April Card Chain Challenge

Hi all - another Card Chain Challenge has arrived on Deborah's blog.  She extended the deadline which I appreciated as I had a lot going on and missed the original one. 

My dear brother-in-law Dave lost his nearly 3 year battle with lung cancer last week.  My sister Kari went right away to help my sister Tami and I came in for the funeral.  Tami has been such a trooper taking care of Dave; you may remember I visited them in February while he was in the hospital with pneumonia.  Well, he recovered from that but the cancer had spread to his "good" lung.  He didn't even last two months after that.

We're all glad he's not in pain anymore but I will miss him soooo much.  We both love to read and we shared many books over the last 27 years - John D. MacDonald, John Sanford, Lee Child and many other authors.  I made a bunch of sympathy cards - for my sister, the three kids and Dave's 3 siblings.  Didn't get a photo of any of them but they were appreciated by all. 

Now I'm visiting my parents and was able to pull out enough supplies to make a CCC card.  Here's what I came up with using this month's sketch and the theme of friendship:

I used a Hero Arts Shallows folded card, My Mind's Eye papers (The Sweetest Thing Bluebell), a zig zag cling stamp from Hero Arts, and a sentiment from a clear set by Hero Arts called Friends.

Thanks for stopping and I hope you're living life to the fullest and doing what you love!

Another Die Cut Diva Challenge Entry

Die Cut Divas are using GREEN in their challenge this month.  I created this Easter card today and lo and behold, I have green fringed grass on it!  Yay - I have another entry for this month.

The main image is a fun new "rabbit with carrot" die-cut from Hero Arts for Silhouette.  I cut Mr. Bunny on Hero Arts blush designer paper, gave him a googly eye, a bit of cotton for is tail and a pink gem for his nose.

 

Since I was die-cutting on the Silhouette, I made a whole sheet of items with the blush designer paper, including the butterfly on this next card.  The butterfly is a design by Totally Jamie that comes with several others in a set.  This card was made for a fun Scramble with Barb to use a tic-tac-toe grid for the elements you needed to include.  I used the row with twine, patterned paper and washi tape, although some of the other grid items landed on my project (colors pink & green, pearls, die cuts).  The bold flower die is Hero Art's Chrysanthemum fancy die; I popped it onto some fun patterned paper and cut a mat around it.  Both cards use the Easter sentiment from a great Hero Arts clear set:  CL498 Celebrate Everyday.

  



 

Well, I'm feeling better having started my Easter cards but I still have more to make.  Off I go to keep working.  Thanks for stopping - hope you're having a great weekend and thanks to Barb for a fun Scramble today!!

Happy Mail from Jacqueline in France!

Came home from another long day at work to find happy mail in my box!!  A few weeks ago I sent sweet Jacqueline some Prima Botanical papers she needed - I found them at Hobby Lobby while I was in Arizona.  She reciprocated with a lovely package of fab items shown below:

At the left, a set of gorgeous coasters - the colors are perfect for my living room!  But I probably won't want to use them, they are so stunning; I love the vintage garden look of them.  On the right, two of Jacqueline's amazing tags - just love the pink dogwoods and the peachy dragonflies!  At the back, a beautiful grid card - love the soft blues, greens and pinks! 

If you haven't visited Jacqueline's blog, you're missing something special.  Her work always draws you into a better appreciation of nature and her collage style inspires me.  Thanks Jacqueline for all the goodies and for being such an inspiration, both on your blog and on the Hero Arts Flickr group!

It's Scramble Time!!

Hi all - I'm hosting today's Scramble over at the Hero Arts Flickr group.  If you're checking this out around 1 p.m. USA PST, it just started so come on over.  It only lasts 90 minutes so if you're stopping by later than 2:30 PDT, you won't be able to play but you can check out the cards people created.  For Scramble details, go here.  If you're new to Scrambling, you get a theme and have 90 minutes to create, photograph, upload and post your card.  Here are the sample cards I created for the Scramble using the theme Embossing Technique.  I used two kinds of embossing - powder and folder, and yes - I did my cards within the established time limit :)

Card 1 uses Hero Arts Tall Flowers - a cling stamp I just love!  I white powder embossed the flowers then colored them with various Distress Markers and shaded with Copics (C1 & C3).

On card 2 I used an embossing folder; this one is from Hero Arts/Sizzix and is patterned after the Hero Arts Magical Background cling stamp.  I also embossed the sentiment using clear ep over some yummy Distress Ink.  I just love the large script for the sentiments in Hero Arts clear set Fancy Basics!

What's your favorite embossing technique?  Have you ever done the embossing with the little gold templates and the light box?  I have a bunch of them but don't use them much - may have to pull them out again!  Thanks for stopping!!

Die Cut Diva's March Challenge

Ooops - it's been a while since my last post.  Oh well, I've been busy acclimating back to winter - we just got a heap more snow this week!  Hope it all clears up before the big St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Paul next weekend!!

And speaking of St Paddy's Day, I made this card for the Die Cut Diva's March Challenge to use green.  March + green = St Paddy's Day to me so I went ahead and made a card with that day in mind.

