A Very Special Card!

Hi guys! Well, after a frustrating day of not being able to post anything here on the blog, or comment on any other blogs, the people running Blogger have finally got it working! So onto today's post!

I received a nice message awhile back from Kathy Racoosin. She was thanking me for often commenting on her blog and wanted to send me a card. Of course I jumped at the chance! I mean, we all know that Kathy's cards are not just cards, but works of art! So I went out to get the mail the other day, and there was an envelope from Kathy. I ran (literally) into the house and opened it up. I could not believe my eyes! I know many of you will remember seeing this card in the Flickr pool. It is the most fantastic card ever, and I cannot believe it's actually mine now! Just look at this masterpiece!



I am telling you, it is so amazing! I tried to capture all its beauty by taking a few more pictures. The love and hard work that went into creating this card is truly spectacular! Wish you could all see it in person! The details of the stamping, coloring, stitching, paper piercing, dimension, etc, etc....are just so cool! And I love the colors!








The inside is fabulous too! Just look at this perfect stitching!





I want to thank Kathy for sending this card to me! I love looking at it, everyday in my craft room! Thanks Kath! Hugs to you!

Glad you all stopped by today! Hope everyone has a nice week with some time for crafting! :)

Itty, Bitty and Large Flower

Happy Friday everyone! I've been trying to get the courage up to join in and submit some cards to more challenges. I have a hard time with some of them, but am slowly starting to play along. So with Anne's challenge in mind, I looked through all my stamps and chose one that could be used to make a frame for this card.



I masked off a rectangle in the middle of the white card base and blended some Worn Lipstick Distress Ink around the edges. I then took an itty, bitty stamp from the Hero Arts clear set, CL272. (don't have the name of the set.) It's a small little swirly thingy. I stamped it around the card with VersaMark and heat embossed in white. I love this Hero Arts Large Flower stamp! One of my faves!! I also embossed it in white, onto white cardstock, then used a few different Distress Inks with the resist technique. I just HAD to spray it, and the blue cardstock, with Perfect Pearls! Here's a close-up of the shimmer.



Since Anne's challenge is to use itty, bitty stamps, I will be submitting this to her. I also think it works for the Hero Arts challenge because summer is all about flowers!

Thanks for all the lovely comments on yesterday's post! Hope you all went to Michelle's blog to enter to win a great prize package! If not, scroll down to the post below and you'll see the link!

Have a fabulous weekend! I'm planning on making the most of mine! Last three days of my vacation! Sure has gone fast! Hugs! :)

Summery Colors

Wow, I can't believe it's Thursday already! Time sure flies when you're on vacation! I've been thinking about summer and trying to come up with different ways to show what it means to me on a card. Today I decided to use the colors that come to mind when I think of summer. Citrus colors always say summer to me! So I grabbed for my Distress Inks and came up with this.



I used three different color families. For the greens, I used Peeled Paint and bundled Sage. For the oranges, I used Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade and for the pinks, I used Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick. I started out with white card stock and stamped the Hero Arts Friend Definition with VersaMark and clear embossed, for the background. I then took the pink and orange inks and blended them until I got the colors I wanted. I stamped the Large Floral Scallop, also from Hero Arts, onto another white piece, and again clear embossed. I used the same pinks and oranges, along with the two green inks, to color in the flowers and leaves. I actually used a small paint brush, dipped into the inks, which had been stamped onto my craft mat. This is an easier way for me to get the colors where I want them, when working with small images like this. I added a silk ribbon, button with string, a sentiment and a couple of pearls to finish off the card.

I've decided to not only enter this for the Hero Arts challenge this month, but also for the Digi Doodle Shop's Best Challenge, which is to use a button or buttons. That's it! So easy! If you're interested, you can join in the fun at the DDSB blog!

I really like the way this card turned out. The colors do look summery, don't they?

One more thing...there is an AWESOME giveaway from Michelle on her blog! Pop on over and leave a comment to win this amazing package of goodies!

Thank you for your visit! Hope you all have a happy day today! :)

Fireworks?

Just a short post with a small, easy card. The Hero Arts blog has a theme of Summer Fun and 4th of July, for this month's challenge. I don't have any fireworks stamps but had a card idea in my head, so I thought since I had the Silhouette Spray stamp on my desk from an earlier card, it would be fun to use it for fireworks. Not sure if it works, but it was a fun card to make.



I clear embossed the spray a few times, using Barn Door and Faded Jeans. I also stamped it with VersaMark and embossed with white EP. The scalloped circle shape was cut with a Nestie, using my Cuttlebug. I inked white card stock for the background with Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks. I then flicked water onto the colors. I also used a Fiskars star punch on white card stock and smeared the stars onto my craft sheet, into Faded Jeans and a mix of Perfect Pearls and water. The stars are more sparkly in real life. I also added some Hero Arts Metallic Decor to a couple of the sprays and near the sentiment.

Have a great day everyone! :)

On Vacation and Loving Every Minute!

Hello and happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a nice, long, holiday weekend! Mine was delightful! Lots of family time, outdoors, in the fantastic weather we've been having! The best part was not having to stop the day, rush to get ready and go to work! Love the slower paced lifestyle! Hmmmm.....maybe I'm ready for retirement? Good thing I have 6 more days left of vacation time!

So onto today's card. While visiting the Hero Arts blog this morning, I fell in love with Shari's card! I loved everything about it! The colors, stamps used, flowers and butterfly! So I decided I just HAD to make one too! It's very similar to Shari's and it was so fun to make!



I used a large Nestie die for the shape of the card. I stamped two different Hero Arts flowers and a leaf stem. Lots and lots of inks were used too! That was the fun part! Hero Arts Shadow Inks in Soft Lilac, Soft Pool and Soft Leaf. Hero Hues Lavender, Memories Dye Ink in Green, and three distress inks in Broken China, Tumbled Glass and Peeled Paint.....Whew! The sparkly flower is one I've had forever and I added a HA pearl and some gems to the center. I used a pretty, lavender, silk ribbon, along with some white string, to place behind the flower. Punched a couple little butterflies and done! A few of the same inks were used to distress the edges of the card base.

Thanks for visiting and I so appreciate the comments! They make my day! :)
I hope the start of your week is going well! Enjoy!

Another Try at Joy's Technique

Many of you have tried the technique Joy showed us on her blog. I've made one card trying the technique and wanted to make another. For this one, I used the Hero Arts Etched Medallion stamp with Wild Honey and Broken China Distress Inks. These two inks, mixed together, made a sort of pretty peach and minty green. Love that! I also switched it up a bit and stamped the Friend Definition over the background. I added the silk ribbon and placed a strip of peach colored card stock on top of it, punched with a Fiskar's scallop. Added the Hero Arts sentiment and butterflies from an MS punch. This is such a fun technique, and I've enjoyed seeing everyone's creations, using it. So neat how we all come up with such different looks, using the same technique!



Thanks for the visit! Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday weekend! I am off work this week, through Sunday! I am enjoying not only crafting, but the beautiful weather we've had....lots of time gardening and just being outside! Have a great Monday! :)