This week, Sharon has challenged us to create a paper project using green, yellow, white or ivory, and a pop of black. I fell in love with the bedroom (inspiration photo) and with Deb's card here. This is what I came up with!
The papers are all from a recently re-discovered folder of hand-made jewels. The only stamping was the Waltzingmouse Stamps sentiment.
I hope you like it!
I like this one MUCH better. It almost qualifies as a CAS card, too! Imagine that! I truly appreciate that Jeanne was brave enough to help me! I think she has a wonderful eye for color and was absolutely right about the cream and brown strip in the first attempt. It looked so out-of-place! I also wasn't happy with the adhesive showing under the vellum hearts.
What happened today was that I started by cleaning up my room (what a MESS!). That usually inspires me because in the archeology of the process I find things I'd forgotten I had! In this case, it was a folder of delicious hand-made papers that were a Christmas present from a dear friend (I think maybe two years ago?) . The textures of this paper are amazing - and I had dreamed that I could solve the vellum adhesive problem by punching out the heart shapes and lifting that section over the vellum pieces. I think it really works!
I've been quiet today. My tummy hurts. So, I've just stayed in my comfy clothes and napped when I felt like it. I've made two cards and will post the other next (it's for a new - to me - challenge!). Have I told you all lately how much I love you? Well, I do.
Hugs!
I need to make the most beautiful wedding card . . . for a beautiful young couple. Their colors are Navy and off-white with a touch of silver. The charms say "Cherish" and "Love". The inside of the navy jewel cardstock (CTMH retired) is lined with a fine Irish linen paper and simply stamped "happy foreverness".
Do you like it?
I've not made ANY wedding cards before this one. Does it work? Be honest - I want it to blow their socks off!
Update on the SIL - she has been moved to a rehab hospital - one that will seriously work to help her recover strength. Today they called and asked me to bring real clothes! I'm running a load of her laundry (I had her suitcase from the fateful cruise trip back in February!) and will take things to her in the morning. Once again, we are filled with hope! Once again, I thank you for your sympathy and support. You are wonderful!
Hugs!
This card was inspired by one of the template challenges from a few weeks ago (I forget where). I liked the design enough to make three of them - all with slight differences. The stamp sentiment is Close-to-My-Heart and the flower is punched with a spellbinder die from wool felt; the green dotted "scalloped edge" was actually circles punched from a piece of pattern paper (also CTMH). The ribbon is Chocolate CTMH organdy.
I'm heading to bed soon - - - it was a happy Monday! Hope your week is going great, too!
Hugs!
As is my habit, Saturday morning I fix a cuppa Joe - and sit down to enjoy visiting blogs. At my friend Julia's blog I see that the Waltzingmouse Stamp Sketch is up for this week, and it looks do-able! I am "house-bound" today because of workers fixing this and that. So, I'm thrilled to join in the fun again this week.
My card uses Close-to-My-Heart products with the only exception being the ribbons and the small piece of kraft cardstock. The design paper is called Grace, the stamp is Sunflower (retired, I believe - a true classic!). The card base is Barn Red textured cardstock - lightly sanded. This card uses a technique called painting with bleach for the focal point. The yellow piece is actually Daisy White cardstock that has been covered with Honey dye ink and dried. The flower and sentiment were heat embossed with detail black embossing powder. Then, using a paint brush, household bleach was painted onto the flower petals. It removed the color from the dye ink. I also removed the color from the small curve in the middle of the flower. The effect is striking - and if you're not too afraid to bring bleach to your work-table, it's actually very fun!!
Well, it was a very busy, but rewarding day. I am looking forward to seeing my friends for Open Stamping tomorrow - I love our afternoons together! I hope you have a wonderful day planned, too.
Hugs!
This card was inspired by Tresa Black (HERE) - and you owe it to yourself to GO TO THE LINK and view her video tutorial. Tresa is one of the Close-to-My-Heart consultants that just continue to blow-me-away with her fun and creativity! The technique is about painting with bleach. Go on - go look, you won't regret it!
I wish I had happy news, but not really. My SIL is back in the hospital. I think this time it is just a "bump" in the road - not a gigantic pothole like some of our other set-backs. But I'm feeling rather blue about it anyway. She's been through SO much. She doesn't deserve this. Wahhhhhh.
.
.
.
.
.
ok. I feel better now. Thanks for letting me cry.
Hugs!
