5, 6, 7, 8…Celebrate!

When I was a little girl, I took dance classes; ballet, tap, and jazz. I loved it although I was never very good at it. Tap and jazz were more my thing than ballet was but I think it was because I liked the music better. However, I have no rhythm and struggled with the dances. My last class was when I was about 12 years old.

Last year, for their one of their Stamptember stamps, Simon Says Stamps collaborated with Colorado Craft Company and had this stamp set. I LOVED it immediately and had to have it. This was my first exposure to CCC and oh.my.word. I’ve loved everything they’ve put out since. Actually, I love everything of theirs before and after I discovered them.

As is the case with more stamps than I’d like to admit, this one sat on my shelf until the other day when I was looking for something to make a birthday card for one of my besties. Like me, she took dance classes as a kid but she stayed with it a lot longer than I did. In fact, she was taking tap lessons just last year (I was so jealous, I think this would be SO much fun!). Anyway, when I saw this set, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I stamped just the dancer on the left…the tap dancer… and colored her up. I fussy cut her so that I could put her on the black and white harlequin background from Amuse Studios. And let me tell you, if you knew my friend, you’d know that this background is perfect for her. I wanted to bring the pink of the tutu skirt out so I decided to use a pink card base and stamp the sentiment on pink as well. This pink card stock is a little smooth with a bit of texture so I did emboss the sentiment to make sure it wasn’t going to smear. I cut it with a die I like (I don’t know the brand or even where I got it). I used foam tape as my adhesive for the dancer and scor tape for the sentiment. On the inside it says “Celebrate”.

I think she’ll like her card this year and although she’s celebrating a ‘mature’ birthday, I think this card and this whole set would be perfect for dancers of all ages!

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor, it’s to enjoy each step along the way…Wayne Dyer

Fall Trees

I love autumn…the crisp morning temperatures, the return of football, caramel apples, and pumpkin everything. Scarecrows and hay bales, sweaters and boots. One of my favorite things is watching the leaves turn fabulous shades of orange, yellow, and red. I’m not a fan of raking them when they fall, though. When the sun hits them, they have this amazing glow to them and are just gorgeous. 

Seasonal cards are fun for a general card like hello or thinking of you. I made these a while back using autumn colors for the trees. These stamps are versatile in that you could use them for any season by changing the colors you use for the leaves. I used an autumn plaid paper that I’ve had for a while as a background mat. 

These trees are a stamp from MFT (My Favorite Things) named Modern Trees. I’ve had it a few years and have used it a lot for autumn cards as well as sympathy cards. I used colored Momento inks to stamp it on a beige cardstock. The card base is a cranberry color that I had in my stash. 

This tree blowing in the wind is Blowing Tree by Crackerbox and Suzy. It’s one of four in a series of seasonal trees and all four are great. I stamped it in brown Momento Ink on beige cardstock and colored the leaves with Copic markers. The base is your basic Kraft cardstock. 

I love it when I can use things I like in my card making like these fall trees. I’m not sure who I’ll send them to or what sentiment I might add to them, but they’re ready to be finished up when I need them. 

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.  Albert Camus

Sunflowers and Apples Gnome

I haven’t been able to get into my craft room for a couple of weeks now because of Hurricane Sally and the aftermath of cleaning up. But, I have a few things that I got done right before she decided to make her appearance and I thought I’d share them this week.

With their little pointed hats, hidden eyes, and whimsical beards or braids, they are charming and mischievous at the same time. But no where are they as popular as in the stamping world right now.  Almost every company has at least one set of some sort of gnome. And I love (and want!) them all. 

Gnomes are a big thing right now. Use to be that you saw them only at Christmas but not any more. Now you see them everywhere. There is a commercial on tv with a little ‘travel’ gnome as it’s spokesperson. Sports teams have decked them out in the team colors for fans everywhere to show their allegiance. And you might see a little garden gnome hiding in someone’s yard every once in a while.  

I stumbled upon this cute little Autumn Gnome digital from KLM Designs by accident but as soon as I saw him, I knew I had to have him! That sunflower and those apples spoke to me. I colored him up and cut him out and adhered him to some golden yellow card stock that I had lightly stamped some sunflowers on.  The mat is some fall plaid paper that I’ve had for several years. Normally, I would go with a kraft card base but when I tried it, it sort of dulled the colors so I decided to go with a red card base to keep the colors brighter. 

He’ll be going out later this week to cheer up someone’s mailbox just because. 

How I Got Into Making Cards

I have always loved to create. From the time I was a little girl, I’ve always had some creative hobby. Usually more than one at a time. But, for the last several years, I’ve had one hobby that has consumed me and every spare minute I can manufacture.

I fell into the rabbit hole of card making about three years ago. I attended a scrapbook retreat and participated in something called a shoebox card swap.  Even though I wasn’t a card maker and hadn’t planned to be a part of it, all of the people participating had made extra card kits so I was invited to play along.  To be honest, I really just did it because the cards were all so pretty and I was going to walk out of there with a bunch of cards that looked great and were easy to put together. It was not something I intended to ever do again after the retreat because I had tried stamping years ago and didn’t really enjoy it. Mostly because it was very frustrating to me and I wasn’t good at it. I could never get a clear image stamped. It was virtually impossible to get enough ink on a stamp to where I could only stamp it once and it be good enough to use. I would then have to re-stamp it and to be able to line it up perfectly a second time…well, it just wouldn’t happen for me.  But this time, there was something new in the mix. It’s called a MISTI.

