May All Your Dreams....

I have finally created a card that would be appropriate for the male species! Well, I've done masculine cards before but went "meh" when I finished them. This one I actually love.  I was at my local stamp store recently...the store features fabulous sample cards throughout and I came across one that incorporated wire and just loved it.  So  bought the stamp set...Rising Stars by Paper Smooches along with the matching dies and set to work creating my own version.

Funny story about wire...for the scrapbookers out there...remember when it was so popular to put it on scrapbook pages?  Yep, I had all the tools and all the wire and it was a lot of fun.  That box of wire supplies has sat unused for many years!  Ok, now to the funny story.  Over 12 years ago (I was living in another house) I was working on a scrapbook page in my little scrapbook nook in my bedroom.  I was using said wire.  I looked down and wondered where some red ink came from as I was not using pens or anything that had red ink.  Well, lo and behold...I realized I was BLEEDING on my scrapbook page! I had apparently pricked myself with the wire and was dripping blood on my page.  Well, I had put a lot of time into that page and was NOT going to redo it.  So I wiped off what I could and then told my husband that if he ever needed a DNA sample to go to the scrapbook from 2002 that had the fall trip to Las Vegas in it!  LOL!

Anyway, on to my wire card and thankfully, I did NOT bleed on these creations!

I made this one with Stampin' Up papers and inks, a My Finest Thing border die and some LifeCrafts circle dies:

I also used a Recollections punch I had.  Love, love, love how this turned out.  Here's a closeup of the stars and wire works:

I made this for a friend's son who is graduating from high school but once I finished it I thought...now why didn't I do it in his school colors???
So I decided to make another one in his school colors of red, white and blue....I added a little yellow because it just needed something else:

I used different Fiskars border punches but the card design is the same.  I had such fun doing this!

I love this stamp set.

And the dies:

And, of course, these cards would be perfectly lovely for the feminine species too! :)  No gender specificity here!

Well, that's it for today...off to do other wild and exciting things!

Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday to You!

Can it be???! A second post for today?  I felt sort of guilty about just posting about Evernote and how great the program is for keeping track of your stash so I decided to actually post a recent card I made. Evernote is great...but that whole post was sort of blah...so here's to a little non-blah, I hope.

I recently bought the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors. I had seen so many of my favorite bloggers using them that I just had to get a set of my own.  They had been on my wish list for a long time so I finally bit the bullet and picked them up off Amazon.  How wonderful and vibrant they are! I have enjoyed playing with them a bit recently.

I made this card using the fabulous (and older) Secret Garden set from Stampin' Up.  I also used a die from Lawn Fawn for the sentiment.  Before coloring in the flower I heat embossed the stamped image with white embossing powder.

I swear the watercoloring looks better with prettier shading in real life.  Trust me! It couldn't be that I don't know what I'm doing...LOL!

Happy  Crafting!

Long Time, No See!

I may have used this title before...it is reserved for when I am AWOL for extended periods.  Well, life just got in the way... you know?

I got back from my 6 weeks at the beach.  The last few days were not very pretty sun-wise but I love the beach in any type of weather...I even love when it rains there!  But, before I left I had the chance to see a sunset that was like none other.  The mother of all sunsets....it was so incredibly gorgeous...

The sky was ablaze, as they say. By the way...the photo above was taken with my trusty iPhone.  They do say the best camera is the one you have with you...and I am not complaining about the iPhone camera one bit!
Pretty picture.

On to crafty stuff.  I finally got all of my stuff unpacked and put away so was in the mood to make a card (or two) this evening. 
But wait...in the past few weeks I have learned about the MISTI which stands for (Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented).  I was hesitant.  I. Was. Skeptical.   But. I. Bought.
I ordered straight from the manufacture which is www.MySweetPetunia.com. Within 4 days that baby was in in my hands.  Great and very fast shipping. Simon Says Stamp also carries it but their price is much higher and then you have to pay shipping on top of that so why not go with the manufacture to begin with.  Makes sense to me.

This is what the MISTI looks like:

It is mostly acrylic which is hinged...their are rulers and guides to help you with your positioning.
It is so easy to use...and makes the accurate positioning of stamps so easy and so fast! I love it!

