MORE CARDS

I have been able to make a few cards this month (and last). One was a "sympathy" card for my friend Emiline who lost her only sibling, her sister. I used a covered bridge scene (H1470) from Impression Obsession that I bought off ebay. I have limited cardstock here in the condo, so used a bright yellow under the image and matted it in lime green. I used my SU corner rounder on the yellow leaving the green square. On yellow CS matted with the lime green with the yellow corners also rounded, I stamped in black ink "Thinking of you" from a Perfectly Clear set called Encouraging Words that had been in the sale items at Archivers. The saying had another half to it, ...at this difficult time" and I put it on the inside of the card. I then got busy with my SU Water Color Wonder Crayons and water colored the bridge and trees and foreground. I used a brick red on the bridge, and three or four shades of green for the trees and the grass. I wanted the grass and trees to have the light showing with yellows and the bright spring green. The rocks were browns and the water a light blue. As is my style, I like to use a fine black pen to outline a little for definition. I ran a 3/16th lime ribbon (that is half sheer in the middle with satin on the edges) under the pop-dotted saying in the lower quarter of the card. I think I bought the ribbon at Wal-Mart as they have the cheapest ribbon and lots of colors. I had chosen a cream colored card which might not be the best. Maybe white would have been best but I always seem to do my cards on white and wanted to try it this way. What do you think?

My other cards are some farm animal images that were Michaels $1 stamps. I had 6 images: a cow, a horse, a pig, a sun, a rooster, and a hen. There must have been a sheep too

originally but they were all gone when I got mine. I put them on some brown cards that Hobby Lobby had with matching envelopes. I had my two grand daughters do all the stamping of the images on white CS, which I trimmed, roughed the edges with my scissors, and colored with the SU Water Color Wonder Crayons. I double-matted them in different colors to go with the im

ages. If there is green grass, I used green as one of the mats, pink for some, yellow and orange and red and yellow for others. I had Matti and Emma stamp different sayings on each (Just Because, Hello, Thank You, For You, Hang in There, and Friend to Friend. And I adhered it all and tied a coordinating checked ribbon next to the fold. They all are different and make a simple

set of notes to use. Emma and Matti also stamped the sayings onto plain manilla colored paper and we used it for wrapping the 6 cards for their Mom's BD. I also had them punch out a big scalloped circle and stamped "with love" and Emma signed her name and I helped Matti (who appears to be a lefty). They had lots of fun "stamping" and they ask almost every time they are over "Can we stamp?" and they are only 3 and 4. I plan to continue this activity with them, increasing their "part" of the process until they are skilled enough to do it all. They already know that the stamps have to be cleaned right after use and we use baby wipes. They like picking out the images they want to do and when their coloring skills improve and they can color in the lines better, we will try some coloring. Having an art back ground and training as a teacher, I plan to teach them art principles without them even knowing and it will just be a part of the fun. Sneaky Mamaw!

The last card is a sample of the cards sent to my mom. Emma and Matti chose different images. Emma liked the teddy bear family with hearts in the air. Matti liked the butterfly with hearts on the wings. They stamped their images, I colored, and they picked out the same heart paper to put under the images. They signed the card on the inside to their great grandma Jo (my mom) who is now being called Mamaw Jo. It is such fun for me to share card making with the grand daughters, : ) They are so precious.