Fun with watercolors

This card is the first one made with the cuttlebug that my co-workers gave me for my summer studio.  It came with a small flower embossing folder and I thought the large sunflower would be a nice focal point.  

The flower elements were heat embossed with clear embossing on watercolor paper.  The flower was then water colored with a water brush pen.  The sentiment was stamped in cocoa.  This stamp set was a stamp of the month a year or two ago, and I can't pass up a sunflower!

I thought perhaps I could live without a cuttlebug up North, but I am SO grateful that my friends knew better!!  

Hugs!

A very special Mother's Day card

Steve's daughter and son-in-law have been trying for a very long time to have a baby.  This year she was beginning her 6th month near Mother's Day and we couldn't be happier!  The card used all retired Close to My Heart stamps and all current paper and ink.  The only exception was the addition of sparkle on the butterflies using a spica  stardust pen.  The butterflies were stamped onto color card stock of a much lighter tone and embellished from there.  I liked how the "h" in happy and the "y" in day fall off the banner.  It was one of those serendipitous things!  

By the way, it's a boy!!
Hugs!

Sympathy

Sometimes you need a sympathy card.  This one is made with Waltzingmouse Stamps, Close To My Heart ink and solid card stock and a design paper that I can't remember who made but suspect it was Little Yellow Bicycle, perhaps?  

I had fun with this - the element in saddle brown had to be made longer to accommodate the height of the cross.  I really love the WMS Celtic designs!  

On a different note, we were in Duluth over the weekend and there is still ice on Lake Superior!  We heard it was a much as 12% of the ice remaining!  It was quite a sight!!!

HUGS!

Baby shower!

On My 17th Steve's family threw a baby shower for Melissa and Jim (Steve's daughter and son-in-law).  We had collected a pile of treasures and wrapped them in multiple boxes.  I enjoyed making little boy tags!  There were some darling ideas for a baby shower (Steve's niece was in charge of entertainment).

The stamps used are the Close To My Heart set called First Steps. Unfortunately it's retired.  

We have spent the day with friends and family in remembrance celebrations for Memorial Day.  The weather has been beautiful!

Mr. Bilbo Baggins is doing fine!

Bilbo had a pretty rough trip to our summer home.  Once we finally arrived at the house, and opened his travel case, he disappeared behind the washer in the basement and wouldn't come out!

On the 5th day, Steve suggested that I try moving Bilbo's dish of kibble up the stairs a few steps at a time.  

He came up the stairs easily, stopped next to me and sat down next to me on a step for a few minutes, then continued up the stairs and into the dining room.

And he never looked back! :-D

That night he joined us in bed and has pretty much made himself comfortable!  Whew!

Hello world!

Hello world!  I have been officially retired and "had time" to blog for 16 days but today was the first chance I could devote practically the entire afternoon to figuring out how to get photos from my I-pad to blogger.  Not an easy process when you don't know!

Ok, whining over!

The card above is a 3 1/2 x 3 card that I had planned to use as a gift tag but wound up using it for the birthday card in an envelope.  It was fun!   

This was the card for my beloved.  I found some retired CTMH papers in the stash in my summer home studio, and used the new CTMH feather stamp set.  The sentiments are from a retired birthday sentiment set.  

Fun, quick tags!

 

Steve got into a cleaning fit (looking for a lost item) and he surfaced with three bundles of little cards store-bought with Mary Engelbreit designs (3x3 cards, with tiny envelopes!).  I've saved them long enough - and after the Open Stamping day last weekend where my friends treated me like royalty, I felt very much like the Princess of Quite-a-Lot!  Fun, quick tags!

Just when there is not enough time already - I was run over by a truck called stomach flu (or food poisoning?).  I'm getting back on my feet but WHAM!  that was awful!!  I gotta keep this short - lots to do now!

Hugs!!  (cyber ones! - and remember, when in doubt, throw it out!)

Edited to add:  I'm 1000% better today - and excited about going to my home up North!  Thanks for the kind words and thoughts!

April Open Stamping Technique

We reviewed two techniques at the April Open Stamping.  One was about using a stencil and white daisy acrylic paint (mixed 50% with the CTMH Pearl create-a-shade paint) and White Daisy pigment ink (for the sentiment).  I confess to stealing stamp-lifting the idea from Amber at DamaskLove.com here.  I had the square flap envelopes and so we made envelope liners for them instead of the pointy flap ones Amber used.  The cards and envelopes turned out pretty cool - I think everyone had a good time playing with the stencil.  Next time, I will cut my stencil down and actually run it through my Xyron sticker maker with repositionable tape as Amber suggests.  This will help prevent the paint "bleed" that you can see in some spots on my card example.  But, with Kraft paper and white paint, the rustic look of the "casual" inking is actually okay. 

If you've never seen Amber's blog, I must confess that I LOVE her work and visit her blog at least once a week for inspiration.  She is amazing!!

Well, I gotta go pop some things into a suitcase and see how much it weighs!  Wish me luck!!