Here are a few cards I very quickly duplicated tonight:

It was so easy to place things and make sure the sentiment was perfectly straight.

I loved my new friend, MISTI.  I think she will become a really close friend, indeed.

The cards were made with Stampin' Up inks and papers.  The white cardstock is the thick cardstock from Hobby Lobby which works pretty well for most stamping, I think.  The sentiment is by Hero Arts.  The flower stamp set are by SSS.

If you do a lot of stamping and like positioners then you would most likely find this an invaluable tool. 

Happy Crafting!

Wade is One!

It's hard to believe but our little Wadie-Boy is ONE today!

Here is what he looked like a year ago although if you want to get technical this was taken the day before he was born.

Below is what he looked like before going to the hospital.  This was taken at my house at about 5pm.  My daughter dropped off David and Taylor for me to watch them and get them to their other grandparents so I, too, could get to the hospital to take photos.

Amanda and the rest of her crew were supposed to meet us for dinner but at some point she texted me and said they were going to come over for a while but would probably not do dinner.  I thought...well, ok.  And then she texted me "Wash your hair" which was code for "I'm probably in labor"!  LOL...I had told her that as soon as she thought she might be in labor to tell me to wash my hair so that I'd have good looking hair for those first important pictures.  I like to think ahead! LOL!

She planned to hang here for a while but when they got here she felt like she probably needed to get closer to the hospital.  So they left here shortly after the above photo was taken.

At at 10:22 pm Wade was here!

Here he is a few minutes after he came into the world.

Here I am holding him...so sweet!

And now we are a year later... *sniff*. It's gone by way too fast...

Such a sweet boy.  I sure love those babies!

So we will celebrate this day today with cake and a candle.  I will see them a bit later and we will open presents and enjoy our little guy.

I made him a card on my Silhouette with card by Snapdragon Snippets from the Silhouette store.

It was a lot of fun to make...

The ladder has two brads hinging it together so you can raise and lower it.

I made a huge mess with Glitter but did manage to get more than just myself covered.  I did get the 1 covered which I cut out several times to give a bit more dimension to it.

I used Stampin' Up Heat and Stick Embossing powder and some Stampin' Up gold glitter.

I also made a card with a sheet of Echo Park paper and my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board.  As you can see I die cut Wade's name.

And that's it for today.  Happy 1st Birthday, WADE! 
And best wishes for a wonderfully crafty day to the rest of you!

2 Weeks and 1 Day and Counting!

Oh my goodness....it's been a while since I posted but I've been one busy lady! We are 15 days from my son's wedding and I don't think I could busier than I am right now. So much to do and crunch time is here. I have decided I am really grateful that I only have 1 daughter. I can see the stress the mother of the bride is under trying to get everything done. But I am sure that it will all be simply wonderful. I only have to do the rehearsal dinner, basically, and although there are still many details it is all coming together. I have made the table decorations as well as a few other details...but still lots on my list needing checking off. I can't show photos yet because I want it all to be a surprise. 

I miss my regular paper crafting but these little crafts have been fun, too. I can't wait to share with you what I did and will...but not until after the wedding.

 I did go to Washington, DC last week for a retirement ceremony for a friend and enjoyed my time there. I love it there.  I took this photo of the Capitol with the sun reflecting off the windows.

 

I loved seeing the Lincoln Memorial lighted at night.

 

 

And the Washington Monument's reflection in the Reflecting Pool was just lovely.

 

 I went to Arlington National Cemetery a couple of times because both of my parents are buried there.  It's an awe inspiring place, in my opinion.  I'm so grateful to all of those who have served our country.

It was rainy the second time I visited but still just as beautiful under gray skies.

I also went to the Pentagon at night to see the 9/11 Memorial.  It was so beautiful and the picture does not do it justice:

I bought a new camera recently as my Canon SX 230 broke.  I got the Canon SX 280 and was really please with the night time low light photos!

Anyway, I made a bunch of thank you notes for my daughter in law to use.  I think she appreciated them. 

Here are some samples:

The one above was made with the Stampin Up Bitty Banners die and stamp set.  I used some printed papers I had on hand.  So simple and a card I will duplicate again and again!

Green is D'Ann's favorite color so I made her some "thanks" cards with some Paper Trey Ink cardstock and ribbon and a Simon Says Stamp die.