 

Besides the big green 4-leaf clover and green ribbon, I used green metallic accents from Hero Arts and their Neon green ink for my chevron background (a Hero Arts Cling stamp called Edgy Background).  After stamping it, I embossed it with a fun chevron folder by Hero Arts (with Sizzix).  I just love this look!  The clover was done on my Silhouette SD using a design from Sophie Gallo (available on Silhouette's online store) called Lucky Charms.  It has a pot of gold, a horseshoe, and some other fun charms too.

Be sure to check out the Die Cut Diva's challenge and, if you need something to do this weekend, please join me on Saturday on the Hero Arts Flickr group for our next Scramble - 90 minutes of crafting chaos!  Time is 1pm PST - details here.  Thanks for stopping!

Home again and a "love" card

Well, just came home last night after 2 weeks in Arizona. It snowed at home on Friday but the neighbor snowblew the driveway for me - what a sweetie!  I definitely wasn't prepared to return to this much snow!! 

 

Thought I'd share a few photos from my last few days in Arizona.  Speaking of snow, seeing snow in the mountains while you're in the desert is so awesome!  This view was taken just north of Sun City West; I pulled off the road and took it from the car (unknown van got in the frame which was hard to avoid in the traffic). 

 

 

I traveled this road every day for a week while my brother-in-law Dave was in the hospital.  The trip to Mayo Hospital took about 40 minutes one way and there was such beautiful scenery along the way, I wish I had more photos!  I took these in the garden in front of the hospital:

 

 

What a beautiful place and a nice getaway from sitting in the hospital.  Dave expects to go home today but I haven't heard anything yet. 

 

I came home to more happy mail - birthday cards from family and friends, including Sally, who sent this package of goodies.  I'm sure she wondered why she hadn't heard that her package arrived; well, it was in my held mail which was in my mailbox when I arrived home last night. 

 

 

I especially love the crocheted pin (lower left) which perfectly matches the scarf on my winter jacket.  Thanks so much Sally!

While I was in Arizona, I ordered a bunch of new stuff from Hero Arts, including the newest Fancy Dies.  I couldn't wait to get home, fire up my Vagabond and do some die-cutting.  Here's the first card I tackled this morning.  I cut a window in the card base and the patterned piece (paper from Basic Grey's True Love) using the Renaissance Heart DI063 which I already had in my collection.  I layered the patterned piece on the solid red, and hand cut a frame for the window.  Then I die cut two of the new DI081 Love and Heart and layered them, then anchored just a few spots so they float across the heart window.  Then I decided to stamp the I and the U, using Hero Arts' new Large Vintage Alphabet CL689.  The heart gems were a gift from Heather - just love that jumbo one which she worried was too big!  I'm entering this in the February Hero Arts contest, Love and Lace.

It's always good to be back home, even when you enjoyed being away.  Hope you all are having a crafty weekend!  Thanks for stopping!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Just love this holiday, don't you?  What's not to love - beautiful cards and flowers and yummy chocolates.  Bonus for me - it's my birthday, so have always have had a special day even when there's no boyfriend - LOL.

I'm enjoying a lovely day - can't help it when I'm with family and away from snow!!  Dad made pancakes for breakfast, Mom took us out for lunch at Red Robin (love their burgers), visited my sister Tami and her hubby this afternoon, then we had a heart shaped pizza for dinner.  Here I am with my birthday pizza:

Mom also made smoothies with a bag of frozen fruit pureed with a cup of white wine.  They were a bit thick so we added some 7-Up.  Delish!  Then the neighbor stopped by with some chocolate covered strawberries she made.   Yummy!

 

Now for a card - I didn't bring any Valentine stamping supplies with me but found some Hero Arts clear sets which fit the bill.  CL351 Friends has a little heart flower and I cut the love out of a Christmas sentiment from CL543 Very Merry Christmas!  Voila!  Dad hates to buy the store cards (too expensive) so this is the card he gave my mom.  Inside it says "You Mean the World to Me".  Guess that was enough since all he did was sign it - men!

Mom decided she wasn't giving Valentine cards this year but I did get a lovely birthday card.  Also received a fabulous package from my friend Heather Maria - just have to share this:

I was so excited to get one of Heather's Hero Hostess Blog Hop cards - so gorgeous in real life, you have no idea - all that stitching, amazing!!  Lots of fun gems, ribbon and stamped images, including some hearts and musical notes.  Love the stamps and embossing folder too - I already stamped out and colored one of the village scenes.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look as great as the label in the photo above - oh well...  I used watercolor pencils and I have a limited number here.  Maybe with Copics at home I'll get a better result and share it sometime.  Thanks again for making my day, Heather!

Sister Kari made me a pretty white and silver bracelet; she and Tami must've had a jewelry making day when she was here in January.  Thanks Kari!  I wore it to the neighborhood dinner the other night:

They had a Valentine theme, including a Barbershop Quartet "Time Was", to sing for us.  Appropriate for me, eh?  Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!  Thanks for stopping!!