Sending Happy Thoughts

I am sending happy thoughts to all of you!  Hoping this Monday finds you in great spirits!

I did spend time yesterday making a few cards which was fun for me.  I should have been out getting some physical exercise but I decided to exercise my brain by creating!  That's important, too, isn't it?

I made this card with things leftover from my Simon Says Stamp Card Kit for July which I've said is one of my favorite kits ever.  I mean...look at how great the handwritten, scripty "Sending" looks.  The little "Happy Thoughts" is just another stamp included in that set.  They were heat embossed with white Zing powder.

So great to send a card like that to a dear friend....

The typewriter is one of those Pink Paislee puffy stickers as is the little pink flower on top.  The envelope is another stamp which was just very easily cut out. 

And that's it for today...stay tuned for some wonderfulness from the August Card Kit.  :)

Happy Crafting!

Thinking of You

You can never have too many "Thinking of You" cards.  I mean, who doesn't like getting a card that lets you know someone has had you on her mind?  Seriously...

I used some items from the July Simon Says Stamp kit which I may have mentioned once or a thousand times how wonderful that month's kit has been.  I loved everything that came in it...particularly the stamp set which you can see here:

 

I just love it...will use it again and again (if I remember!)...

So here's a card I made with some of the stuff that came in the kit.  I wanted to use up some of the printed papers and some of the little puffy stickers that came with it.

Here is a bit of a closeup:

 The matts/cards were die cut with the Lawn Fawn 3x4 die I have that puts a really cool little "stitched" edge around it.  It's hard to see here but it's there, I promise.  I heat embossed the sentiment with some Zing embossing powder.  I love the way it embossed...such a great stamp.  I used the EK Success little punches for the banner.  I cut out the little typewriter at the bottom from some of the printed paper and put it on some foam tape.  The BFF and Miss You stickers are part of the Pink Paislee puffy stickers pack.  Too cute.  Simple...and I used up some scraps!  Yay!

Hope you all have a fabulously creative day!

Hello...Thinking of You...Best Weekend Ever!

I just got back from central Florida where I had the BEST WEEKEND EVER!  I met up with some ladies I went through the fabulous Florida State University Speech Pathology program with a few (ok, more than a few) years ago.  We all started the undergraduate speech path program together and went straight through and got our master's degrees.  3 of the ladies still work in the schools doing speech pathology/therapy, one works in the business world...and one plays semi professional tennis (me)...well, at least semi professional in my wildest dreams!  One will be retiring after the upcoming school year and the others are also looking at retirement in the not too distant future.
Anyway, we had not seen each other in 7 years and we met up at a friend's condo on Lake Weir near Ocala.  We had the BEST time.  Lots of reminiscing, sharing...lots of laughing, teasing...eating, drinking, boating, and just hanging around with the best group of ladies.  We have known each other for 39 years and when we get together you wouldn't think we'd ever missed a day of seeing each other.
Great friends are like that.  I. AM. LUCKY.
Here we are all together (standing...Linda and Jan and sitting from left to right...me, Teri and Margaret).

Here we are being a bit silly because that is always important, too....

Here are 4 of the ladies when we went out to dinner one night:

We seriously love each other so much.  I know I {heart} them...

So fun...I had to come home and rest.  Fun wears me out!!!

Anyway, I thought I'd share where I'd been.  :)

Back to card making...another card idea I was inspired by stole from Laura Bassen...love her style of cards and if you are interested in checking out her blog it's Doublestick Heaven.  I learn so much from her and get so inspired by her beautiful creations.  And let's face it...why reinvent the wheel when you can borrow steal such wonderful ideas???

Here is the card I made....I used 6 different Distress Inks with my blending tool to make the rainbow colored effect that was adhered below the cut out "hello".

So simple...and I love the way it looked!

I did a card like this with watercolors a few years back which my daughter kept and has hanging in her guest room.  Love that idea....  OK, well, let me explain that...her card does not have a big whopping "hello" on it....it was a die cut flower and I did watercolor behind it.  OK?  And it looks pretty hanging in her guest room (well, in the bathroom).  :)

Here it is:

The puffy little sticker on the bottom is from Pink Paislee.