 

Here is a closeup of the inlay...love how that looks:

And that's it for today.  I might be AWOL again for a few days/weeks...but certainly not a month!

Happy Crafting!

Just For You

I bought an exclusive card kit from Archiver's recently which came with Jillibean papers and stamps.  The kit was designed to make small 3x3 cards but I prefer to make standard sized cards.  I mean...what do you do with a zillion 3x3s?  They are good for gift enclosures but you can't really mail 'em so I don't need a zillion of them around.  I'd prefer to have a zillion standard cards in case I might, some day, want to part with one and mail it.  :)

The Jillibean paper was very nice....chevron on one side and dots on the other.  I liked that.
Anyway, easy card today.  Simple stamping and embellishing....

I ran the white cardstock through my Big Shot with a Stampin' Up embossing folder that makes pinpoint clouds.  Love that folder and was glad to finally use it! HAHA!

The butterfly was stamped and cut and popped up on some dimensionals.  I added a little bling to the body of the butterfly.

And that's it.  Fast and easy.

I've entered this in the Simon Says Monday Challenge: Dotty
and the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge. 

Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday!

A special little boy in my life, JP,  is having a big 5 year birthday in a few days and I wanted to make him a card with a big old 5 on it.

I used some Cosmo Cricket paper from a stash I had.....I'm wondering if I used this same paper on a card for him last year?  LOL!

I cut the "5" window on my Silhouette with the Arial Bold font.  So easy and so fast and I could size it exactly the way I wanted.  I just created a rectangle in my Silhouette Studio software and positioned my 5 where I wanted it and cut it out.  Easy peasy as they say.

The birthday cake was made with a Lawn Fawn set.  I know I should have put 5 candles on top but they were just so teeny and tedious to cut out and I took the easy way out!
The "turning" stamp is from Paper Smooches.

Here is the inside and was done with Penny Black and Paper Smooches stamps:

And lastly, I decorated the envelope with a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and some Stampin' Up inks:

Not that JP will care but I thought it was a cute touch and since it will travel in my daughter's purse to the destination I think there is a less likely chance that it will get tossed or lost!

(thinking ahead....)

And now that I look at it I think it's calling for some Glossy Accents on the cake.  Off I go!

Big day today...tennis in an hour, hair cut and time with the grandkids later in the day.  Life is good!

Happy Crafting!

Well....Hmmmmmmm....

I spent a few hours the other day making about 8 different cards!  I mean...that is a world's record for me.  Have I posted a one of those?  No!  This week has just flown by and I am behind in my posting but that's OK.  Blogging should be fun and not a  chore, right?  I mean, it's not like I get paid or anything....(although donations would be gladly accepted! JUST KIDDING!!!)

I did have a tennis match on Tuesday.  It was hot.  Very hot.  About a third of the way in I got very thirsty.  Not good.  That meant that I was probably already dehydrated.  Yep.  I just think these cells in my body just don't store water like they used to!  LOL.  Any water that goes in comes right out if you know what I mean!  But we did prevail in a tough 3 set match....and as soon as the match was over and the adrenaline that had kicked in to keep me going wore off....I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE!  It took me 24 hours to recover.  Poor husband got no food that night!  LOL!

But I'm back to normal and must brag a bit.  I'm on 3 tennis teams this summer and each team has come in first place in it's respective division.  What does that mean?  Nope, I won't be going pro any time soon but it does mean we get coveted bag tags!  The last bag tag I got (which has the year on it) was from 1865 about the same time the Civil War ended....so it will be good to get one from this century.  LOL!!!

OK, enough of tennis and my aging body...bag tags, etc.  On to paper crafting.

I made this cute little holder from a Lori Whitlock file I got in the Silhouette store.  It easily held 4 of my bulky cards as well as some envelopes and I gave it to a friend of mine.  I used some SEI papers I had on hand.  It cut really well and fast on my Cameo and was so easy to assemble.

Here it is open with some cards in it:

And here is the card I enclosed with it as a little giftie:

You can't really see that I stamped tone on tone on the background.  The flowers are from the Stampin' Up Secret Garden set (which also comes with some nifty dies).  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

And that's it for this busy gal!

