Soft and Subtle

I made this card awhile ago for a Stampin' Up party and I realized it was one I hadn't shared with you. I am getting ready for another party next weekend and I came across this one when I was looking for samples to display. The stamp set is Apothecary Art. The card stock is Pistachio Pudding as the base and Costal Cabana on top of that which I used the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder. The ink is Costal Cabana and Wisteria Wonder. I used Stampin Up framelits Labels Collection to cut out the Apothecary Art stamped images. The seam binding is Pool Party. This turned out to be a very soft and subtle card that I can use for someone who is going through a rough patch.

 

 

 I hope you all had a great week. We were busy digging out of 6 inches of snow but some of the drifts from the strong winds were 3 feet. The really bad weather started after I had gone to work so the ride home was a real treat. At least I only live 15 minutes from the hospital on a good day. I had called home to see if my DH had cleaned out the driveway and he said he was just going out to do it. I left work 45 minutes later thinking that would give him enough time. When I pulled up he was at the top of the driveway and the snow was a couple of feet down at the bottom, so I continued on down our road looking for a place to turn around. I finally found a driveway that had been cleared out. When I pulled up in front of the house my DH came to the road and suggested I go to the grocery store to get tomatoes for the salads we were having for dinner while he finished snow blowing. TOMATOES really? The roads in our subdivision were just one lane so I couldn't park in front of the house. I headed to the nearest parking lot and thought I would just play on my iPad for a bit to waste some time. I ended up shopping at Cracker Barrel and then I sat in the car until he called to let me know the driveway was clear. Needless to say we did not have tomatoes on our salads that night.

~ Have fun and enjoy!

Glitter- a lot of glitter!

 I first want to apologize for my absence. I have had major problems with my computer and was unable to get on the internet. I didn't have any of my newest cards on a thumb drive so I thought I was just plain stuck. The Photoshop I use is also on that computer and I was really going to need it after trying to take pictures with my phone and iPad. It then occurred to me that I had also downloaded them to Picasa and voila here they are. Well at least one of them. I started to do this because when I upload my images they post in the correct orientation much better than if I select them from one of my folders. I guess you could say Picasa and Blogger were a marriage meant to be. Some applications just work better with others.

Anyway until I get a new computer I will be using DH's laptop. That's OK because I don't think he ever uses it. He is either on his iPad or PC. This card was one I made at our stamping club and the technique is called "glitter painting". It is made with glitter (a bunch of glitter) and stencils. This stencil I used was a Dreamweaver- Hydrangea. You can find the technique  here on Splitcoaststampers. Lots of fun and very pretty, just be ready to wear glitter for the next few days. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/glitterpainting/ The images don't do this card justice. In real life it is just stunning the way it glistens.

 

 

Like the rest of you the winter is starting to get to me. Growing up in the UP it just took me a little longer, but I must say I am waiting for Florida. How could we possibly be 70 degrees apart. I bought my ticket a couple of weeks ago and am now counting the days. It's not until the first part of May but at least I know when I 'll be seeing some nice warm weather. Quite a few people from work  have bolted out of this nasty cold weather to somewhere nice only to come back to the same frigid weather they left and are now more depressed than before they left. That is why I like to go in May. At least I have somewhat of a chance to come back to decent temperatures, plus I can keep up my tan the natural way when I get home. Call me a gambler since it is Michigan after all.

My brother and his wife and the twins are coming over for Memorial Day weekend and I am so excited. I haven't seen them since last year but they send me pictures regularly. I must say I see a lot of my baby pictures in them. My daughter said the same thing so I know it's not just me being a bias auntie. It's a nine hour drive so we will see how that goes with two year olds. Neither of them are drinkers (the parents that is) but I have a feeling I better have a pitcher or bottle of something when they arrive.

Well I better run, I have about a dozen clocks to turn back tonight.


~have fun and enjoy!

Some much needed color

 

 The weather around here in Michigan is really getting old. It is getting pretty difficult to deal with the never ending cold and snow. I thought I would make a card with a punch of color to brighten things up. I think the raspberry ribbon and flowers did the trick. Take that Mother Nature!

