Hello Again!

It's been a while since I last posted.  I didn't realize how long it's been, but I'm happy to be back!
 
I have been so busy watching my two grandsons while they were living with us for nearly a year.  I have to say they were a handful, but a fun handful!  I miss them!  They've moved to a new place not far from here, so we can visit often.  It was a nice arrangement while they were here, because my daughter was able to work from "home", upstairs, so she could run down if she needed to.
 
I also had to have another surgery - yes, number 20!  This time I wasn't put out, but had a balloon sinuplasty done in the doctor's suite.  It wasn't pleasant having all the little bones in my nose broken with balloons, but I can breathe!  I went home right afterward.  It's been a breeze recovering from this.  Hopefully, my full sense of taste and smell will come back soon!  If any of you have had this procedure done, I'd be interested in hearing your story and how it's been for you.  Please leave a comment!
 
Anyway, I have three new cards to share with you, and it feels so good to get back into the craft room!  I was perusing through my Stampin' Up catalog for incentive, and found a tri-fold card that was different in that the top was cut on an angle, which created an interesting look when folded.  

The cardstock used on this first card came from a 6.5" x 4.5" matstack
called Garden Party from DCWV.  Some of the pages have glitter on them,
like the butterfly printed front panel.  Both of the sentiments are stamps from
Stampin' Up, and the flower and leaf stamps are from Heartfelt Creations.
 



This card is the same size as the first, which was an 8.5" x 11" piece of white cardstock folded into three equal sides.  The patterned paper used on each panel are from the Mariposa matstack from DCWV.  I love butterflies,
and this is one of my most very favorite collections of cardstock to work with! 
The front sentiment stamp quoted from Georgia O'Keefe is a
favorite also, from Verve, called Nicest Thoughts. 

The inside sentiment is from a stamp set called Spring has Sprung by 
Gina K. Designs, stamps by Rupa Shevde,  The two larger butterflies on the center
panel are from a Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps set.  The two cards above fit
into standard legal-sized envelopes. 
 

This card is shorter than the two previous cards.  I cut it to 5.5" x 11".  The
patterned cardstock used on each of the three panels is from the same
one as listed above, the Mariposa matstack.  I cut one of the printed butterflies
out from a scrap of the blue, and adhered it to the front above the
sentiment from Stampin' Up.

I hope you've enjoyed visiting, and I would love for you to leave a comment on what you think about these new cards! 

I also hope that you are well, and enjoying the cool weather, the sights and sounds of Springtime!  Take care, friends!

 

For My Guy

If you're like me, you probably don't have too many "guy" cards laying around on hand for when you need one in a hurry.  I thought I'd make a few, and this is one I came up with.  Very, very simple.

Thank you for stopping in!  I hope you're well and happy!

Foxglove

Hello, everyone!  Clare here, with my last blog for the month of July for Our Daily Bread Designs.  I really appreciate ODBD choosing me as their July guest designer, and I feel very humbled by all of your sweet comments over the last month.  Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share a little bit of my work with some fantastically wonderful stamps and papers from ODBD!

This is a very easy card to make, and didn't take long at all.  I think some people would call it a CAS card (clean and simple).

I started with a white card measuring 5 1/2" x 4 1/4".  For those of you who are familiar with my work, I usually put something 3-D on each project.  Well, this one has no 3-D, but I had to add something!  Glitter!  I stamped the seed packet from the ODBD set "Seed Packet", in black Versafine ink, on the front of the card.  I like to use that ink when coloring with anything but Copics because of the detail it gives.  Then I stamped another seed packet on a piece of scrap paper, and cut the center hole out to make a mask, which I can use over and over again, changing whatever I put in the middle of the packet.  The foxglove stamp worked really well for this, and also the "Foxglove" word stamp from the same set, called "Bloom".  I love that font!  I chose the word "Seeds" from the Seed Packet set for the packet label, and Grows best with prayer at the bottom.  I did these in Orchid Opulence ink from Stampin' Up.  A little bit of green around the edges, and some pink, orchid and blue on and around the flowers.  I used some blue chalk to blend from the bottom blue to the top light blue.  All that was left was to tie some Gumball Green ribbon around the center fold, with a tad bit of white 1/8" wide grosgrain ribbon through the green knot, and apply some glitter to the blossoms with a dries clear glue.  That's it!  I think the glitter is just the thing it needed.

I have had a great time reading and learning from all of the great designers and people at Our Daily Bread Designs!  I hope you have too!  I'm really looking forward to getting to know the August designer and see what wonderful work she does!  See you soon, and thanks to all of you!

 

 

 

A Week of Roses - Day 7 is Lavender

Hi!  I hope you've enjoyed the week of roses, with this being day seven.  Lavender is the color for today.  There have been red, blue, yellow, peach, pink, white and now lavender. 

I hope you have a great weekend and following week!  May your days be rosy!  Thanks for visiting my blog, and I would appreciate any comments you may make.  Take care!

