KID'S BIRTHDAY CARDS

Before I went for my hip replacement, I created a couple of kid's BD cards using the Penny Black stick figure girls. I made a little kit out of the images after stamping and cut everything to shape ahead-of-time. Then when I went to my son's house for dinner, I was able to set the grand daughters up and showed them my sample and they colored the images as they wished and then used the pop dots to stick things together and adhere what needed to be where it needed to go. The image at the left is of the little girl with the pony tail and flowers. The curly headed girl has stars on her outfit. Both use the same Happy Birthday paper and the same sentiment. The ones the grand daughters made looked just like these samples I made to share with you. Pretty cute and happy cards for kids. Makes one want to be happy, which is a choice we all have. Happiness comes from within each of us! Thanks for stopping by and BE HAPPY!

BACK TO WINTER

Here I was getting all ready for spring, and a major snow storm rolls across the upper Midwest. We received 6" of fresh new white stuff and the wind was blowing making drifts even higher. So last night when I could not sleep, I got up and colored this cute snowman that had been stamped in Momento black ink back in Dec. He is so cute holding the little birds nest with a bluebird in it (The beak was not like a cardinals beak, so had to be a small seed eater bird...details.) I wanted to use my Copics, and I have three shades of pink, so I guess the snow"man" is really a "woman" since I colored the scarf and hat in the pinks. I used a pale lavender and pale blue to indicate shape and shadows on the snow woman. I like the magenta buttons particularly.

For the card...
I am the kind of person who doesn't throw away items that I see possibilities in. I am not a junk saver or trash saver per say, but if an item looks of interest creatively, then I will hang onto it a while. I buy my red double stick tape from Hobby Lobby and it comes on a card board with a plastic cover that is a 1/2" deep circle. The plastic circle has always looked interesting to me, so I have saved several of them. I decided to make a snow globe out of the circular plastic and used the snow woman image behind it with some glitter inside. I probably should have used more glitter or some tinsel glitter I have, but I was afraid to over do and it is "nailed shut" with double stick tape and would be destroyed if I tried to add some more now. Oh well, experience is the best teacher, right!

Boy, this was an engineering project and I am not the greatest in measuring or cutting. There are 4 layers of matting. I stuck the lightest pink down and did not realize I needed or should have cut a circle out of it. I did learn one of my Spellbinders classic circle dies fits very nicely over the plastic circle. But I did use that die to cut a circle out of the next three layers. I used some Martha Stewart punched snowflakes to cover up some of my edges that were not uniform. I used a swirly hot pink CS that reminded me of swirling winds. I am liking the brightness of the hot colors of this card. I added a small hand written (in white) sentiment "Happy Winter" and matted in hot pink. I honestly could not find anything small enough to fit, so had to write it myself.

So for those of us who are still in the throws of winter weather, take heart and keep warm. Spring will come when the good Lord allows it to. God is faithful and He gives us the beauty of renewal and rebirth on the earth and in our lives if we believe that Christ died for us and we will have eternal life. Thank you Father for all your wonderful blessings and gifts. Thanks for stopping by.

HEARTS AND FLOWERS

Here is a heart of flowers that I colored with Copics and SU markers several months ago, not sure what I would do with it. I fussy cut around it and matted in pale pink and ran a darker pink marker around the edges to define it a bit.

I had used my CB to make this argyle #2 background and matted that in Bazzill strawberry splash. I had a medium piece of pink left over and ran it through the Swiss dots and then edged it with the Martha Stewart scalloped scallop punch. I felt the white looked really plain, so stamped a small double heart outline stamp in each of the diamonds that would show using Versa Mark and heat embossing in white Zing EP. It is a subtle addition but made me happier.

I adhered the pink strip, the heart and tied my pink dotted ribbon using my Bow-Easy. The sentiment is only half of another one and I stamped it in pink and matted in pink and popped it on to look like it is hanging from the bow. I then adhered the whole top down to the card. Now for some, this card may seem lopsided with most everything to the left. But I kind of like the negative space on the right. Thanks for stopping by.

SENTIMENT FOCUS

Hi everyone! The card I have for you today uses a sentiment for the focal image, and hearts, but can be used for someone you love and not just on Valentines Day.

I began with a white base, punched two strips of Heidi Grace DSP using a Martha Stewart lace hearts border. I matted those with a Bazzill watermelon CS. After getting those adhered on the card, I stamped the Tim Holtz sentiment using Versa Mark on a separate white piece, heat embossed with black Zing, and colored the roses and leaves on the image. I used my CB to cut the image and emboss the extra edge and I also did a lighter shade of Bazzill strawberry splash as the matting, doing the double edge there too. The top image was also distressed using the Tim Holtz "old papers" ink. At first I thought it was way too dark, but decided to continue on and see how the whole thing looked. I used a runner glue to put the two Nestie scalloped rectangles together and popped the whole up at an angle. I punched two different Martha Stewart hearts out of the two shades of pink I had already used, and layered them up with pop dots. The lower left corner looked plain, so added a small dotted sheer pink bow made with my Bow Easy.

