Roses for a Friend

Hey there & welcome. Today's card is for a blogging friend who is dealing with some tough times in her life, and I hope the roses on this card will bring comfort & let her know many of us in Blogland are praying hard for her healing just now.

- Sweet Impressions Stamp (U7066-II) image done on Xpress colored with copics.  Die cut with a Sizzix indented rectangle-657569, edged with DI Broken China.

- DCWV Green cork paper mat (4.5x6.5 mat stack) done with the next size up of the Sizzix set, center portion cut out. This cork paper is a bit on the 'heavy' side.

- Elizabeth Craft sentiment. Cut 3 layers of white snippet c/stock, glued together, then colored with BG0000, G0000, G00, and finally YG03. The 3 layers give a bit of dimension. Had intended to leave the lettering white, but decided I liked it better colored.

- red twine, rhinestone trim on bow.

- Card base is World Win paper - a lovely texture to it. Scored edge done with a Scor Buddy.

Yesterday our temperature reached 83F. It was a lovely sunny day, blue skies but think we went from winter to summer all in one day. It was so pleasant to have the house open & airing out. We need to sweep off the front porch, rehang the swing, which we took down last fall, and covered with a tarp. The winter weather plays havoc with the wood finish that DH has already redone once and made it look new again. He assured me he wasn't doing that chore again.

Ya'll have a lovely day. Come again when you have time to set a spell. Although I don't know how to make a good mint julep (that's what Southerners used to offer their visitors - LOL), we can promise something cold to sip on, as we watch the neighbors drive by & wave as we swing back n forth. Hugs.

Friday Fun Day Challenge at Jo's Scrap Shack

Good Morning. Today's Friday Fun Day Challenge #24 over at Jo's Scrap Shack is being sponsored by Limited Runs Digital Stamps for Team A.  I chose this Flower with Lady bug image to make a card following the sketch provided to the Design Team.

- Printed the Limited Runs digi on Copic Xpress paper, colored with copics; die cut with a S/Binder circle and used DI Peeled Paint to sponge around the edges while still in the die. The background had been colored with Copic G0000.

- Background created with Orange Zest, Pure Sunshine & Dry Martini Dylusions sprays. The Dry Martini spray was a dilution of water with White Linen added. Sprayed some gold Tattered Angels over the Dylusions spray and let dry naturally, after tilting the w/c paper to allow the puddles to marble. Different pieces created this way were used for the S/B Lacey Circle mat, and circle trims were created with different punches, in order to follow the sketch. I rearranged the position of the circles to fit horizontal card design. Some of the pieces were snippets from other projects (the banner & the smaller circles). The scalloped circle & lacey mat were created during this session using sprays listed.

Thinking of you

Good morning, and thanks for joining me today. Some time ago, I ordered some images from Lilli of the Valley (LOTV) and haven't done anything with them. Came across them recently, decided I needed to change that situation. Here's the following card that resulted:

- Can't take any credit for the cute little bunny...was already colored when I started with the card (:-0).  I did make the background of the very simple cardbase. (the black is what I placed the card against to photograph it just in case you can't tell this!). I airbrushed plain white paper with various dark pink copics using a piece of lace as a mask. The lace is sort of a tulle but with patterns in it and the flower pattern showed up pretty well using the dark pinks. It's covered up by the topper though! Used Memento New Sprout on a leaf stamp over the airbrushing. Used the same color to smudge around the S/Binder diecut image, while still in the die. Ditto for the tiny sentiment. Didn't have any pink ribbon that worked with this, so just took my copic marker and colored a piece of white ribbon.

- butterflies were from an embossed piece of vellum, MS punch that has multiple sizes on it.

This was an easy card - I love those LOTV images. This has been mailed to a buddy who's had a rough patch for a while, so I hope it cheers her to know I'm thinking of her.

Ya'll have a nice day. I'm off to take a class in Iris Folding. Something I've always wanted to learn.
Hugs & enjoy whatever it is that you're doing.

Thinking of you

Top O' the Morning & it's an overcast, much cooler day here in our South Carolina area. We're loving the cooler weather that we're supposed to have this weekend. Yesterday morning as we left for the eye clinic about 7:30 am, our car temp showed 63F outside. And it was pouring rain when we came outside to return home. A day for napping, which is exactly what we did, as we were up and out earlier than our normal routine.

OK...here is today's card share. Again with the Dylusions sprays. Another salvage as well.

