JUST THE WAY YOU ARE

I don't know why my blog posts have all been songs lately.  Probably because my brain is exhausted.  (Sigh!)  I made this card for a terrific friend of mine named Kim.  We were good buddies in college and recently reconnected through social networking.  I had the opportunity to visit Kim this summer after her mother passed away.  I hadn't seen her in almost 20 years, but she hadn't changed a bit.  She's a "what you see is what you get kind of gal."  That's what I love about her.  So, if you're reading this Kim, thank you for being you.

It's going to be a quick post for me this evening.  Tomorrow begins the five week treatment plan of chemo and radiation for Dad.  He's not been feeling very well lately and has had to have four days of IV fluids for dehydration.  Thanks for peeking in on me today!

Stamp Set:  Bold Blossom; Paper:  Cheerful Treat Hostess Designer Series Paper

"HEART"Y THANKS

Here's a card I made for my son to give to my co-worker, Teresa.  She gave him a nice card along with two black and orange school t-shirts for his eighth grade graduation.  You have to realize that she's a diehard Piketon Redstreak fan and let's just say my son attends a school that is a lifelong rival of Piketon's.  I told my son that it probably pained her soul to have to purchase those shirts and I'm sure she was shaking her head "no" as she handed the money over to the clerk to pay for them. LOL!  At any rate, I think it was a very nice gesture from her.  My son appreciates the shirts and wears them often.  Thanks, Teresa, for thinking of my son.  And by the way, "Go Tigers!!!" 

Thanks for peeking in on me today.  My husband, son and I have taken turns being sick this month.  I think we're finally on the mend.  Hallelujah!  I do have more cards to show you.  I'm just waiting on my dear hubby to edit them.  As you can probably tell, the card above is not edited, but I'm posting it anyway.

ETA:  Yay!  My husband edited this card for me!  It looks so much better now.

WILLIE WONKIE'S BIRDHOUSE

Okay, so this is not really Willie's birdhouse.  The card just looks "wonkie" in this picture for some reason.  It's slightly open and I've mini glue-dotted a gift card to the inside.  So, I'm guessing it was setting strangely in my light box.  I made this card for a wonderful neighbor of mine.  He cleared my driveway after every snow this past winter.  He's retired and he clears all the neighbors' driveways each winter.  Do you know what a blessing it is to come home after a day's work to find your driveway all cleared off?  Let me tell you, it is WONDERFUL!  He's just an all around great neighbor.  He's always ready to lend a helping hand just when you need it.  Do you have a great neighbor like that?

Okay, enough small talk.  On to the card........I've seen birdhouse cards and boxes all over blogland.  Ever since then, I've been itching to make a birdhouse card myself.  This card measures 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and will fit in a medium size Stampin' Up! envelope.  I used the Woodgrain Background stamp on the front panel to mimic the look of tree bark and then stamped my sentiment from the Bella's Bloom stamp set.  I thought the sentiment was fitting.  The redbird was a snap to assemble.  I just punched him out in Real Red card stock with my Extra Large Two-Step Bird punch and then punched the stem out again with a scrap piece of Old Olive card stock.  The "hole" was punched out in Basic Black card stock with my 1 1/4" circle punch.  The top of my birdhouse was assembled with 1 1/2" pieces of Chocolate Chip card stock.  I punched each strip using my Scallop Edge punch and then sponged each strip for dimension.  (Let me just say that this was "mucho" time consuming.  Wow!)  I trimmed a piece of Whisper White card stock to cover the inside panel of my card and used a sponge dauber with Bashful Blue Classic Ink and a piece of scrap card stock punched with the Scallop Circle punch to make my clouds.  Whew!  Are you still with me?  I think that about covers everything. 

If you are still reading this after my windy post, bless your soul.  Thanks for peeking in on me today!  I'm heading off to Wednesday night church service.  I'm not sure if I'll have any more posts this week.  I need to pack up my supplies for a scrapbook retreat I'm attending this weekend in Wheelersburg.  I'm looking forward to getting caught up on my scrapbook.  I attended the retreat last year and had a ball!  I'm hoping this year will be just as fun!

PPA38 & OCC Beautiful Butterflies Challenge

Today's card is a result of two challenges.  I decided to play along with Pals Paper Arts PPA38 sketch challenge and Our Creative Corner's Beautiful Butterflies challenge.  I love the simple layout of this sketch and using Stampin' Up!'s square punches make it a breeze to assemble a card such as this one.  When I saw Our Creative Corner's challenge this week, I automatically thought of the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die in the Occassions Mini Catalog.  (You still have until April 30th to purchase Occassions Mini products.  Wink!  Wink!) 

I actually thought I had an original thought this time combining the butterflies with this sketch challenge.  (You that follow my blog know that original ideas from me are sadly few and far between.  I'm a CASEr.  It's sad, but true!)  Imagine my despair when I popped over to Nancy Riley's blog ISTAMP only to find she had the same idea too!  Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm not overly upset about it.  I actually admire the great and wonderful Nancy and to think that I actually was thinking like her was a pure BLISS moment for me!  Although, I have to admit her card is much more wonderful than mine : )

Well, I must get back to the drawing board.  I'm working on a birdhouse card.  I've seen them everywhere and I'm trying to come up with my own pattern for one.  I hope to post it later this week.  Thanks for peeking in on me!  Hope your weekend was a great one!

