Birdwatching Cat

Bluebird on the tree out front ! 

Every once in a while I see a blue bird or

indigo bunting, I guess as they are passing through.

Watching birds and squirrels

from the chair I placed in front of the window for her.

It's her new favorite spot and she is rarely

caught sitting on the table to look out the back window.

T

Tuckered out from all the bird and squirrel watching.

Valentine's I Received

What a fun, sparkly card with the paper pieced

dress on the cute little girl !

Red handmade (?) paper and 

the textured card base are the perfect touches

the complement this vintage image !

Thank You Cards - CAS

I created these cards for the

 ODBD Challenge

at Operation Write Home -

Thank You cards.

Simple enough card to make overall.

Red, White and Blue card stocks

Stars embossing folder, Cuttlebug

Expressions Thinlits die, Stampin' Up!

(I cut THANK off of the THANKFUL die)

Alphabet die U, Stampin' Up!

bakers twine, dollar spot at Target

Thanks for looking =) 

Pink Overload - Sketch Challenge Card

TOO much pink.

Then again, it may be just the right amount for 

someone else ;) 

This card is based on the new sketch at

Operation Write Home today.

I didn't have any scraps of coordinating decorative papers

(seriously, I don't have many scraps of designer paper)

so I needed to cut into some new sheets from an old

 Die Cuts With A View Stack 4 paper pad.

I used the Full Heart and Heart To Heart paper punches

from Stampin' Up! for the hearts.

I lightly sanded the edges of the hearts before gluing

to the card front to help give the edges definition -

just so much pink and so many patterns going on with this card !

"Love" is heat embossed with white embossing powder.

The stamp was from Stampin' Up!

This is a nice, flat, mail friendly card.

Although it was soooooooo frigid today,

making the drafty old basement 50 degrees,

 I went ahead and did some crafting for a 

little bit. Bundling up, using a space heater

and my body adjusted to the cold 

so I was able to get some work done 

before calling it quits after about two hours.

My fingers were just too cold !

I'll share the Thank You cards tomorrow

that I made for another OWH challenge.

The severe cold temperatures and 

the freezing drizzle/sleet

were the only parts of the forecast 

from yesterday that held up where I live.

There isn't quite an inch of the white stuff

out there as of now.

Certainly no where near the 6-10" of snow prediction.

Be safe, stay home if possible, stay warm everyone ! 

We are hoping this is the only 

"lion" part of early March we see !

  Thanks for looking =)

DigiScrap Page - Silver and Gold

March 1st, ALREADY !???!!!!?

Gosh, mom and dad were right:

the older you get,

the faster time flies.

I'm trying to think of what I've accomplished

so far this year......... it doesn't seem like much of anything!

I hope you've made progress on your to do lists

or are doing a good job of sticking to your New Year's Resolutions.

For the first two months of 2014, I've managed to:

- Make several cards for Operation Write Home

and participate in some of the challenges at their blog.

- Made several bowl cozies

and although I was inspired to start

more sewing projects, I have not yet.

- Created digital projects for Creative Team commitments.

- Spent hours and hours (and hours!) on digital photos,

trying to get years worth gone through to choose

what to print so I can get them into photo albums.

 I've only made a small dent in that daunting project.

-Took some photos that of course will need to be 

edited, organized and some printed.... eventually.

- Reorganized crafty things in the "dungeon".

- Normal day to day life.

Enough of my rambling

(I took a cue from the challenge below to tell a story!). 

I made this digital scrapbook page

for a challenge submission at

Anything But A Card:

"Sharing a Story Through Scrapbooking"

A blog buddy is the featured artist this week,

congratulations Margaret !

Take a moment to read through her insightful blog posts

and be inspired by her projects.

Yeah, it's silly using lyrics from an old Girl Scout song

to relate to my vehicles, but I thought it worked well!

After all, my old car has gold, the "new" one has silver

and I am keeping my old car, "my friend".

We've been through a lot together  :)

I used My Digital Studio to create this page.

Very Vanilla textured card stock background paper.

Alphabet punch paper filled (custom) with my own

glittery, shimmery papers I made.

Sara's Sequins, resized.

Banner and arrow punches, paper filled.

Several text boxes.

Closeup to show the detail at normal resolution.

The textured paper doesn't show up on computer 

screens unless you increase the image view size.

The largest sequin is normal size;

I copied, pasted, rotated then resized to make 

the smaller ones.

Yet another huge storm is on its way this weekend.

The predictions seem to change every few hours,

but we do know that we will see freezing precipitation here.

The latest : we could see up to 10" of snow and sleet ! 

I have my supplies ready and have done some cooking today

as well as caught up on laundry, etc in case we lose power. 

Be safe out there all of you that will be affected by

this massive storm system ! 

Stay indoors and spend some time with your loved ones,

catch up on reading, crafting, etc . 

Thanks for looking =)

Silver Wedding Anniversary Card

Another couple I know is celebrating their Silver Wedding Anniversary!

This is the third card I've made celebrating such a momentous occasion

the past several months, plus there was a 50th Anniversary

celebration I created the pop open box for last fall!

All supplies used were from Stampin' Up!

The raised, dry embossed areas were painted with a shimmery Pearlex paint.

