Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Music and Flowers

Hello Everyone,

This is a short post today. I haven’t had very much time to do much this week, but I did manage to get two cards finished.
Birthday Garden
This card was very quick and simple and I enjoyed making this. I wanted a little change of pace, so I decided to pick a stamp that was easy to color. I colored these flowers with the following Copic markers: Pink, buttercup Yellow Y21, and Willow G24. I colored the ribbon to match the flowers with RV11 Pink. Stamps used are Hero Arts: Good thoughts CL443 and Sending Smiles CL490.
Happy Birthday Rose
I made this card for a friend. She plays the piano at the church where I attend and she is an outstanding pianist. I wanted to show her that she is appreciated and loved. I hope that she has a great birthday. I thought that roses and sheet music would go well together. The stamps that were used are: Hero Arts: Birthday Messages CL139, Two Birds (3 images) CG152, Flourish Background CG119, and Music Background CG222. The distress inks that I used are: Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Tea Dye, and Aged Mahogany.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments.


Sunday, March 13, 2011

A Cupcake and flowers

Hello Everyone,

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful week end. My weekend was great, we had gorgeous weather where I am from and I could not stay inside. So, I did not get many cards made. These cards were made on Friday and this is the first chance that I have had to post them.

Birthday Cupcake

This card was an inspiration from Kristina Werner's Finally Friday video that she did over at Two Peas in a bucket last Friday 3/11/11). I am submitting this in the Hero Arts Flickr challenge, their 50grand challenge, and over at Two Peas. Stamps used are Hero Arts: Cupcakes CL158, Daisy Outline Pattern S5472, Dots & Flowers S5213, birthday Messages CL139. This card was inspired by Kristina Werner from her Finally Friday's series.

Blooming Wildflowers

I got the idea for this card from Splitcoast Stampers. I stamped the image with Hero Arts Grass Green chalk in and then glued paper flowers on top of the stamped flowers. When the glue was dry, I put the whole image inside the Tiny Mosaic embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug. I am not sure that I like the results of this card. If I made this card again, I would not stamp the card base, I would leave it white and just stamp the sentiment under the image. Stamps used are Hero Arts: Blooming Meadow CG171, Envelope Pattern, and Birthday Messages CL139 and envelope pattern S5507.


Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

More Inspirational Cards

This week has been a fun and inspiring one for me. I made a total of 10 cards and that is over my average of 4 or 5 cards. Being inspired by someone really helps me to get my mojo going. These three cards are the last of my six inspirational cards and I plan on entering them in the Hero Arts challenge.

Bird Garden Birthday

I used my Hero Arts envelope template to create the panel on this card. Sheri Carroll showed a video on the Hero Arts blog last week showing how she used this template to create a border for the card she was making. I was inspired to use my envelope template to make the panel on my card. The Stamps used are Hero Arts: Birthday Sayings CL340, Bird Garden H5396, and Scattered Dots CG267.
Birthday Birds and Balloons
I stamped the images on kraft cardstock and then stamped the birds and balloons on another piece of kraft paper and colored them with Copic markers. The images were adhered to the stamped images on the card. This was a simple card and I had fun stamping and putting this card together. This card was an inspiration from Tami Mayberry. To see her card, please check here. The Stamps used are Hero Arts: Balloon C4982, Decorative Bird IV -- B4752, Decorative Bird I -- B4749, and Birthday Messages CL139.

Bird Collage
I distressed the paper with antique linen and stamped the music background over the distressed paper using the antique linen distress ink. The leaf, flourish, flower and sentiment were stamped in frayed burlap. The Birds were embossed with black distress ink and colored with tumbled glass. The stamps used are Hero Arts: Music background CG222, Water Color Petals CL431, Earth Flowers CL428,Thoughtful Messages CL184, and Two Birds (3 images) CG152.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Take care and God bless.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Lots of Inspiration

Hello Everyone,

I have made 6 cards in the past three days and did not have the chance to post them. I didn't want to post all 6 cards because I felt that was too much to do at one time, so I will post the other three tomorrow night. These cards are inspirations from two people.

The Hydrangea Card and Single Flower Card are inspirations from Sue McRae known as Stampin Sue on the Hero Arts Flickr group. Sue made a video about alcohol inks and demonstrated how to use them. To see her video, please check here. Thanks Sue for making this video and inspiring me to experiment with these inks. It was fun and I enjoyed making new colors and getting my fingers inky.


Hydrangea Card


The hydrangea was stamped and white embossed onto a piece of vellum that I colored with alcohol inks: stream, denim, and eggplant. Then I put my image on a white panel and white embossed the sentiment and added a ribbon. This was lots of fun and the time went by quickly while I was playing. The Stamps used are Hero Arts: Birthday Messages CL139 and Hydrangea K5376.

Single flower Card


The layered flower is stamped on vellum that I colored with alcohol inks, but I can't remember the colors that I used. I distressed the background paper with shabby shutters, tumble glass, walnut stain, and peeled paint. Then I stamped the old letter writing stamp onto the paper and then the envelope pattern stamp was stamped on top of that. I hope that this counts as being a layered card. The Stamps used are Hero Arts: Layered Flowers CL496, Old Letter Writing S4878, and Envelope Pattern S5507.


Birthday Wishes



This card was a card that I CASED from a card that Elizabeth Allen made (To see her card, please check here). I used her same design, but changed it a little. I used the same basic design, but used Hero Arts stamps and changed the top panel and added leaves to my flower. I sprayed the flowers with perfect pearls to give them a shine, but the flowers look a little splotchy. I don't know if I shook the perfect pearls with the water enough or if I didn't spray enough of the mixture on the flowers or if they are suppose to look that way. The stamps used here are Hero Arts: Birthday Messages CL139, Layered Flowers CL496, Envelope Pattern S5507, and Designer Woodgrain S5208.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Layered Flowers

Hello Everyone,

This is a short post this morning. For these two cards, I used the layered background technique. I wasn’t happy with how these cards turned out, but I will keep on trying to get the results that I want. To see this technique please go here.
Happy Day
The stamps used for my "happy Day" card are Hero Arts: Thoughtful Messages CL184, Garden Bouquet CG172, Envelope Pattern S5507, and Silhouette Grass S5316. I stamped the sentiment on vellum and attached it over the ribbon with dimensional adhesive. But since the vellum is so thin, I glued 3 blank shapes of vellum to the back of the sentiment. (That gave the punched out sentiment some sturdiness.) The Silhouette grass image was embossed with white embossing powder and then I inked up my clear block with bundled sage distress ink and sprayed it with water and stamped over the embossed image. The Envelope pattern stamp was stamped over this image (can't remember the ink color that I used). The last thing that I did was walk and twist the garden bouquet stamp through 4 different ink colors and stamped this image over everything.
Exotic Flowers
The stamps used for the "Exotic flowers" card are Hero Arts: Musical Clef CG279 (embossed with white embossing powder), Antique Background CG120, and Exotic Bloom H5424. The inks that I used are: Scattered Straw for the background color. The other inks are: aged mahogany, broken china, walnut stain, and rusty hinge (colors used for the exotic bloom image). Hero Arts Soft Brown shadow ink was used to stamp the antique background. I wanted the flowers to have a more vibrant red, but they turned out to be more of a brown color.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments.


Sunday, March 6, 2011

Flower Cards

Hello Everyone,

This card was inspired by a card that I saw in Paper Creations Magazine (spring 2011 issue, page 77). I am not sure who the author is of this inspiration. The stamps that I used are Hero Arts: Large Blossom CG271 and Birthday messages CL139. I stamped the Large Blossom stamp unto red paper with white polka dots using white embossing powder. I like the effect of the embossing powder and that there was not any coloring involved. This was a simple card to make once I figured out the colors of the paper and my design that I wanted to use. I am entering this in the current Hero Arts Challenge.

I made this card (below) for the 50grand challenge sponsored by Hero Arts over on the Hero Arts Flickr group. The stamps used are Hero Arts: Bird Garden H5396, Wallpaper Flowers K5185, and Floral Scallop K5358. The white paper was embossed with the dotted swiss cuttlebug embossing folder, but the embossing doesn't show up very well on camera. This card looks better in real life.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Megan's Cards

Hello Everyone,

I haven’t been around much this week. This post is a little different today because I want to feature my granddaughter, Megan. She is 4 years old and loves to scrapbook and make cards with her mother (my daughter, Pam). Pam called me yesterday (she lives in Ohio) to ask me a question and every time that we call each other, we always have a conversation regarding scrapbooking and card making and all the supplies that go along with this awesome craft. While we were talking about this, Pam told me about a card class that she and her sister and Megan went to a few months back. To make a long story short, Megan made two cards by herself with very little help from the adults that were at this class. The only help that she had was from her mother reading the directions to her.

Here are the cards that she made:

Megan's Thank You Card

Megan's Cupcake Card
Megan looks so pleased with her card

Pam sent me these pictures via email while we were talking on the phone and when I looked at them (while talking to Pam) I got very excited and kept saying (in a very loud, and excited voice) to Pam, “Wow, Wow, these cards are wonderful”. Needless to say, I think that Pam went temporally deaf and I hope that her hearing has returned.

I wanted to share my excitement about my granddaughter and I am looking forward to making cards with her when I go to Ohio at the end of the month.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments.