Easter Card

Well, better late than never... These cards were inspired by the Stamp Club I attend the first Thursday of the month with Mary Anne Grimmer. Mary Anne always has some really neat projects for us to do. Our club makes 8 cards (2 of each). I really enjoy going over there to have our monthly meetings. She is also the consummate hostess taking care of everyone no matter what they need, something to drink/eat or to help with stamping "issues."

The card below was one of Mary Anne's creations for our stamping club several months back. I don't know if it was supposed to specifically be an Easter card, but once that card comes home with me, I never know how it's going to turn out! Usually pretty darn nice. :-) Once I got it home, I used Smooch ink on all the flowers just to add a little pearly look without being overpowering. Then I stuck some gems on it... very cute!


Supply List: Stamps - SU! Greenhouse Garden & Well Scripted; C/S - SU! almost amethyst, purely pomegranate, old olive, & vanilla; Ink Pads - SU! almost amethyst, old olive, lavender lace, so saffron, more mustard, rose red, ruby red; Supplies - gems (clear, pink, gold, purples), Smooch Illuminate, certainly celery satin ribbon, glue dots, adhesive; Tools - SU! eyelet border punch, distressing tool (from Cutter Kit), SU! beautiful wings embosslits die, Sizzix Big Kick, Genesis trimmer, scissors


The finished card was a huge hit! My family is so supportive of my card making that it's almost embarrassing! They love everything I do! It's great for the ego...

I promise I will get around to posting pics of my garden and I still have the Mother's Day card to post. Tomorrow is my stamp club meeting and doctor appointments. Maybe I can work on it between tomorrow late at night and Friday. We'll see...

Happy stamping til the next time!

Catch-Up and Sharing

Lots, lots, lots, lots, lots has been going on since I last posted. Apparently, summer is a bad time to blog. At least for me it is, or maybe just this year is a problem, I don't know. Due to chronic back pain, once the weather breaks and it's nice outside (or even steaming hot), I am outside. The hot weather actually helps somewhat with my back pain. I am also an avid reader and love to garden to the extent that I can. In my last post, I think I mentioned that I had been working on a small garden for 2 months. Lots of work and I can only do so much at a time which is why it took me so long to get done. Is gardening ever really done though? The watering, weed pulling (try not to do that so much), transplanting, fertilizing, etc. takes a bit of time each day. In between I read, read, read. I have probably read about 50 books in the past 3-4 months! I love going to The Book Lady to trade in my books and get some "new" ones. Sometimes they are new and sometimes they are used and old, but the price is right!

Anyway, on to my short back story. Several years ago I fell down some stairs at our house. I thought everything was fine, but as each day came and went, I was getting worse. I did have surgery, unfortunately there were other things that started to come up physically after the surgery. Nearly the last 8 years have been spent in constant pain. I have been on so many medications, gone through depression, had so many spinal injections, a nerve burning, and finally because there was nothing left to try, my doc suggested going through a trial for a spinal cord stimulator. Since I had nothing to loose, I decided to give it a try.

The trial went well, but was EXTREMELY painful because I had to be completely AWAKE for the whole thing! It was like nothing I've ever felt. Why is it a male will equate the fact that you've had a baby with you being able to stand any amount of pain you could possibly go through? Anyway, a few days later, I could tell there was some relief and decided to go ahead with the actual installation. It's been 4 weeks since I had the surgery, which I was knocked out for thank God!! This procedure is by no means a cure for my problem, it kind of (hopefully) just takes the place of taking all the medicine. THAT, is something I can't wait to do --- get off all the meds. The hardest one to get off of will be the fentanyl patch. I've already tried doing it too fast and have experienced withdrawal symptoms. Not fun! So instead of getting off the patch in a month like I wanted, it will probably take a few months. Can you tell I'm a bit impatient? The stimulator interrupts the signal of pain just like the meds do sort of masking the pain, but I think the stimulator does a much better job. I am still limited to what I can do because I can still get flare ups from over doing it and end up in bed. Hopefully my time in bed will be much less now. The true test will come when the weather gets cold.

I was very lucky that my sister came before the surgery and stayed for a few days after. Then my mother came for 2 weeks. It was nice they could get away and come stay with me. My mother did all kinds of stuff in the yard so I could just continue with my regular garden routine. One thing she did was to build a compost pile. Woo hoo!! It didn't end up being a single compost pile though. We had 3 beds that had been used for raised bed gardening prior to us moving into this house which we had been dumping yard trash on for the last 8 years. So, Mom got some plastic fencing and fenced in all 3 beds. These compost piles are HUGE!! I bet each one is 3 times bigger than a normal compost pile. :-) It's great to have it though because I thought hubby was going to have a heart attack buying all the dirt I needed for my containers. That's how I've gardened over the years, in containers. He dug holes for me and I tested out a small area for planting so next year everything will be in the ground. I have lots of work for him to do this fall in order to prepare for next years garden... In the end, it will be less work.

