Sympathy Ships

I saw this design on Pinterest and marked it for casing.

I had it in mind for a friend's father's passing...and unfortunately, it came in handy for my boss's father's passing. But I cut enough out for 3 cards, and just need to assemble the others.

Stamps
Ship - Cape Arago Stamps
Sunburst - My Mind's Eye, Lost & Found
Sun/Circle - Inkadinkado
Clouds - Inkadinkado
Ship's wheel -  CTMH
Sentiment - Hero Arts

I used a woodgrain dry embossing folder for the textured background. The banners use a Tim Holtz ruler and a chevron folder. I would have preferred an anchor rather than the wheel, but I didn't have a suitable anchor stamp.

Another card where the stamps I have on hand came together very nicely. Thank you for looking!

MOJO326

Hi!  

I haven't "played" Mojo Monday in a few months due to time constraints...but on this holiday break I jumped right in. 

I had some great papers remnants from sympathy cards and they worked well for masculine cards.

I chose the rectangle design this time.

I heat-embossed a Stampin' Up clock on the background paper, and stamped a diamond pattern on the side in CTMH Sunset ink.

On a craft card base, I layered the background paper then added the strip of patterned paper. The solid teal is dry-embossed with a chevron folder. My ribbon was in a grab bag at a discount! Perfect! Little copper brads were just the right size.

I started with the Congrats card and then made 2 more, adding the 1-1/4 circle stamped in Sunset and punched out.

 

STAMPS:

Large Clock - Stampin' Up
Diamonds - My Mind's Eye
Small clock - Tim Holtz
Thanks So Much - Fiskars
Great Success - TPC Studio

Congrats - TPC Studio

 PATTERNED PAPER:

Stripe - 7 Gypsies - Venice 6x6
Notebook - Authentique Nostalgic Essentials stack 

These will be good for general wishes for any men.

Thank you for stopping by my Cards and Crafts Garden today!

I Wish You a Happy New Year! 

Gift Tag

This fab tag is from a CTMH set, Special Care! Perfect for gift tags for sweet bath and body gift sets! And embossing adds just the right touch! Very easy to make!

Parisian Birthday

A card for my sis-in-law, who loves all 5 things Paris. I cased a design  from pinterest, and used a variety of stamps from different manufacturers. It was like the stamps I've been gathering all these years came together in 1 card!!!

I loved the colors, too.

STAMPS:
•  Hero Arts Paris
•  SU Travel Post
•  SU Office Ephemera
•  Crafty Secrets Grand Greetings

PAPER:
•  DCWV Lemon Flower Stack
•  Bazzill Basics Lemonade

OTHER:
•  CTMH slate ink
•  SEI buttons
•  Decorative Papers (JoAnn) washi tape

Days 29 & 30

They are coming in twos now....

Day 29 - I am grateful for close friends that care about my siblings.
Day 30 -- I am grateful for the love of my sisters & brothers

Days 27 & 28

I got so busy preparing for Thanksgiving...I forgot to post my thanks...I was thankful yesterday for time. Today I am Thankful for all that I have been given - Thank You, Lord.

Days 25 & 26

Yesterday I was thankful for friends at work...
Today I am grateful for the love of my sisters and brothers.

Day 24

This cold 11 (now 20) degree morning, I am grateful for a larger place to stay at Clayhille and that it is 48 degrees warmer inside than out.

Day 23

Today I am grateful for the genius of my husband who designed and built this little candle-powered hot water dispenser a couple of years ago. Warm water on tap!

Day 22

Thankful for kerosene! And split wood! And propane! It's gonna get cold tonight,  so I'm also thankful that most of this week has been warmer.

Day 21

Grateful for extra love from my stepmother!

Day 20

Thankful for a break in the weather and a chance to hunt.

A Belated Halloween Card...

This card was sent to my brother & sister - in - law, so I waited a bit for posting. I wanted to send them a special card because they were going to a Universal Studios Halloween event.

The paper had Oriel Theater on it and my sister-in-law's name is Auriel, so it seemed appropriate. It was a fun little card to make.

I have most of the Recollections "Haunted" paper stack left and it was on my work table, so it came together easily. I layered some patterned paper on black and cut out the printed section. Then to finish,  it was a snap to add a bit of baker's twine and some embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Day 19

Thankful for the love from my mom and memories...

