Spreading Sunshine part 2

I am back today with the second half of my note cards for a local nursing home.  As I said in my last post, these are quite masculine, and I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone to make these.  The hardest part about these were getting the cuts correct to match up with the contrasting paper.  I may have goofed a few pieces that needed an additional 'goof' to fix them.

I have really enjoyed making these and now that most of my outdoor work is completed for a while, I might actually get back to scrapbooking.  I know DD2 will have the most memorable senior year scrapbook I've ever made.  Since she's not having the traditional events that would be featured, I'm trying to come up with some creative photo ops so her album reflects what happened this year without being all about Covid 19.  If you are sheltering at home, I hope you are finding some time to be creative.  This is a perfect opportunity to use up those supplies that have been waiting for us!

Thanks so much and have a wonderful day!

Card Recipe: Paper-kraft, soft suede, very vanilla, Well Worn DSP, Ink-early espresso, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree, Accessories- circle framelits

Anything But a Card Week 3 of Anything Goes

Hello!  It is my turn to share a project for Anything But a Card Challenges.  Our challenge this month is Anything Goes-With a Holiday Twist.  This leaves the creativity door wide open for just about anything!  There have been a lot of wonderful holiday theme creations shared at the challenge site, but that doesn't mean you have to do that.  As a matter of fact, my share is not Christmassy at all (well there is a peek of an evergreen on there, but that's it!).

At the beginning of the challenge, I had decided I was going to get some Christmas and winter scrapbook pages finished.  Then we had a major ice storm followed by a lot of snow and after getting stuck in my driveway three times this week, I did NOT want to think about crafting anything that resembled snow or winter!  So I went in a completely different direction and made a page for my art journal.  It was quite relaxing to pull out some stamps and lots of inks and sponges. I also played with some Inka Gold metallic rub.  It's very pretty, but I need to play with it a little more.  My initial application was more streaky than I wanted, but I love the gilded look it gave my sculpey picture frame.

It hasn't been a bad week, but there have been a lot of cancellations and rescheduling of plans.  It left me feeling out of sorts and annoyed-not at all what I want be. I was debating what the message of my page should be and decided that since art is my therapy, my message should reflect what I want to achieve.  So I decided on 'enjoy the journey', a good reminder that things will happen and I can either get upset or get over it.  I don't have to like ice and below freezing temperatures, but since they're not going away any time soon, I need to enjoy my journey.  Of course, digging my car out of the driveway in the frigid air was no picnic...  Hey, I said it was therapy, not a miracle!

I hope you will find time to join us this week and please stop by the blog and leave some love for my fellow crafty peeps!!

Project Recipe:  Stamp Sets-Lovely as a Tree, World Map, Of the Earth, Wonderful Favorites, Fresh Vintage, Ink-soft suede, crumb cake, early espresso, garden green, poppy parade, very vanilla Accessories-Tim Holtz metal tag, twill ribbon, postage stamp punch, Martha Stewart clay mold, Log Cabin smooch spritz, Inka Gold metallic rub

ABAC Challenge-Hit the books!

I want to start off apologizing to my fellow teamies at ABAC!  I have not even introduced the latest challenge and here I am sharing for it's last week... So, a little late, I am letting you know there's a challenge at Anything But a Card Challenges and it's all about books!  You can alter a book, make art with a page from a book, create something inspired by your favorite book, and any other wonderful things you can think of that relates to books!  The design team has already shared two weeks worth of fabulous inspiration, so I hope you stop by and check them out!

Oh... I can not tell you how hard this challenge was for me!  While I am ever in awe of all of the beautiful altered books that I see, I have never been able to bring myself to actually tear up a book.  My love of reading and books began early in my childhood and has happily continued over the years.  I love finding an old book in an antiques shop, smelling the pages, and wondering how many eyes have poured over the pages.  I've also been known to finish a much loved book or series, and suffer a slight depression that my relationship with the characters has ended.

So you can see how this puts me at a crossroad...love of books or love of creating...  Fortunately, during a recent attempt to purge a few more things from my overcrowded home, I came across an old dictionary and some very neglected books that really were beyond being saved.  Rather than pitching them (which would have helped my cleaning efforts), I moved them onto the shelf with my 'recycle/repurpose' items.  It's probably best that this happened without any witnesses since I had just finished reprimanding the entire household about our need to get rid of all of the 'junk' that doesn't have a purpose anymore... Technically, I'm not deeming myself a hypocrite because they do have a purpose, right??