This card fits the following challenges:
Crazy 4 Challenges- Hearts
All sorts-Focal image

VALENTINE CARD #3

Yes, there is another card with the Penny Black hedgie and it is a "gate card". I fussy cut the Copic/SU colored hedgie out and I stamped a big dotted heart from Imagine That in black Momento ink, and matted it in a darker pink and then black. Then I sat looking at it for more than a day. I decided to make a gate card in the same pink and used the Martha Stewart Gothic Fence corner punch to decorate the corners of the gate (love that look!). The large heart is adhered to the left side of the "gate" only and the hedgie is popped up for some dimension. I added some Glossy Accents on the hearts stuck on his fur. I stamped "I really do love you" (2001 Penny Black) in black and added a tulle bow in pink on the front. It is very simple, but I do like CAS! The only thing I wish I had done differently would have been to stamp the sentiment higher but at that point, I did not know I was going to add the big tulle bow. Oh well, next card maybe!

Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges:
Weds 7 Kids College Challenge (hearts)
Tues Paper Take Weekly (hearts)
Tues A spoonful of sugar (love)

VALENTINE CARD #2

This card is a step card with three "mountains" and two "valleys" between. I found it difficult to get a good picture of this. The front face of the first "mountain" has pink matting and a strip of scalloped DSP I found at Archivers. I had a bag of shiny red buttons and tied the three largest with pink crochet thread which was a little soft and difficult to keep tied. I of course did NOT have a heart button in that bag and I wanted one. So I just punched one from shiny paper and it can be seen clearly in this picture.

The second mountain has the same pink matting and scalloped punched DSP. I stamped "Happy Valentines's Day" in red on white and cut out using my CB and embossed the framed edge. Then I mounted a red CS scalloped oval behind, which was also cut out with the CB and a scalloped die. This piece is popped up.

The third "mountain" face also has pink matting. My piece of DSP was a little short, so I added a punched scalloped Martha Stewart border in white, but it doesn't show much. I then added a cut out heart in white behind the red doily to give it support. I cut the image out using the CB using the oval nestie. I popped the hedgie up on pop dots on the heart doily and flat adhered the whole thing on the left side. I stamped the little stamp "XOXO Hugs & Kisses" and used a small tag punch to punch each part out. I matted each with red CS and added a pink bow made with the crochet thread.

This is on it's way to our daughter who is so special to us. Happy Valentines Day, Beth!

This qualifies for these challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown-"buttons"
Monday Flourishes- "buttons"
Monday Crafty Card Makers- "hearts"

HAPPY vALENTINES DAY TO ALL

LOVE (or the material manifestation of it) is everywhere. All the stores have heart balloons, candy, heart decorated paper plates, napkins and cups, stuffed animals with hearts on them, coffee mugs with hearts, cling decorations for the windows depicting hearts of all kinds, and that is only at the grocery store. At other stores you get the same push for buying something with hearts.

Why does Valentine's Day need to be only one day in the year? Aren't we supposed to love others and do nice things all year long? This question has been on my mind and probably will be there a long time. I know what my Bible says about LOVE.

GOD is LOVE and HE never changes, never lies, and keeps HIS promises.

JESUS loved us (His creation) so much that HE willingly sacrificed HIS holiness, His kingship, and gave HIMSELF to die for our sins that we might be forgiven. HE wanted to please GOD and so came to earth as a man, went through a horrible death, the grave, and rose again. Such a love was for all who would believe in HIM.

We don't talk much about sacrificial love in our society. It is mostly about what can we get from someone, and NOT what can we give for the benefit of others.

Something to think about on this day of celebrating LOVE!

Here is a card I made several weeks go using the Penny Black hedgie with hearts stuck on his fur. I have made about four cards using that image. He is so cute! The red mesh is a metallic ribbon I bought after Christmas. It is full of wires and so I had to just stick it down with double stick tape. I could feel the tape through the mesh, so threw some diamond dust glitter on it to cover. (Necessity IS afterall, the mother of invention!) I ran the red yarn with silver threads over the mesh three times and secured it by tying a bow on the front. On the inside, where it criss-crosses, I punched a tissue heart and a solid CS one and adhered those over that point. I cut the hedgie out using the deckle edged rectangular Nestie, and matted with red solid CS. I stamped the sentiment, punched it out using the Stampin Up slot punch and mounted with red. I gave the hearts in his fur a coating of Glossy Accents. I think it turned out pretty cute and I have more of this same image to use. (maybe next year!) I hope to make them all totally different...we shall see.

I am sure this would fit a couple of challenges, but it is late in the day, so I won't hunt for them right now. I plan to make my hubby a nice grilled NY strip steak dinner for his Valentine dinner.

Thanks for stopping by.