I couldn’t wait to make a card for The Paper Players Challenge (PP220) this week! The theme is Vintage, and I love making vingtagy cards!
I needed a thank you note for a special someone for something special, so I couldn’t wait to start vintaging up a card. (Do you like the vintage adjective and verb I [ahem] created?!)
And the SUOChallenge (SUO109) is to make a Thank You card, so I am submitting this card for that challenge too. Bonus – a twofer! 🙂
Stampin Up’s Hello Doily and Dress Up Framelits seemed the perfect start. I had seen some great inspiration on Pinterest done by Lyssa Griffin Zwolanek and Cheryl Garratt that gave me bits and pieces to create my final Vintage Thank You Card. I used the distressing tool to rough up the edges and sponged with crumb cake and and soft suede brown inks. I used SU Flowering Flourishes to stamp onto the dress form. A little lace, an antique-look button, some linen thread and lots of little pearls all added embellishment to finish up the vintageness. Finally, the sentiment is from SU Petite Pairs.
Whadayathink???
Girly girly – eh?
I kinda love it. Hope my special someone does too :).
I recently made and sent this card as a sympathy card for dear friends.
I really enjoyed just sponging and layering and creating the background and using one of my all time favorite SU stamp sets, Lovely as a Tree.
When I saw the SUO Challenge this week was Out in the Woods, it seemed a perfect card to enter. The challenge is to make a card featuring something you’d find out in the woods.
Hope you get to enjoy some time out in the woods or just outdoors wherever you are and whatever season it is in your part of the world. It’s always good to get fresh air whether warm or cool and enjoy the beauty nature provides us.
I just adore this punny saying and love adding googly eyes to these little tomatoes (#WPlus9 Punny Produce). I made them in “heirloom” colors – and for some reason this card reminds me of The Brady Bunch (minus a row) 🙂
When I saw this week’s Friday Mashup, I had to play along.
Especially when I saw Cindy’s Card – she is the queen of clean and simple and beautiful card-making. (Be sure to check out her site to see more of her creative, beautiful designs: CindyLeeBeeDesigns)
I couldn’t resist trying the technique (blowing ink through a straw), and in the end, realized my card is not only inspired by Cindy, but ended up looking almost like it.
This technique reminds me of childhood spin-art and the recent melted crayon art trend. Sometime it’s fun to just see what will happen.
I embossed the “hello” from the SU My Friend Stamp Set in black on vellum, which I “randomly” stitched onto the card.
Here is the FM179 challenge: Create a project using the Ink Blowing Technique and the colors Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry and Basic Black.
For the MUSE Challenge, participants are provided with a photo to be inspired from and are asked to explain their interpretation.
Here is the inspiration card:
My tomatoes are placed in a similar position as the flowers in the muse challenge card. It is also similar in its Clean and Simple (CAS) approach with plenty of white/blank space surrounding the featured image. The flowers have leaves – the tomatoes sport stems. Both cards have a similar font for the sentiment.
It’s 11:11pm, and I am in a Holiday Inn about 4 1/2 hours from home in Eastern PA where I will be speaking at a conference tomorrow on “Using Social Media in Healthcare to Meet, Engage, and Retain Patients” for the Central PA Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). I’m looking forward to it and hope it will be an engaging talk.
Before I turn in, I wanted to do my “homework.” Today’s #Writing101 Assignment: Write about the three most important songs in your life — what do they mean to you?
Music is such a wonderful expression of feelings and emotions, and I was able to quickly come up with three that came to mind immediately that represent important moments and people in my life. (And I even have to add a bonus one!)
So here goes:
#1: “You’re Still the One” by Shania Twain
When Marty turned 40 about 15 years ago (holy shmoly – where did that time go?!), I threw a surprise party for him. At that party, I had this song played for us to dance to. At that point, we had been married 17 years. I was 19 and he was 23 when we married that April afternoon 32 years ago. At the time, I thought the lyrics were so perfect and appropriate, and they are even more so now. It has become “our song.”
Looks like we made it. Look how far we’ve come, my baby. We mighta took the long way. We knew we’d get there someday.
They said, “I bet they’ll never make it.” But just look at us holding on. We’re still together, still going strong.
You’re still the one I run to – the one that I belong to. You’re still the one I want for life.
You’re still the one that I love – the only one I dream of. You’re still the one I kiss good night.
Ain’t nothing better. We beat the odds together. I’m glad we didn’t listen. Look at what we would be missing.