The top layout is on the left side in the album. Many (most?) of my pages have "flip-flaps" on the outside of the page protector. What this does is allow me to have a base layout (like you see here) and where there is, say the bottom layout, yellow flower - layered over it will be two more photos of the flowers in the garden. I didn't try to photograph them because the page protectors reflect the flash terribly. So, you'll have to take my word for it (unless you're local - then you will get to see my book on Sunday!)
Oh - where is this? Well, in the same town were we found the "We Olive" we visited one of the fabulous old missions. This one was call Mission San Buenaventura. The garden was just GORGEOUS. I used the pamphlet in my scrap-layout because it tells the history of the mission.
I have a ragin' headache tonight. I will keep this short and go early to bed.
Hope you have a terrific Thursday tomorrow!
Hugs!
I guess that at the time I didn't realize that "We Olive" would become a part of my life! No photos. But, I downloaded a banner from their e-newsletter and cut apart the little tote bag that my purchases came in . . . staged a photo of my treasure (some of it) - Voila! A scrapbook page! There is a journaling tag that pulls up from under the top banner piece . . . telling the story of this fab little shop in Ventura, CA that intrigued us for well over an hour! These delightful papers are from the new Stampin Up catalog.
I'm off to work super early today - got some training to get done. So, I'll wish you a wonderful day and "see" ya later!
These two pages go side by side, but I haven't figured out how to photograph them together and still be able to see them! Anyhoo - We did visit some wineries during our trip - in fact, it was a good thing that we left so much stuff with the DD in Oregon; we needed the room for the cases of wine! :-D
Today's adventure with the church teens was just awesome! They seem to always restore my hope for the future. These young people have good hearts! They are fun, intelligent, thoughtful, and can be serious when the time calls for it. I am truly blessed to have been able to interact with them! The shopping was awesome - the items they picked out were just perfect (of course!) and they all came in under budget! (SHOCK!) So, we headed back to church for ice cream with big smiles!
Hope you have a wonderful week!
Hugs!
These two photos are such favorites that I felt they needed their own pages. The top one was taken by my dear friend Sheri - I was standing below a HUMONGOUS fallen redwood to take a photo of the hollow inside part. From Sheri's perspective, it appears my life could be in grave danger! The way I'm so intent on the photo and oblivious to the risk amuses me. ;-)
The second photo was taken later in our trip - in another location but we were still "hugging" the trees . . . we saw in a clearing this group of animals (elk?) and I got a decent photograph (for an amateur). I have wanted to visit two places in my life as long as I can remember . . . one was to visit wine country (the movies shot in Tuscany . . . so beautiful and romantic!) and the other was to visit the redwoods. I've done both now - and highly recommend them!
Have a wonderful Sunday, dear friends.
Hugs!
FIRST, let me apologize for the horrible glare on these photos from my "daylight" - I wish I'd noticed it earlier! Still working on the "Ya-Ya" trip; the upper left hand corner is the most awesome postcard that shows the relative size of things - look at how tall the redwoods are against other "known" entities! Amazing. You don't get that from being with them. Sure, they're tall, but they seem to just simply disappear in the heavens. The part I remember was the part I was hugging (and I did a LOT of hugging!). Those of you who knew me last year will remember that I declared I'd fallen in love when I got back from this trip - in love with the redwoods.
I'm sneaking into the craft room early tonight - hope to finish another 2-page spread to post soon!
Hugs!
I got a few more pages done in my "Ya-Ya" book last weekend and finally downloaded them from the camera. Key fun-factoids for these pages - the DD of my friend that we were helping move to Vet school used going away gift funds to purchase a rolling scrap-tote! One of the photos of her moving in shows it! She built her furniture (assembled, that is) and my friend had discovered a little stamp earlier that day when we saw a local stamping store that said "made in Oregon" so here's a photo of the DD stamping the bottom of the table "made in Oregon"! But perhaps my favorite photo of them all is the one of my two friends peeking from behind one of the most lovely trash cans in the world! Seriously!
I'm about 4 pages from the end of this book - I'm glad I'm getting close. I think if I'd let it go much longer, I'd have forgotten to many of the details!
There is no other word for today than "hot". Fortunately, I'm inside and the A/C is working. I just finished a mango-coconut fruit ice push-up pop. It was delicious and only 70 calories.
Hugs!
Just one last Christmas card, then, I promise, no more for awhile! LOL This one is a Waltzingmouse Stamps set - I {heart} it!
