Congratulations- Retirements

Lots of friends retiring this year...

Having so much fun with PTI Flower Favorites with "2-step" iris and adding the cute little "2-step" bee...

As you can see I tried several colors and layers of mats. The sentiment is from another PTI Bigger Blooms. 

Finally I ended with a one layered card, masking off the border. I then decided to save this card instead of using it for a retirement. So there is no greeting on it ... yet!

I did decide to add the hummingbird from SU Pretty Amazing and water colored him with Distress inks, fussy cut and went around the cut with black marker. It is attached with foam to pop. Love these iris the best of all that I stamped. The coloring is just so realistic.

Congratulations... New Position

Lots of friends at John's school are retiring this year. Great chance to make some fun cards! And a new position for another congratulations card!

Here's the overview...

Another look...

Now here's a closer look...

This is the first congratulations card that I made. The principal of the school I retired from has just accepted another position. I am so excited for her! It will be a position that she will mold to fit, not try to fit into a past role. She will be so great at it... a K-12 school and she will just thrive! Congratulations, Principal Sarah!

Using my new PTI Flower Favorites set, the card base is white with a yellow layer under the top panel. PTI Super Swoosh die in black glued over the card layers. I love the way it extends across all the layers.

Using Wink of Stella gave great glitter to the iris! The butterfly also comes from the stamp set, although I had to fussy cut it and then attach it to the card. The fun part was a black thread tied as the body with antennae extending and the whole thing attached with foam to really pop off the card.

The colors are SU Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango, Gumball Green and Wild Wasabi. The edges of the top layer were softened by sponging Distress colors blue for the sky and green below.

Love this stamp set... Makes such a fun card!

May- A Birthday

My sister-in-law's birthday is May 17th. She is just such a special person. She and my brother have raised seven sons, all so amazing in their own right. My brother had a stroke about five years ago and is in a wheelchair, unable to do many things that I take for granted.

Carole is so unselfish and such a tender caregiver. Although she has lots of family to support her, the brunt of the hardship falls to her for his care. This is my card for her...

Carole loves gardening and has a real green thumb. Iris are some of her favorite flowers. So this PTI Fresh Flowers Stamp set is perfect for her card.

It actually worked up very fast! The two step Iris flowers are SU color inks, the lighter color stamped first then Melon Mambo on top. The center is SU Starfruit, perfect color for this! The greens are two step stamping of SU Wild Wasabi and Gumball Green.

The greeting is from PTI Mini Blooms, my favorite for birthdays and is finished off with 3 pink sequins.

Hope she likes the card, even though it will arrive a bit late :) Next time for this set, I'd like to try watercolor stamping or misting the stamp before applying.

May- Lyla and Reagan's Christening

Our newest granddaughter, 5 month-old Reagan and her sister, 3 year-old Lyla, will be christened tomorrow in MA. A very fun family event... wish everyone could be there. Here's my card for the event...

Papertrey Ink's Super Stars stamp set with gold embossing glitter and the Word die "blessed" tell the whole story! The die is cut twice, once with yellow adhesive foam and once with white cardstock. It gives the pop that I was looking for and a little color backing. Wink of Stella gold adds some mini-stars in the sky. The large star is from the stamp set gold embossed on white before cutting it out. The die cut star underneath is from gold glitter paper.  There are also 2 gold sequin stars added with Crystal Effects. 

I did not put a sentiment inside, but rather wrote a note to the family. Love how this came out. Will definitely be using this stamp set a lot!

More April Birthdays

A college friend is having a birthday on April 12th. She is a single mother of two grown girls that have moved and are no longer in the area. So she invited me to a dinner of her friends at a local restaurant for her birthday, April 13th. This is the card I am sending her:

I made this card some time ago in an online card class. The card background is masked off, stamped in white with the chevrons. The overall flowers are stamped on top of that. It is a one layer base, but I added the this strip of green and then put it on a white card base. 

The greeting is stamped on vellum from SU Curly Cute set. I love the look of the background in white, although I think it might have been more appealing to me in Versamark, maybe not so dramatic! Happy birthday, Phyllis!

Our son-in-law, Chris has a birthday on April 14th. He is such a wonderful addition to our family! Such a great daddy to his three daughters- it is wonderful to watch!

Here's the card I am sending him also from an Online Card Class:

This card is all one layer. The triangles were made by masking off sections of the card with strips of tape. Sponging color over the sections that were not taped, and then sponging Versamark on them.

Clear embossing powder was used for each triangle. Love the look and feel of this card! Wish I had used other colors, but it is great for a masculine card. I would like to try again with hombre colors maybe? The greeting is again stamped with SU Curly Cute.

I keep saving the cards from these wonderful classes, and then I ask myself why do I do that? Probably because I think it will encourage me to try one of the techniques again, but I rarely do. I guess I just pick up the real comfortable techniques that stay with me... like watercoloring!

Happy birthday, Chris!

Florida Thank You

We have been in Florida since February 21st. How lucky is that especially with a winter in Vermont like this one?  Blessed is what we are!

Our landlord is a wonderful woman from Canada, the first time we've rented from her. I hope we can continue to enjoy a great renter relationship in the future. It has been such a wonderful time here for John and me, and she has offered us the condo for two months next year. I sure hope we can make it work financially... a piece of heaven for sure! Right on this gorgeous ocean...

Here's the card we left for her...

This was a card I made in the OCC in February, one stamp set three ways. You can check back for details on how I used this PTI Flipping Out stamp and die set. I would have never thought to do the all over pattern, but love the way it came out! Will definitely make a few more of these in different colors. And the sentiment is PERFECT!

What a great way to think about February and March next year...

First April Birthday

Our grandson, Thomas will be five this year which means so many very important things to him. First he'll go to kindergarten in the Fall, just like his brother and sister. Secondly, he'll get to be with lots of other kids his age, and I know he will love that! He is just so social...

Here's my card for Thomas...

I made a shaker card because I know he'll like to do the shaking of pieces of sparkling gold. His name is die cut with my new dies and I love how they came out!

The gold diecut for "Sprinkled" came from the PTI Shakers kit, as did most of the other stamping.  I also used Jennifer McGuire's idea of fun foam for the window to make it safer since I have to mail it. 

So the fun foam layer is between the blue front and the white card base. It really makes shaker windows easy to design for me.  The stitched rectangle was the perfect shape for this card.

I hope Thomas likes it...  Happy 5th birthday Thomas!