Below is a card I made as a thank you to my sister for coming to help out. She absolutely loved the card! Of course I used my copics!! I even worked it out that I got our hair colors right. This card was inspired by some wrapping paper I bought at Paper Source. It's funny how one little item determines exactly how you are going to create your card. The wrapping paper made me want to make my own background paper based on the design which in turn made me want to use the sisters stamp by Penny Black. It turned out pretty nice if I may say so myself!




I have been taking pics of the cards I've been working on during this hiatus from my blog. I can only hope I do a better job posting than I have been doing. Tomorrow I will post my Easter card. It's a card that was made at a SU! stamp club I go to. I just messed around with it and finished it up when I came home. Something I do frequently...

Happy stamping til the next time!

AMuse Birthday Blog Hop Winner

And the winner is.... ME!!! I could not believe that I saw my name listed as a winner from posting on Lisa Spangler's blog. I am so darned excited because I've never won anything like this before. The link to Lisa's blog is http://sideoatsandscribbles.wumple.com/?p=4060. Her card is absolutely stunning. I was very surprised that it was done with colored pencils since it really looks like it was painted. Lisa's blog outlines the steps to get this look; very nice!


Here is a pic of Lisa's card and the stamps I won.







On another note, I've been away for awhile. Tomorrow I will post pics of what I've been doing since the beginning of April. It is quite an accomplishment and my body is feeling every single bit of the work I did!!


Happy stamping til the next time.

Friday Card 2 Days Late!!

Good morning stampers! Friday morning I created the card I'm about to share with you, but "life" got in the way. We sold our treadmill, which lead me to clean (way too much), which then made me spend the rest of Friday and Saturday in bed! I should and do know better, however, even though I was in terrible pain, it felt good to get something completely accomplished. I'm still sore today, but not bad enough to hold back this card another day. :-)

This is not a Christmas card. It is, however, the perfect card to send out after Christmas to anyone you may have missed or with whom you have recently reconnected. It would also be a perfect Happy New Years card for anyone who doesn't send out Christmas cards. The cards and envelopes I used were from Paper Source. I don't think they have them anymore as I got them on clearance last year.




I hope you can see the detail of the image below. Initially, I colored the champagne with Copic E55 and went over it with the sand Spica pen. That wasn't quite getting the look I wanted so... I used a clear Gelly Roll pen (which always looks more platinum in color to me) and lastly went over both glasses with a clear Glaze pen. I think if you click on the image, you will get a bigger image and see more clearly what I'm describing. The clear Gelly Roll really did the trick though and no, I didn't clear Glaze the bubbles.




Card details... stamps - AMuse part silhouette, Amuse bubbly, AMuse super dot, SU! print patter bg; cardstock - Paper Source blush cards with stripe envelopes, Paper Source light blue cards with harlequin envelopes, Neenah 80 lb white, Neenah text (folded inside card), Hobby Lobby black texture; ink pads - SU! blush blossom, SU! soft sky, AMuse black dye, CB chalk creamy brown; Copics - E55; Spicas - sand; pens - Gelly Roll clear, Glaze clear; supplies - AMuse black sheer ribbon, Amuse tutu sheer ribbon, AMuse white sheer ribbon, AMuse light blue sheer dot ribbon, pop dots, glue dots, adhesive; tools - Sizzix Big Kick, 3rd smallest classic oval Nestie, 3rd smallest classic scallop oval Nestie.

For those of you who are familiar with the SU! spots, you will notice that I have a spot in my pic below of Soft Sky, which was an In Color from 2007-08. Since I don't particularly care for the SU! ink pads, I buy blank spots, ink them up with any new colors that come out and voila! I have my own little pads for the In Colors. I actually do this with any company's reinkers that I want in a small style pad.



Happy stamping til next time!

WIN an iPad from VIVmag!!

WIN! WIN! WIN! The short paragraph below was taken directly from the email I received on Facebook to win an iPad. Woo hoo!!! Read it, click on the link, and get started towards winning one for yourself...

