Simple Card

Happy weekend! I have a quick post today. Just a simple card I made using the Hero Arts Flower Plate cling stamp.



The butterfly is cut out from the French Writing with Butterfly stamp and I added a touch of Glossy Accents to it. The Flower Plate was stamped with ColorBox, French Blue, chalk ink and heat embossed with clear ep over the Friend Definition. I layered the image with some red cardstock and BoBunny paper. Here are a couple different views of the card.



I love these pretty gems from Hero Arts! Such great colors! I added three of them below the sentiment.



I curved the butterfly's wings for a bit of dimension.


Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope your weekend is off to a good start! Remember to share lots of smiles with those around you! :)

Stormy Evening and Thank You!

I want to thank all of you who commented on my post yesterday! It helps so much to know you guys are here to turn to when I need support! I can't tell you how much it means to me to know you all care! Thank you so much!

I love when Friday comes. It's always a busy day in the flower department at work and the time flies. When I come home in the afternoon, it feels so good to know I have the following day off!

Last night we had quite the storms here in Minnesota! The temperature was up in the high 80's, very humid and sooo windy! Tornadoes touched down in some cities around the state with horrible damage. My thoughts and prayers are with all those who are suffering today from these deadly storms. We were lucky here around the Twin Cities. It got very dark and windy, but nothing compared to what others went through! We are so grateful! Thought I'd share a few pictures of the sky last night.


I call these "upside down clouds" When you see these, it's not good!



This is the view from my front yard, looking across the side street toward the neighbors.



And this one is taken from my deck in the back yard. The clouds were so much darker than they look in the pictures. Scary stuff!

One good thing about bad weather, is you get to stay inside and create. When Lin posted this card awhile back, I knew I wanted to do something similar. Here is what I came up with.


I stamped the Hero Arts La Lettre first, then I clear embossed the Hero Arts Three Sunflowers stamp. I colored in the image using a paintbrush and Distress Inks mixed with water. The paper is BoBunny and the green, punched edge is from EK.



The large paper flower is from Kelly, sent along with my card from her for the June CCC. Thanks Kelly! I distressed both flowers a bit to add more color and added a couple of buttons. The Martha Stewart butterflies were punched from white card stock, colored with brown and orange ink and clear embossed. Love the way they turned out!



Thank you, Lin, for continuing to inspire me with your talent! I hope everyone has a great start to the weekend!

Going Through a Difficult Time

I haven't felt much like creating lately and when I do, I end up not liking how the cards turn out. I think it has to do with my mom. She is starting to feel the effects of the cancer more now, and the symptoms and weakness seemed to happen out of nowhere. We had lunch the other day and she felt pretty good. 3 days later, and she just seems so weak. My heart aches for her. I hate seeing her suffer, and yet I know it is going to get even worse. I'm trying to prepare myself....so difficult. I'm very thankful to have all my brothers and sisters nearby. We are such a good support group for each other. My husband has also been such a help....he's there for me to talk to and cry with. Then there are my friends and wonderful co-workers! Love them all so much! I don't mean to bring anyone down today. It's just that it really helps me to write down what's happening and how I'm feeling about it. So thank you for reading this...I know it's not easy.

I did manage to play with some ink today. Even though it's difficult for me to even come up with any good ideas for a card, it helps me find peace when I'm sitting at my craft desk, stamping and distressing. I know you can all relate to that feeling and I'm so grateful that I found this hobby. This card is just a result from mindlessly playing around. Started out masking with an oval Nestie and ended up with this. ???



I used Wild Honey Distress Ink for the background and stamped the Hero Arts Exotic Bloom stamp with Vintage Photo. I added a few too many Hero Hues Gems, but I couldn't stop myself! I found the pretty, sheer ribbon at Michaels. Here's a closer view to see the dimension I gave to the oval. I think it looks kinda cool to see the white masked part underneath.



Thanks for bearing with me through this long post. I love blogging and visiting all of your blogs too! I also enjoy looking at and commenting on cards in the Flickr pool! It all somehow helps me when I get the feeling of being overwhelmed. I'm off to work now....

Playing With Ink

After seeing the Hero Arts blog on Monday and Tuesday, I wanted to try Jennifer's resist techniques. Just like some of you, I have had trouble getting a good image to appear when using only the VersaMark. I decided to go ahead and emboss the Silhouette Grass stamp in white, then apply the Hero Hues Chalk Ink, using the color Cerulean.



I was going for the look of the night sky, filled with stars. The clear gems are also from Hero Arts. I found the button at Joanne's in a lovely vintage pack. I also gave the card a bit of a spray with water and Perfect Pearls. I'll be giving this card to a friend's daughter, who recently graduated from nursing school.

The sun has finally returned here....too bad I work today. I DO have some beautiful perennials for sale outside on the sidewalk of the store, so I may just have to take my time watering and caring for them today!! (hee, hee.)

Enjoy your Wednesday and as always, thanks for stopping by! :)

Baby Boy Card

Hi all!

Just a quick post today. I made two baby cards for Paula, as did many of you, so that they would be ready to mail when she gave birth. Since she had a baby girl, I figured it would be alright to post the boy one. I've sent this off to Hannah for her card drive now.



I used the Hero Arts Box Plaid stamp for the background. I cut three scalloped circle Nesties from the Cuttlebug for some layering. The sweet elephant image and sentiment are from the Inkadinkadoo clear set, called Welcome Baby. I colored the image with Copics and added some Glossy Accents. This card was lots of fun to make! Hope you enjoy!

I'm so happy I'll be among the flowers at work today! The weather today is rainy, chilly and gloomy again! It feesl like I haven't seen the sun in such a long time! They say we should see it tomorrow. I hope they're right! Have a fab Tuesday everyone! :)

Trying Another Challenge. . . . .

Hello there!

Does anyone else think the weekend went way too fast?! I can't believe it's Monday already! I did get a nice surprise yesterday at work though. They had scheduled too many of us, so I was able to turn around and come back home! Love when that happens! Can ya see me smiling?

I'm starting to get tired of the weather we've been having. It's gotten colder and has been either raining or cloudy for days now. Living in Minnesota can be difficult, so I cherish every sunny warm day there is. When it rains for quite a few days in a row, I almost feel cheated out of summer because it's such a short season here. Hope the sun and warmth returns soon!

I decided to give Jenny's challenge a try. It's all about stitches. You can have any kind of stitches you want on your card. Since sewing is not something I'm very good at, (want to learn someday) I used a rub-on for this card.



This card turned out way different than I thought it would and no matter what I did with my camera, I could not get the colors right. The background color is a much prettier green. In this picture, it looks so pukey to me! Some of the pearls look darker than they actually are too. Oh well....*sigh*

I used the Hero Arts Long Stem Flowers stamp. I stamped my ink pads directly on my kraft sheet, sprayed the ink with Pearlized water, placed the stamp into the mixture, then stamped it onto the card stock. Love the shimmer! I also used that same watery ink and a small paintbrush to add extra color to the poppies. I clear embossed the Hero Arts La Letter stamp behind the flower image. Here is a close-up of the shimmer from the Perfect Pearls. So yummy! (Try to ignore the puke green color of the background!)



Thanks for visiting me today! Hopefully the next card I make will be better! (Live and learn.) I hope the weather where you are is so much better than here! Enjoy the start to your week! :)