Butterflies

Today was a play day with my buddy Brenda. We try to spend at least one day a month playing, chatting and going out to lunch. Today we did all three.....Brenda and I work on projects that we've been meaning to try or we try to finish projects we have been working on. Last week I was reading a blog by Becca - Amazing Paper Grace. She does Becca's Bits. If you haven't been to Becca's site, please check it out. Her work is Amazing! Anyway.....the card I made is one similar to Becca's card. The butterfly and the border are Martha Stewart punches. The scallop punch is from EK Success. It is similar to the one Becca used for her card. It is the same size and the directions Becca gave also worked with this punch. Thanks Becca for the great job you do with your video bits. Brenda, thanks for a great day!

I'm off to watch TV and read some email......Have a great weekend. Chat Later.

A Much Better Gift Card Envelope and Operation Write Home and PPA-35

Our Great Niece is getting married. I wanted to send a gift card to the store she is registered with, but the envelope that came with it, just didn't look good with the card I'd made....so, using my Sizzix die- Gift Card Holder, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder - Swiss Dots and Spellbinder Daisy Heads Die, I created this gift card envelope. The Gift Card Holder Die is getting quite a workout. I'm very happy that I purchased it.

Ok....check out Paradise Scrapbook Boutique. The second Operation Write Home group did even better. This month 378 cards were made and are ready to send to OWH. Check out Karen's Blog for more information and contact her if your group would like to participate with our group, or if you would like information on starting your own group. I'm sooooo proud of everyone who took part. Karen....I Love the photos on your blog.....

I just opened my email from Pals Paper Arts. This week's challenge is....Anything but a card. I think my envelope just might qualify....Check out: PPA-35, which is one of my very favorite challenges.

Off I go for now. It's Weight Watcher Day.....and a birthday luncheon for Cathy and Rita, and card class night at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique....A fun way to spend this rainy day!

April Card Class

Good Morning,

I've taken samples of the cards we will be making in April's Card class at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique. Spring is definitely in the air here in Northern California. I think I'm thinking flowers and warm breezes. I hope my cards will bring a bit of spring to you also.

I rubber stamped my little bear (Art Impressions) on water color paper (Strathmore) and colored him using Tombow markers. Flower Soft has a wonderful new product, Ultra Fine - Toffee and Sand, it was perfect for my little bear. Cosmo Cricket - Bloomers and a Linen were the card stock I used. Of course there were Spellbinder dies used - it seems all my cards have at least one of them somewhere on the card. For the sentiment I used: Jillibean Clear Stamps. This set has loads of greetings and they are big enough to see, but small enough to fit on the tag. The tag was cut using Karen's die. This was a fun card to make, I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did.

My second card was inspired by Kim Teasdale. Several months back I took a water color class from her. She used Tombow markers and a water pen....I LOVED THE CLASS, if anyone is interested, she teaches through My Creative Classroom. Kim posted a beautiful card and I used her card as a sketch for the one I will be teaching in my class. I'd like to thank Kim for inspiring my card. I hope you'll take the time to check out her site and if you'd like help improving your water coloring....Kim's class was great! You may want to check it out.

For this card, I used products from: Spellbinder, Martha Stewart, Tim Holtz, BossKut, Color Box, Cuttlebug, Rusty Pickle, Cosmo Cricket....just to name a few.

I'm off for a day of card making at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique. It's Operation Write Home day and we hope to have many completed cards for soldiers. We are making Father's Day and the 4th of July the theme for this month. I hope to see many new faces today.....If you can't make it today, remember, we'll be doing this the 4th Monday of every month.

Have a wonderful week.....see you soon!

Sympathy Card

Today I needed to make a quick card. A friend passed away and I wanted to make a sympathy card for his wife and family. I should never use the word quick....it seems whenever "quick" enters the conversation, creativity goes out the window. I was having such a problem, I sent my husband to the store to purchase a card. I was feeling so guilty. I can't remember when I purchased my last card....I know it was a long, long time ago. While Richard was at the store, I went into my craft room and pulled out a stack of decorative vellum that a friend had given me years ago. While going through the stack I found one piece of 8 1/2 x 11 decorative paper by Anna Griffin. I also chose a coordinating piece of green card stock and a piece of satin ribbon. Within 20 minutes, and before my husband could return home, I'd created the above card.

I think the down side to being addicted to card making is.....you just can't bring yourself to send a store bought card. I know Alice will appreciate the effort that went into this card. I appreciate that I was able to spend time not only making a card, but thinking about Bill and celebrating his life as I created.

I'm Still Here

Hi Everyone,

I'm getting emails worried that something has happened to me....Not so, I've been creating, but most of what I've done lately are birthday gifts and I'm working on an album for a friend. Can't post the cards until April.....My youngest was here for the weekend and we spent part of Saturday making cinnamon rolls....I sent most of them home with him, but I did sample them. (photo attached). I've also been cleaning closets. I think Spring Fever has found me. Today I'm going shopping with friends. I've lost almost 30 pounds and it's time to find something that fits me. Yesterday I cleaned out all the cloths that are now too big. They are on their way to Hospice.....I promise....I will make something that I can share and soon.

I want to remind everyone - Operation Write Home get together is Monday the 22nd Hope to see many of you there. If you have cards you can share, drop them off with Karen at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique.

Baby Boy

My dear friend Dee Dee became a grandmother a week ago. I've been trying to mentally create a card for baby Tanner. My intent was to work on the card yesterday, but yesterday was a bad craft day. It seemed whatever I attempted ended up looking pretty bad. This morning I decided to try it again. I also found that this card will work well with the C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 39. The sparkle is under the Martha Stewart border The ribbon....can't miss that! How about Cute Card Thursday Challenge. I think this card just might qualify there.

Today it was easy. Everything came together. I started with a 6x 12 inch piece of BoBunny Powder Blue Dot. This card stock is double sided. Both sides were used. I also used Color Mates - Light Hawaiian Blue Card Stock. I used this for accent pieces and also to make the gift card envelope. I cut a piece of 6x6 BoBunny Powder Blue Dot on the diagonal and adhered to the front of the card to form a pocket. My newest Martha Stewart Flower Link border die was used to embellish the edge of the diagonal Under that border, I used a piece of blue shiny ribbon. I'd purchased this years and years ago and always wondered when it would come in handy...and now it has. I tried to show this in the close up photo, if you enlarge it, you can see how pretty it is under the punched border. In that same photo you can see a white dotted ribbon, a blue "Binky" and a sweet blue sweater.

Spellbinder Labels 4 was used to cut the sentiment tag and I printed Welcome Baby Tanner using my computer and PrintShop 23. I embellished using Dew Drops - water. I didn't show the inside, although you can get a glimpse in the over-head shot. I had already written a personal note and didn't want to share it with everyone.

Below is a list of what I used and where I purchased the items:

From Paradise Scrapbook Boutique: The little sweater, the "Binky", White dotted blue ribbon, The Sizzix Bigz Gift Card Holder and the ColorMates and BoBunny card stock.

From our local Michaels - The Martha Steward Boarder Punch - Flower Link

On Line http://www.franticstamper.com/ - the Spellbinder Labels 4 and Dew Drops Water.

The blue shiny ribbon was purchased Sunrise Crafts in Chico CA....sadly they closed many, many years ago.

I love giving gift cards, I don't like the little envelope that comes with them. When I purchased the gift card die, I wondered how often I'd really use it. So far.....I've used it about 10 times. It's easy to use, easy to decorate and much prettier than the store envelope, and the gift card is presented nicely as part of the greeting card.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I sure enjoyed making the card.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week! Chat later!