So Proud of my Daughter

My daughter is going through a really difficult time that started a year ago, and included a broken engagement, the loss of her job and inability to find a new one, that kind of stuff. She's up and down, but lately has been very depressed, so I decided to make her a card with a sentiment that describes her perfectly: Courageous and Vulnerable. It's what I love about her, and what I believe will get her through all this.

I'm still feeling like I've lost my Mojo. I remember when I used to read other people say that and couldn't believe it had happened. All I thought about for a year was making cards, and it kept me going. I've also read other people get theirs back, and I'm hoping the same will happen for me. Blah blah blah. :)

Recipe:

Making Memories English Garden papers

Recollections pearl stickers

EK Success border punch

Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Four dies

Digital stamp of girl (I'm sorry, I don't know where I found this.)

Stickpins I made

Flowersm ribbon and seam binding from stash

Challenges

The Shabby Tea Room--green, pink and yellow

Lili of the Valley--sketch 

Mami Doodles--flowers

My newphew, Kyle is celebrating his 20th birthday this Monday. He is on a mission for the Mormon Church, so I made some monogrammed notecards so he can dash off quick notes to his family and friends. I put the cards in one of the drawers shown here, and the envelopes in the other. I purposely stayed away from many embellishments, which was HARD! I hope he likes it.

I'm not entering it into any challenges because I don't feel it's good enough. I'm not sure what's going on with me, but I am having to force myself to work on my cards lately. I'm a little worried about that because, for over a year now, it's been how I cope with being disabled. I don't get out much, but was always happy when making cards. Now . . . not so much, and depression is seeping back in. I hope it doesn't last.

I won!

I am soooo excited! I won this fabulous blog candy from Rea at The Antique Warrior blog. I about fell out of my chair when I saw my name. Thank you so much, Rea!

Jacque's Joie de Vivre Blog Candy

Jacque has asked us to write a post so people will see the wonderful Scor-pal candy she has up for grabs on her blog. I get very little traffic here, but am glad to do my part for her. The contest ends July 31, so hop on over now to Jacque's blog to enter.

Spencer's Waterfall Birthday Card

My nephew, Spencer, is a genius. Certifiable. One day he will win the Nobel, the Pulitzer, and a Grammy, all in the same year. So, when it comes to designing a birthday card for him, man, do I feel the pressure! Last year I made him a never-ending card because he loves all things mechanical, and he loved it. That was a HUGE compliment to me because, the truth is, Spence and I have never really been close. That's mostly because we don't see each other often, but also, because I'm an old lady, and not a genius. :) So, when he CHOSE to display last year's card on his bedroom wall, that was huge to me. But . . . now ..  . . it also means even MORE pressure this year to top last year's card!

In keeping with the "mechanical" theme, I chose to do a waterfall card this year, and I think he'll get a kick out of it. Basic Grey's Oxford collection was perfect for this, especially the mathy papers. I love how they look on the "waterfall" part of the card. It took me a long time to figure out what else to do on each panel, and my inspiration came from a Stampin' Up's Alphabet Soup stamp. Once it occurred to me to play with the placement of the letters, the card came together quickly.

I was also pleased when I came up with an idea for the inside of the card. I was sweatin' it at first because I had had to make the card fairly large to accommodate the waterfall. I can only write "I love you and have a wonderful birthday" so many different ways on the inside of the card! But when it hit me that banners would be a perfect, once again, it came together very quickly. 

Recipe:

Basic Grey Oxford papers

C'ordinations light blue sparkly paper

C'ordinations gold sparkly paper

Martha Stewart border punch

Various Cuttlebug alphabet dies

Challenges:

Delightful Challenges--fancy folds

Hanna and Friends Challenge Blog--Happy Birthday

Southern Girls--Happy Birthday

Crafty Creations--Boyz to Men

Ruby's Rainbow--Happy Birthday

Cindy's blues blew me away.

 

Last night, I was surfing the net looking for nothing in particular, but, as always, hoping for some inspiration, when I came upon this drop-dead-gorgeous card over at the Flourishes website. I was immediately taken with the gorgeous blues she used in her stunning design. So, I CASEd it. Unabashedly and unashamedly. And my card still doesn't even come close to the exquisiteness of Cindy's card. But, I wanted to make this a smaller card so I could include it in the set of notecards I'm making for my SIL, and space was limited. I tried adding a few more embellishments, but every time I did it went over the top. So, while I couldn't get any closer to Cindy's card, I thought I'd stop while I was ahead. 

Aw, who am I kidding? I don't think I could ever make a card as stunning as Cindy's. It really is that amazing.

I did add a new technique to this card--stitching--and was, FINALLY, satisfied with it. I've tried to stitch on cards before, always by hand because I don't have a sewing machine, and I've never been happy with them. A few times I've just thrown the thing across the room! 

I explain how I was able to get the stitching right at the bottom of this post. It's a fairly long paragraph, so I wanted to make it possible for you to skip it if you chose. But, the fact that the card is still on this side of the room ought to tell you I figured out something! :)

Recipe:

The Paper Company papers from Joann, in blues. (I don't recall the actual name of the collection.)

Striped paper I designed

Digital flower stamp 

Spellbinders Nestabilities Oval and scalloped Oval

Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing folder

Sizzix branch with leaves die

McGills Petite Petals punch

EK Success border punch

Copics

Seam binding ribbon died in a sage green and crumpled up.

Stick pins I made. (I just noticed one of them had fallen off! Yikes!)

Challenges:

Freshly Brewed Challenges--three of anything

Simon Says Stamp--anything goes

Creative Craft Challenges--pretty blossoms

Flourishes--embossing (I'm embarrassed to enter this since I so unashamedly copied Cindy's card, but what the hell!)

Jac-Inks Papercraft Challenges--die cut and texture

How I did the stitching: First, I cut an oval from my Nestabilities, traced it, then scanned the image into my computer. I then traced the scanned oval in my Digital Scrapbook Artist program using the drawing pen. Next, I changed the line to dashes, changed the line's color to a very light gray, and then printed it out. I cut the oval from my die, then poked a hole in each dash, stitched it up, and voila! It actually doesn't look half bad. It took me almost all day to get the oval just right, as I had to tweak its height and width many times, and even then, it's not perfect. But it is very close.

Notecards for my sister-in-law.

Lately, for the really special women in my life, I've been making a set of monogrammed notecards for their birthday. I know "sets" of notecards are all supposed to match in some way, but I get really bored with that. So, the way mine match is I use a monogram, and I use my favorite papers. Other than that, it's a free-for-all! 

My SIL has a birthday coming up in August, so I'm trying to get a head start with this card. I went a bit out of my comfort zone with so many squares, but I think it works. I was actually struggling to find a paper that matched the blue background paper, and finally found I had the perfect paper in my digital collection!

Recipe:

My Mind's Eye 29th Street Market paper

Arise digital paper by Dana Zarling at Design House Digital

C'ordinations brown pearlized paper

Spellbinders Nestabilities squares and scalloped squares

Monogram stamp

stick pins I made

Prima rosebuds

Challenges:

Creative Craft Challenges--pretty blossoms

Deep Ocean Challenge blog--cards

Digital Tuesday Challenge--use one or more dies

Crafting Life's Pieces' Sketch

I came upon Crafting Life's Pieces, via a link to a link to a link (in other words, I'm not sure how I got there), and I am so glad I did. I was just blown away by the gorgeous cards there, and what made it even better is they also have a monthly sketch challenge blog. So, while the card above doesn't even come close to the loveliness I found there, I am happy with how it turned out.

What took me forever was taking a picture of it. I purposely used very pale pinks, blues and greens, with the black as a strong contrast, and I had a heck of a time getting my camera to pick the pale colors up. I'm not very good at photography as it is, so this about did me in. But, I finally got close enough to the real thing that I was satisfied.

What I really love about this card is the stamp. It's Stampin' Up's Elements of Style, and I've coveted it forever. But appearances are deceiving. It's actually the digital version of the stamp! I was so excited when I discovered it for sale at the Stampin' Up website, because I've just not had the money to buy the rubber version. And best of all, while the rubber version would have been too large for my card, I was able to size the digital version down a bit, and I couldn't be happier.

Recipe:

My Mind's Eye Lost and Found papers

My Mind's Eye Lush papers

Stampin' Up Elements of Style digital stamp

Stampin' Up Best Wishes stamp

Black paper from scraps

EK Success border punch

Sizzix Branch w/Leaves die

Sizzix Architectural Accent #3 die

Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One

Distress Inks Bundled Sage

Distress Inks Tea Dye

watercolors

Recollections pearl stickers

seam binding died pale pink

stick pins I made

mulberry paper flowers from stash

Challenges:

Crafting Life's Pieces--sketch challenge

Make It Monday--anything goes

Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps--birthday

Aud Sentiments Challenge--use a sentiment with two words

Stampavie and More--More than three layers.

The Most Amazing Blog Candy!

 

  

I don't usually write posts about blog candy, even though I am addicted to entering these kinds of contests. But Melissa at Creating from the Heart has such an amazing contest going on, I thought it was worth a post of its own. Up for grabs is a Spellbinders Grand Calibur machine, a set of Spellbinders Grand Labels 11 (the large ones), and a $150 gift certificate to Michael's! Can you believe that? I am salivating as I type this!

Additionally, her cards are just beautiful. I've spent the last hour going through her blog, and have found a few new ideas I'd like to try. Really, her stuff is gorgeous.

So, head on over to Melissa's blog and enter today. It really is the most amazing candy I've ever seen.

For my Sis

For my sister's birthday I made her a book box card and filled it with monogrammed notecards. I was extremely happy with how it turned out, but was in such a hurry to send it off in time that I didn't take a picture of it. But I did take pics of some of the notecards, and the one above is one of my favorites, particularly because I got to use some of my very favorite papers. I was also very happy with the rosette because I finally figured out how to make one. I know how stupid that sounds, but I'm one of those people who can easily figure out a very difficult project, while the simple ones elude me. 

To make the monogram, I printed out the "T" on C'ordinations white pearl paper and then immediately covered it with Stampendous transparent embossing powder. These papers have such a smooth surface the printer ink doesn't dry immediately, and thus, embossing powders stick to it beautifully. My choices of what I can emboss on these papers is only limited to what images I can find, or can draw, on my computer. In other words, limited is really unlimited.

Recipe:

My Mind's Eye Adore paper

My Mind's Eye Asparagus paper

Basic Grey Olivia papers

C'ordinations white pearls paper

Recollections sticky pearls

ribbon from stash

Challenges:

Creative Belli Blog--make your own embellishments

Party Time Tuesdays--square card

Craft Your Passion--anything goes

Digi Design House--make your own flower(s)