FRIENDSHIP BEARS

I have loved this image ever since I saw it used by my good friend Davi. I finally found it on Ebay and here is my version.

The bears are colored with pencils, and cut out using a Nestie. I mounted on a larger blue Nestie of SU brocade blue, I tried to distress the inside of the panel in the nestie but it was too dark. Need to find out what others are using for that technique. I added the Basic Grey yellow with tiny blue dots, a back panel of blue and punched the corners. I added pink pearls in the corners. The sentiment is on the tinest of the Nestie set and I used three colors of ribbon just tied in a knot to bring all the colors together...pink, blue, and yellow. I like the softeness of this card. Thanks for coming to see me today.

HELLO MUMMY!

I am not much into Halloween as it conflicts with my Christian beliefs. I think it is fun to have costume parties for kids and the genuine Harvest Festival parties celebrating God's bounty in the food we grow and share. I did let my kids Trick or Treat a little but only a few neighbor houses. and we never did Santa pictures or Easter bunny pictures. They are just not what we wanted to emphasize.

When I let my grand daughters pick out a stamp each in the sale stamps at Hobby Lobby, I did not restrict them. Matti chose the house silhouette stamp which you might have seen her card about 6 posts back. Emma chose a mummy stamp and hasn't had time to use it as she is in Kindergarten all day. I decided to use it to make a different card than Halloween. It says "Hello" on the outside and on the inside"Mummy", as a play on "mommy" for my mother.

I chose to make the card base look like it was wrapped as the mummy is and used strips of paper toweling to do it with. I distressed the edged with Tim Holtz "old paper" distressed ink and some black marker. I used two panels of card stock in two browns to mat the mummy panel but off set them. And I used SU Dusty Durango around the image to give it a little pop. The "Hello" is stamped on a small die cut piece. It is very different than my usual flowers and flourishes, but I think cute and "almost" Halloween looking. Thanks for stopping by.

VERVE VSWCMD5

My card for this sketch uses a variety of papers and card stock. The matting is Basic Black from Hobby Lobby. the background print is Recollections "Purple Daze Flashback", the left lavender is from the same collection and is called "Grape", as is the swirling green called "Ride the Wave" (all from Michaels). The purple to the right is SU Lavender Lace as is the border around the circle. The floral image is from Stamp City and was fun to color. I used SU markers and used a light lavender to add flourishes to the circle before I stamped the sentiment which is a square peg type stamp but has no name on it. The "ribbon" is really a cord and unravels if you don't put tape around the end or tie a knot. I used the tape this time. The circle punches are from SU and all stitching is "faux". I added three pale green pearls which were a gift from Simon Says Stamp. Thanks Simon!

Thanks for stopping.

VERVE VSWCMD4

This card uses a wreath for the circle. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to make such a perfect circle to put on this card. Thank you Julee for explaining it to me and others. That is part of the fun of learning from each other. The wreath is the PSX Sunflower wreath and I fussy cut around it leaving a little white on purpose. I used a dotted back ground in tan and a dull red from a pad of papers in my stash. I ran the raffia around for the ribbon since the wreath had a raffia bow in the image. I tied a raffia double bow to add dimension. The saying, "Autumn Blessings" is from Print Works. and the Bazzill Chocolate Truffle brown panel is punched with the Martha Stewart Simple Scallops. I added some tiny red rhinestones to some of the berries and under the saying. I did faux stitching around the background and sentiment panel.

Thanks for stopping .

VERVE VSWCMD3

My card for this sketch uses the PSX sunflower botanical. I matted it with green and chocolate truffle brown. I covered the background with SU yoyo yellow and edged it with the Martha Stewart Swirling Lace punch and some small rhinestones. I used the SU 2002 sentiment, "It's Your Day" (the sentiment square is smaller than the sketch so the flower could be seen.) The ribbon is some from my stash.

VERVE VSWCMD2

My card for this sketch uses a Stamps Happen stamp and is titled, "Bumble, the bee keeper". I colored it with SU markers but used Copics on the wings and face and skin. The sentiment is a Judith stamp I bought off of Ebay. I used the Martha Stewart Embossed Scalloped border and the SU Ballet Blue and SU black for my matting. The ribbon is from Walmart and has been discontinued at some Walmarts. it is my favorite ribbon because it is half sheer and half satin with a tiny shiny thread down the center. The ovals are Spellbinders Classic oval and Scalloped oval.

VERVE VSWCMD1

My card for this Verve Release sketch uses shades of orange and some Bazzill Chocolate Truffle brown. I used the Cuttlebug folder of Autumn Words for the background and the EK Success "Swirls" punch. The vertical brown is textured using the Cuttlebug Herring Bone folder and I used the Swiss Dots folder on the light orange. Everything is matted with SU Dusty Durango (retired). The pumpkin image is a PSX from 2000 and colored with SU markers. The bling flourish is from Walmart and I used it instead of ribbon. I added the punched corner and rhinestone jewel to the upper right.

Thanks for stopping by.

OCTOBER IN WISCONSIN

Here we are back in Oshkosh. Our family is such fun for us and keeps us moving! I attended swim lessons this Sat morning. Emma is doing well with her back float kicking. She has a strong kick! Matti is practicing the crawl stroke and becoming more accustomed to water in her face. The three little boys in her class love to splash and all the time, much to her frustration.

After swimming, we made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and the girls each picked out two colors of embroidery thread. Emma has two stuffed animals who need some repairs to their faces and Matti just "needed" some thread "for her picture". Not sure what picture and what she intends to "create" but she likes to experiment with things. I let them each pick out a stamp in the discontinued ones. Emma chose a walking mummy with bandages all around except for eyes and some bandages are unraveling. Matti chose a 2x2 Stampabilities stamp with 2 haunted houses. She asked me if I have turquoise ink and I do, so we will have to see what she makes from that.

I am playing around with both of their stamps. I used the houses and created a night time scene with the houses in black over a sunset sky and I did the whole card in 10 min. I was experimenting directly onto the card front and it just happened. I will wait until Matti makes her card before posting mine, and will put them up together. Mine uses Cat's eye chalk inks for the sky, and I made a circle mask for the moon before inking the sky. I drew the clouds, the spider webs, and the spider. The rest is pretty simple.

Here is Matti's card, all bright and sunny just like she is! The only part I did for her was to ink up the stamp for her(so she didn't get it on her clothing!). She picked out all the colors and where she wanted to put them. The turquoise house is close to the pink one and she did not stamp it hard enough to get the full color, so I outlined it with her permission. We talked about the sidewalks and the punched flowers for the flower beds. She wanted some birds in the sky, so I showed her on another piece of paper how to make birds from the letter "M", but the points are rounded. Matti made hers more like "M's" but that is OK. She did it herself! I think for a 4 1/2 yr old, she did a super job and is learning so much. It is amazing that one stamp can be used to create such different looks. We had a blast being together and "stamping".

We are making ourselves available for picking up the girls to help the family when needed. Jodi is finishing up her second masters and so there is a time crunch some days since Matti is still in the daycare, and Emma is in kindergarten. We help when we can.

Thanks for stopping by.