringe".

Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up cs, pp, vellum and ink, Making Memories brads, Nestie, Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder

Thanks for all your sweet comments!  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend :)

Watercolored Flowers

I put together another card with a panel I stamped the other day using a watercolor technique:

The grass from Hero Arts CL428 Earth Flowers was inked with Ranger peeled paint distress ink and then spritzed with a mix of perfect pearls and water before stamping on a piece of watercolor paper.  The weed from Hero Arts CL185 Elegant Weeds was inked with a Stampin' Up rich razzleberry marker and spritzed as above before stamping.  It's difficult to see in the photo but I also stamped Hero Arts S5507 Envelope Pattern with Ranger antique linen distress ink on the sentiment circle and distressed the whole thing with the same ink.  Sentiment is from Hero Arts CL342 Everyday Sayings. 
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up cs, pp and butterfly die, Nesties, Queen & Co. pearls, Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder, Basic Grey pp (butterfly)

I took my mom and her cat to the vet yesterday as she had made the painful decision to put Cali (short for Calico) to sleep.  I'm going to be honest - there was no love lost between me and Cali.  I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times Cali tried to bite me!  But for 12 years Cali was good company for my mom and for that reason alone my heart aches for my mom.

I'm Blaming it on the Weather!

I've been nonexistent in blogland for a few weeks and I'm blaming it on the weather!  Summer in upstate NY is sooooo fleeting that when it does finally arrive you grab on with both hands!  And to make matters worse I don't own a laptop.  After spending months and months this winter cooped up in the house I have a hard time sitting inside when the sun is finally shining outside. 

Yesterday I was inspired by the flowers blooming around my patio.  I took some watercolor paper, stamps, distress inks and a water mister outside and tried to re-create some of the beauty surrounding me:



 Hero Arts S5316 Silhouette Grass was inked with Ranger peeled paint distress ink then misted with a mix of perfect pearls and water before stamping on a piece of watercolor paper.  Using the same technique I stamped one of the flowers from Hero Arts CL428 Earth Flowers in dusty concord distress ink and the single flower from Hero Arts CG170 Wildflower Garden in spiced marmalade distress ink.  I love how unpredictable the results are when using this watercolor technique and was really pleased with how this turned out.  My dh, on the other hand, asked why the flowers looked like blotches........*sigh*
Other Materials Used:  Hero Arts PS621 Sunshine Layering Papers, Hero Arts CL342 Everyday Sayings (sentiment), Stampin' Up pp, butterfly dies and vellum, Queen & Co. rhinestones

Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrate!

It's our niece Katie's birthday on June 6th and since she lives in South Carolina I needed to get her card done so we can mail out her package this week.  Katie is definitely a "fashionista" so when I saw this patterned paper collection by sei called "Couture" I knew it would be perfect!

After stamping the dress form and hat from a clear set by Toga with Clearsnap seaglass pigment ink, I overstamped both images with Hero Arts S5507 Envelope Pattern with Ranger antique linen distress ink to give them a little texture.  After cutting both images out I also inked their edges with the same distress ink.  The sentiment that I embossed on the banner is from an old Rubber Stampede set - I love this funky font!  I used a Martha Stewart punch and a Stampin' Up die to create the layered butterfly.  The individual and flourish rhinestones are from Michael's.  The paper flower was a gift from a friend :)
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up cs 

I hope everyone is having a fabulous start to their week!  I want to thank you for sending positive thoughts my mother-in-law's way.  Her surgery to remove the gallstones was successful and she is feeling soooooo much better :)  I'm off to spend some time with my mom today - we're going to do a little shopping and have lunch at Olive Garden (Yum!).

Making ATC's is Addicting!

After seeing Jennifer McGuire's post today on the Hero Arts blog I just had to try this technique!  One of the themes of this month's Hero Arts contest is ATC's so I decided to use Jennifer's technique to create a couple:

For the first one I stamped Hero Arts CG140 Poppy Background with ColorBox frost white ink on a piece of kraft cs.  After coloring the flowers and stems with colored pencils I overstamped Hero Arts CG125 Friend Definition with cocoa ink.  I mounted the panel on a 2.5" x 3.5" piece of chocolate brown cs and then embellished it with some die cut butterflies and baker's twine.
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up butterfly die, cs and ink, Martha Stewart baker's twine, Papertrey ink cs

For the second one I followed the same process above using Hero Arts CG105 Silhouette Flower and Hero Arts K5193 Flower Word.  The hummingbird from CL383 Antique Engravings was stamped on kraft cs and colored with colored pencils.  I embellished this one with a die cut fence border and butterflies.
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up butterfly die, ink and cs, Martha Stewart fence border punch, Papertrey ink cs

They were so much fun to make that I decided to make two more!:

I inked up one of the leaf clusters from Hero Arts CL477 Delicate Leaf Clusters with Ranger distress inks (peeled paint for the first and tumbled glass for the second one) and spritzed with a mixture of perfect pearls and water before stamping on pieces of watercolor paper.  They have a pretty shimmer IRL that was hard to capture in the photo.  Both sentiments are from Hero Arts CL129 Anytime Messages.  I inked the edges of the panels with Ranger antique linen distress ink before mounting them on 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of cs.  The dragonfly is from Hero Arts CL383 Antique Engravings and the die cut butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch.
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up ink, cs and pp, Queen & Co. rhinestone, Martha Stewart baker's twine, Ranger icicle stickles

Thanks for all your sweet comments!