I had already spend some time on Pinterest looking at book inspired art and was amazed at some of the intricate folding and cutting that made sculptural masterpieces.  I knew that this was well beyond my level, but I did find several other inspirations that I pinned for future use.  One of my favorite techniques is covering all but a few choice words with paint and ink, and then adding artwork to enhance the visible words.  This is what I chose for my design team inspiration piece.

I used a page from a very mistreated Pocahontas book, and as I was painting the base, my DD (former owner of the book) freaked out on me wanting to know WHY I would cut up a book.  Little did she know that Sarcastic Mom was the mode of the day, and I responded without batting an eye "Oh, and on the floor being stepped on and ripped up is more appropriate treatment of a book?". No response to that one...  Which left me sitting in peace to paint around the great quote from the book.  As a tribute to the former owner of the book, I used purple to add a splash of color to an otherwise neutral palette.  I love the ultra subtle leaves on the background, and the glittery butterflies were added to tie into the 'listen with your heart' theme.

I realized a little too late that my initial paint coat was a little too thick in most spots.  I really wanted a few more words gently bleeding through. Live and learn...

I hope I have inspired you to step out of your comfort zone and try something new too, especially if you are a book lover like me.  At least that poor book had a small piece salvaged and treasured!

Project Recipe: vintage white & purple cow acrylic paint, crumb cake & soft suede ink, Lovely as a Tree and Gently Falling stamp sets, heart to heart punch, asst. stickles, purple burlap fibers

A little distressed, but it's a good thing!

Hi!!  I think I might finally be establishing a sort of normal routine again!  I finally found time to photograph some of the cards I had made recently, so now I can post them and share!

Today's card is the last of cards we made at my latest stamp club.  I always try to mix things up and we hadn't done a 'guy' card for a while so I decided to pull out Lovely as a Tree.  It tends to be my go-to set for masculine.  And what goes better with a tree than woodgrain?? Maybe some early espresso colored coredinations paper?  I absolutely love this paper!  It has just a hint of texture to it and it's even more wonderful when you emboss and sand it!

I apologize for the washed out pic!  It was very sunny and I just could not get a good pic, indoors or out...  I stamped the tree image in early espresso and the bold detail is gorgeous! Love this stamp!!  I did use a retired brad on the banner, but since I didn't have the new candy dots to match, we made do.

I hope you are having a marvelous week! I celebrated my 29th birthday (again!) yesterday, and my family was so good to me!  Now all I need to do is squeeze in some crafty time and it will be an even better week!  Hope you manage to do the same!!  Thanks so much for stopping by to visit! It makes my day even brighter!!

Card Recipe: Paper-early espresso, early espresso coredinations, sahara sand, very vanilla, Ink-early espresso, Stamp Sets-Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Accessories-woodgrain embossing folder, metallic brad

Lovely as a Christmas Tree

Hello all! Well, it's officially back to school time for my girls and back to work for me. As you are reading this, we are trying to readjust to the routine and survive our first day back!  My classes don't start until Monday, but I have a lot of planning and preparing to do before then!

This will probably be the last of my Christmas cards for a little while.  I have some other fun things to share in the week to come and have some other projects that I need to complete.  Plus, before long the weather will become cooler and then I'll be in fall mode!  I used Merry Monday sketch #17.  I have to credit my blog friend, Sherry,  for the snowflake inspiration! I was looking at the circles on the sketch and trying to come up with something to put in their place when I saw her card.  I loved her snowflakes and thought they would go so well with the pine tree and DSP that I wanted to use. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but I added dazzling details to the pine needles and the ground. Gotta have a white Christmas!

I hope the rest of your week is full of crafty goodness and thanks so much for stopping by!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-cherry cobbler, gumball green, very vanilla, Be of Good Cheer DSP, Ink-gumball green, early espresso markers, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree, accessories-1" circle punch, dazzling details, basic rhinestones, non SU snowflake punch

The intervention...

