In Honour of Mom

Mother's Day is always a poignant time for those of us who no longer have their mothers. This May will be the third Mother's Day without mine. However, as the mother of two girls who are now mothers, there is still the joy of sharing this special day with special people. I look at the young mothers in today's society and think about all the things that so many of them have to juggle while raising their children.

Our theme for the weekly challenge at Card Crafter's Circle is "Mother's Day/Something for Mum." Several countries, such as the UK, have already celebrated the traditional Mother's Day, so we didn't want to limit our theme to just that one occasion. Maybe your Mum is going to have a birthday soon or you just want to let her know you are thinking about her. Make her a lovely card and express your feelings for her.

We are always excited to have our current sponsor Dearie Dolls! Although the Dearie Dolls Shop is closed at the moment, they are still graciously sponsoring our challenges. The winner will have their choice of three images showcased by our Design Team at CCC!

Don't despair.... I urge you to go visit the Dearie Dolls blog and see what is happening .... it's a blog full of freebies, and they are gorgeous! Do leave some love in your comments when you collect the free images, won't you?

Now, on to my little card. As I said, I no longer have my mother, but my little 8 years old granddaughter has a special relationship with her mother (my younger daughter), so I had her in mind when I created my DT card. This little image is so very cute and reminded me so much of the two of them. After printing my image onto X-Press card and colouring with my Copic markers, I used one of my Spellbinder dies (Labels Four) to cut out the image.

Starting with a white card base, I layered a piece of blue card on top. I then layered a floral patterned paper on top of that (leaving about 1/8" border around each layer of paper). I then cut a circle from Core'dinations white wash green and embossed it using a QuicKutz Lifestyle crafts embossing folder called Spring Time (from Dutch Paper Crafts). When doing this "technique," remember to cut your shape BEFORE you emboss because the die cutting machines will flatten your embossing.

I then layered a strip of solid pink that I punched with a Fiskar's border bunch to make small scallops. I added the pink dotty ribbon across the pink strip, the little bow and the roses (Wild Orchid Crafts), and my sentiment.

I've shown the card to my granddaughter, and she is pleased with it except that her Mum's favourite colour is orange, so she thought I should have worked that colouring in instead of the pink. Oops, she is probably right on that point, but too late now (smile). I know my daughter will like it despite having no orange (smile).

Thank you for looking. Run over to http://cardcrafterscircle.blogspot.com/ and have a look at what my very creative teamies have made this week for your inspiration, and then add your own wonderful work via the blue frog. We'd love for you to share with us this week. All of your entries are equally as inspiring to us as (hopefully) ours are for you.

I'm Sorry

Last night my older daughter, Paige, phoned. She lives in Virginia, and the month of April had been a challenging one for her, so she just wanted to talk with her Mom. I always enjoy our phone conversations even though they always seem to go on for several hours (smile). After I hung up with her, I went into my craft room and made this little card to send off to her.

This little Mo Manning image is so cute. I bought it in digital format thinking it might be a cute image to use if I should ever forget a birthday. I didn't think, until last night, that it would also make a cute "get well" card or, as for Paige, a pick me up card.

I colored the image using Copic markers and cropped the image into a rectangle which I matted on blue paper. The solid blue that I used for all the mats is by DCWV. The the patterned paper I used for the rest of the card is from a 6x6" pad by My Mind's Eye called Vaniety Fair. My Mind's Eye must be really appealing to me right now because I've purchased several new pads lately by them.

The card base, itself, is white, and having picking three papers from the pad and matting each, it was just a matter of layering. I printed off "I'm Sorry" from my computer using a font called "Kids" and then cut it using just the top portion of one of my Spellbinder label dies. I inked around the edges and tucked the sentiment to the right of the image.

The hardest part (for me) and the thing that took the longest in making this little card was deciding how I was going to embellish it and with what. After trying a gazillion different items, I finally decided on the yellow roses (Wild Orchid Crafts), a swirl (Joy Crafts die 6003/0008 from Dutch Paper Crafts), and leaves (McGill hand punch).

Now, I just need to get a sturdy mailing envelop made and get this little darling popped into the mail.

Birthday Greetings

Today is the birthday of a very dear friend of mine. Bonnie is a very special person to me. Last year I made her a birthday card using one of Mo Manning's images, and I wanted something equally as lovely for her this year. I finally chose this cute little image by Saturated Canary. Saturated Canary are my current "favorite" images to colour. I have such a great time colouring their beautiful hair (although this image's hair isn't quite as long and flowing as most). This one is called "Thank You" which, though used for a birthday, seemed a very appropriate image to use as I am so very thankful to have Bonnie in my life.

I printed my image onto X-press It card and coloured her with my Copic markers. I then cut her out using one of my shaped Spellbinder dies. I then made a green card using DCWV cardstock. On top of the card, I placed a piece of patterned paper from a little pad of paper called Summer Goodness (by Raspberry Road Designs out of the UK). I mounted a piece of red checked paper onto white and a piece of green dotty onto white (both from the same paper pad). On the upper left corner of the green dotty paper, I added a bit of doily and on top of that, I cut a corner from a bit of paper that I had punched with a Fiskars border punch. I cut the little bit of the border so that the flower was centered in the corner, and I added a tiny pearl to the middle of the flower.

After adding the red checkered piece to my card, I added a layer of cotton lace and a very narrow red ribbon. This created a wee bit of bulk, so I used dimensional pop-up dots to adhere the green dotty piece. I printed the sentiment and cut it using a small circle Spellbinder die. I matted the sentiment circle on top of a scalloped circle by Spellbinder. I finished off my little card with roses, white tulips and white strawberry blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts and green leaves which I punched using a McGill hand punch.

Bonnie has already received this little card (in fact, she had to send me the photo of it because I didn't take one before mailing it off to her). I know she won't mind me sharing it with you, my blog followers.

Have a great day, Bonnie. My thoughts are there with you even though I cannot be.

Pearls and Lace

Our challenge this week over at Card Crafter's Circle was to use pearls and lace on our cards. Our wonderful sponsor is  DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS! However, we were allowed to use images from other designers, and while I really LUV Di's images (and own quite a number of them), I had a need for this specific kind of card, so I used a Sassy Cheryls image instead.

The generous Di is offering our randomly drawn challenge winner a $10 credit at the shop (which equals about 4 images, or it can be used towards the purchase of a larger order). This is a wonderful offer, and I know our winner is going to have a hard time picking from among the fun, fantastic images offered in Di's shop.

The design team for Card Crafter's Circle really went above and beyond this week with some gorgeous cards featuring pearls and lace. Do hop over to http://cardcrafterscircle.blogspot.com/ and check them out. You won't be disappointed.

Now, to my little contribution. As mentioned above, the sweet little image is by Sassy Cheryls (http://www.sassycheryls.blogspot.com/). It is printed onto X-Press It Copic card and coloured with my Copic markers. The card base is pink by Bazzil. The pattern paper (pink floral and green) are from a 6x6" pad by Basic Gray called "Out of Print." The ecru lace is by a company called "Simplicity." I purchased it at my local, small fabric store. The large rose is from Wild Orchid Crafts, and the four small ones were in a package I purchased at Michael's as were the small pearls I used in the upper corner.

Once I coloured my image and cut it out using my circle Spellbinder die, it was just a matter of layering the different papers, lace and flowers to create my sweet little card. I used the same paper for the inside of my card. The sentiment is an actual stamp that belongs to my girlfriend (sorry, I meant to copy down the name of the manufacturer after I used it so I could list it here, but forgot -- as usual, we were busy crafting, talking and laughing, so I got side-tracked).

I hope you enjoy. Stop on over and enter your lovely creation in the pearls and lace challenge this week. Would love to see your art work.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
http://www.southerngirlschallenge.blogspot.com/ - get your girly on
http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.com/ - little girl
http://littledarlingschallenges.blogspot.com/ - flowers

Here a Stitch; There a Stitch

People who know me know that I do not sew. It is sad because I own three very nice, expensive sewing machines that do all manner of decorative stitches -- all given to me (probably in the hope that they might inspire me to learn to sew - HA). It isn't that I don't know how to do the basic things -- sew a straight line to repair a seam, for example -- but I don't enjoy sewing, and despite a couple of classes, I cannot grasp the concepts of putting things together. It is even more sad because my Grandmother was a wonderfully talented seamstress who could make clothes even without patterns.

Having shared that bit of information with you, I now have to admit that I shuddered a bit when this week's challenge for Card Crafter's Circle ( http://cardcrafterscircle.blogspot.com/) required sewing/stitches. OK, so I could have used faux stitches or rub-on stitches as those are allowed, but I'm also not a big fan of either of those techniques, so I bit the bullet and opened up one of the sewing machines and (after two attempts) managed to sew the one panel onto my card. Had planned on sewing the stripy panel, too, but decided not to push my luck!

Anyway, I have managed to babble on quite a bit and haven't told you about the challenge for this week. So here are the details -- Our sponsor this week is another returning sponsor, LIMITED RUNS! There is such a variety of images at Limited Runs that I know our winner is going to have a hard time making a choice. While you're there, check out the freebie offer, and the many many, CUPCAKE images! There are cupcake images for every occasion, and I promise they are calorie free! Our randomly drawn challenge winner will receive their choice of 3 (three) images from the Limited Runs shop. As mentioned, you can use actual stitches, faux hand-drawn ones or rub-on ones. It doesn't matter how you created your stitches as long as we can see them on your card/art work.

My little card is quite simple. The little birthday pup from Limited Run  coloured up so nice and cute that I really didn't need a lot of extras to make this a darling little card with a bit of a masculine feel. Male cards are often difficult to create beause so many of the stamps and digital images available to us card makers tend to be more feminine. In keeping the masculine look, I went with primary colours. My image was coloured with my Copic markers, and the papers I used came from my scrap stash. My sentiment, which matches the Limited Run image perfectly, is from a set that I own designed by Adam Prescott. Last, as some of you know, I'm not a real button fan and don't own a lot of them, so I was very pleasently surprised to find the little star buttons and tiny red ones in my embellishment stash. I was totally unaware that I had them, but thought they were just what my little card needed to finish off.

In closing, let me say that we would love to see what you do with stitches, so get out the sewing machine, sewing/embroidery floss, ink pen or stickers and get busy. Then, hop on over to http://cardcrafterscircle.blogspot.com/ and enter your lovely piece in this week's challenge!

Need a Hug

I have a friend who lives about 1.5 hrs. from me in LaFayette, GA. Every other Wednesday, I drive up to her house, and we spend the day together crafting. Yesterday was our Wednesday, and I managed to get a few cards "almost" done. It is difficult for me to actually complete a craft all the way through as I don't have my stash of supplies with me, and I've yet to get organized enough to fully plan out my projects so that I know what all to take with me. One of these days maybe I'll reach that point, but somehow I'm doubting it (grin).

Anyway, I did go up with cardstock, 6x6" pads of paper and a stack of already coloured images, so I was able to get a lot done, and only just had to embellish once I got home. The little Magnolia image card above is one of the (two) bases I worked on yesterday. (OK, I know two "almost" cards aren't a lot for the time spent, but we did do a lot of talking, laughing. eating, etc. After all, it is called a "play" day!)

Miss Tilda is coloured with Copic markers on X-press It card. The base for my card is Core-dinations card in green. The green pattern, floral, checked and stripy papers are all from the "Howdy Doody" 6x6" pad from My Mind's Eye. The white mat between the green card and green patterned paper is from my stash.

My card is 5.5 x 5.5" square. The white layer is 5.25x5.25" and then the green patterned paper is about 1/8" smaller than the white. On top of that, I cut and placed a piece of the floral, red checkered and stripy paper (the stripy punched with a Martha Stewart border punch). I cut a doily (Marianne die) from the same green as the base card, and a filligre heart (Joy Craft) from pink. I matted the image onto green card. The flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts.

This little image is so adorable that the card doesn't need a lot of fru-fru to distract from it. I've used the floral and the red checkered paper for the inside to frame the sentiment whenever I get ready to use this card.

Hope you enjoy my little Tilda card. Thanks for stopping by.

Bonnie and Me

Bonnie Kohane's Card

My Card

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you may remember about a month or so ago I shared two cards that were the same but different. While visiting my friend Bonnie in Indianapolis, we each created the same background for a card and then finished it off with two different Mo Manning images. Bonnie used a little dog on her card, and I used Oskar, a grandfatherly image.

Well, we've done it again. Only sad thing is that we had to get together via internet and not in person. Using the same sketch and some of the same papers (well, the background floral piece and the wood strip piece are the same - the rest are different) we each created a card on our own.

As you can see, Bonnie and I both used Magnolia stamps for our cards.  Bonnie specifically used the Magnolia image so that she could enter her card in a Magnolia challenge. I used my little image because it fit in the oval (grin). Since I made the card base first, I had to then find an image that would go with my card, and this little Tilda was perfect.

We both started with a white card (mine is 5.5" x 5.5", and Bonnie's is 5" x 5"). On top of that, I placed a piece of purple and Bonnie used a Bazzill gray to mat our patterned paper (from My Mind's Eye). The strip of wood looking paper is also by My Mind's Eye. That piece is also matted with the purple/gray. Next, my yellow strip is from the same little My Mind's Eye pad (Bonnie's yellow piece is also by Bazzill). She cut two pieces of the yellow and matted them both. I only cut one piece of the yellow which I matted with the purple.

As you can see, I turned the sketch a quarter turn so that my wood strip is at the top rather than along the side. My oval shape is also from side to side rather than up and down. We cut our ovals using a Spellbinder regular oval and then a scalloped oval. Bonnie added lovely swirls using a Memory Box die (which I don't have, but definitely need to think about getting - grin).

So there you have it -- two for one (smile). For a better look at Bonnie's card, go over to her blog (http://grandmabonniesplace.blogspot.com/2012/04/this-ones-for-you-my-friend.html). I know you will enjoy the visit because Bonnie is a very creative, talented crafter.

P.S. Yes, I realize to be grammatically correct, my title for this entry should be "Bonnie and I"; however, that just didn't seem to fit the mood (smile). Bonnie and me just sound more homey and friendlier -- ok?