Yoga was wonderful tonight - I am coming back, I can feel the strength returning just a tiny bit each week. It was a long time to be away. My knee is beginning to allow me to move. My favorite teacher led the practice tonight. She is amazing! Gentle, but encouraging. Spiritual. Focused. She knows when to give hands-on-help and when to just breathe to show us (remind us) how to breathe. After her class I am all stretched out, but not hurting. I feel energized and alert, not exhausted. It makes such a difference!
Tonight, I am grateful for Linda.
Namaste.
I was telling Kathi Carlson the other day how I tend to create with what's out on the table! This is a good example; I had Christmas ideas stuck in my head and they needed to come out! LOL Check out the post Kathi made recently - look how different and wonderful the things she created that day turned out (here). The papers and embossing template are from Stampin' Up. The Sentiment and inks are Close-to-My-Heart and the shadow of an image behind it is a Waltzingmouse Stamps image. (crazy, I know!)
Today is week two of my big Outreach project at church. Each year we "adopt" 25 children to get them ready for going back to school. We provide not only backpacks filled with supplies, but also clothes, shoes, socks and undies. I coordinate the effort - first I break down the task into "bite-size" pieces. Not many in my parish can take on a whole child, so someone will buy the shoes, and another person will get the backpack, and so on. It's awfully hot here, so some of the people in the parish would rather just give us a cash donation and let us shop for them. To accomplish that, I like to involve the teens - so we organize a pizza party for lunch after church, then head to the mall to shop with the money donated. We come back to the church to have ice cream and share what treasures we found. It's a lot of fun.
This year I partnered with a wonderful organization called Greater Phoenix Youth at Risk. So, the children we are shopping for are known to be in need of help. In addition to back-to-school; I'm hoping to recruit mentors for the programs that this amazing organization has going. I know this is a lot of information - but some had asked about my project. If you're still with me - thank you!
Hugs!
While we're on a Christmas roll here . . . This is the other card I created with a page scanned from my hymnal. I was a bit more aggressive with the antiquing of the page here. I {heart} this one! For the background, I inked up an embossing template for the Cuttlebug with Cranberry ink. It's hard to tell, but the card base is black. I cut a white insert sheet 1/2 " smaller all around for the inside so it would be possible to write in it! Hope you like it!
I'm so thankful it's Saturday! I'm "stuck at home" (aw, shucks - I "have" to spend the day in the craft room) waiting for the A/C yearly maintenance and a plumber. I've got a list of faucets in my house that don't work! Seriously - I was just about down to one working sink. So, if I'm going to call the plumber out, it might as well be for a list of things! (giggle). I awoke this morning to gray sky - it's rare, but it must mean that the monsoons are finally here. I haven't seen a drop of rain yet - but there is hope.
Enjoy your weekend!! Let me know what's going on at your place!
This was inspired by Laurie Schmidlin (here) Laurie's post is about a card holder project - complete with the template instructions, so be sure to go check it out! I saved it because the rich colors just spoke to me - and I knew I'd make something with the idea someday. Last weekend the idea wormed it's way out of my head into a Christmas card!
What is it about "short weeks" - ?? I'm SO ready for the weekend! {deep sigh}
See you soon!
Another favorite artist, Karen Baker, inspired this copy-cat attempt! Karen, I hope you know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Check out Karen's card HERE. I used all close to my heart papers, inks, and the Treetops stamp set. I got close enough to Karen's design that I just couldn't put my signature on it! Thanks Karen, I do love this card!
Today was one of those days when I just wanted to curl up and take a nap. I fought it for about 2 hours this afternoon at work (miserable!) and am finally home. I'll be heading to bed very early tonight.
Happy Hump Day!
This card was totally inspired by Deb Neerman's here. As often happens, I didn't have the same stamps to work with - but I had another fun open tree! The set I used is Close-to-My-Heart's Treetops. The papers were scraps (and I mean tiny pieces - I'm so glad I couldn't throw them away!) of the Basic Gray papers.
I had a wonderful Yoga practice last night - slept soundly and awoke before the alarm! I love feeling good - and just so you know, my "getting all Yoga" about the delay in vacation time seems to be working. ;-)
Namaste.
