Rehearsal Dinner Invitation

I am back from my 5 week "sabbatical" at the beach. I left here on January 31 and returned on March 6. I rented a house in Laguna Beach, FL, took the dog down and enjoyed being away from the terrible weather in Atlanta during that time. We saw beautiful sunsets like this:

 We hiked miles and miles and miles at several fabulous parks.

 We saw some cool birds like this huge egret:

and some turkey buzzards as we call 'em in the south...you northerners might call 'em vultures:

I drank wine on the beach (in a plastic cup):

Life was and is very, very good, isn't it?

But back to reality.  And my reality is that my son is getting married in about 7 weeks!  So it is time to get going a bit more on the rehearsal dinner. 

Here is the invitation (or one of the zillions of versions) that I have created and once I have a few more details finalized will get printed by Costco.  I saw an invitation online and definitely stole used it for inspiration.  It was a great starting off point for my version. 

Sorry but I had to blur out the details because even though I love you all I don't want you showing up! LOL!

What do you think?  Any changes?  Not sure about the background...I'm still playing around with that a bit.

Happy Crafting!

Love You Sew Much

I was cleaning off my table last night and throwing away scraps of paper.  It is difficult for me to get rid of scraps of paper because I might NEED them some day!   I was trashing stuff and the next thing I realized I was sitting at the table and taking said paper scraps and making a card!  LOL...and this is why I don't get rid of scraps often...you can do such cute things with small pieces of paper.

For example the white circle is actually a circle I cut the other day when I did the You're so Tweet card....I just flipped it over and used the smooth surface to stamp "love you sew much".  Most of those scraps were only slightly larger and needed just a bit of trimming.  I had some older chipboard hearts and used some Liquid Pearls to cover them.  The trim was a piece leftover from another project and a Simon Says Stamp card kit from last year sometime.

It felt good to use up these scraps and give them a home on this card:

I added a few Hero Arts gems and voila!...a fun card!

Here is a closeup of those hearts and that cute trim...

Fun...and mostly made with trash.  HAHA!  Not really but made with things that were soon going to become trash!  Sad to think these scraps might have ended up in a land fill somewhere!

Vicky P at Clips-n-Cuts has a huge giveaway if you link up using her tool Inlinkz.  You can get the information HERE.

Happy Crafting!

*Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the Month JANUARY 2014 LOVED CKJan14 *Simon Says Clear Stamps ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU sss101382 *Fancy Pants 6 x 6 BE.LOVED Paper Pad 2169 *Ranger PETAL PINK Liquid Pearls Decorative Glue *Maya Road HEART CONFETTI Mini Chipboard C2359 Hearts Love Valentine 2013me *3M Scotch ACID FREE 1/4"" x 36 Yard REFILL Advance Tape Glider Rolls *3M Scotch PINK ATG ADVANCED TAPE GLIDER 1/4"" Adhesive Glue Gun *Neenah Classic Crest **110 LB** SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets *Hero Arts DIAMOND GEMS MEDIUM ch235 Bling 5mm

InLinkz.com

We're More Than Friends

And Happy Monday to all of you!  

It looks gray and overcast here today so I think this afternoon will give way to some scrapbooking or card making!  I wonder where the mojo (if I can find it) will take me!

This was a fun card to make using a circle stamp from a Simon Says Stamp kit to make the background.  I inked it with some different Hero Arts ink and it was quick and simple and fun to do!

I used some Glossy Accents on the hearts to just give it a little extra shine.  Very quick and pretty easy....the hardest part, of course, was for me to give the Glossy Accents time enough to dry!  I just HAVE TO TOUCH!!!  It's part of my DNA...what can I say?!

And today I am giving Inlinkz.com a whirl.  Vicky from Clips-n-Cuts (one of my very favorite bloggers) is the owner of Inklinz and she is having a giveaway to those who use it.   I love the blogs that use that feature so why not?!

Vicky is also having a fantastic giveaway if you use the Inlinkz tool on your blog and you can find out about that HERE!

Happy Crafting!