Day 18

Grateful for the love from my Dad.

Day 17

Grateful we didn't have tornados today!

Day 16

Thankful for clear skies this afternoon and good hunting friends!

Day 15

Grateful for a job with paid vacation!

Day 14

Today I am grateful for my family who isn't family...Linda, Amy, Jessica and Jeff and their families (the list is too long- LOL), who allow me to be a part of their family with no hestitation!

DAY 13

I was grateful for my job that allows me to use my skills!

Day 12

Day 12 - grateful to still have fingers...after hand washing dishes with a knife under the suds. Just a nick :)

Day 11

Happy Veterans Day - My Day 11 thanks are to all who have served, are serving, and will serve our beautiful country. I am grateful for the rights and freedoms I enjoy based on the sacrifices made by our veterans and service members and their families. My grandfather was a Naval Corpsman in WWII in the Pacific. Cousins on both sides are proudly serving, our friends' son is in boot camp right now, and other friends also have family members in the service. THANK YOU!

DAY 10

Today I am thankful for pruny hands!

Day 9

I am thankful for our friend Danny who helped us split wood today. And I am thankful for ladybugs!

Scary Skeletons

Our proposal team had a running joke which involved the movie "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra". So at the end of the project, I made the key team members a thank you card with movie quotes as the theme. 

For reference, the movie is a B - grade (or lower if that is possible) spoof of 1950's sci-fi movies.

I made 9 but didnt figure y'all would want to see all of them. Each was a little different. The sentiments were printed on CTMH white cardstock and trimmed. The cards are mostly made from the Recollections "Wicked" collection products from Michael's, including the skeleton stamp.

These were a lot of fun to make and the team really enjoyed them.

October Bird Birthday

I haven't been posting, but I have been busy!  I made a gorgeous girly card for my stepmother's birthday!

The paper [DCWV Primrose stack] was the foundation. I used pink glitter embossing powder on an Anna Griffin flourish in the background. Its a little hard to see, but really adds some depth. And Mom loves birds, so the tags included in the stack were perfect!  I added a sentiment to the tag from the Crafty Secrets - Hello Girlfriend set in black embossing powder and layered the tag with muted pink cardstock from Bazzill Basics.


For an embellishment, I punched out a Stampin' Up tab and stamped is using the "Totally Tabs" set, and layered it on top of a portion of pink border. The final embellishments are a lacey ribbon from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found2 Blush Favorite Trims, a Martha Stewart lace butterfly, and a button. Sweet!

Thanks for looking!

Day 8

Day 8 - I give additional thanks for the love and support of my husband. Yep! He gets two days!

Day 7

Day 7 - I am thankful for Taco Bell night and time with my honey!

Day 6

DAY 6 - The amazing Excel technology which recovers my file in a crash is on my list of items for which I am grateful today!

Day 5

Today I am thankful for thoughtful grandsons & great-grandbabies who make us smile!

Day 4

Today I am thankful for sparkles and for brothers and sisters having a good time!

Day 3

Thankful for blue skies at Clayhille and visits from our friends, Danny and Woody and KL.

Day 2

Thankful for family times.

Day 1

Yesterday...I was thankful for gorgeous fall colors that brightened my drive home.

Frosted

So while our niece was the hospital we lugged all of the necessary card making stuff up there and made many cards to entertain her. She had a couch and small table in the room so we had plenty of room. We used matetials from the  CTMH Workshop on the Go Frosted Cardmaking Kit for this one!  I meant to put this up on my WOYWW post.

Happy Fall, Y'all

Hey y'all...I've been gone for 5 weeks...seems longer...Life just has a way of doing that.

I shipped my proposal and our niece traveled home :( and after that it has been non-stop. Had a little blood pressure problem & a 3-day unscheduled hospital stay for evaluation ... happy to report no heart problems!

So I will create some catch up posts and then travel round & see what's been happening with everyone! Here's a beautiful sugar maple picture from our property last weekend!

Work, work, work

The last 3 weeks have pretty much been all about working 12 hour days + OT. In some spare time DH has cooked and allowed niece & I to make cards. She  stayed to have kidney stone procedure, and we traveled to MS for my family reunion over Labor Day. She will get her stent out this week and feel 100% better!!!
My work deadline is almost over....proposal ships this week....ready for it to be packed in boxes & at Fed Ex!