Here is a bit of a closeup:

The hello die which many of you probably are familiar with is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive die and is one "toy" I have played with again and again!

Well, I think my 'studio' may be calling me today....
My SSS August kit came in.  Yay!...time to get creative!

Project Life: Week 36

Oh my goodness!  I am officially behind.  I worked on Project Life yesterday and thought I was just 1 week behind but when I looked at the dates I am 2 weeks behind! Yikes.  And with my daughter about to give birth ANY day I just know I am going to get even further behind.  Time to just slap some photos in that album and get caught up!

Anyway, here is Week 36....I used Fancy Pants papers and a few flair buttons and pretty much made all my journaling and filler cards.  Well, I didn't "pretty much"....I did!

I began the week in NYC and went to see Kinky Boots on Broadway.  (Bucket list item check off, by the way!).  It was the most fabulous show I have ever seen!  The show won the Tony for Best Musical for 2013 and the actor who starred won best actor in a musical.  He was awesome and it was such a fun show!  I was able to snag that photo off the WWW and was happy that I found such a great picture to always remind me of that fun day!
My "week" card shown below was done with an arrow image from the Silhouette Online store that I cut out with my Cameo...the font I used was called "Broadway" which I thought was just perfect and a bit different from the usual block style fonts I seem to gravitate to!

I love how big and bold it looked!

The clapboard below was also an image from the Silhouette Online store.  I also added a little arrow that I inked a bit from Pink Paislee. 

Here's the right side:

 I used templates from Jessica Sprague and from the Lily Pad.
My grandkids started back to "school" last week (preschool for David and Mother's Morning Out for Taylor).  I think they look so cute with their bags!
David started playing on a little soccer league and just had the best time running, running, running!

And lastly, the card below was also cut with an image from the Silhouette store...and is by Lori Whitlock, I believe.

I love how well it cut with my Cameo.  What a great machine...couldn't be happier with it. 

And that's it for today my little chickadees....need to get some photos ordered so I can get on with week 37 and 38!  That baby will be here before I know it!!!

Happy Crafting!

Embossed Butterfly Card

I seem to be into butterflies these days.  LOL!!!  Every time I turn around I'm using butterflies on another scrapbook page or card!  Oh well...butterflies are great.  I've been seeing a few more this year at the park so I think that is a good thing.

I got the inspiration for this card from a video I saw on Pinterest from Darlene Designs.  I love her videos...she speeds them up and does audio over them.  Anyway, her technique which I wanted to try was embossing with different colors on black cardstock.  I've done different colors on white cardstock but thought it looked so striking on black.

Here is my card:

I used Bazzil Cardstock (the black), a piece of Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage printed paper, some white cardstock, Crushed Olive Distress Ink, Adirondack Lettuce and Zig White embossing powders.  I used a deckle edge frame from a Spellbinders set and then traced around and cut it out on white cardstock to give a little mat to it.  I also used the "Hey There" sentiment from Paper Trey Inks Fillable Frames #6.  The butterfly stamp is from the Hero Arts Antique Engravings set.  I tied some seam binding around it for a nice little bow.  And that's about it.  Pretty fast (for me!)

Happy Crafting!

A Few New Things...

We got back from our lovely week at the beach Saturday evening.  Yesterday I spent the day unpacking and I also had a tennis match (we won...YAY!) in the afternoon.  So...I never did get down to my craft room!

But today our mail which had been held for a week was redelivered and in the stack was an envelope from my favorite deal of the day site CRAFTY STEALS!  I had ordered 3 Paislee Pink 6x6 paper packs and a set of Unity stamps with a Halloween theme that were sooo cute.

Here's my new little stash...

Below is the very cute 360 degrees:

Next is the Queen Bee pad:

And lastly is the Bayberry Cottage stack.

Do I have a favorite?  Of course not...I love all my babies the same...

Happy Crafting!