#2: “What a Wonderful World” by Louie Armstrong
I have always loved this classic – the words, the instruments – Louie’s raspy passion when he sings it. It always makes me feel so grateful – makes me realize the simple pleasures – makes me think to myself what a wonderful world…
So when Jake and Colleen were planning their wedding last summer, Jake asked me what song I would like to dance with him to for the Mother-Son Dance. I immediately chose this one, and he immediately agreed to thinking it was a great choice. (And those that know Jake know that is a monumental occasion)
During the weeks prior to the wedding, I listened to it over and over.
And over and over.
And over and over.
Until I could get through it without crying.
And the day of the wedding, when Jake and I danced to this beautiful song, all I could do was smile and be happy and hug and hold him tight.
But the even more awesome thing was when a year later at Jackie’s wedding (the oldest daughter of my BFF Jill), the DJ played this song, and Jake sought me out from another room and escorted me onto the dance floor to dance to “our song.” This time I had tears in my eyes…
#3: “What a Difference You’ve Made in My Life” by Ronnie Milsap
This is the song I played over and over when I was reunited with my Dad four years ago. For at least a year, neither he nor I could listen to it without crying tears of love and gratitude.
For our first Christmas together after 30+ years, I made a CD of songs for him, and this was the first one I put on it.
It will always be “our song.”
And for the bonus one I mentioned – way back in the beginning – I had to share this photo that was in Marty’s work newsletter, The Cranberry Township Staff Lines. KUDOS to the witty writer who captioned this photo that sure made me one proud mudder!
I know – for all of you literalists out there – it’s not officially Fall until September 22 (at 10:29pm) – (remember – we already talked about this here?!) – still 8 more days of “Summer.”
But will you indulge me to share one more Fall card – BEFORE it’s officially Fall??
I had so much fun on Saturday just “goofing around” at home. We had no plans this weekend, and I told Marty I just wanted to “craft,” especially since the weather was so Fall-like. 🙂
The challenge was to use these three colors: Crushed Curry, Always Artichoke, and Cajun Craze (Fall colors – right?!)
I used the SU White Christmas stamp for the trees and sponged a combination of only the three challenge colors to create other hues of oranges through blending. I used the fun Flower-Soft again for the Fall leaves and a Wplus9 framelit for the “hello” greeting.
I’m really happy with how the card turned out, and its vibrant colors are helping me in my quest to embrace Fall!
Tomorrow I begin a WordPress #Writing101 Challenge. It will be a 30-day challenge that provides a daily topic and a twist to the topic to challenge a blogger’s creative thinking and writing. I’m looking forward to sharing with all of you. Not sure where this will take us, but glad to have you along for the journey!
I thought it would be fun to play along with the Paper Players Challenge again this week, and this week’s Challenge #207 is a Button Theme Challenge.
The guidelines were simply to include a button of any sort on your project. It can be an actual button, or it could be stamped, embossed, patterned paper, anything…
My card reminds me of the time of year we are at – August – nearing the end of Summer – and kind of a postcard also – from a vacation where you got to spend time watching the gorgeous sunset.
This card used the StampinUp Serene Silhouette stamp – one of my faves to use. I used a brayer technique to create the background sunset, and a masking technique to create the “sun” and the mountain range. The “postcard” language was embossed with a folder (can’t remember the name) that has a pretty script. I just drew on the “birds” with a dark marker, added a couple dark brown candy dots and SU Naturals Designer Button and some twine to finish it off.
I hope you are enjoying your August, some nice weather and beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
CHEERS! It’s Friday! Another week flew by, and it’s the Yippee Skippee Weekend again!
I’m sure hoping it’s a summertime weather weekend. These silly Fall-like temperatures need to go away and come back another day – much later in the year.
For my Friday card this week, I had fun with StampinUp’s Happy Hour Stamp Set making fun looking cocktails and thinking festively of celebrating time with family and friends. The “Cheers” is embossed in silver, and I thought the silver ribbon added just what it needed.
Hope your weekend brings lots of things to cheer or “cheers” about!
I’m almost embarrassed to post this card – it was so simple and easy, but sometimes I think I try to “embellish” toooooo much!
(Nick – my son and oft harshest, but completely honest critic – tells me he likes the simpler ones more often)
I’m in a card “challenge” mood it seems, so I decided to just stick with the sketch layout for Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #147 for this card.
There’s something elegant about the simplicity of black and white, but then a glittery silver “woohoo” in front of a red starburst background, some red and white baker’s twine and a splattering of faux enamel dots (which I showed how to make back here on this blog post) just gave it a bit of a pop.
Ingredients: StampinUp Whisper White Card stock, Black & White DSP, Just Saying Stamp Set and Framelit Die, Starburst Framelit Die, Bakers Twine and Crystal Effects for “faux enamel”
Cheers & Hugs,
the creative life in between 