Memorial Day Appreciation

The Color Throwdown challenge this week was the perfect prompt for me to make encouragement cards for the military:

Thank you to all who serve, and especially to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.  And thank you to the families who serve along with their loved ones.   

The navy metallic paper is embossed using various folder, and the sentiment was stamped in distress ink.  This layout works well for assembly line card making while still producing a high quality card.  Cards like these are always welcome at VA homes, nursing homes, hospitals, etc.  

Put A Ribbon On It

The Jingle Belles challenge is to add ribbon, lace, seam binding, fibers, ric rac, twine or any other trimmings to a holiday card.

I cut the tree with a spellbinder dies, then embossed with an old Sizzix texture plate.  I adhered a bunch of ribbon scraps to the red base with a tape runner. Topped it off with a tag pinned to a bow.  Done!

Come play along with us at Words 2 Craft By, through June 6!!

Sympathy Cards - the hardest of all

I HATE making sympathy cards.  Regardless of circumstance, losing a loved one (furry or human) is hard.  My card stash is in dire need of these, as they are needed more and more often.  Must be a life stage...

Tuesday Morning Sketches has a perfect layout:

Here are my versions:

I used beautiful matte silver paper for the focal points embossed with Darice and Gina Marie folders, and layered them on some yummy slick card stock embossed with more Darice folders.  The sentiment is from Unity.  Can you tell I got a new (old) Sizzix?  Found a new in clam shell packaging Big Kick on eBay for $65 with shipping.  I will keep my repaired one as a back up. 

I will be in and out of the blogosphere for a while longer.  My college kid had major knee surgery this week, and we are expecting a rough few days ahead.  Best news - he is expected to regain 90%+ function.  For an athlete, that is a great outcome.  He is hoping that he will be ready to compete this season, starting in December.  We are hoping that he can walk without pain for many years.  Oh, the perspective age provides!

Encouragement Card

During the Great Craft Room Clean Out of 2018, I am ashamed to say that I found a whole stash of stamps, dies, and embossing folders that have never been used.  I am on a mission to used them all before I buy anything new!  Here is a card using a new-to-me Stampin' Up set:

I layered the image with shades of green from a long forgotten Luxury paper stack.  I originally colored the image, but I couldn't get the greens to coordinate properly.  Fussy cutting took care of that problem!!!

Sharing this with The Color Throwdown:

and with Try Stampin' on Tuesday's sketch challenge, with shades of one color:

Be sure to play along with the Words 2 Craft By "If You Can Read This" challenge!!

Silly Gumballs

The parts I need to fix my Big Kick won't arrive until later this week, so I am still limping along without die cutting or embossing.  During the Great Craft Room Clean Up of 2018, I came across these images from Lawn Fawn that I stamped and cut using my stamping buddy Diana's goodies. 

I colored the image with Derwent Inktense pencils, I used a leafing pen on the silver bits, and covered the gum balls with faces Glossy Accents.  Sharing with the Shopping Our Stash For the Kids challenge.  Be sure to join us for our current Words 2 Craft By "If You Can Read This" challenge!!

Try Stampin' On Tuesday

TSOT sketch challenge #365:

My craft room is a complete disaster from an unintended redo.  My Big Kick has a stripped gear (new gear coming next week - thanks Sizzix!), and I can't find anything.  That's what I get from "organizing".  K & Company stickers.  I stuck them to white cardstock and fussy cut so I could pop up the wings.  The border strips are also from the same pad.  I will post photos of the redo as soon as the room is presentable!!

CAS-ual Fridays

CAS-ual Fridays sketch challenge: 

My craft room is still in disarray from an unintended redo.  And I broke my go to tool - my original Sizzix Big Kick.  I actually cried.  It was one of the early ones with rollers, and was very heavy.  I didn't realize how hard it is for me to make a card without die cutting or embossing some element!!

I found these fun Ikea stars while cleaning, and added them to the slick white card front.  Sentiment heat embossed in silver, silver mirror card base and stickers.  Not my favorite, but loved how I had to stretch my creative effort!

I will post some before and after photos of my room soon.