Why So Difficult?

Why are masculine cards so difficult to create or is it just me? I spent all morning working on this card. I still feel that it is missing something. Not sure what! I will leave it for a while. I want to make at least one or two masculine cards in my next "Create, Challenge, Encourage" stamp club meeting. So I still have some work to do.

Stamps -- Stampin Up Hardwood, Country Livin' and Big On Birthdays

                 Impression Obsession background stamp Distressed Corduroy

Ink --  Memento Rich Cocoa

Card Stock -- Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla 

Plus circle dies

Mega Meet and Mother's Day

I went to the Great Lakes Mega Meet on Friday and had fun looking and shopping. Below is a picture of most of the things I purchased. There were so many vendors and so many new things.

I was surprised to see that a few of the Gina K Designs products were there for the first time. Gina was busy showing how her new "wreath builder" templates work. I had seen her video a few weeks ago and really, really wanted one. The templates come with a coordinating stamp set. There were just  a few left so I was able to purchase a set. I love how they work together.

Saturday morning, I just had to try the wreath builder templates out. I started by doing one flower, adding some green leaves, a few more flowers and finally the hearts. Each round added more depth to the wreath. So easy and so much fun. I finished the card and decided that it would be perfect as a Mother's Day card for my daughter. Angela had asked if we could meet her and Stephen, our grandson, in Kalamazoo for a late lunch this afternoon. Of course my answer was "yes".

Daisy, Daisy, Daisy

So often there is one stamp in a set that I get stuck on and the other stamps never get used. When I ran across this card on Pinterest, it inspired me to use the small daisy from the set "Daisy Delight". This is a link to the original card that was my inspiration -- Spring Daisy Delight.

The sentiment came from the set "Petal Palette" I just received my preorder Tuesday from Stampin' Up which had the new "In Colors" card stock for 2018 -- 2020 in it.So I had to use one of those colors -- Grapefruit Grove. It is layered on a Very Vanilla card base.

Stamp Sets -- Daisy Delight and Petal Palette (Sentiment)
Card Stock -- Very Vanilla and Grapefruit Grove
Inks -- Grapefruit Grove and Wild Wasabi
Other -- Seasonal Layers Thinlet Scalloped die
Enamel Dots from Halloween Night Enamel Dots package (Retired)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,

Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22-23

The UPS Guy Came

Yesterday afternoon the UPS delivery guy left two packages at my front door. One box had new Stampin' Up catalogs in it. The other box had my preorder stamp and die sets in it. I finally got to my craft room this afternoon. My creativity is not very good these days, but I did want to try out some of the framelits and stamps.

The first die I used was from "Stitched Labels Framelits". It was the one that added texture to the background. The piece with the "Best Wishes" sentiment was stamped and cut out three times before I got it right. I took the two mistakes and glued them all together to add more body to the piece. The bird is from the Serene Garden set. I stamped it with a soft gray ink and then used a gray colored pencil to add a little depth to the image. I cut out a second bird, glued the two together and finally attached it to my card with dimensionals.

These final two pictures shows the details a little better.

One Year Anniversay

In April of 2017, our local scrapbook store closed. I had been doing a class there once a month. After receiving the news, the ladies wanted to continue our classes. I moved the class to my house on a the fourth Saturday morning of the month. Our April 2018 meeting marked our one year anniversary.   I wanted to do something special.  I wanted to make some cookies, but I just didn't get it done. Parkinson's got in the way. But I did get some little boxes made that held a Yankee votive candle. I found the pattern on Pinterest, messed up a few, and finally got eight made.

Then last week I finally made the decision to drop the card making meeting for a group of ladies from my church who have been coming to my house since February or March of 2012. We have had many good times together. I will miss them coming. Again Parkinson's has gotten in the way. The disease continues to progress for my husband. I just need to eliminate some stress from my life. I just can't do all the things I have been doing. Last week I was finally able to make that decision  and have peace about it.

I have to tell them tonight that this will be our last meeting. I have made some of the little boxes with a votive candle in each one. I hope they will each know how much their friendship  means to me.

