Hello Sunshine

These days most of my cards are being donated to Cards for Soldiers and Cards For Little Hearts. I am making multiples of the same card~~changing colors or layouts. That being said I will be cutting back on my daily postings.  I will be posting two to three times a week.  Today's cards are really cute but they are geared more to children.  This type of card is more simple and with no technique or something special to describe.  I don't want to bore everyone with the same post/different card everyday.

I will still be making "adult" cards as I still have many ideas to use and share.  It just won't be on a daily basis.  Have a great day!

Cute Bees

My neighbor children are coming over on Friday to create cards.  The two cards I am posting today were made for Cards For Little Hearts.  The cards are so cute that I thought the neighbor children would enjoy making similar cards.  The beehive image on today's cards are a clip art image I found on the Internet.  I printed and then cut them out on my Scan N Cut.  The bee paper I found at Hobby Lobby.  And I used alcohol markers to color the images.  The little bees are from Sunny Studio's Just Bee Cause stamp set.  I might have to color the wings a light blue to match the bees on the paper.

On another note, I placed an order with The Merri Artist for replacement nibs for my Copic markers.  They had best price even with a shipping charge.  I ordered nibs for two different types of Copic marker nibs.   Since I ordered the two different types, Sally emailed me before filling the order to be sure I wanted different nib types.  I thought that was very nice of her and observant.  They could have just filled the order and sent it, but she took extra time.  If anyone is looking for Copic markers or new nibs or anything art, check out their website:    www.merriartist.com
Have a great day!

Chicks In The Snow

It looks like we might be getting more snow this week. So, I am back to posting winter cards!  Today's card is one I made for Cards For Little Hearts.  The images are from Purple Onion Designs & Stacey Yacula's Winter Chicks, Feather & Birdie and Double Pine Trees stamps.  I am not sure which stamp set I used for the sentiment. I might make this card again, adding Easter Eggs, if we continue to get snow into March!  Have a great day!

Papertrey Ink

Today's card was made using the Hawaiian Shores Bitty Big paper collection from Papertrey Ink.  The pack of 24 sheets (8 sheets each of 3 double-sided patterns) of one color is $4.35.  They have good quality cardstock, too.    Papertrey is having a 13% off sale for the next few days.  So the packs of 24 sheets of cardstock are $4.35, too, which is a good price.

I saw today's card layout on Pinterest.  Having the many choices of patterns in one pack makes layering very easy!  Have a great weekend and enjoy the 50 degree Sunday!

Just bee cause

Here is another "honey" card.  The images and sentiment are from Reverse Confetti's Happy Bee Day stamp set.  For this card, I stamped the jar of honey on the white layer.  I then masked the jar so that it looks like the jar is in front of the flowers/foliage.  This time, I made a little "honey" label to put on the jar instead of stamping the word directly on the image.  After posting this photo, I see a few places where I colored outside the lines!  Have a great day!

Birthday Flowers

I know that we have not had a terrible winter this year.  That being said, I still want Spring to arrive!  I find myself reaching for warm weather images such as the flowers on today's card.  The sentiment is from the Happy Birthday To You stamp set in SU's Sale-a-bration catalog.  The flowers are from Pink & Main's Daisy Bugs stamp set.  I used my Scan N Cut to cut the flowers.  Before adhering the flowers to the white decorative layer, I splattered the white layer with black acrylic paint, used a SU die to make the scalloped edge and wrapped it in ribbon. Have a great day!

Honey

I watched a Jennifer McGuire video, 5 Ways:  Masked Inking for One Layer Cards.  When using alcohol markers, the color bleeds into the back of the cardstock.  For that reason, when I use alcohol markers my cards have at least two layers.  Actually, I rarely make single layer cards~~alcohol ink or not. Anyway, today's card was created using a technique from Jennifer's video in which you use Post It Note tape to mask a corner before adding distress ink.  I then added colored and die cut images and a sentiment from Reverse Confetti's Happy Bee Day stamp set to complete the card.   One of John's brothers is a bee-keeper so this card was made especially for him.   Have a great day!

Anniversary Card

On Friday, which was Valentine's Day, we went to our "favorite" place to celebrate the special day with our friends, Mickey and Lenora.  This annual date at WC started as a joke and done in good fun.  You see, John would never eat at White Castle.  He would drink a coffee while we ate!  When we moved back from Arizona, Lenora had invited us to join them on Valentine's Day.  Since then, we have gone almost every Valentine's Day.  And, John eats a couple burgers and onion rings in addition to his cup of coffee! After dinner we go to Mickey & Lenora's house to play Mexican Train.  We had a fun evening and as always, John was a good sport!


Yesterday, John and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary.  We had a nice dinner with our children.  Forty-six years sound like a really long time, but I can remember things from those early years of "us" like they took place yesterday.  So today's card was the card I made for him.  I posted a similar card last month.  This one is a different color combination and with a different sentiment.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's retired set, Good Greetings.  We look forward to celebrating our anniversary and our friendship with M&L for many years to come!  Have a great day!

More Hearts

The little squirrel is so cute.  Add him to the hearts and the whole card is cute!    I certainly put the heart punches from Stampin' Up to good use.  They are probably my new favorite punches.  I hope next year they will make two punches the same but a little smaller.  Have a Happy Valentine's Day and a great weekend!

