HUG A TREE

The last three days have been really great. Spent Monday with my best friend Sandy, she is here for a visit with her daughter. Sandy lives in Ohio and I haven't seem her in over 15 years. We really had a great time, doing what girls do the best "shop." Sandy is into quilting and it just so happens that I was working on a quilt. We went to a couple of quilt stores and found some great fabric, that I want to use on an altered book. The book is a work in progress, have lots of things in mind and will be working on that in the next few months.



Tuesday I finished the quilt top, and worked on a couple of cards. Gingersnap Creations has a new challenge for botanical. I used the stamp set from Stampin Up, Thoughts and Prayers. The base of the card is green cardstock and the mat is in cream color, stamped the cardstock using the branch stamp, and then embossed it using a new embossing folder from Provo Craft and my Big Shot.





The tree was stamped on a cream cardstock and then added a green mat. Used a $1 stamp that I found in Reno for the sentiment. Tried to keep the card pretty simple, but added the green rhinestones to each corner. Didn't show a picture of the inside, put stamped a small tree on cream cardstock and added that to the inside.

One of my favorite places to go for other challenges is Crafty Creations, the challenge this week is to make your own background. There are so many ways to do this, mine is probably is the simplest, but does qualify. If you would like to see some other ideas, check out their blog.


Hopefully Sandy and I will be able to spend some more time together next week. It's my Monday, so time for me to go to work. Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great day.

P. S. Almost forgot Week 16 challenge of trees or leaves is at Lots to Do blog.

WINGS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

JJ aka Judy B (The Stamping Pad) had posted a few days ago cards that were faux silk, loved the look of the cards and had to give it a try. She was kind enough to give me the information and directed me to a video. The video is from Papertry Ink, this is wonderful video and gives you all the information for this wonderful technique.

The base of my card is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, cut the blue mat 4x5 1/4, and distressed the edges of the card with blue ink, and the blue mat was distressed with black ink. Stamped a piece of cream cardstock with butterflies from an Inkadinkado stamp set, the size is 3 3/4 x 5, colored in the butterflies with colored markers. Did the faux silk technique, and then stamped a single butterfly, colored it and also did the faux silk technique. The blue strip of paper was also stamped with a smaller butterfly using black ink. Used a paper punch this time for the blue scalloped mat behind the single butterfly. Wanted to keep the card pretty simple so just added the one word sentiment, "enjoy."

This is a great technique and I can't wait to try some different stamps, really "enjoyed" making the card, and hope you "enjoy" it also. Please let me know if you give this a try would love to see all of your wonderful projects.

This card also happen to meet a couple of challenges:

1. Crafty Creations ---distressing

2. Simon Says ---Wings

3. Our Creative Corner--Butterflies

Once again a special thanks to JJ for sharing this information, she is true inspiration.

Also I'd like to send a special shout out to my sister, Kay, she just had knee surgery and is on the road to recovery. She and my daughter and trying some new products out today with their electric Big Shot. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.

A GUARDIAN ANGEL

Have been pretty busy on my days off, not only have I been working on a quilt, but took the time to complete a couple of cards. This card is for the challenge at Our Creative Corner, they have a different sketch each Thursday.






The card base if 5 x5, with 1 1/4" squares, the paper is from the "Once Upon a Time collection." Used the corner rounder on the center mat, and used my label die cut, from Spellbinders, to make the frame around the angel. The hardest part was the embellishment, didn't want to use ribbon, put after trying twine, beads, wire, and anything else I could find, the double faced picot ribbon was what ended up on the card.

A glue pen was brought out for the wings, and then glitter added to give some dimension. Also added a pink rhinestone to the center of the bow. Used colored pencils to color the angel. Will be sending this card to my sister, she just had knee surgery on Monday, she loves angels and fairies, know this will put a smile on her face.

The other card completed will be posted tomorrow, it is using the faux silk technique, this was really a fun technique and will be doing more with this technique.

Hope everyone is having a great day, time to work on some more projects. Talk with you soon.

ONEIES

Ton of things to accomplish today, so just going to put this card out there. You guessed it, is it a challenge for Crafty Creations. Thought this would be super simple today, but not the case. We were challenged to use only one designer paper, one image and one embellishment. Have gotten so used to jazzing cards up with all kinds of embellishments, it was hard to use just one of everything.

The stamp is from my stash, Hero Arts, and had an inch of dust on it. Colored pencils were used for the coloring. The paper was also in my stash, a few years old. Added the bow to the handle of the basket for the one embellishment.

That's it for today, am going to work on my grandson's quilt, ran out of thread yesterday and ran to Joann's. They had some new products from Provo Craft that I couldn't resist, can't wait to put them to use. Also found that they have added Spellbinder die cuts in the stores, now I won't have to wait until going to Utah to purchase them, or getting them on line, will now have instant gratification.

Hope everyone is having a great week, talk with you soon.

ROSES FROM THE HEART

Got home from my trip to Reno, and everything was crazy at home. Didn't know it but Billy, my SO, had gone into the hospital on Monday night, I left that morning. He didn't tell me while I was gone, knew that I would turn right around and come home. Sunday night before leaving I had our new puppy delivered while at work, so that I could surprise Billy. When getting home I walked in and said "we're home" he knew something was up. Billy was excited about the puppy and immediately started spoiling him. Billy wasn't feeling well and went to the emergency room, and they wouldn't let him come home. His potassium level was extremely high, which can cause kidney damage.

