Butterfly Summer

Hi, again!  This is the second entry this summer about God's wonderful creations - butterflies!  Do you ever wonder why they don't fly straight like a bird, but up and down, choppily, here and there?  Maybe so the birds can't get them as easily? The names for "butterfly" in other languages are so cool!  In French, they are "papillon", and in Spanish, "mariposa".

I stamped several butterflies of different sizes all over white cardstock, then shaded them in using markers.  A little coordinating glitter was added for sparkle.  This was mounted onto blue cardstock, then black to make the whole thing stand out.  This was mounted onto a piece of teal vellum, then onto a crinkled piece of purple cardstock, then onto my white card base.  It is 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" big.  The die cut butterfly was given to me by my friend, Donna, and the butterfly base was covered with clear-drying glue then glittered with patina glitter.  The "sparkle" stamp is from Stampin' Up.

Thanks so much for coming by!  Please leave a comment if you'd like - I'd like!  haha

Summer Butterflies

Hi, all you friends out there!  It is so hot here in middle Tennessee!  I'm allergic to sweat, get sunburned and overheated easily, so I'm staying inside the comfortable air conditioning crafting the summer away!  I hope you're all having a wonderful summer so far, and have a safe 4th of July!

It's the season for butterflies, so I thought I'd do a couple of posts showcasing them!  Love them, flutterbies!

The pop-up box is open in this photo so show the "surprises inside"!  The side flaps are stamped with the sentiments, "Give Flight to Your Dreams", "If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies", and "Believe in Miracles".

This is the front of the pop-up box card, as folded for mailing.

 



This care was so fun to make, and not difficult.  There are so many variations to it, and only limited by your imaginations!   You can find the tutorial by Dina here http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/popupboxcard/.

I hope you enjoyed this, and have some fun making your own!  I'd love to see your creations!  Just leave a comment with your link!  Thanks for visiting, and have a safe but fun summer!

 

With Sympathy

Hello, friends!  It's with heavy heart that I post this sympathy card made for a good friend whose son was killed.  One thing I do when I'm creating is think and pray for the person I'm making a card for.  Stay strong, Jane!

This card was very easy to make.  I stamped the Stampin' Up image onto white watercolor paper, then used Stampin' Up ink pads and a blender pen to color it in.  It was framed nicely by a die cut from patterned pink cardstock.  I used dimensionals to pop it up a little, but kept it simple and to the point without any bling or fluff.

Thanks for popping in!  Stay safe, and don't forget to tell those you care for that you love them!

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!