Girl's Crafting Weekend

Well, it was interesting! And we crafted...it was just not what we expected. The long drive shook up one niece's kidney stone so that by the time they arrived she was in too much pain..so we went to the ER and found out it was robin egg size and they kept her over the weekend for a stent procedure until it could be broken up.
So we loaded all our cardmaking supplies and spent all day Saturday in her room visiting and making cards anyway.
I had planned to use 2 sets of CTMH Card Workshops as warm up...and move on to freestyle cards....turns out the kits worked great with the limited things we could pack. At least we did a few crafty things and she was getting good care and her problem solved. She has stayed since...

LONG WEEK - Cannot Brain

It's been a long week...results of my proposal review in a meeting tomorrow, and trying to prepare for a girls' weekend...I want to do some blog-hopping, but right now, this is how I feel....

So, I will just leave it at that and go to bed!!!

WOTWW#219 - A Clean Slate

Good morning! Welcome back to WOTWW!!!
Although last week's photo was a mess -- this week I have a clean desk as a result of hours of cleaning up and putting things away.
Why? Because I'm having my nieces over for a stamping / scrapping weekend!!! 
I spent time picking up so that we all had room to work and put up a folding table next to my workdesk. That means of course that I have to not only pick up my work desk but also my stamping table and my cricut table. LOL. The disadvantage of not really having to put anything away when its just me!!
I'm also still on a horrible deadline at work so I don't have a lot of time to explain my desktop.  Some of my projects are bundled up and yellow manila folders at the end of my space. And my little scrap bin is chock-full and I haven't put it all the way in my color scrap folders. That's just as good as it gets!  Take a good look because it's not going to be this clean for very long!
Suffice it to say that its clean and I have a clean slate to create! YAY!
Hope you all have a wonderful week and I can't wait to do a little blog hoppin' to check out your desks too! 
See you at the stamping ground!

WOYWW#218 - A MESS

Happy WOYWW#218, Ladies!

I am finally doing it.  A partial photo of my workdesk with a MESS!  

This week has been very busy with work (I'm on a 45-day deadline requiring extra effort - translated in many late hours), and a brand new diet to incorporate for DH with extra shopping and food prep - so not much happening besides those things.  

My dirty little secret is that I clear a spot to work on, and push everything to the edges until I do a massive cleanup and all the ribbons go back into their containers, and markers to their bin, and tape back into their proper drawer, etc. I just can't let go of the pieces until I've used them all.  The only way I can past that is to bundle up all of the matching papers into a manila folder to work on later (maybe). That way the papers I've worked to match are still all together and I feel good about saving money (LOL) and using all my scraps.  Let's just be real here.  I obsess over using all the scraps to feel better about the stamps I buy so I can use them...
Last weekend in our clean up before Great-Grandson's overnight stay, I ran down to the basement with my stack of papers I've collected for my 6x6 project and threw them on the top of the pile. The project involves trying to make as many coordinated cards as possible from a 6x6 stack.  It's part of my Rub-on Fail series - LOL.  Other patterns in the stack include a dressmaker form, so you can see some Tim Holtz stamps and a small test dressmaker form die cut I made with my Cricut using the CTMH Artiste cartridge. I have some other french themed cartridges, just haven't tested them yet. And let's see....what else is on this part of my desk?

My heat gun is top right, where I turn from my stamping table and where DH has installed a heavy duty outlet bank so I don't blow the lights out while I'm heat embossing and have the space heater on in the winter.
Some of the fruits at the top are leftover from the July CTMH Stamp of the Month projects I was making. The baker's twine rolls are from my whale cards.  Under the twine rolls are whaley bits that I would still like to use in more cards.  Under the shelf are many pieces that still need to find a home on a card.  Top left are pieces of CTMH Dream Pop paper that I can't put away yet.
And I see that there are still aqua rub-on failure bits on the right -- as I'm working, I try to keep my really small trash pieces off the floor, so they make a pile on the right, where I can just sweep them off into the trashcan or recycle bag. And the distress ink was out for this week's Mojo Monday card. My first sentiment fancy oval is peeking out under the red dotted paper. 
I've got to run to work, so Happy WOYWW Wednesday to everyone at ...[I stopped typing here and cruised over to the Stamping Ground to copy the link to paste here and stopped to read Julia's post -- funny - we both have a mess today . So my sentence was stuck at  "at..."]  the home of WOYWW.

