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.

MY SPECIAL DAY

It isn't every day a person lives to be 69 years old. I feel privileged to have made it this far. So many do not for a variety of reasons. I feel blessed to have my almost 46 yr marriage to Bill who shares the ups and downs of each day with me, my family of a wonderful mother, sister, and our children, Beth and Bill, daughter-in-law, our grand daughters and all those special people I call "friend"! My life is rich upon this old ball of dirt. I feel MOST blessed because when I was a teen, I met Jesus and asked Him to forgive my sins and to come into my heart, having the Holy Spirit to dwell in me and guide me since. I am not perfect or always made the right decisions during my journey thus far. But I know whose I am and where I will be when my life is over. I may have to endure some difficulties with my present joint health and need for replacements coming up. But I know He is with me through what comes and will sustain me. And I am content in Him. May God bless each one as you seek to know Him personally and follow Him in service. This is my prayer for all.

The above paragraph was written last night. I awoke today to a gray day and every kind of weather that you can imagine...except SUN! We have had rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets and every form in between. The roads are getting slippery, as well as the sidewalks and even the house. We can hear it hitting the aluminum siding and windows and it is scaring the cats a bit.

Today we went to Bill's appointment with the pulmonary doctor and he said Bill's 5 hour test was good. His oxygen level is improving but he does have a "paralyzed diaphragm" on the right side. We think it was due to the shingles he had when Chaka was sick and had to be put down. That was a time that was hard on both of us. But he is OK for now. We went to Cost Cutters and he got his fave buzz haircut for $10 and then onto Appleton for me. Archivers called and had the EK Success flower punch I had been waiting for. I also got some Flower Soft to try, some gold Embossing Powder and some extra sheets of pretty card stock. We stopped at the Wal-mart up there and we had lunch at Qdobas. Then headed home. We went to the movie "Lincoln Lawyer" which we had heard in an audio book. It was good and we enjoyed ourselves.

I did make a 50th Anniversary card for a friend of mine at church. I will post it after I give it to her on Thursday.

All in all...the cards, the phone calls, the gifts, the activities, all made up my special day and sharing it with Bill was the best. Thanks everyone who remembered me and Thanks honey. I love you forever!

GRAND DAUGHTERS BD CARDS

This week is a busy one. Today was Matti's 5th BD. We picked her up and let her pick lunch...Surprise! surprise! We ate at McDonalds but she did get chicken nuggets for a change. She took cupcakes for her daycare classmates and had a BD crown with 5 candles on it. She was very excited and energetic today. Please note the relaxed photo of Matti as she plays Angry Birds on the Touch. She loves that game! And what about those orange socks! She is a fashionista some days and Jack is noticing them too.

I worked on a card for her and her big sister whose BD is 4 days away. I looked through my stamps and decided to make them a card alike but with the different ages of their BD on it. The Penny Black image of a hedgie opening a gift in three littlescenes works wonderfully. The gift box opens and out comes a balloon. I popped the balloon up and put a 5 on it for Matti and a 6 on Emma's. They both like pink and purple but I used two shades of pink for the matting. I found a black paper with pink streamers (and other colors) and white confetti and it all tied together. I covered the balloon with Glossy Accents. I stamped a small sentence that says "Happy Birthday! It's your day to celebrate." above the image. I added three little pink tile accents in the upper left corner. Inside it says "Hip, Hip, Hooray!" in pinks. It turned out pretty cute but is longer than a normal card. I may have to use those business envelopes again, but they won't care. Here is Emma blowing out her candles. She asked for a strawberry cake and the one her mom made was delicious. Here is a closeup of her card hedgie. Happy Birthday to our wonderful grand daughters! Thanks for stopping by.

LITTLE BUTTERFLIES

I had another idea for the Colour Q challenge last week. I took a white panel, ran it through the CB and texturized it with some leaves and vines. I matted it in black after nipping the corners with a punch. I took the colors from the challenge (daffodil yellow, pumpkin pie, and baja breeze) and punched the Martha Stewart pop up butterflies border out of a 1/2 inch strip of each. I scattered the butterflies over the vines and leaves. I cut out a buckle type CB tag in black, cut a center out of turquoise and stamped "Thanks" on it. I used yellow satin ribbon and red double stick tape to stick it all together. The Thanks tag is popped up and also has a couple of butterflies added. For bling, I put a small orange rhinestone on each of the pumpkin pie butterflies. Pretty simple and almost CAS.






Using the punched out 1/2" strips leftovers, I layered them across another card and left a 1/4 " space of white between. On another leftover piece of white, I stamped the individual words of "ON", "YOUR", "SPECIAL", "DAY" in black Momento and punched them each out with the SU slot punch. For the short words, I adhered a thin strip onto the word after doing one end, and then did the other end. That is how I got the different sizes out of one punch which is about 1 1/4" long. I also added some Stickles to some of the butterflies on the front and the ones on the bookmark Inside the card, it says Happy Birthday and I used all three colors of ink to stamp. I added a few more butterflies and a book mark as a keepsake. I stamped the Scripture Numbers 6:24-25 in black Momento, punched the white corners on the top layer of the bookmark with a decorative punch and matted in yellow and turquoise. I added a ribbon tie. This card is for a friend at church. Her BD is the same as my oldest grand daughter and she is always so friendly to me and made me feel welcomed. I think she will be surprised. Happy Birthday, Lovelie (That is her real name! She is from Haiti.)

So with this post and the previous one, I have three cards using the colors from the Colour Q challenge last week and they are all fairly different. That is in itself a challenge. Maybe next time I will get busy and post them in a timely fashion. Thanks for stopping by.

LONG CARD

I wanted to make a long card that would fit into a business envelope...I don't know why! I just wanted to try it. It creates some challenges that smaller cards do not have. I had planned to enter this also for the Colour Q challenge but did not get it posted in time. So I will show it to all 7 of you who read my blog.

I absolutely love this Scripture stamp. It says so much for all of us. The white curly line is the place where the card opens. That is the new Stampin Up punch that I used on the card base edge. Then I covered the top fold and the bottom fold with black, leaving the punched edge showing on both.. It took a bit of measuring and trial and error in placement of the tiles to get everything to line up as I wanted. The tiles were cut out, had one corner nipped with a punch, positioned so that each nipped corner is placed in a different direction. I also over stamped the tiles and the scripture with a flourish and Tim Holtz Old Papers distressed ink. I cut the scripture with my Cuttlebug and the lacey circle Spellbinder, matted with a classic circle in turquoise, and the yellow is a large scalloped circle and all three popped up on the top. The rose is just a white punched circle that I tore in a spiral and then wound around a thin tool I have for Quilling. I rolled some of the edges and added the Martha Stewart punched leaves. Inside I left it blank to write a long note instead of just sending a sentiment. Thanks for stopping by.

A WEEK AGO

Yes, this was taken March 9th when we had 6 inches of snow in the course of a 24 hour period. This is the view out of my craft window on the front of our condo. You can see the yew evergreen and behind it my butterfly bush. I will have to trim the butterfly bush later and new growth will spring forth and beautiful flower clusters will bloom and attract lots of different butterflies and other flying critters.

So hopefully this is a final salute to winter for this season. But you never know up here in the northern US. Come on SPRING! We are ready and for those who are not familiar with our weather, we have the MOST wonderful and perfect temperatures in spring, summer and fall! Worth waiting all winter for, believe me! I love it!