Hello, my name is Margaret and I have a problem.  I started making Christmas cards about a month ago to use up my old Christmas DSP.  I thought I could handle it, just make a few cards, use up some old paper, and then I would stop.  I was in control... or so I thought.  I have recently come to realize that I have an addiction to creating Christmas cards.  I've even started looking at other old packages of  Christmas DSP, just to see what was there...  I knew I hit rock bottom when I became frustrated that I had to make a birthday card. "That won't use up my Christmas paper... I have to use up my Christmas paper!!"  So that's my story.  I am a Christmas card addict.  The saddest part of this is I will have to find a way to control my behavior.  After all, Christmas is an annual holiday, and there will always be new DSP to buy, therefore making my current DSP old.  It's a vicious cycle...  But I can change... if I have to...I guess...

All silliness aside, I am really enjoying making my cards early (gasp!) and I was so excited when I realized I only had two full sheets and some little scraps left of my Merry Moments paper.  Bring on the new paper!!  

I once again used a Merry Monday sketch for my cards.  I'm just obsessive enough to feel that I need to do the sketches in order, but really would have liked to skip this one.  It was a wonderful sketch and I had this brilliant card pictured in my head, but when I attempted to put my vision to paper, I did not love it.  So I decided to try the sketch again with a different idea.  Not overly crazy with that one either...  But I finished the sketch and the next few are very basic and I think they will be a lot easier for me to use.  So here are both of my cards using sketch #7 from Merry Monday.  

   

My initial plan was for the cardinal to be resting on the branch, but it just didn't look right.  I also thought the background would be less bare and more 'forest-like' with the pine tree images.  I just feel like the whole vision fell short of what I wanted...

First of all... apologies for the washed out image... grr...

I decided to go a completely different route with this one.  I wanted to use the shaker frame, but didn't want to actually have a shaker card (confusing, I know).  So I stamped my image twice, added dazzling details to the bottom image and then layered the second image on top.  I think I would have been happier with this one if I had embossed the red background.

So do you ever have this problem?  Finishing a card and then really not liking it?  

Hope everyone has a fabulous rest of the weekend! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe #1-Cardstock-old olive, very vanilla, real red, Merry Memories DSP(ret), Ink-chocolate chip, old olive, Stamp Sets- Lovely as a Tree, Bells and Boughs, Language of Friendship, Punches-scallop oval, scallop circle, bird builder

Card Recipe #2-Cardstock-real red, very vanilla, garden green, Merry Memories DSP, Ink-real red, asst. markers, Stamp Sets- Sweet Snowglobe (ret), Warm Words (ret), Punches-1 3/4" circle, large oval, scallop oval, Accessories-dazzling details, shaker frame

To be or not to be (manly)...that is the question...

I LOVE the new DSP Comfort Cafe!  The beautiful floral patterns resemble fabric and caught my eye immediately.  Then I checked out the opposite patterns... muy macho!!  How awesome is that?!  So now I can create girly OR manly using the same paper!!  I knew that this was a paper I needed to share with my stampin' club.  So I used an old Page Maps sketch and literally put this card together in minutes!

This also uses one of the new in colors, summer starfruit.  Not a gorgeous color on it's own, but it looks great paired up with so many combinations!  Yes, I pulled out Lovely as a Tree again! So great for manly or winter cards! My image was stamped in soft suede, then colored with the pastels.

Card Recipe: Cardstock-summer starfruit, very vanilla, soft suede, Comfort Cafe DSP, Ink-soft suede, pastels, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree

I almost forgot to give an update on the Father's Day card!  So I have this huge smile on my face as DH opens his card and he says "Thanks! This is really cool! I like the tools on there."  Me-Don't you notice anything special on there?  (Blank look from DH-you know the one that says 'I know I should have the answer for this, but I have no clue...') "Look at the sentiment.", still smug smile on my face... "OH! You used that stuff I wanted to throw away!  It looks really cool on there, like wood shavings."  Alleluia!!  We have made a break through!!!  In the future, he may actually believe that I'm not crazy or a hoarder when I save something from the trash or recycling...maybe...  Hey a girl can dream!  Have a great day and happy crafting!

Hold on to your seats...another Christmas card!

Hope everyone has some special plans for Father's day! We are having a simple family cook out which promised to be laid back and fun!

