World Card Making Day!

Isn't it so cool that we card makers have our very own special day?! I love it! It's a celebration and it's also a wonderful excuse to use, for not cleaning my house today! Yay! (hee, hee!) :)

So far, I've made two cards for the occasion. Both use the same stamp and both are also for the Hero Arts October challenge, which is Holiday cards.

I bought this little woodblock Christmas tree, thinking I'd enjoy using it. Well, now I can't seem to put it down! It's from Hero Arts and it's called Branch and Flourish Tree. I love pink, green and blue so I wanted to use all three on this first card. The papers are from a Webster's Pages pack and the snowflakes are from Hero Arts. They started out white and I inked them up with a mix of distress inks and perfect pearls.



For my second card today, I used another favorite color combo that I love to use for Christmas. I think the burgundy and darker green colors are so classy looking for the season.



I've never made an inchie/grid design and thought it would be fun to try. Both papers are again from a Webster's Pages pack. Love the ones they came out with for Christmas! I used Stickles for the red dots and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

I hope you all have time to make some cards today! Hero Arts has a wonderful challenge going on all weekend to celebrate! Make sure and stop by their blog for all the details! You can win some Hero Arts stamps. . . .nothin' better than that! :)

Dear Friend

Happy Friday everyone!

I have a special post today. One that honors a good friend of mine. Her name is also Barb. I met her years ago at work. We became fast friends and loved working with each other! She was my confidant, my partner in crime, my best bud and my second mom. She is almost 20 years older than me and I've never met anyone with such a dry sense of humor! Oh my goodness, she could make me laugh!

A year ago May, 2009, she was at work and didn't feel well. She sat down and said, "Something's not right, I think I need an ambulance." That was the last time I saw her. Not because she died, but because her family has too much pride to let her be seen by anyone now that she is not "normal." That night at work, she had a heart attack and since then has had several small strokes and many other problems, too long to explain here. I see her daughter in the store once in awhile and when I ask about Barb, she is always very vague and will not give out too much information.

Since I knew her children would probably never let anyone visit, I decided I was going to send her a card, once a week. Another reason for doing this, is that when someone goes away, or dies, we feel sad for awhile but life goes on and that person is mostly forgotten. We stop talking about them and even think about them less and less. I know that life is suppose to go on and that's okay. It's just that I didn't want her to feel like everyone had forgotten about her. This way, she knows that I'm still thinking about her, still missing her everyday and still love her.

Many of the cards you've seen in my Flickr Photostream this past year have been sent to my dear friend, Barb. This one that I made yesterday, will be mailed to her today.




I've been told by her daughter that she does love my cards, so at least I can hope they've made a difference.

Thanks for stopping by and for reading this long post. I so appreciate it!

Anniversary Card

Hi ladies!

Just a really quick post today. I made an anniversary card for friends of ours, celebrating their 20th. I used lots of Hero Arts products on this one. The lace and flowers are Hero Hues, the background text is Old Letter Writing and the Sentiment is from the Everyday Sayings set. The oval Nestie and butterfly punches are cut from a sheet of Webster's Pages.



Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day! :)

Can't decide. . . .

Hey everyone!

I hope you've had a good week so far. Mine's been a busy one. Can't seem to find enough time in the day to get everything done! I made a card last night and I can't decide if I like it, or if it just doesn't work. Thought I'd post it anyway because I do love the colors. I used one of my favorite stamps called Garden Silhouette and paired it with the new Music Background. I've seen this garden stamp used many times with a text background and I wondered what it would look like with the musical notes behind it instead.



I stamped the Music Background with Hero Hues Poppy Chalk Ink onto the same colored Hero Hues paper. I then stamped it a second time, using the same ink, onto a piece of white cardstock. The Garden Silhouette was stamped over the musical notes using Hero Hues Mango Die Ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. I colored in the image with colored pencils, added a lavender ribbon and a sentiment and layered it all onto a Hero Hues Lavender folded card. Still can't decide if I like it or not. . . .hmmm?

Hope you all have a wonderful day! I'm off to work. . . :)

Christmas Cards Already?

Hi all!

I have never made Christmas cards this early, ever! It goes to show ya just what happens when you have new stamps! I couldn't wait to ink them up! I also used my new Tim Holtz embossing folders that we got for free at Scrapfest. I am telling you, the images come out so crisp and deep. . . love it! After embossing the snowman, it immediately came into my mind to cut it out. So I did! Then I distressed it with Tumbled Glass ink and stamped it with the Music Background from Hero Arts. The blue ink got into the depressed snowflakes too much and I wanted them to be white. So I took some ColorBox white chalk ink, mixed with water, and painted it onto the snowflakes on the snowman. I just couldn't resist spraying the cute guy with Perfect Pearl water. I really like the way it turned out. Thought he'd be cute against Tim's other folder with all the lovely snowflakes.




Here's a close-up to see the shimmer and dimension given to the snowman. (a bit of curling.)




I'm also loving the little Hero Arts Decorative Ornament Cling stamp. It screams to be embossed! I stamped it in a bright red ink and clear embossed. The fun ribbon is American Crafts and I love the pattern. I heat embossed the Dots and Flowers in white on the card base, and added a few red dots with a Copic marker. The sentiment is on the inside.




This last card is made with the Hero Arts Sending Holiday Cheer set. Love the sweet houses in this set. I masked off the house in order to get some trees behind it. I added a bit of Stickles to the trees but it's tough to see in the photo. The snow on the house is done with white Liquid Pearls and the house is colored with Copics. I also heat embossed the snowflakes, from the same set, in silver. The sentiment for this card is also on the inside.




Whew! I usually don't post this many cards at once, but I had a fun weekend, stamping and playing. I'm happy you stopped by today! Thank you too, for your comments! They are always appreciated! Have a great day! :)