Pale Tomato Mid-Tone Shadow Ink	Soft Pool Ink Pad	Cup O' Joe Shadow Ink Mid-Tone	Field Greens Shadow Ink Mid-Tone
*Simon Says Clear Stamps CARD EXCHANGING FRIENDS SSS130801	*Ranger Inkssentials MINI GLOSSY ACCENTS Glue Dimensional Adhesive .5oz	*3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE Permanent	*Neenah Classic Crest **110 LB** SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets

InLinkz.com

You're So Tweet!

This card looks so familiar to me that I may have already made a version of it before.  I know I was inspired by a card by Stephanie Klauck for Simon Says Stamp so maybe that's why it already feels familiar! 

Well, I searched and found my original cards made with this kit and they are HERE. And here is the Simons Says Stamp kit for October which I just loved!

Anyway, this is the latest version:

I love the way it turned out!  Love blue....love the colors!

It is beautiful today here so I'm out for walk!

Happy Crafting!!!

More Stencil Fun!

Quick post here today...here is another card I made with the Moroccan inspired stencil that I used the other day HERE.

This time I used Hero Arts ink daubers and sloshed in the ink.  I love the splotchy water colored look it left.  And the colors were fun and bright!

The stamps were from Simon Says Stamp and the burlap flower came from the SSS August monthly kit.
Here is a closeup of the burlap and stamps:

And that's it for today...it is beautiful outside where I am and I feel the NEED to get out in the sunshine!!!

Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday with a Touch of Acetate

I love Shari Carroll.  She used to work for Hero Arts and you know how I love Hero Arts.  Her design style has always been so appealing to me and I have never ONE time seen a card she made and said "Ewwwwww!".  She recently went to work for Simon Says Stamp which is way cool...because not only can she work with Hero Arts things, I assume,  but also with all the great products Simon Says Stamp has to offer.  A win-win situation for me!

She recently posted a card on the Simon Says Stamp Blog which you can see HERE.  I love this card with the die cut sentiment and the touch of acetate.  I thought...well, I can do this. Sort of....when I made mine I was out of town and only had some supplies with me.  But the good news is that I used up some more paper scraps I had from some old Simon Says Stamp card kits.

Yay me.   I used what I had on hand.

Yay me.

Here is my card:

 I was most happy to use up that flair I had....it had been sitting around and I was wondering what I'd ever do with it!  Yay me.
The top layer with the acetate is adhere with some foam tape to give a bit more dimension and lift it off the patterned paper behind it.
I love the look of white on white...and I love that wood grained paper from Simon Says Stamp.  The "happy birthday" sentiment is also cut with exclusive Simon Says Stamp dies.  I do love the die cuts that Shari used but again I used what I had on hand.  And my hand does not own those.  Poor me.

The word "celebrate" was stamped with a Paper Smooches stamp.

It was fun to do...and a big thanks to Shari Carroll for always wonderful inspiration!

Happy Crafting!

Stencils!

I have stencils from at least several hundred years ago when I first started scrapbooking.  I had tons of those letter stencils that I would painstakingly trace and then cut out by hand for titles and sentiments on both cards and scrapbook layouts.  Fast forward a couple of centuries and I couldn't tell you the last time I hand cut letters out with any regularity!  I have the fabulous Silhouette Cameo who does all that hard work for me and I also have some letter dies, as well.

But stencils have made a resurgence in the paper crafting field (at least to me) and it isn't about lettering so much...they are being used in so many other ways.

In the August Simon Says Stamp Card Kit shown below a stencil was included.  It is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive stencil and has that Moroccan look to it.

I got out my Ranger Distress Inks and just splotched here and there...and blended a bit.  It was very fun and quite easy to make the background.

 Kind of reminds me of a winter sunset at the beach...
I used some Sizzix framelits to cut out the circles and create the black circle frame.  I mounted with some popdots and added the flair and thought "how fun!".  I was happy. 
Here is another picture of the flair without out the glare....Flair with no GLARE!  I'm a poet! ;)

Happy Crafting!