Have a WONDERFUL WEEK!

New Diet

Last week we had news that DH is diabetic. So the past week has been re-evaluating our food choices, and spending a lot of time learning about diabetes and what he can eat, as well as doing a lot of food prep on fresh vegetables to fill up on.  
Barnes & Noble loves us, because we have 4 new cookbooks!

Hopefully we can control it with diet. I cleaned out my pantry on Sunday and have lots of sweet things to donate to a food pantry.
The bonus is that we will both be healthier with a better diet and taking care of ourselves. We just need to take the dietician classes now, and learn to balance the diet so that he's not starving! 

I don't know if a whole T-bone and bread and baked potato will still be on his menu...but we will certainly try to work out how he can still enjoy his steak & potatoes!

Another interesting journey!

WOYWW #217 - Fail

Today's WOYWW post is late! But it's still technically Wednesday in Missouri ....so here we go:
I had a rub-on fail...on the most beautiful paper in a 6x6 My Mind's Eye paper pad. I had seen a link about using an entire pad (will post it later) and have been working out how I would do it. I forgot that this pad has special Eiffel Tower paper...and the aqua exactly fit the rub-on frames I had been hoarding.
Well, I'm afraid I hoarded too long.
On my first attempt at applying the rub-on, pieces of it stuck to the backer and I was left with an incomplete transfer. Ruined the paper. (I may be able to salvage it...but at the time I was devastated).
But not devastated enough to throw that sheet of rub-ons away. Oh no. I diligently checked the transfer sheet and my stamps that would fit in a different frame and determined that one of the remaining rub-ons would peel off the backer more completely.
So I pull out the remaining ONE sheet of beauty paper...and set to work rubbing away with my popsicle stick.
Aside: Now, I am not new to rub-ons.  I have been rub-on certified since age 6, when I received my first set of Mary Poppins rub-ons. I know rub-ons. I know enough to cut my desired rub-on off the full sheet so I don't inadvertently stick down any other rub-on bits! AND, I know how to burnish them so they don't peel off. I have also repaired rub-on fails before by carefully picking up bits with an x-acto knife and placing them prior to burnishing. I'm talking serious rub-on pro here!
So...2nd and ONLY remaining sheet of Eiffel tower paper ---- FAIL!!!!
I can only conclude that the rub-ons are too old to be used. All of the rest of them also lifted off partly and in bits in the cover sheet, with the main parts, but not 100%, staying on the carrier sheet.
I will put this behind me and hope to show my 40 cards from a 6x6 stack next week!
Check out the other Workdesks at Julia's blog...

Wonderful Wedding at a Winery

Bride & Groom

We attended a friend's daughter's wedding this weekend, and, as it was about 2 hours away, took the opportunity to stay with the family at a nearby historic hotel. 

A beautiful water feature at the Winery

The weather was FANTABULOUS!  

In the upper 70's, which is highly unusual at the end of July in the Midwest! It was  a beautiful day to be married outdoors by a waterfall [manmade or not].

We have been fortunate to have spent loads of time with the bride's family and have been friends with them all over the years.  We have property adjacent to some of her family, and, funnily enough, live less than a mile away from them at home. 

Her aunt and grandmother & I make cards every so often, and we worked together with her mother to make their wedding invitations. We printed the 1 layer invitation and the response cards, then stamped & heat-embossed a very subdued champagne swirl in the corners. It was just an understated bit of elegance, which was PERFECT for the bride.  We thought they came out very nice.

Myself & DH -- in formal dress, no less.

So, DH and I traveled to the wedding and ended up having to stop at a florist on the way to pick up a replacement bouquet-toss throw bouquet, as it was omitted from their order. 

We arrived at the restored mineral springs hotel in time to get ready for the wedding and travel to the winery for the wedding. It was a beautiful evening!


Because we are near St. Louis, and the groom is die-hard Cardinals fan, his friends chipped in and had Fred Bird come to the wedding for entertainment.

He was a BIG hit!

We adjourned to the historic Original Springs Hotel and visited near the pool for a while, and today had a wonderful brunch at their restaurant before heading home.