Three Hearts

I saw a card on the internet that was made with hearts and when I found this pink checked pattern paper in my collection. I thought it would be perfect paper for a Valentine.  I used Stampin' Up's Heart Punch Pack which is in the current Occasions catalog.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Love Letters set.  And the pretty Melon Mambo ribbon is a retired product from Stampin' Up.  Have a great day!

Heart Tin Favors

On Sunday, I went with Matthew to transport rescue dogs from Rockford to Gilberts.  They actually came up from Tennessee and we were the last leg before they all went to their foster homes.  We had nine of the cutest little puppies, a husky/shepherd mix and another very loving dog.  It is a good thing I didn't know about fostering dogs when I was younger because poor John would be living in a house filled with dog cages!!  These are some of the pups after their long drive.  They are about 6 weeks old and beyond cute!  If anyone you know is thinking about getting a dog or cat, check out www.hoofwoofmeow.org.  All of their cats and dogs are in foster homes and well cared for by people with big hearts.

Speaking of hearts, today's post are favors I made using the foil heart tins in Stampin' Up's Occasions Catalog.  After filling the tins with candy and loose M&M's, I put the decorated covers on.  As I was picking them up, I was thinking to myself that loose candy might not have been a good idea.  When we were grocery shopping, I picked up a bag of Hershey kisses to replace the M&M's.  Wouldn't you know it?  I picked up a tin to change the contents and the bottom fell from the top and the M&M's splattered on the kitchen floor!  Glad I didn't send these favors home with the kids across the street.  They would have had M&M's all over their house! Hope the snow doesn't accumulate too much later today!  Be careful.

Kathy's Valentine

Today's Valentine was made by my friend, Kathy Z.  She used Stampin' Up products including the
doily, punches, paper and stamp set from their "From My Heart Suite".  These can be found in the Occasions Catalog.  Kathy used Real Red cardstock and a die from the Stitched Nested Labels set to create the layer on which the doily and Happy Valentine Day heart were adhered. Unique and pretty card, Kathy.  I will have to try this~~when I borrow your dies!  Have a great day!

Little Ladybug

Early last week my Stampin' Up demonstrator, Kimberly Smith (www.thepaperedchef.com), sent me an email to let me know I won the Little Ladybug stamp set.  I used her hostess code when placing an order on her website so I became  eligible for the drawing.  It is a set that you can earn during Sale-a-bration if you host a $300 party or place a $300 order.  With the cards I have been making for sick children, I was especially happy to win this stamp set.  The images will bring smiles to many little faces.  The one ladybug on his back is way cute!  The set arrived the other day and I made this card over the weekend.  Thank you, Kimberly.  Have a great day everyone!

Lucky

St. Patrick's Day is next month and I am enjoying another Stacey Yacula stamp, Lucky.  I stamped him first, cut a mask to cover him and then stamped the Clover Patch.  After coloring the images with Copic markers, I added the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.  The border on the white cardstock layer was made with Lawn Fawn's Double Stitched Rectangle dies.  Have a great weekend!

Happy Mail

Today's cards were made for the Cards For Little Hearts group.  Christina, the founder of this group, collects cards yearly.  In addition to her Heart Month Collection, she hosts a Holidays/Winter collection in November.  During the rest of the year, she collects "general" cards for two children's hospitals in Ohio.  You can read about Cards for Little Hearts at www.cardsforlittlehearts.com.

Now that I am done with all the Valentines I need, I plan on sending Christina at least a few cards per month.  They will be hello or thinking of you or sending hugs cards.  I will make good use of all of the stamp sets I have for cards that hopefully will bring smiles to children.  I used the Happy Mail stamp set from WPlus 9 and Copic markers to color the images on today's cards.  Have a great day!

One More Hummingbird

 I had one watercolored hummingbird left so I used him to create today's card.  He coordinated with some very, very long ago retired Designer Series Paper, paper I have been holding on to for a very long time.  I would love to see this paper come back.  I cut one layer using a WPlus 9 Sunshine Layers die and then used a circle die from Stampin' Up to highlight the hummingbird.  The green cardstock banner and the sentiment are retired SU products, too.  Even though I use products of many companies, I still have a soft spot for Stampin' Up.  Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time!

Watercolor Stamping

I hang around with some talented ladies.  At our last Cricut get-together, Kathy W and I made some cardstock stencils which she would use for the Valentines she was making.  Kathy uses Art Impression stamps and watercolor brushes (such as Tombow) to "paint" a scene.  She brushes a stamp with a watercolor marker and after stamping uses a lightly wet paint brush to pull the color out from the stamped image.  If you look at the tree trunks, Kathy stamped those using a brown water color marker to ink the image and then pulled that color into the middle of the tree trunks.  There are a number of videos on the Internet demonstrating watercoloring with Art Impressions stamps.

For today's card, Kathy covered her piece of watercolor paper with one of the heart stencils we had cut on the Cricut.  She then did her stamping/painting and when she removed the stencil the heart-shaped image is what was made.  She does a great job using these stamps and this technique.  I tried it and failed~~more than once!  Have a great day!

Watercolored Hummingbirds

Yesterday was like a Spring day so I decided to post a Spring-like card.   I stamped the hummingbirds on watercolor paper.  Stamped images don't stamp as well on this thick paper, so I used my Misti to stamp the images multiple times with black Versafine ink and then heat embossed the images.  I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens to water color the images.  The hummingbirds are from the Hummingbird Thanks stamp set by Pretty Pink Posh. The sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set and was also stamped a few times using the Misti.  A corner punch, sequins and a little designer paper complete the card.  Have a great day!