Vacation Blogging

Hi friends - it's vacation time!! I am going to try catching up on a little blogging. This is a picture of how my table looks right now - pretty much a mess, but sure has been fun!

When I prepare for vacation I try and pick a theme for my stamping - can't take everything!!
This year I decided to do guy cards. I REALLY struggle with guy cards and always run out of them. SO, I am decided to build up my inventory. Hard for me not to do girly cards... they are SOOOO much more fun! So I gathered my guy-type punches, stamps, embellishments...

When we got here I realized I had not made an anniversary card that had to go in the mail one day after we arrived, so I worked hard to get a romantic looking card made - with guys type

stuff! LOL! I am not posting THAT card today, since it is going to one of my readers. I will add it another time. Today, I ran out of my Xyron 150 sticker maker tape. Makes card

making a LOT more complicated - and there are NO stores that carry the replacement cartridge within 60 miles of our vacation spot! So it is back to double-stick tape and Zig two-way glue. Now, when I went to use my Zig glue - uh, I realized I was at a LOT higher altitude - I got a BIG blob of glue - too much pressure. Short of all that, it has been FUN! This is the view when I turn to my right - is that awesome or what?! God's handiwork for sure!This "STOP" card is kind of fun - probably will go to one of my sons. The stamps are from the SU set - "It's a Sign." These make GREAT guy cards! I used the Quickutz embossing folder - not sure what the name of it is - dotted diamonds would make sense wouldn't it? I used the Sizzix Tim Holtz tree bark embossing folder with brown cardstock for the post. After layering it, I placed it on a red cardstock.
The inside was easy - same diamond embossing folder for background. The "U Rock" is from the same SU set -stamped in brown. I make cards for our care team at church - we send cards to members who have lost a loved one in the last year. So, I need more guy cards for this too. The sentiment can be added when I get home. I really like the green stripes - pretty good for guys, don't you think?

This card will be for one of my boys or my DH. They are getting ready to go backpacking - and all have or have had boots that look like this. Found this paper at a great little shop in Pagosa Springs, CO called "The Kraftin Post." Diana, the owner, always carries something interesting!

This stamp is an old one I have had for years - made by Stampa Rosa. Since my guys have backpacked for years, this one always comes in handy. Again I layered it on paper embossed in the wood design. The same piece of paper with the boots had a compass on it. So another backpacking type of card. The arrows are a punch from SU. the "Way to Go" stamp again from the SU sign set. The zig zag circles are Spellbinders. I added the gold metallic embellishments to finish.

This is a REALLY old stamp made by Eureka. I bought it when my oldest son, who is now 30, was in high school. The school mascot is a lion - the "chesty lions." It is embossed in gold. Then I colored in all the hearts in his mane with the R 29 copic marker. I matted one in gold and the other in red and layered them on the opposite colored cardstock.
These light-blue star cards are just going to have to be for little guys - I asked my DH. I still really like them - and I do have a little guy I love in mind...my SWEET grandson. The inner star is paper I picked up years ago - not sure who makes it. I think I saw it at Joann's not too long ago. I backed the stars with plain silver paper and placed a strip of it on the bottom in slightly different configurations. One has stars punched out of it - used the EK Success stars border punch. The big stars are made with Spellbinders dies. Finished the cards with small silver beaded embellishments I found at Archievers.
Now, these cards ARE for my sweet little guy. Purchased the paper at Archievers with him in mind. It is Deja Views Sharon Ann, Little Ones Collection. I love the little sailboats, stars and airplanes. And, if I had remembered, I have a great stamp set from SU at home (sigh) with the concentric dotted circles for the inside. Oh well, I will add that later. On the top card I used the EK Success large circles border punch and a Fiskars sailboat punch, which I LOVE!! The sailboats are cut from different colors of cardstock and layered on Spellbinders circles. On the lower left card I used Spellbinders circle and zig zag circle punches and an old Quickutz word diecut set. I finished the card with the two brads from the Deja Views Sharon Ann, Little Ones Collection and three dots of Faded Jeans Distress Stickles by Ranger. Gotta say, my favorite is the lower right. I wanted to go with the circles or bubbles theme. I layered the designer paper over the cardstock card and put the card through the Big Shot machine using a Spellbinders circle die so it would cut the "bubble" through both layers. Worked perfectly. I embossed some white cardstock with a Quickutz bubble embossing folder on the inside. It is layered on red cardstock punched with and EK Success small circles border punch. I again used the Quickutz word dies and put "Love" on one bubble and "You" on the blue bubble. Kinda fun! Finished the card with the Faded Jeans Distress Stickles by Ranger.

