THANK YOU CARDS

Both grand daughters had birthdays 4 days apart in March. Their great grand mother (my mom) who is 90 in July, sent them a musical Disney card. So we got busy and each girl made a Thank You card for her, which I will take down to her this week.

Matti (now age 5) picked out a clear stamp of a little girl and wanted to color it to look like herself. She first picked out a marker she thought was brown and it turned out to be black. She had already colored part of the hair with it and was disappointed at the color. I told her we could restamp it on another piece of white CS and she could color the popped up face the right color, which is what she did with a little help from grandma. I told her to leave strips not colored with the brown and then go back and add yellow highlights. Her hair is light brown but also has some blond and red mixed in. Not sure what color it will be when she grows up. But if she has her choice, it will be magenta! She loves that color. She stamped the flower background using a Hero Arts background stamp and colored in most of the flowers. She got tired and grandma finished for her. I do all the cutting using the paper cutter (to save little fingers!) and she adhered the sentiment onto the pink mat and popped it on. She loves Stickles and added lots of magenta Stickles all over the flowers and a little onto the sentiment piece by accident But it looks really good. Inside she stamped THANKS in orange, and wrote Love, Matti in pink. She did a wonderful job and I am sure great grandma will love the bright colors.

Emma, now 6 (with 6 teeth missing), took her favorite rose image to color. She wanted it pink, so I gave her all four shades of pink markers. I shared that roses look more realistic if you color the tips of the petal a lighter shade, and make it darker nearer the center and underneath the petal. And I left her to color while I went to make them dinner. I had showed her the green sparkle CS I had and she liked it and wanted to use it. I cut it into a rectangle that would fit the card front and she used a decorative punch for the corners. I did the tearing around the rose to give it a more rustic look. I think she did well on the coloring but she too wanted Stickles on the rose, so when she put the pink Stickles on it and rubbed with her finger, it kind of moved the ink around a little. But that is what being an artist is all about. Some of our mistakes can become most beautiful by accident. She made the little leaves under the rose a darker green than the main leaves. She must have remembered what I said about the petals being darker and applied that to the leaves also. It is amazing to me how much they have learned about card making in the year we have been doing it together. Inside Emma stamped the wonderful sentiment, "Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. THANKS" She wanted to write so put "To Mamaw Jo (with the J written backwards) and "I love you, Love Emma" Then she added a whole row of XOXOXOXO across the bottom. It is so sweet and each girl put a lot of herself into each card. Mom doesn't have a computer so will not see this or read it but I know she is going to really enjoy the cards from the grand girls.

Thanks for coming to my blog. If you have not joined my merry little band of followers (all 7 of them!) , feel free to add yourself. I know I would have more followers if I were posting cards every day and entering lots of challenges, but my family comes first and since I am not the sharpest computer person, I am probably near my learning limit with this machine. I will continue to make cards as needed and try to post as often as I can and enter challenges when I have time and can figure it out again. Thanks for your patience.

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CARD

This is a first for me. I don't think I have ever created a 50th anniversary card. My friend Gloria at Living Vine Church asked me to make one and wanted to pay me. She has been so friendly and kind, sharing recipes and calling while I was in rehab for my hip relacement. I told her it was my privilege to do something for her. And it was a definite challenge because I almost NEVER do anything with gold. I had to go and buy the shiny gold card stock for it, some gold ribbon, and some gold embossing powder. So now I am all set if anyone else has a 50th! Yaaa!

My card base is the cream card stock. On a separate piece of white card stock, I decided to use a beautiful rose brass stencil and I sprayed the card stock through the stencil with gold Glimmer Mist (Neither the stencil or the GM had ever been used yet!) I am totally surprised that the roses show up so well in the photo. Anyway, I had to mop up the excess of the Glimmer Mist liquid and let it dry. It was a bit lumpy from having been wet, so I piled a bunch of books on it and let it sit for a few days and it almost became flat again. At least flat enough that I wanted to use it. I used deckled scissors to cut around the edge leaving a small white border for a frame. That gave me the idea to make the gold frame.

I found a corner punch in my bin of little used punches, did some measuring and cut the gold a little bigger than the rose piece. I then punched the corners hoping that I had measured correctly. It looks like a much brighter gold in real life. I added the little sentiment "celebrating" which was stamped on the cream CS and heat embossed in gold and cut out with a Nestie. I folded the ribbon gently and stuck it down and then popped the sentiment over it. Inside I heat embossed "50 wonderful years" using Versa Mark and gold embossing powder. Not a real complicated card and I did not make lots of layers because Gloria has to mail it. Thanks for stopping by.