Hello VIVmag fans!! VIVmag is gearing up for the iPad launch, and for our own upcoming debut on the iPad & other e-reading devices. To celebrate, we're giving away iPads to 12 lucky people. There are a few ways to enter - visit this page for all the details, and be sure to tell your friends too! http://idek.net/1Cir

Now get on out there and win yourself an iPad! All this new technology is so cool... I need to look at this a bit more as I'd like to know the specifics - mostly how darn BIG it is. Pretty cool for them to do the giveaway though. Two a week for 6 weeks. Good luck to you!

I'll have a little something stamping related to post later today.

Happy stamping til the next time.

Today's Card

Good morning stampers! Last year, I decided that I was going to start my Christmas cards early and make several a month so I wouldn't be so far behind by the time Christmas comes this year. For many years, I sent my cards out the day after Thanksgiving; however, once I became disabled, it was very difficult to get everything holiday related done (baking, decorating, shopping, present wrapping, etc) much less get cards NOT handmade signed, addressed, and mailed out in time for Christmas. Even though it's already March, I am proud to share with you my first Christmas card of the year below.

Card details... stamps - Elzybells sending winter wishes, AMuse enjoy the wonders MA; card stock - Hobby Lobby sea blue & mood blue, AMuse red kitchen dot, Georgia Pacific white, Neenah; ink pads - StazOn black, AMuse black dye, VersaMagic aspen mist; Copics - B91, B95, B97, C00, YR24, B0000; supplies - 1/4" light blue loopy edge ribbon, AMuse sheer red ribbon, 1mm "pearl" strand, frosted lace stickles, 05 Micron pen, pop dots, glue dots, adhesive; tools - EK Success snowflake edge punch, 3rd & 4th (from the smallest) classic scallop circle Nesties, 3rd (from the smallest) classic circle Nesties, Japanese drill punch, Sizzix Big Kick.

Envie details... stamps - AMuse enjoy the wonders MA, MB holiday bird; Copics - G05, G19, B00, YR16, R29, R59, Y11, Y17, 0, gold Spica.

I don't have tons of cards to make as everyone does not get a handmade card... especially if I know the person doesn't save it! That sounds awful, but I put a lot of time and effort into my cards so I like to know that the people who get them will cherish them. Last year the only card I got to make took me at least 1 hour to make each one. Needless to say, I only made 12. Plus, that's all the time I had anyway, hence, getting an early start this year. :-) I have to say that it was very relaxing once I got into it. Of course hubby thought I was out of my mind, which wasn't the first time and probably won't be the last. LOL Here's the card from last Christmas:

I love Great Impressions stamps and own a nice little collection of them (mostly Christmas) so you will be seeing more GI cards as I make my Christmas cards this year. This card was so much fun once I figured out how I wanted the elements to come together. The picture really doesn't do it justice.

Card details... stamps - Great Impressions Build a Snowman (from 11/04 collection), Savvy Merry Christmas; cardstock - Hobby Lobby (HL) dark grey, Stardream Chiara pink, HL ice, HL lavender, unknown shimmery pp with winter words in pale colors, Neenah; ink pads - AMuse black dye, StazOn black; pens - 05 Micron brown; Copics - B000, B01, B05, BV11, BV17, C1, C5, C7, E41, E44, E59, N4, N5, N7, N9, R20, RV13, RV17, W1, Y28, YR04, YR09; Spicas - silver, black, gold; supplies - Martha Stewart white craft seam binding, pop dots, glue dots, adhesive; tools - classic square Nestie, SU! scallop border punch.

My favorite dye ink to use with Copics is by AMuse. I've tried others, but do not get the same results. Usually I stamp the sentiments in StazOn just because it dries very quickly. As you can see, I love to decorate the envelopes when I can. Hero Arts came out with a bunch of cute little stamps last year that I could NOT resist. They are perfect "envelope stamps!"

This year I want to experiment with digital stamps. I've bought several already, but have yet to do anything with them. Once I get something done, you'll be the first to see. What I like about them is that they can be resized and layered together to make a sort of "scene". Something you really can't do with your regular stamps unless you stamp it, scan it into your computer, and then resize it. A little too much work for me right now. I can't wait to work with them though. Hmmm, maybe I'll surprise you with a card this weekend; no promises though!

Happy stamping til next time!

Paper-Rose-Petals has Blog Candy!!!

Judi at Paper-Rose-Petals is giving away this yummy blog candy! Click on the link above the picture to go to her blog and leave a comment. It gets even better... For every 10 comments over 30, Judi will add more candy! Woo hoo! You have until midnight of March 25th to comment on her blog. Hurry on over...

clipped from paper-rose-petals.blogspot.com