I have managed to make yet another Christmas card (two actually since I often make two of the same card and share the other with the Moms.) to use up my stash of Christmas DSP.  I have decided that if I can eliminate one whole package of old DSP by July, I will reward myself with a new package during the preorder period for the Holiday Catalog (demo perks-gotta love them!!).  So now my resolve is strong and I am already turning the wheels for the mini albums I always donate to our daycare's annual auction.  A few 6x6 albums ought to help a lot with that paper pile...  Maybe I'll even eliminate 2 pkgs of paper and buy 2 NEW packages! A girl can dream!!  But enough of my musing; you came her to see paper crafting!

So I proudly present my second Christmas card design, once again using a sketch from Merry Monday.  I followed in sequence and used sketch #2, but a good blogging friend suggested that while I continue to work chronologically, I could also do the current sketch.  Therefore, I would get two different cards completed and use up even more paper.  You are so smart, Sherry!!!  So I am going to try to squeeze in the time to complete a card for their next challenge. Apologies in advance for the wonky angle! Not sure what happened there... The black you see is not actually on the card.  It's shadows.  I really need a photography class for properly capturing cards and layout...

My card was based on this sketch...

I absolutely love this stamp set and was so excited that it is now offered in the 'clear' mount version in the new catalog!  Gotta love more options!  This is pretty basic and doesn't really require a lot of explaining.  I used markers to color the tree so the trunk would be brown and the needles, green.  Super easy, but really looks cool...  I didn't put a sentiment on the front because I couldn't find a place to make it work without throwing off the balance of the card, so the sentiment is going on the inside.  I figure if someone receives a card in December, they will know what the occasion is...

Well, that's it for today!  Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and found some time to play around with their crafty supplies! Thanks for stopping by!!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-very vanilla, chocolate chip, Merry Moments DSP (ret), Ink-garden green, chocolate chip, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree, Accessories-scallop trim border punch, chocolate chip scallop dots ribbon

Back in Time for the perfect guy card

At the risk of showing my age, I need to share a story about this card.  As I was going through my stock pile  of cards, I realized I did not have nearly enough 'guy' birthday cards.  Masculine cards are never easy for me.  It shouldn't be so hard, but I seem to spend way more time trying to come up with a good man card.  After looking through my DSP and not finding anything I liked, I remembered the small box of 81/2 X 11 patterned paper that I rediscovered while cleaning.  I dug through lots of little girl and baby theme paper and then found something that made me stop in awe.

Some of you will remember several years ago (early 90's) when hunter green was all the rage (I even had the trim in my kitchen painted this color).  Well, I found a piece of paper in hunter green! I have no clue how old this paper is and don't even remember why I bought it.  The scary thing is, I realized it was the perfect paper for my card.  As you can see below, the pattern looks a lot like a  man's flannel shirt.  Then I remembered that I bought a SU ink pad ages ago that would match it.  I was crossing my fingers that I hadn't sold it during one of my clubs.  I checked my 'sale' box and there it was!! So here is my manly birthday card and now that my pattern paper is gone, I can return the ink pad to the 'sale' box!

The color in the picture is a little off, but the paper and the leaves are both that lovely shade of green (known as forest foliage by SU)!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-early espresso, crumb cake, Inks-forest foliage (very retired!), early espresso, crumb cake, soft suede, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree, Just Believe (sent.), Accessories-chocolate chip ribbon (ret)

Waste not, want not...

I recently tried my hand at tinting glimmer paper and when I was done, I had an aqua painter with some marina mist colored water. Rather than clean out the brush, I decided to experiment with a scrap piece of very vanilla cardstock that was on my table.  So not only did I tint glimmer paper, I also water colored a large scrap piece of paper.  After it dried, I was looking at the paper and snowflakes came to mind, so I grabbed my snowflake punch and punched out as many flakes as I could squeeze from the paper.  I thought they turned out pretty cool and couldn't wait to use them on a card. My card today is one of those cards that just came together.  I pulled bits and pieces of ideas from a variety of cards I have seen recently. Of course my water colored snowflakes had to be on this too!