It was a nice change of pace and fun celebrating with the newlyweds!

WOYWW #216 - Finishing Up

Just finishing up 4 cards for SIL -- she wanted a set of the sympathy card using the My Daily Bread Amazing Grace chalkboard stamp.   I spent last Saturday with a patient DH searching for the same paper, and/or stamps that would produce the same effect. 

I did not have any of the correctly colored flowers, so I added some Stamping Up Aqua ink refiller drops (7) to a mini-mister bottle and sprayed some white and beige paper flowers.  They seemed too blue, so I added Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spritz in gold.  Had to wait for those to dry. I also tried buttons, but that didn't look right.

I just need some leaf sprays in the bottom left corner of the last 2 cards, and I finished them while I was taking pix this morning!  After downloading, I see that every desk picture I took is way too blurry, but no time to re-take, gotta scoot to work! 

Have a lovely day!

See other workdesks via the links at Julia's Stamping Ground.

All Star Monkey Shower

I made this card before I started blogging, for my step-grandaughter's baby shower last year (G-grandson will be 1 on 1 August).  We worked together with her friend to make 40 of them!

She wanted Monkeys and then bought the baby's bedding that had Jungle Animals on the coverlet with a Sports theme. I actually copied the crib sheet on 11x17 paper at Kinko's then reduced it to a pleasing background size. I copied several sheets and cut them for the background paper.

I die cut the little monkeys using the Cricut -- it was 2 pieces that had to be glued together. Then -- I discovered that the same cartridge had "All Star" and that just MADE the card!

I heat-embossed You're invited to a Shower - this is my prototype, and I used see-through red embossing power. I changed to an opaque red for the final cards and stamped straight - LOL!  Then it was time for mass assembly!

I didn't realize that I didn't post it.  It was one of my favorite cards! So I hope you enjoy!

Cricut Cartridge -- Life's A Party
K&Co paper -- Julianne
Background paper -- a copied and reduced crib sheet!

WOYWW#215 Amazing Sympathy#2

Today I realized I needed two sympathy cards for a recent family member's passing. So it rapidly became what was on my workdesk!


I had already stamped two Amazing Grace chalkboard pieces so I quickly selected coordinating paper.

I used a Die Cuts With a View matstack called Garden Party and selected a nicely raised, embossed, and glittered paper with butterflies and flowers.

I cut the mat for an ivory card and backed it with a Bazzill Basics Herbal Garden Medium green layer. I used the same green to layer the chalkboard stamp. This stamp was one of my MUST HAVE's at the Creating Keepsakes convention I attended in April with my stepmom & stepsister!

By fussy-cutting the flowers I was able to get some depth to the card in addition to the lace behind the chalkboard.  

A sheer bow on the bouquet and gems for the flower centers are the finishing touches. 


Below is a close-up of the fussy-cut flowers.

 
I can always use the other piece of the mat I used to cut the flowers as a layer on another card.




The gems are lovely green Michael's gems.










Now father and daughter will receive similar cards.

Amazing Sympathy #2

Thank you for looking today! And if you want to see more WOYWW blogs, start at Julia's Stamping Ground blog!

MOJO302 Sympathy

Today's Mojo Monday sketch is so clean and simple, I made 2 cards this morning!

This card I made with an Our Daily Bread stamp. I did not emboss it because I used a dye ink in Cocoa. I think I'd like to try another image with Versamark and heat emboss it. I've had the chalkboard stamp since April and haven't used yet and now I can't wait to try more designs with it. The stamp is by Our Daily Bread.  I bought it at the Creating Keepsakes Convention in April. :). My devotion verse today was appropriate, too. "My grace is sufficient for you" -- 2 Cor 12:9.

I immediately thought of this stamp as a sympathy card this week, because DH's ailing aunt passed away yesterday.

I did use CTMH Buzz & Bumble papers, and the My Stickease assortment for the embellishment, but I think it worked well with the gorgeous stamp.

The other card uses ALL Close to My Heart products and is highlighted on my Stamping Garden blog. I love that the sketch lent itself to two similar cards with different purposes.

I may be able to make several cards in this same design, it's so versatile.

Thank you, MojoMonday Team, for being such incredible inspiration! My cardmaking improves every week and I LOVE seeing what everyone does with the sketch!

Thanks for stopping by!