Thoughtful Thursday 12/24/15

Merry Christmas!  I hope you are spending today or tomorrow with family or friends.  If you can't, may you think of them and smile!

Hugs!

A Little When It's Needed

Sunday Ray went to find Belle.  He told me it was time when he won't take the meds (or food) that might help him.  I listened even though it was hard...

Yesterday was hard for me, especially when the doorbell rang.  After 11 years (at this house - I had an additional 11 years at our other house) of hearing a dog bark, it was silent.

I had shopping to do, but I stopped by the decoration section.  I needed something to make me a little happier.  I found and bought this.  Putting him out was the second thing I did when I got home (peeing was the first -- I  know, tmi).

It made me happier to know there's a dog around, and there always will be.








The third thing I did when I got home was go check on my Snowbell bulbs.  I'd been really good about not checking on them, but it was time.




I found six plants just breaking ground!  Some of them aren't even this high so it was hard to find them all.  In fact, this one was under the bark that I pushed aside to find!

I was as happy as I could be!





I'm trusting that Ray found Belle who introduced him to Benny (who lived with Belle) who in turn introduced him to Rex, Rosie (first dogs), Cujo, Prairie (sister's dogs), and Camille (another sister's dog).  Cujo and Prairie introduced Lily to Ray too.  And just maybe, they found my childhood dog, Missy.  Gosh, I hope so!  And they are one big family running around and healthy.

This is the first time since 1993 that a dog has not lived in my house.  I need a couple of months before I start looking for our next two...  Thanks Ray and Belle, my wonderful babies, for these chapters of my life.  You will be missed, and through my tears, I'll smile at all the good times.

6th Grade Camp Card: 5 of 5

Whew!  So I decided on, cut, and assembled (oh, and wrote) all five of the camp cards in about 2 hours (okay, maybe 2.5 hours - it was a late night).

This last card is Middle Ground (page 19) of Wishes.  Words from Finding the Words and butterfly from Your Own Kind of Wonderful (D1627).

First off, I made my card to determine the colors I was going to paint my butterfly.  The background is Gypsy cardstock.  There is also Pixie ("Special" is stamped on that) and Cotton Candy (one step darker than Pixie) to back the butterfly.  The polka dot strip is the zip strip from one of the B&T papers.

Once I knew the colors of the card, I took a rectangular piece of Watercolor paper and my watercolors.  I painted horizontally across the rectangle.  Once it was dry (I assembled the card and others while I waited), I stamped with Black ink (you can use the Stazon on Archival Ink, but since I stamped after the paper was dry, I wasn't worried about bleedage (yes that is a word I just made up)).

There was too much white space after I adhered the butterfly on so I added some Black Sparkles (retired).  The butterfly may look like it's taking off the card (it is if you were holding the card), because it is.  I added thin foam to the middle of the lower wings and regular 3D foam to the top of the top wings.  I glued the bottom of the bottom wings directly to the paper.  Fun!

I should probably start on my summer camp cards now and put them aside so I can get some sleep before the girls leave!  Wait, I can't do that... I don't know what wonderful paper there is going to be in the Seasonal Expressions 2 supplemental.  Somethings are better to wait...

6th Grade Camp Card 4 of 5

Today's camp card was inspired by the color Pacifica.  It is one of the colors from the Kaleidoscope paper packet, but I wasn't happy with what I had in my mind with any of the background and texture papers.  Finding the Words ( D1646) was the only stamp set used for this card.

Bandwidth is the pattern, came from Originals, and is on page 31.

The Pacifica cardstock background was distressed by lightly rubbing (in a circular motion) the Pacifica ink pad on the cardstock.  In fact, all of the distressing was done with Pacifica ink.  The Lagoon band with "Love" and the two squares (Sweet Leaf and White Daisy)  are sponge distressed.

The hearts were stamped in the three colors of the card - Sweet Leaf, Lagoon, and Pacifica.  They are placed on the card to stand out.  It wouldn't have looked as good if I put the Pacifica heart on top because it wouldn't stand out as much, just like the Lagoon heart wouldn't being on top of the Lagoon  band.

6th Grade Camp Card #3 of 5

I have so much to share this week, I'm doing it twice today!

This card made me smile!  The butterfly is from Your Own Kind of Wonderful (D1627).  The words are again from Finding the Words (D1646).  And the paper is from the Kaleidoscope paper packet.

"MAKE ME SMILE" is a straight stamp that I curved (I love acrylic stamps!!!).  The butterly is stamped in Gypsy.

This card was originally a 6" x 6" card found in Wishes.  It's called Keep it Level and is home on page 107.  Since I wanted to make a 3" x 3" card, I just halved each of the measurements from the book.  Simple.  : )

Hopefully Amber smiled when she opened this one.

6th Grade Camp Card #2

This card is what Amber opened today.  I explained inside that this is the best day ever for us because we get our baby back (insert sigh)! - in a couple of hours as a matter of fact!

This is from Originals and is called Squares and Overlay (found on page 65).  The Background and Texture paper is from the Kaleidoscope paper packet.  The Thistle cardstock is not part of that paper packet, but coordinates.  I edge distressed that paper with the direct to paper technique (I swiped the ink pad directly to the paper).

I used a flower from Blossoming Expressions (D1665).  I have found that I use that set a bunch.  : )  Oh, the flower color isn't part of the Kaleidoscope scheme either.  That flower is stamped in Sorbet with a Smoothie outline.  The leaves are Sweet Leaf with Pear outline.

Thoughtful Thursday 12/10/15

Since my furry baby boy isn't feeling well, I thought I'd go with this...

Adopting any animal gives all those involved enjoyment. The time we spend with our "baby" is never enough time.