The designer paper for today's card is from Paper Studio called Kirby Teesdale Studio. It is a 12x12 pack and I used the lower right hand corner of the paper. Don't be afraid to use an off centered pattern for your background. I balanced it by adding a piece of Martha Stewart vellum ribbon to the left side of the card. I found this on clearance at Jo Ann's and I just love it because it is already sticky. The hard part of using vellum is what you use to mount it so that is doesn't show through the vellum. I haven't had much luck with  glue unless I cover it up with an embellishment. The layers were created with Spellbinders Decorative Label 8 and Resplendent Rectangles. The key stamp is from Paper Studio. The sentiment on the inside is "You are the key to my heart".

  

 

I have been sidetracked from my stamping lately with knitting. I am addicted to the Sashay scarves and after someone told me how easy they were to make, I grabbed my iPad and searched You Tube. I watched a couple of the videos and I now have seven new scarves. My ulterior motive was that if I keep my hands busy I am less apt to snack. Guess what- it works.

 

I wonder if I can find some of the yarn to make these scarves in hot pink or lime green because they are predicting another storm for Wednesday. I'm going to need something to get me through this next one. Wish me luck!

 

~ have fun and enjoy!

 

 

A bit of fancy

 

 

 

A bit of fancy for today's card with pearlized platinum and black. I put the Fancy Lattice from Spellbinders behind the 5x7 Elegant Labels 4. You have to trim the lattice at the corners so it doesn't show. I then cut out two panels from Decorative Labels 28 and layered the platinum one on top of the black. The white doily is an adhesive doily that is pre-cut from Martha Stewart. There are a variety of sizes and designs in the package. I stamped a Just Rite stamp for the sentiment and circle around it. I added black pearls around the sentiment and a few other places. You can see it a bit better in the photo below.

 

Now that the house is back in shape after the holidays, I was able to spend the entire day yesterday in my studio. Believe it or not I have all my Valentine's Day cards made. No one is more surprised than me. I only had to make fifteen but I made a few different styles so it took me a little longer. I have a stamping party coming up the end of February and I still have to make some samples so I wanted to make sure the Valentines got done first. I had no plans on leaving the house this weekend due to the frigid cold we are experiencing again. The DH made a fantastic batch of chili last night and we ate while watching the deer outside in the backyard. I was glad I wasn't the one outside foraging for my dinner. I think this is the perfect weekend to book my tickets to Florida. May can't come soon enough for me.

 

 

~have fun and enjoy!

 

Kindness...

 Last weekend snow and sub-zero temperatures; this weekend rain. It was a good time (for DH) to get the outside decorations down. No one was attempting that last week with the cold weather. The Christmas tree came down today along with all the other little trees throughout the house. Our decorations typically doesn't get taken down until the second week of January because of DH's birthday.

Yesterday four of us girls hit the road for a day of fun and shopping. We were celebrating a belated birthday that started out with lunch and then a trip to the winery for a bit of wine tasting. A couple of tastings later we were back on the road hunting for bargains and boy did we find some wonderful after Christmas buys. There is nothing better than spending the day with such fun wonderful people. I had fixed up little goodie bags for everyone that included what every girl loves- chocolates and coupons. We finally reached home 8 hours later and my legs sure felt it, but in a good way!

Today's card is using all Stampin'Up products. The stamp sets are Flowering Flourishes and From My Heart. The card stock and ink are Crumb Cake and Black. I used the Square Lattice and Petals-a-Plenty embossing folders. The dies are the Framelits Window Frame and Apothecary Accents. The scallop was cut out using the Edglits Adorning Accents and of course it wouldn't be complete without the bling. There is something sophisticated about this color combo.

 

 

I have a different New Year's resolution which is to use some of the stamp sets that get pushed to the back of the shelf. I wanted to do this for a couple of reasons. One is because it is a shame to have them and not use them. Second is to remember what I already have so I don't buy it again or something similar to it. And third- so I'm not making the same kinds of cards over and over. We'll see what the year brings.

