Dogs

Hello crafty friends,

If you know me, you know I love cats and wish I could have a house full of them.  But since I have a very dog loving extended family, I've been stocking up on some dogs stamps.  Both my nephew and my brother have April birthdays and they are dog people.   So I made them these cards:

I used dogs from the Tim Holtz Crazy dogs stamp set.  For the card on the right, I stamped my dog and scanned him so I could make him bigger.  This was for my personal use, so i believe no rules/rights were broken :)

 
While working on these dogs, I posted the above photo on social media and my sister-in-laws both like them... one of them even asked me to save some of the dogs for her birthday card.  How cute is that?  Well, I had extra dogs and I really didn't want to wait until either of their birthdays, which are both in September... so I made and send them each a dog tag.

The tag on the left went to my SIL with two dogs, a cat and a turtle.  The card on the right went to my SIL w/one cheese and butter (funny story) loving dog.

Thanks for stopping bye.  Unit next time... take care.

Mami's Mother's Day Card

Hello crafty friends,

I hope everyone had a nice Mother's day weekend.  We took both my Mom and my Mother-In-Law to the casino, which they both love and dinner.  We all had a very nice time.

I can't show you the card I made for my Mother-In-Law (yet), but I can show the card I made for my Mom:

I used the Christmas bear with snowman digital stamp from JustMEdigitalstamps for my main element... but i had to tweak him a little, because he was holding a snowman.  I printed him twice, and cut his head off just under the scarf, which I paper pieced w/the same pattern paper as the background.  I added roses from the Clearly Besotted Miniature Floral Collection stamp set to cover the snowman his was holding.   He's has dimension, because I raised parts of him.

and even the card's envelope got a little flower treatment :)

Thanks for stopping bye to check out my card.  Until next time... take care.

Encouragement Squad - May 2017

Hello craft friends,

Coming to you this month as a CAS-ual Fridays Encouragement Squad team member with a little inspiration for our first encouragement challenge!  We all need a little cheering up from time to time. 

Our color inspiration board for this month:

I took a very simple design path, creating a card with the three main target colors using my zig watercolor pens and the lovely Pretty Posies stamp and die sets.

I created a second card that took a little longer to make, because of the sharker elements.  For this card I used the Sands of Time stamp set.  I love this stamp set and I'm sad to see that's it's retiring.

Thank you for stopping by today.  We hope you will like our new monthly challenges at the Calling All Sistahs blog.  We look forward to getting to know.  Until next month... be good to yourself. 

Calling All Sistahs - May 2017

Hello craft friends,

Coming to you this month as a CAS-ual Fridays Encouragement Squad team member with a little inspiration and a reminder to do your monthly breast self exam and scheduled your yearly mammogram.  Our new Calling All Sistahs blog is here.

Thank you for stopping by today.  Come back tomorrow for our first Encouragement Challenge! Until tomorrow... be good to yourself. 

Scrapy Land Challenge #66

Hello crafty friends,

Scrapy Land's Challenge #66 theme is... Pearls and/or Lace, using SL dies and the card I created uses both pearls and lace, while still staying true to my personal style.

I stared with an off white card base (my pearls were off white) to which I added a die cut background panel.   Here are two similar floral background dies that would work:   Penny Black's The Garden and Tutti Designs Garden Backgound.

I added the wood butterflies wrapped in lace, because I broke the die cut as I was attaching it to the card base.  But it ended up being a nice finishing touch.

Thanks for stopping bye today.  Hope you'll join the fun at the Scrapy Land Challenge.  You have until 5/ to submit your projects.  The winner, chosen by the design team, will receive a $15 gift certificate to Scrapy Land.

Encouragement Squad - My Intro Day

Hello craft friends,

This news has been bubbling up inside me for weeks and I'm so happy to FINALLY be able to tell you all it.   Drum roll please....  I made the CAS-ual Friday Encouragement Squad!  How freaking awesome is that.

If you are not familiar with the new Encouragement Squad, let me tell you a little about it and link you to our new website.  Michele Gross' goal for the monthly Calling All Sistahs blog hop was to remind our sistahs to do their self breast exams and in doing so to spread awareness about the importance of early detection in a fun and light hearted way.  I took part in several of these monthly blog hops and when Michele was looking for Designers for a new team, I jumped at the chance.   You can read more about what makes this team different and special here. 

So here's how this is going to work:

On the 17th of each month,  a post featuring a parade of projects from the Encouragement Squad design team.  

The next day on the 18th, an encouragement challenge will begin for anyone and everyone who wants to participate! It will be a photo that features color chips. Players can use the color chips or draw inspiration from the photo, or both to create an encouragement card with no product and no genre restrictions. It could be for someone who was just diagnosed, going through treatment, recovering from any sort of illness or surgery, going through a rough time in a relationship or job, or experiencing a crossroads in life. There are a bazillion reasons that we might need to make an encouragement card to let someone know we are thinking of them, and that will be the main focus of this new challenge. 

Now that you know what's going on, let me show you the card i created for my intro post:

The first thing you have to know about me, is that I love penguins, so my first card w/CAS-ual Friday had to have a penguin on it.  Now, I'm sorry to say that the penguin is not one of Michele's stamps, but don't worry, in the coming months I'll work on her to bring us some animals stamps ;)

The main focus of this card is the floral speech bubble and I created it with the lovely Pretty Posies stamp set and coordinating dies.  I started by stamping and water coloring several of the flowers and leaves with my zig brush pens on watercolor paper.   I use strathmore mixed media 400 series.  Once all my flowers and leaves were done, I set them aside and die cut the bottom of my speech bubble.   

Next i started placing my flowers within the speech bubble trying to cover as much of the black glitter card stock speech bubble.   Once I liked their placement and they were all attached.  I die cut the bottom of the speech bubble again to get a clean bottom edge.  I added some teal enamel dots and using dimensional tape attached the floral speech bubble to my card front.  

Since I had a few flower leftover, I decide to make the inside a little special and glued them directly onto the inside panel along w/a die cut hello and the "I'm thinking of you" stamped sentiment from the same Pretty Posies stamp set

Thanks for stopping bye...  I'm beyond excited to be part of this new team and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of you on social media and at craft fairs.  Until next time... take care.

Scrapy Land Challenge #65

Hello crafty friends,

Scrapy Land's Challenge #65 theme is "Anything Goes using SL brand dies", so I created this birthday card for my Mother-In-Law:

It's a shaker card, which I made using the negative space left when I die cut the large butterfly.   I started the card with a piece of orange to yellow pattern paper,  which I trimmed to fit the front of my 5x7 card.  I die cut a large butterfly and backed the opening with the stuff needed to make a shaker card element.  I added three water-colored and die cut flowers to the left bottom corner of the card and distressed my butterfly a bit w/distress inks. I added some enamel accents for the body of the butterfule and a few under the sentiment for added interest.  Here are a couple more pictures:

this last photo is of the inside.  I took one of the left over die cut pattern papers and used it on the inside of my card.

Thanks for stopping bye today.  Hope you'll join the fun at the Scrapy Land Challenge.  You have until 5/14 to submit your projects.  The winner, chosen by the design team, will receive a $15 gift certificate to Scrapy Land.