This Little Card of Mine

An even easier use of the flower die

First, be sure to check out yesterday's post as crafters are adding new cards every day for the Welcome Lila Grace card event. 

Here is a new card using the same die I used on Lila's card.  On yesterday's card I used the die in a way that made it easier than trying to adhere all of the tiny pieces and make it match the die.   Here is an even easier one!   Cut out the die and then put paper behind it to bring in the color.  Easy peasy!   The background of the card is embossed with white embossing powder.  I'm loving that stamp!

Supplies:  Memory Box Wild Blooms die; Hero Arts Lattice Background cling stamp;  Hero Arts Note Card; Ranger Seafoam White embossing powder; Cosmo Cricket Baby Jane patterned paper (for flower); Scenic Route paper (stem - an oldie but goodies); Mint Motif Greeting; Bazzill cardstock (black)

I'm thinking my next attempt may be putting a watercolor or distress ink background behind it.  Hmmm.. I guess I'm not ready to put the die away yet.  :-)

A crafty welcome for Lila Grace

We all love our dear friend, Jennifer, and her family (Ken, Kay, Audrey and Colin) and we are so happy that sweet Lila Grace has arrived.  So we thought we would show our love and welcome this sweet new addition to the McGuire family with a week long card event.  And Jennifer,  there are no obligations to leave comments anywhere -- we wanted to put these all in one place to make it super easy for you to enjoy the love from your friends with no work on your part.  :-)

To all visitors, Please join us and add your card below via InLinkz.   You will need to load it somewhere like your blog or Flickr first.  We can't wait to see your beautiful creations.

Here is my card for Lila:

This card uses a Memory Box Wild Blooms die. I must admit that when  got it I did not look very closely at it to realize that it has a bunch of tiny little pieces.  I thought, oh boy, I won't ever use this.  Until I saw a tip from Jennifer in her recent die cut class.  If you cut out the image and then back it with another piece of paper to put behind it it's like a puzzle where you can put all of the pieces in.  The result is a flat image where the pieces fit perfectly into the die cut holes.  I must say it was still some work to get it done but I love the look.   The flowers and stems were cut out of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye's Miss Caroline- Howdy Doody collection. I wanted to add a little shine to the flower so I colored over the flowers with Sakura's Clear Glaze pen. 

Other supplies:  May Arts Silk Ribbon, Tag made with circle punch and greeting printed on my printer onto patterned paper, Spellbinders Reverse Wonky Rectangle die set, Signo white gel pen (for white dashed line around the outside (a Kathy Racoosin tip). 

Oh, and many thanks to Kristina Werner for the beautiful logo!

106 years young...

No, not me.. yet.  :-)  I was sitting here reading a newsletter from St. Paul's .. a Contiuing Care Community serving older adults in Northern PA.  My father has volunteered on their board for decades and this is an amazing place.  For any of you who were involved in the Cards That Care drive for seniors many of your cards went here.   I was reading about a resident who celebrated her 106th birthday in February.  When asked what she wanted for her birthday she said "a cat" and laughed.  A woman after my own heart.  :-)   I am going to make a card for her (even a little late).  Remembering how much the residents loved the Christmas cards I thought it would make her smile.  I am hesitant to put her name out on the web without her permission.  If anyone wants to send her one ? Email me and I'll send the info.

I have the most talented friends...

Who sent me cards to thank me for organizing a recent retreat.    Each so beautiful...

from Nichol M

from Kathy R

from Stephanie K

from Joy O

from Sandi N

Many thanks to my wonderful friends.

Thank you to my "vet team"

Recently my sweet boy, Bailey (feline! :-)), was sick.  It took several weeks to get things under control and I am happy to report that he is doing great... thanks to the help of three vets and specialists.  I am so grateful that there are people who chose to go into that profession and who understand what our pets mean to us.  I am surrounded by several who could not be more caring.  I wanted to express my gratitude to them for all they did to help Bailey (and me!) through the process.   So I made a few simple cards to send them:

 

Supplies:  Hero Arts note card; My Favorite Things Big Greeting set, Inky Antics Charming Kitty #1 set,  Copic markers (to color the kitty), Lily Bee Design Buttercup paper

She has a kitty! :-)

So I had to have this stamp set.   Like I don't have enough of the Pure Innocence stamps from My Favorite Things.  And I am late to the party -- my first card with something chevron on it!

Supplies:  My Favorite Things Pure Innocence Purrfect stamp set ; Lily Bee Designs Buttercup patterned paper; Copic Markers; SEI buttons

Are you shocked? A new post

I have been wanting to use this stamp but just didn't seem to get around to it.  Love how bold it is, especially colored red!  And so easy - just some coloring and then some Distress Ink around the edges.

 Supplies:  Hero Arts - notecard, greeting, dot (flower center), Pom Pom flower stamp; Twinery twine; Ranger Distress Ink (Tumbled Glass)

When you don't know what to do to help...

Recently a co-worker and friend passed away unexpectedly.  He was just 39 years old with a wife and two small children and we were all shocked and heartbroken.   Still are...   It is hard to know how to help.  So I decided to make his wife 20 thank you cards, figuring she would need them along the way.    I will send them to her with the postage stamps she will need so it's all there and ready to go.

I decided to do something simple and pulled out some scraps of paper for the butterflies.  I used the Paper Shapers butterfly punch and layered 3 on top of each other to give it just a little dimension.   For the center of the butterfly I used Ranger White Opal Liquid Pearls.  Just the right touch but not too thick to go through the mail.  I hope she likes them. (some day I will learn how to photography white cards)

Sending smiles

This is one of those cards that started out totally different than it ended up!  Oh well... I just kept adding stuff.  :-)  Here was my first attempt to photograph the card!  heehee

Take two!  :-)

The little girl was colored in Copics.  I used one of my new favorite things on the shoes and heart in her hair.  I wanted them to be shiny and usually I would try my best to use Glossy Accents in these tiny spaces to get that look.  Until I discovered Sakura's Gelly Roll Glaze pen - in clear.  Magic!  Love!  And the rest is pretty self-explanatory I think:

Supplies:  My Favorite things die and Pure Innocence Aim High stamp set; Hero Arts notecards, greeting (oldie but goodie), red gem flower and black gem; My Mind's Eye patterned paper (Miss Caroline); Cotton string; Penny Black Warm Wishes cling stamp (on daffodil diecut); Distress Ink (Scattered straw); Signo Uniball white pen.  Sakura Gelly Roll clear glaze pen; Copics (E51, E53, E35, E37, Y26, Y35, R27, BG18)

 

Happy Birthday Colin!

Here is a quick tag for Colin's birthday present.  I had this creative idea and I didn't seem to have any of the right things on hand to do it.  So, simple it is.  I didn't have a "C" that was the right size so I took a chipboard oval and cut it to make it what I needed (Sandi N's idea  :-)  ).    Got out  my Claudia Hellmuth paints -- I don't know why I don't use those more often - they are like butter!   Anyone recognize that dot Scenic Route paper?  An oldie but goodie that I found in my scrap drawer.