From the heart

I made a card for my Mom, my parents anniversary was in October and since Dad's passing, each year we try to make it special for her just the same. And this card really was 'from the heart'. Their marriage is what brought all of us here.....

Anyway, I found the idea for this card over at Michelle Zindorf's blog, she's a true artist. I really love pulling out my brayer now. I never used to use it at all. It's such a wonderful tool!

I have different stamps then she used, but it still worked. I love pulling out my Artfully Asian set anyway :)

Set: Artfully Asian, F3345 Large Grass (The Happy Stamper), Shore Thing, Holidays and Wishes.
Accessories: Whisper White, Bermuda Bay & Basic Gray cardstocks, Stamp A Majig, Brayer, Sponge, White Gel pen, Various SU Inks, Light Pink Organdy (retired) and Light Pink Grosgrain.

A True Golden Oldie

My older brother hit 50 this past week! I'm stunned that one of us is half way to triple digits!!
I'm out of town, but his wife put on a grand party for him, I'm told I'll get to see the video :)

He's always been a funny one in the family, both in humor and looking so I thought this would be the perfect set to use!

I tried to find an old man type paper to use and this seemed to fit. Not to pink, not too floral. It's from the Razzleberry Lemonade DP. I paper pieced his shorts with the DP.

He doesn't look a day over 49, but he'll now have to claim the big 5-0!!

Set: Golden Oldies, Whimsical Numbers
Accessories: Razzleberry Lemonade DP, Crushed Curry & Whisper White cardstock, Crushed Curry ink & ribbon, Jumbo Brads, Ticket Corner Punch, Scallop oval and med oval punches

Voila it's a sweet treat!

These sweet treats out of the Holiday Mini catalog are brilliant! I haven't used my Voila chef in quite some time, but when pondering which set to use for these cups, his little platter came to mind. Perfect fit!

Today is my brother's birthday and since I had made some fun cards for his kids birthdays, last month, I thought I'd make him something fun too!

I paper pieced the chef's outfit and added some brads for his buttons. Then I sponged around for some color. I wanted him to be able to get the candy without tearing the card, so I followed the instructional video over on FroggieStamps, very easy to follow. Now, I know he'll give in and his kiddos will end up with the sweet treat.

Set: Voila
Accessories: Main Blueberry DP, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive & Whisper White cardstocks, Sweet Treat cups, Brads, Circle Punch, Sponge

Shenandoah National Park

I have always wanted to get over to the Shenandoah National Park. I lived here in Virginia years ago, when my daughter was small, and never made it that far in-land. I always seem to stay by the coast, now that we are back....it was time for a drive. It's about a 4 hour drive from the beach, but well worth it. We finally went this past Sunday and what a wonderful day we had. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and it smelled so crisp and fresh with the fall air! I loved it!!

The views were spectacular. Very breathtaking. I actually felt like I was back in New England. Just about each year, when I'm there, we go into the White Mountains to drive up the Kangamangus Highway...so I felt like I was home :)

One thing that really caught my eye, was all the rock walls that lined the street. A lot of time went into those, but WOW! So much better then any metal guard rail, that's for sure.

We stopped at one spot to stretch our legs. My little guy is just about ready to run any day, he has taken as many as 9 steps on his own. His big sister is enjoying her little brother.

And a little time for leaf play.

And just as we got back into the car to start driving again, there were two does on the side of the road. They didn't run off, but stayed put while many cars stopped to take their portraits.

Nothing like getting back into nature for the day. I hope you all get out to enjoy a piece of fall if you can.

Courage

I love it when SU gets a new military stamp set in. I knew I had to have this one. Even though it's taken me a while to get it inked, I really like how this came out. Even hubby liked it.

We have yet another birthday over on Ocean's 11. This one is being sent to another military wife, I'm sure she'll enjoy it! The inspiration for this card came from JackieB over at SCS.

I brayered Ruby Red and Not Quite Navy from the edges, I think it gave a wonderful effect over the Soft Suede cardstock. The soldier has been bleached. I haven't done that in ages. What a great image it makes.

I didn't feel it needed much else in the line of colors, the image says it all. Just a bit of the red and blue here and there.

Being military, as this set shows, brings you closer to God. Well, if nothing else will do it, it's great that this will. Our men and women need someone to lean on and know that someone is watching out for them. It's great when they go to God for that comfort that they need. And even for those of us at home. Knowing God is in control makes their deployments more bearable.

Set: Courage
Accessories: Soft Suede, Not Quite Navy & Sahara Sand cardstocks, Various Inks, Bleach, Black EP, Photo Corner Punch, Cutter Kit, Brads, Brayer, White Gel Pen

A Little Witchy

It's October and fall is in the air, I'm loving it!!

I'm not a big Halloween gal, but I really love my retired Best Fiends set, they are ghouly.

There are a couple birthdays this week on the Oceans 11 blog roll and this is for one of the gals. She's been really into Halloween lately, so I took it as my opportunity to dig out my set and put it to use. Not the traditional Happy Birthday kinda card, but I'm sure it will be enjoyed nonetheless.

I used this retired DP since it reminds me of the Wizard of Oz.....Follow the Yellow Brick Road! It's not yellow, but you get the idea. The idea/inspiration of the card came from wendybell over on SCS. I've been using my brayer a lot more lately, so I put it to use here as well.

I embossed the image, then colored it in with various inks and my aqua painter. And my circle cutter came out as well!

Set: Just Between Fiends, Best Fiends, Arachnophobia Wheel
Accessories: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie & Whisper White cardstocks, Creepy Crawly DP, Retired More Mustard Grosgrain, Brayer, Black EP, Various SU Inks
Edit to fix my spelling of ghouly, lol.

Decoder Card

Today is my nephew's 3rd birthday, and in the attempt to find a cool card to make I came across the decoder card tutorial on SCS, I thought this would be the perfect 'cool' card for a little boy! You can see the tutorial here.

Also, I had just started to play around with Michelle Zindorf's style of backgrounds and this is my very first card using her style....it isn't the same piece of artwork that she does, but I hope to get better at it. I think the brayer with different color layers really make wonderful backgrounds. Check out her blog here.

For the decoder bags I used a marker to color in the bags so that I could leave out the ties that was binding them together, this left me room to write my message.

Lots of cutting and popping up to give dimension. And I tied the decoder window on the corner so that it can be tucked into the card for mailing.

It's hard to see, took me a while to get a picture that would show anything, but in real life, it comes out pretty well.

I used the googlie eyes for the critters, I thought it would be more fun, and it's all about fun!!

Sets: Under the Stars, Pines, Canvas
Accessories: Buckaroo Blue, Soft Suede, Confetti White, Old Olive, True Thyme & Whisper White cardstocks, Various Inks, Googlie Eyes (3 & 4 mm), French Blue Ribbon (retired), Aqua Painter, Brayer, Sponge, Square Punch & cutter, Red Cellophane.