 

 

~have fun and enjoy!



 

a winter snowman...

 My Christmas thank you notes couldn't be more appropriate. We are under a winter advisory for another 9 hours and the snow is still coming down pretty good. They have already closed the schools in our area. When all is said and done, we should have 10- 12 inches. Reminds me of back home up in the Upper Peninsula. Well maybe not quite that bad.

It's the DH's birthday today and with anticipating the bad weather we went to the show and dinner yesterday. I made him a chocolate cake this morning and cooked a nice pork loin in the pressure cooker with potatoes and carrots while we watched the snow fall. I have no idea how I am going to get to work tomorrow. Unfortunately when you work in health care, you are needed 24/7. I'm sure not many (if any) of the outpatients will show, but there are always emergencies and inpatients. I think I had better dig out a pair of snowshoes.

These cards were actually made with a pre-made card base. I get them in packages in the dollar section at Michael's. I like them because they are blank on the back and then I can add my own "handmade by" stamp. They are very handy when you have to make several cards in a hurry. I used the Spellbinders "Mr and Mrs. Snowman" die that is in three pieces (four if you count Mrs.). The hat and scarf are separate. For the face I punched out a circle and colored the center orange and around that I colored black. When I placed it behind the snowman's face, the colors were in the perfect spot for his face. If you aren't familiar with this die, his nose, mouth and eyes are punched out. You can enlarge the card by clicking on it for more detail. The black and white polka dot is washi tape and then I used Stampin'Up's Word Window punch for the sentiment and a Marvy Snowflake punch for the two snowflakes.

 

Looks like it will be time to take down the decorations this week and put them away until next year. I'm not sure when the outside ones will get taken down. We are expecting temperatures into the negative numbers this week. Maybe we could try to get away with keeping them up as 4th of July decorations. I'm sure the subdivision association would just love that. Wish me luck getting to work tomorrow.

 

~Have fun and enjoy!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

 Ok I am surprised no one has called the blogger police on me yet and if they did, I well deserved it. I had every intention of posting just before Christmas but I ran into some technical difficulties. Well at least I didn't. My son Elliot is the photographer in the family and while I was busy in the kitchen for 3 whole days making Christmas cookies, I asked him if he would go into my stamping studio and take some pictures of my Christmas cards so I could post them on my blog. I use a small photo tent and had added a different type of lighting over the top a few months back. He was horrified at the lighting and decided to take pictures of my cards with our Christmas tree in the background. He didn't like the daylight so he wanted to wait until the evening to get the right picture of the tree lights. The evening came and went as did he, four days later and I still didn't have any pictures of my cards.

My father left on Friday and my daughter left this morning so I headed up to my studio and took the photos myself using my photo tent. Now I know why some of the colors in my photos didn't look like the real color. I may have to look into some larger photo lights on eBay.

I made several different designs this year, but these are the only two that I got pictures of before they all got sent out. I was actually pretty proud of myself because I had my cards made and mailed 2 weeks before Christmas. The tree has been up since Thanksgiving and I had the cookies finished 3 days earlier this year. It was nice that we had some treats to eat a few days before Christmas. I sent everyone home with their favorites and a plate over to two of my best pals.

The navy card is a 5x7 and the red is 4x51/2. I used Spellbinders Opulent Ovals and the other dies are from Memorybox. The corners are stickers as is the Seasons Greetings on the red card.

 

No new stamping items for Christmas this year. I think I have all I need for quite some time. Now that the holidays are over I can waste away the winter weekends in my studio. I did have a really relaxing time the day I made the Christmas cards. It was snowing pretty heavy here and the snow was really piling up on the skylights in my studio. I lit a Woodwick candle and put on some Christmas music while I created like an elf for an entire day. It was like a little piece of heaven- listening to the crackle of the candle, the music and watching the snow fall. I love that I can create such wonderful experiences in my own home and it hardly costs me anything. Maybe it's just the fact of getting older and we learn to appreciate the simple things in life.

 

~have fun and enjoy!