6th Grade Camp Cards: 1 of 5

Amber went to 6th grade camp this week.  The fact that my youngest is in 6th grade is amazing!  Unfortunately, I'd been busy with other things and forgot, until Sunday evening - about 10pm - that I hadn't prepared any of her "letters".  Mental panic was not too far behind.

Whenever the girls go away to camp, I make some cards so they can have a taste of home while away.  I shared with you the cards from Girl Scout camp this past summer.  I needed to make 5 cards in a matter of hours (Amber was leaving the next morning).

I pulled out my trusty pattern books - Originals and Wishes - and started looking through the quick reference section.  I know I was making 3" x 3" cards.  I found three patterns from Wishes that I would use, and another two from Originals.  Check.

Next was the paper.  I decided to use Kaleidoscope paper because of the bright colors.  Check.

Stamps... I thought I'd go with little sayings on the front with butterflies.  That meant taking out Finding the Words (D1646) and Your Own Kind of Wonderful (C1627).  I like Finding the Words stamp set because it has one word larger than the accompanying words.  And there are several butterflies to choose from from Your Own Kind of Wonderful.




This first card is from Wishes, is called Right Away, and can be found on page 84.  I only needed to use Finding the Words for this card.  The flowers around "Cherish" are a single stamp from the stamp set (you can see below that there are 5 images to go along with the set).  I thought the flower went better with the card than the butterfly.  Finally, I set the flowers with some shine with the Bitty Sparkles (love these).  The saying is mounted with 3D Foam.

Here is the Finding the Words stamp set.  The banner can be cut from the Artiste Cricut Cartridge Collection, and then stamped.  Why not eliminate having to cut it out?!


Plug:  I don't know if you realize it or not, but each of the Cricut Collection now comes with a Cardstock Combo Pack (instead of the dimensional chipboard shapes), as well as three stamp sets.  That's on top of the cartridge that includes 700 images to cut from!  I only use my Close to my Heart Cricut Cartridges.  I haven't found a need for any other one.

Penguin Family with White Pines

Here's another card using the Season's Greetings stamp set (B1483), and Simple Expressions from Wishes.  This time I stamped the large Penguin to the left of the focal White Daisy, and stamped the smaller penguin (and the large one too for the scarf) onto scratch White Daisy, both in black ink.  For the small penguin, I cleaned the stamp and then stamped in Fern ink for the scarf and hat.

I colored the large penguin's scarf to mimic Fern (there isn't an exact match), so I colored it with the Shin Ham markers in three layers: Warm Grey 4, followed by Leaf Green, followed again by Warm Grey 4.  The small penguin's hat and scarf are colored to match Glacier: Warm Grey 4, Turquoise Blue and blended with the blender marker.

The scarves and hat were cut out, as was the small penguin.  The scarves and hat were directly adhered to the respective penguin.  And the small penguin was mounted with 3D Foam tape.



Now, if you look at the stamp set again, you'll notice "from our family to yours" is attached (it is) to the "WARM CHRISTMAS WISHES" saying.  This might be scary for some of you... cut those two phrases apart, like I did.  I was able to then stamp the saying below "SEASON'S GREETINGS".  If you don't want to cut your image, you can put paper over the part you don't want to ink, remove the paper, and then stamp.  I made too may of these cards to make that worth my while.



This card can also be made as a thank you card at the end of the season.  Just replace "Season's Greetings" with "Thank You"

Red Penguin with White Pines Card

Now that Thanksgiving was enjoyed, I thought I'd share one of my Holiday cards.  I'm more of a winter person than Christmas, so I look for snowflakes, deer, penguin, and the such.  I found a wonderful stamp set called "Seasons Greetings" (B1483) that checks off a bunch from my list... here, let me show it to you.  : )

How cute are those penguins!! Their scarf and the smaller one with the matching hat.

Okay, so now that you've seen how cool the stamp set is, let me show you the first card I made...

To create this card, I took the colors from White Pines paper packet.  I stamped tone on tone with the snowflakes in Champagne on Champagne.  Because the three stamps were being inked the same color, I put all three snowflakes onto one block in a triangular pattern.  The I rotated the stamp each time I inked it.  Quick and easy.

The penguin is stamped onto scrap White Daisy cardstock and then stamped again, making sure to re-ink.  I colored in the scarf with Shin Ham Marker, and then cut it out.  I then glued the scarf directly over the stamped image of the penguin (as you should be able to see, I didn't glue the ends of the scarf down to give more of a 3D look.

Side-note:  to make the color of the scarf match the Cranberry in the paper, I did three layers of colors.  The bottom layer is Mahogany, the middle layer is Light Orange, and the top is Carmine.  It took a little more work, but for my type Aness, I'm very glad I did.  In living color, the scarf matches the paper really well.

Season's Greetings was stamped in Black ink on the Glacier paper.  The pattern for this card?  Simple Expressions (page 40) from Wishes.  I moved the 1/4" strip of Fern cardstock to go below the zigzag B&T paper.  I also opted to stamp the saying on the 3/4" Glacier cardstock instead of creating the saying piece in the pattern.

Thoughtful Thursday 12/3/15

I know I'm a California wimp, especially since I'm whining about the cold nights we've been having (low 40s, high 30s).  I miss this weather already!  And even though it reached 80 degrees during the day this week, it's only 68 in the house.  My hands are freezing!!

I did say wimp, right!?

Not Cyber Monday, but Cyber Week! 2015

It's not to late to join in with the savings!  Close to my Heart discounted 39 items by 25%!  A few items are one's I've eyed but passed on.  However, I'm taking advantage of the sale to buy some of the items and fall in love with them - for instance, the ice cream container and the journaling cards box.

ARTFULLY SENT Cricut Collection is one of those items (I already have that one, but you may not).

Go check it out now, because they sale will be over before you know it (December 4, 2015)!