Sunshine Returns and a Floral Birthday!

I hope you are all enjoying your Saturday! Today is my first day off of work in 9 days, and it feels so good! Especially because it is absolutely gorgeous outside! The brilliant blue of the sky just seems to put everyone in a better mood! The temps should be close to 70 degrees most of the day too! Ahhhh...my favorite time of the year has finally arrived! That time when it's still early enough in the spring where you can look so forward to a long summer! I'm one of those people who could live in Florida in July, and love every degree of it! I don't even mind the humidity! (Can anyone tell me then, why in the world I live in Minnesota?) We are going to a wedding later today, so looking forward to that also!

Enough about me, let's get to the latest card I made. It's a pretty simple design. I wanted to try some soft peaches, pinks and browns for a change. I used all Hero Arts stamps for this one. The Cling Dots are stamped in the background with Antique Linen. The stamp over to the left is called Delicate Flower Flourish, and stamped four times with Hero Hues Latte Chalk Ink. I then stamped the French Writing with Butterfly in Tattered Rose Distress Ink. For some reason I didn't like the way the butterfly looked, so I made some flowers to place over it.


I'm off to go walk around the yard in the sunshine! Have a great Saturday! :)

Congrats with Pastels

I made this card for a girl in our neighborhood who is graduating this year from high school. She loves flowers and pastel colors. I white embossed the Long Stem Flowers onto white cardstock and used the resist technique with Tumbled Glass, Mustard Seed and Spun Sugar Distress Inks. I love the pretty green result you get from blending the Tumbled Glass with the Mustard Seed! I also added a bit more color to some of the poppies with Copics.

The sun is suppose to make an appearance today! I can't wait to see the brilliant blue sky after 10 days of clouds and rain! Everything is going to be even greener than before! My irises are getting so big this year! I'm looking forward to their blooms! And my peonies are just huge! They are about 4 feet high already, with quite large buds! I'll be sure to take pictures! I will be planting the gardens (both flowers and vegetables) in about 2 weeks. Frost is still a possibility this time of year in Minnesota, so I like to wait a bit longer.

Enjoy your day! Make it a good one, with some fun and time for yourself! :)

Sympathy Card

Sympathy Card
Originally uploaded by bdengler4 (Barb)

I needed to make a sympathy card for my boss. She lost her father this week after a long illness. She is such a sweetheart, we all love her! I've worked at this job for 27 years and have had 12 or 13 different managers, and she is the best by far!

I stamped the grass and bird, with brown ink, on vellum. Then clear embossed and placed it over the brown card stock. The ribbon is a beautiful brown color, but the picture makes it look almost black.

I've been thinking a lot about my own father this week. He died over 30 years ago, when I was in high school. I love that my memories of him are still so vivid! He was a big beautiful man with a fabulous smile and zest for life. Love thinking about him!

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful day! We have one more here with cold, damp weather, then the warmth and sunshine returns! I'm so looking forward to it!!

Embossed Butterflies

Embossed Butterflies
Originally uploaded by bdengler4 (Barb)

Well, it's another gloomy, cold day here. I'm getting to the point where I am in desperate need of some sunshine and warm temps! But I try to always look on the bright side of things, so in this case, after all this rain, everything will be so green and beautiful! I do hear by the weekend, it'll be close to 70 degrees and sunnier! Can't wait! :)

Today's card is a bit disappointing, but I thought I'd post it anyway, because we learn from cards like this. I know most of us have had cards we didn't like, so it's a good learning experience!

After white embossing the butterflies from the Hero Arts Watercolor Petals set, I used distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage and Wild Honey. Then spritzed it with a mixture of perfect pearls and water. The shimmer is MUCH better in real life.

Remember to smile today! It makes you, and everyone around you, happier! :)

Bright Birthday

I want to give a HUGE thank you to all of you who visited my blog for my first post! It is so nice to see all those comments! It made me feel so welcomed into the blogging world! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I was up quite late last night (I can see that happening often now) making this card for today. I had such fun using my distress inks! I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Barn Door, to add the color over the blue embossed Dots and Flowers. I cut out a scalloped circle from the Cuttlebug and stamped the flowers from the Hero Arts Real Flowers set. I like how bright the card turned out. We need some brightness here in Minnesota right now! We are having lots of rain and freezing temps! We seem to be getting our March weather now, because we had our May weather in March! As we say here, "Only in Minnesota!"

Here's wishing you all have a wonderful day! I'm heading to work soon to be among the pretty flowers! Always makes me feel better!

Thanks for visiting! :)

My First Post!

First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! I also want you to know that I cannot believe I have a blog! I only hope I'll find the time to actually post something here once in awhile! I'm still learning about all this tech stuff, and very nervous about all of it! I also think I may be using a bit too much pink!

I thought I would start out with a card I made a few days ago, using one of my favorite Hero Arts stamps...the Hydrangea. It is one of those classic stamps that is so fun to color. In the background, I've used the Hero Arts Friend Definition, embossed in white. Thank you for the visit, and I hope you enjoy your day!