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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Thinking of you...

My college roommate and I have connected over the past year after quite some time and it has been such a joy for me. September brings sad memories for her as nineteen years ago her husband lost his battle with cancer at such a young age. I have been thinking about her quite a bit lately and sent her this card...




I used Papertrey Ink's Mini Bloom coordinating stamp set and matching dies. I just love the clean and simple look of this card! The sentiment also came with the set. 

All of the flowers were stamped on another sheet of white and then added to the card base. The ink colors I used were SU Melon mambo, tangerine tango, pear pizzazz, always artichoke, summer sun, and raspberry fizz. My second photo shows the layering of the flowers. The dimension with the foam dots and round corners with the corner punch added a touch...  Hope she likes it!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Campbell is 4

It is hard to believe but our granddaughter Campbell will be four on September 27th. She is named for her great-grandmother who turns 90 on September 24th. Cami is an amazing little girl, just the idea for her birthday gives you a hint...

Cami wants a pirate-princess birthday party. You must dress up as one or the other; or because she's from Boston- a Boston Red Sox fan will do!

So here is my card for her:




Of course I had to use the magic window card (directions Magic BirthdayCard )! The stamp set is SU's Birthday Beauty. I created four cupcakes with Create a Cupcake stamps and dies, running the bottom of the cupcake through the crimper after stamping. Yellow is her favorite color, so I used daffodil delight. The letters are die cut from SU's letter die on yellow polka dot paper as is the cupcake frosting. The black 4 is from Avery Elle's Count On It

The window was made with the Heart's a Flutter scalloped heart die. The banner die is cut from vellum and embossed with gold embossing powder. I used the pull it words from PTI's Movers and Shakers stamps.

When you pull the ribbon behind the beauty... lo and behold! There's Princess Campbell with a star-studded wand and a jeweled crown! I sponged yellow ink on the white card stock under the plastic sheeting. 



Now to the pirate! I made a pirate envelope for the card... not to mention our gift was a pirate ship you can use as a playhouse! Happy birthday, Cami!

Mom

My mother will be 90 years old on September 24th. Things have not been easy for the past two years. She has had several strokes and is in a nursing home in CT. She is confined to a wheelchair, suffering from more and more bouts of dementia. Her care is considered to be "comfort" care, quite a misnomer. 

For her birthday, our three children chose different times to visit so as not to overwhelm her. What wonderful children we are blessed with for sure! No one lives within an hour of her, so it requires scheduling.  As busy as their lives are, with young children, spouses and jobs, they are considerate of that fact! I am so proud of each and every one of them!

Back story is that my mother has always loved the ocean. For the several years before her stroke, I always tried to take her to the shore for a "birthday celebration" sometime in early September. We would plan an overnight together. These are some of my fondest memories with my mom. Sometimes my sister would find time to join us, if not just the two of us would go; Maine, Cape Cod, Rhode Island. So my card for her celebrates those birthdays by bringing the ocean to her....



SU's Crumb Cake was torn for the sand, my own blue watercolor paper for the water, (see The First Day Of School post) cut in strips to show different colors from the same sheet. The lighthouse has a brad that holds the gold vellum. It can move up and down. The little sailboat attached with foam dots has separate sails in DSP. The foam on the water was created by tearing the paper.

SU's Up, Up and Away birds are flying in the sky, sponged with Distress Broken China ink. The lighthouse is from Wplus9 Guiding Light stamp and die set; the sailboat is from PaperSmooches Wicked Nautical stamp and die. Avery Elle's Count on it  was used on the guiding light.

Looking at it makes me think of the stormy seas that are directing her path right now, but that guiding light is still shining in her direction. Really directing us all!

My Sister

My sister is destined for sainthood, ...really! She is a one-of-a-kind. I have always been blessed to call her sister... So for her birthday here is my card for her:



Her favorite color is pink and SU's Just Believe is a perfect match for her. I used a pink DSP for the bottom portion and splitting the image into 3 segments: past, present and future - makes me think of our lives together.  I "painted" the stamp with Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz and Always Artichoke before lightly spritzing. Then I stamped on a heavy weight white paper before dividing the paper into three sections.

Three hearts pull the whole sentiment together on SU Crumb Cake.

Match that up with a bottle of her favorite white merlot!  Happy, happy birthday Judy!






Magic Window!

Magic window cards just intrigue me! As soon as I saw this video,  Magic Birthday CardI thought of SU's Unfroggettable set. So I tried my luck... although these are cards that don't open, I think they are fun! Here's they are:

You're unfroggetable...

I followed the directions on how to make this magic window card from here-  Magic Birthday Card and just changed a couple of things to accommodate my punches. I used SU's Always Artichoke and one of my first tries with Copics (YR15, 16, 18 and blender)  to color the mushrooms and snail.