Something Splendid is the name of the stamp set - (not my opinion!) - for the August Stamp of The Month from Close-to-My-Heart! It's actually a lovely set! I really do like how it goes with this one, last piece of this yummy ribbon! In fact, I decided to use Vineyard Berry ink because I wanted it to go with this ribbon. LOL (usually it works the other way around for me!)
I think I must be ready for a longer vacation or something because I've been so contended and productive and I actually dread going back to work. Possibly it's because I was told I can't have vacation until after Labor Day that I want one so badly. It's like that with food (for me) too - if I think I'm on a "diet" then I think of nothing else all day long except what I'd like to eat! (deep sigh). Ok, my plan is to get all "yoga" about it and let it go. I can't change it, I can only change my response to it.
So - having said that, I hope your weekend has been lovely and everything you wanted!
Namaste.
A few weeks ago I was inspired by Belinda Chang when she mentioned using old choir music to make a project (here). Edited to add: and Gabi (here) with her use of a page from a hymnal. I have an old hymnal that contains some of my most beloved music - and I have a scanner! I thought, hmmmm. Maybe I could scan and "age" the page of music to use for a card! It's taking a little tweaking to get the size of the page just right . . . but my hymnal is intact and I have several favorites songs in jpg file format now to print out when I need them. :-)
You can check out the awesome tutorial for the 3D starts by Heidi Van Laar (here) Thanks Heidi!
I'm heading to the craft room - I hope to get some actual scrapbooking done today. It's certainly too hot to do anything else! Hope your 4th is fabulous!
Hugs!
Look at this wonderful 4th of July greeting I received from my friend Jone! Isn't it fun?!! I just LOVE opening the mailbox and seeing something other than bills! LOL Thank you Jone!!
Saturday at last! I woke up at 3 am, explored some blogs for about an hour, then fell asleep again and didn't wake until 7:30 - (that's late for me!). I've been "puttering" - and have started working on an idea that I'll post later today. Hope you're enjoying the long weekend!
Hugs!
This week, Sharon has challenged us to create a paper project using green, yellow, white or ivory, and a pop of black. I fell in love with the bedroom (inspiration photo) and with Deb's card here. This is what I came up with!
The papers are all from a recently re-discovered folder of hand-made jewels. The only stamping was the Waltzingmouse Stamps sentiment.
I like this one MUCH better. It almost qualifies as a CAS card, too! Imagine that! I truly appreciate that Jeanne was brave enough to help me! I think she has a wonderful eye for color and was absolutely right about the cream and brown strip in the first attempt. It looked so out-of-place! I also wasn't happy with the adhesive showing under the vellum hearts.
I need to make the most beautiful wedding card . . . for a beautiful young couple. Their colors are Navy and off-white with a touch of silver. The charms say "Cherish" and "Love". The inside of the navy jewel cardstock (CTMH retired) is lined with a fine Irish linen paper and simply stamped "happy foreverness". 
This card was inspired by one of the template challenges from a few weeks ago (I forget where). I liked the design enough to make three of them - all with slight differences. The stamp sentiment is Close-to-My-Heart and the flower is punched with a spellbinder die from wool felt; the green dotted "scalloped edge" was actually circles punched from a piece of pattern paper (also CTMH). The ribbon is Chocolate CTMH organdy.
As is my habit, Saturday morning I fix a cuppa Joe - and sit down to enjoy visiting blogs. At my friend Julia's blog I see that the Waltzingmouse Stamp Sketch is up for this week, and it looks do-able! I am "house-bound" today because of workers fixing this and that. So, I'm thrilled to join in the fun again this week. 
The top layout is on the left side in the album. Many (most?) of my pages have "flip-flaps" on the outside of the page protector. What this does is allow me to have a base layout (like you see here) and where there is, say the bottom layout, yellow flower - layered over it will be two more photos of the flowers in the garden. I didn't try to photograph them because the page protectors reflect the flash terribly. So, you'll have to take my word for it (unless you're local - then you will get to see my book on Sunday!) 
I guess that at the time I didn't realize that "We Olive" would become a part of my life! No photos. But, I downloaded a banner from their e-newsletter and cut apart the little tote bag that my purchases came in . . . staged a photo of my treasure (some of it) - Voila! A scrapbook page! There is a journaling tag that pulls up from under the top banner piece . . . telling the story of this fab little shop in Ventura, CA that intrigued us for well over an hour! These delightful papers are from the new Stampin Up catalog. 
