at last

I have drooled over Lovely As a Tree for years now. But for some reason, I never bought it. I earned a free stamp set and now I finally own it! When it arrived, I could not wait to use it! And for some reason, the image that was calling out to me was the large maple tree. At least in my mind it's a maple. And for some reason, the season just had to be fall. My favorite season. I know summer is preferred by most people, but summer is just plain too hot for me. I'll take the crisp air and gorgeous colors of fall any day over the humidity and heat of summer. 

I used black StazOn ink for the tree image. I stamped it onto water color paper and then used the Scallop Tag Punch and made a tag. Then I got to work with my AquaPen. I started with Cherry Cobbler. Added a bit of Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry. A tree wouldn't feel right to me without a bit of Old Olive. And the trunk is done with Soft Suede. Then I pulled a little of the trunk's color down and painted the ground and finished that with Old Olive. A wash of Soft Sky finished the background. 

Texture was the next element I wanted, so of course I put my embossing folders to work. Woodgrain and Square Lattice. Gorgeous Grunge provided some visual interest. And I popped up the greeting twice with Stampin' Dimensionals. And voila! My first card with a stamp set I have admired from afar for so many years. 

Happy stamping!

manly-man

There are a few men in my life who deserve a good birthday card. Unfortunately, when I buy stamps, they tend to be flowery and sweet. And although a few men appreciate a bouquet of flowers, most don't. Masculine birthday cards often stump me. Short of using dark colors, I've got nothin'. Which is why I'm kinda excited about the stamp set, Perfect Blend. It's marketed with the friendship sentiment, "coffee & friends are the perfect blend", but I decided to skip that and use the birthday greeting from Petite Pairs. And voila! A masculine birthday card that doesn't feature dark navy and tools.

I roughed things up a bit with a distressing tool to give the card some texture, and I popped up the coffee cup and greeting for some depth. See? Masculine cards aren't so scary.

Happy stamping!

celebrating mom

What do you give the woman who has everything? Something handmade from the heart, of course! Well, I guess that my Mom doesn't have everything, but after years of giving her quilting supplies, I needed to change things up for Mother's Day. 

My Mom is special. As I'm sure yours is. But, this year, my family has come to rely on her like we never have before. With three of us working, and only two cars, she has become indespensable to us as a taxi. She has become a confidant to our moody teens. As always, she is our personal tailor. I often come home to find a few BJ's staples on my kitchen counter. The list of what she does goes on and on. Generous is the word that describes her best. She is precious to all of us!

Here is the gift I'll be giving her this Mother's Day. 

I am in love with how it turned out! I'm not crazy about my handwriting, so I considered using some of my favorite fonts. But in the end, I wanted this project to be very personal, and so I featured our handwriting throughout the project. 

I didn't have just the right patterned paper, so I decided to stamp my own! Mom's favorite color is yellow, so it was an easy choice for this project. 

I highlighted important words by using pink marker on Whisper White card stock to remind Mom of what she means to us. 

Both of our girls came up with a list of words that describe their Gram. I plugged them into an online word search generator, and then stamped the grid and highlighted the words. 

Please don't ask me how long it took me to come up with a method for stamping a neat grid! And don't ask me how many times I had to crumple up my work and start over! It's totally embarrassing. I WILL tell you how I did it! Someone should take advantage of my hopeless mistakes. ; ) With a pencil, I lightly drew lines, horizontally and vertically, 1/4" apart, to create boxes for each letter. Ten letters fit vertically on my paper, so the grid is 10 letters by 10 letters. Then I stamped the letters in the boxes. In hindsight, it seems logical, but you wouldn't believe how many ways I tried, and failed. 

I think that this Mother's Day is going to be pretty wonderful for my Mom. As a quilter, she really appreciates a handmade gift. She's why I'm so crafty! 

Happy Mother's Day, and happy  stamping!

an ode to grads

I don't think that I have ever made a graduation card. That is, until today, when I whipped one up in the colors of our school district, green and gold! My oldest daughter is a junior, but she has many senior friends, so I have been thinking about graduates lately. 

It's such an exciting time! But it's also full of stress. I remember when I was a senior, with the weight of the world on my shoulders, the expectations of my parents, my peers, myself. It felt like every decision was life or death. Should I attempt the SAT again? How many colleges should I apply to? What should I choose as my major? A local campus, or one far away from home? How many classes should I take? 

The reality was, I really didn't know what I wanted out of life when I was 18 years old. I had a hard enough time deciding what to wear every day! Looking back, I have come to realize that all those little decisions didn't need to feel so huge. My life has taking turns that I never could have expected. I've walked down roads that I never could have anticipated. I stumbled into what I believe I was born to do. I work with preschoolers. I wish that when I was 18, I knew what I know now. I could've enjoyed being a senior bit more. 

So as June approaches, my heart goes out to all those seniors who are biting their nails, waiting for that college acceptance letter. I wish I could tell them to take a deep breath, and enjoy the ride. I'm glad that I finally did.

Happy stamping!

copy cat

Ever since I saw this card on Pinterest, I have been dying to get Stampin' Up's Pleasant Poppies stamp!

http://hlkdownstairsdesigns.blogspot.com/2013/04/pleasant-poppies.html

I finally got around to purchasing the stamp and just had to make my own version. Granted, I only changed up the greeting, ribbon type and mat color, but it's still a bit different!

I can see myself using this stamp in so many ways! Embossing it with embossing powder makes coloring it in so easy!

The embossing helps to contain the color inside the lines, so even if you are a messy artist, like I am, the results are gorgeous! I was surprised that the Crumb Cake card stock took the color so well! And the white outline really makes the color pop off of the page!

Happy stamping!

it's the little things

Stamping can be such a fun thing to do! And sometimes, not so much. Like when you've been staring at an image and know that it's not quite right, but can't, for the life of you, figure out what is making you uneasy. And so it was with this card. I needed a masculine, thank you card. I had finished stamping and coloring in the goose image from Wetlands. But it just looked flat and boring. Lifeless and bland. I couldn't figure out exactly why is wasn't sitting right with me. 

First, I tried walking away from the project for a bit. Sometimes that works wonders! But not this time. No new ideas were flooding my brain. Next I sat down with Pinterest, hoping for a little shot of creative inspiration. Even Pinterest failed me. Gasp! Unheard of! 

I was ready to ditch the silly goose and start from scratch. So I picked up my stamp binder. Every time I get a new stamp set, I grab my binder filled with copy paper, and I stamp all the images from the set into it. I add the stamp set's title, how many stamps are in the set, and what type of set it is; clear or wood mounted. I was flipping through the pages looking for a different, masculine focal point for the card. 

And they I saw Gorgeous Grunge! My new favorite stamp set! It is SO versatile! There is a simple little stamp that has lightly sketched parallel lines. And I instantly knew what my goose needed! He was just floating on a Whisper White page! He needed to be grounded. So I grabbed my Soft Sky ink pad and stamped a sky all around him in the background. Somehow, that tiny, subtle detail changed everything for me! I fell in love with the goose, slapped him to my card front, and smiled. 

Happy stamping!