With Love

It's not a Valentine, it's just a little "thinking of you" card to cheer up someone who's feeling a little blue.  In this case, that's my Auntie Nancy.  

I love going crazy with flowers and grasses like this, even if it weren't for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge: Can You Repeat That?  This was very simple.  I have these pre-folded cards from Bazzill Basics.   I used an old, old flower stamp from inkadinkado, using Stem Green and various pinks and purples, adding more wisps of grass with a stamp of unknown origin.  (I've had it since long before I knew to keep track of brands!)  The "With Love" is from Inkadinkado's Chelsea Sentiments set.  (This could just as easily be a birthday card!)

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Typed

My idea for the  One Layer Simplicity Challenge: Can You Repeat That?  started out as a birthday card.   (After all, I have two more birthdays coming up this month.)  

The typewriter stamp (Stampabilities) was a Christmas gift.  It's definitely me,...even though it's a slightly older model than the one I first learned on!  I embossed the red "happy" and heart, and what'd'ya know?  It was looking like a pretty good Valentine!  

I didn't try to get too perfect stamping the "happy" across the card.  After all, this should look like typing, right?

Supplies:

Cardstock: Vintage B&W pad (momenta.com)

Stamps:  Typewriter (Stampabilities), "happy" and heart (unknown)

Wicked Black dye ink (Clearsnap)

Watermark ink

Red embossing powder

heat gun

Corner rounding punch (Fiskars)

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Birthday Wishes

My cousin Carolyn's birthday is coming up.  For her card, I tried this for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge: Can You Repeat That?  and  The Hero Arts Club Birthday Challenge (Rainbow of Color category)

Oooops!  I just made a background of blue and green and discovered that I had the card upside down, so instead of giving up I blended purple in the center.  Stamped the dandelions in black and colored over them with light blue and sap green pastel pencils.

Supplies:

Long white pre-folded card: Bazzill Basics

Stamps:  Dandelion heroarts.com Chelsea Sentiments set inkadinkado.com

Dye Ink: black, Bahama Blue (Tsukineko)

Pastels:  blue, green, purple 

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My Uncle Douggie

Douglas Stephen Osburn

July 31, 1931-January 30, 2014

He was a small-town-Kansas son and a father of five boys.  He was my mother's teasing big brother.   He was a Marine.  He was the keeper of our family's genealogy, and he generously shared and passed this along to me.  

  

Douggie and Georgie

Douggie and Dorothy

Douggie and Bud

He shared with me his memories and opinions as well.  In a March 24th, 1992 letter he wrote:

...I do a lot of reading and music listening (am very talented at both)...a critic is very important.  If we didn't have readers and listeners, we wouldn't need writers and performers.  I am unable to perform and of the arts:  painting, drawing, writing or performing, but am an exceptional critic of each and every one.  Some people that don't realize how good I am think that I criticize too much, but am just doing my job.  I don't allow people to criticize the things I make, because most of them are not qualified critics.  You've got to have years of experience before you can do a good job.  Performers can begin young because there are experienced critics to lead them to the right path--but you must have lived a number of years to actually qualify as an experienced and knowledgeable critic...

I will always miss my most knowledgeable critic.

I love you, Uncle Douggie!

One-Layer Simplicity Challenge

I just re-organized my card files over the weekend.  Hooray!   Now I can treat myself to entering challenges once again.

Today I whipped one up for the onelayersimplicitychallenge which for this month is "Restocking the Shelves."  I'm probably running low on every kind of card there is, but birthday cards are high on my list.  Seems like there's always another birthday right around the corner.  My mother particularly likes the cards I've done with kraft cardstock and envelopes, so I made this with her in mind.  She'll get plenty of chances to use it in the coming month!

Vase of Flowers

Supplies:
pre-folded kraft card
Stamps:  flower I've had for years (Rubber Stmapede), Petals From Scratch set (Fiskars); "Happy Birthday (unknown)
Chalk inks:  brown, sky blue, turquoise, mos green (Clearsnap)
pink and green chalk pencils

I made a mask for my vase and just stamped dots inside it, using a pencil eraser.

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Happy Birthday, Cousin Denny

My cousin Denny's birthday is coming up next week.  Odds are good that he won't see this, so I can share the cards I made for him.  Denny's a musician, as many of the boys in our family are, so that's often on my mind when making a card for him.  The first idea...

Night on the Town


Cardstock:  Kellerkurtz Company (The Paper Studio)
Printed Cardstock:  unknown (I bought this pad with the cover ripped off!)
Stamps:  Skyline Hero Arts and "A Perfect Day" set Hero Arts
Wicked Black Ink (Clearsnap)

That one is mine to send!  Mother chose this one...

Snowy Evening

Cardstock: light blue, white (The Paper Studio)
scrap paper (cut a 1 1/2 inch circle to sponge in the sun)
Stamps:  tree (Judi Kins)
Ink:  Pearlescent Ivy and Tangerine Clearsnap
white glitter (Martha Stewart)

Guitar Man
Cardstock:  white
Patterned Paper:  Glitz Pack Afternoon Muse, Leather, unknown music background (I cut it up before looking!)
Stamp:  A Perfect Day set heroarts.com
Brown ink
3-D guitar and pick stickers (Paper House)

I guess we'll save this last card until next year....or until my nephew's 13th birthday, but that's almost a year away, too (thank goodness)!

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Watercolor Wishes

For those of you who love working with watercolor as much as I do, here's another card to go with my article in the latest issue of  CardMaker Magazine

inside

MATERIALS  LIST:  

Watercolor Paper:  Mixed Media stack (GCD Studio)

Stamps:  Fantasy 3880 K (Penny Black)

                A Perfect Day set (Hero Arts)

                Fall Trees set (Inkadinkado)

Dye Ink:  bamboo shoots, cocoa (Tsukineko)

Watercolor Pencils:  umber, May green, mineral green, olive green (Derwent)

Watercolor crayons:  light green, yellow (Staedtler)

Pencil with new eraser

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