These two pages go side by side, but I haven't figured out how to photograph them together and still be able to see them! Anyhoo - We did visit some wineries during our trip - in fact, it was a good thing that we left so much stuff with the DD in Oregon; we needed the room for the cases of wine! :-D
These two photos are such favorites that I felt they needed their own pages. The top one was taken by my dear friend Sheri - I was standing below a HUMONGOUS fallen redwood to take a photo of the hollow inside part. From Sheri's perspective, it appears my life could be in grave danger! The way I'm so intent on the photo and oblivious to the risk amuses me. ;-)
FIRST, let me apologize for the horrible glare on these photos from my "daylight" - I wish I'd noticed it earlier! Still working on the "Ya-Ya" trip; the upper left hand corner is the most awesome postcard that shows the relative size of things - look at how tall the redwoods are against other "known" entities! Amazing. You don't get that from being with them. Sure, they're tall, but they seem to just simply disappear in the heavens. The part I remember was the part I was hugging (and I did a LOT of hugging!). Those of you who knew me last year will remember that I declared I'd fallen in love when I got back from this trip - in love with the redwoods. 
I got a few more pages done in my "Ya-Ya" book last weekend and finally downloaded them from the camera. Key fun-factoids for these pages - the DD of my friend that we were helping move to Vet school used going away gift funds to purchase a rolling scrap-tote! One of the photos of her moving in shows it! She built her furniture (assembled, that is) and my friend had discovered a little stamp earlier that day when we saw a local stamping store that said "made in Oregon" so here's a photo of the DD stamping the bottom of the table "made in Oregon"! But perhaps my favorite photo of them all is the one of my two friends peeking from behind one of the most lovely trash cans in the world! Seriously! 
Just one last Christmas card, then, I promise, no more for awhile! LOL This one is a Waltzingmouse Stamps set - I {heart} it! 
I was telling Kathi Carlson the other day how I tend to create with what's out on the table! This is a good example; I had Christmas ideas stuck in my head and they needed to come out! LOL Check out the post Kathi made recently - look how different and wonderful the things she created that day turned out (here). 
While we're on a Christmas roll here . . . This is the other card I created with a page scanned from my hymnal. I was a bit more aggressive with the antiquing of the page here. I {heart} this one! For the background, I inked up an embossing template for the Cuttlebug with Cranberry ink. It's hard to tell, but the card base is black. I cut a white insert sheet 1/2 " smaller all around for the inside so it would be possible to write in it! Hope you like it!
This was inspired by Laurie Schmidlin (here) Laurie's post is about a card holder project - complete with the template instructions, so be sure to go check it out! I saved it because the rich colors just spoke to me - and I knew I'd make something with the idea someday. Last weekend the idea wormed it's way out of my head into a Christmas card! 
Another favorite artist, Karen Baker, inspired this copy-cat attempt! Karen, I hope you know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Check out Karen's card HERE. I used all close to my heart papers, inks, and the Treetops stamp set. I got close enough to Karen's design that I just couldn't put my signature on it! Thanks Karen, I do love this card!
This card was totally inspired by Deb Neerman's here. As often happens, I didn't have the same stamps to work with - but I had another fun open tree! The set I used is Close-to-My-Heart's Treetops. The papers were scraps (and I mean tiny pieces - I'm so glad I couldn't throw them away!) of the Basic Gray papers.
Something Splendid is the name of the stamp set - (not my opinion!) - for the August Stamp of The Month from Close-to-My-Heart! It's actually a lovely set! I really do like how it goes with this one, last piece of this yummy ribbon! In fact, I decided to use Vineyard Berry ink because I wanted it to go with this ribbon. LOL (usually it works the other way around for me!)
A few weeks ago I was inspired by Belinda Chang when she mentioned using old choir music to make a project (here). Edited to add: and Gabi (here) with her use of a page from a hymnal. I have an old hymnal that contains some of my most beloved music - and I have a scanner! I thought, hmmmm. Maybe I could scan and "age" the page of music to use for a card! It's taking a little tweaking to get the size of the page just right . . . but my hymnal is intact and I have several favorites songs in jpg file format now to print out when I need them. :-)
You can check out the awesome tutorial for the 3D starts by Heidi Van Laar (here) Thanks Heidi!
Look at this wonderful 4th of July greeting I received from my friend Jone! Isn't it fun?!! I just LOVE opening the mailbox and seeing something other than bills! LOL Thank you Jone!!