Vintage Thinking of You

I wanted to make a special "Thinking of You" card for my mother-in-law as we are all praying the procedure she's scheduled to have on Friday will finally remove those pesky gallstones!  I also wanted to use some new stampin' goodies I recently acquired :)

I stamped E2409 Blossoms I from Hero Arts set LL754 Blossom Etchings (my very first Hero Arts stamps!) on a die cut oval and colored it with some of my new copic markers from the Pale Pastels set.  After masking the blossom I overstamped Hero Arts K5344 La Letter in cocoa ink then sponged the whole oval with Ranger antique linen distress ink.  I then mounted the floral oval to an amethyst die cut oval that was embossed with a Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder.  I framed the completed piece with my new Spellbinders Decorative Oval Window die cut that was distressed with both Ranger antique linen and walnut stain distress inks - love how this looks like an antique frame!  Sentiment is from Hero Arts CL342 Everyday Sayings.  I was going to add a ribbon treatment until I came across this netting and vintage-looking button - different, but I like how it looks :)
Other Materials Used:  Martha Stewart cs, Stampin' Up cs, ink, pp and flourish stamp

Thanks for stopping by and for all your comments!

Not Breathing a Sigh of Relief

Awhile back a poem was making its rounds on the e-mail circuit.  I don't remember all the words exactly but the gist of it was about the kinds of people who cross your path in life.  Some of those people end up being kindred spirits while others you breathe a sigh of relief that they have left your path!  The card I'm sharing today is for one of my co-workers Wendy who is moving to Tennessee next week as her husband got a job transfer.  I haven't worked with Wendy long but I felt as though we were on the cusp of becoming friends.  She is artistic and can appreciate my love of cardmaking.  We are close in age and have the same build and hair color - folks would often mistake us for sisters!  I'm happy for her but at the same time I know I will miss her.

I first stamped Hero Arts H5312 Silhouette Burst with cocoa ink on white cs.  Using the negative from a die cut circle I sponged Tsukineko pretty petunia chalk ink to give the burst more of a flower-like appearance.  The butterfly from Hero Arts CL383 Antique Engravings was also stamped with cocoa ink on a white cs scrap and sponged with the pretty petunia ink and some Ranger peeled paint distress ink.  The pp "grass" was die cut using a Papertrey ink scalloped border die.  Sentiment is from MSE (My Sentiments Exactly).
Other Materials Used:  Martha Stewart cs, Stampin' Up cs and pp, Michael's pearls, American Crafts buttons

     I would also like to share that my mother-in-law was in the hospital from Mother's Day through yesterday.  She has gallstones and they have already done two procedures to try to remove them (even going as far as transferring her to a nearby urban hospital for the second procedure).  She will have to have another procedure (hopefully the last one!) next Friday.  She is understandably discouraged so any prayers for her quick recovery would be greatly appreciated!   

Thank you so much for stopping by and for all your sweet comments!

See the Flowers Smiling

Quick post today as the sun is shining for the second day in a row and I don't want to miss out!  I watched Shari's technique video on the Hero Arts blog regarding coloring with colored pencils and decided to give it a try.  What I quickly discovered is the quality of your colored pencils really does make a difference in the result.  I don't own very many Prismacolor pencils so I tried using the inexpensive pencils I have on hand - blending the color with a white pencil was difficult and didn't produce as good a result as I had hoped:

I used a bloom from CL495 Blossom Art and did a little masking.  Decided to pop up the flower in the lower left hand corner to give some dimension and applied Ranger icicle stickles to the flower centers.  The sentiment is from CL129 Anytime Messages.
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up cs and butterfly dies, Cuttlebug textile embossing folder, Nestie, Michael's pearl

I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and that you have the opportunity to see a few flowers smiling :)

Wallpaper Flowers

Another one of my all-time favorite Hero Arts(HA) flower stamps is K5185 Wallpaper Flowers.  I first embossed it in black on a piece of white cardstock.  Then I smooshed an orchid and an olive ink pad on an acrylic block and colored the image by lifting ink from the block with a blender pen.  After trimming the image I matted it on a piece of orchid cs and adhered it to the card front with foam tape.  Clear gems were added to each of the flower centers.  The sentiment is from HA CL129 Anytime Messages.  I plan to give this to my MIL for Mother's Day as I know she likes this color combination.
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up cs, pp and ink, Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder, Michael's rhinestones, Nesties

This is the first day in several weeks that we woke to blue skies and no rain!!  Even the birds sound happier :)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Someone's Turning 90!

A question I get from a lot of people is "What the heck do you do with all those cards you make??!!"  Last year I happened to notice an article written in my church's newsletter by the parish nurse asking if folks would be interested in sending cards on a regular basis to some of the older members of the congregation who are shut-ins.  To a cardmaker this was a "no-brainer" and I immediately signed on to send cards to 5 people.  To my surprise (and delight!) some of them started sending me little notes back!!  A correspondence really flourished between Ed and me (I think if Ed hadn't been 90 my dh might have been a bit jealous!) until he passed away last year.  Shortly afterwards I received a letter from one of his daughters who lived out of state and had visited her dad every month.  She wanted to let me know how much my cards had meant to her dad and how much she herself had enjoyed my creations!  Her own church has a similar card ministry and she was going to let them know what a difference a card and a short note can make in a lonely person's life.

The card I'm sharing today is for Ann who turns 90 next month!  I thought the coordinating Stampin' Up patterned papers I chose would be perfect as they have a sweet vintage feel to them.  The cupcake is from Hero Arts (HA) LL247 Birthday Cupcakes.  I switched out the cherry on top for the pink resin flower embellie I found at Michael's.  The sentiment is from HA CL280 Elephants.  The cake stand was die cut using Cricut Summer in Paris cart and then embossed with Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder.  I had a light green paper doily in my stash so I added a piece of it to the stand.  The layered flower was die cut using Cricut Mother's Day Bouquet cart.  I can't wait to deliver this to Ann in person along with some homemade cupcakes :)
Other Materials Used:  Stampin' Up cs and ink, Nesties

Hope you have an enormously wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!