Thinking of You

Good Morning. I've been seeing a lot of hexagon motifs lately and recently purchased one of the Fiskars squeezeable handpunches at the new JoAnn's store that opened in our SC city.(on sale!) Also got a DCWV 12x12 pack of Butterfly Garden paper (half off). Hunted through this pack trying to find motifs that would fit nicely in the punch so that the design would be centered. (not as easily done as it would seem either). Finally punched out a bunch. I saw a tip at Stamping with Loll about giving the cutout motif more stability, so also punched out some very lightweight cardboard hexagons to glue to the paper. (the cardboard was leftovers from the magnet sheets I used in my Art Bin S/binder project). Then had to try to think of a pretty way to arrange some of these hexagons on a card.

I had been air brush experimenting recently - on an evening when I was not in the mood to make cards. Used a piece of white cardstock, different light shades of pink copics, and a piece of scrap lace as a stencil. Added some Tattered Angels gold spritz; not too impressed with the effort, so set aside. Another day I headed upstairs to the attic sewing area, dug around through a lace bin which has been collected over the years. Found another piece of lace that had a 'looser' weave, trotted back to the basement. Good exercise, going down 2 sets of stairs, 15 steps to the set! This lace worked better for what I hoped to achieve. Resprayed with the pinks, then the gold. Set aside. Later retrieved the piece to try to arrange the hexagons on it...thought if I embossed one side of the piece, separated with some score lines, placed the hexagons, it would work. So here it is:

 

Thinking of You, Miscellaneous

Aren't bloggers just wonderful? I've posted cards from blog buddies in the past, and here's another one from my very sweet & talented buddy, Candee . Candee & her hubby are always busy with one thing & another - they've remodeled a house, landscaped their yard just to name a couple of things. She is the queen of finding good bargains. Yet she takes time to think of me and send lovely cards. Here's the latest:



Thinking of You by Candee
 

I have been so humbled, yet so uplifted, by the well wishes from so many of you on this recent little eye deal I've had. It was a pleasure to open this card yesterday, and enjoy the beauty that Candee creates on all her cards. Isn't the image lovely? Perfect diecut for the image - and you know I'll be tracking down this EF! Thank you Candee.

Thinking of you

Good Morning. Is it just me, or is this year just speeding by? We are nearly 1/2 through 2013. How can this be?!
Today my card is made from an LOTV topper I've had for some time. A UK blogger buddy kindly advised me when the store was having free shipping. I see these lovely toppers used so many places, and had been wanting some of these cuties. Finally had a chance to use it.  Here goes:

- image was sponged around the sides & corners with DI Antique Linen and Spun Sugar. I also used Spica pens to add a bit of sparkle on the flowers; a Clear Star Gel pen added some bling on the table & bench legs. I did not use my signature stamp on this one, since it was a topper.

Thinking of You

Good morning, and a warm Friday Welcome to you. Hope you have some exciting plans for the weekend (mine include some housework...maybe! not very exciting, but gotta be done occasionally).
A fellow blogger has lost her DH, and another blogger let me know. I wanted to send her a card to let her know I was thinking about her.

Here's the card:

the overlay is vellum, embossed with the same Spellbinder that was used on the underlayer. This spellbinder is one of the heavy plastic green ones that I believe have been retired. It's not in the original packing, so I don't remember the name. Tried to find it on the web, but nothing showed up. Spellbinders put out quite a few of these plastic diecut & emboss folders, but I couldn't find the first one in my searching!

I had taken markers to color the embossed design, which is very detailed. I thought it was too bright. I don't do much with vellum, but I wanted to tone down the coloring, so I embossed a vellum sheet with a lightweight piece of cardstock underneath, so that this die wouldn't cut through the vellum. When I placed the vellum overlaid on the original c/s embossing, I liked it better.

Thinking of You

Good afternoon, and welcome to my little part of the world. Warm Welcomes to some new followers. I hope you'll enjoy what you see here, and I'll do my best to come pay you a visit as well. Lovely to have you join me.

I have another card to share today, which probably should be considered a sympathy card. However, I liked Thinking of you better, and used my Elizabeth Crafts die instead of stamping, so hence the name. This card is for a fellow blogger, whom I've never met in person...yet I wanted to let the person know I was indeed thinking about her. I know she likes birds, so I've been working on this one & finally got it finished. I hope she will enjoy the card, be pleased that someone had thought of her, and that it will convey my caring.

Thinking of You

Good evening fellow bloggers. Finally I was able to get a card finished. I have several in various stages, and it seems that when time is available, I'm not in the mood...or if I'm in the mood, then something else gets in the way until my motivation has subsided. Does that happen to you? Anyway,
here's my card for this evening.