Supplies:  (All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless noted.)  Stamps - Thank You Kindly; Paper - Sending Love Specialty Paper -  Very Vanilla, Real Red, Chocolate Chip; Ink, - Chocolate Chip Craft Ink, Real Red Classic Ink; Accessories - Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die, Perfect Polka Dots Impressions Folder, Big Shot Machine, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Very Vanilla 5/8" Satin Ribbon, Real Red Corduroy Brad,  Sponge Dauber, Pop Up Glue Dots, Mini Glue Dots, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack; Punches - 1 1/4" Square, 1 3/8" Square

BRIGHT AND CHEERY THANKS

Here's one of the cards my fabulous stamping  friends made at my Spring Fling card classes.  As you can see, there isn't much stamping on this card.  It's made using mostly punches.  Cards made with punches are fast and easy which is great when you need to whip up a card in a flash. 

I also ran the Flower Folds die through my Big Shot to make the large outer layer of the flower.  To give my flower a little depth, I used the edge of a bone folder to curl the petals.  (Similar to how you would use scissors on curling ribbon - KWIM.)  As an added touch and an effort to quit hoarding all my wonderful Stampin' Up! products, I attached a lovely Real Red corduroy button to my sentiment banner.  I used the edge of my square punch tilted sideways in order to get the nice "V" edge along the outside of  my banner.  Believe me when I say this is so much easier than eyeballing the edge and cutting it with scissors.  Try it some time!  You'll see what I mean.  Well, that's it for me tonight!  Thanks for taking time to peek in on me today!

Supplies:  Stamps - Thank You Kindly; Ink - Basic Brown; Paper - Kraft, Bermuda Bay, Very Vanilla, Summer Sun, Real Red, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper; Accessories - Big Shot, Bigz XL Flower Folds die, Tombo Adhesive Glue, Real Red Corduroy Button, Linen Thread, Bone Folder; Punches - Small Oval Punch, 1 1/4" Square Punch, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch 

Bird Nouveau

Okay, here's the scoop. I'm totally terrified of Stampin' Up!'s Soft Subtles color palette. Don't get me wrong. The colors are beautiful. I just tend to shy away from them. So, every now and then I try to push myself outside my comfort zone and let's just say my deodorant was working overtime this time around. You see I was sweating a little when I pulled out the Apricot Appeal and Sage Shadow card stock for this card. I'm not sure why the apricot looks a little banana colored in this photo. Perhaps, the saturation was tweaked a little too much on my photo editing program. You'll just have to trust me. It is truly apricot in real life. Even though it is hard to see, I embossed my bird with embossing powder to give it a little more dimension. By the way, I think the bird would be beautiful water colored in with bold colors. It would give it a little something, something. I also tried to do a little "faux embossing" by adding the tone on tone circles to the Sage Shadow section of the card. (The actual name of this technique is escaping me at the moment. Feel free to leave me a comment if you know the name of this technique.) The button is just a clear Stampin' Up! button with Designer Series Paper behind it. I used the Mojo Monday Sketch 103 for the layout of this card. That's it for me!



Thanks for peeking in on me today!



Supplies: Stamps - Very Thankful; Ink - Basic Black Craft Ink; Paper - Nouveau Chic DSP, Apricot Appeal, Sage Shadow, Basic Black; Accessories - Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder, Eyelet Border Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch, Black Gingham Ribbon, Clear Button

SEEING DOTS

Hurray for me! I actually made the deadline to play along with the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge this week. It's a new world's record folks! If you're looking for a springboard to get your creative juices flowing then you should head over to the Mojo Monday blog. (After you check out my blog, of course.)

As I was coloring in my tree with my Stampin' Up! Marvelous Markers (love 'em), I was vaguely reminded of the giant swirled lollipops that you could buy as a child. I loved those things. It took days to eat them. What flavor were they? Cherry, maybe? Come to think of it, I don't remember them tasting all that great. Okay, enough already. Thanks for stopping by and checking in with me today. If you were kind enough to leave a comment, bless you. We bloggers love comments!

Supplies: Stamps - Trendy Trees; Ink - Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, SU! Markers - Old Olive, Real Red, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Basic Brown Journaler; Paper - Tall Tales DSP, Textured Old Olive, Textured Real Red, Textured Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Whisper White; Accessories - 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch, Mat Pack, Paper Piercer, Vintage Brads

SO GRATEFUL

Here's a sneak peek from the upcoming Stampin' Up! Mini Holiday Catalog that comes out on September 1st. Boy, are you going to love this mini catalog. Lots of great stuff in this one. This image is from the "Wandering Words" stamp set. There are three stamps in this set containing this fall stamp, a Christmas scene stamp and a Valentine theme stamp. I must admit I have a little trouble knowing what to do with these long stamps, but I'm going to try my best and figure them out.

I used my Big Shot machine with the texturz plate for the background. I just spritzed my cardstock with water and ran it through my machine to get a deeper impression. To make it stand out a little, I sponged over the embossing with More Mustard and Close to Cocoa Stampin' Up classic ink pads.

Can you believe autumn is just around the corner? Personally, it is my favorite time of year. Hope to post another sneak peek from the new mini catalog soon.

Thanks for checking in with me today.

Supplies: Stamps - SU's Wandering Words; Cardstock - Ruby Red, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Elegant Eggplant, Autumn Traditions DSP; Ink - More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Always Artichoke, SU Markers - Soft Suede, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant, Ruby Red; Accessories - Sponges, Linen Thread, Paper Piercer, Playground Designer Series Buttons, Fire Circle Rhinestone Brads, Big Shot Machine, SU's Background 1 Texturz Plate, Dimensionals, Punches - 1/2" Circle, 3/4" Circle, Scallop Edge, Tag Corner