I stamped the trees in versamark then soft suede before stamping on my cardstock.  Then I used clear embossing powder and heat embossed the trees.  A few quick spritzes of vanilla shimmer smooch spritz added the look of a light snowfall and then some stickles to the torn paper snowbanks and trees for the glistening snow.  I would have used my dazzling details, but couldn't locate it. I think it's still in one of my containers from the crop night... Luckily, I still had a little bit of icicle stickles left in a bottle.  After it dried, I noticed the 'snow' under the trees looked more gold than white.  I think it's from the soft suede ink.  We'll just pretend those are the fall leaves that didn't get raked up before the snow!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-whisper white, garden green, marina mist, watercolored paper, Ink-versamark, soft suede, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree, Accessories-square lattice folder, vanilla shimmer smooch spritz, clear embossing powder, heat gun, basic rhinestones, non SU snowflake punch

Tinted Glimmer Paper

A few posts back, I shared a picture of the glimmer paper ornaments I punched out and tinted.  I finally used these to make some Christmas cards. I got the information on tinting the paper and the card design from Debbie, you can see the full directions on her blog, but it's pretty basic.  I punched my ornaments first.  I took re-inkers and squeezed a little ink into a lid, then used the aqua painters and ink to paint the ornaments. You can use your heat gun to set the ink or if you do several, like I did, just put them on paper towel and let them air dry.  This was a little messy and my fingers were inky by the time I was done, but this really is a simple and fun, yet beautiful technique. I was amazed at the amount of shimmer that still came through and after sponging the edges with soft suede, they really took on an antiqued look.  Here is my card.

If you saw the card we made at the crop, this is the same layout, only I used linen thread for the 'hook' and the glimmer ornaments. Be sure to check back on my blog and see the other creative idea that came from my aqua painter and re-inkers!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-garden green, whisper white, glimmer paper, Ink- cherry cobbler & marina mist re-inkers, garden green, soft suede, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree, Accessories-ornament punch, linen thread, square lattice folder, top note die

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick post today, as I am elbow deep in the kitchen with desserts! I have made a turkey before and it was really tasty, just not very pretty... Luckily, other members of our families are more than happy to take this job, so I get to focus on one of my other loves, baking!

My Thanksgiving card once again features the artwork of the ever talented Lisa M!  When I saw her free doodle of the turducken (chicken in a duck in a turkey), I just had to laugh! Now, we are a little more traditional here and stick with the good ol' roasted turkey, but this guy(s) made me smile and I had to share them!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-kraft (ret), whisper white, hay from stash box, Ink-pastels on leaves, copics on image, Stamp-leaf from Lovely as a Tree, digi doodle from Lisa, Accessories-chocolate chip grosgrain (ret)

I also wanted to share some pics of the ornaments my girls made for the family ornament exchange we are having tonight.  Each year, my Mom, her sisters, and all of the spouses and offspring get together for Thanksgiving dinner.  We do a Sneaky Santa ornament swap.  My girls decided about 2-3 years ago to make their ornaments instead of buying some.  The aunts went crazy!  It was like watching the Black Friday crowd when there's only 1 item left!!  Here are this year's creations...

I want to wish all of my US followers (and those just peeking in) a very blessed Thanksgiving!  I can sincerely say that this year has been one of my more blessed and happy years.  Our family has remained in decent health, no serious accidents, plenty of food, steady income, and the love of many family members and friends. A special thank you to all of the wonderful friends I have met in Blogland for leaving such fabulous comments on my blog!  You have made me laugh and smile when I least expected it and I am truly blessed to have met all of you!

Crop Project #2

Friday night was our daycare and preschool's fundraiser Crop night.  This is the second project that I taught.

Recognize the branches of the tree?  It's the pine tree from Lovely as a Tree turned sideways and stamped twice! This card was a CASE of Debbie's card, I just changed the papers a bit.  I also did a card like this using the tinted glimmer paper and will show that picture soon.  The ladies really enjoyed this card!  Most of the people attending were scrapbookers and they loved trying something new.

Card Recipe:Cardstock-whisper white, garden green, cherry cobbler, marina mist, Stamp Sets-Lovely as a Tree, Word Play (sentiment), Ink-soft suede, garden green, cherry cobbler, Accessories- ornament punch, snowburst folder, square lattice folder, top note die, cherry cobbler bakers twine