This was my son's birthday card - I do think this is one of my all time favorites. I started with navy linen cardstock. On it I stamped the "Happy" curly cues. This is a Stampendous stamp - I use it a lot for backgrounds. It is stamped using Versamark Dazzle ink. I used Spellbinders labels (#?) for the red and white layered Happy Birthday label. The stamp is an old stamp from Personal Stamp Exchange - my all time favorite company - went out of business years ago. As an aside - I was discussing PSX (Personal Stamp Exchange) with a stamping store owner about a month ago - she wanted to see their old catalog. I took it in and she offered me $50 for it - I said "No thanks." She was amazed at the detail in the stamps. They were amazing. Back to the current card... The label is finished with the gold bead embellishments. The sailboats are made with the Fiskars punch in the navy cardstock with strips of red and white cardstock on the inside of the card.
I REALLY like the Sizzix Tim Holtz "Hanging Sign" die. It is versatile and GREAT for guy cards. I used it on my SIL's Father's Day card in my last post. I layered several of the "signs" with different stamps. This is also one of my favorites - the whole thing says "For a Wonderful Son." It is again and OLD stamp - by a company called My Sentiments Exactly. Finished the sign with the gold metal beads embellishments.

This is a late part of my previous post - my son's Fathers Day card. It is way out of my comfort zone in colors and design - but decided to stretch my horizons a little. The DP looks like and old hiking map. I used another Spellbinders label set - don't know the number of this one either - sorry. Some of the words are dies cut, some are parts of stamps - it is a montage.
I altered a saying I found that fit the theme I wanted. I also had a bunch of word stickers that fit the occasion - his first Father's Day. The anchor punches were made with a Martha Stewart punch from Michael's.
This is another card that was out of my comfort zone in terms of color - but it is in colors my DEAR DIL looks beautiful in! I started with a 6 X 12 inch piece of ivory linen cardstock. I used a MS Punch in Place heart punch. Those punches have STRONG magnets -and work really well! I stamped the shell in a combination of inks - started with brown and added a little orange before I stamped it. I used the curly cue "Thanks" stamp - I am not sure if it is made by Stampendous. At the end of the stamped thank you's I glued tiny orange rhinestones. When I got to this point, it was just too bright - so I used a dauber to put a little orange and brown finish on it - made a world of difference. To finish the card, I placed a tiny sea shell near the top. It was one I had picked up on a beach in South Carolina years ago on our 25th anniversary trip.

The inside is just a piece of seashell DP with a ivory sand dollar punch near the bottom.
If any of you have great guy card ideas - let me know! I need them!!

Hope all of you have had an amazing summer!

HRU and Mother's Day cards

And, finally the last Mother's Day card :) This one is kind of special one too - my oldest granddaughter and I made it together for her Mom. She really loves to come and stamp with me - especially when it comes to the glue part. LOL! She really likes glue runners - they are fascinating, aren't they?

I had die cut a bunch of white flowers with white centers before she came over to work on this card. I just love all the variation! We just hand cut the stems and she is the one who came up with the hill for them to bloom on!

The inside is probably difficult to read - but she wrote it ALL by herself - amazing for a just-turned-5 year old!! She signed her sister's name as well. LOVE YOU HRU!!

This is the card I sent to the sweetest Daughter-in-law a mom could ask for. Actually, she started the card when she was at my house in April - for her Mom and Dad's anniversary. But, my sweet grandson needed her attention - and because she has her priorities in the right places, she took care of him and said,"Another day there will be time." Love you Elly!!

I thought if she had decided on the layout and paper she liked - maybe she would enjoy receiving the card. So, I did the best I could to complete the beautiful card she had started - with just a little different theme. :)

This is a beautiful piece of DP - sage greens, browns and a little pink. I had been waiting for a good opportunity to use this great paper flower I purchased in a pack. Sorry, still on vacation - so do not have the brand name. I sponged just a little ink to give the flower the hint of pink. I layered it on a Spellbinders pinking circle and a slightly larger scallop circle. I used the EK Success mini-scallop border punch for the edge - it is so dainty. I finished the front by stamping Happy Mother's Day in chocolate brown on a Spellbinders scalloped rectangle in white and placing two pink pearls near the saying.
For the inside I made a vellum folding flower - again, TOO much work for the finished product in my opinion. I punched out the MS eyelet border in a matching pink, placed it mid-page and glued a large Spellbinders scalloped rectangle brushed with a little pink ink over the top. On the left hand side I put text again on a Spellbinders scalloped rectangle brushed with a little pink ink with a few tiny stamped flowers to keep it from being too plain on the page.