The MISTI is a stamping platform that allows you to position your stamp and paper so that you can stamp the image over and over until you’ve gotten the complete image you want. Complete and total game changer for someone like me that had always struggled with this issue! It didn’t take me long to know that I had found a new craft and I was in trouble. LOL I jumped in with both feet and started to swim like crazy.

Card making has released a creativity in me that I honestly didn’t know I had. It has made me so much more aware of color and composition and how to create and balance them. It has led me to try things I never had the confidence to try before.  Watercolors, ink blending, art journaling, mixed media…these are just a few of the things I’ve discovered in the last few years. 

One of the biggest things it’s done for me, confidence wise, is being willing to share what I make. I actually send the cards I make to people! And I will share them on social media and in card making groups where some of the people there are AMAZING artists. But, one of the things I’ve also discovered about this community is that everyone is so encouraging and helpful. No matter how bad what you’ve made is, they are right there to give you advice on how to improve it and words to encourage and uplift you without being critical. There is always someone there to answer your questions and never make you feel stupid for asking something that has been asked a dozen times.

I will say this…it makes me happy and relaxes me to get in my little closet and play with stamps and ink, paper and markers, and paints and brushes. I make things I like. I make things that make me happy and, hopefully, when they land in someone else’s hands, make them smile. My goal is, and always will be, to bring a little sunshine to someone’s mail box.  Learning some art skills and discovering new techniques and mediums along the way is a bonus.  

This week, starting Monday, I will be really stepping out of my comfort zone by being a Growing In Unity (GIU) girl. Unity Stamp Company is one of my absolute favorite stamp companies. They have a wonderful program where you put your name in and they randomly draw out names-one for every week of the year-and then invite those drawn to showcase your creations for a week.  I entered last year and was so excited to have my name drawn. My week is next week-August 10-15. I’m so excited but also nervous. I know I’ve come a long way since I first started making cards but I’m no where near where I want to be.  I feel that it is truly an honor to be a GIU girl and I hope I can do their stamps justice. So, if you’re interested in seeing some awesome stamps or what I’ve made with them, check in every day this week and have a look! 

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.  Elder Uchtdorf

Candles and Rhinestones

One of my favorite types of cards to make are birthday cards. They are happy cards because a birthday is a happy occasion. They can be silly or serious, funny or snarky, and they are usually colorful and bright.

A dear friend had a birthday a few weeks ago and I was dying to use this flamingo image I had gotten from Angie Blom Digital Designs. I love her stuff! I was so excited when she branched out and started her own website with her digital designs last year. Anyway, she has this fun and funky set of flamingos and I needed something to put them on. Or at least one of them. My friend is a beachy kind of person so I decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to use the flamingos.  I ended up just using one of the three flamingos but she was so much fun to color. I used my Copic Markers to color her up and then fussy cut her out.  And those glasses she’s wearing? They were screaming for some rhinestones so I obliged by gluing some tiny little ones on.

Now, my friend that I was making this card for is only a few years older than me but she wears her years well and I knew she wouldn’t mind a little poke about how many candles she had on her cake. I was able to pull it off with this cake and sentiment from Unity Stamps. I use these a lot because it’s perfect for someone that has more than a few candles on their cake!  I stamped it up and colored it with my copics and cut it out. I cut the sentiment with a stitched die.

For the background, I took some pink paper the same color as the card base and used a stencil and distress ink to give it a little texture. I used a stitched slimline die from Trinity Stamps to cut the background. The brown dotted paper was from my stash and made a perfect mat for the pink paper. I put it together to make this slimline card and was pretty happy with the result. So was my friend…she and I had a good laugh over it as we ate her birthday blueberry pie!

“Don’t just count your years, make your years count.” George Meredith

Supercalifragilistic

I hate cancer. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to tell anyone that. I mean, who doesn’t hate cancer? Even Mary Poppins, the effervescent, eternally positive nanny, hates cancer. At least in my world she does. Several years ago, I saw this stamp from Cas-ual Fridays and just had to have it. It’s now discontinued so I’m really glad I got it when I did.

I had a friend going through chemo at the time and it was a perfect sentiment for her. I have had to use it several times since then and while I do like it, I hate the reason for it even having a purpose.

Unfortunately, I had the occasion to bring it out and ink it up again recently. A family member was diagnosed with breast cancer and I wanted to send her a card that would not only let her know I was thinking about her but that might make her smile. Laughter really is good medicine and attitude is so important when fighting for your life. Staying positive and strong can make a huge difference in how well and how quickly you come through something like this.

A few months ago, I stumbled across this Nanny Poppins digital stamp on Etsy. I immediately snapped it up and put it in my arsenal for future use. When it came time to make this card, knew I had to use her. I printed her up, colored her, and cut her out for the front of the card. She most definitely needed to go onto a pink background since pink is the color for breast cancer awareness and support. For this card, I used a pink paper I had in my stash but I have used distress inks to make my own background in the past. I also used pink ink for the sentiment on the inside. I drew a slashed line with a black marker to give her the illusion of flying. Then, I glued the card front on a matching blue base and I was done. Next time, I’m going to put a white mat between the front and base to enhance it a little more. Overall, I’m pretty happy with this card but wish I would never have to use it again.

And my family member that the card is for? They caught her cancer very early and although she is going to have to undergo radiation treatment, her prognosis is very good.

“Live each day as if your life had just begun.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe