>90 minute card

Here’s the Hero Arts 90 Minute Scramble card that took me a day to finish.  Doesn’t look that complicated, right?  Well it helps if you don’t decide to take a nap in the middle of the challenge!  Cheiron wanted us to create something just for ourselves so I pulled out my new Butterfly Flowers stamp and carefully colored the flowers.  I was getting ready to assemble the card when my daughter called for help with something.  As I was heading back to the craft room afterwards, I got distracted by the couch.  So I gave in and took a nap.  Sad, I know.  But in my defense, I was suffering from a sinus infection & I really needed the shut-eye.

Any fun plans this weekend?  I will be crafting & chatting with Brenda, Lisa, Martha and Vera.  Can’t wait!  Hopefully I will have something completed to share with you next week.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Feathered friends

Feels like forever since I participated in a CAS-ual Fridays Challenge.  Challenge 52 is all about our feathered friends so I rummaged through my stamps to find something suitable.  And I’m proud of myself for using not one but two neglected PTI sets!  The flowers are from Four of a Kind and the bird is from Iconic Images.  I made 4 attempts at this design because I kept messing up the stamping.  This second card came about because I kept stamping over & adding to cover up my mistakes.  I’m not in love with either one but it’s a good jump start for my mojo.

Spectacular spectacles

How could I pass up the current Moxie Fab World challenge: Spectacular Spectacles when I have been wearing glasses since I was 4 years old?  Plus I get to use the Lawn Fawn Clear to See set that I had to have but haven’t used much since I bought it (does this sound familiar?).  For both cards, I used Zing glitter embossing powder on the glasses.  I added Glossy Accents to the lenses on the 1st card & some google eyes on the second.  I would love to claim this idea but my hubby first suggested it when I made a card for the Stamp It! issue about 3 months ago.  At first I said no but then I put them on at the last minute and the card got picked up for publication.  So maybe he does know a thing or two about card making!

And speaking of hubby, we were in charge of organizing a charity dinner for the local Knights of Columbus council’s biggest fundraiser of the year.  We chose “70s Party” for our theme and we  had approximately 450 people show up for the dinner, dancing & entertainment about a week ago.  We encouraged everyone to dress up and we were not disappointed! Lots of hippies, disco mamas and good ol’ polyester.  Here we are in our disco outfits:

Teacher appreciation

I’m baaack!  At least physically; creatively I seem to have lost my way.  But that didn’t stop me from working on appreciation gifts for my daughter’s teachers.  I went through my stash of projects made for past submissions and I only had to make 2 out of 6.  The first one I made is an 11×14 frame with free subway art by eighteen25.  I had it printed by Shutterfly so the colors really pop on the quality paper; I finished off the frame with crayons around the edge.  This is for Elisia’s kindergarten dual language teacher and I hope she will hang it in her classroom next year.

The next gift is for the computer teacher.  I know nothing about her so I went with a set of thank you cards.  The laptop digi is from Tiffany Doodles and I stamped Hero Arts Graph Background on the card base.  Yes, it’s very simple but I did warn you that I have been lacking in the mojo department.  I’m just happy I came up with something!

The next frame is for the music teacher.  I created this for Paper Crafts May/June call a while back and I even had a matching card to give to the teacher (which I forgot to photograph).  I used sheet music from an old piano book, Hero Arts Stencil Flower, and a $1 wooden frame from Michael’s.

Next up is a gift for one of Elisia’s PE teachers.  I was told by a friend that this teacher loves M&Ms so I went the easy route.  The heart wrapper appeared in the Feb edition of Cricut Magazine and I just happened to get it back from the publisher last week.  I originally made it to hold a small bag of M&Ms so I had to take it apart, add the eyelets & then use twine to tie the 2 hearts around the bag.  I did add a little adhesive to keep the hearts in place.

For the other PE teacher, I recycled another project made for the PC May/June call.  I wrapped a candle with papers from My Little Shoe Box and added the scalloped oval quote from the original project.

The last gift is for the art teacher & I just knew I had to give her the “You Color My World” frame that was in PC’s Mar/April issue.  You can check it out here if you haven’t already seen it.

I wanted to say a big thank you for all of your prayers and condolences.  It’s been an up & down time for me and I’m not really looking forward to this mother’s day.  I have been getting teary-eyed just thinking about it so I know it’s not going to be an easy day.  But I know time will ease my pain and leave me with just the good memories.  I’m just hoping that day will be sooner rather than later.