This is the card I made for my daughter - love you Anna!! She is the Mom of my two precious granddaughters - thus the two little ducklings. This is just a small piece of some older DP I had on hand. The letters are chip board that is painted with Making Memories paint and a little Ranger Distress ink. I put some matching bling on the letters. Love the Spellbinders butterfly die. I used both parts of the die and again put some bling in the wings. I used a swirl stamp to mark the flight of the butterfly. The scallop border punch is EK Success. And, amazingly I had some great glitter ribbon in my stash that matched to run along the bottom!
For the inside, I cut out two rectangles with Spellbinders scalloped rectangles and stamped Happy Mother's Day on one & wrote the saying on the other. I finished the inside with a punched section of the MS butterfly border punch and the small duck punch. Colored in the eyes and beak with Tombo markers. Added three MS square blings to give it a little sparkle.

This card was made for my precious Mom - love you Mom!! My Mom was a seamstress when I was a little girl. She made formals and wedding dresses for many young women. Till I was in high school, she made all my clothes except my underwear and jeans. She even made our winter coats - and they were beautiful. In the last 30 years she has become a master quilter. Thus this card has the sewing theme. I purchased the We R Memory Keepers tool with the scallop stitch piercer. Works great on an old piece of styrofoam. Did not have to buy the mat to go with the piercer. I also found some great DP that looks like a quilted fabric. I used the straight stitch on some of the "fabric" lines with two different shades of pink floss. Then I used the scallop piercer along the side. To add a little more color, I punched out two MS hearts and die cut a Spellbinders tag in the bright pink. I then stamped Happy Mother's Day on the tag in white craft ink and embossed it with clear powder.
On the inside I again used the Spellbinders heart circles and punched the two hearts out of the "quilt" designer paper. I used a JustRite Stamper - Stitched with Love to stay in the quilting theme. I really like that set. Mother's Day cards are FUN to make!!

Back sooner this time!!

I am actually writing this from my son's home in Washington. I have been here for 2 days and had more time to relax than I have at home - even with a sweet 6 month old grandson! He does take good naps! Today I am going to share the Mother's Day cards I made this year - several actually if I have time.

The first card I want to share is the last one I will ever have the opportunity to send my Mother-in-law. She passed from this world into heaven just days after Mother's Day. She loved the color red and roses - she even had carpet at one time with red roses on it - so I decided to make a card with red and roses.

I used my favorite deep red cardstock. I kind of got into the removable "corsage" cards for a while. Love that the "corsage" can be removed and worn by the person on their special day. For the corsage, I used the spellbinders heart circles and layered them with a 3-d folded flower made with the Sizzix Tim Holtz flower die - since I am not home, I don't have the official names of the dies. This was punched out of rose printed designer paper. The top white piece is a scalloped circle from SU. I punched holes in each of the scallops and wrote MOM on the front. Layered all the pieces with dimensional glue dots. I also used several kinds of ribbon in the "corsage." I then put it on a clasp and punched holes in the front of the card to insert the pin through until it could be worn. On the bottom of the front I layered a punched piece on white cardstock. This is a Martha Stewart large border punch that I LOVE. It is SO decorative and beautiful.

The inside was WAY more complicated. I was intrigued with the 7 petal folding flower - took me FOREVER to get it figured out. This was made out of the same rose DP used on the front. Only did this for two of my Mother's Day cards - too much work!! I layered the folding flower on the eyelet punch - also MS. Love this punch too. Added the decorative Spellbinders tag and stamped it with red ink to match. Really liked how this card turned out. My Mother-in-law did too...

A YEAR?

Yes, I cannot believe it, but it has been almost a year since I posted. WOW! Life has been complex, no doubt. I have added a precious grandson - and lost my mother-in-law. God has done this type of thing twice in my life already. The year my Dad died, my first grandchild was born. Thankful we have a God who is provident over all things! Gives us joy in the midst of sadness. SO, enough of that!

My last post was Father's Day cards 2010. Today is a Father's Day 2011 card.

I really like this card. I made it for my son-in-law. I had been looking at some of the really nice wooden sign post pieces at Archiever's - but they were $3.99 apiece. Not a chance I was going to buy that for one card. Then I came across this die cut. It is "sign post" from Sizzix. I love it! I have used it for a couple of things already. Going to have to get more jump rings though!! This card is on ivory linen cardstock. The sign is embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder - the wood one.

Now, I have to tell you I took the saying in this card from a great HALLMARK card I saw and modified it some. I really liked the idea. I DID put a note on the back of this card with the HALLMARK notification!!

The saying on the inside is layered on a darker piece of cardstock that was embossed with the brick pattern from the Tim Holtz collection.

Hopefully time for another post before a year is up!