I used the scalloped edge to make a strip to separate the top of the card. This card does not open, it has a pull up tab only.  The sentiment and note will go on the back of the card. The window is a plain plastic sheet with a ribbon attachment to pull up for the surprise frog.




And you're the BEST! 

I used SU Old Olive for these frogs. I again colored with Copics for the mushrooms. The frogs are all embossed with small dots and have googly eyes with Crystal Effects to make them shine (and stick better). The DSP for the front panel has a few little hearts, also with Crystal Effects and the scallop punch for the magic window. I used the "pull here" stamp from PTI's Movers and Shakers stamp set for the direction of the window. 





I used Simon Says Tilted Banners Stamp and dies to emboss "just saying thanks." The little frogs are all attached with dimensionals. Aren't they so cute?

The little hearts are from the Simon Says Falling Hearts die.



Love the way this card came out... Can't wait to use them!

 Update:

9/22- Just sent this to a friend that sent a note to my mother catching her up on their family news. It was such a wonderful, thoughtful thing to do that I will never forget what it meant to Mom! She smiled for the first time in days...  Thanks Lenilyne!


Early September Birthdays

Growing up, September was always the birthday month because half of the family had September birthdays.  Here are the early cards that I made:



My brother has a birthday on September 3rd, he will celebrate 71 years! I am not so excited about this card, although I love the candle diecuts from the dotted paper. I embossed the tips with gold and covered them with crystal effects to shine. I used both dies for the words one in each color to highlight the sentiment. The inside sentiment was "more candles means more wishes..."



I almost feel like there's too much going on with the cupcake embossing on the top layer. The baker's twine is holding SU's Pretty Petites sentiment on the punched shape that matches, Happy b-day. I sent the card because it is bright and cheery, but I wasn't entirely happy with it and ran out of time! Does that ever happen to anyone else???


I kind of felt the same about this card for my sister-in-law,  Nancy. She is 68 this year and just retired to SC. I was trying a new technique spotlighted by Jennifer McGuire on YouTube  that is here Die Cut Inlays. I did make my own design with the scraps from the happy birthday DSP and used it to cut both words. I set the card on Crumb Cake and then on a white base. Adding the embossed pieces of the cupcake from SU's Create a Cupcake helped, but it isn't my favorite card for sure. 

Some things that I did learn: I will use that puzzle technique with the word dies again some time and will make my own envelopes with We R Memory Keepers envelope maker. Love it! 

First Day of School

I just love the first day of schoo... always have... always will! So when the grandkids start -whether it's preschool, kindergarten or second grade -  I love to wish them well with a card. And all eight are in school this year! Here is this year's card:




The card base is SU's Not Quite Navy with an embossed layer of Midnight Muse separated by a white gel pen line, and then the "water layer" which I made on watercolor paper with Distress blue inks- Broken China and Faded Jeans. I saw this video by Kristina Werner on YouTube about this technique Live Friday Focus ... love how the paper came out! I also used some Liquid Pearls to give the water a shiny layer.

The fishes are from SU's Very Phunny and another random fish set that was in the dollar bin years ago. Wanted the mirror image for the fish with the dialogue bubble. Disaster! I just have a hard time doing that! After numerous attempts, I finally got one that would at least give the idea...  The sea grasses are stamped in SU's Wild Wasabi. The little hearts are from the Simon Says Falling Hearts die that I used on another project saving the hearts in real red and covering with Crystal effects.  The word die "happy" is also from Simon Says.

Here's another version:


 The inside sentiment is embossed with white:



And so another school year begins.  As much as I enjoyed teaching... I just LOVE retirement!

August Birthday

For almost a year I have been tutoring a middle school girl in reading for close friends of the family. The work to me is my way of giving back something to a career that I loved. Kierstyn will turn twelve at the end of August, entering into those very tumultous ages that I remember so well! Here is the card that I made for her...


First I stamped the tree with SU Early Expresso; then using Distress Ink's Broken China, I sponged the front of the card making cloud shapes on the edge of a scallop diecut. Next I stamped the tree again on another piece of white cardstock, also sponging Broken China as an overlay for the zipper die. 

Marking where the zipper would go, I stamped the sentiment which says, Pretty darn amazing! and lined up the edges to blend in with the tree. Then I colored in the leaves with SU Always Artichoke, also fussy cutting some leaves to add to the tree with foam dots. I love how they add dimension!




I just love this little guy, also using dimensionals for his glasses and lifting him as though swinging from the paper!  The bananas and his shirt are in SU Summer Sun. The stamp sets that I used were Avery Elle's What's Up? and PTI's Inside and Out II and PTI's Zipper die to create the zipper layer.

The tree connected almost seamlessly to the front layer of the card. The inside sentiment says "Happy Birthday." It was so much fun making this card that I am planning to use the zipper idea for Halloween cards as soon as I get some "playtime" with my stamps!