In loving memory…

of my dear mom.  She passed away early Saturday morning after all of her kids came home to see her one last time.  I was able to spend a couple of days with her earlier in the week and it made me so sad to see how much pain she was in.  She was basically  skin and bones and struggled for every breath.  As sad as I am to lose her, I am so happy she is with God now and is no longer hurting.

I have always thought my mom was an amazing woman but I am learning even more now that she is gone.  My oldest niece and her hubby are putting together a memoir and it will include stories and thoughts from all the kids & grandkids.  I know I am going to cry buckets when I read it.  And how wonderful it will be to share with all the kids who are too young to remember their time with their sweet grandma. 

I will always remember how much she loved playing with her grandbabies.  The joy on her face as she cooed to the babies & played tea with the toddlers.  I learned how to be a mom from watching her.  I fail miserably in the patience department but I want to honor her memory by trying my best each & every day.  I hope you will say a prayer for our family, especially my dad, as we say our last good-byes to her this Saturday. 

Easter wishes

Gosh, I cannot believe it’s time for Easter already.  I’ve got a little card to share with you today.  Well it’s not really little since it’s bigger than an A2 card but I digress.  I made the basket out of coffee stir sticks for the Moxie Fab World’s Household Items Challenge and used Basic Grey Picadilly scraps for the Paper Scraps Challenge.  My tip for working with the stir sticks is to wet them first before you start weaving them.  And little dabs of Glossy Accents holds it all together nicely.  The handle is made with Hero Arts twine and the butterfly die is from the Antique Flowers & Butterflies set.

I hope all of you have a blessed Easter with your family & friends!

Wildflowers

Almost 2 weeks ago, we headed to Fredericksburg to check out the wildflowers.  It’s been about 2 years since we had a really good showing so I was excited to see how things would look with all the good rain that we’ve had.  And I wasn’t disappointed! Here’s a big field filled with pretty flowers.  I don’t know the name of the lavender flowers but it was breathtaking to see so many in one spot.

Next we headed to the Willow City Loop where we found lots of beautiful bluebonnets.

Of course we had to snap a photo of little Miss Elisia:

And then we asked someone to take a photo of us together:

Afterwards we met up with some church friends for a birthday bowling party.  Elisia was the only kid in the group but she enjoyed having her own lane to play.  I didn’t bowl since I didn’t want to take the risk of messing up my wrists again (tendonitis) but I enjoyed hanging out with our friends.  It was a great way to spend a pretty Sunday in March.

Birthday spinner

I’m supposed to be cleaning the house right now but I had to stop & post the card that I labored over yesterday.  

The CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #44 got me thinking about an 80s song called “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive.  Watch the video if you have never heard of the song.  The big hair, heavy make-up and cheesy styling are hilarious!

Okay, back to the card at hand.  It’s been years since I made a spinner card so I looked at the Splitcoast Stampers tutorial and then got to work.  Here’s a shot of the butterfly moved to a different spot:

And if the design looks familiar to you, it’s because it is inspired by Laura Bassen‘s card for CASE-Study Challenge #84.  Here’s her stunning original:

I wish I had staggered my sentiment banners but I glued them down with GA so no way they are coming off cleanly.  But my soon to be 8 year old niece won’t care about that and she’ll have fun playing with the card.

ETA: I’m also entering this into the Lily Pad Flower Challenge.

Hello friend

I have a confession – this card took me a week to finish.  Sad, I know.  I loved the photo for the Tuesday Trigger: Simple Elegance and I knew I wanted to play along but other things kept getting in the way.  So I did a little each night until I finally got it done!  I was inspired by the off white mirror and pottery against the taupe wall, the damask pattern on the rug, the upholstered furniture & the bouquet of flowers.  Okay, it might have been quicker to tell you what I was not inspired by.

I clear embossed Hero Arts Classic Fabric Design on sticky back canvas and then used Staz-On ink to stamp a sentiment from PTI’s Think Big Favorites #3.  The ribbon is from Stampin’ Up! and the pretty paper roses were part of my RAK from Normah.

Hope you are having a great weekend.  We are going to check out the bluebonnets in Fredericksburg tomorrow so I should have some pics to share with you during the next week.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

You’re so special


Sheesh, feels like it has been a looong time since I last posted a card!  I haven’t had much time for card making but I wanted to make something for this month’s Hero Arts contest before time ran out.  I combined the flower theme with the CR84FN Color Challenge #50 and CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #44.  All the stamps are from Hero Arts: Graph Background, Truly Appreciated & Tall Circle Flower.