But back to tennis.  I started playing league tennis 21 years ago and haven't missed a year since.  Here in Atlanta tennis is played year around and is a big sport.  I've played on women's leagues, mixed doubles leagues, flex leagues, senior leagues.  You name it...if there is a league I will find it!  LOL!
When I first started playing it was out of a neighborhood I lived in (2 houses ago). Last night I met up with 2 ladies that I played with on my very first team.  We talked and laughed about those days and how much fun it was and how much we lived and breathed tennis!
Here they are....21 years later....we were all young mothers back then...2 of us are now grandmothers!
How the time flies!!!

Happy Crafting!!!

With Sympathy

I was so happy with the Wedding Wishes card I made the other day which you can see HERE that I made another even simpler version for a sympathy card.

I used the Simon Says Stamp daisy die and Stampin' Up Pool Party Ink and paper.
I just inlaid the flower.
Uh....easy.  Almost embarrassing it's so easy.   I'm hanging my head in shame.  Not.  I love the simplicity of this.  They don't all have to be blinged, layered, ribboned, twined, SUSAN!
*sigh*....

 Here you see the inlay.  The nice thing about using the metal dies as opposed to a machine die cutter at times is that you get that nice rounded edges that only the obsessed notice.
I'm obsessed.  I admit it.

That's it for today!

I'm going to enter this in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Anything Goes
A Muse Studio Challenge: Beautiful Blooms
The Craft Place Blog Challenge: FLOWERS

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 25

Well.....myyyyyyy gooooodness!  I am all caught up with Project Life. 

Long post today...with lots of photos!  I'm proud of this week's "share".

I had the best time doing this week's layouts.  I went from last week of basically just ripping out journaling and filler cards from a little tablet I had to making everything on my own.  Sometimes it's fun to go the quick and simple way....and sometimes it's great fun to be a little more creative.

You know I love Hero Arts.  We've been together a long time.  Our love grows stronger.

I am amazed at the new stamps from the Stamp Your Story line and have grabbed up several sets.  They work wonderfully for cards and art journaling....but what really grabbed my eye was how well they would work for Project Life.  And....you can use them over and over again...and, of course, if you change out papers and ink colors...well, you can get a whole new look!  Love it!

So here are my Project Life pages for Week 25.  All Hero Arts with 3 colors of Stampin' Up inks (Calypso Coral, Pool Party, and Wisteria Wonder).  My Wanna Have list has more Hero Arts inks on it and I'm hoping Archiver's will increase their inventory on those!  I used white cardstock from my stash as well as a couple of Stampin' Up colored papers.

Here is the left side:

And here are some details...
I created the background with various ink blot stamps (made me think of the psychological ink blot test!....what do YOU see?) and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the word "Week" and the numbers with the Digz Your Hart font.

 And here's a closeup of the little circle stamp that I used for my date.

 Love, love, love this little birdie....and is pop dotted above the month stamp.  I also used some epoxy arrows I had in my stash.

 Here is another little card...I just LOVE those stamps and how well they work to make your OWN journaling cards out of just plain white cardstock!  Too cool!....and so easy!

My good friend, Cyndi, who is a faithful blog reader just learned she will be a grandmother again and I snagged this photo that she'd sent to my iPhone of her granddaughter, Kendall.  I just stamped the heart and cut it out and popped it with some foam tape. 

Here is the right side:

I used Tracy Larsen and the Lily Pad templates for all my photo collages.
I added a bit of washi tape and a few Hero Arts flowers and gem to these photos.

And another card....love the pen and ink bottle which I stamped and then cut out.

 

I did all the journaling I was going to do so just created this little filler card with stamps from several of the sets.

 

I was able to get a rare photo of my daughter and her family and I used a Becky Higgins 5x7 insert page to stick it in.  On the back I did a little background paper with a stamp from the Brush Strokes set and journaled on it.

Here are the journaling cards all together:

And here it is all together:

 

I am going to enter this in the Stamp Your Story contest at  Hero Arts.  Most of the entries seem to be cards but I thought it would be fun to show a different take on the stamps!

I used the following sets from the Stamp Your Story line:

Notebook Essentials

Remember

Brush Strokes

My Favorite

Sketchbook Letters

Well, whew....I was certainly long winded today...but I do hope you enjoyed!

Happy Crafting!