Sentiment stamped with silver Encore ink.

2 5 die cut from silver metallic card stock,

the same type used for the card base.

How I made the tiny dimensional roses:

Punch a small scallop circle from lightweight paper.

Cut into a spiral.

Lightly soften the fibers by running a bone folder along it.

Twist it up around a pair of tweezers.

Glue into place on a small circle or flower punch base.

Gently smoosh it down with your thumb to make the petals curl back a bit.

Insert a tiny rhinestone in the centers.

Punch out  leaves and paint with shimmery paint. 

Attach all pieces with a strong glue.

This card requires extra postage due to the dimension.

Thanks for looking =) 

Welcome Home

Simple Red, White and Blue card

 I put together and mailed out

to a young second cousin of mine.

She served our country for five years.

There are two others still in the service and 

 another is considering signing up.

My father, grandfathers, most of my uncles,

several of my cousins (male and female)

have all served.

Thanks to everyone that has served or 

is currently serving and to their families! 

Color Challenge at OWH

The Midweek Throwdown at 

Operation Write Home is

a color challenge this week -

teal/turquoise!

Supplies form Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

Circle Card Thinlits die set ,

Dots and Daisies background stamp,

Bermuda Bay ink and card stock,

white Signo gel pen,

aquapainter,

yellow scrap flower punches,

yellow rhinestone (unknown)

scrap of shimmery white paper (underneath HI die cut)

TIP: Die cut the card before stamping the background.

Cut a mask from sticky notes to cover the circle portion .

Cover the circle with the sticky note mask then carefully stamp the 

background. If you use a large background stamp as I did,

it won't be large enough so you will need to line it up and stamp it

twice to cover the background. 

I colored the little outline flower images in

with ink and an aquapainter. 

To save time, consider cutting decorative papers

and adhere them over the card base OR

cut the card from decorative card stock.  

The above card was inspired by a sample I came across

somewhere, sorry I don't remember who to give credit

Bonus second card:

Hero Arts stamps

Thanks for looking =) 

Woodgrain Technique Cards

I created these cards for the Woodgrain Tutorial Reprise post

at Operation Write Home this week.

Supplies and tips for the Howdy card:

Bronc Buster stamp set, Stampin' Up!

Woodgrain Background stamp, Stampin' Up!

clear alphabet set, Technique Tuesday

Naturals card stock

Basic Brown ink, Stampin' Up!

Tea Stain, Weathered Wood and Linen distress inks

wide jute ribbon (craft supply)

sandpaper, acrylic paint and Folk Star punch

blade of scissors scraped along the edge of the 

card stock to distress it 

ink rubbed along the distressed edges

TIP: I don't know how many people really pay attention

to the detail of punched sandpaper painted to

replicate an old rusty barn star, but I love to add that touch.

The texture of the sandpaper is perfect for the rusty metal !

Don't forget to pinch in the points to give it dimension.

Stamp the background stamp with a permanent ink

then smear distress inks over it,

slightly dampening the card stock to make the inks smear.

This card is supposed to resemble a framed piece of art

hanging on a wall.

I shared a post a couple of years ago about how I make these frames.

They do take some time and patience.

Basically you drag ink pads across card stock,

speckle it with a darker ink

then lightly gouge the card stock with blunt tip scissors.

Cut it into strips of equal width.

Cut miter corners then piece them back 

together to create the frame. 

My sample above uses Creamy Caramel card stock

and ink as well as Soft Suede and Going Gray inks

for dragging. Chocolate Chip ink  for speckles.

The stamp image from 

Thoughts of Father by Stampin'  Up! 

is water colored with classic inks and

and aquapainter.

The Old Olive background piece

was stamped with an old Paisley background stamp

from Stampin' Up! and Olive ink. 

Thanks for looking  =) 

You Make My Heart Race Card

I created this card using the sketch challenge at

Operation Write Home today, #213.

It is another kind of goofy card

to add to the cards I'll be donating

to OWH at some point.

I've been making a lot of those lately it seems.

The digital stamp/word art was created by myself using

the new My Memories Suite V5 software.

It has new clear background and export as PNG features ! 

You can do the same thing using

 Photoshop/Photoshop Elements.

To make this word art, 

all I did was create four different

text boxes and used four different

fonts / sizes for the words.

I should have searched online for a

more race car / fast looking font, I think.

I moved them around

and adjusted the sizes 

until I liked the look. 

I exported it as a PNG from the MMSV5 software

I'd like to spend more time learning how to

create word arts/digital stamps.

 It's another one of those

"If I had more time in the day...." projects.

The other images are stamp images that were available from Stampin' Up!, a couple of them are quite
old and no longer available (Tire Tracks wheel, Bold Check Frame). The car (Need For Speed) is the closest I have to a race car image. It was colored with a Real Red marker from Stampin' Up!  I need to add Crystal Effects to the headlights.

The heart was die cut from a scrap of red fleece material that was sitting on my work table using an old Movers and Shapers die from Stampin' Up! . I thought it would be fun to use something different than card stock. Also a kind of "Thoughts of you warm my heart" touch - oh, that's a good idea for another card like this actually ! Maybe if I do make that one, I'll dig out some scraps of paper for the strips rather than make my own from stamped images.


Thanks for looking =)