Week of Roses - Day 6 with White

Now, I think you'll find this card a little different than the others.  The rose was done in the "negative", or stamped on black paper, and the paper bleached - yes, bleached inside the rose lines.  I embossed the rose in black on black cardstock, then used bleach and a small paint brush to paint in the white.  As the bleach absorbed into the black paper, it bleached the color out, leaving what you see.  I was very impressed with the elegance of it, and so unique!  I'd love to know what you think!

Thanks for coming!  Please leave a comment - I'd like to know what you think about this technique.

A Week of Roses - Day 5 is Pink

Today's showcase is a pink rose card that I made several years ago, but with the same stamp.  I love the Anja embossing plates.  It's just amazing to me how a little bit of coloring in the right spot can make an image "pop" off the paper, and look so dimensional, but this rose image is completely flat!

 



Thank you for stopping by to visit.  I appreciate each one of you!  See you again tomorrow.

A Week of Roses - Day 4 is Peachy

I again all!  Welcome back to a week of rose cards.  We've had red, blue and yellow so far.  This one is peach, and we still have pink to go, and maybe a surprise of white.  Using the same stamp, but angling the image slightly, and using a different die to cut out the outer embellishments.  I added a bit more blue in the leaves this time.

 

Here's another peachy rose card I found in my files, and thought I'd share it as well.  The eggs are from a stamp by Chocolate Baroque, which I absolutely love to pieces!



Thank you so much for visiting!  See you tomorrow for another rosey card!

A Week of Roses - Yellow Rose Day 3

Hi, blog friends!  Here I am once again with a new rose card to share with you.  This week is A Week of Roses, and I've promised photos of cards I've made with roses on them each day.

Today's rose is yellow, and I've used the same stamp as previously blogged about on the previous "Rose" days.  It's amazing to me how the same stamped image can be used again and again but look totally different!

This photo has a little better angle on the 3-D rose made from scratch.

Tomorrow will showcase a peach rose card.  I hope to see you then!  Thanks for stopping by!

Bless You

Hi!  I hope everyone has had a great month!  It's almost over already!  The fourth card for July is one that I got a lot of enjoyment out of making.  There's nothing therapeutic like coloring, for me that is.  Fussy cutting things out also has a calming effect on me.

This card was an easy one to make.  It was just a matter of stamping the flowers, coloring them in, die cutting the decorative corners, gluing, and popping up.  That's it.  Here's photos and the details on how I did it -

 I started with a 5" x 5" square white card, and chose the beautiful green dotted paper from the Blushing Rose Collection to layer on the front.  (I must apologize for my photos being a little off in the color - computer issues, then more computer issues!)  Using the Decorative Corners die, I cut two of the heart corners, and glued them in opposite corners.  The photo above doesn't show an accurate shade of green for the base, like below.   I found some pretty coral grosgrain ribbon in my stash, and glued that from upper right corner to lower left corner, then trimmed the edges evenly with the cardstock.  I made a small loop out of the ribbon and glued that in place also.  In the Blushing Rose Collection of paper, there are two sheets of sentiments from which I cut the square saying, "Bless You".  The roses on this sentiment were much more of a pink, so I touched them up a tiny bit with some coral ink.  That's what is so nice about these papers!  With a little bit of color, they can be changed ever so slightly to match another image, or use them as beautiful as they are. 

The last thing I did, (and the most fun!) was stamping the flowers from the set Cherry Blossom onto pink shimmer cardstock three times, the third time so that I could cut it up and use parts of it.  I used Copic markers to color the flowers,  After cutting them out, I positioned them, and adhered to the card front as shown with dimensional adhesive squares.  The Bless You sentiment was also applied this way.  The button was an opaque white, from my stash.  I used a coral marker to color it, placed some yellow stamens in the center, and glued it over the end of the Cherry Blossom branch and the end of the ribbon loop.  I added a couple of the little leaves from the cherry blossoms I had been cutting on under the button. 

For the inside - I stamped the sentiment from the set Bloom on a piece of white scrap cardstock, in a coral ink then tore the edges.  I sponged them with a little green ink and applied this piece flat onto the left side of the inside of the card.  Tucking in just the stem, I also adhered flat another of the Cherry Blossom branches.  That's it - so easy!  Here's the things you will need.

Our Daily Bread Designs - stamp sets, Cherry Blossom and Bloom
                                            Blushing Rose Collection of paper
                                            Decorative Corners dies
Pink shimmer cardstock
Ribbon and flower button
Versafine Onyx Black ink, heat set
Copic markers - Y19,  YG 03, YG45, YG63, G21 and R05

I hope you've enjoyed your visit, and I hope you'll come back!  I've loved having you!

A Week of Roses - Day 2, Blue

Hi, again!  I hope you're all doing well!

Here's a blue rose for Tuesday, and I've never seen a blue rose, but I sure love this image and others I've seen done in blue.  I used the same rose stamp from Stampin' Up, and their markers also.  Just added some dimensional adhesives and ribbon onto a die cut to blue rose patterned paper and that was it.  Very easy.

Have a great week!