For My Sister, Laurie

A happy hello from the girl on vacation! :)

Can ya tell I love being home and not working? It's funny, because I really do love my job. But I also love the time off I get. I guess it's a balance of both that keeps us happy.

Anyway, I loved Jennifer's personalized teacher cards on the Hero Arts Blog the other day. I thought of my younger sister, Laurie and wanted to make her a similar card. She teaches at a school for special-needs kids and is so good at what she does! I'll be giving this card to her for her first day back.



When I uploaded the card image, I chose the large size this time. It was a request from Anita. Hope this is better, Anita. Thanks for the suggestion.
This photo doesn't show the pretty color of the card base very well. It's a Hero Hues card in a poppy color from the Sunshine Set of folded cards. I stamped the Graph Background with Hero Hues Mango Dye Ink. The apples are from this set. I stamped them with the Punch colored Chalk Ink, added a deeper red with a Copic marker, doused them with Glossy Accents and cut them out before adding them to the die cut piece. I then hand drew the stems and leaves. Hope she likes it!

I am leaving shortly to take my 15 year old son, David, to his second day of driving school. Yikes! Can't believe he's that old already! He's my baby and such a good kid! He has a wonderful sense of humor and makes me laugh everyday! And the best part is that he is still willing to give me a hug when I want one. Hope it lasts!

Have a fabulous Saturday! :)

"Things with Wings"

Hi everybody!

It's strange for me to be doing a post at this time of day. I usually post in the morning. I've decided to enter a card in the challenge over at the new Simon Says Stamp and Show blog..."Things with Wings." I made this card and looked at it for a few days. Didn't want to post it because I didn't think I liked it. Still not sure I do but what the heck.



I used the Hero Arts Birdcage stamp and a bird from the Two Birds (Three Images) Cling set. Colored the bird with Copics and cut him out. I wanted to make it look like the bird was inside the cage with his tail sticking out. I paper pieced the small lined areas of the cage with some BoBunny paper and added a bit of Stickles here and there. The big, fat, flowery ribbon is from the store where I work. I layered a few flowers and added gems, before attaching some blue string behind them. The sentiment is from the Everyday Sayings set.

I am now officially on vacation! Staying home for 10 days and hopefully getting lots of crafting done! We've had quite the storms in the last two days! An amazing amount of rain in a very short time! Our back yard is flowing like a river. . .not kidding! Still VERY hot and humid too, but they say we are in for much cooler weather, starting tomorrow. Mid 70's instead of the 90 degree temps we've had all week. Sounds like perfect weather for my days off!! Yay!

Have a wonderful rest of the evening! :)

Hero Arts Blog!

Happy Thursday!

It's a happy day for me and my hostess sisters, for sure! We are being featured on the Hero Arts blog today! We each made a card for the Keeping in Touch theme this month. We also decided that we should each use a butterfly on our cards. Here is mine.

I won't go into too much detail here on my blog. It's fairly self-explanatory, but if you are interested in finding out more details, visit the Hero Arts blog and click on the instructions under my card. I will mention that it's a bit difficult to see but I used the Graph stamp for the background. The different stamps and techniques I used on this card made it so fun to create. Distressed edges, layering, embossed resist and a little shading were all used, and I really like the way it turned out.

Thanks for coming by on this special, fun day! I truly appreciate your visits and comments!

Pot of Dogwood. . .Inspired by Jill

Hi everyone!

Most of you know the talented Jill Foster but for the few of you who don't, she is an amazingly talented card maker! She has a blog called "Inspired By" that is one of my favorite places to visit each day! Every week, she chooses a different card maker who happens to inspire her, and makes a card based on that person's creation. You can also see her beautiful cards in her photostream here.

So today I wanted to show you a card that is completely inspired by Jill. I used Hero Hues Powder Layering Paper for the card base and embossed the dots using my Cuttlebug. I hand cut the flower pot, stamped it with La Lettre and shaded it using Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. I stamped the Dogwood and colored them with Copics before cutting them out. I put Glossy Accents over the added white dots in the center of each flower. The leaves were stamped with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and also cut out.



I stamped two different grass stamps and filled them in with Copics to add a bit more color. Then I used Peeled Paint again to add some shading over the grass. The sentiment is from the Big Hugs set and a piece blue string with a small bow finishes off the card.

I want to thank Jill for being such an inspiration! This card was so fun to make and I enjoyed every minute of it! Love ya, Jill!

I work today and tomorrow, then I'm off for TEN DAYS! I'm getting very excited, in case you couldn't tell! I hope you all have a fabulous day with time for creativity!

Engraved Flower

I've been in kind of a funk lately. I always get this way when I'm close to having some time off from work. I find myself not wanting to do anything! It's so strange because that's not like me at all! I work tonight and then during the day on Tues. Wed. and Thurs. Starting Friday I'm off for 10 days. Can't wait! I'm just staying at home,which is my favorite kind of vacation.

So I was barely able to create a card. It helps when you have new stamps. I love all the gorgeous cards in the Flickr pool, using the beautiful Engraved Flower! I was excited to ink it up. I stamped it using VersaMark, onto white cardstock and clear embossed the image. I took Wild Honey and Mustard seed Distress Inks, stamped them onto my craft sheet, then sprayed them with a mix of Perfect Pearls and water. Using a small paintbrush, I colored in the flower. The background is stamped with Old Letter Writing in Vintage Photo Distress Ink.



I am really loving the Hero Hues Layering Papers from Hero Arts! The colors are so yummy! I used Mandarin for the card base and also some Poppy for the scalloped, punched edges and sentiment tag.

Here is a close-up of the flower so you can see the shimmery effect of the Perfect Pearls. The gems are also from Hero Arts. . . Love! Looks so pretty in real life!



I'm planning on sending this to my friend, Martha. I told her NOT to visit my blog today. She lives in Georgia and I miss her so much! Been trying to send her a card every week since she moved. It really helps us stay in touch. Another example for the Hero Arts challenge this month.

Thanks for coming by today! Hope your Monday is more productive than mine!

Butterflies!

I love butterflies! Don't we all? So I was excited to find out that Jenny's challenge this week is to use them on a card. I really like this clear stamp from Hero Arts (made exclusively for Archiver's) called Butterfly Wallpaper. I've only used it a couple of times. Once here and another time on a black and white card here.



I clear embossed it on white and used the resist technique with my three favorite Distress Inks; Spun Sugar, Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass. I then clear embossed a butterfly from the Antique Engravings set, two times and used the same technique on these, cut them out and attached to the card. The sentiment is from the Sending Smiles clear set.

Hope your Saturday is going well!