God understands

Our Prayers,

even when we

can't find

The Words

to say them.

                     Author Unknown

Inspiration And A "CASE"!

 After having a really busy week, going here, there and yonder, I needed some inspiration. I was looking on Pinterest to see if I could find something and I did. My card is just like the original. Here is a link to the original card by BJ Peters and her excellent video post "Passionate for Petal Palette". I really liked the added touch she used with the die cut. I am thinking to use this card in my next stamp class. Have fun watching her video.

From THE Heart

Quilt Guild Challenge for 2018

My Second Love -- Quilting

Life has kept me busy the last few weeks. After getting everything ready for my card class, I took a couple of weeks off from my paper-crafting and did some sewing. Our Quilt Guild was having a challenge for our April meeting. The challenge was to chose a piece of art work and use it as inspiration to create a quilt (30" x 40"). I chose a picture that my mother had purchased years ago. The artist is Ralph McDonald. He is an artist from Tennessee and has created beautiful pictures of wildlife. When we had to close my parents home in Tennessee, I brought the picture to Michigan and have it hanging on one of my walls.

This is the picture.

Here is my quilt. It was a challenge! I learned a lot and I am glad I did the challenge. 

Another Card

This will be our third card for this month's CCE Stamp Club -- Create, Challenge, Encourage. It is made using several of the stamps from the set "Butterfly Basic" and a die from the "Butterflies Thinlets" set. All are being retired this year as of May 31. The inspiration for this card came from many posts on Pinterest.

 These pictures show the steps to the finished creation.

One of God's beautiful mysteries--

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Getting Ready for Classes

Yesterday, I was trying to finish up my preparations for an upcoming class. I wanted to do a card for Mother's Day, but I also know that several in the class no longer have their mothers. So I wanted a card that could be used for other occasions. I think that this card works. 

For me, the challenge was finding the right Designer Series Paper. I feel that this is a little old fashioned but I love it. It reminds me of a dress my mother or grandmother would have worn. I also wanted a small design with a pretty accent color on the back. This piece of DSP is from Stampin' Up's "Botanical Garden" collection retired a number of years ago.

I love this fold. It is called the "Collar Fold". On this card, after finding the center on the DSP, I only cut down 1 3/4 inches. That allowed space for three "buttons".  The buttons were made using little scallop circles punched from Hello Honey card stock and topped with an enamel dot.

The card base is Mint Macaron card stock. The accent layer is Very Vanilla. I found that I had some Hello Honey ribbon which made the perfect bow. The sentiment is from the stamp set "Butterfly Basic" which is being retired this year. For the inside decoration I used a little "Cajun Craze" ink across the bottom for added interest.

Don't forget the inside

New Cards

I just finished this card last night. I had been wanting to make a card like this for a long time. I got the basic parts made and then I could not decide on how to decorate it. I tried numerous things but nothing seemed quite right. When I found the ribbon bow on the desk and tried it, I really liked it. I wanted to put three buttons on the front but unfortunately there was room for only two.

I chose Coastal Cabana for the card base. The accent color is Crumb Cake. The Designer Paper came from a pad called "Fresh Prints". The sentiment comes from a long retired set called "Well Scripted". I struggle with getting rid of some the older retired Stampin' Up sets. For me, some of those sets never go out of style.

The "Collar Fold"

After making my first "Shutter Fold" card, I wanted to try another one. I am thinking of doing this card in two classes that will be coming up in a couple of weeks.

For this card I used the heavy weight white card stock for the base. I found this designer paper in one of the stacks that I have. It is from s-e-i and is called Cold Springs from the Silver Valley Collection. Then I was able to find light blue card stock that matched the blue in the designer paper. Pretty cool.

The word "Congratulations" is from the stamp set called "Flourishing Phrases". The inside greeting "ON YOUR WEDDING DAY" is from the "Best Birds" set. I am still thinking that I would like a little decoration on the belly band by the word "Congratulations" but I am not sure what that will be right now.

The Shutter/Peek-a-Boo Fold"