When I returned home on Wednesday night upon calling Billy to tell him I'd be home shortly, he then told me he was in the hospital. Got home and took care of the dogs, and started my week at work and going to the hospital, trying to cope with a new puppy, which is like having a baby. Made it through my week by the skin of my teeth. Billy came home on Monday, and I was able to take sit down and relax a little.

Checked out some blogs and started a quilt yesterday, for my grandson, got the fabric while in Reno. Also wanted to check out some cards and it suddenly dawned on me that I had completed a project before leaving for Reno for the color challenge at Gingersnap Creations, which was to use the copper, ginger and rust.

Made roses that are made out of paper and then coated with UTEE, learned this technique from Hels at Ink on Your Fingers, check it out here. Hels has a wonderful tutorial for the flowers, and I can't get enough of them, they are so fun to make and there are so many different ways that you can use them. I had this picture of my mother and father on the wall, and thought that it would be great to add these dimensional roses to the frame, love the result.

The paper was from my stash, used my flower die cut from Spellbinders and add copper brads for the center of the flowers. These flowers remind me of wood flowers, that were popular back in the late 50's early 60's, am now telling my age, know that my mother would love these and want to make tons of them. It is because of her that my sister and I have such a love of crafts, she was our inspiration.

This photo shows more detail and you can see more of the colors for the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope everyone is having a great week. Am going to be working on my crazy quilt and will try to get at least one new card made before going back to work tomorrow. Found some inexpensive clear stamps in Reno, and a few other little items that I can't wait to use.

Have a crafty day.

TAG TUESDAY #45 STUCK ON COLLAGE

Getting ready for work, it's my Friday, get off at 2am and then get on the plane at 6:40 am for my trip to Reno. All of a sudden my plate became very full. Talked with my daughter, Jamie, today and we are just going to spend quality time together and hit a couple of craft stores and possibly a quilt shop in Reno. She is a teacher and on spring break, her youngest son is out of school also, but the oldest is not on break until next week. Am really looking forward to having some "girl time."

Earlier in the week I was extremely productive and got a few things completed, this is a tag that I did for the Tag Tuesday Challenge(better late than never). The challenge was to combine collage and stickers, I have a huge assortment of stickers so it was just of matter of find the paper and stickers that would go together. My papers and stickers have been purchased through the years, and it is usually a couple of papers rather than books of paper that co-ordinate. Buy paper that hits my fancy at the time, because of this fact, I spend valuable time going through papers for collages, but that to me is half the fun.

Found some vintage type paper, and then it was time to take on the stickers, you think they are organized until you try and find what you have in mind. The vintage lady and Eifel Tower werea sticker that I found in the clearance aisle at Michaels. Used a sentiment sticker also, can't begin to know where these came from. The tag is chipboard from Michaels $1 bins, found some other shapes the other day, they are suppose to be mini scrapbooks, but that is what is so fun about crafting, we all improvise.

Finshed the tag off by using a glue pen around the edge and sprinkled with gold glitter. Did use my cutting system to add to oval behind the vintage lady, and red picot ribbon for the tie. Am literally running out the door. Thanks for stopping by, last but not least I hope everyone has a Happy Easter.

A PERECT DAY!

Tell me it isn't so, it can't be April already. Do not know where the time goes. It is so true that the older you get the faster the time goes. On my days off this week I had a couple of perfect days and what able to make some fun cards.

The inspiration for this card was gained from two different challenges. Rosie Dees Challenge is to use the colors, green, yellow, and white. These are such fun colors and just add a smile to my face.

Used my scallop fun for the circle and then cut out the center with my cutting system. The stamp was another one of those treasures that I found at Michaels, just $1, it does pay to shop once in awhile. The sketch is the challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges, it was clean and simple, but I couldn't resist adding the butterflies on the corner. Used brush markers to fill in the stamps, kept the entire card simple.

Really enjoyed making the card, it just seemed to fall into place with very little effort. Have some great news from last night, am going to be getting a new puppy next week, have to wait until we get back from Reno. Billy does know anything about the puppy so this should be fun, am having a hard time keeping the secret.

Time for me to head of to work. Thanks for stopping by today. Have a wonderful weekend.

SIMPLER TIMES

Got really busy on my days off and completed a few cards. Need to get this one posted right away, as there are a couple of deadlines to meet. Our Creative Corner has a sketch this week, Lots to Do suggested that you use vintage, and The Shabby Tea Room wanted us to use some of our scraps, that we know we all have tons of little pieces sitting around.
I love to work with scraps of paper, and have them some what organized, I save every little piece, tell myself that there will be a time in the future that I will find a use for them. Ali gave use some ideas a while back on how to organize the scraps by color, I did this, but didn't get the prints separated by color. This is something that I really need to do, as it won't take as long to find those little treasurers.

Vintage is one of my favorite themes, so this was a piece of cake. This stamp set has come in very handy, use it for masculine cards all the time. The paper on the background looks handwritten, that is definitely vintage, we use the computer and typing for everything now days. Once the image was stamped on the polka dot background, it did emboss it with my Big Shot, and Cuttlebug folder, which has script writing. The sentiment is computer generated (Oh No!!) and a button tied with blue DMC floss to complete the picture.

Time for me to head off to work, thanks for stopping by today, and hope that you have a wonderful day.