Thinking of You

Hi and I'm back with a totally experimental card. I've had gelatos for some time, never used them. Also had some of the Dylusions sprays, ditto. A stamp buddy is really into this Dylusions stuff, and doing some fantastic work; at our last gathering, she brought some supplies and we watched her create. So....little Miss Copy thought "let me try that"...although my friend does a lot of Altered Art, which I don't (and expect I shall not either!). So Thursday at our meeting, I took some watercolor paper, some sprays and just for grunts - grabbed up my container of the gelatos. I was not very adept with the sprays & stencils. Much too heavy handed and I got basically blobs...not very pretty blobs either! Then Miss Friend showed me how to ease up on the spray pump, spritz the paper, and watch the blobs run. Pretty (not as pretty as HERS of course, but better than with the stencil). OK, I'm finished with that trial, so I got out the gelatos. I had recently seen a post by Sue at Inky Fingers where she used the gelatos direct to rubber. I just searched for that particular post so I could link directly to it, but can't find it at the moment, so I'll describe what I did. Thanks Sue, for giving me the how-to's, and the inspiration.

Thinking of You

Happy April 1, blog friends! No April Fooling around here though. We have a most lovely day outside my window, and I can spy a lovely pinky-white tree blooming in my neighbor's yard. I think it is what we call a Flowering Cherry tree. There's a Carolina Blue Sky in the background, and some more green trees behind the cherry tree, so a very pretty sight to behold.

Mrs. A - the winner of the blogaversary candy - contacted me with her mailing info, so I removed the picture of the candy from the sidebar. Now just gotta start building a stash for the next milestone. Am wondering "what shall it be?". I'll think of something.

A while back I had an email from a very talented crafter MaggieC. She very kindly sent me instructions for doing a brayering technique, then covering the brayered piece with plastic wrap to create a background. I finally got a little time (and was in the mood too!) to follow her instructions. I came up with some pretty pieces, but don't have 'em made into cards yet. Well, I wasn't pleased with my stamping results, but I WAS pleased with the technique. It was definitely a case of Operator Error (on my part!) and it's something I'll try again with a different stamping ink. You'll see my results as soon as I get cards made up! So thanks MaggieC for the instructions and a pleasant evening experimenting! :-)

Thinking of You, Outlawz

Good Morning, Bloggers and I trust your day is off to a great start. Here's a card to share this morning and it's an image I had colored some time ago (ah, a snippet), but had not put on a card. An earlier post was a Thinking of You that I intended to link to the Outlawz Friday Copic/Promarker Challenge, DUH, I didn't have any copic coloring on it! Not sure where my mind went to visit that day <g>. This image was in the 'debris' pile, so I decided I'd use it and make a cheery card; I liked it better anyway as a Thinking of you card. The gray was not all that cheery, so things worked out for the best after all.

- Image from Heartfelt Creations, colored with copics, Glossy Accents on cherries & Cardinal's beak
- Diecut with S/binders 11
- sponged with DI Tea Dye while still in the die
- Bazzill textured paper cardbase
- red circle, green square (snippets), embossed with SU mesh EF
- Thinking of You Elizabeth Crafts Design die

So...I'm off to link this with Outlawz Friday Copics/Promarkers Challenge and since I also have some snippets, I think I'll mosey over to the Playground I hear there is some fun activities going on with the girls there. Almost always something going on! Won't you come along & see what we can get into? As always, thanks for joining me today. Have a great day, and Hugs. Oh yes, nearly forgot to Congratulate Mrs. A on her win at the Playground! She won a nifty stamp set.

Thinking of You

Good afternoon, and welcome to Blogger Follower, No. 99 (Miss Brenda B). I saw the total number change, but when I count 'faces', I still count 98. (We'll go with 99 for the Random Gen, and hope I don't get a problem with someone that I can't identify as being the winner!). Today has been a totally lazy day. Hubby not feeling well again (same stuff as 3 wks ago - started early yesterday morning). I worked hard at housework on Sat., doing vaccuuming, floor cleaning, that kind of thing, and my back didn't like it one bit (my back is apparently smarter than "I" am!). Took an Aleve early this afternoon, and slept the afternoon away. Back feels better but nothing got done that should have been done. Ah well, it's nice to be retired and able to do that. Here is a card to share that I worked on last night, didn't turn at at all the way I planned. For one thing, I used a pretty patterned paper to emboss, but the emboss design was lost in the paper design (lesson learned), so I used the opposite side of the paper - which was a soft gray. Design showed up well, but the paper color was blah. I backed the embossed piece with a very bright pink to brighten it up. Then decided to add some tiny pearls.

- C/bug plus 2 emboss folder Blooming Bouquet (this is the kind that I showed for one of the Valentine posts, where the folder is green plastic & diecuts too,  rather than the usual opaque folder which embosses.
- Diecut Thinking of You from Elizabeth Crafts Designs (a new die I ordered from here. Was very pleased with the way this die cut, and think I'll get a lot of use with this one).
- all pearls & papers from stash

Outlawz is having their Friday Copic/Promarker Challenge Theme* as Thinking of You, so I believe I'll enter this, but perhaps do another, 'fancier' card later this week. For all you copic/Promarker users, this is a fun challenge, so I encourage you to check it out! Hope all of you had a more productive day than we did here at our house! Hugs, and thanks for the visit.
*Edit: Oops, not sure what I was thinking. This has no copic coloring on it! Not eligible for the Friday Copic challenge! My Baddd!

Thinking of you

Good morning & once again, a BIG WARM WELCOME to a new follower. Thanks so much for joining me here in blogland, and I hope you will enjoy the things I post. Some time ago, I posted a link to http://gingershouse.blogspot.ca/2012/02/cards-for-sebastian.html about a little fella who is undergoing some surgery. Since I don't have any 'kid friendly' stamps like dinosaurs, toys, etc, I hunted for this little fishing guy. This is a Penny Black slapstick stamp that was very easy to color with copics. The butterflies (snippet paper) are from an MS heart punch that has 2 tiny, 1 small butterfly. Put some Glossy Accents on the butterflies for a bit of glisten.  Image was diecut with a Sizzix die, which cuts exactly what you see. I like these dies, but you can't emboss with them (at least I don't know how to emboss with 'em, as I do with the Spellbinders). I always use either Copic Xpress or Neenah paper for the stamped image if I'm going to color with copics. The green mat was done by tracing around the outside of the cutting die, slightly enlarging it, as the next size up was too big. It was a very green piece of snippet that I found when stacking up a pile of scraps to put in a plastic flat bin (oh happy day...at least one pile put up...you know I'll never find anything in it again though!). It was just too green so I took Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and sponged 'round the edges. Liked the look much better. The butterscotch cardbase was a snippet from the same pile, just the right size for a small card for a small boy! I hope Sebastian will like this one. I'm going to get this in an envelope for Ginger who is collecting cards for Sebastian, and I hope - if you have some spare time - you might join in cheering up a little fella. Also, please let's keep our good friend Bernie in our thoughts & prayers as we start this week. Thanks for your help folks. Now I'm off to see what those foxy girls at the Playground are up to....Won't you come along? I promise there will be lovely fun and lots of gorgeous projects to enjoy. As always, thanks for stopping to visit, and have a Great Monday. Hugs.

Thinking of You

,

Good evening & welcome to a new follower. I hope you will enjoy the cards & ramblin' on that happens on this blog. Here's another effort at trying to develop the snow sponging technique done by Miss Heather, whose work I find so very inspirational. Her tutorials are extremely well done, make it look so easy, UNTIL...I try to do it! I keep trying though, and one of these days....! After I had sponged with Memento Summer Sky & just a smidge of London Fog (to create the hollows), I inked Penny Black Nature's Dance with Versamark: used a stamp positioner, stamped the branch. Reinked with Tuxedo Black, stamped off once, then inked just a bit below my initial Versamark stamp. It looked just a bit 'too off' for me at first, but after I left it, re-looked the next day, I decided it was 'passable' so made into this card. The stamp has a little bird perched on the twigs (which is cut off in the leftmost branches) and he didn't stamp out as well as I wanted. I tried to use a thin copic black multiliner, draw him in better, then color with red copics. Looked 'ok', but I wasn't thrilled with it. Remembered I had some of these Making Memories Mistletoe glittered birds I had bought on sale, hunted them up. (?snippet?!) He's a bit oversized for the branches, but I liked him anyway. I used a Spica Red Lipstick to color the berries The sentiment is an Elizabeth Craft rub on, and I thought about coloring it with copics. Decided the original silver of the sticker might help convey the 'frosty' feel of the card. Matted the image with a piece of Moire brown-black that was a snippet, as a mat. Founded a folded red cardbase (ah, more snippets!) left from Christmas card making. I had gotten some C/Bug borders in one of the Florida shopping runs-there's 5 slim borders in the pkg- and embossed 3 sides of the cardbase. I had to open the card to run through the Big Shot, and the edge of the border EF sort of created a tear on the back side of the cardbase, up at the very top...sort of a gouge. So I took 2 more pieces of snippet c/s, embossed those, and adhered them to the back on each side. I hope it will look planned!!! This card is for a friend who is dealing with some Life's Onion at the moment, and I wanted the person to know she was in my thoughts. Thanks for coming to visit, and hope your tomorrow is filled with wonderful things.

Hmm, maybe I'll bop over to the Playground and see what those crafty girls are up to...won't you come along to join in the fun? I promise, there's ALWAYS something crazy going on.

 

Thinking of you

Hi Bloggers. Hope you are having a grand day. Here's a card for a friend who is having a bit of a rough patch lately. I hope this little Koala Bear will cheer her up. The stamp is from a Hang in There set, (Gina K), created by Theresa Momber I believe. I colored him with copics, cut out, popped up on the background. The kraft background was embossed with Sizzix Branches & leaves folder, and I used a small sponge dauber to shade the leaves. Use some Pebbles chalks for the branches, then sponged Distress Ink Vintage Photo around the edges. The blue is paper from Authentique Collection Gathering. The sentiment is also from the Hang In There set, diecut with S/Binders Labels Trio, stamped with Momento Northern Pine, edged with Vintage Photo. I took 2 pictures of the card, one using a white background, one using a black background. I think I like the black background best, but I'd appreciate your comments on this. I think I'll see if I can share this at Pixie's Snippets playground, (http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/06/pixies-crafty-snippets-challenge-25.html) as the Koala was an image I had colored months ago, but thought it might cheer my friend. The kraft background was also a snippet, just handy on my desk, waiting for me to use it!

Thinking of you

A friend is going through a tough time health-wise at the moment, undergoing lots of painful & scary tests. She's a member of our Thursday stamp group. I wanted her to know that DH & I are thinking of her, sending up many prayers that all her tests are fine, and this rough patch will soon be in the past. The card specs are: Stamp-2002 SU rose, colored with copics...various pinks and greens. Diecut the image with S/Binders Petite Ovals Small, die #6, sponged with Distress Ink Tumbled glass while still in the die. The mauve mat is a Bazzill textured c/stock, diecut with S/B Labels 10, die #5. The lacey background was cut with the SU Lace punch, on Coordination White Wash paper, sponged with D/Ink Tumbled Glass. (I believe this particular SU punch has been retired this last go-round, so I'm happy to have it. It's quite versatile, and I think it is extremely elegant. I see a lot of cards on Pinterest that use this punch.) The sheer mauve ribbon was a bit I found in my stash. Then all of the elements were adhered to a Bazzill textured pink c/stock base. After adding the pearls to trim up the focal image, I decided I really ought to add a little sentiment, so I diecut a Labels trio, die #3, stamped with MFT Clearly Sentimental All Smiles clear stamp; using Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink in Maroon, then sponged around the edges. I sort of think I liked it better without the sentiment...but...

After the card was finished, I added a bit of Glossy Accent on some of the petals & leaves. I used the Copic Xpress paper in creating the image..it is my favorite paper to use, especially if I am using any shade of the reds. It is like coloring on the smoothest of silk, and even though I use Neenah also, I prefer the Xpress.

Thinking of you Tulips

Thanks for stopping to visit this afternoon. Our area has a beautiful sunny Carolina Blue sky kind of day, with low humidity, nice bit of breeze. Great way to start our weekend. We have a good friend who is scheduled for some scary surgery next week, and wanted her to know we are praying for a speedy recovery, so that she can get back to doing the fun things we all enjoy. Here's the card scoop:

Thinking of you

Good evening...and here's a card to share. The card base is an olive textured Bazzill, with some lightweight purple as a mat for the focal point. That was a K&Company Tim Coffee small tag, which I liked because of the flower background. The vase is a Punch Bunch (large) punched from some blue paper I made experimenting with some gold spray. Once again, used the Memory Box Dancing Tulip die, along with some MS leafy branch punches. The small butterfly(Martha Stuart trio) is also punched from the same dark blue paper as the vase, with some Viva Decor Pearl Pen in light blue dots to trim. The sentiment is from SU Teeny Tiny Wishes, with a tiny green button from a pack, and some twine for a bow. The long green trim piece was cut from a 6x6 Authentique Loyal bundle, and has the most gorgeous plaid on the opposite side. I first intended to use the plaid, but thought the plain was a bit more appropriate. That plaid was wild though, and I may just make another one like this, and use that plaid. Thanks for stopping by Carolina Cards. I think I'll go over to the Playground at http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com/search/label/pixie%27s%20crafty%20snippets%20challenge and see if there's anyone playing.